SPEAKER_00 0:01

But this sermon is called The Faith That Obtains. And I was thinking about this the other day, reading it in Hebrews, and it touched me so much. I thought, you know what? If it's good for me, then it's probably good for the church. So somehow or another, I don't know how I got to come up here. So it's a miracle. And uh, so I want you to read in Hebrews chapter six. Let's read. And I loved, I can't read the whole thing. I could have, I'd love to, but I only have one day to do this. So here we go, Hebrews chapter six. And by the way, Hebrews is a book of faith. How many of you know that? And it's also a book of falling away. Did you know that? It's a book that exhorts people from falling away and not serving the Lord and not being diligent and not being hooked up with the body of Christ. But it's also a book of faith. So there's two kind of things in the book of Hebrews. And uh I love this book because there's lots of illustrations about faith. And in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 11, it says, Now we want each of you to demonstrate. Everybody say, demonstrate. That means you're doing something, right? The same diligence for the final realization of your hope. So you got to continue to be diligent to serve the Lord and to do what you're supposed to do until you get to that final hope, that realization one day we all want. And then it says, the verse 12, so that you won't become lazy. Everybody say lazy. I love the word of God. It tells you just like it is, doesn't it? No bones, just like me. It says that you won't become lazy. And the word lazy means dull and sluggish. Everybody say dull and sluggish. This isn't, he's not talking about lazy people. He's talking about being coming dull and sluggish in your spiritual life. How many of you know that can happen really easy? That's why I'm determined every morning to pray and sit in the Bible and just keep my spiritual life on going. Even though I don't have to. We don't have to. Everything's here for us. We have a great country, believe it or not. It's all here. But we're also, it says here, don't become dull and sluggish in your spiritual life. But everybody say, but be imitators. Say imitators, copycats. We are copycats. We are to copy, it says here, those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance. I like that. They inherit the what? Promises. Notice it says promises, not promise. If it was just promise, then we'd say, okay, that's the promise of salvation. It's the promise of Jesus. Thank God. We all have that here, don't we? Right? But it says promises. And I love that. How many know there's lots of promises in the Bible? There's tons of promises. And 2 Corinthians 1.20 says, For all the promises of God are yes, and in him, what? Amen. And that word amen means truly. It's true. Yes, and they're true. All the promises of God are yes and true. Not if, not maybe, not perhaps. It's yes. Everybody say yes. And I think that's one thing we have to understand is that there's promises in the Bible. God promises things to us, and a God who promises and wants them fulfilled in our lives. He didn't give us this book of promise just so that we could live our whole life on earth and never ever receive one. He wants us to obtain promises. And I like that. A lazy faith won't do it. A sluggish, dull faith won't get it done. That's why we have to get sharper in our faith. And so to get sharper in our faith, there's lots of things we have to do, right? And so that's why you get taught the word of God to learn how to do that. Today I hope to do that. One of the promises is in Acts chapter 2, 38 and 39, which I believe uh Pastor Sessi, Pastor Adam have already talked about. I just want to give you this promise. It says here, then Peter, he was preaching, said to them, Repent, let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift. There would say gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise. This promise, by the way, he's speaking, he's quoting the Old Testament. He said, For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, and those those who weren't born yet, and as many as the Lord our God will call. And so, what was this gift? What's the promise? The what? Come on, talk to me, guys. What was he promised? What did we promise? The Holy Spirit. So are you making yourself, are you availing yourself of this promise of the Holy Spirit? Have you obtained the gift of the Holy Spirit in your life? One of the first things that came to me when I got saved was the Holy Spirit. And I'm so thankful that He's still with me today, still helping me. There's a lot of promises. Who can tell me some? What are some promises in the Bible? Chocolate cake? Like what? How about salvation? How many of you know that one of the promises salvation? What else? Long life. Actually, Psalm says long life, length of days. How many of you know that's a promise you can grab a hold of? I say it all the time. Lord, thank you to give me long life and length of days. I want to see my grandkids' weddings. I want to see their kids. My wife's scoffing over there. Sarah is over there scoffing, laughing in her tent. And the only way I'm gonna see lengthy days and long life is that God continues to heal me. So healing is a promise. Everybody say healing is a promise. What about deliverance? Is deliverance a promise? Yes, I have been delivered from many things. Believe it or not, I've never been, I'm not always this nice or good looking. Oh wait, my wife said that today. Isn't she nice? I think I'll buy a new suit. I like these suits. How many of you like my haircut? I got a haircut a couple weeks ago. Let's see who cut it. Oh, Catherine cut it. There she is sitting over there. Look at her. Everybody look at Catherine, that blonde lady right there. Did a really good job. I was bugging her lots. She was so nervous to cut my hair, she almost cut my ear off with a razor. I'm just kidding. What other gifts are there? What other promises are there? Yeah, that's right. No weapon formed against us shall prosper. What about the how about guidance? What about guidance? What about the goodness and mercy? Somewhere in Psalms says, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. These are scriptures I I listen to speak over. How about freedom? How about all the gifts, the nine uh gifts, you