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
Recognizing God
As we delve deeper, the episode offers practical steps for recognizing Jesus’ impact in our lives, starting with an understanding of the power of His resurrection and what it means for us today. We explore how to connect with the fellowship of His sufferings and the significance of pressing towards God’s high calling.
Let's just open up in prayer. We can't overly pray, father. We just thank you that our hearts are open to your word. Tonight, lord, we're so grateful for your presence and we just continue to step into your glory, to your manifested presence, but also to your goodness. Lord, we allow your goodness it's not just chasing after us, it's not just running after us, it's not just chasing after us, it's not just running after us, we allow it to overtake us. Lord, we just thank you for your blessings that are overtaking us, father, and we thank you that in you, we live and move and we have our being. And so, lord, I thank you for fresh revelation tonight, as we share your word, we're excited about new things. We're excited about your word, word. We're excited about new things. We're excited about your word and we're excited about the watering process of the watering of the word. In Jesus' name. We never get tired of being in your presence. Amen, amen.
Speaker 1:Well, I just wanted to preach a message about recognizing Jesus, recognizing his power, recognizing his goodness, recognizing God, and I'm telling you, like in the, in the quick pace world that we live in, some people really do, they're believing God for something and God's trying to get it to them and they're so busy with other things, they're so distracted that they don't realize, they don't recognize that that's God moving, that's their blessing right there. You know that, like they, they, uh, you know you're believing God for money in your bank account and you show up at some kind of a meeting that the CEO called at your office and and he called it last week but you don't know what it's about, you don't know you hadn't prepared, you haven't prayed, and God's trying to get an idea through you that can change your whole entire company, that would bring opportunity for promotion and raises. But instead, you know we have our head, you know, in the sand and doing our own thing and messing around on our phones or whatever, and we miss all these opportunities that God has for us right here. And so it's just time to wake up and realize that God is moving in our midst all the time, and so he's a very present help in time of need. And I'm telling you, if you came in here needing something, he is right here meeting. He's the need meter and the way maker, amen. And so you know.
Speaker 1:I just I thought I'd start off with a story I'm going to kind of it'd be more of a Bible study. Anyways, we're just going to kind of go through Philippians, chapter three, and stay in the epistles a little bit tonight and I don't apologize for that. That's what the Holy Spirit showed me and I'm just kind of idle my motor for a second. But I was going to tell a story on me like right up, like this is kind of what I'm talking about, and that is we were at Winter Bible Seminar in Ramah in Tulsa, broken Arrow, technically the week before last, and so that's a week-long bunch of meetings, and so we took a trailer full of all of y'all's uh, the, the shoe boxes for the children victory children's home. We took those over to john and darlene west and they were grateful and they have, like this whole organ, you know organizational process to receive those. So it was really good to catch up with them.
Speaker 1:We did that in between the RAIMA meetings on Monday, but then Monday night the temperature dropped and it dropped eight inches of snow and it literally is like zero degrees, not exaggerating. I don't think it went in a negative for about three nights in a row and me, being a lifelong Houstonian, I'm just not used to that. So my mind is already a little bit on logistics. And so then here's Tuesday night. We didn't get to rest in between services we spent some time with pastors Matt and Angie and it was really fun and good and anyways, I won't get into that. But so you know it's kind of a long service. I'm hungry, you know, I don't. I don't really feel a lot of sympathy and empathy. I needed a little bit more. Pastor Joseph, I didn't get enough. I was a little hangry, but Selena helped me and the Holy Spirit helped me and it pushed.
