Grace and Truth with Pastor William Brocker
Welcome to Grace and Truth with Pastor William Brocker. These life-changing, Bible-centered sermons are designed to lead people out of performance-based religion and into a powerful, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
Grounded in John 1:17, Senior Pastor Will Brocker preaches the good news of the Gospel through the revelation of God’s extravagant grace and unconditional love. Whether you are seeking deeper Biblical truth, practical biblical hope, or the power to live as an overcomer, these messages will anchor your faith and reveal your true identity in Christ.
New sermon audio is uploaded every Sunday directly from Grace and Truth Church in Cypress, Texas. Subscribe today to join our global congregation and grow effortlessly as His Word takes root in your heart!
Grace and Truth with Pastor William Brocker
What Is God Thinking - Will Brocker 1-18-2026
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Connect With Grace & Truth Church
Website: https://gtchouston.org/
Visit Us
Sundays: 10:30 am service (10 am fellowship)
21902 Northwest Freeway Access Rd, Cypress, Texas 77429
(in the VFW Post 8905 small hall - next to Carl's BBQ)
Onine Giving
https://graceandtruthchurch.churchcenter.com/giving
Connect with Pastor William Brocker
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@willbrockermin
Follow on Socials:
https://www.facebook.com/GTCpeople/
Hallelujah. Wow.
unknownLet's turn the close to the bottom of the body.
SPEAKER_01Praise God. Well, now we can beat the Baptist to lunch. Let's go. Let's do it. Hallelujah. Good morning. Be seated. Be seated. Praise God. I tell you what, there's a whole I could I could just preach. I could take those three testimonies. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02Pastor Grandkids.
unknownI tell you what, there's something else.
SPEAKER_00I'll do it.
unknownPastor Grandkids.
SPEAKER_00And Nolan and Harper, they've been making declarations. Your grandkids are out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, they've been ever since we told them, because uh Samantha was like, praise God, because that's the one she had sent me. She said, that's the one that I sent, the one story right there by us. And so it's around the corner from them. That's uh right by Greg. That's the stray cat that lives in the street right there between the two of them. And they call him Greg. So now uh Tavana, my wife, has been going by there every day with the kids, and then they just say, That's hey Barbara and Joey, hey Greg. So and then uh they said uh they needed they might as well take that sign down because that's Barbara and Joey's house. That's the way we ought to be. Yeah, hallelujah. You can learn a lot, glory to God, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Wow, hallelujah. Glory to God, glory to God. Oh, Steve and Sylvia, so glad to have you here from Florida, right? And from Orlando, praise God. Going back today, so we got you. We got to see you on the send-off day. He'll leave you filled up to overflowing with fresh oil. Praise God. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Don't worry about traveling. If you sit next to a sick person, they're gonna get well because you're there. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Oh, glory to God, oh glory to God. There's a sweet, sweet spirit in this place, and I know it's the spirit of the Lord. There are sweet expressions on each face, and I know they feel the presence of the Lord, sweet Holy Spirit, sweet heavenly stay right here with us, filling us with your love. And for all these blessings, we lift our hearts in praise. Without a doubt, we'll know that we have been revived when we shall leave this place. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Well, welcome, Grace and Truth Church family. Thank you for all of you that are here, and God bless all of you, and welcome to all of you who will hear this message in any other place at any other time. I can show you through Scripture where God created physics. He's not bound by them. So time and space are not a factor. Whenever, wherever you hear this message, just believe that you receive and you will. You are right here with us in spirit. Praise God. Look at this. I don't know if y'all can see this. I don't think you can, but this is a map of the world. And the brighter the orange, the more they've listened. But every place that has any indication of orange all over the world is places that we're reaching from this little place right here. Right now, there's just on this particular audio format, not any video, not any brief shorts or anything. These are the hour-long, the full sermons. This is at uh 43,564. So you can figure that in hours. So praise God. We see all of you, and we pray, I pray for everybody that will ever hear any of these messages anywhere you are. So know that you're being prayed for and we love you and we think of you as our church family. Not just in the United States, but in Germany, Singapore, United Kingdom, Spain, India, Canada, Ireland. I got a nice message from someone in Ireland a few weeks ago when I said, hey, just uh let me know if you're receiving these messages, if you're blessed by it. And I got a nice message that evening or the next day from somebody in