Keep On Keeping On

Let's wave our Bibles and let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm here about a vine appointment tonight.

I need the Holy Ghost and I need the Word.

I'm hungry for both because I know the Word and the Spirit will put me over in every circumstance of life and I thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen, amen.

Well, I happen to believe that the book of Acts was planning season.

That's when the Holy Ghost was poured out.

It's when the Holy Ghost showed up on the earth.

But I believe there's coming a season of harvest and Acts is sort of like a, it's like the beginning.

You know, I like Acts, chapter two.

This is the beginning.

Peter said this is the beginning of that spoken by the prophet Joel.

So if that, if Pentecost was the beginning, well, I believe we're living in the culmination.

So let's look at Acts, chapter 14, talking about the church and how the church should be functioning right now.

Acts 14 · chapter mention

And Acts 14, verse 19.

Acts 14:19

19, this is Paul at Lystra.

And while he's there, verse 19, there came fither.

That's one reason I like King James.

I like the hithers, the fithers.

There came fither, certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people and, having stone, paul drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.

I mean, this is the same place where he got the lame man healed.

Stand upright on your feet and the guy leaped and walked.

I mean, you know.

Next thing, you know, some Jewish people came from the last city he'd been in and started talking and they stoned, paul stoned him and they drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.

How be it?

As the disciples stood around about him, he rose up and came into the city and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derby.

That's the kind of staff I have around me.

I mean, if I would got stoned, they would raise me from the dead, praise God.

And so, and when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many and my margin says had made many disciples, they had made many disciples they returned again to Lystra.

Yeah, it's a place that just stoned him.

I mean, you know, I don't know if I'd have gone back, but he did.

He went back to Lystra.

Double dog, dare them to stoned him again.

You did it the first time.

It didn't work, dummies.

No, he wasn't arrogant, but anyway, he went back to to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, the same place where those people were talking about him.

Yeah, I know y'all been talking bad about me.

You must have talked.

I don't know what you told those people, but they stoned me.

Man, what could he have?

What?

What could?

What tales said they make about Paul?

He's a dirty dog.

You need to stone him to death.

And they did.

And so he went back to Lystra, iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God.

And when they had ordained them elders in every church, ordained elders in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord on whom they believed.

Now, in the message Bible, in verse 22, we talked about confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them, with continuing the faith, but with much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God.

Listen to the message.

I like this.

They put muscle and sinew in the lives of the disciples, urging them to stick with what they had begun to believe and not quit, making it clear to them that it wouldn't be easy.

Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times, and so tonight I just wanted to share a message entitled keep on keeping on, keep on keeping on.

You know, I want to put muscle and sinew in you that, no matter what happens next week and after that, between now and the time Jesus comes back, I don't you know what we're gonna have to just be tough, and not be tough in ourselves, but be strong in the Lord.

Keep on keeping, above all, don't quit.

Keep on keeping, above all, don't quit.

And Jesus said it, I mean in John 1633, I just preached on this not long ago.

But he said in the world, you shall have tribulation, you'll have trials, lord.

Tribulation means trials, distresses, frustration, anguish and hardships.

And so, in Paul added to it.

He said with much tribulation, you'll, when you sign up to be part of the kingdom of God, all this comes with the territory.

Sometimes we sell Christianity like all your problems are gonna melt away and suddenly you're gonna have flowery beds of ease.

And we don't.

That's not what the that's not what the apostles ever preached in the book of Acts.

They didn't preach easy cheeses is gonna be your life.

They said hey, listen, you signed up with us.

You're gonna have some trouble ahead of it.

And they did.

They were persecuted.

I mean they, they were harshly persecuted.

Christianity has been persecuted in an unprecedented fashion all over the world, especially in India.

You're a Christian in India, man.

Let me tell you, in some places it's tough.

It's hard to live there.

Hard to live there.

So Jesus said be of good courage, I've overcome the world.

So that, in other words, he expects us to overcome Everybody say I'm an overcomer.

So here Paul.

It says in verse 21 that when they had taught many, in other words, they made disciples much of Paul's preaching and teaching was about making disciples.

A Disciple is what a taught one or a disciplined one, literally.

And and it was important they didn't just get notch their gun belt, said well, we got three million of people saved last year.

