Week 2 ABLE 2

Hey, Go Church Family, welcome back. This is Gilbert and I'm here with Pastor Matt.

Praise the Lord. We're back at it talking about Able since last month and we're going

through this series this whole month as well. Yeah, last month we were able through. This

month we are able to. Absolutely. So we've been allowing the word to grow in us and be built

up in us and now we want to see it put into practice and put into action. We want to see

results in our lives. Yeah, because this word is working in us. Praise God. Amen. Amen. This message

we're doing this and we're doing this over these two months because there's a purpose behind it

and we want everyone in the Go Church Family to know that through God's supernatural ability,

we are able to see, to say and do things that the world around us cannot. We talked about that last

week about seeing things that others can't means that we can receive things that others won't.

But what I want to focus on is that we as a church are able to break down the limits that maybe

have been applied to us by assumptions or just because we think this is the natural order or

natural course. We break those limits down and emerge into the place that God has called us

both individually and as a church. Absolutely. I just on that subject, it gets me thinking about

the limits that are put on us and there are so many limits that we just get used to because of

the facts and the circumstances around us. Just that's the way things are because that's the way

things are because that's what the world says that we are. That's what the world says that we have.

That's the world says that we can do and that's what the world says that we have to deal with.

And the fact is we don't. We just, we can experience the truth of God's Word in our lives.

The more we live there in our minds, in our thinking and what we believe, what we say,

we can experience that to a greater degree and that's why we're spending two months on this.

Praise God. It's because we really want this to be so big in us and bigger than the things people

say around us, bigger than the things that we receive with our minds. So we have been talking

about we are able through Jesus, we are able through the love of God, the Father, we are able

through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. And now we're going further and saying,

what are we able to do? What are we able to see? What are we able to say? And these are things

that we need to move forward in as individuals, but also as a church. And that's why we really

want to dig deeper into that. So like you said, Pastor Matt, last week we talked about able to

see. This week we're going to talk about able to say. Praise God. And next week we're going to talk

about able to do. But before we get there, let's talk about saying. Why is saying so important?

Well, you know, really the new covenant, the dispensation of the church, dispensation,

that's a big theological word. But let's just say the days that we're living in,

in terms of God's calendar, are really marked by our speaking. In fact, our speaking is the

predominant determiner of our life. That's Mark chapter 11, verse 23 and 24. And there's a verse

Mark 11:23

of scripture from the Old Testament that I want to look at. And it's in this, I mean,

you can look at it, it's Job chapter 22, verse 28. I want to read this from the voice

Job 22:28

Bible. And the voice Bible is a, it's a paraphrase. It's not a translation. What they do though,

is they do a pretty good job of identifying who's speaking. And that is actually a key

to good Bible interpretation, knowing who is speaking and who is being spoken to.

But here in the voice Bible, in Job, there's this wonderful, wonderful statement. It says,

you will pronounce something to be and he who, he God, he who makes planets, he who

speaks and is so he will make it so. That's amazing. Because we are invited into the same

class and method of creation as God himself to declare something and he will make it so.

He will make it so. And that makes me think about Hebrews chapter 11, verse three,

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Hebrews chapter 11, the, I mean, I would say Hebrews is one of my favorite epistles in the

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

New Testament. And Hebrews chapter 11 is so big on the truth of faith. Hebrews 11, three says,

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

faith convinces us, this is God's word translation, faith convinces us that God created or framed

the world through his word. This means that we can, sorry, this means that what can be seen

was made by something that could not be seen. Genesis chapter one, the book of beginnings,

the, the words of God created the world that we see. Yep. Hebrews 11, three says that God's word,

and I love this, framed the world. My, my grandfather, basically a lot of the men in my,

my dad's side of the family, including my dad, were builders, you know, my dad built mostly

musical instruments and furniture, but his dad and a lot of the people in my family were builders,

construction workers. And the thing that you do before you build the building is you build the frame

that you are going to hang the building on. And the frame of the whole world is the words that are

spoken. There are things that you see, but those things were made of things that are not seen.

