The Great Confession

And so if you're ready for the word, I'm ready to preach, and so we'll lift up our Bibles together.

You can do that right there in your living room at home or wherever you're watching from, right there in your lazy boy.

I know that's where I would be If I was watching from home.

I would be right there in my chair and my recliner, with YouTube TV popped up or YouTube on the TV.

Rather, that's a great way to watch the stream if you're at your house watching anyways.

But hold up your Bible and make Jesus glad and the devil mad and say Heavenly Father, I'm so grateful for church tonight.

I'm ready to hear your word, I'm ready to change.

I opened my ears and my eyes, my spiritual eyes, tonight to see the changes you want me to make, and I receive revelation, knowledge that will change my future.

I'm teachable, I'm moldable and I'm receiving everything that you have for me tonight in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, if you'll open with me to Matthew, chapter 16, and while you open, how many of you were here a couple Sundays ago when Pastor Mark and Trina were here for two services?

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

They were truly life changing.

And Pastor Mark preached the Sunday morning service on who you are in Christ and then he preached Sunday night service about your confession and making a confession of faith, and so I thought that I would continue that tonight.

So my title is the Great Confession and I stole that title right from Pastor Mark's book, the Great Confession.

I believe this book came out last March and it really is an awesome book.

You know Pastor Mark doesn't have any duds of books, though.

I mean, every single one of his books are power packed.

Some of let's see some of my favorite ones.

The Glory book is really good.

I forgot the real title of that one, but it talks about the glory, the Great Confession.

And then he has a new one out on honor, and I'm only about halfway through that one, but that is so good.

So I strongly recommend these books and I know that our pastor, my dad John Griner he piggybacked also off of Pastor Mark's messages this past Sunday night and I'm sorry I didn't catch the title and I wasn't in here.

Last Sunday night my wife and I were back in the youth and we had some leftover camp testimonies that we were getting on video, so that was really exciting for us, but we missed the service.

I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet.

But my dad was still keyed up Monday morning when he came to the office and so he reprieged me about 25% of what he preached Sunday night and it got me all stirred up.

And so that was on the Ephesians 3 prayer about feeling dangerous.

You know, we're dangerous to the devil.

When we fill up and know who we are in Christ and we have God's word and God, we carry God's power, resurrection power, everywhere we go, amen.

And so that's important to know.

And so you know.

Another thing, a quick story on Sunday night I was back in the youth and I shared this testimony about camp, about one of my favorite messages preached at camp was by Pastor Aaron Hankins.

That is Pastor Mark's son and he pastors Christian Worship Center in Alexandria, louisiana, and he was there at camp preaching and he preached a message entitled "'Living a Life of Fire'" and he was talking about how he was reading Reinhardt Bonke's book "'Living a Life of Fire'' and he just stole that title right from Reinhardt Bonke and began to preach and refer back to Reinhardt Bonke's life.

You know he's in heaven now, but he was an amazing evangelist that had millions and millions of people got saved under his ministry and he just re-preached that book to the kids in a way that they would understand it, about remaining ablaze and making it personal.

You know, the Holy Spirit has made us a glow.

We're on fire for him and we carry that fire, but make it personal.

It's your fire, the fire that you have belongs to you and it's for you to share.

But it first must become alive and real to you.

You must make it personal.

And so, in that same regard, when Pastor Mark was here, he was talking about your confession of faith.

But it's your confession of faith and it's good for your pastor to confess things over you and for you to sit under the word, like you're doing tonight, and receive things out of the word of God.

But your mountain must hear your voice, it must hear your voice print.

In fact, before I get to the scripture, thank you, holy Spirit I'm just gonna preach backwards.

I think this was my last point tonight.

But right from the back of this book I'm gonna read, from page 80, and again the Great Confession by Mark Hankins on page 80.

It says your identity.

You know you're individually.

You know your identity is tied up not only in your fingerprints but also your voice print.

Your voice print actually has a greater definition of your identity than your fingerprint.

No other voice print is exactly like yours.

Your voice is your address in the spirit realm.

When you speak words of faith, god responds directly to your address, based upon the authority that he has delegated to you.

His power is released when he hears your voice and so, again, your voice is so important.

It belongs to just you.