You know all of that stuff.

I was part of an evangelistic outreach in a local church one time, not Lakewood, but anyway.

We had banquet, you know, and all every year we'd we'd have a banquet, you know, and I wasn't there long enough.

I did it.

I was ahead of it for one year and was part of it, but the deal was getting people to kind of commit that they were saved, but they never showed back at church.

Why would you even say that those people were saved if they never came to the church and Began to act like a Christian.

I don't think a sinner's prayer is valid alone.

I Think you have to mean it, I Think you have to follow through with it.

There's no reason at all to think that just because somebody said a little sinner's prayer To get you off of their out, off their doorstep, okay, I'll say it.

Would you leave then so I can get back to my ball game.

I Mean how it's not valid.

I Not anybody's judge.

I can't look inside their heart, but when they never show up for church, I know that they really didn't mean it.

Are you with me now?

So they went about not just getting people saved and and putting in the newsletter and saying, yeah, we got three million people saved last year.

Give to our ministry.

But they made disciples.

And so they, in verse 22, confirming the souls, establishing and strengthening Not their spirit, their souls, their minds.

A Minister is not just to build your spirit up, because we're a three-part being, we're a spirit being, all right, but we live in a body and we have a mind or our soul, which is a mind or will our intellect, and as long as people are not discipled, their Unrenewed mind will agree with their flesh and their spirit will never have the dominance Never.

And they'll literally be of no value to the kingdom of God.

There's only one way you have value to the kingdom and that is when you get your mind renewed.

And that way, now you know in your mind, you're transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Now you've got a chance to dominate your flesh.

Well, I just need to die out the self.

No, not dying to sell self is your spirit.

You don't die to yourself.

You crucify the flesh.

How many of it were taught that you need to die to sell?

Yeah, several of you.

Well, you were taught wrong.

You didn't.

You didn't hear the truth.

Come that I heard.

Oh my, I just think about the value of the teaching.

I got it when I first got saved.

I didn't have to unlearn all that religious garbage.

Die to self oh, we just need to die to self, brother.

Die to self, no, crucify the deeds of the body.

That's what we're doing.

How can you do that?

Well, you've got to get your mind renewed so that your mind will vote with your spirit and Then majority rules.

Your flesh will follow along.

Amen.

When you're able to conquer your thought life and you don't allow your thinking to go off Uncontrolled.

That's, that's what happens to Christians a lot of times, that they have Undisciplined thought lives, their minds not renewed with the Word of God.

They just let their mind think any thought that comes along and they follow it along.

And no wonder they sin, no wonder they live disastrous lives filled with all kinds of trouble.

No, so they confirmed the souls of the disciples, they Established and strengthened their thinking.

The greatest, one of the greatest things that happened me at Lakewood, as I learned how to think like God thinks, are y'all with me now?

So y'all are so quiet tonight, so they could what?

Continue in the faith.

See, it's not enough.

It's not how you start is how you finish.

You got to continue.

I mean, you know you start off.

I remember when I first got saved, ran into a high school friend.

Actually she was glad it's this high school friend, but anyway I knew her and and so Ran into her and she's all how y'all doing.

I said, since I saw you last, I've been born again and filled with a holy ghost.

Oh, wow, that's so good, I got saved too.

She didn't talk about getting filled with a holy ghost, she said.

She said I can tell you're still on your honeymoon.

That lasts for about a year and after that, after that you, you come off your honeymoon and then you just get back to the nasty now.

And now I said I don't receive that.

See, she hadn't been taught right?

You know, honeymoon, praise God not when you get your mind renewed to the Word of God.

You know, it's been proven scientifically.

This is no condemnation to those ladies that might have given birth by C-section, because sometimes medically it's necessary, but for the baby it's been proven that it's more advantageous for the baby to go through the birth canal.

Natural childbirth it's just better for the baby.

There's something about that pressure, there's something about all that.

You know, just before deformation, you know the little thing goes through there and it's squeezed and they have to fight, kind of fight their way out and all of that, and they're healthier than the ones that are just operated on and they just pull it out of the womb.

It's, it's, it's, it, it, it.

They skip a whole lot of things that the other children have to go through and uh, uh, and so that that sounds kind of rough, but a basically for the Christian trials have a benefit.