Speaker 1:So after the service, you know, I saw Dr Gee and Ilka up there at the front and so we made a beeline as soon as the service was over and we started talking with them and we got to kind of hobnob with all the you know semi-famous people and saw, you know, all kind of different pastors and help them take a picture with Pastor Hagen and Pastor Lynette. And so then we started talking to pastors. John and Erica McCrutchin come up and they pastor on the south side of Houston and we know them. They were staying at our hotel hotel so we ate breakfast with them almost every night. So I'm kind of sort of I don't mean to say this, but I kind of took that moment for granted. I'm trying to like talk to other people that I hadn't talked to, and then this, this good-looking black couple they were a little bit older. They start coming up and I and they see Erica McCrutchin, and I elbowed Selena like oh, who are they? We are supposed to know them. Who are they? And they just my spirit's, like jumping up and down. And so, a really long story short, we started talking to the husband first. But she is the vice chair of the Michigan GOP, right, and so there that day, james was meeting with all these people from Michigan and she was able to attend his meeting the following week.
Speaker 1:It was very instrumental that God set it up and it didn't matter that I was tired and hungry and ready to go back to the hotel. God opened the door and the only thing open in the town was a Whataburger. So at about midnight we were like the second car in line at the Whataburger. Everybody followed us from the meeting though, like by the time we left the line was all the way around the building. I'm not kidding. So they had some Texas spirit in that left, in that Whataburger, and it hit the spot. But I had a little midnight snack, but you know, being at the right place at the right time.
Speaker 1:What if I would have missed that connection? Like I just explained, it would have been so easy to just oh, let's go out to the car, I'll start the car, I'll get the defrost going, I'll get the snow off the windshield so we can drive home. You know, like zero degrees I'm not used to that. I'm thinking logistics, I'm thinking are we going to be able to get home? You know, in the end, all that didn't matter. And it's so easy, it's just. You know, people from the north, they would laugh at me, right, because they laugh at us southerners, because we don't know what we're doing. When the temperature drops, we act like we can't drive, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:So we need to recognize the moving of the Holy Spirit. And so, if you'll turn with me to Philippians, chapter 3, you know the word recognize before I get started, the word recognize means to recollect or recover the knowledge of either within. Let's see, we recognize a person at a distance when we recollect that we've seen them before and that we've formally known them, and we recognize their features and their voice, right. So we recognize God, we recognize His features, we recognize how he moves and obviously we recognize His voice and the leading of his spirit. Amen. And so it also means, you know, if we now recognize President Donald Trump, you know like that kind of recognition.
Speaker 1:So there's honor. And that same honor goes to the Lord when he's moving in our midst Right. Honor goes to the Lord when he's moving in our midst right. And so it says here in Philippians. It says finally my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. For me to write the same thing to you is not tedious, but for you it is safe. Beware. And so he has this warning beware of the dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation. And he's talking about the Jews that are still preaching that they must follow the law and notice that he calls it mutilation. And so religion mutilates everything. Religion sucks Sorry, my mom, like I said, is not here but religion, I'm telling you, and I'm telling you that religion gets in the way, and so what we have is relationship and what Paul was so strongly his whole ministry is about. That's why I can't figure out the people that go back and they try to follow dietary restrictions and all these other things that have to do with the law and because Galatians, ephesians, philippians and Colossians is so clear that the law is done away with, it's been fulfilled. And here's just yet another example. And so I really do think real quick.
Speaker 1:Just talking about religion, I think that our pastor, my dad, has a really special and unique anointing to minister to Catholics. You know, in January we were at the Mark Hankins meetings and Trina's sister, patsy Caminetti, she was preaching on, she lived in, she used to live in Italy for years and years, and so she was just talking about how lost Italy is. And Italy is lost because they're Catholics and they're not the saved kind of Catholics, they're the religious kind of Catholics, and so the whole country is like 90-something percent and so there's hardly any Christians that live in Italy and you don't think of them needing missionaries. And at first I was like sign me up, selina and I we could go to Italy. But you know, my dad has a very unique, like the number one thing that Catholics are taught is they can't understand the Bible. So don't even think about reading the Bible on your own because you won't understand it. But really you can open up the Bible, like we are tonight, and you can read it and you can understand it. And then you get saved and the Holy Spirit is on the inside, illuminating, and I'm telling you there's hope for Catholics. Amen, because they're right there. That was Patsy's point Is there? Right there, they have all of the ingredients of faith, but they're just missing. You know a few key things and it's easy, you know, relatively speaking, it's easy to get them over that, amen.