God gave you a voice that's individual to you and he's given you, you know, again, you've made it personal your confession of faith.

Yes, we get our confession right out of God's word, right, but it's gonna sound a little bit different.

Even when you pray right out of the word, you're quoting the same scripture maybe that I am or maybe that pastor is but it comes out just a little bit different because your voice print is your identity in the spirit and it's unique to you.

God's given you your voice and he might have filled you up with the same truth, the same foundational principles of His word.

In other words, if Selena were to get up here and preach, the same message there would just be.

It would come out just a little bit different.

It would hold those same truths.

You would be able to agree with both of them and they would be backed by the word.

But she has individual experiences that she's gone through.

She has an individual voice, print in the spirit.

Amen, that helps explain.

Your testimony is very unique, right?

Anyways, you understand what I'm saying.

So let's turn to Matthew 16.

We'll start with verse 13.

Excuse me, and when Jesus came into the region of Philippi, he asked his disciples saying who do men say that I am the Son of man?

And so they said some say John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

So, in other words, jesus was asking his disciples hey, who does everybody else say that I am?

You catch that?

That's a difference, because he's just about.

He's gonna change the wording of the question, right?

And in verse 15, he said to them but who do you say that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and said you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said to Simon blessed are you, simon, barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father, who is in heaven, and I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

So Jesus asked his disciples who do you say that I am?

And so at that very moment I believe you can't prove that when Peter got that revelation if it was right, I believe it was right there at that moment.

And revelation, knowledge, can be that way.

It can come in an instant where you don't know what you're saying, you don't know what you're doing, and then all of a sudden, spirit to spirit, god reveals something to your spirit and it gets transferred to your mind and you're able to speak that truth and make that confession.

And that's exactly what Peter did.

His eyes of his understanding according to Ephesians, one prayer, his eyes of his understanding were opened and he could see who Jesus really was here.

He had already spent quite a bit of time with Jesus already.

I didn't look at the timeline and look exact up if it was a year or two years at this point, but he knew it was pretty early on, right, but he knew exactly who Jesus was because it was revealed to him.

Jesus said by the Father, and so, and he made, a confession was made.

And so the word the great confession means it's the standard of Christianity that what Christianity is built on is a confession of faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Right, in order to be saved, we must make that confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he is your Lord.

That's called the great confession.

And so Peter was making another confession.

He was identifying who Jesus is, and that was revealed to him by God himself.

And so that's my point number one tonight is that revelation, knowledge, causes you to recognize and identify God.

And that's not just who God is, it's his will, it's his plan, it's his provision, it's his character, it's your destiny that God's called you to live.

It's the dominion that he's provided you to walk in, it's his freedom, again, that he's provided you to walk in and live in, and it's the confidence that he's provided to you by the Holy Spirit.

You're recognizing that, you're confessing that out of your mouth and you're living, you're stepping into that, and it's a whole other role.

You know, in Corinthians it says that you've been made a new creature in Christ.

Old things have passed away and behold, all things have become new.

You're a new kind of being that never existed before and everything has been made new.

And so I think about the life of Peter.

I've preached so many times about the life of Peter and I'm not even sure really if I can admit that he's my favorite disciple, because I like John pretty good.

But there's something about Peter that I really relate to.

You know, on the positive side, he's kind of the first right.

He has a lot of firsts.

He was the first right here to recognize who Jesus is, to have a revelation of who Jesus is.

He was the first to jump out of the boat and walk on water, right and so.

But here, like three or four, if we were to just keep reading in the same chapter, like less than five verses later Jesus calls him Satan and rebukes him, right, so he went from hero to zero and less than five verses.

That's like a record, you know.

And so you know, sometimes he's a little slow at responding, Sometimes he's a little slow at getting it and understanding it.

Somehow I can relate to that right.

Have you ever been a little bit slow sometimes In the story of Jesus walking on the water, peter, you know Jesus was walking up to the boat and none of them could recognize that it was Jesus.

And even Peter was like if it's you, bid me come.

In other words, if it really is you, I can't tell that it's you.

I don't know if I believe that it really is you, but if it's really you, then ask me to get out of this boat and I'll do it, you know.

And so, sure enough, jesus said come, and Peter did it right.

