WEBVTT 00:00:00.180 --> 00:00:00.481 Amen. 00:00:00.481 --> 00:00:03.790 Let's wave our Bibles around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad. 00:00:03.790 --> 00:00:07.948 Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here tonight. 00:00:07.948 --> 00:00:21.190 The Holy Ghost is moving not only here but in my life, and the Word of God and the Holy Ghost are putting me over in every circumstance. 00:00:21.190 --> 00:00:26.242 I have the victory in Jesus' name, amen. 00:00:26.242 --> 00:00:36.966 Let's turn in our Bibles to some Mark 11, 23, and 2 Peter, chapter 1. 00:00:38.299 --> 00:00:42.759 I know most of you can quote this verse. 00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:49.362 Brother Hagin did not write it, mark wrote it. 00:00:49.362 --> 00:00:53.343 The inspiration of the Holy Ghost, jesus said it. 00:00:53.343 --> 00:01:13.009 Verse 23, for verily, I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he saith he shall have, whatsoever he saith. 00:01:13.009 --> 00:01:24.429 Therefore, I say unto you what things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. 00:01:24.429 --> 00:01:35.582 And then 2 Peter, chapter 1, 2 Peter, just in this recently. 00:01:35.582 --> 00:01:45.361 Verse 2, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus. 00:01:45.361 --> 00:02:16.606 Our Lord, according as his divine power, hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 00:02:16.606 --> 00:02:21.870 So in Mark 11, 23, it talks about. 00:02:21.870 --> 00:02:26.883 In verse 24, it says when you pray, believe that you receive them, you shall have them. 00:02:26.883 --> 00:02:32.972 And then, in chapter 1, verse 4, partakers. 00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:36.930 The word receive is the Greek word lambano. 00:02:36.930 --> 00:02:52.151 It means to seize, to get hold of or to take, to take with a hand, either a person or a thing, in order to use it, to take, to take. 00:02:52.151 --> 00:02:58.927 And so I wanted to share a message, a simple message, entitled let's take it now. 00:02:58.927 --> 00:03:02.783 Receive means to take, let's take it now. 00:03:02.783 --> 00:03:07.144 You know the little song that we sing from time to time oh, the glory is here. 00:03:07.144 --> 00:03:10.885 You know he's passing out gifts for all to receive. 00:03:10.885 --> 00:03:12.449 You know. 00:03:12.449 --> 00:03:17.062 And so you know there's a line in the song that says let's take it now. 00:03:17.062 --> 00:03:28.926 Whatever you may need, you just reach out and receive and say it's mine, I take it now. 00:03:28.926 --> 00:03:34.044 So that's really saying what Jesus said let's take it now. 00:03:34.044 --> 00:03:37.729 When we believe we receive, receive means to take it. 00:03:37.729 --> 00:03:44.252 Take it and use it, take it now as if you, even before you see it, you take it. 00:03:45.219 --> 00:03:49.349 Faith believes and speaks and takes, takes. 00:03:49.349 --> 00:03:56.069 So it's not just mental ascent oh, that'd be nice to have that, no, it's. 00:03:56.069 --> 00:03:57.139 What are you believing? 00:03:57.139 --> 00:03:58.224 What do you desire? 00:03:58.224 --> 00:04:01.449 You can't shove what you desire on somebody else. 00:04:01.449 --> 00:04:02.625 It's what they desire. 00:04:03.020 --> 00:04:07.606 You know, sometimes when we're praying for people, I might want something for them but they don't want. 00:04:07.606 --> 00:04:12.967 It Won't do any good for me to pray what I want for them if they don't want what I want for them. 00:04:12.967 --> 00:04:13.921 They got it wanted. 00:04:13.921 --> 00:04:16.228 Amen, it's kind of simple Amen. 00:04:16.228 --> 00:04:32.125 For instance, when people are on a death bed and I'm praying for them to live and they want to go to heaven, you might as well twiddle your thumbs and say twinkle, twinkle, little star, as to pray a prayer to keep them on the earth whenever they want to go home. 00:04:32.125 --> 00:04:39.648 So when people are calling and wanting me to pray and wanting the church to pray oh, please, they're. 00:04:39.648 --> 00:04:42.588 You know they're near death the doctor says they've only got a few days. 00:04:42.588 --> 00:04:43.526 Well, I want to find out. 00:04:43.526 --> 00:04:44.391 What do they want? 00:04:44.391 --> 00:04:47.714 You know, I found out, I found out. 00:04:47.714 --> 00:04:50.125 You know, for Christians, you know, once they get past a point. 00:04:50.125 --> 00:04:51.187 They're ready to go home. 00:04:51.187 --> 00:04:54.298 They don't want to fight, they're ready to go home. 00:04:54.298 --> 00:04:55.223 We ought to let them. 00:04:55.223 --> 00:04:57.386 Amen, try to keep them here. 00:04:58.261 --> 00:05:02.134 So, anyway, what do you desire? 