Positioned For Inheritance

While you're standing.

Why don't you reach down and pick up your bibles, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this together say heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be in church on Sunday morning.

I've already received so much.

I'm so glad to be free of dead religion, but I have a living relationship with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

Today I'll be taught the Word of God.

I'm humble, I'm teachable.

I'm gonna receive this Word and it's going to cut the dead religion out of my life.

I want everything in me to be alive, consistent with my covenant.

In Jesus' name, amen, you can be seated.

Thank you, worship team, beautiful job.

Hallelujah.

Everybody say 2020 is my greatest year, yet 2020 is my greatest year yet.

Let's look at a couple of verses here Romans, chapter eight, and Acts, chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

They're fairly close together.

Let's look at Romans eight first, in verse 16.

It says the spirit itself, or himself, bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

And if we are children, then we are heirs.

Everybody say I am an heir, I'm an heir of God, and join heirs, equal heirs with Christ.

Just think about that equal heir with Christ, equal heir with Christ.

And so then also in Acts, chapter 20, verse 32, just a few pages over here, to the left, not very far Paul is speaking to the elders, that is, the preachers, ministers and Ephesus, and he says to them because he's fixed to leave, he's gonna depart, he's never gonna see them again.

Acts 20:32

Later on they kneel down and they weep because he said you're not gonna see my face again.

And he said and now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them, among all of them which are sanctified.

And that word sanctified also means separated under God.

It means positioned, and that's what I wanna talk about today Positioned for inheritance.

Positioned for inheritance, I mean it's so important to be in position.

I talk a lot about football, but the Texans were out of position last week.

Many of their players on the defensive side of the ball were in the wrong position to make the tackle and so they ran through us like Grant's army ran through Atlanta, and I know most of you're not probably not football fans, but anyway they were out.

Everybody say out of position.

And so 2020, our greatest year yet is all about possessing our inheritance by dispossessing the trespassers, the poachers and the squatters.

Amen, we've got to kick out the ones that have tried to steal what belongs to us.

And in this setting that Paul is talking about, he said I commend you to God.

In other words, I'm leaving now.

I've done all I can do to help you.

Earlier in that chapter he talks about how for three years he warned them, night and day, with tears, and he warned them that among them would rise up men that would take advantage of the flock and they'd become wolves.

You know a wolf, what does a wolf do with a sheep?

Well, they eat them.

I mean they eat them.

I mean it's quick as they can.

In sheep country, coyotes don't last very long.

They get shot much to the chagrin of the animal rights people.

But you know, if you're making living with goats and sheep, you got coyotes and chupacabras and every other thing out there eating them.

A chupacabra is a dog and a coyote that made it and had a sick specimen.

We had two of them on our property over here back when we had all of our property.

Sure did they're ugly looking things.

They weren't designed to be together.

But you know they eat sheep.

You have to get rid of them, we have to get rid of them.

And we're not talking about people here, we're talking about entities, supernatural entities that by themselves are more powerful than we are.

But thank God, we have supernatural power and we have supernatural weapons, amen.

And so we're gonna have to have a contest.

And so, in this setting, he's warned these preachers Remember Ephesus?

He said have you received the Holy Ghost?

Since you believe?

Well, no, we hadn't even heard that there was a Holy Ghost.

Well, how were you in baptized?

We were baptized, we were baptized.

Well, how were you baptized?

Well, we were baptized with John, john's baptism, and so they had to get saved.

So Paul got these 12 guys saved and then filled with a Holy Ghost, and that was the core, the start of the church.

And Ephesus he had a relationship, he had begotten them as a father, and so he had spent three years, night and day, warning them.

You know, they had a very close relationship with Paul the apostle.

And yet these guys, there's no record of any of them falling on their face.

And oh, paul, please, I hope it's not me you're talking about.

I repent.

If there's anything specific you can tell me about my life that I haven't measured up.

I repent right now.

Tell me, right now I change, I choose to change.

Not one record of anybody, not one record of one person that wanted to change.

They heard the warning day and night for three years and now he's done all he can do and he's basically saying.

He's basically saying your blood's on your hands Doesn't say it that way, but that's what he means.

I commend you to God and look how positive he is.

And I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among the.

In other words, it's not too late for you.

You can get over in here, you can get repositioned in your life and, even though I'm gonna be leaving, you can make the necessary changes.

It's not too late.

Check your pulse.

If you still got a pulse, then it's not too late.

Oh the mercy of God, pastor, why are we talking about this?

Because some of us need to change.

Some of us need to position ourselves a little differently if we're to get the greatest.

You know, there's a huge difference between good, better and great.

