Turning Doubters Into Disciples

Without further ado.

Let's just get into the Word of God and find out what God has for us tonight.

Let's first of all lift up our Bibles.

If you don't have your Bible, get it next to you real quick and lift it up, wave it around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

That's our customer around here and let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I've tuned in on purpose because I'm hungry for the truth.

I'm tired of just feeding on lies and deception and narratives and I'm getting into the Word of God tonight.

And, lord, your Word is true forever.

Reveal to me your purpose for my life and help me to accomplish it through the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Acts.

That is not the Acts throwing.

We have some Acts throwing coming up here at the church.

That's not that kind of Acts.

It's the book of Acts of the Apostles, chapter 28.

We'll start reading the verse one.

And this setting is right after the shipwreck where they had all escaped the ship, the famous shipwreck that Paul and all the soldiers were on.

And it says verse one and when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita, or Malta present day Malta and the barbarous people showed us no little kindness, for they kindled the fire and received us everyone because of the present rain and because of the cold.

And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire that came a viper out of the heat and fastened on his hand.

And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they set among themselves.

No doubt this man is a murderer whom, though he had escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.

And he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm.

How be it?

They looked when he should have swollen.

He should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly.

But after they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a God.

And the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius, who received us and lodged us three days courteously.

And it came to pass that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux, to whom Paul entered in and prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him.

And so then, when this was done, others also which had diseases in the island came and were healed.

And so then, when this was done, others also an erection, if not achieved, would not be opoured, who also honored us with many honors, and when we departed they laid it us with such things as were necessary.

So I wanted you to see how that they.

You know, when he should have fallen down dead, he shook off the beast into the fire he should have.

And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled turning doubters into disciples.

Turning doubters into disciples.

You know, our whole lives are ministry.

Really, when you're a mature disciple, you know you're going to go through things.

You're going to go through things and people are going to look at you, they're going to watch you.

And when you should have died, when you should have gotten the divorce, when you should have gone bankrupt, you should have this, you should have that, and yet you persevered.

You overcame.

It becomes a witness to the doubters and the people that are expecting many of you to quit in the middle of your trial.

You know we're all going to have trouble, doesn't matter how spiritual we are, it doesn't matter how much faith.

In fact, the truth of the matter is, when you have faith, it's going to be tested.

You know, there's no great faith without great tests, no great victories without great battles.

And so, all of these, if you're a mature believer and we're all, we're all disciples, we're all in spiritual growth, and the quicker you learn that your entire life is ministry and that you have an opportunity.

Because people are watching you and some are watching, you know, just, they're just watching to see you fail.

And then, when you don't fail, see.

And then, instead of getting mad at them, instead of being, you know, resentful toward their attitude, hey, it's a, it's you can, you can step in there and minister to them Amen.

And so the skeptic, you know the skeptic, there's always skeptics.

I like what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4.

It's worth turning it over there.

1 Corinthians, chapter 4, paul is one of my favorite verses.

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

It says for I think that God has set forth us his apostles, last, as it were, appointed to death.

For we are made a spectacle under the world, and to angels and to men.

We're made a spectacle and that word spectacle in my margin we're made a theater, in other words, our lives this is Paul talking.

Our lives look like reality TV.

People are watching us, and I mean you think about Paul.

I mean he's beaten 39 stripes, five different times, beaten with rods three times, stoned to death and raised from the dead.

I mean spent a night and a day in the deep.

He had so many opportunities to die besides the one that we just read about.

He had time after time and people in all those situations were watching him and he should have died, he should have gave up, he should have you know.

He said, you know, my life is like a theater.

And he said we are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ.

We are weak but you are strong.

You are honorable, but we are despised.

And he's making a point that God uses our lives, no matter what we're going through.

And so many times when we're going through a trial we're retreating.

Many times, if we're not careful, we'll draw in and we'll quit reaching out and we'll feel like, well, our witness is compromised.

It's the opposite.

I mean it's the opposite.

I mean, yes, people are looking for you to fail, you know, because if you fail they feel better about themselves.

Well, that's okay, that's their immaturity.

You have a chance to succeed in their sight and then you can turn it around for ministry.

I mean turn the doubters into disciples.

I mean, convert the skeptics into servants of the Most High God.

That's exactly what happened on this island.

I mean this island had a revival.

I mean it's no wonder the devil tried to kill him at the campfire.

I mean he.

