Importance Things

Hallelujah, amen.

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

Let's say this together say heavenly Father, thank you for this wonderful Christmas and I'm looking forward to a great new year.

I'm looking to you.

You're my source, you're my supply.

I thank you for the Word of God.

You've given me the raw materials to build my faith, to overcome every obstacle in my life, and I give you all the glory for the victory.

In Jesus' name, amen, you can be seated.

Praise God.

Let's look at Romans, chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Today, somebody said I've heard this before.

I said don't listen, no, I'm just joking, I'm not being that combative a little bit, but not that much.

Romans 12, verse one I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, isn't that precious?

Here's one of the greatest apostles and he's beseeching begging, really.

I'm beseeching you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, and the God which is your reasonable service, and one version says, and your spiritual worship.

And everybody shout.

And Number two be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing, or I like to say the refreshing, of your mind.

I mean, you know, you wear a pair of clothes out long enough and they're gonna need to be refreshed.

And so we need our mind.

Our mind gets stale, our mind is assaulted, and so, really, the context of this verse be not conformed to this.

The world's way of thinking Be transformed.

Yes, god, the world's way of thinking.

But be you transformed.

Metamorphosized is actually what that word means.

It's like the tadpole into the frog, it's like the caterpillar into the butterfly.

Yes, it's changed.

Be metamorphosized.

How?

By the renewing or the refreshing of your mind that you may prove what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.

For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, and every woman and every person, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly.

We could say accurately.

I mean, don't beat yourself up, but don't build yourself up so much that you think that you're the greatest thing since sliced bread, as someone say, a legend in your own mind.

Think soberly, think accurately, according as God has dealt to every man, every person, the measure of faith.

And so today I just wanted to share a very basic message with you important things.

It's entitled.

Important things.

We're waving bye, bye, just about to 2021.

We're headed into a brand new year, 2022.

It's hard to even think about saying that.

You know, 2022, we've got to change.

You know you're going to be writing checks and we don't write very many checks anymore.

I just pull out the plastic man.

I'm through with checks.

I've got two checks a month that I have to write mail off and I'm trying to figure out a way to quit doing that.

I'm going to write them and say get with the program, it's 2020, it's 2022.

Get to where I can pay this online.

Come on Anyway, but you know you mess up the date, you know, for six months till you finally get the hang of 2022, you know, but what are we doing?

Well, we're making New Year.

A lot of people the world is making New Year's resolution and they're trying to figure out how can I lose all this weight I gained from Thanksgiving and Christmas?

And so right now, if you own a gym, I mean this is the time to make your hey buddy.

I mean you're out there selling those memberships between now and the end of January, because that's when it all ends, you know, and you're praying that all those people you sell memberships to don't show up because you've oversubscribed your little place there.

You don't have enough machines to service all the members, but that's how you make your money.

Is people feeling guilty and wanting to make New Year's resolutions?

So that's not what we're doing?

No, I just want to give you some things to do besides that.

I mean, that's fine, but everything comes from the spirit world for the believer Everything, everything, everything.

So we need to be thanking God for what he's done in 2021.

I hear people saying, oh, these are the worst two years.

Well, let's not say that how you measure it.

I mean, if you got a pulse, sometimes we got to just get down to just being grateful to be alive.

You know, have you got wheels?

Okay, praise God.

I remember not having any wheels.

The bank foreclosed on everything I owned and they sent two young college kids by airplane flight of Corpus Christi and I met them at the airport, took them to my house and gave them one car, took them to my office, gave them the other car and they let me off on the sidewalk.

I had nothing.

I had no cars, I had no house.

They foreclosed on it.

That was illegal, by the way.

So I know a little bit about you.

Know that kind of thing.

You wouldn't think that, but I do.

It's not the best of feeling, but you know what I mean.

I managed to praise God because I had a pulse.

I was able to actually walk to the dealership and lease a car.

I couldn't own one, but I leased one.

Oh, praise God.

So let's thank God.

What a momentous time in which to live.

We are living in the last of the last days.

