The Value Of Spiritual Covering

Wavos bibles around.

Would you please make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this together.

So, heavenly Father, I'm here by divine appointment today.

I'm right where I belong, the right place at the right time.

We're the right people, hearing the right scriptures that are gonna feed my faith and put me in a place of overcoming.

I'm an overcomer in Jesus name.

Turn your bibles to two places Psalm 105.

And also, while you're turning, find 1 Corinthians, chapter 10.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

And we have a number of folks that are discovering this is discovery time right now.

Next two weeks we have discovery classes right after the service and people are discovering whether this is the place they wanna be planted.

I believe that people sometimes have to pull up stakes and find the place.

Some of you have gone to churches and they've left you.

So it's not about you being unfaithful to anything, it's just about your main faithfulness is to God, and I've seen some churches.

Just I mean, I know churches that basically believe like we believe and they're still not open, and I don't.

I think that's dangerous.

I think it's dangerous for the people that go there.

I believe it's dangerous for the pastor that decided that.

But anyway, psalm 105, verse 37, this is talking about how God brought Israel out of Egypt and it says in verse 37, he brought them forth also with silver and gold.

Psalms 105:37

And there was not one feeble among their tribe, no one, after 400 years of slavery.

Not one feeble, not one weak, not one lame, not anybody limping, not anybody with arthritis, no one been over at the waist.

I mean, every one of them was strong and they were rich, and Egypt was glad when they departed.

This world would be glad when we're out of here too.

The next day you'd have, for the fear of them fell upon them.

That's the next stage for the church to generate fear, the fear of God among the population.

I know some of you look at me like what in the world is he saying?

Well, you know, the fear of God is lacking in our country.

People are just so bold to say all kinds of blasphemous things about God and about his church.

That's about to change, yes.

Verse 39, he, god, spread a cloud.

Everybody shout cloud, a cloud for a covering.

Everybody shout covering and fire to give light in the night, all right.

And then in first Corinthians, chapter 10, verse one moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and we're all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

What in the world does that mean?

Well, let me read it to you out of the amplified Maybe you get a little clearer picture.

And each one of them allowed himself also, this group that was not one feeble among their tribe, this group that was filled with silver and gold, this group that everybody's afraid of in Egypt, that group, they, each one of that group, allowed themselves also to be baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

They were thus brought under obligation to the law, to Moses and to the covenant, consecrated and set apart to the service of God Verse three and they did all eat the same spiritual meat, did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

So today I wanted to share a message entitled the value of spiritual covering.

Some of you've heard this, and maybe you've heard it over and over.

Well then, if that's you, then this is water for the seed that's already been planted.

You need to get a hold of this.

You need to have a working knowledge, because God doesn't want you ignorant about this subject of spiritual covering Does not want you to be ignorant.

Ignorant could mean total ignorance.

Some people are totally ignorant of the value of spiritual covering because they don't even know it exists.

And then there can be those that are partially ignorant.

They know a little bit enough to be dangerous, and then you have the people that have this type of ignorance.

Ignorance, in other words.

They know it but they ignore it, they're not persuaded by it, they don't practice the truth of it.

Are you with me now?

And so we're gonna examine spiritual covering today, what it means and how to take advantage of it.

It's for your benefit, it's part of the covenant that God gave us, and the Old Testament is the type and shadow you know.

Just like I'm standing up here, the light shining on me, there's a shadow.

Well, you know, if I just saw the shadow, I wouldn't know much about me.

It depends on the angle of the light and all that I mean.

My shadow could be 30 foot long.

I'm not 30 foot tall, except in some times.

Sometimes I'm 30, no, I'm not.

But no, if the shadow doesn't give you everything, gives you an indication, doesn't tell you everything.

So that's why we need the New Testament.

We have the substance of the shadow in the New Testament.

And how do you know that?

Because teaching see, preaching won't do this.

Preaching's got its uses.

Preaching is good, you know, when you get to have a stem winder and a pastor is really whipping around and cotton spitting out of his tongue and everything like that, that's fun and that's that can knock devils off of you.

You know, preaching is like a fire hose, but teaching is what you need on this subject.

You need to increase your knowledge of something that belongs to you and out-operates.

And so then the Old Testament is written for our exhortation and warning.

I didn't read that.

Let me finish.

1 Corinthians, chapter 10.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

I forgot one verse, verse 11 here.

Now, all these things happened under them, for examples, what things?

Well, all the failures they had in the wilderness.

I mean, you know, if you read back in Exodus and Numbers, you'll find out that the children of Israel made one mistake after another.

They were always in trouble with God.

It seemed like One time God was so mad he said get back out of the way, moses, I'm gonna consume them all.

God says, no, go ahead.

If you're gonna take them out, take me out with them.

I don't wanna be left to have to explain all of this to other people and they well your God, could not keep these people blah, blah, blah your blood.

So I don't wanna hear that about you.

So just take me out with them.

Boy, you talk about a leader.

That's what I call a leader.

He interceded for his wayward sheep and God was answered that Are you with me now?

So he said all these things are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the age are come.

We need to understand the mistakes that Israel made, because we're in many ways, we're like them and we can commit the same things.

Well, but we have the new.

I know you have the New Testament.

You have obligations that you have to fulfill.