Ireland telling me how much the message blessed them. So God bless you if that was you. Been praying for you ever since. So see, there's a multi-factor benefit. God's always working in all directions at all times. Praise God. Russia. A bunch in Russia. Look at that. The Seychelles. Brazil, Mexico, France, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey, Argentina, Ukraine, South Africa, Hong Kong, Finland, Philippines, Egypt, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Georgia, Nigeria, Colombia, Belgium, Romania, Switzerland, South Korea, Morocco, Lithuania, Iceland, Vietnam, Malaysia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Ireland, Pakistan, Kenya, and Algeria. Just to name a few. Hello. God bless you and we love you. Hallelujah. Receive the word of the Lord today. Hallelujah. So God takes the small things, the foolish things, the despised things of this world to confound the wise in their own eyes. Amen. So don't ever think that a seed sown in a gem is not taking root and gonna bear fruit. My brother Russell last week talked about that bamboo tree that only grows a few inches over several year period, and then in just a few weeks it sprouts up a year or whatever the it sprouts up like 70 feet. So did it did that tree grow in only in one year it grew 70 feet? No, it was growing the whole time. You just couldn't see it, praise God. Hallelujah. Every seed sown is a ripple in the water of the kingdom of God, praise God. And we want to stir up a tempest. Hallelujah. Populate heaven and vacate hell. That's my job as one of the fivefold ministers. When Jesus ascended, he gave gifts to men. He gave gifts to the church in the form of the apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher to raise you up for the work of the ministry. Isn't that something? Glory to God. Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. Thank you for loving us so much that you have given us the manna from heaven, your word, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord, for using me as a conduit today. Let it be you, Lord. Let them only hear you and every word that you have for every person. Meet them at their point of need, Lord. Help them to receive the word into plowed ground, protect it, and let it take root and bear fruit in their lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. Glory to God. I want to read this scripture to you and just want you to just sit to sit there. Think about it. The Lord your God, this is Zephaniah 3.17, the Lord your God is in your midst. A mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exult over you with loud singing. Do you believe that? There's a lot of good stuff in there. But it sounds like someone is crazy about you. And it happens to be the God of all creation. But do you believe it? We ended last year on a message I called God is good and good for you. And I try to show you through the scriptures, because that's the only thing that matters, that that's the truth. God only has good for you, and he is only good. And we began this year talking about spiritual laws that God has in place for our benefit. We began with the law of sowing and reaping. Because Jesus taught that when he taught the parable of the sower in all the synoptic gospels, but I think I went out of Mark that week, but he said that it's fundamental to the relationship of Christianity to understand the law of sowing and reaping. Why do I say that? Because he told them, if you don't understand this parable, how will you understand anything that I teach? But do we believe that God is good? Do we believe that He only has good for us? Do we understand the law of sowing and reaping, how it applies to us? That it's intended to bless us and not to harm us, even though it can harm us. Is electricity a blessing to the world? Is gravity? Absolutely. Can they hurt you if you don't learn to cooperate with them? Yes, they can. So the thing is, we can learn, Samuel. We can learn all that God says in his word. But if we see it as academic, something we need to win an argument. Or to feel superior to those who don't know. Instead of spiritual food, the manna from heaven, as I just mentioned, and truth, then it will not benefit us because it will not be mixed with faith. So we can learn all the aspects of God's grace through Jesus' atoning blood and sacrifice, but unless we mix the supernatural resurrection power of God with it, by faith, it will not benefit us. We can learn the parable of the sower. We can learn that everything is in seed form from our words to our time to our talents, our gifts, our resources, and they are. That's what he meant. Everything is a seed. And everything will produce after its own kind. And that life and death are in the power of the tongue. And that we must be mindful of what seed we allow into our hearts to keep them full of life and not bitterness and anger, all that. But if we don't believe that in Christ we already have everything that God has inside of us right now. All the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The very character of God, all the forgiveness for our sins, the healing for our bodies, the prosperity for this life, provision, deliverance, and blessings and eternal life. If we don't believe that, then we won't be able to produce it in this life where we can