He was the first and only one that obeyed right.

And so again, I relate to a little bit of what Peter went through, and so I also.

Just, you know Acts chapter two.

It was Peter, right, that was leading the day of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit made such a difference in Peter's personality he didn't have to go to Jesus Denier's Anonymous and follow a 12 step program of how to get your ministry back.

And hi, my name is Peter and I'm a Jesus Denier, and I'm on step three tonight.

No, none of that happened.

The power of the Holy Spirit delivered him from the shame of what he went through, of denying Jesus, excuse me.

And that same power, the same Holy Spirit that was alive and well on the day of Pentecost lives on the inside of us.

We have that same prayer language that we're building ourselves up on our most holy faith, that Jude tells us to do, and so we pray in the spirit and we pray also with our understanding and we know who Jesus is.

We were quick to recognize God moving in our lives.

We're quick, you know.

If he walked in the door into your house tonight, would you recognize that it was God?

And a lot of people wouldn't.

You know a lot of.

You know God sends help in a lot of different areas and people just don't realize that it's God.

And so we need to be quick to obey and quick to recognize when God's moving in our lives.

And right now, in this story, peter was quick to realize who Jesus was, and it happened in an instant, and it happened the moment that Jesus asked that question.

And then Jesus was able to say you know, hey, bless our you, simon, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you.

In other words, you know James and John didn't whisper it in your ear and tell you who I was, but my father, who is in heaven, revealed that to you supernaturally.

Amen, and that's what revelation knowledge does.

So it causes you to recognize and identify who God is, the character of God, his provision, his plan, all those things that we said earlier.

And it goes against your feelings, it goes against your flesh, it goes against your emotions.

When I say that it goes against it, it's contrary to it.

It's sometimes it's the opposite of the way you feel.

You may not feel like you know what you're doing, you might not feel confident, but we don't go by our feelings.

We gain our confidence by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We do that by hanging out with and spending time with the Lord, reading his word and praying in tongues and praying in our understanding and confessing who we are in Christ.

Agreeing that word confession means to say the same thing as so we're saying the same thing as like when you read your Bible, it's so important, whenever you can, to read it out loud, it's just so important to read it out loud, and you're agreeing with it.

You're making a confession by reading the word of God out loud amen and so.

But it goes against our feelings, it goes against our emotions, and so if you'll learn to walk by faith and walk by faith first and make your confessions by faith first, then your emotions will follow your faith, your feelings will follow your faith.

Amen, I'm gonna suck down a cough.

Drop here hallelujah, and so the Ephesians, one prayer.

That's what's happening right here through this revelation I said earlier the eyes of your understanding, verse 18, ephesians 1, 18, you don't have to put it up, lee, I'll just quote it the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, so that you may know the hope of your calling, of his calling that he has for you, amen.

And so that's what's happening right here.

Peter is being called to the ministry, and so as soon as Peter confessed the revelation of who Jesus was, then watch what happened.

Jesus turned around and revealed Peter's identity to him, and that happened in verse 18.

And I also say to you that you are Peter.

In other words, he immediately got a name change.

His name went from Simon to Peter, which means a rock right, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us, against it, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

And so we all got to receive, right there, an inheritance of authority through Peter's revelation.

Really right, and so immediately.

Peter's identity was changed just in that one moment, and so his identity, his name, his destiny was all changed.

It was all transformed not only by that revelation but because of the confession that he made out of his mouth.

So he believed, but then he said he spoke.

And so everything comes down to our confession.

And so I just wanted you to see that tonight, that our confession.

Basically, pastor Mark, he preached on who we are in Christ on Sunday morning and then Sunday night he preached about the great confession.

And they're so tied together and you cannot, they cannot be separated those two revelations.

Your confession is directly attached.

That's my point Number two, if you're taking notes.

Your confession is directly attached to your identity in Christ and they cannot be separated, amen.

And so we're to hold fast to our confession of faith.

Hebrews 10, 23 tells us that I'm going to flip over there real quick.

Hebrews 10, 23.

And it says if I can find 23, there it is.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

So we're to not waver, amen.

We're not to waver or doubt or pull back from our confession.

Amen.

And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, amen.

So we're to have a confession or a profession of faith.

