Reformation: What Are You Considering?

Welcome back to today's episode of The Gathering Tabernacle Podcast. Today's episode we are continuing to learn about what you are considering in your life and how that affects your faith. Your faith should be in God, not which denomination of church you go to. What are you going to consider in your life? You can choose to walk around broken and sick, or you can choose to consider God's Word over your life and walk in victory/healing. If you are consistently swayed by your environment versus standing on the Word of God, then your environment is your God. If you are making excuses as to why you can't be obedient to God, then those excuses are your God. What are you considering that is keeping you from living in the Word of God? Being a Christian isn't just window shopping hoping to see what you like or dislike. It is about laying your life down to live for the One who gives you the breath to breathe. Either get in or get out.

Sermon from 7-12-26 by Pastor Chris McDonald

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Music by Ruwin from Pixabay

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 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 leak pastors Dan and Sarah Goostry, 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.thegatheringtaberacle.com. Let's jump into today's episode.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

Thank you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. Set us the train of the rope, filled the temple. You have to realize you're the temple. He's filling you now. You have to allow him to fill you. King of glory, fill this place. It's you that he's filling. It's you that he's filling. So get you a fresh infilling right now. Father, we praise you, Lord, for the fresh infilling, Lord, and the Holy Spirit, Lord. We thank you, Lord. Lord, we're an axe, Lord, and we believe it now. Lord, Lord, that we're continually being filled, Lord. Lord, not thank you, Lord, that we're filled to overflowing, Lord, this morning, Lord. An overflowing fill, Lord, and just being filled, Lord, Lord, but we're being filled from the inside out, Lord. Lord, and as we're being filled from the inside out, Lord, Lord, it's purging out everything that's not pleasing to you, Lord. Lord, as you're purging out, Lord, we thank you, Lord, for a purging this morning, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for a filling this morning, Lord. A filling of the Holy Spirit that's pushing out, pushing out arthritis, that's pushing out anxiety, that's pushing out depression, that's pushing out hate, that's pushing out judgmental spirits, that's pushing out cancer, that's pushing out dementia, that's pushing out anything that's not pure with you, Lord. We thank you, Lord, we praise you, Lord, Lord, King of Glory, fill this place, Lord, this place, Lord, thank you, Lord, I'm the place, thank you, Lord, you're the place, thank you, Lord, Lord, thank you, Lord, you come to you chose to dwell in us, Lord. You chose to dwell in a temple made without hands, Lord! We are thankful to live on the risen side of the cross, Lord! We're thankful, Lord, to live, but the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us, Lord! We thank you, Lord, we thank you, Lord, you send it good tonight. I'll send another, and he will guide you, and he will teach you, and that is the Holy Spirit, thank you, Holy Spirit, thank you, thank you, Holy Spirit, thank you, Holy Spirit. We've all the lives of the body, Lord, we're thankful, Lord, that we're made in the image of you, Lord. We're thank you, Lord, our spirit aligns with you, God, we thank you, Lord, our flesh aligns with you, Jesus. We thank you, Lord, our mind will and emotions align with you, Holy Spirit. We thank you, Lord, that you love us, Lord, that you love us so much that we're created in your image, Lord, Lord, the only thing I know in creation that's created in the image of you, Lord, Lord, it is us, Lord, a temple made without hands, Lord, Lord, so you feel that temple overflowing this morning, Lord. We receive it, I receive a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit, I receive your goodness, I receive your mercy, I receive your grace, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen, amen. What a day. I was thinking about the song, you know. Some songs have a lot of death in them, you know, a lot of some, yeah. I was thinking about what a day it is, is actually what I was thinking, like, what a day it is, but then it came to my mind, what a day that was your mercy. And I I'm thankful for the day that I'm gonna be at the feet of Jesus too. So so don't get me, don't get me wrong there. But man, it's a beautiful day. It's a wonderful day to be in the house of the Lord. Um, man, we've just had in counter camp, uh, counter youth camp. So if you're wondering what all the blue is, that's what it is. And we had a a fabulous week. And uh Amen. Amen. Man, I'm ready to go back, you guys. Let's go back, let's do it again. You know, you know what's so exciting about it? You know what, you know what I thought is the greatest about it? Is they just believe. They just believe the word. They just believe the word. It's no different, it's no different than anyone sitting here. They just believe the word and they act on the word. And and I was thinking about uh every night as they're up there worshiping and just just just being, he really has set you free. And and it's just a beautiful thing to see them, to see them worshiping, and then and then I got to thinking, you know, they're they're eight to uh sixteen, and then I thought, man, you know, everybody here's been eight to sixteen. I I think Mike one time was even eight to sixteen, you know. I'm sure Miss Pat, was you one time was you eight years old, Miss Pat? Yeah, well I'm sure one time Miss Miss Pat was was eight years old, and I thought, you know, all we got to do is just get back to then. And I'm not talking about that in your age, I'm talking about that with you in Christ, in the Spirit. Amen. It's a place you can be, it's a place you can be 24-7. And and just to see uh the little ones baptized in the Holy Ghost, you know, it's it's amazing. Uh one girl that uh Scott and Sanders' granddaughter came and then brought another little girl and and she was actually baptized in the Holy Spirit. She had a had a splint on her hand, and she broke her hand two months before, and then a month ago she'd had surgery on it, and her counselor, when she got there, their counselor had to write for her because she couldn't even write. And after baptisms that night, uh she went in and and like later when she came out, she realized her hand was working. She's completely healed, but but but you know, one thing that you know used to sometimes I think, well, if God would would do this, then people would believe it. They're not gonna believe even if someone's healed. And in Lazarus, you know, uh the rich man's like, well, if you'll send someone back from the dead, and he's like, Well, if they won't believe Moses and the prophets, they're not gonna believe someone raised from the dead. So, so I'm telling you, God saves because he's a savior. God heals because he's a healer. He don't need to show who he is, he don't need to show his glory. He is who he is. He saves because he's a savior, he heals because he's a healer, he delivers because he's a deliverer, and that's it. Amen. That's it. Well, I think if if so and so would see a miracle, no, it's so-and-so seeing a miracle ain't gonna do it. If they don't believe, you know. That maybe it would trigger them, so we don't want to get all off on all that. Amen. I think it's great. Anyone want to give a short testimony of camp? Miss Pat got blessed.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

