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
Reinforced With Power
The difference between those who stand strong through adversity and those who collapse isn't about the intensity of their trials—it's about the reinforcement of their inner spiritual foundation. Drawing from Paul's powerful prayer in Ephesians 3:16, Pastor John reveals how believers can be "reinforced with power" to withstand pressures that would otherwise cause them to break.
Reach down and pick up your Bibles and lift them up and wave them around. Live stream audience. You do the same. Wave your Bibles around. That's what we like to do around here.
Speaker 1:Let the devil know what we believe. We're holding it right here in our hand. We believe the Word. Amen, hallelujah, let's make Jesus glad and the devil mad. Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here in the presence of God with people of like precious faith.
Speaker 1:It's precious faith because God gave it to us. Anything God does is precious. It's rare. It comes from the shed blood of my Lord and my Savior, of my Lord and my Savior. He paid the ultimate price for me to have this precious faith in his word and it's working in my life to give me the victory In Jesus' name. Amen, praise God, you can be seated. Hallelujah, I just confessed myself joyful.
Speaker 1:Let's turn in our Bibles to Ephesians, chapter 3. And we're going to read, starting with verse 13. This Holy Ghost inspired prayer it's one of the prayers that I pray over myself and others, as I need to Ephesians, chapter 3, and we'll start with verse 13. And this is right. Before he starts the prayer and he says wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations. For you, which is your glory. It's because of you that I suffer these things. I don't want you to have tribulations about it, and so, for this cause, I bow my knees under the father of our Lord, jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which past knowledge. That you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, unto him, that is able to do, exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. To him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Now let's back up to verse 16 and read that verse in the Amplified May he grant you, out of the rich treasury of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man, by the Holy Spirit himself dwelling in your innermost being and personality. Isn't that powerful by the Holy Spirit himself dwelling in your innermost being and personality? And so today I wanted to share a message entitled Reinforced with Power.
Speaker 1:Reinforced with Power, why did Paul pray this prayer for the Ephesians? Why did the Holy Ghost inspire the writers of you know Paul to put this down in the Bible? Why is it in the Bible for us to read, as Christians, and for us to pray? We pray this prayer often along with Ephesian prayers in chapters one and two. Why and it says right here in verse 13, because Paul was concerned that they would faint, that they would be worn out or dispirited because of his trouble. I mean he wrote, in fact it starts off in chapter four, the very next chapter. He says, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord. I mean he wrote this book in prison. I mean he'd been in prison for the gospel's sake. He'd been in prison on behalf of all those who believed these were his partners. These were. He had begotten them through the gospel.
Speaker 1:You go back in Acts. I mean you know he found certain disciples in Ephesus. He said have you received the Holy Ghost? There's 12 men. He asked him have you received the Holy ghost, since, you believe, we've never even heard of the Holy ghost. Well, how are you? How are you baptized? Well, we're baptized with John. Well, you know, you need more than John. And then he preached Jesus. They got saved. That was the beginning of this church.
Speaker 1:And see, he's concerned that they're going to, that they're going to quit, that they're going to be discouraged. And you know, many times we pray about things from the outside perspective. That is, we pray and wait for circumstances to be a certain heat level, and then we start praying after you know the house has fallen down around our ears, or after the fire is already burning, or after you know the train wreck has occurred, we start praying. Well, you know, this prayer deals with something else. It deals with the inward man. It deals in the area of our bodies where the Holy Ghost lives.
Speaker 1:How many of you remember the Holy Ghost? He lived down on the inside of you. How many of you remember the Holy Ghost? He lived down on the inside of you. There's nothing that gets him down. There's nothing that intimidates him. There's nothing that surprises him. I mean, he's not afraid of any mess. He's down there. To do what? To help you. Glory to God.
Speaker 1:And so I think about 2 Corinthians 4, 4, where, though, the outward man perisheth, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. Well, is it renewed? See, that's kind of up to us. It falls back on us because, you know, a lot of times we just float through life and we don't have much of a prayer life and we don't have much of a word life. I mean, I know I sound like a broken record. I just said that the other night, wednesday night, we had our first session on the Marriage and Family Series nine weeks and I made a big thing of the, you know, husbands as the head of the wife. You know, the wife is supposed to honor the husband. What about the husband? Is he submitted to Jesus? Has he got a word life? Has he got a? Has he got a prayer life? Cause if he doesn't, he's not really a head. Is he? In fact? He's behind. I didn't say he was the hind end, I said he was behind. I know how you think, I know how you, but anyway, I know how you think, I know how you, but anyway, no, we've got to have a prayer life, we got to have a word life.