We're professionals at our confession, right, and so your future is going to turn on your confession.

That's what Pastor Mark said, that when, when, when he was here, he said something about God, I didn't write that down, but in the next 12 months, that God was going to do things and open doors for you that no man can shut, and he's going to show you new things, fresh revelation, that things out of the word that you've never seen.

You're going to experience revelation that you've never seen before, and so that happens out of our confession, amen.

And so you know, if Pastor Mark says that all the time, but if you're not like, if you don't like what you're seeing, then change what you're saying, change what's coming out of your mouth, amen.

Again, your voice print is everything in the spirit, it's your address in the spirit, and so God knows exactly how to get his blessing to you and where it's going by listening to your voice, amen.

And so, real quick, I just wanted to to read an FF Bosworth quote right out of this book, on page I think it's 18.

Yeah, I'm going to read something from verse 20.

I mean from page 21.

First, just about what I was talking about earlier, about making it personal, making your confession personal.

In the amplified Bible, in Proverbs 22, 18 and 19, it says for it will be pleasant if you keep them in your mind, talking about let's see, I'll read it out of the King James first, for it is a pleasant thing If thou keep them within, within thee, they shall with all be fitted in thy lips.

That thy trust may be in the Lord.

For it will be pleasant if you keep them in your mind, believing them.

Your lips will be accustomed to confessing them, talking about the precepts of the word of God.

So the word of God is custom fit for your lips.

The word of God was made to be spoken, so again, it's custom fit to be spoken out of your mouth, amen.

And so let's go back to this FF Bosworth quote now, on page 18, it says a spiritual law.

I'm sorry, ff Bosworth was an evangelist way back in about the 20s or so, and an amazing man of God.

A spiritual law that few recognize is that our confession rules us.

It is what we confess with our lips that really dominates our inner being.

Nothing will establish you and build your faith as quickly as possible, and build your faith as quickly as confession.

The confession of your lips that has grown out of faith in your heart will, no-transcript, defeat the adversary in every combat.

I'm gonna read that sentence again the confession of your lips that has grown out of the faith in your heart.

And how do we have faith in our heart?

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, amen.

And so we can grow in faith, thank God.

And so we're growing in faith in our heart.

And as we're growing in faith in our heart, the confession of our lips will absolutely defeat the adversary, or the devil, or your enemy, in every combat.

In other words, you're gonna have victory on every side because of the faith that's growing in your heart and that's growing into the confession on your lips, right, and it says God can be no bigger in you than you confess him to be.

I like that.

God can be no bigger in you than you confess him to be.

And so 1st Timothy 612 says to fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on an eternal life where unto, that art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses.

That's what we're doing tonight.

We're making a confession of our faith, we're learning how to hold, lay hold on eternal life and we're fighting the good fight of faith.

How many of you realize that it's a good fight?

Amen, but we're called to fight it.

We can't just lay down and give up and quit.

Quitting is not an option.

Amen, hallelujah.

Father, I just thank you for your word.

I thank you that it's alive and it's sharper than any two edges sword.

It's separating the spirit from the soulless realm.

And, father, we choose to walk in your spirit, we walk by the spirit and we walk by faith and not by sight, and we fight the good fight of faith.

And, lord, I thank you that I'm a professional, that we're professionals at having a good confession or profession before many witnesses.

Father, we just thank you for this broadcast tonight, that I get to have an opportunity to profess you and to be a professional at professing you in front of many witnesses.

And, lord, I thank you that all of us have opportunity given to us by you to confess you in front of many witnesses.

And Lord, we're professionals at it, we're good at it.

And so, father, we all have utterance on how to speak and be good examples of your faith and your love.

And so, father, we just thank you that the confession of our lips is growing out of the faith that's in our heart and that makes us bulletproof against the enemy, it makes us bulletproof against our adversaries.

And, lord, we just thank you that we see through the eyes of faith.

Victory on every side.

In Jesus' name, amen.

And I just wanted to share with you one other thing, and then I'll wrap it up.

But last Saturday was July 31st, and so I always save in my Bible reading.

I always save on the first.

Today was is the third, so we would read Psalm 33, 63, 93, 123, right, right, and then Proverbs three.