They had obligations to Moses, they had obligations to each other and they had to fulfill those obligations, otherwise they got in trouble with God.

Are you with me?

And so it's the same in the new.

So, in fact, stephen, when he was preaching there in Acts, chapter seven, right before they stoned him to death, he was talking about Israel being the church in the wilderness.

Israel was the church in the wilderness.

So there's a lot of similarities between the church of Jesus Christ in the New Testament and the church in the wilderness in the old.

So let's look at the type of the covering that Israel had.

And you know the story in Exodus.

We won't go back, but God led Israel out of Egypt and he led them out with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

And so he led them right to the right, straight to the Red Sea.

And here's an impenetrable obstacle in their way.

And then they look behind him and here comes the army of Pharaoh.

He got, he got steamed that he had been so made a fool of, and he wanted to.

He wanted to write his pride, he wanted to get rid of them.

So he's riding after him and all of his chariots and soldiers.

And so what did?

What did the children of Israel do?

They started whining and crying.

Why didn't you bring us out here to die?

We would have been better off.

Well, really you've been better off.

You were crying to be delivered.

You know they were always whining and crying, murmuring and complaining.

And so God just told Moses stretch your rod out.

He stretched out his rod over the Red Sea.

I have a rod.

I stretch out my rod over you many times.

It's a rod of authority.

It's the name of Jesus, it's the word of God, it's the Holy Ghost.

I have a rod, a supernatural rod.

I mean it's stretched out right now.

Well, I don't see anything but your hand.

Yeah, but that rod is there at the end of my hand.

Why?

Because I know it's there.

I know it's there.

Faith people see things that other people don't see.

But anyway, he stretched out his rod and that sea parted.

All that night, east wind blew, the sea parted and what happened to the cloud?

Well, the cloud became a pillar of fire that night and it moved away from the front of Israel and went behind them and lodged in between the camp of the Israelites and the camp of Pharaoh and his soldiers.

And on one side to Israel it was warmth and comfort all night long.

On the other side it was fear and trembling and dread to Pharaoh.

You can imagine that's God in that fire.

And they're getting nervous now about their pursuit.

And so then the next morning that cloud comes back around and leads them through the Red Sea.

I mean, the Red Sea's parted, it's got water on either side.

The Bible said by faith they crossed the Red Sea.

So God gave them credit for having faith to follow the cloud through the Red Sea.

Y'all know these stories right.

They're not stories, they're testimonies.

Oh, that's a Bible story.

No, it's a test.

It actually happened.

I think about the professor at some dead Bible college that was teaching on this.

He said well, you understand that the Red Sea means reed sea.

It was a sea of reeds and really it's only ankle deep water.

And it really wasn't a miracle.

They just ran through this ankle deep water to the other side and here's a can in the back.

He says oh, professor, it's even a greater miracle that we thought Pharaoh and his old army drowned in ankle deep water, Wow.

So anyway, I want you to turn to Isaiah, chapter four.

Everybody say cloud number one.

See, the cloud number one was the cloud that led them through the wilderness.

It led them every time the cloud moved.

They broke camp and they left with that cloud.

At night it came and it was in the middle of their camp and provided.

Just think about that.

When they misbehaved, they misbehaved right in front of God.

God is right there, he's visible in the cloud and in the fire, and yet they misbehaved.

Pretty stiff neck, that's El Dumb O, but we're just like that.

That's why we need these testimonies, because we're living in the end of the age.

All right.

So Isaiah four, if you found it, I want to read it out of the amplified Verse five Isaiah, chapter four, verse five and the Lord will create over the whole site, over every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies.

This is an assembly, nick, that's like the assembling of yourselves together as a man or some is.

That's why a live stream by itself is not a church, can't have a church unless you have assembly, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night.

Everybody say first cloud, for over all the glory shall be a canopy, a defense of divine love and protection.

Everybody say second cloud See, there's two clouds.

I said there's two clouds.

One cloud is for them to follow, one cloud is for God to be in their midst, but the other cloud is above them as a canopy.

And there shall be a verse six there shall be a pavilion for shade in the daytime from the heat and for a place of refuge and a shelter from storm and from rain.

I heard on the radio that it's 130 degrees in Southern California, there in Death Valley.

Wouldn't you just love vacation in Death Valley.

They don't call it Death Valley for nothing.

130 degrees, you're not going to make it.

You're not going to make it unless you've made some special provisions for that kind of heat.

You're going to die of the heat and that's the kind of heat they had in this wilderness.

I've been there in that wilderness.

It's really hot.

It's hot all the time.

It's hot and even hot in March.

I was there in March.

It was hot.

I don't think what it was like in August.

And it's barren, there's no water.

It's terrible, it's hard.

And they've got babies being born out there.

They've got little lambs being born, they've got little kids being born.

I mean, they've got tender animals, they've got tender children.

They've got to have a protection.

They've got to have a canopy over them and it was right over the camp of the Israelites as they moved, the canopy overhead moved just the same way as the cloud moved.

Are y'all with me now?

Isaiah had a revelation of that hoopah.

You know that's what Jews, when they marry, they have a hoopah or a wedding canopy.

America has a canopy over it, a hoopah, if you will.

And we've been shooting holes, big holes in our canopy.

