Reformation: What is Faith? How Does Faith Come? Why is it Necessary?

Welcome back to today's episode of The Gathering Tabernacle Podcast. Have you asked yourself the questions of what is faith, how do you increase faith, and why is faith necessary for your life? We encourage you to listen to today's episode as we have guest speaker, Pastor Chris McDonald answer these questions. Whether you realize it or not you are part of a Kingdom as a born-again believer. You are in a new family with the headship of Lord, and you will begin to be led by Holy Spirit without realizing it. The Word of God is completely true. Just because it didn't "work" for you or it was abused doesn't mean His Word isn't true. The Jesus way is the only way to have truth and life. You can never exhaust the Word of God and faith. When you are pursuing Him, you will continuously learn more and more. Faith always increases when you are searching. The questions from the beginning will be answered through scripture in this episode so we encourage you to grab a notebook, bible, and take a listen. 

Sermon from Redemption Night 7-10-26 by Pastor Chris and Sue McDonald

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Music by Ruwin from Pixabay

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Welcome to the Gathering Tabernacle Podcast. We're located in Rocky Comfort, Missouri. Our mission at TGT is to host the presence of the Lord to see his glory fall like fire and free those who are in bondage. He came to set the captives free. On the podcast, we share our live sermons from lead pastors Dan and Sarah Gustree, teachings from special guests, and personal testimonies. Thank you for joining us today. If you would like to contact us, you can find us on Facebook or online at www.thegathering tabernacle.com. Let's jump into today's episode.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Heavenly Father, we just praise you and we thank you. We declare your glory. We thank you for the honor and the privilege. We sing and declare your praises. We just want you to come in and do what only you can do tonight, Lord. In your precious name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Father, we praise you, Lord. We praise you, Lord, that we live, Lord, in the you have for us, Lord. We receive, Lord. I thank you for those that are being healed right now, Lord. I thank you for those that are being set free in this house tonight. Right here, right now, Lord. For we honor you, Lord. Lord, just to be immersed in your presence, Lord. Lord, as we seek your face, Lord, as we seek your presence, Lord. As we seek your glory, Lord. Lord, we're just hungry, Lord, for you, Lord. We're hungry, Lord, for you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. You chose to come and dwell inside of us, Lord. We thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for your manifested presence, Lord. Your manifested glory, Lord. Lord, as it is here, right here tonight, Lord, right here in this house tonight, Lord. We honor you, Lord, we praise you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. It's your way, Lord. Your way, Lord. Thank you, Lord, right here tonight, Lord, as it is in heaven, Lord. Shama Kita. Thank you, Lord God. Thank you, Lord God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. In Jesus' name. Amen. Hello, Cax. Good evening. Praise the Lord. What a great night to be in the house of the Lord. Amen. Amen. We've had a fabulous week at encounter camp. You know, I was asking some of them before, and I believe, hands down, this is the best youth camp we have ever had. Amen. Amen. I believe there's no comparison to what it is. So might be the first one, but still, I thought I was just pretty tickled. So, you know, it's awesome to see kids eight to sixteen years old to come in and just worship the Lord. And I was proud of you guys for worship tonight also, but uh it's just to come in and worship, you know, just carefree. And then as I was thinking about that, and I was thinking about them, you know, eight to sixteen. I assume, I assume everyone in here, everyone in here was eight to sixteen at one time, right? You know, I was thinking about that. I thought, yeah, I thought, you know. Was you eight years old one time, Pastor Chris? Yeah. One time. A few days ago, he was uh he was eight years old, and I thought, you know, you know what what happens? Well, some of us I'm like, you know, you know what happened, but but you know what, what glory it is, what glory it is just to just to be in the presence of the Lord and be immersed in the Lord and and to see the uh you know the you know there is no junior in tongues, and you're like, Amen, amen. That's something I wish I would have known about at eight years old, and and to know that that they can live a life without living in sin, you know, and and it was great how um uh uh Cameron and Maddie actually went around and was giving their testimonies to them in the cabins and stuff eight night of a night to let them know, you know, hey, you are precious, you're you're made for one person. Amen. You're made for one, and to know that that that is the normal, just like speaking in tongues is the normal, you know, to go out and have relations with all kinds of people is is not the normal. It's not normal Christianity, you know, but uh but man, it was just it was just fabulous, and just uh those being delivered uh uh throughout the week, those last night, and then then one little girl came in there and uh and she got baptized in the Holy Ghost, and then her hand, she had this uh uh splint. She had broken her hand two months ago, the way I understand it, and then a month ago she had surgery on it, and then when she came to camp, she the the uh the counselor said she couldn't even write her name, couldn't even hold a pen to write her name, and uh she was completely healed, so so I thought, Amen. Amen. So, so can you and don't really go to church much, get sent to church camp, comes back filled with the Holy Ghost, and her hand healed, and I thought, Amen! I thought, hallelujah! So, Pastor Chris and Sue McDonald here from Life in Christ Church in Barring, Kentucky, CSM. Did you guys bring anything with you this time? Did you bring any any shirts or but nothing? Nothing? Her shirt girl just had a baby, so so anyway, you can go online and order it. There you go. Just go online and order it. So uh, you know, it's a it's a it's an honor to have them. They actually was in on the other side of the Kentucky, so they had a they made a stop at their own house last night. You know, they had an 11-hour drive to get here, but thought, well, we'll just stop at our own house and spend the night for the night. So their house was probably glad to see them. I know their two dogs probably were, but they probably wasn't home, Lazy. They were gone. So so anyway, so so you you get to sew in. It's a good it's a night of sowing. It's a night to sow into good grounds. See ya. Uh Chris and CSM, you can you can make it out to the gathering, we'll write them one check. But but CSM Ministries just uh uh I don't know what what all's going on in Lemon. He'll I'm sure he'll tell you about Lemon. Lemon, South Dakota, they're they're on fire out. Go west, young man. So he went west, young man, and uh and they're just fire all across the west and in the Philippines and then all over. But but to know tonight that that when you're sowing into, you're so that's what you're sowing into. You you you get to partner with that. You know, we talk about giving a lot, but but when you're giving, we're actually partnering with someone, and and we're expecting full uh full potential, full potential of the seed that you'll be given to. We praise you, Father. We thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord, that we get to give, Lord. We get to sow into the kingdom of God, Lord. Lord, we thank you, Lord, for the full potential of the seed, Lord. Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I think all of them at camp talk like they got rested up in the three or four hours they had today. So I thought, you know, by morning they'll be good to go for another week, right? So uh just excited. You know, I was as an honor as a as a pastor to see uh you guys, see the the counselors, the cooks, just everyone just uh just being true leaders and and then letting their light shine and just just stepping up and and uh I know uh Scotty had mentioned, you know, I was there for like like 10% of the planning and and was thanking thanking me and me and Sarah for what we've done. I thought, well, I was there for about one percent of the planning. So so so somebody had to have the idea. So so anyway, uh but no, thank you guys. I know several of you put hours into into it all and it took the whole body, but I mean I truly believe, I mean, it's gonna be a uh life-changing for for lots of people. So hallelujah. Without further ado, come on, Pastor Chris and Sue. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