You know, this was my first year at camp with the youth, and um I I thought I was going there to serve the children, but they served me, and the graciousness and the glory that I seen in each one of the kids. It was overwhelming, amazing, and so much mannerism when they said please and thank you, and thank you, ma'am, thank you, ma'am, over and over and over again. The manners and the the way they praised and the way they prayed, prayed over each other. They laid their hands on each other and prayed over each other, and I thought, oh, I've never experienced anything so glorious in all my life as that youth camp. Thank you, Lord, for the blessings on me.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

Amen. Amen. Anybody? Anybody? Anybody, Lindsay? Anybody? Amen. Come on, Jeannie. Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Thank you. Thank you, all of you. I know a lot of you soaked into that camp with work and money and prayers. And it's gonna continue on. Um we're not the only people that use the camp, of course, but it's a blessing to be able to come down upon the kids and upon the adults as well. He was his eyes were sparkling.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

Amen. Amen. No, she'd mention it, but that was exactly what Mike, her husband, what Mike that's what their intention's been all along. All along. So it was great to see his manifested glory. It's great to see see kids get free, you know, to see see spirits come out of kids, to see them receive the uh Holy Spirit, to see them walk it, walk in freedom, to know that that little you that that is a place you can walk. It is a place you can be. It was beautiful. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, for right here, right now, Lord. We praise you, Lord, for the childlike faith, Lord, in the room, Lord. We thank you, Lord, how that you're bringing back to remembrance, Lord, Lord, the things you've showed each and every one in here, Lord. We're thankful, Lord, that that we trust in you, Lord, with all of our heart, and we lean not on our own understanding, Lord. In all of our ways, we acknowledge you, Lord. Lord, and according to your word, Lord, you will make our paths straight, Lord. So we thank you, Lord. Straight ways, straight is a gate and narrows a way that leads to life, Lord. Lord, and we'll thank you, Lord. We trust you the straight and narrow way, Lord, because you are the way, the truth, and the life, Lord. Lord, you made a way when there wasn't no other way, Lord. Lord, and we honor you and we praise you and we trust you in that. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Hallelujah. All right. Prepare to give your giving. Yes, man. It's exciting. We get to come to the Lord, we get to pray. We get to come to the house of the Lord, we get to worship. We get to come to the house of the Lord, we get to get to receive the word. We get to come to the house of the Lord, we get to give. Hip, hip, hooray, and rocky comfort. Yeah. No, no, we we get to. Are you thankful that you get to give? You get to give everything he's given to you. You get to give it. Man, you and you're and you're filled full of it. You're oh shandada. Thank you, Lord. All right, so we got ways of giving here. If if you're wanting to give to uh um Pastor Chris and Sue McDonald are here here this been here the last two nights, but uh if you want to give to specifically to them in the giving part and the app, you can put go to guest speaker on that. And uh if you're here and you're paying cash or whatever, um uh you can put it in the envelope and put uh guest speaker on there. If not, we'll just uh just receive it as just your your ties. Your ties are sound and ready to ready to get it. He's been down in the icebox until about a few an hour or so ago, so he's ready to get it. So thankful, thankful Lord. Father, we thank you, Lord. We're thankful, Lord, that we get to give, Lord. We're thankful, Lord, that we get to sow into the kingdom of God, Lord. Lord, we're thankful, Lord, for the blessings that you put upon it, Lord, and we're thankful, Lord, for what you've already done in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. All right, thank you. Get our ushers to come. We're so thankful for uh for Pastor Chris and Pastor Sue. They've been such a instrumental in us and uh pouring into us and and just true, true kingdom friends. We was talking a little bit last night about about when you truly go after the Lord, when you truly seek him and to seek his will. You know, not that you not people just won't hang around you as much as they used to sometimes. And not not that you think anything, anything less or any anything of them, but but but when someone truly truly goes after Jesus. I I knew this guy one time, and he truly truly went after God. And when he when he when he died, when he gave his life up, he was the only one there by himself. Yeah. See his name. And we get we get all emotional if we don't have 400 friends or something like that. But but Jesus come to do the will of God. Amen. But but no, he's truly put kingdom uh friends and friends that that you know you can call and uh no matter the time of day and no matter what's going on in your life, and they'll come and and do whatever needs to be done. If it's if it's words of encouragement, if it's cast a demon out, if it's whatever it is, they're truly there. And that's the kind of of people Pastor Chris and Sue are. So man, we love you guys and and come on, come on. Praise the Lord.

