Lock Out The Doubt 5

I wanted to get into the Word first tonight.

So if you would please, I'm going to continue my fifth message on lock out the doubt and and we're going to go over our, our foundational scripture, found in Matthew, chapter 14, verse 25 this is after Jesus has sent the disciples to go to the other side of the lake and then verse 25 in the fourth watch of the night, between 3 and 6 am, jesus went under them, walking on the sea.

Matthew 14:25

And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying it is a spirit, and they cried out for fear.

But straightway, jesus spoke unto them and saying be of good cheer, be of good courage.

It is, I be not afraid.

And Peter answered him, said Lord, if it's be thou, bid me come to thee on the water.

And he said come.

And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.

But when he saw the wind Boisterous or strong, he was afraid and beginning to sink.

He cried Lord, save me.

And Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him oh, you have little faith, wherefore did's thou doubt?

And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.

So lock out the doubt.

Don't let doubt rob you of God's best.

Little faith we see here, little faith walked on the water.

Yet doubt sunk Peter.

He began to look and get his eyes on the storm.

I mean, hundreds of thousands of people, maybe millions of people.

Their eyes are on this, laura.

But let's, let's think about the power that's been released against Laura Amen and and and.

So really, there in the testimony and the that we read, doubt sunk him and doubt robbed him, and also, potentially, the 11 that were in the boat that could potentially have gone over the side and they could have had a party out there on the water.

So today I wanted to.

So don't let's lock out the doubt.

Let's lock out the doubt.

So today I wanted to go over the integrity of God's word.

The integrity of God's word.

You know Jesus said one word come, and you know Peter acted on that one word.

I mean it doesn't take a paragraph, it doesn't take a book.

I mean, many times all we need is one word from God, and when we know it's him speaking, we can act on that word, the integrity of God's word, and and we can walk on top of trouble, which is what Happened to Peter.

At first he was walking on a storm.

He's walking on top of the storm.

That's where God wants us.

He wants us on top of the storm, he wants us on top of the circumstances, he wants us on top of the trouble.

And so you know, god said it, I believe it, that settles it.

And and so you know God and his word are One.

And John, chapter one, verse one, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

God and his word are One.

You can't separate God from his word, and so the Bible is God speaking to you.

It's not speaking to just anybody speaking to you.

That's why we urge you to read your Bible every day to find out what God is saying to you that particular day.

I mean, I, I read my Bible to.

As you know, I'm expecting to see something or know something on on the pages that I read.

That's going to Strengthen me, and, whether I know it, with my brain or not, my spirit is picking up logos, and one of these days, the Holy Spirit can bring that logos out of my spirit and give it to me as Ramon.

And.

And so the Bible is God speaking to you, and every time you call things that be not as though they were, you're acting like God.

You're doing exactly the way God did things.

And when we act on the Word, then His power is released.

Just think about God's mighty power.

The way that it is released is when we act like His Word has integrity and His Word doesn't.

I mean, when you look at it like that, I mean you know, I know that you would just I by itself does God have integrity?

Well, you'd say, of course, but then the only way that you can prove that you believe that is when you act on the Word, even in a situation like this.

I mean, peter acted on one Word come in the middle of a storm, and he didn't think a thing about it.

Eventually he did, but at first he didn't think anything about it.

And so we need to know about the integrity of God's Word and know that when he says it, he means it and he backs it up.

And so when we act on the Word, his power is released.

God's power was released to keep Peter floating on top of the water.

I mean violating all the laws of nature.

The laws of nature said he had to sink, but the power of God held him up above the storm, above the waves.

So faith is the switch.

You've heard me say this many times, many years.

Faith is a switch that turns on the power of God.

And faith in what?

Faith in the integrity of God's Word.

You know I was thinking today about a testimony that Brother Hagin writes about, and you know he was a traveling minister for many years and started off as a pastor for his first 12 years, and then God called him to be in the traveling ministry, and when he first began traveling, his children were small and leave him at home, and it was terrible, it was hard and so, and they were in school so they couldn't travel with him, but in the summertime sometimes he would take his family with him.

So he had bought a travel trailer and of course, at summertime the travel trailer was hot.

I mean, you know this is old days, this is back in the 50s, and they didn't come all decked out like they do now, and so it was so hot that the kids were hot, aretha was hot and mama's not happy, nobody's happy.