I love this place. Um I do have some updates and reports, I'll give it to you in a minute. And I I didn't think about giving it to you tonight, but I'll give you a video that we can play tomorrow night if that works. It's a highlight video of the Philippines, and that when we're there in May and January, it's kind of combined. So uh, but anyway, we're in Rocky Comfort, and I am happy to be here. It's great. So, yeah, we had a little bit of a jaunt yesterday. We drove from one end of Kentucky up to the other end, and uh Pastor Jason and Mandy Adair, who will be here September, her grandmother passed away, and they were like super close. The grandmother lived next door, kept the kids a lot, that kind of deal, and so it was kind of a sudden thing. But so we thought, man, we need to go up there. But that's a 10-hour turnaround. But we need to go up there. Have you ever done something like you didn't your flesh was like, we don't, we shouldn't do that. But in here, you're like, no, we really need to do that. And so that's what we did yesterday. We drove up there, spent about what, an hour and a half, and then our plan was to leave, stay somewhere the night, and then drive here. And we still have yet to figure out other than it was the Holy Ghost. You can be led by the Holy Ghost and not realize you're being led. Right? There's something you're just like, mmm, something. So we're doing the math on the travel. It's 11 hours from where we were to here, and so we're trying to find the halfway point. You'd put it in the phone and it would say, It's this area, five hours and something. And then I would say, I don't think that's right, Sue. And I would look on my phone and it was seven hours. And I'm like, this math is not mathing. I don't know how many times we did that, like four or five times, even the night before. Couldn't settle on where we're gonna stay. And so coming from that part of Kentucky, if you're gonna come here, Lexington is the turning point. So we either have to turn to go home or turn to come here. I said, we gotta make a decision. So we're looking at where we are, how much longer we're gonna drive.

unknown 10:56

There was some storm.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

There were some storms going on, and that was gonna put us the same amount of time we would be home. I said, let's just go home. We'll sleep in our bed, stay at our house, and then we'll get up in the morning and we'll go to Rocky Comfort. Okay. We found out just a little bit ago when we went back down to get ready, where we were going all the time we were coming through, and I'm like, they're still rescuing people. Yeah, they're still rescuing people. And I was like, thank you, Holy Ghost. I'm like, even when we didn't even know what you were doing, you were up to something good. And uh, so anyway, so we drove in this afternoon and and here we are. Amen.

