Consider The End

Let's lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad in the devil mad.

Let's say this together say heavenly Father, I'm glad to be here tonight.

I have ears to hear what the Spirit is telling me and I will be a doer of the Word, not just a hearer.

In Jesus' name, amen, turn your Bibles to the book of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah Jeremiah was a bullfrog, all right, jeremiah 31.

Jeremiah 31, I'm having a hard time finding what page is it on?

Okay, I found it, page 942,.

Thank you very much.

Jeremiah 31, 16,.

Have you found it yet?

Thus saith the Lord refrain thy voice from weeping and thine ears from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, sayeth the Lord, and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

And there is hope in thine end, sayeth the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

There is hope in thine end.

And so tonight I wanted to share a message and title consider the end and, as Paul Harvey used to say on his radio program, the end of the story.

That's the end of the story.

He always had a cool little hook in his radio program Consider the end of the story, you know, consider the end, don't wallow in the troubles of now.

I told someone this morning, I think the reason that the church and a lot of the people in the world are having so much trouble is because they've they're looking at the trouble of the immediate and they're not looking at the important.

They're faced with the immediate, immediately.

They're.

You know, maybe they're sick or they've got a relative that's sick, or they're forced to quarantine, or immediately they don't have a job, immediately they don't have any money and they're not really looking at the things that are important.

Don't wallow in the troubles of now.

The hour of now needs to be faced with what God did then for those who face trouble.

The Bible is filled with people who face trouble and most of the time the things that are written are a lot worse trouble than what we're going through.

And if we'll, we'll see how God intervened.

I mean that last song it's a new song.

We sang it for the first time this morning and then we sang it again tonight.

But God had just been so faithful, he's so good, that we sometimes forget how good he is just because of the immediate thing that hits us in the face.

Let's not do that.

Let's let's consider the end of the story.

It's not.

It hadn't come yet.

It's talking about the future.

See, and this scripture was to encourage Israel.

While they were in captivity in Babylon, they were really heartbroken.

They had lost everything.

Well, it was their own fault.

God warned them and warned them over the centuries.

I mean, he sent prophet after prophet to warn them turn away from your idols, turn away.

I beg people after 9-11 to please, let's repent as a nation.

Quit saying you're going to build a greater and a higher building to take the place.

And that's what they did.

They built a bigger building instead of repenting.

We needed to repent as a nation, and nobody was preaching that.

Nobody was saying that oh, god didn't, god didn't do that.

Well, I didn't say God did it.

I'm saying no, that it came because of the sin of this nation.

We're a Christian nation and look where the nation has gone in the years since then.

It's almost 20 years now, and so what are people saying?

Well, they're not talking about repentance, they're talking about testing.

They're talking about vaccines.

They're talking about tracers.

I call them chasers.

I mean, you're going to start getting chased.

I mean, this whole thing is all about being able to be subject to a police state.

I don't plan on being subject to a police state, so?

But this scripture was sent to encourage Israel during their captivity in Babylon and really, you know, we start thinking about how good God has been.

Then our troubles start to get smaller and smaller.

We start to praise God in our immediate problem that they're facing us starts to shrink in size, and our promise and what we believe determines the end of the story.

We can have a good end.

There's hope in that end about that.

God said so.

The Bible is filled with testimonies of what God did then and I tell you God doesn't love them anymore.

He loves you.

If God did it for one, he'll do it for you.

If he did it for anybody, he'll do it for you.

If he intervened on anybody's behalf, how many of you know he did?

He over and over and over?

The Bible is filled with a record of how God intervened in hopeless situations and turned things around.

There's hope in your end.

Consider the end.

This isn't the end, amen.

We won't talk about the fat lady singing.

We won't say that.

We'll forget about it.

Not over till the fat lady sings.

And so he is the same.

Yesterday, today and forever.

He hadn't lost a recipe for miracles.

How many of you really need a miracle?

Some of you came up.

You answered the altar call.

Now you need a miracle?

Well, I'll tell you what he's still doing some miracles, well, pastor, I know.

But what about Job?

I'm glad you brought him up.

Job is a good example.

Everybody wants to talk about Job.

They want to talk about all these problems and he had some problems.

I mean, you know, just think about you know he was a good man.

You know he had kids and His kids died.

They all, his entire family, got wiped out.

Then he got sick.

His wife said curse God and die.

