Faith Makes A Demand 2

Our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

I'll tell you he's getting pretty excited here lately.

And let's just say this together say heavenly father, I'm teachable, I'm hungry for the word.

And since I don't know everything, I believe I receive revelation tonight that will feed my faith, that will cause my spirit to develop further.

I have eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is communicating tonight and I will be a doer of the word in Jesus name.

All right, john, chapter 14, verse 13 we shared this with you last week.

John 14:13

Jesus, on the night before he was crucified, shared with his disciples at the last supper.

He said in whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do that.

The Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.

And so that word asked there is really not talking about prayer, but it's talking about the word.

Asked means to call for, to require or to demand.

Your do.

Another words this Burst.

It refers to making a demand on your covenant.

Making a demand on your covenant?

No, you're not.

Faith makes a demand not, not from God.

You're not demanding from God.

God's not the problem, but you're demanding the devil, you're demanding the problem, you're demanding the trespasser, you're demanding the sickness, the pain, to get out in Jesus name, make a demand.

And I think about brother Smith Wigglesworth was known as the apostle of faith and he was making this argument about how Sometimes Christians are a little bit too weak and they're praying and a little bit too, you know, less than emphatic when they're dealing with the enemy, and Sometimes we have to make a demand for the devil to get out, you know.

And so he used a a little illustration of a woman that was Leaving to catch the bus and she was leaving her apartment and on her way to the bus stop and her little dog followed her out Of the door to follow her down the street and she says no, no, fee fee, go back home.

And Fee fee didn't go back home.

Fee fee kept following and she said no, no, fee fee, go, go on, go on.

And and well, fee fee didn't obey her.

So finally she stomped her foot, said fee fee, go back home.

Fee fee left.

And Sometimes you have to be a little more emphatic with the enemy than just, you know, casual conversation, and.

But tonight I Wanted to come around in a different set of verses and Just the next chapter, john.

And how many of you know there weren't any chapters and verses in the Bible?

You know, just Jesus is speaking the whole time.

John, chapter 15, just turn over the next page.

John 15 · chapter mention

And he's still talking to the disciples, he's still instructing them, don't you believe?

It's pretty important, what he wanted to share with them right before he goes to the cross, and and they need to hear what he's saying about Making a demand on their covenant.

And so he says here, and John 15, 7 if you abided me in my words, abiding you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.

Herein is my father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my Disciples.

So again, jesus is using the same word ask, and it means the same thing.

It means to make a demand.

Make a demand what you will, you know, know what mama wants, not what daddy wants, not what your wife or husband wants, not what your kids Want.

What do you want?

What do you require See, it's also called for or require what do you require?

Sometimes we face certain things and there's a requirement and it's not.

Again, we're not making a requirement of God himself.

He's not the one holding anything back.

If there's anything held back, he's not the one doing it.

There's an enemy, you, there's an enemy, and so what you desire?

See, that's what's so important.

Sometimes people don't even know what they want.

They don't even know what they need.

They don't even know you know when you begin to make demands.

You need to know where you stand on the covenant.

You need to know what belongs to you.

And so it says here.

Now look at the language.

It says, and if you buy to me my words about you, you should ask what you will.

You can ask what you will and it'll be done.

And I've heard people say wait a minute, that's not what that means.

No, it's exactly what it means.

Well, that can't be right.

You mean anything, anything I want.

Really, you know they're doubting already.

Well, notice up there in verse seven, it says if.

So if is a condition there.

There are some conditions that need to be met before you can really ask what you will.

And it says if.

And so let's look at the conditions that are necessary for you to meet these conditions in order for this word to apply to you.

A condition number one he says if you abide in me.

Well, that just simply means if you're born again, if you've been saved, if you're a Christian, if you've really made Jesus the Lord of your life, if you really have and you've been born again, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit has baptized you into his body.

So it's an automatic thing as soon as you're saved, you're baptized into the body of Christ and you are one with him.

You abide in him by virtue of the fact of the new birth.

So I mean it's just if you're saved, you meet condition number one.

If you're saved, see people that are outside of Christ.

That means anybody that's never made Jesus the Lord of your life.

I mean, that was me at one point in my life.

I grew up Catholic.

I went to all the, I had all the sacraments.