benefit from it in the sweet now and now. And in turn benefit others, as is God's plan for the whole thing. Help, heal, empower, love, and prosper. You have to receive that help from God so that in turn you can help others. Put the oxygen mask on yourself, then put it on the child. Praise God so that you're able to help them. So you've already got it. Amen or o me. You just have to believe it and act as if it were already yours. And then you shall have it. Now, I'm not talking about the power of positive thinking or any of that kind of stuff. This is a spiritual truth. Mark 11, 24. Believe you have what you pray for when you pray, and you shall have it. It's just like that's how the kingdom of God works. Faith is the hand that reaches out and takes hold of the things that Jesus provided by grace through the atoning blood sacrifice on the cross. Right? Right now, it's in our born-again spirit, which has been renewed and sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God dwells in us. We can bring it into the natural realm where we can benefit. Or we can leave earth early and go on home to God. Will he love you any less? No. No? So this is not a condemning thing. You see what I'm saying? People don't understand. Sometimes I say a miracle is not God's best. What do you mean? Well, if you need a miracle, it is. But he doesn't want you to live crisis to crisis. He wants you to live the blessed life, the abundant life that Jesus died to provide you with. So he's going to get the best he can get to you. He's going to meet you where you are. Amen. But, you know, we can go on home and have eternal life, which is by far the greatest miracle of all, anyway. Or we can decide to fulfill all the days that He has written for us, which are good. Hallelujah. And will produce much fruit. Amen. You know, a lot of all unsaved people, which we're trying to mitigate that. Praise God. I started preaching a year ago that there would be the greatest revival in Persia, South America, and all these other places where you see this stuff unfolding now. It's happening. Some people can only focus on the devastation and the terrible things like that. We're not going to be in the 10-spy network. We're going to be in the Joshua and Caleb network. God's always doing something wonderful in the midst of all the tragedy. In this life, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I've overcome the world, Jesus said. So it's true. So unsaved people, if they go from this world, pass from this life without Jesus, they will never have fulfilled any of the days that God wrote for them. Just because there's predestination, it just means that it didn't mean God created one to be evil and one to be good. That's not predestination. Predestination is that God has, this is all played out already in God's mind. Here's time, a ruler, 12 inches suspended in air, saying. And we're this far along the timeline. Well, it's all played out in God's mind. It's already done. That's why there's prophecies about the end. Tells just exactly how it goes down. Not because he wrote the script, because he let it play out with free will. He knew it was going to cause him heartache and trouble, but he wanted a family that would choose him for him, knowing the price it was going to cost. He knew he was going to have to come in the form of a man and die on a cross to redeem us just to get the family that he wanted. And he did it anyway. Praise God. I'm very close to getting way off track here just because I'm just I'm already caught up. Smith Wigglesworth said, I would rather preach for 10 minutes in the anointing than to own the whole world with a fence around it. Glory to God. Hallelujah, Jesus. Hallelujah, Jesus. We don't have to understand everything. You know, John Osteen, Joel's daddy, was a great apostle of God, and he was a Baptist preacher to start out. He said, we used to have a Baptist sign hanging up out front, and then one day it just fell down and we never put it back up. But they were hearing about people getting the Holy Ghost and all these things happening and people speaking in strange tongues and things that they did not like. But he was interested. They were all interested. They were just afraid of it. But he was very interested. And then he heard that there were some people doing things. Uh there was a young preacher going around preaching, and people were falling down. He said, I gotta see this. And him, he took him and three other Baptist pastors. He said, We're gonna go over there and we're gonna check that out. And they was filling this big place up, this wherever it was. Can't remember the whole story. It was a big church. And they went in there and they couldn't even get in on the back row. And he said, Come on. And they he he knew his way around. He went back through every door and corridor and through dark and bumping into stuff and came out through a cafeteria and then through open a door, and there he was right on the side of the stage. And and somebody, one of the folks working the event, they saw him and they they saw that they was dressed like pastors, so they just brought them on in and put them right on the front row. And to add insult to injury, it was a woman, pastor, preacher. I don't know if the pastor, she's an evangelist, 25 years old and barefoot. That