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
Redemptive Realities 2
Drawing on passages from 1 Peter, Romans, Isaiah, and the Gospels, this sermon proclaims that every believer has been fully redeemed by the precious, once-for-all sacrifice of Christ, who bore our sins, sicknesses, and sorrows in the past tense. It challenges common misconceptions—like “everything happens for a reason” or “God only heals when it’s His will”—and urges listeners to root their faith in revelation rather than theory. By embracing substitution and identification with Christ’s finished work, confessing His victory “now,” and expanding our “receiver” through the Word, we become eligible to claim new milestones of healing, restoration, and spiritual fruitfulness in 2025.
Let's pick our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be in church this morning. This is Houston's Healing Center. I'm fully aware of the Word of God. I'm awake this morning to your righteousness, I'm awake to the Word. Holy Spirit, shine your light on the Word. Give me understanding so that my faith will grow, my spirit will develop and I will bring forth fruit.
Speaker 1:In this time, also known as the compression of the ages, things are happening fast and my milestones are coming to pass. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, praise God, all right, let's turn in our Bibles to first Peter, chapter one, and also Romans, chapter eight. We're going the message I began last week 1 Peter, 1, 18. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation or your vain manner of life received by tradition from your fathers, but with you were redeemed with notice, the past tense. You were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And then also in Romans 8, 32, one of my very favorite verses in the whole Bible he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also, with him, freely give us all things? And one version of the Bible says it this way. The New English Bible says it this way he did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. And with this gift, how can he fail to lavish upon us all he has to give? I'm telling you, god is a lavishing God. He's not a barely get along God. He's not a I like what brother Mark says. You know he didn't die on the cross just to help us a little bit. You know he didn't die on the cross just to help us a little bit. You know he didn't help us just a little bit. No, he made all the difference, he paid the full price. And so today we're part two of redemptive realities, and this is the year 2025. God gave us this word last December, the end of last year, and it is the year of milestones.
Speaker 1:And you know, as I pointed out, you go on an interstate highway, for instance, i-45 begins in Galveston. It's mile marker zero, you know. And you go right on up I-45 to Spring and all of a sudden you're at 70. You know, it's one mile marker after another, and you know, mile markers are events or there are places of note in your life that God is moving, that are a milestone event, like when you graduated anything graduated high school, when you graduated college, when you got married. I mean it was a milestone in my life, you know, 57 years ago today than Gladys and I got married. I mean boy, I mean that's a big old milestone. So you can help us celebrate our anniversary.
Speaker 1:I'm celebrating by preaching. I'm preaching here twice. I'm preaching here twice. I'm preaching here tonight. I'm going to really haul off and preach tonight again, for me that's.
Speaker 1:You know, it's pretty amazing with the guy that she married was not a preacher but he changed and she was really, are you glad? I thought you'd say amen, what's wrong? Are you awake? She usually says amen, yeah, he changed. The guy that she married died and a new one came into this body. And lo and behold, here I am a preacher, a pastor. So everybody say milestone.
Speaker 1:I mean he wants to lavish some things upon you and I want us, because of this series on redemptive realities, I want us to focus in on where the basis of our faith for this is. It's based in the blood of redemption. We weren't redeemed by silver and gold, we weren't redeemed, for sure, by the blood of bulls and goats, but we were redeemed by the precious blood of christ. There's no, there's no other blood like it, there's no other substance like it, and it is precious because it's so rare and so limited in quantity. But just that little bit. I don't know how many. You know some of you medical people might know how many pints of blood are in a body. That's all that was in his body. He didn't have 4,500,000 gallons of blood in his body. He had the same amount of blood you and I have, and that little bit of blood redeemed all of mankind, paid the price for every single person on the planet.
Speaker 1:But then there's some of them that won't receive the benefit of it because they don't hear the good news and they're lost forever. What a tragedy for God and for his love, because he loves everybody that goes to hell. He loved Hitler, he loved Stalin, he loved every Pol Pot. He loved every Pol Pot. He loved every mass murderer. He's loved every one of them enough to pay the ultimate price for their salvation. And yet they didn't get it because they weren't born again. And so it's. It's our faith is. Therefore, then, our faith is in the blood of redemption, the currency of our redemption.
Speaker 1:You know, we have to have a thorough understanding and I would rather say revelation. You can say knowledge, understanding, but really revelation. I think a knowledge, understanding, but really revelation. Revelation is not something that you can just get running in and out of places. It can't. You can't get it by just being on the Internet and watching some person preach. They might be preaching the truth, they might be preaching error. You never know. How do you know what kind of life they've lived, if you've, if you're not there with them, if you haven't seen them? We live our lives in front of you. For 30 plus years, we have a track record in this city and that's easily looked on, and we have people that have been here from the beginning and they can testify, and so you have a lot more confidence, and this is what you have to have. Everybody needs a pastor, everybody needs a local church.