If you want to know why things are as bad as they are.

It's not because God has done anything, it's because we have shot holes in our protection.

That's right when Congress doesn't do anything, when we've elected them to go up there and stop some of the things.

For instance, we had a, we passed a law, the Defense of Marriage Act, and now we've got the Supreme Court that made their own law and said oh no, gay marriage is perfectly constituted.

Well, no, it is not and it never will be.

It's not constitutional.

There is no right for people of the same sex to be married and there's no right for anybody to determine what sex they are.

You can't do that.

That's against the God of heaven and against all science.

You can't change the number of chromosomes you were born with.

You may have been born with a birth defect Okay, understand that there's correction for a birth defect, but not chromosomes.

Chromosomes are set.

You can't choose that.

Well, the Supreme Court just said yes, you can't.

The Supreme Court just said it.

Well, I reject that.

Mr Supreme Court, you're gonna do as much as we can to replace you, everything we can to get rid of you One way or the other, peaceably, peaceably, amen.

So we.

So they had this canopy, they had this protection that shielded them and of course they had to have strict placement out there because all the 12 tribes, they did just like a mob out there.

They had the Levites in one spot, especially after they made the Tabernacle in wilderness, and they got that formed and they actually contained the Shekinah presence of God in the Ark of the Covenant and had the canopy and all of that, and they had that made.

Well, then you had the Levites in the center and then you had three tribes on the north, three tribes on the west, three tribes on the east, three tribes on the south.

They all broke camp in certain orders, the Levites leading the way, and they all had their own thing to do.

They all had their own duties to perform.

They had to be in order and as they did that and they followed the cloud and they had the pillar of fire, by night they were blessed with God's own presence.

And then above them, everywhere they went, there was this protection from the elements, from the extremes of weather and the extremes of heat.

Are you with me now?

I mean, god took care of His people.

Is he care more about them than us?

Listen, we have supernatural protection if we will learn how to cooperate with it.

What would happen, though, if somebody decided to get out of whack?

See, they found out the hard way.

Miriam and Aaron decided one day you know what God uses us.

He talks to us.

I mean Moses.

You know, moses is a little stuck up.

He's just too.

He thinks he's something else, you know, and besides that, he's married to that dark woman.

See, they had that racism.

You know, zipporah was a dark skinned woman, and they criticized him for his wife that he married Jethro on the backside of the desert when he was running from Pharaoh, and so God heard him.

Hey, dummy, he's right there.

You think he's deaf?

Does he need a little hearing aid?

No, he knows what you're saying.

So God says y'all come out of here.

Tint, stand right here.

I mean His presence.

Comes, get out of your tent, come, stand right here.

He said you know this man here.

Most of the time I talk to people in dark sayings and parables, and all that but him.

I talk to him apparently face to face.

How is it, then, that you were not afraid to talk about him and criticize him?

And he left their presence, and Miriam was white with leprosy, just like that.

And Aaron said oh, oh, please, moses, pray for her.

Oh, my God, so he did.

He prayed for her.

You know what God said?

Well, if she'd have spit in her father's face, she'd be unclean a week.

Let her dwell outside the camp, let her be out there outside the canopy for a week, let her bear the heat and let her be separated from my presence.

Let her stay out there for a week and she's got leprosy.

She might not, I'm telling you, eight days she'd have probably died.

But seven days she came back in the camp and, of course, when she was outside the camp, all three million people had to stop.

They couldn't progress.

I mean, she was out there bearing her sin and being rebuked and being humbled in front of a whole group.

She had been boy, she'd been dancing.

You know, look at the song of Miriam in Exodus 15.

Oh, she was a real psalmist, she was a prophetess, don't you?

So she's a prophetess.

I've seen more than my share of prophetesses, than them.

I tell you now, she had to be humble.

Are you with me now?

And I could go on.

I mean, aaron's grandson.

They didn't buy them.

And then you had Corey, and they offered strange fire, the earth opened up and swallowed everything up that they had.

Did God do that?

No, the devil did it.

Why?

Because they got out from under the covering.

They got out from under the protection.

They were supposed to be married, as it were, to Moses.

Are you with me now?

They had covenant.

They were, when they were baptized, unto Moses, in the, in the cloud and in the sea that was.

That meant that they had obligations toward him and toward God.

I mean, they can't deal directly with God.

They're dealing with Moses.

Well, yeah, but, pastor, we're living in the New Testament.

Well, I'm glad you brought that up.

Let's get into the New Testament, because that's the type and shadow.

Are you with me now?

So the covering in the New Testament.

Let's look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 12, verse one Now, concerning the things of the spirit gifts.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

There is italicized so, things concerning the spirit.

I would not have you to be ignorant.

We're not supposed to be ignorant about our spiritual covering.

We're not supposed to be ignorant about things of the spirit.

And so you know there's nine gifts of the spirit.

We talk about those, we function in those here in the church roughly divide up into three groups the revelatory gifts, the vocal gifts and the power gifts.

And then it goes on.

And those words, the word gift, there is the word, the Greek word charisma, which means smearing, it means oil, it's anointing.

So those gifts are from God, there as the spirit wills.

You can't just turn them on and off, you can't just decide I'm gonna prophesy today.

