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
Being Relentless In Christ | Pastor John Greiner
“Being Relentless In Christ” calls believers to stand firm and unwavering in the face of relentless trouble, trials, and setbacks. Using examples from Scripture and personal reflection, the message emphasizes that God Himself has experienced loss—through Lucifer, Adam and Eve, Israel, and even through rejection of Jesus—but never gave up. Instead, He remained relentless in light, love, and faith. Believers are urged to imitate God by continuing to shine light in dark places, walk in love even when it’s not returned, and sow faith even when results seem delayed. By being more determined than the enemy and refusing to quit, every believer can overcome adversity and walk in victory through Christ.
Lift those Bibles up and wave them around. Make Jesus glad, the devil mad. Say this together. Say, heavenly Father, I'm so glad I came tonight. Thank God, I've been part of this atmosphere and I'm training myself to be a supply to the atmosphere. Lord, you're training me when I come to church that I'm not just coming just to receive, but I'm coming to be a supply of the spirit. And whatever goes on, whatever healing goes on, deliverance goes on, whatever gifts of the spirit are flowing, lord, I'm going to do my part to be a supply and therein I'll discover my supply back to me In Jesus' name. Amen, amen, Praise God, all right.
Speaker 1:John, chapter 16, please this, of course. These chapters in John are 14, 15, and 16, 17. They're on the night before Jesus was crucified and he's speaking to his disciples. So you know, it's pretty important things that he's saying to them. And in John 16, 33, I'm in Acts. Acts is not John. Okay, there we go, I'll find it.
Speaker 1:Jesus is speaking. He says these things I have spoken unto you. Now, what things is he talking about? Whatever thing he'd been talking to him about the last supper, and mainly he's talking about the Holy Ghost. They didn't know much about the Holy Ghost. So he's beginning to tell them about the Holy Ghost. And he said you know, I've got so much more to share with you, but you can't bear them now. You know just, you'd blow your cork if I shared everything that you know that you need. You'd blow your cork if I shared everything that you need. So you're going to have to wait.
Speaker 1:But these things he says, these things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have shalom, peace, health, prosperity and peace In the world. You shall have tribulation, see, it's not a question about it. He said in the world you're going to have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Now, when you read that in the Amplified, you know in the world you shall have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration, tribulation and trials and distress and frustration. But take courage. Be confident, certain and undaunted. I have overcome the world. I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you. Isn't that? Come on, lift your hands. Right now we can shut the Bible, go home, amen.
Speaker 1:But how many of you have ever went through some tribulation and trials and distresses and frustration? There's a whole bunch of liars in here. Nobody raised their hand. Y'all are so superior, why don't y'all come up here and preach and I'll sit down there and y'all can preach to me.
Speaker 1:No, god gave me this message, you know, a number of years ago, when it just seemed like you know, have you ever gotten frustrated over being what seems like a losing side? You know, have you ever gotten frustrated over being what seems like the losing side? You know, after a while, you know you're just really, you know you're for America, you're really for the country, and it just seems like you're getting slapped in the face for years upon year. And we keep crying against the evil, and evil prevails. And you know you, just one time I was just kind of complaining to God. I said I know y'all are more spiritual than this, but I said, god, I'm just tired of losing. Why should I care about this country? Why should I care about everything? I mean, it seemed like the more I pray, the worse it gets. It's just horrible. You know, I try to warn people and they walk out the door. Obama's a plant. He's a Muslim plant.