I made my first communion, I was confirmed.

I was the nun's favorite.

I went to Catholic school.

I was an altar boy.

I served Mass.

I was man.

I mean I was busy about, you know, doing things.

I remember getting up early before daylight, riding my bicycle all the way across town.

Of course, it was a refurio, that was the town, it wasn't Houston and a little town like that, but it took me, you know, 15, 20 minutes riding my bicycle and the dark.

My parents let me go.

They didn't, you know, they didn't bother unless it was raining and I'd drive over there and I'd serve seven o'clock Mass.

You know, by the time I got to the church it just now daylight.

You know parts of the year.

But I see I did not.

I wasn't born again.

I had religion but I wasn't born again.

So I couldn't really qualify for these verses.

So call number one you abiding him if you're born again or you have.

Therefore you have a covenant then, so you qualify.

Then it says in verse seven if you abided me, and do you see that?

And conjunction there.

And it connects two things, and by if you abiding me and my words about in you.

So so you've got to have both of these, not either, or you've got to have both of these conditions and my words abide in you.

Now, how does the word abide in you?

Well, god's word abides in you to the degree that they govern your behavior, I mean to the degree that you live by his word.

That is the degree to which the word abides in you.

And so for the word to abide in you, you must be very familiar with the word.

You must be reading the word, you must be considering the word, you must be meditating on the word, you must be talking the word, you must be doing the word.

And so the word abiding in you is a little bit bigger commitment than just simply getting saved.

Lots of people get saved, but then it just kind of ends with that and they stay in a small babyhood stage of development the rest of their lives and they really don't qualify for these verses.

They can't ask whatever they will and it'll be done, because they don't have the word abiding in them.

They might be saved, they might be on their way to heaven, but they're going to have a lot of trouble in this life.

They're going to have a lot of defeat in this life, not because God willed it, but because they haven't stepped up and taken advantage of what Jesus said.

They can have.

Notice what he said.

He said if you abided me and my words abiding you, you can make it the man.

You can acquire anything that you desire and it will be done unto you.

Man, what a?

What a promise or not really a promise, it's a fact.

So so both conditions are met, you know.

And the thing is if you really the second part, especially when the word abides in you.

You're not going to, you're not going to ask for pie in the sky, you're not going to come up with some silly fleshly desire.

That is off the wall, that's outside of any kind of faith that you could have, and then just expect that God is going to answer that.

No, because when you really his word abides in you, you're going to know what belongs to you.

You're going to know it.

You're going to know what belongs to you and you'll just not dream up some, some fleshly desire, but you're under the leadership of the Word and the Spirit.

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

Just just think about what the Word and the Spirit can do for you.

And I'll tell you something God can reveal to you things that you never would have ever dreamed to ask for or to demand.

I mean, you know, when you get over into the Word and the Spirit, I mean, just think about the Word.

We got back last September.

He said this is going to be your greatest year.

Yet I'm telling you, I was not planning on saying that when I came to church, I just came into.

I just I, holy ghost just brought that word.

And just look what we've gone through since then.

Look at how nervous the devil got.

He's tried to pull the plug on the economy.

He's tried to pull the plug on on the health of the nation and there's all kind of things have gone on.

But you know what we're blessed anyhow.

So when you ask or you demand or you require, under those conditions it shall be done.

Unto you, it shall be done.

You see, that is the strongest language in the Greek it.

It's not maybe going to be done.

It's possible for it to be done.

It'll be done in the sweet by and by.

Oh yes, pastor, I believe when I get to heaven, every one of my needs.

No, that's not what it's talking about.

It's not talking about when you get to heaven, it's talking about right now.

It's talking about in this realm.

Why does it say that?

Because it says herein is my father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples.

A disciple is a discipline one.

So so there's a there's.

When you start knowing what belongs to you and requiring it or making a demand, your faith makes a demand on your covenant and it starts showing up.

I mean, god is glorified when that happens.

Aren't you glorified when your children achieve some, some goal they've been working on?

Maybe they've been working on something real hard and suddenly they got.

They got an A in that subject, are they?

Are they a?

They made the the track team or they or whatever?

You know there's.

There's a lot of, a lot, a lot of gladness and joy.

You get glorified through your children how they way you accomplish things.