00:05:02.134 --> 00:05:03.740 Is it God's will? 00:05:03.740 --> 00:05:06.649 What does God's word say about what it is that you want? 00:05:06.649 --> 00:05:09.220 Well, the Bible doesn't say anything about. 00:05:09.220 --> 00:05:15.721 Well, that means you need to pray a little longer before you before you just rattle off a hasty prayer because you don't. 00:05:15.721 --> 00:05:18.230 Faith begins where the will of God is known. 00:05:18.230 --> 00:05:28.680 So if the Bible doesn't say anything about your brand new Mercedes that you're believing for, you can't find in there that you are going to have a Mercedes. 00:05:28.680 --> 00:05:29.322 It might. 00:05:29.322 --> 00:05:31.548 It might be just fine for you to buy one. 00:05:31.548 --> 00:05:37.790 But if you've never bought anything but a bicycle, you might not want to start with a brand new Mercedes. 00:05:37.790 --> 00:05:39.920 See what I'm saying. 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:42.007 In other words, you know, faith is progressive. 00:05:42.007 --> 00:05:46.019 So so is it God's will. 00:05:46.019 --> 00:05:56.427 You know, ff Bosworth said it's impossible to claim by faith or to take it's impossible to take by faith a blessing You're not sure God is offering. 00:05:56.427 --> 00:06:01.120 So it kind of ties in with what I was saying this morning. 00:06:01.341 --> 00:06:09.480 Sometimes we pray and we get a little ahead of ourselves by claiming a blessing, claiming something that we kind of think we'd like. 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:11.620 Well, really do you really want it? 00:06:11.620 --> 00:06:13.286 Do you really desire it? 00:06:13.286 --> 00:06:22.012 Do you really really really down on the inside, do you really really really want it? 00:06:22.012 --> 00:06:30.839 And then you've got to find out if God, if God, agrees with you and he sanctions that that prayer. 00:06:30.839 --> 00:06:33.127 You know, we live in the world, we live in this world. 00:06:33.127 --> 00:06:36.589 Not everything we pray for is spiritual. 00:06:37.062 --> 00:06:39.944 I mean, sometimes I've been in places where I needed a car. 00:06:39.944 --> 00:06:44.250 You know, I remember one time I had a car. 00:06:44.250 --> 00:06:52.812 I had one car because the bank took all my other cars and the banker let me off on the corner in Corpus Christi. 00:06:52.812 --> 00:06:56.367 When he took two of my cars at one time, they saved him a lot of trouble. 00:06:56.367 --> 00:07:04.185 They took one airplane ride with two guys and they came to Corpus and picked up my van and my other car. 00:07:04.185 --> 00:07:04.627 What was it? 00:07:04.627 --> 00:07:08.326 I forgot what other car it was, but anyway Honda, I think. 00:07:08.326 --> 00:07:10.083 And so they let me. 00:07:10.083 --> 00:07:11.387 I said, let me off on the corner. 00:07:11.387 --> 00:07:12.706 I got to go get me another car. 00:07:12.706 --> 00:07:15.389 So I walked in the Osmoville dealer and leased the car. 00:07:15.389 --> 00:07:17.286 So that was my only car for several years. 00:07:17.286 --> 00:07:24.588 I think we wound up putting 280,000 miles on it had it overhauled at 140,000 miles. 00:07:24.588 --> 00:07:41.708 It's a miracle that it kept running after the engine was overhauled, because that's not the factory, that's just some shop that overhauls the engines not equal to the factory, and you know the factory, I mean it lasted 140,000 before I had to overhaul it, and so then I mean it was on its last legs. 00:07:42.839 --> 00:07:52.985 I said, well, lord, you know I need a car and I'm not even gonna ask you for one, I'm gonna claim one because I've sewn cars and I need one right now. 00:07:52.985 --> 00:07:57.627 See, now I didn't have to pray and ask God and I told him I'm not asking, I'm claiming. 00:07:57.627 --> 00:08:00.725 But here's where I'm at. 00:08:00.725 --> 00:08:12.086 Lord, I don't care what it is, I'm not asking for a specific make and model, I just want something that's better than what I have now, because what I have now I just sold the house in Rosenberg. 00:08:12.086 --> 00:08:25.786 It's 57 miles each way to build that house and I have other places to go besides there, and so I just I know this car's not gonna make it, it's gonna break down on me in the middle of the country. 00:08:26.180 --> 00:08:34.464 It was way out in the country, outside of Rosenberg, way out there near Pecan Grove, I think One of these red flag subdivisions, you know, have acre lot. 00:08:34.464 --> 00:08:36.139 I think it was a two acre lot. 00:08:36.139 --> 00:08:38.246 There was ditches and all that stuff. 