Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
Growing Faith 2
What happens when your faith is put to the ultimate test? Join us as we reveal the powerful testimonies and transformative wisdom inspired by the Apostle Paul's message to the Thessalonians. In this episode, we explore the strength found in steadfast belief and the profound impact of Jesus' blood as a guarantee for God's promises. Drawing from Brother Osteen's teachings, we reflect on how great trials can forge an unshakeable faith, while offering stern warnings about the pitfalls of drawing back into perdition. Hear cautionary tales of pastors who lost their way, and be encouraged to stand firm against the devil's relentless opposition.
Let's lift our Bibles up and let's wave them around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad. Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad for the blood. The blood is a guarantee that everything you promised, everything you've written, is coming to pass in my life. As long as I've got faith in that blood, I'm here to grow my faith today. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing or understanding or revelation of what you've already said, and I believe it's true for me today. In Jesus' name, amen, praise God Great to have you with us today.
Speaker 1:Our live stream audience, you all follow right along in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1. And we started a short series. As far as I know, this will be the last message here on this subject Growing Faith, part 2. And so we're going to read in Chapter 1 of Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians, paul and Silvanus and Timotheus, under the church of the Thessalonians, god, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace unto you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meat, because that your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity, which is an unfortunate translation, should be agape. It's the love of God and the love of every one of you all toward each other abounded, of every one of you all toward each other abounded. So we're talking about growing faith and you know, I like what Brother Osteen used to say quite frequently.
Speaker 1:He said there's no great faith without great tests and there's no great victories without great battles. Victories without great battles, you know the faith life is the life that we are charged to live. A hebrews 10 says you know, the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him, as I believe that was paul writing to the church. Well, paul was inspired by the holy ghost. So if paul doesn't have any joy and you know I don't have no pleasure in people drawing back See, he's talking to Christians here.
Speaker 1:So, growing faith you're either growing your faith or you're shrinking your faith. There's no status quo, there's no floating treading water. You're either up or you're down. Why? Because the devil opposes your faith. He is working against you night and day. Every time you take a step of faith, he's there to oppose you, he's there to stop you. And when he sees that you have slacked off and growing, he's going to try to take some of that ground back. He's going to try to dominate you any way that he can, and so some people just draw back. But the next verse, there he says but we are not of those who draw back under perdition. See, that's what happens. You don't just draw back and fail to get a few things, you draw back to evil.
Speaker 1:I've seen it. I've seen pastors that had a church with a flock that, for whatever reason, the church dissolved and fell apart. And the next thing you know, two years later, they're sitting on a bar stool back where they started, when they were lost. Are they lost now? Well, no, they're not lost, but they drew back into perdition. Listen, I mean, we're living in the last days.
Speaker 1:The devil knows his time is very short. He is here, and the book of Daniel says he's here to wear out the saints. I see a lot of saints that are just worn out. No, no, that's the reason I'm preaching this. I want to stir you up, I want to get you, you know, I want to get you in a mode where you're going to grow your faith, you're not going to let it shrink and you're not going to draw back. I'm not going. I'm not going back to the devil and demon powers. I was there a long time and I'm. I still remember what it was like living for the devil, and I'm not going to live for the devil. I'm going to beat him, I'm going to slap him upside the head. I'm going to cheer when he's thrown into the lake of fire. First of all, though, he's going in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, I'm going to cheer. Then I'm going to cheer the next thousand years later I'm going to cheer again.
Speaker 1:All right, so he commended Paul did commended the Thessalonians on their faith and their love. Their faith was growing exceedingly. That is, increasing above the ordinary degree, increasing beyond measure, and that's in line with God's desire for us. Everything about the kingdom of God is growing and increasing. Everything about the kingdom. Everything is growing and increasing. Everything about the kingdom, everything about God himself is all of it. Everything we see, in the epistles especially, is challenging us and reminding us to grow up. You know, ephesians says grow up, say we need to grow up into him.
Speaker 1:And you know, when Jesus walked the earth, he was always looking for faith and he was always measuring. I mean, you know he told his disciples, you know they were oh, master, master, carest thou not that we perish? You know they were on the. He was asleep in the back of the boat and the boat was taking on water. It's not like it was nothing happening. The boat was taking on water and was sinking water. It's not like it was nothing happening. The boat was taking on water and was sinking. And he rebuked the wind and, you know, calmed the sea and he said oh, you know, how is it that you have no faith? Why did you fear? How is it that you have no faith?
Speaker 1:He spent the whole day talking about faith right before that, and now they forgot everything they heard all day long. How is it that you have no faith? He didn't give them come on over here, boys, give me a hug. You know Jesus is coming back and he's not coming back to get a hug from us. He's coming back with eyes of flame of fire. He's coming back with a sword. So we need to get ourselves ready. We don't need to be shrinking, we don't need to be drawing back, we need to be increasing.
Speaker 1:He told Peter, you know, peter walked on the water for a little while. Peter, wherefore didst thou doubt, oh ye, of little faith? Wherefore didst thou doubt Little faith, no faith. Oh woman, great is thy faith. The Syrophoenician woman wouldn't give up. She wasn't even a covenant woman and the devil had possessed her daughter. And she came to the disciples. They wouldn't pay any attention to her. She's not Jewish, jesus didn't at first, but she wouldn't give up. He said oh woman, great is thy faith.
