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
Scan Your Faith
Can faith transform your life like a spiritual GPS, guiding you through the complexities of belief and doubt? Join us on a soul-enriching journey through the Book of Hebrews, where we promise to illuminate the path to a future brimming with victory, health, and spiritual righteousness. We'll explore how scripture acts as a beacon in our lives, urging us to hold onto its teachings and protect our faith from slipping away like water from a leaky vessel. Drawing insights from modern technology anecdotes, we discuss maintaining spiritual vigilance akin to safeguarding personal data against vulnerabilities.
Let's lift our Bibles up and wave them around. Make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Say this together. Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad for 2024, the last Sunday of the year. I'm looking forward to next year. As you've been faithful this year, so you shall be faithful next year. I'm looking forward for victory, I'm looking forward for success. I'm health-minded, I'm prosperity-minded, I'm righteousness-minded, I'm word-minded, I'm Holy Ghost-minded. Therefore, I have the victory in Jesus' name. Amen, you can be seated, hallelujah.
Speaker 1:Let's look in the book of Hebrews and I'm going to read several verses out of different chapters. Chapter 2 first. 2, 3, and 4 are going to be the chapters I read out of, not the whole chapter, but just a couple of verses Hebrews 2, 1. It says therefore so when you see, therefore, you need to find out what it's there for. So that backs you up in the previous chapter.
Speaker 1:In the previous chapter he's talking about Jesus is better than the angels, are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister on behalf of those who are heirs of salvation? Therefore, see, and so train yourself to read your Bible like that. Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest, at any time, we should let them slip. And in my margin the word slip let them slip is run out as a leaking vessel. Run out as a leaking vessel. We got to take heed that what we hear we retain and we don't let it slip out. We don't let it leak out of us. That's why we need to hear it over and over again, because sometimes it does leak out, doesn't it All right? And then we get over to chapter three, verse 12. Take heed, see, there's that, you know. Take heed, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you, in any of you.
Speaker 1:Now he's talking to the church here, talking to the church that made up of the Hebrews you know, these are Jewish people that got saved and of course, paul. I believe Paul wrote this. He doesn't own it in the letter, like he usually does in Corinthians and Romans and different places, but here he's writing to the Jews. And see, he was the apostle to the Gentiles, which might explain why he doesn't take ownership of this, because he's got other people that are dealing with it. In fact, peter was the apostle to the circumcision, to the Jews. So he and Paul, peter and Paul, they overlap some.
Speaker 1:So he says here in verse 12, take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from a living God, but exhort one another daily, while it's called today, don't put it off till tomorrow. Exhort one another Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Again, he's not talking to sinners, he's talking to the church Through the deceitfulness of sin. Again, he's not talking to sinners, he's talking to the church, that lest any of you should be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And then in chapter 4.
Speaker 1:Verse 1. Let us therefore fear Lest a promise being left us Of entering into his rest Any of you should Se seem to come short of it, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. Who's the them? Well, that's Israel. So he's contrasting us and Israel. He's using Israel as an example. Unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them. That heard it. Verse 11. Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. In my margin, the word unbelief is disobedience. In my margin, the word unbelief is disobedience. Lest we fall, lest we fall after the same example of disobedience.
Speaker 1:And so today I wanted to share a message entitled Scan your Faith S-C-A-N. Scan your Faith. Where in the world do you get that? Well, I'm fixing to tell you where I get it. I get it from my automobile because I've got a message on my dashboard. I've got a headlight fault. It says headlight fault. And I said well, what did my headlight do I mean? Why are you blaming my headlight? And then I roll up, you know, to the car in front of me in the rain the other day and then I could see that my left headlight is out, my right headlight's working, my left headlight this is a two-year-old car, good God, what do you mean? This headlight probably costs $3,000. It's one of these fancy headlights. It's a Jaguar. The British call it Jaguar. It's a Jaguar, anyway.
Speaker 1:But you know, I got to looking at how complex our lives are. You know computers. I mean we've got computers. We've got computers in our phones. I've got computers in my ears. I've got computers at home. I've got I mean that car has got somewhere around 60 computers. Did you know most cars have from 40 to 60 computers, not just one? You know most cars have from 40 to 60 computers, not just one. They call them ecu's electronic control. Uh, you know modules, which is a microprocessor. It's a computer. Everything's got, everything's a computer.