Speaker 1:And so verse 3, for we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. True worship has no confidence in the flesh. I just wanted you to catch that. Though I also might have confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so. And so here Paul begins to say you know his resume right, circumcised on the eighth day, the stock of Israel. I still remember Selina preaching this on this very podium. She brought in a toilet and she put that on the podium and everybody freaked out Like what are you desecrating the? Anyways, we'll get to that part here in verse 8. It's coming up.
Speaker 1:He's the Hebrew of Hebrews. Concerning the law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness which is in the law was blameless. He followed every part of the law. But what things were gained to me? These? I have counted loss for Christ, yet indeed, I also count all things, loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, as dung.
Speaker 1:The message Bible says that's why she had the toilet up there, so like we could flush all of our flesh, all of the things that we've ever accomplished in the flesh, everything we've ever accomplished outside the will of God. It doesn't matter, it goes away, it doesn't last, it's not eternal. And he's saying, hey, but in Christ he's gained everything. As soon as you get yourself in Christ, you've gained everything. You've gained everything. That's eternal. It changes everything. It changes everything about your purpose. It changes everything about your ability. His grace is god's ability. We live under grace, not so we can sin after sin after sin and be forgiven. No, we live under his grace so we can do the kingdom business at an efficiency rate that is unheard of. Amen, and that's what God's called this church to do. We're reaching people, we're going to reach all 50 capitals. Amen, start church services in all 50 capitals. Here we go, let's go, let's do it.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to connect this. I have like a page turn and it's a verse, but it says and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, verse nine verse. But it says and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, verse nine, and be found in him. We are found in him. That's what you know. We were lost, but now we are found. Where are we found? We're found in Christ, in him. Amen.
Speaker 1:Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law. In other words, the law is all about your own righteousness, it's all about what you can do, it's all about religion, right, but grace is all about relationship. But that we, which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God, by faith. So we don't grow in righteousness, right, we receive our righteousness, we receive our justification. It's just as if I've never sinned. We receive that by faith and through faith, amen. And so you don't grow in righteousness, but you grow in your revelation of what righteousness means and what righteousness gives us, by recognizing God, by recognizing Jesus, what he did, amen. And by respecting that and then walking in it and believe. So there's faith in the blood, that same blood.
Speaker 1:I love that song that we sang earlier. The blood knows my name. You know, the blood knows my name. The blood is his name. It takes his name and everything he bought. But he did it for me and he may. You know, if you just make it personal tonight, if you've never made it personal that Jesus, if you were the only one, he still would have done everything that he did to connect you to the father. Amen, he still would have done it just for you.
Speaker 1:So make it personal, make sure that you make it personal. You know, I'm glad that I've got a praying wife and I've got a praying mama and I grew up in a good home. But I'm so glad that I have a relationship with the Lord, jesus Christ, the mediator that gets me to God, that I can have everything that my father takes care of me in grand style. I have everything that I need. I have every need met immediately in his presence. Amen, through his anointing verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
Speaker 1:So I've just got three points that stick out real quick right here from from the next few verses verse 10, steps to knowing and recognizing Jesus in our lives. And number one is to know the power of the resurrection. Notice, you know he's got some things that Paul is saying, but he mentions the resurrection first, right. When you're like Jay, the cross happened on Friday, the resurrection didn't happen on Sunday. So he should have put it in reverse order, talked about the power of the cross first. No, he mentions the power of the resurrection first, right. And so that's why Easter is such a big deal. We make it such a big deal in this church. It is a big deal but, like the power of the resurrection power, the cross has power, right, we have the power of the resurrection power. The cross has power, right, we have the power of the cross, but the resurrection power is so much more greater. We wouldn't have the resurrection without the cross, though we got to keep it, but we keep it in order of the power.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, you carry resurrection power on the inside of you, amen. That resurrection power lives in me and it lives in you, amen. And so we need to lean on it and use it, and recognize it and and and know it and be acquainted with it, not just to be acquainted with it, but just, you know, put it on the inside of us that we may, that I may, know him and the power of his resurrection, the power of knowing and growing amen in him, and it goes on the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. Now I'm reading out of the New King James and it uses a different word in the King James Version, which basically means the same when you look that up. But to be conformed means to receive the same form as so. In other words, number two steps to knowing and recognizing jesus in our lives. Number two to know the fellowship of his sufferings and to be conformed. That, like I said, it means to receive the same form as so.
