WEBVTT 00:00:00.202 --> 00:00:08.339 If you've got your Bible and I trust that you do why don't you pick it up and wave it around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad? 00:00:08.339 --> 00:00:11.583 Let's pay attention, let's get our minds on the Word of God. 00:00:11.583 --> 00:00:20.368 Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I've tuned into live stream tonight because I need what's gonna be taught. 00:00:20.368 --> 00:00:38.127 What's going to be taught is the Word of God, and God's holy Word develops my spirit, strengthens my faith and allows me to do what God has called me to do with excellence and effectiveness. 00:00:38.127 --> 00:00:39.652 In Jesus' name. 00:00:39.652 --> 00:00:56.320 If you would tonight, let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Galatians, chapter three, and we'll start reading verse one Paul writing to the church that he started. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:00:58.746 They were his children. 00:00:58.746 --> 00:01:01.192 He was a father in the faith. 00:01:01.192 --> 00:01:05.102 Galatians, chapter one. 00:01:05.102 --> 00:01:08.090 Excuse me, chapter three, verse one. 00:01:08.090 --> 00:01:12.850 Oh, foolish Galatians, only a dad can talk to you like that. 00:01:12.850 --> 00:01:25.789 Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you? 00:01:25.789 --> 00:01:28.885 This only what I learn of you. 00:01:28.885 --> 00:01:33.766 Received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? 00:01:33.766 --> 00:01:36.042 Are you so foolish? 00:01:36.042 --> 00:01:41.409 Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect or made mature by the flesh. 00:01:41.409 --> 00:01:44.608 Have you suffered so many things in vain? 00:01:44.608 --> 00:01:46.686 If it be yet in vain? 00:01:46.686 --> 00:01:53.486 He, therefore, that ministers to you the spirit and works miracles among you. 00:01:53.486 --> 00:02:03.706 Does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith, even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness? 00:02:03.706 --> 00:02:09.806 No ye, therefore, that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham. 00:02:09.806 --> 00:02:21.647 And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel under Abraham, saying in thee shall all nations be blessed. 00:02:21.647 --> 00:02:28.467 So then, they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. 00:02:28.467 --> 00:02:33.582 And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled faith and miracles. 00:02:33.582 --> 00:02:36.251 Faith and miracles. 00:02:36.251 --> 00:02:39.090 You know, this church has had miracles from day one. 00:02:39.090 --> 00:02:40.324 It started as a miracle. 00:02:40.324 --> 00:02:45.683 It's had miracle after miracle, and I believe it's because of the word of faith which we preach here. 00:02:46.860 --> 00:02:50.151 And the Galatians had moved away from what Paul preached. 00:02:50.151 --> 00:03:03.526 They moved away from their father in the faith, and how he begot them, how he started that work, you know, they began to listen to Judaism. 00:03:03.526 --> 00:03:14.649 They began to have Jewish teachers come in and convince them that they didn't need the new covenant and that they had to be obedient to the law. 00:03:14.649 --> 00:03:29.830 They had to keep the law and they began to waver and they substituted religion for a relationship and so they moved away from the hearing of faith. 00:03:29.830 --> 00:03:36.888 He said you know, hey, did you receive the baptism in the Holy Ghost by the law or by the hearing of faith? 00:03:36.888 --> 00:03:40.649 And that hearing of faith is hearing the word of faith. 00:03:40.649 --> 00:03:45.206 The word of faith, you know, in Romans 10, 17,. 00:03:45.206 --> 00:03:48.204 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. 00:03:48.204 --> 00:03:54.907 So they quit listening to the word of God, started listening to the Old Testament and their faith started slipping away from them. 00:03:54.907 --> 00:04:09.985 They started substituting religious acts, like keeping the dietary laws and trying to do all these sacrifices and all that kind of thing, instead of what Paul had preached to them. 00:04:09.985 --> 00:04:13.689 So Paul challenged them did you get the miracles? 00:04:13.689 --> 00:04:22.826 Did you all the miracles that were done in your midst, or were they done through the obeying the law, or were they done by the hearing of the word of faith? 