Growing Faith

Amen.

Let's wave our Bibles around and make Jesus glad, the devil mad, and let's say this together Heavenly Father, I remember Jesus right now.

I never forget him because he's with me all day long, all night long.

Father, you said you were always with us.

Through the power of the Holy Ghost, we're never alone and we're facing what we're facing right now.

We remember what you said and we're encouraged in our hearts.

We're strong in the Lord and in the power of your might.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Praise God, you can be seated.

Hallelujah, I wanted to read this.

I know I could read it later, but I just feel like reading it right now, if you don't mind.

Even if you do mind, praise God.

Now I had this right here.

Now I've got a hunt for it, sorry.

Okay, we got an encouragement from one of our members.

I won't say who it is they asked to be nameless, but it's a powerful testimony.

And so last Sunday night they're talking about an offering.

I just received the offering Sunday night and we had our big party.

We had the snow outside.

Remember that.

We had carriage rides.

We had a crowd Sunday night.

It was awesome.

You know, we're not staying away from each other, we're having fellowship.

Praise God, we're not closing down Christmas, we're celebrating Amen.

And so, anyway, I received the offering and I'm just talking about how you can grow in the grace of giving, you can grow in your faith to you go from one level to the next.

Generosity has grown and I was just talking about my own life.

And so he said, pastor, you did the offering Sunday evening service.

You mentioned how you're offering increased to a $10,000 on me the first time I ever gave $10,000, an offer, man, that was big, and you started at 20.

Say, I used to pat myself on the back for 20 bucks, but you know, if you're giving it that level, it's okay.

You can go to the next level.

You're the one that's in charge of that, not me.

Well, the Holy Ghost hadn't told me.

Well, no, really, it's you.

You're in charge of your harvest, you're in charge of the amount that you sow.

And so he said I recall another person in our congregation who gave more than their paycheck in expecting a faith that God would provide the increase, and that person gave a praise report that an increase did come.

They were tithing on the amount they wanted to have.

You know, tithe is the first tenth of what you of your income.

They basically they were tithing plus, they were giving extra, but their target was to increase and they got the increase.

And he said about their sales we started giving more this year and God has increased our bosom by thousands.

We'd never had thousands on hand, praise God.

Wouldn't you like to have thousands in the bank instead of hundreds?

Maybe you'd settle for hundreds because it beats tens.

I've been where it was $35 in the bank, so I know, I know what it's like to have $35 to your name, I mean to my name, gladys, and I had $35.

And we gave 25 of it in the next offering.

So that gave us $10 to our name.

No, I know you think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not.

And so anyway, pastor, your words of encouragement to give to the kingdom of God for the harvest.

It hit my spirit to take another faith in giving.

We're increasing our giving once more to the kingdom of God.

Praise God, and to the congregation.

What God did for us, what God will do for you.

God is no respecter of man, amen.

Isn't that a good encouragement?

Praise God.

I'm not receiving the offering yet.

We're gonna have communion first, but you know that's covenant talk.

I said that's covenant talk and I just believe that today, as we receive communion, let's be mindful that God keeps his word.

God is not a man that he should lie in the Son of man, that he should repent.

If he said it, he'll do it.

If he spoke it, he'll make it good.

You know, when he spoke to us back in Rosh Hashanah 2019, that September, the 29th 2019, he said you're gonna look back on this year and say this is the greatest year of my life.

And I knew when that word came forth that we were headed for some trials and tribulations.

I mean, that's how I know when God's the greater, the greater the word that we receive.

That's why we ought not be praying for prophecies and God to speak to us spectacularly.

But Paul one time said you know there's a great door and effect shall open unto me, and there are many adversaries.

I mean, the greater the door, the bigger the devil's.

I said the greater the door, the bigger the devil's.

And I knew when we gave that word last year that it was gonna open up an opposition and I know many of you have fought your way through it.

But I just wanna encourage you here at communion time.

If you've got your elements.

You know you might make sure you have them.

We're all in live stream.

We're about to receive communion together, so if you will just get your elements out, get you some wafers and some grape juice or whatever you have on hand.

Motor oil no, not motor oil.

I didn't have any anointing oil one time.

I just pulled the dipstick out of my vehicular.

I mean, you know, oil is oil, praise God.

Thank God I have some oil in the crank case.

Thank God it wouldn't have you checked your dipstick lately.

Is there any oil in the crank case?

Praise God.

But God is a covenant keeping God and we've had to rely on His Word all through this year and continue.

And I'm not looking at the calendar.

I know the year.

Actually, the year technically he was talking about was already over in September, you know, a couple of months ago.

But I'm not looking at the calendar, I just believe His Word is forever.

His Word just keeps rolling forward and if you haven't seen a breakthrough in what you're believing for, you know these red envelopes up here.

We ask you to write down and describe by faith, what would it look like?

What would your greatest year of your life look like?

What would it look like?

What would it look like in your health?

