Battle Ready - Victory Minded

Lift our bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad, discouraged, disappointed, frustrated.

See, that's his business, not ours.

Ours is to live in the victory, amen.

Let's wave those bibles around, let's say this together Say, heavenly Father, I am indeed who you say I am.

I'm more than a conqueror.

I face the trials of life and I overcome them by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of my testimony.

I thank you for victory today in Jesus' name.

Amen, amen.

So glad you're here today.

Let's turn in our bibles to Isaiah 43.

And we will read some verses here to look at.

Here's what we'll read here to look at in verse one Isaiah 43.

But now, see, this is a now word.

This is for right now, right where you are.

But now saith the Lord that created thee, o Jacob, and he that formed thee, o Israel.

Fear not, for I have redeemed thee.

I have called thee by thy name.

Thou art mine.

When thou passes through the waters, I will be with thee.

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee, and when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

In verse 11, I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no savior.

Hallelujah, glory to God.

I just wanna share a very simple message with you today, entitled Battle Ready, victory Minded.

Let's not get so caught up in the battle that we forget that we win.

Amen.

Battle Ready, victory Minded.

How many of you discovered that life is a fight?

I mean, that's why he told us fight the good fight of faith.

Why is it a good fight?

Because we win If we don't quit.

We win.

That's the key, not quitting.

And so life is a fight.

You're gonna go through things Jesus said in John 16, 33,.

He said in this world you shall have he didn't say you might have, you could have.

He said you shall have tribulation, which means anguish, trouble.

You're gonna have circumstances rise up.

Sometimes there's a devil coming against you, but it's not the devil.

When you get a flat tire, see, sometimes it's just life.

You know life gives you a flat tire, life, you know.

Life happens right.

We build the devil up and blame everything that we go through on the devil, but really it's not the devil.

In fact it's not even the devil, it's demon powers, most of the time Like a little imp.

About a half an inch sitting on your shoulder gives you more trouble than you can take, right?

And you know, sometimes we have trouble because of bad decisions that we make.

I won't go too far on that one.

I just like what my pastor, john Osteen, used to drill into us all the years I was in Lakewood God sees no failures, only learners.

You know, that really helped me, I don't know if it helps you or not.

God sees only.

He doesn't see failures, he sees only learners.

And so, but regardless of what we're going through, we've got a promise no drowning, no burning.

We just pass through.

We're just gonna pass in through.

I like what Winston Churchill said If you're going through hell, then just keep on going.

Let's not camp out, let's not pitch a tent in hell.

Okay, we might be going through it, but let's just keep on going.

Keep on going through.

It Won't be kindled flame, won't be kindling on us.

So again, I know I'm preaching to the choir, but we all need to be encouraged when you come to church.

Sometimes you just need to be encouraged.

We are being bombarded with some of the most vicious, demonic narratives.

That's not news.

I mean, these people pick and choose what they want to tell you.

And what they're wanting to tell you is to lay down and accept communism.

They wanna rename everything and call it wonderful, but it's not wonderful.

Communism is a pit and they're never gonna get me to agree with it.

Amen.

But just because there's things politically going on in the nation doesn't mean that we can't have victory.

I mean Jesus, this is for us right here, right now.

So there's just five things I wanna mention today to help you combat what's coming against you, because I'm still believing this is the greatest year yet.

I know we've only got a few more days, but then on December the 31st, it resets and that's gonna go on through 2021.

I know it is, so don't be hung up about just the year 2020.

God gave us a very specific word and he knew what was in store for us.

We didn't know what we had coming.

God knew what was coming down the pike and he gave us a word that we could hang our hat on, as they used to say in South Texas.

So these five things in these battles of life, we must I've got five things we must keep in mind right now.

Now, this is a now word.

First of all, we have to rejoice and keep on rejoicing Philippians 4-4,.

Rejoice in the Lord.

And again I say rejoice.

I'm telling you you're so tempted not to rejoice.

The devil is trying to get the joy out of our confession.

He's trying to get the joy out of our countenance.

You know, faith will take the wine out of your voice.

I mean we need to learn how to laugh at the devil.

We take everything so brutally serious.