Now, trials don't come from God, god doesn't send them, they just come with the territory.

But they have a side benefit of making a stronger if we'll keep on keeping on, not if we don't, not if we quit, but if we'll keep on keeping on and get to the other side of that trouble, we're stronger for it.

Can you give me a better amen?

I mean, we don't pray for trials, we don't have to pray for them because they're coming.

I said this recently but it reminds me again that I heard a.

I heard a lady that somebody had given me her tape and she was one of the women's aglow or women's of fire or women's on fire or something like that, and that companion to the full gospel businessmen, the women had had women's aglow.

So I guess the women had to have a meeting to go to when the men were going to their me I don't know, but anyway I and those, when I first got saved, I was listening to everything and I had my tape player.

I had a cassette tape tape player in my car and I listened.

Anytime I was in the car I was always listening.

So they had you'll.

This will bless you.

So this lady was from the South and she got the teaching.

She was kind of preach teaching.

She had this old Southern accent and she said you're just, you're just coming out of a fight, going in the middle of a fight, or just, or just going into a you know.

She said basically fight, fight, fight all the time.

I ejected that tape and I threw it in the back seat.

I said I don't need to hear that garbage, cause I had the idea that if I could just build my faith I'd never have any trouble.

That's how I heard it.

That's not what they were teaching, but that's what I heard say why?

Well, because my mind had not been renewed to the word, I hadn't had enough teaching yet to even form an opinion.

I don't know why I was so opinionated about this lady, but I found out a few years later that she was dead.

Right.

I mean I should have listened to the rest of the tape.

Well, we need to keep on keeping on, just keep on keeping on.

So here it says in verse 23, when they had ordained them elders.

So the word elder there is the Greek word presbyteros, which means senior, and hold there and go over to first Peter.

Five Peter has something to say to the elders.

And he said I'm going to hold on to the elders, I'm going to hold on to the elders, I'm going to hold on to the elders.

I have something to say to the elders.

First, peter, five one, the elders which are among you, I exhort who am also an elder.

So Peter was one of the apostles of the lamb and he said he was an elder.

And it says that Paul went through and ordained elders senior.

So an elder is not just you know, a board of elders and all of that is, you know it being senior.

All right, because in the beginning of the church they didn't have pastors yet.

Pastor was a lace, the last of the five fold ministry to be developed, the shepherd.

All the other five fold ministers traveled.

They were there for a time and then they moved on.

But the elder was opposed to stay with a sheep.

So the elder was really the pastor, but he wasn't called a pastor.

He was called an elder because they were just they're probably more teachers than there were anything else but they were in charge, they'd had life experience.

You look for somebody that was mature.

You don't hand that church over to somebody that's a novice, somebody that's young and wet behind the ears, but elder was an ordained person and in first Peter five he says to the elders feed the flock of God.

So that was their job.

Your job was to do the job of a pastor feed the flock which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly.

Not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being in lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.

And so they oversaw.

Let's look at Acts 20, talking about elders, or the 5-O ministry, acts 20, 20, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable under you, which showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house.

Is that right?

Yeah, so he's talking to the elders of Ephesus.

He's talking to the elders at Ephesus and he said I've held nothing back from you, but it showed you and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both of the Jews and to the Greeks.

Repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now I go, bound in the spirit, under Jerusalem, not knowing the things which will follow me there say that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me, but none of these things move me, neither do I count my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify of the gospel of the grace of God.

And now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I've gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more, wherefore I take you to record this day that I'm pure from the blood of all men.

I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.

So take heed, therefore, under yourselves and to all, the flock over the witch.

The Holy Ghost has made you overseers, overseers, presbyterals, same as senior.

You're an overseer to feed the church of God.

So the Holy Ghost is the only one that can do that.

The Holy Ghost, through Paul, ordained these, I'd say, forerunners to the actual office of the pastor.

Well, why weren't they pastors?

Well, they were pastors, but they didn't have the fullness of the office yet.

It had to be developed.

But pastor is a ministry office.

You can't it's not just you can't just pastor, just cause you see a need.

I saw that in full gospel.

Business man, I saw business men try to be pastors.

It didn't, you know, it didn't work.

You're just a bit.

You don't have the office and the only one that can set you in that office is the Holy Ghost, amen.