know, love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, self-control, all those kind of things. Those are all promises that God has given us. God's promise to deliver you, God's promised to uh a heritage, a posterity in your family. Then not only will you be blessed, but your children and their your children's children will be blessed. I speak that over our children all the time. How about protection? God's given us angels to protect us. How many of you know you have an angel to protect you? Some of you need two or three, but you know what? God has given us angels. Right? Back in the day, I needed a whole squadron. Now my angel's pretty bored. He's probably sitting over there cutting his nails or something. But you know, we need we need to understand that all these promises come by the avenue of faith. They don't just happen because you're we're Christians, they happen through faith. Faith. Everybody say faith. And see if we don't understand the avenue of faith, we might be tempted to believe that the promises of God come to us in some other way. Some other means. And I'm here to tell you that it's not true. None of the promises come by any other means except through faith. And I know lots of people there against faith, they don't understand faith. But you know what? It's because they don't understand it. A lot of people are pro-faith or against faith, or they're either all in or they're all out, or you know, and that's what we're like. We kind of, you know, if we don't like something, it's someone's preaching or the way they are, you know, we throw it all out. But you can't throw, you know, if you're washing your baby and the water gets dirty, you throw out the what? You don't throw the baby out with the bath water. And that's what so many people do in Christianity. They don't like something, they just throw it all out. Well, I don't like that, chuck it out. I saw a faith preacher, he had a nicer suit than what I've got on. Must be evil. No. You have to look at the word of God. Don't base or judge your Christian life or live your Christian life based on people. You base it on this book right here. And so we have to look at the scriptures. He Romans 4 13 says this for the promise, everyone say promise that he, Abraham, would be the heir of the world, was not to him or to his seed. Everybody say his seed. That word actually means Jesus. Not plural, but singular, seed. And he really makes talking about the future of Jesus, the Son of God. But it also talks about seeds, which are us. We are all byproducts, we are all seeds, we are all fruit, we are all plants from the seed of Abraham, from the seed of Jesus, right? And so those of us, it says, not it all these promises don't come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. And that's how Abraham in Romans 4 3. I'll just go through some scriptures. It says here, for what does the scripture say? Romans 4 3. Abraham believed God. Everybody say, believed. It's a past tense, believed. And it was a credit to him, credited to him for righteousness. In other words, God came to Abraham and spoke the word of God to him, said, Hey, hey, bud, I want you to get out of your home, go here, I'll show you what to do. And if you follow me and trust in me and have faith in me, you are gonna have your descendants will be as the sand of the sea and the stars in the sky. And he says, And I will bless you with many things. I will bless you beyond measure. Many many fold blessings. And so Abraham believed him, even though he was an old man, right? He said, You're gonna have a kid, and through that child will be the descendants, and that's where Israel came from, right? Was through Isaac, his son. And so God forgave him, made him right standing in right standing with God because of faith. That's what we need to understand. Like, how many of you are in right standing with God right now 12? Twelve of you. How did you get there? Are you in right standing with God because of your good looks? Are you in right standing with God because of your mom and dad? How about your grandpa and granny? How about your race? How about your color? How about your intelligence, your intellect, and smarts? Are you in right standing with God because you're smart? How about your degrees? Anybody? No. You know what? If you're in right standing with God right now, it's because of your faith. Faith makes you righteous. Faith is credited to us as righteousness. Just your faith. When you express faith in Jesus Christ, right? And you accepted him, that was your act of faith, you have become the righteousness of God in Christ. Amen. That's the best thing in the whole world. Hallelujah. Thank you, Dr. Adam, Pastor Adam, for crying today. I appreciate that. If more of us would shed a few tears about what Jesus did for us, we'd be a lot better off. Because, man, it should make us cry sometime. The goodness of God. I'll tell you, it's wonderful. But you have to have a work of faith. Everybody say a work of faith. Lazy faith won't do it. There's got to be some works attached to it. And James tells us in chapter 2 do you not know, oh foolish man, that faith without works or corresponding actions is what? Dead. Was not Abraham our father justified by works? Everybody say works. That means doing something. Faith is not sitting around believing God, oh, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day. Faith is not magic, it's not wishing. Faith is substance, it's a reality. It says, Was he not justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Don't you see that faith was working together with his works, his actions? And by his actions, faith was made perfect. As the scripture was fulfilled, saying, Abraham believed God, it was a counter to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. And see, so what happened was after Isaac grew up a ways, I forget how old he was, 12 years old or something. God said to Abraham, I want you to take your son, take some wood, and go up and start a fire. And you know what you're gonna do. You're gonna take a knife, you're gonna sacrifice your son. How many of you would if God you woke up today and God said, Hey, I want you to sacrifice your son today? Get a knife, make an altar, go up to the mountain, three days' journey, and you're gonna kill your son. Anybody? See, nobody would do that, right? And God wouldn't do