SPEAKER_05 11:39

Amen. Amen. We are thankful to be back. We're grateful to be back with you all. Something that the Lord laid on my heart that I want to do before Pastor Chris uh preaches is you know, just this weekend is a weekend for you all to receive. Um, we understand that so many of you all have been giving out this week. You've been pouring out this week, you've given extra time, you've given extra uh anointing, you've given your oil out, and I believe that this week is a time for you to receive back. And so I just felt led uh before we came in here that we want to pray for anybody that um was at that camp this week, that gave their time in that camp this week, we just want to pray for you. And um, because I get it, you're exhausted. And the fact that you showed up here tonight is humbling to me after you've been doing what you've been doing all week. And so if you don't care, just if you were at the camp this week, if you would just stand, Pastor Chris and I want to pray over you because again, just the fact that you're here and you're pushing through 30-something workers, and I get it they're not all here tonight, that's okay. But we just really feel like that we need to pray for you all because your mind is tired, your flesh is tired, but your eyes are tired. But here's the thing: I believe that the word tonight is gonna bring life, and I'm gonna speak that there's a fresh anointing that's gonna fall on each and every one of you tonight. Amen. So just lift your hands to heaven, Father. We thank you. We worship you, Father God. You're so good. You're such a good, good Father. Lord, right now in the name of Jesus, I pray over every person that served at that camp this week, whether they're here or whether they're not. But I speak to them right now, I speak to their spirit, and I say in the name of Jesus, be revived, be refreshed in Jesus' mighty name. I speak to their soul, I speak to their mind, I speak to their will, I speak to their emotions, and I say in the name of Jesus, rise up and receive the word of God that's coming to you tonight. Receive the fresh anointing that's coming into you tonight. I thank you, Father God, that his name poured out instead of the first day in here right now, feeling so empty and feeling so drained. But I said, Holy spirit comes up from the feeling, I'm gonna be overflowing. Holy Spirit Flamodos, and finally I'm gonna be over Fluminosis. This is the cleanup, we'll go on for Jenny Running Jennings. But it will not be the last thing there will be mini lord. This was the the last cleanup. This was just the snorkels. This was just the transfinger and this the lord. Just the transfer. This was just the transfer and the woman bring children from the north. That's the north. And bring me all the other and every year. There will be no refreshing that will come back to you. You will never run out as long as you keep coming to the oil. You will never run out and you will always be able to give to those children. It's a father essay tonight in the name of Jesus that a refreshing oil come upon this house in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Praise the Lord. Praise God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Come on, just while you're seated, just lift your hands before the Lord. Lord, we thank you. We honor you. We extol you. We put you in first place. If there's anything in your life that you've moved in front of God, you need to tear that idol down and put God back in first place. He'll have no other gods before him. Father, we love you. I pray just like what Pastor Sue said, a fresh oil. A filling of oil comes in this room tonight. In the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for a fresh wind blowing. Thank you, Father, for stronger conviction concerning your word. In the name of Jesus. Thank you for your word, Father. Thank you that the word became flesh. Thank you, Lord, that the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and now your word lives within us. Thank you. Thank you for sending us Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us and to comfort us and to teach us and remind us and to empower us to clothe us. Amen and amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh man. The Lord is good. Hallelujah. Man, it's so good to see all of you. Vanita, I mean, it's like uh it's like the bands getting together again. This is awesome. And uh, it's great. I love it. I'm so, so thankful. Sue and I love this place and love your pastors, and we're so grateful to be here. They're like two of our most favorite people on earth, and we say it every time we're here because it's true. I'm not trying to get them to like me. They already like us. So I, you know, but they're great, and uh it's amazing. We've been, I don't know, I would say privileged, but really it's blessed. We've been blessed to meet some of the best people that we've ever met in our life in the last five years. It's incredible. It's like, I think once you cross the Mississippi River, I don't know what happens. It's like people get better. I don't know. It's amazing. I mean, it's amazing. The further west you go, I'm like, I didn't know there, I don't honestly, I thought, man, I don't think there's very many good people left in America like this. Place is going, thank God, America has a hope and a chance. I mean, there's so many good people that love God all across this nation. And what we're seeing and what we're finding out, and other preacher friends of mine that I talk to, there are places dotted all over the map of America where people are madly in love with Jesus and they're starting to find each other. Those paths are starting to cross more. I mean, we're starting to run into people that know people, that know people, that know people. I'm like, how do you know them? Well, I ran into them in this meeting or whatever. So it's just very, very encouraging. And uh so, you know, you you should know that you're a part of something much bigger than you, you know, and uh I like knowing that. I I like knowing we're a part of something so much bigger than we are, so much bigger than you know, our ability or our personality or whatever, that we're a part of a kingdom, the kingdom of God. And no matter where we go on earth, I bump into people that are in the same kingdom. It's really cool. I mean, it's really cool. And so I think the last time we saw you guys was September we were here, right? Is that right? Okay. I was so and I were talking about earlier, and it's what we thought. Is that right? Yeah, women's conference. Yeah, I couldn't I didn't make it, I couldn't get here for the men's conference. Uh so amazing. And uh I don't know. Yes, we left from there and went to Thailand and uh hung out there for four or five days at uh Lana Vasquez at her land. And then I went back to the Philippines in May, and so tomorrow night when we show the video, it'll be a mix of the two. But in May, well let's see, in January, we went to Baguio City, which was a new a new territory, and it was amazing. I mean, the meetings were so powerful, all the meetings we had that whole trip, and then this past May, I went back to some different places. One of the places I had been to, but it had been a long time, and we go into the meeting, and it was we call it youth on fire, and uh we'd had we'd had a day meeting with the pastors and leaders, and there were 2,000 pastors and leaders in there, which we didn't know there were going to be that many, and we feed them all. Yeah, praise the Lord. I'm like, multiply Jesus, come on. And uh so we we try to provide them a lunch because a lot of them come in from a long way, so so there's 2,000 pastors and leaders, and it is straight up nut people in that meeting. I mean, I'm looking around the room, I'm like, holy moly, and uh was way more than we thought were gonna be there, which is great, and gave an altar call, and 2,000 of those young people responded to that altar call and got born again. It was incredible. I mean, I was like, you know, you want to give an altar call where a bunch of people get saved, but I was like, Dumbstruck. I'm thinking, oh man, like I asked my translator, I said, they did understand what we said, right? Like they he goes, Oh yeah, he goes, I explained it very well. I said, Okay, I just want to make sure we're not, you know, because sometimes stuff can get lost in translation, and you you know, they think they're responding for one thing, and it's something totally different. But anyway, it it was great. And that trip we saw uh just under 3,000 people born again. And uh it was incredible, it was so powerful, and uh I'm just so grateful to God for what God's doing, and y'all are a part of it. Pastor Dan said it right. When you sow into anything we're doing, whatever we do, you're a part of that. It it is a major help, anything you do, and I'm very grateful for anybody that sows seed into anything we're doing. It it means something to us, and it means something to people around the world. Several, a bunch. Like a bunch. Some like fly home on Saturday, preach on Sunday, fly right back out on Sunday and go back out there and do another week because they're just like you gotta come back. Like so, Pastor Jason, who'll be coming here in September, he and I travel out there quite a bit. And for the last two years, we've been praying about getting in to the one of the reservations out there. There's there's either three or five major reservations in in uh South Dakota and the Wyoming area. And we've been praying about getting in. Well, the ones we're wanting in on, you can't get in without an invite. So you can't, it's not like you can just pull up and say, here I am, and I'm gonna preach. They're like, uh, no, you're not. See you later. And so we've been praying about it, and we've got some friends that minister there. Uh, they go and do some worship stuff there, and they've been kind of talking to them, but it's it just seemed like nothing was moving. We couldn't get anywhere, so we just kept praying, believing God. God's gonna open that door. And we got a text this week from a chief on that reservation, and he said, We want you to come. So in August, right after we leave Venita, pray for those meetings. It it really is a major deal that we get to go because we both have that very, very strong in our heart to go there and and have. I've had it in my heart for 20 something years or longer, and thought, man, I don't even have a clue how I would ever get there. And God's making a way. And so the guy that invited us, he's native royalty. I mean, he's his bloodline is uh sitting bull, crazy horse, because these guys are they were heavyweights, and they got born again, that's the thing. Red cloud, chief red cloud. So if you go out west and you start seeing photos of these chiefs, they're there. I mean, these are the guys, and uh, these guys got born again and loved Jesus, and and this gentleman that's invited us, he's a Jesus man, and uh so I'm super excited we have that connection, and I'm praying, I'm praying that great things happen in those meetings and that people are born again. Amen. So then we'll be doing a we'll be doing a right after that, we do a five-day and night tent meeting in Gillette, which is we've not been there, so the doors open for there. And it's like every time we go somewhere, a door opens to another city or another state, which is great. I mean, that's what you know, that's what we're doing. We're preaching the gospel and that's what you want. So we're gonna be preaching in a tent in a truck stop. I just found out, I'm like, I mean, that's a pretty target-rich environment. I mean, you know, so I just found out the other day, and I haven't even talked had a chance to talk to Sue about it, but the tent's gonna be set up in a truck stop parking lot. I'm like, perfect. And uh, so it's gonna be good. Y'all just pray for us for that, and uh, you know, those meetings coming up, because I'm believing for great things, and I believe God's gonna show out. Amen? Amen. Well, we uh I won't take a whole lot of your time tonight. I'll be done by midnight. So uh you campers, you've been up late anyway. So who cares? You haven't you haven't slept in a week, so I mean, what difference does it make? Um right? I'm just gonna try to stay on course with your sleep habits. Uh so I I was, we were of course driving today, and I I was just thinking about, I was like, Lord, what are you what are he just waits to tell me last minute sometimes. And uh I had this thought come into my spirit, and it was this what is faith? How does faith come, and why is faith necessary? All very important questions. So I think we're gonna just do a little teaching tonight if you're okay with that, if that suits you. I feel like it suits God, so if it doesn't suit you, change suits. Get it to suit and amen. So Hebrews 11:1. What is faith? Because, you know, people have all these ideas about what faith is. Like if you go and have to fill paperwork out at a doctor's office, they'll want to know what faith you are. Right? So that of this faith, of that faith, but that's not really faith. Right? It's it might be the it might be the place you set and call your church home, but that's not faith. And so there's so many things about serving God that have been so watered down, like love. Like we love everything. We love popsicles and we love Reese's cups and we love rainy days and we love sunny days. Stuff gets cheapened down and you lose the real meaning of something. So faith in the church has been watered down so much that when you, and not just me, it's other people, when you expose what faith really is, people are like, well, I mean, I don't know. I don't know if I I really believe that or not. I'm like, no, we just read you the Bible, like showed you 10 or 15 scriptures out of the Bible. Like, I don't understand what you don't believe about that. Does that make sense to anybody? I don't know if you run into anybody like that or not, but I've run into a few in my life, and I'm like, I don't I don't understand what you mean you don't believe it. Like it's in the Bible. Like you can't, you get nothing without it.

