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 (Part 3) | Pastor John Greiner
Believers are redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, not by material wealth, and poverty is a mindset—not God’s will. Through faith, prosperity is received as part of a spiritual inheritance, by sowing and reaping, and through divine reward. Religious thinking that glorifies lack is challenged, encouraging a renewed mind, trust in God’s promises, and expectation for financial breakthrough in this milestone year.
Pray those Bibles around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here today. I celebrate your goodness. You're so good. Thank you for your holy written word and thank you for the Holy Spirit that lives and abides in me forever. Holy Spirit, shine your light on the word, illuminate my spirit to the truth of the Word. I'll walk not in deception, I'll not be deceived. The Word of truth is the cornerstone of my life and I thank you. Because of this Word and the Holy Ghost, I am victorious. In Jesus' name, amen, praise God.
Speaker 1:Let's turn in our Bibles to a couple of places 1 Peter, chapter 1,. And also Romans, chapter 8. 1 Peter, 1.18,. Peter talking. He said For as much as you know, see, there's some things you have to know, and I don't mean head knowledge, I mean revelation. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold From your vain conversation or manner of life received by tradition from your fathers, but you've understood there. You've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And then Romans, 8, 32,. 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? One of my favorite verses, let me read it to you in the new English Bible he did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. Everybody say that means me. And with this gift, how can he fail to lavish upon us all that he has to give? Isn't that good? He wants to lavish some things on us, and so we're continuing a series of messages on redemptive realities.
Speaker 1:We did one and two, and then we took a break from the series to preach a message on July the 5th, which we were celebrating the beginning of our 250th year as a nation, and so happy birthday, america. So we shared some things that were timely to share with you about what's going on in the earth, and it's a day of reckoning. I mean it's just like I mentioned it in the opening. I mean it's been six months since our president was inaugurated and look at what happened in six months. February God gave me a word this we're living in a day of reckoning, a time of reckoning. Reckoning is like an accounting. In other words, it's coming out that the 2016 election was basically they attempted a coup. I said they attempted a coup, and who did? Obama.
Speaker 1:I look forward to seeing all of these people held to account. I mean, it's not enough. We know this, we knew it all along, but now they've uncovered the documents that prove it, and it's day after day we're uncovering and see. This is what judgment is Judgment. Is God taking his hand and sweeping back the curtains, hiding evil? It's being exposed, and we're watching it. I mean, I'm just so excited to live right now. We're on the earth for really a high and holy purpose. And well, you mean you're rejoicing over it. No, I'm rejoicing. The evil has been exposed. Now, we know there's a good number of people that are not gonna accept it. Well, that's their loss. We know, though and now we can open up the possibility that these people will be held to account. People that are not going to accept it. Well, that's their, their loss. We know, though, and now we can open up the possibility that these people will be held to account People like Clapper and Comey, and, and and I say Obama, I mean he, he, he. He wanted it, he wanted it to happen.
Speaker 1:If you don't know what I'm talking about, get caught up, would you? All right, all right. So we've been talking about redemptive realities, and this is a year of milestones, and if yours hadn't shown up yet, you've got six more months. God's not finished. I want to build your faith, and part of this message is building your faith in what the blood has done, is doing and will continue to do. It's the currency of our redemption. We weren't redeemed with cryptocurrency, greenbacks, gold, silver, diamonds, rare earth metals. No, we were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. It cannot be corrupted. It cannot of Christ. It cannot be corrupted. It cannot corrode, it cannot fade away. It's permanent and its effects are permanent. But on our side, we've got to believe that. We've got to believe that that blood is still operating. It's up there in the mercy seat. The blood of Jesus never leaves the gaze of the Father. It's right in front of Him. And so when we remind the Father of the blood, that's when we've got strong consolation in our prayers, when we know what belongs to us. And so our faith is based on understanding of the word.
Speaker 1:And you know so many people. Their faith is misplaced. They believe theories about what God did. They believe theories. I mean, you know, jesus didn't go to the cross just to do a little bit. He didn't just do a little bit for us, he did everything for us. There's so much more that we haven't yet received. That's the purpose of this message. It's God is perfectly willing for you to have.
Speaker 1:It just reminds you of the old story of the guy that back when they used to cross the Atlantic on the on, on ships you know we fly across it. Now we don't. Nobody buys a ticket, very seldom. I mean, I guess you can, but I don't know if they still sail. I guess they do. But if you just want to be on a boat for five days on the Atlantic, I don't know, that might be something you like. I wouldn't care about it. I'd rather fly over it as fast as possible and get to the other side. But that's just me.
Speaker 1:But the guy you know he bought a ticket to you know passage from New York to you know, to Europe, and he was off by the lifeboats and he had peanut butter and crackers. And somebody came about all the way and said what are you doing? Well, I'm having lunch. What do you mean? You're having lunch. Lunch is being served in the dining room. Oh, I can't afford that. It came with a ticket. What do you mean? See, we've been settling for peanut butter and crackers, amen.
Speaker 1:But something has been purchased for us with precious blood that's so far above what we've yet to receive. And how do we receive? By faith, you've got to know about it. So we talked about first week, about the prodigal son, and I named him Bubba, and Junior Bubba was the prodigal. He left, he knew he had something coming, he wanted it right now. Give it to me, dad, let me have it, let me leave. And he left and blew it, wasted it and came back home with his tail between his legs. That's the Griner translation.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm going to just tell the Father I'm not worthy to be called your son. Just give me three squares in a day. Let me live out in the bunkhouse with the rest of the cowboys and I'll eat at the chuck wagon and just treat me as one of the cowboys. And I'll eat at the chuck wagon and and just just treat me as one of the hired hands. And is that what the father no, jesus is telling the story? He says bring the best robe, bring the ring, bring the shoes for his feet, kill the fatted calf. Let's have music and dancing. Let's have, let's have the glory Cause this.