Speaker 1:He told the centurion. He said I have not found so great a faith. No, not in Israel. He marveled at the faith of the centurion who was just able to take God, to take Jesus on his word alone. No, lord, you don't have to come to my house, just speak the word only. And he marveled at his faith. And then, in his own hometown, among his own kinfolk and family members, he marveled at their unbelief. You see, jesus, it must be kind of important if he was noticing it. He was only here three and a half years and the three and a half years are written right here for us to see. And he's measuring faith all the time. He's measuring faith right now. And Luke 18.8, when the Son of man cometh. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, will he find faith on the earth? Forty years ago, when I read that in my Bible, I said well, if I have anything to do with it, he will. He will find faith on the earth. If I have anything to do with it, he will. He will find faith on the earth If I have anything to do about it. You know he, he commissioned. He commissioned Kenneth E Hagan. He told him teach my people faith and I.
Speaker 1:It amazes me that all these churches you know you can go to church for 50 years never hear one thing about really how to, how to live by faith. They don't teach you anything. They don't teach you the principles of it. They teach you the do's and the don'ts, they tell you what's bad and what's good and all that kind of stuff, but you don't hear anything about how to live your life. You need that information. It's important Because without faith it's impossible to please God.
Speaker 1:Amen, hebrews 11, 6. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Amen, hebrews 11, 6,. Without faith, it's impossible. So when your faith is growing exceedingly, you're exceedingly pleased in God. How many of you want to please God over the? Not just a little bit, but you want to go over the top with it. So obviously, the more faith grows, the more God is pleased.
Speaker 1:So last week we talked about three things how to grow your faith, and we talked about first of all, and we took it from take heed Mark, chapter 4, verse 24 and 25,. Jesus told the disciples take heed what you hear. Take heed. You know you've got to pay attention to what's going into your spirit. These ears are not garbage cans. You can spend time around people that are just going to fill your hearing and see. These ears are connected to these ears. I said these ears are connected to these ears. These eyes are connected to these eyes. So you know you've got to pay attention and take heed what you hear, and so I encourage you.
Speaker 1:We've got a new members class started last week and part two is today, and some of you are going to that class to investigate whether this is where you belong. We know we just want the people that belong here. We don't want anybody else. We want the people that belong here. And so you know, on your side, you've got to discover that. You've got to find out whether this is the right church, right place. Is this the place that God has called you? You know, church membership has become almost, as in fact it's.
Speaker 1:I don't know which is worse marriage or church membership. People just get married and get divorced, married and divorced, married and divorced. There's no, there's no holiness in. You know, two men married, two women married. Well, they're not married. That's not marriage. So I can understand the confusion. And then you've got a church that closes during COVID. Well, you know, I can understand the confusion. Why be a member of a church A church I've been talking to people just recently, last week, a church they went to.
Speaker 1:They just can't understand why the pastor hadn't moved on and woke up and realized that we've got to say some things from the pulpit about what's going on in this nation, want to just kind of remain anonymous. Oh well, I'm neutral, god is neutral. No, he's not neutral. God is never neutral about anything. He's not a moderate. He's not going to bring it like that and stick it up in the air and find out which way the wind is blowing. He causes the wind to blow and it's blowing in a direction, and if you're in the wrong direction you're out of whack. And so the pastor has to be the one to say these things. And they're not. They were amazed. They just were amazed. And they've been there such a long, long time. See, I said well, you're not tumbleweeds. Remember the tumbleweeds? You're not a tumbleweed.
Speaker 1:You stuck with your church a long, long time. I've talked to a lot of people like that. They've stuck with their church. They tried every way they could to change the direction. But you know, when the pastor decided to disobey God, there's not much you can do about it except leave, and I respect that decision. And so we want to give you a really good, solid opportunity to find out if this is where you belong. That's all opportunity to find out if this is where you belong. That's all. So, in that light, you take heed. What you hear, make sure you hear.
Speaker 1:My messages are the ones that I have standing in this pulpit. I mean anybody standing in this pulpit is anointed to give you what you need. I mean you didn't grow up eating at the neighbor's house. You ate at mama's house every day, most of you. I mean you didn't stop and eat somewhere else, no, you ate at mama's house. If you didn't show up, well, I mean you'd be in trouble, and so that's how it is. There's meat in the house for you If you tithe to this church. There's meat here for you. You can't grow on milk. You here for you. You can't grow on milk. You get fat on milk. What's milk? It's just the blessing scriptures, without any kind of responsibility. Scriptures Say there's too much responsibility in the word You've got, you've got your part. God's got his part, you've got your part. My job is to give you both sides Amen. And then you feed on those messages.
Speaker 1:It's not enough just to listen. One time come to church. Most people, I have to say in my experience, they come to church, they'll listen, you know, but they don't go back and really study what they heard. They don't look at the verses, they don't look. They don't sit with their Bible open and go back over the message. You know I like to listen to my own message. I'll preach and later on I'll go home and listen to the whole thing. Why would you do that? I'm always amazed. I don't remember saying it so much of these messages are prophetic. They're just coming. In the moment it's coming like this, in the moment it's coming like this. I don't have 15 pages of printed out verbiage to share with you. I've seen preachers just go down the list like this See, I've got notes, but I mean I don't hardly look at them. I mean it's coming out like this at them. I mean it's coming out like this.
