Glorious Way Church

Positioned For Inheritance | Pastor John Greiner

• Pastor John Greiner

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This message, Positioned for Inheritance, teaches that while believers are legally heirs with Christ, they must intentionally position themselves to receive what God has already provided. Drawing from Romans 8 and Acts 20, the speaker explains how inheritance is accessed by committing to God’s presence, faithfully serving His kingdom, and grounding one’s life in the Word of His grace. Through personal testimony and biblical examples, listeners are challenged to guard their spiritual inheritance, remove distractions and trespassers, and live with faithfulness, humility, and obedience so they can fully possess what Christ’s sacrifice has purchased for them.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's lift our Bibles up and wave them around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad. Let's say this together. So, Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here today. Thank God for the Word. Thank God for the Holy Ghost. I celebrate the birth of Jesus. Not only in the world, but in my heart. And oh, what a difference He's made in my life. In Jesus' name. Amen. And we also know that Jesus is the Word. Romans chapter 8 today. And Acts 20, two places where we're going to land in our foundation scriptures. Romans chapter 8, verse 16. The Spirit itself, or the Spirit Himself, beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs are equal heirs with Christ. If so be that we may be all if we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Now you see that word sufferer. It's not talking about suffering of lack and poverty, or it's not talking about suffering of sickness and disease. And Jesus was never sick. So what did he suffer that we have to suffer? Well, persecution. I mean, you're gonna, if you love God and you do things God's way, you're gonna run across people that just blame, plain, just they they hate the Jesus in you. You know, that's just all there is to it. So you suffer persecution. Sometimes that persecution is in your own family. I mean, even within a marriage, I've known people that got saved, you know, apart from their spouse, and then that and then there was persecution in the house. I mean, it's kind of tough. I knew a couple one time, they they the husband finally did get saved, and they got to know both of them. But her testimony was one time that she came home from church and he locked her out. She spent the night on the back porch. Man, I don't know if I'd have done that. I would have gotten my car and charged the hotel to him. But anyway. So suffer persecution. Amen. But what are we? Where are we joint heirs? We're equal heirs with Christ. We became heirs when we got saved. All right, and then Acts chapter 20. And your homework will be to read that whole chapter, but we won't do that this morning. We're just going to read one verse, verse 32. Acts 20, 32, just a few pages back to the left. Paul is talking to a group of ministers from Ephesus, and he says to them to conclude his ministry time, and now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you. And so today I wanted to share a message here on this last Sunday in 2025. It's uh entitled Positioned for Inheritance. Positioned for inheritance. You have to align yourself, you have to position yourself. I mean, our inheritance doesn't just drop on us like ripe cherries out of a tree. It doesn't just happen just because. Legally, we're heirs. Legally, we are heirs. The minute we got saved, the Holy Ghost witnessed with our spirit. It doesn't say he talked to you. It didn't say he said to you. It didn't say you had a vision. I had a vision before I got saved is a real unusual testimony. Maybe one of these days I'll give it again. I've given it many times. But most people just have a witness that they're saved. They just have a knowing. And that's the Holy Ghost witnessing with your spirit. Guess what also he witnesses to you. If you're paying attention, hey, you come into some means. You're now an heir. You're an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. Equal. I mean, whatever God has, it belongs to us. God's not heaping up anything for himself. I mean, if he wants it, he could make it, right? And has made it. So, I mean, he has it made, hasn't he? Well, so do we when we just wake up and see what the Bible says. So today I'm talking about possessing our inheritance, and what has to happen for us to possess it? Well, we have to dispossess the trespassers, the poachers, and the squatters off of our inheritance. I like to think about our inheritance being a plot of land. It's more than that. It's not just land, it's everything that God has for us in this life and in the next. But there's something not just in the next life. I mean, we're not in heaven yet. We have an inheritance that's right here on the earth. But what hinders us from possessing it? Well, there's, you know, the devil and demon powers try to trespass on what is your property because really God gave it to you. It's really all God's property, everything. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. So everything on the earth is God's already, but He's He's given us an inheritance when we got saved. He's not chinchy. But the devil is gonna try his best to trespass. And if we allow him to trespass, that means cross the boundary into ours. If we don't do anything about that trespass, then the next thing he's gonna do is poach, he's gonna steal something. The devil is a thief. He comes to what? Steal, kill, and destroy. He's either gonna he's gonna steal something, he's gonna destroy something, he's gonna kill something, he's gonna trespass, and then he's gonna poach. And then if you don't do anything about that, he's gonna squat. He's gonna he's gonna take up residence on your property so he can keep on poaching. So it's a matter of degree, it's a matter of us. We have to be vigilant over what God gave us. And in order to position ourselves, we've got to position ourselves in such a way that we possess that. And that we defend that. Are y'all with me now? So this setting that I read here in Acts chapter 20, verse 32, he said, you know, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up. It doesn't, it's just not automatic. It's got the ability to build you up if you position yourself in front of it. He said, I commend you, I set you in front of the word. I, first of all, he said, I set you in front of God, and then I set you in front of the word. Now, you know, when you go back, and that's why I want you to read this whole thing, because this is the, these are preachers, these are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, the five-fold ministry, the elders of the church in Ephesus. Remember, the church in Ephesus started with 12 disciples that, you know, when Paul came across them, he said, Hey, you're believers, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believe? Well, we've never heard of the Holy Ghost. Who's that? And they all got filled with the Holy Ghost. And uh, and that was the birth of the church at Ephesus, was Paul's ministry. And so he poured his life into these ministers. You go on, and he had a, he's about to leave. He's on his way to Caesar. He hadn't been arrested yet, but he's talking to these guys. And uh he has some sobering things to tell them. He's warned them day and night for the last three years. So he's done quite a bit of ministering to these ministers. He's poured his life. I mean, you couldn't think of a better father that would spend three years ministering to other ministers and pouring into them. I've warned you through day and night for three years with tears. And now I'm leaving. You're not gonna see my face again. And I know that among you, you know, there's gonna come wolves that are gonna not spare the flock. That's their job is to protect the sheep from wolves, and he's saying they're not gonna do it. I've warned you. Wolves are gonna come in, not sparing the flock. What do wolves do? Wolves eat sheep, they devour. That's the devil. I'm not talking about physically, I'm talking about they take them out, they destroy their lives. That's why a pastor's got to be a loving pastor, but he's also got to have eyes to see wolves and run them off before they do damage. We've had our share in this church over the years. A lot of times people don't start out wolfy, they kind of start out more like goats. Always button, but, but. I know Pastor said that, but.

unknown:

Come on.

SPEAKER_00:

I had I I paid a thousand dollars back in 1972 for a goose and duck hunting lease in Fulshire. Fulshire's full of houses now, but back then it was just rice patties and and there was lots of ducks and geese. I never shot one duck. It cost me a thousand dollars to get up at two o'clock in the morning and drive an hour and a half to get out there to this gathering place and where we would be taken to our duck blinds. And you know, that's about that's in January, man. That's it's just cold. It's so free. My feet never thawed out the whole time I was there. But in this yard that we gathered where we were waiting to be for the guide, and the guy didn't stay with us, the guy just dumped us off in the blind and left, and then we're out there just to try to, you know, I never, I don't think I ever saw a duck the whole time. But anyway, much less a goose. But you hunt them in in, you know, where the cloud is cloudy and the ceiling is low where they can fly close enough to the ground. On a bluebird bird day, just stay home and sleep. You're not gonna kill anything on a bluebird day. The front just moved through and it's crystal clear outside. There, the geese are, if there are any, are a mile high. And there ain't no ducks. They like rain and they like it kind of foggy where they can kind of come in and go. Anyway, in that yard was this goat. They had this little goat. And if you weren't watching, he would come and butt you. I mean, he'd go, he'd run and hit you right in the rear end. He'd hit me. It didn't have to happen, but one time, and then I kept my eye on that goat. I mean, just imagine that goat turning into a wolf. So anyway, he he warned them for three years. He said, you know, and also among your own selves shall men arise, uh, you know, with their own message, trying to draw away disciples after themselves. In other words, you know, they're gonna take of the flock and have their own ministry apart from the God-called ministry and lead these people astray. That's many times that's how cults are born, that's how uh abusive ministries uh start. They start with a with uh people who make merchandise out of the flock. So here they could have had something similar that Elijah and Elisha had. Remember? Elijah was a prophet, great prophet, and God told me to go and anoint Elisha to be prophet in your room, in your place, in your in your office. And so he went about and he anointed the next two kings, one of the northern kingdom, one of the southern kingdom, and one, and he found Elisha plowing with a herd of oxen. He had 12 uh yoke of oxen, but a wealthy man, 12 yoke of oxen. And he was plowing with one, and he called him. And so he said, Well, wait just a minute, I gotta say goodbye to my family. I don't care what you do. I'm just giving you the call. I could care less whether you come or go. Not real warm. And uh, and so, you know, he he he killed that yoke of oxen for the last goodbye meal they had fajitas. I