SPEAKER_04 13:22

Praise God. Well, I didn't know y'all were wearing your blue today, but praise the Lord. I must have been listening to Jesus, and I wore the right colors, so I blend in, which is something I don't normally do. Praise God. Man, it's been great. We've had a couple of great nights. We uh it's been really good. I thought last night went real well, and uh thought it was well received. Let me know the word is what changes our lives. Amen. It is the word that makes the difference. Now, it's that we don't really have any preliminaries. I gave all them the last two nights, so I have none of those today. So I don't know, I think a podcast comes out in the middle of the week. If you want to hear the preliminaries, you can listen to the podcast, I guess. But uh that's kind of it. So I just really want to pick up where I left off last night out of Romans 4. Um it seemed to be flowing so well, I just want to go right back into that and hit on that some more. And uh I believe it's an important passage. Spend a lot of time in the other. All the word is good, but then you'll have places where you spend a lot of time more so than others just gleaning, you know, from and uh Mark 11 is one of those for me. Um Romans 4 is another one. And there's several, but those are two that I I hang out in and learn a lot from because faith, you know, we we talked about this the first night. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith is a necessary uh, I don't know, I wouldn't say thing, but it's necessary in a believer's life to function in the kingdom like God wants us to function. This faith or that faith. I talked about this the first night. And that's really not faith. If you say, well, I'm of the Methodist faith or the Baptist faith or the Presbyterian faith or the Pentecostal faith, that's not faith. That just happens to be where you attend church, and that that's what you know. I mean, you can ask some people, uh, do you know Jesus? or or you know, you can come across that question however you choose to, and they'll tell you where they go to church, that's who they are. And I'm like, well, that's not really the question. Right? So you're either a Christian or not. Right? I'm not a Baptist, I'm not a Presbyterian, I'm not a Methodist, I'm not a Pentecostal, I'm a Christian that loves Jesus, that's filled with the Holy Ghost and on fire for God. Now, I happen to go, I happen to go and preach in churches that are, I would say, Pentecostal, but that doesn't mean you get what I'm saying, you get the point I'm trying to make. I have faith, I have faith in God. And uh the Bible says we're to have the faith of God. And uh, you know, some people argue that, so well, I don't know if you can really have the faith of God. I'm like, well, then I don't know why Jesus would have said it. If you can't have something and Jesus said you should have it, there's an issue in our believing. Right? Well, I don't know if you can really have that. What are we really saying? We're saying Jesus don't know what he's talking about. I don't, I just don't think we should get off on that. I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like, I I feel like that's a bad way to go. Well, I don't think Jesus knows what he's talking about. If he said I could have faith in God, I mean I'm just I'm just a human. Well, true to sense, but you're a born-again child of God. You're a spirit that has a soul that lives in a body. Yes, we are human, but partly. Partly human. Partly. Okay? So in here is where faith is developed, and so in here is where you have the faith of God. How many of you know the faith of God is a creative faith? It is a speaking faith. And we we got off into Romans 4 last night talking about Abraham and how Abraham did not consider his body. That's it, it is an amazing passage of scripture to me. All of the life of Abraham, you know, I mean, he's an old man, he's got 300 and something men, fighting men under his under his leadership. You know, if you're in your 80s and you're commanding 300 and something men fighting hand to hand, you're a pretty bad dude. But, you know, you're pretty serious. If you're 80-something years old and you lead 300 men into battle and you're there with them fighting hand to hand, I'm like, don't mess with Abraham. Like, don't go borrow something from him and not take it back because he's gonna come and get it. And you don't want him coming to get it. Like, it's just like the conversation's over at that point. He's bringing a posse, and there's gonna be a beatdown. It's like, don't mess with Abraham. This is a bad day. So Romans 4, 17. We'll just go right back to it. We had uh we've got a team right now, they're in the air flying from Atlanta to Raleigh, and then Raleigh to Paris. Or are they going to Paris first? Maybe I don't know. They're going to Kenya, that's their destination. And uh they were supposed to fly out of Nashville, and so they had gone last night. There's like 21 of them, I think, and they had gone, gotten the hotel, everybody's situated, they've had a good meal, they're gonna, you know. That's right, that's right. The whole reason they went the night before is so they wouldn't have to get up at 2 30 a.m. and drive to Nashville. And so they go and they get their hotel, everything's good sold. That is not a good feeling, I'm just gonna tell you. And uh they're like, oh my. And so they get to working on it, and Debbie and Ashley Joe were working on it feverishly, and they had like six different options. Finally, they found a flight out of Atlanta that that they could get 21 people on at the same time. They had 21 seats available. Guess what time they had to get up and leave to go to Atlanta? 2:30. I'm like, well, that backfired. That didn't work too well. Uh yeah, and yeah, instead of driving two hours, they drove five hours after they drove the two hours. And uh anyway, I don't know, they've left the vehicles, they're flying back into Nashville, so we gotta get all that figured. I'm like, but they're just happy as clowns, they were just as happy as they can be. And uh, I'm telling you, man, the faith life, it's the life to live because it's just like, yeah, whatever. It's lemons, okay, lemonade, praise the Lord. It's like, who cares? Like, make it work. And uh yeah, they called at 11:30 last night, laughing when Sue answered the phone. Laughing. That's when you know you're dealing with great people or half insane. I don't know which, but uh anyway, they're not listening right. And Tanner uh is one of the leaders of the trip. He said, Man, you know God's up to something. If this has already started like this, this is gonna be a knockout trip. And uh so I don't know, this is their fourth or fifth time there to Kenya for Tanner, and uh man, every time they go, they come back with this it's amazing. I mean, it's the book of Acts to come to life, and uh they do they do a lot of I said I wasn't gonna do in preliminaries, but I I want y'all, I'm telling y'all this because I want y'all to pray for them while they're there. Be there until a week from this coming Tuesday. And they'll do a lot of outreach. They'll do some crusade stuff. They'll do medical clinics. And then, you know, they'll see a thousand to fifteen hundred people come through those medical clinics. I mean, they're in the when I say in the bush, I mean I'm talking about in the, they're out, way out. Like they they said you'll be walking and just all of a sudden there's a hut. So they'll go up and say, hey, uh, you know, and they'll minister to people. They lead so many people to the Lord. Now, what's going on is they're going to a site where we've helped pay to put in a well, build a pastor's home, and then build a church. So the pastor's job, part of it ish water. So then they go out all around in the bush and they're, you know, they're telling people about all this, and they're getting them to come to the medical clinics, and uh they come back. It's like, I