Speaker 1:You need to listen to it more than once, feed on it so that it comes down in your spirit. Take heed what you hear and then don't be listening to numbskulls and people on the internet and YouTube and there's a lot of false teachers and preachers and pastors out there. Don't be going grazing and really don't major on. Really, I love Brother Copeland, I love Brother Mark, I love all the preachers that we, that we have grown up with. But you know, the primary one you need to listen to is, right here, the pastor, their supplementation. They're the. They're the. They're the whipped cream on the Sunday. They're the gravy on the steak. They're the supplement. They're important, but not more important. They're less important than what you hear right here. This is what you need to hear. I'm anointed to give you what you need to know right now.
Speaker 1:The other problem with people that just listen to everybody else except their pastor is that they have itching ears to heap to themselves teachers to teach them the subject that they want to hear. Well, I'm going to teach you what you need to hear. See the big difference there. If you didn't need a pastor, god wouldn't have given you one. He would have just had evangelists, he would have just had prophets, but he had five. Are you all with me now? All right, so we talked about all this, you know, last week. I can't, I really can't take the time to go through all these points.
Speaker 1:The second was take heed. What you do or how you act, you have to, you have to. Faith without corresponding action is dead being alone. The first action of faith is what you say out of your mouth. You believe in your heart. Speak with your mouth, but it doesn't stop with speaking. You have to act in line with your words. If you're going to talk the talk, you got to what? Walk the walk.
Speaker 1:It doesn't do any good for you to say I believe God and you speak the right thing and then do something different. You know, I'm believing God for my healing. Glory to God. I got a bad report, but I tell you I believe I received my healing and I tell you I'm going to live and not die and declare the works of the Lord. Honey, have you got the mortuary on the phone? I want to get a pre-need. That's not wrong to get a pre-need. That's not wrong to get a pre-need plan, a burial plan and all that. But you don't do that when you're fighting for your life. You're acting against your word. I've seen it. I mean here I am, I've got two people, both of them husband and wife. They both got cancer. They died within six months of each other and when it was all said and done, I found out right in the middle of all of it they made burial plans.
Speaker 1:What good does it do to pray? What good does it do to stand with somebody when they're acting in a different place? You can pray all day for them and it won't matter. Are y'all with me now? Y'all are looking at me kind of tough. Well, listen, you've got to listen. We've got to wake up. We've got to do the Word.
Speaker 1:The simple definition of faith is acting on the Word, or acting like the Bible is true, or acting like what God has communicated with you is true. See, sometimes God communicates with you, and that's the third thing I talked about. Take heed how you pray. A lot of people their idea of prayer is God give me this and God give me that. God bless this one and bless that one and bless my four and no more. And bless my investments and bless my car and bless this and bless my house.
Speaker 1:But see, that's not the kind of praying that's going to really do anything. You can't pray for faith. That's not how faith comes. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the rhema of God. But what prayer should do is get you acquainted with God and how he thinks. It should make you tender toward him. It should make you sensitive to him. Where he can just nudge you. It's not about words, it's about the witness or the of the spirit. It should make you sensitive to him where he can just nudge you. It's not about words, it's about the witness or the of the spirit, it's about just knowing him. That's what prayer should do, and so you should be praying those Ephesians, prayer one and two prayers, uh, pre Ephesians one, two and three.
Speaker 1:Colossians one, nine, 11,. Lord, fill me with the knowledge of your will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that I might work worthy of you, 9, 11. Lord, fill me with the knowledge of your will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that I might work worthy of you. Lord, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. How many of you think I prayed that a few times? That's a great prayer to pray. Why would I pray that? Because it's in the Bible and I know it's God's perfect will for me to pray like that. I've asked him for something and it's really powerful what I asked for. I didn't ask for a Corvette. I have, but that's minor, that's small potatoes compared to this other.
Speaker 1:When you pray that prayer, when you pray Ephesians 1, 2, and 3 prayers, your spiritual understanding is going to expand because you're asking in the right vein Philippians 4, 9, 11, or 1, 9, 11, philippians 1, 9, 11,. Lord, that my love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgment. That I may approve things that are excellent, that I may be perfect and sincere without offense, until the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, under the glory and praise of God. How many of you think I've prayed that a few times? See, I'm praying about my love now, my love. Love is a fruit. It has to grow. Faith is a fruit. It has to grow. We've all been given a measure when we got saved. But what we got when we got saved was just enough to get saved. It's not much for anything else. We need to do what, grow it. So we talked about prayer last week. Now today, let's look at 1 John. I've got two more points on this growing faith. How many of you getting anything out of this Praise God? I want you to grow, you know.
Speaker 1:Paul said, you know, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And here's a guy that wrote a lot of the New Testament and he never was satisfied with where he was. He kept pressing forward, he kept straining, he kept reaching like a runner would reach for the finish line. He kept, he kept straining. See, that's why our faith, our faith.
Speaker 1:You know, once you've achieved something, then you need to set the bar a little higher and reach, reach a little further. The next time. Don't, don't start resting on your laurels oh yeah, I got that. Oh yeah, well, you know that's great, but, but there's more. There's that. Oh yeah, well, you know that's great, but there's more, there's more. So stretch yourself, stretch your faith, stretch your faith to believe, lift your sights. I mean, you know, a lot of times we just got our sights down here, you know well, let's lift our sights because there's more, there's more, there's always more, Amen.
