SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name is Michelle Steele.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Phillip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith Church.
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SPEAKER_01: And uh thus far, uh, in just looking at this faith aspect, we've dealt with uh the sacrifice of faith, uh the walk of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Um tonight we're going to deal with, we've dealt with the work of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Tonight we're going to deal with the obedience of faith, the obedience of faith.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews 11 and verse 8, it says, by faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing where he went, not knowing where he was going.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's important that we look at that and we see by faith.
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham obeyed by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He didn't know where he was going.
SPEAKER_01: It's important that that preposition by it denotes the channel, how something was done.
SPEAKER_01: He did it by faith.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham obeyed by faith.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't know where he was going.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't know all the ins and the outs of this.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't foolishness, it wasn't presumption, it was Abraham's obedient faith.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: It was his obedient faith.
SPEAKER_01: And this is so important because in the very beginning I'll say this: faith and obedience always work simultaneously.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: I said Sunday morning, I would rather step out and be obedient and miss God or or and fail than sit there and be disobedient.
SPEAKER_01: I'll have people tell me sometimes, well, what if I fail?
SPEAKER_01: You'll get up and try over.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's what you'll do.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That my father used to say that's why they put erasers on pencils.
SPEAKER_01: Because you're gonna make mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: All of us are gonna make mistakes.
SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be areas in endeavoring to live, it's always better to endeavor to be obedient than to wait for all the conditions to be right before I take a step of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because at least when I'm trying to be obedient, God can operate and act in that on my behalf.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm not being obedient, there's nothing he can do because his hands are tied.
SPEAKER_01: He can't operate for me when I'm in disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: Other than show me grace.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know about you, but I've had that grace several times.
SPEAKER_01: So praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis chapter 12, and uh fair warning, we're gonna bounce back and forth between Genesis and Hebrews tonight, because there's so much to see here about his obedient faith.
SPEAKER_01: In Genesis 12, verse 1, and we'll read through verse 4, it says, Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get out of your country and from your kindred and from your father's house unto a land that I will show you, and I'll make of you a great nation, and I'll bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing, and I'll bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you, and in you will all families of the earth be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham departed, or Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed out of Haran.
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham was told to leave his family, his father's house, and his homeland.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: So we see very quickly this was no small thing that God asked him to do.
SPEAKER_01: This was not something, I mean, you know, ever how long he was 75 when God asked him to do this, so we can we can assume that for 75 years he had lived in Haran.
SPEAKER_01: That's where he'd been born and raised, and then God comes and says, I want you to leave your homeland, leave your father's house, leave your family, and watch, go somewhere that I'm going to show you.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to step out in obedience.
SPEAKER_01: These things can seem elementary, but we we hear this taught.
SPEAKER_01: God will never give you step four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
SPEAKER_01: He'll give you step one.
SPEAKER_01: Step one, God leads by steps.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: Faith is like a chain, there's links in that chain.
SPEAKER_01: And so God will give you steps.
SPEAKER_01: And and faith will be there to take the first step.
SPEAKER_01: Your job is to take the first step.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham could not get wrapped up in, well, where are we going?
SPEAKER_01: He had to leave.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, You leave and I'll show you where you're going.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: What makes the walk of faith so powerful is that I'm totally dependent on God.
SPEAKER_01: I'm totally just doing what he told me to do.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm putting all of my belief, all of my faith, I'm putting all of my trust in him.
SPEAKER_01: All of those words, belief, trust, they all are a part of faith.
SPEAKER_01: They're not faith on their own, they're a part of it.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in faith, you're gonna trust God.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in faith, you're gonna believe God.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, faith is conviction.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is being convinced, right?
SPEAKER_01: You believe because you're convinced.
SPEAKER_01: You trust because you're convinced.
SPEAKER_01: So when somebody says, Well, faith and belief are the same thing, no, they're not.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: I believe because I'm convinced.
SPEAKER_01: I trust because I'm convinced.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham simply took God at his word.
SPEAKER_01: We have no record, we have no indication that God had ever done anything for him before this moment, or that he had had any interaction.
SPEAKER_01: But God showed up to him and asked him to do this, and he stepped out and did it.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I want you to see: it was no small thing that God asked Abraham to do.
SPEAKER_01: It was no small thing that God asked him to do.
SPEAKER_01: And notice he was also 75 years old at this time.
SPEAKER_01: And so God shows up and he says, I want you to take this step.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And what's the proper response?
