Pleading Your Case

Pick our bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Let's say this together say heavenly Father, I'm glad to be tuned in tonight, not only to live stream, but to your frequency, the Holy Ghost, frequency whereby he speaks to me.

And, Lord, you're spoken to me through your Word, and so, Holy Spirit, shine your light, illuminate me so that my faith grows, my spirit is developed and I will accomplish what I'm supposed to accomplish in Jesus' name, Amen.

I want us to read out of Isaiah tonight a couple of places Isaiah 43, 26, and also, while you're getting Isaiah, Isaiah 55,.

And we'll start with Isaiah 43, 26 first.

And it says God is speaking to the Israelites and he said put me in remembrance, let us plead together.

Declare thou that thou mayest be justified.

And another version says set forth your cause.

Another one says state your case.

Another one says tell what plea you have to bring forward.

Notice, God is inviting us and even challenging us to come to him, as in a legal case that you may be justified.

And then, in Isaiah 55, verse 11, it says so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.

Isaiah 55:11

It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing where too, I sent it.

And so tonight I just want to preach and teach a simple message entitled plead your case.

Plead your case.

You know, our God is a covenant keeping God and he is just, he is righteous.

The Bible says that he's not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent.

If he said it, he'll do it.

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

Book of Numbers 23 says that.

And so our God cannot lie.

What he says goes.

His word accomplishes what he pleases.

His word that comes out of his mouth and his word prospers in the thing to which it is sent.

And so here we, in Isaiah 43, we're challenged, we're invited to plead our case with him, to set forth our reasons and to state our cases.

You know God responds to faith based on knowledge.

I want you to think about that.

God responds to faith based on knowledge.

You know, an earthly judge listens for facts, not theories.

You listen.

If you're a lawyer, you come into that courtroom.

You better not have a bunch of theories, you better have some facts.

And the judge listens for evidence, not rumor.

He or she evidence is thrown out, it's no good.

You've got to have evidence, and firsthand evidence, and lawyers often, when they're arguing in case, refer to legal precedent.

In fact, that's exactly why we have a lawsuit.

Gloria Sway Church is signed on to a lawsuit and our attorney has filed that lawsuit against our governor and our attorney general, not because we're mad at them, but we want to establish a better precedent in Texas so that whatever comes around again, let's just say that Dr Fauci is right.

He's saying right now he's prophesying that this is gonna rise again next fall.

I say it's not gonna rise again next fall.

I say it's gonna wither and die and not ever come back.

That's what I'm saying.

I think we ought to all say that he doesn't speak for me.

But let's just suppose that were the case.

Well, you know, then the government could come back and do everything they've just got through doing.

They could shut the church down, they could stop us from having church.

They could just declare that we're not essential.

Well, Pastor, but that's not what happened.

Well, that's happened, but it's not a precedent yet.

It only becomes a precedent when a bad law is removed from the books and the legislature replaces it and the law that gave these little mayors and these little county judges all over our state, how many 254 counties?

All of them became instant dictators.

They all decided they had total rule over our lives.

And isn't it funny that everything was one size fits all.

I tell you, we need a better precedent.

We need a better precedent, and so that's why we're doing what we're doing, and I believe the Supreme Court is going to grant us that injunction and I believe it, when it's all said and done, we'll have a cause to set before our state legislators and they'll have some political cover for going back and passing a new law and forbidding these individual cities and counties from taking our rights away from us for just any kind of reason at all, basically because of a theory.

The theory was that social distancing and hand washing and masks and all this stuff and stay at home orders would reduce deaths.

Actually, that wasn't even the purpose.

It was to flatten the curve.

Well, the curve flattened, but it had nothing to do with any of these things, as you're trying to take credit for it.

Why am I going into this?

I'm just saying look, the judge is looking for evidence.

So is God.

Sometimes we're a little bit lackadaisical in our prayer life.