Speaker 1:You know, we've uh, in Haiti. We've done a lot of work in Haiti in the last number of years. We got hooked up with uh brother Max Manning and uh, he's been to the church a number of times. I interviewed him one one time right up here on the platform wonderful man of God. He's in his 90s. He's been to the church a number of times. I interviewed him one time right up here on the platform Wonderful man of God. He's in his 90s. He's still going to Haiti. He lives in Kansas. I think he's still on the radio every day, every day, he gets up and does a radio program before the chickens wake up. I mean, that man is amazing. I just to be hooked up with an apostle like that, and if there's an apostle, he's an apostle to Haiti. He's got 2,000 pastors and churches that look to him for leadership and he's always going there and bringing help. He not only preaches, but he brings aid and we've helped him.
Speaker 1:It goes back to 2008 when we had Ike as a category two and God said well, you know why don't you help Haiti? They had it when it was a category four and it was devastating. They had thousands upon thousands of people that died in that hurricane because the buildings fell down and then, right on the heels of the of the terrible hurricane, they had a massive earthquake and it finished off Port-au-Prince. I mean, port-au-prince is their capital city. It's a million of people. It's not designed for millions of people to live there, but that's where millions of people they, you know, because of the aid. The world just keeps pumping aid there, united Nations, they don't even have a brain. I wish we would divorce them and kick them out of New York and take the building over and turn it into. You know, can you imagine what that building could be converted over to worth? It'd be worth a lot more than what we're wasting with the UN. But anyway, the UN goes in there and gives them aid, gives them aid. Well then all the people quit farming and they quit doing the things that make up a living and they flee to Port-au-Prince, where it's not designed for them to live, and they're sitting there and then, when disaster tracks, they all die. It's horrible and the answer is not more aid, the answer is the gospel. The answer is to get rid of the gangs and the corruption that's in their government. Well, they need a revival and they've got a man that's never quit. For 50 years he's been going there. He's never quit Like the University of Houston.
Speaker 1:Last night I'm not a big Cougar high five, I mean University of Houston fan, but I mean, you know, I watched the whole game and they didn't quit. They looked like they were beat 14 down at six minutes to go. It looked like it was toast. They looked like they were beat 14 down at six minutes to go. It looked like they were toast. And guess what? They kept on, they didn't quit and they won 70 to 67. And so now they're going to play for the championship tomorrow night. Pretty cool. They didn't quit.
Speaker 1:And so those buildings in Haiti collapsed because they had concrete that was substandard and it wasn't reinforced with steel. You can't. You know, concrete without reinforcement is just not going to. You know, I built houses for 25 years and I never poured a slab without steel. You know I had to have steel there first, and then you pour the concrete and it surrounds the steel and the steel reinforces the concrete and it'll hold a lot of weight, it'll bear weight. But if you just put concrete up, well, it's not going to do anything much, it's just going to break. And that's what happened. No reinforce, and did you see those buildings fall in Burma?
Speaker 1:And in they call it Myanmar. I don't like it's Burma. Okay, I'm going to call it Burma. I don't like saying Myanmar, any more than I like to say I like you know. I like to say the words that they were given before. You know, somebody renamed them, the communists renamed it.
Speaker 1:But and also in in Bangkok I was saw. Did you see some of those videos? It was luxury man. They've got some rich Asians in Bangkok. I'm hoping they're not getting rich off America. I think Trump is going to end the riches off of America now. Instead of us supporting all these people and making them rich, we're going to have some rich coming back to this country where it ought to belong.
Speaker 1:But anyway, this luxury high rise and I mean they were in the penthouse of this luxury high-rise and you watch the video and they're sitting on a couch and there's a big old plate glass window and they're looking out over all of Bangkok. You know that luxury apartment I mean there's no telling what that costs and it's got a swimming pool out on the deck and that swimming pool water is sloshing up, splashing up against the plate glass window, going over the side of the building and it's like a waterfall outside the building. And that building just went back and forth. It didn't fall, but there were some that did fall. See, they weren't built properly.