Speaker 1:My son was lost and now he's found, was dead and now he's alive. So he didn't have an understanding. He knew he had an inheritance, all right, but he didn't have an understanding of his bloodline and it left him short. It left him short. I mean I'm telling you you may have made a lot of mistakes, you may. I mean how many of you? I mean you know you went to Barnes and Noble and found out a book on how to go broke. I mean I could have wrote the book. I've been broke a lot, but there's no demand. Nobody wants to go there. You don't even have to read a book to go broke, you just keep doing what you're doing. You can go broke quick, but the Holy Ghost doesn't want you broke, he wants you blessed.
Speaker 1:So when they and of course you know junior was mad because bubba had a party and bubba had the fatted calf well, you didn't kill me a skinny goat, I'm in here all these years. So what was his problem? Well, both of their problems were they did not have a a revelation of their bloodline. You need to understand your children are the most high God and by that you are valuable to him, not because of you, but because of that blood. You must be worth it, or he wouldn't have paid for it. Isn't it true that you're worth what somebody pays? Well, when we say we're not worth it, where we are accusing God of being a bad, he got a bad bargain. No, he did not. He knew what he was doing. He wanted sons and daughters, and that's who we are and that's why he looks at us that way.
Speaker 1:And so then, the week after that, we talked about the revelation of substitution and identification, on the two golden hooks of substitution and identification. All of redemption hangs across those two hooks. And if you don't understand that, jesus was our substitute, so we can be his substitute. He identified with our sins, so we can identify with his righteousness. He identified with our sickness, so we can identify with his righteousness. He identified with our sickness so we can identify with his health. He identified with our poverty, so we can identify with his riches. Are y'all with me now? So you have to understand that and have faith in that.
Speaker 1:And so, uh, and we talked about some common theories, that people hang on to theories. They base their faith on theories. What is a theory? I like what brother Hagan's definition was. A theory is a supposition based on ignorance of the subject under discussion, and a lot of places I saw you get is some preacher's theory, some something they learned in Bible school. Uh, in cemetery, I mean seminary, and, and, and they, you know, that's what brother Osteen I mean. Cemetery, I mean seminary, that's what Brother Osteen I mean. He went to seminary. He got a lot of bad information. He threw all of his books away. He didn't want to give them away. Why? Because it's full of trash In those books. Healing has passed away and taught about the baptism of the Holy Ghost. No, no, they don't speak in tongues. That's the devil. All of his book learning was when he found out what the Bible said. It differed greatly with what the professor said in Bible school or in seminary. So we talked about some common theories that hinder our receiving our healing.
Speaker 1:Today I want to get on the subject of redeemed from poverty. So let's look at 2 Corinthians, chapter 8. This is a milestone year and a lot of the milestones are going to happen financially for you. I really believe that this is a year where we're going to start to see the transfer of wealth from the wealth of the wicked to the wealth of the just, to the hands of the just. 2 Corinthians, chapter 8. I'm reading out of the King James, verse 9.
Speaker 1:For you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet, for your sakes, everybody say, for my sake, for my sake, he became poor, that I, it says you. So I put my my that I, through his poverty, might be rich. Might I knew it, might, it might or might not. I might not, I might not be. Well, no, the might is on your faith. The might is on your side.
Speaker 1:The, the, the, the price was already paid. He identified already with your poverty. He became your poverty on the when, when was that? Well, when he came to earth, I heard, I read one. Oh yeah, when he came to earth he became poverty. No, he wasn't he, he was a. He had. The kings came to visit him in the manger.
Speaker 1:Don't we talk about how poor Jesus was born in a manger? Well, he was. You know, it's kind of a humble surroundings, all right, but he was rich inside there because they laid a bunch of gold, silver and frankincense and myrrh at his feet. I mean, he was, he had an endowment before he ever got started on the earth. He never had to want for money. I saw one of those Jesus gets you commercials the other day about how Jesus struggled. Sometimes he never struggled, are you nuts? He had a treasurer. He had so much money he regularly helped the poor. His ministry supported at one time 70 full-time preachers and their families. He had a house. Oh, jesus was so poor he had no place to lay his head. That's because he's a traveling preacher. They didn't have airplanes or he would have been flying in one. That means between A and B he had to camp on the side of the road. That's all that means he had a house.
Speaker 1:When it came time for taxes, he didn't even bother paying the taxes out of his treasury. He just said go fishing, peter. Go fishing and the first fish you catch, get the gold corn out of its mouth and pay those rascals down there the taxes for you and me. He didn't even bother taking it out. He could have easily wrote a check, but no, he went ahead and got the. I don't know about you, but I've been fishing and I've caught a few fish not very many and none of them had a gold coin. I mean, he was never poor until when, when he went to the cross, buried in a borrowed tomb, lost everything Naked, had a borrowed cloak. Are y'all with me now he became so. Let me read it in the message. I love the message.
Speaker 1:You're familiar with the generosity of our master Jesus Christ, rich as he was. See, that's news to some Christians. They believe a theory. They think Jesus is poor, he just barely get a long billboard. Poor Jesus, I want to be just like Jesus. Broke no, he wasn't broke. See, I can really hurt you. It can cost you. It can cost you to think that broke is holy, broke is ungodly, because God is not broke and his kids sure aren't broke. Are y'all with me now? You're familiar with the generosity of our master Jesus Christ. Rich as he was, he gave it all away for us In one stroke. He became poor, we became rich. We became rich, we became past tense. We were healed, we were made rich. We were say it's past tense Rich. We were saying it's past tense. That's how God sees you. God sees you as having an abundant supply. Rich is not a millionaire. Rich just means having an abundant supply. That's God's plan for every one of his kids. So the same sacrifice that bought us out of bondage to sin and sickness, set us free from poverty. I mean, look at Luke, chapter four.
