SPEAKER_01: I'm going to ask you to stand with me and I'm going to read a verse of scripture.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know that I feel faith in this house.
SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, there's more faith in this house than what you really perhaps realize.
SPEAKER_01: You have more faith than what you realize you have.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to try to talk about it a little bit today.
SPEAKER_01: One short verse of scripture in Matthew 9, 29.
SPEAKER_01: Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it unto you.
SPEAKER_01: Now you think about that.
SPEAKER_01: He touched them and said, According to your faith, be it unto you.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: God bless you.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_01: As far as I can tell, as far as I can find, this is the first time in the scriptures that this phrase was ever spoken.
SPEAKER_01: That these words were ever said according to your faith, be it unto you.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is a marvelous thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's a marvelous tool.
SPEAKER_01: So matter of fact, you can receive whatever you need from the Lord tonight or today because of your faith.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Not because of anything else, but because of your faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_01: Some people say, well, I don't have faith.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I know at times we are struggling with things and situations that seem to zap us of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: But faith very quickly can be reignited and it can be returned.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And it's amazing what a good prayer meeting can do to your faith.
SPEAKER_01: You can go to prayer feeling the weight of the world upon your shoulders.
SPEAKER_01: You can go feeling like God is such a distance away that you don't know if you'll touch him today or not.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, when you get in his presence, and it's not hard to get there, when you get into the presence of the Lord, suddenly something happens inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: Your heart takes on a new dimension.
SPEAKER_01: Faith suddenly begins to resurrect itself.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: It has always been and still is today the practice of God to respond to people's faith.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm in a church that believes in speaking in tongues and the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_01: Well, how does that happen?
SPEAKER_01: There may be a lot of factors.
SPEAKER_01: There may be somebody that preached the word of the Lord, somebody shared the gospel, all of these things.
SPEAKER_01: But ultimately, when an individual receives the Holy Ghost, they receive it because of their faith.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Faith has been said to be heavenly currency.
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly currency, which is a medium of exchange.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Faith on this earth can purchase heavenly commodities.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen God do some amazing things.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen some amazing miracles.
SPEAKER_01: As a matter of fact, I'm gonna, I was, my wife and I were just a few weeks ago, we were in Missouri, and I was uh with a church leadership uh on a on a Thursday night and a Friday and uh in Branson, Missouri, and then we traveled uh to their church for the weekend a little further north, and uh while we were while we were in that leadership meeting, the church leader sat around this table, and and I was talking, and I got to talking about this thing of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And uh I told them, I said, I said, here's what I've come to realize in the in the course of living, in the course of the life of a church or even an individual, when things begin to happen for you that are so wonderful and positive, you're gonna be able to look back at a moment.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be a miracle in your life.
SPEAKER_01: There will be an absolute miracle in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Hear me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know the history of this church.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where you've come from.
SPEAKER_01: I do know that your future looks bright.
SPEAKER_01: God has obviously got his hand upon you and his favor is with you.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna tell you that whatever you accomplish, you're gonna be able to look back at a moment when things changed, when the miracle took place.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we pastored for 40 years and we took the church in 1980, and uh it was a wonderful church.
SPEAKER_01: It was a it was an older uh congregation, predominantly older.
SPEAKER_01: I uh we did not grow any for 16 years.
SPEAKER_01: We we maintained.
SPEAKER_01: We had 100 to 110 people, and I buried 30 members of that church in in the first 15 years, one every six months.
SPEAKER_01: They were checking out of there.
SPEAKER_01: And uh uh, but we we we we our number never dropped, but our number never grew.
SPEAKER_01: We just maintained for 16 years, from 80 to 96.
SPEAKER_01: But in 1993, October 17, 1993, our church had a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: And that miracle changed the trajectory of our church.
SPEAKER_01: It was a marvelous church.
SPEAKER_01: These were sweet people, but they were they they were they were locked into a mindset that that uh they were content, they were happy, they they they they really didn't want to be prodded much to get out of the routine, and uh I was extremely patient.
SPEAKER_01: I loved them, I believed in them, I saw potential in them, and uh, but I couldn't do any more than I was doing.