Yep. This building that we're sitting in, there are things that make it stand that are not seen.

The things that make the world that we live in not seen are the words. And this brings us,

of course, to Mark chapter 11, Mark chapter 11, verse 23. Jesus said that if you speak to a mountain,

Mark 11 · chapter mention Mark 11:23

which is immovable, and you tell it to do the impossible, and you believe in your heart,

that what you say will happen, you'll have what you say. Mark 11, 23 says you can have what you say.

Yeah. Actually, Mark 11, 23 says you have what you say. You have what you believe that comes out of

your mouth. Yeah. I mean, what you're talking about is a truth that has so much depth. Yeah. Like,

when we talk about Genesis one, a lot of the translations we read, it's almost like God was

making a suggestion, like, let there be light. And in the literal translation, so like Young's

literal translation, I just find it amazing, you know. And basically, the direct translation is

light B. Yes. It's it's it's even the word command cheapens it. Yes. It's a reality. It's like the

light B, and then light was that's literally what it says. He's not arguing with it. No, he commands

it. Yeah, to be in fact, Romans 4 17. God calls those things that are not as though they already were.

Yes. Yes. Light B, and B, according to wisdom, be according to the perfect plan, be

exactly everything that is necessary. Yeah. Our words were never designed to be idle. Yeah. Our

words were always designed to accomplish something because God's word is designed to

accomplish something we were made in his image. So because our environment, because our habits,

because of our culture, you know, we, we enjoy talking. Sometimes to our own detriment, we

enjoy joking a little bit too much. And with those things, we just assume that our words carry no

weight. So that's how a lot of people live. But that was not God's design. God's design was for

words to carry weight. Words carry weight. And the reality is they carry weight, whether we want to

whether we want to act like it or not. Yeah. And there are just some things that you can't get me

to say. Like I was, I was chatting with someone and they, they made a comment. They said, Oh,

um, if I sit with the air conditioner blowing on me, I will wake up and be sick tomorrow.

You, you couldn't make me sit. You couldn't make me say that if you hit me with a, like, a stick.

I'm not going to say that. It's good to be wise. It's good to, uh, it's good to take care of our

physical body. I should do more of that. But at the same time, it's also important to recognize

that our words carry power and define actually the limits and boundaries of our life. Absolutely.

So in the proverbs chapter 18, verses 2021 says a man's stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit

Proverbs 18 · chapter mention

of his mouth. Yes. And from the produce of his lips, he shall be filled. That can be healthy

produce and that can be packaged food. Right. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And

verse 21 says death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Yeah. No, it notices as death and life. And your example in Mark chapter 11, verse 23,

Mark 11:23

Jesus was giving us an example, not of life with words, but death, right? He gave that example

of the fig tree. He cursed it and it died. So there is that side to it. And as you're saying,

our words do contain that power. And sometimes whether we grasp it or not,

we can release it that way or this way. And I remember just last week, actually, I was

at a point where I traveled for a few weeks and I was quite tired. And I sat down with the Lord.

I was just that day tired, frustrated. So I sat down for a couple of minutes and I'm like,

oh, Lord, you know, like I'm being all, you know, bringing things to him. Oh, I'm tired and I'm

frustrated and I'm this and in my heart, like immediately he said,

remember what I said in my word about let the weak say I'm strong. And I'm talking to him just,

you know, why are you always trying to correct me? And he instantly responded to my heart,

I'm trying to help you. Right. I'm not trying to correct you. And that's the difference. Like we

sometimes we might hear it like this is just a religious thing that word of faith people say.

And that's not the case. Well, it can become a religion if it's just an empty habit.

But it's not the case. The case is this is how God designed the world. This is how God designed

us. This is who he made us. And he made us with power and life or death in our words. So when

he's correcting me about what I'm saying, he's actually not correcting me. He's trying to help

me. He's giving me the solution. And the solution is already there in the ability to change things

with what I say. Yeah. And that's what we're talking about the ability to say. He gave me the

ability to say when he created me. And of course, he keeps giving me the ability to say as and when

it's required. And that's that's what's so powerful, so fast. Actually, actually, in the book of Hebrews,

which you say is one of your favorite epistles in chapters three and four talks about how Jesus

is the high priest of our confession. Yes. So Jesus works with what we say. Say it again. I mean,

it's it's such a truth because religion has has made us focus so much on the sovereignty of God.