Speaker 1:Really, when you, when it gets down to it, what happened to jesus happened to me, what happened to Jesus happened to me, what happened to Jesus happened to you, when you really get all the way down to it and you receive that, you become like Jesus and all of his disappointments, all of his betrayal, all of his suffering, his physical suffering, but his mental anguish, if you just put yourself and it's a spiritual thing, you don't do it with your mind, you don't really do it with your imagination, you do it in the spirit. What happened to Jesus happened to you. Jesus died for you and you died for him. So you're dead. You're dead to your old way of living, your old way of doing.
Speaker 1:And here I am on a Sunday night preaching to the choir about salvation. But it's so important, maybe you skipped a step, maybe you really maybe the revelation, you know, like you just missed this one little thing. And tonight you get that revelation that, like I just I was ministering to somebody and because of the situation I can't really share the details, and Selina, always like, why do you even say that? Then we all want to know what they were, what are they? But uh, no, but I was ministering to somebody recently that had just been betrayed, and so I was putting myself in that situation and then the Holy Spirit's like no Jesus, but Jesus, you know Jesus. And then tears started coming down my face because I knew I was trying, I really had sympathy for this person and I was putting myself in that situation. But no, it's Jesus. So what happened to Jesus?
Speaker 1:And Pastor Mark Hinkins, he says that all the time, what happened to Jesus is so much greater than anything that's ever happened to you. But what does that mean? It just means that there's no betrayal. There's no pain, there's no suffering, there's nothing like that that's ever happened. That's greater than what happened to Jesus, and when you identify with his sufferings, when you identify, that means that you're dead to the feelings of that, you're dead to the hurt and the pain of that and you've grabbed a hold of that resurrection power and he's brought you up out of that and you don't have to sit and wallow in all of the pain and the what ifs and oh, poor is me, and why did this happen? And you're stuck in question mode and why this and why that?
Speaker 1:And then you get to where you're questioning God and then doubt comes. And then now you're doubting God and you're confused. And then the devil, the enemy, is always the author of confusion. And I'm telling you, if you're going to sit around and feel mistreated and abused, you know the devil's working on you, right? Kenneth Hagin always used to say that you know the devil's working on you if you're sitting around feeling misused and abused, Amen.
Speaker 1:And so we need to step in and know who we are in Christ. Where is our identity? We're recognizing our identity in Christ and that we may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings to be conformed to his death. That means I'm going to allow that old man to stay dead. Right, because that old man, he tries to come to life every now and then and sin creeps in, or wrong thoughts, or wrong mindset, and then you know so that old man is going to stay dead. How, how is he going to stay dead? By me trying to do it? No, by the power that's on the inside of you, here. Just real quick, we're going to come right back to there, but just go one page to the left in Philippians 2, 12.
Speaker 1:Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do. For what? For his good pleasure. In other words, it's his good pleasure, it's the power that's on the inside of you. How do I please God? You allow this power to take over your entire being. You allow this power it's in you to both to will and to do. Oh, I want to do the will of God. I want to please God. You know, your heart's desire should be every morning, when you wake up, the first thought of your day should be Lord, I want to please you. Your first prayer of the day. Lord, I want to please you.