can't imagine ox fajitas. I bet they're not that, I bet they're pretty tough. But anyway, he then he left. He he he followed. And you don't read anything about Elijah much at all. He's kind of in the background. For 20 years he went with Elisha, or Elijah rather, to minister to Elijah. That was his role. And then when it was time for Elijah to be taken up, he said, Hey, ask what you will. What do you want now? I'm fixing to leave. And he said, Give me a double portion. Well, that's pretty hard, that's a pretty big thing. You've got quite a vision, buddy. But nevertheless, if you see me, it'll be so. If you don't see me, it won't. So he kept his eyes glued to Elijah, and you know the story. He threw his mantle down. He slapped the mantle across the water. Where's the Lord God of Elijah? The water parted hither and thither, and he walked over on dry ground, and he had twice as many miracles as Elijah. It's all recorded right there. That's the kind of the setting that you had. You would have had the double portion anointing available for those twenty for those preachers, and yet it says they all wept mostly because they wept because he said, You're not gonna see my face anymore. They didn't weep over the fact that that Paul was basically prophesying doom and gloom over their ministry. Why didn't they repent? The Bible doesn't say any of them repented. The Bible doesn't record any of them coming and falling on their face before the man of God and said, Oh, man of God, I heard what you said. Pray for me that I'm not in that case. I would, I would hate that if thou were be one of the ones. None of them did that. Are y'all with me now? Talking about positioning yourself for your inheritance. They had an inheritance. And the Bible doesn't record that any of them got it. So it's kind of important to get in the right position. And so when it's all said and done, here Paul said, What, you know, basically he said this, God, I've done all I can do. Here they are. I place them right in your before you, and I place them with the word that's able. It's a that word of great grace is able to build them up and give them the inheritance. They don't seem like they want it right now, but this word can do that. I place them in your hand, and now I'm leaving. That's all he could do. He'd gone as far as he could go with that group. Are y'all with me now? So there was another level of inheritance that was available to them. So I wanted to give you this message today, and I believe it'll help you to hear at the end of 2025. It is the year of milestones. We've heard about a lot of milestones. We've got another Sunday, at least, another Sunday worth of milestones to hear about. Maybe by then we'll have some more. I mean, we're not going to cut it off just with 2025. Are you are you now that 2025 is almost over, you're going to say, okay, no more milestone. No, we're going to have some more milestones. I mean, all these words that God gives me for the years that going back to 2001, uh, these are basically accumulate, and we we can get the benefit of any and all of them. So how many of you want to position yourself for your inheritance? You want you want what God bought and paid for for you. See, legally, it's legal. I mean, it's legal. Yeah, I had an aunt and uncle. I grew up, you know, and they they uh their only child died, and he was a blue baby. We used to, and he died before I was born, so I never knew him, Charles. And I heard about Charles, but they didn't have kids. And so, you know, they just loved uh my my dad was his youngest brother. He was the oldest of four four grinder boys, uh, Uncle Ark. And so he he just loved our family. We and he loved all the kids, but he was partial, I think, to my dad and partial to us. He would say things like, I tell you, I'm gonna leave you this when I die, I'm gonna leave this in the wheel. He had a whole wood shop, he had lathes, and he had all woodworking teals, you know, and all. I never saw any of that when he died. But anyway, he would brag like that, you know. I'm gonna leave you this, I'm gonna leave you that. And so uh we got saved. My whole family got saved. We started witnessing to my aunt and uncle, and uh, he did not want to hear it, and he kind of separated himself, and we kind of lost fellowship. They didn't want to hear about Jesus, and they didn't want to hear about what God done in our lives. And by that time, my dad had died, and and he had, you know, he just didn't have any reason to hang around a bunch of Jesus freaks. I guess that's what he called us. And so we kind of drifted apart. But one day my other uncle, Uncle Herman, called and said, John, come on up here. Uncle Art's ready. Art had gotten cancer in his old days. He was 82 or something, and he got cancer. And I knew it. I knew he was in the hospital, dying. And his younger brother was in there, Baptist deacon, Park Place Baptist Church deacon. Deacon for years, decades. And he was a loving man. I mean, he was a, and he prayed his brother, he prayed for his brother. He said, John, I don't know why he didn't lead him to Christ. He said, John, come on up here and lead him. He's ready. So I got to go in at the last minute and pray with my uncle, and he got saved, and he died the next day. He literally got saved on his deathbed. And as I was leaving the room that morning after I prayed for him and he accepted Christ, my aunt wouldn't. My aunt sat in the window stool and wouldn't get saved. Oh no, I'm a Catholic. She hadn't darkened a Catholic church door in 50 years. She wouldn't know Jesus if he walked. In the room. But she would not, she would not pray the prayer. But he did. And uh he went to heaven. So as I was leaving the door, I mean, I heard these words, you have reaped where you have not sown.