mean, the last time they went, they quit counting notable miracles. Like, they just quit counting. They said, I just gave up counting. I couldn't even keep up with it. I'm talking like blind eyes opening, deaf ears opening. I mean like stuff that you know you want to keep count of, but then there's because it's pretty awesome. I mean, you know, when you start seeing blind eyes open, you're like, man, we had three people that were blind, got healed. They say, we had so many got healed, we just quit counting them. I'm like, wow. I'm like, they're like, yeah, well, it was amazing. And uh what's awesome about it is it's people that, you know, they're faithful to serve the Lord, they they're faithful to be in church, they're faithful to give, they're doing all the stuff, but then they'll go on a trip like that and they're laying hands on people, some of them for the first time in their life, and watching blind eyes open and deaf ears open. They're watching the gospel come to life right in front of it, and it is the coolest thing, and I'm so excited for them to go, and there's five young women that have gone, four, I think, are the it's their first mission trip ever, I think, isn't it? Four of the young girls, and uh they're in their one just got out of, so I'm asking you as a church body to pray for them this week while they're there, you know, just pray for their safety, all the stuff, and then pray that they see the Bible live right in front of them. Amen. Amen. All right, Romans 4 17. As it is written, this, you know, God says, I have made you. I have made you. Man, there's so much of that. That's like a week's worth of teaching just in that one sentence. I have made you. I have made you what? I have made you a father of many nations, in the presence of him whom he believed, God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Verse 18. Who contrary to hope in hope believed so that he became the father of many nations. Notice it was conditional. God said, I have made you, but Abraham had to walk that out to become that. I know some people say, Well, if God said it, it's whatever. Well, God can say anything to you, but if you don't follow through on it, how many of you know it's not gonna come to pass for you? You gotta you gotta go with what God says. So that he became the father and did not, and not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead. I want to key in on that. He did not consider his own body. Consider not, it matters what you consider. It matters, it matters what you consider, it matters what you consider concerning your health, it matters what you consider concerning your finances, it matters what you consider concerning the life of this church, it matters what you consider concerning your family, it matters what you consider in every area of life, and if you're unwilling to consider what the word of God says, you'll have everything that the world says you should have, which is not gonna be very good at all. No bueno. Amen. Or owe me, whichever fits, I guess. I don't want what the world offers. I've I I know what it offers because I used to get what it offered, and it was terrible. Then when I got born again, I'm like, you know, I need to play for a different team here because this is not working out. And so then when I found out what God offered, I'm like, I want everything I can get that God offers. So, you know, some people don't like that, and I'm thinking, I don't get it. Like, I wish someone could explain that to me and make sense with it, because I just don't understand that. Like, why would we not want what God says we could have? Why would we not want to walk around healed? Well, I mean, I believe I'm just got this because this is what God wants. Well, you can't prove that in scripture. No, you can't prove it. Y'all might as well wake up because we're awake, we're here. So you can't prove that. You can't prove that by scripture. Say, well, I just believe God, you know, it's God's will that I'm broke and I don't have anything. Can't prove it by scripture. You can't prove it. There's so many things that people say and try to use it like it's some kind of church doctrine, and I'm like, you can't prove that by scripture. Yet I can prove to you by scripture that it is God's will that you be healed, it is God's will that you be whole, it is God's will you be blessed financially. It's God's will all through scripture. From Genesis all the way to Revelation, that is God's will. Period. So I mean, I ain't experiencing that. Okay, but that's not God's fault. So get revelation on what the word says. Consider not your present circumstance, only consider what the word says. Just, you know, so wow, I got this going on. Okay, don't consider that. You know, when you're Abraham and Sarah's age, there's a lot to consider when someone tells you you're gonna have besides that, if you went to one at their age, they'd commit you to a home somewhere. Anyway, I don't want to get too graphic, but you understand what I'm saying. So, what what all, you know, we talked last night about casting down imaginations. There's a lot that goes on in our life when anything comes to us that's opposite of the Word of God. You know, we call it spiritual warfare, and I think that's a an apt name, but I mean it's if you get in the mental arena, you've now placed yourself in a position where you've put yourself in the enemy's playground. But when you get out of the mental arena and get in the faith arena, you've pulled him into an arena where you'll win every time. If you get in the mental arena, you're gonna get your head handed to you. So you've got to stay out of that. You have to dominate space and you have to dominate those places. The mind will have questions. Your mind will have questions. Questions are not a bad thing, but those questions should be run through the word of God and answered there. Right? Instead of just sitting around thinking about it and building it up to be this thing you can't get past, and then start talking to other people who only think and never use the word of God because what do you think about this? Well, what I think doesn't really matter. Let's see what the word says. I've had people ask me, what's your opinion on this? I don't have one. Well, what do you mean you don't have one? I don't have one. What does the word say about it? That's what we need to be looking at here. You know, if you get diagnosed with something, they tell you you're gonna die, you don't need everybody else's thoughts and opinions. You need to find out what the word says. You don't need to be calling everybody going, so what do you think? Who cares what they think? Like, don't even ask. Just, you know, unless it's somebody you know is gonna say, Well, what I think doesn't matter, let's just go to the word of God. Let's get on the word of God. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty on what the word of God says and key in on that and use that in our life. Well, should we go to the doctor? I didn't say you shouldn't go to the doctor. I'm saying if you've got something wrong with you physically, use every means possible. If it means you need to go to a doctor, fine. But don't forsake this. Don't forsake what the word of God says. Use the two together. Amen. I know you won't hear a lot of faith preachers say that. Now, sometimes, you know, I think there's times when God will bear witness in your spirit, you don't need to do that. You don't need to take that treatment, you don't need to do this. You know, you need to listen to that. You don't need to push past that. One, I'll tell you one instance, I have a friend, it's like 20 something years ago, that he was diagnosed with cancer, and it was already advanced, and they're like, we'll do surgery, but there's probably really nothing much we can do. You're gonna have to take all kinds of treatments, and you know, they're, I mean, they're running down the rabbit hole. They're basically digging his grave for him while he's sitting at the desk. And his wife and him were like, no, that's not gonna be me. Well, that sounds insane to the person on the other side of the desk. Because, and again, I'm not I'm not saying this disrespectful, they look at everything scientifically that they deal with, and they're saying, everybody that I see it that's in this condition doesn't make it. So they we were living in Texas at the time, and they called and we're talking because we're we're friends with the family. I said, Well, where are you at on it? Because that's important to me. If you come to me and say, hey, I want you to agree with me, okay, but what am I agreeing with? Where are you on this? Are you considering that this is going to take you out, or have you just decided I consider not this, I consider the word? Because if that's what you're doing, I I can get in on that. Because where two or three of us touch and agree concerning anything, it shall be given unto us. Well, we want to get in league with the word, because then that's when you see it come to pass. And so anyway, he did take some treatments, he did have surgery, but the whole time he's confessing the word of God over his body. Where we were at in Texas, I said something to the pastor about it. I gave that pastor a handkerchief, he anointed that handkerchief with oil, he stuck that handkerchief in his shirt one night, he was preaching on healing. I sealed that handkerchief up, I mailed it to my friend. That was over 20 years ago, and if you walked up to him now, he would pull it out of his pocket and he'd say, You see this right here? I mean, it's threadbare. There ain't much of it left. But he's carried it the whole time. He said, I'm telling you, I'll carry this thing until there ain't nothing left of it. He said, because it's a testament to what God did. It's a testament to show people about the healing power of God. He's still alive and well, and you wouldn't know he'd ever had a sniffle one day of his life. But in that process, they wanted him to take a special kind of something. I don't even know, it's like some kind of an injection or new treatment. And his wife told me, she said, when they said to do that, she said, right here, I thought, that ain't good. And they looked at the at the physician and said, We need to pray on that. And they went and prayed and talked about it. And they said, We don't feel right about this, we better not do this. And so they denied it. They ended up switching and went to a different specialist. Thank God you didn't do it, you'd be dead already. Well, I mean, they said I should do it. Okay. Oh, thank God. I'm not look again, I'm not saying don't go. You understand what I mean by that. They were going, but listening. And by listening, he's still living. They could have pushed past that. Oh, that's just me. I, you know, I'm gonna go ahead and do it. They say I should do it. And we'd have buried him. I mean, we'd have said nice stuff about him, had good memories, but he had been gone. His grand, he wouldn't be playing with his grandbaby. You know what I'm saying? So there's all these things. I have another person that I know very well. Went through a hard thing, fought through, did all kinds of stuff, and then one simple thing, uh, we think you need to do this, this would be wise. And uh, when they told us about it, I was like, I don't, but it ain't my decision. I was like, uh, I don't know, that don't that don't set well with me, but I ain't in the, I'm not in that position, so that's for them to answer. He told me just the other day, he said, Boy, that was a mistake. I should have never done that. I've really had a lot of trouble doing that. I mean, it's not gonna kill him, but he's had a lot of trouble with it, and he told me, he said, that's the one thing in this whole process I didn't ask the Lord about. Now, thank God it didn't kill him, or it will kill him. He said, It just sounded so simple, I just did it. He said, but I learned a lesson. I said, I bet you did. He said, You can guarantee I did. Well, what are you gonna consider? You're gonna consider the word or everything else? And it's a decision we've all got to make. There'll be a time in our life when we have to make the decision, what am I gonna consider here? What am I gonna consider? Am I gonna consider God or am I gonna consider the circumstance over God? Because really, if all you consider is the circumstance, you're considering it over God and His Word. Everybody okay? Because it's not gonna get any easier if you're not okay now. I'm just saying, it's like, you know, it's like, what are we gonna consider? Now I know you're dealing with some stuff, and this isn't a word of knowledge, okay? So I I know. Just consider the word and listen to the Holy Ghost. If they need to do something, then they need to do something, but you obey what the Lord says. Don't go in fear, don't consider what your flesh says, only consider what the word of God says. The word of God says you are healed. That's what it says. Jesus in Hebrews 1, we see went, he was doing exactly what the Father wanted. So it's not hard for me, and it shouldn't be hard for anybody. It's if it's not hard for me, it really shouldn't be hard for anybody. It's not hard for me to find the will of God. Just look at what Jesus did. And that's all I need to know. Everywhere Jesus went, he healed them all, except in his own hometown, but it was because of their unbelief. If you just stay out of unbelief and stay in faith, you get what the Bible says you can have. Amen. It's not a hard equation. Two plus two is yeah, everywhere. That math maths. But there's a lot of math that Christian people sling out that doesn't math. Well, you know, I just don't know if it's the will of the Lord. Okay? Then you need to go find out. Well, you never know the will of the Lord. Oh, yes, I have it right here. This is the will of the Lord. This right here is the will of God. Period. Well, now I know so-and-so. Don't care about so-and-so. So-and-so's not God. So-and-so may have had a situation, but I know what the will of God is, and I'm not basing my life off of so-and-so. I know a lot of so-and-so's. A lot. I know a lot of so-and-so's that'll say, Oh, that'll never work, and it's working. I'm like, who are we gonna listen to? Who are we gonna consider? Are we gonna consider the opinion of unbelievers or consider the word of God? Believe it or not, I've made people mad through the years. I know you find that hard to believe. You know, they'll say something, I'm like, no, that's not what the word says. But that's what we believe. Well, you can believe it all you want, but that's not what the word says. Well, I mean, I know, brother, I know what the word says. Okay, then let's not argue about it. You don't want to believe what the word says, and I actually do believe what the word says. So let's just not argue about it and go eat ice cream and call it a day. Let's not make enemies. If you choose to not believe God, that's your business. However, as for me in my house, we're gonna believe God. We're gonna serve God. I'm just choosing to believe God. Have you lost friends? Oh yeah. Friends, family, you name it. Run the list. But guess what? And I'm not saying that bragging, because I like those people. But if you're not gonna be around me because I believe God, that's your problem, not mine. I don't lose, I don't know that I've ever lost a wink of sleep over it. Because I believed God. Years ago, when I got saved, I thought, you know what, I'm gonna live for God forever. Like this is a pretty good deal. And I didn't understand anything that just happened other than I wasn't gonna go to hell if I died in the next five minutes, which I was pretty pumped about. But then as I forever, we're gonna serve God in our house forever, and and that's just it. And so if you want to be a part of that, join in. If you don't, I still love you, but we ain't gonna run together.

