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00:00 And sometimes, you know, in those nights I'm struggling
00:02 and I start giving weight to the problem, weight to the situation,
00:05 weight to the people, and I find myself discouraged
00:08 and then I gotta get in that work to lift the scale back up.
00:11 No, no, no.
00:12 If God be for me, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
00:16 Lord is my fortress, my rock, my shield, my buckler.
00:20 He who watches over me neither sleeps nor slumbers.
00:25 [Music]
00:33 Romans chapter 4 and verse 16, and as normal, we're going to have a little background
00:37 and then we're going to move into our focus.
00:40 It begins in verse 16 with, "Therefore," which lets you know
00:44 we're in the middle of ideas and thoughts.
00:46 You don't start something with a "therefore."
00:48 But he says, "Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace,
00:55 the same way that works are related to the law, faith is related to grace."
01:04 Matter of fact, New Testament faith starts by looking backwards at the cross
01:12 and then it's a present look at his promises.
01:16 So New Testament faith is again anchored at the cross
01:23 but in our present moment, we grab his promises to bring them into our present.
01:30 Somebody said this, "Look within, get depressed.
01:36 Look around, get distressed.
01:39 Look to Jesus, get perfect rest."
01:42 [Applause]
01:48 "Therefore, it is of faith that it might be by grace,
01:51 so that the promise might be sure to all the seed."
01:55 And that's important to us today.
01:57 Not only to those who have the little things coming down the sides of their head
02:02 and little beanies and little box on their head.
02:04 Not only to the Jews, not only to those who are of the law,
02:07 but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham.
02:12 Chapter four has been dealing with from verse one,
02:16 the fact that Abraham was justified by faith 600 years before God met Moses at Mount Sinai.
02:27 And the idea in this chapter and actually throughout the book of Romans
02:34 is that God justified people by faith long before the works of the law.
02:39 And that word justified sounds like a deep theological term.
02:46 But I want to give you a simple way of remembering the meaning of the term justified.
02:52 So justified, if you want to remember it, it simply means just as if I'd never sinned.
02:58 Justified, just as if I'd never sinned.
03:04 So what happened is at the cross, Christ took our sins.
03:07 It's a great exchange.
03:09 And as he bore our sins on the cross, he gave us his righteousness.
03:15 So that's why he told us to use his name.
03:18 Because he has given us his righteousness.
03:22 And before God, we are as clean and as pure as Jesus Christ himself.
03:29 So those who have been justified before God, they live lives just as if they'd never sinned.
03:39 Now, of course, if you sin, you need to admit it and quit it and move on.
03:44 But God convicts you of stuff just so you can get back to knowing in yourself,
03:49 it's just as if I'd never sinned.
03:51 You know, shame is an intensely painful and soul-crushing emotion
03:57 that makes you unworthy of love.
04:02 But when Jesus justifies you, it doesn't matter who tries to condemn you.
04:08 Yeah.
04:11 You see, humans are like the lower courts, but Jesus is like the Supreme Court.
04:19 And I don't care what the court of public opinion has said about you.
04:24 Christ has overruled it, you hear what I'm saying?
04:27 And he has justified, and you can live a life just as if I'd never sinned.
04:34 He said, "Not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith,
04:39 or of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of who?
04:43 Us all."
04:44 So, Abraham is the father of any who comes to God, not by works, but by faith.
04:51 He's the father of everyone who realized that they're not perfect,
04:56 they've fallen short, they haven't arrived, but they're willing to embrace God's promises.
05:02 You say, "Well, okay, explain that a little bit more.
05:06 Why did God deal with Abraham based on faith?"
05:10 The book of Romans, early on, actually a little earlier in Romans, Paul goes on talking about
05:15 how the Gentiles respond to God because his law is written on their hearts.
05:21 Meaning, every human heart, it's amazing, no matter where you go in the world,
05:29 people have this concept called "ought to."
05:33 Now, just think about that.
05:36 Now, we know what we do, but we also know what we ought to do.
05:39 And this "ought to" is the law God writes on every human's heart.
05:46 So, no matter what village you're born in, you know you ought not just punch somebody.
05:51 You know you ought not just take something that doesn't belong, right?
05:56 Okay, so we got that, right?
05:57 So, God dealt with Abraham through what I'm gonna call
06:03 the law of common decency written on each person's heart.
06:06 Now, today it's getting rarer and rarer, but this law of common decency says,
06:14 "If something is shown to be true, we ought to believe it."