No, it's gotta be the spirit moving you and you know, people have to be taught how to flow in the spirit.

And then you go on down to verse 28, and it says and God and this is something you're not supposed to be ignorant about, this is things concerning the spirit realm, and God has set some in the church First apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers.

After that, miracles and gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

Now, that's not talking about charisma, but that's talking about gifts, doma.

Ephesians 4.7 says and God gave gifts unto men and he gave doma is present.

He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, you know, some pastors and teachers, five full ministry.

They are gifts.

Doma, the Greek word doma means present, like a Christmas present or a birthday present.

What good is a present if you don't receive it, if you don't unwrap it and receive the present and take it and use it.

The gift is of no consequence.

What if you just left it under the Christmas tree until next year?

Well, you had a gift, but you didn't use it.

I'm a gift to you.

The pastor's office is a gift to you.

Well, it doesn't say anything about pastors there.

Well, let's get to it.

This is apostles.

Now, this is not in order in verse 28.

It's not in order of rank or importance.

It's in chronological order.

God started with apostles because that's what he had.

He had.

Well, he had 12, and then one of them died, judas died.

Notice, nobody ever names their kid, judas, but anyway, that's another story.

Hi, this is my son, judas.

No, you don't see that Nobody names his son.

So Judas is gone.

That leaves 11, and then they.

You know, really, I think Paul was the 12th, but I can't prove it.

It came later, but he had apostles, then prophets.

Paul was a prophet at one point before he was an apostle.

You don't start off as an apostle and you don't start off as a prophet.

You start off as a nothing burger and then you grow.

Amen, you're that.

You're a blob, and then, if you're faithful, you grow and you grow, and you grow and you become a believer and you become a, you know a disciple and then if God has gifts for you, that he sets you into these offices.

So the third one that he set into the church early was the teacher.

Why they needed teaching?

Most of the believers were ex.

You know Judaism, you know they knew about Judaism.

They had to come out of religion and into relationship.

They needed teaching.

And so then after that you have miracles and gifts of healings.

That's the evangelist ministry.

And then helps.

You know, look out among you, seven men of honest report and full of a Holy Ghost to a point, over this business.

We don't have time to wait tables.

Get you some ministry of helps.

Get some men over this business.

What business?

Waiting tables?

In other words, ushering Deacon, deaconate deacons they're the workers.

That's the ministry of helps.

It's a ministry, it's an office that's set in the church.

I mean we have to have a very highly developed ministry of helps to do what we do here.

I mean you saw the ministry of helps up here on the platform Worship team.

Ministry of helps.

Usher is ministry of helps.

Welcome ministry.

Ministry of helps All of our teachers and children.

Church ministry of helps.

They derive a lot of their anointing from my covering.

I determined that by the covering over this church, people say, well, I just don't feel I have an anointing.

Step into the role and you'll get anointed.

Just like that.

Just like that, you step into the need and just like that the anointing will come on you.

Yes, and so then the last one is governments, and that Greek word.

It means pilotage or steerage.

It's like the captain of the ship.

You know, the captain of the ship is not at the wheel.

He's telling the guy on the wheel take this headed all ahead, full Tling, you know, and they throw the lever forward and they get the engines running at full speed.

The captain is the one that determines all of that.

So that's the pastor.

It's last in chronological order, why?

The easiest way to describe it is the five fold ministry of a hand.

The apostle is the thumb.

Without the thumb you can't grip, you can't get a grip, you can't receive.

Now you need the thumb.

And then the index finger is the prophet pointing the way.

The middle finger is the evangelist that reached the farthest.

The little finger is the teacher.

It goes inside the ear.

The ring finger is the pastor.

He's married to the saints.

A true pastor is not going to pastor somewhere for six months and then move on to another place, and that's more like the apostle.

Apostle is a traveling minister.

He establishes churches and moves on.

Now some of you come out of churches that had a pulpit committee.

Well, we didn't have a pulpit committee in this church and I told you how this church started.

Brother Osteen laid hands on me and said you're a pastor and recognized the gift that was in me and I operated in that gift for a long time, eight years at the church at Lakewood, and so there was no pulpit committee.

I was not hired.

So you cannot fire me.

Jesus can fire me, but you can't.

You can vote with your feet.

We have a voting membership.

You vote with your feet, people do.

People do vote for their feet.

I mean sometimes.

I mean when we did what we're doing, some people left.

They didn't want to being a church like this anymore.

It was too hot, too much Whoo, it's too Whoo.

I Don't want to face that.

I don't want to take the heat.

Well, I understand Bye-bye, but look at, look, how many people have come because of it.

Thank God for that, thank God that you've come and thank God for the ones that have stayed faithful.

I appreciate it, and God does too.

So covering so so the gifts of the spirit.

So so then, the setting of the offices is in chronological order, and their Doma, their gifts, their presence, and they have to be received.

If you don't receive me as the gift, then it's going to be difficult for you to really Obligate or commit yourself to me.

I want to commit myself to those who have committed themselves back to me Like a marriage.

It's like being married, it's a covenant to me, it's just as holy, but unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be as permanent in Most people's minds, and I think it's because of our society.

