Positioned For Inheritance

Hallelujah.

You reach down and pick up your Bibles.

Thank you, worship team, beautiful job.

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

Let's get into the Word, shall we?

Oh, I tell you thank God for the Word of God.

Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, be praised forever.

I'm so grateful to be alive in these last days.

You chose me to live in this time.

We see the day approaching and we're not fearful.

Well, we're confident in our God.

We're staying filled with the Holy Ghost, hungry for more and more of the Word.

Our faith is growing and our victory is assured In Jesus' name.

Amen, you could be seated.

Praise God.

Let's turn in our Bibles to a couple of spots Romans, chapter eight I wonder how many times I've preached out of these verses, I don't know.

And also Acts, book of Acts, verse or chapter 20.

Let's start with Romans eight, first, verse 16.

The Spirit Himself bears witness, with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

And if we are children, then we're heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs, are equal heirs with Christ.

Praise God.

And what do heirs have?

They have an inheritance, all right.

And then let's go to Acts, just a few pages to the left.

Acts 2032,.

This is Paul, and he's speaking to the elders of the church in Ephesus, and he said in verse 32, and now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified.

And so today I wanted to share a message entitled positioned for inheritance.

Positioned for inheritance.

You know, we need to be in the right position.

Jesus has bought and paid for something.

God desires for us to have something, but we've got to position ourselves.

God's not gonna do the positioning for us.

We have a part to play in our salvation, amen.

And so, you know, back in Rosh Hashanah, which was September of 2019, god delivered a mighty word, you know, on us.

It was, I think, a Sunday night service, and the Spirit of God just came and I mean we went on for 30 minutes just with a word that was for this church, and he basically said that when we got back to the end of 2020, we would look back on that year and we would say, surely, this has been the greatest year of my life.

So we came with the greatest year yet for 2020.

Well, you know, I think right now, most people would say 2020 was the worst year of their life.

We had lockdowns, we had COVID-19, we had people that got laid off, we had kids that had to stay home and learn on.

You know, it was a lot of difficulty, but God prepared us to have a different outcome.

He prepared us to go against the Spirit of this world.

You know, you're gonna have to get used to be in contrarians, going against the grain, going against the tide anybody.

You know a dead fish can go downstream.

It takes a live one to swim against the current, does it?

Are you a dead fish?

Say me a lot of good questions.

That's what you said.

Glory to God.

So we're going against the grain.

The whole world wants to go in a direction and we say no, we're going this way because our God has given us an inheritance Hallelujah, we're positioning ourselves.

And so we began to speak and teach on these words, and I look back and really I mean it's continuing.

You know it didn't expire December the 33rd.

This word didn't expire, it doesn't have an expiration date.

And so now, you know, just on December the 31st, 2020, just forget about it, just cause it's all over.

No, god, just he gives us a word and that word abides forever.

It's just as real in 2021.

Well, you know, it didn't happen in 2020.

Well, it might happen in 2021.

Got a couple more months, six weeks or something like that, left Amen.

And if it doesn't happen in 2021, how about 2022?

I mean, listen, all of the words that God gives us are cumulative.

They just keep going and keep going and keep going.

And so we talked about that the children of Israel.

They had an inheritance which was their land.

The land of Israel was their inheritance, and the only way that they could possess their inheritance was by dispossessing the people that were there.

Are you with me now?

And so, if we're gonna gain our inheritance, there are entities, there are spirits, there are demons that these supernatural trespassers, poachers, amen and squatters on our land, on our inheritance.

You know, from time to time, the devil will try to trespass on what's yours.

If you let him, he might even steal something.

He's not only now, he's not only trespassing now, he's poaching, and if you let him keep poaching, he's gonna set up camp, he's gonna build a house.

Why?

Because he's just, hey, he's living off of your land, he's making a living off of you.

You know, I grew up in South Texas, a little place called Refuro.

I was born here in Houston but we moved down.

I'm so glad I moved to Refuro because that's where I met Gladys and the rest is history.

But anyway, and you know, we weren't ranchers, we weren't people, but I knew I guess the biggest ranch that I knew anything about was the Thomas J O'Connor Ranch, and it went all the way back to Spanish land grants.