And here God in his sovereignty has Jesus has said, I am I am going to become the high priest.

What's the high priest do the high priest? We see in scripture, the high priest takes what is offered

to God. So Jesus, what did you just say he works with what we say, right? So able to say,

able to say, you know, Jesus needs people here in Lebanon now to start saying things that he can work

with. That's right. That's right. There's not a shortage of people that will talk about how bad

this politician is, how much money this politician stole. How many people are willing to stand up and

say, Jesus loves Lebanon, the people of Lebanon are blessed. The people of Lebanon are chosen by the

Lord. Or just even if you don't have your own words, say the words that the Lord says in Isaiah

29, fruitful feel. That's right. That's right. He he goes on to say that the poor among men will

rejoice. Yes. What is why would a poor man rejoice? Well, not because he's going to stay poor. That's

right. I mean, glory to God, he has worked specifically for Lebanon, which that's good news

for Lebanon. Yes, we're talking about Isaiah chapter 29 verses 17 through 19 through 17 through 19.

Isaiah 29:17–19

And I would encourage you to look that up and just say it. We're able to say those things. Jesus is

calling Gochurch Beirut to be a voice of declaration of God's will here. Yeah. That's right. This is

the you said it. This is the way God has designed. He's created the world. The things that are seen

are not made of things which do appear. So the funny illustration is in Genesis chapter one.

We don't have a record of God saying, it's so dark. I can't see. It's so dark. I don't know what to do.

He said light be right when there was no light and light was hell. That's the beautiful thing.

But it's it's light be light was right Genesis chapter one. That's in Young's literal translation.

You can that's the thing. So what when the Lord let's go back to the same verse when the Lord says

let the weak say I'm strong as the Lord suggesting that the weak person should light. No, what he's

what he's suggesting or what he's telling us to do is call things that be not as though they were.

Yeah, because in that word is a is a is a that word is a container. What's inside the container

able able able is inside the container. Yes. So instead of saying, hmm, I don't I don't

got no able right. No, that's bad English. But say I'm strong. I always know what to do. I always

make the right decision. Yeah, there's some really amazing teachers who teach on faith and

one of them is Charles Caps. Yeah. He has this amazing illustration, which I heard about,

you know, if if the dog is across the field, you call the dog if you want him to come right.

If the dog's here, you don't need to call him, right? So there's no point, you know, for a strong

person to say I am strong. Well, obviously, it's good to say it. And it's good to remind yourself

what the Lord said. But especially the person who's dealing with weakness needs to say it.

Yes, turn the situation around. That's exactly right. Yeah, that's exactly right.

Right. The there there is no help for me in me painting with my words, the current picture

of my world. What I need to do is reach into God's word, which is alive and powerful,

and fill my mouth with His words and paint His will for my life with my mouth using His words.

And according to Job, I will pronounce something to be and he who is able, he will make it so.

Yeah, he's the high priest of our confession. He works with what we say. That's right.

Right. So Pastor Matt, you you actually shared a message a few weeks ago at a church called

CTK Christ. And before we we talk about actually what you spoke about then, I do want to say it's

amazing that Go Church and you know what we do is not only strengthen ourselves, but we're here to

strengthen other churches. And we're here to help other churches get built up. And it's just it's

a privilege to be part of that. It's a privilege to see Lebanon come up and the people of God in

Lebanon come up. So it's nice that we get to go around and be part of what other churches are

doing as well. And I think that's that's something that the Lord intends for us to connect and for

us to move together because the body moves together, right? You don't have a left leg

moving out of sync with the right leg. It doesn't work that way. So I think having said that, you

shared a message and the subject was actually in 2 Kings chapter seven. And it's related to

saying, right? Can you can you share a little bit about that? Yeah. So 2 Kings chapter seven is a

story, a record of Elisha in the city of Samaria. And he is surrounded, the city of Samaria, I should

say, is surrounded, besieged by an enemy army. The army's intent is to destroy the city and take

everything of value out of it. The conditions, if you read 2nd Kings chapter six, toward the end

of the chapter, you see the conditions are so bad that the people are resulting to cannibalism.