So you would read five Psalms and one Proverbs, and you'd go through the book of Psalms in a month and also the book of Proverbs in a month if you stuck with that reading plan.

But when there's a 31st, I always save Psalm 119, because it's so long for the 31st of the month, and so I just wanted to share a couple of verses.

I, just last Saturday morning, I happened to pick up my Passion Translation Bible and start reading out of it, and so I just wanted to read to you along these same lines, psalm 119, verse 35,.

Psalms 119:35

Right out of the Passion Translation it says guide me into the paths that please you for I take delight in all that you say.

Cause my heart to bow before your words of wisdom and not to the wealth of this world.

In other words, his words of wisdom come by revelation knowledge, and David's asking to cause my heart to bow down.

And so we make that same prayer, and we're causing our hearts to bow down to the revelation knowledge that God's given to us, that we're walking in daily right.

And then verse 37, help me turn my eyes away from illusions so that I pursue only that which is true.

Drench my soul with life as I walk in your paths.

You know, a few weeks back maybe a few months back, I don't remember I was ministering to somebody, and as I was ministering to them, it became apparent that they were living in what I I'm not being rude, I'm just what I refer to privately is fantasy land, you know.

So they've connected some dots in the spirit of what's really happening, but there was no reality to what they were believing God for and the way that they were conducting their business, and so this stuck out to me.

Help me turn my eyes away from illusions.

So many people, in the day that we're living in, they're filled with illusions, and I know that there's this escapism that's happening where people are checking out.

They're tired of listening to the lies on the news, but instead of getting into the word of God and instead of buckling down and studying to show themselves approved and following the will of God for their lives, they like to escape through alcoholism.

Or maybe it's just a simple thing of watching movie after movie or binge watching Netflix all day long or whatever, and that's pulling them.

They're living a life of illusion.

They're living a life of.

It's just a false sense of being, and we're to pursue only that which is true.

And David's saying drench my soul with life as I walk in your paths.

In other words, the only way our life comes from the power of God.

And separated from the will of God, there is no life, there is no life worth living, that's separated from his plan, from his destiny.

I'm not gonna live my life for myself.

I'm gonna live my life for him, to please him, and I do that also through the great confession of making confessions every day Jesus is my Lord, and so I can tell you privately I mean just the person I was ministering to a long time ago, while back they probably just started with a little bit here and a little bit there and all of a sudden they jumped out into fantasy land and I can relate to that because I don't know, growing up, I was kind of a dreamer as well.

I like to dream, I like to daydream and see myself, and you can get lost in the wrong thing or taken away.

I'm gonna use I think our pastor likes to use examples that he's not in, like golf or whatever, when people's hobbies take over.

So I love to ride motorcycles and I could totally get lost in that, absolutely so.

Sturges is going on right now up in the Dakotas and all these motorcycles are traveling up there and I see all the people that I'm following on Instagram and YouTube and so on and so forth.

They're all on their way right now and I'm gonna go and see them.

They're all on their way right now up there and I'm thinking, man, that would be so cool, just the riding aspect, not the partying part of that, but anyways.

But that's fantasy land compared to what God's called me to do.

So I would rather do what God's called me to do than to pursue something that's not the will of God.

And so we're to pursue only that which is true.

So we're following after the truth and we're our soul, our whole, entire, our soul, our mind, our will, our intellect, our emotions is drenched with the life giving power of the Holy Spirit and we walk on His paths, destined for His destiny, right In everything that we do.

So I hope this blessed you tonight.

The great confession, father.

We just thank you for an opportunity to come into their homes and their automobiles and wherever they're listening at.

Lord, we just thank you for life changing revelation tonight.

And so, father, we just thank you for those that have gone before us our pastor, john Greiner, who preaches just like it is and tells us just like it is, lord, we're following his example.

And other people like Mark Hankins, father, we just thank you for sending him to us a couple of weeks back.

And, lord, we grab ahold of that revelation.

We know that our confession proceeds.

Our possession, our possession of goods, our possession of what you've called us to do, lord.

And so our confession comes before that, and we grab ahold of our confession and saying we grab ahold of how was that worded?

I'm sorry, where was it at?

I missed it.

Sorry, but we grab ahold of eternal life.

Amen, in Jesus' name, hallelujah.