So, anyways, he's on the road and he called his banker and he said Mr Banker, I need an air conditioner for my trailer, for my travel trailer, and he said, well, fine, how much money you need?

He said I think it was $500.

I need $500.

He said it'll be in your account this afternoon, just on the telephone.

He hadn't signed anything.

All he did was call his banker and say, hey, I need $500.

And then he believed the banker.

He believed the banker had integrity.

He believed the integrity of the banker's word.

Then he goes and he finds this place where they had the air conditioner, had it put in his trailer and worked out.

Great, he's cool.

He said now, sir, please, when you get back in town, come by the bank and sign the papers.

He hadn't even signed any papers.

Just wait till you get back home, whenever that is, it might be a month.

And so everybody had faith.

The banker had faith in the integrity of Brother Hagin's word.

Brother Hagin had faith in the integrity of the banker's word and they did business based on the integrity of the word.

And then another time he's pulling that trailer with an old truck.

Well, the old truck, you know, it's kind of underpowered when you get out places like Colorado, new Mexico, arizona, places like that where you've got mountains, you've got an old six cylinder pickup, you know, and you've got this trailer on back and you're trying to chug up a hill with that thing.

Well, in 1955, chevrolet came out with a 283 V8.

It's a classic, you know.

They had the same motor in the Corvette and so they put it in a pickup truck.

And Brother Hagin went by a dealer.

Again he's on the road.

His old truck is about give out.

He can't hardly pull the trailer up a hill.

It takes forever to get to the top, and then it's got old brakes and everything else.

So he needed a new truck and he wanted a V8.

And he got this brand.

It was a three quarter ton shivvy pickup with a V8.

And so again he calls his banker and he said yeah.

He said absolutely, have you located?

Have you located the, the, the truck?

He said, yeah, I'm at the dealer and he's agreed to sell it to me for X amount of dollars here, whatever the price was.

And the banker says, oh, I'm looking in the book, you got a tremendous deal on that.

And he said, well, yeah, as a matter of fact, I did get a good deal, because the dealer made a mistake On the price and he committed to selling me the, the three-quarter ton pickup at a half ton pickup price.

So it was several hundred dollars cheaper than it was supposed to be.

But he said you know, I'm not gonna go back on my word.

I told you that we'd sell it, sell you the truck at this price.

I made a mistake, I'll, I'll eat it.

I'll just won't make any money on this, on this sale.

But I want to do the right thing and so, yeah, absolutely tell the.

Tell the dealer that you know how you know, have his secretary call me with the routing information.

We will wire the money.

Even back then they'd wired money.

They will wire the money will be in their account that tomorrow.

Just let me know how much you know what the what, what the instructions are, and so and so brother Hagen tells the, the dealer that the dealer gets, gets that car, what the truck washed and sends him on his way.

The dealer has no money in his hand.

The truck is gone down the road.

I Think he had a hundred and fifty dollars for a trade-in for the old truck that he had.

That's all he had, you know, on this deal.

Well, what well.

He had trusted in the integrity of the banker and that he didn't know.

He trusted in the integrity of Brother Hagen that he didn't know and brother Hagen, and trusted in the integrity of the word of the.

You know Everybody else's words.

See.

See, people did business based on the integrity.

How much does God have more integrity than a banker?

Does God have more integrity than a car dealer?

I believe you'd say yes, and so that's what we have.

When we have his word, we may not have the thing we're believing for yet in our site, in our natural site, but let me tell you his, in the integrity of God's word, says we have it.

The integrity of God's word says we can call that thing that be, not as though it were Hallelujah.

Oh, thank you Lord.

Come on, let's just lift our hands and thank God.

I'm so glad that this word works.

I'm so glad the integrity that's behind this word, god himself and his word are one.

You know, I think a lot about this time of the year because it reminds me of things that I've gone through in my life, and this is the kind of time of the gear when I had heard from God, back in 1994 so that's been 26 years ago.

When I heard from God, it was time to start a church and, and I had not yet gone to brother Osteen to talk to him about it.

But I was getting my marching orders and I was.