You know, years ago I was, I had a knee and I was.

It was before we started the church and I had a.

I had a home building business.

I was building homes and I had a house that was finished and it was dragging a lot of money out of my company because every month I had to pay interest on that, on that finished house that had not yet sold.

And someone came by my house.

I was sitting on the house, you know, kind of waiting to see who would come by, would be interested.

And I did meet a couple and they were husband and wife engineers he was an engineer, she was an engineer and they liked my house and they had a floor plan that they wanted to build on their lot.

And so, make a long story short, we made a deal and I signed them up to build a house on their lot.

But their lot was in Rosenberg, texas it's way on the other side of where I was living.

I lived in spring at the time and when I went over to look at the lot and see where it was, I clocked.

The distance from my house is 57 miles one way to that job site.

And then of course, I still had a house in Westview.

So routinely I would need to drive to see that house because it's gonna be under construction.

I have to go there every day and then, you know, every couple of days I'd need to swing back through West University and look at the house it's finished, make sure it's okay, make sure it's clean, so forth, so on.

And at the time I had a car that had 270,000 miles on the car.

I mean it's getting kind of long in the tooth.

It had 140,000 miles on the second engine.

So I mean I knew that my time was getting to the place where this car is not gonna last and my concern was that it was gonna let me down in the middle of the country.

This little subdivision was a little subdivision in the middle of the country, roads and stuff.

And it was five, six miles to the nearest gas station.

There wasn't anybody there, nobody around, and I could just say, gosh, if my car breaks down, first of all I'm gonna be without a car, second of all, I gotta have it towed somewhere.

I got a hitchhike.

I mean, you know there was some things about it and I had a need.

I had a need and so I went to the Lord on the basis of these verses right here and John 15, I said you know, lord, I know I abide in you, you know I'm born again.

I have a covenant and the Bible says if I ask, if I make a demand on that covenant, whatever it is that I require, it'll be done.

And, lord, I need a car.

I need another car.

This car is just about worn out.

I'm concerned that it's gonna be.

You know, it's gonna break down on the road.

It's not a lack of faith, it's just being realistic.

And I'm gonna need a good car all the way through this job.

I mean, it's gotta be checked on.

I can't be without a car.

And so, lord, you know that I've sown as a seed.

I've sown different cars and I went down the I had at that time I'd sown three cars.

And why would you tell the Lord what you sow?

Well, because a seed reproduces after its own kind.

And I needed I didn't need the money, I needed a car and I'd sown a car.

So I reminded the Lord of what?

And I said so, lord, I just, I just believe I receive a car, and I'm not even gonna be specific about what brand, what make, what color, I don't even care, I just need a good, reliable car.

See, another thing that I knew is that God didn't have any cars in heaven to give me.

He didn't rain a car out, so the car I needed was here on earth.

And if I go down this long list of requirements, well, lord, it needs to be red, it needs to be a convertible, it needs to have a wide interior and a white top, it needs to have wide, white wall tires.

It needs to be a.

You know you might be waiting a while before he's able to find what you require, because he's got to go through willing vessels, and how many willing vessels are willing to give away a classic car or a.

So I said, lord, I just need a good, dependable car, I need a good to do, and that's all, that's all I said.

And so then I just thanked him.

I thanked him for it and then I drove my old 98 oldsmobile it was an 86 model and anyway, about a month later my phone rang.

It was in the evening.

I'd just gotten in from work, it was about seven o'clock.

It was a friend of mine that I'd known for a few years and he said yeah, I've got something to share with you and I've got a question for you.

He said you know, the other day I was driving down the road and I was about to.

I was coming from work, you got to go to class.

He was in college part time and he said big old rock flew up in my windshield, cracked my windshield on the driver's side, and I said oh Lord, how come?

How come that happened, you know?

He said well, I told you yesterday to give your car.

He said well, god, I can't give my car.

It's the only car I have.

What do you mean?

Give my car?

What am I going to do?

I'm going to walk.

I've got a job and I've got to go to class.

I can't give my car.

And then God didn't answer him and here he's got this big old split on his windshield.

And so a couple of days later he comes up and he's coming up to an intersection and he changes lanes from the inside to the outside lane and he cut off an 18 wheeler 18 wheeler.

