WEBVTT 00:00:00.161 --> 00:00:16.053 Lift your bibles up and wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad, and just make this confession say heavenly Father, I'm glad to be watching by live stream and I have ears to hear what the spirit is saying to me tonight. 00:00:16.053 --> 00:00:28.748 Indeed, revelation, knowledge, trump's sense knowledge and all the world's wisdom that every expert can utter is based on nothing but sense knowledge. 00:00:28.748 --> 00:00:33.890 But my faith is built on revelation in Jesus name. 00:00:33.890 --> 00:00:35.121 Amen, all right. 00:00:35.121 --> 00:00:41.780 Hebrews, chapter 12, please, and we're going to look at the first couple of verses here. 00:00:42.021 --> 00:01:00.890 Hebrews 12, one, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us and let us run with patience. 00:01:00.890 --> 00:01:04.319 Some versions say endurance. 00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:25.319 Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 00:01:25.319 --> 00:01:30.459 And so tonight I just wanted to share a message entitled removing roadblocks. 00:01:30.459 --> 00:01:39.420 Our race that we have is a race run by faith, and it's not a speed race. 00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:51.996 It's, you know, I think, about Jesus talking to his disciples and said if you continue in my truth, then are you my disciples, indeed, in the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 00:01:51.996 --> 00:01:56.105 And so that's only for those who continue or who run their race. 00:01:56.105 --> 00:02:03.838 See, the race is again, it's not how you start, it's not how fast you hit the turn, it's whether you finish. 00:02:03.838 --> 00:02:10.975 And it's an endurance race, it's a patience race, and Jesus is the initiator and the developer of our faith. 00:02:10.975 --> 00:02:18.478 And so we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and what, of course, jesus we know, is the word. 00:02:18.478 --> 00:02:25.379 We need to keep our eyes on the word and we need to get it on our eyes and our heart, on our lips. 00:02:25.379 --> 00:02:29.439 You know, romans 1 17 says the just shall live by faith. 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:37.036 So faith is not just something we do and have when we need something, but it's a lifestyle. 00:02:37.056 --> 00:02:49.520 Been stressing that, and we preached for a number of weeks on lock out the doubt, doubt will sink you, doubt will cause you to fall short of receiving God's best in your life. 00:02:49.520 --> 00:02:57.657 And so, in like fashion, roadblocks in our race and our journey. 00:02:57.657 --> 00:02:58.080 It's a continuum. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:00.159 I mean we start when we get saved. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:07.072 We walk by faith, not by sight, one day at a time 2 Corinthians, 5, 7. 00:03:07.072 --> 00:03:33.450 But as we walk there can be roadblocks, and that's what I want to talk about, roadblocks on faith highway, you know, and when ignored, these hindrances can cause lengthy delays and sometimes serious consequences when they're ignored or they're missed, and you know these kind of delays. 00:03:33.539 --> 00:03:39.133 I was thinking about my Gladys' brother and his wife. 00:03:39.133 --> 00:03:56.572 They're in heaven now, but they we used to go to East Texas for Thanksgiving to visit all of Gladys' family, and so most of her family would be there and they would always make an effort to come and they would drive from Connecticut. 00:03:56.572 --> 00:04:04.350 They live in Connecticut, they drive all the way down because they preferred, they didn't like flying because, number one, it was expensive. 00:04:04.350 --> 00:04:09.884 Number two, when they got here they were kind of at the mercy of whoever could, you know, take them around. 00:04:09.884 --> 00:04:15.443 So they liked it, they liked to drive, but invariably they would have on that long trip. 00:04:15.443 --> 00:04:22.141 It's three days when you drive pretty steady and four days if you have any detours or any roadblocks, and there was. 00:04:22.141 --> 00:04:28.766 It seemed like there was always something going on, and at one time they almost missed Thanksgiving, they were so late getting here. 00:04:29.761 --> 00:04:34.507 And so you know, tonight again, god has a race for each of us. 00:04:34.507 --> 00:04:40.988 We're not running each other's race, we're not running against each other, but we are running our race and it takes endurance. 00:04:40.988 --> 00:04:46.144 So let's look at some of these common roadblocks in the faith race. 00:04:46.144 --> 00:04:50.127 The first one I want to talk about is number one failure to walk in love. 00:04:50.127 --> 00:04:57.968 That's a roadblock that will stop your faith, because Bible says in Galatians 5-6 that faith works by love. 00:04:57.968 --> 00:05:07.221 So when we're not walking in love, our faith isn't working and everything that we receive from God is by faith, everything. 