The Profitable Word

Let's just lift our bibles up and wave them around and make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Say this together, say heavenly father, I've tuned in tonight to live stream because I'm hungry for life and there's life in the word of God.

I thank you, father, for speaking to me individually and personally out of your word.

I have ears to hear what the spirit reveals to me tonight and I know that my faith is growing exceedingly in Jesus' name.

Amen, amen.

Let's turn in our bibles, please, to Hebrews, the third chapter.

We'll start reading with verse 12.

Hallelujah, and here's Paul talking to the church of Hebrews.

Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief and departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, for we are made partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.

While it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, for some, when they had heard, did provoke.

How be it not all that came out of Egypt by Moses, but with whom was he grieved 40 years?

Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and to whom did he swear that they should not enter into his rest?

But to them that believed not.

So then we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Chapter four, now verse one.

Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest.

Any of you should seem to come short of it.

For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them.

But the word preached did not profit them.

Not being mixed with faith in them, that hurt it.

I like that verse two there in chapter four.

The word preached did not profit them, or it did not benefit them.

The word preached did not benefit them.

And so tonight I wanna speak about the profitable word.

You know, the profitable word number one must be preached.

I mean, what if you're in a church where they don't preach the word?

They preach a bunch of fables, they preach a bunch of stories, they preach a bunch of falsehoods, theories.

No, we need the word.

I thank God that I sat under Pastor John Osteen.

He always preached the word and he lived the word amen.

And so the profitable word first of all has to be preached.

Second of all, it has to be heard.

We have to have ears to hear and we have to receive it all.

We have to understand it.

We have to hear it with understanding and then, finally, it must be mixed with faith.

What do I mean by that?

It means that we must act on what we hear.

You know, just hearing the word by itself, Even if we say, admire it and we say, wow, that's truth, I believe that's true.

Well, if we don't act on it, then we didn't mix faith with it.

See, faith is acting on the word, or acting, like the Bible is true, or acting because of the word.

And so, in order for the word to profit us, it has to be mixed with faith.

Otherwise what happens?

We come up short of the promise.

I tell you, I don't want to come up short, do you?

And so when we're talking about unbelief versus faith, see, there's always those two sides unbelief versus faith.

Unbelief keeps us out of the promise land.

You know, here, in chapter three, he gets to talk.

Here Paul was always comparing.

Many times he's comparing what happened to the children of Israel and he's preaching this.

But for the benefit of the New Covenant Christians, he said, don't let what happened to them happen to you.

He said in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, that all these things in the Old Testament were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the age are come, and so they're an example to us and we should learn from their mistakes.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

And so he's talking about here.

The unbelief kept them out of their promise land.

And unbelief will keep you out of God's promise.

It'll make you come short.

Faith will bring you in.

And so what happened to the Israelites?

Well, they hardened their hearts.

And he talks about sin hardens the heart.

What sin was it?

Well, basically the sin of unbelief.

You know, unbelief is a sin.

When we refuse to believe God's word and take it for what it says, then that hardens our heart.

What do we mean by that?

You know Brother Hagin used to tell the story as a young preacher.

You know he would stay with different members of the church.

He would stand with an old gentleman who had a farm.

His custom was to get up early in the morning, like 4.30 in the morning.

Everybody else would be out milking the cows and getting the farm off to a good start, but the old man was getting up and drinking his coffee and he would boil that coffee on that old wood stove and it would be boiling hot and he'd pour it in a tin cup and just drink that whole cup of coffee down, just boiling hot coffee.

How could he do that?

Well, he couldn't do it at first, but over a period of years he hardened his mouth and his tongue and his esophagus and he had just it all crusted over to where he was no longer sensitive to heat and cold.

And that's exactly what happens to us.

Sin will harden our heart or cause us not to be sensitive to God's ways and God's spirit.

And so that's what happened to the Israelites.

They gave themselves permission to murmur and complain and do all kinds of evil things, and it was easy then for them to walk in unbelief.

You know, unbelief always angers God, whether it's Old Testament or New Testament, but faith pleases God.

You know, without faith it's impossible to please God, but faith will please Him.