I mean, you know, they escaped the sea, you know, and they got on that island and the viper fastened his hand around his mouth, around Paul's head, and the next thing, you know, he shakes that thing off and they have a revival and God opens a door at the highest levels of that island, the father of the governor of the island gets healed, and I mean they had a revival.

And so I've just got some simple things to say tonight.

Let's just keep in mind that as disciples, we're gonna have trials and tribulations.

Jesus said in the world you shall have Tribulation, test, trials, anguish, disappointments, and that's not the point.

The point is what overcoming and your overcoming is like.

It's on reality TV.

Your life is like a Hollywood script that God wrote and he's warning you to shine.

And even when we fall a little short, we can still be a witness to people.

So I see one, two, three, I just see four things in this wonderful testimony, and it is a testimony of victory that we can kind of use in our lives as disciples, because a disciple is a taught one.

A disciple is one, and that's what we do here at Glorious White Church.

I almost said Lakewood Church, because this is where I learned all of it many years ago.

I'm still coming across people that knew me from Lakewood, I knew him from Lakewood, I knew you from Lakewood.

I had a lady come up recently and says you married me.

And I thought, no, I've been married to the same woman.

All these.

No, but I did the ceremony, but anyway.

So we have four things.

The first one it's just kind of obvious.

You know, when trouble comes, shake it off, shake it off.

You know.

And sometimes trouble comes and it fastens itself on you.

That's what the devil wants to do.

It wants to fasten itself on you, it wants to do the maximum damage.

And Paul was more determined than the snake he took.

Now, listen, listen.

He took vigorous and immediate action.

See this, if you see, if I see I've seen anything and this is my 35th year of ministry and my 28th year pastor of this church and if there's something I've seen more often than not, is that people don't take immediate and vigorous action.

They kind of just lolly gag.

They have something happen to them and they don't know what to do, and they don't do anything for an extended period of time.

Listen, I mean when the snake bites, you don't just sit there.

I mean you gotta get rid of that thing.

And that's what he did.

He just shook it off into the fire.

He took everybody.

Say vigorous and immediate.

I mean you've got to answer the trouble with the equal or greater intensity.

You know.

I mean the devil's not just trying to steal your parking place at the ball, he's trying to kill you.

And so let's realize that when we're under attack, let's not just be like a day's ago about it, and it's not a matter of us calling 911.

You know, it's not a matter of us checking Instagram to see if anybody's got the answer to our problem.

Come on, you know you've got the greater one living on the inside of you.

Amen.

And every time I see this story, I mean how quick he was to get rid of it, the quickie he answered it right now.

I mean he didn't wait.

You know, if you read the story in Exodus, where Moses went to Pharaoh they had had one of the curses was the curse of the frogs.

The frogs were in their beds, the frogs were in their ovens, the frog was in their water, the frogs were everywhere.

There was frog here, a frog there, a frog everywhere, a frog, frog.

I mean they're everywhere and you know.

And so he said, yeah, okay, I'll let you go.

He said when would you like me to pray and get rid of the frogs?

He said tomorrow.

So I bought we're both and said one more night with the frogs.

I mean, how stupid is that.

Why would you want to spend one more night with the frogs, you know?

And why wouldn't you say, right now, get rid of the frogs now.

I can't stand it.

So don't let the trial consuming rattle you, shake it off.

You know we have power over all the power of the enemy.

And Mark 16, he said you know, these signs shall follow them that believe in my name.

They shall cast out demons.

They shall, they shall, if you know, they shall tread upon serpents and scorpions.

Amen.

How many of you know?

It's not talking about any.

You know real insects.

It's talking about demon powers.

You know another thing I noticed Paul did even pray.

He didn't even, he just shook it off.

He shook it off.

Like sometimes we, when we do pray about trouble, we turn it into a long list of grievances and victim hood, recitation of the victim hood.

See, that doesn't do you any good to recite the victim hood, part of it.

There's a victim.

The victim hood is is part of the God of this age that's going around in the world today.

This is what the Democrats use against people.

Is their victim.

He turns each individual, they turn each individual group, people, group in the country into a minority of victims and they and they say it's all the other person's fault.

And this is that.

This is just.

This is how communism has always worked.

This is how Nazi Germany succeeded is having a population that's generally in good shape and then just taking advantages of a few disgruntled people.

Listen, listen, listen.

You know you don't have to pray, just shake off, don't be a victim.

And the reality of the greater one living on this, greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world.

First, john, four, four.

The second thing is that he kept the fire burning.

Notice, he was gathering sticks to add to the fire.

It was a cold and gray day and I know it's hot outside right now.