unknown 29:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

Right? Now I get it. There've been abuses. You can abuse anything, but just because there's been an abuse of something doesn't mean that something's not true. Right? In other words, people say, well, that, you know, such and such, this or that, that's fake. Well, if there's a fake, there's a real. There's never a fake anything unless there's a real something. Right? So you you can't, I don't know if y'all say it here, we say it at home sometimes, you can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because the bathwater is dirty, don't mean you throw the baby out the window, too. Keep the baby, dump the bathwater, right? Chew the meat, spit out the bones. It's like, you know, so you see, this is a plain definition. This is substance. Faith is substance. Substance of what? Things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Well, how can you develop faith that has substance in something you haven't seen? Faith comes from the Word of God. Now, I'm talking about Bible faith, okay. So, you know, you can say, well, I mean, I have faith in that person that they're gonna do right. Okay, I understand that. But there has to be something there. If you huh? Yeah, that's more like confidence, but let's just for the sake of the word say, you know, I have faith in that person's word, like they they do what they say, uh, you know, I have faith they're gonna be here when they say they're gonna be whatever. Why? Well, there's been proof that there's been action for you to say, well, I mean, I know because I deal with this person, I I I know them. So when I say faith in the word of God, some people are like, eh, I don't know. Okay, well, they've not they've not had any dealings with the word of God then. So, well, they read the Bible. Okay, well, you can read the comics. Some people read the Bible and it's just a book. It's a history book, it's a book of maybes, you know. I don't know, God might do something. I, you know, you never know about God. Faith is substance. I have substance to faith because of what the word of God says. The word of God cannot fail. God cannot fail. People can fail.