SPEAKER_01: He said, the Bible says, by faith he did that.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews 11.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 9.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't say things like this a lot, but folks, in this message tonight, I'm teaching you things that have taught left taught took me 30 years to learn.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: This is 30 years of learning how to do this, and obedience has been one of the key factors to this.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews 11, verse 9, it says, By faith, he, Abraham, sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles or tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
SPEAKER_01: For he looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
SPEAKER_01: When it says he looked for a city, he was waiting for a city.
SPEAKER_01: All right, or waiting to see the city, waiting to see where God wanted him to go.
SPEAKER_01: So he was looking, waiting for where God wanted him to go.
SPEAKER_01: Your faith, nobody's faith, will be developed to its fullest potential until you develop obedience in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Until you develop obedience in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: I remember one time uh there was a certain TV show that was on a number of years ago.
SPEAKER_01: It may still be on.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I don't watch a lot of regular television, but the the point is, is uh it was a show.
SPEAKER_01: I I enjoyed the show.
SPEAKER_01: The acting was good, right?
SPEAKER_01: And it was about uh, you know, they would investigate crime scenes and and and the the acting was good and the action was good, and I forget what night it was on, but one night I was sitting there and I was getting ready for it to be on.
SPEAKER_01: It was one of the only shows we watched, and I was just sitting there.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said this to me.
SPEAKER_01: He said, uh, he said, if I ask you to not watch that, would you quit watching it?
SPEAKER_01: If I asked you.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know right away people think, well, yeah, why would you be watching that?
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, don't make me come to your house and see what you're watching.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing He He didn't demand it, he asked.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And and I realize something.
SPEAKER_01: When God asks me something, when He asks, it's developing my faith.
SPEAKER_01: Obedience is required to develop my faith to the fullest potential.
SPEAKER_01: You're not just doing what looks good or sounds good, you're doing what God asks you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Not just what looks good or sounds good.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God asks me to do.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I haven't been a pastor for nearly 30 years full time.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I have people from time to time, and and and again, not necessarily anybody in this room, so understand that.
SPEAKER_01: But I have people from time to time, they'll come and they'll tell me, God told me to come to this church.
SPEAKER_01: God told me that you're my pastor.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_01: I hope God tells people to come to this church, right?
SPEAKER_01: But then the at times a little something will come up and they'll just leave.
SPEAKER_01: And I've had occasion to talk to people that have said that, and I said, Well, no, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: You can do whatever you want, but I thought you said God said.
SPEAKER_01: I thought you said God said.
SPEAKER_01: Because if God said and you do something contrary to what God said, then that's called disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: And nothing will get better in your life, it'll just get worse.
SPEAKER_01: Now, does God tell people to go to churches and then at times tell them to go somewhere else?
SPEAKER_01: I believe he can.
SPEAKER_01: I believe he does, I believe he has.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the point that I'm making is you're not just doing what looks good.
SPEAKER_01: If you're in a church that God told you to be at, you're not there because necessarily you like the building or it's in uh closest to your house.
SPEAKER_01: You're there because God told you to be there.
SPEAKER_01: That that's the key.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: You're doing what God has asked you to do in Genesis 17.
SPEAKER_01: And I I probably need to touch on this, teach there for just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you just don't do what what what everybody else is doing the way everybody else is doing it.
SPEAKER_01: What did God tell you to do?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what you got to be obedient to.
SPEAKER_01: Is what did God tell me to do?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I've never been one of these people that will, I'll hear preachers say they'll say, look, debt is sin.
SPEAKER_01: I don't believe debt is sin.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I believe the Bible warns against it.
SPEAKER_01: You can't read the book of Proverbs and not see that.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing if God told you not to go into debt, then going into debt for you would be a sin.
SPEAKER_01: Because God told you not to.
SPEAKER_01: That would be called disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: How hard would it be to believe for finances when I've done something God told me not to do?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And so everything that God promised Abraham was contingent upon his obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 17 and uh verse 1, when Abram was 90 years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I am the Almighty God, I am El Shaddai, walk before me and be perfect, and I'll make my covenant between me and you, and multiply you exceedingly.
SPEAKER_01: And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with you, and you'll be a father of many nations.
SPEAKER_01: Neither will your name any more be called Abram, but you shall be called Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made you.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll make you exceeding fruitful and make you make uh uh nations of you, and kings will come out of you, and I will establish my covenant between me and you, notice, and your seed after you, and their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto you and to your seed, and I'll give unto you and to your seed after you, the land wherein you're a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I'll be their God.
SPEAKER_01: And God said to Abraham, Abraham, you shall keep my covenant therefore, you and your seed after you in their generations.