Speaker 1:So you know, you've got to. You got to take heed with computers. Why? Because they can get infected with viruses. I mean mean, I just got two big old packets of mail, one for me, one for Gladys, somebody that our church deals with on a regular basis. They got hacked and our personal information is out there now, our social security number, our phone number, our full. I mean they can use that. And so now I've got to double down and I've got to be watching, I've got to scan my credit, and that's happened to us about a half a dozen times this past year. I mean, I don't know about you, but this is this. Stuff is going on all the time.
Speaker 1:What I'm getting to is is that we live in a very complex world. People my age, I mean you know back I remember when cars were just easy to work on. I worked on my own cars. They didn't have any computers in them. When I went to work at Reynolds Metals, when I was going into my sophomore year at A&M, I went to Reynolds Metals in a little place called Gregory, texas, next to Portland, across the bay from Corpus Christi. They made in those years. They closed the plant. Now We've lost all our manufacturing. Have you noticed? Don't make steel, don't make aluminum. They made aluminum ingots. We shipped these huge aluminum ingots the length of this front row, about five or six foot wide, about two foot thick. They had to use a crane to put them up on the rail car and we shipped them up in one place. They went to general dynamics in fort worth where they made them into jets to use in the vietnam war. I mean, we were making aluminum and I was there.
Speaker 1:I was a computer operator, I was in a. I was in a room with an ibm computer was about the size of that right there. It was huge and I had to monitor that. That was my first experience with a computer. Computers are brand new.
Speaker 1:So I've lived in the age where we've seen complexity, complexity and you've got to make adjustments. Now I mean I remember buying a camera to take the pictures of my kids when they were little, a little 35 meter, six, you know, single reflex camera. And now I've got a much better camera on my iPhone. I don't need a camera, we do have cameras around here. We use them, but I and they've got their use, but I remember having. I took in my. In high school I took crafts and I I learned how to develop film and, and you know, make enlargements and all of that and all the sloshing around. We got digital. Now we take a picture and we see it right now. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:But yet it's complexities and we have to do. What do we have to do? Well, we have to pay attention. We've got to take heed, unless something happens to that computer, something happens to that hard drive, and we get a virus and we get a black screen. Have you ever had a black screen? That means everything's gone. That's no fun. And so you know, we've got to take heed.
Speaker 1:And so that's what I'm talking about today. I'm talking about scanning your faith. We need to scan our faith. We have to have extreme care and give attention to what we hear. Take heed what you hear, and we have to avoid letting it slip or lose impact. We also have to, you know, not only do we have to take heed of what we lose, but we've got to take heed what we take in. It's both directions, see.
Speaker 1:And so today is a little bit of meat to end the year. This is not what's meat and milk. Well, today is a little bit of meat to end the year. This is not what's meat and milk. Well, milk is the blessing scriptures. Milk is what God wants to do for you and give you, and we talk about that a lot because you need to know what God gives you freely. But all of those blessings are conditional upon what Our obedience and we can. We can start listening to the wrong things and not paying close enough attention and the devil can steal what God intended for us to have Amen. So that's the purpose of this message to give you some things to think about going into 2025.
Speaker 1:Here in Hebrews 3.12, unbelief or doubt is called evil. It's called evil. Don't let evil part of unbelief. And it basically says you know, we need to exhort one another. So, in other words, we need to be accountable to one another. That's why people need a church. You need a pastor that will tell you the truth. You need other believers that will do the same. Now we ought to get encouragement, mostly from each other, but you know, sometimes we need somebody to put their arm around us when we've said something that is inappropriate or wrong or we've done something that's wrong. We ought to be able to receive an exhortation from somebody.
Speaker 1:Well, for instance, you know I've I moved to corpus christi and we'd been saved. You know about, I don't know, five or six years. So we were pretty mature christians. We weren't fully grown like we are now. I'm not fully grown yet. I'm still learning, I'm still developing. How about you? If there's anybody arrived, let me know. You can leave now if you've already arrived, if you've already graduated.