Sometimes, when we come to God and we have a situation that needs to change, we're getting into something like oh God, oh God, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.

Listen, he doesn't.

I mean your tears don't move God, it's only facts based on faith of His Word.

I mean, God said it, I believe it.

That settles it.

And so we need a legal precedent.

We need a previous in a courtroom, previous rulings in similar cases persuades the judge.

So use that in your prayer life when he's inviting you to come and set forth your reasons, state your cause.

Let him know what it is that you want him to do.

That he hasn't done.

Because he said it amen.

And his Word is true.

Put God in remembrance, Amen.

Isn't it interesting?

It says put me in remembrance.

Do you suppose God forgot?

Do we need to remind him because he forgot?

No, he didn't forget.

But he wants you to prove that you know that you have legal standing.

He wants to hear you say it.

You know the judge that's here in a case.

He already knows the case law.

He studied the cases before him.

He knows how he would like to rule, but he's not necessarily going to rule that way If the lawyer doesn't have a good argument, Because he doesn't want to look foolish.

The judge doesn't.

He wants to make sure that when he rules, he rules on the law and not on emotion.

And so God is that way.

God, it shows when we put him in remembrance of his Word.

It shows that we have knowledge, and so we ought to try.

If we're in a habit of being emotional when we pray, let's get our emotion under control and let's find the facts of the Word of God and let's conduct a legal proceeding with God, and you might just you might be surprised at how effective that is.

I have a testimony.

It was about this time of the year, in 1988, so that's been a long time ago, 32 years ago and the month of March I was laid off of my job.

I've told this testimony recently and I felt in my spirit that, God, that was a promotion.

I had been wanting to get back in the home building business, and so I was taking steps to do that.

I had talked to three businessmen who agreed with me for $25,000, start my business.

I let them know I wasn't looking for partners, I wasn't looking for them to give me any money, I just wanted their agreement and prayer.

And one of them came back to me and wanted to be my partner.

He felt really impressed and I tried to get out of it.

I said, well, I don't have any desire for a partner, I don't need a partner, I just need money.

I can't very well, you know.

He said, well, I'm going to be gone for two weeks.

You think about it.

So while he was gone out of town, I started praying about it and God changed my heart and I got peace about going into business with this gentleman.

And so he got back in town and I started trying to call him and by this time I'm talking about I'm broke, I don't have a job, there's no income.

I mean, I'm getting ready to make the deal, you know.

And finally, you know, I talked to him one day and he was backing out and he said I just lost my peace, I'm just changed my mind.

I just don't need to be in business right now.

I've got some other things that are on me and I appreciate it.

And when I hung up the phone, I was angry, Not at him and not at God, but I was just angry at my situation and I began to quote God's word to him.

And God had given me Isaiah, chapter 45, verses one through three, and it's right here, close by, if you're right there.

Isaiah 45 · chapter mention

And I said, God, didn't you tell me that I was like Cyrus?

Didn't you tell me that you would strengthen my right hand to subdue nations before me and that you would loose the lones of kings to open before me the two lead gates?

And you'd go before me and make the crooked places straight.

You'd break in pieces the gates of brass and cut us under the bars of iron.

Didn't you tell me?

And I started just repeating these verses and I was being kind of loud about it, Gladys was in the room with me, I had just hung up the phone and I was walking up and down and I was conducted by legal case and in the middle of my talking and blustered I took a breath to say another statement.

And in my spirit I heard where the kings live.

See, loose the lones of kings.

He said where the kings live.

And I thought, and I said it out loud, I said where did Kings live?

And then it hit me, this gentleman.

He lived in Kingwood and as a matter of fact, he lived in King's forest in Kingwood.

So I started laughing.

And I started laughing, you know, because God interrupted my prayer.

And then, after I started laughing, I saw this gentleman's driveway and he had two leave gates he had.

In order for me to go to see him, those gates had to open.

I drive in his driveway and God showed me a picture of his gates opening up.