I mean everything is just like oh, it's just devastating.

How many times we hear that word all the time?

Oh, it was just devastating.

You know what Devastate?

Look it up in the dictionary.

There's nobody devastated.

Everybody.

Devastated means completely destroyed.

Quit doing what the devil does.

The devil overemphasizes everything.

Have you noticed the Democrat Party?

Everything is to the extreme.

I'm gonna get over here and preach to this group because they're looking at us.

It's to the extreme, way up beyond any kind of reality.

I mean they call everything just whoa, what?

The end of the year.

Their hatred knows no bounds.

Let's quit acting like that.

Let's laugh at the devil man.

I mean that alone.

A bunch of Christians laughing.

That would make the Democrats so mad because their Lord is mad.

They're of their father, the devil.

Let's just go ahead and label it.

Oh, but yeah, I've got some friends.

They're Christians, but they're.

No, they're not Christians.

Quit calling them Christians, because you don't know.

You can't be a Bible-believing Christian and be a Democrat believing baby killing and all the other crazy things that they've come out with.

Worship the creation more than the Creator.

They worship owls and minnows and turtles and insects more than God.

And that's just a small part.

No, let's keep our priorities straight.

Let's enjoy God every day.

He is worthy of our praise.

We ought to be able to rejoice in the Lord, and again I say rejoice.

I'm preaching to myself because it's easy just to get.

I have to limit how much news, and I even got.

I've got some good sources of news.

I just don't listen to them all day long.

There's only so many times I need to know about Georgia.

Only so many times I need to know about Luffler and Purdue.

There's only so many times in the day that I need to hear about all of the ways that the president's gonna stay in.

I don't, you know what.

I just quit listen.

I just rejoice.

I just started praising God.

God has not spoken to me what the end game is gonna be, so I just don't.

If he hadn't spoken to me, I'm not gonna make it up.

I've got some friends of mine that prophesied that president's gonna stay in office.

Well, I haven't heard that and God hadn't told me that.

I'm not against that.

Oh, I want him to be in office, I do.

And that's why I don't sit there and listen to all the prognosticators, because I know that it's all the natural.

What we need is a supernatural.

Amen, I said we need the supernatural.

So let's keep God first and let's rejoice, let's enjoy God every day.

And then the second one is right here in the first verse that we read fear not.

We must not fear.

That's right.

Yes, fear not 365 times in the Bible.

In the King James Bible it says fear not, or some version, be not afraid or some other version of fear not 365 times in the Bible, one for every day of the year, must be important.

Not to fear.

Jesus said fear not 14 times in his own disciples, the son of God walking with him every day for three and a half years, and even them.

They had to tell him fear not, fear not 14 times.

So we need to tell ourselves fear not.

God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a power, love and a sound mind.

The Bible says in the last days, men's hearts would fail them for fear of what was coming on the earth.

We're not those kind of men.

We're not those kind of people.

We have confidence in our God.

God is, we're the apple of his eye.

He's the one that formed us.

We belong to him.

Praise God.

And so let's fear not.

John 1633,.

Be of good courage.

See another way of saying fear not, be of good courage.

I've overcome the world.

You're going to have trouble in the world.

There's trouble out there, but you're overcoming it.

I overcame it, you will too.

Essentially, I want to see Isaiah 51.

It's worth looking at, just turning your Bibles Isaiah 51, verse 12.

Isaiah 51:12

I got ahold of this years ago.

I tell you it really changed my attitude.

At the time I was going through some financial difficulties I had.

The bank was threatening to foreclose on me.

I mean they were calling me and they're demanding the note to be paid and all of this kind of thing I just had.

I had a lot of pressure on me and I came across these verses and it says in verse 12, I, even I, am he that comforteth you.

Who are you?

That you should be afraid of a man that'll die and be afraid of the son of man, which shall be made as grass, and I started laughing.

I said, well, I need to change my tune here.

I need to quit being so afraid of the bank and the banker and everybody else.

They're just trying to do their job.

They've got a problem and I've got a problem.

I'm not able to pay the interest on this construction loan.

They want to take the house.

Well, if they take the house, god's got another way for me.