SPEAKER_01: This is my covenant that you will keep between me and you and your seed after you.
SPEAKER_01: So notice that God at 99 years of age changed Abram's name to Abraham, and God's covenant conditions were made.
SPEAKER_01: And note how many times God said, You and your seed after you.
SPEAKER_01: You and your seed after you.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham was looking, waiting for where God wanted him to go.
SPEAKER_01: In Genesis 18, verse 17, it says, The Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
SPEAKER_01: All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going to operate in faith, it's going to have to be in obedience, and it will have to be for more than just you.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going to operate in faith, it'll have to be in obedience, and it will have to be for more than just you.
SPEAKER_01: I said Sunday morning that uh in the beginning you start using your faith just for you, but as you mature, you start using it for other people.
SPEAKER_01: God will honor your faith and your obedience for others.
SPEAKER_01: He'll honor your faith and your obedience for others.
SPEAKER_01: There are things that God will have you do that's gonna bless the future generation, that's gonna bless those that come after you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm exercising my faith for them.
SPEAKER_01: My obedience affects the generations that are coming behind me.
SPEAKER_01: My obedience affects my sons, my daughters, my grandchildren.
SPEAKER_01: My obedience affects that.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And it affects my faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I have to be very careful that I'm doing what God wants me to do.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: When when folks, when somebody calls me and they'll say, Look, I got this issue and I got this, I just need to talk to you about it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll say, Well, tell me what it is.
SPEAKER_01: And they'll tell me what it is, and here's what I say.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray about it.
SPEAKER_01: I'll get back to you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I don't, I don't, this, this is not dialogue, this is not dialogue answer.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We got to know what God's saying.
SPEAKER_01: We we gotta then be obedient to what God is saying.
SPEAKER_01: One man said it this way: he said, every problem that anybody has is a wisdom problem.
SPEAKER_01: It's a wisdom issue.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've got to get the wisdom of God and then obey the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: Before you do anything, I've said this over and over again over the years.
SPEAKER_01: Before you do anything, is that what God is telling you to do?
SPEAKER_01: Or is it just how you figured it out in your own mind?
SPEAKER_01: We all know the account of Sarah saying to Abraham, look, maybe through Hagar is how God's gonna do this.
SPEAKER_01: And what they do, they got over there and figured out a solution in their own mind.
SPEAKER_01: And now, boy, do we have a mess in the world based on their decision?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's not what God said.
SPEAKER_01: Now, see, that's good gospel news too, because Abraham was disobedient, but God still fixed it.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: So it's like, it's like, do I need to do that?
SPEAKER_01: Am I doing that just because that's what somebody else thinks I should do, or because I just don't know what to do?
SPEAKER_01: Faith is never, well, I don't know what to do, I'm just gonna do something.
SPEAKER_01: That's not faith.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is very specific, faith is very direct.
SPEAKER_01: Faith will tell you exactly what you need to do.
SPEAKER_01: It may not give you all the steps, but it will tell you exactly what you need to do.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what do I do if I don't know what to do?
SPEAKER_01: Keep doing what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01: Keep doing what you're doing until you know what you should be doing.
SPEAKER_01: But you can get into a bigger mess by just stepping out and trying to do something.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you want to do that?
SPEAKER_01: Why do I want to do that?
SPEAKER_01: See, I've got to understand that the Bible says it is through faith and patience that we obtain the promises.
SPEAKER_01: Faith and patience that we obtain the promises.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: In Genesis 22 and verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: You know, when when we just take a step to do something, we can compound the circumstances that we already have.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It can be something as simple as, well, you know, what whatever it may be, you you you can describe your own situation.
SPEAKER_01: But, you know, it's it's like if you are facing financial challenges, why would you use your credit card?
SPEAKER_01: Why would you put anything on a credit card when you've already got financial problems?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we needed this, we needed that, and we did you really need it or something that you just wanted?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: If the finances are bad, at the very least the cards need to be put up.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you need to do plastic surgery.
SPEAKER_01: That didn't go over very well.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Not preaching against credit cards, but I'm saying if you don't have physical money to pay that credit card bill, why are you using it?
SPEAKER_01: God didn't tell you to use it.
SPEAKER_01: See, that's that's what the Bible means when it says prosperity will ruin a fool because they don't think right.
SPEAKER_01: And so if I'm looking at things, I need to ask, what is God asking me to do?