SPEAKER_01: I loved them, and I I tried my best to always treat them fair and with respect, and uh, but I knew I had seen in earlier years of my life, I'd seen marvelous things.
SPEAKER_01: But we had a service, unscheduled missionary came by.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't scheduled, it wasn't a missionary service per se, but uh they were there uh because they had a vacant weekend and they called me and I said, yes, come.
SPEAKER_01: It was a Sunday after general conference, not the best Sunday to have a lot of guests, but we but they came.
SPEAKER_01: Little did I know what we were in store for.
SPEAKER_01: This missionary couple, brother and sister Steve and Barbara Willoughby from the Nation of Singapore, they came to us.
SPEAKER_01: They had never been in our church.
SPEAKER_01: I had known Steve all of his life, all of his life.
SPEAKER_01: We grew up together in Tennessee, and uh uh he had gone to Bible school and our what our lives had went different directions.
SPEAKER_01: He was now a missionary in Singapore.
SPEAKER_01: I'm pastoring in Dallas, Texas, and uh uh he comes and and uh we were we had bought land, we were downtown Dallas, we had bought eight and a third acres out where our church sets today, and I had uh uh I didn't have a real organized method of trying to uh attack that payment, but we were just paying it out of the tithe and the offerings that came in, and we were doing good.
SPEAKER_01: We weren't under any struggle.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't, I wasn't in any sense of desperation about anything.
SPEAKER_01: Life was good, but we had taken them out and showed them our property and talked about our future and what we hoped for and wished for.
SPEAKER_01: And uh on that Sunday morning, when I turned the service to them, Barbara was also a preacher, so I invited Barbara to come up and greet the congregation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I had our Baptistry back here, and I had a uh like a thermometer.
SPEAKER_01: It was a church steeple, and our we called our property payment a steeple chase, and we were we were showing every month I'd whatever I paid, I'd find the principal and I'd reduce it by that much.
SPEAKER_01: So anybody could go up there and say, we owe this much money.
SPEAKER_01: We had paid$330,000 for that land back in 1983, and now it's 1993, and we have it down to$113,000.
SPEAKER_01: We had paid$200,000 on that a little over, and we're down to$113,000.
SPEAKER_01: And we're doing good.
SPEAKER_01: Payments are$2,200 a month.
SPEAKER_01: We're doing fine.
SPEAKER_01: No struggle, no, no, no sense of desperation.
SPEAKER_01: We had the church up for sale, we were trying to sell it.
SPEAKER_01: When we sell it, we're gonna start building.
SPEAKER_01: And I brought Barbara Willoughby to the pulpit.
SPEAKER_01: She walked up there, she had a little narrow Bible, she slammed that Bible down on the podium, and this is the first time our church had ever met her.
SPEAKER_01: She needed to practice on her skills.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing she said, she slapped that down and she said, The Holy Ghost has told me, now that'll get your attention, that it's time for you to pay this off.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that would have been a we would we wanted to pay it.
SPEAKER_01: We're doing everything we can do.
SPEAKER_01: You know, don't scream at us, you know.
SPEAKER_01: We're you know, bless our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: Bless our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And then this is what she said.
SPEAKER_01: God told me that your vision has become a yoke around your neck, and you can't move forward with your vision until you pay this off.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I couldn't argue with any of that.
SPEAKER_01: We'd had our building up for sale for 10 years downtown, 1983 to 1993.
SPEAKER_01: We'd we'd been trying to sell it.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody wanted that church building.
SPEAKER_01: The only two entities that could want a church building was another church or a funeral home.
SPEAKER_01: And we couldn't find anybody interested in that property.
SPEAKER_01: We were trying, doing everything we knew to do.
SPEAKER_01: But that's that that was our introduction to Barbara Willoughby.
SPEAKER_01: Steve went on and preached that morning a marvelous message.
SPEAKER_01: I had a young couple come down to the altar, and when they got up from praying, they gave me a check for$2,000.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, We want to put this on the property.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't see it at first, but there was a miracle happening.
SPEAKER_01: So I got all inspired.