He had some friends that came along to advise Him and he told Him all the things that he had done.

Wrong Boy, who needs friends like that?

Right, but you know, why don't you look at the end of the story?

Why don't you see everybody that preaches on Job?

They leave the end of the story off.

Bible scholars, most of them, believe that Job's story lasted between nine and 18 months.

So from the time that His kids died and he got sick, the end of the story wasn't but nine to 18 months.

And at the end of the story God healed Job and God turned His captivity.

So that meant the whole time that he was sick and broke.

He was under captivity to the devil.

Well, you know, god sent that.

No, god didn't send it, the devil did it to Him.

Well, god permitted it.

Well then, but you're getting permission.

I mentioned this this morning.

But permission and commission are two different things.

God permits everything you permit, but he did not commission the attack.

He couldn't stop the attack.

Because, why?

Because Job had opened the door for the devil to rob Him.

Job said, when His kids died, the thing that I greatly feared has come upon me.

What did he have?

Why didn't he do something about His rebellious kids?

He knew they weren't living for God.

He knew they were doing wrong and he kept offering up sacrifices for them.

He kept going to God and offering sacrifices, trying to cover their sins, for them, instead of going to their house and saying I'm cutting you off the party's over dear, I want some more inheritance.

You're going to live for God or you're not going to live.

You know, at my, at my no, he was to.

He was enabling them is really, when you read between the lines, he was enabling his children to live ungodly lives.

And so the thing that he greatly feared came upon him.

So God couldn't stop the devil from from attacking Joe.

But he said you can't have his life, you can't touch his life.

God limited the devil.

Where would we be if God hadn't limited some things that would that had come against us?

I tell you, god has put a limit.

He says this far, no further.

Surely they'll wake up before you take everything away.

Amen, let's wake up.

You know, let's not blame God, let's wake up, amen.

So Job, look at the end of it.

He gave Job twice as much as he had before.

He was one of the rich men of the men of the East and he got twice as much when it was all said and done.

And God gave him a brand new family.

How many of you see I don't know if I was a kid in the second family Think my dad has probably learned a few things about raising kids and he's probably not going to spare the rod Children.

Cover your ears, all right.

So, job, I mean, look look at the end of Job.

I mean he had a tough time and God turned it all around.

You going to turn your situation around?

How about Daniel?

I know he'd got it tough, but I don't know anybody that spent the night with a bunch of lions.

He spent the night with a whole bunch of hungry lions and he was so disturbed that he went to sleep.

And here comes the king.

Early the next morning he felt so bad that he'd put himself in that position.

He'd made that stupid edict and everything.

Our politicians are not as smart as that king.

None of them confessed to being stupid like he did.

Oh, I was so stupid to close the churches.

I'm so sorry, god Please, for no, I haven't heard anybody repeat yet, but he was just.

He went nervous.

He said oh, daniel, was your God able to keep you safe from the lions?

Oh, king, live forever.

I'm, I'm well, I'm fine.

It reminds me of Smith Wigglesworth.

He tells a story one time he woke up in the middle of the night, looked at the foot of his bed and there was the devil.

The devil appeared to him at the foot of his bed.

He said oh, it's you.

And he turned over and went to sleep.

Consider the end.

I mean, you know, daniel, it looked bleak for him, but he wasn't worried.

I think about a young man named Joseph.

God gave him a dream about his family bowing down and worshiping him.

And he had a dream when he was like 16 years old.

You know he had these dreams and poor kid, I mean, he's told his dream.

He made the mistake of telling his dreams to you.

Talk about dysfunctional family?

You ought to.

You ought to you think your family's dysfunction.

You ought to read the book of Genesis.

I mean, it's got, man.

These are some mean mean brothers there.

They got mad at their little brother and we'll teach this little dreamer what you know.

But even even Isaac got kind of angry.

He said you expect your mother and I to bow down before you, man, you're out to lunch here.

What's wrong with you?

But he, he got sold into slavery and taken from from home and then he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, thrown in prison unjustly and had to have spent at least, if you do the math, at least 13 years in prison and endured that.

And thank God he'd had a good attitude because there was anything to do in the prison.

God gave him favor with the jailer.

And if there was anything to do in that prison, joseph, you know Joseph was the doer of it and he found he'd found favor.

And then, even after he had interpreted the breaker and the butler's dreams.

They went off and forgot him for another two years.

