SPEAKER_02 0:44

I want to begin today for this part of the service, for what God has in store for us in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and we'll read verse 5 together. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 5. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That your faith should stand in the power of God. Hallelujah. That's the desire that God has for us, his people, that our faith, that we have faith in God's power, that we have faith in God's ability, that our faith is not only present there, but it is stable there, standing, firm in the power of God, firm in the fact that God is able, firm in the fact that God can. Hallelujah. And so we want to have a look at that today of how we establish our faith in the power of God. Well, it helps us to identify, and in the writing here, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul had already established to the church at Corinth where to identify that power, how to identify the application of that power. And so let's back up to chapter one and see what he had already established to them in this letter. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 18. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. Oh, now I know, because sometimes when we think of power, we think of the result of the power. It's kind of like when you think of wind. You say, Well, did you see that wind? Well, none of us have ever seen wind. Wind is not visible. We see the effects of the wind, don't we? We see what the wind is doing to the trees. We see the trees bending, we see the leaves blowing, we see the curtains moving, we see something that's being affected by the wind, but we're not visibly seeing wind. And when we think about the power, sometimes we think about the results of the power, and that's where we've got our focus. And yet, to get the power to work in our lives, to flow the power in the direction that it needs to work, it would benefit us to identify the root of the power or the substance of the power. And so when we think about the power of God, we think about the changed lives. We think about the drug addict set free. We think about the the person who supernaturally no longer an alcoholic, the person who is is uh healed by the power of God, right? That's the result of the power, but what got that power to them? What what what got the power into that situation? I'll just use my situation for you because when when the person came to the hospital room to pray with my late husband, my first husband, before we took him off the machines, they talked me into going down to the chapel. And I didn't want to go to the chapel, I didn't want to hear what this preacher had to say. I didn't want to hear it because I didn't believe God loved me. I didn't believe God cared about me. I believed God hated me because of the life that I'd lived and the wrong that I had done. And so I didn't want to hear what the preacher had to say, but he talked me into it. He convinced me. And I'm there in the chapel, and he is telling me the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's telling me how Jesus died on the cross for me. He's telling me how God wants to help me so much that he sent Jesus, that Jesus paid for my sin, and he's telling me, and it was a glimmer of hope. It wasn't a huge revelation, it wasn't a clear understanding. I had a very small glimmer of hope. And I thought, if God would help me, I need his help. I do. If anybody needs his help, it's this messed up situation I'm in. I had cocaine in my pocket, I had a syringe in my shoe. I'm I've already been in the emergency room bathroom with the door locked, getting high, and here I am with my first husband of a drug overdose. He's passed away. They brought him back to life. He's being kept alive by machines in the ICU unit. And if anybody needs help, it was me. And that glimmer of hope was all I had. And I just thought, if anybody does need help, it's me. And he said, Pray with me. And I prayed with him. And you know, God heard my prayer. Even though I didn't have clarity to understand how to actually accept Jesus as my Lord at that moment, I had enough clarity to accept the help of God. And I prayed that prayer. And and when you hear my full testimony, and many of you are familiar with my testimony, how that after we took him off the machines uh I and he passed away, I ended up going back out into uh a drug uh binge and for for like days of doing cocaine nonstop and until I took a hit of cocaine and I couldn't feel it anymore, and I just put so much in there that my heart stopped, and I left my body, and I'm standing in front of a skull, and these hands begin to reach for me to draw me into hell, and I realized in that moment, with the only clarity I'd ever had at that at such a clarity as a supernatural clarity that hell was real and I do not want to go there, and I turned and I ran back to my body. And in that moment, when I came back into my body, I began fighting the person who was doing CPR. And I jumped up and I ran out the front door of the bar that was in the projects of East Nashville. I ran for three blocks in the rain with the blood dripping down my arm before I realized I was back in my body. That's how afraid I was of going to hell. If I had not asked God for help, I don't believe I would have made it back to my body. I believe the reason the mercy of God was available to me is because of that little glimmer of hope. But what gave me that glimmer of hope? So the power that brought me back to my body, the power that saved me when I did accept Jesus a few days later on August 10th of 1992, and accepted him as my Lord. That power, where did that power start? Where did that power begin? That man telling me the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is the power of God. So the result of the power is a life changed. The result of the power, and and often we don't think the words we say are enough because we don't see an immediate shift. That man, it it was weeks and months in between the