Speaker 1:To not have that, you're really running a great risk in your life, a great risk, and so your faith has got to be anchored in revelation, and revelation doesn't come without a commitment on your side, and he's not going to give revelation, somebody that is coming, coming to hit and go, and hit and go and like a grasshopper, well, I felt led to come to glorious way this morning. I think, well, why don't you just keep going? Because I'm not interested in a grasshopper. I need somebody to plant themselves here. If this is where you belong and and if it isn't where you belong, get where you belong. Get where you belong. I don't want you if you don't belong here, but if you do belong here, I want you. But I don't want some grasshopper, because grasshoppers can't get revelation. Are you with me now? We've got too many grasshoppers.
Speaker 1:We're supposed to be sheep. Sheep boy, you get them in a field and they'll eat until there's nothing left. Everybody say I'm hungry this morning. I'm going to eat until there's nothing left. Well, I tell you, there will always be more. All right. So we need to get into the place where we can receive all that God wants to lavish upon us. In other words, we need to.
Speaker 1:You know I preached a series on expanding our receiver. You know we need to develop our receiver so we can really get everything that he's got in mind for us to get. You know, in 1 Corinthians 3, it says it this way in 1 Corinthians 3, 9, for we are laborers together with God. You're God's husbandry, you're God's building the word husbandry. You're God's garden. You're God's garden, you're designed by God to bring forth fruit, and your roots, you've got roots that go downward, down into the Word, down into God's Word, those roots, and then it brings nourishment up through the body and then now you can bear fruit.
Speaker 1:God is looking for fruit on the church. What kind of fruit is that? Well, yeah, love, joy, peace, patience, the nine fruits of the Spirit. But he's also looking for people that will be laborers with him, co-laborers with him. There's a whole harvest out there that needs to be watered and fed and harvested, otherwise the fruit will drop and it will be wasted. There's going to be there's a lot of waste right now A lot of people dying and going to hell for no reason other than the fact the church hasn't been doing its job like it should.
Speaker 1:But I believe this end time, I believe we're seeing a, I believe we're right on the beginnings. That's what God said about this year, the first of this year. This is the beginning. This is the beginning of revival. Revival is happening. I mean our young people on college campuses. All you read about in the news media is all the crackpots. But guess what? There are people. There are young kids, young people are getting saved. They're getting baptized in water and I hope some of them are getting baptized in the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure how many Pentecostal, how many charismatic, how many word of faith people are involved in this. I'd like to see more, because I'm telling you, it's just like when you get saved without baptism of the Holy Ghost. It's like going through life with one arm tied behind your back. You're going to take a lot of unnecessary damage and you're not going to be effective in your witness and you're not going to be effective in your witness. We need the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, greater understanding, greater revelation, greater faith, greater than as our receiver and last week we talked about Luke, chapter 15, the prodigal son, and I talked to two sons. You know, jesus told the parable. It's a parable of the love of the father, his heavenly father, and he and he had two types of sons. He had junior, his firstborn, who is a type of the of the Christian who's never strayed but yet has no revelation of his bloodline. He liked to hang out with the hired help. He. He identified with the hired help. He identified with the blue collar. He identified with the guys out there branding the cattle and eating at the chuck wagon and sleeping in the bunkhouse, instead of identifying as the son of the owner of a huge enterprise, where he should have been in the office and he should have been signing checks and he should have been making payroll and he should have been doing investigate. He should have been a CEO of the corporation by now. His father's ready to retire and no, he can't. Why? Because Junior hadn't taken his place.
Speaker 1:And then you've got Bubba. Well, bubba was just about the same, except that he knew he had an inheritance. So he asked for it and he got it and he blew it. And then he said you know, when he realized he'd sin, he said I'm starving to death. Out here I'm eating hog food, I'm eating with the hogs. This is bad. I mean, even the hired help have got three and three squares in a place over their head. I'm going to go back to my father. I'm going to go back to my father. I'm going to tell him, father, I've sinned before heaven and before you. You know, just give me, but treat me like one of the I'm no longer worthy to be called. Your son had no revelation of sonship, no revelation of his bloodline. No better than his and his older brother, he did have revelation of his inheritance. He got it and blew it and now he thinks it's all over and so he comes back and he's about to. You know, his father saw him way back. You know we went through it all.
Speaker 1:Did you do your homework? I told you to read the whole chapter. Last week, some of you. I got to give you a 36 on your. I got a 36 one time on a math quiz. I got a 36 one time on a math quiz.
Speaker 1:Let's see what was it? Integral calculus. I still don't understand integral calculus. I took the whole course. I got a 36 and I made an A. It was graded on the curve. I thought, man, I'm the dumbest A. That's the dumbest A I've ever made. I'm'm glad for the a, but I'm still dumb about integral calculus. Anyway, I don't grade on the curve, and neither does god. He doesn't grade on the curve anyway.