SPEAKER_01: Then I can get in faith, and then I can be obedient.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: That was worth coming to church for.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just that was good preaching.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 22, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: And it came to pass after these things, God did test Abraham, or tempt, the King James says tempt, it's test, and said, Abraham, and he said, Here I am.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Take now your son, your only son, Isaac, that you love, get into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claved the wood, chopped the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God told him.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Many times people don't want to walk in obedience and faith because they know somewhere along the line they're gonna have to prove it.
SPEAKER_01: Somewhere along the line, I'm gonna have to prove that I'm obedient and that I have faith.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: There was no question here, no hesitation, no doubt, no fear.
SPEAKER_01: Simply faith and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: I find very few things that most commentaries agree upon.
SPEAKER_01: Most of the time they disagree.
SPEAKER_01: On this one verse, all of them agree.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham was in perfect obedience to what God wanted him to do.
SPEAKER_01: I watched a movie one time, I forget what it was, something about the Bible, and I know better than watch.
SPEAKER_01: I had somebody ask me one time, said, Have you ever watched The Chosen?
SPEAKER_01: Have not watched one episode.
SPEAKER_01: Not one.
SPEAKER_01: I I have the Bible, I'll just read it.
SPEAKER_01: But amen.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the point.
SPEAKER_01: They had this scene.
SPEAKER_01: And it was a very well-known actor, and they had this scene where God told them, and the next morning they got up and there were tears in Abraham's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Sarah was crying.
SPEAKER_01: Woo! He had the donkey got in the wagon and it showed him taking off and Sarah crawling along behind the wagon.
SPEAKER_01: Oh faith doesn't act that way.
SPEAKER_01: Faith does not respond that way.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Faith does not respond that way.
SPEAKER_01: Because, listen, he did this by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And Hebrews says why he was so convinced.
SPEAKER_01: He was convinced, Hebrews 11 says, because he was convinced that if he had to go through this all the way, God would raise him from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Because he had a covenant with God.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: So there was no question, no hesitation, no doubt, no fear, simply faith and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: That's what you're asking?
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'll do.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5, it says, Abraham said to his young men, Abide here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you.
SPEAKER_01: The statement of faith.
SPEAKER_01: We will, we, we will come back.
SPEAKER_01: We will come back.
SPEAKER_01: See, because God had not given Abraham option B.
SPEAKER_01: He said, It's through Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: Through Isaac, all nations of the earth will be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: That's how this covenant is going to be propagated.
SPEAKER_01: And so when Abraham considered what he was being asked to do by God, and he got to the place at the mountain, he told his servants, You stay here with this donkey, and we'll go worship and we'll come back.
SPEAKER_01: He had to come back.
SPEAKER_01: There was no question in his mind.
SPEAKER_01: You get to the place with faith.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is when you know that you know that you know that you know.
SPEAKER_01: It is impossible for this not to happen.
SPEAKER_01: Because God said, and he said, We're gonna go worship, and notice, we're gonna come back.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse 7, Isaac spake to Abraham, his father, and said, My father, and he said, Here I am, my son.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Behold the fire in the wood, but where's the lamb for a burnt offering?
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
SPEAKER_01: So they went both of them together.
SPEAKER_01: And they came to the place that God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And the angel of the Lord called to him out of heaven and said, Abraham, I find that so in the Hebrew, it's the angel of the covenant.
SPEAKER_01: The angel of the covenant.
SPEAKER_01: It's the preincarnate Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was on the top of that mountain with them.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Lay not your hand your hand upon the lad, neither do anything to him.
SPEAKER_01: For I now I know.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know that you fear God, seeing you've not withheld your son, your only son, from me.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham is obedient and faithful even to the point of giving his only son.
SPEAKER_01: And notice what the the the preincarnate Christ says.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, the angel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what he says, now I know.
SPEAKER_01: So there was some now we know God knows all things, but what's he saying?
SPEAKER_01: Now you have proven it.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, we've always had a covenant, but the covenant's never been tested.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know you'll go through with it.
SPEAKER_01: Every person under the sound of my voice, watching online or in this room, you will get to this point.
SPEAKER_01: At some point, that God will ask you to do something and ask you to be obedient to something.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, not to this extreme, but he'll ask you to be obedient to something, and it will be because he has never tested that covenant, that your obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: You know, God doesn't send temptation, testing, and trial.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But he does test our faith.
SPEAKER_01: He does put our faith to the test.
SPEAKER_01: Every time God asks you to do something you've never done before, he's putting your faith to the test.
SPEAKER_01: He's asking you to do something you've never done.