00:08:38.246 --> 00:08:44.727 And so I was a custom home I'm building for a client and I have nothing near it. 00:08:44.727 --> 00:08:50.229 I just have to drive over there umpteen times until it's finished and they move in. 00:08:50.229 --> 00:08:55.125 I know what's ahead of me, you know, and so I just claimed the car. 00:08:55.125 --> 00:08:58.504 I said, lord, I've sown cars, I've got a car coming. 00:08:58.504 --> 00:09:02.886 I just know I do and I thank you for it, whatever it is. 00:09:02.886 --> 00:09:06.187 And it took about 30 days until I had a Mercedes. 00:09:06.187 --> 00:09:11.623 It had 160,000 miles, but it was a diesel, it was just getting broke in. 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:20.405 But anyway, what I'm saying is sometimes we go too far and we claim something that God doesn't, that we're not eligible for. 00:09:20.405 --> 00:09:22.986 Faith begins where the will of God is known. 00:09:22.986 --> 00:09:30.687 Let's say that faith begins where the will of God is known and when you know, then you can take it now. 00:09:30.687 --> 00:09:40.408 When, when you pray, or when you or when you say, are y'all with me now, take it now. 00:09:40.408 --> 00:09:45.149 And second, peter is an end time book. 00:09:45.149 --> 00:09:52.341 It's really, it's underlying red right now for us, because we're living in the days I mean. 00:09:52.341 --> 00:09:53.384 It was always true. 00:09:53.384 --> 00:09:54.764 Now don't take me wrong. 00:09:54.764 --> 00:09:57.509 It was always true, but it's even more true now. 00:09:57.509 --> 00:09:58.722 It's written to even. 00:09:58.722 --> 00:10:01.551 It's written for our admonition. 00:10:01.759 --> 00:10:13.090 Right now, because Jesus is coming soon, we have got to begin to realize that God's got promises that he wants to keep 32,000 of them in the Bible. 00:10:13.090 --> 00:10:16.085 Have you got your share of them? 00:10:16.085 --> 00:10:27.725 I mean, the Bible says that he's got exceeding great and precious promises and it's by these promises that we're able to be partakers of his divine nature. 00:10:27.725 --> 00:10:36.312 And of course we know his divine nature is love, it's mercy, it's justice, it's truth. 00:10:36.312 --> 00:10:46.461 It's not just love, it's not just mercy, but it's all those things I said. 00:10:46.461 --> 00:10:47.446 It's all those things. 00:10:47.446 --> 00:10:55.562 And so, and it says that he has given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness. 00:10:55.562 --> 00:11:09.200 That's one of the most astounding verses in the whole Bible, when you think that God wants to give you everything that pertains to your life and everything that pertains to godliness. 00:11:09.865 --> 00:11:11.215 What is godliness? 00:11:11.215 --> 00:11:12.908 Acting like him, we're to act like God. 00:11:12.908 --> 00:11:13.918 Why? 00:11:13.918 --> 00:11:15.412 Because we're in the God class of being. 00:11:15.412 --> 00:11:17.154 We're not God, but we're in his class of being. 00:11:17.154 --> 00:11:21.977 We're in the class of being that creates with God. 00:11:21.977 --> 00:11:24.326 We're in the class of being that creates with words. 00:11:24.326 --> 00:11:31.527 What are we creating, because what are we speaking and what are we believing. 00:11:31.527 --> 00:11:41.528 And so he desires that we be partakers, literally to take alongside of him. 00:11:43.179 --> 00:11:59.703 And it kind of ties in with what I was saying this morning about being in the boardroom, at the big table, where God is the CEO, jesus is the president, and we're in Jesus, we're in Christ, we're sitting at the table where God and Son's unlimited are making decisions. 00:11:59.703 --> 00:12:09.224 We're not just lowly, we have servants' hearts, but we have the status of sons and daughters of the most high God. 00:12:09.224 --> 00:12:10.322 Amen. 00:12:10.322 --> 00:12:19.966 We're not irrelevant, we're in on the family business or kingdom business, amen. 00:12:19.966 --> 00:12:37.009 And so, since he is wanting to share his very nature with us, would it be that hard to understand that we ought to be able to get some of the spoils of some of these 32,000 promises, some of these things that he's got reserved? 00:12:37.249 --> 00:12:47.206 I'm telling you, the devil and his crowd, they have no problem believing for Jets and and limos, and I mean tonight is the Oscars, I wouldn't even bother watching. 00:12:47.206 --> 00:12:48.932 I know it's all filled with politics. 00:12:48.932 --> 00:12:52.965 I hope the whole thing is goes upside down. 00:12:52.965 --> 00:12:56.952 They don't have. 00:12:56.952 --> 00:13:00.880 I'm gonna tell you, god has got got a lot of blessings for his people. 