Speaker 1:So, uh, so he, he came back, he started his rehearsal and and the father says, he says, he says, bring the best robe, bring the shoes, bring the signet ring, for my son, who was dead, is alive, my son who was lost, is found. And bring the fatted calf, let's have music and dance and let's celebrate See. So when the son got a revelation of his bloodline the fact that you can't undo the bloodline, you can't turn back the bloodline, no matter what mistakes you've made up to now I'm telling you, today is a day when you can turn things around and you can start to lay hold on the milestones that God has for you. God hadn't given up on you. See, this is all in the Bible for us to realize that God doesn't give up like man does. You know, sometimes men will turn their back on you. You know. Sometimes, you know, your marriage goes south on you and your spouse won't cooperate and divorce happens. In today's day, I wish it didn't, but sometimes it does, and you know. But you know it's not the end, it can be the beginning. Are you with me now?
Speaker 1:So, uh, so when they, you know, when they got revelation of their bloodline, the glory showed up. That was the party, that was the fatted calf and the music and the dancing, the glory. Everybody said the glory. I mean the glory has got to be in the church for us to reap a harvest. I mean, we can't reap a harvest, you know, with just an argument and just.
Speaker 1:You know having a debate with people that is not. You know, there's a certain part of Christianity where they, you know, they talk to you and they make reason with you, and I like that. But you know, without the Holy Ghost and miracles, you're just, you're really basically wasting your time. I'm sorry, I just don't agree with that whole approach. I believe I believe in preaching with demonstration of the spirit and of power. That's what causes people to abandon their hero worship and abandon the theories that they've based a lot of their lives on and get over here into God's word and realize there is a God in heaven and his son is Jesus. Everything they've heard is true. A lot of them have declined it, but you know they're coming back around.
Speaker 1:And here's Junior Junior. You know he received the double portion at the same time. The other son got his single portion and yet he didn't even understand the value of it. He just had it in the bank and didn't. And then he got mad and jealous about his brother having a party and he kind of insulted his dad and your son comes back and you show a party.
Speaker 1:You would give me a skinny goat. One version says a skinny you never would even kill. Give me a skinny goat. One version says a skinny goat you never would even kill. For me a skinny goat, much less a fatted goat. He said everything I've got is yours Anytime you want it. You can get it Doofus.
Speaker 1:I guess he's Fredo. Have you ever watched the Godfather Fredo? I mean, fredo had it all. He was dumb, dumb, dumb. Oh, there's always. Sometimes people just don't knit their elevator, doesn't go to the top floor. They're not the brightest light on the tree, I mean. But you know that in your spirit, even if your brain is weak, your spirit can be strong. You can have, listen, you can have a whole lot of things without being the smartest, because you've got the genius living on the inside of you. Glory to God, all right. So when revelation came of their true status as sons, they had the glory. The glory showed up.
Speaker 1:Now, today we're going to get into, I'm going to talk more about healing today, a redemptive reality of healing. Let's look at Matthew, chapter 8. And I want to get these things into you because many of us are believing God for complete restoration and we're among those. Gladys and I are believing, we're standing on the Word of God and we thank you for your agreement. We're not praying again. We've already prayed, we've already said, but we're thanking God for our increase, we're thanking God for improvement. And Matthew 8, verse 16,.
Speaker 1:This is talking about Jesus and it says when the evening was come, they brought unto him Jesus many that were possessed with demons, and he cast out the spirit with his word and he healed 49.7% of those that were sick. Huh, he healed all that were sick so that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, in Isaiah, chapter 53. Himself bare our sicknesses and took our infirmities. Past tense, past tense. This is before the cross. Well, you know, then, god lied, no, lied, no. See, god can't lie. That's you got to decide. See, a lot of people won't call the thing that be not, as though it were, because they think it's lying. Well then, god lied right here, then, because Jesus had not yet born anything, he hadn't been to the cross yet, and yet it's talking in past tense.
Speaker 1:When I see people get defeated, it's usually because they don't get their tenses messed up. They speak in future tense. Well, you know God's going to heal me Nope, that's hope, but it's not faith. Faith is always now Faith. Really. You've got to settle it that it's already happened at the cross. You've got to settle it that it's already happened at the cross and in this case he's fulfilling prophecy. Before he ever went to the cross, man, I mean, god's got a different way of speaking and thinking and looking. We need to adopt his ways. You know your theory is not going to work, a theory that you've heard since you were. You know little and we were talking about some theories today that hold people back. You know, once you've heard a theory and had confidence that that's the truth and you're, you're in trouble. Until you get rid of that.