I mean, here he was functioning in his gifting of interpret dream interpretation and two years goes by until the King finally has that dream and nobody could interpret it.

And the and the and the butler says, oh, I forgot, there's this kid down in the in the dungeon.

He can interpret dreams.

He interpreted the dream for me and it came to pass.

And so you know, he went from the pit to the palace.

He became the prime minister of Pharaoh, second only to Pharaoh in his rulership.

Consider the end.

He was reunited with his, his brothers.

Boy, wouldn't you have loved to have been a flower on the wall to watch that reunion.

You talk about nervous when they figured out who that was.

Whoo Praise God.

Are you getting anything out of this now?

Consider the end.

Don't think that this is all over, it's just set in stone.

You know Jesus.

You know preached that wonderful the sower sows the word.

You know told that parable about the sower sows the word.

You had four cases where people heard the word and three out of the four had a crop failure, remember.

And then, after it was over with Jesus, said you know, let's pass over to the other side.

He got in the boat, he was tired and he went to sleep in the back of the boat.

They rode out to the middle of the lake and it says a mega storm hit, not just a little storm but a great storm, and it got to beating on the boat until the water filled up the boat and they panicked and they went and woke up Jesus.

They said, master, carest thou not that we perish?

See, jesus was asleep.

He had delegated his authority.

He gave him the power to get to the other side.

He didn't say go to the middle of the lake and sink, he said go to the other side.

He went to sleep, he completely relaxed.

That's the way we ought to be once we've spoken the word, we ought to go to sleep, we ought to rest, we know what's done, whatever we speak, and believing in our heart and speaking with our mouth.

So they woke him up Jesus, carest thou not that we perish.

They called him Master, master, carest thou not?

And he just rose up and he rebuked the wind and spoke to the way peace, peace still.

And he said you know, how is it that you have no faith?

How is it that, after this whole day of talking about the so or so is the word that you don't have any faith.

After this whole day, you've listened to me preach and I heard I told you how the whole kingdom operates on the seed principle.

And how is it that you have no faith and they just marvel?

They said what manner of man is this?

Even the wind and the seas obey him.

Well, what manner, indeed, what manner of men are we?

I mean, are we gonna believe that we have authority over these things?

We don't have to panic when it looks like it's the end.

Amen.

Remember the end of the story?

In fact, jesus endured the cross by considering the end.

He considered what about you and me?

He looked through time and he knew that we were gonna come up and we were gonna get saved because of his sacrifice.

Praise God.

These verses mean a lot to me because Brother Osteen preached a personal message to me at five o'clock in the morning in Paris, france, and later that morning we were going to a pastor's conference and I had the honor of being with him on that trip and I usually didn't like to talk about my troubles to my pastor.

I just wanted to help him.

I always wanted to be his assistant and try to anticipate his needs and make sure they were met.

But it was a tough trip for me because I knew when I got back I was gonna have to find out what I felt like I had missed God, miss God.

And so we were getting over jet lag.

I had my schedule lined up with his, and his manner was he'd like to get to where he was going ahead of time and get over jet lag enough where he could function and preach without that feeling and how many of you know what jet lag is like, man?

I mean it's you know.

And of course Paris is just eight hours, nine hours different between here and there, but still that's enough jet lag to make you feel bad.

So we'd get there ahead of time a few days and get kind of, so I'd get on a schedule with him.

So our schedule was we'd wake up at three or four in the morning, you know, and then by seven o'clock at night we're both sleepy and a little bit.

So anyway, we got out One morning and it was sunshine and we took a boat tour of the Sane River and we were waiting for the boat.

It was sunshine and it was bright and that's what you need to do to get over jet lag, get out in the sunlight.

And so I told Brother Osteen.

I said you know, brother Osteen, I'm just sick and tired of lack, and I know the word works, I know I'm a giver, glad it's nine, something's wrong.

When I get back to Houston I'm going to find out what it is.

I'm going to look in the mirror real hard.

I'm going to find out what it is when I get back.

And he kind of looked at me, didn't say anything.

And so then, all those hours later, the next morning, four o'clock, five o'clock in the morning, I fixed us some coffee.

I got him a cup of coffee, you know, and he said John, I got a message for you, jeremiah 31.

Refrain your voice from weakening and your eyes from tears.

It would be pretty cool to be laid in bed and have Pastor Osteen preach you a personal message.