I think because we live in a great country, that where we have a Democratic Republic where people have a voice, especially now that we have Facebook and social media, where people are so bold to just express their opinions that they would never say face-to-face with somebody, especially critical things.

I mean, they say the most hateful things you know on Facebook that they would never say to someone eyeball to eyeball.

We have generated a Monster in this society and it's leaked into the church where people just think well, I've got my say, I've got as much say as everybody here.

Well, you really don't, because the kingdom of God is not a democracy.

We don't vote, we don't vote.

You have the Holy Ghost in you and you're able to To follow the Spirit of God, but, but a lot of times you just have to give me the benefit of that.

If you really receive my, my office, then you'll give me the benefit of the doubt.

It was harder in the early days of the church because I had didn't have a long track record.

I started this church and and I would make decisions and people would Bow up.

People wouldn't like it.

People express their opinion.

Well, you act like I had one guy come to my office and tell me you know, you know what you're, you're just like me, you're kind of a jackass.

How would you like it if somebody came into your office and called you a jackass to your face?

But the problem with him is he considered himself a friend of mine Because I knew him at Lakewood as a friend.

But when you know, when you, when you, when you come in this church, I'm no longer your friend.

I'm not your buddy or your pal.

That's why I don't pal around with everybody.

You know I, I'm in an office that needs to be respected.

Even if you don't respect me personally, you have to respect the office.

This is what's going on with the presidency.

There's no respect for the office of the president.

Millions of people voted for him and then he's been talked about like he's a dog.

You might not agree with him on everything, but you don't talk about him like that.

Lack of the fear of God, lack of the fear of God.

You anyway, I'm getting off.

So.

So what is my job?

Well, according to Ephesians 4 is to mature you into your highest purpose.

You need someone to teach you, to mature you so that you can grow from the babyhood stage into the teenage stage, to the full adult stage.

And and in this church, nobody ever graduates, you just.

You just keep going from faith to faith, from glory to glory, from strength to strength.

Nobody's arrived.

I haven't arrived.

I'm still learning, growing.

Are you with me now Talking about the covering, spiritual covering, hebrews 13.

I'm taking a while because these subjects have fallen by the wayside in most of the churches and that's why we have, when you have churches that have that, are the pastors hired by a pulpit committee?

Well, they, they discover, they get the candidates and then they go try out for the church.

And then you know the board of demons Deacons votes on that and they hire the person.

They're hired.

And then, of course, you know most pastors are looking for the next gig.

I mean, if they go to a big church, they want a bigger church.

You know they don't.

They're not looking to go down, they're looking to go up.

You know better, better benefits, bigger salary, bigger.

You know nicer surroundings, longer vacations, nice golf club membership, so forth and so on, and and so you have this, this, that's not in the Bible.

You can't find it in the Bible.

It's unscriptural to do that, and so that's why a lot of you are here.

You're here because you you've got people, businessmen that are running the pastor, even if the pastor Wanted to be open the businessmen.

If so, we can't do that.

We're gonna make people mad, people will quit giving, and then We'll have a problem with our budget.

Our budget will suffer.

Well, what do you do about your budget?

You know what?

We're blessed, the.

I'm telling you we're so blessed in this church.

We just put $50,000 worth of air conditioning units.

And I looked at the, at the, at the Financial report.

I couldn't even tell it.

They just cash flowed, which wrote a check.

Then I ever get up here and say, oh my god, we're just about to go with my stuff here.

No, I'll let you know.

I don't remember if anybody gave into that or not, but we didn't even receive an offering.

I'll let you know what we were doing.

I mean it's painful, that's it.

They, I mean we know how to operate in God's kingdom.

It doesn't, doesn't including, it doesn't include voting.

Hebrews 13, or you found it.

Yet verse 7 Remember them which have the rule over you.

And in my margin, it says remember them.

Who are the guides, spiritual guides?

Well, that gets back to politics and steerage.

I'm a guide in your life.

I'm guiding your spiritual life, not your Physical life.

You don't call me to say you know, pastor, I'm thinking about buying a new car, do you?

You think I can buy a car?

No, I don't care whether you buy a car or don't buy a car.

I'm not guiding you in your everyday life.

I'm talking about your spiritual life.

And it says what remember?

Some people forget they have a guide, some people forget they have a pastor, and, and, and.

So it says who have the rule over you, or who are your spiritual guides who have spoken on to you, the word of God.

Have I done that?

Whose faith?

Forget about it.

No, who's faith follow.

Let me tell you some.

My faith had to be kicked in for us to be here.

20 almost is 25th year, back in January, so we're in our 26th year.

We must have had some kind of faith to have a campus paid for, no debt.

No, no, nobody, we don't know anybody.

We've old people a long, long time.

And now we're free, right, god, we've paid that thing off.

It was supernatural don't have time to give the testimony but it was faith involved.

So follow my faith.

We live our lives in front of you.

You know when I'm horse.

You know I.

I had open-heart surgery right in front of you.

I recovered right in front of you.

I got up here in two months and I was wide as a sheet pale.

You know, skinny, which is pretty unusual for me.

Gladness didn't even know who.

I was there for a few months.

Now we live in front of you, and so whose faith follow, considering the end of their manner of living?

See, that's why you can't follow other people that are on TV and YouTube and all of that.

You don't know anything about their manner of life.