I didn't set myself here.

I knew I was called because I had the calling, but pastor Osteen confirmed the calling and told me I was Amen.

Are y'all with me now?

So I'm talking about what Paul did in the early church is what we're doing right here.

The book of Acts continues and we all need the same thing as believers, as they needed when Paul was here.

They need to be confirmed.

You need to be confirmed, you need to be strengthened.

Sometimes you hear the same thing over and over.

You listen.

The first time you hear it it's planted in there, but the second or third or fourth time you hear it, it's water.

They don't ever despise hearing something over and over, because that's how faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing, not having heard.

So these messages strengthen your spirit, give you spiritual nourishment, strengthen your mind.

You renewed God's way of thinking.

That's so important.

You're gonna have to be mentally as well as spiritually tough in the season ahead of us.

Think about how much tougher you are than you were a year ago.

One year ago, would you have believed that you would go out in the community and see people wearing masks everywhere, all just like a bunch of sheep doing what they're told, nevermind there's no science behind it, nevermind that there's no proof that it makes one difference.

And yet they're going through all this, some of them gone, broke, their business is gone.

Oh, I tell you what we're living in the last days, aren't we?

Well, you're equipped to overcome, praise God, you're equipped, you're equipped, all right.

So three things tonight keep on keeping on.

Let's look at Hebrews six, and I started off the Wednesday night after and Sunday morning after the election on the 3rd of November faith and patience.

And so that's what I wanna say first tonight.

Number one, on keeping on, keeping on, keep on keeping on.

And Hebrews six, 10, wherefore I was whoops wrong one Six, 10,.

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you've showed toward His name and that you've 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, that you be not slothful but followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.

And so it's faith and patience we have to keep on keeping on.

We have to be diligent.

You know, when you're encouraging one another in this church, you're doing exactly what Jesus wants you to do.

Yeah, we can help others outside, but you know, a big part of your ministry is just making sure that people that you interface with here at Glorious Way Church are encouraged.

You're sensitive to when they're going through something and you're standing there with them.

You got their back.

That's so important in a local church and it can't be overestimated the importance of it.

It's very important for us to watch out over each other and be available to each other and agree with one another.

Amen, working together, helping each other, encourage you.

See, god's not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love that you've ministered to the saints.

I mean, sometimes we get so caught up in doing good for the community.

Well, yeah, I believe in that, but that's not more important than what I'm just talking about right here.

It comes down to this that we're helping each other keep the oxygen mask on.

People out there aren't even saved.

They don't even have access to oxygen.

Our job is to get them saved.

We can't really help them a whole lot besides that.

I mean we can help their poverty.

We can help all of that stuff.

Yeah, we do and we do.

But more important, that is making sure all of us are getting the oxygen we need.

Is this helping you today?

Keep on keeping on.

Don't underestimate the importance of that.

All right.

Number two Hebrews 10.

Been preaching a lot out of Hebrews, verse 35.

Cast not, therefore, away your confidence, which have great recompense of reward For you have need of patience.

There it is again that after you've done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

So don't cast away your confidence or your courage or your all outspokenness.

Literally, that's what it means be outspoken.

You know, sometimes we need to rise up and speak and say some things.

Say some things that kinda ding, ha ha ha.

People need what you've got.

They need the knowledge of what you have.

Don't cast away your courage or your all outspokenness.

Keep on keeping on.

Keep doing God's will for your life.

Keep running your race, keep going, yeah, but I don't know when the breakthrough, where you got the breakthrough Quit looking for something else.

Just keep on, pleasing God.

You can't miss.

Don't throw it away, don't fling away.

One version says don't fling away.

I've seen people, I've seen pastors, throw their ministry away, they throw their church up and give up, go back to sitting on a bar stoo, went back to their old life after they stood like this, before a group of people teaching and preaching for a considerable number of time.

I mean went to Bible school, went through all of that, got prepared and then, when things didn't work out like they thought and they had some things hit them and they did have some tragedy in their life, but I mean, the tragedy actually happened after they had backslid.

Hello, what did you do?

Well, you opened the door for Satan to come in and steal, kill and destroy.

So don't cast away, don't fling away your courage.

And then the last one Hebrews 12.