We're seeing Bible prophecies fulfilled left and right.

We're seeing coming is take over the land of the free and the homeless.

Why should we thank?

Well, I'm not thanking God for that.

I'm thanking God that I'm alive to see it and we're making a difference.

We're not standing for it, we're speaking against it and we're not alone.

There's millions of people that are not going to stand for this.

We're going to, in 2022, we're going to have a chance to tell them Listen, brandon, we're not going with this plan.

Anyway, he even said it himself the other day, poor guy.

They had to sit him down and say that's not you know.

All right, I think the Pope is about in that same league.

I mean, that guy's the most clueless guy I've ever seen.

We've had some fantastic popes in my lifetime, but he's not one of them.

He's horrible.

Anyway, sorry about that, if you're Catholic, I'll pray for your toes.

I know I just stepped in.

I was Catholic for a long time, so I feel entitled to say a few things.

And so let's thank God and then let's prepare for 2022.

I mean, let's prepare spiritually.

That's more important than a gym membership.

It's more important than New Year's resolutions.

Thank God for what's happened in our lives and to prepare for what's ahead of us, because God has got some powerful things he wants to do through you and through the church.

And so here in Romans, it tells us that our bodies need to be consecrated to God Just the same way.

In other words, you know, in the Old Testament they sacrificed animals sheep and goats and cattle on the altar.

It burned, and burned it with incense.

Why did they have to have the incense?

Because it was burning flesh and flesh was stunk to God.

They had to disguise the burning flesh with incense and they had to salt every sacrifice.

So that's a type and shadow of us.

It's not suggested that we have to sacrifice our own fleshly desires, put them to death.

Your flesh never wants to serve God.

It never wants to do the right thing.

Your flesh is still the same flesh before you got saved.

The only thing different is what your spirit, your want-to is different, that is if you're saved.

If you're saved, you want to change.

So what do we do?

Well, we've got to offer our bodies a living sacrifice.

That's our spiritual worship.

It's worship.

And then we've got to get our minds renewed and refreshed on these important things.

I'm going to talk about Three things Our minds reminded.

We need to be reminded.

You know that Israel forgot, right, and they limited the Holy One of Israel by forgetting what God did in the field of Zohan, in other words, egypt.

When they forgot and we're just like them in our flesh and in our natural mind, we are just like Israel was.

What's different?

Well, we're born again.

We have a better covenant.

So that's why I'm talking about spiritual things, because if we put those first, we can have a greater result.

Amen.

So all the lesser things will fall into place.

It's not that they're not important, but they're not as important as the three things I'll talk about today.

If you put those at the top of the list, then everything else that concerns you, everything else that you would like to see change, everything else that you want to see come into your life and experience, that'll all fall into place.

But we've got, you know, first thing important things.

These are the important things.

Let's quit playing the game of being so impressed with the immediate at the expense of the important.

The immediate will always try to crowd in.

Hey oh boy, it's way to the front of the line and a big old fire, big old emergency.

That's what the Democrats do.

They create an emergency out of flu.

They created an emergency out of the flu and look at the result Millions are dead.

That would not have died Died.

Better not go any further.

They might cut me off for saying, well, because I have, I don't have to just the belabor the point.

I'm just saying let's, let's put, let's put important things first and all the immediate stuff will take care of itself.

We'll have wisdom, we'll have favor, we'll have an auction from the Holy Ghost how to solve these things that come up.

So three things.

Everybody say three things.

So let's remind ourselves of the importance of these three things.

First of all, remind yourself of the importance of the Word of God.

I knew he was going to say that.

He says that every surface, and I'll quit saying it as soon as you do it.

I mean, I'm just waiting on you.

I still talk to people that haven't read their Bible in a year.

It's not important to them, it needs to be.

Listen, that's top of the list.

This is God talking to you.

If you'll approach it that way, if you'll hold it in that kind of honor and esteem that this is God speaking to me, then you won't spend any time away from it.

Remind yourself of the importance of the Word.

Jesus put it this way when the devil was trying to tempt him in the desert, the beginning of his ministry, he had just been filled with a Holy Ghost.