SPEAKER_01: And I got up to the pulpit.
SPEAKER_01: I'm closing the door, and I said, I said, I've had somebody give me a check for$2,000 today to help on the principal payment of this property.
SPEAKER_01: And Sister Flowers and I are going to match that.
SPEAKER_01: And if anybody else wants to help us, you just see me after church.
SPEAKER_01: Oh nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: So we come back to church that night.
SPEAKER_01: Back then we had Sunday morning and Sunday night every week, and and uh uh we're sitting on the platform, and these are missionaries, Steve and Barbara from Singapore.
SPEAKER_01: Now I understand I was the missions director for our section then.
SPEAKER_01: I knew a little bit about missionaries and what they're here for.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want missionaries here, you want them to go where they belong.
SPEAKER_01: They don't want to be here.
SPEAKER_01: So when they come to see you, understand they are here for money.
SPEAKER_01: They want you to help them go.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not I'm not being negative, I'm just saying that that's the nature of they're out raising money so they can go where God has called them to go.
SPEAKER_01: And we respond and help them.
SPEAKER_01: So we're sitting on the platform and Steve leans over to me and he says, Hey Rick, do you mind if I take an offering tonight?
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, oh Lord, I know where this is going.
SPEAKER_01: Because when missionaries take offerings, they know how to get to the heartstrings of the people.
SPEAKER_01: He's fixing to clean us account.
SPEAKER_01: Singapore is about to be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: And then he gets up and he doesn't he doesn't say a word.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, thank you, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm gonna preach a message tonight entitled A New Way to Spell Faith.
SPEAKER_01: Take a change.
SPEAKER_01: And he began to preach.
SPEAKER_01: And when he when he got through preaching, something happened in the faith realm that had never happened in our church in all of its history.
SPEAKER_01: Our church, our church by that time was in its 53rd year.
SPEAKER_01: It was 53 years old.
SPEAKER_01: And and I heard a groaning.
SPEAKER_01: This is from an old established Pentecostal church.
SPEAKER_01: These people were salt of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: There was a groaning in that congregation.
SPEAKER_01: And people began to get up and they'd step out to the end of the pew, and then they would get down on their knees and on their face in the carpet, and then some began to crawl to the.
SPEAKER_01: I'd never seen this before.
SPEAKER_01: And the altars filled up.
SPEAKER_01: Now you've got to understand, this was a church that had been taught to pay their tithe, support the programs, support the young people, give to Sunday school, all of these things.
SPEAKER_01: But nobody had ever taught them to stretch their faith.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know as a young pastor, I didn't know how to attack that.
SPEAKER_01: But the Willoughby's did.
SPEAKER_01: And when I got through that night, I went on the altar and picked up$38,000 that had been left on the altar.
SPEAKER_01: Never in the history of our church had that happened.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you that this is the beginning of the miracle.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna skip through a lot of my story here, but I'm just gonna tell you that what happened that night wasn't the end of what happened.
SPEAKER_01: It was the beginning of a different church, the beginning of a different way of looking at the work of God.
SPEAKER_01: And uh over the next seven months, money began to come into our church from outside sources.
SPEAKER_01: I owed$113,000.
SPEAKER_01: I took that$38,000 and the money that had come in that morning.
SPEAKER_01: I took that down and paid it on the principal that week.
SPEAKER_01: And then every month after that, I would go down and whatever had come in.
SPEAKER_01: I'd go to the post office, there'd be a check for$5,000, for$500, for$100,000, for$700.
SPEAKER_01: There'd be a check, all these different amounts.
SPEAKER_01: And whatever came in that month, I would take it to the bank and I round it up.
SPEAKER_01: So if I had$8,700, I might round it up to either$9,000, or I might even round it up to$10,000.
SPEAKER_01: And in seven months, where our payment was$2,200, out of the church money, I paid$9,000.
SPEAKER_01: $104,000 came in through unexpected, unknown sources.
SPEAKER_01: I stood in May.
SPEAKER_01: I stood in May on a Wednesday night, and I said, folks, I went to the bank today and I made the payment, and I said, we only owe, and I'm fixing to make up an approximate number, we only owe$15,708.42.