We can have good, but we can have great and we can have greatest.

Are you with me now?

And the positioning is everything.

And I was reminded when I was reading this.

It could have been similar to when Elijah and Elisha were together.

You know, elisha was Elijah's minister, in other words, kind of like Aaron was to Moses.

In other words, whenever they traveled, elisha, you know, would assist Elijah.

He'd build a campfire.

You know he'd cook the beans.

You know he would kill the squirrel.

Squirrel clean.

I don't know if it is, anyway, I don't.

They need a squirrel killer in Cyprus because he attacked two housewives last week and they sent them to the hospital.

Imagine a squirrel jumps on you and bites you and you have to have stitches in your arm and your leg.

Two housewives, this one squirrel's gone, crazy Killer squirrel on the loose in Cyprus.

I do know how to fix that, but anyway.

But it was similar to them because Elijah basically said okay, you know I'm leaving, I'm leaving.

Elisha said you know, do you stay here?

No, I know you're leaving, I'm not gonna stay here.

So Elijah kept trying to get him to stay and Elisha would not leave the presence of Elijah.

He followed him to four places and finally it got down to where the fiery chariot's gonna come down and pick up Elijah, take him to heaven.

He's in heaven today.

He's walking the streets of gold and he has a body, just like you and I.

It's amazing he's coming back again too.

Book of Revelation talks about it.

And so he said ask what you want of me before I leave.

And he said that a double portion of your spirit be upon me.

Oh, double portion, huh.

Oh, why you ask a hard thing?

That's a pretty big, that's a tall order.

I like his spirit.

I mean, he'd served him for 20 years.

He left everything behind.

I mean, he didn't care.

You know, his parents probably didn't try to talk him out of it.

Everything else, left 12, you know oxen behind and all of that.

He was a mule skinner or whatever he was.

I don't know what he was, he was a mule skinner anyway.

So he he said I want a double portion of your spirit.

And he said you ask a hard thing, but nevertheless, if you see me, it'll be so, and if you don't see me, it won't be so.

In other words, he had to keep his eyes on the prophet Elijah while all of this fireworks was happening.

I mean it was a tremendous show.

I mean you've got these chariots and these angels coming down, they swoop down and pick up Elijah and they go up to heaven.

And he never took his eyes off him.

He said my father, my father, the horses let's see how did he say?

The chariots of God and the horses thereof, or something like that, chariots of Israel and the horses thereof.

And Elijah looks down and lies you down there and he took off his mantle and threw it.

The mantle was the symbol of the anointing and he picked up the mantle of Elijah and he tore off his own clothes and put that mantle around him and he slapped the water and said where is the Lord, god of Elijah?

And water's parted hither and thither and he walked over on dry ground and if you look up his ministry, elijah's ministry had about twice as many miracles as Elijah.

He got his inheritance.

It was a bigger inheritance than a lot of other people were eligible for.

He got it because why he was?

In what Position?

There's not one record of these guys being in proper position to have taken what Paul had and multiply and run with it.

In fact, I'm pretty sure Paul heard from God and a lot of them were wolves.

A lot of them took advantage of the sheep.

A lot of them, you know, just walked in the coronality of their flesh and didn't really carry the anointing that Paul had.

Are you with me now?

Everybody say the anointing.

See, that's the power.

It's not by our own power or might, but by my spirit.

Saith the Lord, if you're gonna get your inheritance, it's gonna be by the power of God's supernatural power.

It's not gonna be your talent, it's not gonna be your intellect, it's gonna be what have you received by being in proper position?

Y'all are looking at me like a cow at a new gate, but I hope you'll, I trust that you will receive.

And so there was another level of inheritance that was available.

That's what I wanted to say.

A lot of people think our inheritance it's just set in stone.

Well, no, it's really not set in stone.

It's really all according to how you position yourself in a series of life long decisions that you have to make, one step at a time.

I read the life of Ruth Graham, not the whole book, but I read some excerpts of Ruth Graham.

And Ruth Graham was a young Baptist girl.

She wanted to be a nurse.

That was her highest and she started going to nursing school and then she met Billy Graham.

Now her plan and what she wanted.

Well, she wanted to be a nurse.

But when she met Billy and fell in love and they got married, well, that went away.

She chose what?

Well, she chose to be a help meet for Billy Graham.

She didn't know Billy Graham was gonna be one of the greatest preachers on the face of the earth.

She didn't know that, she just figured he's another Baptist preacher.

But she gave up her dream of being a nurse to be his wife and to raise his children Because he's gone all the time.

Gone all the time.

Gone all the time.