And that's exactly what this scripture said.

And I'd never connected the two ever, I'd never, never connected the two.

And I said well, God, what do you want me to do?

He said no.

He said he's lost his peace issue.

You call him and tell him what I said.

I said well, God, I can't prophesy money out of this man's pocket.

Now, you know, that was my concern all along, Remember, I told you I can't, I can't do that.

I just, he said, you call him and tell him, and then you leave it up to him to make a decision.

And that's exactly what I did, Did, and a month later we were in the home building business.

And that's what I'm talking about.

Plead your case, get the emotion out of it.

I'm telling you, God knows how to move.

You know, when you discover that it's not your tears, it's not your emotion, it's just the facts.

What are the facts of the Word of God.

I mean, you know, I'm telling you we have a place with God because we're he's a covenant keeping God.

He watches over his Word to perform it, and when he speaks, when the Word goes out of his mouth, it accomplishes what God wants to accomplish.

It prospers in the thing where to its sin.

So didn't God say that we would look back on 2020 and say my, my, this has been the greatest year of my life?

Didn't God say that to us a few months ago, Actually September, the 19th, 2019.

That's exactly when he said it.

And didn't he say that?

I believe he meant it.

Did that Word go out of his mouth?

Well, it went out of his mouth through my mouth, to you.

And so didn't he say that we'd get a triple promotion?

And I didn't he say you know that you ought to make a faith promise.

Did you make one?

Did you make a faith promise?

Have you paid anything on that faith promise?

See, these are some facts.

These are some facts that you can come to the Lord right in the middle of this coronavirus mess that's going on.

I mean, the whole country shut down and some of you may be unemployed now, or maybe some of you have had to take a cut in pay, or maybe some of you, your investments have gone down in value.

Listen, this is a perfect time to plead your case.

You've got a word from Him and so just go down that.

I encourage you to break your copy of that word out.

I mean it was online.

We had it on the website.

I think it's still on there.

You listed all the things that your greatest year yet would look like.

You put a list of things that you were believing for your health, your family, your finances, all kinds of things.

Did you make a list?

Then go over that list, hold that list in front of God.

Look what I put down here, and you said that you were gonna move on my behalf.

I know you cannot lie.

I know God.

I know that your word came to me and it accomplished what you pleased.

Your word prospered in me.

See, I mean facts.

Facts, I mean you're pleading your case with facts.

You're putting Him in remembrance.

You're doing exactly what he challenged you to do.

Fact is not really an invitation, it's a challenge, and I believe that when we begin to act in accordance with the Word, we can be blessed with what the Word says we can have.

And so then at the end, you can say therefore, I believe I've received everything you said was mine, and I drive out every trespasser, every poacher, all that the enemy has tried to do to subvert your Word.

I render Him null and void, I render Him ineffective, in the name of Jesus.

See, that's another thing.

If you're gonna possess your land, you're gonna have to dispossess the enemy out of it, and so these are kind of things that you can do as you begin to plead your case.

I cancel every assignment of the enemy in the name of Jesus.

I tell you, I double dog, dare you to take this Word and do it, and I know some of you.

I mean, you can take a look at your checkbook, your bank balance.

You can take a look at your stock portfolio.

You can take a look at your business.

You can take a look at all kinds of evidence that looks contrary, but I'm telling you we have greater evidence.

We have the seed of the Word of God that came forth out of His mouth.

He cannot lie, and he gave you His Word and it shall be performed.

He hastens over His Word to perform it, amen.

And so then you begin to thank Him for it.

In fact, let's just lift our hands right now.

Father, we thank you that this is the greatest year yet.

It might not look like it, it might not feel like it, but, God, we know that you're moving on our behalf and things are quickly turning around and everything the devil meant for evil is coming out for our good, and we thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Everybody shouted amen.

I can hear those amens coming through the camera.

They're so loud.

Well, I preach myself happy and I tell you God is faithful over His Word.

He is faithful.