unknown:

Amen.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, praise God. Talking about getting positioned. Well, I didn't know. I didn't know that he left me anything. I wasn't looking for that. I wasn't looking for anything at all. And so years went by, and then his wife dies, Aunt Lois dies. And after her funeral, this the same uncle that had prayed for his brother and asked me to come and pray for him and lead him in the sinner's prayer. He called me and said, John, you got an inheritance. I said, What? He said, Yeah, Uncle Orr left you$10,000. I said, Well, shut my mouth. I had it all along. But I didn't know about it. Until my uncle told me. See, your uncle told you that you've got an inheritance. It's right here. It's right here. It's right here. I mean, the Holy Ghost can tell you what belongs to you. The Holy Ghost lives on the inside. He can tell you what belongs to you. If you hang out with him, of course, if you don't hang out with him, then he's not going to tell you. I'm so glad I had good fellowship with my other uncle. Got to do his funeral. Got to, you know, got to speak over him. I remember one time I was doing a graveside for my cousin. And uh he was Baptist too, but he didn't know how to get healed. And he got, he died of a lung disease, and he was much younger than my, and so here's my uncle, the same uncle. He's almost 90, I think. And they're gathered under this tent, you know, out there at Forest Park Cemetery. And uh, and here I mean, you know, I've been going out there since I was a little boy, and here I am going doing funerals. It's just like Twilight Zone. It just makes me think, wow, this is so crazy. I mean, I never dreamed I'd be doing stuff like that. So they asked me to do his graveside, and so I started preaching a little bit. And uh the same uncle that had called me, you know, come get Uncle Art saved. Come, you know, Uncle Herman, he's sitting there and he's got his cane by now. He's got to have a cane to kind of walk around. He's sitting on one of the chairs, and he's leaning against his cane like this on the other end of the casket. I'm at the head, and he's at the foot of the casket, sitting over there. And I'm kind of getting revved up, and I'm kind of preaching a little bit about Jesus. It's not goodbye. Jesus is coming, and this graveyard's gonna get opened up, and and people like Max here is gonna, the grave's gonna open, and he's gonna come out of here. His body's coming out of this grave. And I started preaching like that, you know. And I heard this noise. And it was Uncle Herman. Yeah, you got it. He's a Baptist deacon, okay? And he's leaning against his cane and went, Oh, we're having revival up in here. That's one of the things I give thanks for. I just did what a privilege, you know, what a privilege it is to represent Jesus. I didn't really plan on going through that, but the thing is, everybody say position for inheritance. So you got to get you got to get positioned or committed in the right areas. So, number one in verse 32, uh, he committed them, he positioned them right in front of God. Commit. Position yourself to God. In other words, place yourself alongside God, set yourself before God, present yourself to God. Present yourself. Some people walk so far from God on a regular basis, they come around God only when it's absolutely necessary. They come around God and God's people on Easter or Christmas or something, the rest of the time. They just play and do their own thing and they've got their life and they've got their hobbies and they've got their things that they're their families or their work or their traveling or they're, you know, they're doing a million things except hanging out with God. If you want your inheritance, you're gonna hang out, have to hang out with it. He already gave it, but you're not gonna know it. He's not chinchy, he's not he's not even withholding it from you. You're withholding it from yourself. You're letting poachers and trespassers eat it up. Because you're why? You're not you don't even know it's there and you're not watching it. You're not watching after it. I mean, just think about you had a you got a house in Tulsa and you live in Houston, and you don't ever go to Tulsa. Well, what's gonna happen to the house? Oh well, you know, I just it's there whenever I need it. You might have some squatters in there. They got squatters all over Houston in vacant houses. Some of the elderly people, you know, they they've got their home, they've lived there 50 years, and one of them dies, the other one is infirm, and the next thing you know, the family has to take them uh, you know, to the hospital or maybe even to assisted living or a nursing home, and here's the house, it's vacant. And these squatters, they they come move right in. And you try to get rid of them. I mean, the screwed-up judges that we have and the weird laws, the ridiculous uh laws of possession in this state. Uh there's a lot of loopholes in the law that allow these thieves to take what doesn't belong to them. I tell you, the devil wants to take what doesn't belong to him. Your body does not belong to the devil. It belongs to God. It's his temple. And you shouldn't let the devil intrude. Are y'all with me now? So you gotta present yourself. You know, you know, be faithful to God, be zealous for God, have the fire of God, be talking about what God has done for you. Don't get so busy working for God that you don't have any time to spend with God. I think about Mark chapter 4. Uh Mary, little girl, you know, little innocent virgin. She uh she was hanging out with God, and the angel appeared to her and said, Mary, you're gonna have a baby. Well, how in the world? How is that gonna happen? I don't know a man. What do you mean? Well, the power of the most