Speaker 1:But you're not trying to do it on the outside, you're doing it on the inside, through the power of the Holy Spirit. You know, if you don't tap into that power, you're going to keep missing it and you're going to keep tripping, you're going to keep falling and it's going to be this cycle over and over and over again. You go to the altar and you ask for forgiveness, and then you go out and you trip and you fall and you, you know, you bloody your nose and you bump your head and you, you and everybody can tell when you're in that condition, right In the, in the physical realm. If somebody took a fall, you'd be able to see it. Right, the same thing happens. They can see, you know somebody who keeps tripping and keeps falling and keeps, you know, and so their God is the mercy. How great, you know Ephesians 2, you know, but God rich and mercy. How great, you know Ephesians 2, you know, but God rich in mercy, he's so rich in mercy he's not going to let us keep falling and keep tripping. He's got power available on the inside of us to lift us up out of that mud and out of that mess. The Holy Spirit ain't afraid of any pit. He has pit experience. He gets down in that pit with with you, grabs a hold of your elbows and yanks you out and sets you on a firm foundation. Amen, the rock, christ, jesus, hallelujah. Let's see.
Speaker 1:Let's go back to philippians 3, verse 10, verse 11. Sorry if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on. Everybody say press on. I'm not talking about Lee, press on nails, press on something different that I may lay hold of, that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold for me. Of me, brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind. He said forgetting those things which are behind, breaking the rear view mirror off and forgetting they're even back there right, and reaching forward, pressing forward. So he uses the term press on in verse 12. And now he's saying reaching forward to those things which are ahead. I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus. You know we're running a race and there is a prize. Everybody, say that out loud. There is a prize. There is a prize that that prize is the upper calling of God, amen. I press towards the goal for the prize of the upper call of God in Christ Jesus. And so that's number three steps to knowing and recognizing Jesus in our lives is to press ahead and know and recognize the high calling that he has for you, amen. And so it's not that hard.
Speaker 1:You know, lots of people live in the past and the could, coulda, shouldas and wouldas. And I tell you, telling you something real like a few years ago we started that in our house, because I was really good at that, down to like anything and everything. Oh, we should have exited back there, you know. And now the whole freeway shut down. We should have done this, we could have done that. And Selena's like no more shoulda, coulda, wouldas. And so anytime to this day, I don't care how small it is, should have bought this loaf of bread and said you know, this one's not as fresh or whatever, whatever it is, there's no shoulda, couldas, wouldas, that there's no way to go back. But we do press on, we press to go ahead. Amen and so, um, you know, I think I mentioned that in my and, receiving the offering on wednesday night, I was, uh, pop preached this morning about Abraham.
Speaker 1:But just think about, you know, what it took for him and Sarah to receive the promise from God. They kept trying to get ahead of God, they kept trying to invent all these plans, you know, and he gave his wife, told us. You know, let the king have his wife told him it was his sister. How would you like to get over that mistake? But he did. Both of them never allowed the mistake. You know, here, sleep with my servant, you know, and he does. Okay, sure, like, doesn't question her, like, hey, what's going to be the ramifications of this? But you know, they got over it, they got through it and they obtained the promises of God.
Speaker 1:And so don't allow the devil to remind you of your past and keep harping on all the mistakes you've ever made in your life, but allow yourself to press on, move forward, move through. How do we do that? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the resurrection power that's on the inside of us. Don't forget that there's power on the inside. You're not trying to change your thought, life yourself. You get renewed by spending time in the word. And then these things happen, and they happen supernaturally and not naturally Amen. So you're not going to fight that wrong way of thinking on your own, just by some exercise, some mental exercise that some therapist gave you. It's going to happen by renewing your mind in the Word, amen.
Speaker 1:And so there's power in the Word, there's power, there's resurrection power. That's on the inside of us that if we read the Word, we're tapping into that power and it changes our whole thought. We're tapping into that power and that changes our whole thought process. Amen. So that's really. It Steps to knowing and recognizing Jesus in our lives is to know the power of his resurrection, to know the power of relating to his suffering and being conformed to his death and then recognizing the power of pressing towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God. Amen, amen. So this is how we recognize the power of God. Amen, was that all right? Tonight it's nice and quick. Hallelujah, working on the power of God. I think we've hit this so many times from different angles, you know, sometimes it feels repetitive, but this is what the Holy Spirit's given me to keep churning on, amen.