So, unbelief versus faith, let's determine that we're gonna walk by faith and not by sight.

Let's turn in our Bibles to Mark, chapter four.

Let's get an example of the profitable word Mark, chapter four.

This is the chapter where Jesus borrowed the boat and went out and started preaching from the boat to this huge crowd on the shore and he told them a parable of the so-or-so's, the word, and he talked about four kinds of dirt that the word was sown into by the wayside, and then it was into stony ground, and then into ground that had weeds and briars, and then into good ground, so it had four kinds of ground and three out of the four had a crop failure.

So he talked about the word was like that the word is sown into the heart and if we're not careful we can have a crop failure, we can have no results, and so we call that the stolen word, the scorched word, the strangled word and then the successful word or the profitable word.

So after he preached that message and he said look, this is for you to know, I preached to all these people out here in parables, but it's given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, talking to his disciples, so he expected them to listen with both ears while he was speaking and he expected them to take it to heart what he was saying.

And so, when it was all through, it was time to leave, and verse 35, mark, chapter four, when the evening was come, he said unto them let us pass over to the other side.

They got into the boat and they sailed across, you know, the lake, and so let us pass over to the other side.

He made a statement.

And what was that statement?

Well, it was a profitable word if they were listening with both ears.

He didn't say let's go halfway and sink.

He didn't say unless there's a storm, it rises up.

He said let us pass over to the other side.

And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even, as it were, in the ship.

There were also with him other little ships and there was a great storm, a mega storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship so that it was now full.

And you know why did they wait until the ship was full of water?

Why didn't they take action?

Didn't they hear what Jesus said?

He said let's pass over to the other side.

They acted like they didn't hear him.

And so now the ship is full of water and he was in the hindered part of the ship verse 38, asleep on a pillow.

And they wake him and they say unto him master, keres thou not that we perish.

So they accuse him of being uncaring.

Isn't that curious?

I don't know if I would, you know.

It kind of sounds to me like their heart was hardened.

I mean, how do you talk so rough to Jesus and accuse him of not caring Just because he was tired and was asleep?

He was asleep because he had delegated his authority to them and they had everything they needed to get through that storm and rebuke the storm and rebuke the waves and get on onto the other side.

But they didn't do it.

Instead, they wake him up and accuse him.

Don't you care that we perish?

And here rose verse 39 and he rebuke the wind and said unto the sea peace be still.

And the wind ceased and there was a mega calm.

And he said unto them why are you so fearful?

How is it that you have no faith?

Woo boy, that's kind of rough, isn't it?

How is it, after this whole day, after you hear me preach about the four kinds of dirt, three of which were crop favors, how can you not understand what I preached today?

How can you not take what I said?

Let's pass over to the other side and just get us to the other side.

Why do you wake me up and accuse me?

How is it?

Why are you so fearful?

How is it that you have no faith, not little faith, no faith.

So you can tell that Jesus wasn't pleased.

He was angry.

Listen, unbelief always angers.

God always does.

How many of you wanna please Him?

I wanna please Him, I don't wanna make Him mad.

And they feared exceedingly and said one to another what manner of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey Him?

Well, they asked the wrong question.

They asked the wrong question.

They're still in unbelief, they still don't get it and this is the record of the apostles and the gospels that many times Jesus did great things and they just missed the whole point.

It just went right over their heads, and so that's written in the Bible for us, so that we can learn from their mistakes and learn from their, frankly, their stupidity and hardness of heart.

Amen, that's what it was.

And so the profitable word was let us pass over to the other side.

That was profitable, but they didn't mix faith with what they heard.

In fact, they acted like they hadn't heard it.

And then came the storm.

See, a lot of times we'll get a word from God and the storm comes.

Why does the storm come?

It comes to oppose the word of God.

Almost every time you get something from God.

God gives you a word, god gives you something, the devil's gonna come immediately.

That's what he told them in the parable.

He comes immediately to steal the word the wayside.

You know, it's just thrown on the wayside, it's not even planted.

What happens?

The birds of the air come and eat it up.

See the stolen word.