Speaker 1:So, uh, well, we never graduate, but anyway, I uh, it was a new church, you know I brother Osteen sent me down there when he found out we were graduate. But anyway, it was a new church. You know, brother Osteen sent me down there when he found out we were moving to Corpus. You know he said, oh, I've got the church for you. So I didn't even have a chance to choose the church. You know it was Brother Dierman's stepson, dean and Renee Garner and Dean's in heaven now and Pastor Garner and Dean's in heaven now and Pastor Garner.
Speaker 1:But we went to that church and it wasn't Lakewood, it was a totally different personality and it was hard. It was hard. I mean just, you know you sit there and I'm comparing what I've had to this new deal. And so I had a good friend that had hired me, gave me a really good job at executive level job, six figure contract and all that Car allowance and housing allowance to pay my house in Houston that wouldn't sell because 14% interest rates. So I had to move down there and had a house empty and so I got a housing allowance to pay for that mortgage, you know. So I had a pretty good, pretty good deal.
Speaker 1:But anyway, I was spouting off one day in the car, you know saying man, this man murmuring and complaining and he preaches a whole hour. Man, brother Osteen was 30 minutes and you know I'm gabbing, babbingbam. He said you know, griner, you need to get in or get out. You can't stay there. If you're going to keep talking like this, you're out of order. See, thank you. Man slapped me right upside the head. He didn't say it very kindly, but he was right and thank God I listened, I shut up.
Speaker 1:I quit having an opinion, I started getting myself lined up with the leadership and quit trying to be a Monday morning quarterback and quit trying to compare two churches and two ministries that are totally different. Every church is different by design. There's some commonalities, but there's differences. Matters where you go to church. I can tell you that right now. So we need each other, we need to be accountable to each other. He didn't even go to that church. He didn't go to that church, he wasn't a member of that church, and so it really helped me. It helped me I thank God I think about that from time to time that I had men and some women around me that would tell me the truth when I drifted off of the pathway. We all do. I said we all do.
Speaker 1:And so Israel, here in chapter 4, israel fell short. They didn't attain what God had in mind. They fell short. They take heed that you don't fall short. He said, because why? They didn't mix faith with what they heard. They didn't profit. The word did not profit them. They heard it with their ears but not in their heart, and they didn't profit. They didn't profit. The word did not profit them. They heard. They heard it with their ears but not in their heart, and they didn't profit. They didn't believe, they didn't mix faith with it.
Speaker 1:And so it says in verse 11, we have to labor, work at receiving the word as our spiritual nourishment day by day, I mean every day, it's. It's it's not just something you do once a week or once a month, it's something that you do every day. You have to work at it. It takes commitment, see. Hence I'm talking about this is meat. Now Some of you might think well, god, this is not a message.
Speaker 1:I can run around the church. Well, if you'd listen to it and mix faith with it, you'd run around the church, because it's going to empower you to receive everything he's got in store for you in 2025, which is more than what he gave you in 2024. Because he's always going up, he's always going higher. So, scan your faith, and I've got three questions you can ask yourself. Going into this year, a lot of people are making new year's resolutions or thinking about what they want to do, and this is higher than that. This is above that. This is life changing. This is an opportunity to maybe make some adjustments in your thinking that will greatly benefit you. So three questions, and the first one you know we're in chapter two, verse one.
Speaker 1:Take heed to the things which we have heard. So the first question what has God said to you? Well, I don't know. God hadn't said well then, do you read your Bible, because this is what God said to you right here. I'm not talking about a word of prophecy, I'm not. You know, we have a more sure word of prophecy.
Speaker 1:And so when you read your Bible, from time to time you're going to get a rhema word comes off the page and you're going to have a knowing in your knower that you need to do something, that God See, we're always asking God and giving him a to-do list. We're asking God for this, that and the other, and that's fine. You want to ask God for things? Go ahead, find out what belongs to you and then you really don't even have to ask him. You just claim them. Them. But you'll grow into that. You'll grow into that. You'll finally figure that out that you don't have to pray for healing. You've already got it if you're already healed.
Speaker 1:It's this kind of silly to pray for things that the word says are yours. Some of you'll get that this afternoon about three o'clock. I mean, if god said you have it, then you don't have to pray for it. You can thank him for it. You can claim it in the face of evidence to the contrary. I mean, you know, you claim your faith when the symptoms are raging, amen. Claim your healing, see, when the symptoms are raging. You said so.