The Irish came to Texas and they somehow they got these Spanish land grants and they had I don't know how many tens of thousands of acres that that ranch is, but it's huge.

It kind of surrounds three sides of maybe all four sides of Refuro, but miles and miles and miles of fence.

And so you know, they used to have riders that would ride their fence line to make sure that there were no trespassing.

And God forbid if they caught you trespassing on their land.

They didn't bother calling the law, they were the law.

That's right.

You might not I mean you might not feel like going to the hospital after they finished you, because you might not even be able to make it.

And that was the old days.

So you know, later on they started using helicopters.

You know it's really hard to run from a helicopter.

I mean you cannot.

You can't get past the barbed wire fence on your side of the fence.

You know in time to escape.

I don't know this by experience, but I just know I knew better.

But you know hunters.

I knew guys that would hunt off of that land.

They'd shoot a deer across the fence and run over there and hope nobody caught them and pull the deer over on their side of the fence and all that kind of thing.

See that that went from that was poaching.

That went over trespassing to poaching now and I didn't know anybody brave enough to actually become a squatter.

And so that's what we have to.

We have to be sensitive to our inheritance.

Now I'll let the devil trespass and poach and squat on our property and here, in this setting that we preached out of Acts, chapter 20, we only preached verse 32.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

But when you go back, he's actually having a meeting with the elders of the church at Ephesus.

This was his church that he was responsible for starting originally, and he gathered them up.

He said listen, I'm just here to tell you this is.

You're not going to see my face anymore and I just want to announce to you that I'm pure from the blood of all men, because I've not, I've not hindered to preach to you the whole council of the Word of God.

I just want to let you know I am free from the blood of all men.

In other words, from this point forward, I'm not responsible for you, whether you live or die, whether you succeed or fail.

It's not on me.

I have.

I have not Listen.

I warned you day and night for three years, with tears.

And he said you know you, the Lord has shown me that after my departure, grievous wolves are going to enter in, not sparing the flock.

Well, that's.

Their job is to keep the wolves out.

So he's telling them they're not going to do their job.

And he said also, among of your own selves, you're going to, you're going to rise up speaking perverse things and lead disciples after you.

In other words, you're going to turn into wolves too.

This is a solemn word.

This is a solemn word to those elders.

These are these.

These are guys and gals that I don't think they're all guys, but you know, ladies are included, and they have.

They have been installed as overseers of the flock of God.

The Holy Ghost made them overseers, and so they have a high responsibility.

I've got a great responsibility and it's not lost on me.

These verses are just dear to my heart because I've meditated on them for many, many years.

I check up on myself.

I made sure I make sure that I'm speaking the right thing, I'm making sure that I'm building the kingdom of God and not somebody in my kingdom.

Are y'all with me now?

So this could have been a meeting similar to between Elijah and Elisha, because there was an inheritance available to each of those men.

Their father was about to depart and not one of them said my father, before you leave, would you please bless me?

Oh, I'm so grieved, father, you said this about me.

Is this about me?

Oh, if you see anything wrong in me, please tell me right now.

I'll change right now.

But they had three years.

They had three years to repent.

There's not one record of any of them changing, not one record of any of them having a soft heart, except later on.

They all cried, mainly because they weren't going to see his face again.

Well, that's not worth nothing they're very good English but that's worth nothing for their tears just because they're not going to see their father in the faith.

Why?

Because they didn't repent, they didn't change.

The Bible doesn't say anything different after this.

We don't know.

It doesn't sound like they turned out very well.

It doesn't sound like that they did very well.

Well, you don't know that?

Well, I don't know different.

You can prove otherwise?

Please let me know.

Paul must have said something.

He said look, I've seen it.

God showed me.

There's going to be grievous.

Wolves come in not sparing the flock, and you're the overseers of the flock.

You ought to be doing a better job.

You didn't say that part, but you know that's the hint.

And then, also of your own selves, you're going to rise up speaking perverse, twisted, deceptive things.

That couldn't be the word Lead disciples after yourselves.

That's not the kingdom.

Are y'all with me now?

And so there was a level of inheritance available and none of them qualified.

None of them said okay, I'm ready to change right now.