time that he had me in that that uh chapel telling me it's planting the seeds of hope in my heart until the time that I came to a place of freedom by accepting Jesus as Lord. But the seed, the time, the harvest, it was worth it. Hallelujah. But often we don't see an immediate change, and so we think, well, it didn't take, it didn't work. The seed was planted, the seed was planted in their hearts, and so the preaching of the gospel is the power of God. Now that's that's in a that's in an example of how a life can be changed, but it works in every example of the harvest that you need as well. If you need a harvest of wisdom, if you need a harvest financially, if you need a harvest of help, of health, if you need a harvest, whatever it is that you need, the word of God is your seed catalog, and you can dig through your seed catalog, and you can get your seed and you can put it into the ground, and you can produce the power of God in that arena. You can produce the power of God in your marriage by sowing the word of God into your heart. You can produce the power of God in your finances by sowing the word of God into your heart. You can produce the power of God by putting the word, because the word, the the declared word, the preached word, the rhema word, the word that you put into the heart produces the power of God in that situation. God said, My word won't return to me empty, it will accomplish what I send it to do. Hallelujah. And so his word, every word of God is full of power. God doesn't own an empty word. And so when you take the word and you put that word into the engine of your heart, it's like the fuel going into an engine of a car. The fuel of God's word, the power for that car to move down the road comes from the fuel that's in the engine going through the cycle of combustion, and the power for your life to fulfill everything that God has said in his word belongs to you, happens as the fuel of his word is put into the engine of your heart and goes through this combustion of faith, and the faith for you to receive the financial breakthrough, the faith for you to receive the health in your body, the faith for you, the power is brought to pass through that word. Glory to God. And so this is an example for us in Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10 is one of my favorite places to see how the word of God produces in our life because it makes it so plain here. And I'm gonna read uh beginning in verse 13. Romans chapter 10 and verse 13 says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, that's the harvest, that's the power result, the result of the power. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how do we get to that? What leads up to that? What's the process that brings us to this objective? Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call? We're about to take a step back in the process and see the previous step that led to the salvation. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? So, in order to call and be saved, in order to call on him and be saved, there is a prerequisite. I have to believe. So believing is the step prior to the result. But then how do we get to the believing? What's the step that leads us to the believing? Well, let's back up a little bit further. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? So there's no believing without the hearing, and there's no being, there's no calling without the believing, and there's no being saved without the calling that started with the believing that came from the hearing. Do you see the process? Why? Because the word is the power, the the preaching of the gospel is the power. The word is the power of God. God has, he upholds all things. Hebrews chapter 1. What does he uphold all things with? The word of his power. Not the power of his word, the word of his power. In other words, God has chosen to put all of his power in his word. Jesus is the word made flesh. Hallelujah. All the powers in the word. He's put his power in his word. Hallelujah. And so how do we get to the salvation? We've got to believe. How do we we gotta call? How do we call? We've got to believe. How do we believe? We gotta hear. And then it takes it back a step. How shall they hear without a preacher, without someone to declare it? And how that how shall they preach except they be sent? So God sends. God sends his word, right? He sends his word through through the five-fold ministry offices that he's chosen. He sends his word through his people. He's delegated his authority to his people to carry out, he says, go into all the world and preach. So every believer is under that calling right there. Go into all the world and preach. Not just the people preaching behind the pulpit, but you can preach at the gaffs pump. You can preach at the bread aisle. You can preach at the when you're passing out eggs, you can preach, right? You can preach wherever you are. Because the preaching is not just an assignment for the five-fold ministry. It's you and I declaring the word. And you can preach to yourself. I mean, David preached to himself. He said, Oh my soul, why are you disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. What was he doing? He was talking to himself, he was preaching the word to himself. And and you are going to have an uninterrupted flow of the word into your heart if you'll learn how to deposit it yourself with your own mouth into your heart. If you'll take God's word, which you know is truth, you know it's truth. You know this is not my idea. This is what God said. I'm pulling it off the page, it's what God said. I'm putting it in my mouth, and why am I putting it in my mouth? Because my tongue is the pen of a ready writer, Psalm 45, 1. My tongue works like an ink pen. And Proverbs 3 says that my heart is a tablet. So how do I write on the tablet of my heart? I say. So Joshua chapter 1, verse 8, what does he say? He said, This word shall not depart out of your mouth. You will meditate therein day and night. So it where is it not departing? Not