Speaker 1:So in 1 John 5, verse 10, he that believeth on the Son of God. How many believers have we got in here? We've got three believers. The rest of you need to get saved. Let's have an altar call right now. I want everybody that didn't raise their hand, I want you down here on your face. I want the carpet wet with your tears. Okay, how many believers have we got in the house today? That's more like it, man, I thought I was in the wrong place. I thought I was at the Rotary Club. I didn't know where I was. The Rotary Club, I didn't know where I was.
Speaker 1:He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. See, we talked about the witness of the Spirit, being led by the Spirit and following the Holy Ghost. You have the witness. It's in there, it's equipment, it's part of the equipment that you can listen to and obey, and you know what God's will is because you have a knowing. The witness is a knowing. See, the word is God's general will. The will of God is the general will of God is the word, the logos.
Speaker 1:But now, not everything that affects your life is in the Bible, on a page. Some things that you have to hear from God about are very specific. For instance, I mean whether to take a transfer to another city and maybe a raise. I mean you shouldn't just take that just because it's offered to you. You should know by the witness of the Spirit whether you belong in another city, and part of that decision ought to be made according to what kind of church is there. God's not going to move you to a city without moving you to a church. And yet I'm amazed at how people would just take a just on the money, just on the promotion, just on that. Oh, that's God. God bless me. And well, maybe not, maybe the devil did something to you, because if God didn't author it, you see, you're going to be out of the will of God. Now you're going to be away from the spout where the glory pours out. So you have the witness.
Speaker 1:All right, let's back up a couple of pages. 1, john 2, verse 20. But you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things, or you understand all things. What does that mean? You don't need to be taught? No, it means that the unction will give you revelation. No means revelation. No means understanding the unction. See, it's not a voice, it's not a word. Some people are waiting for God to speak to them, but we've got the unction and we've got the witness of the spirit. Are y'all with me now?
Speaker 1:So your prayer life will increase the function of the unction. Your prayer life will increase the function of the unction. And this is where people miss it. This is where people they just kind of they take the logos and they try to be led by the logos. Well, that's just the general will of God. This is the general will of God to teach you how to husbands, how to treat their wives, wives, how to treat their husbands, parents, how to treat their children, children, how to treat their parents. I mean, it's just you know how, how, how to relate to your pastor. I mean, this is just general information and you're going to miss a whole lot of just going by the general information. You need the unction. You need, you need the unction to function and that's a function of your prayer life.
Speaker 1:If you don't have one and you don't have a word life, can you see how you will miss a whole lot of things that God has in store for you and your faith is based on. You know faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. So your faith, the Word of God, is His will. So will and word are interchangeable. So when you get the unction or when you get the witness, that's the same as the Bible being spoken to you and you can have faith, you can attach your faith to that information that you got by the unction or by the witness. Is this making any sense to you? I mean, we're waiting on a word, we're waiting on somebody to prophesy, we're waiting to hear a voice. Listen, you're going to wait a long time. You're going to miss some things if that's the only way that God can communicate.
Speaker 1:This is what happens to people that don't have a word life, don't have a prayer life. I know I sound like a broken record, but the time is getting short and we are being assaulted day and night with every kind of distraction, every kind of dumpster fire. Remember that Everything the devil can do to create a big controversy, to get our eyes off, you know of what's really important. So Hunter pled guilty and got all the attention of the news media off of the criminal activities and the complete fecklessness of the new candidate for president on the Democrat side. I mean, she is nuts. And her vice president is even worse. It's hard to even fathom somebody worse than Kamala. And that's what's his face, Walsh, I wish he'd waltz across Texas into Mexico. All right, so I'm waltz across Texas with you. I couldn't resist. All right, you get that.
Speaker 1:The Word is God's general will, the function, the witness, or the rhema. See, the rhema is a function of the unction. When you read your Bible, suddenly a verse will come off the page and mean something to you. That might be a little bit different as far as the context of what you read, but it means something. See, that's when the unction is functioning. So I'll give you an example. Say once you know and you're knower, your spirit is your knower. Once you know, then you've got faith, you know what the will of God is. Now the word and the will are interchangeable. Are y'all getting it? I want you to get it.
Speaker 1:I don't hear this preached very much and I haven't preached it very much and you need to get it. So back in 1999, I told a little testimony last week about tumbleweeds and how we had some people that you know left the church and conspired and lied and did a lot of stuff. You know, left the church and conspired and lied and did a lot of stuff. Uh, and you know I told you about my asking god what I should do and I want to complete that testimony because it's a fantastic testimony about the unction. Uh, so the context was is that we had leased champion forest baptist the building right down the street when Champion Forest owned it. They had sold it to that church down the street Now and we had a.
Speaker 1:I mean I tried to negotiate it when we did a lease agreement to lease that building. I tried to have more time but the pastor wouldn't give me more time. He said, no, 90 days. I'm firm on that. This house, this church, is up for sale when we sell it. I don't want to give you more than 90 days. I'm firm on that. This house, this church, is up for sale when we sell it. I don't want to give you more than 90 days. You'll have 90 days to move. And he just wouldn't budge. So I went ahead and agreed.