Just show me what I need to do.

Point out to me where I missed it, the reason this is tender on my heart, because this time of the year, you know, 27 years ago, this was the conversation I was having with God before I started this church.

I mean, this is my inheritance, or part of it, and before I was able to receive my inheritance and leave my father and get his full blessing and submit myself to him and say if there's any false way in me, if there's anything you see wrong with me, I'm not leaving until I get it corrected.

Why did I say why?

Why did I have that editor?

Because I had revelation on these verses a long, long time.

And so well, you're a pastor, I'm not a pastor, I'm just a believer.

It applies to everyone's got an inheritance and you've got to be in the position.

You've got to get in the right position for your inheritance.

And so that's what we're talking about today.

Just look at Elijah and Elijah.

Elijah said what do you want?

Elijah?

Just name it.

Oh Father, that a double portion of thy spirit fall upon me.

Well, that's a hard thing, that's not easy.

Nevertheless, if you see me, it'll shall be done.

If you don't see me and you're, there's a fire, big fireworks.

I mean, right while they're talking here comes a chariot of fire and entered right there in between them, and I mean, all this glory was there and I'm in angels, and they just swept them right off the face of the earth.

And what was Elijah saying?

My father, my father.

He had his eyes on his father.

He was.

He didn't have his eyes on the chariot, he didn't have his eyes on the angels, he had his eyes on his father.

Glory to God.

And then, you know, out of that chariot it's leaving and going to heaven.

That's where Elijah is right today.

Elijah left here and went to heaven and he's walking the streets of gold and he's just like you and I.

He's got a body.

Like you and I.

He never had a.

He doesn't have a glorified body.

He's up there walking around on the streets of gold.

But before he left, what did he do?

He threw a mammal out of there and it hit the ground and Elijah picked it up.

And then he slapped the water Where's a Lord, god of Elijah?

Boom, slapped that water of Jordan and it parted hither and thither.

That's why I, like the King James, it's got words like hither and thither.

Are y'all with me now?

And what did he do?

He walked into his inheritance, which was about twice as many miracles as Elijah had.

Oh, I tell you, this is the church that has got to get its inheritance.

For these last days, I'm telling you the time is winding down.

We've got to make some decisions.

If there's some things that we need to change, let's get them changed, amen.

That's why I'm preaching this today.

I've got three things how to position yourself for your inheritance.

How many of you are interested in it?

Being in the right position?

See, I don't want to let anything Jesus bought and paid for go to waste.

Wouldn't it be terrible to have to face the Lord?

You know, maybe we will go to heaven one day and maybe we'll go without a lot of our inheritance that Jesus paid for.

But we'll have to give an account.

Well, and the Lord said well, why didn't you?

I had so much more for you and you needed it for the last days.

Why didn't you receive it?

I don't want to hear that.

I want to hear what.

Well done Thou good and faithful servant.

All right, so the first one we see here, in Acts 2032, he said and now, brethren, I commend you to God.

I commend you to God.

So he's commending them, he's recommending them, he's placing them.

So he's warning them.

Now, even at this late date, even after three years of warning them, it's not too late for them.

They still have a pulse.

They haven't died yet.

I mean, they could have died in that last meeting.

Be honest with you.

But they didn't.

God has mercy, mercy, mercy on them.

And he warned them in no uncertain terms where they stood.

And now they need it for their inheritance.

They've got to commit themselves.

They've got to position themselves to God.

That's number one.

Position yourself or commit yourself to God.

Well, pastor, I'm already saved.

I'm not talking about getting saved.

What I'm talking about.

The word commit means to place yourself alongside of God, to set yourself before God, to present yourself to God through prayer, praise and worship, being faithful to God, being zealous for God, letting the fire of God.

I mean, don't let the fire burn out, don't let it, don't let it be quenched inside of you and get you know.

Stir yourself up, stir up the fire.

Paul told Timothy quit being afraid.

See, we're living in the most intimidated society.

I think in history I've never seen so much fear.

They're afraid day and night.

Well, I'm not afraid.

God didn't give me the spirit of fear, but a power, love and a sound mind.

I'm stirring up the fire of God.

I'm getting more and more radical all the time.