00:13:00.880 --> 00:13:07.360 I said God's got a lot of blessings for his people Health, peace, provision, safety, joy. 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:09.823 Listen, god's got things that money can't buy. 00:13:09.823 --> 00:13:10.865 Money can't buy health. 00:13:15.211 --> 00:13:17.394 I was reading on, I'm reading. 00:13:17.394 --> 00:13:19.504 I was watching the autopsy show. 00:13:19.504 --> 00:13:22.350 Do you ever watch the autopsy show where they do the autopsy? 00:13:22.350 --> 00:13:26.687 You know, I know, yeah, I'm kind of weird, I guess sometimes. 00:13:26.687 --> 00:13:30.865 I just I like to know what people you know when you pray for healing. 00:13:30.865 --> 00:13:32.511 You'd like to know what kills people you know. 00:13:32.511 --> 00:13:38.349 So, mary Tyler Moore and Diabetes, yeah, I can, I can rattle off all these. 00:13:39.171 --> 00:13:42.503 And so this afternoon they had Howard Hughes. 00:13:42.503 --> 00:14:17.075 You know the guy with the fingernails about a foot long, but he was a brilliant man, he was an absolute, he was crazy, but his and what really happened to him was he had airplane crash and the airplane crash had had injured him so severely that had scar tissue built up in his thorax, thorax between the lungs and the insides of his gut, and he had gotten on codeine and that's all that he could do to live and it made him crazy. 00:14:17.075 --> 00:14:29.215 And of course, later in his life he got to be a germaphobic and then he was recluse and he died all alone in pain and he's buried over here at Glenwood Cemetery there in right. 00:14:29.215 --> 00:14:30.519 Do you know where Glenwood that's? 00:14:30.519 --> 00:14:38.025 You know I don't spend a lot of time in graveyards but if you wanted to go through there that's some pretty interesting place. 00:14:38.025 --> 00:14:44.039 That's where the Houston the leader buried, anyway. 00:14:44.039 --> 00:14:47.967 But you know all the money he had. 00:14:47.967 --> 00:14:50.633 It didn't buy him health, it didn't buy him peace. 00:14:50.633 --> 00:14:52.182 It didn't buy him joy. 00:14:52.261 --> 00:14:53.024 Glory to God. 00:14:53.024 --> 00:14:55.548 We've got all that, plus everything else. 00:14:55.548 --> 00:14:58.822 We need all things that pertain under our life. 00:14:58.822 --> 00:15:01.648 He's not chinchy. 00:15:01.648 --> 00:15:08.826 If he gives us his nature, how much more will he give us all these other things we sell him short. 00:15:08.826 --> 00:15:11.089 He's not chinchy. 00:15:13.111 --> 00:15:15.961 Praise God, and especially these last days. 00:15:15.961 --> 00:15:19.268 You know Israel was blessed as a witness. 00:15:19.268 --> 00:15:21.633 God wanted to bless his children. 00:15:21.633 --> 00:15:24.044 They were on a trade route. 00:15:24.044 --> 00:15:30.642 Israel is right in the center of right, at the trade route between three continents. 00:15:30.642 --> 00:15:37.337 You know God is strategic, god is not random and God can't bless a mess. 00:15:37.337 --> 00:15:58.471 God is a God of order and if you will receive what I'm talking about tonight, god can help you to get your life in order, in divine order, to where he can bless you and he can read, redo some of our thinking, some of our stinking thinking, religious thinking. 00:15:58.511 --> 00:16:06.134 Somehow God wants us a second, as second class citizens know, he wants to show us off, especially now in these last days. 00:16:06.134 --> 00:16:14.279 People out there need to see a church that's so successful, that's so powerful, that they were in the book of Acts. 00:16:14.279 --> 00:16:17.706 They thought about whether they should join the church or not. 00:16:17.706 --> 00:16:31.312 There was fear, and I'm talking about not like the fear of God, I'm talking about the cold starch, the fear of death because of an anise, a fire, falling dead because of lying about an offering. 00:16:31.312 --> 00:16:40.922 The glory is going to come back on the church to that degree and when people come to church to want to get saved, they're going to be serious about it. 00:16:40.922 --> 00:16:42.024 Won't be any pretenders. 00:16:42.024 --> 00:16:43.869 Are y'all with me now? 00:16:43.869 --> 00:16:48.424 God wants to show off with his kids and so let's take it now. 00:16:48.424 --> 00:16:49.807 Let's learn how to take it. 00:16:51.030 --> 00:16:53.123 You know, being a taker is kind of a negative. 00:16:53.123 --> 00:16:54.307 It's negative content. 00:16:54.307 --> 00:16:55.572 Well, you're just a taker. 00:16:55.572 --> 00:16:57.038 Yeah, that's right. 00:16:57.038 --> 00:17:00.928 I'm a taker, I'm not taking from you, I'm taking from him. 00:17:00.928 --> 00:17:04.700 But taker has got a negative connotation, you know. 00:17:05.141 --> 00:17:08.031 So when we use the word take, that's what receive means. 