That's amazing. That's bad. I mean, shockingly bad, right? Yeah. How desperate is your situation

if this is this is where you've arrived to? And it's so bad that the king is like, okay,

this is certainly God's fault. It's funny how the politician wants to blame the preacher.

And so the king comes to Elisha and they're going to cut his head off. And there was a whole little

showdown about that. And but Elisha says in 2 Kings chapter seven verse one, he said,

listen to this message from the Lord, listen to this word from the Lord. What are we talking

about here? Something to say. We should really in the grow group kind of dig into this a little bit.

And I would encourage you just to read this and spend a little time thinking about how dark

life is inside of this city, where outside there's an enemy that you they the people in there,

they could not overcome. And they are they're facing imminent death.

And in that, Elisha stands up and says, this is what the Lord says by this time tomorrow.

So 24 hours, whatever day this is. He said this time tomorrow, in the markets of Samaria,

six quarts of choice flower will cost only one piece of silver and 12 quarts of barley grain

will cost only one piece of silver. Now, in the chapter, you see in chapter six, you see that

they're actually selling the head of a donkey, which would have almost no meat on it for these,

you know, for way more than this. And they're selling the dung of birds

for these prices, because there's no flower. There's none.

So he says here, by this time tomorrow, what is priceless

will be so cheap, it's equal to what today is almost worthless.

There's going to be that much change in the situation. In other words, he said,

what is today completely impossible tomorrow will already be common.

That's that's supernatural saying. He will pronounce a thing and the Lord will make it so.

Yeah. And it seemed impossible. And then only did it seem impossible. The Kings guard said,

not even the Lord could do what you're saying. Like that was his reaction. He said,

if the Lord opened the windows of heaven, what you said still would not come to pass.

And the life just said, you're going to see this happen, but you won't benefit from it.

And if you keep reading, that's exactly what happened. Yeah. The story ends there in second

Kings seven, it says, and so it was just as the man of the man of God said,

the price of six quarts of choice flower was one piece of silver and 12 court,

12 courts of barley grain was one piece of silver, just as the man of the man of God said.

And that Kings guard, he was sadly trampled by people rushing out because

they thought there was this huge army outside, but that army had left.

They had not just left, they had abandoned everything that they had brought with them.

And this army, it wasn't like a bunch of soldiers like we think of today.

They were more like a group of like armed thieves, where they had been other places

and they had stolen other things. And so they have this camp that's full of things,

full of, and I'm saying things, it says that they found equipment, garments and food.

And food equipment, how many of you could think of some equipment that you need for your business

or for your home furnishings, clothes and food? Yeah.

Right. The difference is the saying. He said something impossible and the Lord made it so.

You know, talking about saying last year, the Holy Spirit Conference, there was something

amazing that Pastor Joel Sims had shared about the fact that everything that the Lord accomplished

in the world was at some point first spoken out by a prophet or spoken out by a man of God or

spoken out by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So everything that the Lord did, a voice needed to

go out before him to accomplish it. And that's how the Lord works. I mean, this is how the world

was framed by words. Yes. So I do, I actually do want to share another story which I see in the

New Testament, which meant a lot to me and this is something I was thinking about when we're

talking about, you know, week two able to say, and it's about the exchange between Paul and Timothy.

And if we look at the letters of first and second Timothy, there are basically letters that Paul had

written to Timothy, who he calls his spiritual, his son and the faith, his spiritual son. And Timothy

was basically so close to Paul and he was also part of Paul's team. And he was put in ethicists as

the pastor of the Ephesian church while Paul was going around accomplishing his mission. And

let me, let me give some background. So we know from scripture, we can see from scripture that

Timothy was someone who dealt with fear on and off. This is, we see that in second Timothy,

chapter one verse seven, where we see a scripture which a lot of us like to pick up and speak over

ourselves, which is God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.