I'm a contrarian, I'm going against the grain.

Are y'all with me now?

I've preached this message all over the world to preachers and I say something like this don't get so busy working for God that you don't spend any time with God.

I mean, he is the source.

We've got to commit ourselves.

We've got to position ourselves right under the spout where the glory pours out.

He doesn't have any grandkids.

He's got sons and daughters.

That's what he has.

You can't reach God on your parents Reputation and what they did.

That's why we have such wreckage in the ministry.

We've got young men and women that whose fathers were mighty men of God and they have departed the faith.

I'm not gonna name any names, but I could, and it's an absolute, and God told me this number of years ago when we moved in this building.

He said there's a dearth of the word.

I said how could there be a dearth?

How could there be a famine of the word?

There's more churches than ever before.

He said your children don't know what you know, boy.

I didn't realize what a big word that was, but that's true, isn't it?

Our kids don't know what we know.

They haven't seen what we've seen and so they're ignorant of the dangers that we have right now.

You're gonna have to educate your own kids.

Sit them down and have a nice talk, warn them.

Paul warned his disciples here.

Let's warn our children.

So position yourself to God.

You know, I think about.

You.

Know Jesus, in Mark 4, 11, he said he was telling parables.

You know, and he told his disciples.

He said you know, for you it's given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but for them, talking about them, without that, he was given the parables to.

Those were the lost sheep of the house of Israel, those were the hard-hearted Jews.

He said to them I have to speak in parables.

They're hard, they're so hard they can't really receive the mysteries of the kingdom.

But you, it's given for you to know, it's given for you to know the mysteries of the kingdom, which include your inheritance.

A mystery is not hidden from you.

It's hidden for you.

It's not apparent, it's not, it's not sitting on a sign for everybody to read.

You're gonna have to unearth it.

You're gonna have to dig a little bit and find what belongs to you.

Are you with me now?

Yes, and I think about little Mary, the blessed virgin.

I mean here the angel appears to her and says you're gonna have a baby and you've never been with a man.

Talk about a mystery.

Now it's a mystery.

Well, she could have gone and just, ah, that's bad, that was a pizza dream.

And she pressed in and she received that mystery and I'm telling you thank God for that.

She didn't doubt it.

She asked how.

He said well, the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost, the power of the most high, shall overshadow you.

I tell you, we need to spend time in the presence of God for the spirit of God, so he can implant in us some things that we hadn't even thought about, that we don't even know about, that he has in mind for you.

Oh, come on, let's lift our hands right now.

Hallelujah, oh, he's gotten more.

I'm telling you, this can be the greatest year of your life if you can just tap into what God has for you in your inheritance.

Quit looking at the news.

Quit listening to these dead heads.

I believe our greatest days are just ahead of us.

I believe there's gonna be a mighty harvest.

I have confidence in my heavenly Father.

There's never been a greater farmer on the face of this earth.

He knows how to bring forth a crop.

He's not done with America.

He's not done with this world.

Glory to God.

James 1.17 says every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variable in this, nor shadow of turning.

Good is the enemy of best.

Sometimes we can just be so satisfied with good we can say, well, that's pretty good.

Yeah, I feel better than I did.

I just got a little bit of aches.

Sometimes I can't get out of bed for a couple of hours, but most of the time, most of the time, I'm okay.

No, I'm okay.

Kick the devil out of your land.

Kick the devil out of your back.

Get rid of infirmity.

Amen, glory to God, all right.

So position yourself, commit yourself to God.

Remember, commit is a decision from which there is no retreat.

When you commit, you're whole hogging.

You ever hear whole hog?

My grandmother believed in the whole hog.

She butchered a hog.

The whole hog was eaten, the entire hog.

Everything in the hog was food.

So your whole hog committed.

Amen, amen, all right.

Number two what I see here in this verse acts 2032, position commit yourself to God's kingdom.

See, remember they were gonna lead disciples after themselves.

They were not gonna guard the sheep against the wolves.

They weren't faithful over God's kingdom.

They weren't faithful over it.

They didn't see it as number one priority.

You know Hebrews six let's look at that one real quick.

It's worth turning over there because I'm telling you, god, you know the kingdom of God.