What would it look like in your finances?

What would it look like in your family?

What would it look like in your career?

What would it look like?

What would it take for you to say, oh man, this is the greatest year of my life, amen.

And so you did.

You put it down there by faith, and some of you.

You've seen some breakthroughs, no question about it.

You haven't seen all of the ones that you put down.

Well, it isn't over yet, amen, because God just wasn't filling up the space that Sunday night, just idle chatter.

These words are coming forth, and God do.

What kind of a year we had in front of us.

And he gave us the weapons.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty.

Through God, amen.

And the biggest war we face is the war in our minds.

Isn't that what he's done?

The devil is done with this nation.

He's attacked the emotions of this entire, the entire world.

I've never seen so many billion, there's billions of people whipped up into fear and panic over a little virus that, when you add it all up, it's fatal in some cases.

And so tiny a percentage it's not even worth talking about.

Pastor.

You're just oh no, I just refuse to believe the lies that we're told all day long, every day, even by Channel 2, channel 11, channel 13,.

They have turned into the.

You can't even get local news anymore.

They've turned into the experts on COVID.

I'm enough already.

Look around you.

I mean, we don't have any.

We have a super spreader event going on in here.

We're super spreading the gospel.

We're super spreading faith in God.

We're reminding you of what God said, and His word is always a remedy for what the devil has to say.

But that battle is right up here.

It's right up here and we've got to do warfare.

And the weapons are not carnal, they're not according to the world system.

They're mighty through God.

We have a covenant with God.

Just think about it.

The people you see all panic-stricken if they are saved and some of them are, but they're ignorant about their covenant or they wouldn't be served, they wouldn't be so worried.

They wouldn't say you know, it's not wrong to take precautions, but let's take the proper precautions.

A stupid mask cannot protect you.

There's no science in it.

There's none.

There's none.

You know, there are certain drugs that came out.

And what happened?

Well, when Hydroxychloroquine came out, who came against it?

The Democrats came against it.

The unelected bureaucrats like Fauci.

Oh it's, oh it can kill you.

People have been taking it for 70 years from malaria.

There's no big death.

I mean, there's a certain people that's not suggested I put in to get a prescription for it.

Why you can be pastored.

I thought you were.

Yeah, but it's not wrong of me to take whatever I can take.

If you ever had a flu shot, I mean, if I can take a pill that will make it less likely for me to get it, I don't mind taking it.

So, but my cardiologist, oh no, you can see he's a Democrat Because of my health history oh no, you can't take it.

I took it anyway, but then I got ivermectin.

Now I'm on ivermectin, and ivermectin is man.

It will destroy that virus.

If it gets in your system, it will eat it alive.

Well, I'm not.

You mean you're trusting in?

No, I'm not trusting in the medicine, I'm just trusting in God.

It's not wrong to take precautions, but all this fake stuff that's going on out there is meant to destroy our nation and to keep us separated so that we can be pummeled into submission, separated from one another.

Thank God, this church we never did.

Now we'd separated for 15 days because the Holy Ghost gave me direction to do it.

So the first 15 days of this thing we didn't meet together.

But we man, we had, we had a group here 100 and some odd people came on Palm Sunday.

A few more people came the next week, on Easter and we've been open ever since.

So still, churches closed in state of Texas.

There's absolutely no legal reason for them to be closed.

Why are they closed?

Because of fear, in some cases, laziness.

The pastor can just preach from his living room and his and get dressed from the waist up and just have pajama bottoms on.

Nobody know the difference.

Lazy, don't wanna come down to the church, don't wanna face you, don't wanna look you in the eye and do his job.

What they have is not a church.

Now we have live stream services, but they're designed to be an adjunct, they're designed to be, you know, a supplement to what we do in person.

And we're people with a covenant.

We're people with a covenant with Almighty God.

Who made?

He swore by himself, saying he couldn't swear by any higher.

So he swore by himself saying surely, blessing I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee.

And who was that?

To Abraham and his seed.

We are the seed of Abraham, by faith in Christ Jesus.

God swore to bless us and we are blessed.

We're blessed, we're blood blessed.

I said we're blood blessed.

We celebrate today.

We celebrate.

You can't celebrate Christmas without celebrating the covenant, because that's why Jesus came.

Oh yeah, he was a little baby at the moment, but that's not why we're celebrating.

He was co-eternally existed with the Father.

That spirit of Christ came to earth and incarnation.

God with us, emmanuel, god with us.

What does that mean?

It means humanity and divinity united in one person, jesus Christ.

He's got a flesh and bone body right now, seated at the right hand of the Father.

One of us is seated up there in the flesh.

Jesus, our mediator, our go-between.

I mean anytime we fail, anytime we fall short, anytime we haven't quite done what we should have done, and all of that kind of thing.

He's there to vouch for us.

He's there to make our case.

He's there to point to that blood and say Father, my blood is here and the holy of holies on their behalf, go, come on.