Speaker 1:What has God said to you? Are you in active obedience to those things that God has said to you? I can say what God has said to this church. James, a few weeks ago, preached a message on my church, my mission and so the things that God has told this church to accomplish. He told you to accomplish. You should be actively engaged in helping us accomplish those, because if you're not, you're in what Disobedience? That's an evil heart of unbelief. You're hardening your heart.
Speaker 1:I've seen it over and over in 30 years. I've seen people start off and they get in agreement and they slowly let themselves get out of agreement. They slowly become the ones that are critical, the ones that are murmuring and complaining, and I can tell when they're walking around they're whispering and talking to other people, trying to get a group to listen to their complaints. They never last. I said they never last, and so have you let them slip, see? I mean, what did God tell us? He told us to wake up the church. He said there's a dearth of the word. Your children don't know what you know. He said Houston's Healing Center. He said a barn for the harvest.
Speaker 1:For years, years, I thought a barn for the harvest was a bigger church, a massive church, because that's what I came out of. I came out of lakewood. I came out of a ministry where I stood before thousands of people every week and opened the services, closed the services in front of five, six, seven thousand people. I just assumed that's what god was going to do. Well, you know, he wasn't talking about a church building. He was talking about a network of ministries that we have assembled. Now in my God votes and we're cooperating with ministries and churches all over the nation. Now that's a barn for the harvest.
Speaker 1:That took me a long time to understand that. That took me a long time to understand that. I mean, sometimes God gives you something to do and you don't see any results. We didn't see any results. When he told us to wake up to church, I started immediately. I found out what he could be talking about. I felt like, oh, he's talking about Israel. Nobody knows about Israel, nobody understands about Israel. I need to talk about Israel, I need to preach on Israel, we need to support Israel and we did, and on and on, all these things over these years. What I'm talking about. What is your part? Well, your part can be, maybe not my God votes. Maybe your part is to, you know, be in the welcome ministry, greet people when they come in the door, because that's really important. I had one of our first time guests say, boy, I just really feel the presence of God here Just when I came in the door. Well, see, they're doing their job.
Speaker 1:Well, it takes people to do it. How many of you like coffee? Anybody like coffee. You appreciate having coffee in the lobby. Well, good, maybe you're going to help us keep it going because we're tired of doing it ourselves. I can't spare one of my staff members to do it. Irma's done it for long enough. I mean we need somebody to take responsibility for making the coffee, cleaning the coffee pot when it's over, with putting it up, bringing it out. I mean it's going to take a team. How bad do we want coffee in the lobby? Because I'm fixing to say no more Pastor. Yeah, I don't care, I don't drink it. We're going to war at our own expense. I can't spare these people. They've got too many things to do. They've got very important things. If coffee in the lobby is important to you, we'll be part of the solution, be part of the supply. See, I mean, we're a family. If we're doing without, I need to tell you. And we're doing without. What has God said to you? There's blessings of obedience. Have you let things slip?
Speaker 1:I went to A&M and we got out of school, graduated, gladys and I got married my junior year, last of my junior year, and we graduated, moved to Houston so I could go in the home building business and I went in business for my brother and we lived in Northland Colonial Apartments. That's Northline. Does anybody remember Northline Shopping Center? Some of you people my age will remember Northline. Most of the younger people don't even know it exists. But anyway, it's gone now. Before Greens Point there was Northline. Northline was the old Guns Point and then Greens Point turned into Guns Point and now Willowbrook has turned into Guns Point and then Greens Point turned into Guns Point and now Willowbrook has turned into Guns Point and now Tomball has turned into Guns Point. Bad confession, okay, I'm sorry, but anyway.
Speaker 1:So we went over to my brother's house and it was snowing. It was February the year after we moved to Houston. It was snowing that it was February the year after we moved to Houston. It was snowing that year and you never get snow in Houston, so we were throwing snowballs in the front yard and I threw my Aggie ring right off of my hand and it's snowing, and so I lost it. I mean, it was about 10 feet from my hand and I saw it. And then I lost it in the snow and I I knew it had to sail across the street and somewhere in that yard across the street, but I couldn't see it. I couldn't find it. And so we waited a couple of weeks. It dried up and I went and knocked on the door and I said would you mind if I snoop around? I'm looking for my Aggie ring. I threw it off when I was throwing snowballs a couple of weeks ago. Oh no, that's fine, you know. And so I looked and looked. I never found it, it just went right off. See, a lot of times things will slip right away from us and we, you know, we don't recover them. Are y'all with me now? And so, years later, when we got in better financial condition, gladys bought me another one. So now I have an Aggie ring. Thanks to Gladys. She bought me an Aggie ring, a second one.