00:04:22.826 --> 00:04:28.269 And so the word of faith, you know. 00:04:28.560 --> 00:04:30.086 Let's look at Romans, chapter 10. 00:04:30.086 --> 00:04:31.384 I love these verses. 00:04:31.384 --> 00:04:33.887 It tells you exactly what the word of faith. 00:04:33.887 --> 00:04:36.264 A lot of people think the word of faith is some kind of movement. 00:04:36.264 --> 00:04:38.887 The word of faith is a kind of church. 00:04:38.887 --> 00:04:40.204 We are a word of faith church. 00:04:40.204 --> 00:04:40.706 That's true. 00:04:40.706 --> 00:04:42.204 But word of faith is the Bible. 00:04:42.204 --> 00:04:44.204 It's what Paul preached. 00:04:44.204 --> 00:04:44.841 Let's look at it. 00:04:44.901 --> 00:04:46.928 Romans, chapter 10, verse eight. 00:04:46.928 --> 00:04:50.185 It says what does it say? 00:04:50.185 --> 00:04:50.963 What sayeth it? 00:04:50.963 --> 00:04:54.288 The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. 00:04:54.288 --> 00:04:56.528 That is the word of faith which we preach. 00:04:56.528 --> 00:04:59.338 I couldn't get any clearer than that. 00:04:59.500 --> 00:05:04.244 What Paul preached was a word of faith, and this is what it is. 00:05:04.244 --> 00:05:05.187 Here he defines it. 00:05:05.187 --> 00:05:14.348 The word of faith is this that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. 00:05:14.348 --> 00:05:22.430 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 00:05:22.430 --> 00:05:29.867 Well, that's true of the new birth, but it's true of anything and everything that Jesus bought and paid for, not just the new birth but everything else. 00:05:29.867 --> 00:05:40.473 So we can say it this way with the heart man believes unto what it is that you desire, and with the mouth confession is made unto that thing. 00:05:40.473 --> 00:05:44.646 You don't have to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. 00:05:44.646 --> 00:05:53.002 That is the Word of faith, and Paul preached it Believe in God's Word in your heart, no matter what the subject is. 00:05:53.002 --> 00:05:58.559 I mean you have to be fully assured that it's God's will for you to have the thing you're asking for. 00:05:58.559 --> 00:06:03.699 But once you know it, then you believe it in your heart and you speak it with your mouth. 00:06:03.699 --> 00:06:08.425 I mean it's, the greatest miracle that you ever received was the miracle of the new birth. 00:06:08.425 --> 00:06:16.920 But any other miracle, any other thing that Jesus bought and paid for, when faith is released, miracles occur. 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:19.519 When faith is released, the Holy Ghost shows up. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:24.622 And so no Holy Ghost, no miracles. 00:06:24.622 --> 00:06:32.401 That's where the Galatian church oh foolish Galatians you've traded in the Holy Ghost for dead religion. 00:06:32.401 --> 00:06:37.223 There's a whole lot of churches in today's day that have done the same thing. 00:06:37.223 --> 00:06:39.689 They've done the same thing. 00:06:39.915 --> 00:06:43.704 Let's look at Acts, chapter 14, talking about faith and miracles. 00:06:43.704 --> 00:06:50.206 I mean miracles don't just occur, you know, just like when God decides. 00:06:50.206 --> 00:06:51.980 I mean we have a whole lot to do with it. 00:06:51.980 --> 00:07:16.317 Acts, chapter 14, paul is preaching and he's preaching to a crowd and it says they were in Lystra and Derby, centers of Lycanae and under the region that would lie around that area, and there they preached the gospel he had born of us. 00:07:16.317 --> 00:07:18.375 And in that crowd. 00:07:18.737 --> 00:07:30.005 Verse eight there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother's womb, who never had walked. 00:07:30.005 --> 00:07:30.877 Think about that. 00:07:30.877 --> 00:07:33.482 He had never walked. 00:07:33.482 --> 00:07:35.862 He was born with some sort of birth defect. 00:07:35.862 --> 00:07:48.608 Now you know I don't know if you've ever seen that ad on, you know, for the Shriners Shriners Hospital in Galveston, but they have those precious little children that have birth defects. 00:07:48.608 --> 00:07:59.446 Some of them are born with no legs or weak legs, or they have all kinds of things wrong with them, and they take them there and they give them all kinds of therapies and stuff like that. 00:08:00.216 --> 00:08:01.661 But so this was kind of like that. 00:08:01.661 --> 00:08:03.843 I mean this guy must have had withered legs. 00:08:03.843 --> 00:08:08.100 I mean he'd never walked on them, his muscles had must have been atrophy. 