We need to commit ourselves.

Commit ourselves to God's kingdom.

Hebrews six, verse 10,.

God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have ministered, which you've showed toward His name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister, and we desire that every one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope and to the end.

See, that's the elders of Ephesus.

They didn't commit themselves to the kingdom of God and they didn't finish the job.

They might've started off pretty good, but then they went downhill from there.

That you be not slothful, but followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.

If they had been imitators followers means imitators if they had been imitators of Paul, their father, they would not have been in that position.

God will hook you up to the church.

You need to be followers of people who, through faith and patience, inherited the promises.

You know, if you're not faithful over another man Luke 16, I think it is 12, jesus said this to the disciples.

He said if you're not faithful over that which is another man's who will give you that which is your own.

That's another verse I meditated on a long time, so I was faithful, over Pastor Osteen and what God had given him.

I was a follower of my father who, through faith and patience, inherited many promises.

He was my example.

I followed real tight until about this time, 27 years ago, god spoke to me.

He said it's time for you to start your work, time for you to start your church, and I wanted.

There's no, you know, I told God.

I said God, I want my inheritance to be sure, I followed this man and I'm not gonna leave without his full blessing.

I just want you to know I can't do this without his full blessing.

I'm having a conversation with my heavenly father.

I'm saying look, the age I am, I got kids and all that.

I'm gonna go out here and I've seen a lot of people fail.

I've seen a lot of people go out of Lakewood and fall flat on their face starting a church and they didn't make it.

And they come limping back into town.

Most of them didn't come back to town, most of them disappeared, but I saw a few come back and I talked to him and so I said, god, I just I can't do it, it's not in me, I don't.

I want to obey you, but I've got to have this man's full blessing.

I've got to have his full agreement.

So I'm going to submit this to him and he's going to hold a knife in his hand to kill this or not, cause if he doesn't give me his full deal it's dead.

I will not do it.

So that was the deal I had out of my own mouth.

I just told God what?

Or?

You know, I'm going to obey you, but here's my requirements.

I had to have a requirement.

You know you can finally get to the place in God.

I mean, he's not looking to order you around like some little shrimp.

He will let you negotiate.

Didn't Abraham negotiate over Sodom and Gomorrah?

Yeah, all right.

So I just said that.

So when I went to brother Osteen in September 1994, he blessed me, but he said, you know, call me back the next day.

He says, ah, you're a little ahead of time, you need to wait till after the first of the year.

Well, see, that wasn't in my negotiations with my heavenly father.

I had put it real strict.

I said it's either yay or nay.

And I had I heard nay.

So I killed this church.

It was dead.

I called everybody that was involved with it.

I said can't make a commitment that we're ever going to start it.

And it was hard.

I mean it was.

It was like a death because when I killed it it felt like I'd kill something.

But you know, god raised it from the dead and that's what I thought.

I said.

You know what, though I killed it, you know, I know God, if it's really you, you'll raise it from the dead.

And sure enough, pastor Osteen called me, said okay, december of 1994, early December, this seventh, I think.

He said if you now this, no, November 14th, that's when it was.

He said if you now or at any time want to start that church, you have my full and unreserved blessing.

Glory to God.

The rest is history.

27th, can you?

We're ending our 27th year.

I think about these things when I think about inheritances.

I want so much for each of you to get in position, but you got to be in position with the kingdom of God.

You can't build your own kingdom, it's got to be hooked up with God's kingdom.

Are you with me?

Glory to God.

First Corinthians 16, 15,.

The house of Stefanos addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.

Now you may have a ministry outside the church.

Many of our members have businesses and things that they do outside, so they're not able to be directly involved.

Maybe they're not on the, you know, the life team or the gatekeepers, or maybe they're not on the welcome ministry or the.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about the kingdom.

And the other thing is you need to be part of a local church and have a pastor.

Have to.

There's no way to do this without being hooked up.

Are y'all with me now?

And so you've got to help others get there.

You've got to help others get there in inheritance.

You've got to help others.

It's not just my job, it's all of our jobs, all right.

So God, always, you know God keeps the books.

He knows what's going on behind the scenes.