Speaker 1:The whole family got up and just walked right up on Sunday morning. They didn't want to hear it. They're more Democrat than they are Christian. They drank the Kool-Aid a long time ago. All these quote unquote civil rights, the Reverend Jackson I mean, if they're reverend, I'm an astronaut. How many of you know I'm not an astronaut? We have a bunch of little kids. They're astronauts, they're not of this world, they're aliens. That was so cute.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I knew this was really wrong, you know, I knew it was wrong to have a pity party, and so I calmed down a little bit and God began to turn me and have me meditate on his losses. You know God's had a few losses, and so I just think about Lucifer. He made Luc lucifer most beautiful thing he had ever lived. He was gorgeous. He gave him pipes, he gave him a voice. He gave him he was head of praise and worship in heaven. He was, I mean, he was just a brilliant, gorgeous creature and he turned on God. He got lifted up in pride and deceived one-third of the angels and God lost him. I mean, he didn't win, he got thrown out, but still that's a loss. And God made him and you know it blew up in his face. I hadn't made anything. He creates everything.
Speaker 1:How about Adam and Eve? You know he made them and that didn't last very long. The same devil that got kicked out of heaven goes down the road and, just, you know, lies to Eve and she just wallows it. You know, hook, line and sinker. And then Adam could have stopped it at any time, he just went along with Eve. I mean, what a doofus. But God made them both and he lost Pretty big loss.
Speaker 1:How about the earth? He created the earth and then he had to come back and redo it Because the earth became without form and void, it became tohu vobahu, totally messed up, and so he had to come down and revamp it. So the creation story is really not the creation story, it's the recreation story, because something was here before that and the devil was the ruler of it. And when the devil got thrown out of heaven, he came down to his place of you know, his throne, so to speak, and all the lights went out. So he's had some losses.
Speaker 1:And so here he had Adam and Eve, and you know all these different ones, all these different ones, and the only one out of the whole group that looked like he got the picture. Of course, you know, abel was a good kid, but Cain killed him, murdered him right away. So then after that you read all the begets. You read all these names and 900 and some odd years, methuselah, 960-something years they're not anybody of any renown until you get to Enoch. And then you finally get to Enoch, and Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. He had this testimony to please God, so he had one out of all that group.
Speaker 1:One time I was asking the Lord how in the world did Enoch, where did he get his faith? I mean, he never saw you, he never walked with you. I mean he never saw you like Adam did. How did he get his faith? He said Adam gave it to him. Adam and I had to go back and I discovered that when Adam died Enoch was 57 years old. So they overlapped just long enough for Adam to have impact on one great, great, great, great great grandkid. That's all the record. There's no other record of anybody.
Speaker 1:And by the time you get to Noah, I mean God's finished. All right, noah, build the ark, I'm going to destroy the rest of them. And he destroyed them. The flood came. I mean you talk about loss. We really don't have any right to sit around and grumble and complain about loss. God's had plenty of losses himself.
Speaker 1:And so you keep reading, and so you know, finally, noah lands, you know, and he, you know be fruitful and multiply. He gave him the same, he gave him the same command as he did Adam Be fruitful and multiply. He gave that to Noah. Noah did, and they had all these people and they all gathered together there and Babylon, and they built the Tower of babylon and they all had one language and god came down and he said you know, we've got to do something about this is that they're all in saying the same thing and nothing shall be impossible with them. They're all agreeing and they're they're not serving god. They're trying to build a tower to heaven, and he had to knock the tower down. He had to confuse their languages and he had to, just had to disperse them. They're trying to build a tower to heaven, and he had to knock the tower down and he had to confuse their languages and he had to just disperse them. They're the whole earth. So another loss. I said another loss.
Speaker 1:So then you keep reading and you find out about. You know, when you get through David, you know, and you get through Solomon and you get through all these kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, you know, and you get through Solomon and you get through all these kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, you know, and, and a lot of the king, almost every king of Israel was an evil king. He did evil in the sight of God. He did evil over and over and over. I mean you, just this gets really tiring. I don't know about you, maybe you don't, maybe you've got the patience of Job, I do. Sometimes I just get tired of hearing, I don't like to read about just loss. He was evil, he was evil. I mean, when are they going to learn? And they did learn, and they lost, they got kicked out of the land. And Judah too, they didn't any of them learned. They didn't learn from their mistakes.