SPEAKER_01: It was somewhere about that amount.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, if I could get that money, I would bring the Willoughby's back here, Memorial Weekend, and we had burned the note on that land.
SPEAKER_01: And in two minutes, they gave me that money, that church did, on a Wednesday night, and I went to the bank the next day and I paid the property off.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what I'm telling you, from that day till now, from that day till now, our church was a different church.
SPEAKER_01: It lived in a different realm.
SPEAKER_01: Suddenly, God became a bigger God to them than they'd ever known.
SPEAKER_01: Suddenly, nothing was too hard.
SPEAKER_01: Our church broke out into a spirit of revival.
SPEAKER_01: We found ourselves we couldn't sell our building.
SPEAKER_01: We suddenly got a buyer for our building downtown.
SPEAKER_01: We got our plans stamped and approved by the city.
SPEAKER_01: We got a loan from the bank, and we began construction in 1996, about less than three years from when we had that service in 1996.
SPEAKER_01: And in 10 months, we moved into a gymnasium.
SPEAKER_01: And then seven and a half years after that, we moved into a new sanctuary, and we celebrated last Sunday the retirement of all the debt on everything on that property.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm telling you, I'm telling you that you can have whatever you want according to your faith.
SPEAKER_01: According to your faith.
SPEAKER_01: You need a miracle in your body if you've got the faith to state it and believe it.
SPEAKER_01: You remember the woman that came to Jesus with the issue of blood?
SPEAKER_01: She was not wanting attention.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't want to take any of his time.
SPEAKER_01: She wouldn't want to interrupt him.
SPEAKER_01: She just wanted to sneak in behind him and just let the hem of his garment flow through her fingers.
SPEAKER_01: And she said, I believe if I can just touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole.
SPEAKER_01: And she she felt it when she touched it, she felt something go into her.
SPEAKER_01: A miracle had taken place.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus also was aware a miracle had taken place and he stopped and he said, Who touched me?
SPEAKER_01: And his disciples are kind of, they look at him and say, You gotta be kidding.
SPEAKER_01: Look at all these people.
SPEAKER_01: I bumped in you several times myself since the corner street down there.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Wait, who touched you?
SPEAKER_01: You you've got one more sense of humor, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, Jesus looked and said, No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody, somebody touched me with purpose.
SPEAKER_01: I feel something in this house.
SPEAKER_01: There's a miracle in this house today.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You hear what I'm telling you.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody in this house is wanting to touch.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: But you don't wait for him to touch you.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't you go after him?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, if you'll go after him and reach out in faith and touch him, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Something will happen in your body.
SPEAKER_01: Something that'll happen in your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Something that'll happen in your soul.
SPEAKER_01: Stand with me, everybody, in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you need the Holy Ghost here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you've got sickness in your body.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but you're looking at a preacher who's never been able to forgive a sin.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have any ability to heal anybody, but I can take you to one who does.
SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to bring you to one today.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That if you've got the courage, if you've got the faith, if you've got the willingness to reach out and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going for it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to reach out and touch him.
SPEAKER_01: And he's going to hear me today.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: That little woman wanted to get her miracle and just leave.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus pays a lot of attention to miracles.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: He stopped.
SPEAKER_01: He found her.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: He had her stand up.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And she was perhaps a little humiliated and embarrassed, but let me tell you what she was mostly.
SPEAKER_01: She was overwhelmed at what had just happened to her.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to tell you, when you get your miracle, you're not going to worry about what people think, what people say, how they look at you, what they might think about you.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: You've gotten a touch from the Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: I have seen him do the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: I have seen him heal the sick.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen him touch lame people.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you need today, I'm telling you in Jesus' name, the power of the Holy Ghost is here.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And you can have your Miracle right now.
SPEAKER_01: Right now, according to your faith, be it unto you.
SPEAKER_01: Be it unto you.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to invite you right now.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in this house and you need a touch, you need a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you need the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've come here with sin in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You need forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: You come to the right place.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ can forgive you of all your sin.
SPEAKER_00: He can wash you clean.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody can do that but him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.