The devil will steal the word before it because it never was put in your heart.

Then part number two was it's sown on stony ground and immediately when it's first sown, it's received with gladness.

But then when persecution arises, for the word's sake, immediately that person is offended and the heat of circumstance, the sun, comes out and scorches the word.

So the scorched word is scorched by the heat of circumstances.

Another word their circumstances arose.

So I suggest to you that they met the second.

They had stony ground.

They had stony ground, they received the word.

Let us pass over to the other side.

It was profitable, they heard it, but they weren't persuaded by it.

When the heat turned up out there in the middle of the lake, then they got fearful.

And they wake up, jesus.

At least they woke up the word.

I mean, I guess they could have sunk.

They woke up the word.

I give him that much credit.

But Jesus did what they should have done.

And how is it that you have no faith?

Amen, I'll tell you why.

Because they had stony ground and the heat of circumstances scorched the word and they had no crop, they had no results.

So Everybody, I want you to think about this, just say it out loud.

The stolen word Say don't let the devil steal the word out of your heart.

Number two, the scorched word Don't let the heat of circumstances burn your crop up.

And then there's the strangled word.

That's when you hear the word of God and you get some results, but suddenly the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things entering in, chokes the word and it becomes unfruitful.

It becomes unfruitful, it tells me it was fruitful for a while.

I see this all the time.

This happens.

This is very common.

People go along pretty well and they have some results, and the next thing, you know, it just all comes to a halt.

What's happened?

Well, those three things the lust of the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things entering in, entering into where your heart, see, because faith is of the heart, and it strangles the word, it chokes the word, it becomes unfruitful and then, finally, the successful word is sown into a good and upright heart and it produces some 30, some 60 and 100 fold.

So even in that case, you have varying results.

There was room for improvement.

So you know, we've got some things to think about here in 2022.

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but you know, god God spoke to me said when the, when the enemy comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

He will bring a violent, raging flood tide driven by the breath of the Lord.

You know, we're that violent flood tide.

We're riding on this tsunami of righteousness.

I'm telling you right now, we don't, we don't have all this stuff coming against us.

We're riding on top of it.

All of the difficulties of this world are thrusting us forward and we're going into riparvest.

They've been.

So let's mix faith with what we hear.

We have to contend, you have to contend.

The children of Israel just didn't contend for their, for their inheritance.

They, they, they fainted in the day of adversity.

So I have a couple of things to to share with you tonight in order to profit.

How many of you want to profit?

How many of you want to have a benefit from the word Say all right.

First of all, number one get out of the endeavor society into the faith society.

I like what brother Smith Wigglesworth said it's time.

You know, you know faith, you know, is not trying, it's an effort, faith is just an act.

You don't try to have faith.

Well, you know I.

I know I need to be healed.

I'm believing to be healed.

I really am.

I'm believing to be healed.

When you believe to be healed, are you acting like you're healed?

See, a lot of times people say use the word believing to be healed and they really are trying to be healed.

They're.

They're putting forth effort there, but faith doesn't require any effort whatsoever.

As soon as you hear the profitable word and you have faith in your heart and you have, you have right then faith comes with it and then you begin to act as if it's yours.

So it doesn't.

It doesn't take any effort, it just takes obedience.

You just, you just act like you're healed.

If you need healing, if you're believing for your healing, the simplest way to say that you're believing for it is that you're acting like it.

You're resisting pain, you're resisting infirmity, you're doing everything you can do to stop it from happening.

If that includes going to the doctor or taking a medication, at least you're.

You're resisting, say you're resisting.

I know sometimes people get, you know, under the gun.

They start to be feel bad.

They, they, they, they really get into the endeavor society.

They're trying to believe.

They're not even taking any medicine, they didn't even go to the doctor and here they are getting worse by worse.

Now they're in bed and they can't get out of bed.

Listen, don't, don't wait till you can't get out of bed to act against the symptoms.

First of all, speak the word of God and if you need medicine, we'll get some medicine.

There's nothing.

You know.

We're all in varying places in our faith wall.

The main thing is we're not trying.

You know faith is not trying, faith is acting.