SPEAKER_01: And the and the and the first part of that that touches that situation is your obedience.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing that enters through the door is your obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And your willing obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 11.
SPEAKER_01: Back to Hebrews 11.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I he I heard this the other day.
SPEAKER_01: Pastor retold this story again.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, when they when they went into the ministry, obviously they they they sang.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Pastor, Sister Jeannie, and and their son Ronnie, they they sang, and the agape singers, and and and they they did what so many of us did growing up in the ministry.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I grew up, my dad was an evangelist, and and we hit every little small church, small town uh in the United States.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we just traveled all the time.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and you know, I mean, you were blessed if they gave you$100.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you were there a week, you might get$250.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was just, you know, and and obviously people say, well, you're not in the ministry for the money.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but the Bible says that, you know, those that labor in the Word and Doctrine are worthy of double salary.
SPEAKER_01: And it also says who goes to war at their own expense.
SPEAKER_01: He said, you know, they ought to be taken care of.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the point.
SPEAKER_01: The church has has grown into that.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the point is they they were they were dealing with that, right?
SPEAKER_01: And they had uh cut a record, and the record company said, We've got a proposition for you.
SPEAKER_01: They said, really good deal.
SPEAKER_01: And they he said, Pastor said, Well, what is it?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, We want y'all to start traveling around to these rodeos and singing at these rodeos as like the the entertainment, you know, singing gospel music, obviously.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, We're gonna give you a thousand dollars per show.
SPEAKER_01: Thousand dollars per show.
SPEAKER_01: Now in the mid-1970s, that's a lot of money.
SPEAKER_01: Thousand dollars per show.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I thought, glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, the Lord said, No, that's not what I want for you.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I want you to pastor a church.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I had to go to Jeannie and say, Um, you know, I the the Lord told me this, and and you know the what she said, she said, Well, the Lord didn't say that to me.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, then we won't make any move until the Lord says something to you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, of course, he did tell them to pass through the church.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing what was that?
SPEAKER_01: That wasn't God dangling a carrot out in front of them and then pulling it back.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: God wasn't in the rodeo thing at all.
SPEAKER_01: That was what somebody wanted them to do in the natural.
SPEAKER_01: But notice how he responded in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He asked God about it.
SPEAKER_01: Even though it looked like a really good deal, he asked God about it.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, No, I've got something greater than that.
SPEAKER_01: Now there are people sitting under the sound of my voice.
SPEAKER_01: You're thankful that he made that decision because your life was changed there.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so the first thing was the obedience.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing this by faith.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And and and that's why it seems hard.
SPEAKER_01: That's why it seems challenging, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm doing something, I'm being obedient, and I'm being obedient by faith.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have all the answers, I don't see everything, I don't even know why maybe God's asking me to do this, right?
SPEAKER_01: When when God began to deal with us to move to Little Rock to pastor the church, you know, I mean, listen, I I I made the decision early on in our marriage and in our ministry life.
SPEAKER_01: My children, listen, I never lived anywhere more than a year and a half in my life growing up.
SPEAKER_01: Never, nowhere.
SPEAKER_01: I never lived anywhere for two years.
SPEAKER_01: I was just there and then we'd move.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not scarred, I'm not hurt, I don't have daddy issues, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying, it was very challenging to build relationships, it was very challenging to have friendships because you didn't get to know anybody.
SPEAKER_01: And I made the decision when God told us to go to Kansas City, I made the decision.
SPEAKER_01: We're not moving around.
SPEAKER_01: We're not moving around, it's not gonna be us.
SPEAKER_01: And we didn't for 25 years.
SPEAKER_01: We lived there, raised our family there, right?
SPEAKER_01: I, God, God, we have we still have a great reputation in that city.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the point.
SPEAKER_01: I like that city.
SPEAKER_01: I fell in love with that city, right?
SPEAKER_01: Just fell in love with Johnson County.
SPEAKER_01: Still love Johnson County.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the point.
SPEAKER_01: I knew when God started asking me, I want you to go to Arkansas.
SPEAKER_01: You you follow me?
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I say that's not what I wanted, it's not because I didn't didn't like Arkansas, not because I didn't care about the people.
SPEAKER_01: I was happy, I was satisfied where I was.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I was praying about this over in Markham and uh when we were over there.
SPEAKER_01: And I was praying one night in one day in the in the back in the youth room.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Lord, I I am I I am so glad that that we're here.
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm appreciative that you ask us to be here.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, but please, you you need to tell me why you ask us.
SPEAKER_01: Because we we right everything was great.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, why'd you ask us?