We're.

You know we had some.

We have some Saharan dust in the atmosphere.

I understand there's more coming, but on this particular situation, we could say it this way it's cold and dark in the world.

I mean, the atmosphere is very dismal in the world and we've got to keep our inner fire burning.

We've got to stay full of the Holy Ghost.

You know the fire of God, the fire of God, you know, we shall.

You know, john the Baptist told, told the Jews.

He said Jesus is the one, the baptizer, and the Holy Ghost who will baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire.

Sometimes we leave the fire part off.

We just talk about baptism and the Holy Ghost with evidence of speaking in tongues.

Well, you can, you can do that and not really have the fire.

Listen, the fire of God just means that you're excited about him and it doesn't come naturally.

We have to stir that fire, I have to stir that fire.

In Acts one, eight he said you shall receive power after that, the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the other most parts.

And so here he is, a witness in Malta, and he had the fire of God on him.

In other words, he was so full of the fire of God he didn't even have to pray.

He was conscious of the greater one and he knew the anointing and he just, he threw that thing in the fire and he just kept the fire burning and he kept everybody excited and it just, it went like this, just like like just rapid fire.

He went from shaking the thing off to keeping the fire burning.

And the third one is staying focused on your purpose.

You see, one of the things that he was thinking about was that the angel had just appeared to him a few nights before and said and the angel told him fear not, paul, for God has given the all them that sail with thee.

No one is going to be hurt.

But the lading in the ship is going to be hurt, but nobody on the.

If you'll do what I tell you to do, nobody will die.

And nobody did die.

And so he had a sense that everybody in his life that he encountered was sailing with him.

See, that's another mark of a mature disciple, somebody that has a ministry mind.

And that's what I want to do tonight.

I want to give you a ministry mind, because I know everybody goes through things.

Everybody goes through financial things, health things, relationship things, marriage things.

I mean all good marriages suffer trouble from time to time.

You might be going through one of those times.

Don't let it make you withdraw.

Listen, follow these steps.

Keep the fire burning in your marriage, keep the fire burning in your relationship with God and stay focused on your purpose.

God has you living in the last days.

Paul never got away from his purpose and I'm sure when he saw that snake he knew he wasn't afraid of death.

He didn't have to say it, but in an instant of time he could say you know what?

If 39 lashes times five couldn't kill me, if we're beaten with rods three times couldn't kill me, if the people stoning me to death and me getting raised from the dead couldn't take me off of the scene, if me spending a night in the day in the deep couldn't take me off of the scene, you're not gonna take me off of the scene Now.

He didn't have to go through all of that, but it was in him.

It was in him, it was alive and he saw his purpose.

When you have your purpose, there's no kind of bad news that's gonna overtake you and just steal your courage from you.

You gotta be strong and very courageous in these days, because that's the spirit of this age, is the spirit of fear.

The spirit of fear, the spirit of running out, the spirit of death.

All of that is going on right now.

It's being encouraged by the federal government and all levels of government, and we've gotta understand what's happening here and not play into it.

Instead, let's rise up and let's shake off this trouble.

Let's keep the fire burning and let's stay focused on our purpose, purpose your ministry, your destiny.

Let's look at Acts 22,.

Some things that God told Paul, that he recited to others, and this is why I know that he had it built in.

See, you're gonna have to build some things in to your thinking and to your spirit.

I mean, you're gonna have to meditate on some things you know, because otherwise you're gonna always be susceptible to pressure the devil puts on you and you'll spend far too much time hesitating, doubting yourself, questioning yourself.

Acts 22, verse 17.

Acts 22:17

Make sure, that's it.

Yeah, when it came to pass, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even when I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance and I saw him saying unto me Jesus, saying unto me make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.

And verse 21,.

He said unto me depart, for I will send thee far hints unto the Gentiles.

I will send thee far hints unto the Gentiles.

Where is he right now?

He's in Malta.

He's in the middle of all the Gentiles there.

There wasn't any Jews there, and he was on a ship full of Gentiles that had been saved.

They were sailing with him and he gave the and he was the key to their salvation, essentially.

And so he was not the apostle to the Jews, that was Peter.

And so Jesus said no, you're in the wrong place, get out of here, get over, I'll just send you to the Gentiles.

So see, he knew his destiny, he knew his ministry, he knew his purpose.

Turn over to 27 Acts 27.

I think I've already quoted this one, but we'll read it again.

And this was in the height of the storm on the sea, where, before the ship was broken up on the shores.