Speaker 1:Somebody forgot to tell them hey, you know, you can get a 7.7 magnitude earthquake here in that part of the world, in Southern California. They've gone back and they've retrofitted a lot of the buildings in LA and in San Francisco with cabling, so that they know there's going to come an earthquake. They have them, they have shakes, and an earthquake is not just the ground shaking, it is a sine wave, it's like a wave of the ocean in the earth. There's almost no way to design a building that won't fall, because it just goes one way or another so they start swaying and they break apart. But they have retrofitted a lot of the buildings in Southern California, northern California too, in San Francisco. They've got these cables that they've got anchored, and so it allows the building to sway, but not beyond the breaking point. It'll sway just enough and then the cables will grab it and hold it and keep it from collapsing reinforced.
Speaker 1:See, paul didn't want the church in Ephesus or anywhere else. He didn't want you to collapse over things that are going on in your life. He doesn't want you to quit, he doesn't want you to give up, he doesn't want you to get so dispirited and discouraged that you collapse. So John 14, 16, jesus is talking to the disciples on the night before he was crucified, because they were pretty bummed out. He said I got to go, I'm leaving, I'm going to be crucified. Oh no, no, lord, no, it's better for you that I go away, because if I don't go away, the father won't send the Holy Ghost. But if I go away, I'll pray the Father and he'll send another comforter, even the Holy Ghost, the spirit of truth, which the world cannot receive.
Speaker 1:Comforter. There is a poor translation of the Greek word paraclete, paracletos, and really the paracletos that was sent, the Holy Ghost that lives in you, lives in me. We just got through talking about the anointing within. We all have the Holy Ghost. We all have this comforter, this paraclete living on the inside. I like the Barkley, william Barkley, I like his definition. He's a Greek scholar and he has this definition of the Greek word. That's translated comforter, and it's this.
Speaker 1:It's the kind of comfort and consolation that, in distress, that keeps one on their feet. When they've left to themselves they would collapse. It enables one to pass the breaking point and not break. Pass the breaking point and not break. It's the kind of urging point and not break. It's the kind of urging, it's the kind of of exhortation. It's more than comforting. It's more than just patting you on the head and say, poor little darling. It's the kind of urging and exhortation that a general gives his troops before they go out to battle.
Speaker 1:When I think about that definition, I think about Patton and his famous speech that he gave to his boys before they hit the beaches of Normandy and he said you're not out there to die for your country, you're out there to make the other guy die for his country. Weed into them, spill their blood. And I mean it's quite a speech. It's got some profanity in it, but I mean I get goosebumps every time I hear it and I've watched it many, many times. I went to see it when it came out, back when I was lost, back in 1970. That's how old that movie is 1970. I just graduated from A&M and just started building houses and a group of us all went to see Patton at the movie and it opens with that exact. Really, when I think about the word comforter. I think about Patton, I think about it's going to keep me from collapsing. I mean, those young guys are 17, 18, well, it's not 17, but they're 18, 19 years old most of them.
Speaker 1:I was fretting over Claire, I think Claire was off at summer camp and she was in a kind of a problem and there was a lot of mess going on in this Christian camp and and I was thinking about going out there and just bringing her home. And he said, well, you know, uh, almost everybody that's fought any war anywhere is about about her age. I mean you ought to just let her fight it out, she's going to win. And so I didn't do anything. It was really hard for dad to stay home, but I mean you ought to just let her fight it out, she's going to win. And so I didn't do anything. It was really hard for dad to stay home, but I mean she got the victory. I said she got the victory, I mean it. It changed her life, what she went through at that camp and and she overcame something that was sent to hurt her and she overcame it.
Speaker 1:I mean you listen, you, you can be tested to the breaking point and yet not break If you'll learn how to get reinforced with mighty power in the inward man and in your personality. I mean, you know, sometimes we've got to buck up a little bit. Come on, let's quit being wet noodles here. Come on, let's get tough. Now's not the time to be a weenie head. Frankfurter face, all right, I think about these verses.