SPEAKER_01: And he said to me, he said, there are other people I ask and they wouldn't do it.
SPEAKER_01: And then he said to me, he said, I knew you would.
SPEAKER_01: See, I've learned something.
SPEAKER_01: Even if I don't understand all of it, even if it doesn't make sense, even if it's not exactly what's making me the most comfortable, if I want to walk into everything God has for me, I've got to take that step of obedience and say, put me down, I'll do it.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's just the reality of it.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's not that old religious thing, you know, that God will test you through destruction and God will test you through sickness.
SPEAKER_01: That's not how God tests.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to know the difference between temptation, testing, and trial and stealing, killing, and destroying.
SPEAKER_01: All right?
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that God will test your faith.
SPEAKER_01: It says that you'll go through trials.
SPEAKER_01: It says the trial of your faith is much more precious than gold.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it's working in you an eternal substance.
SPEAKER_01: So there's gonna be times God's gonna say, I want you to do this, and it's a test of your faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's a test to see if you're gonna be obedient.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: It's not tempted with sin.
SPEAKER_01: God's not gonna destroy you if you don't, but here's what you got to understand.
SPEAKER_01: On the other side of your obedience always is something greater than what you have right now.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what the enemy would do very often is he'll present you with easier options.
SPEAKER_01: He'll present you with easier options.
SPEAKER_01: I had a couple one time that used to sit on the front row of the church, love them, still love them, and they had financial issues, bad financial issues.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing: they wouldn't give, they wouldn't sow.
SPEAKER_01: And they would get so mad at me when I would make statements like the only way out of your financial issue is to sow your way out.
SPEAKER_01: You gotta give your way out and give God something to work with.
SPEAKER_01: They would just get so upset.
SPEAKER_01: See, a seed very often, if God knows you'll if God asks you to sow a seed, he's got a harvest on his mind.
SPEAKER_01: There's something greater in the future that he has for you.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to take the step of faith that is wrapped in obedience and just do what God told you to do.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you another pastor's story.
SPEAKER_01: He said they they were at a church, it was a building dedication, big church, word of faith church, and Fred Price was ministering.
SPEAKER_01: And if if uh if if if you want to know about Blunt in the dictionary, look up the dictionary.
SPEAKER_01: It has Fred Price's face there, right?
SPEAKER_01: One lady came to him one time and and was asking him a question at a church he was preaching at, and he goes, he goes, Do you go to this church?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, No, I really don't have a home church.
SPEAKER_01: I just kind of go here and there.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Oh, so you're like a fly.
SPEAKER_01: You're of absolutely no use to anybody.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just relaying to you what Fred said.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: He was he was up there ministering, pastor, and then we're there, and and he said, he said, we're gonna take an offering for you know the building and to finish it out.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Everyone that that uh will, I want you to give a thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_01: And Pastor said, I was there, and he said, I wanted to give a thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_01: He said, and then I got mad because I didn't have a thousand dollars to give.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I was a hundred dollar man.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I went to the Lord and I said, Lord, that isn't right.
SPEAKER_01: All those other people had a thousand dollars to give.
SPEAKER_01: I want to give a thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said, Well, can you what can you believe me for?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Can you believe me for a hundred dollars?
SPEAKER_01: He said, I can believe you for a hundred dollars coming and going.
SPEAKER_01: He said, then just believe me for a hundred dollars ten times.
SPEAKER_01: See, there's a way to be obedient.
SPEAKER_01: If you believe God wants you to give a certain amount, don't don't pull out your wallet and make the decision on what's in your wallet.
SPEAKER_01: Start where you can.
SPEAKER_01: Give$50, give$10, right?
SPEAKER_01: The Lord told Brother Copeland to sow$10,000 into Brother Hagin's ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I didn't have$10,000, I didn't have$10,000 in the ministry or in my personal finances.
SPEAKER_01: But he said, what I started doing was every time I would come home from a meeting and I had change in my pocket, I'd put it in a bucket, put it in a container, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, then when it would get full, I'd send it to Brother Hagin's ministry, cash it in, send it to Brother Hagin's ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He said it wasn't just a, I think it was a few months.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I called there and talked to Buddy Harrison, who was Brother Hagin's son-in-law, and he said, Can you tell me how much money I've given?
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm God told me to do something, I want to find out how much money I've given.
SPEAKER_01: He had not only given$10,000, he had far exceeded$10,000.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I didn't even know I'd done it.
SPEAKER_01: But what if he had not started putting that change in the container?
SPEAKER_01: Then faith could faith is an accelerant.