really did not go over there with their theology, you see. So they sat down, and pretty soon she began to speak. And she began to get words from the Lord, and she went around and she was praying for people and she'd lay hand on them and they'd fall over. And the preacher sitting next to Pastor Osteen, he'd give him one of these. He said, She's a pushing them over. And right after he said that, because they was over there, she turned and looked right at them. And she started heading that way. And Pastor John said, Man, I was wishing I'd stayed home. She was coming right for us. And he said, But thank God. He said, when she got there, she went right past me and she got that old doubter sitting next to me. And she, in the name of Jesus, and she put her hand on him, and he stood straight up on his feet and snapped his heel together and just fell straight backwards, he said. Now listen, we don't have to understand everything that God is doing. Just stay out of the way of it. If you're not sure. God will not be put in a box. And you don't want to be the one fighting against God. Threw that in for free. Sure wasn't planted on it. Thank you, Lord. We already have everything we need for this life. Isn't that what it says in Ephesians chapter 1? All things pertaining to life and godliness have been given to us. Have been given to us. Peter says the same thing. Every spiritual blessing, I might have those backwards, all of it's been given. Already done is the point. It's in our born-again spirits. If we knew that and believed that, we might know it up here, but until it gets in here, if we believed it, we'd always run to God instead of from him. I know that, that I know that, that I know that. Look at Paul's prayer to the Ephesians in the Ephesians chapter 1. I'll just read a few verses from 17 through 21. And here's what he prayed 2,000 years ago. And the Holy Spirit had him to put this down, right? The Holy Spirit wrote the Bible. He just had different writers write it down for him, didn't he? And here's what he prayed. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit, that's capital S, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. So in the end, there is just proclaiming the mighty dominion and kingship and lordship of Jesus Christ over all things in heaven and earth and under the earth. But notice this is my point. Paul didn't pray that God would give you one thing that you don't already have. Isn't that something? Oh Lord, bless them and keep them healthy and provide for them and keep the wicked one away from them. No, no, no. He said, give them revelation, knowledge of what they already have because of what Jesus has done for them in Christ. Just that he would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation to know him better and to open our eyes to the amazing inheritance and power we already have in Christ. Glory to God.
unknownPraise God.
SPEAKER_01You know, there was a movie a long time ago, and I don't know if it was a godly movie or not, because I don't know if I was even knew the Lord when I watched it. But I think it was called A River Runs Through It. Had Brad Pitt, I think, when he was a young, young boy. It's a beautiful movie. I think it wasn't too good of a storyline, but it was nevertheless. I like the part where he was fishing with his dad and brother, and his really good fisherman. And he told his brother, he said, Two more years, and I think just like a fish. I don't know why I said that, it just came to my mind, but I want to tell you something. God is a thinker, and so are you. And you can think like God if you want to. Back in the old covenant, 700 years before Jesus came along, Isaiah 55, 8, Isaiah said, For my thoughts, talking about God was speaking, he said, For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. Now he's speaking to an unredeemed, unrenewed mind. Amen. Because the heart of man is not desperately good and basically good, like all liberals would have you to believe. The utopia that they're looking for is good, but it only comes when Jesus comes back. Because the heart of man is wicked, Jeremiah said. And that's just the truth. We're born with a fallen, corrupt sin nature, and when we're redeemed, that is evicted. We don't have a dual nature. We have a renewed mind, and I mean a renewed spirit. And then we have a soulish realm. We're spirit, soul, and body, 1 Thessalonians 5.23. That spirit is born again. One-third of your salvation is over, praise God. Incorruptible. But this soulish realm, your mind and will and emotions, your personality, has got a bunch of garbage in from the world. And then this body, it just follows suit. So God was saying there that the unrenewed mind thinks wrongly of him. And is wrong about the way we think basically about everything without his help. Is that fair? Now here's how he really thinks. Look at Jeremiah 29, 11, which is a very famous and familiar passage of scripture, although you should read a little further. But he said, My I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. He, God has always been misjudged and mistreated. Preincarnate in the old covenant, even though he had done wonderful things, they still continued to say bad things about him and doubt him. And it limited him. Psalm 78. But even when he showed up in the flesh