00:08:08.100 --> 00:08:29.781 And so he heard in verse nine, he heard Paul speaking and he and Paul steadfastly beheld him and, perceiving that this man had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice stand upright on my feet, and he leaped and walked. 00:08:29.781 --> 00:08:31.158 You think about that. 00:08:31.158 --> 00:08:35.466 I mean he didn't just struggle to get up on his feet and kind of stagger around. 00:08:35.466 --> 00:08:39.261 I mean he jumped up, he leaped up and he walked. 00:08:39.261 --> 00:08:42.184 I mean that he had a creative miracle. 00:08:42.184 --> 00:08:44.663 His legs got strong. 00:08:44.663 --> 00:08:46.181 I mean, they supported his weight. 00:08:46.181 --> 00:08:48.601 They'd never supported his weight in his entire life. 00:08:50.356 --> 00:08:56.320 And Paul, it wasn't a gift of the spirit, paul didn't have a word from God about it, he just simply perceived. 00:08:56.320 --> 00:08:57.123 He looked at him. 00:08:57.123 --> 00:09:11.658 You know, many times I've been preaching in this church over all the 26 years been doing it, and I can look at people and tell whether they're receiving what I'm saying or not, or I can look at people and tell when they're not, and you know. 00:09:11.658 --> 00:09:21.965 And so he was able to tell that that man was listening and that faith had built up in his heart and all he needed to do was act on what he believed. 00:09:21.965 --> 00:09:35.620 See, I mean, if he hadn't gotten up and jumped up and done what Paul said, he could have left that meeting without ever turning on the switch of faith by his action, and he could have left there the same way he came. 00:09:35.620 --> 00:09:38.047 But instead he got a miracle. 00:09:38.047 --> 00:09:41.822 And they got the miracle by the hearing of the word of faith. 00:09:41.822 --> 00:09:43.606 Just think about it. 00:09:43.606 --> 00:09:46.202 Paul must have been preaching about healing. 00:09:46.202 --> 00:09:50.241 He must have been preaching about healing for this man to have faith, to be healed. 00:09:50.241 --> 00:09:52.206 I mean, you know. 00:09:52.206 --> 00:09:54.634 So he preached about healing. 00:09:54.634 --> 00:09:58.649 A man heard it and Paul said stand up, you're ready to walk. 00:09:58.649 --> 00:10:00.226 And he did. 00:10:00.226 --> 00:10:07.471 And so the cripple had faith to be healed by hearing the Word of Faith. 00:10:08.225 --> 00:10:11.572 Praise God, let's just thank God for the Word of Faith. 00:10:11.572 --> 00:10:15.270 I thank God every day for the things that I know and the things that I was taught. 00:10:15.270 --> 00:10:19.052 I wouldn't know these things if I had gone to Lakewood Church and listened to John Oste. 00:10:19.052 --> 00:10:22.152 I mean, that was one of those glorious connections. 00:10:22.152 --> 00:10:26.211 I don't know how long it would have taken me to discover what I know now. 00:10:26.211 --> 00:10:27.350 I don't know if I ever would have. 00:10:27.350 --> 00:10:29.010 I might have died before I ever knew. 00:10:29.884 --> 00:10:46.832 I know one thing the Word of Faith is a difference between life and death right now, and churches that preach it are the churches where you can depend on getting miracles when you need them, and the churches that don't preach it are the ones that are dead, the churches that don't have the Holy Spirit there with them. 00:10:46.832 --> 00:10:57.253 And so the logos, the Word of God, becomes Ramah, the God-breathed Word as it's illuminated, as the logos illuminated by the Holy Spirit. 00:10:57.253 --> 00:11:00.254 You know, without the Spirit, you just, you're lost. 00:11:00.254 --> 00:11:02.293 You've got to have the Holy Spirit and the Word. 00:11:02.293 --> 00:11:05.595 That's the whole precept of this church. 00:11:05.595 --> 00:11:06.427 Glorious Way. 00:11:06.427 --> 00:11:08.033 Church speaks of the Spirit. 00:11:08.033 --> 00:11:12.412 Glorious glory and way and the way, the truth and the life. 00:11:12.412 --> 00:11:13.470 Jesus is the Word. 00:11:13.470 --> 00:11:14.789 So the Word and the Spirit. 00:11:16.046 --> 00:11:25.950 And let's look at 1 Corinthians, chapter two, because Paul knew what he had, he knew why he had it. 00:11:25.950 --> 00:11:33.335 1 Corinthians, chapter two, and we'll start with verse first. 00:11:33.335 --> 00:11:33.895 Verse there. 