Wherefore, seeing, we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, we're standing on the shoulder of people that have been where we've been and they overcame Brother Osteen overcame a lot of persecution and difficulty in his life.

I'm standing on his shoulder, brother Hagin standing on his shoulders, charles County, all the people that I listened to, derek Prince I just name all the ones that I fed on when I was first saved.

I'm standing on their shoulder and their witnesses.

Let us lay aside every weight in the sin which does so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Lay aside the sin and the weights, the weights and the sin.

Not everything is sin.

Some things are weights.

Weights are things that are not God's best distractions.

In and of themselves they're not sinful, they're not shameful, but they're just not the best for you at the stage you're in.

Sin could be said of certain association.

Some associations are okay, but you get to a point where that association is a weight.

It's not God's best.

You might be the kind that says, oh, I could never give up on a friend.

Well, you just need to obey the Bible.

Paul gave up on a friend.

They split the sheet Him and Barnabas I mean, they're about as close as they can be for a long time.

And there came a day when they split.

Paul went one way and Barnabas went another, and you never read about Barnabas again.

He fell off the pages of the Bible.

What if Paul had hung on to him?

I don't know.

That might have been different.

He might not have written as many epistles.

He might not have accomplished what he accomplished if he had hung on to somebody that no longer was in God's plan so we can run with patience.

Our race is not a speed race, it's an endurance race and weights will trip you up just as quickly as sin will.

Weights will trip you up just as quick.

So keep on keeping on laying them aside.

When you come across a weight, lay it aside.

It just says lay it aside.

And it says lay aside the sin.

Don't get all hyperventilating and go on a 40 day fast and trying to understand why you did.

Listen, your flesh got the best of you.

Lay that aside and get on down the road, receive your forgiveness and cleansing and don't beat yourself up.

I mean you've got a flesh body to continue with.

The things that we're seeing right now are hard to bear and difficult to live through.

As I was talking this morning, I mean that's what perilous times shall come.

Parallelous means difficulty and the amplified difficult to bear.

It's hard to see our country doing what it's doing right now.

It's hard to see the lies and the vindictiveness and the hatred and the anger.

They all accuse us of what they're guilty of.

They want blood, they want to kill people and they just won't be able to.

We got angels on our side.

My guardian angels are watching everything.

He's right up beside me.

If you don't want yours, let me know and I'll take yours.

Brother Hagin was talking.

Jesus appeared to him one time in a service and there was this huge angel right behind Jesus.

Can you imagine having a vision like that?

And this angel is like eight, ten foot tall, bigger than Jesus.

Jesus is five, eleven and talking to him.

He said your angel has got a message for you.

And Jesus was talking to him.

He said your angel has a message.

Well, jesus said why can't you tell it to me?

Well, I can, but the angel is going to tell it to you.

Well, I don't know.

He started arguing with Jesus about angels having a message.

So Jesus had to give him three times where angels had messages for believers and he said okay, lord, then in that case, because every time, all the time that Jesus was talking to him, his angel was behind him and his mouth was moving and he was trying to talk to him.

So, anyway.

So the angel came and started giving his message and he said I have some angels under me, I have some angels that are working on it right now.

It's such and such is going to.

I won't go into what it was about?

It was about his ministry.

He told him don't, don't let that businessman get involved with you.

He's got bad motives, but just go to such and such and do this and such, and I will, and I've got angels working on this and they'll cause the money to come that you need for that to happen.

And more beside, he said you have angels, what are you talking about?

He said well, I have angels under me.

So Brother Hagin had an angel that had angels working for him.

I'd like to think that.

I don't know that for a fact, but I kind of like to think that maybe my angel is kind of one of the chief angels.

They've got angels working.

I don't know if it's true, but I kind of like to think that and you can't prove it's not so.

So I'm just going to go ahead and believe that you don't mind.

And so we've got a whole company of angels.

If you don't want yours, I'll be glad to take yours and we'll add them to my conglomerate.

We'll have a conglomeration.

Well, keep on keeping on.

Everybody say I'm keeping on, keeping on.

Your reward is great.

I'm telling you, your breakthrough is coming.

Payday is coming.

Payback for the devil is coming.

We know his days are limited.

Amen, come on, lift your hands, just keep on, keeping on above all, amen.