Speaker 1:I preached this for a long time and I didn't have. You know, I had the revelation of it, but I didn't have the reality of it in my life for a lot of those years. I've made a lot of errors, but you know one of them. If I thank God, I never quit believing in prosperity, even when it escaped me, see, because I knew it belonged to me. I just couldn't quite grasp it. That may be you. That may be you. Well, hey, it starts with Revelation. You get a need of what the Word says. Luke 4, 18,.
Speaker 1:Jesus is standing up in the synagogue where he was his hometown, and he said in verse 18, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. That's first on the list. Five kinds of people he was sent to preach to and to minister to. First on the list the gospel. What gospel means? What Good news to the poor? Hey, on the list, the gospel. What gospel means? What Good news to the poor? Hey, you're doing great. Keep it up. Your poverty is just man, I'm telling you. You're just a. You know. God is so pleased with the fact that you can't pay your bills. No, you don't have to be poor, no more. And he's preaching to Jewish people who should have known this, but they forgot it. There was no teaching prophet in the synagogues back then. Teaching prophet in the synagogues. Back then the priesthood had been perverted and they were just all you know. Eat up with religion. Religion will kill you, it will make you poor, but when you find out what the blood paid for, when you find out the value of your bloodline, you're a child of the living God. Everything in this universe belongs to him. It doesn't belong to man. They might put their name on it, but it doesn't belong to them. So, first on the list the gospel to the poor.
Speaker 1:I was interviewing Oral Roberts back in 2005. Went to his home and did an interview. I've got the DVD if you still can play a DVD player. Some of you already junked your DVD player so you won't be able to watch it. But anyway, if you have a DVD player, you can watch the interview an hour DVD.
Speaker 1:I interviewed him for an hour and a half and during that interview he said John, you've got to preach about prosperity. He said you know the devil will try to talk you out of it. Try to tell you all they've heard it. He said you need to preach it, john, the gospel to the poor is the guts of the gospel. When you're talking about the guts of something, what is it? It's the center, it's the power plant. I mean, without guts you're dead. And really the gospel cannot be spread by poor people. The poor never sent a missionary to China. The poor never sent a missionary to Africa. The poor can't do anything except barely get along.
Speaker 1:You know, a few years ago God gave me a new, because in America we're so blessed. You might think that Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and the UAE, you might think they're blessed, but no, this nation is the most blessed nation on the face of the earth. We're the richest nation by far. All those places have riches, all right, because we showed them how to get the oil out from under their country. Without America they never would have even found the oil. They didn't even know what oil was for. So they're rich in that way, but only a few of them are. The rest of them are dirt poor. We are the richest country and I mean, if you're on welfare, you're still richer than most of the whole world.
Speaker 1:So God gave me a new definition of the word poverty, and that is poverty is the inability to meet the needs of the harvest. I said poverty is the inability to meet the needs of the harvest. I said poverty is the inability to meet the needs of the harvest. That's what the Holy ghost told me, and so, in that respect, we're all have poverty. I mean you know, I mean we. We see there's a job to get done and we have not yet received all of what's what it's going to take. I mean the resources people, time and money. Those are the resources it takes. Everybody say people, time and money. So not just money. You got to have the people. The harvest, indeed, is plenteous, jesus said, but the laborers are what Few? Why? Because there's no money to pay them. They can't go, just you know, on a wing and a prayer. They got to be supported. Are y'all with me now? So rich as he was, he gave it all away for us. So this gospel to the poor, it was first on his list.
Speaker 1:If you keep reading and this is your, your homework I'm going to give you homework today. Read the rest of Luke, chapter four. Read the whole chapter and look at how, when he preached you know he started preaching. He started saying who he was. He's saying to them I'm the Messiah. He sat in Messiah's chair. That was enough to make them crazy. Who do you think you are? Well, I know who I am. I found the place where it's written about myself and I just told you.
Speaker 1:And so then he started preaching a five point message on the five groups of people, so that he could prove who he was and what it was for. And what did he start with? First he said there were many widows in Israel, but to none was the prophet Elijah sent, except to the widow in Zarephath. Well, she was a heathen, she was not Jewish, she was a Gentile. Because when he showed up he said as the Lord, thy God liveth, I'm gonna cook my last meal and die. Who dies eating their last meal?
Speaker 1:So what she was? She was hopeless. She was running out of food and all she didn't have but just a little bit of meal, a little bit of oil, just enough to cook a little cake for her and her son. They're going to eat their last meal and die. How would they die eating their last meal Because she's going to commit murder and kill her son so he wouldn't have to suffer starvation and she's going to commit suicide. Well, it doesn't say that. Well, it implies that Read your Bible with eyes open. Nobody dies at their last meal. They have to starve first.
Speaker 1:He said well, go ahead, do what you were going to do, but bake me a little cake first. Take of what you have, bake me a little cake first. See, the prophet in the Old Testament stood for God. Put God first in your finances, put God first, give him what his due is, for. Thus saith the Lord. The meal will not fail, nor the crews dry up until the Lord bring rain in Israel. He gave her a promise. It wasn't just an open-ended sacrifice that she had less. She had more, day by day, for a whole year that multiplied. It was a miracle that she unleashed.
Speaker 1:So he started with a Gentile. The second one was there were many lepers in Israel, but to none was Elisha sent, except, you know, to Naaman the leper. They let him get through two points and they got the point that he's talking about Gentiles getting blessed with their blessing. They thought they owned it and they tried to throw him off the hill. They got a hold of him and they took him and they tried to throw him off the hill. They got a hold of him and they took him and they tried to throw him off the hill. I've been to that place, where that hill is. It's a long drop. He surely I mean, if they had succeeded, I mean he would have busted wide open down there 150 feet below, but he just walked right through them. He walked right through them. They couldn't touch him. Why were they so mad? Well, they were jealous. They were jealous that the Gentiles had actually gotten blessed and they hadn't.