Speaker 1:So through all the seeming losses, though, our God was relentless. That's what I'm talking about tonight. I'm talking about being relentless in Christ. Our God was relentless in sowing seed. He never stopped sowing light. He gave the Bible. He gave the Bible first with Moses. Moses wrote the first five books and he I mean he gave the Bible. And then he, what else did he do? He gave love. He gave his only begotten son and he sent him to a whole. You know Israel that rejected him. Another loss they rejected him. They didn't believe he was a Messiah. They didn't like him, they didn't want to hear him. But he sowed love in his only begotten son and then he sowed faith. He called the things that be, not as though they were Just kept on. He kept on sowing seed. He was relentless in light love and faith.
Speaker 1:Everybody say light Love, faith, relentless in light love and faith. Everybody say light love, faith. Now say where did this come from? It came from my pity party. You know complaining about. You know why did you choose me to have to say all these things and be this kind of church and say all the things I say? And it just seems like we lose, lose, lose, lose. I mean, I'm talking about all these years, year after year after year after year after year after year. Well, look at God. God's had to be longer than when I've been alive, a little short time that we've been going. Our Heavenly Father is. Everybody say relentless. It kind of reminds you of what I preached last Sunday night.
Speaker 1:You know talking about. You know God is a rewarder of those, the diligent seeker. God rewards the diligent seeker, and one of the words that I use for diligence is relentless. I mean you just don't quit, you don't stop, you don't back up. We're talking about not backing up. We have not been this way here to forward. We're never going to be the same. We're not backing up, we're going forward through every obstacle. I guess that's what's on my heart.
Speaker 1:Then I see Derek's ministry with it, like an icebreaker, going forward through ice, breaking up. He didn't shut the motor down, he didn't sit there and wait to be rescued, no, he just kept. He just full speed ahead. Boom, boom, all right. Everybody say relentless. And then you think about Jesus. You know Jesus had some losses.
Speaker 1:How about Jesus' own hometown? They didn't want anything to do with him. Who does he think he is? He's the carpenter's son. He's grown up here. We know he's not the Messiah. Give me a break. And he could there, do no mighty work because they're under. They couldn't deny that he had miracles. They didn't deny his ministry, but they didn't get them for themselves, they just. They were all hung up on just themselves. They were all hung up on just. You know, he's all full of himself. Oh, he went crazy.
Speaker 1:How about Bethsaida and Capernaum? Matthew 11, 23,. He said you know if I had done in Sodom and Gomorrah what I've done in Bethsaida and Capernaum, sodom and Gomorrah had a long time ago, would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. I mean, he did all kind of miracles there and they didn't give him the time of day. They didn't change, they didn't move toward God, they didn't get saved, they didn't turn around. This is Jesus we're talking about, but he had lost, he wasn't successful everywhere. Some people just basically spit in his face. They would not, they would not, they would not. Are you with me now?
Speaker 1:You know, being Catholic, you know Catholics they real hound Mary. They just treat Mary like she's God. You know she ain't God. Okay, she's just a believer. She was in the upper room in the part of the 120 and she got filled with the Holy Ghost, same as all the rest of the believers. So she's not somebody you should ever pray to.
Speaker 1:I was watching a UFC fight last night and this guy was from Haiti and he had a whole rosary around his neck. He won the fight and he had a whole rosary around his neck. He won the fight and he had a whole rosary around his neck, big old crucifix and all the beads around his neck. I don't know. I guess he thought Mary helped him win, but no, I don't think she did.
Speaker 1:But even while I was a Catholic, I just couldn't get with the whole Mary thing. I just couldn't see it. I couldn't understand it. I mean, mary's not God. What is the mother of God? No, he's not the mother of God. She's the earth mother, the birth mother of Jesus. But that doesn't make her God. It doesn't make her divine. It doesn't make her divine.