And she's there and she provided a stable home while this preacher is traveling and going all over the world and knowing presidents and sitting with presidents and heads of state all over the world, revered all the way to the day he died.

He died and she died before he did.

Do you think that when she got to heaven she gets to sit in the back?

You think she's in some insignificant place?

You know what it looks in the natural like?

Well, she just chose to be a little house way.

I'm telling you what she chose.

The highest thing she could have chosen and he said this over and over it wasn't for Ruth, I don't know what would have happened.

Well, they had some trouble with Frank, and Franklin was a wild, wild and crazy guy.

A lot of preacher's kids are like that.

Thank God mine weren't.

Some of them are Preacher's kids.

They're expected to be perfect, they're expected to just toe the line and they have to live their life in front of everybody else and everybody.

Just high standard.

And so, yeah, he didn't get saved.

It was like 19 or 20 years old he got saved.

How many of you know Frank and Graham saved?

Are you with me now?

So, position yourself for inheritance.

I just got three things today.

How many of you want to hear them?

Or would you rather just go home, all right?

So in verse 32, position yourself, or another word for position is commit, commit yourself to God.

The word commit or it means to place alongside the set before, to present yourself, in other words, prayer, praise and worship.

Be faithful to God, be zealous for God.

Have the fire of God in your life.

You know you have to stir the fire up.

Some days you wake up.

You don't necessarily feel any fire.

Well, you do.

Well, you stir it up.

You stir up the fire of God.

You keep hot, you stay hot.

See, that's what I'm talking about.

You position yourself.

It's all about your choices.

A message I've preached all over the world to other preachers Don't get so busy working for God that you don't spend any time with God.

That's the typical, what happens to the typical pastor who doesn't know what a pastor's job description really is.

He goes to work for a board of demons I mean board of deacons who expect him to move mountains and be available 24 seven and do everything, and they don't have the vaguest idea what the true job description is.

I mean, the Apostle said you know, it's not, it's not sense that we should wait on tables.

Take care of that so we can, we can put ourselves and pay attention to the Word of God in prayer.

That's the thing we need to do.

We need to be, we need to be in the Word of God in prayer, so we can take the oversight of this, of this body, and feed the flock of God.

That's my job Feed the flock.

Your job is to is to do everything else to support me.

In the early days of Lakewood you know, I don't know, a lot of people don't know this, but they had a bunch of different locations.

I mean they had an air church, had a big old bubble with an air pressurized system.

That blew up the air bubble and we're inside a clear plastic vinyl thing.

You know, you think this church is vinyl.

They had one.

It had a big old blower on it, inflated, and they walked, worship God and they, they had all kinds of locations A lot of people just think the feed barn and then the other.

No, there were lots of other locations that they were in and and they were struggling and brother Osteen tells a story.

Then one day, brother Dierman and brother Bell and brother one other brother I forgot now his name three of them.

I said Dierman, didn't I?

Brother Dierman, brother Bell and one other, huh, brother Nichols.

Yeah, so they came to brother Osteen and said look, you're the pastor, we'll do everything else.

You just, you just dedicate yourself to hearing from God.

Take the oversight, we'll take care of all building, we'll take care of all the business, we'll take care of the yard, we'll take care of the, we'll take care of everything, everything else.

You just do that.

And he said from that moment on they started growing.

People came from everywhere.

What?

Because three men committed themselves and we're glad to do something behind the scenes.

And when brother Osteen is very famous and known all over the world and they're not, there's no jealousy.

They just they just worked in obscurity doing what they knew to do.

See, that's what it takes in a church.

Not everybody can be the head.

Somebody's got to be doing something behind the scenes that you don't ever see.

That's what I'm talking about.

Commit yourself to God.

Not everybody's going to see what you've done with God, but the rewards are open.

God's got to be the head.

God's got to be the head.

God's got to be the head.

You know, jesus said I preached to the Jews in parables, but for you, it's for you to know the mysteries or the secrets of God.

There's a difference.

See the Jews they didn't want to hear, so he just spoke to them in parables and stories.

But for you, it's meant for you to know the mysteries.

And this little girl, mary, I mean, she's just a little handmade and nobody ever heard of her.

And all of a sudden an angel appears to her and tells her Mr hey, you know what You're gonna bring forth the Messiah.

Well, how in the world can that happen?

I'm a virgin, I'm gonna be a virgin.

Oh, the power of the most high shall overshadow you.

The Holy Spirit's gonna come upon you.

The power of the most high shall overshadow you and that holy thing which will be born of you shall be called the Son of God.

She had an inside revelation nobody else had.

It wasn't easy living with that revelation.