Speaker 1:See, I mean, we're so blessed to have the Word of God. Are y'all with me now? The gospel to the poor, it's the guts of the gospel. A gospel means good news. Romans 1, 16 and 17,. The Bible says the gospel is the power of God under salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein, therein what the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So every time we walk in prosperity instead of poverty, god's righteousness is revealed. It preaches a message when you're blessed, quit being so religious. I mean, I know people that brag on poverty. Let's quit bragging on poverty. Let's brag on God's blessing. Let's brag on how good God is that song this morning. He's so good. So we have to base our faith on what the blood has done, the word of God, not just our own ability, our own education, our own status.
Speaker 1:I've seen guys that were rich millionaires get saved and lose everything. I was in full, in fact I'm a lifetime member of full gospel business and fellowship. I can't count the times we had formerly rich businessmen give their testimony and you know, a lot of times they didn't even have you know, they were kind of. They didn't know how to explain how they were so rich when they were lost. And then suddenly they got saved and somehow it's God's fault that they're broke. No, it's not God's fault, you just didn't learn how to maneuver God's ways of finance. Let's do it God's way. You can't do things the world's way in God's kingdom it won't work. But if you do things God's way financially, I tell you, you get blessed. Are you with me now?
Speaker 1:So this word poverty, inability to meet the needs of the harvest when I read Esther one time, I was reading the book of Esther, and Mordecai told Esther, you know, she was hesitating a little bit because she was worried about dying. You know she wasn't sure that she was going to Esther. You know she was hesitating a little bit because she was worried about dying. You know she wasn't sure that she was going to get. You know, if she called on the king and he didn't like it, he could have her put to death. And so he said look, if you don't do this and advocate you know, advocate for your people God will bring deliverance another way. And who knows that, for such a time as this, you were brought into the kingdom. See, who knows that for such a time as this we live right now? This is a time in the kingdom of God. It's for us to get this revelation and put it to work in our lives. Amen.
Speaker 1:So redemptive realities. You know, last week that was a great message Gladys and I were at home, just, it was my scheduled break. We'd scheduled this months ago to have certain Sundays that we would take a little break, you know and you know. But we didn't go anywhere, we were just at home and watched it online and you know, james preached a great message on God's orderly arrangement and how, you know, god brings order out of chaos. Well, that's our job, that is the church's job to invade chaos and bring order. That's what's going on right now.
Speaker 1:I mean I heard our president say I love God the second time in just as many weeks. I've never heard any president ever say God, we love you. I mean man, I mean you know he's the most unlikely person. Anybody would have ever thought to say that. But he is for us, he's for the church, he's for Jesus and uh.
Speaker 1:And so it's amazing what's going on? Uh, but God told me this years ago. He said, uh, god cannot bless a mess. Say God can't bless a mess. I mean, he came down and he saw everything was tohu vo bahu and he just redid it. He redid it and then it and it and it evolved into chaos again and he destroyed it with the flood and redid it. And he's redoing some things in our nation right now.
Speaker 1:And we're the beneficiaries. Get ready, get ready for a transfer of wealth. And we're the beneficiaries Get ready, get ready for a transfer of wealth. And you're not going to get it if you don't have faith for it and have a reason why you should have it. Quit inventing reasons why you shouldn't have it. Everybody draw a circle around yourself. Everybody say I'm including myself in prosperity so many times.
Speaker 1:Poverty is often a mindset, it's a way of thinking. I want to give you this message today to attack maybe some of the strongholds in your way of thinking. For instance, I was raised a Catholic and you know all of my authority figures, the nuns and the priests, and Monsignor Oberstreet was the head of our parish priest in Refugio and I was an altar boy, spent a lot of time around him and around the other priests. And I went to Catholic school, spent a lot of time around nuns and every one of them authority figures, people that I looked up to because they knew God and they are holy, and they all took vows of poverty. Well, I wasn't real, you know, I didn't much like that. I wasn't down for vow of poverty. Even at 10 years old I was not down for a vow of poverty.
Speaker 1:I like being able to go and get whatever I wanted and come home with it, even if mama paid for it, daddy paid for it, it was fine, or if I could pay for it. In fact, our first house when we moved to Refugio, we lived in this little rent house on 113 Delmar Street. Don't ask me why. I still remember that. It's still there. It hadn't fallen down yet, but right around the corner, that's the one with the big power that I told you about, the TV antenna. That's 50 foot tall so we could pick up the stations.
Speaker 1:I walked right around the corner in the summertime. We first got there and I hadn't even met anybody, I hadn't started school yet. It's the summertime, it's hot. In Refugio it's hot, south Texas it's hot. And right around the corner was this little hamburger stand and they sold ice cream cones too. And so I went around and I'd always go and buy two scoops of chocolate ice cream. A nickel, a scoop, ten cents bought me a double dip ice cream, cone, chocolate ice cream. And, man, I started licking on that and really it melted so fast that you had to eat it because you couldn't lick it. It's dripping by the time I got home. Right around the corner. It's gone. But I'm wanting that dime. I'm going to find a dime to get me some chocolate ice cream.
Speaker 1:So poverty is often a mindset. It's a stronghold of wrong thinking. Slash ignorance. Everybody say ignorance and ignorance.
Speaker 1:As you know, if you've heard me preach for any length of time, I talk about ignorance. The devil takes full advantage of people that are ignorant, and ignorance can be full ignorance. You can be totally ignorant about something that happens, or sometimes you can be partially ignorant. You know, you don't. You know a little bit, but you don't know enough. So you're partially ignorant. The devil can take advantage of you. Or you can have what is known as ignorance. You can know something but you've let it slip. You no longer practice it, you're not influenced by it. You've just been under attack enough to where you've kind of relaxed your grip on the knowledge you used to have. I've seen that many times Ignorance.