Speaker 1:Give me a break. Where do you get this? Well, I read where a million young people are there in Rome to do a prayer meeting. Who are they going to pray to? I'd be curious to see how they pray. Are they going to pray the rosary? I mean, he has said some good things, but I'm not real hep on him yet. I mean, I'm not. I'm not sure he's on the right side. I'm going to wait. I knew the last one. God told me about the last one so I could speak about him, because God told me how it was going to be. I haven't got anything about this one, so probably couldn't be worse than the last one, but even so, mary turned on him and his family turned on him. Read your Bible.
Speaker 1:Philip came to him one time, you know, and this is right after. He said you know, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man, drink his blood, you have no life in you. And that's when the 70 left him and his mother and his brethren showed up at the house and Philip came to Jesus and said hey, your mother and your brethren are up at the house. And Philip came to Jesus and said hey, your mother and your brethren are here to see you. And he said well, look around the room. This is my mother and my brothers. Those that hear the word of God do it. See, they were there to get him over into counseling. They were there to haul him off to the rubber room. They thought he'd lost his mind. Speaking the way he spoke, they did not receive what he was saying. Even they doubted.
Speaker 1:And this is Mary. I mean God, I mean an angel appeared to her. She's got listen, she has to. She sinned. That was a sin. Do you want to pray to people that have sin in their life or ever did have sin in their life? I mean, that's a sin. She got forgiven, obviously. I mean Jesus, you know, was restored. He gave his care of his mother to John on the cross. You know, woman, behold thy son, son, behold thy mother. And he gave him care of his mother, like a good Jewish son would do, gave the care of her over to the Apostle John.
Speaker 1:But you don't really read much about Mary after Acts, chapter two. She doesn't appear anywhere in the rest of my Bible. Couldn't be that important, couldn't be that big a deal if Paul didn't write about her. Are y'all with me now? Y'all are looking at me kind of scared.
Speaker 1:Look, I mean, jesus had loss. He lost 70 full-time preachers. Well, you know, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? And they just left him. They left him and even Peter denied him, even though he warned Peter, he warned Peter. Peter, you're being a little bit cocky now. You better watch out, because the cock's going to crow. You're going to deny me three times. No, he didn't accept it, but he did. He did that, he got, he got forgiven too. But I'm talking about loss. Everybody say loss.
Speaker 1:See, jesus was relentless and light and love and faith. He just didn't stop. He didn't stop loving. He didn't stop walking by faith. He didn't stop. You know, he didn't give up on anybody. He didn't give up on his mom. He didn't give up on his family, his family, I mean. Hey, james is, if you really want to know, the leader of the church in Jerusalem. It's not Peter, it was James, the Lord's brother. And James was not an early adopter of Jesus being the Messiah. Are y'all getting this now? I'm talking about how did Jesus deal with loss? He just kept on going, he kept on shedding light, he kept on giving out love and he kept on sowing faith.
Speaker 1:So the next time you're tempted with tribulation, trials, distresses, frustrations, trouble seems to be be relentless. Have you ever had just something? Just relentless. The thing with gladys has been relentless. We've never been through anything like that in our lives. We've been so blessed in every way, but this last year has been really it's been a year.
Speaker 1:August the 7th is one year and, yeah, you know there's times I'd sat in the driveway when she was at the assisted living place and I'd say, well, well, Lord, I'm not moved by what I see, I'm not moved by how I feel, I'm only moved by your word. I'm moved by what I believe, and I believe your word that she's healed. Nothing I could see or feel, said it was true, but you just have to be what Relentless? You just keep loving, you just keep, you keep calling the thing that be, not as though it were. You keep. You know shedding light, you keep on, you keep breaking the ice apart.
Speaker 1:Everybody say relentless. So you know, trouble can be like that, it can be like it's relentless, it can be long and that's why you can't look at the calendars. I mean, I mentioned the calendar, but you know what? We just keep on going. I said we keep on going. You know the devil wants me to have a tombstone, but we're going to have a milestone, all right. So three things that we can be relentless in light, relentless in love, relentless in faith. So let's look at the first one here. This is what we can do, this is how we can respond when trouble seems to be relentless. We can be more relentless.