John saw the Spirit come down on him in the person of a dove, like a dove, and Jesus was filled with a Holy Ghost.

And then the Bible says he was driven into the wilderness to be tempted to the devil.

40 days and 49 days he had to show us that the devil can be defeated with the Word of God.

The devil came to him three different ways and he just said each time it is written, it is written.

And the last one, he said it is said.

So you know, man.

And so the first temptation was you know, if you're the Son of God and he's hungry, he's fasting, he's going to command these stones to be made bread.

You know, and Jesus said man, you know, it is written.

It is written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of God, every Ramah of God shall men live.

So I mean this is life.

Right here Jesus said the words that I speak to you, they are life, they are spirit and they are life.

A man once said this about the Word.

He says don't compare this book with other books.

This doesn't contain the Word of God.

It is the Word of God.

It is supernatural in origin, eternal in duration, inexpressible in value, infinite in scope, regenerative in interest, personal in application, inspired in totality.

Read it through, write it down, pray it in and then pass it on.

How many of you believe the Holy Ghost gave him that?

I know that's not the Bible, but it's about the Bible.

It just gives me goosebumps to read it.

The Holy Ghost is an expert in public speaking and that's one of those truths.

So right into this year, beginning of this year, let's remind ourselves of the importance of the Word of God.

Number two, let's remind ourselves of the importance of the Holy Spirit.

Let's look at Ephesians 5.

So important.

The church at large I know a lot of the church that call themselves a church are really not born again.

They're not on their way to heaven.

There's a lot of people that need to get saved that sit in church every week.

What a shame.

Why?

Because a lot of seminaries are turning out Doctors of divinity that have no revelation of God's true word.

They're preaching a bunch of baloney.

Ephesians, chapter five, verse 17,.

Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit.

The word be there, it really means be being filled, or we could say be continually and habitually filled with the Holy spirit.

Don't be unwise, don't be drinking of the pleasures of this world and leaving off the main thing that we need to be filled with, which is what the Holy spirit.

You know there's one baptism with many fillings.

You know you get baptized in the Holy ghost one time, but after that happened you've got to stay filled.

You've got to be continually.

It takes effort, it takes a commitment, it takes time, and again the immediate will try to edge and elbow its way to the front and say you don't have time praying tongues this morning, you don't have time to read your Bible.

You know there's fire going on over here.

Your hair is on fire.

That phone is ringing.

It's for you.

Get up and answer that phone.

It's for you.

Your phone just went off.

There's a text.

Oh, there's the text.

Here's an email.

I was looking at one of my kids emails of 787 emails that they hadn't read.

It was sitting on the front of their phone.

I'm a God.

I cleaned mine up all day long.

I don't.

I shouldn't do that.

I guess they just let they just let the.

They just let it go on on.

I emailed you.

Yeah, I didn't see it.

Well, I can believe that now that I looked at your phone, you got 780.

I'm not going to say who it was.

I think they all liked that.

I think Claire's got a thousand.

What would I do without my family?

I'm telling you right now they are a blessing.

We sat around our din yesterday on Christmas, and I told them what I felt about them all.

We do that on a regular basis.

We always do that on Christmas.

Amen, after we tell Jesus what we think of him, some of the Holy Ghost, let's, let's not be ignorant about spiritual things.

First Corinthians, real quick.

First Corinthians, chapter 12, first Corinthians 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

These are important things, folks, simple things, basic things, but so important.

Verse 12, verse one first, corinthians 12, one now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren.

I would not have you ignorant.

Now, the word gifts there is italicized so it doesn't show up in the Greek.

Concerning spirituals Now, concerning spirituals, brethren, and we could say it this way now, concerning the things of the spirit, we could say it this way now, concerning the ways of the Holy Ghost, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

The Holy Ghost is the one that lives inside of you, and Jesus had the Holy Spirit inside of him, but he said, before he went into the ministry, at age 30, what did he need to have?