06:20 So, when God impressed his existence and his character upon Abraham's heart,
06:30 Abraham didn't cancel him, didn't fight with him.
06:33 When Abraham saw the truth, he trusted him.
06:38 Faith is simply embracing truth and doing it from the heart.
06:45 Verse 17, and he continues, "As it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations.'"
06:55 Now, the way I'm dissecting the verses, it may be a little bit hard to follow here,
06:59 but I'm gonna go to Genesis 17 in just a couple moments,
07:02 but God basically said, "Abraham, I'm gonna make you the father,
07:05 I've made you, forgive me, the father of many nations in the presence of whom he believed."
07:11 So, in Genesis 17, five, when God promised that Abraham would be the father of many nations,
07:17 Abraham's response was simply to believe.
07:23 Okay, again, if something is shown to be true,
07:29 the proper response is to believe it.
07:32 Now, you may not realize this, but what we choose to believe and not believe
07:41 is actually a moral choice.
07:43 And this is why we will answer to God for our beliefs.
07:48 There are some things I don't believe just 'cause I don't wanna believe,
07:52 not because I've not been convinced, not because I see evidence, 'cause I don't like it.
07:58 But what we believe and what we don't believe is a moral choice,
08:03 and it is a choice God's gonna hold us accountable for.
08:07 When the sun rises and sits, and you see the beauty,
08:12 and you see the way things are organized, you see the design in creation.
08:16 You know, the stars have been talking to you every night,
08:20 everything about the planet has been saying there's a God.
08:22 But if you choose to go in another direction, you might say,
08:27 "Well, I don't see the evidence, but God says, 'I know you have made a choice.'"
08:32 And this is why, you know, as we sung that song,
08:38 "Our Hope is Built on Nothing Less Than Jesus' Blood and Righteousness,"
08:42 each of us who sang those lyrics at some point have made a choice.
08:47 The Holy Spirit, maybe it was through a minister teaching,
08:54 or maybe, I don't know, something hit you as you watched a sunrise,
08:57 but God was striking your heart, saying, "I'm out here, and I'm for you, and I love you."
09:06 And in that moment, you had a choice to believe or disbelieve.
09:12 It says, "I've made you the father of many nations in the presence of him
09:17 whom he, Abraham, believed."
09:21 So what it says here, and it's a little bit complicated,
09:23 and I'm going to get to our focus in just a second,
09:25 but Abraham did not just believe in what God would do.
09:29 Abraham believed in the character of the God who would do it.
09:34 Because whenever it seems that his promises delay,
09:39 his character's all that we have to trust in.
09:41 Because sometimes things don't go as planned or as I thought,
09:45 and I'm like, "Well, Lord, I'm believing you, but I got to trust you are still faithful.
09:49 You're going to work all things together for good.
09:51 I know this is not happening as I want, but I know you're good."
09:55 And sometimes that's all I can fall back on, that God is good.
10:00 That sounds so simplistic, it sounds so simple, it's not deep.
10:04 But when I'm really struggling, and God seems to be delaying,
10:08 and He's nowhere, it seems to be found, my faith got to kind of go back
10:13 and get back to the basics.
10:14 You know what, God?
10:15 As bad as this is, I still trust you are good.
10:19 [applause]
10:23 And if character is lost, all is lost.
10:26 If God's character is lost, all is lost.
10:29 And then he goes on, "God who gives life to the dead."
10:36 What Paul is about to say to us is that God has a modus operandi.
10:48 God has an MO.
10:50 God has a penchant.
10:52 God has a style.
10:55 And throughout the Bible, we find Him constantly over and over again,
11:02 whether it was a barren woman, whether it was a man with leprosy,
11:05 whether, you know, just a million different things, Lazarus come forth.
11:09 God constantly gives life to the dead.
11:16 In fact, dead and hopeless things are God's specialty.
11:21 [applause]
11:26 And I want to warn you a little bit.
11:29 God hasn't really become your God yet until He gives life to something in your life
11:38 that has died.
11:44 Until He's revived some area in which you were desperate.
11:48 So, here's the thing.
11:50 If we really believe the Scriptures, if we really believe in a God whose main thing,
11:56 His sum and His substance, is to give life to the dead,
12:01 why are we so upset, so shocked when God lets things die?
12:11 Because if He lets something die, it's just a setup for God to do what only God can do.
12:19 He's a God who specializes in giving life to the dead.
12:29 I'm not sure about you, but I know in my life, a lot of things have had to die
12:40 before they lived.