And it said here verse 24, verse 23,.

The Father stood by thee this night, the angel of God whose I am and whom I serve, saying fear not, paul, thou must be brought before Caesar.

See, that's his destiny.

He knows when he's on that island that that's not gonna be the end of him.

There's no way that snake is gonna kill him.

There's no way anything is gonna stop him.

He is going to appear before Caesar.

He just survived a shipwreck.

They rode broken pieces of the ship to shore.

You know, this is supernatural intervention in his life.

So he said fear not, paul, you must appear before Caesar.

You must appear before Caesar.

Get it here and lo, god has given thee all them that sail with thee.

So if God had done that, see, obviously God's not through and there's no kind of snake, and so you're gonna have to have that wired into your consciousness.

I mean, I don't know how many times I've, you know, before I got saved, there were three definite times I remember I could have died and should have died.

It was a I could have, would have, should.

I should have died, but I didn't die.

You know, twice in the Gulf of Mexico, I should have died and I didn't, should have drowned, but I didn't.

Thank God, god saved me.

I should have died.

Downtown, at Houston House Apartments, when they were under construction, the elevator fell that I was riding on, but I wasn't riding on it when it fell.

It fell seconds after.

I couldn't catch that elevator and went to the one next to it.

I mean, it was absolutely there's three different times before I got saved, that I should have died, but I didn't.

I should have died on the operating table four and a half years ago when the doctors stabbed my heart and punched a hole in it with a catheter.

They didn't mean to, I was just slippery, and seven and a half hour surgery that should have taken two and a half hours.

I should have died, but I didn't Praise God.

And so you know, let's keep in our hearts the destiny that we have.

We've got to wire that in so that we're not under pressure when trouble comes.

Trouble is gonna come, it's gonna come knocking at our door and it's gonna have the worst intentions of all, but we don't have to bow to those things.

Amen.

Paul knew that he had not come this far to succumb to a snake, and neither have you.

Praise God.

And then, finally, don't stop with just your victory.

You know faith is contagious.

You know when you get victory, you can spread that victory around to people that maybe they've been watching you, maybe they've been kind of clucking and trying to act superior.

I've had people do that.

They act in superior.

I'm going through trouble.

I remember years ago, brother, those things ask everybody in the congregation to stand up.

It didn't have a job.

You're on the front row, it's pretty conspicuous, and you're on the very front row, right in front of the pulpit, you know, and the TV camera's right behind you, and you're gonna stand up and he's saying okay, if you need a job, stand up.

Well, I just stand up because I needed a job and I was looking for one.

And oh, I tell you what.

Some people came up to me after the service.

They said, oh, so superior.

Oh, we were so shocked, wow, we didn't know you needed a job.

They weren't offering me one, they were just make them feel good, make them feel good about their miserable lives that I was suffering.

Well, you know what?

That didn't make me mad.

I just said y'all, I tell you, god's a good God.

I've got a job on the way, praise God.

I just had to obey the Holy Ghost.

He asked me to stand up, so I did.

I'm not a victim, I just got.

I turned it around.

Oh, oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I know.

Oh, I tell you, you know, just let a faith epidemic break out, you know, and get people saved and healed and delivered and discipled.

You know, your whole life is an example to others.

Your whole life can be a ministry if you'll allow it, and that'll help keep your perspective above the arena of this world, because the arena of victory is the arena of faith.

The arena of victory is the arena of the spirit realm, not down here, but it's in the spirit realm.

That's the causal realm, that's where all the victories are won and that's where faith operates.

That's where faith operates.

So your miracle is just the beginning.

As doubters change their mind about you, minister to them, testify of what God has done for you.

Look for influential doors to open.

You know that's the other thing about trouble is as you're overcoming.

Sometimes it just that's the reason trouble has come.

It's trying to stop you from the next doors that God has opened for you.

You know Paul said, you know there are great door and effectual is open unto me and there are many adversaries.

I've seen it in my own life Just before.

A great opportunity, a door opportunity, maybe it's business, maybe it's ministry, whatever it is.

Sometimes there's great trouble right before that to kind of again try to get you relaxed off of your purpose in life and just hold on to God's spirit and be filled with a Holy Ghost at all times.

Turn doubters into disciples and should've been to didn'ts.

Amen, let's lift our hands and receive the word tonight.

I pray it was a blessing to your heart, being encouraged.

I know some of us are going through some things.

You know that's the key.

You're going through it.

You're not camping, you're not living there.

You're gonna get to the other side, amen.