I mean, you know, the bar is serving to the lender, not a thing I can do.

People were standing in line not to buy the house.

I mean, you've heard of the kind of line where people lined up to buy the house.

Well, they were lined up somewhere else.

Nobody wanted to buy my house.

Well, I thought you were, I thought I was too.

But God doesn't bless my plan, he blesses his plan and it wasn't his plan for me to ever start that house.

I should have started this church.

I was about two years late starting this church.

You know that We've been running to catch up ever since, but anyway, and you forget the larger maker that has stretched forth the heavens and it laid the foundations of the earth and has feared continually, every day, because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy.

And where is the fury of the oppressor?

Verse 15, I am the Lord by God that divided the sea whose waves roared.

The Lord of hosts is his name.

That's the one we ought to be reverencing and fearing.

Not afraid of, but reverencing, because the fear of man brings a snare.

I'll tell you, they're loud, they have big voices, they loud, and they, like I said before, they just over the top all of their descriptions of what's going on.

It's just crazy.

No, I tell you, I'm looking to my God.

Amen.

I fear, not Praise God.

Now, then later in this verse, isaiah 51, let's keep reading there.

Verse 18, there's none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth, and neither is there any that take it there by the hand of all the sons that have brought up.

These two things are come unto thee.

Who shall be sorry for thee Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword by whom shall I comfort thee?

So why am I going into that?

Well, be willing to change.

Sometimes.

The best battle of the generals, the best battle.

Generals have to have contingency plans, because they can have a battle plan that is bulletproof.

But then things out on the field of battle change.

The enemy doesn't do quite what that general had in mind.

They come from a different direction, they come with a different set of weapons and all of that kind of thing.

So you know, the most successful generals in history are the ones who are quick to adapt to the conditions on the battlefield.

Are y'all with me?

Now we need to be able to change.

We need to be ready and willing to change our whole deal here.

Isaiah, chapter one.

Isaiah, chapter one.

Somebody say I'm ready to change.

I'm ready to change.

Speak, lord, thy servant, hear it.

Well, two people are ready to hear it.

Rest of you have got your feet set in concrete.

Praise God, verse 18,.

Come now and let us reason together.

Saith the Lord, though your sins be a scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

In other words, when you've made a mistake like I did, I had the bank calling me.

This is just.

You know.

They foreclosed on that house, the biggest house I'd ever built in my career.

25 years of building houses, that was the epitome.

That was the biggest house and the most expensive one and it went down the tubes.

The bank took it on January, the third of 1995.

And we had our first service at Gloria's Way Church on January 29th 1995, 26 days later.

And let me tell you something we never look back.

All of the threats and all the terrible, I mean they didn't come after me.

They could have come after me with additional lawsuits, they could have tied me up for years.

They didn't really want to take, they didn't have any choice.

They had to do what they had to do.

Bar, a servant to the lender is just one of them.

And I'd made a mistake.

I knew by that time.

I knew I'd gotten out of the will of God.

I knew when I was preparing to start this church I was behind the eight ball, that I had listened to.

Man, fear of man, had gotten in there.

My partner did want to stop building and he just pressed me and pressed me.

I said look, you're going to lose everything if this isn't God.

I knew it wasn't God.

I should have just stood up and said no, you're going to have to do it by yourself, I'm not going to do another thing.

But instead I just went out there, launched out there and made it happen.

And God had to show me.

Well, you can't make anything happen, only my will.

You don't have any faith unless you know what the will of God is.

And I had to look back and I could see he was trying to stop me.

He was trying to hold me up from disaster.

So I had to go to him and I had to say, oh God, my sins are as scarlet.

Come on, let's reason together, let's find the way out here.

And he's.

The way out was to start this church.

Obey me and quit putting it off.

And we did.

And the rest is history.

I mean, 26 years later, here we are.

Praise God, lots of churches will never open again.

Lots of churches that closed out a fear of some stupid disease that Jesus took and they acted like he didn't.

They will never open again.

And I'd say good riddance.

Oh, that's mean.

Well, I don't know if it could be, but read Revelations, chapter two and three.

You'll see what Jesus thinks about five out of the seven churches in Asia Minor.