that. You might want to, but God doesn't want you to do that. And what happened when he got up there is that you know he had the knife, and and Isaac was just he was later, he was all tied up. He was on the altar. He was like, Hey dad, what's going on? What a good son, eh? He was like, Oh, I'm so obedient. He's gonna kill his son, slice his throat, drain his blood. And it's the Bible says he just as he was gonna plunge the knife in, he was going to do it. How obedient to God are you? Abraham was like super obedient, right? And he was just gonna plunge it down, and all of a sudden God said, Don't do that, stop. Okay, okay, okay. And it says a ram was stuck in the thicket and he got the ram out. He let his son go. But see, Abraham was prepared to kill his son because his faith was so strong that he knew that even if he killed his son, God would resurrect him from the dead, which is also a type and a shadow to Christ, right? We know that, but that's how strong his faith was. He knew that he knew that he knew. You know, God promised him that if through his son Isaac, you know, people would come. Well, he can't die. He said, even if I killed him, he's gonna come back to life. So faith without works is what? Dead. Romans 4, 14. And it has to be by faith. None of this happened. All this happened before the law. And then even after the law was given, you know, all the commandments and Israel and all that kind of stuff, it's still by faith, because the law did not nullify the law of faith. And so it says here Romans 4 14, and it says, For of those who are of the law are heirs, for if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect. In other words, if righteousness and all the promises of God are fulfilled by obeying the law, then he said, faith means nothing. Right? He said, but that's not so. Faith is everything. He says, verse 16, it says, Therefore it is of faith. Everybody say it is of faith. That it might be according to grace. It has to be faith to be according to grace. How many of you receive the grace of God in your life? Yeah, we all have, I think, right? And it says, so that the promise might be sure. I love that. So that the promise might be sure, sure, to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, under the law, but also those who are of the faith of Abraham, who's the father of us all. That's us. We're not under the law like the Israelites are, we are of faith like our father Abraham. But the promises are only sure because of faith. And I love that about God. He's saying, you know what, the law can't do it. There's no way in the world, you're, you know, being a Jew doesn't do it, or being whatever you are doesn't do it. Where you come from doesn't do it, your genealogy doesn't do it. The only way I can make sure that any of these promises get to mankind is by faith. And that causes a huge dilemma for a lot of people right there, because it's by faith. And some people might look, we might look at others and go, well, how come they didn't receive what was promised? And how come this person didn't receive? Let me ask you a question. Out there in the world, if you talk to people, I hope you're talking to people, right? You know, one of the questions you need to ask them is, Do you believe in God? And how many of you know that many, many people, I've asked them, they will, I was gonna say they put their hand up. No, they put their hand up. They will tell you that they believe in God. How many of you know people believe in God? Come on, how many know that's true, right? Well, it might not be our God, but they believe in a God, right? Um, but are they experiencing the promise gift of salvation? Not necessarily, right? Isn't that true? How come they're not receiving how come they're not how come that's not happening? You see, because believing and faith are not the same thing, and you have to understand that. Lest you spend your whole life just believing for the future. A lot of people just I believe. I'm I hope in the future someday that this happens. That's believing, it's not faith. Faith receives promises, believing just hopes for the better future. But if you're gonna obtain promises, you're gonna have to learn how to walk by faith and not by sight. I hope I'm gonna help you. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 and 9 says, For by grace you have been saved through what? Faith. Notice it doesn't say, for by grace you have been saved. The writer knows all this, says, For by grace you have been saved through, let's all say it, faith. You are saved through faith. That's why the writer of Hebrews says, Don't become dull, don't become you know sluggish, but continue to walk in faith, use your faith to obtain the promises that God has promised you. Because it's easy for us. Maybe we've tried faith, we've asked God for stuff, we've wanted to see some stuff, and it didn't happen. And then all of a sudden our faith kind of goes down, and we're like, oh, I'm not gonna do that anymore. And you know, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna walk by faith, I'm just gonna let life go past me, and I'm gonna grow spiritually dull and sluggish because when I asked for something, it didn't happen. You need to also understand that your faith will be tested. Abraham walked by faith for 25 years before he saw the promise. And he's the guy that we're supposed to imitate. We're supposed to imitate those who through faith and perseverance obtained the promise. I know it's hard. If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. If it was just by grace, and people say, Well, I'm saved by grace, I'm saved by grace. Yes, you are, that's true. But you're saved by grace because of your faith. It's not faith by itself sitting around doing nothing, scratching his head. You had a work of faith. You did something. I remember when I got saved. That lady that helped me get saved, she could have prayed for me till the cows come home. If I didn't do anything, nothing would have happened. I had to respond. I had to have an act of faith. Yes, Lord, I hear you and I obey. How many of you know what I'm talking about? See, it's not just grace alone. People say, well, grace. If you get the idea it's just grace by itself, then you won't do anything. Because I'm just waiting for the grace of God. I'm just waiting for the grace of God. Like God's