Speaker 1:Well, they had the church listed for $6.2 million. I thought, well, there's a fat chance he'll ever sell it for that kind of money. There's no way anybody's going to pay that kind of money for an old, worn-out building. It's been added on 100 times. It's a hodgepodge inside 180,000 square feet. You could open a college there. I don't know how many rooms they had upstairs that we didn't need all those rooms, we just leased the sanctuary and a few things downstairs. All those rooms, we just leased the sanctuary and a few things downstairs, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So come to find out they gave the church $3 million to another Baptist church. Well, that was a whole lot better deal. I was so relieved they didn't offer it to me. I probably would have missed God and bought it and it wouldn't have been God's plan. I said it wouldn't have been God's plan, but anyway we had to move and so I started. We had the land which Trampions Crossing right down the street. We had that land at that time, 92.7 acres. We own it. So my thought was, hey, let's just get over there, let's put a tent up, let's bring some air conditioning units in, let's have some portable bathrooms on these trailers. They've got really nice bathrooms, men's and women's bathrooms. We can just get some power in there and we can have sure we'll build a temporary parking lot.
Speaker 1:And that's when I came face to face with the incredible stupidity of non-elected officials, because they've got a whole bunch of them down at the city of Houston, harris County. They're filled with dum-dums that don't want to work, they want to get paid and they don't want to work. They want to get paid and they don't want to work. That sound familiar Stan Stan's on city council up at Montgomery. So he's confronted with this right now. See, they want to get paid for doing nothing and they have all these basic.
Speaker 1:It took me 60 of the 90 days to find out we couldn't do it. We couldn't do it. I mean, I went through man, man, man paid all kinds of consultants I had, did everything I could do and finally it just said that you can't do it, you can't use your own land. How stupid is that? We've allowed it, see, we've allowed it. We've allowed it in the United States of America to have these unelected officials act like kings and we need to change it. Anyway, I digress. So that leaves me 30 days to find a building, to move a church.
Speaker 1:So someone decided, or gave the idea of how, about a Seventh-day Adventist church? They meet on Saturday and we could possibly rent their church for Sunday. I thought, well, that's a good idea. So we started calling around and we called one church says no, we don't have anything. But I heard that West Houston Seventh-day Adventist has got, is looking for some, a tenant. And so we called West Houston Seventh-day Adventist, which is way down the beltway almost to I-10 at Hammerly. That's 15 miles from where we were. At least, it's totally not a local church, totally. So I thought, man, that's completely out of our area. And God said, well, you're a regional center. And I said, oh, oh, yeah, forgot.
Speaker 1:So we went, my family, gladys and I, jay and Selena Ethan was about two and Claire, claire was single and we went down there and we looked at the church. Dr Pagani was the head deacon. He was a medical doctor, an Indian. When he heard that I was, you know, connected with Brother Osteen. He loved Brother Osteen because Brother Osteen loved India. He knew all about Brother Osteen and we had favor with Dr Pagani and he just walked us through and I looked at the facility and I go, you know, it's kind of shocking. You're thinking, oh man, we have to move out where we are, to move here. But it would work. Seat about 600 people. It had everything we really needed and everything, everything we needed to accept what.
Speaker 1:The witness. There was no unction and everything I'm seeing with my eyes looks just fine. What's wrong? So we got back out of the meeting. I said, well, we'll have to pray about this. We'll call you Dr Pagani. And uh, I said, honey, did you ever have a witness? He said no, I didn't. Jay, did you have one? Selena, did you have one? Claire, did you have one? Ethan, did you have one? I'm not joking, nobody had a witness. And I'm thinking what in the world are we going to do? You know, I just felt like I was hemmed in, hedged in, see. So here it comes the day the last Wednesday we have to be out.
Speaker 1:The next day, thursday, we have to move. We had a few things still left in the church. They're being really anyway, I won't get into that. But so we Wednesday night. So I get in the service and God said I don't want anybody on the platform but you, no worship team members, no musicians, nobody, just you and a microphone. And so I led the worship, and with tracks, we had some tracks, and so we just let you did tracks.
Speaker 1:I had everybody sit down, I didn't really know why and I preached a message and then I made my announcement Okay, we're still looking for a place, but we will have one before Sunday. We will call you to let you know where church will happen this next. How many were there that night? Y'all are. Am I telling the story correctly? See, they're witnesses. They know they were here, they were there. So I had people get up that I really loved and trusted and turn their back on me while I was making that announcement and walk out on me.
Speaker 1:And so then the depth of the of the betrayal became evident the next day when I heard that all 20 some odd families had found one church down the freeway to go to. Some odd families had found one church down the freeway to go to. They had been conspiring for months, lying about me and my family, lying about the whole situation, and now that I'm making this announcement, they thought they were right. Well, we're glad to get out of this place. This place is crumbling. So you know that's the night that I was crying on my floor, and I'll just complete the story a little bit more today for the unction to function.
Speaker 1:So you understand an example of high pressure, about the highest pressure you can get maybe besides life and death. But so I said, god, I just don't understand. All this happened and they were conspiring. Why didn't I know? Is there something wrong with me? I thought I'd pray. I thought I'd pray in the Holy Ghost. Why didn't I know? Is there something defective with me? How could this be going on? I'm the pastor of the church and all this happened under my nose. I'm still loving these people. I'm doing all this. I'm just, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. How could this happen, god? Why? What happened to me? I blamed myself. I took responsibility and God said now, this is words. Now, this is words. He's talking.