Praise God.

What a covenant we have.

What boldness it should create in us, boldness against the devil and demon powers that wanna destroy this nation.

This nation is part of our inheritance.

Last week I made the point that we have a different covenant than the covenant of America.

America has a covenant with God, but their covenant is based on their works.

Every nation, israel, their covenant is based on their works, whether they obey God.

But our covenant, oh, it's based on the blood of Jesus.

It's listen, jesus' blood has already paid the price for our failings and our sin.

So, with boldness, we can come into the holy of holies, which we do this morning.

Praise God.

The Christmas story is all about the beginning of the covenant.

It was the beginning of the end for the devil.

I mean the minute.

That's why Herod worked so hard to kill all.

He killed all the babies three years of age or two years of age and under Killed all the babies he could, but he couldn't find Jesus.

Jesus escaped his grip.

I tell you, the devil knew that his time was coming to a close and he knows his time is short right now, which is why he's so mad and his people are so mad.

Have you noticed?

I mean, these people go completely crazy.

Why?

Because their Lord is the devil.

We forget that we forget why people are so crazy.

They're crazy because the one that's got the mastery over them is crazy.

And he's even more crazy now than he's ever been, because he knows his time is short, shouldn't be surprised, shouldn't be surprised.

So in Matthew 26, in fact in Luke 22, it was Passover then and Jesus, in Luke 22, he said to his disciples find the upper room and so forth.

And they found the upper room.

And it was just like he told them.

They rented the upper room.

And then he said in Luke 22, 15, he said unto them with desire I have heartily desired, in my margin, I have heartily desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

So, instead of dreading what he was about to do, he, with desire, he wanted to enter into the place where he became the Passover lamb, the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world In God's mind.

See, god doesn't think like we do, linear, he thinks in eternity.

And Jesus was destined to die on the cross, the sinless Son of man and the sinless Son of God, the unity, the union of divinity and humanity in the person of Christ.

So he said with desire, with hearty desire, I've looked forward to eating this Passover meal.

I mean, if that Passover meal Judas betrayed him.

I mean Judas became the one that betrayed him.

I mean he was.

He left before they broke bread.

And in verse 26 though in Matthew 26, they say we're eating.

Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it and gave it to his disciples and said take and eat, this is my body.

Let's take the wafer now.

Jesus' body was broken so we could be made whole.

We could be made whole spirit, soul and body.

I mean there's no infirmity, there's no poverty, there's no sickness, there's no pain that wasn't covered by his substitution and identification In one person.

He identified with God and he identified because he was God and he identified with man and he was the only one that could pay the price.

He was the only one that could sacrifice him himself and his body was broken.

So we can be whole.

Let's judge.

Before we take and break the bread and take it, let's judge our bodies.

Is there pain?

Is there sickness?

Is there infirmity?

Is there doctors, prognosis or diagnosis?

Well, let's just speak to that thing and say no, you've been broken over me.

Jesus' body was broken so I can behold.

He greatly desired, he heartily desired, to go and become the Lamb of God, let's break the bread and receive the benefit.

Hallelujah, glory to God.

And then, in verse 27, he said he took the cup, he gave thanks, gave it to them and saying drink all of it.

Why would he say that exactly?

Well, there's no empty words.

He wants us to take full advantage of the blood.

I said he wants us to take full advantage of the blood.

I don't know when my mind is swirling and when my emotions are, I'm aggravated.

I'm reminded here recently of righteous lot because everything that was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah was vexed his righteous soul.

From day to day, things that happen, you know I'm tempted to be vexed.

Well, you know, I can't stay there.

I've got to get that off of me.

And so I just start lifting my voice and praise.

I praise until all that vexation leaves.

I'm not bearing my head in the sand, I'm just taking authority over my emotions.

Now we need to know what's going on.

We just don't need to be aggravated and angry all the time.

He said drink all of it, for this is my blood.

Of the New Testament, book of Hebrews, said as soon as he said that he made the first Testament old, he made it inferior.

We have a better covenant, found upon better promises, than the Jews.

There's no one on earth has a covenant like the church says.

We have the best covenant there is the only covenant that really is forever and ever.

The benefits of this covenant are going to be forever.

What we have as a result of this blood is forever and ever, and ever, and ever and ever.

There's no blood like this blood.

There's no power like the power that in this blood.

So my faith is in this blood, my faith that our prayers are heard when we pray, that when we declare, god gets behind that declaration and angels start going out.

That's why I'm not giving up on President Trump.

I send him a Christmas card and they say well, what's your message?

I said never concede, never concede, hallelujah.

But he said this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Thank God, not only are we forgiven, our sins are washed away, there's no memory made of them.

So, by an act of faith, before we take this, let's wipe the slate clean about anybody that we've been having trouble with.

Maybe it's parts of our family, maybe it's friends.

You know, right now there's separation going on when pruning happens in the natural, you ever prune.