picking your number, you know, you out of a hat, a big hat with all our names, and you pull out your hat. Today's the day you get healed. Ah, there you go. It's your day. Does God do that? No. Do people get saved like that? Today's the day. God's just gonna save these people, not those people. No. It's more than grace. It's grace with faith. And you might you must understand that. You spend the rest of your life not obtaining any promises because you just believe. There's people out there right now believe in God. The Bible's James says the devils believe in God. They say, but it didn't do them any good. Their believing is not faith. You see, it can only be obtained by faith, not by grace alone. Believing and faith are not the same thing. Believing is future tense. Believing is hope. That's good. You start there. It's a starting point. Yes. I believe God, I'll be healed. I'll believe God, I will. I believe God, one day I'll get married. I believe God. How many of you know what I'm talking about? I believe one day I'll be free. One day I'll be delivered from drugs. One day I'll be, yes, it's a great starting point, but that's not it. You have to get to a place of faith. Say faith. Everyone say faith. And it's not easy. That's that's why I'm telling you today. It's not easy. But it's not impossible. The Bible says, with faith, all things are possible. Say that to someone. Turn to someone and say, with faith, all things are possible. But you notice Jesus didn't say with faith everybody will just get whatever they want. No, he said all things are possible. Say possible. It doesn't happen for everybody. God wants it for everybody, doesn't mean it's gonna happen, right? But it is taken by faith. You gotta say, by faith it happens. And it's not easy. I've had many faith failures and I've had some faith victories. But you can't let the faith failures dictate your faith life. You have to persevere. Turn to some and say, Persevere. Abraham had to persevere. All the saints in Hebrews chapter 11 that are named in the faith chapter persevered. They didn't give up, they didn't quit. They might have tried it a hundred times. You know, I got delivered from from just one thing. I did lots of things, but when I first got saved, you guys have heard this, but I got saved and delivered from addiction of smoking. How many have ever had been underneath that? It's a tough one, right? And so every day I lived in a taught in a third floor apartment apartment, and I got into the faith message, and I started to believe God that I was gonna get delivered. And so I would take my smokes and I would throw them out the window of the third floor about every day. And then about half an hour later, I'd run downstairs and get them and bring them back up and smoke again, you know. I did that day after day for well, when I think I was thinking about it yesterday, I thought I did this for months, but I think it was only about three or four times. It just felt like three or four months, you know. You know, when you're addicted, and back then I would smoke anything off the ground. I would do anything. I'd when I didn't have any money, man, I'd I'd grab a bunch of butts off the ground and rip them apart and roll them into a thing and smoke them. It was the worst thing in the whole world. But I would do that, I would knock on people's doors in my apartment building. Hey, can I borrow smoke? That's how addicted I was. You know, and one day I threw those smokes out. I said, Thank you, Lord. I believe I received my deliverance. And I went and had breakfast. And you know, you smokers know that after you have breakfast, you gotta have a what? Smoke. Well, you know what? I had no cravings, they were all they're gone. God took the cravings away. You wouldn't believe me that that day, and I'll tell you this, three people came to my door and offered me cigarettes in that apartment building. One person I know, the other two, I had no idea where they came from. And I told them all, no, I said I'm a Christian, I got saved, I just got delivered, I don't want to smoke. And they looked at me like I was a nut and went away. But you know what? I never smoked since it's 41 years ago. Amen. Yeah. But you say, Well, how often should I try until you get it? I don't know. You do it till you get it, you get it till you obtain it, you do it till you obtain. You have to obtain the promise. Everybody say, obtain. Obtain means to grasp. Promises of God don't fall out of the sky like ripe fruit off a tree. That's why you have to fight the good fight of faith. But to do that, you actually have to believe. You have to start to see that you can have that. As I was meditating on this and praying, the Lord spoke to me and said, He said, if you can see this, if you can see it in your heart and in your spirit, he says, You can have it. If you can see it, you can have it. It's hard for us to grasp sometimes. But listen to these scriptures that Jesus said, Mark chapter 11, 24. This is after he cursed the fig tree and it withered away. And Peter was asking, hey Lord, you know, the fig tree that you curse withered away. Wow. And after that, Jesus says in verse 24, he says, Therefore I say to you, listen to this, you guys. Whatever things, take note of that word, things. Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them. See, Jesus made it, he left it open-ended. He didn't just say, Well, just this, these five things you can have, and these five you can't. He said, if you can believe God for anything, you can have it. You can't not limit God. Here's another one. First John 5, 14, 15 says, No, this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. If we ask anything according to his what? His will. So the first thing in receiving walking by faith is to know God's will. How many of you know what God's will is for your life? Once you know his will, then you know, okay, this is God's will. I can have this. I can have this. He says, and if we know that he hears us when we ask him. I like that. If we know, everybody say no. So you have to know. We used to say it in the old days, you gotta know that you know that you know. So if you can see it, if you can know it, you can have it. I'm not telling you how to get there necessarily, but that's what he says. And if we know that he hears us, if I know that God has heard me, heard, heared me. If