just the eyes from out. You got to keep it in your mouth. Why? Because it's a spoken word, it's a voice-activated word. This is, you got to speak it. You and you speaking it is just as effective for the deposit as if I was there speaking it to you. You don't have to call Pastor Michelle and say, Pastor Michelle, preach to me. You can open up your Bible at 2 o'clock in the morning and save me and being woke up at 2 and you can preach it yourself. If you need me, you can call me. But you know what I'm saying. If you just you can open it up and preach to yourself. You can make your own deposits. So the word preached. How shall they preach except they be sent? So the sending provides the preaching, the preaching or the declaring of the word provides the believing. The believing provides the ability to call, and then the salvation comes. Hallelujah. That is not just for people to be saved from their sin or to be born again, but this is also for you to take the word, and you're sent to preach to yourself in situations. You can take your the word and you can frame your world by the word of God, and you can establish faith in places in your heart, faith in things that need to change in your life. Glory to God. So let's look at Mark chapter. Well, before we leave here, so then faith comes by hearing. We can't leave without verse 17, can we? After all that, we can't leave without verse 17. So then, faith. Do you notice that the word comes is in italics, which means it was added by the translators? You can pull it out and not hurt the original uh writing of the Greek. So then, faith by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So faith by hearing the word of God. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. You need victory. Faith is the victory that over that that has already overcome. Glory to God. And it can be applied in your situation. So faith by hearing, and hearing the word of God. So the word of God contains it. You can't get something out of something if it's not in there. I can't get water out of this cup if there wasn't water in this cup. For me to get water out, there has to be water in it. For there to be something in it, for there to be faith in the word of God. It's already there. You don't have to make it happen. And some people say, I'm trying to believe. I'm believing. You can see the frustration. I'm believing. I'm believing. Faith is not hard. Faith is not hard. All that I need to do is get the word in my heart. So faith isn't something that I'm trying to do, that I'm struggling to do, that I'm making an effort to believe. Faith is more about, I've got a deposit. I've got a deposit. I've got to deposit the word. I've got to focus on the word. I've got to let the word have the preeminence in my estimation, in my expectation, in my thought life, so that I so faith is automatic when the word's in you. So it's not hard. So, but it comes by hearing. So Mark chapter 5. Now we'll go to Mark chapter 5. Hallelujah. Thank you for your word, Lord. Mark chapter 5. Let's look at verse 25. And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. When she had heard of Jesus, so she heard of Jesus, just like I heard that he died on the cross for me. I heard that he has already paid the price to save me. She heard of Jesus. That's where the power started. That's where her connection came. We look and we're gonna see when the power flowed into her here in just a minute, but that wasn't the beginning. That was the result. That was what you saw, the end result of the power supply. But how did the power begin to flow to her? When she heard of Jesus, she came in the press behind and touched his garment. For she said, so she heard of Jesus, and what she heard got in her to the point that it's now in her mouth. Because what she said is her faith talking, and she said, If I may touch even or just his clothes, I shall be whole. So what is she saying? I shall be. Whole. I shall be whole. What's on her mind? Wholeness. What's on her mind? Healing. I shall be whole. She has a picture. She has an image. And that image didn't come from what she has experienced because what she had experienced was making everything worse. It says she was nothing better, but rather grew worse. So every day it had been less hope and less hope and more frustration, and it looks worse and it feels worse, and all the evidence is worse. But now she's heard something that changed the inner image. She's heard something that has transformed the grow worse image into a I shall be whole picture. Now she's got a picture of wholeness. And friends, family, we have got to stay with the word till the picture changes. If we're still seeing ourselves and expecting to be struggling, expecting to be weak, expecting to be financially behind. If we're expecting it, the picture hasn't changed and faith hasn't come yet. Keep working on the deposits until the picture changes. Her body hadn't changed. Her body hadn't changed. We know exactly when it changed by the scripture. Her body hadn't changed at this point. She is saying, I shall be whole with the issue of blood still in her body. She's saying, I shall be whole with the weakness still in her body. So there wasn't any physical evidence that has changed yet. But there is a substance that it wasn't there before that came by the hearing. A substance of faith that came by the hearing that has given her an expectation that has moved her out of the house at the danger of being out in public in her condition, which was against the law of their judicial standards. And here she is willing not only to be out of the house, but to press through the crowd, touching people, moving through people. Why? Because if I can just touch his clothes, I shall be whole. I shall be whole. And the amplified of verse 28 says, she kept saying. And so a present progressive, here's your English lesson for your Sunday morning. A present progressive word is I'm presently and it's in progress. So I'm speaking right now, right? That's I'm presently speaking and