Speaker 1:It's like crabgrass. If you've got crabgrass growing in your yard, I had dirt growing in my yard a few months ago. All I had was dirt. I mean it looked terrible. We've lived there 27, 26, 27 years, no longer than that. See 96, yeah, 29 years. We've lived in the same house. It's the longest we've ever lived anywhere and my grass died it just. I mean, you know I got, you know, distracted with taking care of Gladys and going back and forth to Tom Ball every day and something happened last November and something got in my yard, killed everything and I mean it looked bad. But you know crabgrass. If you ever get crabgrass growing it'll crowd out everything else. And if you try to pull it up, you know you don't get it all because the roots keep going. I mean roots are 20 foot long and you pull it up here but it's going to grow right over there and you can't get rid of it. It's really hard to get rid of crabgrass. It's hard to get rid of wrong thinking, theories that you've based your whole life on that are error filled. I'm going to help get rid of some of those today. We're going to pull it up and plant the Word of God in its place, amen.
Speaker 1:So let's look at Hebrews, chapter 9. Jesus did it past tense. He delivered everybody. He healed everybody. Hebrews chapter nine, verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood.
Speaker 1:Talking about Jesus, he entered in 47 times into the Holy of Holies. Every day of your life he has to go back in there and pay a price. He has to shed more blood. He's running out of blood. He's been bleeding for 2,000 years. His blood is about to run out and then you're going to be out to lunch. Is that what it says? No, he entered in one time, once, into the holy place, having obtained past tense, having obtained eternal redemption.
Speaker 1:For us, one version says having obtained permanent deliverance, complete redemption and everlasting release. Oh, come on, lift your hand right now. Does that sound like there's any stone that's been left unturned? Does that sound like there's anything left that he's got to do? Well, god's got to do one more thing. God's gonna heal. No, he's not gonna. He's not gonna. He did, it's done. It's a settled fact, and until you agree with it, you've got to get a revelation in your spirit of it before it will do you any good to get the milestone that you're standing for.
Speaker 1:Some of our milestones include certain parts of healing. I mean, we're facing things that we faced for a long, long time, and God wants to get rid of them. If we can only believe, we receive in the past tense. So we've been redeemed, we've been set free, we've been purchased. Redemption means that you've been purchased. A ransom has been placed. It's like you've been kidnapped.
Speaker 1:The devil kidnapped the human race. He fooled Adam and Eve. He fooled Eve and Adam just followed Eve. He didn't really fool Adam. Adam willfully turned his back on God, which is why it was so severe. It couldn't be undone any other way except for Jesus to become the substitute. Adam was the God of this world, little g, in charge of everything. He had dominion over everything and when he obeyed Satan, he transferred that authority to Satan and Satan became the God of this age. He still is. He has authority over all lost people, the Ayatollah, most of the nations on the earth, and this, this, this nation, stands as a nation unlike any other nation on the planet. We're a Christian nation and we still are. And we've got a and we've got a president that stood up and said I love you, god, when he announced the victory over the successful. And, by the way, they lied and lied and lied and tried to turn the whole thing into another lie. See, they're just trying to lie their way.
Speaker 1:Every time you turn around, you can't trust a whole lot of people in the news media, including Fox News, they've got several. Jennifer Griffith she's been a turncoat since January 6th. I don't trust anything she says. She hates Trump and so they always go to her as her. You know the gray-headed, short gray-headed lady. She hates Trump. So you've got to read between the lines. They've got people on Fox News. They still hate Trump. Brett Baier is not 100% with Trump. He acts like he is but he's really not.
Speaker 1:I watched January 6th. They all turned on him like that. You've got Hannity and you've got Laura Ingram and you've got a few, but most of them are kind of still stuck in this. They're too sophisticated to like him. I mean, after all, they live in Manhattan and they've got. Have you seen their houses? I mean, these are news people. They live in mansions like you can't believe. I mean, how is it that they get to be so rich? Just being news people. They're not very good at what they do. I don't know. I'm not jealous, I'm just being news people. They're not very good at what they do. I don't know, I'm not jealous, I'm just stating a fact, all right.
Speaker 1:So, uh, redemption hinges on two things. Everybody say two things. See, on two golden hinges, the door of redemption swings open. What is it? What is the door of redemption through which you walk? It hinges on substitution and identification. Everybody say that Substitution and identification. So Jesus was our substitute. We all deserve to be crucified. We all deserve to die a horrible death, we all deserve to go to hell forever because of what we've done. But Jesus was our substitute and took that on himself. He took our sin, he, and at the same time he took and bore away our sicknesses at the same time and I'm not talking about this today, but he also took our poverty at the same time. Past tense I don't know if you've heard about the scapegoat, but the scapegoat we have that in our vernacular today and it comes from the Bible.
Speaker 1:Oh, he was just a scapegoat. In other words, you know he's guilty and all these other people around him were just as guilty, but he's the scapegoat. Well, that comes from Israel. I mean, that comes from the law. Once a year, the high priest would lay the sins of Israel. He would put his hands on top of a goat. They would take what we call the scapegoat and they lay his hands on top of the scapegoat and lay the sins of Israel upon it, and then they would take that scapegoat out into the wilderness and let it go. He would transport it out of the camp, out of you know wherever they were, and let into the wilderness, never to be seen again.