You don't know anything whether they're living right or not.

You have no idea what they really believe, but not so with someone you're married to.

Glad it's not been married 52 years last month we know, we know something about committing, so you know that.

Alright, this the Bible says remember them.

Then it says oh, here's a good one.

Now y'all get ready, fasten your seatbelts.

Usher's locked the doors, don't let anybody leave.

Verse 17 obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves.

Whoo and submit yourselves.

Why?

Because they watch over your souls, over your way of thinking.

That's these souls we think spirit.

No, that's not.

It's your way of thinking.

Your soul is your mind, your will, your intellect.

I'm feeding your spirit the Word of God, but I also have a duty and a Responsibility, and I will give an account one day how well I watched after.

Your way of thinking and people's way of thinking is all messed up right now.

So I have to spend extra time Talking to you about the lies that we're hearing on a daily basis.

It's confrontational.

I realize that it's hard.

Some of you have relatives and loved ones that don't agree with what you're staying, and I understand that too and I.

But if I don't give you the ammunition you need, what have I done?

I haven't done my job.

I Haven't watched over your way of thinking.

Obey them word.

Obey means to rely on, to agree, not disagree.

Don't, don't disagree with me.

Agree with me, well, I just don't agree.

Well, stop giving yourself permission to disagree on partial information, because if you knew what I knew, you wouldn't disagree.

So why don't you just wait?

I like?

Here's one thing I tell all my members and all my new members Give me the benefit of the doubt.

Why, what?

What do you mean?

You're arrogant.

Well, no, we've been married 52 years.

We know something about marriage.

We know something about raising kids.

Our kids are in the ministry with us, our grandkids are here.

We know something about success.

And so give me the benefit of the doubt.

If you don't understand on what I'm saying, or it looks kind of weird, hey, give it.

Or give it a little while and pray for me and and ask God to help you and he will.

But give me the benefit of that.

Don't.

Don't listen to some doofus over here that doesn't know what they're talking about.

Are you with me, reliant on a Greek believe?

Believe me, I had a relative one time that believed a lie and I couldn't convince them that it was a lie.

And then they gave me trouble.

I mean, because people were using this person was close to me as proof that they were right.

But they were all lies.

All of them were wrong and I had to separate myself from that person.

Oh that's, you didn't forget.

No, I forgave her, but I couldn't afford.

I had to watch after you.

I'm married to you.

I wasn't married to them, I'm married to you and I've got to make sure that somebody doesn't get some kind of weird circle of lies coming into this church.

So I separated myself from that person.

So give the benefit of that trust.

Yield, that's a good one, yield.

I've seldom give orders.

I don't tell people what to do.

I mean, we have opportunities out here.

We have certain best practices.

We have certain little things that we try to institute.

You know length of time you need to be in the church in order to get involved.

We make exceptions to rules that we have.

People are more important than rules, but we have to have best practices.

God can't bless a mess.

The children of Israel had strict rules.

They had to.

We read that in the Amplified.

They obligated themselves to the law.

They obligated themselves to Moses and to each other and to the covenant.

Well, we have no less obligation.

Our obligation is the same, not less.

Are you with me now?

Praise God, are you getting anything out of this today?

I'm taking my time, but I, you know, I feel this is an opportunity we take almost every year to teach on this, because I find, in 33 years of ministry, 26 years of pastoring, that people and they fail it's usually a failure of what I'm talking about right here, right now they don't understand the benefit of the spiritual covering that exists in a local church.

They don't understand it, and they also don't understand the seriousness of their obligations.

This is not the Rotary Club, this is not the Lions Club, this is not the Chamber of Commerce, this is not some country club.

This is the church of Jesus Christ, and in this church we do have authority, but authority comes with it responsibility, and so I like to preach this so that people can take advantage of the good things that God has given us.

You know, I mentioned this circle of lies.

There was a time when this lie got out, and it really, essentially it happened, and we moved out of our first building.

We moved into the church down the street which is now Christ's church, and back then it was championed for its Baptist.

It was huge, 180,000 square feet, and they had moved to their present location now.

But they were not in the sanctuary, they were in the gym, meeting in the gym and having umpteen services every week.

And I knew the pastor and went and I had made overtures to want somebody on the board or demons, not demons, beacons and he was a real estate broker and I made overtures and I said what about us leasing your building?

You're out of the main sanctuary.

We'd like to lease your sanctuary.

We're running out of parking, we're running out of space.

And so they did.

They took a while but I finally got in front of the pastor Damond Shook was the pastor back then and when he and I talked after three months of nothing by the board of beacons get the right word they did nothing.

They did nothing.

They didn't even approach him.

He hadn't heard anything about my proposal.

I wrote it out, everything gave it to him.

He never even saw it.

Well, yeah, pastor, we can do this.

So he wanted to give us 90 days.

No, I said 90 days.

I said that's if you sell this building for sale $6.5 million and I knew it wasn't gonna sell for that kind of money, there's just no way.

It's old, air conditioning is old.

I mean, I knew about that building for years.

My cousin was the head of the Sunday School for the Men Sunday School Department and so I knew all about that church and I knew it wasn't gonna sell for 6.5 million.

So I thought, you know, we could be here for a year and a half, two years.