00:05:07.221 --> 00:05:13.783 When faith is hindered, then our life begins to stop, it grinds to a halt. 00:05:13.783 --> 00:05:23.665 And so in 1 Corinthians 13-3, it says faith without love profits nothing, profits nothing. 00:05:23.665 --> 00:05:26.468 You can have faith without love and it profits nothing. 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:37.192 And so when we talk about walking in love, well, you know Matthew 11-25, jesus tells us that we need to forgive. 00:05:37.192 --> 00:05:46.627 If we have all against any when we stand praying forgive, because if we don't forgive, then God won't forgive us and then the implication is, our prayer won't be answered. 00:05:46.627 --> 00:05:50.470 So unforgiveness is not walking in love. 00:05:50.470 --> 00:05:54.067 Envy James 3-16, envy. 00:05:54.067 --> 00:05:59.630 The world is filled with envy, right now especially. 00:05:59.630 --> 00:06:11.350 I mean there's all this class warfare, the haves and the have nots, and there's all of this competition and what's in the world tends to leak into the church. 00:06:11.350 --> 00:06:28.386 The pressure of it comes into the church because you know, we are spirit beings and we live in a body and that flesh can be tempted with envy, it can be tempted to covet what somebody else has, and so you have to watch that. 00:06:28.386 --> 00:06:51.769 And also, colossians 319 talks about a strife, and in fact it's worth looking at that verse, colossians 319, it says husbands, love your wives and be not bitter against them. 00:06:51.769 --> 00:07:04.023 And then when you look at 1 Peter 3-7, peter says that husbands and wives are heirs together in the grace of God. 00:07:04.023 --> 00:07:09.245 And husbands, treat your wives right, otherwise your prayers are hindered. 00:07:10.439 --> 00:07:17.449 I've known men that mistreated their wives and that fell into all kinds of terrible things. 00:07:17.449 --> 00:07:19.146 I mean, it wasn't that God punished them. 00:07:19.146 --> 00:07:25.353 It's because they opened the door to Satan when they stumbled over love. 00:07:25.353 --> 00:07:26.579 I mean, love starts at home. 00:07:26.579 --> 00:07:28.827 You've got to walk in love toward each other. 00:07:28.827 --> 00:07:40.903 And so strife, arguing, angry discourse, all of those things open the door to the enemy to steal, kill and destroy their roadblocks in your faith race. 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:43.646 I've seen things get so bad. 00:07:43.646 --> 00:07:45.867 I've seen God called ministries. 00:07:45.867 --> 00:08:00.951 Their marriages disappear and just dissolve and divorce comes and in some cases a God called minister gets off track and gets out of the will of God because of the sins of the flesh. 00:08:00.951 --> 00:08:14.509 This is just a sin of the flesh, and yet the consequences many times are that a God called man or woman of God is taken out of his race and never do they accomplish what God really intended for them to accomplish. 00:08:14.509 --> 00:08:24.410 So in that case it wasn't just something that slowed them down, it's something that completely hindered them and altered their reason for being here. 00:08:24.410 --> 00:08:29.028 I'm not saying they went to hell, I'm just saying they didn't get to do what God called them to do. 00:08:29.028 --> 00:08:37.850 So some of these roadblocks can be quite significant and I'll tell you, walking in love is a great commandment. 00:08:37.850 --> 00:08:39.725 So let's always check. 00:08:39.725 --> 00:08:42.062 If things start slowing down, things don't work. 00:08:42.081 --> 00:08:43.902 In the first place, I'd look Is my love? 00:08:43.902 --> 00:08:46.128 Am I walking in love toward people? 00:08:46.128 --> 00:08:47.591 Am I forgiving? 00:08:47.591 --> 00:08:53.206 Am I easy to get along with, easy to be entreated, full of mercy? 00:08:53.206 --> 00:08:55.326 Amen, all right. 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:59.109 And so the second roadblock is kin to that. 00:08:59.109 --> 00:09:01.264 It's disobedience. 00:09:01.264 --> 00:09:03.620 Of course we're not walking in love as disobedience. 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:05.868 You're disobedient to the commandment of love. 00:09:05.868 --> 00:09:11.187 But this number two disobedience is by omission or by commission? 00:09:11.187 --> 00:09:15.686 I'll ask the question what is the last thing that God told you to do? 00:09:15.686 --> 00:09:17.842 Did you do it? 00:09:17.842 --> 00:09:22.804 Or what's the last thing God told you not to do and did you do it anyway? 00:09:22.804 --> 00:09:28.431 So disobedience can be by omission or by commission. 00:09:28.431 --> 00:09:37.168 In other words, another thing is not so much about going against God's voice, but sometimes we go against the inward witness. 00:09:37.168 --> 00:09:42.404 The inward witness is on the inside of us and it's that knowing. 00:09:42.404 --> 00:09:46.809 Sometimes we know to do something and we resist. 