in the process. I am speaking right now. It's something I'm doing right now. If you were to say that little boy's running, they are running right now. It's something they are in the process of presently doing. And so she kept saying, it was it she was continuous. She kept saying and saying and saying. Why? Because she's depositing and pulling up a harvest and depositing and pulling up a harvest and depositing, and faith is coming. Glory to God. Glory to God. So faith doesn't come with one hearing. Faith comes by hearing and hearing. Hearing is a present progressive word. We read faith comes by hearing. Faith doesn't come by having heard. You've already used that faith. You deposited and you already debited off that account, right? You off that deposit. So so you can't you can't make one deposit and spend indefinitely, can you? Eventually, you're going to need to make another deposit in your bank account. I mean, just naturally on your finances. Just because you deposited your last paycheck doesn't mean you can continue spending without making another deposit at some point. Right? And just because you have heard doesn't mean that you have sufficient faith in that area because you've been, every day's a faith day. You've been using your faith every day. You've been drawing on that faith account every day. You've been working that faith, and so you've been, you've got to keep account. I've been working this faith, and so I need to deposit some more. So she kept saying, I shall be whole. I shall be whole. And straightway, verse 29, the fountain of her blood was dried up. Well, that's the result. But that result started way back when she heard. We don't know how long ago it had been that she heard. We don't have that, but when we get to heaven, we're gonna ask her. I want that's inquiring minds want to know. This girl I hear she wants to know. I want to know. I want to know the details because I need some details, y'all. I'm a detail-oriented kind of person. I need the details. Like, when did you hear? What did you hear? And you know, I've got my ideas, I've got I've got some suppositions, right? Of maybe she, because she wasn't going out of her house much back then, right? So maybe she was there and somebody walking on the street was talking about Jesus and how the widow of Nain's son had died, and Jesus came and lifted him right up off the grave on their way to the gravesite and and and raised that widow of Nain's son up. And then somebody says, Well, did you hear about Barnamaeus? Bartimaeus isn't blind anymore. We can't call him blind Bartimaeus anymore. He's not blind because Jesus healed him. Right? What did she hear? She heard of Jesus. The word made flesh. She heard of Jesus, something that he had done, something that he had preached, something that he had had witnessed of the goodness of God. And she heard of Jesus, and faith came. Hallelujah. That's when the power started. That's when the power started. So let's go over together one chapter back to Mark chapter 4. Go over here to Mark chapter 4 because we want to identify how to get that power to flow into our lives. And we've identified that the power began. We want the results just like she got the results, and just like Romans chapter 10 says the results can be. We want the results, so how do we get the power flowing? Well, we've got to get the hearing started. The hearing is where the power flow begins. And so, Mark chapter 4, Jesus is teaching the parable of the sower. Many of you probably have already heard the parable of the sower. I'm not going to read every verse, but I want to identify some key points in this parable. In chapter 4, verse 3, it begins Jesus telling the parable, and he starts out the parable with an instruction. Hearken. Hearken, which means listen closely. Listen with the intent to be able to apply this to your life. Hearken. And then he goes through this parable. And then he comes to verse 9 at the end after telling the parable, and he gives them another instruction. He that has ears to hear, let him hear. Isn't that an odd thing? Have you ever said, listen, if you got ears to hear, you better hear this. Well, any parent who's ever been trying to get their attention of their child said, Listen to me. We usually say, look at me when, because if I got your eyes, I got your attention, right? Listen to me. Jesus started out this parable saying, Listen closely. Listen with intent to apply this. Listen with a desire to understand it. And then he closes the parable with an instruction of he that has ears to hear. Ears to hear. Ask yourself right now. Do I have ears to hear? Do I have ears to hear? Now I want to tell you that I would love on this Mother's Day to claim to have been a pristine mother of no fault and no failures. But I have to admit that one of my children had innumerable questions. And she just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And it was at a point in my life when I had a lot of other responsibilities going on at the same time. And I was homeschooling her at the same time. And so I was uh homeschooling, and I had some other things that I'm trying to spin all the plates, you know, keep all those plates spinning. And so she would just be in the car, in the car. Mommy, why is the sky blue? Mommy, why are the clouds white? Mommy, mommy, mommy, this, mommy, that. Just questions, just like and like, oh, stop. And I learned how to let her talk and not pay attention to what she said. And here's the other thing, and my kids still laugh about this today. They would be in a room full of people in the church, and they would be saying, Mom, mom, mom, and they couldn't get my attention. I had so kind of like become numb to that word. It was like it went in one ear and out the other. And they would finally say, Pastor Michelle, and I would turn. They didn't get me with mom, but when I said, when they said Pastor Michelle, they got my attention, right? And so I learned in my parenting how to zone out what they were saying sometimes. And they would