00:11:33.895 --> 00:11:37.591 And he's talking to the Corinthian church. 00:11:37.591 --> 00:11:39.731 That's another church that had a lot of problems. 00:11:39.731 --> 00:11:41.048 You know the churches. 00:11:41.048 --> 00:11:45.494 Here's one of the greatest men in the Bible and he started these churches. 00:11:45.494 --> 00:11:46.548 Everyone of them had trouble. 00:11:46.548 --> 00:11:50.048 I mean, the Galatians just about gave up on what he preached. 00:11:50.048 --> 00:11:52.190 And the Corinthian church. 00:11:52.190 --> 00:11:54.629 He had to write two letters because they were so out of order. 00:11:54.629 --> 00:11:57.445 And 1 Corinthians, chapter two, verse one. 00:11:57.524 --> 00:12:09.972 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God, for I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. 00:12:09.972 --> 00:12:14.773 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 00:12:14.773 --> 00:12:24.256 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. 00:12:24.256 --> 00:12:39.869 My preaching and my teaching were in demonstration of the spirit, holy Spirit, and in power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 00:12:39.869 --> 00:12:43.264 So Paul was a highly educated man. 00:12:43.264 --> 00:12:45.004 He had sat at the feet of Gimeliel. 00:12:45.004 --> 00:12:46.212 He was very, very. 00:12:46.212 --> 00:12:48.105 He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. 00:12:48.105 --> 00:12:53.354 He was very Bible literate, he knew the Pentateuch, he knew the Word of God. 00:12:53.804 --> 00:13:07.317 But when he got saved he came into the New Covenant and God gave him revelation upon revelation and as an educated man he had the ability to speak very eloquently and very supremely. 00:13:07.317 --> 00:13:09.845 And he didn't choose that way of speaking. 00:13:09.845 --> 00:13:12.634 He chose plainness of speech. 00:13:12.634 --> 00:13:19.936 He depended on the Holy Spirit to help him deliver his message with signs and wonders and miracles. 00:13:19.936 --> 00:13:23.094 I'm telling you demonstration. 00:13:23.094 --> 00:13:29.292 I, like demon straighted when that word came out of his mouth. 00:13:29.292 --> 00:13:39.933 Demons started getting stretched out and plucked like a guitar string, or you could say it this way there showed up showings off of the Holy Ghost. 00:13:39.933 --> 00:13:43.013 The Holy Ghost began showing off what in Paul. 00:13:43.013 --> 00:13:44.168 Paul didn't do it. 00:13:44.168 --> 00:13:45.172 Look at this man. 00:13:45.172 --> 00:13:49.952 That's exactly what happened to this man that was crippled from his mother's womb. 00:13:49.952 --> 00:13:52.673 I mean, you talk about showing off of the Holy Ghost. 00:13:52.673 --> 00:14:00.633 He's preaching on healing and this man, he perceives he's got faith to be healed and he leaps and walks in front of everybody. 00:14:00.633 --> 00:14:04.274 Can you imagine what kind of a meeting that turned into? 00:14:04.274 --> 00:14:07.691 We only saw the one healing there. 00:14:07.691 --> 00:14:12.447 Can you imagine how many people got healed and saved and delivered and everything else at that meeting? 00:14:12.447 --> 00:14:14.851 Oh, it's because of what he preached. 00:14:14.851 --> 00:14:16.250 He preached the word of faith. 00:14:16.250 --> 00:14:26.731 It wasn't his education, it wasn't his homiletics and hominutics and it wasn't his practicing in front of a mirror and it wasn't all of that kind of stuff. 00:14:26.731 --> 00:14:31.355 He just let the spirit of God confirm his word. 00:14:31.355 --> 00:14:34.412 Oh, I tell you what a powerful thing. 00:14:34.412 --> 00:14:41.134 So God confirmed his word with signs, wonders and miracles, just like he said he would. 00:14:44.585 --> 00:14:53.035 You know, you have in today's day, right now, you've got churches and I'm just gonna talk about two ditches. 00:14:53.035 --> 00:15:00.291 I think I could make a case for three ditches, but they're just two ditches, one on either side of the road, and so we'll talk about one ditch. 00:15:00.291 --> 00:15:08.714 And the thing that these churches have in common is that there's very little word that's around what they're ministering. 00:15:08.714 --> 00:15:47.681 So the first kind of a church would be like a seeker, sensitive type church, when other churches it's there to attract a crowd, entertain people, bring them in the door, make sure there's a real good singing and songs and band and even drama and have very all of that little or no word, little or no Holy Ghost, no miracles, no gifts of the Spirit, no demonstration of the Spirit, like we, just no unction, no utterance, no substance really. 