and put it on open display, they still misjudged him. But he said, I know the plans for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, to give you hope and a future. The King James says, to give you an expected end. You can know God's mind and will for your life. Yes, you can. Whoever that was, I saw a flaming dart fly right past me. John 10, 10, Jesus again was being accused of some of the stuff the devil was doing. He said, No. The thief. The devil comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. So anything in that category in your life, attribute that to the devil, not to God. And the devil doesn't work for God. He doesn't need him to do his bidding. Jesus said, I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly to the full. Again, no ambiguity. Just a fact. Good God, bad devil. We have to be rooted and established in the Word of God, Mary Beth, the truth and the grace and the promises of God toward us. We have to be firmly established. Because when the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, the truth of what God has done and said about you and me, and the blessings and the provision and the health and the deliverance, that's the only thing that will prevent the enemy from stealing from you is your knowledge of those promises and benefits and your inheritance as a blood-bought child of God. The devil wants to steal the word from you if you want to know the truth. Because this word, the gospel, is the power of God unto salvation. And without it, the devil will find you without any of your armor on and you're defenseless. So we want to get the word in us, don't we? We got to get it in us. Now, there's lots of ways that people have of going about that. I don't get into religious dogma and mandates on how you have to do this. I think it's good if you want to read your Bible every year, but then I think you ought to slow down, and some days you just get one scripture in your mind and you just mull it over and chew it up and break it all down and make it so personal in your walk with the Lord. That's, you know, both are good. If you don't get it all in there, then how can the Holy Spirit remind you of what Jesus has said if you never heard it? So you got to get it in. But then find different ways that are fun, that are adventuresome in your relationship with the Lord. If it's a duty and a dogma and a religious thing that you I gotta get my ten chapters in, like I was telling Joey and Barbara the other day. Well, you know, you're on your fourth scripture of your ten chapters, and something just comes off the page at you, and you're like, whoa! But then you're like, well, I gotta move on. I got 10, 8, 9 more chapters to go. Lord, when are you gonna talk to me? He goes, Well, I just tried to.
SPEAKER_02You blew me off.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, Lord, I don't mean to talk so worldly. Praise God. You get my point. The devil wants to steal the word because it's what is gonna help you to be strong at midnight. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God is good. You're blessed, you are loved, you're redeemed, you're forgiven, you're prosperous, you're healed. And it's the devil who wants and tries to steal, kill, and destroy. But he has no authority over you unless you allow him. And now again, that can be taken as a condemning thing, and it's not meant to be. Some people, it's not that you just say, okay, devil, today I give you access. Nobody is doing that intentionally. If they are, I mean, they're deceived. But it can be done. My people are perishing for a lack of knowledge, God's saying. What he's saying by knowledge is that knowing me, knowing him. Eternal life, the definition Jesus gave us in John 17, 3 is knowing an intimate, passionate relationship, knowing God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. That's grace and that's truth. All this is true. Always think about the garden of your heart. Some of us aren't gardeners, some of us are, some of us. I think I've learned as much in a garden as I have in the Bible about God and the kingdom of God. Not independent of him, but but gardening with him. Praise God. But the Bible, and I don't mean this in any irreverence, the Bible is just paper with words until it is put, the seed of this word is placed in the garden of your heart, and you protect it and keep the weeds out, and allow it, that soil to produce fruit according to the kind of seed that's planted in it. So we guard our hearts above all else, don't we? Because from it flow the twelve springs of life. I had a friend who was he was ministering to some people at their home, and they brought him tea, and he set the teacup down, and the woman and he had placed it on their Bible on the table there. And he said, Oh, I'm sorry, and he picked it up and he said he could see the ring and the dust where the kid. But she was so appalled, you see. They weren't reading it, but it was a sacred decoration, you see. A joke comes to mind about some spoons that a woman I'll tell you another time. Oh yeah, well, this pastor went to these people's house for dinner and and uh they used their best silverware, and and after he was gone, the the the woman told the husband, she goes, I think the pastor took one of my my silver spoons.