And he was rebinding Timothy of that. And we also see from scripture that Timothy was someone who

dealt with some timidity and some shyness. We see that from first Corinthians 16, in verses 10 and 11,

where Paul is encouraging the Corinthian church to open, you know, with open arms, receive Timothy,

who's going to come to you, who's going to support you and help you. And you should respect him like

you're respecting me. And you get the sense that he's kind of trying to help Timothy fit in where

Timothy might struggle a little bit. So you see that, that, you know, maybe that idea of Timothy

and you start building up a picture of his character, you know, very, very committed to the purpose,

man of God, but he deals with a bit of fear, a bit of timidity, a little. So you can imagine

that someone like that is not a person who speaks up, you know. And basically, when you start looking

through 1st and 2nd Timothy, you see that actually Paul is inspired by the Holy Spirit to equip the

leader of the church of Ephesus to say what he needs to say to accomplish the plan of God in Ephesus.

So going through 1st Timothy, for example, you see that the majority of the instruction that Paul

gives Timothy is basically instruction like this. He says command. He says teach and preach. He says

read publicly. He says give instruction. He says urge and encourage the people. Which is all saying.

Saying, right. So basically, God was trying to get ability to say to Timothy to accomplish the plan

that he had in Ephesus for the church and not only in Ephesus for the church, but for all the

churches to us, because this instruction is not limited to Ephesus. This instruction is for the

whole church of God. So we see that and more than that, Paul was well aware of the need for this

ability to say. And he actually at some point asked the Ephesian church to pray for him that he would

have utterance to boldly preach the word of God. He was well aware that even him with all the

revelation, you know, we see from 2nd Corinthians that he was caught up to heaven. He had all these

visions. His life turned around when he personally met Jesus. And even with all of that,

he still needed ability from the Lord to say something. You know, that's what I want. Let me

just say, if you're thinking of a good thing, you know, what should we, how should we pray for

the leadership of the church? Pray for utterance. Yeah. You want your church leaders to have utterance.

Paul said, pray for me that I will have utterance. What is utterance? It's inspired. It's the, the

ability to speak by Holy Spirit's inspiration. Now, why that's key is because you don't just want

talking. You want a Holy Spirit inspired saying and that ability is inside that saying. Yes.

Yeah. Praise God. You know, I can, I can tell you for me personally, at some point, you know,

when I come to be part of Go Church and I started, you know, doing my part and I started fitting in,

I realized that I somehow ended up doing a lot of speaking stuff. Like just, just as I'm sitting

here on podcast talking, you know, I'm glad that I, I direct all this talking to you guys and not

to my wife because she probably stabbed me in my sleep. But I'm just joking. But, but basically,

I, you know, growing up, I was never this person who thought, yeah, that's what I want to do. I

just want to be a public speaker and I want to do this on a regular basis. And I'm super good at that.

In fact, here's something I should have, I should never say is, you know, getting into these things

like, Oh, I hate public speaking. This is, this is something I learned to not say, you know,

I say the opposite of that. But I do acknowledge that that was never my comfort zone. That was

never easy for me. And that was not something that comes naturally to me. And the fact is,

is I recognize God's ability to do something through me when it comes to saying,

Do you feel like Timothy will say, I get it? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I relate to him. I get it. I

understand. There's a point where he finds himself suddenly as the pastor of like one of the biggest

churches ever. And he's dealing with those things. So 50,000 people. Yeah, absolutely. Actually,

it could be more. Yeah, that's the thing. I can recognize myself in this and say,

you know, the Lord definitely gave me ability to say or ability to speak in order to accomplish

what he wants to accomplish in the church. And that that would be the case for a lot of us.