say something, and then I would be like, What? What'd you say? You know, because I it I heard it, but it didn't register. And Jesus is warning us that we need to cause our hearing, especially when we're hearing the word of God, to be attuned in to the right frequency kind of hearing. That we don't need to hear with that zone out. We don't need to hear with that uh uh disengaging from it. But we need to engage all of our senses, especially when he's speaking, especially when there is spiritual truth being presented to us in the words. We need to learn how to connect and hear with the intent to receive it. So he says, He that has ears to hear, let him hear. Now, the word ears here, I'm gonna give you a little bit of Greek. The word ears means it means physically or mentally, and this is from the Strong's Concordance. So it can mean your physical ears of the actual ability to hear, but it's also your hearing it to understand it with your mind. Metaphorically, it refers to the faculty of perceiving with the mind, the faculty of understanding and knowing, the faculty of receiving with the mind. So it's coming through my eardrums, but the purpose is for me to understand it. The purpose is for me to have clarification, for me to have perception that comes as a result of what I'm hearing. And the word hear in this verse means to attend or consider what has been said, to perceive by the sense what has been said, and I like this one too. To get it by hearing, to get it by hearing, to get. So, how do I get it? How do I get that power to operate in my life? How do I get the power of by his stripes I'm healed? Into my bones, into my bloodstream. How do I get, how do I get good measure pressed down, shaken together, running it over into my life? I've got to get it into my heart. How do I get it into my heart? I've got to hear it. It's preached either by someone else or by my own voice, and that deposit of that voice going into my eargate. That deposit brings the supernatural power of God. Every word of God is full of power. The power's in the word, the word of his power. So I've got to get the power, but I can't just take the book and rub it onto my body. I can't just take the book and get it into my mind. It's got to come through the ears and through the eyes. Proverbs 4 says, attend to my word. The attention, the attention that we're giving it is causing it to come into us. Attend to my word. How do I attend? Incline your ear to hear it. Incline your ear. That means I'm leaning into it. I'm leaning into that hearing. I'm not just hearing uh with like Charlie Brown's teacher. That was my algebra teacher too. Charlie Brown had a teacher just like my algebra teacher. They sounded the same. When my algebra teacher got up there and started pointing at the board and I saw 4 plus 2 equals C, I said, that is wrong for you to have the alphabet in a mathematical equation. And from that moment on, I closed my book and everything sounded like why I was not hearing what she was saying anymore. I was not hearing with an intent to perceive it. I wasn't getting it because I shut her down when the moment she put a letter on the board with my math numbers, right? We've got to hear at a different level. And listen to me. We are in a time. We are in a time when there is so much to hear, and there is so much to see, and there is so much that wants your attention. There is so much that the AI and and the news and the Facebook and the Instagram and the TikTok and all that is available. And not just three channels. We used to have ABC, NBC, CBS. Now what do we got? We got hundreds of channels on streaming and and Roku and you can just YouTube shorts and Instagram reels until your attention is full of junk. Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of your heart, that's where the issues, the forces, the strength of your life is gonna flow. And for us to be attending to his word, we're gonna have to be not attending to some of those other things that I just mentioned. We're gonna have to discipline our ears to hear. A difference in the way that we hear when it comes from God's word than the way we would hear if we were just letting whatever play on the TV or on the device. I've got to train myself to hear the word with a different ear, to hear the word with a different respect, to hear the word with a different attitude. This is not optional. This is not take it or leave it. This is not like that. So I swipe. I'll just swipe on through that. I like that. Oh, I don't want that. Swipe on through that, right? And so some people do that with their scriptures. Oh, I don't like that one. I'll just skip past that. Forgive if you have ought against any, drop it, leave it, let it go. No, no. Let's go on to this bless me one. Right? We don't want to, we don't want to do that. We want to take the word of God as the holy truth. We want to take the word of God with a different receiving than we would receive anything else. Glory to God. And that takes it takes a discipline, it takes a training of yourself, a training of your ear to hear. And so he said, He that has ears to hear, let him hear. They asked Jesus to explain the parable of the sower. And praise God, he does so for us. And we have so much insight from that. He said, if you don't know this parable, how will you know all the parables? So the key to all of his teaching is in understanding how this one works. If you understand that the word is the seed and the heart is the ground, you'll understand the application of his principles in so many other of the parables. He said, This is a key. It's like the Rosetta Stone. This is the answer key. This is the way you unlock the understanding for the other things, is to understand that the word of God works like a seed. Now we know, listen, we know Hebrews 4, God's word is full of power. We know that God said in Isaiah 55, My word will not return to me empty. We know that He said, His word is established. It's already established in heaven, right? His word is not the problem. But we