00:17:08.031 --> 00:17:09.015 I just read it to you. 00:17:09.015 --> 00:17:10.319 It means to seize. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:12.702 I mean to snatch it. 00:17:12.702 --> 00:17:21.295 I didn't have to hold out a dollar bill for my kids. 00:17:21.295 --> 00:17:22.701 They snatched it out of my hand. 00:17:22.701 --> 00:17:25.684 They were ready for it right there, right now. 00:17:32.153 --> 00:17:33.295 Take advantage, take. 00:17:33.295 --> 00:17:34.296 You're just a takeover. 00:17:34.296 --> 00:17:37.092 You take advantage, you take over, you just take away. 00:17:37.092 --> 00:17:38.116 You take everything away. 00:17:38.196 --> 00:17:40.525 No, I've talked about take from God. 00:17:40.525 --> 00:17:41.648 Take what he's giving. 00:17:41.648 --> 00:17:44.257 He has, as a matter of fact, he's already given it. 00:17:44.257 --> 00:17:46.905 I mean, what does it say? 00:17:46.905 --> 00:17:53.058 He has given unto us, he has given, he has already given unto us. 00:17:53.058 --> 00:18:00.619 Verse 2, 2 Peter, chapter 1, he has already given unto us all things that pertain unto life and God. 00:18:00.619 --> 00:18:01.722 He's already given. 00:18:01.722 --> 00:18:04.373 He's already given, he's already given. 00:18:04.373 --> 00:18:05.517 Why are we messing around? 00:18:05.517 --> 00:18:06.820 Why don't we take it now? 00:18:06.820 --> 00:18:10.087 Take it now, don't wait. 00:18:10.087 --> 00:18:12.833 Well, I'm going to wait. 00:18:12.833 --> 00:18:14.596 No, don't wait, take it. 00:18:14.596 --> 00:18:17.461 I mean, god wants to use us. 00:18:19.487 --> 00:18:28.548 Praise God that we might be partakers of His divine nature, might see that when you see the word might, it's like let people use that word. 00:18:28.548 --> 00:18:32.730 And when you see it might in your Bible I'm preaching out of the King James. 00:18:32.730 --> 00:18:33.132 I can't. 00:18:33.132 --> 00:18:36.683 I've tried preaching out of the New King James, out of NLT. 00:18:36.683 --> 00:18:40.030 I like all those other Bible, but I have to preach out of this. 00:18:40.030 --> 00:18:44.973 I don't even know where all those verses are in other Bibles, so I have to preach out of this one. 00:18:46.219 --> 00:18:49.965 But the word might means it's on you to receive, to take. 00:18:49.965 --> 00:18:52.791 He can't take it for you. 00:18:52.791 --> 00:18:56.509 He can give it but he can't take it for you, isn't that right? 00:18:56.509 --> 00:18:59.661 If you're going to give somebody something, you can't take it for them. 00:18:59.661 --> 00:19:02.971 All you can do is give it Right. 00:19:02.971 --> 00:19:07.505 So if I give you something, then you have to take it. 00:19:07.505 --> 00:19:14.385 I can't give it and then run around here and then take it for you, because then I have it and you don't. 00:19:14.385 --> 00:19:19.726 At some point you're gonna have to receive it right or you're gonna have to take it from my hand. 00:19:20.842 --> 00:19:31.385 I know that sounds crazy, but a lot of people they just get all crossed up and they're waiting on God to give it what he already gave it, Waiting on you to take it. 00:19:31.385 --> 00:19:33.586 Everybody say I'm taking it now. 00:19:33.586 --> 00:19:36.161 I'm taking it now, praise God. 00:19:36.161 --> 00:19:41.707 Well, we have to take it by faith and again, we can't take it unless we're sure that God has given it. 00:19:41.707 --> 00:19:45.346 That's what FF Bosworth said. 00:19:45.346 --> 00:19:48.986 He said you know you can't take something you're not sure God's given. 00:19:48.986 --> 00:19:50.664 So you gotta become assured. 00:19:50.664 --> 00:19:51.942 How do you know that way? 00:19:51.942 --> 00:19:53.242 You've gotta get it in your heart. 00:19:53.242 --> 00:19:57.625 You've gotta read your Bible and then you've gotta have a prayer life and then you're gonna know what belongs to you. 00:19:59.180 --> 00:20:02.549 I knew, because of prayer life, that I had. 00:20:02.549 --> 00:20:03.944 I knew I had a car coming. 00:20:03.944 --> 00:20:06.201 I knew it. 00:20:06.201 --> 00:20:09.723 I didn't even have to ask Him for it, I didn't beg Him. 00:20:09.723 --> 00:20:12.028 I didn't go through all of that razzmatazz. 00:20:12.028 --> 00:20:12.983 I claimed it. 00:20:12.983 --> 00:20:16.683 I said I claimed it. 00:20:16.683 --> 00:20:18.384 I spoke to it. 00:20:18.384 --> 00:20:19.784 I said come here now. 00:20:19.784 --> 00:20:21.690 I take you now. 00:20:21.690 --> 00:20:30.029 I need you now that 30 days I'm driving that old, you know, 86 Oldsmobile, regency 98. 