And so he said we'll give you 90 days notice.

I said 90, he wouldn't budge Nope, 90 days.

And I said, wow, gotta move a church in 90 days.

That's kind of short notice.

But I signed it.

I signed the lease and we started there and then, less than a year later they sold that building.

They sold it for $3 million to another Baptist.

That church Baptist church, not Southern Baptist, but Baptist $3 million.

I'm glad he didn't offer it to me for $3 million.

I might have been tempted to buy it, but God had mercy on me.

So here we are.

We got 90 days to leave this church and I didn't have anywhere to go.

I didn't know where to go, I couldn't figure it out and my whole family went down and we found this seventh day Adventist church down in West Houston and they're there on Saturday.

We could be there on Sunday.

They were looking for somebody to lease their sanctuary.

So we walked in the whole family, gladys and myself and Claire of course that's before she's married and then Jay, selena and Ethan this was before Allison came along and so we all went, we all looked at the church.

I never felt one witness.

The man was very nice.

He was an Indian man and he loved Brother Osteen because of all his work in India and he was the head deacon and kind of a really.

He was really the pastor.

But anyway, they had a pastor and he was very nice.

He gave me the proposal.

It was expensive, boy.

I was kind of shocked at how much money they wanted and I didn't have a witness at all.

No witness.

And so I said honey, have you got a witness?

I said no.

I said Claire, if you got a witness?

No, jay, how about you If you got a witness?

Selena?

Selena, if you got a witness?

No, ethan, have you got a witness?

Ethan is this tall.

We went through the entire family.

Nobody had a witness.

I left there needing a building.

I've got 30 days left, 30 days, and I've got to get out of this church over here and move my entire church to somewhere I don't know where and I have no witness to take it.

And so all the clock is running, clock is running, clock is running, and I didn't know behind the scenes there was rebellion, and so on the Wednesday night before the Thursday, we're moving out.

We had one last service in that building and the Holy Ghost told me that afternoon.

He said I want you to do the service all by yourself, don't let anybody up on the platform with you.

No praise and worship team, no one.

You and the microphone, that's all, mm, okay.

So I told them all and they all looked at me kind of funny, and so I preached a message and I noticed some of the people that were in there.

They had these funny looks on their faces and so finally, at the end I said, all right, well, folks, you know that we've been looking for a place.

We haven't yet found it, but we will have one by this coming Sunday.

And I said we will call you and we know where we're gonna have Sunday service.

This is Wednesday night and Sunday, and while I'm talking, several people that I felt were leaders and were close to me got up and left.

They wanted me to know they didn't like it and they wanted everyone else there to know that they didn't like it.

Hint, hello, hint.

And so I got a call late that night and one of our faithful members said you know, these people had been meeting in secret and 20 or 25 of them had been talking about it for several months.

And I was just blown away.

She couldn't believe it and I couldn't believe it, mois.

And so I'm talking about spiritual covering now and I'm talking about obligations.

And so the next morning, you know, I'm kind of heavy, and the phone rings and it's Dr Pagani, the Indian, you know guy at Seventh Day Church, and he called me.

He says Pastor Griner, where are you?

We need you.

And I dropped the phone.

The anointing hit me so heavy, the witness hit me so heavy that I dropped the phone and almost fainted.

I mean, there's the.

The God withheld the witness until all of those people left me and showed their their true colors and I said well, we need you, you know.

And so we moved in and we had our first service that next Sunday morning, and so I guess it was maybe Friday by the time we get all that, friday two o'clock in the morning, I wake up and I'm still heavy about all this, this, the betrayal.

It was a betrayal of people and there were three ringleaders.

I finally found out three ringleaders One of the ones was the guy that called me a jackass two years before that guy and two others and and so I just laid on my face like Moses.

Moses laid on his face at the Red Sea.

God said get up strategy, out your rod.

And so I laid on my face two o'clock in the morning and here was my main thing.

I said God, I said this was a betrayal and I said the biggest thing question I have is I didn't know.

How is it?

Am I back-slipping?

Am I have I hardened my heart so much that I can't hear your direction?

Looks to me like I should have known this was going on.

If I'd have known it, I could have possibly intervened.

I could have saved some of these people from being deceived.

I said I'm just, the main thing is not so much that they left, it's just that I didn't know it.

I didn't know that this was going on in my own church.

What have I done wrong.

Tell me, I'm ready to repent, I'm ready to change.

And I'm weeping, you know, by this time I'm just pouring out my heart.

And God said well, son, did you give me your life?

And I said, well, yes, sir, I sure did.

He said so, your life belongs to me.

Yes, sir, he sure does.

He said so, then I can use your life any way that I choose to.

Yes, sir, you can.

He said even to prove people out.

And I said yes, sir, you can.

And when he said that it just all that grief, all that heaven is just leaked out, you know, just ran out of me.

Set me free, you know.

And I said well, okay.

I said, well, what do I do now?

He said, well, forgive him.

You know, you feel like a baby, you know, forgive him.

I said, yes, lord.

I laughed.

I said, yes, lord, yes, lord, I do intend to forgive him.

He said pray my mercy on them.

Yes, lord, I sure do that.

Take your pastoral covering off of them.