see there were three types of ground that did not bring forth power results of the word. Three types of ground. And it wasn't the word that failed. It wasn't on God's part. It wasn't God's word, it fell short. It didn't happen because God's word didn't have the power. That's not true. What happened was the ground didn't maintain the seed in it. The wayside soil, the enemy came immediately and took it. He comes to do what? Steal, kill, and destroy. The first seed was the wayside soil, seed sown in the wayside soil, he stole it. The second one, it was planted in the rocks, the offense. So offended at the word, had no root. So the the lack of a root system, the lack of any depth, the that it was destroyed or it was killed. And then the third was choked out by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things. Choked out the word. So it wasn't the word that failed, it was the heart, the soil, that did not maintain the word bringing forth. Let's look at verse 20 because I want you to find yourself here in the word. You are the good ground. Right here in verse 20. These are they which are sown on good ground. Say that's me. Such as hear the word and receive it. No, they all heard it. Verse 15, it says, when they have heard. Verse 16, when they have heard. Verse 18, such as hear the word. Verse 20, this ground, this heart heard the word and received it. Heard the word and received it. It was sown into all the types of ground, but only one received it. And this is important because the word receive means, I'm going to give you four definitions from the strongest concordance. Number one, it means to take up, take upon yourself. So to take it. Number two, it means to admit as into evidence, not to reject it, but to accept it, to admit it. So, so if we're going to talk about them, let me go through all of them first. Number three, to acknowledge as one's own. To acknowledge as one's own. And then number four, to delight in. To delight in. So all four types of ground heard. Only one received and kept it. So let's look a little bit closer at these definitions. The first one again was to take upon oneself. So to take it. To take upon oneself. Gives you the picture of putting it on. To take it upon yourself. That's mine. I gave somebody a diamond ring once. It was something that my husband had given to me, and it was a minister that had really blessed my life, and I wanted to bless her. And I asked my husband, I said, Do you mind if I give her this ring? And he said, No, let's do it and let's sow it as seed. And when I took that ring off my finger and I said, I want to sow this, she had no problem reaching out, grabbing that, and said, Thank you so much. And whoo, she was enjoying. She took it upon herself. I didn't have to twist her arm. I didn't have to talk her into it. I didn't have to say, Look, it's okay. I really want to give it to you. She was immediately, thank you so much. Wow, that's beautiful. She knew how to receive. She knew how to receive. Amen. And and said, and and she took it and immediately, she didn't hold it out here. She immediately put it on. She put it on. And that's how you've got to take the promise of God. You've got to take the word and you've got to say, thank you so much and put it on. Thank you for 1 Peter 2.24. By his stripes I am healed. Woo! Healing looks good on me. Thank you, Lord, that I'm blessed coming in, I'm blessed coming out, I'm blessed in the field, the city, the basket, and my storehouse. Woo! Blessing looks good on me. Thank you, Lord. Amen. You got to put it on. Take it to yourself. Let's look at Romans chapter 6. I want to see a phrase that would help us here. Romans chapter 6 and verse 9. Take it upon yourself. Put it on. Romans chapter 6 is talking about our liberty, the freedom we have as being born again. And in verse 9, it says, knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more, death has no more dominion over him, for in that he died, he died unto sin once. But in that he lives, he lives unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Reckon. That was not a southern term. Well, I reckon so. Like you would reconcile your bank account, which a lot of people don't do anymore. I highly recommend it. Reconcile. Reconcile. In other words, take take this into account on your books. What? Jesus Christ died, so you reckon yourself as dead. Because he died for you. What he did, he did for you. So reconcile your dead to sin. And reconcile your life unto God. Put it on. Take it to yourself. Put it on your books. What he did, he did it for you, so you can put it on your books. You can add it into your ledger. You can make that deposit in your ledger. I'm free from sin. I'm dead to sin. I'm alive unto God. So reckon is a way that the New Testament tells us put it on. Take that to yourself. So when we're talking about faith, we're not just talking about faith for money or faith for healing or faith for things, faith for a bigger car or bigger house. Faith, one of the most important things that you use your faith for is your right standing with God, the righteousness which is of faith. So the most important thing is your relationship with God, the right standing you have with Him. And if you don't take the scriptures, the promises, that you are that old things are passed away, glory to God, and all things are created new, and I'm a new creature in Christ, and I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. How do I get strong in that ability to approach the throne of God? I've got to believe I've got right standing to approach the throne. If I don't believe that I'm righteous, I'm gonna come dragging myself in there and spend the first 30 minutes of my conversation telling God what a dirty, rotten sinner I've been.

SPEAKER_01 49:20

I'm so sorry, Lord, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me. I don't know, I failed you here and I didn't read enough here, and I didn't quote any verses today, and I'm so sorry, Lord, I didn't witness to anybody today. I'm so sorry, Lord.