00:20:31.589 --> 00:20:37.700 I pulled out of my driveway in spring and headed down the straight and suddenly, you know just, I couldn't see anything. 00:20:37.700 --> 00:20:38.509 It's just something. 00:20:38.509 --> 00:20:39.298 I felt a weight come on me. 00:20:39.298 --> 00:20:42.940 I thought the glory of God had fallen in the car, but no, it was my headliner. 00:20:42.940 --> 00:20:53.259 My entire headliner fell out, fell out of the ceiling on top of me On Loretta Road. 00:20:53.259 --> 00:20:55.549 I mean it's pretty exciting. 00:20:55.549 --> 00:20:58.420 I'm pushing up on it. 00:20:58.420 --> 00:20:59.423 I'm pushing up on it. 00:20:59.423 --> 00:21:10.148 I'm trying to see out the windshield, pull off the side of the road, whip around, do a 180, get back to my house. 00:21:10.148 --> 00:21:12.663 I got a staple gun. 00:21:12.663 --> 00:21:17.265 I didn't last but about 20 miles and started falling again. 00:21:17.265 --> 00:21:21.486 By the time I got to Rosenberg, it was all, and I didn't want to rip it all out. 00:21:21.486 --> 00:21:25.728 You know God's headliner, it's wool or something. 00:21:25.728 --> 00:21:37.833 I bought some glue, spray glue, and I punched holes and I sprayed it and stuck it up in there, praise God. 00:21:37.833 --> 00:21:46.703 It was time to take another car and I didn't want to go down to the used car lot and take one of theirs. 00:21:46.703 --> 00:21:50.950 I'd have to pay for it, but anyway, thank God. 00:21:53.060 --> 00:21:54.420 Let's look at Psalm 116. 00:21:54.420 --> 00:21:55.680 You get anything out of this tonight. 00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:02.372 Just, I mean, you know some of this stuff, but I mean, listen, we need to get our faith charged up. 00:22:02.372 --> 00:22:04.126 We need to get a refresher course. 00:22:04.126 --> 00:22:11.500 We need to be encouraged, enabled, empowered that's really a better word. 00:22:11.500 --> 00:22:15.431 You need to be empowered to aim higher. 00:22:15.431 --> 00:22:18.385 I'm not talking about being foolish. 00:22:18.385 --> 00:22:23.352 I'm not talking about things that are beyond wisdom. 00:22:23.352 --> 00:22:26.327 I'm talking about getting what God's got, has already given you. 00:22:26.449 --> 00:22:36.067 Find out Psalm 116, verse 12, what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? 00:22:36.067 --> 00:22:38.605 James is talking about the benefits. 00:22:38.605 --> 00:22:40.446 Don't forget, not all his benefits. 00:22:40.446 --> 00:22:45.309 I pray Psalm 103 every single day of my life. 00:22:45.309 --> 00:22:48.430 I quote every verse of that that he was reading. 00:22:48.430 --> 00:22:57.307 Thank God, he satisfies my mouth with good things so that my youth is renewed like the eagles. 00:22:57.307 --> 00:22:59.972 Amen. 00:23:03.059 --> 00:23:03.983 What shall I render? 00:23:03.983 --> 00:23:08.449 How shall I pay him back for all these benefits? 00:23:08.449 --> 00:23:12.326 What am I ever gonna do in return? 00:23:12.326 --> 00:23:17.990 You think that what he's done so many good things, what could we ever do? 00:23:17.990 --> 00:23:20.721 Well, it tells us in the next verse I know what. 00:23:20.721 --> 00:23:25.445 I'll take the cup of salvation and I'll call upon the name of the Lord. 00:23:25.445 --> 00:23:37.527 In other words, I'll have respect for the covenant and I believe I receive all those things that he bought and paid for and I'm gonna enjoy every one of them. 00:23:37.527 --> 00:23:38.644 That's got my name on it. 00:23:38.644 --> 00:23:40.502 That's how I. 00:23:40.824 --> 00:23:43.228 I mean, isn't that how you repay your parents? 00:23:43.228 --> 00:23:43.942 I mean my kid. 00:23:43.942 --> 00:24:05.246 When I look at my kids and how well they get to live now they've gone through slick spots when they were living at home and they had to do without a few things not very much, but they had some challenges and they lived through all of that and they learned from it along with us. 00:24:05.246 --> 00:24:08.926 And now they're so successful and their finances are so successful. 00:24:08.926 --> 00:24:11.565 And we don't apologize. 00:24:12.980 --> 00:24:15.221 I've had people who are you're a preacher, you're not supposed to. 00:24:15.221 --> 00:24:16.266 Yes, I'm supposed to. 00:24:16.266 --> 00:24:18.522 You're not my source. 00:24:18.522 --> 00:24:19.465 God's my source. 00:24:19.465 --> 00:24:21.986 We do everything right in this church. 00:24:21.986 --> 00:24:29.047 We do everything above board, we do everything legal, we do everything according to the regulations that are out there and we're blessed. 00:24:29.047 --> 00:24:30.865 I'm not I'm ashamed of it. 00:24:30.865 --> 00:24:32.509 I'm not ashamed. 