It wasn't easy living with that mystery.

When you hang out with God, you'll see and hear things that nobody else knows.

God wants to share some mysteries between now and the end of this year for you.

Some secrets are not hidden from you, they're hidden for you.

But they're not just laying on top of the ground.

How many of you know gold is done just lay on top of the ground.

You gotta dig down and find it.

You ever see that thing on Discovery Channel where they move all that gold, all that dirt and water and all this kind of thing.

And it's crazy, all the machines they have to buy just to find a little bit of gold in the palm of your hand.

They must be finding more gold than that.

Well, that's the way God's wisdom is.

I tell you, hang out with him and he can share things with you that you don't know.

James 1, 17,.

Every good and perfect gift.

Every good gift and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variable in the shadow of turning.

It's amazing how many times the word perfect is used in the Bible, and that's what we're gonna have to have.

We're gonna have to have some of those perfect things come to us in this season so that we can have the greatest year of our life.

You know, we can have a good year, we can have a better year, or we can have the greatest year we've ever had.

God said we could have it.

What I'm saying is that we gotta, correspondingly, we have to position ourselves to receive it.

Are you with me now?

So just make more time for God.

You're just gonna have to hang out with him.

Hang out with him more and more when people talk bad about him, defend him.

I like what Brother Osteen used to do.

He'd go in the locker room he was had Houstonian, I think, and he was working out trying to stay kind of healthy.

And it's in the locker room and some guys in there telling dirty jokes and cussing use the Lord's name in vain.

All of a sudden he just turned out.

Glory to God, hallelujah, thank you, jesus.

Praise the name of the Lord.

What's wrong with you?

Well, you cussing and using the Lord's name in vain.

I just thought I'd bless him for a while.

Hallelujah, glory to God.

Five foot seven, full of fire, all right.

Number two position or commit yourself to God's kingdom, not your kingdom.

Hebrews, chapter six.

Are you anything out of this?

I know it's real basic, but it's really just kind of simple.

The steps to success that I've watched and tried to adhere to myself.

They work.

Hebrews 610,.

For God is not unrighteous to forget your work in labor of love which you have showed toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister, and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope under the end.

In other words, don't just start off good, follow it all the way.

I've seen people start off really great and then wind up on the scrap heap because they quit doing what they started doing.

They quit doing what they used to do in the beginning.

That you be not slothful, but followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.

It's necessary that you follow some folks.

Sometimes You're not always gonna be in the lead and I think, going back again, those three men that committed themselves to Brother Osteen.

They followed Him.

They followed Him through faith and patience and they received a reward.

Not a whole lot of people on this earth know a lot about them, but I tell you, in eternity they're gonna know a lot about them.

Are you with me now?

I'm not.

I'm not.

First, corinthians 16, 15, the house of Stefanus addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.

They addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.

You know, when you find in a local church like this, you find people that are just addicted to serving, that right behind them and help them hold their arms up.

Yes, amen.

Well, pastor, what about prominence?

You know, part of this year you said you know that we would have prominence.

Well, prominence is not something you seek after.

It's something that God rewards you with.

If you seek Him in private, he will reward you openly.

But prominence is not ever what we go after, not after prominence.

Prominence, it just comes with the package.

God is gonna bless you so much.

It'll make you prominent, it'll make you notorious, it'll make you so successful that people want to know about you.

Then you can use that prominence for His glory.

Are you with me now.

But if that's the goal you know, 25 years of this church you know there's a lot of people coming through the door and some of them just want to be noticed and they want to have my job.

They'd like to fire me and take over.

There were a lot of those at Lakewood.

They'd come up to me and talk to me How'd you get to do what you're doing?

You know, in other words, get out of the way.

I'd like to have your job.

So commit and submit to folks like that in your local church.

You know God keeps the books.

I said God keeps the books.

It's not about notoriety, it's about just being faithful to Him.

When you commit yourself, when you position yourself for the kingdom's sake, for the kingdom's sake, for the kingdom's sake, all right, the third one there position yourself, commit yourself to the Word of His grace.

The Word of His grace Say God and His Word are one.

So you know, I'd still all this.

You know worshiping God's, hanging out with God.

I do it simultaneously with my Bible open in my lap and I'm reading and I'm worshiping, and I'm reading and I'm praising, and I'm reading and I'm praying and I'm reading, you know, and inviting God to show me things that I need to change.

That's a good prayer.

God chasens the ones that he loves.

What does it chase and mean?

Does it mean send a car wreck?

Yes, lord, send me a car wreck so I'll learn?

No, he doesn't do that.

You don't do that.

