Holding On To God’s Promises | Pastor John Greiner

In this message, the pastor brings an encouraging word about holding on to the promises God has given you. Starting from 2 Corinthians 1, he lays out the foundation that every promise God makes is a yes in Christ, no exceptions. From there he walks through the parable of the sower and uses it as a practical roadmap, looking at the three ways people tend to lose their promises along the way, whether they get stolen, scorched by hard circumstances, or slowly strangled by distractions and divided priorities. He also touches on the gap between praying and actually seeing the answer show up, and why that in-between season requires you to keep speaking the promise, stay focused, and resist the urge to quit. It's a straightforward, grounded message that's less about new revelation and more about the kind of steady, faithful posture that lets God's promises actually take root and bear fruit in your life.

Transcript

Opening Worship And Prayer

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Did you bring your Bible with you tonight? Let's uh lift them up, wave them around, make Jesus glad, the devil mad. I'll share a short message with you, or maybe a long message. I don't know. It might be longer than I thought. I might get drunk in the middle of it. I don't know. Let's say this together. Say, Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be in the presence of the Holy Ghost. The glory filled me tonight, refreshed me, restored me. And now the word is going to be built in to support what the Holy Ghost did. And I have victory on every side. In Jesus' name. Amen.

All Promises Are Yes In Christ

SPEAKER_00 0:43

All right, let's 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Thank you, Carol. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Verse 18. But if God is true, our word towards you was not yea and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Sylvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God, everybody shout all the promises. All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him, amen, unto the glory of God by us. And so tonight, I just wanted to share a message entitled, Holding On to Your Promises. Holding on to your promises. You know, God is a promise-making God. And, you know, in Hebrews 8:6, speaking about the old covenant, it says thus uh those of us in the new have a better covenant than they did, founded upon what? Better promises. We have better promises in Israel. Just think about the promises Israel had. And the Bible says we've got better ones. And uh, you know, in Hebrews 8, 6, and then Galatians 3, let's look at Galatians real quick. Uh just a few pages over, chapter 3, verse 16. Well, let's back up verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, that uh and they might receive the promise, there's that word, the promise of the Spirit through faith. He promised us the Holy Ghost through through Christ. When Christ died on the cross, he opened the door for the for the Gentiles not only to get saved, but to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It's a promise. And uh we keep on down there in verse 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. And he saith not as to seeds as of many, but as one, and to thy seed which is Christ. And then you go down to verse 28 or 29. If you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to what? The promise. We're promised to be heirs, equal heirs with Christ, because we're Abraham's seed. All of that promise. It was a promise. All the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him, amen. There's no no's. Glory to God. You know, there's over, Brother Hagin says there's over 8,000 promises in the Bible. I, you know, I hadn't counted them up, but if have you received yours yet? I mean, there's a lot of promises, you know. But you know, we have to hold on to our promises. Have to hold on to them.

Between Amen And There It Is

SPEAKER_00 4:40

You know, during the time between the amen and the there it is, you know, Mark 11, 24. It says, wherefore uh uh, let's look at it, let's get it in front of us, Mark 11, 24. We know Mark 11, 23, it says, What things soever you desire when you pray, believe you receive them, and you shall have them. Therefore, I say unto you, what things soever you desire when you pray, believe you receive them, you shall have them. So when do you believe you've received them? When you pray. Is that when you have them? No, you have them later. You believe you receive them when you pray, and you shall have them. You shall have them. They don't show up instantly. Why? Because there is a time called seed time between the amen and the there it is. I was just reading Genesis 8. It's in my normal reading. Let's hold our place there, turn back to Genesis 8. This is after the flood, Noah's flood. God saved Noah and his family. And he told uh verse 20, Noah built an altar unto the Lord, took of every clean beast and every clean fowl, offered burnt offerings on the altar. That's after the flood, after they landed on dry ground, came out of the ark. Noah offered an offering to the Lord, and 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 everything, uh any more everything living as I have done. While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Well, it has the earth ceased? Then, you know, all those other things haven't ceased, seed time and harvest haven't. So there's a different there's a time between, amen, I believe I receive what I'm saying, and the there it is. That's called seed time. It's the amount of time that any amount of seed is in the ground. You plant the seed, but you don't get the harvest until seed time. And once it grows up and matures, then you put in the sickle. And so in Mark chapter 4, let's look at Mark