Speaker 1:What has God said to you? Are you an act of obedience? See, obedience brings the blessings All right. So I'm talking about scanning your faith. Now let's scan our faith. Let's check for worms and viruses, let's check for things that need to be corrected.
Speaker 1:Huh, so Hebrews 3.1. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house, for this man was counted worthy. Talking about Jesus, this man, see the man, christ Jesus, son of man. See Jesus, this man. See the man, christ Jesus, son of man. See, this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honor than the house. We're to consider the one who builds us. We're to pay attention to him. We're to pay attention to him, and so my question is are you resting on your past victories? See, you've got the status quo working. You're satisfied with where you are. You're not hungry for more, you're not hungry to be built to a higher degree.
Speaker 1:You have to give great attention and continuous observation to Jesus, because he's what he's the author and the finisher of our faith. He's the apostle and high priest of our profession, our commitment, your profession, your confession, your commitment. You need no point in having a confession if you're not committed to doing what you're saying. So a confession, yes, you've got to have a confession. Brother Mark's got a book on confession. It's excellent. But a confession without action is really not much use. You've got to actually do what you say. You've got to act like what you're saying is true. Are you with me now? Are you resting on past victories?
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, look at David. David had victory after victory and then Saul was killed and he became king over just Judah and Benjamin. And then the ten tribes were still the house of Saul was over them, king over just the Judah and Benjamin. And then the ten tribes were still the house of Saul was over them. And so there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David. And the Bible says that the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker. The house of David waxed stronger and stronger until finally they gave up and said you're going to be our king. And they made David king after seven years. So he'd been king. Now he's king of the whole shoot match. And the Bible says in 2 Samuel, chapter 5,.
Speaker 1:It dawned on him one day. He said God's made me the king of this whole thing. I mean it. Just it came all over him. God has made me a king over the whole thing. And uh, and so he began to move in great confidence and began to expand. And when the when the Palestinians heard about it I mean the Philistines heard about it same thing I said they're the same thing. It's the same devil. The same devil behind the Philistines, who was one of the most evil enemies of Israel. It's the same devil behind the Palestinians. They're Arabs, they're not Palestinians. There's no such thing as a Palestinian. It's a made up word. Let's get the truth, anyway.
Speaker 1:So they came after him. They came in the valley of Rephaim. So he went to the Lord. He didn't just assume to go down there and go to battle. You know, lord, what do I do about this? Will you give them to me in battle? Yeah, go ahead, I've done it. So he went down and he defeated them in the valley of Rephaim as breaking forth of water, like a dam breaking. He defeated them. I, like a dam breaking. He defeated them. I mean he sent them packing man. Well, they came back, he could have just said oh, they came back. Huh, I'll teach them. No, he did not. He went back to the Lord and said well, they're back. What do you want me to do this time?
Speaker 1:He did not get into presumption, he did not rest on his laurels, he did not have confidence in all the victories that he had brought, because he had brought a lot of victories. Let me tell you something. He had victory after victory. He had the mighty men that could throw an arrow. You know, shoot an arrow with either hand, sling a slingshot with either hand. And I mean, he had, not only did he personally a warrior, but he had warriors around him that were very skilled, and he didn't depend on that. He went back to the Lord. The Lord said no, don't do it that way this time. Just go down and wait in the mulberry trees till you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the trees. That's where is that? That's angels that went to battle for him. Glory to God. I mean, the angels prepared the way and they mopped them up.
Speaker 1:Are y'all with me? Now I'm talking about? Are you resting on your victories? Are you just? You know, are you just satisfied with where you are. Are you going to let Jesus, the wise master builder, continue his construction project on you? Because you're a project of his. He's building you. He told his disciples follow me and I'll make you. I'll make you to become fishers of men. But he said follow me and I'll make you. See, god wants to make you into what you need to be. You're not there yet. I don't care how long you've been saved, you ain't there yet. I'm not there yet. He's still doing things in my life. He's still building things. Are you all with me now? You ask yourself these questions.