00:09:46.809 --> 00:09:58.984 And every time we do that, when we go against what God is putting in our heart to do, when we go against it, that's disobedience, let's call it what it is. 00:09:58.984 --> 00:10:01.927 And when we delay, we put God off. 00:10:01.927 --> 00:10:03.678 Well, yeah, god, I'll get to that. 00:10:03.678 --> 00:10:06.649 Yeah, I'd say delay to your disobedience. 00:10:06.649 --> 00:10:17.171 When you do that, you're opening the door to Satan to kill, steal and destroy, and so I've told this testimony many times. 00:10:17.171 --> 00:10:20.966 I've been delivered from the sorrow of it, but it was tough at the time. 00:10:21.059 --> 00:10:29.472 But I was a businessman, I was a home builder and I had worked my inventory down to one house. 00:10:29.472 --> 00:10:31.147 It was finished and that was all I had. 00:10:31.147 --> 00:10:32.684 I had one finished home. 00:10:32.684 --> 00:10:33.788 It was for sale. 00:10:33.788 --> 00:10:36.866 It's a nice house and I had no other obligations. 00:10:36.866 --> 00:10:41.865 I didn't have any other debts except on my home, might have had a car loan. 00:10:41.865 --> 00:10:49.469 But I mean, we were in pretty good shape, we'd sold a bunch of houses, had money in the bank and yet a builder I mean, that's what do they do? 00:10:49.469 --> 00:10:50.462 They build houses. 00:10:50.523 --> 00:10:51.847 And I got impatient. 00:10:51.847 --> 00:10:56.347 You know, let's run with patience the race that is set before us. 00:10:56.347 --> 00:11:05.870 I got impatient and I got a call from a subdivision sales office and I said, oh, mr Griner, we've got five prime lots. 00:11:05.870 --> 00:11:08.059 We'd like to make an offer and sell them to you. 00:11:08.059 --> 00:11:10.543 And they were like half price, they were just real cheap. 00:11:10.543 --> 00:11:17.986 And I thought, well, I haven't heard from God about this, and you know, and I kind of prayed, you know, but I didn't really wait around to hear. 00:11:17.986 --> 00:11:19.991 I was moved by the price. 00:11:21.380 --> 00:11:39.000 And so they prepared the paperwork and I went over to their office and I was sitting in that office and they had this big contract for five lots and and I knew, of course that's to buy those lots, but then I have to borrow the money to buy the lots and then I have to borrow the money to build the houses on the lot. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:43.559 So we're you're talking about a lot of money that I'm about to borrow on five lots. 00:11:43.559 --> 00:11:53.639 I mean we're talking about in excess of that at that time, of excess of a half million dollars in debt that I'm, that I'm signing my name to, not right then, but eventually. 00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:59.471 And so, as I, they were just talking it up, talking it up oh, have you seen them? 00:11:59.471 --> 00:12:00.212 Yeah, I've seen them. 00:12:00.212 --> 00:12:01.625 Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. 00:12:01.625 --> 00:12:09.384 They were still putting the hard sell on me and I'm sitting there with a pen in my hand and I have, I have this sick Feeling in my stomach. 00:12:09.384 --> 00:12:13.000 I have the witness, I have, I have a bread light. 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:15.960 I mean, everything in me does not want to sign that thing. 00:12:15.960 --> 00:12:24.123 I wanted to walk out of that office and I knew if I did they would think I Was kind of crazy. 00:12:24.123 --> 00:12:32.118 And so the fear of man took over and I overrode the witness that I had not to do it and I signed those papers. 00:12:32.138 --> 00:12:33.981 And you talk about. 00:12:33.981 --> 00:12:35.245 It's not disobedience. 00:12:35.245 --> 00:12:38.974 See, I overrode, god didn't tell me in so many words. 00:12:38.974 --> 00:12:43.013 It's just that I disobeyed the inward witness. 00:12:43.013 --> 00:12:45.320 And you talk about a roadblock. 00:12:45.320 --> 00:13:11.075 Well, roadblock it doesn't mean that you just stop, it means that you detour, and for me that detour was ten years when I look back on that decision, it, it, it started a chain of events that lasted ten years and, of course, when you get off course and you're over here on an orbit or on a on a detour, you can have the chance to miss and have another detour on the detour, which is what happened to me. 00:13:11.075 --> 00:13:18.682 So it took me ten years to get back around into the perfect will of God, which is Glorious way, church. 00:13:18.682 --> 00:13:20.708 That's the perfect will of God. 00:13:20.708 --> 00:13:25.609 I finally made it back, thank God, god brought me back. 00:13:25.609 --> 00:13:29.666 But a disobedience is a is a roadblock. 00:13:29.666 --> 00:13:32.591 Let's, let's, let's always be quick till bay. 00:13:32.591 --> 00:13:38.710 All right, so Then the third one is I've already mentioned it the lack of patience. 00:13:39.743 --> 00:13:42.630 You know I was impatient, wasn't I lack of patience? 