A lot of times you labor and you labor and it thinks well, nobody knows what I'm doing.

Well, I'm gonna tell you something.

The Holy Ghost knows what you're doing because he lives on the inside of you.

Jesus is the head of the church.

You think he's in a vacuum.

You think he doesn't know what you're doing.

He keeps the books.

He's not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love.

Amen, glory to God.

All right.

And then, finally, the last one is position.

Commit yourself to the Word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified.

See, god and His Word are one.

So if you're gonna commit yourself to God, you're gonna have to commit yourself to His Word, and not just committing to knowing it, but doing it.

Amen.

John 15,7,.

Jesus said if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and shall be done unto you.

The word ask really means to make a demand, not a demand on God, but a demand on the poachers, the trespassers, the squatters.

When you demand them to get off of your land, they gotta obey you.

Why?

Because you abide in Him and His Word abides in you.

Amen.

And His Word abides in you to the degree that you do it, that you obey it.

Amen, I mean you have no right to claim that His Word abides in you when you don't do the Word.

See, I mean when you do the Word.

That's the definition of faith.

Is acting like the Bible is true.

When you act like the Bible is true.

I'm telling you.

You have faith.

That is the definition of faith.

You're not looking for faith.

You have it because you're acting like the Bible is true.

I mean, sometimes we think, well, I just don't have the faith.

Just act like the Bible is true.

That is the faith.

That's faith right there.

Just act like it's true.

Act like it's true when the doctor tells you that you've gotta die.

Act like it's true when your CPA says you're broke.

When the IRS says you owe $50,000 in penalties.

In penalties, your penalties can be more than what you owe them.

I mean, they've got all these little things that they can add and do all this.

I'm not saying that to make you afraid.

I'm just saying, listen, we've got a great, mighty Holy Ghost that knows all about procedure and protocol.

Amen, be a doer of the Word, the Word of His grace, the Word grace there.

Sometimes we short circuit the Word grace.

We just think, oh, god's unmerited favor.

That's what it says in the Amplified.

Well, that's one little slice of what it means, but it's really.

It's extreme favor.

It's God's ability to do anything.

It belongs to you.

God's ability becomes yours.

That's why we can get rid of things like well, I might, I should, I could, I would.

Maybe we get rid of all those uncertain words and adjectives and we can do all things through Christ, who's strengthened with us.

We can, we're doers.

We can do all things.

If God said, do it, we can do it, not because of us, but because of the Word, because of Him.

Are you with me now?

Let God's Word abide in you, and then it's gonna happen.

In Acts 19, 20, where God's Word grew and mightily prevailed, I mean God's Word will mightily prevail in your life.

It'll prevail in the time that we're living in right now.

I mean every headline is filled with bad news.

I mean it's hard to even the good.

Even at the good, good websites that have good news, they're bad headlines.

I mean, you know, I just, I just try to glance at the headlines and then I just start praising God, I start laughing, laughing at the devil, because if I don't do that then I get mad, then my jaw tightens up.

Ah, oh yeah.

No, god, let's praise Him.

Let listen, let's praise Him.

We're in charge.

We're in charge of our world, we're in charge of our land.

The land stands for our inheritance.

It stands for what is our domain.

It's our sphere of influence.

Every one of you have that.

Get rid of those that were, or just just possess those entities that are trying to trespass, poach and and live on your property.

Squat as we say.

One more thing and we'll close it.

God doesn't commit Himself to talent.

A lot of us are talented, a lot of us have all kinds of gifts and talents that we brought, but he doesn't commit Himself to talent.

He commits Himself to faithfulness and character, and when you do what you say you're gonna do, that's what God will commit to and he will sanctify your talent and add His gifting to it.

And surely you will be positioned for inheritance.

Come on, lift your hands and receive Hallelujah.

Everybody say I'm positioned for my inheritance.

I'm willing to change whatever needs to be changed.

Father, I'm not hiding from you.

I know that you look all the way through me.

I'm confident in your love for me and I know that I am teachable, I'm correctable.

I'm positioning myself to have all that you have in charge for me.

In Jesus' name, was that good today?

Did you get anything out of this?

Come on, let's rejoice today.

Glory to God, hallelujah.