unknown 31:39

Good.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

I don't know about in Missouri, but in Kentucky, people can fail. People can fail. The word of God does not fail. The word of God doesn't fail. Well, I mean, I tried all that and it didn't work. No, no, no. No, don't believe it. Because if you did it the Jesus way, it works. You can't do anything the Jesus way and it not work. Because if it doesn't, the whole thing's a lie. Praise the Lord. Now, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now, I think it's the amplified classic talks about it like a title deed. It's the title deed. So, in other words, you hold that Bible in your hand, you have a deed in your hand of everything God said you could have. Well, I don't see it. Doesn't matter you have the deed. If I show you the deed in a piece of property, who cares if we've seen it or not? I have the deed to prove I own it. I have a deed right here that I can go to God with and say, now look, I didn't write the deed, I didn't make up the deed, you're the one that wrote it, you're the one that sealed it with the blood of your son, and then some people have uh mental assent, but they don't have faith, and there is a major, major, major difference. Mental assent will get you nothing out of Scripture except talking points. Faith in here will pull out of this Bible into your life what God said you could have. So, what is faith? Faith is substance. That's the answer to the question, substance. I probably could have said it quicker, but all the other stuff needed to be said. Amen. So faith is substance. Well, okay then. How does faith come? Romans 10, 17. I mean, I'm not in a room full of novice people when it comes to scripture, and I'm sure you know these backwards and forwards. But I can tell you this you can never get too much of the word, and you can never get too much of the word on a subject. And I say this a lot, uh not everywhere I go, maybe, but almost everywhere I go, that I've been studying the subject of faith for 25 plus years now, and I have yet to exhaust it. I'm like, I'll find something, and I'm like, how did I not know that? How did I miss that? How did I did they just put that? Somebody slipped and put that in my Bible while I was sleeping. I did not know that was in there. How did that happen? Some angel came down with a how did he do that? I mean, it's like, where did that come from? Well, what is that? Well, the word of God is alive, the word of God is powerful. We know that. The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword, cuts, I mean, it cuts the spirit, it cuts to the marrow, I mean it gets down to the nitty-gritty. Well, revelation comes out of something that's living like that. So revelation is an invitation to participation with God. So when the more you spend time in the word and then spend time meditating on the word, which I'll get to a little more, more revelation comes out of that word. You'll never exhaust the word of God. I mean, if we sat in this room for the next month and studied one subject, we would come out a month later and we would all be much deeper in that subject than we were when we started, and yet we would still have a long way to go. Amen. Now, some people have a you know weird opinions about who I'm about to mention, and if you don't like him, I don't really care. Because he's he was great, and uh his honestly, his teaching and his legacy opened up a new world to Christianity that should have been opened long ago, and that's Kenneth E. Hagin. And uh, you know, I'm just like, I don't understand how people can't listen to his stuff and go, that's right out of the Bible. That's all that's all right there. He was praying almost at the end of his life here on earth. He was in a conference and he was praying. It might have been their last, it might have been their last camp meeting. I can't remember, but it was like right at the end. And he was praying, and he said, Father, concerning faith, we know so little. Well, I heard that, I heard him pray that on an audio, and I thought, you know so little? I'm thinking, you've written over a hundred books. Not all of them, you know, were about the subject of faith, but many of them were. And I'm thinking, you, you, you're praying and saying that you know so little about faith? And I'm thinking, I don't know anything then. Like, we don't I haven't even gotten started yet. So here's a guy in his 80s, been in ministry over 60 years. God speaks to him and tells him, Go teach my people faith, and then close to the end of your life, you're praying and saying, We know so little. And I'm thinking, Wow, your word is inexhaustible. I can't we can never get to the end of it. It's not possible. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. Hearing and understanding, but hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing. There's subjects that you know people just gloss over, and I'm like, you need to hear more word on it. Well, I've I've already heard that talked about. I'm like, okay, well, I can tell by your attitude you hadn't got it yet. So you need more word on it. You need to hear more word on it, you need to set under that more, you need to meditate on that, you need to study that, you need more of that so that when revelation comes, the light comes on. No revelation, no light. Right? We need light in the word. We need to understand in here what the word means. Now, again, I get it. I'm in a room full of people that I can tell you study and you know the word. But how many of you know we can know more? Amen. I could probably, I could probably stay here for two weeks and just teach on faith, but then get to the end and go, man, I learned a bunch. I learned a lot I didn't know. Why? Inexhaustible. So the more you hear it, the more that comes. Now, it really is when we if you've got the word in you and you know the word, you believe the word, it's easy to believe just to have faith. That's what that is. I believe the word. Why have faith for that? Now, how do you get how do you get faith from here? Out to here. Yes, ma'am. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Great job, Miss Pat. I love you. You're awesome. I mean, she comes up to me and tells me, I've been at that camp all week. And I'm like, are you for real? It's amazing. The first time we met you, I think, were you in a wheelchair? I think. That was just five years ago. Four or five years ago, she was in a wheelchair. Now she's running around at kids' camp for crying out loud for a whole week. It's amazing. I mean, it really, it's a miracle. That is a miracle. Amen. It is you and God. God's in you, but it's your body running around. Amen. Now, what is faith? Substance. How does faith come? Hearing. Now, here's the biggie. Why is faith necessary? Now, all this is going to help us the rest of the week. Why is all right, I'm sorry. Yeah, why is faith necessary? Ephesians 2.8. Why is faith necessary? You can't get saved without faith. Necessary. Necessary. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. So we needed the grace of God, yes, but faith took into you what grace had made available. Right? For by grace, salvation was made available by grace. We've been saved, but through faith, faith brought that into our. Now, Jesus paid for our salvation. Yes, we know that. But you appropriate that in your life with faith. You could put all people on this side of the room that believe in God, all people on this side of the room that don't believe in God, and this side of the room knows they're born again, and this and said, I'm here to get my bride. Who leaves? That side of the room, that side sitting here trying to figure out what just happened. Yeah, I'm going over there too, Miss Pat. But you get what I'm saying. People will say this, and it's wrong. They'll say, Well, we're all children of God. I'm like, no, we're not. No, we're not, we're not all children of God. We're all a creation of God, but until you get born again, you're not a child of God. But you see what I'm saying? By all this terminology that people throw around, even church people will do that. Well, you know, we're all children of God. I'm like, listen, your son is lost.

unknown 42:16

Right?