00:13:42.630 --> 00:13:47.743 Hebrew 612 faith and patience inherits the promises, you know. 00:13:47.743 --> 00:13:55.708 And of course, hebrews 12, to which we read earlier, you know You'd run with patience the race that is set before us. 00:13:55.708 --> 00:13:57.974 See, it's not the race set before somebody else. 00:13:57.974 --> 00:14:05.124 It's not the race set before your, your father or your or your parents or your or anyone else. 00:14:05.124 --> 00:14:08.552 It's your race and so you have to be have patience. 00:14:08.552 --> 00:14:25.090 You know, in Mark 427 says the whole kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed into the ground and he would sleep and rise night and day and the seed should spring up, he knoweth not how. 00:14:25.090 --> 00:14:35.027 First the blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear, and after that he, when the, when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle. 00:14:35.027 --> 00:14:39.938 So that implies that there is a time, there's a seed time. 00:14:39.958 --> 00:14:43.769 I Mean when we begin to do anything in life. 00:14:43.769 --> 00:14:49.596 There might be some Short-term goals or might be some long-term goals, but everything takes time. 00:14:49.596 --> 00:14:51.749 In the kingdom of God, nothing's instant, nothing. 00:14:51.749 --> 00:14:53.519 And then we live in an instant society. 00:14:53.519 --> 00:15:01.279 We get aggravated at Waterburger when we're asked to pull up to the next lane and wait there until they bring the order out. 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:05.817 See, we're sitting there looking at our watch, looking at you know, trying to figure out what. 00:15:05.817 --> 00:15:07.081 How long is it gonna Take? 00:15:07.081 --> 00:15:09.326 Why didn't they have my water burger ready for me? 00:15:09.888 --> 00:15:12.113 Amen, I know I'm the only one that's like that. 00:15:12.113 --> 00:15:15.289 You're not like that, your patient, I know you are. 00:15:15.289 --> 00:15:18.147 But faith and patience, so patience. 00:15:18.147 --> 00:15:25.991 There's a time between the amen and there it is, and that's when we can get Eager, like that day I was eager to do something. 00:15:25.991 --> 00:15:28.480 See, I felt like, oh, I don't have any cash flow. 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:30.144 I didn't need cash flow right then. 00:15:30.144 --> 00:15:32.048 I had plenty of money in the bank to live on. 00:15:32.048 --> 00:15:36.024 I needed to wait to hear the next thing from God. 00:15:36.024 --> 00:15:38.048 I needed to find out what his plan was. 00:15:38.048 --> 00:15:40.332 Instead, I wanted him to bless my plan. 00:15:40.332 --> 00:15:42.043 It doesn't work. 00:15:43.288 --> 00:15:47.149 And Luke 815 says that that you bring forth fruit with patience. 00:15:47.149 --> 00:15:52.490 With patience, I mean you don't plan an apple tree and get apples anytime soon. 00:15:52.490 --> 00:15:54.802 It takes a long time, you know. 00:15:54.802 --> 00:15:56.870 You plan it, plan an apple seed. 00:15:56.870 --> 00:15:58.576 You better get you pack a lunch. 00:15:58.576 --> 00:15:59.379 It's gonna take a while. 00:15:59.961 --> 00:16:06.269 So, and you know another verse that that I love, his first Corinthians three nine. 00:16:06.269 --> 00:16:10.147 It says, in fact, it's worth looking at first Corinthians three nine. 00:16:10.147 --> 00:16:16.630 It says For we are laborers together with God. 00:16:16.630 --> 00:16:18.256 See, that's the problem with impatience. 00:16:18.256 --> 00:16:22.890 When you get ahead of God, he's no longer laboring with him, you're laboring on your own. 00:16:22.890 --> 00:16:26.466 You're not gonna, you're not gonna succeed very well. 00:16:26.466 --> 00:16:29.553 No, we're laborers together with God. 00:16:29.553 --> 00:16:38.154 You are God's husbandry, you are God's building, and so the husbandry there means tillage. 00:16:38.154 --> 00:16:39.434 It really means a garden. 00:16:39.434 --> 00:16:40.759 You're God's garden. 00:16:40.759 --> 00:16:42.595 Did you ever plant a garden? 00:16:42.595 --> 00:16:45.182 I mean you don't just snap your fingers and have a crop. 00:16:45.182 --> 00:16:48.294 I mean again, it's seed time and harvest. 00:16:48.294 --> 00:17:02.674 It takes time to grow a garden and God has got plans for each of us and those plans have a measure of time associated with them and so, and then of course that we're God's building. 00:17:04.066 --> 00:17:08.355 And I was meditating on these verses you know I was thinking about as a home builder for 25 years. 00:17:08.355 --> 00:17:11.974 I mean, a lot of people don't realize what it takes to build a home. 00:17:11.974 --> 00:17:20.134 I didn't physically build a home, I was a contractor, so I used a telephone, a lot, to assemble my subcontractors. 00:17:20.134 --> 00:17:25.095 But I would drive up to a lot and this lot would be full of trees. 