12:41 Jesus said in Matthew 10 and 39, He said, "Whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it."
12:49 Sometimes in God's plan, and you might think, you know,
12:55 "God, how did you let this happen?"
12:57 But in God's plan, sometimes you lose a job.
13:00 Sometimes you lose a relationship.
13:05 Matter of fact, sometimes you're just, your basic plans in general die
13:09 before God raises them back to life.
13:12 I could not count the number of times I put on life support
13:19 things that God really would have wanted me to just let die.
13:23 I mean, I sat in the hospital room, I prayed and I cried, I cried and I prayed,
13:31 I listened to the beeps and just tried to nurse that thing back to health.
13:36 But unless I let go of my past, I have no room in the present for something better.
13:54 So death with God isn't a thing.
14:02 To us, it's everything.
14:06 But to God, He's like, "You got to, that's it, that's what I do."
14:10 He's like, "But that's what you need me for."
14:14 He's the alpha and what? Omega.
14:19 So He knows how to bring a beginning out of an end.
14:24 - Hallelujah.
14:26 - God, now listen, not just a theology, not just church talk,
14:33 but God who gives life to the dead.
14:39 May I confide in you?
14:42 May I keep a secret, although there are people watching.
14:49 I've been struggling for a little while with the idea that I'm too old.
14:55 A couple years, I will be 60.
14:59 Isn't God good though?
15:02 And right when I start thinking, "Maybe it's time to hang up my jersey.
15:12 Maybe it's time to cash in my chips.
15:18 Maybe it's time for me to slow down."
15:21 We go from reaching thousands in a week to millions.
15:26 But you see, God is wise and His timing is always right.
15:38 You see, in His wisdom, He knows I'm too old to worry about what people think about me.
15:48 Too old to care about whether they like me or dislike me.
15:51 Been around too long, messing around with foolishness,
15:58 and I'm too tired at the end of the day to pretend.
16:02 Some of y'all feel me.
16:08 There's some good things about getting older.
16:18 So, I've come to the conclusion that I've not really been aging, God's just had me marinating
16:26 for the right time.
16:31 So, God gives life to the dead, but there is an and conjunction,
16:37 calls those things which do not exist as though they did.
16:45 So, if you know God, you know He specializes in raising back up dead things.
16:51 But the second part of His nature, when you get to know Him, is that God talks really funny.
17:01 He constantly talks about what we can't see.
17:10 He always is stretching us beyond touch, taste, smell, and natural sound.
17:22 He always requires us to be grateful before He does that great thing.
17:29 He asks us to give before we even have a whole lot.
17:39 He tells us to act happy even before we're happy.
17:45 God is of a different mind, and God is the alpha and the omega.
17:54 He knows the end from the beginning, and He speaks like God.
18:02 He speaks from His mind.
18:07 He's not just looking at what is.
18:10 Matter of fact, I've thought about it.
18:13 I'm like, "Lord, have you looked around the planet lately?"
18:16 Man, I'd be crying, bawling, falling off my phone, but you see, God don't think like we do.
18:22 He don't see like we do.
18:23 He sees the end from the beginning, and this storm is passing over.
18:29 One day, there's going to be a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.
18:33 You hear what I'm saying?
18:37 There's going to be a river of life flowing on both sides of the tree of healing of the nations.
18:44 Let's read that again.
18:46 "And God calls those things which do not exist as though they did."
18:55 I'd like to take a moment to tell you about the trouble this verse has caused me, and
19:04 the way God thinks has caused me.
19:06 You know, when Grace Church was only 12 people, I worked, and I preached, and I acted like we
19:13 were 120 people.
19:14 But then we get to 120 people, I say we're 250 people.
19:21 And people literally look around the room and start counting the empty chairs.
19:26 They start talking, "The boy's crazy.
19:30 The boy can't count.
19:33 He's on an ego trip."
19:35 But then we get to 250.
19:39 I'd say we're 500.
19:42 We get to 500, I say we're 1,000.
19:47 And then finally, after we got to about 5,000, people learned not to say anything anymore.
19:55 But right about 5,000, God decided He was going to start to show off a little bit.
20:03 And He had us build this impossible worship center in the midst of the greatest worldwide
20:11 crisis you or I had ever seen in our lifetimes.
20:15 And then while churches are declining across the nation, we grow to 7,000.
20:20 But here's the deal.
20:24 All of this happened is because I had some of us who are like Caleb and Joshua.