00:24:32.509 --> 00:24:34.181 Praise God. 00:24:34.181 --> 00:24:35.125 He's the one that blessed us. 00:24:35.125 --> 00:24:36.201 What do we do? 00:24:36.201 --> 00:24:37.827 We took the cup of salvation. 00:24:37.827 --> 00:24:39.526 We called upon the name of the Lord. 00:24:39.526 --> 00:24:42.255 I said God, I got a car coming. 00:24:42.255 --> 00:24:45.048 I'm just gonna let you know I'm believing for it. 00:24:45.048 --> 00:24:50.605 I didn't even have to ask you Now some things you have to ask for. 00:24:51.019 --> 00:24:56.266 One time I got real interested in a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. 00:24:56.266 --> 00:24:59.507 That seemed like every preacher I knew. 00:24:59.507 --> 00:25:04.125 In fact we sowed seed to help another preacher buy another preacher one. 00:25:04.125 --> 00:25:11.009 This preacher bought another preacher a Harley, a brand new Harley-Davidson $15,000 motorcycle. 00:25:11.009 --> 00:25:14.208 So we got in on the offering. 00:25:14.208 --> 00:25:18.849 Hey, we weren't part of that, but he didn't like it that we were getting part of it, but we got it anyway. 00:25:18.849 --> 00:25:20.384 I didn't care whether he liked it or not. 00:25:20.384 --> 00:25:24.702 You're just a vessel, I'm a vessel, I'm gonna give. 00:25:24.702 --> 00:25:26.505 He sure didn't turn it down. 00:25:26.505 --> 00:25:30.788 And I was getting ready to believe God for a Harley. 00:25:30.788 --> 00:25:40.750 And one day I bought another Harley magazine, another motorcycle magazine flipping through there and he says I don't want you to have that motorcycle. 00:25:40.750 --> 00:25:48.305 I said, okay, I was barking up the wrong tree. 00:25:49.299 --> 00:25:51.624 Almost every one of those preachers that you either had a wreck. 00:25:51.624 --> 00:25:53.125 I know one thing one day. 00:25:53.125 --> 00:26:00.810 One time we were in a Rodney Howard Brown meeting and he came in there with Bermuda Sharks and a T-shirt on because he had road rash on that one side. 00:26:00.810 --> 00:26:03.945 He had a wreck in his driveway. 00:26:03.945 --> 00:26:05.404 He was going about 20 miles an hour. 00:26:05.404 --> 00:26:15.002 Sorry, rodney, if you ever give this, I felt sorry for you at the time but anyway, that was the reason why he didn't want me to have one. 00:26:15.599 --> 00:26:19.784 Another guy fell off his bike and they weren't driving very fast, they were driving slow. 00:26:19.784 --> 00:26:22.247 They fell off the motorcycle and bruised his kidney. 00:26:22.247 --> 00:26:24.787 He was out of the church for weeks. 00:26:24.787 --> 00:26:27.066 I almost had to have a kidney. 00:26:27.066 --> 00:26:29.444 He bruised it so bad. 00:26:29.444 --> 00:26:34.410 But I'm just not as adept on Harley's stand. 00:26:34.410 --> 00:26:35.806 Stand knows how to ride one. 00:26:35.806 --> 00:26:39.351 I guess riding a Harley would be like riding a horse. 00:26:39.351 --> 00:26:40.664 I'm gonna leave that somebody else. 00:26:40.664 --> 00:26:46.988 What shall I render under the Lord for all his benefits? 00:26:46.988 --> 00:26:49.605 32,000 promises. 00:26:49.605 --> 00:26:54.053 There's bound to be some of those with your name on them. 00:26:54.053 --> 00:26:55.002 Glory to God. 00:26:55.002 --> 00:26:56.248 Take it now. 00:26:58.901 --> 00:27:09.103 You know I've told this before, but when Gladys and I got the orders from headquarters to start a church. 00:27:09.103 --> 00:27:11.829 I was at Lakewood. 00:27:11.829 --> 00:27:18.885 I knew I was gonna have to approach Brother Osteen and I prayed very carefully and deliberately about how to do that. 00:27:18.885 --> 00:27:23.722 I did not want to go in there and say God spoke to me to leave Goodbye. 00:27:23.722 --> 00:27:34.619 There was no way I was gonna do that and so I was praying leading up to our meeting. 00:27:34.619 --> 00:27:39.488 I hadn't scheduled a meeting with him, but I knew that I was to leave and start a church. 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:45.988 And so in my normal reading I was reading Luke 15 about the prodigal son. 00:27:45.988 --> 00:27:49.587 And you know, you've heard me preach about the prodigal son. 00:27:49.587 --> 00:27:55.424 You know it's Junior and Bubba Junior is the firstborn, he's the one that's got the double portion. 00:27:55.424 --> 00:27:59.307 And Bubba is the younger son and he's the rebel. 00:27:59.307 --> 00:28:04.606 And he comes to his father and says give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me. 00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:18.170 Well, when I was reading that story for the umpteenth time, I saw myself prayin' that prayer for my leaving Lakewood Give me the portion of goods that falleth unto me. 00:28:18.170 --> 00:28:22.205 In other words, give me my inheritance, give me my blessing. 