unknown 40:32

That's good.

SPEAKER_04 40:34

People don't like it when Christians talk like this. It's funny. I just love Jesus. Well, you wouldn't if you really saw how he talked to people. Huh? Whole crowd of people walked away. He said, Okay. He looked, turned around, looked at the disciples, said, Y'all going too? Because I don't have time to mess around. The clock's running here. I got stuff to do. I'm on a mission. So if you're going, get to packing. I'm gonna go. Just like what Pastor Dan said. He was there to serve God, he was there to die for all humanity, and he didn't have time to dilly-dally around with people who couldn't get it figured out. Either get in or get out, but get something. Right? I don't understand people that can go to church 30 years and they're still trying to figure out. I'm like, what are you figuring out? Like, serve God. I don't look, what is there to figure out? I'm just figuring out if I like it here. Well, get to figuring. I was like, people church shop like they shoe shop. I'm like, ask God where you're supposed to be and then get there and get to it. Well, we're just feeling it out. Feeling it out, what are you kicking tires, buying a car, get your mind made up. We're just figuring it out, brother. Well, you've been here six months. Pastor Howard tells a funny story. This was another preacher he knew, an older guy. And the older guy was out in the foyer one day, and this person came up to that pastor and was just letting him have it for no good reason. That pastor said, Come here, I want to show you something. He walked over and he opened the door. He said, If you'll go about a mile down that way and take a left, there's a church down there that'd just love to have you. So the next week he gets done preaching, he goes out to the foyer, and here comes a couple. We did not like how you talked to that person last week. He said, Come here. I like that guy. It's like, make your mind up. What are you gonna do? How long will you halt between two opinions? Just make your mind up. I'm going to follow God, and if God tells me to come here, there, or yonder, that's where I'm going, that's where I'm serving, until God says otherwise, and if he doesn't, they'll roll my dead carcass to the front of the church and preach my funeral when it's over. I said, Brother, God told me to come here. Anybody comes in church and tells me that, I'm like, six weeks, tops. They're out. I mean, God, God, I'm like, yeah, and then six weeks from now, he'd be like, you know, God. No. You're considering every other circumstance except what God told you to do.

unknown 43:22

It's good.