Speaker 1:And that meant that it's a type and shadow of Jesus taking our sin and disposing of it. It's been plunged into the sea of forgetfulness, it's been washed away by the blood. It can't be used against us any longer. Happened one time, see, they had to keep doing it every year in Israel. But no, once Jesus, the scapegoat took our sin, it's gone. Once he took our sickness, it's gone. Once he took our poverty, it's gone. Well then, why? Well, I'm fixed to tell you why. So maybe you can make some adjustments to your receiver, maybe you can make some adjustments to what you're really believing, the root of your faith. Your faith has got to be rooted in his word, it can't be rooted in theories. Are you with me now?
Speaker 1:So in his death on the cross, the Lamb of God, without blemish and without spot, was our substitute. He took our sins and our sicknesses. He identified with our sin. In fact, the Bible says he became sin for us who knew no sin. He fully identified. He became the worst sinner you can be on the cross. God laid on the scapegoat all the sin of the world and at the same time he laid on the scapegoat all the sicknesses and at the same time he laid on the scapegoat all the sicknesses and I'm talking about everything. There's nothing exempt. I mean every cancer, every diabetes, every heart disease, every kind of AIDS, every kind of anything that you can think of and things they haven't discovered yet had been laid on him and he took them and they're gone. That's something you've got to root yourself in, you've got to get your faith down into that. He took them. Everybody say took them Past tense. So then now we can identify with his righteousness, we can identify with his health, we can identify with his. You know full supply.
Speaker 1:He never lacked for anything. I mean, when he needed tax money he said okay, peter, go fishing, go take the first fish and get the gold coin out of the first fish's mouth and pay your taxes and mine. We double up on them. You're going to the trouble to go fishing. I figured you ought to get your taxes paid. So just take that gold coin, pay my taxes and yours the first fish. In other words, keep fishing after the first fish, don't quit fishing. So if you're going to go to the trouble to go fishing, let's catch some fish, let's get some cash. I mean, god's not against you having some cash, he's not against you having some stock that's going up in value. He's not against you having some investments that pay off. The greatest investment is sowing your seed into ripe harvest Amen.
Speaker 1:So this word in Matthew 8, 17, so that it might be fulfilled which was spoken, that it might be fulfilled. When you look that up in the linguistic key to the Greek New Testament, the tenses of the verb that it might be fulfilled of the Greek New Testament, the tenses of the verb that it might be fulfilled, the future perfect tense means that every time that you believe, you receive your healing, you're helping to perfect and complete that prophetic word. It's continually unfolding every time someone gets healed. It's continually unfolding every time someone gets healed. It's continually unfolding every time somebody gets delivered. Are you with me now, isaiah?
Speaker 1:Those words infirmity and pain are translated in the King James griefs and sorrows. But when you look up the Hebrew word for griefs and sorrows, it means the same thing. In other words, yes, he did take your grief. You know you don't have to grieve at the death of a loved one. Jesus took it. See, grief is not healthy for you. Can you be sad? Yeah. Can you shed a tear? Yeah, but that's different than grief. Grief is hopeless. Grief is screaming and hollering. And I've seen people.
Speaker 1:I mean my very first funeral I did, you know, at Lakewood Church. We had a freeze and the whole, all the whole town was shut down. The roads were iced over gladys and I had to go all the way over to the fifth ward for a funeral. And we're the only white people there. It's a black family and she had started coming to lakewood and she got, but the rest of her family were just all these traditional, you know, black, you know probably missionary Baptists. It's traditional missionary Baptists to have a conniption fit at the funeral, and so the two sisters of this young boy that was shot in a drug deal, 23 years old, our first funeral man. That's a good one to have your very first one. Thank you, brother Osteen, I appreciate this one.
Speaker 1:We slip-slided our way all the way over there, this old funeral home up on blocks, you know wood frame building, right on the freeway 59. And you know all these people looking at me like, what are you doing here, white boy? And I'm smiling. I'm not supposed to smile, but I couldn't do anything. I didn't know what to do. To be honest, thank God Dawn showed up. She's the head of children's church at Lakewood. She's the only other white person.
Speaker 1:She came in a little bit later and you know they marched in. The family marched in and said y'all are going like this. So some of you know what I'm talking about. I'm not making fun, I'm just reporting. Now I'm reporting and they come in and I mean the two sisters Now they're you know, they're on the large size. I mean they were pretty heavy and they hit the floor and that whole place shook when they hit the floor, screaming and the casket went like this and I had to reach. I thought for a minute that the casket was a fall down and the body was going to roll out the casket and I wasn't prepared for that. I wasn't prepared to let that. So I grabbed the handle and I mean it's going like this and I pulled on it. You know Gladys is sitting over there like why did you rope me into this?