He needed to have the baptism in the Holy Spirit, and the Bible says he was filled with a spirit without measure, which tells me that we're filled with a spirit but not with a measure.

It's with a measure.

I believe that if the entire church of Jesus Christ would get filled with the Holy Ghost and we would have it without measure, but because so much of the church is just merely saved and they don't know the difference between having the spirit and being filled with it.

What are they?

They're ignorant.

Why are they ignorant?

Well, because they haven't been taught anything.

When they come to church, they have to have a real high and lofty experience.

They got to have live camels and live actors for a manger scene.

They got to have a $200,000 manger scene outside and a half a million dollar one inside.

Because they have no revelation.

They've got to have a picture.

Are y'all with me?

Now?

I'm not against it, I'm just saying it's not enough by itself.

We need to know about the Holy Ghost.

Don't be ignorant.

Now.

There's three things about being ignorant.

Number one is total ignorance.

Some of them are totally ignorant.

Then there's partial ignorance.

They realize they have the Holy Spirit living inside of them, but they don't know the difference between filled and just having the spirit inside.

There's a lot of ignorance.

There's a lot of ignorance inside.

There's a vast difference.

Having the spirit inside of you when you get saved, is a well of water.

That's when Jesus preached to the woman at the well.

He talked about salvation as a well of water springing up into you.

But then in John, chapter seven, he said he talked about rivers of living water, which he said of you you should receive, but they did none of them receive because they hadn't yet Jesus, had not yet been glorified, not yet died on the cross.

So, if you're a believer, you should be baptized in the Holy Ghost after you're saved and you will have rivers of living water.

How many know?

There's a big difference between rivers, plural and a well Vast difference.

There's a difference between your yard sprinkler and the Mississippi River Amen, and that's just one river.

Oh, we have been ignorant of the spirit, either totally or partially, but there's a third component to ignorance and that's ignorance.

In other words, we're just negligent.

We're negligent.

I think that's the biggest thing that we need to remember right now, going into 2022.

Let's check up on ourselves.

Let's think about where we are with the Word, where we are with the Spirit.

I mean, if you want things to improve in your life, start with that.

Rather than the gym membership, rather than the diet, I'm going to go on the keto, the pitot, the wheato, the wheat belly, the Dumbo, whatever, whatever, whatever suits you.

I've been on all of them.

I mean, you know they all work for a while.

As long as you quit eating, the weight comes off of there.

I mean, that's the thing I discovered.

I mean, when I quit eating, all the weight fell off.

When I started eating again, it all came back.

That's so, mean, pastor.

What motivated me when, when I see a picture of myself, I look like a beast walrus, then I know that I need so don't be ignorant of the ways of the Spirit Be filled with and controlled by you know, when I, when I have trouble with my flesh, it's always because I've left these two off in some way or another.

I've I've not pressed into the word sufficiently or I've not stayed full.

What happens automatically if flesh takes over?

This brother Norval Hayes used to say the flash, the flash takes over.

Hallelujah.

Everybody say fill with and controlled by the Holy Ghost.

So let's remind ourselves of these things.

And the third one is important, and it talks about this in Romans 12, three let's remind ourselves of the importance of our place, not just in the body of Christ, but in this body of believers in glorious way, church.

If you count yourself a member of this church, that's something that you ought to be thinking about and reminding yourself of is the importance of your place in this church.

See, when you join the army, you don't just join the army.

I'm a member of the army, I'm the US Army.

Well, yeah, you're in the US Army, but guess what?

You're going to be in a squad somewhere with a squad leader, and then you're going to be in a company, and then you're going to be in a battalion.

I don't even have all the divisions right, but anyway, you get my drift.

In other words, you're not just floating around out there, one of two million members of the army, no, you're right here in an outfit.

This is your outfit.

I've had people drift through here and they've got dreams and things and God has dealt with them about things and many times it's just real, you know real, way up there and way out there, and I just don't have time to meet with everybody about their dreams and visions because we've got one right here that we need help with, and that's why you're here.

You're not here to do your thing, you're here to do God's thing right here.

What would you do if you walked into your squad leader and told him oh, I've got.