Speaker 1:See, when I was a home builder, you know, I started with a lot. This lot has been assigned to me. It's got a certain size. Maybe it's, I don't know. Most of the lots were like 80 by 130, 140. They were 90 by 150. They just kept getting smaller and smaller as time went on. We had inflation back then too, and so they got smaller and smaller. So I'm sitting there, maybe I'm in front of a plot of grand, 80 by 120. And out here it's mostly trees, it's just a bunch of trees, and I'm going to build a house there. Well, I've got to conceive. What kind of house am I going to build. What's it going to look like? What's the front? Is it going to be colonial? Is it going to be English? Is it going to be French? Is it going to be a gable roof? What is it going to have? What's it going to have? What's it going to look like? And I draw it up and I put it on that piece of property.
Speaker 1:The garage is usually a detached garage in those years, with a driveway going up the side of the house to a rear detached garage. That was considered a nicer look than the front attached garages. That was the mark of a more cheaper house and smaller lots and smaller houses. It had front-loaded garages. Our houses were detached garages.
Speaker 1:I had to decide which side of the house the garage is going to be on. We had rules about that and I'd draw it up on a piece of paper. But still all I had was a forest out there. And when I got it drawn up, I got my dimensions and I took a 100-foot tape. I went out there and I found out where the front of the house was going to be and what trees could stay and I'd tie a yellow rim around the trees that were going to stay and I took a machete and I scabbed the side of the trees that had to come down and then I'd, you know, get into hornet's nest and I'd get into poison ivy and I'd get into all kind of you know it's a tangle, thorn bushes and everything else. I'm out there, I'm working, that's my job. And then I'd get my guy with a bulldozer and he'd get on the land and he'd clear all those trees out. And then I'd marvel, I'd think, god, look at that lot man, that looks great. Look at that, the trees in the front. You know, I didn't have anything on it yet.
Speaker 1:And then I set the form. You know, now I've got some boards sticking up about that home and still no house there. And then I come back and I fill that with dirt. I still no house there. Then I have the plumbing put in, roughed in. I still don't have a house there. And then you know, they start digging the beams and putting the steel in and they pour the concrete. I still don't have a house. I've got, I've got a structure that's about that tall. There's no house there. And I've been going three months or two months. What if I quit? Man, I don't see no house here. Can I live on that thing? No, I'm a long way from getting built, but but anyway. So you get the lumber, you know, and boy, when the lumber, when the framer starts putting the lumber up, he puts the first floor up, the second floor up, puts the roof on. And now I got a house and it's looking pretty good.
Speaker 1:And I go walking through the house, you know, and when I first started building I couldn't tell where I was. I couldn't tell. I knew the entry hall because it's next to the front door, but I mean, and maybe I could look over here at the dining room, you know, or the living room. But you know, you get confused where you are in the house, because I'm not used to it. I'm looking through the walls. The studs are open, you know, you look through, there's nothing to interrupt your sight. So you kind of you can't get kind of confused and you just keep going, keep going. You get the roof on there, you know. And then you get the air conditioning, the electrical and the plumbing is is roughed in, and now, and the insulation, now it's time for sheet rock.
Speaker 1:Boy, that was the most amazing, to walk in the house with a sheet rock. And now each room, each room is defined. You can't look through the house anymore, you're looking at each room. I'm talking about progress. I'm talking about I got to see the fruit of my labor. Are we going to give Jesus the pleasure of seeing the fruit of his labor?
Speaker 1:I took great pleasure in looking at my houses. I had to look at them all the time. I had to walk through them. I had to make endless notes. I had to make lists, list after list after list. And the framing stage Okay, this stud has got to be taken out. It's bowed out into the room. I'd take a straight edge, I'd go measure these long walls and invariably I'd see a stud that was like this. You know well, you got to get rid of that. You can't cover that up with sheetrock. You're going to have a mess. It takes a lot of work. And then you've got.