You know you don't do any good to prune something dead.

You've got to get it down to the live tissue right.

So in our case, when God begins to prune things out of our lives, it hurts.

I said it hurts emotionally.

You mean I'm prune.

Those people know I'm just saying God's separating some people.

This has to happen because Jesus is coming and in that process sometimes we get maybe angry, maybe we get on the other side of opinions.

Emotions run, strong, words are said.

Let's forgive those that have spoken against us.

Let's do our best not to answer it back in kind.

Let's just forgive them.

Does it mean that's our stamp of approval or our agreement of what they said?

It doesn't mean we agree with what they said.

It just means we're not holding them accountable.

We forgive them because we've been forgiven.

Now let's take the cup and take all of it.

Hallelujah, let's stand back up.

Please pass a little cuss.

There's no one like you.

There's no one like you.

There's no one like you.

No one like you, lord.

There's no one like you.

We know there's no one like you.

There's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you.

We know there's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you.

There's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you, lord.

There's no one like you, lord.

There is no one like you, lord.

It'll be Hallelujah.

Oh, his presence, his presence, his presence, my, my, my glory to God, oh, my, my.

Thank you, jesus.

Well, I've come today to encourage you again Out of the Word of God.

That's the only encouragement I have.

You can be seated, turn your bibles, please.

Thank you, worship team guys, the best.

Second Thessalonians, one of the end time books, chapter one you know, first Thessalonians was all about raptures.

Chapter four I don't know how many funerals I've done, how many grave sides I've stood beside.

I almost always quote first Thessalonians, chapter four, to remind everybody this is not goodbye, but see you later.

I mean, christians believe the most amazing things.

They believe that all the graveyard's are going to be up.

You know, just be a disaster area.

All the Christians are coming out of the graves.

But second Thessalonians, chapter one, verse one, paul and Savanus and Tammothius, under the church of the Thessalonians and God, our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, grace unto you, peace for God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meat, because that your faith is disintegrating and you are at your wits end.

You know your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity are, the agape, the love of God Of every one of you all toward each other abounds.

And so today, just a simple message, one that I've preached before.

So if you've already got your notes, well, quit looking at them and just listen.

Then God delivered me from the fear of repetition.

Growing faith, growing faith.

Now you can think about it in two different ways.

You can talk about growing as an adjective, growing faith, shrinking faith.

You know, great faith, little faith, no faith, an adjective, growing.

It can be an adjective or it can be a verb.

I'm growing some corn out in the backyard.

I'm growing my faith.

Growing as a verb, an action word.

So growing faith.

Paul, writing to the church, commended them on their faith and their love.

He said your faith, it grows exceedingly.

In other words, it increases over the ordinary, to above the ordinary degree or beyond measure.

Beyond the ordinary measure, there's an ordinary and then there's an extraordinary.

And he was complimenting their, their faith.

And you see, there's no great faith without great tests, no great victories without great battles.

Back to that word we had there's no greatest year yet without the greatest test yet.

So if your manifestation hasn't happened but you're still trusting God, then your faith is growing exceedingly because you haven't quit.

Great faith doesn't quit in the face of circumstances, and I know that's true of many of you.

I mean you going through some trials and you just, in the face of what you face, say nothing else except this is my greatest year yet.

I know many of how many of you have done that.

You've had to just look right in the toughest circumstance and say you know, I know it looks like this, but this is my greatest year yet.

See, that's what it takes.

See, that's great faith.

Sometimes we get hung up on the results or the, the manifestation of the blessing.

No, the faith is just standing in that direction because he goes on to say about that church, so that we ourselves glory you and the churches of God, for your patience and faith and all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure.

So it wasn't that their great faith had resulted in a smooth ride.

The smoothest ride on the free way is the hearse headed to the quietest place in the city, which is the graveyard.

You won't smooth rides and quiet places.

Let's go ahead and curl up and die.

No, we're just gonna.

We're gonna fight the good fight of faith.

Why is it a good fight?

Cause we win in the end.

This is, you know.

This is consistent with God's desire.

You know it says in the in Hebrews 12,.

It says, you know, without faith it's impossible to please God.

Notice, it didn't say unlikely, it said impossible.

Without faith it's impossible to please God.

So when our faith is being tested exceedingly and we don't quit, then God is exceedingly pleased with us.

Oh Jesus, I just want to please you.

Well, there you go.

I'm not saying he sent the trouble, but I'm saying you're going to have opportunity.

You're going to have opportunity in this life to overcome some things.

Thank God for this church of overcomers.

I'm telling you, and so, how to grow your faith.

I just the message is simple, but yet it's profound, because it just gives you a checklist, I think, that we all need to have, since we're being assaulted and assailed on a daily basis with things that are going against our faith.

News.

That's not really news.

It's narrative.

Everything is a narrative.

Now we went from having news media to having Probda.

Most of you are too young to know what Probda is.

I grew up with Probda.