SPEAKER_01: When you get obedient and you start acting in faith, things start picking up.
SPEAKER_01: Things start going faster.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because faith is the substance of the thing that you're expecting.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And so when you've taken a step of obedience, see, Abraham stepped out in obedience expecting to be the father of many nations.
SPEAKER_01: Expecting this.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: But your obedience is the first thing that encounters that situation.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham knows.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews 11, verse 17, by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: He that received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall your seed be called.
SPEAKER_01: Accounting.
SPEAKER_01: Now notice it's important that you put those together.
SPEAKER_01: He did this by faith, accounting, or putting it to the record that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, whence also he, God, received him in a figure, or received him figuratively.
SPEAKER_01: So when Abraham laid Isaac on the altar and reached for the knife and raised it up, right?
SPEAKER_01: And the way that's described in the Hebrew, when he was, when he had that knife, the angel of the Lord stopped his hand coming down.
SPEAKER_01: He was full well gonna go through with it.
SPEAKER_01: There was no hesitation.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't raise the knife and go, all right, now you can stop me anytime you want, God.
SPEAKER_01: He had no indication that God was gonna be there.
SPEAKER_01: No indication.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, I received him figuratively.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because faith is substance.
SPEAKER_01: Faith is of the same value of the thing hoped for.
SPEAKER_01: If you have faith for$10,000, that's the same, your faith is the same value as physical$10,000 or physical healing in your body.
SPEAKER_01: If you have faith, you have it.
SPEAKER_01: It's not I have faith, where's it at?
SPEAKER_01: If I have faith, I have it.
SPEAKER_01: That is what is so important about this.
SPEAKER_01: So Abraham knows that because of his obedience, God will honor his faith.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham knows that because of his obedience, he can lift his son up to God by faith, and if need be, God will raise him up.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, I'm I'm saying this so many ways you're gonna get it.
SPEAKER_01: If God asks you to write a check for everything in your bank account, you better know that in a very short order period of time, you'll have double or triple or quadruple what you had in your bank account, because God never asks you to do anything that He doesn't want to multiply it back to you.
SPEAKER_01: But if if you look at the number, if you look at how close it will be, right?
SPEAKER_01: If you look at the steps you've got to take, you'll back off.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And again, it's not foolishness or presumption, it's faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's faith and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: You can know where faith is concerned that if you're obedient, God's gonna honor your faith.
SPEAKER_01: And notice this is a lifestyle of obedience.
SPEAKER_01: This is not being disobedience, disobedient 99 times and being obedient once.
SPEAKER_01: It's a lifestyle of obedience.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever you ask me to do, that's what I'm gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah! That's why when Brother Copeland was at that that that meeting, that get together, and he said, The Lord said, I want you to pay that man's plane off.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Lord, I'll be glad to do it, but I have one question.
SPEAKER_01: He said, What's that?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Why are you asking me?
SPEAKER_01: He said, There are people in here that they could pay that plane off and not miss it.
SPEAKER_01: It's like change in their pocket.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Because I knew you would.
SPEAKER_01: God will come to the person that he knows will.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: God, you know, God did not just choose Abraham willy-nilly.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't just random.
SPEAKER_01: God didn't spin a wheel in heaven and say, hmm, let's see.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: He came to him specifically for a reason.
SPEAKER_01: He saw something in him.
SPEAKER_01: When he talked to Abraham, and I taught on this in the Covenant of Blood series, when he talked to Abraham, and he said, By myself I have sworn.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Hebrew says, because God could swear by no greater, he swore by himself.
SPEAKER_01: And I've taught you how the Hebrew says that carries the idea that God actually got up and looked for somebody greater than himself and couldn't find them.
SPEAKER_01: And so he said, I'll swear by myself.
SPEAKER_01: Surely, blessing, I'll bless you, multiply and I'll multiply you.
SPEAKER_01: So God saw something.
SPEAKER_01: If God is asking you to do something by faith, he sees something in you that he knows you'll do it.
SPEAKER_01: It's an honor for God to ask you to do something by faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's an honor for God to say, I need you to do this.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to do this.
SPEAKER_01: You can't ever take that lightly.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let me hurry.
SPEAKER_01: Because we got to be done.
SPEAKER_01: Galatians 3.29, it says, if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the blessing?
SPEAKER_01: So we're Abraham's seed, and Abraham's blessing is mine through Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews 6, and verse 12, he says that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience receive the promises, inherit the promises.
SPEAKER_01: For when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing I will bless you, multiplying I'll multiply you.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: And so after he had noticed, patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: So we cash in on the promise God made through faith and patience.