Speaker 1:When I started building in West U out here, we didn't have inspections. I was the inspector. But in West U we had inspections city of West, university place and so they were strict, everything by code. They picked a thing apart, they had a list. Even after I made my list apart, they had a list. Even after I made my list. They had a longer list and I'd walk through with us with a framing contractor and he'd fix everyone. Then I have them come back and re-re-re-examine the house and pass the inspection. Are y'all with me? Are we passing inspection? You ought to inspect yourself, because if you don't see somebody's going to notice, one of your brothers or sisters in Christ is going to notice that there's a problem with you and then are you going to get offended at them just because they try to love you enough to tell you what the truth is.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad I didn't break, I didn't sever my relationship with, with my my friend. Actually he was my boss, actually he was my direct superior, but he was still my friend and he loved me enough to tell me hey, hey, you can't talk like that. You need to either get in or get out One of the two. You cannot do that. Well, thank you, I'm glad. I'm glad Because I never experienced that. I never was that way at Lakewood. I just I liked it all.
Speaker 1:See, I chose it, this one I was sent to and I didn't choose it. Are you with me now? All right? So what has God said to you? Are you actively obeying what he told you to do? Are you resting on your past victories or are you giving God something to celebrate when he sees your progress? And then, finally, the last one are you mixing faith with what you hear? Because Israel didn't. Why? Because they listened to the naysayers. They listened to the ones that were murmuring and complaining were murmuring and complaining. Now, I never said anything to anybody in my church about my complaints with my new church in Corpus, but I was telling my friends some things and if he hadn't shut me down, it's possible that I could have gone and I started knowing people you know and start talking in a wrong manner against the ministry. That would have destroyed. God would have had to have put me on the sidetrack. I've seen it. I've seen it. Or you're mixing faith in what you hear. One of the biggest things is that you hear to the naysayers.
Speaker 1:Matthew 16 6. Jesus said beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Told his own disciples beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Now they didn't understand what he said. Oh, we didn't bring any bread. I'm not talking to you about the bread. I'm talking to you about the way the Pharisees say one thing and do another. They're liars. They're like their father, the devil. He told the Pharisees you're like your father the devil. The works of your father you shall do.
Speaker 1:See, religion will rob you, and listening to Monday morning quarterbacks criticize the ministry will make you. It will get in there and will interfere with your faith. You won't be able to have confidence in what you're hearing. You're going to begin to question it. Are you with me now? And all of you have grown up enough to where you can be empowered to stop that down when you hear it. I don't care who you hear say anything, you can stop it down yourself. Excuse me, but my ears are not garbage pails, thank you, do not talk like that. This place is holy. This place has got the Spirit of God all in it, wall to wall, and what you're saying is not appropriate. Let's pray, grab their hands, start praying. Boy, I mean that'll shut them up. You don't have to run them off, you just correct them. Are you with me now? Ephesians 4.14. You get anything out of this? Well, I notice y'all aren't running through the church yet.
Speaker 1:Verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine or wind of teaching by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth and love me, grow up into him in all things. So naysayers, deceivers, are everywhere, especially now. They bring their hurt, they bring their dysfunction, they bring their dysfunction, they bring. You know, we want the doors open. We're not trying to keep people out, we want people in here. But when they come in, they come in with all of their mess and their bad teaching, or lack thereof, lack of any teaching and we have to be patient with them, we have to love them, we have to help, we have to add value. That's the whole point of discipleship is for us to be able to add value to each person and to bring them up and participate in God's construction project, because he's building all of us.
Speaker 1:Mark 4.24 says take heed what you hear. You got to pay attention when you hear things that are wrong. You've got to turn that around. You got to turn it around. You know it's not so much anymore, but we used to back in the charismatic days, charismatic days when the Holy Ghost poured out on all the denominations. You had the charismatic move and it was a move of God, but it was separated a lot of times from the Word. They didn't base the Holy Ghost and the Word together. Like we do, we're the Word in spirit.