Speaker 1:But you know, paul told the Roman church Roman 12 too. He said, be not conformed to this world or this world's way of thinking, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. See, you may have heard this, but I want to refresh you in this, I want to stir you in this. I want to bring you a stirring by way of putting you in remembrance of some things that maybe you knew, maybe it slipped a little bit.
Speaker 1:We've got to work on our receivers. We want to receive everything that God has earmarked for us. They talk a lot about earmarks in the Congress and stuff. Well, we've got earmarks. God's got things assigned to you. Are you going to receive them? You've got to find out about them. You've got to get them in the spirit first and then, when you get them in the spirit realm and you have knowledge of them, then you can speak them forth and you can believe you receive when you pray. So we have to work on our receiver.
Speaker 1:Everybody say mindset, mindset, and this mindset is one that we're. You know, when you've been beat up financially, it's easy just to accept it and say, well, that's just how it is. I'm just, you know it's too late, I've done too much wrong, I've got too many. You know I'm below zero, I don't see any way out. I want to destroy that way of thinking. I said I want to destroy that way of thinking. That's a stronghold that has to be eliminated before you can move on up with God.
Speaker 1:So a few years ago, quite a number of years ago now, how many ever heard of hakeem elijahwan, the dream? So he played in the university, houston, big nigerian guy. Come from nigeria, he's a muslim, but you know good guy's been in houston all these years and he was part of the dream team the 90s, the greatest basketball teams that we've ever seen back-to-back championships. Rudy Tomjanovich was their coach and I got to see him. I got to see Dream at his peak.
Speaker 1:I was in a corporate box at the old compact center that's now Lakewood. I was there down close to the floor and I was amazed at how much abuse he had to endure. I mean, he's a big guy, you know, he's seven foot and about 300 pounds and I mean those other guys would hit him and you'd hear that collision and we don't think of basketball as a collision sport, you know, but it is and he played center. So you know he'd be under that basket with that ball and they be hitting him. And you'd hear wham, wham and he'd just go like this and he'd do a little jig and turn around and here's that sky hook and I mean it's through there and there's no way they can stop him. And if they mess with him too much he's coming down with the elbow and they're a little more careful the next time.
Speaker 1:So fast forward, years later he's retired now and so they bring this communist Chinese guy, yao Ming. They pay him millions of dollars to come here from red China to play NBA basketball for the Houston Rockets. I think he's like seven foot six. He's like a freak, I mean he's like. I mean he looks like somebody made him in a laboratory. I mean he's just, his face is kind of like, kind of like Frankenstein, I'm sorry, kind of like Frankenstein. You know he's a freak of nature. I mean huge. His feet are that long I don't know were they 24 or something. I mean his feet were unbelievable. You can't believe feet like that, which was a bad thing for him because they got stepped on. In fact that caused his early retirement. He had so many guys stomp on his feet under the basket.
Speaker 1:He played center the same as Dream but he wasn't very successful. I mean he was kind of meek and kind of mild and kind of wimpy. You'd think he didn't know anything about NBA-style basketball. I'm not a big basketball fan, but I know that you're going to have to be as at least aggressive as Hakeem was. I mean you didn't stop Hakeem, they didn't stop him. He took that pounding all night long and he's still going strong in the fourth quarter. So here's, and he'd have to go out of the game. He'd beat up and he didn't score nearly like they thought he would. He's so big. I mean he didn't even have to dunk the ball, he could just go like that, didn didn't have to leave the floor, just go, boom and that's it. But he couldn't get there because everybody's around him see.
Speaker 1:So they brought hakeem in for a week of practice to kind of help him get climatized to the nba style of playing, as opposed to where he came from. And so hakeem, I, I, I watched it twice, I saw the interview and then I recorded. I watched it twice. I saw the interview and then I recorded. I watched it twice and I wrote some of it down because it's so powerful. So he said first thing he says Hakeem says to Yaume, he says where's your elbow?
Speaker 1:Where is your elbow? You should be bringing it down on the little guy. The little guy is everybody besides him. I mean every. I mean the guys that are seven foot tall and six foot nine and six, 11,. They're the little guy you should be bringing it down on the little guy. Where's your elbow? This should be your move. Who's going to stop that? And then he showed him the little sky hook and the move, the little shift of feet. You know, I mean Hakeem, as huge as he was, was very agile and he could make that little shake and boom. Before you know it, the sky hook is going and it's through the basket and it's too late. He's got his two and he's going down the floor. He said so, this should be your move. Who's going to stop that? That's a go-to move. You feel comfortable. You feel comfortable.
Speaker 1:Balance, balance. That's the thing about that big footed guy. I mean, he was always off balance. They're hitting him and he doesn't know how to resist the hit. He doesn't know how to steal against it. Balance, balance. You can dominate. You can break all records.
Speaker 1:Do you believe that? Do you believe that you should? Oh man, this is word of faith right here, from a Muslim. Do you believe that you should? You can break all records From a Muslim. Do you believe that you should? You can break all records. You should be scoring at will.
Speaker 1:Scoring is easy, easy. They're in trouble on defense, they're in trouble on offense. They have no answer. I'm telling you. They have no answer. The devil has no answer for you. You bring it down on the little guy.
Speaker 1:Oh man, I get excited when I read this Spoken by a Muslim. But he got a revelation of what it takes. You got to talk it, you got to act it. This works, no matter who you are. It's one of those spiritual laws that God put in every human being, whether they're saved or not. They only knew it, but it wouldn't do them any good if they had all the success in the world and they lose their soul. So the devil has no answer.