Speaker 1:Well, I preached that funeral, like everybody went to Lakewood. I preached redemptive truth and that mama got help. She never really. She had a tear or two, but she didn't enter into that. But her daughters didn't get to have the same revelation. They just kept on, you know, and didn't matter what. I talked about taking grief. You know you don't have to grieve. You can be sad, but you don't have to be grief, you know. Blah, blah, blah Anyway.
Speaker 1:So we got out to the. Then we had to go to the cemetery, which is Acres Homes. That's a long drive from Fifth Ward to Acres Homes. It's cold, I'm talking. It's 25 degrees. The wind is blowing out of the north, it's so cold and I don't have an overcoat. And so I get out of the car. I said, honey, you better stay here, it's just too cold.
Speaker 1:And I went over to the grave side. They had the grave, the body over the grave, you know, and I did my piece as fast as I could and I said, okay, I'm turning it over to you. And they said, pastor, they want to open it. I said you do whatever you want, I'm leaving, I'm not going to be here. They opened the casket over the grave.
Speaker 1:The two sisters fell on top of the casket. I really expected the whole thing to go down in the hole, but it didn't. Somehow it held them. As I left, they were still squalling and bawling. See, that's grief. Jesus took that grief. You don't have to grieve anymore. I'm telling you God. God doesn't want us to grieve. Jesus took the grief, but in the old, in the new Testament, he talks about infirmity. See, it's the same word feebleness of mind and our body. Come on, lift your hands right now. Jesus took it. He took our sins, he took our sicknesses, he took our grief, he took our poverty.
Speaker 1:We can and should say, since Jesus took this pain, I don't have it. See, gladys and I, we just go through this all the time. I mean, I know she's hurting. I can look at her face and I say, well, thank God, we don't, we don't have any pain. Glory to God, jesus took this pain. Well, I'm speaking in the face of it. I don't ask her how she feels, because I can tell and I might go get some pain medication. We're on just Advil and Tylenol, we don't take any heavy-duty drugs for pain, and the pain has been all taken, gone. And then since we got home, she started coughing and aggravated vertebrae in her back, and so she's having to resist some pain now, but it's not horrible. It's not enough to go to the emergency room over. We're conquering that.
Speaker 1:So we have every right to say Jesus took this pain, we don't have it, we don't have it. It's not that we're not going to have it, no, we don't have it. Well, but you have it. No, I don't admit that we have it. See, your confession matters. You can say what God said. God said that he took it before he took it. Huh, had he taken it in Matthew 8? He hadn't been to the cross yet, and God said it through Isaiah a thousand years ago. Talk about calling the things that be not as though they were. In fact, jesus is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. What is that, if that's not calling the thing that be not as though it were? So that's what we have to do, or else we're going to be stuck with circumstances.
Speaker 1:I think about Lillian B Yeomans. Dr Yeomans was a medical doctor and she got addicted to drugs because she took speed to kind of keep her awake, because she had so many patients and she was just trying to keep up with her practice, and she got so addicted to drugs that she got at death's door. She was a Christian but drifted away and somebody came to her and told her about healing. She didn't know anything about Bible healing and she received her healing and she got completely healed and got restored and her and her sister opened a clinic for people with tuberculosis in Southern California. She had this beautiful home and four big bedrooms upstairs and she could handle four patients at a time and they only allowed the worst of the worst. I mean, you had to be basically at death's door to be admitted to their clinic, be basically at death's door to be admitted to their clinic, and they treated people with tuberculosis. Tb is of the lungs and you just basically just suffocate.
Speaker 1:It was a horrible thing. My grandmother had it, mama Griner had it and she had to go to West Texas to a sanitarium for six months or something. And she thank God, she made it through and she survived, but many didn't. And she thank God, she made it through and she survived, but many didn't. And so this was at the height of this terrible plague. And so they had these people upstairs and the way they treated them, they treated them with the Word of God. That was it. There were no drugs. They had no drugs. They weren't practicing medicine. In that sense they were practicing ministry. So they had this lady come in and put medicine. In that sense they were practicing ministry. So they had this lady come in and put her in the bed and she's weak as water, can't hardly hold her head up.
Speaker 1:And Dr Goleman sat by her bedside and read for two and a half hours healing scriptures out of the Bible, one after another. Himself bore your sicknesses and took your infirmities by his stripes. You were healed, so forth and so on. He sent his word and healed you, delivered you from destruction. Just right down the list, on and on two and a half hours. And she says okay, now what I want you to do, honey. Now you just take your ease. You can close your eyes if you want to, if you drift off to sleep, it's okay. But I want you, at every waking moment from now, and even in the middle of the night, every waking moment, I want you to say this. I want you to say this According to God's word, jesus took my sicknesses and carried my infirmities and according to Deuteronomy 28, tuberculosis is the curse. No redeem, christ is redeeming. He used Galatians 3.13. According to God's word, christ redeemed me from the curse of the law, but according to Deuteronomy 28, the curse of the law is tuberculosis. Therefore, christ has redeemed me from the curse of tuberculosis. Therefore, according to God's word, I no longer have tuberculosis.