I mean, he's told them repent.

Or else Only two churches out of the seven had a boy and the other five out of the seven had a repent, or else.

And you ought to read the or else.

I mean the or else is pretty bad.

I mean, take the lamp, stand out.

Ooh man, I don't want that to happen.

I don't want the Holy Ghost to leave here.

I don't even.

Why would we even gather if we had no Holy Ghost?

So you know, we have to be willing to change.

And so he said you know, if you be willing verse 19, and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

I had to get willing and obedient.

I made that adjustment.

Everybody say I'm making adjustments.

See, that's not the same as New Year's resolutions.

Forget about New Year's resolutions, but let's get in prayer and find out.

Are there some things in our lives that we need to change?

We need the battlefield has changed now.

We had a good plan but it didn't factory and all that we're facing, and there could be some things that the Holy Ghost will show you that you can help yourself.

Be willing and obedient, you'll eat the good of the land.

One version says you'll be rich.

Rich doesn't mean a million dollars.

Rich means having abundant supply and I really believe that, even in the time of this whole craziness going on, that the church ought to have a transfer of wealth into its side.

The wealth of the wicked has been laid up for the just Praise God, amen.

So in these battles of life, we've got to keep our priorities straight.

Let's rejoice, let's fear not, let's be willing to change.

And number four let's not waste time being amazed.

I just read all about the amazed.

Oh, I just can't believe it.

Oh, covid night, oh, I'm so amazed.

Oh, the government, oh the Supreme Court, oh, I'm so amazed.

Let's quit wasting time being amazed.

What do you mean?

Well, let's look at first Peter.

First and second Peter are in time books and we should be well acquainted with them because we live in the end times.

It's got special instructions for this generation.

Years ago brother Osteen had a sons and daughters event.

People that can you know.

I went to the very first one where 300 people there.

I wasn't even in the full time ministry at the time, I was just serving at Lakewood, but he invited me.

I was so honored to be at that meeting, the very first one he'd ever held, and I think it was a second when we had about a thousand pastors and leaders there.

And at that one he said you know, every generation has a word.

You know, I've had to preach a word to my generation.

You're going to have to preach a word to your generation, see, that's why my message is a little different than brother Osteen's.

I've got a little different thing to emphasize than he did.

That just means that I am preaching to a generation that has to hear what I'm saying.

And so in chapter four, verse 12, first, Peter beloved, think it not strange, concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened under you.

But have a pity party, no, but rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad, also with exceeding joy.

We are getting a chance.

I don't want to go too far.

This because some people I hear people say this well, I must be really doing a lot for God, because our devil sure is mad at me.

Well, quit saying that You're not victory minded, you're battle minded.

That's not a good thing to say.

I mean, really, you're that accomplished?

Why don't you read 2 Corinthians 11 and 2 Corinthians 12, what Paul went through?

And if you can compare to what Paul went through, then maybe you can say that.

But I don't know anybody that's been through that much suffering.

You know, beating with rods three times, five times, 39 lashes.

That's a hundred and a bunch of hundred, 295 lashes.

I don't know anybody suffered as much as Paul.

A night and a day in the deep, on and on.

He writes in there all the things he suffered.

But we do suffer persecution.

Some of us suffer persecution from our own families.

Some of us suffer persecution on the job, some of us persecution in our neighborhoods.

Some are lying about you.

I'm aware of people that are going around just lying about some of you.

Well, welcome to the club.

I mean, I've been lied about for long as I can think of.

Ever since I started serving God I've been lied about.

And so what does it say?

It says, you know, we ought to just praise God that we're counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

We're going to have to suffer shame for his name, not suffer cancer, not suffer being broke.

I'm not talking about that kind of suffering.

I'm talking about the suffering of persecution.

Yes, oh, being delegitimized and marginalized because of your faith in Jesus Christ, that you would dare to use his name.

Oh, they hate Jesus, they hate him.

And so then they hate you.

They hate Trump because he was he.

I mean, he's shocked everybody.

They thought he was a terrible person.

They married three times.

Well, some of them have been married a half a dozen times.

They're the ones throwing the biggest rocks.