Speaker 1:Where's your elbow? That's what I'm asking. Are you going to get some fight in this thing? Are you going to get disgusted with lack and poverty? Are you going to get disgusted with not being able to pay your bills on time? Huh, I had to get thoroughly disgusted. I stayed disgusted for a long time, but at least I stayed disgusted. I would not quit. I said I would not quit, all right.
Speaker 1:So you know, faith banishes fear and really poverty. The root of it is the fear of running out. That's what it is. It's really the fear of running out, the fear of not being able to have enough. That's what it is. It's really the fear of running out, the fear of not being able to have enough. And Jesus, you know, talked about that in Matthew 5, 6, and 7 on the Sermon on the Mount.
Speaker 1:So I want to talk today about three broad categories of blessing and typically most people just put everything in one pot and they don't understand that there's lots of ways God can bless you and I want to talk about the three broad categories today so that you can open up your thinking and bring order out of chaos, because sometimes we just get so under attack with insufficiency that we're under pressure and creditors are calling. I know what that's like. I've had them call me. I've had them call me names. I mean I had a banker one time accuse me of stealing money just because I couldn't pay his inflated interest rate. I mean, I'm not stealing, you are. You're the thief. Actually the government was the thief. The same people that we're exposing were in business way back when I was in business. So everybody say three things Three broad categories of blessing. This is the way that God can bless you financially through these three broad categories.
Speaker 1:The first one I want to talk about is inheritance. Everybody shout inheritance. Okay, ephesians 1, 11. Ephesians 1, 11. And there are several, but I just got a couple that talking about in Christ, verse 11, in whom see that's in Christ, in whom also we have obtained past tense and inheritance. Everybody say I have an inheritance. When did you get it. When you got saved, when you were baptized into the body of Christ, at that instant you became an heir Romans 8, 17. We're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Equal the word joint means equal. We're equal heirs with Christ.
Speaker 1:Think about the father said to the prodigal, to Junior and Bubba he said this to Junior. He said son, you're mad because we're having a party, but everything I have is yours. Anytime you wanted to have a son. You're mad because we're having a party, but everything I have is yours. Anytime you wanted to have a party, you could have had one. All I have is yours. What is this a picture of? It's a picture of our inheritance. Everything God has is ours. Is he the ruler of the universe or not? Is there any lack? See, it's by our faith, it's by our own faith that we can receive. And if you're just going to let your faith be this big, well, that's all you're going to have. But I want it to grow. I want your expectations to grow.
Speaker 1:Everybody say inheritance. It's earmarked for every human and it only flows through Christ. Every human's got that, but it's just held for them and a lot of people aren't ever going to get it, because they're not going to get saved. They're going to go to hell, and one of the terrible things they're going to find out when they go there is they're going to realize they missed a wonderful inheritance. Of course, the biggest inheritance is heaven, but there's other stuff that they're not going to have had. And of course there's other stuff that they're not going to have had. And of course there's rich people in hell. I mean, rich billionaires are in hell, but there's a lot of things that they never got their inheritance. They got it the world's way and not God's way. Everybody shout inheritance, all right. Then the second avenue is sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping the laws of sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping the laws of sowing and reaping.
Speaker 1:You know, in Genesis 8, 22, this was after God brought order from the chaos. He sent the flood because the earth was filled with Hamas violence and he regretted that he had created man. So he found one righteous man, noah, who built the ark that he had created man. So he found one righteous man, noah, who built the ark. And every swing of the hammer was a message saying you know, repent. But there's no record of anybody repenting, just him and his family and two of all living kind were on the ark.
Speaker 1:And after that was all over and he's built an altar and was worshiping the Lord, in Genesis 8, god spoke to him. Let's look at verse 21. The Lord smelled a sweet savor. And the Lord said in his heart I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I again smite anymore every living thing as I have done, smite anymore every living thing as I have done While the earth remaineth.
Speaker 1:Seed time and harvest First on the list. While the earth remaineth. Is the earth still remain? The Democrats think it's about ready to blow up, but really I mean climate change. All of this stuff is just silliness. While the earth remaineth seed time and harvest and cold and heat. That's not climate change, it's just cold and heat. It's gonna happen, whether we like it or not, whether we have electric cars or not. Cold and heat, winter and summer or summer and winter, day and night, winter and summer or summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. So giving and receiving seed time and harvest, sowing and reaping shall not cease. So a lot of our blessing flows through our sowing, where our giving Tithing flows through our sowing, where our giving Tithing is not really sowing.
Speaker 1:Tithing is obedience and honoring God with the first tenth and then after that, after you've tithed, then you get credit for sowing and the Bible promises that you get a multiplication. Jesus is the one that said it Luke 6, 38. Give, he said See, give doesn't mean tithe. Tithe is one that said it Luke 6, 38. Give, he said See, give doesn't mean tithe. Tithe is one thing, give is another. That's another thing. That's wrong in the church. They don't understand the difference. We're going to teach you the difference, because there's a difference.
Speaker 1:You must tithe in obedience to God. It's not a matter of can I? You must Well wait, I, you must Well wait, I can't. Yes, you can. You chose not to. You engineered your lifestyle to spend everything you make and you didn't make any allowance for God. You need to get that's chaos. You've got to bring an order back into things. You've got to cut some things off and start tithing. You put him first and everything else later. But that's the first 10th. It belongs to God and you're stealing from him. You're cheating yourself. That's another thing.
Speaker 1:Brother Roberts told me that God told him about the church. He said that tell the church, they're cheating themselves. Only 2% of the church at that time in 2005. I don't know what it is now, it's probably less, but only 2% of the church at that time tied. No wonder the church is broke. No wonder the church doesn't have any influence. No wonder the devil has run amok across the world because the church is sitting here. Broke because it's not following what God said to do.