SPEAKER_01: If we're Christ's seed, we're Abraham's seed.
SPEAKER_01: Then we're heirs of the same promise.
SPEAKER_01: If we walk in obedience and faith like Abraham did, we're guaranteed the same promise God made to Abraham, which was what?
SPEAKER_01: You'll be heir of the world.
SPEAKER_01: I'm guaranteed that.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: This means that you have an inheritance that you're entitled to the spiritual benefits of the covenant that God made to Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: That God made with Abraham, the promise that he made.
SPEAKER_01: So all that you have to do is use the same two characteristics he did: obedience and faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's all I have to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's all you have to do.
SPEAKER_01: Your faith will work if you're obedient.
SPEAKER_01: And our final verse in Hebrews 11 and verse 8, it says, By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place that he should after receive for inheritance, obeyed and went out, not knowing where he was going.
SPEAKER_01: So the question is, how do I obey?
SPEAKER_01: By faith.
SPEAKER_01: I do it by faith.
SPEAKER_01: We're covering Arkansas by faith.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be obedient to do it by faith.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand how it's all going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: I don't understand everything that God's saying where that's concerned.
SPEAKER_01: But I know that the obedience is the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: How did Abraham leave all that he was familiar with and go to a land that he had never seen?
SPEAKER_01: By faith.
SPEAKER_01: And let me say this as I'm closing.
SPEAKER_01: If a person gets all wrapped up in what they do, how hard they work, the hours they're going to work, I'm working hard, I'm trying to make things happen, all these things.
SPEAKER_01: You should work hard.
SPEAKER_01: I understand that.
SPEAKER_01: I get that.
SPEAKER_01: We all work hard, we should.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing: there's an element of that that moves you out of faith.
SPEAKER_01: Because you actually think that you're going to get it done by the sweat of your brow.
SPEAKER_01: I need to explain to you that that's how they made it happen under the curse.
SPEAKER_01: Under the blessing, right?
SPEAKER_01: God blesses the works of our hands.
SPEAKER_01: He multiplies the works of our hands.
SPEAKER_01: I'll have to kill myself to make things happen.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that important.
SPEAKER_01: Quiet in Zion.
SPEAKER_01: There are just some things you have to do by faith.
SPEAKER_01: I said, there are just some things you've got to do by faith.
SPEAKER_01: And obedience is the essence of your faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's the essence of your faith is obedience.
SPEAKER_01: I'll do just what you told me to do.
SPEAKER_01: And I've proven this over the years.
SPEAKER_01: Michelle and I have proven this over the years.
SPEAKER_01: And any any aspect of it that you you want to approach.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I've cleaned my bank account out more than once, more than two times, more than three times.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll and listen, I'm not bragging.
SPEAKER_01: Please hear what I'm trying to say.
SPEAKER_01: And I'd do it again in a minute, if that's what a second, if that's what God asked me to do.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because every time it came back to me, it came back to me fuller and more.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If I ever look at an account that I have and God has said, I want you to give that to me, and there's a zero balance, it's not going to be zero long because I obeyed God.
SPEAKER_01: And he said it's going to come back multiplied.
SPEAKER_01: That's why you got to keep the seed mentality in everything that you do.
SPEAKER_01: You're not giving to twist God's arm.
SPEAKER_01: You're giving out of faith and you're being obedient to what he said.
SPEAKER_01: There's no magic in the seed.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: It's not a magic seed.
SPEAKER_01: This is not jacking the beanstalk.
SPEAKER_01: This is a promise that God made to us, a covenant promise that He made.
SPEAKER_01: When you give, I'll give it back to you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And I'll come back in good man.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I just need you to be obedient and sow the seed.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Say it out loud.
SPEAKER_01: My faith is working, my faith is strong, my faith is alive.
SPEAKER_01: I'm obedient to God.
SPEAKER_01: And as I'm obedient to God, God will provide all that he promised.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's stand up tonight, shall we?
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord's good to us.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: I I appreciate Miss Sarah taking the baby out, but I you you need to understand something about me and babies.
SPEAKER_01: People say, don't crying babies bother you.
SPEAKER_01: No, that means it's an alive church.
SPEAKER_01: Means it's a living church.
SPEAKER_01: I'd rather have crying babies than snoring old people.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, right, I I'm not being ugly, but I I'd rather hear babies crying than hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: Bad pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Glory to God.
SPEAKER_01: But God's good.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget Sunday morning Sunday morning will be here today.