SPEAKER_02 49:33

Instead of coming in and saying, Father, I thank you for the blood that has cleansed me. I thank you that by the blood of Jesus a new and a living way has been made available for me to come boldly to your throne today. And Father, I come to receive help in time of need. The righteousness which is of faith, that power to live in that righteousness, it comes by the word deposited in the heart. Hallelujah. So the first thing that you do is you put it on. Take it to yourself, put it on. And then notice it goes on in this instruction here. It says, Let not, therefore, sin reign in your mortal body. I'm in Romans 6, 12. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Sin wants to be obeyed, but you don't have to obey it. And the way for you not to obey it is for you to reconcile. Put it on. Put on the righteousness you are in Christ. Put on the liberty from the sin. Put it on. And then you can let not sin have reign. And then verse 13 says, Neither yield ye your members as members of unrighteousness. Or instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. But yield yourself unto God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. So how do you serve God acceptably? Through faith. Not through works, not through your trying, not through trying to be perfect. We're not going to be perfect without his word. What makes us perfect is the blood. What makes us perfect is the price he paid. Jesus, he's the perfect one, and he gave us of his perfectness. He gave us of his obedience. So we don't have to try to be perfect in ourselves. We just need to let Christ, it's not I that live, but it's Christ that lives in me. How does he do that? By faith. By faith. I have faith in what he did. I'm putting the word in my heart, and the word in my heart's given me the power to approach God. It's given me the power to live free from sin. It's given, I've reconciled it on my books. That I'm dead to that. And I'm alive unto him. And because of that, I don't have to do what sin tells me to do. I don't have to obey that temptation. I don't have to even do what my flesh tells me to do. I can yield my flesh and make it be obedient to the one who has set me free. Praise God. But it all starts with the power. Hearing what Jesus has done for me. Praise God. The second definition of this word receive, they hear and receive. The second definition means to admit as evidence or accept as evidence. And so if you were in a court of law, you or maybe you have watched it on uh Ironside. Anybody remember Ironside? Y'all ever watch Ironside? Wasn't that a cool show? You remember they would say, Your Honor, I want to admit this document as evidence. And the the judge would either say, Yes, okay, you may approach the bench and admit that document, and it became legal evidence in the case, something that would be considered in the case as legal evidence. That's what you need to do with the word of God. When you find the word on your situation, on your the thing that you're standing for, and you admit it as evidence. 1 Peter 2.24 has now been admitted into this case. And I establish it as a document of evidence that by his stripes I am healed. So Matthew 14 is the story of when Peter was walking on the water. Matthew 14, I want to look at beginning in verse 26. When the disciples saw him, Jesus, walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit, and they cried out for fear. But straight away Jesus spoke unto them, saying, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And Peter, answering him, answered and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. What is he walking on? He's walking on the water. There's power. That's a result, isn't it? A result of power. Where'd that power come from? He heard something. What did he hear? Come, if it be you, Lord, bid me to come. He heard the word come and he got out of the word, out of the boat on that word, on the basis of the word, on the basis of Jesus said it's him, and he said, Come, so I'm gonna go. And so he climbs out, and then he allows additional evidence to be submitted. It says, But when he saw the wind boisterous, the wind was already boisterous. They were already in the tossed in the waves. The wind was contrary in verse 24. The wind was already that way. Why did he allow that to come into this court case? He's got enough that's given him, he's got enough with the word come to successfully walk on the water, and now he admits additional information. When he saw the wind, which we know he didn't see, we said he saw what the wind was doing to the waves around him. When he saw the evidence that was presented to his sense knowledge, he began to fear. He was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him. So fear came when he allowed additional information to be admitted. We've got to let the word of God be the final, absolute, qualifying information that we need. Hallelujah. The word of God is the evidence. The word of God is the evidence that the whole court case of what I'm believing for is established on. Anything else, I'm not allowing it to be admitted. I'm not allowing it to be presented. I'm not allowing it to be put into to confuse the situation and muddy the water. Okay. So number one, we take it. We put it on. Number two, we admit the scripture, the word of God, as the evidence that settles the case. Number three, how to what what it means to receive, to hear and receive. Number three, we acknowledge it. We acknowledge it. So acknowledge it cannot be done silently. It's not just a nodding of the head. There needs to be acknowledgement with your words. Hebrews chapter 4. Because you are the establishing witness. Romans chapter 10, and we're not turning there, you're turning to Hebrews 4. But Romans 10 says, with the heart man believes, but with the mouth confession is made unto right standing, right? So with the heart I'm believing, but there has to be an acknowledgement of it. There has to be on record that verbal authorization that I am the healed of the Lord. That verbal authorization that I am blessed going in and coming out. That verbal authorization that that word is authorized to work in my life because you are the establishing witness. Hebrews 4, I want to look at verse 14. Seeing then we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Hold fast our profession. That's not speaking of a profession like a job. Someone is in the medical profession or someone is in the whatever profession. This word is a word that means saying the same thing. So you'll see words, for instance, I profess this day. So we have to hold