00:15:48.725 --> 00:15:50.653 But what you have is an extravaganza. 00:15:50.653 --> 00:15:52.999 You have six flags over Jesus. 00:15:52.999 --> 00:15:55.033 You have, you know, entertainment. 00:15:55.033 --> 00:16:05.772 You have a lot of flesh and you know, I tuned into a program one time on Christian television and a girl that was singing looked like she belonged in a disco. 00:16:05.772 --> 00:16:15.592 She was moving in such a worldly sensual fashion that I can't imagine any man in that place really having any mind on God. 00:16:15.592 --> 00:16:17.440 But that's what you have. 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:18.605 A lot of these is flesh. 00:16:18.625 --> 00:16:26.547 And then in a similar fashion, the next churches are different in the fact that they call themselves charismatic. 00:16:26.547 --> 00:16:34.123 In fact, if you search for them online, they often say they're spirit filled and they emphasize long worship. 00:16:34.123 --> 00:16:34.905 There again, they have. 00:16:34.905 --> 00:16:37.767 They have good bands and they sing long songs. 00:16:37.767 --> 00:16:40.019 A lot of the songs are filled with unbelief. 00:16:40.019 --> 00:16:44.780 I mean, we, we are real particular about the kind of songs we sing here at Glorious Way. 00:16:44.780 --> 00:16:47.059 They really have to meet a standard. 00:16:47.059 --> 00:16:48.607 They have to be scriptural. 00:16:48.607 --> 00:16:56.090 We don't like songs that beg and songs that are about to cry and defeat and how it was all alone and all that kind of that. 00:16:56.090 --> 00:16:59.826 That's more like a country in Western crying your beer song. 00:16:59.826 --> 00:17:05.391 I mean, come on, we need stuff that lifts people into the throne room. 00:17:06.155 --> 00:17:32.580 So these, these churches, they, they'll, they'll spend a long time and then they, they, the preaching, you know, mostly opinions, stories, observations, maybe some testimonies, maybe they'll have half of a verse or one verse and then the rest of the rest of the rest of the whole thing is fluff and bluster and and sometimes when they have prophecies, they're really just familiar spirits. 00:17:32.580 --> 00:17:38.313 They're really not true prophecies that are that are exhortation, edification, comfort of the church. 00:17:38.313 --> 00:17:44.142 But, pastor, I, I, I went to that church and hundreds came up to get saved. 00:17:44.142 --> 00:18:11.490 Well, if they didn't get saved because there was no Holy Ghost there to convict them of sin, so many times you never know what people come up for in an altar call and you know, billy Graham didn't count them as saved until they were contacted by volunteer churches that had suponsored his crusade and when they had showed up at that church and became water baptized and started attending church, then, and only then were they counted in the numbers. 00:18:11.490 --> 00:18:16.193 Other than that, they were just like acolytes or you know whatever. 00:18:16.193 --> 00:18:19.796 They weren't called believers, even though they answered an after call. 00:18:19.796 --> 00:18:26.109 Wow, well, because most of them didn't ever respond after that and that was my experience at Lakewood. 00:18:26.109 --> 00:18:31.346 I mean, hundreds and hundreds of people a week would come up and get saved, but where were they next week? 00:18:31.346 --> 00:18:37.201 Where were they one month from then, say, a lot of times you couldn't even find them when you call to try to follow up. 00:18:37.201 --> 00:18:46.762 So it takes the Holy Ghost to convict the world of sin, and if the Holy Ghost isn't present in the service, you're not going to have it. 00:18:46.762 --> 00:18:53.289 No Holy Ghost conviction, no real repentance, just mental ascent. 00:18:53.289 --> 00:18:58.082 And so then, well, what about the other ditch? 00:18:58.082 --> 00:19:13.172 So those two, even though they're two different kinds of churches, but they have this in common very little word and very little Holy Spirit, if any, then the other ditch is that you have the word but you have no demonstration and you have no Holy Ghost. 00:19:13.854 --> 00:19:16.161 Let's look at second Corinthians, chapter three. 00:19:16.161 --> 00:19:17.353 This is describing. 00:19:17.353 --> 00:19:20.412 Paul describes that type of church perfectly. 