I know what Probda is.

Probda was, the, was the machine out of Russia I should say the USSR that governed all their news.

They had, they had one newspapers called Probda and they said and everything they said it means the truth.

So whatever they printed was the truth, but what they printed was propaganda.

It was hard for us in the West to understand how a whole group of people could be so deceived Well, that's all they heard day and night, that they didn't have any access, and neither do we.

Right now, I'm telling you we've got Google and Facebook and Twitter and we've got they've got their finger on the scale.

And then you've got the New York Times, you've got the Washington Post, you've got the Houston Chronicle, you've got all these major newspapers.

They are governed by the same swamp.

You can't get the news.

It takes a lot of effort to get the right news.

I like Newsmax.

I like one American news, I like the Epoch Times.

You might try clicking on the Epoch Times.

You might think about subscribing to it If you want to have some alternative ways to find what the truth is.

So, how to grow your faith.

And the first one here is let's look at Mark, chapter four, and I'm going to use this phrase as point number one Mark, chapter four, verse twenty-four.

Well, let's just start with verse twenty-three.

Jesus is speaking, he's talking about the interpretation of the so-or-so's, the word you know.

And he said in verse twenty-three if any man here have ears to hear, let him hear, but take heed what you hear.

Take heed what you hear.

That's point number one Growing how to grow your faith.

Number one take heed what you hear, for he said with what measure you measure?

It shall be measured to you and under you, that here shall more be given.

The word here there means here and understand.

It implies illumination, it implies revelation.

It's not just hearing something with your carnal mind, it's hearing it down in your spirit.

If you hear, more shall be given For he that hath heard see, here is in verse twenty-five heard is understood, for he that hath heard to him shall be given, and he shall.

And he that hath not heard from him shall be taken, even that which he has heard.

What in the world is Jesus saying?

He said you got to keep on with the truth.

You can't.

You can't turn it off and get enough and say, well, that's enough of that, because if you quit hearing and understanding what he's saying, you are going to lose what you had.

But if you press in, see, that's why I'm saying we've got to have the correct news.

We've got to have that news, but we also need to know what's going on.

Jesus said take heed that you be not deceived.

Isn't that what he said to the disciples when they asked him okay, what are the signs of your return?

The first thing he said he said take heed.

In other words, pay attention and don't get distracted and don't get pulled off of my truth.

Take heed that you be not deceived.

And you look out there and people are so deceived that it's just pastors are deceived, flocks are deceived where the church ought to be bold.

And I know it's getting better.

It's getting better.

I said it's getting better, but the clock is ticking on some of these people.

If they don't wake up soon, they might wind up being spewed out.

So take heed what you hear.

Take heed that you keep on See faith.

Romans 10, 17.

Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God, not by having heard.

It's not what you heard a year ago or five years ago or 20 years ago.

People say that all the time oh yeah, I heard that.

Well, you need to hear it again, because you heard it the first time it was planted.

Then, when you hear it after that, it becomes water for what you've got growing in there.

Is your faith all done, are you not?

Are you not believing for greater faith?

Is your faith just kind of because you can't have that kind of faith your faith that these are growing and you're having a bumper crop or it is dying on the vine?

There's no in between.

There's no treading water, as they say.

You're either increasing or decreasing.

That's what Jesus said.

He said if you're not increasing, I'm taking it.

He didn't say he was taking it.

The devil was stealing.

He's not doing it.

He's not.

He's always giving and the devil is trying to steal it.

Are you with me now?

So take heed what you hear.

You have to position yourself to hear, and I tell people this all the time.

It sounds like I'm bragging on me.

I'm not.

I'm magnifying my office.

I have confidence in my office.

I know I didn't call myself, I didn't anoint myself, I didn't put myself in this position, but I am in this position and nobody can give you what you need better than I can.

I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm better, a better preacher or a better, more revelation or anything.

I'm anointed uniquely to feed you what you need right now and if you'll give it, you take heed to what I'm preaching, you'll be blessed.

It's exactly what you need.

So you have to take heed.

You know to listen to my messages and then you have to process those messages.

That takes time.

You can't just sit in church on Sunday and heard oh yeah, took notes.

Well, did you ever go back over them?

Like Sunday afternoons a good time when it's fresh in your mind Go back over what you heard Sunday morning.

Even if you don't come back to church Sunday night, it'd be a good thing to do.

Take an hour, sit down and get quiet and look at what was preached, look at the notes that you took, or maybe you know, maybe listen to it again on the way home.

I listen to all my messages, I listen to them and when I listen to them it's kind of a strange phenomenon.

Had to get used to that.

It's like I'm listening to somebody else.

In many ways I vaguely remember saying what I said, but sometimes I surprise myself.

I know y'all think that's crazy, but see, I listen, it's supernatural.

So part of taking heed what you hear is to make sure you, you magnify what God's plan is.

God's plan is for every believer to have a pastor, and I'm he and our and our family.