Speaker 1:I was watching American Sniper a few years ago Story of Chris Kyle. He was the number one sniper in Iraq war Out of 164 confirmed kills. One of the guys that had competed that was killing our guys. It's called overwatch. His job was to overwatch our guys going door to door. What a brain dead bunch of leaders and our generals that are in the Pentagon that would allow our boys to have to fight a war like that. That was just awful, awful. It should never have happened. We gained nothing from it and we lost treasure after treasure. There's still guys alive from those battles that are scarred for their lives, physically and mentally. And here he was overwatch. He was shooting their snipers because they were picking them off as they'd go in the door, going door to door, trying to empty out all those buildings. It's just craziest thing. The rules of engagement were awful. Thank you, george W Bush goofball, and all the generals that you appointed over that. That was horrible. I'll never forget it. I was for it at the time, but now that I look back on it, it was not God.
Speaker 1:Trump was right. I said Trump was right. Trump was right about a lot of things for decades before anybody was listening to him, but anyway, he had the overwatch. And so when 9-11 happened, you know he was a rodeo cowboy, he's a bull rider. You know he was planning on making a career going around to these little you know making next to nothing. You know, just ride a bull. One poor kid just died here the other night on a bull. It can kill you. It's not the best way to make a living, I don't think. But anyway, whatever, whatever cracks your tractor. That's where he was headed.
Speaker 1:And then when 9-11 happened, he had to join and he joined and he became a Navy SEAL. He's in the SEALs and he is way older than all the rest of the guys that are in that outfit. And when you're training as a Navy SEAL, you have to be tortured. I mean they will torture you, they will put you through the things that the enemy will put you through, so that you know that you don't have to break. They have to prove to you that you can get all the way past the breaking point and not break and not collapse. It's not only physical, it's mental, and they put you through a tough, tough, tough bunch of training there on the Pacific, right there in San Diego. That water just really cold. You get out there and you shiver and you have edge of high hypothermia. And they bring you back and they get you to lay on your back and all this on the. You know your legs are up, your body's up, your hands are behind your head and they're squirting cold water in your face. You can barely breathe. And that's the scene of the movie.
Speaker 1:What about it? Kyle? You ready to go ring the bell and go home? That's what they're trying to do. Get you to get up, go ring the bell and go home. And everybody makes fun of you. Ring the bell and go home and everybody makes fun of you. Everybody mocks you as you leave. You're a quitter, you collapsed. I mean, after going through all of that, not all of them make it. A lot of them leave. A lot of them don't make the grade. But he's laying there, he's an older one and they're always making fun of his age. What about it, kyle? You ready to go ring the bell? How you feeling now?
Speaker 1:He says I'm feeling dangerous. Man, I mean, I had to replay it. I mean I didn't understand it at first, because his mouth is full of water, he's all over his face. I didn't understand. So I I rewound it enough to finally I got. He said I'm, I'm feeling. I see I've adopted that ever since. I'm feeling bad when things are really cranked up to maximum heat, when the devil is doing all kinds of stuff, I just say, well, I'm feeling dangerous right now.
Speaker 1:Everybody say I'm feeling dangerous about, right now, what's been going on with the economy. I mean everything's gotten worse. It's getting given all the Democrats and all these crazy weak need people that have never been through anything. Oh, it's not working, it's not. Well, give the guy a chance. He hadn't even been on the job a hundred days yet. What he's fixing. I like what he said the other day. The patient is sick and needs an operation. We just got the surgery and he's going to be fine. We just did the surgery. What was the surgery? Redoing all the tariffs.
Speaker 1:You've heard me say this many times, but remember back the way it was when I grew up. When I grew up in the fifties and my mother didn't have to work. Nobody in my entire neighborhood and little place called Galena park, texas, nobody in that neighborhood worked. Mothers were all at home during the day. They were all there.
Speaker 1:And then suddenly in the sixties I can tell you exactly when it was it was when Lyndon Baines Johnson took over for an assassinated president. He changed everything. Along with Teddy Kennedy changed all of our. He sponsored all the legislation to open up the third world countries that worship devils and bring them in instead of Western Europe, who were basically, even at that time, still Christian. Western Europe in the 60s was still a Christian. I mean France and England and Italy all of those were basic Christian nations. They fueled the immigration that we had in this country. He changed it all up and we started importing all the Islamic and all the Hindu and all of the ones that worship other gods besides the father of our Lord, jesus Christ, and the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob. That's the God that we are under, one nation under that God, not all those other gods. That was the beginning of the end.