I know, he says, whatever we ask, he says, whatever we ask, according to his will, of course. We know that we have the petitions that we asked of him. Psalm 78. I'm gonna read this to you, okay? Let's turn to Psalm 78, verse 40. I just want to read this. The really interesting scripture. Most of you probably read it at some point in time. I want to encourage you guys to read your Bibles, okay? Not just the book of Psalms, read all the other books, read everything too, right? That's that's a big book. Psalm 78, verse 40. God here is talking about the Israelites and how they rebelled and all that, and one of the reasons why they didn't get into the promised land. And he says, verse 40, how often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, grieved him in the desert. They constantly tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel. And the King James Bible says, the new King James says, they limited the Holy One of Israel. Not provoked, they limited the Holy One of Israel. So it's, I think it's a well, they're both good translations. Provoked, limited. But how did they provoke God? They limited him. See, when we limit what God can do in our lives, we actually provoke him. We say, well, God, you can't do that. No, you can't do that. No, I can't see you doing that. No, that's impossible. No, that's too hard. Can't do that either. And God gets provoked. He's like, Don't you know who I am? Don't you know that I made 16 billion miles or light years of galaxy with my words? And you puny human are telling me that you don't think I can do that. One of the biggest sins that Israel committed was that they limited, they limited what he could do. He was telling them what he was gonna do. He was telling them what he's gonna do, he's telling them what he's gonna do. And they could say, No, I can't do that, I can't do that. No. And we only we know that all those 20 years and older, or younger, sorry, 20 years and younger got into the promised land. The rest of them, the 21 years and up, all died in the wilderness. And you know why they died? Because they did not believe him. Come on. See, asking isn't the same thing as receiving. I think there's a lot of asking going on, but not enough receiving. Asking, you have to ask. Jesus said ask. But he said also, he said, receive. Ask and you shall receive. Everybody say, receive. There has to be a reception in our hearts. He said, if you can ask, what things soever you desire when you pray, Jesus said. Everybody say, What things? I remember the King James version. What things soever ye desire when ye pray? Believe that you ye receive them, and you shall have them, right? Okay, when will you have them? What when you believe that you receive. A lot of people would say, Well, I'm gonna get it because I asked. No, you get it when you believe that you receive it. So in prayer, and there's lots of different kinds of prayers, okay? It's not one prayer, but if you're praying a petition, you're asking God for something, you know his will, you want it, you're praying, you ask it while you're asking it. You must also at the same time receive it. Asking denotes just future, maybe. Not good enough for God. Good enough for us, not good enough for God. God says you got to receive it. Are you guys hearing me today? Abraham, verse, Hebrews 6. I gotta get going, verse 13. It says, For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, Blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you. He was gonna bless them. And how many of you know Abraham was rich in goods? Rich in gold and silver, rich in cattle. He had he had a he had a mini army at his disposal. He was rich. But he also said, I'll multiply you, I'll multiply your posterity, your future. And he said he had nobody to swear by. Back in those days, they would swear an oath. And you, you know, if you promise something to somebody, you would swear an oath. I'm gonna swear an oath by somebody greater than me. So I don't know who's greater. I'm gonna swear by, I'm gonna swear by my wife Barb that I'm going to, you know. And when God gets to swearing, you better listen. If my wife gets to cussing, I start listening. Though I think she's only cussed twice in her life, but they weren't even bad ones. But um was there another time when God swore? You guys remember? What was that? What's that? I love the murmur goes across. I was like that. I love that. See, when God swears, he really means business, doesn't he? So when he swears, like he swore by himself, he's like, I there's nobody greater. Abraham, I have to swear by myself. I I swear by myself. God who cannot lie, cannot everybody say cannot lie, not couldn't, not wouldn't, cannot lie. Swore an oath to Abraham that what I said I will do. And that's what we have to read the Bible like. What God says he will do. And you must read it like that, see it like that, believe it like that. What God said he will do. Anything else isn't gonna work. Hebrews 3:16. For who having heard rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses? Now, with what with whom was he angry 40 years? You guys know, was it not with those who sinned? Everybody say sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness. Who is this God that we serve? And to whom did he swear? There's that word swear again, an oath, that they would not enter as rest, but to those who did not obey. So we see that they could not. This is the main scripture here for this. They could not enter. Everybody say could not enter. It wasn't would not or shouldn't, they could not enter in. Could not impossible to enter in because of unbelief. Unbelief is the greatest sin against God that there is. Well, I don't know if it's the greatest, but it's right up there. Everybody say unbelief. What's unbelief? You know what unbelief means? It means someone who refuses to put their whole trust in someone else. That's what unbelief means. And you need to realize that the Israelites had a choice to believe, have faith in God in his words, and put their whole trust in him. But they didn't. They kept going back, they kept whining about stuff, they kept disbelieving God. And only Joshua and Caleb kept that faith. They believed, they put their trust in. But you need to understand there was a choice. Having faith is a choice. You can choose to believe, or you can choose not to. Either one is