Parable Of The Sower Applied

SPEAKER_00 7:09

chapter 4. This the parable of the sower sows the word. And for purposes of tonight, I think we can substitute promise for word. I don't believe that's out of order. Because he promised by his word. It's the word that is the promise. So we could just substitute promise everywhere it says word. The sower sows the promise. You know, and uh and it gives you there in Mark chapter 4 uh four places that all these people heard the word and and and received the word, but only one received a harvest. All the other three cases had a crop failure. They didn't receive any results. Their promises didn't come to pass. They didn't hold on to their promise. In fact, when I read that as an engineer, I say there's a 75% chance that I'm not gonna receive my promise. If I'm not real diligent, I'm gonna have to do my part. I mean, once I have a promise, it's not the battle has just begun. The devil's not gonna stand around twiddling his thumbs waiting for the promise to come to pass. He's gonna try to get it out of your hands. Everybody say, I'm holding on to my promise. That's what we're talking about tonight. And so, you know, he goes through this situation, what happens, and uh, you know, basically it just says here that uh that some let the devil steal the promise immediately. They just, you know, they just don't, they don't really regard it, they just let it, and the birds of the air, he said the birds of the air come and steal the seed because it's not planted in the ground. And these are they which heard the word and and didn't and didn't plant it down in their hearts. They didn't pay that much attention to the promise. That's the easiest way to let your promise get stolen. It's just it's here today and gone tomorrow. And the second kind, you know, they heard the they heard the promise and they shouted at first, but then circumstances came against them. And, you know, the heat of circumstances. See, the first time the stolen word. The second time, the scorched word, the heat of circumstances shone down, and their little plant withered before it could be any fruit on it. And so they lost their promise. They lost their harvest. They don't have the promise anymore. It got scorched by the heat of circumstance. And then the third part said, these people heard the word, heard the promise, and they received it with gladness. But then there's three things that happened. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things, in other words, priorities changed, their attention got diverted, and it choked or strangled the word, and it became unfair. Here it was growing really well, and right at the end, the word, the promise got strangled, and they didn't get the benefit of the promise. So you had the stolen, the scorched, and the strangled promises. And what about the fourth guy, the fourth person? Well, they they received the the promise in a in a good and upright heart, and they brought forth fruit, some 30, some 60, and some a hundredfold. I mean, their promises just ballooned. I mean, they got they got blessed so much that everybody nobody could ignore it. I'd like to be on that on that side of the deal, right? So uh what what what happened to the fourth person? How how did they how did they get that? They held on to their promise, they defended it. It takes faith to hold on to your promise. Everybody say, I've got the faith to hold on to my promises. See, there's more than one promise that God gave makes you a lot of promises over the over a lifetime. So, uh, how do you hold on uh to your promise? So I've got some things that are right here in this parable.

Stolen Scorched And Strangled Promises

SPEAKER_00 11:40

And uh the first at verse 15. Number one, remember the promise. Remember it. See, because the first group, Satan came immediately to steal the word right out of their heart. They didn't remember the promise. They just didn't, you know, they heard the promise and then they just forgot it. And so then they, you know, what you don't pay any attention to, the devil has free free reign. I mean, he can come immediately. If you're not paying any attention to it, it's gone. He'll see to it. Well, so how do you defend that? Well, you keep that promise in your heart and on your lips. You've got to speak that promise. You've got to keep it and speak it. If you quit speaking about it, he'll steal it from you. I mean, we we believe and speak. That's the way we get a harvest, isn't that right? We we praise him till we see that promise come to pass. And we talked about that this morning. I mean, we don't ask but one time. But after we ask, we thank God over and over and over. And every time we thank him, we remind him that we've got a promise that we're holding on to. Y'all getting anything out of this? It's simple. We know these things, but sometimes we just need to be reminded. So if he can stop you speaking the promise, he can steal the promise. See, don't wonder about it, don't speculate about it, don't murmur about it, just play it, praise God, you've got a promise from God. It's coming. It hadn't, it the there it is, hadn't, it hadn't showed up, but you believe you received the promise. There it is, hadn't showed up yet, but it's on its way.