00:17:25.095 --> 00:17:39.855 It would have four red flags on it which would tell you where the corners of the lot were, and if you started your watch at that moment now I own this piece of property it's raw until I start building the house. 00:17:39.974 --> 00:17:41.015 How long is it? 00:17:41.015 --> 00:17:42.694 It'll just take a week or two. 00:17:42.694 --> 00:17:45.035 Well, no, it takes a long time. 00:17:45.035 --> 00:17:47.295 Sometimes it takes 60, 90. 00:17:47.295 --> 00:17:58.474 In some cases, in the rainy times of the year, it might even take 120 days before I have anything on that lot taller than about two feet. 00:17:58.474 --> 00:18:17.682 I could go back to that same place in 90 days and all I would have on that whole lot would be a slab that sticks up above the ground, and yet that slab represents somewhere around 30% of my construction percentage. 00:18:17.682 --> 00:18:23.523 So you see, it took a lot of time just to get the thing up to where you could even see anything. 00:18:23.795 --> 00:18:25.382 I'm not talking about having any walls. 00:18:25.382 --> 00:18:27.181 I'm not talking about having a roof. 00:18:27.181 --> 00:18:28.901 None of that was on there yet. 00:18:28.901 --> 00:18:30.661 No lumber, just concrete. 00:18:30.661 --> 00:18:35.654 And so God is building you in it. 00:18:35.654 --> 00:18:38.564 You're not finished and he's not finished. 00:18:38.564 --> 00:18:44.842 You're working together, we're laborers, together with God, and so we can't get ahead of God. 00:18:45.576 --> 00:18:48.875 I mean, I tell you, all preparation is good, is good preparation. 00:18:48.875 --> 00:18:50.520 You know we're talking about race. 00:18:50.520 --> 00:18:52.519 I mean it's all kind of races. 00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:55.683 I know my daughter has run marathons. 00:18:55.683 --> 00:19:04.923 We've got several people in the church that have run marathons and they didn't just go out there show up one early Sunday morning. 00:19:04.923 --> 00:19:09.981 Usually they're on the Houston marathons on Sunday morning, so she had to skip church to go. 00:19:10.674 --> 00:19:14.925 But you don't show up there and just start running 26.2 miles. 00:19:14.925 --> 00:19:17.021 You have already prepared. 00:19:17.021 --> 00:19:22.505 You have already, you've prepared yourself, you have gone and you have done training. 00:19:22.505 --> 00:19:40.342 You started off with small amounts and then you got up to five miles and you got up to 10 miles and you did all this pacing and you learned how to pace yourself and so forth and so on, and it's a very rigorous preparation in order to run and to finish that race. 00:19:40.342 --> 00:19:42.776 Lots of people In fact. 00:19:42.776 --> 00:19:48.460 I don't know what the percentage is all, but I wouldn't be surprised if most people that start the race don't finish. 00:19:49.434 --> 00:19:49.556 Why? 00:19:49.556 --> 00:19:55.042 Because of incomplete preparation, and preparation is not wasted time. 00:19:55.042 --> 00:19:56.180 Don't get ahead of God. 00:19:56.180 --> 00:19:57.461 Let God prepare you. 00:19:57.461 --> 00:20:00.002 Let God plant everything that needs to be planted. 00:20:00.002 --> 00:20:08.884 Let God add to your construction project everything it takes for you to be able to withstand the storms of life, because the storms of life come to all. 00:20:08.884 --> 00:20:13.778 And so I don't know who I'm encouraging tonight, but don't get ahead of God. 00:20:13.778 --> 00:20:19.363 As one I can testify it's not profitable to get ahead of God. 00:20:19.363 --> 00:20:20.057 It really isn't. 00:20:20.057 --> 00:20:25.720 And so, praise God, come on, let's just lift our hands and thank God for God's mercy. 00:20:26.674 --> 00:20:28.000 I'm thinking about all the mistakes. 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:29.760 You know I made so many mistakes. 00:20:29.760 --> 00:20:34.358 One of the ways that God redeems those mistakes, I don't beat myself up, I just preach out of them. 00:20:34.358 --> 00:20:38.779 You know I love Brother Osteen, brother Hagin, you know even Brother Copeland. 00:20:38.779 --> 00:20:41.721 I mean, they preach out their mistakes, they talk about their mistakes freely. 00:20:41.721 --> 00:20:42.175 Why? 00:20:42.175 --> 00:20:46.079 So that people don't have to, you know, repeat what they've done wrong. 00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:57.519 All right, so we've gotten three things here Common roadblocks in the faith, race, failure to walk in love, disobedience, a lack of patience. 00:20:57.519 --> 00:20:59.901 I've got two more here. 00:20:59.901 --> 00:21:01.298 Can you take two more? 00:21:01.298 --> 00:21:05.161 I can't hear you, no, I'm just all right. 00:21:05.335 --> 00:21:07.883 Number four lack of gratitude. 00:21:07.883 --> 00:21:11.602 A lack of gratitude. 00:21:11.602 --> 00:21:22.644 You know, in Matthew 15, 36, jesus gave thanks for the seven loaves and the few fish before he ever multiplied them. 00:21:22.644 --> 00:21:26.840 He did the same thing with the five loaves and the two fish in Matthew 14. 