a choice. Unbelief is worth worse than being ignorant of. Lots of people are ignorant of things. That's different. Unbelief will always be in opposition to obtaining the promises of God. And you say, What do I mean? Well, you know, like it's like, how many of you ever had a problem or something, and and someone said to you, Hey, can I pray for you? And you went, you're like, uh, faith crisis. Uh I'll be okay. You guys know what I'm saying? No, I'm okay. What you're really saying is I don't have any faith right now. I'm in unbelief. See, if you're unbelief, if you're in unbelief, you can never have a work. You can never take action. You can always tell people that have no faith they don't do anything. You have to have faith to serve God. You have faith to come to church, you have faith to worship, you have faith to read your Bible, you have faith to serve the saints, you have faith to do something. People who have no faith, they're in unbelief, they don't do anything. Because unbelief always stuffs you. And unbelief is displeasing to God, faith is pleasing to God. Faith is always an action. Say it's always an action. Always. Is faith important? I think Hebrews 11 says without faith it's impossible to please God. You say, why is it impossible to please God without faith? Because faith obtains the promise. So if you have children, how many of you have children? And you've promised, you have a promise. You told your kid that when they turn 13 years old, and you've been telling them that for 10 years, then when they're 13 years old, you're gonna give them a bike, or a horse, or a cow. You're gonna give them something. And for 13 years they hear you. And when they turn 13, you say, I'm going to the store to get you a cow. You want to receive it? And they say, No, I don't think you can do it. Do you have any money in the bank, mom? How'd that make you feel? See, God is pleased with faith because faith obtains promises, and God is a good father. How many of you know you have a spiritual heavenly father? Who loves you, he's a good father, and he wants you to have all the things that he said that he's given you. Everything that Jesus died for you on that cross. With a horrible price that we talk about at Easter. Jesus paid the price so you can have it. And what a shame and an indictment against God. If while God says you can have it, and Jesus died for you to have it, you say I don't want it. Or you say I can't have it, or you don't believe it's possible. What an indictment against the church. You're gonna see why God gets displeased with us sometimes, like a heavenly father who sent his son to die for you, so you can obtain all these promises, all these good things. And as children, aren't we supposed to want to please our father? How many of you want to please your head your earthly father? I think all, I mean, I always, always had uh, you know, inclination in my heart that I wanted my dad, I wanted to please my dad. You know, whether he was a good dad or a bad dad didn't matter. Whether I was a good boy or a bad boy, it didn't matter. I always had that in me. How many of you ever have that? Have that? Some people struggle with that today. It's a you know, it's a it's a stumbling block in their life. They have a hard time, their whole life is ruined because they just want to, you know, they want that validation from their father. But let me tell you something, it's there. See, God started the father stuff, it's not something we made up. It's there. We want to please the father, and he he wants to give to us. So he loves faith, that's why. Romans 4, 17. Okay, I'm gonna close here real quick. It says here, we're we're what are we doing? We're we're imitating Abraham, okay? Hebrews 6, 15 says, and so Abraham, after he patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Say he obtained the promise. Hebrews 11, verse 33. I'm gonna read this real quick. I might take five more minutes because I only have this sermon this today to do it, so I only have today, so I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna tell you. Hebrews 11, 33. This well, this whole thing, verse 32 says, What more can I say? Time is too short for me to tell you. The writer says, Time is too short for me to tell you. Was he preaching? Like, was he preaching? He wasn't writing on his computer. Time is too short. What he must be preaching to somebody like me, says to tell you about Gideon, Barack, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets, who by faith, everyone say by faith, conquered kingdoms. Let's read them together. Conquered king, come on, let's read him, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions. Next one, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength after being weak, became mighty in battle, put foreign armies to flight, keep going. Women received their dead, they were raised to life again. Some men were tortured, not accepting release, so that they might gain a better erection. Let's stop there. By faith, by faith they endured some bad stuff, by faith they did some great stuff, by faith they obtained promises. So I want you, I'm gonna finish with this scripture, Romans 4, verse 17, because this is what Abraham did, okay? And we were imitating Abraham. We were We're imitating the father of faith. We're imitating those who, through faith and patience, receive the promises, they obtain the promises. Romans 4, 17. In God's sight, as it is written, I have made you the father of many nations. That's what God called Abraham. Before Abraham had a single child when he was old and Sarah was old, he said to him, I have made you the father of many nations. That's faith. He believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not yet exist. See, that's what he told Abraham. He came to Abraham and Sarah, they're both old. He says, I have made you the father of many nations. You're gonna have lots of kids, or you're gonna have lots of descendants. He said, I've already made you that. That's how God talks. God looks at your life, he doesn't look at what you're doing, doesn't look at how you are today, he looks at what you can be. He looks at your future, he looks at what you can be. He doesn't look at your past, he doesn't look at how bad you are, he doesn't look at anything, looks says, calls you what he wants you to be. How many of you know you're