You know, you wrote something that is so, it's so powerful by saying,

we, me and you, by saying, we can make an impact in the world and accomplish the plan of God

through the church in the world. Yeah. Pastor Joel Sims, when he was here, he

said something. He said a word. He said it's time to emerge. He shared that he really,

he felt as though the Lord had given him that word for us as a church. And,

you know, he kind of helped us see what that, what that word kind of unpacked a little bit,

emerge meant to become visible, become prominent and to move into a position to help Lebanon recover

from a difficult situation. There's, there's no denying the fact that Lebanon is in a difficult

situation. But the ability to change that is in that word for Go Church Beirut. And I believe

that God is going to use all of the Jesus preaching Christ following churches in Lebanon

that are and those that will launch. But I, you know, for us, this is the Go Church podcast. I think

it's important that we say Go Church Beirut will do our part. That's right. Can I, can I close with

this scripture that Pastor Joel actually shared and just resonated so much with me is in 1st

Timothy, talk about Timothy 1st Timothy chapter 4 verse 14. It says, do not neglect the gift that is

in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the eldership. We saw

that happen. But we also saw that there was a, you know, a gift imparted, but there was also

a word spoken by prophecy about emerge, right? And let me, let me read on 1st 15 meditate on

these things. Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all.

That's something that we should do. It's something that we should be aware of. We should be aware

of what the Lord has put in us. So talking about my discomfort with public speaking,

if I'm more aware of that, and I keep saying I hate public speaking, I'm no good at it. I'll,

you know, never be comfortable with it. If I say that, and I'm more aware of that versus what the

Lord has already put in me saying, you know, you're able because I need you to do that.

And I just reflect on that, keep thinking of that, keep applying that in my life. So if I do that more

than I listen to the other things, I will be able to accomplish that. And that's, that's important,

especially with the ability to say, as this is how much Paul had put in his letter to Timothy.

He kept telling him, command the people, teach and preach to the people, read publicly, give

instruction, encourage the people. It's, there's so much power in what the Holy Spirit imparted

to Timothy about what he was able to do. And Timothy just, he could have ignored all that.

That's the fact. He could have just ignored all that and never paid attention to that and kept

saying, Oh, I'm really bad at this. I'm really weak at this. You notice the same pattern with Moses

and Aaron and the, in the Old Testament, but it's important to not neglect neglect the gift that is

already in us. And that was given to us by prophecy. So just the same way, I appreciate that,

you know, you as the pastor, I go to church, Beirut, keep going back to that word about emerge

and keep reminding us of that word, because that's the direction of the Lord for us. That's not just

you know, something that sounded good to someone who came to preach to us once. This is the word

of God for us as a church. Yeah. And to, to that point, really to make this kind of

more practical and help all of us get, go further when something stands out, like if you're,

you're reading something in your Bible this morning and a verse of scripture just,

you know, like it just stands out to you. Don't walk away from that. Instead,

write it down, spend time looking at it, focus on it. Why? Because that's, we see this pattern in,

in the Old Testament where when God said something to Abraham or to Abram before he changed his name,

he didn't just say, huh, that was nice. That was an interesting Tuesday. We'll see what happens

tomorrow. No, the Bible says that he would build a memorial and then make an offering.

Why? Because he said this, this word, this saying that happened this day,

this is heavenly, this is holy, and I'm not just going to treat it like it's ordinary.

And if, if you and I will start doing that when the spirit of God inspires an utterance,

inspires a word, inspires a saying that we hear and we'll make a big deal out of it,

we'll keep revisiting it, we'll keep going back to it. You know what will happen? We'll get more.

That's right. There'll be more of those sayings. Yeah, like we said last week, the willingness

to give or the willingness to make a big deal out of the eternal things, yeah, gives your ability

to see more. Yeah, that's right. Well, I know we're out of time, but this is a big subject. I feel

like we, we just opened it and of course we'll dig more into this in the grow groups. But

one thing that I want to say is if no one told you yet today, we love you and we are

believing God's very best for you.

Thank you for listening to this message. We want everyone to experience the unconditional love

of God growing his love and go with his love to the rest of their world. We invite you to connect

with us at one of our groups or our next gathering. And if no one told you yet today, we love you and

believe God's very best for you.