Speaker 1:I'm on my face, crying in my den at home and he's talking back. He said said, well, let me ask, you did, did you give your life to me? Have you ever felt like? You know, you're a senior in high school, but you're really a kindergartner, you know? Did you give your life to me? I said well, yes, lord, I gave my life to you.
Speaker 1:He said well, then then, if you gave your life me, can I do with your life whatever I choose? Can I do with your life whatever I choose? And I said yes, lord, you can do with me whatever you choose. He said, even prove people out. And I said, yes, lord, you can. I said, lord, what do I do See? And I told this. I said, lord, what do I do See? And I told this part last week Lord, what do I do? He said, well, forgive them. Okay, yeah, you can do that. Pray my mercy on them. Yeah, you can do that. Take your pastoral covering off of them.
Speaker 1:And I, man, I sobered up, I dried up and I quit crying because I saw how important this was for their life and they didn't know it. They thought they heard from God, they thought they had the high place and they had been proven out as drawing back unto perdition. They quit growing in faith, they started ignoring what the Bible says about a pastor and their relationship to him. So the next morning is Thursday morning. This is after the service. Wednesday night, thursday morning, and we're pulling stuff out of the church, putting it in storage. We have no sure place to put it, so we have to put it in storage, a lot of it, and we have some volunteers down there working on that and everything.
Speaker 1:And the phone rings and I pick up the phone. Pastor Greiner, this is Dr Pagani, where are you? We need you. And the witness hit me like a ton of bricks, so much so that I dropped the phone. It just hit on the floor. I mean, the witness of the Spirit just almost knocked me to my knees and I began to meditate.
Speaker 1:You know, see, god couldn't give me the witness until those people made their move so he could prove them out. He used the whole timing of the announcement to expose their evil. That's all it is is evil, it's flesh, it's stinking flesh. It cannot please God. Are y'all with me now? I'm talking about the function of the unction. Glory to God. It does work, but sometimes it's last minute. You know, god is a little last minute sometimes, but he's never late. He's never late. God can be right down to the wire, but he always shows up. Come on, lift your hands right now. It's already come. Well, I'm giving you more than you bargained for this morning, I guess, but anyway. Well, just look around you. It's 30 years, you know, but it's 99, so that's been 25 years ago and we're still here.
Speaker 1:The church they went to disbanded. The pastor that they chose was arrested for rape of his secretary, made all the news. He absconded with all the church's money, about $300,000. Moved to Dallas with his money, the church's money, and the church went Just a few months later. There you go. That's why. That's why every believer needs a pastor. If you could pastor yourself, you wouldn't need Anybody to teach you the word of God and teach you the things that I'm teaching you this morning.
Speaker 1:All right, so take heed what you know. See, take heed what you know. You know some things in your knower. Pay attention to what the unction and the witness give you. I mean, you need the word, but you need the unction. Are y'all with me now? Take heed, now the last one. Take heed how you love.
Speaker 1:Notice in 2 Thessalonians he commended them on their faith, which groweth exceedingly and their love toward each other abounded. So it wasn't just their faith that was increasing, their love toward each other abounded. Are y'all with me now? So you got to take heed about love, because the bible says faith grows by love. Galatians 5 6. Romans 5 5 says the love of god has been shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost. We have it in there. We have to operate in it. Human love is selfish. Human love is all about me and getting my needs met. What can you do for me? I'll scratch your back if you scratch my back.
Speaker 1:All that kind of political, a lot of churches just built on politics. You know people smoozing to try to, you know, get to be the chief deacon and blah, blah, blah, all this kind of stupid thing. I mean, look, we've got to love each other with the love of God. The love of God is a serving love. I'm loving my wife right now. I'm serving her, not ashamed of it. She needs help and I'm helping. She says, oh, I wish I could. I know you do, but I'm doing it. It's okay, everything's fine, it's going to be. You know we've got challenges, we've got. You know we've got some things our faith is operating against. It's operating against her physical body. It's operating against some things with her brain. I tell you we're going to, we've got the victory. The Bible says we've got the victory.
Speaker 1:Thank you for all your prayer. You know we were laying in bed last night. We turned all the lights out. Finally, yeah, I got in bed. You know, got in bed. It's a full-time job. My hearts go out to all of you caregivers, but that's what I am right now. And I got in bed, we turned the lights out and she said I just feel the prayers. I said you got them, honey. You got them. So thank all of you because they're working. They're working, they're working. We're on God's escape plan, we're God's plan for victory, amen.
Speaker 1:But love serves. Love puts the other person first. Love is always trying to find what we can do for someone else and that's gotten rare because in this society that we have it's just dog eat dog. You know, years ago I think it was about 2006, I went to Galveston and one of those things, you know, I don't always hear the voice of God. I don't listen for the voice of God. I go by the witness, I go by you know things. But in Galveston, when I go there to pray, he almost always shows me something in the natural. That means something in the spirit. I'll see something for the first time and I've preached on it for years, you know, and it's kind of humorous, but this time I was in the hotel room. I don't remember any first time occurrences, that particular trip.
Speaker 1:But he just began to speak to me and he said many are satiated with the cares of this world and the pleasures of this world, and much of the care comes from the pursuit of the pleasure. He said many just tip their hats to me and go along their merry way. Now he finished talking and I'm going. What is that? Satiated is not in my vocabulary. I mean, I looked it up just to be sure.