I mean, when we preach from here, this is supernatural food for you.

That will help you right what you.

And if you'll do that, if you'll give that the kind of honor and attention, then actually what I found is that you begin to have supernatural hearing kick in and you will actually hear something that I didn't say.

I could go back and try to play the thing on on on the CD and it.

I never said it, but you heard it Sometime between the time it left my mouth and God in your hearing.

God made it to be what you needed.

I know, I know you're you're some of you're going tilt, tilt, tilt.

I can tell you've never played a pinball machine.

All right, so that's so.

Put yourself in position to hear the messages and then feed on those messages.

And number three avoid the naysayers.

And here in, sometimes you have to, you have to let God do the pruning in your life.

Sometimes people are, will become the naysayers in your life and they will erode your faith.

And and just just have the courage to let some of those things just got to be more minimal until they just kind of drift away and and they're no longer.

I've had to have I, you know, I found that Christians are the hardest to let things go when God is done with them.

We ought to be done with them.

Almost all relationships except your marriage, your children, but friendships and all that they're really they're just like ships passing.

You know, you get into a relationship with somebody and then and then things change and they sail on and you sail over here and that's it.

Quit, trying to hang on to something that was profitable for a season in your life and now that season's ended, I don't know who that's for.

So it says here in Mark, chapter four, to those who hear, or to understand when you begin to understand something and it becomes illuminated, to your spirit, and you go wow, see, that's what we heard from that email I read a while ago about giving.

It's not that I have said that before, but that person that heard me say that under the anointing it went off in their spirit and now they're they're.

They feel like, oh, I need to, I need to kick up my giving.

Was I trying to get them to do it?

No, I'm not manipulating anybody.

I'm sure I'm sharing my testimony, amen.

Well, I'm just not a generous person.

We'll get over it.

Change I mean.

Generous means blessed.

Abraham believed according that which was spoken.

He, you know, god told Abraham.

He said he said I, your name is no longer Abram, but Abraham is your name, because a father of many nations.

Have I made V Now?

In that moment he was no different than he was before that sentence started.

He was 99 years old, unable to father a child, married to a 90 year old woman who was unable to bear a child.

And suddenly, because God said you are a, your name is Abraham, which means father of many nations.

God said I have made the.

So the Bible says in Romans 4, 16 that he believed that which was spoken.

What is believe?

It's an action verb.

He had to act on that word.

What was the initial action.

He began to call himself Abraham and he began to call her Sarah, and she began to address him as Abraham, are you with me?

She began to address herself as Sarah, which means princess.

Hello there, princess.

Well, hello there, big daddy.

Had anything changed Then?

The did the clock go back?

But in 90 days they conceived a child.

So something happened Right, and so they had.

They had to act like the Bible was true or they had to act like God's word was true, that so it went off in them.

And here they they're.

They're beyond.

They're beyond the possibility of human life being able to do that.

Not a miracle just because we have babies, but that was a miracle.

Mary was a miracle.

Are you with me?

Now Say, even when God says something, all things are possible.

With him, all things are possible.

So Abraham took heed what God said, and it says here in Romans 4 that he didn't listen to his body.

His body said come on you, old coot, are you nuts?

Come on, really, what?

Yeah, his body was saying that.

And then, when he looked at his wife, her womb was talking to him Mess with me, don't you be messing with me.

I'm old and I'm dried up, and leave me alone.

You couldn't look at me like that, don't you look at me like that?

I mean, just listen, I know we're laughing, but we've got to make.

The Bible has got to come alive.

This is how God works.

This is how your faith is built.

This is how your faith is going to grow by being crazy.

Crazy enough to believe God when he speaks Amen.

We're in this building because I'm crazy enough to believe what God said that day 25 years ago this is a regional center.

Everything we have today is because of that one word.

We got yeah, well, we are church.

We were a church, I obeyed God, but God had something else he wanted to do.

He wanted to get us to believe that we were a regional center and we started saying that, we started moving that way, and I can't think of anything more powerful than what's happened to this church in the past year.

You should have drove over here on Monday night.

You wouldn't believe it.

There wasn't one parking space in this whole place that was vacant.

They were all filled.

This place was filled with people, the lobbies filled with people and then and hardly there's a few members of our church, but most of them were just Harris County Republicans.

All over the Harris County there were people that drove over there.

There was a traffic jam getting in this place.

I got here right at 630 and you couldn't hardly drive down Bouchewa.

It was all choked up.

Champion Forest Drive.

The light over here is all.

And then I'm just laughing because God had this in mind all those years ago and more and more and more.

That's what faith does.

It opened up a progression of revelation that led us here.

It wasn't just one thing that I heard, it was many things over all these years.

Are y'all with me now?

I'm talking about growing faith.

Take heed what you hear.

In other words, take heed means pay attention and prioritize what you're listening to.

Don't let other things come in and take the place of the main thing that you need to hear.