SPEAKER_04 43:24

This is real good. Even if I am saying it. God told us to go to Marion, Kentucky 18 years ago. I didn't want to go back. That's where we were from. I'm like, I don't want to go back there. What in the world? People are like, you're going to go back to your family. The whole reason I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back. Being away and distant is good because I can go see them when I choose to. If I'm there, they can just come see me.

unknown 43:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 43:58

I'm just saying. What if your family listens to this? I don't care. They know how I feel. It doesn't matter. I'm like, I don't want to go back. But, but, my flesh. Okay. We talked about it. Neither one of us, our flesh, wanted to go back. But in here, oh, this is what the Lord wants. So we're going to have to put up with all the other stuff we don't want to do what God wants. And that's what we've done. And there have been many times in 18 years I'm like, are you sure? Are you sure? I mean, really? No answer. Okay. I guess he's sure then. He hadn't changed his mind, so I'm not leaving. You see what I'm saying? I mean, when we must leave, go do this. Okay. We went there to train. I didn't know how long training was going to be. Training lasted five years. I didn't know if it was going to last 40. That's how long it lasted for Moses. I had a guy ask me one day, so when are you going to go into full-time ministry? I'm thinking, dear God, I'm in it now. I work 50 hours a week and then I volunteer in the church 20 to 30 hours a week. I don't know how much more full time I can get.

unknown 45:07

Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_04 45:08

He goes, Yeah, yeah, no, I mean like when you go out on it. I said, I don't know. If I had to stay here 40 years like Moses and train and learn from God, that's what I'm gonna do. I'll go when God says go and not until then. Not leaving until then. He goes, Okay. But you know, I don't have it all figured out and don't claim to, but I know this: if God says do it, I'm gonna do it. That's it. If he says go to Timbuktu and live in a hut and minister to the people out in the bush, I'm on the next plane to Timbuktu. Sell everything you own and leave. Why? Because that's the word of the Lord. You know, there is a Timbuktu, by the way. It's a real place. I never knew that growing up. We just called it Timbuktu out in the middle of nowhere. Then I looked on a map. There's a real Timbuktu.

unknown 45:58

Is it Rocky Cumberland?

SPEAKER_04 45:59

No, it's in another part of the world. But think about it. What are you considering? I'm telling you, I see people all the time. Grandkids. Now I'm real nice when they say that, but what I really want to say is, okay, well then why don't you build an altar to them? You'd be better off because you've made them God now. See, the grandparents don't like that either. I'm a grandparent. I'm just telling you, I don't want to be away from mine either. But the bottom line is this if God says do it, if you don't do it, you're in disobedience. If you don't do it, you've considered them over the will of God. And now, watch, you're out of the will of God. So if you're out of the will of God, man, that's a bad place to be. So don't consider every circumstance other than the word of God. Are there circumstances? Yes. Absolutely. But God's word and God's will is much better than a circumstance. I mean, we travel a lot and I love it. I'm all about it. If that's what God wants, I mean, I'm telling you, I'd travel six days a week, go home, preach, and go again. If that's what God wants, I'm all about it. Because that's what the Lord asks us to do. So people say, you know, you travel a lot. I'm like, yeah. And don't you get tired? No, I sleep. If I get tired, I sleep. If it's the middle of the day and I get tired, I go take a nap. Like I'm like a six-year-old with a blanket. I'm just like, I'm gonna go lay down somewhere and take it. That's what we do. Don't you get tired of going and doing? No, I don't. I don't get tired of it. Because that's what the Lord wants. So I don't consider all the other things I could consider. You see what I'm saying? I don't consider that sometimes we're not together. And I'm traveling with another guy, and you know, it's not my wife. You know, there's things I can talk to her about that I can't talk to another guy about. Why? Because she is my helpmate, she is my covenant partner in life. So, but guess what? We have cell phones now. We can see each other. When we first got married, we wrote letters.

unknown 48:18

Wrote letters.

SPEAKER_04 48:19

Can you imagine me writing a letter? Oh, what a mess. One period at the end of the letter, I'm done. Forget commas. What a waste of ink. But now, now, serving the Lord together, we just, you know what? There's all these factors we could consider and not serve God. Well, we're gone a lot. Okay. We eat out a lot. Okay, we gotta eat somewhere. But people factor all that into their life to see if they're gonna serve God or not. They'll run it through their head and see if it's something they can tolerate to see if they're gonna serve God or not. You get tired of sleeping in hotels? No, actually, I sleep better when I'm gone. Oddly enough. I think it's just the way God wired me. I don't get tired of it. Now I get tired. Sometimes Sue and I were like, man, I'm sleepy. I want to go to bed. Like the other night we got home. We drove, I don't know, 700 miles that day, and when we got home that night, there was no conversation. We walked in the door and just it was over, done. Got up, came to see you beautiful people. Just happy as clowns. But I took a nap on the way here. Not driving. I let Sue drive. Yeah. Sue always knows that if I say, here, and I hand her the key, she's like, Oh, you're tired, aren't you? I'm like, Yep. Because I like driving. I think good when I'm driving. I I commune with God when I'm driving. But then if I get too tired, I'm like, I don't want to commune with someone else at 70-ish. So I'm gonna let her drive. So you just make you make good on what you're doing. So what do you consider? What in your life are you considering that might keep you from doing what God wants? What in your life are you considering that might keep you from getting what the Word of God says you can have? Is it a lack in in some area of your finance that you're considering versus what God says about finance? And I talked about this, I think, on the first night. If you're a tither, you have tither rights. Why tithe and I don't have any more than I well, then you need to ask God for wisdom on how to handle it. I had a guy tell me one time, he goes, Man, I've been tithing forever and I don't have anything. I said, Well, that ain't the problem. The problem is you don't know how to handle money. So you need to ask God for wisdom. Well, he huffed up, blowed up like a toad frog. He didn't like it at all. And I'm like, dude, that's like advice to help you. Like, ask the Lord for wisdom. God, I'm doing what your principles say I should be doing. But it's something's not working, and it can't be you. It's gotta be me. So I need wisdom. I'm considering the fact that you can give me wisdom out of your word to do what I should be doing to correct this issue. You know, if you overspend and the Lord tells you to cut back on spending, probably be a good idea to do. I'm telling you, America really, we don't have money problems, we have a spending problem. Oh, I'm gonna try to hit everything I can before I leave today. Are you going to baptize your grandson?