00:28:22.205 --> 00:28:26.111 I'm not leaving without your full blessing. 00:28:26.111 --> 00:28:32.548 I'm not leaving without your full permission and, more than your permission, your encouragement. 00:28:32.548 --> 00:28:33.683 I knew what he felt. 00:28:33.683 --> 00:28:35.906 I knew he saw me as a pastor. 00:28:35.906 --> 00:28:37.605 I knew that cause he'd already told me that. 00:28:38.380 --> 00:28:40.522 But it's one thing to hear that and one thing to say. 00:28:40.522 --> 00:28:45.868 I'm going out the door and I'm gonna start a church in Houston, which I never. 00:28:45.868 --> 00:28:53.446 I mean, I just assumed it'd be Dubuque, duluth man. 00:28:53.446 --> 00:29:03.509 I'm so glad that God didn't send me to Duluth About Bismarck, north Dakota, where it gets about 100 degrees below zero every winter. 00:29:03.509 --> 00:29:07.205 No, houston, I never dreamed. 00:29:07.205 --> 00:29:10.226 I never dreamed that I would be in Houston never. 00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:16.463 But in my prayer, I mean, I realized where I was supposed to be and what I'm supposed to do. 00:29:16.463 --> 00:29:29.970 And I've gotta go and I've gotta present it to Brother Osteen in such a way and give him carte blanche, give him yay or nay, give him total veto over it. 00:29:29.970 --> 00:29:33.923 That was the only way I would do it and that's what I told the Lord. 00:29:33.923 --> 00:29:36.942 I said I've seen too many people go out At my age. 00:29:36.942 --> 00:29:39.328 I can't afford to go out and bust wide open. 00:29:39.328 --> 00:29:46.108 I've gotta succeed and I cannot go out without his full blessing. 00:29:46.108 --> 00:29:49.166 I want the portion of goods that falleth unto me. 00:29:50.339 --> 00:29:56.046 So, lo and behold, we had a special prayer meeting on like a Tuesday night. 00:29:56.046 --> 00:29:59.923 I don't remember what the occasion was, and it was a big crowd. 00:29:59.923 --> 00:30:06.066 We were in the new building, the big building, and so we were. 00:30:06.066 --> 00:30:19.819 And John come up here and lead us in prayer and I tell you, I started talking about the prodigal son, I started talking about everything that God had told me and I prayed God give us the portion of goods that falleth. 00:30:19.819 --> 00:30:24.905 I got to pray this exact prayer from his platform, you know, in his presence. 00:30:26.740 --> 00:30:31.806 And then a few days later I called and got an appointment and he was shocked when I told him. 00:30:31.806 --> 00:30:33.645 I said I didn't tell him we're leaving. 00:30:33.645 --> 00:30:35.446 I said I want to present something to you. 00:30:35.446 --> 00:30:37.866 I give you complete veto power. 00:30:37.866 --> 00:30:43.145 If you can't give me your full and under you know, unreserved blessing, I'm staying. 00:30:43.145 --> 00:30:51.607 I'm not leaving no matter what, but I feel it's time for Gladys now to start a church, and we're going to start a church in Houston. 00:30:52.301 --> 00:30:55.186 If we could get your blessing, I can't leave without your full blessing. 00:30:55.186 --> 00:30:56.930 I would never think of that. 00:30:56.930 --> 00:31:00.900 I've served here too long and I just would not want to do that. 00:31:00.900 --> 00:31:04.205 I want to honor you and everything I do I want you to feel right about it. 00:31:04.205 --> 00:31:06.266 I know I'm springing it on you. 00:31:06.266 --> 00:31:14.090 But I'm just, you know, I told you in Paris a few months ago, I got to find out what's wrong and this is what's wrong. 00:31:14.090 --> 00:31:18.010 I need to be in the full-time ministry pastor in a church. 00:31:20.282 --> 00:31:23.983 And so I presented to you and so at first, oh yeah, john. 00:31:23.983 --> 00:31:26.612 But I could tell he was hesitant. 00:31:26.612 --> 00:31:27.945 I could tell he was shocked. 00:31:27.945 --> 00:31:30.886 You know, a pastor is not. 00:31:30.886 --> 00:31:33.192 Their highest thought is not what's going to happen to you. 00:31:33.192 --> 00:31:38.164 I mean, you know, in that way they're thinking about a church, they're thinking about their whole church. 00:31:38.164 --> 00:31:41.119 They've got somebody like me they lean on all the time. 00:31:41.119 --> 00:31:43.808 He leaned on me all the time for things. 00:31:43.808 --> 00:31:45.358 He sent me on errands. 00:31:45.358 --> 00:31:53.680 He, you know, not just weddings and funerals, but lots of errands and things, it things to handle, counseling sessions with other ministries and stuff like that. 00:31:53.680 --> 00:31:55.900 And I knew all of that. 00:31:55.900 --> 00:32:02.271