more than a conqueror? How many of you know you're strong in the Lord and in the power of his might? See, you have to get these things in your heart, speak them out, and you become those things. Because that's how God talks. That's how God talks. He looks at you and He He tells you what you are, even when you're not. He called Gideon, mighty man of Gideon was cowering over here in the corner. That's how God is. God is a faith God, he's all about faith, doesn't know anything else. I better keep going here. He says, He believed, hoping against hope, Abraham, so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken. So will your descendants be. Took him 25 years. But he said, This is what he did. This is very key, okay? This is key verse here. He considered his own body to be already dead. Was it was dead? He was a hundred, was he a hundred years old? Something like that. Or I forget. Since he was about, yeah, since he was about a hundred years, it's right there in front of us, right? Since he was about a hundred years old. I can read really well. And and he also considered Sarah's dead womb. So we're talking about two old people. Now, those of you that are 100 here, you know what I'm talking about. There ain't much going on down there, is there? Right? Look at all the blushing prides out there. Holy cow. But that's the bottom line, it's the truth. They're 100 years old, they're dead. They're not 18. They're dead. God comes along and says, I made you the father of many nations. You didn't know that Sarah laughed in her tent. And she came out, and the and the angel or Jesus, whoever's there, says, Hey, you laughed. She said, No, I didn't. He said, Yeah, you did. And you can see I understand why she laughed. She's like, ah, right, that old man? Ha ha ha, that's funny. But look what he did. They said he looked at his body dead, he looked at her womb dead, without weakening in faith. See, for us to receive the promise, so that we have to look at what we're believing, looking for to get, and even though we don't have it, we have to look past that and not let that destroy our faith, not let that bring unbelief, not let us, you know, have problems with that. And it says, He did not waver. Verse 20 says, He did not waver in unbelief. See, unbelief wavers at promises. Unbelief wavers at what God wants to do in your life. You hear a promise. God says he'll heal you, God says he'll deliver you. You either have faith for that or you waver, you start to waver. But he said, He did not waver in unbelief at God's promise, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God. You know why? Because he was fully convinced that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. Did you guys hear that? See, what do you do now? How do you know if you have faith? How do you know if you're gonna, you know, stand strong in faith? You know, you have to realize that you know what what's your attitude in faith right now? You know, are how about this? Are are you believing God? Are you standing in faith for something right now? What are you trying to obtain in your life? I see that smile. What are you trying to obtain in your life? Is it nothing? Is it nothing? It is a good point, isn't it? Thank you, wife. Wife number one. How many of you know? If you're not believing God for anything, if you're not standing for anything, then you have no faith, you're not doing anything. And no faith is displeasing to God. God's got He's got so much that He gave us, and you're not trying to get it. How come we're not trying to get it? So that's God's thing. You say, What do you what are you doing? How come you're not trying to get it? That's like us holding out candy at Easter chocolate to our kids, and then like, I don't want it, I'm not, I don't, I don't want to. You're like, come on, have the have the chocolate. Hey, Renee, have some chocolate. I don't like talking. How about Christmas time? You got presents. Line up all the kids, go to your presents. Here I have to open these presents. Well, I spent a lot of money in those presents, cost me a lot. I wrapped them, I went and bought them, it took a lot, ordered them on Amazon. I did a lot to get them here. And now you don't want them? Like, nah, I'm not interested. How would you feel, Dad? Mom? So I'm I'm I'm talking about faith, but I'm trying to encourage your faith and stir you up and get you to think, you know, maybe I need to start trying to obtain something. What has God given me? And you know, whether it's you know, I don't know what it will be for you, but there's something, right? Hebrews 6:12, last verse, we're done. It says here, so that you won't become lazy, but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and patience. Ben, why don't you guys come on up here and um yeah, done that? How many of you understand? Are you getting the grasp of it now? But you see, you gotta meditate on these scriptures and think about them and and read the Bible for what it says, not for what you think it says, or you know what your background says, or your religious thinking says, or what somebody taught you on TV or the reels that you watch or some stupid thing. What does the Bible say? That's what you have to look at. Why don't we stand up? You guys have been sitting for a while. Stand up, stretch your legs, and thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. So I never want to have a service here now without um trying to do obtain some promises. And so I how many of you think you could obtain, try to obtain a promise? I told you this a little while ago, but I remember when I was praying for people, and some people got healed, and God was moving, and and uh Sean Hamilton was catching for me, and and then after everybody was gone and we were just standing there or just sitting in the presence of God, he looks at me and goes, You know, is there anything wrong with you? Something I can pray for you? And I had this pain down my leg, you guys heard this, and it was from here all the way down for like a couple years. It would bother me in bed, I'd the turn lots, and I'd be driving my car, I'd be like, ah, son of a and it'd just be terrible, and it was horrible. And and you know, I never actually, I don't think I even came up for prayer, not even one time. That's how faithless I was. And so I says, You got something to report? And I