Chasing simply means child training and in so many ways we're still children in our understanding of what God wants to do in these days.

We've just scratched the surface, barely scratched the surface.

We need to be as inquisitive.

If you've been around a child certain age, they ask you a million questions.

You better have an answer, and pretty soon as a go play, go play.

But you know you get frustrated after a while.

I mean, how many questions can a kid ask you?

And they make your head hurt, they make your brain go into a cramp.

But that insatiable thirst for knowledge we ought to have that with God.

I mean when God speaks to us.

One thing that I've learned that I haven't done that I should have done was God has spoken me and I didn't follow up with a whole series of bunch of questions.

I didn't ask enough questions after he spoke to find out a little bit more detail.

I just went off half cocked, usually go down the road a while, then the gun explodes.

I mean, you know God wants to pour out, but he's waiting for you to inquire of Him.

He will be inquired, he said.

I ask and keep on asking and you shall receive.

Seek and keep on seeking and you shall find.

Knock and keep on knocking and it shall be open unto you.

We leave off to keep on.

We just think, oh, god spoke to me, that's it.

We go off and we just we don't even have an understanding of what he meant when he spoke.

He did speak to you, but you just have a little tiny seed of what he really meant means and you need to pray that out and ask more detail.

Are you with me now?

He loves to be inquired of.

He's not like most parents.

All right.

So praise God, grace, the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among those that are sanctified, those that have been positioned properly.

There's a hint right there that our inheritance is linked to others.

You're not likely to receive your inheritance if you're not with others that are on the same journey.

They might have different parts of the journey but they're with you in it.

And if there's a hint right there that says, oh, with those others, see, it's not just by yourself.

Grace is extreme favor.

Grace is God's ability to do anything and willingness to do anything on your behalf.

You can't do it, but he can.

The word is what does it?

The word does the work.

You just banish words like can't, won't, don't, might, could, would, should, maybe.

Just banish those words out of your vocabulary, and I challenge you to do it, because it's real hard to get rid of those words.

Why?

Because the whole world, like I mentioned last week, the whole world is programmed with those words.

The whole world is programmed negatively.

You came out of that world.

Thank God, you did.

You came out of that world.

You were born again.

But that kind of thinking is rooted in your carnal mind.

That's why you have to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

That's why you have to be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you can get rid of all that negative stuff that'll keep you out of your inheritance.

You use those words and you're agreeing with the squatters and the trespassers.

Amen.

John 15, 7,.

Let you know if my Jesus said if you abided me and my words abided in you.

You should ask what you will and it'll be done of you, my Father in heaven, and that word abide.

If so, we abide in Him when we're saved.

I mean, we're in Christ, we're in Christ, it's automatic.

We're baptized into the body of Christ.

We're in Christ legally.

So then let's act like it.

That's the other part.

And then my word abides in you.

Well, his word abides in you to the same degree that it governs your conduct.

If the word of God governs your conduct, then you can say it God's word abides in me and I abide in Him because I'm saved.

Now I can ask what I will.

I can pray, I can make a demand on my covenant.

You're not demanding from God.

You're demanding, according to your covenants, for the devil Get off your property.

You're demanding the devil to take his hands off your body or off your children or whatever.

Whatever it is that you're demanding, you do it according to that and it will be done.

Praise God.

I mean, if those two things happen, if you abided him and His word abides in you, you're bound to have faith in that's the definition of faith is acting on the word Amen.

Come on, let's lift our hands, father.

We thank you that we've been given all of the tools that we need, all of the word that we need to position ourselves correctly.

Praise God, how many of you determined you're gonna position yourself?

One last thing, and I'll close Remember God does not commit Himself to talent, but he commits Himself to faithfulness and character.

Your talent is not really all that important because it's not supernatural.

God can use it.

That's why you know somebody that's like us, that's why you know somebody that's like a Hollywood star or they're a rock star or something like that, and we invite them on Christian television and we wanna know all about them and we want them to play and we want them to do, and most of the time they fall away because we worship them and we dishonor them.

They need to be discipled, they need to be humble, they need to humble, they need to set all that aside and say God, that's just refuse.

That's what Paul did.

I count everything, all my education, I counted as refuse.

It's garbage, except for the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, and that's what they need.

They need knowledge of the Word.

They need then, when they develop character and integrity, amen.

Then God can anoint their talent.

Are you with me now, god will commit Himself to that.

Hallelujah, and then your position for your inheritance.

Come on, lift your hands and receive.

Praise God, hallelujah, glory to God.

I said glory to God, hallelujah, oh hallelujah.

Thank God, we dare not be out of position in this season.

We are in position.