And that was in July of 1994.

And so he, in a few hours, he preached that message to the preachers that we went to.

He preached the same message, turned around and preached it.

It works so well with me and it did encourage me.

It encouraged me.

He said consider the end.

You know, and I knew God was faithful and I knew that he would come through.

Consider the end when you're at the end of your looks like you're at the end of your rope.

He didn't know it and I didn't know it, but the problem was that God wanted me to start this church.

These verses are the beginnings of this church, birth.

And so when I got back, I found out why his hand had interrupted and his hand of blessing wasn't on my business anymore.

Why?

Well, because I had wandered outside of his will.

You can't expect God to just bless your plan.

It's only his plan, amen.

And so he didn't know it and I didn't know it, but six months later I'd be leaving.

Start this church, just six months from these verses.

And so consider the end.

And let's look at the other verses here that God used for me to, because I keyed on this.

When I got home, I started studying the book of Jeremiah and ultimately, out of the book of Jeremiah and some other places, god began to speak to me.

And so this word he said, the words that I speak to you, their spirit and their life, I'm telling you when you need to hear from God.

Thank God for praying in other tongues Thank God for the witness of the spirit, but the word of God.

I mean, don't forget the word of God, amen.

And so in verse 13, it says then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together, for I will turn their mourning into joy and I will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

So while you're considering the end, the first thing you ought to do is get happy.

Come on, let's start rejoicing and singing.

Anybody can cry, anybody can complain, any old goat can, but, but God, well, but you know, god's been good, but but God's been good.

But I don't just praise him.

Sing and rejoice, why?

Because you're redeemed or you saved?

Did something happen that you're unsaved?

No, I mean, if at least we can pray, we can praise about that.

Let the comforter live big in you.

He's, he's the Holy Ghost, he's the executive power of the Godhead.

If anything's gonna change, the Holy Ghost is gonna change it.

So let him loose inside of you, sing and rejoice and dance.

Even I'm not much of a dancer, but I can hop Pretty good hopper, pretty good leaper.

And then it says and here's that word satiate that I used earlier, and I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.

Well, you know, pastor, that's for the priests.

Well, you're a king and a priest unto God.

That's what.

That's what the book of Revelation says.

We're all priests.

We represent people to God and God to people.

That's what our role is is the church.

We're priests, kings and priests unto God.

And it says let this and I will satiate, I will gorge, I will fill the soul of the mind of the priests with fatness.

See, let your mind be filled with God's goodness.

Start thinking about all the things he's done in your life.

Think about how he's delivered you, how he's protected you.

Think about it, what God has done in other times in your life.

If he did it, then he'll do it now.

Quit crying and start rejoicing.

Listen, your tears don't move God.

Your faith moves God.

I said your attitude has got to change.

You've got to flip the switch.

You know you can sit there and have a pity party, and you can.

Just.

You know, and just all of that, and it's not gonna.

You're just gonna feel that much worse.

Let your mind be filled with God's goodness towards you.

Don't indulge in a pity party.

Come on, let's just lift our hands, lord.

We thank you.

See, these are simple things, but I had to live them and I had to live them.

It's pretty pivotal time, pretty pivotal time in my life.

And so, you know, I got just.

I started letting myself get filled with the Holy Ghost.

During that period of time I was working for another home builder.

I had my own building company but we had a house that hadn't sold.

I mean, you know, people just bought everything on the block except my house.

I mean my house.

That was the prettiest house I ever built in my entire career, 25 years of building.

That was the prettiest.

That was 5,000 square foot, three story house.

I mean it was gorgeous.

It had every bell and whistle at the time in it and I just, it was priced right and nobody wanted it.

I mean nobody.

The door posts were dirty from all the oil that was anointed the threshold.

You know, every time I'd get anybody visiting and some preacher come to town or anybody hey, come over and pray for my house, would you?

And it didn't matter, it was so cursed.

It was a year and a half after the church started, for that house sold.

They actually called me and said hey, can you help us get the house ready for the move in?

I said sure be glad to.

It was kind of spooky going over that house, but you know God is faithful.

You know I just had.

And so I was working for this other builder and I was driving like 300 miles a day.

Typical day, I drive 300 miles.

I mean I drive from my house in spring over to Crosby for first to Humboldt, then to Crosby, then from Crosby to Alvin, back to Crosby, back to Humboldt.