high shall overshadow you, the Holy Ghost shall come upon you. See, she had to get close enough to God, hang out enough God for for the angel to have access to her. When you study about her, it's not in the Bible, but other other places uh record that her father was a scribe and it was involved in the synagogue ministry. So she she grew up in synagogue. She was a holy young lady, she she was close to the word of God. And when she had Jesus, her little firstborn, put him on her uh knees and taught him the word. That's how he knew the word so well when he was 12 years old that all the all the temple rulers were amazed at how his answers. It didn't just come just because he was the son of God, it came because his mama put the word of God into him. The Psalms and the Proverbs and the prophets and the law, the first five books of the Bible. They didn't have a whole big Bible, they had they had scrolls, and she had access to that because her daddy was a scribe. Are y'all with me now? So she had heard a mystery. First uh chapter 4, uh Mark 4, 11. Jesus said, Unto you, it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto those that are without, all these things are done in parables. See, there's the in-crowd and the out crowd. The outcrowd are the ones that are just uh hanging around religion, they're hanging around, they're not, they're not involved, they're not in intimate with God, they haven't presented themselves to God Himself. They might be religious, but they don't they don't have God. I went to church every week when I was a little kid, but I didn't know him. I didn't know him. I mean, you can you can hang out in church, you can go to every church meeting in the country. I know people that are professional church meeting goers, they don't go to church, they go to meetings. They don't have a local church, they just go to this meeting and that meeting. They go to Rodney meetings, they go to this meeting, they go to Benny Hinn meetings. Well, that's well and good, but if you don't have a local church, you're not doing anything. And I know I've seen them, their lives are a shambles. They don't ever get anything. They're going to get something and they never get it. Why? Because they're not hanging out with God. They're going, they're just hanging around big names. It's not going to go anywhere. Are y'all with me now? Man, you need a local church, you need a pastor, watch after your souls, the one that gives an account. So Mary heard a mystery she drew near to God for it to happen. In John 1.17, he says, every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of light. Come down from heaven. Or the Father of lights. Every good gift and every perfect gift calls God the Father of lights. I like that title. Everybody say good and perfect. Well, see, there's a difference between good and perfect. Good is good, but what about perfect? Perfect's a lot better, isn't it? That tells me then that you know we can leave things on the table that belong to us that are we have access, but we're not hanging out with the father of lights or the father of illumination. See, it's not so much about hearing God's voice, it's about illuminate, being illuminated. When you hang out with God, you get illuminated. Is this helping anybody? So, you know, this year of milestones, I mean, you can move from something good to something greatest. I mean, you can have something that's really nice and everything, and then you can have something that becomes a milestone. This is something that changed, everything changed when you receive this thing. Yeah, there's a lot of little blessings that don't necessarily change your life or nice to have, but I mean a milestone is something that's, oh man, that you'll never forget it. Are y'all with me now? How do you get it? Well, you got to position yourself to God, close to God. All right, number two, position or commit yourself to God's kingdom. See, again, these ministers in Ephesus, they had gotten away from the kingdom for whatever reason. They they lost the vision of the kingdom. They they'd started, already started, you know, doing things that were just for their benefit. And uh, you know, they just didn't have the right attitude. Otherwise, Paul wouldn't have been having warned them for three years with tears. I mean, think about that. He he kept picking up this stench. They were not, the the they were not giving off the fragrance of heaven in his presence. And he was answering that, trying for three years, trying to get their attention to turn, turn, repent. Don't act like this, don't be like this in your in your private. Something's wrong. They blew him off. Not one record in the Bible that says anybody came to him and repented or came to him and and asked for him to pray for him. Are you with me now? Everybody say God's kingdom. Let's look at Hebrews 6. I want to put this in you because I don't want any of you to miss one thing God has for you. I want you to possess every bit of it. Verse 10, Hebrews 6, 10. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that every one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance unto the end. In other words, don't quit now, keep going. Keep going. That you be not slothful but lazy, miss the opportunity. See, this is what the twelve, this is what the disciples there in Ephesus, this is what those ministers, they had become lazy, they had become, you know, just hitting the high spots, faking it. Well, good to see you, brother. But they don't act like brothers. That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. See, there's your inheritance, is tied to the kingdom. It's tied to the church. When you get away from the church, when you get away from the kingdom, you get away from your inheritance. I just, it's just as simple. It's just as simple as that. He said, he's basically saying, you know, God keeps the books. God keeps the books. I've had people say, well, you know, nobody ever thanked me. I, you know, I do this every week, and then nobody ever. Well, God sees it and records everything. We might miss it. We might be a little bit late, you know, we might just be so busy ourselves that we don't always say thank you when we should. We don't always recognize you when we should, but God always does. He records every single thing you do for Him, for His kingdom. He records it, and He is going to bless you. I'm not the blesser, I'm just the gravy boat. I'm the container of the gravy. I don't have the I have the gravy, I pour out the gravy. And the gravy is what you want, isn't it? Don't you want the gravy? I mean, just think about a gravy boat with no gravy. I mean. So building his kingdom, not our own. See, that's what they were, he told, he prophesied. There's some of you gonna have, you're gonna draw disciples after yourself. You're building your own kingdom. Not one of them repented. I've had people over the years have their own, you know, agenda. You can kind of smell it before they ever talk. And then when they talk, you can really hear it. Their own agenda. They're not here for what we're doing, they're here to further their own thing. Well, you know what? I mean, I don't run them off. I hope if they come, I'm gonna feed them just like I'm feeding you, and hopefully they'll hear something that will connect with them and they can make an adjustment on the inside. And a lot of times they don't. And then they don't last. Well, they're they don't belong here if they don't if they're not if they've got the wrong attitude. Or they've got to have that. In fact, Jesus said uh in Luke 16, 12, in fact, it's really worth going over to Luke real quick. I don't usually do this on Sunday morning and have you flip through the Bible, but today it's good for you to see it. Luke 16, 12. Jesus said this to the disciples. He's talking about being faithful. He that's faithful in the least is faithful also in much. In verse 12, he says, if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own? See, I knew that I was called to pastor. I knew that when I got saved, because God had called me when I was four years old. It took a while for me to uncover that memory because I had piled up everything in the world on top of it. You take, take from age four to age 33, that's 29 years of disobedience. But when I got saved, you know, then things started coming around. Things started coming around. I had a prophetess one time. And uh I knew her, and her brother was on Brother Osteen's advisory council. I knew him real well too. He was a banker, good friend of mine, came to our very first service, but his sister was a prophetess. And she got me on the phone one day and started telling me about my early life when I was an altar boy at Our Lady of Refuge Catholic Church in Refurio. She she saw the church, she saw when I'd go in the side door, she saw me go in the back, put on my vest, my clothes, cossack, and I forgot what they call all that stuff. A black robe and a white thing, you know, on top of it. Real holy. Lost as a goose. I lit the incense on, you know, on the where they had burned the incense, you know, and I'd ring the bell at the perfect time. I mean, I, you know, I when I was on duty, I'd I'd get up at at six o'clock on a weekday morning, ride my bike from our house on one end of town to the church, which is on the other end of town, from the north to south, not a very big town, Rifuria. But it still took me 20 minutes on a bicycle in the dark. If it was raining, my dad would take me. But I'd I'd I'd serve morning mass all that week and then go to school from there, not even go back home, just go from there to school, and they had breakfast at school, so I ate breakfast at school, donut or something. She saw all that. She saw the convent, she saw, she saw stuff, and she talked to me about how God was dealing with me in those days. I'm telling you, it's such a blessing. The gifts of the Spirit. But anyway, I knew when I went to Lakewood that I was called a pastor, but I had to be faithful over another man's. God gave me this long, long before. He said, You this is one of the things you're gonna have to do to qualify. See, a lot of people they think the calling is the qualification. No. No, the calling is just the beginning, it's just the raw seed. It's what you do after that that matters. And if you don't, if you're not faithful over another man's, and that was Brother Osteen's, not mine. And I was faithful. And you know, it it wasn't always easy to be faithful. It wasn't always easy. And certain decisions made that I make it makes you wonder, well, he's the pastor, it must be right. But not everything's right. Nobody's right 100% of the time. Nobody is 100% with God all the time. That's something I learned too. Without judging the man of God that's my father, I don't judge him, never judge him. See, you have to learn these things. Are you all with me now? I have to remove my personal. Ambition out of the equation. I've got to burn it on that altar. It's got to go up in smoke. And at the very last. When I knew it was time to start this church, I did not go in and have a meeting with him and said, Pastor Osteen, I'm leaving now. It's been great serving you, but I'm going to start it. No way. I said, Brother Osteen, in my heart, I feel like it's time for me to start the church. I have a desire to do it. I'm surprised it's going to be. I know you thought the phone would ring and someone would call, and they would Gladys and I just go to some place, you know. Dubuque, Iowa. That's what I used to use, Thea. You wondered about Dubuque. I used to use Dubuque