Speaker 1:But then there's giving. Jesus said give to people that did tithe. I mean, listen, the Pharisees were a lot of things, but they tithed. But he told them give and it shall be given unto you good measure. Press down, shake it together, running over, shall men give unto your bosom? For the same measure that you measured out, it'll be measured back to you. So we have this proportional 2 Corinthians 9, 8. You know, if you sow bountifully you'll reap bountifully. So you know, minimally you'll reap minimally. I mean, when you sow just a little bit, you'll get a harvest on it, but you won't even notice because you didn't notice what you gave. It was just like off the top. And I'll throw $5 extra. Well, you're not going to miss $5, but you might miss $500. You might miss $5,000.
Speaker 1:I remember the first time I was a few weeks old in the Lord, we were in a meeting at the old Houston downtown, the Houston I can't remember the name of it now. They tore it down but Oral Roberts was in town and they took an offering and he said I want everybody that'll give ten thousand dollars to stand up. And I mean the holy ghost came on me. I'm just, I'm just, I got I got milk around my mouth, you know. I mean I I don't know much, but in those days god was talking to me. I mean he would speak me and that's probably what it would have taken. He said why aren't you standing? $10,000? Are you serious? He didn't answer me. So I stood up. I was trembling all over. I had to walk down there in front of all those people and be part of a big group that said they'd give $10,000 to that meeting.
Speaker 1:It was a Thanksgiving. Anybody remember those Thanksgiving meetings that you went to Lakewood years ago Used to have meetings on Thanksgiving Downtown Houston Coliseum. They tore it down. When I was a little guy I went to see Roy Rogers in the Houston Coliseum. Now I'm going there to see Oral Roberts and God said okay, give $10,000. Hey, I could write a check for it. I had money to write. We could write a check. I didn't have to pay it out in installments. I was blessed.
Speaker 1:God spoke to me. Now see, sometimes he'll. You know, we have a covenant with God. I mean, let every man give as he. We quote that scripture. Let every man give as he purposes in his heart. You know, god loves a cheerful giver. But sometimes in my life God has wanted to use me to bless in a certain way and he wanted to elevate my generosity. So be sensitive to the Holy Ghost. Don't get stuck in giving a certain amount all the time. Well, I'm going to give $5. I'm going to give $5. I used to do that. I gave $100. At a time it seemed like I'd give $100. And then one day God said $10,000. One day God said give your 40 Cadillac 60 Special Classic car to Lakewood.
Speaker 1:I call it passing the money test. It's all His, not just the first 10th. Everything you have is his and since you're in covenant with him, he has access. I want you to do this and God is watching. Don't do it unless you mean it. I'm gonna ask you to raise your hand, not yet. I want you to know what you're doing first. I didn't plan on doing this, but you should make everything you have available to God. Everything, not just the first 10th. You should make everything available to him. If he says so Now, if you're willing to do that, let's lift our hands, father. Everybody say it. Father, that's got your hand. If you don't have your hands lifted, I'm not even watching. Okay, father, I make all of my life, all of my finances available to you. I love you so much. Everything I am, everything I have, is yours. See, it's just so simple. And when you get that, then you're not intimidated by when God just moves on you to give something. You know Everybody say sowing and reaping.
Speaker 1:See, it banishes the fear of running out. It reminds you that he, you know you're putting pressure on the word when you do that. I mean, I didn't know it back then, but that's what put pressure on the word to bring me a harvest after that, and right after that, every house I'd built was sold. I just sold out my inventory. I had stuff under construction. It just went whoop, and it hadn't been that way in quite a while.
Speaker 1:Everybody's sowing and reaping I mean Galatians 6, 7 says Be not deceived, god is not mocked For whatsoever. A man soweth, that shall he also reap. Now it's not talking just about finances and talking about everything in general, but it's also talking about finances. God's not mocked, he knows, he watches. He watched the. He watched the rich people that gave a little tip. They gave out of their abundance. And then he saw the little widow woman who gave two mites and he congratulated her, andulated her and bragged on her. He said all the rest of these rich people, they gave out of their abundance, but out of her want she gave See. And so sometimes you know God takes notice. He always watches what we're doing financially.
Speaker 1:Everybody say sowing and reaping. You get anything out of this today? All right, the last part that I want to give you is reward, inheritance, sowing and reaping, reward. Everybody say reward, hebrews 11, 6. He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him. God is a rewarder, he rewards you, and it's not about whether you sowed or it's not about your sowing, it's not, it's a reward, it's a reward. So I'm going to share this testimony. Try to do it quickly, because we're. I preached a long time already, but this is worth it. This is the milestone year. This year has the potential to be a breakthrough financially for the church. That's God's plan for this year, but it takes our faith. We've got it. Stinking thinking has got to be extracted. It's got to be destroyed. These strongholds of poverty thinking has got to be destroyed. Everybody say reward, reward.
Speaker 1:Years ago, gladys and I we're at Lakewood and we were part of volunteering for the World Convention that was held there and we were, you know, very busy all week. In fact, it was so kind of them. They gave us a hotel room to stay in so we wouldn't have to drive all the way to spring each day, multiple times a day, and that way we could just stay at church and if we had a little break we could run to the hotel room and rest and then come back. Wouldn't be that hard to do. But along about Thursday both of us, man, we were both really tired we left. You know Jay and Claire were old enough to stay on their own they did, and so we talked to them on the phone, but I mean, we just wanted to get home. So I think we had off that afternoon somehow. So we just drove, started driving home and on the way we stopped at Papadeau, there at Greens Point, right across from Greens Point, and we've, you know, been there many times even then. It's still there all these years later.
Speaker 1:And so we walked in. If you've ever been there, there's a little room in the front of the place where it's just like a row of tables on either side of an aisle and it's just like a private room with glass. It's separate from the dining room and I don't know why we got seated in there by ourself, in this private dining room. And there's an aisle on my right where the waitress walks. We're at a table for two. Gladys is there, I'm here, and there's a wall, there's a glass overlooking the dining room to my left. I'm just right next to the wall and we open and and you know, you know back then, fried shrimp is my go-to. I'm going to have fried shrimp.