Sometimes I'd squeeze in a trip to West University because that's where that house was, and then I'd get home.

It'd be 300 miles.

So a lot of those miles out in the country.

You know, out there in Montbell View and out in there rice fields and just kind of farm, little two-lane roads, and then I'd get out there and I'd start praising God.

I'd just have my knees, you know, steering the steering wheel, my hands would be up and I'd be praising God.

I mean the glory had fallen, that car man.

I mean I just got to where I would just praise God all day long while I was driving around.

Those days, I'm telling you, god just began to open.

The Word of God and this church was birthed.

This church was born in those months between July and August.

And then by the end of September is when I went and met with Brother Osteen and submitted it to him.

I did not go to Brother Osteen and say Brother Osteen, I prayed and I'm going to start a church.

No, I did not do that.

Lots of people, that's how they do it, but that's not what I did.

I went to him and I said I want to submit something to you.

I feel that this is what I should do, but it's totally subject to you.

If you say no, it's dead, I'll never bring it up.

But of course, at first he gave me his permission.

I could tell he was shocked, I could tell he wasn't prepared and I felt bad about that.

But it's not my responsibility.

I have to give him what I have.

So I gave him what I have and what I went through.

The next day he said oh, and he called me and I was pouring a slab concrete trucks out there.

And he said oh, and he got me on my cell phone, which was a miracle, because out there in the middle of nowhere Baytown, I think it was there was no self service, hardly, but anyway he got me on the telephone.

He says oh, john, I didn't sleep at all last night and I said, oh God.

And he said, you know, he said I said, brother, I'll stay and I'll kill it.

No, no, no, that's not what I mean.

I just think it's premature.

I think you ought to wait till after the first of the year.

You know, it's right now it's September, it's before you know it it's going to be Thanksgiving and Christmas.

That's not a good time.

New Year's, not a good time to start a church.

John, he said that's a hard time.

The timing you need to wait until the first of the year, well, I told God, was it's a year and a deal that been at Lakewood for a long time.

I, like you, ron, I saw a lot of preachers go out there and start a church and then just didn't make it.

You know I preached in a couple of churches.

You know that didn't last a year, you know.

And then they're busted up, they're broke and hurt.

They went out too quick or they went out without really the right wasn't the right thing to do, I don't know.

But anyway, I just didn't want to do all that At my age, at that time.

I mean, I just didn't want to, I didn't want to do that.

So my safety net was God, this is a failsafe, it's yes or no, not maybe.

And so he was saying he was saying wait.

Well, I didn't have a provision for wait.

Are y'all getting anything out of this tonight?

I said, pastor Osteen, it's really not.

I hear what you're saying, but that's not the thing that I did with God.

I mean, I told God it would be a yay or a nay, and it sounds like it's nays.

Well, I don't mean it that way.

John, you know, I believe you're called.

You're glad to see you know.

I said, yeah, pastor, I wouldn't even approach you if I didn't know that.

And I, but I just can't, I can't move forward, I'm just going to kill it.

And so the people that I'd called and said, yeah, we're starting a church, I had to call the same people back and say no or not.

A couple of them cried and that was Isaac.

We killed Isaac and we did kill it.

It was dead.

Isaac was dead, this church was dead.

As far as I was concerned, it was over.

And then, and of course, I had plunged the knife in late September of 1994.

And then, a few months later, december the 14th, he called me and said well, john, if you, at now or anytime in the future, want to start that church, you have my full and unreserved blessing.

That's all I was listening for.

That's all I wanted was his full and unreserved blessing, amen.

That's why we're 25 years old, that's why we've made it Amen.

We haven't arrived, but we've gone down the road of ways, haven't we?

So I had to live this.

I mean, I had to sing in rejoice, I had to let my mind be filled with God's goodness, and then I, and lastly, I had to know that God was my rewarder.

He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, he said.

He said here, don't be crying.

And we've been.

Your work shall be rewarded.

Your work shall be rewarded when you sow a seed, like the seed that Gladys and I sowed at Lakewood church, and even our children did, even Jay, I mean, he worked there, you know, I, uh, it's rewarded.

Your, your, your work shall be rewarded.

So don't fret or be anxious.

Just stay kingdom minded, consider the end and you will recover all.

Come on, lift your, lift your hands and receive tonight.

Praise God, hallelujah.