Secondly, number two take heed what you do or how you act.

James 2, 17.

The Waymouth says faith without corresponding action is dead being alone.

Your faith, as it grows, demands an action that goes along with it.

It's not just a theory, it's not just a thought, it's not just well.

I believe that no believe is an action verb and the initial action for all faith is what you're speaking, but it's not the only thing involved.

You have to act like the Bible is true.

That's really the simple definition of faith is acting like the Bible is true.

Let me walk over here on my new walkway here and get over here and just kind of look y'all in the eye.

Let's see now.

I can see you now the lights all the way to the back row.

I can look at Norman and Alicia.

Then you look at them, check them out.

Yeah, they're looking pretty bright, that guy.

They look like they agree with what I'm saying.

Praise God, check them out.

Let me walk over here.

Praise God, I'm gonna check this side out.

I know, just be patient.

Where else have you got to go?

It's Sunday morning.

You could drive by a closed church and wave I don't.

Let me look at it.

Well, I've got people over here going to.

They're a little bit more excited over here.

Y'all need to crank it up a little bit.

Crank it up a little bit.

Yeah, I see all the way to the back, praise God.

So faith without corresponding action is dead being alone.

You know.

You think you have to think about it in your mind and then you, whatever you think continually about is eventually gonna come out of your mouth.

So when I listen to people speak, I can tell what they're thinking.

It's not.

It's not hard to locate people.

You can locate people.

What are they thinking?

Well, whatever they're talking about is what they're thinking about.

If they're not thinking faith thoughts, then they're talking about unbelief then.

But then talking right, you've got to act right, you've got to act.

Faith is an act.

The book of Acts was written because men and women of God acted.

They didn't just theorize, they didn't just sit in an office and write notes.

No, they, they got out and they acted.

We've preached on on many times.

Peter and the 11 they're in the boat, in the storm, and here comes Jesus walking on the sea, and they thought it was a ghost, they thought it was a spirit, and he said it is, I be not afraid.

And and and Peter put him to the days.

He said, lord, if it be, thou bid me come to thee on the water.

What Jesus going to do tonight?

Him, no, he said, yeah, come, one word, come.

And Peter left the 11 compatriots there, his colleagues in the boat, and he went over the side and walked on the water.

But then later, as he was walking then he became aware of what was going on.

He realized that he was out there on the stormy water and the wind and the waves and beginning to sink.

He could have said, jesus, I'll be right there, I'm coming.

But his words, oh, jesus, save me.

So he got fearful.

Jesus called him and walked him back and he said, oh thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

And so we can talk about his failure, but what I get out of it is little faith, walked on the water.

If he'd have just kept on going.

Everybody's faith is little to start with.

Everybody's faith is confronted with the natural circumstance that you're moving against.

And what are you gonna say when that starts coming against you?

That's the action You've got to keep acting and moving and speaking.

Praise God.

What would great faith accomplish?

He had little faith.

What would great faith accomplish?

And I contend that the church has gotta rise up and give us faith.

And we have faith.

The church has faith.

Every believer has been given and dealt the measure of faith, or they wouldn't be saved.

So we're saved by grace, through faith.

So it was all God.

God gave us that faith.

And then what happens after, that is up to us, and that's why I'm teaching you this message how to grow what God gave you.

We've got to get past just that saving.

We're so assured most of us in this room are very assured and well versed on the fact that when we die, we're going to heaven, or, if Jesus comes, we're gonna go up in the rapture.

We're highly developed in that.

So we need to work on being just as assured of our healing, just as assured of our financial supply, just as assured of our prayers being heard.

Are you with me now?

Our authority?

When we speak, god is behind the words that we speak.

When we're agreeing with what he said, praise God.

What would great faith accomplish?

Something like a greatest year yet Is what it's gonna take.

So, if it hadn't happened according to what you wrote down, well, don't quit, keep speaking.

Oh, this is my greatest year yet.

Praise God, just keep speaking and keep acting like it.

And then, thirdly, I think, yeah, I've got time for do one more.

I've got a couple more beyond that, but I think this will be a last one this morning.

The last one is take heed that you pray Now.

Notice what I said, that you take heed that you have a prayer life Now.

I don't mean that you're gonna pray and your faith is gonna increase.

You don't pray for faith.

Praying for faith is you might as well twiddle your thumbs and say, twinkle, twinkle, little star.

That's not how faith comes.

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith grows by exercising what faith you have and using it.

It's just like a muscle a faith muscle.

If you never use your faith muscle, it's just gonna what atrophy.

So start using your faith.

Instead of running to the medicine cabinet every time you have a symptom, let's start speaking against the symptom.

Let's start claiming what we've got.

I'm not saying don't take the medicine.

I'm saying let's do this first.

When you start experiencing a trouble in your finances, instead of trying to figure out ways to take it out of the offering, put it more in the offering.

Resist poverty by sowing more seed.

This is what I've proven.