Man, you look behind you, look in their closet.

It's full of dead men's bones and women's bones.

No, we have to quit wasting time being amazed.

Instead, let's just rejoice.

Thank God, we're living in the last days.

This has all been spoken about Everything we're living through right now.

Jesus talked about Matthew 24.

It do you good just to read through Matthew 24 again.

I could have done that today, but I just I wanted to.

I want to encourage you, don't you know?

Let let there's some things we can do to help ourselves at this time, that we're in All right.

Praise God, you get anything out of this today.

So in these battles of life, we have to keep on rejoicing.

We've got to not fear, be willing to change, make adjustments, not waste time being amazed.

And the last one I want to share is we must conquer hurts and disappointments, because there are those, and there are more of those because of the plumb line that's been dropped.

Are you aware that a plumb line has been dropped and there are people on the right side, on God's side, because God has a side, let's get on it.

We've chosen to get on God's side, but there's a significant number that are on the wrong side, and some of them are our friends and family, and it hurts.

We have disappointments and hurts People, like I said, lying about you, talking about you.

We have to conquer hurts and disappointments.

Proverbs 18 is a good one and it says here in verse 14, the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear a wounded spirit?

Don't allow the hurts and disappointments to turn into a wound, because when you're wounded, what happens?

Well, you've got to be taken off of the front lines and you've got to be taken to the rear area and you've got to be protected and you've got to be over here where you're not being effective.

In fact, you're taking up.

I hate to say this.

Don't feel condemned, but if you let something get to a wound and I'm not talking about physical, I'm talking about in your heart, in your mind, your will and emotions when you let those things start to be a wound, then what are you doing?

Where you've got to be taken off of the front lines and then someone's got to be assigned to you to take care of you.

You're going to need care.

You can't get over it by yourself.

Have you ever been to a hospital and the person's just sitting in a bed and nobody's there?

No, there's nurses, there's orderlies, there's people cleaning the room, there's all kinds.

There's a staff of people besides the doctors and nurses.

There's a whole staff of people that have nothing to do except to take care of that person that's in the hospital.

And that's what's going to happen to the church.

The church is going to get overwhelmed with all these wounded people and there's nobody out there confronting the enemy, a wounded spirit who can bear.

Canal 30.

Mini Colossians, chapter three, verse 12, tells us what to do.

Put on there, for, as the elect of God, everybody shout that something Holly and beloved.

Notice how the Holy Spirit speaks about you.

Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering for burying one another and forgiving one another.

If any man have a quarrel, my margin says a complaint.

If any man have a complaint against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye Brother Hagin, in his last days I heard him say this a number of times.

But he said this.

He said you know, if you catch yourself feeding like you were treated wrong, you better beware.

The devil's got a hold of your mind.

Well, which of us hadn't thought that?

You know, which of us hadn't thought that?

I mean, the default position of a human is victimhood.

But we're not humans, we're new creatures.

We're new creatures in Christ Jesus.

We don't blame somebody else for our trouble.

We don't use them as an excuse to fail.

No, bless God, we know the one who loves us.

We are beloved to him.

Holy means separated unto him.

So we need to be quick to forgive people.

We need to forbear one another in love.

We need to bear long.

And the people that are treating you the worst, that's the ones you've got to put.

Listen, I mean, bake them a cake.

If I had known you was so mean, I'd have baked a cake.

Well, I'll have to find something else good to do for them.

If I bake a cake, they'd probably think I was trying to poison them.

So anyway, no, we have to conquer hurts and disappointments before they get into the wounded part and walk in love.

Walk in forgiveness is so, so, so vital, and if we do these things, we'll be battle ready and we'll be victors.

We'll be victorious, we'll be victorious, we'll be victorious, we'll be victorious, we'll be battle ready and we'll be victory minded.

Come on, lift your hands and receive right now Hallelujah, glory to God.

I mean, it's short but sweet, isn't it?

I mean it doesn't take, you know, it doesn't take a doctor of divinity degree to get the Bible over to you where you can handle it.

Everybody say, okay, I'm encouraged now.

Amen, was that all right today?

Come on, let's do a little shouting this morning.