Iowa because it's the furthest thing from my experience that I can think of. We'll go to Dubuque, Iowa, and serve there if somebody needs a pastor. A church is already existing. That's what he thought was going to happen. That's what his mind was. That was what he. But here the Holy Ghost said, no, you're going to start this church. Here's the name of it. And so I didn't tell him God told me. I didn't say the Holy Ghost said it. I just said it's in my heart to do it, but I submit it to you. You have full authority over whether I do or don't. I'm not leaving without your full and unqualified and unreserved blessing. If I can't get that, I'm not leaving and I'm not going to start the church. Well, he was amazed and dazed and wasn't expecting it. I mean, here I am. I'm asking for a meeting, and he doesn't know the subject of the meeting. He didn't ask me what I wanted to meet for. I learned a long time ago when people want a meeting, always find out what it is that they want to meet about. Because I did that to my pastor. I felt terrible. I put him at a disadvantage by not telling him, you know, Pastor, I need to talk to you about starting a church. I should have said that before I met with him, and he would have been geared up to talk to me. But I just sprung it on him, see? Wasn't good. I didn't do the right thing. So anyway, he said yes at first, but I could tell he was very, you know, it was pressure. And the next day he called, oh John. I couldn't sleep at all. And I thought, oh God. See, I'd already told everybody we're going to start the church. I had three families praying. And I you know, I had they were ready to go. I said, he said yes. Okay. We're going to start right at the first of the year. Okay. And then he calls me the next day at work. No, I can't. I couldn't sleep at all last night. I said, oh, you don't have, you lost your PCA. He said, no, it's not about you starting church. It's just timing. You really need to wait till after the holidays. This is already September. It's almost, it's almost, it's going to be Thanksgiving right around the corner, and then Christmas, New Year's, the pad time started church. You need to wait until after the first of the year. I said, Brother Osteen, unfortunately, that's not that's not what I told God. And when God started dealing with me, I knew I had to have your 100%, and that's my protection. You're my protection. I can't, at my age and my kids, the age they are and everything, I can't just go out here and have a bust. I've got to have everything in my favor. It sounds like your peace is interrupted. It doesn't matter whether the timing or not. It was a go or no go. It was either he's going to accept my proposal or deny it. I said, Pastor, I'm just look, I'm going to just kill it. Oh no, I didn't mean that. I didn't, I said, I know you didn't, but I have to. I know you are for me. I know that. I know you're for me. You're in my corner. You're just in my what you're saying is true. I thought about it already. But I on my side, I'm trying to obey my heart. And it sounds like I'm going to have to kill this thing. I'm going to call the people that I've that I told you that were involved. I'm going to call them and say it's off. Well, that's not what I really meant. I said, Well, I know, but Brother O'Stein, I don't blame you. There's no blame, there's no anger. So, you know, what the picture I got was Abraham bringing the knife down on Isaac. He had to bring, he had to take Isaac to the altar. He had to hold the knife and he had to bring it down before the angel said, No, don't do it. But he didn't say, No, don't do it with me. I killed it. This church died that day. I called him and said, I release you. Do whatever you need to do. We're not going to start the church now. It's dead. Oh, two of them cried. Men. Cried on the phone. This church died and it was risen from the dead. This church has been resurrected. That's why it's powerful. That's why it's lasted 30 years. It's been raised from the dead and divorced from any ambition, divorced from anybody that wouldn't meet the qualifications. Are y'all with me now? So commit and submit to folks like that. Through faith and patience, inherit the promises. Follow people that through faith and patience inherit the promise. That's what I did. That's what Gladys did. She followed me right along. Another disappointment. It looked like a disappointment. We had to be there at Lakewood another few months. It was the hardest time in my life to be there knowing that it was not really God's plan, but I had to submit to what I had said. You know, swear to your own hurt and change not. How about that verse? Everybody say, God keeps the books. I mean, you know, he knew everything Elisha did and he blessed him with a double portion. Elisha didn't have any anybody, you know, printing all of his good works on a newsletter and sending it out. You didn't even read anything about what Elijah did. What exactly did he do while he was serving Elijah? You don't know, but it must have been something because he got a double portion. All right, then the third one, the last one, position, commit yourself to the word of his grace. The word of his grace. You know, God's word and God are one. God and his word are one. They're inseparable. And so when the first one was commit yourself to God, well, you have to commit yourself to his word too. It's able to build you up and give you an inheritance. Without the word, you're not going to have it. The word of his grace. Grace means extreme favor. It means God's ability to do anything. It may seem like, you know, at the time that I uh did finally get my release, I've been in December, middle of December. This was in end of September when I killed it. I got I went to uh India with Brother Osteen