I've proven this out.

This church has proven this out.

That's why we're sitting in this building.

This building's paid for Glory to God.

It took a while.

You know.

God got it done, Amen.

Take heed that you pray.

So you're not praying for faith.

You're praying to commune and fellowship with God In time of prayer.

The closer you walk with Him, the more you can hear Him.

When I say hear Him, it makes it seem like God's always talking words to you and I don't think we should strain to try to hear voices.

There's lots of voices in the world, right?

But what I'm saying is when you draw near to God in prayer and you pray, especially when you pray in the Holy Ghost, your spirit gets charged with His presence.

Sometimes, just worshiping Him, that's prayer.

Praising Him, that's prayer.

Prayer's not necessarily just giving Him a long list of your requirements.

Sometimes I'm concerned that people that's the only kind of praying they do is of prayer for asking for things.

Asking, asking for things.

Well, you know, let's mature into just wanting to hang out with God a while, and when you fellowship with Him, he will reciprocate and there comes a knowing.

You begin to know what he's without even the words being spoken.

Now, will he speak words?

Yeah, sometimes he will, sure, but many times it's not so much a verbal communication, is an illumination.

We are illuminated from the inside.

The lamp turns on and we have a knowing.

That's what I'm talking about.

Prayer will bring you into that place where you are more apt to be illuminated in your spirit and see.

That's how we need to walk as Christians.

We don't have to be listening for voices, we don't have to be having a spectacular you know, big fireworks display.

Does God do that?

Yeah, from time to time I've had my share of those things, and almost every one of those what I call spectacular guidances comes with it a whole set of circumstances that come against me too, and I know God was allowed me to hear something in a more dramatic fashion so that I would have the faith to hang on to His Word in the midst of that difficulty.

But I don't ever ask for it.

I don't ask oh God, give me a dream.

Oh God, give me a prophecy.

Oh God, no, I just don't do that.

I leave that up to Him.

He knows what I need better than I know.

I just wanna hang out with Him.

I worship Him, I love Him.

I was first saved.

I had my favorite chair that I'd get into is a green velvet chair, and when I got up early enough, I'd be in there by myself If I waited past a certain time.

Well then, the kids were getting ready for school and Gladys is cooking breakfast and all that stuff, and so I've gotta move to another part of the house, but this was my favorite place.

So I was sitting there one morning early, just at daylight, and I had my Bible on my lap and I was just worshiping God.

And I started reading John in the book of John and I came across these verses there was a man sent from God whose name was John, talking about John the Baptist, and so I'm reading it to myself and I'm hearing myself as I read.

I'm hearing my voice.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John Griner Right, and I didn't say the Griner.

And I dropped the Bible in my lap and I mean tears welled up in my face and dripping down on my Bible, and I realized that God was confirming some things that here I hadn't been saved for just a few months.

And he's letting me know.

I've got you here for a purpose.

I know your name and I've sent you.

I've sent you.

Oh, come on, lift your hands, father.

We thank you.

We're not just a bunch of paper cups floating on the seas of life.

We are here by divine ordinance.

We're here for a purpose.

You have a purpose for everybody.

Under the sound of my voice, people that are watching you can hear for a purpose, don't you know you could have lived at any time in history.

You live now Because God has confidence that you're gonna hear and do.

And the more we hang out with God, the more we'll get His plan, the more we'll get His See, we can make our plans.

I've done that.

That's what I did.

That's what I did for a living.

I drew plans for houses.

I made the plans up, I investigated where to build the house and what to build and how to build, and the whole thing.

I thought I could do that with my life.

No, I've got to find out from Him.

He's got the plan.

He's not gonna bless your plan.

Get His plan.

It's already blessed.

Praise God.

That was a hard lesson for me to learn, but it took prayer In Jude 20,.

You know, building up yourselves on your most holy faith.

Pray it in the Holy Ghost.

I mean, don't everything.

Don't think that praying in tongues is a waste of time.

In fact, it is the greatest thing you can do.

Pray in tongues.

You build yourself up, your spirit prays, you edify yourself, you strengthen yourself.

And if you wanna pray a prayer for yourself, pray the Ephesians one and two and three.

Those prayers, those Holy Ghost spirit led prayers, filled prayers.

Pray those over yourself and others.

Clawshan, chapter one, wonderful.

I have a whole message on those prayers.

I mean, I've been praying over myself and my family for many years and stop speaking those pitiful whining tirades disguised as prayer.

Have you ever heard one of those kind of prayers?

You probably prayed them before.

I have to.

They're a waste of time and thank God, god's patient with us, amen.

So as you take heed to these and other principles, your faith will grow exceedingly.

Come on, lift your hands and receive.

I'm growing.

Everybody say I'm growing my faith beyond the ordinary degree, because this is the time it's needed.

Come on, let's rejoice this morning.

Hallelujah, glory to God.

Thank you Jesus.

Thank you Jesus, hallelujah.