it. We have a great high priest seated at the right hand of the Father. It says, yes, seeing that, knowing that, recognizing, identifying that you have a great high priest. Jesus, the Son of God. Now that you have a great high priest, he's got to have some words to work with. The high priest takes the words, takes what we're offering, our sacrifices of praise, our words of faith. He works with our words. Jesus, you can't even get saved without believing and speaking. For you to get saved, it's got to be on record. I confess Jesus as my Lord. Now that's on record. And if the enemy was to argue your case and say, it's not right that you've let Joe Mallet free from that. It's not right that he's not paying for the sins that he's done. God can pull up the transcription. God can pull it up and say, I have it right here. Do you want me to play it back for you? I can play it back. He's confessed, Jesus is Lord. I've got the faith transaction of the faith that was in his heart. It was recorded in the spiritual bank vault. We've got it. There was faith in his heart, and the words came out of his mouth, and there's nothing the devil can do about it. Because if you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth, you shall be saved. If you believe in your heart that by his stripes you are healed and you confess with your mouth, you shall be healed. If you believe in your mouth in your heart and you confess with your mouth that you are prospering, you shall be prosperous. Why? Because I'm taking the power of the word, I'm believing what God said about me, and I am authorizing it. I am giving verbal authorization. I'm signing for it with my mouth. Come to the door and say, for you to receive this, for you to receive this, I need you to sign for it. Well, now there's verbal signatures. God had them all along. God's had verbal signatures for for eternity. Your voice is specific to you. And God is so beyond finding out that he can hear your voice in the midst of thousands of people talking at the same time and know exactly what you said. And he's got it on record. Your faith transactions are on record. So we've got to acknowledge it. Hebrews 10, 23 also says this. It says in Hebrews 10 verse 23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. Hold the saying, hold fast the acknowledgement. I acknowledge. I acknowledge that by his stripes I'm healed. I acknowledge that he has washed me clean. I acknowledge it. I'm holding fast to it. And if you've got it in your mouth, you've got spiritual possession of it. Hallelujah. This word is the word in when it says hold fast. It's a word that I like to use the description of the football team when the football fumbles on the field. And that that football is out there, and everybody from both sides are jumping on that football. They are why? They're trying to bring it into their possession. And so whoever's got possession of the ball, they'll peel those players off that big mound of players, right? And then whoever's holding the ball, that's the team that has the possession of the ball. And whoever's got it, that it's a word cat echo, and it means to the hold fast means to come down mightily upon, to come down mightily upon and to bring it into your possession. Hold fast. That's what your words are doing. When you're saying it, you're not just saying it. Don't use the phrase, I'm just saying. Because you're never just saying. That takes away from the impact of what your words. You've got to believe that what you say comes to pass. You've got to believe that what you say always comes to pass. What you say has power. What you say is authorizing in your life. And that's why you're speaking the word, and you're not speaking the enemy's report. You're not speaking the evil report. You're saying what God said about you. And when you say it, you're authorizing it, and God is working with your words. Psalm chapter 91 says, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, and Him shall I trust. And he said, Because you said that, this is what you get. See, he made the declaration that started, that authorized, that initiated God's power to work in his life. I will say of the Lord. Glory to God. So you've got to acknowledge it. Faith is believing and speaking. Faith isn't finished with just the believing. Faith is believing and speaking. You've got to have them both. You've got to believe in the heart and confess with the mouth. So for you to receive it, how do I know you have it? For the umpire, that umpire's digging, that referee, he's digging through that group of football players to find out who's got it. Who's got it? Who's got the ball? And the one who's got it in their mouth is the one holding on to the promise. Who's got the faith? It says that when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith? He's gonna look for it in your mouth if you don't have it in your mouth. It's not faith. Believing and speaking is how faith is produced, how faith is completed. Hallelujah. So you've got to acknowledge it. And then the definition that we see finally is the definition delight to delight. And Psalm chapter 1 says in verse 2 that this word of God, the law of the Lord, his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. Hallelujah. If you're delighting in it, you've got your focus on it. If you're delighting in it, you're coming to it in the morning. You're visiting it throughout the day. You're continuing with that word. Brother Hagin said, if you can't see yourself with the promise, the word has departed from before your eyes. Go get the word back that was that you were believing, the one you started with. Seven steps to answer prayer. He said, You've got to find the word that promises you the thing you're believing for. You've got to find it. And then you've got to spend time with it. Before you pray, before you ask God, before you make the petition, you've got to build that word into your heart. You've got to meditate on it. And this delighting in the word, this is what made the difference between all the people that heard it and the one that heard it and brought forth the power results of the word. They acknowledged it, they delighted in it, they admitted that word as evidence into their life. And they took it and they put it on and they said, That belongs to me. That's mine now. Thank you for it. Thank you for it, Lord. Amen. The word works if you'll work it. The word works, but you got to work it. You've got to put the word to work in your life. Amen. Have you got something out of this today? I believe you've been helped. Let's stand on our feet today.