Speaker 1:Matthew, chapter 5, jesus said it on the Sermon on the Mount. You know those Jews, they just blew their mind. They couldn't get over what they were hearing. They never heard anybody preach like this. He revealed the Father. They didn't know the Father. They knew Him as God, the Judge. They didn't know about the love side of Father. They didn't know the Father. They knew him as God the judge. They didn't know about the love side of God. They didn't know what they were. They didn't know who they were. And so Jesus says this to them in Matthew, chapter 5, verse 14. You are the light of the world. Told that to the Jews. You're the light of the world. That's what they were created to be. They were created to be a light to the Gentiles.
Speaker 1:Everybody see, jerusalem is on a crossroads. Israel is a crossroads of the world. All the trade routes went right through Jerusalem. I mean, you know the east and all of that stuff, all the Silk Road, all the trading. I mean they had, you know, on the day of Pentecost. There were people from every tribe. Every nation under heaven was there in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. How could that be? Well, it's a trading route. People are there.
Speaker 1:And so God wanted to shine through his people and for them to know the true God, because all the rest of the world they worshiped idols. They weren't worshiped idols. He said you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. Well, if he said that to the Jews, how much more does he say it to us? We're the light of the world. Why? Because we have the light on the inside of us. They didn't. They didn't have the light on the inside of them, but we have the light on the inside of us.
Speaker 1:Relentless attack on darkness. You just reprove darkness. Let your good works. Light overcomes darkness, good overcomes evil. We just kept on.
Speaker 1:We've kept on as a church. We've kept on speaking the truth in love. We kept on as a church. We've kept on speaking the truth in love. We kept on, you know, helping the poor, helping the people that are hurting. We kept on praying for our nation, praying for our leaders. We kept on voting Amen.
Speaker 1:I knew people that got those. They started asking what good does it do to vote? Well, you're. You know you better read your Bible, you better vote. This is a wonderful country. You get a chance to choose the leader when you don't vote. You just voted. You just voted and gave your vote to the devil. That's what you just did, don't? You dare not vote. See, there again, people get discouraged. No, we're going to let our light. So shine our good work shine brightly, like a city set on a hill. Praise God, people are beginning to see it, people are beginning to let their eyes are beginning to open Relentless in light.
Speaker 1:And then the second one is relentless in love. Let's look at Ephesians, chapter 5. How did Jesus handle loss? How did the Father handle loss? Well, they kept on loving. Ephesians, chapter 5. Verse 1. Be ye, therefore, followers of God as dear children. That word followers means imitators. Be ye, therefore, imitators of God as dear children, and walk in frustration, walk in anger, just give it up, forget about it. No, walk in love, as Christ also have loved us and has given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet, smelling, savor Savor Not savior, but savor fragrance. And so we imitate our father and walk in love, even when we don't get the response we're looking for. See, love is not an emotion, it's an act, it's a decision. Love prays, love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can pray for your enemies. There comes a time when a person is in leadership like I hear people all the time. Well, we're supposed to pray for our president. Well, you know, you pray for your president as long as the president is not, you know, a traitor. I'm not going to pray for a traitor, and I knew that Obama was a traitor way before they proved it last week. I knew he was a traitor.
Speaker 1:He's a community agitator, not organizer. A community agitator, that's what his background is. He's an expert in agitating and creating trouble. He's not a leader of anything. He has no morals, none, pastor.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to pray for somebody like would I pray for the devil? No, I'm not going to pray for the devil, I'm not going to pray for the antichrist. So I'm going to pray. I'm going to cry against him and I'm going to pray for God to line up the people to replace him. But I couldn't do that. On day one I had to wait and when God said, okay, I'm through, you don't have to pray for him anymore.