You know, I need to take that hill.

No, you need to shine your shoes.

Amen, you need to polish your brass.

Boy, you don't tell them what you're going to do.

That sounds so arrogant.

Well, let's look at it.

12, 3 Romans, 12.

And let's, let's get, you know, let's think about these things because they're so vital.

If you get these things in order, everything else that concerns you will fall into place.

I've lived it.

I'm not, you know, I'm not the final expert, I'm not the greatest you know example of everything, but you know what.

I am an example and the reason I am here is because I lived it.

There have been times in my life when I've missed it and it set me back and all the immediate started coming up fight, flames and fires and all kind of things.

And when I get these three things in the right priority, all that stuff, you know I'm not saying you won't have trouble, they just you'll have the answer to the trouble.

You know you're important to God's scheme of things.

He loves you, he saved you, he hopefully filled you.

If you haven't been filled yet, put that on your list of things to do.

That's the thing to do list right there.

In fact, you know, a little while we'll have an altar call.

Get up here and get filled.

You don't have to wait for a special service, thank you, but there's no big eyes and it'll use around here.

We're all on the same team, working for the same God.

Jesus is the head, he's the shepherd, I'm the under shepherd.

There has to be a leader.

No leader, there's just a mess.

Amen.

And so think about.

What is your place here?

Well, I've got these, god told me.

God.

Why don't you put that aside?

And God put you here?

You're a member here.

Why don't you find out what you can do to serve this church and serve Jesus here?

Because we have needs.

We have continual needs all the time.

So make yourself available.

Sure, we want your tithes and offerings.

That helps, but that's not enough by itself.

Are you with me now?

I mean, look at Noah.

What if Noah had put off the tithes and offerings?

What God told him to do?

Noah, it's gonna rain.

What's that it's gonna have?

You're gonna have a flood, what's that?

He'd never seen rain, much less of flood.

And he spent 600 years building something.

I think after 100 years I'd give up, surely after 200 years.

Aren't you glad?

He saw it all the way to the end, until one day he said okay, get all your family and the animals into the ark and shut the door.

Man, I mean, what if he had just said I don't know, I don't get this, this is crazy and all the?

I wonder how many people came by and told him it was crazy.

I know there's been a whole lot of people come by and tell me I'm crazy.

I had a guy sitting in my office years ago and called me a jackass.

So I, you know, I've been called.

Just about any name that you can think of Doesn't bother me, as long as I'm serving him.

He's the boss They've been.

So look at, I mean, everybody in Hebrews 11,.

Every one of them heard the word of the Lord and they did it and that's why God wrote about them.

I call it the hall of fame of faith, you know.

And they were Old Testament saints.

They didn't have the spirit of God living on the inside like we do.

We have a connection.

We're without excuse to not know where we belong right here.

Well, as soon as you tell me, I'll do it.

No, I can't tell you where to go and what to do.

I'm not the holy ghost.

I can put out the needs gatekeepers.

That's our ushers and security team.

We rolled them all together now because they overlap in duties, and so welcome to children's church.

My goodness, we, hey, we need to help in children's church.

Oh well, I did that 10 years ago.

Well, do it again.

You're here.

Well, I worked there 20 years.

Okay, we'll do it again.

I'm not saying it to you, I'm just saying that attitude.

Get rid of that attitude.

Let God remind you and refresh your thinking about what he wants you to do.

See, I can sit here and give you the needs.

See, I must do that.

If I don't tell you we have needs, then you'll think, ah, I can just come to church.

Praise God, get there late.

See, when you work here, you got to get here early.

Children's church is what?

30 minutes at least.

All of the volunteer ministries.

You can't just walk in the door after church starts and go to work.

We got to have you here early.

So you see, the level of commitment is higher, but it's not every Sunday necessarily, it's not every time.

Listen, you can do something lest you do nothing.

Amen, be able to let God know yeah, I did something.

Yeah, so that's one of those things that you ought to check with God between now and early next year is your place in this body and as part of this body.