20:31 People who were willing to see it before they saw it.
20:38 Vision is the gift of seeing what others don't see yet.
20:45 You see, we're not limited by our abilities half as much as we are limited by our lack
20:52 of vision.
20:53 Peanuts have been around the globe as long as there's been a globe.
20:59 But people were handling peanuts for eons.
21:03 But one day, George Washington Carver looks at a peanut and he sees in the peanut that
21:14 people have been handling for centuries over 250 uses.
21:21 I mean, he's lighting lanterns with peanut oil, peanut butter, and all the peanut stuff
21:27 that we got came from a guy that looked at a peanut and saw something.
21:36 And you might feel God's just giving me peanuts.
21:41 But in that peanut that He gave you are 250 different uses if you just have a little bit
21:52 of vision and see it before you see it.
21:56 Let's go to Genesis 17, 5 where Paul's been talking about it.
22:04 And this is where God told this 99-year-old man with an 89-year-old woman that He was
22:11 going to have all these babies.
22:13 And God showed up and said, "No longer shall your name be called Abram."
22:25 Which actually means father.
22:27 So, Terah named him father.
22:31 But your name is going to become or shall be Abraham, which is a strengthened or heightened
22:42 form of father.
22:45 And what it means is not just father of a clan, father of a household.
22:53 It means father of many nations and a father of multitudes.
22:58 So, instead of Abraham's age causing God to back down from His promise, like, "Okay,
23:09 yeah, yeah, it's a little late.
23:10 You know what?
23:10 I'm sorry about that, Abraham."
23:12 Instead of God backing up, God turned it up.
23:20 I want you to think about being Abraham.
23:22 Now, we typically get our nicknames when we're kids.
23:26 But he's 89 years old.
23:31 He's lived a full life.
23:35 And I want you to imagine if you were a person that lived in the projects all your life.
23:42 But God tells you to go down to the courthouse, and I want you to change your name.
23:50 Matter of fact, your first name to wealthy.
23:52 So, every time someone knocks on your door, you require them to call you wealthy.
24:00 Been in a project all your life.
24:03 Now, family's like, "What?
24:06 Call me wealthy."
24:08 Consider the situation Abraham's in.
24:15 Imagine a man in a wheelchair.
24:17 Been there for years.
24:20 He goes down to the courthouse, and he changes his name to Run Like the Wind.
24:28 Or imagine the 2024 commanders.
24:34 Changing their name to Always Win.
24:42 Imagine the faith it took.
24:48 But watch this.
24:52 Watch how God spoke to Abraham.
24:54 He said, "This is gonna be your name."
24:58 Then He says, "For I have made, not I will make.
25:02 I have made you."
25:07 Sarah was not yet pregnant.
25:11 Matter of fact, she failed to get pregnant for 89 years.
25:14 But God spoke to Abraham like it was already done.
25:19 "For I have made," past tense, "you the father of many nations."
25:30 Because God calls things that are not as though they are.
25:39 Things that don't exist as though they did.
25:42 And what we see in the Scriptures is God is a shot caller.
25:49 God is the ultimate baller, if you will.
25:53 And the way God plays the game of life, you know, you can like it to a game of pool.
26:05 He's like, "Mr. Devil is going in in that right corner pocket
26:08 on my right side and there's nothing you can do about it."
26:17 And if we're gonna be like our Father, we gotta stop just saying what we have
26:26 and begin to call things as God has promised.
26:32 [APPLAUSE]
26:36 Your child may be acting up, but you might need to look him in the eye and say,
26:41 "You are a good boy. You are a good boy. You are a precious girl. You are a smart girl.
26:46 You're a smart boy."
26:47 You need to—it's easy to call things what they are.
26:51 You need to be like God, call things like—
26:55 Yeah.
26:57 Listen, y'all don't know this about me.
27:02 But the first thing God touched in my life was not my behavior and the things I did and they were foul.
27:10 It was my tongue.
27:12 I had a foul mouth.
27:25 When I got to college, one of my friends nicknamed me "Violence"
27:32 because of the foul speech that would come out of my mouth.
27:39 But God saw that foul mouth and saw a preacher's tongue.
27:51 He called that which did not exist as though it was.
27:57 And I'm all the better for it.
28:00 Who contrary to hope, in hope, believe.
28:12 That's a complicated and kind of awkward sentence.
28:15 But it says a whole lot.
28:19 You see, the problem is we think it's supposed to be easy.
28:22 But that wasn't the case here.