Speaker 1:And then we got the globalists that took over the corporate structures. They took over our foreign policy. They took over all of the government, non-elected officials. When Trump was addressing Congress last month, you know, and they had these little paddles. You know, musk was not elected. Musk was not elected. Well, pastor wasn't elected either. I'm not elected. I'm appointed but I'm not elected. None of those bureaucrats are elected. The IRS wasn't elected, and that they run your life. The CIA wasn't elected. The Department of Justice wasn't elected. These federal judges that are trying to rule the whole country from a little district court none of them were elected. Where's the sign on them? Where's the protest on them? No, they want to protest Musk, and they want to protest.
Speaker 1:Listen, the patient was sick, had a major operation. Everything's gotten worse. Some of you, I know, are challenged financially. I still remember what happened with Reagan. I mean, my trouble didn't leave when Reagan got elected. I still had a lot of scrimmages and a lot of struggles after Reagan got elected. It wasn't like everything just went wonderful after that.
Speaker 1:So what I'm preaching to you this morning is that God does not want you to collapse. He doesn't want you to you this morning is that you've got. God does not want you to collapse. He doesn't want you to give up. No matter what goes on, you can be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power and your inward man and personality. So, uh, so we need to recognize that power that's on the inside, the dunamis that's on the inside of us.
Speaker 1:First, john, four, four. Greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. Everybody say that Greater is he that's in me, see, he's the greater one, see. And so, for this to work, what has to happen? Well, you've got to have a revelation and you've got to believe God and you've got to change what you're saying when you're under attack. You've got to even change how you're praying. A lot of the praying turns into saying a lot of the praying turns into declaring because, why, you have that authority? We preached on authority for, for a good while, the believer's authority. Then we got over into the, the anointing, understanding, the anointing See, all these kind of fit together. And therefore, right now, because I'm telling you I know many of you have got battles that maybe it's hotter than it's been Listen, you're not going to collapse. So how do you strengthen and reinforce your inner man? I've got four things, real quick, four things for you this morning and again, I don't apologize for repetition because it's just the same as a lot of things are.
Speaker 1:Number one pray much in other tongue. Had a altar call for the baptism a couple of Sundays ago and a bunch of you got filled with the Holy Ghost, spoke in other tongues right up here at the altar. If you're not filled with the Holy Ghost, if you don't know, if you haven't received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, if you don't speak in other tongues, you're going to have a hard time tapping into this mighty power. God never designed you to walk in this world without it. Now you don't have to have it as a condition to go to heaven, but you need it to live for him here. So pray much in other tongues.
Speaker 1:Jude 20 says building up yourself on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourself in the love of God, building up yourself First, corinthians, chapter 14, says he that prays in an unknown tongue, his spirit prayeth. So it's spiritual activity. Isn't that what you need? You need spiritual. You don't need mental activity, you need spiritual activity. Start praying in other tongues and then, when you do, it says down. Down there also, it says you edify yourself. Well, who's yourself, your spirit is edified. It's like charged up, like charging a battery. You get strengthened. It's kind of like how you feel when you say I'm feeling dangerous, so why? Why do you say that Maybe you don't feel dangerous, but you speaking, that reminds you that you're a danger to the devil, which is why he's attacking you anyway, and it's good to let him know that you know it and you don't intend to back off. Amen. You're not collapsing, you're not planning on collapsing and backing up.
Speaker 1:Number two feeding on the word, especially the rhema word. Matthew 4, 4,. Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone, but by every rhema of God shall man live. And rhema really is a product of your prayer life. So there again the word, your word life and the prayer life. The word life and the prayer life, the word life and the prayer life. When they're working together. The word and the spirit working together is so key for you to tap in to this mighty power that God wants to reinforce you with. He wants you to.
Speaker 1:It's in there, but unless you activate it I mean, you know there's thousands of volts of electricity right outside, running down Bourgeois Road to the church, but we have to activate that. We have a system that activates that power, where we can turn on the lights, turn on the air conditioning. This morning I guess we needed the heat, but anyway. I mean what we have is available, but we've got to do what We've got to turn it on, well. You've got to turn on the switch of faith. You've got to do what We've got to turn it on Well. You've got to turn on the switch of faith. You've got to turn on your mouth. You've got to turn on your faith to believe the thing that God gave you. Everybody say I'm reinforced with mighty power Feeding on the Word.