00:19:20.412 --> 00:19:24.201 Pastor, why are you talking about other churches? 00:19:24.201 --> 00:19:29.281 Well, because we are out there ahead of a lot of churches. 00:19:29.281 --> 00:19:31.115 I mean there's still churches that are closed. 00:19:31.115 --> 00:19:33.020 And here we are. 00:19:33.020 --> 00:19:34.454 We've been open since Palm Sunday. 00:19:34.515 --> 00:19:34.836 Why? 00:19:34.836 --> 00:19:38.097 I believe it's because we practice and we preach the Word of faith. 00:19:38.097 --> 00:19:50.291 I mean, I just don't see how in the world that you can be a pastor and want your church closed up out of fear of the Kung flu. 00:19:50.291 --> 00:19:51.496 Really, you're going to fear. 00:19:51.496 --> 00:19:54.474 I mean, you're fearful of that, I don't know. 00:19:54.474 --> 00:19:58.612 We have a covenant that protects us from it. 00:19:58.612 --> 00:19:59.674 Why don't you believe it? 00:19:59.674 --> 00:20:02.432 Second Corinthians, chapter three, verse five. 00:20:02.432 --> 00:20:24.464 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything is of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God Paul's speaking there who also has made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the spirit, for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 00:20:25.406 --> 00:20:30.835 So I guess the other ditch is the Word is preached in these churches, but it's the letter of the Word. 00:20:30.835 --> 00:20:32.501 It's not God breathed. 00:20:32.501 --> 00:20:35.458 The spirit of God is not really involved. 00:20:35.458 --> 00:20:37.269 They're reading some kind of a manual. 00:20:37.269 --> 00:20:46.278 It's just time to preach this kind of message and they decide months ahead of time what they're going to preach and it's just dry as a chip. 00:20:46.278 --> 00:20:50.433 There's no unction, there's no liberty, there's no hunger in the people. 00:20:50.433 --> 00:21:01.820 There's no, there's just a letter of the Word that's being preached, the letter of the Word and the letter killeth. 00:21:03.086 --> 00:21:13.542 You can get up there and preach the don't do's I'm thinking about, you know, just dry, like, like denominational churches I won't mention the well, I can, church of Christ is pretty dry. 00:21:13.542 --> 00:21:19.810 You know, that's a church, it's just, there's no Holy Spirit you have and they preach the Word. 00:21:19.810 --> 00:21:20.673 They do. 00:21:20.673 --> 00:21:30.490 You have Bible churches, you have community churches, a lot of these denominational churches also. 00:21:30.490 --> 00:21:33.958 They say, well, we're the only ones going to heaven, everybody else is going to hell. 00:21:33.958 --> 00:21:35.087 What they preach is error. 00:21:35.087 --> 00:21:38.650 See, there again, the Holy Ghost is not involved in that kind of thing. 00:21:39.853 --> 00:21:45.490 So we need an atmosphere for faith and miracles to occur. 00:21:45.490 --> 00:21:49.313 So I've got three things here to kind of wrap up this faith in miracles. 00:21:49.313 --> 00:22:05.300 And I know you want miracles and we have them here at Glorious Way, but it's really more up to you than it is God, because God has already done everything and all we have to do is have the atmosphere, and the atmosphere is always up to us. 00:22:05.300 --> 00:22:14.103 And so three things here for faith and miracles to occur, for us to have the atmosphere for miracles. 00:22:14.103 --> 00:22:17.144 First of all, let's turn back to Mark, chapter four. 00:22:17.144 --> 00:22:31.359 Jesus is speaking and he has just told the parable of the so or so is the word. 00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:41.421 Then he describes what each of the four cases are and then he says in verse 23,. 00:22:41.561 --> 00:22:46.665 Jesus says if any man have ears to hear, let him hear. 00:22:46.665 --> 00:22:53.345 So the first thing when you come to church have ears to hear, determine I'm going to hear. 00:22:53.345 --> 00:22:56.638 You're not going to hear for someone else, you're here, you know you're here. 00:22:56.638 --> 00:23:01.680 In other words, for instance, for you to have ears to hear, that means you have to be teachable. 00:23:01.680 --> 00:23:05.700 You have to be teachable, you have to be correctable. 00:23:05.700 --> 00:23:09.564 See, if you have ears to hear, you're gonna hear everything. 00:23:09.564 --> 00:23:11.621 See, he said oh, foolish Galatians. 