28:25 Conventional wisdom said, "Listen, Abraham, you're too old.
28:28 Abraham, this will never happen for you."
28:32 But God gave Abraham his word.
28:36 Abraham used God's promise to combat his doubts.
28:41 Circumstances say, but God says.
28:49 People may say, but God said.
28:55 I can't tell you the number of nights that the devil would visit me.
29:02 And he didn't visit me in red pajamas, he'd visit me in my mind with thoughts.
29:06 And he'd start whispering in my ear, talking about, "Why are you making your family suffer?
29:16 You need to walk away from all this foolishness.
29:19 You aren't built for ministry like others.
29:24 You need to go out there and use your skills and talents and get a real job.
29:31 A job where they won't criticize you and talk about you.
29:35 A job that they don't have such high standards and everyone's not finding fault."
29:39 You see, anyone could have done what I have done
29:45 if they're willing to fight the doubts that I had to fight.
29:49 You see, you have your promises in your life.
29:54 And just like I had to fight for the promise God gave me,
30:01 you got to fight for the promise God gave you.
30:10 You know, later when Abraham would cut the animals for his covenant with God,
30:18 later in the evening after he cut the covenant, the furnace and the lamp
30:24 walked through the covenant of blood. But the Bible says that after he cut these
30:31 huge animals, there's blood all over the place, vultures tried to come down and steal the sacrifice.
30:41 And whenever you sacrifice something to God, there will be vultures swooping out of nowhere,
30:49 trying to steal that which you've dedicated to God.
30:55 And you might have seen vultures, by the way, on television, but you need to understand vultures
31:01 are not little birds. They have very, very powerful jaws and beaks, and vultures run off
31:09 a lot of animals because they're very strong. And vultures could be, you know, three feet tall.
31:13 But the Bible said Abraham would beat off the vultures.
31:20 And sometimes when God gives you a promise, you got to learn to swat away the vultures
31:30 as the doubts and the fears, the anxiety and the worries try to steal the thing you've dedicated
31:38 to God. It's simple, but it's not always easy. And you got to learn to stand up against
31:47 the doubt and unbelief and the vultures that will certainly come your way. And the only reason,
31:55 though, the vultures show up is because there's something there. The devil wouldn't be trying
32:00 to talk you out of it unless God was in it. Matter of fact, let that pressure in your mind
32:07 be a reminder that, you know what? God must be up to something. Understand what I'm saying.
32:11 So, Abraham, contrary to hope, in hope, believes. So, he had something in him to resist
32:24 the things trying to come out on him from outside of him. And because he fought this battle and won
32:32 this fight, it says, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken to
32:38 him, so shall your descendants be. Now, I'm talking a little bit about my story more than I normally do.
32:49 But the reason for that is what I want you to understand. God didn't bring me through because
32:56 I'm stronger or smarter or better than anybody else. God brought me through because I stayed
33:04 close and I stayed at it. You know, the only secret, only strategy I have with God
33:17 is to get into His Word until it gets into me. Linger in His presence until His presence
33:24 lingers in me. Jesus said it this way, "Abide in My Word and My Word will abide in you."
33:31 And then He said, "Ask what you will be given." But you got to abide, you got to stay at it,
33:36 you got to live. Abide doesn't mean visit, it means to live. That's your address.
33:41 I had to make my address a place of faith. Vultures come, I'm going to fight you,
33:48 I'm going to swat you, I'm going to resist you. I'm going to take you to church and you got to
33:53 follow me in. And then the church is going to start swatting them away as I'm swatting them away.
34:00 Contrary to hope, he believed in hope. And then it says, "In not being weak
34:06 in faith, he did not consider his body already dead."
34:12 You see, in his 80s, Abraham was still able to produce Ishmael.
34:20 But by the time he reached 99, that bird could not fly anymore.
34:28 (Laughter)
34:30 That dog could no longer hunt, if you know what I mean.
34:34 He did not consider his body already dead since he was about 100 years old.
34:44 And then to compound that, not only did he have issues to work through,
34:52 Sarah was barren. And by the way, his stuff worked because he had Ishmael, but Sarah was barren.
35:04 That's it, okay. (Laughter)
35:11 So, not only was the conception a miracle,
35:22 but the act itself was a miracle.
35:25 Mayor Woods said in Friday's RLN, he said this, "Faith doesn't work until you do."
35:32 They still had to take the actions. They had a part to play as they waited for their miracle.
35:43 They had to get busy.