I was, I was praying it, praying it out, and in my normal reading I was reading in Luke, chapter 15, about the, the prodigal son, and, and, and, and I got such revelation On it as I began to read just in my normal reading.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

One day I'd already heard that I was supposed to start a church and and I'm planning on how do I go about doing that?

I've got to go to brother Osteen and I've got to share with him what I have in my heart and I want his full blessing.

That was absolutely.

He was gonna have full authority, whether I did or didn't.

I wasn't gonna inform him.

Hey, I'm leaving, I was going to submit it to him.

And so in Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son, it said that a certain man had two sons verse 11, and the younger of them.

So in this story there's the younger son and then there's the older son, the firstborn son.

So I call the younger son Bubba and I call the older son Junior.

I don't know if he really was Junior, but anyway that's how I tell them apart.

So Bubba goes to dad and we won't read the whole thing and he says give me the portion of goods that fall under me.

In other words, I want my inheritance now.

I don't wanna wait till you die, I have a need for it right now.

I want my inheritance now.

And when I saw that I saw that's actually what I'm kind of submitting to God.

I want my inheritance.

I've served Brother Osteen for all these years, and especially the last seven years.

At that time almost eight ordained and doing things any and everything that I was asked to do weddings, funerals, travel, all kinds of things and all I wanted was my inheritance, my spiritual inheritance.

I want that.

And so the father gave it to him.

Gave it to him, I mean he knew what belonged to him and he asked for it.

And so the father which typifies God gave him what he asked for.

And of course we know that he messed up, he goes and he wasted his money on righteous living whatever that is, we can only guess gambling and everything else.

And he ran out of money and then a famine hit the land where he was and so he had to go to work feeding hogs.

He went to work for a man who put him out in the field feeding hogs and he was so hungry no man would give to him.

It was famine time, he had no favor and he was considering eating the hogs food.

I mean, he was so hungry and here's a Jewish boy feeding unclean animals.

That's another little twist.

And so he said you know, my father's, his hired hands have all they can eat and they got a roof over their head and here I am starving.

I know what I'll do.

I'll go back to my father's house and I'll say Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you.

I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

Just give me, make me as one of the hired servants.

And he had decided that's what he was gonna.

When he the Bible says when he came to himself.

I mean he had to get down to himself, and so he traveled back there.

But the Bible says the father was watching and he was looking for his son to come home and he saw him a great way off and he went to run toward him and he fell on his neck and kissed him.

And so here's Bubba, he's gonna rehearse his little saying Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you and father just put his hand up.

So bring the finest robe, you know.

Bring some new shoes for feet, bring the, the signet ring, for my son was dead and now he's alive.

He's lost and now he's found.

Come on, kill the fatted calf.

We're gonna have a party.

We're gonna have a party.

Tell everybody, it's time to celebrate.

He didn't wanna hear about all of the repenting and all of the, it was just enough for him to see him come back home.

That's all he needed.

The father, and so you know.

Then, over here on the side, junior hears about it.

Somebody comes up and tells Junior, hey, your brother's back, your father's throwing a big party, and he got all mad, he started pouting.

He's jealous, he's angry and he's not gonna go to the party.

He's outside pouting, here's music dancing, and so I'm reading all this now.

See, I'm reading.

I'm a man that knows what belongs to me.

I know that there's jealousy on different sides, different people.

I've gotta keep my eyes on my father, heavenly father, and I've gotta respect my earthly, spiritual father.

I should you know.

However, you wanna word that and so, and so the father comes out and says oh son, why, why are you mad?

Your brother's home.

He said your son called him.

Your son wasted your living.

Well, it wasn't his living.

He had given it to the son.

It would belong to the son.

It wasn't.

It was no longer.

It was no longer.

It did not any longer belong to the father.

He gave it willingly to the son as his inheritance and he said well, you've never thrown me a party.

You've never as much, as one version says, you've never as much as given me a skinny goat.

And he said, son, all that I have is yours.

Let's think about that.

So here's Bubba.

He got his portion.

Let's just say it's $100 and there's now.

It used to be that junior was.

He was gonna have $200.

He gets the double portion as the first born.

So his portion would have been $200.

So he still got $200, but what if the ranch went up in value?

What if the ranch was worth $500?

Now it's still all his.

He said anytime you wanted, you could have had a goat, you could have killed your own calf, you could have done whatever you wanted.