Speaker 1:So she had her in that confession and she confessed it all. That afternoon she came and checked with her before bedtime. She said are you saying what I told you? She said I sure do, but I don't. I don't feel a thing, I don't I. It doesn't mean a thing to me, I'm saying it, though. And so she walked and brought her breakfast the next morning. Well, did you do what I told you? All night long Seemed like I said it 10,000 times, but it doesn't mean anything to me, I don't know.
Speaker 1:So the morning of the next day they're downstairs late morning, they're fixing lunch and they hear this commotion upstairs and footsteps coming down the hallway, and so they go up to meet, because nobody can walk up there. I mean, they're not walking around, they're in bed, but somebody's walking down the stairs. And so Dr Yeomans got up and she met this lady coming down. She said Dr Yeomans, do you realize that I've been healed of tuberculosis? And she said that's what we've been trying to tell you for the last two days. Come on, lift your hands right now. You have every right to call the thing that be, not as though it were. So then, if Jesus took our diseases, why are people sick. That's just how my mind works. That's just how my mind works. I ask the question and since Jesus took it, he took disease, he carried it. Why are people sick? And it's because people have theories that they have owned and believe more than the word or equal to the word.
Speaker 1:I like Brother Hagin's definition of a theory. A theory is a supposition based on ignorance of the subject under discussion. A theory is a supposition based on ignorance of the subject under discussion. Global warming, man-made global warming is a theory Based on ignorance of the subject under discussion. It's a complete lie. Evolution is a theory. It's still a theory, and it's a supposition based on ignorance of the subject under discussion In many cases. In those two cases, they aren't ignorant of it. They've turned it on purpose because it suits their political goals to lie to people and get them to believe a lie so they can get control over them. But I'm here to tell you that evolution is not true, and neither is global warming or climate change they like to say. Now they changed it from global warming to climate change. Well, we're not stupid. We know what the words is, aren't we? So these theories, if you have them like crabgrass, you've got to get rid of them. So I've got three of them, some of the common ones that I've come across in my 43 years of getting saved and 30-some-odd years of being in the ministry.
Speaker 1:If Jesus took our diseases, why are people sick? Well, here's theory number one Everything happens for a reason. How many of you have ever heard that one? Everything happens for a reason. How many of you ever heard that one? Everything happens for a reason. Every now and then I'll watch TV and somebody will come, there'll just be. I mean, it'll be a movie. Well, you know, everything happens for a reason.
Speaker 1:And people quote that, but it's not in the Bible. And the implication is that if you're suffering for something, god's got some great purpose behind it. He let it happen for a reason. Everything happens for a reason. They don't say God, but if the implication is that God is in charge of everything that happens, and therefore everything that happens happens for a reason, and you don't know what the reason is, but he knows and it's not up to you to know Well, that's a bunch of bunk. If you're sick, god must have some purpose in it. No, he doesn't. So these purposes are like this. Well, you know, god's teaching me a lesson. I can't count how many people told me that. Well, you know God's teaching me a lesson.
Speaker 1:I tell you I thank God for cancer. If I hadn't had cancer I wouldn't fill in the blank. Well, I don't ever give thanks for cancer. I don't ever give thanks for anything the devil did or the devil does. I give thanks during that for God's answer, I give thanks in the middle of it for God's word that gives me the remedy to it, but I don't give thanks for what the devil does.
Speaker 1:There was a book, and I wish I could remember the name of it, but it came out in the height of the charismatic renewal back in the 70s, and somebody you know was being real spiritual gave me a copy of this book and this preacher this is the thing about the charismatic renewal it wasn't based on God's word. People got filled with the Holy Ghost, all right, but they didn't have a biblical, scriptural basis for their faith, and so they're squirrely, they're flaky and they come up with stuff like this. And so this whole book was how you should praise God for what the devil does, and I, when I got to the first chapter, I just threw the whole thing in the trash. I said how, why would you give me garbage? I mean, I don't. I went back to the. I said don't, don't hand that book out, that thing is full of garbage. Oh, I just really blessed me. No garbage. Oh, it just really blessed me. No, it didn't. No, it didn't bless you. It's not a blessing to start thanking God for what the devil does. So he's teaching me a lesson.
Speaker 1:Well, let me ask you something how long have you had this sickness that he's teaching you a lesson? Well, I've had it a long time, 25 years. And then I said to one lady I said well, you know, either you're a poor student or God's a poor teacher, or both. And I know God's not a poor teacher. So that takes that off the table right away. So you know, have you learned anything? Well, not yet.
Speaker 1:Well see, could it be that you're wrong, that God is not in charge of this? He's not. Would you teach your child? Oh, here's a teaspoon of E coli, honey. Let me give you a teaspoon of E coli and teach you a lesson about what you shouldn't put in your mouth ever. You shouldn't.