35:51 Listen, this is not the virgin birth.
35:53 So, they had a part to play in the miracle. And some miracles you got to work out.
36:09 He said, "Abraham did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief."
36:19 See, God's promise was a huge challenge.
36:21 But what we're about to see in a moment in Abraham's mind, he let God keep his finger on
36:30 the scale. It says, "But he was strengthened in faith." Now, the weak in faith consider their own
36:39 abilities only. They consider their own resources only. They don't consider God's ability, God's
36:46 resources. But Abraham in faith refused to focus on his circumstances, and he focused on his God.
36:56 Watch this next statement. "Giving glory to God." Now, that word glory in Hebrew is kabod.
37:05 In Greek, it's doxa, however you want to pronounce it. But the term literally means weight.
37:15 So, we would say things like, "That person's a heavyweight," meaning that's the idea of glory,
37:23 that that person has major impact and influence. But what he says, "He was strengthened in his
37:31 faith, giving weight or glory to God." So, the idea is that when his faith was tested,
37:41 he weighed his fears against God's faithfulness. He weighed his problem against God's protection.
37:54 He weighed his worries against God's word. He weighed his need against God's supply.
38:05 And the scales in his mind tipped always in God's favor. And what we must learn to do,
38:14 yeah, there's a problem, but give glory and weight to God. If God be for you,
38:20 He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He's faithful and just. Every promise in Him is yes
38:31 and amen. If He parted the Red Sea, what's going to be the trouble with your particular issue?
38:37 And in his mind, he gave weight and glory to God. And sometimes, you know, in those nights,
38:45 I'm struggling and I start giving weight to the problem, weight to the situation,
38:49 weight to the people, and I find myself discouraged. And then I got to get in that
38:53 work to lift the scale back up. No, no, no. If God be for me, I could do all things through Christ
38:58 which strengthens me. Lord is my fortress, my rock, my shield, my buckler. He who watches over
39:07 me neither sleeps nor slumbers. And being fully convinced, this is where we miss it, because we
39:16 a little bit microwave. We get partially convinced,
39:25 but don't stand it long enough to get fully convinced.
39:29 And we got to learn not to despise the day of small things.
39:34 You know, every great oak tree, it begins with a little bit of seed, a little bitty acorn.
39:41 And I know in my life, God gives me a little bit of light. And I keep looking at that light.
39:51 It's like the sun rising, actually in Peter, he likens it to the morning star.
39:55 But what happens is I get a little bit of light and if I keep looking at it,
39:59 it gets bigger. As I keep looking, it gets bigger. And if I'm faithful over a little,
40:07 over time it becomes much. And before you know it, I got a sunrise in my heart on the inside.
40:14 It's still dark on the outside, but there's a light on the inside, because I work with my seed,
40:21 and I stayed with it, and I grew it, and I kept focusing on it. And before long, I'm no longer
40:29 moved. Folks are moved, folks are running away, but I'm fully persuaded. I am fully convinced.
40:35 And you got to get to the place where you're not satisfied with just, "I hope so."
40:43 But you get into that word to you, "No, so." And being fully convinced that what He had promised,
40:52 God was able to perform. God means what He has said. Whatever He has promised, He is able to
41:08 perform. Whenever and whatever we surrender and submit to God's control can never go out of
41:22 control. Please hear me correctly. Life can be fearful. Life can be challenging.
41:37 But as fearful as life is, God is faithful. And when you keep God's Word, and you hide it in your
41:46 heart, and you let it grow and build, you have a weight to you no matter how hard the wind blows.
41:53 You are not moved, you are anchored, and there's roots in you nobody can see. There's a weight in
42:02 you of glory that God's been working because you stayed put and stayed to ground. But you're
42:10 going to have to deal with your vultures. Doubts are going to come, and you're going to have to
42:17 swat them down. You're going to have to guard that which Paul says was entrusted to you.
42:25 You are valuable. And the only reason the devil is messing with you is because God is working in you.
42:33 In ancient warfare, when the king fought amongst his men with sword, et cetera,
42:44 the way you knew you were getting closer to the king was because the quality of the soldier rose.
42:54 Because the best men in the kingdom were armor bearers and protectors of the king.
43:01 Because if the king goes down, it impacts the whole nation.
43:04 So, the further you fight in, the tougher the battle, God.
43:10 So, if you're in a season where the warfare is getting tough, all that means is you getting
43:22 close to where you need to be.
43:26 [Applause]
43:37 [Music]