Speaker 1:And we started talking about I wish Bob and Sylvia. They were on the mission field there in, you know, laredo, and traveling to Mexico, missionaries to Mexico. I said, oh, I wish Bob and Sylvia could be here with us. Remember how Sylvia just loves fried shrimp. Man, we could just really get her loaded up and we were talking like that. We were both just so dead tired. I mean I remember just being so tired I almost just wanted to go to sleep right there at the table. We were working early in the morning, late at night, we were tired, but we were grateful. And so the waitress came, took our night. Just, we were tired, but we it was a, you know we were grateful, you know we. And so the waitress came, took our order and they left.
Speaker 1:And then all of a sudden I'm talking a little bit more and I feel this hand on my shoulder. I'm it's next to the wall. There's nobody next to the wall, I mean, but this hand is turning me like this and I turn. There's nobody there. But I feel the hand and suddenly my eyes just shoot water out. I mean water comes out my eyes and lumped my throat and I turn red.
Speaker 1:Gladys says what's wrong? I said it's the Lord, it's the Lord. And so I started talking to the Lord because he's there. I mean I didn't see him, but he's there. And I mean every hair on my head was standing at attention and I'm thinking Lord, what's wrong? Is somebody sick? Is somebody about to die? Do you need us to lay hands. I thought it was an emergency, I thought something that he had come in his presence to use us in some way, his presence to use us in some way. And he said I just came to commend you, oh. And then I really started bawling, you know, I just couldn't help it. I started bawling and because he was just commending us for volunteering and doing and, just you know, allowing our lives to be used for his glory.
Speaker 1:So just a few weeks later, I'm reading my Bible and I'm reading about David wanting to build the Lord a house. It's not right for the Lord to dwell in this tabernacle. I want to build him a house. It's not right for the Lord to dwell in this tabernacle. I want to build him a house. He goes to Nathan. The prophet says Nathan, I want to build God a house. I've made allowances, I've got the wealth, I've got the money. I want to build him a house. And Nathan just spoke, you know, without praying. He just said yeah, do what's in your heart, do what's in your heart, do what's in your heart. That's God speaking. When the prophet says that, that's God speaking. So the king is subject to the prophet. The prophet spoke.
Speaker 1:And so that night Nathan had the dream, and in the dream he said David shall not build my house, he shed too much blood, he's a man of blood, he can't build my house. But it's good that he wants to build my house. He shed too much blood, he's a man of blood, he can't. He can't build my house, but it's good that he wants to build my house. Tell him his son, solomon will build my house. And tell David I will build him a house.
Speaker 1:And so then Nathan you know Nathan's got egg on his face. He spoke wrong. You know, prophets are not supposed to speak wrong, they're supposed to hear from God and speak what God said. And he kind of endangered, to be honest with you, but he didn't die. He didn't die, but he came back right away and told David no, no, god spoke to me last night in a dream. You're not to do it, your son's to do it, but nevertheless it's good for you to want to and God's going to build you a house.
Speaker 1:And so then David prays this prayer and I'm reading this all just reading my normal reading early in one morning, just reading it and the Holy Ghost says I'm going to build you a house and I didn't want a house. I didn't want to have to believe for a house. A house I didn't want to have to believe for a house. I mean, I'd already lost, you know, a lot of stuff and and I was living in a rent house. I was content with a rent house. I it was all I could do to believe for the thousand dollar a month rent and I didn't want to think about one of my houses. And let me back up just a few more weeks before that, before God said I want to build you a house.
Speaker 1:Bob and Sylvia did come to town and we took them to show them what we built in West University and I took them in my latest house that was under construction. We were going through the house with Bob and Sylvia and I was showing my brother, talking about the differences of what we used to build and what I'm building now. We were in the master bath, walking through the master bath very luxurious, nice, beautiful marble on the floor, marble on the wall, beautiful house, and it's sold for about. I think I've sold it for $410,000. I think back then it's a lot of money for even then.
Speaker 1:And Sylvia says oh I just, john, I just had something come all over me. You and Gladys are going to live in a house like this. And I said, oh well, I've been delivered. I mean I can build these without wanting them. You know, I just don't have the desire. I mean I'm glad to build them, but I don't want it. I just know, I believe, you're going to live in a house like this. This is going to be real similar. I mean god.
Speaker 1:And I didn't receive it. And then, and then god, a few weeks later, god says I'm gonna build you a house. And so I didn't receive it, I didn't recite it, I didn't, I didn't I. So I prayed david's prayer, really with no enthusiasm. I just I felt obligated because he's fine, I knew he spoke it, but I just didn't want to have. Do you am I making any sense at all? Did you?
Speaker 1:If you ever had something that's way up here and you just know you just it's way above what you think you can ever attain and it's rather than try to. I mean, I've been beating my head against a wall. I can barely get along Boulevard at the corner of Lack Lane, and you're talking about building me a fine home. It's not really something that's high on my list of things. Y'all are looking at me like I'm crazy, but I'm telling you the truth. So I didn't really have faith for it, but I was obedient. I prayed David's prayer. I said, okay, if it's yours, then do it. That's basically what he said. We'll go ahead and do it.
Speaker 1:Eight years later, god did it and that's where we live right now. It's a beautiful home. It's equal to the stuff I was building in Westview. I didn't have to build it, we bought it under construction. We picked out everything. I mean, what was that? That was a reward. So when people criticize me for where I live, well, tough Rockos. Because I'm telling you he will reward you. He will reward you even independent of your faith. That's an avenue of blessing that God is going to use in this year. Some of your milestones are going to be rewards. I'm telling you he rewards those who diligently seek Him. Hallelujah, glory to God.