Speaker 1:All right, let's look at Colossians, a couple of pages over chapter 2. Here, in verse 16, you know, if you go back and read Colossians, he's warning the Colossian church don't get tied up with religion, don't get tied up with people that say they know all this business, that they're trying to get you hooked up with the worshiping of angels and they're trying to see this just religion. He's warning them and he says beguiling them. In verse 19,. And not holding the head, capital H. He's talking about Jesus, the head of the church, not holding the head, from which all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered and knit together, increases with the increase of God. See, that's what we need. We need to get hooked up with the body and the joints and ligaments with the nourishment that they minister to us. So the third way that we can strengthen and reinforce our inner man is to develop our divine associations, especially right here in Glorious Way Church. How do you develop those? Well, by coming to church and by getting involved and working side by side with folks for a purpose that's higher than what you could accomplish by yourself. We're in this together. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:Brother Royce just reminded me that five years ago today, I was interviewed by Michael Berry on his radio program and it was the beginning of a lot of things that we're doing. I mean, it just got my name out among the entire country on Google and all of the search engines and everything like that, and all of a sudden Pastor John Griner and Glory's Way Church were on the map. I mean, he's got a pretty big radio audience and besides that, then you've got all that. Covid was going on and he said oh, you sued the governor. Yeah, we sued and we stayed open and we had some things to say that nobody was saying at the time and God opened the door. I was actually interviewing someone else on a 700 and Michael Berry walked through his studio and heard me, heard my voice, heard what I was saying to this other guy, says who is that? And interrupted the broadcast and ask who I was. He's telling him I want him on my program tonight.
Speaker 1:I mean, hey, listen, this is God. God is doing something and you're part of it and, yeah, there's going to be some kickback. There's been some kickback, guess what? We're going to kick him harder. On the other way, I'm feeling dangerous. I'm feeling really, really dangerous. Develop those divine associations, those joints and ligaments have a supply.
Speaker 1:Look at Hebrews 10. Hold your place there, hebrews 10. Get anything out of this. Praise God. I just want to encourage you. You know we had so many victories and yet really it hadn't converted over yet necessarily to our finances, but it will. Verse 24. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching it. Does anybody see the day approaching? I tell you, jesus is coming, he's coming soon. We're seeing Bible prophecy being fulfilled on almost a daily basis. It's just amazing. And he's coming. So as we see the day approaching, it comes more and more critical for us to gather together and encourage one another, you know, provoke one another unto love and to good works.
Speaker 1:I like what the Message Bible says spurring each other on, spurring each other. Have you seen spurs? You know what spurs are. Spurs are little round things that got points on them, you know. And you put them on the back of your cowboy boots and you get on your horse and you spur the horse. What does the horse do? He gets it's giddy up and go time because it's irritating, it hurts. The spurs get in the side of his flanks. You know, if you, if you jam down on those spurs pretty hard, he's going to take off and you better hold on. So, spurring each other on, I'm just thinking it's a little bit. Sometimes it can be a little uncomfortable, maybe for somebody that knows you're going through something. Well, honey, I've been through the same thing and let me tell you, you know, it might be a little uncomfortable from time to time, but we all need to be spurred on from time to time. We need the nourishment that's ministered through the joints and ligaments that come straight from the head of the church. I tell you, the local church is God's plan.
Speaker 1:So pray much in other tongues, feeding on the rhema word of God, developing divine associations. The last one is praising God, especially praising God with his word. Let's look at Psalm 8. It's going to be a very familiar Psalm to most of us. Psalm 8, verse 2, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, has thou ordained strength because of thine enemies that thou mightest steal, the enemy and the avenger. Now that looks a little cloudy. What does that have to do with praise? Well, jesus quoted this exact verse in the gospels and he said instead of saying God has ordained strength, he said out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, has God perfected praise. Has God perfected praise because of the enemies that thou mightest steal, the enemy and the avenger? When we praise God, especially when we praise God with his word, we stop the devil in his tracks. It stops the devil. It is the greatest form of warfare you can wage is praise.