Speaker 1:You know, go swimming in Cypress Creek. The trout that are in there are not trout. Hate, to be so direct. Really, there are people that go boating in Cypress. You're nuts, Are you crazy? Every sewer plant in the whole area dumps into Cypress Creek.
Speaker 1:No, we don't teach our lesson, our children, a lesson here, here. Honey, let me show you how the stove is hot, see, don't touch it, it's hot. No, we don't do that. It's child abuse, and neither has God. God's not a child abuser. He does not teach you.
Speaker 1:With sickness you might learn something, all has God. God's not a child abuser. He does not teach you with sickness you might learn something, all right, but it's not God teaching you anything. It's not God teaching you anything by you being broke and being sick or being anything else that Jesus bought and paid for. The answer.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, pastor, I'm suffering for Jesus, I'm suffering. You know Bible talks about suffering. Pastor, I'm suffering for Jesus, I'm suffering. You know the Bible talks about suffering. Paul said I'm suffering, I'm suffering for Jesus.
Speaker 1:You know, when you see the word suffer, when you read the context, in every case it's talking about persecution. It's never talking about sickness and disease, because Jesus suffered for you, he redeemed you from disease, he took your disease. So if you're suffering, then you're wasting your time. Or you're saying to Jesus well, you didn't do enough. You know you just didn't do enough.
Speaker 1:Well, what about Hebrews 9, 12? We just read he, he came to give an everlasting release, a complete redemption. I mean, he didn't do part of the job, he did the complete job. There's nothing left to do to redeem you, except for you to believe you receive it. So no, you're not suffering for Jesus, you're suffering needlessly. And he gave you the remedy, he gave you the way out. I mean, it's to be the same thing as well. You know, I'm sinning for Jesus. It's the same thing, because Jesus took your sin right. Oh, oh, why are you living like that? You're living. Oh well, I'm just sinning for Jesus. Well, we all know that's stupid, but yet somehow it sounds so religious. Oh well, I'm suffering for you, I'm just suffering.
Speaker 1:Some people believe in redemptive suffering. That's the charismatic Catholics. A lot of them go in for redemptive suffering. They believe in redemptive suffering. They believe if they suffer cancer, they're doing it for someone else. No, they're not. The devil wants to kill you. Stupid, see, they don't have a basis of the word. They love God, but they don't. They don't not according to knowledge.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, I grew up in the Catholic church. We were never encouraged to read the Bible we. There was never a Bible study we. We were told the opposite, that the priest is the only one that really can give it to you straight. And I never did hear him quote much of the Bible anyway, most of it was a homily, not hominy. Hominy is what you put in menudo, but a homily a homily. You can't even call it a sermon.
Speaker 1:I took Gladys to the Catholic church one time she's a good Baptist girl and the priest got up there and he said, quote unquote hell of a, it's a hell of a week. And Gladys, he cussed. I said yeah, he does that sometimes. Then the other time he started talking about scotch whiskey. That really helped her. I mean, she, she's, you know, baptist girl does not touch alcohol with her lips. I guess that I made up for both of us anyway. So I'm suffering for jesus. All right, the last one. This is a good one. This is one I hear.
Speaker 1:God heals some people, but he just doesn't heal all. He only heals when it's his will. God, yes, yes, god does heal, but only when it's his will. It's not his will for some people to get healed. And so then you, god, can heal some people, but he does not. He doesn't heal everybody. That sounds plausible.
Speaker 1:Brother Hagen heard that from his Baptist preacher when he was laying on the bed of sickness as a teenager and just basically giving up to die. The doctor said look, you're going to have to deal with your son and talk to his mother and his grandmother. He lived there at home and you're going to have to talk to him and get him to accept his fate. He's got to come to peace with it. He's not going to make it. He's too sick and he can't live with these diseases. He's got diseases, any one of which he's got eight. Any one of them could kill him. But then he's got a malformed heart. There's no way he can live. You just need to get him to accept it. And so his pastor did the same thing and he said you know, we know God can heal, but it's just not his will to heal Kenneth. And so you know he just thought it wasn't God's will to heal until he read his Bible.
Speaker 1:Aren't you glad that Brother Hagin read his Bible and had enough guts to believe his Bible over his dumbheaded, stupid doctor and his pastor? And what were they doing? They're just spouting theories. And what is a theory? Well, it's a supposition based on ignorance of the subject under discussion. Listen, ignorance will kill you. Ignorance of the word, ignorance of the truth will kill you. And I'm here to dispel all these kind of theories. I'm telling you God, god sent Jesus to take it all and he took it all. Amen, he absolutely took it all. Glory to God. He took it all. Everybody say he took it all. Everybody say I'm eligible for a milestone in my healing this year. I believe I've received my complete redemption, my permanent deliverance, my everlasting release. Come on, lift your hand and shout the victory Hallelujah, glory to God, glory to God, hallelujah, hallelujah. Oh, glory to God. I love the word, don't you?