Let's remind ourselves and stir ourselves up to take our place, number one in service, because that's needed, and number two in prayer.

Both of those, both of those.

You know we used to have a group that met on Tuesday morning.

We have Thursday night prayer Gladys leads that and it has since we started the church.

But we had a few years ago we started a.

It was just kind of happened and we had a Tuesday morning group and they wanted to pray together.

So I closed the group.

In other words, I didn't open it to the general population.

I required only a certain level of spiritual maturity could come, because I wanted somebody that I could bring sensitive things to pray over.

And so there was a group that were in there.

We had some men in there too, but you know, I guess a year ago, I guess God put it in my heart to give them a break, to bring them off of the front lines.

You know, when you get up there and you start praying like that, you're on the front lines of battle.

I know you've got your whole armor on and I know that you, you know, full of the Holy Ghost.

But there is many times there are repercussions in the spirit realm and they, several of them were battling some, some especially tough things and I just felt like, look, I've got to get them back off of the front lines and get them in the rear area to where they're not just continually exposed and you know what.

They're still so close that often they'll just get together and have lunch together and they still pray.

They don't have to just necessarily have a prayer meeting.

They know what we're praying about on Thursday night, so they all enter into prayer and they're mature enough to take their own place in prayer, like every member of this church ought to be.

A prayer that's part of the participation.

Maybe that's something that God can talk to you about.

You know, I want you to.

I want you.

You may not be working in children's church, but you might be dedicating yourself to praying more for the church's needs.

Are y'all with me now?

Yes, you might start coming on Thursday night for Thursday night prayer.

That's a worthy pursuit.

What are you doing?

You're giving out instead of receiving.

You're praying over vital things, over our nation.

This is a regional center.

We pray over politics.

Yeah, we pray over the church itself too, but we pray over weighty matters.

Are y'all getting anything out of this today?

So everybody say important things.

See, these are the top priority things that I'm talking about, these three things the Word of God, the Holy Ghost and your place in this body.

And if you approach God with humility, so you don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but realize that you're part of the body of Christ, and he has given to every member of that body the measure of faith.

There are no big eyes and little ears.

We all have that faith, and it should be used in a direction that brings him glory.

And so here's your opportunity.

Here's your opportunity right here at Glorious Way Church.

So, as you do this, as you remind yourself of these important things this year, going into 2022, everything else that concerns you will just simply fall into place.

Come on, lift your hands and receive the word of God today.

Hallelujah, glory to God.

Does this help you today?

Hallelujah?

Well, it's a pastoral message.

You know it's not the kind of message it makes you wanna run around the church.

You know what it is.

It's meat.

I said it's meat.

Meat will put strength in your bones.

Meat will grow you up.

You know babies need milk, but at some point they gotta have meat, amen.

And if you just go to a church, it's got milk, milk, milk.

What's milk?

Milk is all the blessings, milk is all the good stuff, milk blessings, oh, god loves you.

Here's a blessing, here's healing, here's provision, here's deliverance, and that's true.

We all need those things from time to time.

But if that's all you ever hear about you don't hear your corresponding duties.

See, we all have response about I should say it this way responsibilities, that's a better word.

Everybody say my responsibility, that's the meat.

Ha ha, ha, ha, ha ha.

Amen, praise God.

Well, y'all quit frowning and start smiling just a little while later.

Oh, come on, put a smile on your face.

Let me know that you're saved.

Amen, all right, good Praise the Lord.

It's your church.

Ha ha, ha, ha ha, ah, hallelujah, come on, let's lift our hands.

All that we thank you today.

Thank you for what you've done here.

Of 27 years, wow, fix to go in our 28th year.

It's amazing.

It just seemed like yesterday, this time of year.

I think a lot about that because this is when it was all coming to pass.

This is when I man, this is when I dove off into the wild blue yonder, drove out of the airplane with no parachute.

Yeah, yeah, about this time, 1994, started looking for a building.

We had a start date no building.

That was exciting, praise God.

Well, how many of you know it worked, it worked, look around, it worked.

Amen, hallelujah.