Speak The Promise To Keep It

SPEAKER_00 13:21

All right, the second thing that we can do to uh hold on to our promise is found in verses 16 and 17. That is, judge him faithful who promised. See, uh, this person received the word at first, real glad. They were glad. Oh, yeah, hallelujah! What a wonderful promise. But then things turned out bad. I mean, they started suffering affliction and persecution for the promise's sake. I mean, the fact that you have a promise is gonna make a target out of you. The devil is gonna attack you to see if he can move you out of faith, to shut your mouth. See, that's stage two. So now it said immediately they were offended. See, some people get offended. I thought God promised me, but look what's going on now. See, you've just got offended, and now what happened? The devil turned up the heat and the word got scorched, and your plant is dead. That promise is just not gonna come to pass. It's burned up, it got scorched. So, what do you do? You've got to judge God faithful who promised. Judge Him faithful if he spoke it. All the promise of of God in him are yes, and in him, amen. I mean, once he spoke the promise, that's it. There's nothing else. He can't lie. You've got to judge him faithful. Hebrews 11, 11. I mean, Sarah judged him faithful who promised. She was she bore a child when she was past age. Why? Because she judged God faithful who promised her. He said, About this time next year you're gonna bear a child. Here she is, 90 years old with a dead wound. What did she do? She judged God faithful who promised. Hallelujah. And of course, we've got a better covenant found on better promises. You know the word covenant means to cut, it implies blood. So, you know, when something, after you've got the promise, and maybe things have kind of turned against you and circumstances are are are or you're on a fight, just hold the blood of Jesus against those circumstances. Oh devil, I hold the blood of Jesus. My my promise is sure. It's been sure to all the seed. I'm the seed of Abraham in Christ Jesus. The promise has made sure to all the seed, and I'm the seed of Abraham. I hold the blood against you, Satan. Yeah, fight against the blood. Oh, I tell you, he'll back up every time. Glory to God. I love 1 Kings 8, 18, 5 and 6. Not one word failed of all of his promises. Not one word failed. Not one promise failed. Psalm 119, 89. Your word is forever settled in heaven. Let's substitute promise. Your promise is forever settled in heaven. I just substitute promise for word. Your promise is forever settled in heaven. It's settled. It's a settled issue. You don't, you just judge him. If God spoke at that, that's the end of the conflict. That's the end of the, you're not going to let go of your promise. Titus 1 2, God that cannot lie, promised. God can't lie. He promised. Hebrews 10, 23, don't waver. He's faithful who promised. See, over and over we're we're urged to take hold and and and protect the promises of God that we have. Lay hold on. Don't let them go. Keep them. Get anything out of this tonight? It's just amazing how much encouragement there is in your Bible. If you read your Bible every day, you never get down. You're going to have some trouble. You're going to have some issues. You're going to have a bowl of spaghetti every now and then. Hey, praise God. You know what? You're going to get through it. You're going to get the victory over it if you don't quit.

Distractions And The God Of This Age

SPEAKER_00 17:44

And then the last one is in verse 18: these are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word. See, their heart really isn't fully prepared. You know, when you've got thorns in your heart, that tells me that you've got stuff, you've got bad habits, you've given yourself permission to live apart from the word. Jesus is not really Lord. You're not giving him proper lordship over your life, and you've got crud in there, and it's not good fertile soil for the promise to bear fruit. And so they've got thorns, uh, and and uh and they heard the word, but the cares of this world. So you've got to be careful about the cares of this world. People will try to draw you into their conflicts. People will try to make their problem your problem. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches. Sometimes you get distracted and you just, you know, oh, I saw my neighbor, they got this brand new car, I need a new car. Oh, I, you know, you get distracted. You just, you know, the deceitfulness of riches, God's not against you getting a car, but I mean, hey, let's put it in in perspective. I mean, let's let God supply, let's get, let God speak, let God guide you. And the lust, the desire for other things, wrong priorities, entering in chokes the word or strangles it. I mean, it's growing, you've got a crop growing, but these thorns, which are the three things that I mentioned, they they strangle the word, and the word just cannot bear fruit. And uh so they they were they were they were getting along pretty good until they allowed these three things to enter in and choke and strangle the word. I mean, you know, once you've got a promise, that's the beginning of a conflict. You're gonna have to do some battle. You're gonna have to girt up your loins, you're gonna have to check your thought life, you're gonna have to check your confession, you're gonna have to check your desires, make sure your desires are that's that's so important in prayer because God can give you the desires you should be having. He can plant inside of you, he can birth inside of you new desires. Maybe you have you have things you've been doing, you really enjoy doing, and maybe God's through with them. Maybe God says, okay, I'm done with that. He told me that one time. I was, you know, I used to be real heavy and full of gospel businessmen's Fellowship International, lifetime member. I was a chapter president. I, you know, I had, you know, I went visited prisoners. We had a prison ministry part of our chapter. I mean, we did a whole, I did a lot of things besides Lakewood. I did all this other stuff and had a lot of fellowship and different businessmen across the whole city, all the way from, you know, at Spring to Baytown to Lamarque to NASA, you know, just all over the place, going to meetings, regional meetings, so forth, giving my testimony, singing, doing all kinds of stuff. And one time God said, okay, I'm done with that. Turn the next time they ask you to give your testimonies, turn them down. I don't want you involved with full gospel anymore. I said, Yes, sir. I mean, I didn't ask him why. What was he doing? Pruning me. I mean, was it fruitful? Yeah, it was fruitful while it lasted, but God was done with it. God wanted me to concentrate on my ministry at Lakewood, and I did. And God opened the door for me to do a whole lot more. If I'd have hung on to that other, I probably never would have done all the things that I wound up doing. Functioning as an associate pastor and uh preparing me for this ministry, really. So everybody say distractions. See, when you when you speak and act on those distractions, you strangle your promise. It chokes out. You know, I went to pray uh to pray in Galveston one time, and and uh, as I mentioned this morning, here I am in Galveston praying and just praying in the Holy Ghost, and God just began to speak to me, and He gave me the This message. He said, Many are satiated. And satiated is not part of my vocabulary. I mean, I thought I knew what it meant, but I did look it up in the dictionary. It means filled overflowing. He said, Many are satiated with the cares of this world and with the pleasures of this world. And much of the care comes from the pursuit of the pleasure. And then he said, many just tip their hats to me and go along their merry way. And I thought, wow, he told me that. That's kind of, you know, that's kind of unusual. I mean, why would he tell me that? Well, he's getting me prepared because that is a picture of the God of this age in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this age has blinded their minds. I tell you, the God of this age not only blinds the mind of the lost, he blinds the mind of the saints. He will blind you, he will blind, you know, little by little. It's like the frog in the water. You know, he starts off swimming in a nice warm bath, and next thing you know, it's boiling and he's dead. I mean, you know, he just turns up the heat gradually until the next thing you know, it's all over for you. I mean, you've got to be careful about this world's way of thinking. You've got, we're surrounded by the God of this age, all that floating mass of maxims and speculations and all the woke and all the LGBTQ and all. You'd be surprised how many church members, I mean, born-again people, have so much uh, you know, they they don't they don't want to stand up against it. They don't. They know, well, we've got to love them. Well, we can love them, but we don't approve of that behavior, period. You can't go to heaven with that behavior, you can't. And so, you know, they don't want to draw a line. Sometimes it's in your own family. Well, it's tough when it's in your own family, but you've got to draw a line anyway. Jesus said, people in your own family turn against you. And I'm seeing it. What is it? The God of this age, and you guess what? When you allow the God of this age to come into you, you fit the, you fit that. You fit that profile, and guess what? Your promises are gonna be null and void. You're not gonna receive the promise that God had for you. No, we're gonna, bless God, we're not gonna just tip our hat and just act like everything's cool and bop on down, come on, praise the Lord and all that, and live like the world. No. We're gonna be separated, sanctified, fit for the master's use. Amen.