Speaker 1:Look back to Acts, chapter 16, when Paul and Silas were beaten with many stripes, thrown in the inward prison. They didn't leave where they were until they knew what God wanted them to do. They had a say to go into Bithynia. The spirit suffered them not. They were forbidden by the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, minor. And then they just waited. They had a plan and God kept saying no, that's not my plan, minor. And then they just waited. They just they had a plan and God kept saying, no, that's not my plan, no, that's not my plan. They had a plan, but God, it's not wrong to have a plan. It's wrong to proceed if God doesn't give you permission. But you need a plan, make your plan, let God order your steps. And that's what they did. They waited, they waited and waited. You know, they were eager to go.
Speaker 1:Paul and Silas hadn't worked together before. They've got a lot of things to do, seems. Like you know, they're wasting daylight, burning daylight here, waiting on God to tell them what to do. And then one night he gets, has a dream and a Macedonian man says come over here and help us. So when they went on that journey, they knew that they were in the will of God. They knew they were, they had a mission. See, that's what the Navy SEALs. They're trained to complete the mission and not collapse and not give up when it's really hard mentally and physically. They won't stop until the mission is accomplished, mission oriented. We've got a mission in this church. We've got mandates that God told us to wake up the church and we're doing them. We're not going to stop. Amen Takes a lot of help.
Speaker 1:And so then they get beaten with many stripes. They cast a doubt out of this little girl. This girl's following them around. These men are the great power of God, you know. And all this trying to hook on to the move of God. Here she is full of the spirit of Python and they and Peter. After many days he was grieved. He didn't do it the first day or the first week, he just many days. He was grieved one day and he's cast the devil right out of that girl and they. You know she was a fortune teller and they were making money off of her telling fortunes. And so now the gains are all gone, they're mad and they start laying many stripes. They beat them with many stripes, threw them into the inner prison and their feet and ankles were in the stocks.
Speaker 1:And at midnight it says in Acts 16, paul and Silas prayed and sang praises, and the prisoners heard them. They weren't embarrassed about it, they sang loud. They sang loud, they prayed loud. Everybody heard them in that whole prison, including the devil. And I mean they praised the power down. The power came down in the surgical strike and opened all the prison doors and unlocked all the stocks and all the chains and everybody could have fled, but they didn't. They stayed around.
Speaker 1:I don't know, it's a miracle that all the rest of the prisoners and the rest of the prisoners are prisoners. I mean, they're criminals. But they didn't leave, they just hung around. And the jailer, when he saw what happened, he was going to commit suicide. And Paul said, oh, do thyself no harm, we're all here, and uh. And so he preached the gospel to that man and his family. They all got saved. They got their stripes washed and doctored.
Speaker 1:Oh, come on, let's lift our hands. I mean praise stopped the enemy in his tracks. Praise said no further, you're not going to, you're not winning, I'm overcoming you. Glory to God. All right, let's, let's, let's. You know when you start praising God. I mean, if I were you, I'd, I'd Glory to God done because you did ask for it.
Speaker 1:And so I do that a lot. I just confess the whole thing. Lord, I thank you that. I believe I'm strengthened with might by your spirit. My inner man, I'm reinforced with mighty power and my inner man and personality, my personality, is changing. I'm getting even tougher on the devil. I'm not some milk toast. I'm going to stand up in his face and tell him what I know, not what I think, what I know. I'm going to tell him what I know. See, that's how I don't know. You may not pray like that, but I mean I make declarations more than I pray. But I've learned over the years what we say out of our mouth is real important.
Speaker 1:I like the Amplified. He's praying that Christ may dwell in their heart by faith. Well, aren't they saved? Well, see, christ can dwell in your heart by faith. But then Amplified says dwell in your heart and have a happy home in your heart by faith. So there's an experience of salvation that a lot of people really never tap into. Legally they're saved, but they don't really live like it. So that's what this is talking about, is you can actually live like you're saved. You can live like you're filled with power. You can live, your power can be real, it can work in you. It can work Amen, and you go through there and you just praise all these, all these ways, praising, praising God about it.
Speaker 1:Now let's look at verse 21. Now, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages were without end. Would you say that that's God's will? Is it God's will for there to be glory in the church? And so that word glory is the Greek word doxa, and when we see glory in the Old Testament, it's the Hebrew word kabod, and they mean the same thing basically. And let me just read you some of the synonyms and some of the definitions of the word glory To him. Be glory in the church, wealth.