Speaker 1:See, god loved him, god gave him a chance, but he didn't. He didn't care. He still doesn't care, he's just walking around. I want to know how, how he can be worth $200 million. I want to know that. How can a guy that has no talent he has no, not, he's never built a thing, never done a thing other than he ran for president with just a whole bunch of people boosting him and lying about him and keeping up the seat. We still don't even know what his student records were. They hit him. He probably flunked all of his courses. We know he smoked marijuana to excess. When you smoke marijuana you get stupid, you don't get smart. Anyway. But we love, you know, I love this country. I love because God made this country, god created this country, he allowed this country to be birthed. I know God did that. And I love America because God let this country come up and be a light to the world and I love this country.
Speaker 1:When I started preaching like this, I had one of my leaders just bow up and, you know, started talking about me behind my back and started going up and down saying things and I found, you know, nothing happens here when I Holy Ghost lets me know what's going on. Okay, whether you know, he just does, I know. So that's just the office I stand in, it's not, that's what I. I should have, that I should have that knowledge. And so I went to the Lord about it. You know it was kind of hard because I loved them. I loved them. I mean, I was their pastor at Lakewood.
Speaker 1:I did a lot of pastoring at Lakewood and they were some of the people I pastored, and you know, and I spoke into their life and I told them the truth when they needed the truth. I told them the truth and love. And then they come here and they're leaders, and then they start talking about me and I said, lord, you know what's the deal. I mean, you know, I, you know, and said well, they don't love America like you do. Wow, because they're immigrants, they're more, they're more, they're more, they're more interested in their country they came from. There's so many people like that in our country. Now they're more interested in the country they left. Well, why don't you go back there then and get out of here? We don't need you, we need you to put America first.
Speaker 1:But God told me that they don't love America like you do. And sure enough, I mean, you know, after they left the church, they left America, they got out. Well, good Praise the Lord, good riddance, don't let the door hit you on the way out. All right, did you pray for me? Yeah, I loved him and I prayed for me. God showed me and you know, one day I had to find. I realized what the source of the issue was. So he confronted it head on. And you know, when somebody becomes a wolf, that was a sheep. You have to treat them that way. Are you with me now? That doesn't mean I don't love them, I do love them.
Speaker 1:Anybody getting anything out of this? See, when you're, when it just seems like it's relentless, the trouble and the anguish and the frustration and all of that is just relentless then you've got to be relentless. You've got to be more determined than the devil. You know the kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. I mean you're going to have to answer the attack of the enemy with greater intensity than where it's coming from. You can't just sit there and just oh and have a pity party. He's going to eat you alive, he's looking to devour. But no, if you're rare up and say no, there's no way I'm allowing this to happen. You're more determined, you're more relentless than he is, but you're in what In Christ? You're doing it in Christ. You're not doing it in your flesh, you're not doing it in your emotion, you're doing it in Christ. All right.
Speaker 1:The last one relentless in light, relentless in love. The last one is relentless in faith. So a few pages to the left, galatians, chapter six, verse nine let us not be weary and well-doing, or in due season we shall reap if we faint. Not Don't be weary and well-doing, or in due season we shall reap if we faint. Not so relentless in faith, not yielding to circumstances, but relentless in the laws of sowing and reaping. You're going to keep on doing good. You're going to keep.
Speaker 1:That's what God did. He kept on sowing love. He kept on sowing light. He kept on sowing faith. He gave us the Bible. He gave us his only begotten son. He kept on sowing. He kept on. He didn't like the crop, so he kept over seeding it. He kept on. He didn't like the crop, so he kept overseeding it. He kept on, and he kept on and he kept on. We kept on. We've kept on for 30 plus years. We're going to keep on going until Jesus comes. We're not going to stop. We're going to be relentless in faith, relentless in faith, relentless. Glory to God. Come on, lift your hands right now. Everybody say I'm relentless in Christ, I'm relentless in light, relentless in love, relentless in faith. And it always brings the victory. I always triumph in Christ. Come on, lift your hands and receive tonight Hallelujah, glory to God. I just want to encourage you tonight.