00:23:11.621 --> 00:23:17.797 I wonder how many of the Galatians were correctable enough to hear their father in the faith say you know what? 00:23:17.797 --> 00:23:18.681 You're a fool. 00:23:18.681 --> 00:23:22.181 I don't think very many of them hurt him. 00:23:22.181 --> 00:23:28.984 I think they spit out the gospel and took up the old hook of dead religion. 00:23:28.984 --> 00:23:29.698 That's what I think. 00:23:29.698 --> 00:23:32.160 You don't hear much about Galatia after this. 00:23:32.160 --> 00:23:35.459 They're not even mentioned in. 00:23:35.459 --> 00:23:38.082 Jesus, didn't even mention them in Revelation. 00:23:39.375 --> 00:23:42.042 So, have ears to hear. 00:23:42.042 --> 00:23:47.422 That means you're teachable, correctable, you're humble, you're in right relationship with each other. 00:23:47.422 --> 00:23:59.825 You don't have a bunch of mess going on in the congregation, people that are fussing and fighting with each other, and somebody got my parking place, somebody got my seat, all of that kind of silliness. 00:23:59.825 --> 00:24:01.579 No, you have ears to hear. 00:24:01.579 --> 00:24:05.784 And then the second thing that's necessary is for you to hear. 00:24:05.784 --> 00:24:10.883 You know you gotta hear for yourself and not somebody else. 00:24:10.883 --> 00:24:16.159 So you kind of take care of having ears to hear before you ever get here. 00:24:16.159 --> 00:24:17.538 You know you're thinking about. 00:24:17.538 --> 00:24:18.320 You know I'm going to church. 00:24:18.320 --> 00:24:20.801 I've got ears to hear, father, I thank you. 00:24:20.801 --> 00:24:21.597 I've got ears to hear. 00:24:21.597 --> 00:24:27.324 I'm wide open, I'm correctable, I'm teachable, I'm ready to make adjustments in my life. 00:24:27.324 --> 00:24:29.159 I will not be offended. 00:24:29.159 --> 00:24:29.641 What I hear. 00:24:29.641 --> 00:24:33.044 And then the thing here, here for yourself, don't be. 00:24:33.044 --> 00:24:36.064 Oh, I wish my husband had been here. 00:24:36.064 --> 00:24:38.001 Oh, he sure needed to hear that. 00:24:38.001 --> 00:24:42.319 No, you needed to hear it, you know. 00:24:42.881 --> 00:24:48.403 Remember, there's three groups of people that heard and didn't get any crop. 00:24:48.403 --> 00:24:51.342 See, the four groups of people heard the word. 00:24:51.342 --> 00:24:54.944 Three out of the four got no crop. 00:24:54.944 --> 00:25:04.968 Three out of the four, one got it stolen, one got it scorched and one got it strangled. 00:25:04.968 --> 00:25:09.580 I mean, the devil is going to come after whatever is preached and try to get it away from it. 00:25:09.580 --> 00:25:12.584 He's going to do everything he can to get it out of your heart. 00:25:12.584 --> 00:25:15.984 He'll try to just steal it before you ever leave the service. 00:25:15.984 --> 00:25:20.863 And if he can't do that, he'll try to turn up the heat on you and get you offended because of circumstance. 00:25:20.863 --> 00:25:22.140 Well, this just doesn't work. 00:25:22.140 --> 00:25:23.458 Yeah, it works. 00:25:23.458 --> 00:25:26.702 It works when you stay thrilled with the word. 00:25:26.702 --> 00:25:28.520 The word will work for you if you're thrilled with it. 00:25:29.295 --> 00:25:31.722 So have ears to hear and hear. 00:25:31.722 --> 00:25:34.320 You know, I like Hebrews four. 00:25:34.320 --> 00:25:41.303 It says that the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith, and then that hurt it. 00:25:41.303 --> 00:25:48.124 So in order to hear it, you've got to mix faith with it, mix faith with what you hear and believe it. 00:25:48.124 --> 00:25:50.321 I was preaching on this last Sunday. 00:25:50.321 --> 00:25:58.060 I said you know, believe me, agree with me, I'm talking about an atmosphere. 00:25:59.634 --> 00:26:03.105 And then, finally, the third thing is found in verse 24 and 25. 00:26:03.105 --> 00:26:08.501 He says take heed what you hear and even take heed how you hear. 00:26:08.501 --> 00:26:11.381 With what measure you meet. 00:26:11.381 --> 00:26:12.384 It shall be measured. 00:26:12.384 --> 00:26:17.864 To you and under you that shall, and to you that hear shall more be given. 00:26:17.864 --> 00:26:21.458 So if you have ears to hear and you hear, you're going to get more. 00:26:22.674 --> 00:26:36.338 But notice in verse 25, for he that have to, for he that have to him, shall be given, and he that have not have not, what have not heard from him shall be taken, even that which he has heard. 