00:21:26.840 --> 00:21:29.923 It didn't say he gave thanks, it said he blessed. 00:21:29.923 --> 00:21:33.900 He blessed the loaves and fishes, which includes giving thanks. 00:21:33.900 --> 00:21:38.105 So Jesus gave thanks for little before it came much. 00:21:38.105 --> 00:21:42.143 This is something we've got to get a hold of right here. 00:21:42.143 --> 00:21:43.479 This might be the worth worth. 00:21:43.479 --> 00:21:50.605 The price of admission for the whole night is we need to be willing to thank God for our little before it becomes much. 00:21:50.605 --> 00:21:53.423 So we've got much in our thinking. 00:21:53.423 --> 00:21:55.842 Our faith has grabbed a hold of much. 00:21:55.842 --> 00:22:00.044 We're confessing that we believe we receive much. 00:22:00.044 --> 00:22:04.218 But on the flip side, you have to be thankful for what you've got. 00:22:04.218 --> 00:22:06.559 Right now You've got to be thankful for what is. 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:14.612 And so our lack of gratitude is a roadblock. 00:22:14.612 --> 00:22:19.205 It will stop your faith from working. 00:22:19.205 --> 00:22:26.417 It will stop your faith from moving the mountain out of your way. 00:22:27.714 --> 00:22:41.244 You know, in Acts 16, 25, paul and Silas were on their first missionary journey together and they had prayed, you know, and as they were praying they decided okay, come on, silas, let's go into Bithynia. 00:22:41.244 --> 00:22:45.005 And somehow the spirit wouldn't allow them. 00:22:45.005 --> 00:22:58.261 I don't know exactly how the Holy Ghost conveyed that to them it doesn't say but it could have been just simply the witness that they felt a hesitancy as they decided and discussed about going into Bithynia, the Holy Spirit wouldn't let them go. 00:22:58.261 --> 00:23:06.060 And then, you know, they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia Minor. 00:23:06.060 --> 00:23:09.519 Well, weren't they told to go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature? 00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:10.980 Yeah, that's the general will of God. 00:23:11.795 --> 00:23:18.039 But for them, at that moment, god didn't want them to go into Asia Minor, and he doesn't always tell you why. 00:23:18.039 --> 00:23:22.284 So now they've got two places, they're not supposed to go. 00:23:22.284 --> 00:23:23.938 So what did they do? 00:23:23.938 --> 00:23:26.119 They didn't go forward, they waited. 00:23:26.119 --> 00:23:33.332 And then God gave them direction and guidance through the ministry of visions and dreams. 00:23:33.332 --> 00:23:35.364 Don't ever ask for a dream. 00:23:35.364 --> 00:23:36.444 Don't ask for visions. 00:23:36.444 --> 00:23:39.548 Just wait for God to guide you the way that he wants to guide you. 00:23:40.645 --> 00:23:49.275 But in this case, paul had a dream and he dreamed that a Macedonian man in the dream said come over and help us. 00:23:49.275 --> 00:23:56.855 And so that's when they gathered up their camping equipment and they moved out to go to Macedonia. 00:23:56.855 --> 00:24:04.734 And then they meet this woman and she gets saved and she invites them to come and stay with her and she fixes them meals. 00:24:04.734 --> 00:24:21.173 And then, you know, they get out there and they start preaching and the crowd gets all angry and comes against them and they start beating them and they get arrested and they were beating with many stripes and thrown into the inner prison. 00:24:21.173 --> 00:24:29.685 Now, if they hadn't known by the Holy Ghosts that they were in the right place, doing the right thing, they could have doubted. 00:24:29.685 --> 00:24:31.553 They could have thought uh-oh, we missed God. 00:24:31.553 --> 00:24:33.832 I mean, we opened the door to the devil. 00:24:33.832 --> 00:24:35.412 No, they didn't miss God. 00:24:35.412 --> 00:24:36.631 They were in God's will. 00:24:36.631 --> 00:24:38.330 Wasn't God's will for them to be beaten? 00:24:38.330 --> 00:24:40.250 But I'm saying they were in God's will. 00:24:40.250 --> 00:24:44.105 So they got locked up in prison their hands and feet in stocks. 00:24:44.847 --> 00:24:51.613 And the Bible says in Acts 16, 25, at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises. 00:24:51.613 --> 00:24:54.592 I mean, you can't get much more severe. 00:24:54.592 --> 00:25:00.665 I doubt if anybody that's listening to me tonight has ever been thrown in prison, has ever been beaten with many stripes. 00:25:00.665 --> 00:25:04.273 And yet they were. 00:25:04.273 --> 00:25:06.990 And yet they founded in their heart to rejoice. 00:25:06.990 --> 00:25:11.169 And the Bible says they rejoice so loud that all the prisoners heard them. 00:25:11.169 --> 00:25:21.152 And we know the devil heard them, because the devil tried to kill them with an earthquake, but God invaded the earthquake and broke everybody out of jail and the jailer and his old family got saved. 00:25:21.913 --> 00:25:22.715 Praise God. 00:25:22.715 --> 00:25:31.766 So your joy and your praise, even when things are hard, even when things are going on, you're not praising God for the trouble. 