He didn't see him in his side view mirror and he turned into the 18 wheeler and he crushed the rear passenger door of his car.

It hit the front fender of the 18 wheeler and, of course, the 18 wheeler won and he got a ticket for an illegal lane change.

And so he was really agfaced.

I can't believe all this is happening to me.

First my windshield, now my back door is crushed in.

What's going on?

God and God said well, I told you, you had to give this car away.

I can't give the car away.

He said I'll tell you what you're going to have to give me chapter one.

You have to give me chapter and verse.

If you give me chapter and verse, and immediately, matthew 16 for, just as clear as a bell, matthew 16 for and man, I mean his heart started racing, his hand started sweating and he drove, lickety, split, all the way to his apartment.

He bounded up the steps, went into his apartment, grabbed his Bible, opened it up to.

Matthew 16 for and say, and it says here, a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and no sign shall be given it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah.

And about this time in his story I start laughing.

I'm laughing my head off, you know I'm laughing and I mean tears are streaming down my face.

I said, man, I tell you, did you get it?

And then he let me quit laughing.

He said okay, my question is do I have to fix the car before I give it?

And oh, I hated to tell him.

I hated to tell him the next thing because I mean I knew he was just frustrated.

And I said, well, yeah, I mean, would you give God a one eye lamb?

I mean you know you got to give it, you know you got to give it, fix it and give it.

He said I knew that.

So what you'd say?

God told me to give it, give you the car.

I said, oh, no, no, no, I'm giving you the car.

And it was a Mercedes 300 diesel, 5700 diesel.

It had 170,000 miles on it, but it's just getting broke in.

I ultimately put 300,000 miles on that car and it did just fine driving back and forth to Rosenberg and West University Place.

But God had to.

You know, god had to get the attention of a willing vessel, and the bottom line was is that I made a demand on my.

Come on, let's just lift our hands.

I'm telling you, you can make a demand on your covenant.

You can make a demand.

You have a covenant with God.

And so talking about Faith makes a demand.

And when you have a lifestyle of faith, faith is our, our main Occupation in life.

I mean, when you think about faith, faith is our main occupation in life, because it the just shall live by their faith, and Then you know, without faith it's impossible to please God.

I Mean, if it's impossible to please God without faith and the just live by faith, their lifestyle is a lifestyle of faith, then then these things have become very important.

And so when you live like this, you're gonna bear much fruit.

In other words, your faith is gonna work, you're gonna get your needs not only met but exceeded.

I mean God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all, you dare ask her thing.

I mean, I really got a fine automobile.

It, once it got fixed up, got the back door fixed, got a new windshield, I mean that car look really spiffy and it did not.

It was an 81 model and this was 1990, about 10 years old.

But Mercedes, I mean, once you get them buffed up and everything it looked.

It looked pretty new and it didn't stay that way, but it was a good, solid automobile.

God knew what I needed and he knew there where the willing vessel was.

So when you live like this, god is glorified.

When you receive what belongs to you, he's glorified, and Receiving what's yours is a sign that you are indeed his disciple.

So shall bit you be my disciple.

What is a disciple?

It's a disciplined one.

It means literally a disciplined one, someone that when you lean on them they can hold weight.

There's a lot of believers, lot of lot of church members, lot of Christians.

We call Christians Christians back in that, back in the Bible days, you didn't get to be called a Christian unless you were Christ, like I mean, not everybody Rated the word Christian.

But in today's day, you know, we call people Christians as opposed to Muslims and opposed to Hindus, and we call people Christians.

But in the old days it meant Christ like well, a disciple is very similar.

It's someone that's disciplined, it's like a soldier, it's someone that follows orders, it's someone that has a high regard of God's Word and when he understands what God's Word says, he, he claims that he claims it and it gets rid of any kind of false humility and gets rid of anything that.

That Religious brainwashing is what a lot of people have endured and is taken away from being a disciple, and I'm sure you want to be a disciple.

So let your faith make a demand.

Stand on the Word of God.

Amen.

Praise God, let's just receive this word tonight.

Praise God, we thank you for it, father.

We thank you that we're growing as Christians, that we're becoming Disciples, we're becoming soldiers that endure hardness, that we're able to To take orders and give orders in the spirit realm.

We thank you for it in Jesus name.