Speaker 1:I thought I knew what it was, but it just means filled or gorged to repletion. In other words, what happens when you have fajita or when you have barbecue, like you had yesterday? You eat so many. You know pork belly bites but they're coming out of the pores of your skin. Everybody say pork belly bites. If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, you just need to find Stephen Hatcher and let him introduce you to him. Or brisket, or ribs or anything All barbecue Fill to repletion, gorged, overflowing, and you know we ought to be filled. You know all barbecue Filled to repletion, gorged, overflowing, and you know we ought to be filled to overflowing with the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:But he said many, see, god said many are satiated with what?
Speaker 1:The cares of this world and the pleasures of this world. Much of the care comes from the pursuit of the pleasure. Some people are entirely too casual. They tip their hat to God, which is a fake. Much of the care comes from the pursuit of the pleasure. Some people are entirely too casual. They tip their hat to God, which is a fake. They tip their hat and go along their merry way. They do what they want to do. They don't live by the unction, they don't live by love, they just live self-interested lives.
Speaker 1:Are y'all with me now? And this is something you know? Love, I mean? Bible says in first Corinthians 13, though you have faith to move mountains and have not love, it profiteth nothing. So then it's like faith without corresponding action it's the same result it's dead. You have it. It's potentially there to move that mountain. Is that mountain going to move? No, why? Because you're not walking in love and by love You're just walking in human love. You're looking for what people can do for you. You're just nice to people that can help you.
Speaker 1:And I came across some people that left the church, you know, and I love them. I mean I see people out in the neighborhood. I told Gladys when we see people that have treated us bad, we just have to be polite. It's not fake to be polite. It's not fake to smile and shake hands. I mean I've had them embrace me. I don't really like that, but if they embrace me, I'll embrace them back, but I don't feel like it. I mean, you mean you hold it. No, I just don't like, let your love be without dissimulation. And they've already.
Speaker 1:They're saying and so this, these two people, they just kept saying, oh, we just love you, we just miss you. And I just, I didn't say anything back, I just didn't feel like, do I love them? Well, yeah, I love them, but I have nothing to do with them. I'm not going to pray for them. Well, why don't you pray for them? Because I took my past door covering off of them when they left. They don't have the right to have. I mean, I don't have the right. If I go over here trying to mess with their life with my anointing, I can have a kickback. I don't have authority in their life anymore. So, anyway, I let them go on and on and on. We were at a funeral and they were at this funeral, and they just go on and on and on and on.
Speaker 1:They were just telling me how they listen to my messages still, and I thought well, that's funny, you're stealing because you're not giving us any tithe, you're just listening to my messages You're not contributing to, you can't Listen. You can't do that. You cannot get anything out of a message that you have no financial investment in. Well, you could sell. I'm not selling anything. I'm just telling you that the tithe means there's meat in the house for you, and when you don't tithe, there ain't no meat. They're tithing somewhere else. See, they're violating everything they heard here. They shouldn't be listening to me. They should be listening to the pastor they chose. So they already are saying that they made a mistake, but they wouldn't say it.
Speaker 1:I kept listening for them to say we repent, can we come back? I thought they were going to say it, so I let them go on and on and on. They didn't say it. So I just quietly said I said, lord, what do I respond? I said I don't want to be ugly, but I want to be truthful. Tell them that they're welcome to come back. But if they do come back, you'll have some conditions they'll have to meet. So I said look, if you decide that you just jump the gun, you're welcome to come back. We love you. You can come back. But they haven't and they won't See love. I can't do something about somebody else's lack of love, but I can love on my side. Are y'all with me now?
Speaker 1:So look at Ephesians 4. We're almost wrapping this up pretty quick here. Ephesians 4 is the recipe, if you call it that, of walking in love. Ephesians 4, verse 1. Paul, again, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, in agape.
Speaker 1:Notice what it says Walk worthy. See, some people walk unworthy. Walk means continue Live. They're not worthy of being a Christian. They're not living the Christian life. They're not living the faith life because they're not living the love life. Their faith is dead.
Speaker 1:When you ask them to do something, it's like asking somebody to come out of a casket and do something for you. Go to the funeral home and say have you got anybody that needs a job? You're not looking for people there that need a job. They're all laying in the back ready to be. You know, just go buried or cremated or whatever. They're not able to do anything. Neither is your faith. Your faith is just like that when you don't have corresponding action. And your faith is just like that when you don't walk in love. It's dead. It's there, but it's dead.
Speaker 1:So walk worthy of the vocation which you're called, with all loneliness and meekness. That's the problem with a lot of people that don't walk in love. They think too much of themselves. They're legends in their own mind. They think that their opinions are very, very valuable and they need to express their opinions all the time to anybody and everybody that will listen. See, that's not lowliness, it's meekness. I mean a love is listening. Be swift to what Hear. Slow to speak, slow to rant. See, I mean, it's in the Bible.
Speaker 1:That's love, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring, long-suffering, forbearing, endeavoring To keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, endeavoring. See, that means it's not easy to stay in unity. God gave me that little formula years ago Love plus unity equals miracles. Unity is hard because you've got to walk in love. You've got to forbear people. You've got to put up with people. You've got to be patient with people. You've got to not return people's temporary lapses.