in October, end of October, first part of November. Came back and gave a glorious report in front of everybody about, you know, it looked like the book of Acts. I mean, lame, the lame walk, the blind saw. I mean, we we thousands of people saved. It was an amazing meeting that I got to be, I got to minister two nights in song and gave my little bit of my testimony one night. I mean, I got to uh prophesy and minister to the ministers, 2,300 full-time ministers. I mean, it was a powerful time for me to go with him after I had killed the church. But then, you know, I'm still, you know, I've got a house. It wasn't selling, it went into foreclosure. My last house that I built, it was being foreclosed on, and finally the bank took it on January the 3rd. But in the middle of December, December 13th, 14th, something, I've got it written down. He called me and he was talking to me, and he said, Oh, by the way, uh, that church you want to start, you have my full and unqualified blessing anytime you want to start it. Just let me know and we'll pray over you. So it went from September to December. So then I was able to call people and say, okay, we got the full blessing. We're gonna start. And so that's the way it way it happened. So it may look un, it may look, it looked so ridiculous for me to go out here and start a church when I'm going broke. When the biggest house I'd ever built in 25 years was foreclosed on and sold out from under me and took all of my assets, took everything, and all my and my partners, a bunch of money from my partners and other investors. I mean, you know, the bank never, the bank never goes broke foreclosing. They make all the money and you make nothing. You you know, you lose everything. That's the borrower is servant to the lender. And so that's, I mean, I didn't, I borrowed the money, I I had to go by what I couldn't pay the debt, so they foreclosed. They didn't come after me personally, that was nice. They could have. That's how they arrange it. But John 15, 7 says, Jesus said, you know, if if my if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it'll be done unto you. The word asked there means to make a demand. Make a demand of God? No, make a demand of your covenant, to make a demand of what the covenant says belongs to you. How do you know what belongs to you? Well, you spend time in the word of his grace. You spend time in prayer. You, you know, when you commit yourself to God, you spend time in prayer. When you spend, when you spend time uh, when you uh if you abide in me and my words abide in you, what what what does it mean for the word to abide in you? It means the word abides in you to the degree that you obey the word, that you're a doer of it. To the degree that you act like what you have from God is true. I acted like I was a pastor. I acted like I had all of heaven behind me. I went and leased a building,$60,000 a year building. I had not a nickel. I had one skinny credit card that I had just received after 10 years of not having any credit. I finally got a credit card with a$5,000 limit, and I could give that to Houston Lighting and Power as security to turn on the power on that building that I leased. Where did you get the money to pay? I took an offering from the people that said they wanted to be part of the church. I said, okay, you've been saving your tithe, put it in this bank. I opened a bank account, they put the money in the bank account. I was able to write a check to the landlord and tie the building up, and we gave him part of the lease money early on, and we just graduated the payments. God showed me how to do that. Are y'all with me now? It didn't look like there was a way at all that I could possibly start a church, and yet God, the word of his grace, built us up and gave us an inheritance. I mean, he greased my skids. Glory to God. Are y'all with me now? Oh, Hallelujah. Come on, let's rejoice right now. Praise God. The word of his grace governed my life. I depended totally on his word. I depended on the ram of words that God had given me in prayer. And it had to, it had to happen. In Acts 19, 20, God's word grew and mightily prevailed. See, it was it was able to build me up. It mightily prevailed over every circumstance, over every situation. So remember, God doesn't commit himself to talent, but he commits himself to faithfulness and character. And if you'll keep that in mind, you position yourself in front of God and worship him, have prayer time, you have word life and a prayer life, and you have a presence here at serving God's kingdom, then you are now positioned for your inheritance. Come on, lift your hands and receive today. Praise God. Thank you, Lord, for the inheritance. Lord, you're showing me more and more what belongs to me as I progress through life. I'm discovering more and more things that you have earmarked just for me and my family. And I'm determined to receive everything that the blood of Jesus has bought and paid for. In Jesus' name. Amen. Praise God. You know, one thing before I leave that, it's not a matter of pride or uh uh uh or anything like that. It's just that Jesus' blood was shed for you to have your inheritance. He bought and paid for it. So when we don't receive all of it, really his blood was shed partly in vain. See? So that's through attitude. It's not the attitude that I've got to have all mine. It's not, you know, jealousy or envy or pride or anything like that. It's just that you love God so much that you don't want on your side of the equation. You couldn't give him anything, you couldn't do anything. He did it all. And yet, how can I thank him by possessing every bit of it and running the devil off of it? All right. Does this help you now? Come on, let's lift our hands again. Father, we thank you. In Jesus' name.