Cast Cares Stay Vigilant Resist

SPEAKER_00 24:41

Let's look at 1 Peter 5, talking about holding on to your promises. Y'all doing that? Y'all down for that? I'm down for that. I'm holding on to my promise. Man, I'll tell you right now, I'm not giving up. Verse 6, humble yourself therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. See, God's not against you being exalted, He's against you exalting yourself. He'll promote you, He'll make you shine like a new penny. I'm telling you, he'll make you prominent. He'll draw people to your light. I mean, he will he will lighten you up so bright that people will be attracted to you. That's God doing that. But you can't do it yourself. You can't you can't go strut around like uh, you know, foghorn leghorn. It's my favorite idea. Every time I see fog horn, leghorn, I see the president of the board of demons. Anyway, so they got all these rules for everybody else. Uh he said, uh, he may you'll cast your care on him, for he careth for you. That's one time in your life you do that. You don't do that every day. You do it one time, and then after they've done it once, you never care again. I mean, every time you're tempted to care, say, oh no, I've cast my care on the Lord back in December of 1982. And I'm not caring another. I don't take care. No, thank you. Don't take any care. I don't take any anxious care. See, that's what we're talking about anxiety and worry. For he careth for you. Be sober, verse 8. Be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith. Glory to God. You're gonna have to resist the devil if you're gonna ever have your promises come to pass. He's gonna come after you. He's looking for open doors, he's looking for places he can enter in. He'll start a, I said this this morning. A lot of what I said this morning was like prophetic. I hadn't even got it, it wasn't in my notes. I can't remember ever preaching it before. It was like a whole bunch of prophecy mixed in with that message. You get it if you weren't here. And I mentioned, I said, you know, God, the devil will start a dumpster fire over here, and you'll get all fixated on the dumpster fire, and he comes around the side and comes in the open door where you're not paying attention. What did God say here? He said, Be sober, be vigilant. Be vigilant. How? In prayer. See, I mean, if you're in prayer, the Holy Ghost can give you warning. The Holy Ghost can let you know ahead of time anything that's going on before it ever gets to your door. The problem with most of us is that we are so defensive. We already, we're trying to get rid of the devil after he's already come in the house. I mean, you know, I don't want to deal with a cobra after it came in my front door. I want to make sure it stays out. In fact, I don't even want it on my property. Amen. So uh be sober, be vigilant, and uh you will bring forth fruit as you hold on to your promises.

Final Encouragement And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Come on, lift your hands tonight, praise God. A little message from heaven. Come on, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Everybody say, I'm holding on to my promises. Did this help you tonight? Just a little encouragement. Praise God. Nothing new, nothing earth shattering, but sometimes it helps us to get it all, you know, and lined up to where the Holy Ghost can make it real to us.