SPEAKER_00 42:17

Well, we shouldn't say that. No. They're law. Love would say that. What would Jesus do? Jesus is love. I mean, people run around and talk about you don't love if you tell the truth. I'm like, well, then Jesus didn't love anybody. God didn't love anybody. The truth is the truth. Amen. Love will tell the truth. So it let's say this. If you know that person that's lost, like you know them, and you don't witness to them, I'm pointing over here like they're here, but you get what I'm saying? And you don't witness to them, let me ask you this. How much do you hate them? Them because we love them so much. We have been fed a lie by the enemy and believed it enough to actually hate that person and let them go to hell. Now you might not have hated them intentionally, but I'm telling you this, if you just stood by and let them just devolve into the abyss because you thought, well, I love them so much I just can't tell them. No, that's not love. That's not love. What if Jesus would have said, you know, I love our creation so much, you know, I'm gonna skip the cross. Anyway, it's gonna be a fun three nights. Praise God. We're saved by faith, by grace through faith. Not of ourselves. The salvation's not of us, it's of God. It's a gift of God. Now, you can't live unless you live by faith. You're not going to live for God if you don't live by faith. Romans 1 17. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just, who are the just, born again, shall live by faith. Yeah. The just, the just, the just, we're justified by the blood of Jesus. We're justified by God. It's justified never sinned. When I get born again according to God, it's justified never sinned. I'm justified by grace. I mean, that's just what the Bible says. I don't know. If we're going to go by the Bible, let's just go by it and see what happens. Right? I'm like, let's just let's just run it to the end and see how it goes. People say, I don't believe in all that. And I'm going to do what I want and God's okay with me. Okay. I'll see if I see you there. I'll look for you. Because I know I'm going. Not on my own deal. It's the gift of God. But the just then, when they get born again, shall live by faith. We must live by faith. There's a right and wrong way to live after you get born again. Amen. I don't want to get off on that. I mean, I want to get off on it, but that ain't where I'm headed tonight. Well, I'm fine. I don't know. Not if you're living in sin. It's not okay. Well, I mean, I'm saved. Okay, you're missing the point here. I can't get down with people that say they know the same Jesus I know and then live like I used to live before I met him. I'm like, I don't think you know him. I don't think you know him. That or you've walked away. You can see that Jesus wrote letters to churches and he said to the church at Ephesus, which was the happening church. It was the church of the day. He said, Man, you did great here. You did great here. You did great here. But I have this one thing against you. You have left your first love. You can't leave something you've never been at. You can't leave Rocky Comfort if you've never been. People walk away from God. Not a good move. It's a painful thing to watch. Well, I know what the word says. Okay, then you should know then that what you're doing is a bad move. Who are you to judge me? I'm not judging you, pal. I'm just saying, if you were walking out in four-lane traffic, I'd be like, don't do that. That's not judgment, that's wisdom, pal. Don't go out there. You're gonna be, you know, I know you might have played Frogger on Atari, but you're gonna get squished. Like, don't go do that. Live by faith. Hebrews 10, 38. Now the just shall live by faith. Watch. This I'm telling you, man, there's some scripture that makes me shake inside. Now we were just we were talking earlier today. There's a major issue, and I think it's changing. I'm not saying it's like a plague. I think it is changing. But there has been, there has been, I'll say it that way, a major issue in the church in the Western world, and that is this an absence of the fear of God. I think it's changing. I think the fear of God is coming back to people. Because here's the deal. If you have a fear of God, and I don't mean like Freddy Cat fear, it's reverent awe. Like, I don't, you know, I don't want to be away from God. I don't want to be out of God's will. I don't want to do something against God. That kind of fear keeps you from doing crazy stuff. That kind of fear keeps you on track with God. It's like, no, God, I don't want to do anything against you. Like, I don't want to do anything against God. I don't, I mean, you know, I don't live in sin. I know it's hard for people. What do you mean? Like we all sin. Not according to Romans 6. Can we just go by the Bible? If you look at Romans 6, like when we leave, when we get done here tonight, I'm not going anywhere out. I'm going to Pastor Dan and Sarah's kitchen and snacking on something, and I'm going to bed. Not going out to sin. You understand? You get to choose whether you do it or not. I'm not going out. Like when I'm traveling on the road, I don't go out running around. I go preach, pray for people, go eat, and go to bed. That's the schedule. When I'm done, I get on a plane and I fly home. That's the schedule. I don't go out and carrels around because I'm in another town that nobody knows me. It's insane. It's called sin. It's called leading you to hell. The just, the just, the justified, the born again live by faith. Amen. Now, how many of you know if you're going to walk correctly, we walk by faith. 2 Corinthians 5, 7. Is this helping anybody? For we walk by faith, not by sight. And it's a life full. We walk by faith and not by sight. If you walk by sight, you base your Christianity off of everything your natural eyes can see. Which, you know, is bad because I mean we're watching, we're literally watching the world implode. We're seeing it. Every day, every day, something different happens and at all points to Scripture. Every day. All this squabble that's going on in the Middle East shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. Shouldn't be a shock to anybody. All the things that are going on shouldn't be a surprise because the stage is being set for the return of Jesus. But the just live by faith and we walk by faith, not by sight. So, you know, if you can sit at home and watch all the negative reports, and I promise you, you won't be walking by faith. You'll be walking by sight. What are we going to do? Well, they said this. What? Okay, what's the Bible say? Well, I mean, I know what the Bible says, but did you hear the report on the news? No, actually, I didn't, but I just know what the Bible says. I know what the Bible says about it. I'm not shocked that this is happening, control the whole world just like that. I'm not surprised at all. I'm not surprised that they could put a chip in your body somehow and figure out how to get you to have mind control and that they're gonna have someone who stands on a stage and says, I can take care of all of you, and everybody be eating out of their hand that fat. I'm not surprised at all that's already in the earth. You know why? Because we're closer now to Jesus coming back than it's ever been. I'm telling you, it's close. I'm not predicting the day or the hour, so don't, you know. I'm just telling you, it ain't gonna be long. So it could be a hundred years. Yeah, that's not long. That's not that long. A hundred years goes by pretty quick. Ask somebody that's a hundred years old. They'll tell you they felt like a kid yesterday. I mean, I talk to people that are way up in years, and I'm like, so what's it like to be this age? What have you seen? Well, it feels like I was a kid yesterday. Like it feels like I was just a child and now I'm like 95. I'm like, holy moly. They said it went by so fast. I I mean it was over. Like it a whole lifetime. Well, if a thousand years is a day to the Lord. What's a hundred years? I mean, nothing. To us, we think it's crazy, but because we look at it from the natural. If you look at it through faith, yeah, but we can't live like that. You gotta live like it's the next minute because he said you never know the hour or the day. Right? So we have to live our life like it's right now, and people's lives are on the line. I think what y'all did at this camp's amazing. I mean, kids getting saved, kids getting, I mean, it's wonderful because it's the next generation. Amen. Praise the Lord. Hebrews 11, 6. We're I'm gonna say we're three-quarters done. How about that? Look, you can't even please God without faith. Well, I think I please God just fine. Not if you don't have faith, you don't. You can argue with it all you want, but there's what the scripture says. But without faith, it is impossible, not even remotely close to be impossible. It is impossible to please God. Impossible. Impossible. Well, I mean, I think I'm doing just fine. Not without faith. No, it is impossible to please God. Well, I mean, I showed up for church. Big deal. I've been in a barn, but I'm not a cow, so coming to church don't mean anything. I mean, I go to church, Pastor. Well, whoop do you should be in church. But without faith, it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God, this is a big one right here. He who comes to God must believe that he is. He is what? And he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. God rewards people. I know, in the culture we're in, they say, God is, yeah, God doesn't reward people. Okay, all right. Well, we'll see. You get rewards when you get to heaven.