00:25:31.766 --> 00:25:33.571 You're praising God in the midst of the trouble. 00:25:33.571 --> 00:25:37.231 You're praising God because he's your way out of the trouble. 00:25:37.231 --> 00:25:44.567 And your joy and praise lets the devil know that he can't win and he didn't win. 00:25:44.567 --> 00:25:50.165 It's your whining and complaining that lets him know that he's on the right track, so he's going to give you more of it. 00:25:51.505 --> 00:25:58.609 So let's learn to rejoice and have an attitude of gratitude all the time. 00:25:58.609 --> 00:26:01.333 Let's just make it a habit to be praising God all the time. 00:26:01.333 --> 00:26:02.890 It's so easy to be irritated. 00:26:02.890 --> 00:26:04.769 Right now there's so many irritated people. 00:26:04.769 --> 00:26:07.530 A lot of people have Trump arrangement syndrome. 00:26:07.530 --> 00:26:10.789 They're angry, they're coming unglued. 00:26:10.789 --> 00:26:13.192 Let's not let that spirit get on us. 00:26:13.192 --> 00:26:16.866 I mean, if you have to turn off the television or the radio, turn it off. 00:26:16.866 --> 00:26:18.690 Don't let it affect your joy. 00:26:18.690 --> 00:26:20.630 Just lift your hands, start praising God. 00:26:20.630 --> 00:26:21.913 Amen. 00:26:22.744 --> 00:26:24.384 We still live in the greatest country on the face of the earth. 00:26:24.384 --> 00:26:25.710 We've got a lot to praise God about. 00:26:25.710 --> 00:26:28.068 Let's not forget the good stuff. 00:26:28.068 --> 00:26:33.692 We've got a lot of good stuff in this country, and so let's not forget about the good stuff. 00:26:33.692 --> 00:26:34.686 Let's praise God. 00:26:34.686 --> 00:26:36.673 All right. 00:26:36.673 --> 00:26:40.413 And then the last one here lack of gratitude. 00:26:40.413 --> 00:26:45.335 Now the last one is failure to move from hope to faith. 00:26:46.865 --> 00:26:54.951 So the Bible says in Hebrews 11, one that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 00:26:54.951 --> 00:26:57.212 So you know, without hope, faith can't exist. 00:26:57.212 --> 00:26:58.387 You have to hope for something. 00:26:58.387 --> 00:27:00.605 Hope is in the future Hope. 00:27:00.605 --> 00:27:09.012 You're seeing something out there and you want to bring it to you and so as long as it's out there, it's not going to get to you. 00:27:09.012 --> 00:27:10.717 So what does faith do? 00:27:10.717 --> 00:27:12.351 Faith brings it to you now. 00:27:12.351 --> 00:27:13.848 Faith says I have it now. 00:27:13.848 --> 00:27:17.512 Faith believing is possessing. 00:27:17.512 --> 00:27:20.550 Believing is possessing. 00:27:20.550 --> 00:27:22.990 Faith says I have that thing. 00:27:22.990 --> 00:27:27.394 I believe I received that thing and then I shall have it. 00:27:27.394 --> 00:27:28.990 See, that shall have comes later. 00:27:28.990 --> 00:27:33.828 Right Again, that's where you have to have patience, but the shall have comes later. 00:27:33.828 --> 00:27:36.509 But you still have to say now, faith is a now. 00:27:36.509 --> 00:27:37.628 It's always in the now. 00:27:37.628 --> 00:27:39.990 You have to watch your tenses. 00:27:41.365 --> 00:27:42.430 Be careful about hope. 00:27:42.430 --> 00:27:53.517 If you don't, it's good to start off with hope, but then you've got to bring hope into faith, and the only way to do that is to be assured that what you're hoping for belongs to you. 00:27:53.517 --> 00:27:58.367 If what you're hoping for belongs to you, then you have the right to claim it and say I have it now. 00:27:58.367 --> 00:28:02.167 I believe I receive it now, then you shall have it. 00:28:02.167 --> 00:28:09.809 And so, and what happens when you hope and hope and hope and you really never really exercise faith? 00:28:09.809 --> 00:28:11.867 Well, the hope I mean you're not. 00:28:11.867 --> 00:28:13.311 You don't get what you hope for. 00:28:13.311 --> 00:28:16.248 You get what you say. 00:28:16.248 --> 00:28:17.906 That's what you. 00:28:17.906 --> 00:28:18.691 You have what you say. 00:28:18.691 --> 00:28:19.738 You don't have what you hope. 00:28:19.738 --> 00:28:21.369 You don't even have what you believe. 00:28:21.369 --> 00:28:26.854 You have what you say, and so you have to believe it in your heart, speak it with your mouth, then you shall have it. 00:28:26.854 --> 00:28:30.290 And so hope deferred Proverbs 13, 12,. 00:28:30.290 --> 00:28:32.095 Hope deferred makes the heart sick. 00:28:33.464 --> 00:28:35.792 I've seen people that just had these dreams. 00:28:35.792 --> 00:28:36.888 They had a hope. 00:28:36.888 --> 00:28:43.646 They never really had Bible faith over it and they spent their whole life hoping, wishing, hoping. 00:28:43.646 --> 00:28:47.590 They never knew it was theirs, it never believed it was theirs really. 00:28:47.590 --> 00:28:56.627 In their heart they were just hoping, kind of dreaming, and it makes you sour, it makes you mad at God. 00:29:02.297 --> 00:29:11.482 I had a woman that came to our church for a while and she was a good lady, a business woman, and she wanted to meet Gladys. 