Speaker 1:We believe in prophecy but we don't major on personal prophecy. We have a more sure word of prophecy and I don't like people prophesying out there to each other. I don't like it because every prophecy needs to be judged. Now. Gladys has prophesied over people. I've prophesied over people. I'm sure my kids have prophesied over people. We don't make it a habit. I mean I don't do it all the time, but sometimes I'll flow in the Holy Ghost. I'm sure my kids have prophesied over, but we don't make it a habit. I mean I don't do it all the time, but sometimes I'll flow in a Holy ghost and I'll have a word over somebody. But it's never meant to guide you. It's meant to confirm what you already have. And the excess of personal prophecy is that people well so-and-so told me that I was going to be such-and-such, I'm going to be president of the country, and you've never run for dog catcher. It's not likely that you're going to. I know that's extreme.
Speaker 1:I had a lady that I knew, the church she came from. It was a historic church here in the city but it got off and it got in the charismatic move and they had a lot of flaky people come through preaching. The pastor hardly preached. He's always having these people on TBN and Christian television come to town and preach for him. He wasn't really a true pastor in my opinion but that's not for me to— we weren't connected at all but I just knew about his church and so we got some people from that church that started coming here and one of them was a single lady about mid-50s, a business lady, real blessing at first, and then she trailed off, trailed off, quit, and he was given at a certain level and all of a sudden he just kind, she trailed off, trailed off, quit, and it was given at a certain level and all of a sudden it just kind of trailed off.
Speaker 1:You mean you keep up. Yeah, I keep up with the giving around here. I sure do Not as much anymore, but I used to Gladys would count the offering. It's on my kitchen table in the beginning. So yeah, we kept up. And you know I wouldn't say anything to anybody about their giving. I wouldn't say, hey, you're not giving enough, or anything like that, but I'd take note of it.
Speaker 1:What's wrong? What happened? Well, she started having trouble with her business, she got unemployed and she was kind of hurting, and so, anyway, she wanted to meet with Gladys and I, okay, I said what can we do to help you? Because I knew she was already struggling. I could tell her countenance had fallen. She said, well, I'm just really frustrated.
Speaker 1:Here I am, I'm 50-whatever years old and I don't have a child. I said, well, you don't have a child, you're not married. How are you going to have a child? No, I'm sorry, tell you, don't have a child, you're not married. How are you going to have a child? You know, I'm sorry. Tell me, you don't have a child when you're not married. And so she's. Oh, these Christian men, I can't.
Speaker 1:I said, well, wait a minute, let's hold up. What's this deal about not having a baby and you don't want to get married? What is that? Well, I had a prophecy years ago that I was going to be a mother. I said, oh, okay, well, when was it? Well, I don't remember. I said, well, who was it that gave you the prophetic word? Because I know what church they came from and I knew by the Spirit. It was some yahoo in the sanctuary that prophesied Thus saith the Lord, you will be a mother of many. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, I can hear it. She said I don't remember.
Speaker 1:I said well, you seems to me like you put a whole lot of weight on a prophecy that you don't even remember when it came and you don't even know who delivered it to you. You know, if I were you, I'd I'd throw that thing away. It couldn't be God. You never did do anything, even if it was from God. You didn't do what was necessary to have a baby.
Speaker 1:Hello, you're not married and you don't like Christian men. What's wrong with you? I know, it's real. People have hang-ups, people have all kinds of crazy ideas that they've bent their life in a circle, and all you need to do is hang with the Holy Ghost and read your Bible. He can guide you, he can lead you. That's why I preach regularly on being led by the Spirit. Amen.
Speaker 1:So, going into 2025, let me just encourage you to scan your faith, you know, examine what you're hearing, examine your obedience, examine your heart and just make a determination early in this year that you're going to walk really close with God, that you're going to value your spiritual maintenance plan. You're going to scan your faith and you're going to keep the victory, because faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Come on, lift your hands and receive today, hallelujah. Glory to God. Did this help anybody today? Amen. Well, let's rejoice then.
Speaker 1:Praise God. It's a good word. Praise God. I tell you, god is good. He's so faithful. He's got a good plan for each one of you. There's no well, pastor, I feel so bad. You know, I'm not trying to get you to feel bad. I'm trying to just make an adjustment. Don't worry about what you've done wrong, just now that you know. Just make the adjustment, put it under the blood and just go forward. Praise God, cause God's still working on me. God's still working on me. Jay used to sing that little song when he was just a little bitty guy. Now he's singing grown-up praise music now. Praise God, let's lift our hands, father. We thank you today for the word. We thank you, father, for what you have in store for us, hallelujah.