unknown 55:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:12

People get rewards in hell.

unknown 55:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:18

Just saying. You get a reward for giving when nobody's looking, you get a reward for giving someone a cup of cold water. You get You see what I'm saying? No, God is a rewarder. I believe God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him, because that's what his word says. So if we diligently seek God and do what God wants done, then he rewards us, and he doesn't reward in secret. He rewards openly. Amen. How many of you played sports? When you won, did you get a reward? You're running for a prize that doesn't pass away. We're running, I don't, you know, when we go out west, I'm not going out there because I'm trying to build a name. I'm going out there because I owe God everything, and there's going to be a reward attached to it at some point. But then guess what? If I get a crown for that, I get to lay it at his feet when he gives it to me. Amen. So this is all for him. Our whole life should be lived for him. Amen. Because without faith, it is impossible to please him. How many of you want to please God?

unknown 56:33

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 56:35

Some of you? Okay. The others still thinking it over. Praise the Lord. This side, going. Thinking it, no. I want to please God, but I know without faith I can't do it. I know I can carry a Bible and have zero faith. I see people do it all the time. They pack a Bible around, no faith at all. None. Hey, you know God does this? No, I don't know about that. Okay. How long you've been a Christian? I mean, I've been saved for 50 years, preacher. Okay. And you don't know that God is a healer? You don't know God delivers? You don't know God sets free? What are you talking about? Have you been a Christian for 50 years and you don't know that? Well, they don't teach that where I go. Oh, so you depend on someone else to do your cooking and learn to cook for yourself. So without faith, it's impossible. You should be in a church where they preach and teach faith and preach and teach the Bible. But if you don't learn to cook for yourself, you'll get tired of the cooking here and go find another cook. But the trouble is, you'll go there and won't like that cooking after a while, and then you go find another cook. Why? Because there's no faith. So you can't please God, you're not pleased with yourself and you're pleased with no one else. Anyway, just things I think about on a daily basis. You can't grow and develop without faith. 2 Thessalonians 1:3. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you abounds toward each other. So faith grows. It grows exceedingly, it should be growing. My faith should be growing all the time. There's no way if you run up on me in ten years that I should be at the same place I'm at right now in faith. No way. No way. I'm telling you, when soon I first got saved, I couldn't have believed God to get enough gas to get halfway out of town, let alone travel all over the nation. But I started finding out in the Word what God wanted. You see what I'm saying? So when you find out what that is, you start developing in that and then you start moving toward it. Well, as you're doing that, faith is growing, and you're walking by faith, not by sight, because if you went by sight, nothing you're doing typically makes any sense. So you're going by faith. I know this is what the Spirit of God wants me to do, so I'm going to keep moving that direction. Well, have you got the provision for it? Well, I don't have it in my hand, but God has the provision for it, and as I go in the going, the provision is made known for me, and everything's taken care of. Amen. Walking by faith, not by sight. Now you're not walking with a blindfold on. You see what I mean? But you're walking by faith. God, I'm I'm walking into this, believing you, that you're gonna take care of every need. Why? Because your word says, all my needs are met. All of my needs are met. All of my needs, every need, every emotional need, every financial need, every mental need, every health need. All of my needs are met according to your riches and glory by Christ Jesus. So I'm gonna keep trucking. Amen. Amen. Matthew 4, 4. I don't know, Pastor Howard, it's funny. Dramatic effect. He took a drink of water. He goes, Pause for dramatic effect. And I'm like, only you, Pastor Howard. What a guy. Amen. Matthew 4, 4. Now, how many of you? How many I know the answer to this before I ask? How many of you ate today? You fed your physical body? How many of you know you have a spirit? Actually, you are a spirit. You have a soul and you live in a body. So we feed our body, but we should be feeding our spirit. This is food. Amen. But he answered and said, It is written, he's speaking to the enemy. He's speaking to Satan. Satan's trying to get him to turn rocks into bread. And Jesus said, Man shall not live by bread alone. In other words, you need bread, but that ain't all you need. But by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. What do we have here? Words from the mouth of God. Man should not live by bread alone. He didn't say it's wrong to eat. Eat our physical body to keep it running. But we should be living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You say, well, wait a minute. We got to have food to live. Okay, if that's get off that thought. Yes, we have to have food to live. But the Bible says we live by faith and not by sight. So we must live by the word of God. Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God is food for our spirit. When you sit down with the word of God, you can say this Father, I'm here to eat a meal. And it's going to be real good. I'm going to eat real good today. I'm going to learn something. Revelation is going to come. My eyes, the eyes of my spirit are going to be enlightened. I'm going to have your word revealed to me. Revelation knowledge is going to come to me. I mean, what are you doing? You're speaking back to the Creator what you believe about his word, that it is life. It is going to bring life. It is going to open your spiritual eyes that you can see what God wants done. I mean, there's so many things that God wants us to do that we can miss just because we say, oh, I got to read these three verses and that way I'll have my Bible reading it today. And then, man, I got to go. I gotta go. That's listen, that's great. You should be sitting down with the word and letting the word read you. Look into the mirror of the word of God and see if your life is matching what the word says. Like I don't even know, I don't even know how I learned this years ago. I mean, the Holy Spirit is, he's so such a gentleman, and he's a genius. He's a genius. I didn't know, I mean, I read in James that the word was like a mirror. And somehow, I mean, this is years ago, years ago, I didn't know anything about the Bible. And somehow on the inside, the Holy Spirit took that and got me to thinking if I find anything in this book that my life doesn't match, I have to change. Because the mirror doesn't change. Right? We stand in front of the mirror and we want it to change. Change! Quick! Nothing happens. Why? If you're gonna change the image in that mirror, you're the one that's gonna have to change. So when it concerns the word of God, if I look in this word and I want my life to look like this word, I have to change. I have to change. I can't change the word, I can't try to twist the word to make the word fit where I can, you know, kind of manipulate around. I'm gonna help you with something. That's