said, Yeah, well, uh faith crisis. It was an instant faith crisis right there. And here I had prayed for people and saw them healed, a couple people healed, this happening, and I'm like, uh, what are you doing, Dunce? Um, yeah, pray for me. And so he prayed for me and God healed it. And it was instantly healed, it's gone, hasn't been there since gone. But I had to let I had to let someone lay hands on me. The Bible said, Lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. You can always tell when you're uh trying to obtain in faith is by your actions. Faith without corresponding actions is dead. Everybody say dead. So, Father, I thank you for faith that you've given us faith. I'm not trying to knock anyone's faith, I'm saying say God has given us faith to receive. The scriptures tell us that if you're a believer, you know, if you're in Christ, God has given you the measure of faith. Excuse me. God has given us the measure of faith. You may not realize it, but you have faith. You would not be in this room today if you didn't have faith. You would be at home watching TV, having coffee or something, sitting in your underwear, but you're here. Thank God. You have faith. You have faith enough to come here. Hallelujah. You have faith to say, I know I know God. I believe I know God. You don't even have to say, I believe in God. You say, I know who God is. Let's all say that. I know who God is, I know God. We have to stop saying that. I believe in God. Forget all that nonsense. You have God, you know God, He's in you. You don't have to believe in Him anymore. You already got Him. But now you just got to work with Him, right? We have to work with Him to obtain promises. And I believe God wants to heal people today. But first of all, why don't we pray a prayer of salvation? There might be somebody here watching online that maybe you've never, you know, you're listening or you're here and you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord, and you're like, uh I do believe I just never taken steps, you know, never any action. So maybe today is your action, right? Like I did, I received Jesus, I said a prayer, got down on my knees, got prayer, and I got saved, you know, and that's all it takes. But you have to have an action. So why don't we just all pray together? Can we do that? Since it's Easter, we'll say, Thank you, Jesus. All say it together. Thank you, Jesus. Or how about this? Thank you, Father, Heavenly Father, for sending Jesus to die on the cross for me. Thank you for raising him up from the dead and giving us the power to be saved. I believe in you, Lord. I believe in what you've done, and I thank you for that free gift of salvation. So right now I ask you, Lord Jesus, to come into my life, to come into my heart. I believe in my heart that you were raised from the dead. I confess with my mouth that you are a Lord. And I thank you that I am saved right now. Amen. Come on, say amen. Amen. Somebody might have got saved, somebody might have said that prayer for the first time. You know, we don't know. We have no idea. It's good to do that though, because we never know, right? We just never know. And so, how many of you know God wants to heal people today? That's one of the promises that God has for us. And I'm not gonna preach a sermon on it, but I just want you to know that God wants you well. It is God's will for you to be a hundred percent well. Turn to your neighbor and say one hundred percent, one hundred percent, one hundred percent, not partly, not a little bit, not a ton, not oh, I'm okay, not sixty percent, a hundred percent. Jesus did not die on that cross for half a healing, he died so that your body would be healed. We already know he died for your spiritual life, he died for your eternal life, he died to get you being born again, you know what? He but he also died for your body. 100% healing. I'm not saying this is easy, I don't know. It's not, it's not it's never been for me, but I'm just saying just because it's not easy or just because we don't always see it, doesn't mean it's not true. I'm gonna ask you a question. How many of you, show of hands, have ever been healed by God in your body? Put your hand up in the air. Look around, everybody. Look around. Yeah. I bet I could probably call most of you up. You could give a testimony, you know, of your perseverance and faith, even. Which I thought about doing, and I thought, no, I don't want those people up here. But we'll we'll be here all day then, you know. We'll be here all day. But I want to tell you that God wants to heal you today, okay? So as I was praying, I I had these words come to me. And when I pray, I pray in the spirit a long time, and I just try not to just think about anything else, and these these thoughts come, these words, and I just I just write them down. And I could be wrong, but I always do it anyway. These are words could be a word of knowledge for you. And remember, a word of knowledge is given in conjunction with somebody who has faith. So that's why we have words of knowledge, and sometimes people don't get healed, because you got to mix with faith. The Bible says the Israelites did not profit because they didn't mix the word they heard with faith. They heard the word, they believed, they didn't mix it with faith. You have to mix faith with what you hear. So we're gonna worship. You guys worship. Well, I want everyone to worship with us for a little while. Don't go home yet. Let's all worship the Lord, okay? Can we do that for a while? This is not the end of the service, by the way, okay. Some people are like, ah, it's time to go. No, no, no, please don't go. We would like your strength. We want your strength, we want your strength, okay? We want your faith. So put your faith with these guys, okay? I'm gonna come lay hands on them, and we're gonna we're gonna receive and obtain healing today, right? Can we do that? And if anybody else, you say, okay, you know what? I need healing, just because it didn't get called out, come on up here too. Okay, if you got something wrong, let's just stand in faith, okay? Let's obtain our promise today.

unknown 59:33

Shh.

SPEAKER_00 59:33

Yeah, I can sense the anointing already. God's gonna do something today, amen. Okay, come on. Hello, I'm gonna ask a few prayer warriors to come too. There's prayer warriors. Come on, hallelujah.