00:29:11.482 --> 00:29:16.597 Now, one day she was struggling with some things and I noticed her countenance was never full of joy. 00:29:16.597 --> 00:29:21.585 She was always kind of grim looking and so I. 00:29:21.585 --> 00:29:30.750 We met as many years ago and she had come from another church and another denominational church. 00:29:30.750 --> 00:29:34.242 She didn't have the kind of teaching that we have. 00:29:34.242 --> 00:29:38.317 She'd been here a while, but not long enough for this teaching to get into her spirit. 00:29:39.540 --> 00:29:42.868 And she says well, I'm just disappointed. 00:29:42.868 --> 00:29:46.877 I won't tell what age, but she's getting up in age. 00:29:46.877 --> 00:29:54.179 She's not technically past childbearing age, but getting close, and she's not married, never had been married. 00:29:54.179 --> 00:29:56.203 And she said I'm real disappointed. 00:29:56.203 --> 00:30:03.905 She said I just it looks like I'm not going to have what I've always dreamed of, always dreamed of having children. 00:30:03.905 --> 00:30:08.462 And I said well, you know you're having children. 00:30:08.462 --> 00:30:09.506 What about marriage? 00:30:09.506 --> 00:30:12.098 I mean, it looks like we got to get marriage first. 00:30:12.219 --> 00:30:18.820 And I started I didn't mean to laugh, but I laughed, and so I don't think she liked that either. 00:30:18.820 --> 00:30:22.492 And so I said what's the deal? 00:30:22.492 --> 00:30:23.836 How come you haven't been married? 00:30:23.836 --> 00:30:26.243 I mean, you're a successful business woman. 00:30:26.243 --> 00:30:33.568 I said what she said oh, I just had never met a Christian that I liked, and I know I shouldn't marry an unbeliever. 00:30:33.568 --> 00:30:38.304 And so right there I could tell she was picky, too picky, you know. 00:30:38.304 --> 00:30:43.898 I mean, it's good to be, have a high standard, but come on, you're, you're getting up in age. 00:30:43.898 --> 00:30:46.404 You know if you really want a child, you better get married. 00:30:46.404 --> 00:30:49.819 And so I said well, what's the deal? 00:30:49.819 --> 00:30:50.301 What do you? 00:30:50.301 --> 00:30:50.643 Why? 00:30:50.643 --> 00:30:51.184 Why? 00:30:51.266 --> 00:30:54.116 She said well, I'm, I'll be honest, I'm just mad at God. 00:30:54.116 --> 00:30:55.540 I said, well, what did God do? 00:30:55.540 --> 00:30:57.769 Why are you believing God? 00:30:57.769 --> 00:30:58.853 For this it's you. 00:30:58.853 --> 00:31:00.820 You didn't get married, you didn't even look. 00:31:00.820 --> 00:31:04.496 And everybody that didn't meet your standards, you just asked them off. 00:31:04.496 --> 00:31:06.063 I mean, have you looked everywhere? 00:31:06.063 --> 00:31:07.207 Have you been everywhere? 00:31:07.207 --> 00:31:08.191 No, you haven't. 00:31:08.191 --> 00:31:10.840 You're busy making money, making the living. 00:31:12.226 --> 00:31:14.673 And so I kind of fussed at her about, about getting mad at. 00:31:14.673 --> 00:31:16.740 I can't stand when people tell me they're mad at God. 00:31:16.740 --> 00:31:20.511 I'm sorry it's so stupid, but anyway. 00:31:20.511 --> 00:31:21.897 So we can't get glad. 00:31:21.897 --> 00:31:22.943 Thank God gladness was there. 00:31:22.943 --> 00:31:26.460 That's the only way I'm going to meet with a woman is with gladness and me in there together. 00:31:26.460 --> 00:31:33.500 So she was ministering to her a little bit and finally I said what, why is this so strong? 00:31:33.500 --> 00:31:34.424 Why are you blaming God? 00:31:34.444 --> 00:31:40.335 She said well, I had a word one time that I would be married and have three children. 00:31:40.335 --> 00:31:42.935 I said obviously that's a false prophet. 00:31:42.935 --> 00:31:44.279 Where'd you get that prophecy? 00:31:44.279 --> 00:31:45.605 I don't remember who was it. 00:31:45.605 --> 00:31:46.829 I don't remember. 00:31:46.829 --> 00:31:50.861 I said so you have lived your whole life based on a word from somebody. 00:31:50.861 --> 00:31:56.619 You can't remember who it is and you don't even remember where it was and when it was. 00:31:56.619 --> 00:31:59.827 I said that, do you hear yourself? 00:31:59.827 --> 00:32:03.096 That's foolish and you're blaming God. 00:32:03.096 --> 00:32:04.201 You ought to blame yourself. 00:32:04.201 --> 00:32:08.375 I said, first of all, prophets don't prophesy like that in the New Testament. 00:32:08.375 --> 00:32:10.921 That's not, that's not legitimate. 00:32:10.921 --> 00:32:14.467 And I said you have to act. 00:32:14.467 --> 00:32:18.320 I mean, if you believe something like that, you never did act on it. 00:32:18.320 --> 00:32:20.887 So it's your, that one that's responsible, not God. 00:32:20.887 --> 00:32:24.118 And so you know. 00:32:24.200 --> 00:32:30.980 I think we made some headway and she stayed with us another few years and eventually she left, like a lot of people do. 00:32:30.980 --> 00:32:39.553