Speaker 1:I get tickled at people that just are against preachers being wealthy. I mean, everybody ought to be wealthy, everybody should be rich, because Jesus was made poor, so we, we could be rich, right, why can't we be rich? And rich doesn't exclude wealthy. We don't labor to be wealthy. We labor to please God. But in the, in the process, we ought to be wealthy. We ought to have plenty of money. We ought to have plenty of money to take care of ourselves and our family and we ought to have plenty of money to take care of the needs of the church. We ought to have plenty of money to help the poor. We ought to have plenty of money. Quit, you know, quit being hung up and excluding wealth, and wealthy I mean those that labor. Well, I'm not laboring to be rich. I'm rich. I don't have to labor, I am rich. Eat your heart out. I am rich, eat your heart out. I'm sorry, I mean, I just believe the Bible. I'm rich. Jesus was made poor that I might be rich, have an abundant supply.
Speaker 1:It means numbers, commerce, wisdom, promotion, dignity. It means power, superiority, authority, splendor. You know, when we think of glory, we think of Jesus' face bright as the sun, his clothes glistening. That's what we think about. The glory. It's that. But it's all these other things too Glory in the church, splendor in the church, nobility, valor, magnificence Now this last one here Extraordinary privileges and advantages. Ooh, I like that To him be. Extraordinary privileges and advantages in the church throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Glory to God. I think about Peter in the. In fact, it's worth looking at that.
Speaker 1:Acts, chapter 5. Are you getting anything out of this today? I just want to challenge you. You know you're going through things, but listen, the tide of the battle is turning.
Speaker 1:Acts 5, 12, by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people, and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch, and of the rest dared no one join himself to them. I mean, you know, it was so much glory in the church that people that just wanted to come hang out and kind of see what was going on didn't dare, because Ananias' fire drop did and they have a serious business. I mean, you're going to come to church, you better be ready to give your heart to Jesus. You better not be there to spy on somebody. You better not be there to do some evil. You better not be there to shoot the church up because you're liable to die right on the spot. I confess that on a regular basis Any wrongdoer that comes on this property just dies right out there in a parking lot. Pastor, you're a pastor, I know I don't want him in here shooting this place up, killing you. It's not going to happen. We're going to do what we can to stop it. But supernaturally my rod is out there and the rest dared no one join himself to them.
Speaker 1:But the people magnified them, and believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women, insomuch that they brought forth the sick. Now look at this they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that, at the least, the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. They would just get in his area, just close enough to him for his shadow to fall on them, and just being in his presence, nearby him, I mean, they got healed. They got healed. They came up off of sick beds. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem bringing sick folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed. 42% of them were healed. They were healed, everyone, such was the glory in the church.
Speaker 1:Now, listen, that was the beginning of the church. This is that spoken by the prophet Joel. This is the beginning of that spoken by the prophet Joel. That's what Peter said on the day of Pentecost. Well, if that was the beginning, this must be the culmination.
Speaker 1:If it happened in the beginning, when are we going to see what we're talking about right now? I believe it's coming. I believe we're going to see great miracles and signs. I believe people will get healed as soon as they just drive in the parking lot. I believe people will get delivered as soon as they just walk in the door. They've been demonized. I mean, what we're seeing right now is a preponderance of demon powers that are just running amok out. There is a preponderance of demon powers that are just running amok out there. I mean, how do you, how do you, go out there and protest and and key somebody's Tesla and throw a brick through the window of a Tesla and hit some poor pregnant woman in the face? I mean, how? What is this demon powers? Well, you know what we're standing up against that, in the name of Jesus. We're not going to have that in America. They can have that somewhere else, but not here, not here, amen.
Speaker 1:So God's plan is to use the church to demonstrate how great God is, how good God is, and then they will see his works and they will glorify God, reinforced with mighty power. Come on, lift your hands and receive today. Glory to God, hallelujah, thank you Lord. Well, come on, let's rejoice this morning. Hallelujah, do you receive your reinforcement? Hallelujah, everybody say I'm feeling dangerous now. Hallelujah, glory to God, thank you Jesus.