called No, I if my life doesn't match the word, I have to change, or therefore I am in rebellion. Wait. The Bible says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. So I don't want to rebel against God. I want to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Amen. Proverbs 4, 20 through 23. This will be our last scripture for tonight. I'm gonna have mercy on you tonight. Everybody sleep real good tonight. I don't know if I can do it two nights in a row. We'll see. My son, give attention. You know, if you're giving attention to something, you're being very attentive. I'm paying attention. Pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention. Like my dad would be teaching me stuff, and he's like, pay attention. Okay, that means concentrate, focus. Great and His job, and I was still pretty green, and uh he was doing stuff out there one day, and I you know, I'm thinking I didn't know what he was doing, I'd never seen what he goes, Hey, he's he was short. I I looked down, I said, Yeah, he he goes, pay attention to this. I said, Okay, he said, You'll need it. I was like, Okay. So I watched what he did, and I logged it in here somewhere, and then he we ended up on different boats or whatever, and some time had gone by, and I was out on tow one night and something wasn't working, and then all of a sudden, it came back to me what he showed me, and I actually paid attention to what he was showing me and I applied it. You can learn something in a service like this and may never apply it for 10 years, but you need to keep that thing going. You see what I'm saying? Because when you need to apply it, you need to know it. You know, if you get a cut on your arm and you're gonna put ointment on it, you don't just rub the tube on it, you open it. You have to apply Josh. Did you put the ointment on? Well, I mean, I rubbed the tube on it and it didn't help none. Okay, okay. You got an oar skipping. Didn't open it. No, I didn't open it. You just said put ointment on. I didn't know you meant I had to open it. Okay, now that is funny, but I'm saying that to say it like this. Many people they love God, they believe in God, they have a Bible, they read the Bible, but they don't know how to apply the Bible. Give attention to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not, do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart, not your blood pump, down in here, down in your belly. For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Now, in verse 22, and health to all their flesh. Now, I'm not necessarily, this is not a healing meeting necessarily, but I've prayed for so many people through the years, and they'll see a change instantly. Then you see them a little bit later, and they're worse off than they were when they started. Well, what happened? They didn't keep their eyes on people, and I've laid hands on, I'm gonna say, probably hundreds of thousands at this point. But that in and of itself is not the deal sometimes. It may be the initial starter of something, but then you're gonna have to be the one that stewards what God has imparted. In other words, don't let the word on healing depart from your eyes. Keep it everywhere. If you got a, I'm telling you, here's the thing somebody can have something wrong with them, and they can tell you if you'll go to certain doctor and get four treatments a week for the next six years, they're not missing one of them. They're not missing. But when it comes to the word, hey, you need to put the word on that. You need you can take this as many times as you want, and there's no real bad side effect. You can just gorge on it if you choose to. You can't get enough of it. Well, what are you doing? If you keep it before your eyes and you don't let it depart out of your heart, and you speak it over yourself with your mouth, what's happening? Every time you speak it, you're hearing it. Every time you hear it, faith is coming. Every time faith comes, now you're getting stronger in it. You can have a little bit of faith for something, but you can grow that faith. You can get more faith on something. One more verse. Joshua 1.8. I didn't give that one to you. But I got a feeling you're quick on the trigger. Look at that. It's like Doc Holidays in a sound booth. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. Now that doesn't mean you shouldn't say it, it just means it should never leave being in your mouth. But you shall meditate in it day and night that you observe to do according to all that is written in it. Now watch. You shall meditate in it. Murmur, mutter. Mutter, utter, and speak the word of God day and night. Speaking the word of God over yourself. I thank you, Lord, that your word says, I'm healed, and I am therefore healed. I believe you for it, Father. I thank you. That's what your word says, I have it. Thank God by the stripes of Jesus that I'm healed. Thank God in 1 Peter 2.24. That Peter said, by his stripes you were healed. So I am healed. I thank you, Lord. I am. No matter what my body says, I am healed. I am healed, and my body must line up with the word of God. Lord, I thank you that I'm prosperous in every area in the name of Jesus. Your word says that I'm prosperous and blessed. So thank you that I'm prosperous in the name of Jesus. I think if they give a raise on a job, they give it to me. I think if there's a promotion that comes, they bring it to me because I have favor. I have favor in every area of my life, Lord, because I'm your child, I'm favored. I'm favored because I'm your child. I have a coat of many colors. They can't see, but you can. So that everyone in my go, I'm blessed. Everyone in the soles of my feet shall walk is land that I possess. Everything I'm putting my hands to is blessed. That's what your word says, God. So therefore I believe what your word says, and I have what your word says. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Lord. Your word is alive. Thank you that it's living in us. It's a living breathing inside of us. I thank you for it, Lord. I thank you for your favor on our lives. Thank you, Lord, for faith. Thank you that it is necessary in your kingdom. Teach us, Father, name of Jesus. In the name of the Lord Jesus, I thank you for it, Father. Hallelujah. What is faith? Why is faith necessary? Hallelujah. We must have it. We must have it. We must have it. We must have it. We must have it. In the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I'm telling you, if you got something going on in your body, you need to find every scripture you can find concerning healing. And start putting them on that. Start speaking them out of your mouth. That's how you apply faith. Mark 11, 22 through 24. I won't even go into it tonight. I might jump off into it tomorrow night. Because that's how you get the ointment out of the tube with your mouth. Amen. Amen. Would you stand? Father, thank you. Thank you, Father, for this night. Thank you for these wonderful people. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you that your word is seed. Our confession is the water to the seed. Our heart is the soil that the seed goes in. Word in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Pastor.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:20

Hallelujah. What a wonderful night. Miss Pat had mentioned she's wanting to get in the water. So I actually have it heated up. So if anybody's wanting to get in, you can get with uh Pastor Sarah, and she has the permission slips and she'll get you fixed up. So I love you guys. If anyone needs any one on one prayer or anything, then we're here and we're gonna pray for you. So Amen. Amen.