Speaker 1:Everybody's got faults. Everybody does things they wish they hadn't done. Some people just can't ever say they're sorry. Some people can't apologize. There's something about them that hasn't developed. They've got poor self-esteem so they feel like they can't really say I'm sorry, because they feel sorry enough as it is. So you've got to. You've got to learn love will do those things right there.
Speaker 1:And so the word long suffering means slowness in avenging wrong, slowness in avenging wrong. So before you start asking God to slap somebody upside the head, or before you do it, see, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Don't get all inflamed. Somebody misunderstands you and gets huffy, or they steal your seat. Well, you don't have a seat. There's no names on the seats, there's no name in the parking lot. It's not your parking space. I mean, that's all just.
Speaker 1:That's not lowliness of mind, that's not humility, that's just this entitlement mentality which is rampant in the world. It's part of the Antichrist spirit, it's the spirit of this age, the entitlement spirit. We're entitled to go to hell, but we're not going there. I mean that alone ought to make you happy. Glory to God. And then you know forbearing, hold up erect and firm in love, steadfast, patient. See, some people just need to just cut them a break.
Speaker 1:You know, I heard Brother Hagin say this years ago. I've heard Brother Mark quote Brother Hagin many times. But he said when you start thinking that you're a victim, the devil's working on you. You start having that victim mentality about somebody else. You know, you start thinking, oh, they don't like me, oh, I don't like the way they're talking to me, I don't like the way they looked at me. You know, the devil's working on you. That's all that is right there. It's not the other person, it's. You See, we need to spend more time looking in the mirror than we do, you know, looking at somebody else. Amen, this is helping. This is part of walking in love.
Speaker 1:And then 2 Corinthians 8, last one, on this love thing. This is really. I got a hold of this years ago. It's so powerful and you know you can cause people to just. You know they just, they'll turn handsprings. Sometimes they get so religious about their money. You can't buy God's grace. You can't buy. Yeah, shut up. You don't even know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Look at what Paul said, 2 Corinthians, chapter 8. He's receiving an offering. He's he's receiving an offering and and he's bragging on the churches of Macedonia to the Corinthian church, using them as an example. And he said, you know, in the great verse, to great trial of affliction and abundance of their joy and their deep poverty, abounded under the riches of their liberality or their generosity. They gave an offering out of their need, and so he's telling the Corinthians now you need to do the same thing. He's using one church as an example to the other in giving, and in so much that we desired Titus that, as he had begun, so he would also finish. In you the same grace, also the same generosity. Titus is going to come collect this offering. Make sure it's big, make sure it's a lot of money.
Speaker 1:Talk about money here, folks. Money, not canned goods, not rummage, not leftover clothes with holes in them that need to go to the cleaners first. He's talking about money. Everybody say money, money. Therefore, as you abound in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and all diligence and your love, to us see that you abound in this grace Also. What grace is that? The grace of giving, the grace of generosity. It's something that can grow, just like your faith. That's why your faith, your faith, is involved in your giving. You're giving at one level today, but you know, let's stretch your faith to where you're giving at another level down the road, and sometimes that level goes up before your income does. That's why it's called faith.
Speaker 1:I speak not by commandment, but by occasion, of the forwardness of others who write continuous blue line letters to your mailbox begging you for more and more and more, and you just gave them $10, but now they want another. They spent another $25 trying to get another $10 out of you, which I throw all of those in the trash. There was one famous preacher that Brother Osteen wrote a letter to. He says you know, you're better than this. You send these blue line letters and you're promising these people that you're praying for them. In the middle of the night he said you're lying, you don't do that. I knew who he wrote it to. He told me who it was. I didn't. I'm not going to say because he's gone now. He went completely apostate. He's not even a Christian now. He went back on the Lord. He is going to hell when he dies. What do you mean? Yes, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1:The pastor of a mega church. And he just went right around and that was the beginning. Brother Osteen was trying to intervene in his life. He got money-minded. He got big old mailing list writing these blue line letters. You know, and oh, I prayed for you in the middle of the night and you know, accept this. You know prayer cloth, accept this. You know sliver of the cross? It's not a cross. There's no cross. The cross is gone, okay. There's no sliver of a cross that you can buy, that you give an offering for. There's no holy water. There's no soap on a rope, pope on a soap or whatever. Every gimmick that any fundraiser can use has been used in the church by these neat nut jobs. So he's talking about that 2, 2000 years ago.
Speaker 1:I'm speaking, not by commandment, by occasion, of the forwardness of others and to prove the sincerity of your love.
Speaker 1:Your giving proves your love. Boy, some of you are going to get this about three o'clock this afternoon. Your giving is the proof of your love. You can say you love, love, love all day long and give nothing. Well, you don't love. You don't love because there's no investment, there's no dealing with your money. God always deals with your money. He deals with your stuff, amen. With your money. He deals with your stuff, amen. And so, as you employ these areas where you take heed, let's pay attention, let's wake up, let's look at ourselves, let's take account of ourselves here. In the last third of this year, we're in the last third of 2024, the year of momentum. We've reached a momentum now and I want to see the momentum build and build and build and burst out through 2025. Come on, lift your hands and receive the Word of God. Everybody say my faith grows exceedingly and my love abounds. Hallelujah, come on, let's rejoice today. Glory to God, amen, amen, amen, amen, hallelujah. Thank you, lord. Did you get anything out of this today?