Get out of the endeavor society and get into the faith society.

You know, one time I was in Galveston sitting on the seawall.

You know, seawall is about 15 foot above sea level, and down below was this guy in a kayak.

He was launching his kayak into the surf and it was a rough day.

The wind was blowing, pretty, pretty stiff wind.

The flags were straight out, and so the waves were tough that day.

Here he is in this little kayak with his little ore, you know, sitting in these kayak and he's he's launching out and the waves are breaking over the front of the kayak, hitting him right in the face.

Man, I just knew his eyes were burning, his nose, he's probably breathing some of that salt water.

And he's kept paddling and paddling.

Finally he got out, almost to the end of the even, with the end of the jetties, and and he would, he would go down like this and up, floating like a cork and finally he got way on out there.

I mean, he must have been I don't know a couple hundred yards from the shore.

And by this time he's pretty small out there.

All I could see was he going up and down, up and down.

Sometimes he'd disappear.

And I'm looking down on him, 15 foot above sea level.

He's at sea level, see.

And so those waves were pretty big out there and I kind of laughed to myself.

I thought, man, where's he going to Cuba?

Where's where's he headed?

And the Holy Ghost spoke to me and said that's your faith.

Your faith works 24, seven.

It's like that all night long.

You go to bed and rest in faith, but your faith is working for you all night long.

I've never forgotten it.

See our faith.

I mean, once you get in the rest of faith, you rest, but your faith works 24 seven.

So get out of the endeavor or the try I'm trying to struggle and get over into the faith society.

All right.

Number two get out of the get out of reason and into faith.

Reason, reason with your mind.

A lot of people just think too much, they do too much thinking, they try to reason their way through a trouble and through problems.

Reason is the, you know, is the voice of the mind, the unrenewed mind, and that's why we need to have our mind renewed with the Word of God, so that we're thinking the Word of God, we're meditating on the Word of God.

Occupy your mind with what does the word say?

I mean be thinking about what does the word say about my situation?

Think about that.

But if you're going to start thinking, well, what if God this?

What if God that?

What if God's trying to teach me a lesson?

What if God is you know?

What if I've done this wrong?

What if I've done that wrong?

Listen, the devil's just after you.

Just get it settled.

He hates your guts.

Reason, reason doesn't have anything to do with it.

In Matthew 16, jesus was with the disciples in the boat.

They were, and he said beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

So immediately when he said that, they started thinking oh, what does he mean by that?

And one of them said oh, I know what it is.

We didn't bring any bread.

We forgot to bring bread.

Oh, peter, I told you to go buy subway and buy some sandwiches.

You didn't do, I didn't have time.

So you know, I'm just making that part up, okay, but but anyway, they're just sitting there reasoning.

And he wasn't talking about food, he was talking about the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees being leaven.

In other words, it's poison, it's, it will.

You know, leaven is this type of sin.

Leaven is the type of something that will multiply and expand.

You know, yeast rises with living, with yeast is leavened and it will rise.

Bread, see, that's a type of sin.

It multiplies.

So he said beware of the leaven, of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

So he perceived what they were thinking and he said why do you reason that?

I'm talking about bread, don't you get it.

I'm not talking about bread.

I mean, how many loaves did it take to feed 5,000?

And how much did you take up afterwards?

And how many loaves did it take to feed 4,000?

How many loaves was there leftover afterward?

Don't you understand?

I'm not talking about bread.

I'm talking about the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, so that what he was rebuking them for their reasoning See, faith is an act, faith is a leap, faith jumps in, faith claims, and faith has an author, and his name is Jesus.

So let's make sure that we're listening for the profitable word and mix faith with it.

Let's mix action with what we hear, and that will bring us into our promised land.

That will bring us our inheritance.

The profitable word.

Let's lift our hands tonight.

Hallelujah.

Thank God for the profitable word and I trust that this is profitable reminder for you.

We all need to be reminded from time to time what we know.

We know such wonderful things and sometimes, under the heat of battle, we might forget them temporarily, and that's why I like to remind you of these wonderful truths.

Praise God, amen.