When he said that, the fear of God hit me and I realized the horrible thing that they were about to go through Not me, them, no longer will I use my influence in the spirit realm on their behalf.

No longer will God be obligated to protect them.

I'm not saying they went to hell, I'm not saying that anything terrible necessarily is going to happen.

I'm just saying the difference between the covering and not having to cover it.

Yes, man, and he said, take your pastoral covering off.

And that's the first time I really knew that I had a covering to offer.

I never heard any teaching on it.

For those things, never taught on that I know of and that's why I teach it, because I realized that I had to be taught, I had to be informed what I had.

And if I don't tell you what I've got to offer, then you don't have a real good reason to plant yourself here.

Because that's what it is.

You're planting yourself, you're obligating yourself, and that ought to not be done lightly.

You ought to investigate, you ought to find out whether this is the place that you belong.

All I want is the people that belong here.

I don't want anybody else, I just want the ones that belong.

Like Micah, see, he belongs.

He's always saying amenable, I know when he's here he has an imminent position in the sound booth.

His voice carries all the way across and it's music to my ears Now y'all don't?

Some of you are looking at me like a cow at a new gate.

Now, this is a good message.

This is not condemnation.

As anybody, I don't want you to feel heavy over anything.

Look at what we've come through.

Look at the price that we've paid, and God has seen us through.

He's seen us through.

I don't know if I would even say this part.

Yeah, I'll say it.

We could push pause on the tape.

We have a new program.

It's a database that we're installing after many years of using the old one.

It just the old one had bought, you know.

So we've got a brand new deal.

We had to put all of our information to the new database and since 2003, which is when we poured the slab on that, and I don't remember why we started that particular year, but 2003, wasn't it, james?

So we've had how many thousand?

11,000 in our database.

11,000 people have come to this church since 2003.

Look around now 11,000.

You see 1100?

So you know there is a crisis of obligation, commitment.

That's why the divorce rate in the church is so high, because people can't even commit to each other, much less to a church, and that's why the church is so weak and that's why the church needs a revival and that's why this country is in deep trouble.

It's all back to believers not understanding what they have available to them and then, correspondingly, not understanding their responsibility.

And so that's why I teach this, so that you can understand it.

And so I've got three things, and we'll get on down the road here, to maximize the value of your spiritual coverage.

Number one stay in proper position in the local church.

In other words, come to church.

That's the proper position for you.

Is here as often as you can, and I know we're regional, we have people drive from long distances and so you may not be able to come here as consistently consistently as you like.

So we're not trying to snare you or make you feel bad, but come as much as you can.

And if you can't come, then we do have live stream that will help you.

It's better than not coming and get involved.

Like the 12 tribes.

They all had a job to do.

Now some of you, I know, have businesses that preclude you from being, say, an usher here.

You can't commit to that many times in a row.

You have business trips.

We understand that.

I'm not talking about you or to you or making you feel bad.

We understand where you're at, and so you're doing kingdom business.

What you're doing is kingdom business, but for those of you most of us I would say we need your help.

It's just many hands on deck, all hands on deck.

If we have more people involved, then it just makes it easier on everybody and you need to serve, and so that's divine order and divine order with Moses and with each other.

That's what the 12 tribes had.

That's what we have to have here.

Number two trust in and rely on your pastor and the office I stand in.

I like to be called pastor.

I don't like John, I don't like Mr Griner, I don't like Mr or brother.

I'm more than your brother.

I'm your pastor, so call me pastor, even if I'm not your pastor.

I'm a pastor, so call me pastor, john, pastor Griner or just pastor's fine, but I prefer that.

That lets you know and me know, and the devil knows Amen.

And then receive me as a present.

Prioritize the messages that I preach, you know, beware of TV preachers, beware of YouTube preachers, beware of hotel profits.

I'll put all of that in one thing beware of too many voices.

You've heard this old adage too many cooks spoil the broth.

Too many voices will confuse your spirit.

I mean, when you go out to eat, you know you.

You you've just died.

Okay, tonight is fajita night, so we're going to have fajitas, right.

But on the way to fajitas, do you go to PF Changs and get a load of egg rolls Amen.

Get some fried rice.

Then go buy and pick up the fajitas Amen.

And then go buy, you know, campioni and get some lasagna.

I mean, yeah, you get.

You know, get a big old watermelon, slice it up.

I mean, you know you're going to get sick eating all that different kind of food.

I mean, you go, you know you.

You've got to listen.

The diet you need is coming out of your pastor's teaching.

It's not that brother Copeland didn't worth listening to it, it's just he's he's, he's in a different place.

You don't listen to him instead of me, cause if you do, you're not going to get what you really need.

He's not anointed to feed you the basics that you need to have.

You're going to get off in your diet and you're going to get off, or does that make any sense to you?

See, god called you here.

If you, if you decide to come here, then you decided based on the Holy spirit showing you.

And so then, you're making a commitment.

So make the commitment here and anything else you listen to, make sure you listen to it as a, as an adjunct, or as a cherry on on the top or something whipped cream on the top of the Sunday, or something like that.

And then so trust in and rely on your pastor in his office.

Number three know that your spiritual covering will not prevent trials, but will enhance your ability to overcome them.

Come on, lift your hands in your seat.

The value of spiritual covering.

Praise God, hallelujah.