00:26:36.338 --> 00:26:38.766 Who's going to take it? 00:26:38.766 --> 00:26:39.577 God's going to take it. 00:26:39.577 --> 00:26:41.734 No, the devil's going to come and take it. 00:26:41.734 --> 00:26:51.343 He'll scorch it or strangle it out of you because you have not latched on to it and counted it as precious. 00:26:51.343 --> 00:26:54.162 You have to take heed how you hear it. 00:26:54.162 --> 00:26:57.900 I mean when you start thinking well, that word, I heard that before. 00:26:57.900 --> 00:27:00.222 Yeah, I've heard that message. 00:27:00.222 --> 00:27:01.579 How many times I heard that? 00:27:01.579 --> 00:27:02.696 You know what. 00:27:02.696 --> 00:27:03.480 You're in danger. 00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:06.000 You're in danger. 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:12.019 You're full of pride and you're speaking it out of your mouth and you're ripe for the devil to take things and steal from you. 00:27:13.535 --> 00:27:20.199 And you know, in Jesus' own hometown he could, there, do no mighty work because of their unbelief. 00:27:20.199 --> 00:27:25.922 They had problems with having ears to hear, hearing and taking heed what they heard. 00:27:25.922 --> 00:27:35.163 They heard the same thing that produced miracles everywhere else, and there he could do no mighty work, except a few sick people with minor ailments. 00:27:35.163 --> 00:27:37.498 That's what the one version says. 00:27:37.498 --> 00:27:40.363 And then, of course, look at Galatian Church. 00:27:40.363 --> 00:27:45.653 I mean here they had one of the greatest preachers on earth preaching to them, started that church. 00:27:45.653 --> 00:27:48.681 And old, foolish Galatians, I can't believe. 00:27:48.681 --> 00:27:52.075 So quickly you have let everything go that you once knew. 00:27:52.075 --> 00:27:55.213 I just can't believe it. 00:27:55.213 --> 00:27:58.490 And the Corinthian church? 00:27:58.490 --> 00:27:59.192 The same thing. 00:27:59.192 --> 00:28:02.094 The Corinthian church had the same issues. 00:28:03.726 --> 00:28:19.684 You know, I remember there had been times, you know I was mentioning some of these testimonies on Sunday, when I was preaching the value of spiritual covering and I talked about a betrayal, some three people got together and started having meetings and I was weeping one time finding out. 00:28:19.684 --> 00:28:21.204 Why did I know this ahead of time? 00:28:21.204 --> 00:28:26.144 You know they all left the church at the same time, at a critical moment, and I thought I should have known. 00:28:26.144 --> 00:28:31.105 And God said well, you know I can use your life to prove people out. 00:28:31.105 --> 00:28:47.232 I didn't let you know ahead of time, but as I meditated on that day after that, I realized that I should have been able to tell what was going on because of the lack of atmosphere that I had in that church for months before this big crisis hit. 00:28:48.525 --> 00:29:06.852 And I remember I would come home from church on Sunday and I'd be so worn out, I'd be heavy, I'd be frustrated, because it felt like I had raised an anchor off the bottom of the ocean by myself, you know, and that's what it's like to preach without the Holy Ghost to help you. 00:29:06.852 --> 00:29:12.958 And the Holy Ghost in me was grieved at their betrayal. 00:29:12.958 --> 00:29:15.644 They were already coming to church. 00:29:15.644 --> 00:29:20.768 They didn't have ears to hear, they were not hearing and they were not taking heed what they heard. 00:29:20.768 --> 00:29:28.430 So I really it really goes back to I had to learn that I mean, you don't know what you don't know, so I didn't know, I didn't know. 00:29:28.430 --> 00:29:31.092 To pick up on, I took responsibility for that. 00:29:31.092 --> 00:29:35.992 So I just pressed in a little harder and prepare that much more. 00:29:35.992 --> 00:29:38.571 But it wasn't about me, it was about them. 00:29:38.865 --> 00:29:41.693 Those people in that church affected the atmosphere. 00:29:41.693 --> 00:29:50.174 Oh, I tell you, let's affect the atmosphere for miracles, let's affect the, let's have more miracles. 00:29:50.174 --> 00:29:51.743 We need more miracles. 00:29:51.743 --> 00:29:59.112 We need more miracles right now and we need to believe God to intervene not only in our lives but in our country. 00:29:59.112 --> 00:30:01.237 Amen, faith and miracles. 00:30:01.237 --> 00:30:02.590 I hope that blessed you tonight. 00:30:02.590 --> 00:30:04.214 Praise God.