unknown 52:01

Not yet, but in about 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_04 52:02

Okay. Well, I was gonna pray for you before you go. Okay. I was like, no, don't leave. I want to pray for you. Because I think it's awesome. He's gonna get to baptize his grandson. There's gonna be a bunch of people watching, and he's gonna sneak up on them with the gospel. And I like it. I like it. So you'll be my good closing point. So praise the Lord. What was I saying? Oh, yeah, spending. In American banks right now, the American public has 2.3 trillion dollars. I can barely get by. That's not God's problem. 2.3 trillion. You realize that the American citizens have more money than almost every other economy on planet Earth? That's what I'm saying. That's the whole point. Well, I mean, they got a brand new boat. I gotta have one. No, not really. Not really. I mean, you know, they're cool and all. But the best thing to do is have about four or five friends that have boats. And then, hey, just go with them. And you don't want to go one all the time because you wear eight welcome. So you just kind of, you know what I'm saying? You know, it's all what you consider. That's what a few years ago, and uh, then our two of our best friends had one. So we'd, you know, we're hanging out with them all the time anyway. So he's like, Man, we ought to get one of them. I was like, now why would we do that? She goes, What are you talking about? These things are awesome. I'm like, yeah, but they both have them. And they said we could use it anytime we want. I have a research. I'm not buying a $65,000 boat when I can just go borrow one one time a year and be happy as a clam. I'm like, it's gonna be awesome. So that's what we did. And then guess what happened? They both sold theirs. So now we just drive by the lake and look at people in boats. But I have considered the amount of money it takes to have a boat, and I don't like it. We have a spending problem. It's not a God problem, it's a spending problem. It's not a God problem, it's a wisdom problem. Amen. It's not a God problem, it's people don't believe in a healing problem. You know, when you look at that, I mean, Sue and I have talked about that two or three times since we've been here. When you look at that, when you get saved, look at all the things that come with that. But it's up to you if you're going to get any of those. You say, well, if it's God's will to be healed, then why isn't everybody healed? I don't know. You tell me. If it's God's will that everybody be saved, why isn't everybody? Because God's a far-off whatever, they don't like God, you know, all these things, but they haven't considered the goodness of God. When you consider the goodness of God, it's easy to serve Him. It's like, man, who wouldn't want to serve God? I mean, I asked myself, I'm like, who wouldn't want to serve God? Well, I was one of them that didn't want to serve God because of what other Christians said about him.

unknown 55:15

Right. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 55:16

Like, I don't know. I want no part of that until I met a person that told me about God, who God really was. And that was it. I was in. That's all it took. It took one person, one, not a hundred, one, to tell me about the goodness of God, and I started considering God in that manner, and I got born again. It was that simple. But before, I had considered God based upon the opinions of other people. That God's mean, that God's out to get you, that God may kill you, that God's waiting on you to mess up so he can blast you with a light. I mean, all this stuff. And I'm like, who would want to serve him? Anyway, I just considered other people's opinion. But when that man told me about how good God had been to him, now he told me this for like 12 or 15 hours. How good God had been to me. He went on and on and on and on. And I was like, I'm in. Who would want to serve him to who wouldn't want to serve him? Who wouldn't want to serve him? Because now I had considered who God actually was. Amen. So what do you consider? It's, you know, Abraham, we just read in scripture, did not consider his own body. What are you considering? And you need to be asking yourself this on a daily basis. When things come up, ask yourself, what am I going to consider here? Because if I'm going to consider this bigger than God, I'm the problem. I have a problem. I have to decide what I'm going to consider. Amen. Mike, would you stand up? I want to pray for you. I know you got to go. Father, I thank you for Mike. I thank you, Lord, for today. I believe you, Father, that you anoint his words, that your words come out of his mouth, that your love comes out of his mouth. That, Father, when he tells those dear people about Jesus Christ, that their hearts are convicted, that their hearts are convinced. Lord, I thank you for this opportunity that he gets to baptize his grandson. I thank you, Lord, that your power and your glory is manifest in that place. Lord, fill that area with your power and your glory in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. I love you, brother. I love you, man. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Would you I'm gonna get you out of here so you can go eat some chicken. Or no, I don't, but it is the gospel bird. Amen. Come on, would you just lift your hands before the Lord? Father, I thank you for this day. Lord, I bless these dear people. I say in Jesus' name, they are blessed. In Jesus' name, they are healed. In Jesus' name, they're the head and not the tail. In Jesus' name, Father, I thank you that they are blessed with every spiritual and earthly blessing. In Jesus' mighty name, I thank you for them. Amen. Amen. Pastor.

SPEAKER_03 58:37

Hallelujah. What a wonderful day. So we'll see you guys Wednesday night, 5 45 prayer. Another thing I wanted to mention too, starting the first uh Wednesday in August, we're gonna be going through Bishop Pastor Chris was talking about he's doing it in the in the uh equipping center. But uh we're gonna be doing going through Pastor uh Bishop Lance's book on prayer. So so and it is it's awesome. We've seen a little bit take of it, so so I encourage you to get uh get uh uh ready for that and then let us know if you're gonna be a part of it. We'll order books here in another week or so. And uh gonna be a part of it, let me know so I don't order your book. So so there you go. We love you guys and you're blessed. So