It was yours, it's yours all along.

And so I got that out of that.

And so a couple of weeks later, after I got this revelation, brother Osteen asked me to take the offering and I got to preach this for the offering scripture, and I got to talk about how, the fact that let's not be like junior, let's be like Bubba, let's know what belongs to us, we're co-heirs with Christ.

Everything is his as ours.

No use in being jealous, no use in coveting anybody for their success.

We're all successful because of Jesus.

And boy I mean the crowd was, and I was laughing to myself because I'm getting to say some things preparing for my meeting with brother Osteen.

So you know, I knew that GWC was mine and so I had that in my heart.

When I met with him, I was able to accept the fact that he felt like it was a little ahead of time.

I didn't have any anger toward him, I didn't have any ownership toward that, I just knew God, god was in control of that.

That was in September by the time.

I met with brother Osteen and told him that what I was considering doing, but only with his full blessing, and he said wait till after the first of the year is what he said.

And so, sure enough, in December he called me and gave me his full blessing, and then at a service.

Well, he made it public and he made a public pronouncement of it and he made a public pronouncement of his blessing over our church and by that time we had named the church and by that time we see, by faith.

I had faith in the integrity of what God said to me and I tell you I acted.

I found a building.

While all that was going on, in the months of around December to early January, we went up and down 1960.

We found a building.

We negotiated a lease, the start date, we ran an ad in the 1960 Sun that announced the new church and when it was gonna have its first service.

And then, on the Saturday of June the 28th, it was a Saturday and the building had not been occupied for a year and a half, maybe two years.

It was dusty, dirty, grammy.

I mean we had just turned the power on the day before.

By the way, I had to put that on a credit card.

I hadn't had a credit card in ten years and I just got in the credit card about a month before and thank God, it had a five thousand dollar limit because I had to limit the card out.

I had to put it on as a deposit $5,000 deposit with Houston lighting and power.

To get the power turned on the building.

I Mean God had everything's you know turned.

That turned up, and so here it is on Saturday, the powers on, the air conditions running, but the place is dirty.

We had a team of people come with us, cleaned all up, cleaned out the bathrooms, vacuumed the carpet, got it all spiffed up, and the next morning ten o'clock, 103 people showed up for our first service.

I tell you the integrity of God's word.

I mean you can trust when God speaks.

He is back of his word.

He upholds all things by the word of his power and phrase God, and, and 103 people at the first service.

I was just blown away at how many people showed up.

And.

And then that night, though, was Super Bowl Sunday.

So that night is a Super Bowl, and the devil said has nobody gonna even be there tonight, forget about.

Well, 66 people showed up on Super Bowl Sunday night, and we've never looked back.

I mean, we took off from that moment, and here we are, 26 years later, and God is faithful to watch over his word, to perform it.

He wants to.

He wants to perform his word on your behalf.

What is he spoken to?

Well, I'll tell you what he spoke to us back in September, the 29th of 1919.

He said you're gonna look back and say this is the greatest year yet and look at all of what the enemy has tried to do to stop us.

I mean let's keep walking, like Peter did, up on top of the waves.

Let's keep walking right on top of the Circumstances.

I mean we, just we walked right on top of Kung flu.

I Mean we talked we, I mean we countered it irrelevant.

We walked right on top of the shutdown.

We said it was irrelevant.

In fact, we, we just we just defied the shutdown.

We opened back up and and how we've got this?

Laura, the hurricane Laura was turning its way right to Houston and I mean the meteorologists I've just heard one of them on radio just a moment ago, just two days ago, they were very concerned that it was gonna hit Houston after all.

I mean the models had changed things.

That chef shifted at Mysterically but you know what we had done?

We, we covered this last Sunday.

We, we rebuked that storm last Sunday and power was released last Sunday.

But I want you to see I mean faith in what faith, that power.

Whenever we pray, power is released.

In fact, that's what I was preaching on last Sunday morning.

The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous Monday righteous person makes tremendous power available, dynamic, and it's working.

And so at the end of that service, we all prayed and agreed and we put a stop to that storm coming to Houston.

We have faith.

Just say this out loud.

I have faith in the integrity of God's Word.

If he said it, he'll do it.

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

I'm locking out the doubt and receiving God's best.

Praise God.