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01Because there was one missing. And it was missing from his table setting. And she thought about that for a whole year, and they had him back over for dinner again. And she asked him, Did you take my silver spoon? He said, No, I put it in your Bible. Oh goodness. But Revelation. You know, I have a I have a new book out, and uh and uh I'm not just trying to plug the book, but if you want to read it, I think it's a good thing. It's called Today I Choose to Follow Jesus, 30 Days of Intimacy with God. And, you know, again, I did that because God was sharing with me, hey, people's attention span is not that long. We live in a microwave mentality society, and uh, and here's some ideas for you. And he, I believe he gave me that, and he chopped it up into some really cool little segments, and people can take their favorites and do whatever they want with it, and and uh I re I I I I just really am in favor of it. I think it was of God, and and um, but again, my point is even even that, as brief as it is, and as power-packed as it is, and full of the word of God and the anointing of God, I believe it's just a nice little book. Paper and pictures and words on a page until you put it in and and and go through the same process, right? My grandkids and my wife were telling me the other day that um Harper, she said, she said, Papa, I'm I'm I think she said I'm I'm finishing a third time of fixing the start it start the fourth time through that book. I was like, wow. And my wife said, Really? That's awesome. And then my wife said, I'm I'm uh I've read it twice and I'm on my third time. And I was like, oh, praise God.
SPEAKER_02That's awesome, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And the one that just oh man, I still can't even think about it without basically tearing up. But the five-year-old grandson, he's oh gosh, they're just so wonderful. He came up, he he walked over to me and he said, Papa, I'm still on my first time. Oh, and I just love it. I said, son, let me tell you, you're ahead of all the five-year-olds in the world. You're right, and most of the adult Christians, so you're doing really good. Keep up the good work, buddy. Aren't they precious? Oh goodness, Harper's been writing her little sermons. Glory to God, writing songs. My goodness. Where was I? It's just about the word of God, getting it into the garden of our hearts. That's the point. If we want to think like God, we have to find out what he thinks, what he says. Amen. No matter how we receive it, if we'll keep planting the incorruptible seed of the word of God, it's incorruptible. It's perfect. It will eventually bear fruit. Just keep on pouring on the seed, just like that bamboo tree. It didn't grow up 70 feet in that one year. The four years you didn't see any growth, it was growing a strong foundation. And in due season, it came forth. Hallelujah! And yours will too. We have to learn to see things God's way, and it's important that we see it through the eyes of grace and truth and love and peace and faith. Because the word will change you, it'll change your mind, Barbara. But we have to come into agreement with God. Amos 3:3 says, How can two walk together unless they be agreed? He's talking about you and him. Now, is he supposed to change and be like you? No. So goes without saying. But how we read the Bible, I can't tell you how many people that have been in the word way longer than me. And profess themselves to be prophets and you know, all kind of different things, and they're just as mean as a snake. And you know what I do? If they ever ask, because most of the time those kind of people won't ever ask you a question, they just want to teach you and. And so I don't have anything to say if there's not a question in there. But if they ever ask, I'll just start them right here on this page. You know what that is? That's the blank page between Malachi and Matthew. And it speaks volumes. It's a change in covenant. It's the difference between a believer calling down fire from heaven to destroy the enemies of God, or Jesus telling, laughing at them for saying that, saying, No, you don't know what manner of spirit you're of. And then after that, he called John and James sons of thunder as a joke. Everything changed. Now it's grace and truth. Jesus paid it all. He paid for the sins of the whole world. Not everybody's saved, because you have to mix faith with that grace and receive salvation by faith. Wow. Romans 12, too. Just sticking with that thought thing. Bible tells us Paul lays out such a beautiful road of grace in the Romans, the Romans road of salvation, and such a beautiful picture and portrait of grace. By the time he gets to the 12th chapter, he had pretty much laid it all out there for us and explained it so beautifully. And described everything that Jesus had done and accomplished on our behalf. And in the beginning of Romans chapter 12, he basically begging us, I beseech you, therefore, when there's a therefore in the Bible, we need to find out what it's there for. And he's saying, therefore, in other words, based on everything I just told you in the first 11 chapters, and it's good, and it's a good God, and it's good for you, and everything that He's done for you, based on that, therefore, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is the good and acceptable and imperfect. So, and perfect, I didn't say imperfect, and perfect. So we can know. You see that? But he's telling us you're going to be poured into basically that being conformed or transformed is the same thing as being poured into a mold. I think of those little green army men I used to play with when I was a kid, or the cowboys and Indians. They're just poured into a little plastic mold, you see? But you're being poured into a mold of some kind. It's either going to be the mold of the world or the word of God. And it's your choice. So he's saying, don't be conformed, don't be poured into the mold of this world and the world system. Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, by the washing of the water of the Word of God. So that you can know what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Proverbs 23, 7 says, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So no matter what or where you are in life, and see, this is when all the antennas go up. You don't know what happened to me. That's not my fault. I'm not saying that bad things don't happen to good people. But a lot of where you are and what you have and other things regarding you in this life, you thought yourself there. That's just the truth. Now you can take that as a condemning word, or you can take it for what it's worth. It's just like prophecy, and all preaching is a form of prophecy. You just spit out the bones and eat the flesh, okay? If you receive it as a word from God, then you won't be offended. You'll either be blessed because let's like I'm I'm good on that, Lord. We're good. Thank you for teaching me that a while back. We're walking, I walk with that. And then you hear something else like, oh, I'll talk to you about that one later. You know, it's because he loves you. He loves you. It's a positive ministry that the Holy Spirit has with you. He's not gonna condemn you or judge you or make you feel guilty. Guilt, shame, judgment, condemnation, those things. Why do I know that it's not God if you're getting those things? Jesus bore it on his body on the cross. Anything he paid for, God's not gonna deal with you that way. It's an easy litmus test. I know you have to undo a bunch of the theology you've learned from other denominations and backgrounds and things like that, and that's okay. Just decide to agree with God. When I came to the Lord, I said, I don't there's a church on every corner, and I don't know who to believe. What do you want me for? Quiet crickets. You'd have to teach me. He said, okay. Okay. Thank you, Lord. I love the five and dime. You know, you remember the five and dimes? Any of you old enough? Ephesians 5.10. I call it go and do the five and dime. It says, find out what pleases God. That tells us that we can. There's other translations, but I think that's the NIV. But the English Standard Version says, try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. So we can know. Right? They wouldn't tell us to do it if we if it was it was impossible. And he wants us to know. He wants us to trust him and his goodness and to walk in perfect peace. Because he said he'll keep. In Isaiah 26, 3, I'll keep them in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on me because they trust in me. And that's a good place to live. No matter what people are chasing after and thinking they want and they need to make them happy, what they really want is peace, whether they know it or not. They want that God-sized void inside of them to be filled. Then wherever God has them and whatever He has for them, they will be happy. Doesn't mean they won't endure persecution and all those other things, but that's just the fallen world we live in. But there's always times of refreshing with God because you're a blood-bought child of God. When we know how much he loves us, we want to please him. Not to earn his acceptance, but because we already have it. Because our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, and we're just here temporarily as ambassadors for the kingdom of God. So we want to shine bright as beacons of his light and love and liberty and salvation to a sick and dying world. Once we were in their shoes, and you don't want anyone to pass from this life to the next without knowing Jesus. There was a violinist. He played in a the most prestigious concert hall. There was. He performed beautifully. When he was done, the crowd erupted in standing ovation and all cheering and applauding. And he stood there and he wept. And he wept. And he wept. He couldn't even be consoled. The conductor came over and he says, Why are you sad? Everyone is cheering. Except for one man on the front row. He says, not everyone. He says, yes, but look at all these people. That's just one man. He said, yeah, but that's my teacher. And if he's not pleased, then I'm not pleased. That's how I feel. About Jesus. Not because I want to earn his approval though. But because he already loves me. He's already shown me in so many ways. Every day. And so I want to make him happy and proud and not to earn anything. But just to bring him honor and glory. And to get that well done, good and faithful servant. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 11. Says, for who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of the person which is in him? So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. So see, people read that and they go, see there, God's ways are above our ways. No one can know. But it doesn't finish there. He's talking about the natural mind. Because he goes on to say, now we have received the Spirit, not of the world, but the capital S, the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. Hallelujah. Oh, if we could just see this and believe it. The blessing of the Lord is upon me. Say this: the blessing of the Lord is upon me. The favor of the Lord surrounds me. And wonderful things are happening to me in me and through me today. In Jesus' name. Amen. Glory to God. You ought to be making proclamations like that over yourself and others all the time. Believing that you have, because you are a creative being, your father created everything we can see with words. Everything that is seen was created from things that are unseen. And you are a creative being too. The devil has no authority. That's why he's trying to get you to do some creating for him if you will fall for his tricks. Every time you say negative thing, every time you say you're sick, every time you say you're broke, every time you say you're unhappy, every time you say you hate something, he's just giggling because he's tricked you into doing some creating, some destroying, some killing, some destroying for him. And you don't want him to do that, I know, but I'm just telling you the truth. So instead of saying what you see, say what God says, and you'll have what he says. Now, if it wasn't provided through the atonement of the cross of Calvary by grace, you're not going to get it by believing for it. So I'm not saying that. This is not a name it and claim it, blab it and grab it thing. This is a holy thing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Matthew 6 33 says, you don't even have to worry about the things the world chases after. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things that the world chasing after, they'll be just added to you. Say this: the favor of the Lord isn't fair, but it's mine. And see, it's available to everyone. God's no respecter of persons. If he did it for one, he'll do it for you. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Praise God. People who say, you're so heavenly minded, you know earthly good. That's a lie. Because God says, if you keep your mind stayed on me, I'll keep you in perfect peace. If you keep your mind stayed on him, God will make you, he ain't gonna make you lazy. He ain't gonna make you sit around and do nothing. No, he's gonna put you on a pedestal as an example to the world of what he can do. Hallelujah. He'll make sure you're in the right place at the right time, Barbara. Hallelujah. He'll close doors that aren't for you and he'll open wide the ones that are. Hallelujah. He'll cause you to be able to do more with a little bit of time than you could have done with the whole day. If you tithe your time, that seed, the first part of your day, to him, give him the first fruits, then he'll take and make all the crooked places straight. If you believe and receive or doubt and do without. He'll cause people to say, I don't know why I'm doing this, but and then they'll bless you. That's when when they I don't know why I'm doing this, but that's when the favor of the Lord is opened up to you and you're about to be blessed. Hallelujah. That's favor. That's the grace of God at work in your life when you believe and act on the word. It's cooperation, not works. Hallelujah. 1 Corinthians 2, 16. For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? Well, nobody can instruct God, but as far as understanding the mind of the Lord, that scripture goes on to say, but we have the mind of Christ. Now, right here still needs to be renewed, but you do have the mind of Christ right here in your born-again spirit. And you can draw from that well if you learn how to cooperate with God through the word of God. Amos 3:3, how do two walk together lest they be agreed? Get your thoughts aligned with God's good thoughts and watch what happens. Praise God. Oh, I have a whole bunch more, but I think your minds can only absorb as much as your seats can endure. So we're gonna stop right there. We never finish, we just stop and start again. Hallelujah. Have you been blessed today? Have you received anything from God today? If you came through that door, you should always come expecting to receive from God. You should have a talk with Him all the way to church and in the car before you get out and say, I'm going in there and I'm not leaving until I get what I'm come to get from you, Lord. Whether it's an answer, a healing, a provision, whatever it is, something for a family member, I don't care what it is. And listen, if you can't find me or my phone number, which I love you and I love to pray for people, and they get answered. Isn't that something? But listen, what I just tell you, God's no respecter of persons. He gave me this job to make you into the ones doing the ministry in the world, building the kingdom and drawing others and sowing seed in the gym. Miss Patricia. And then walking in one day and just seeing the flowers blooming all over the place from that seed that you planted. That you never, you thought, well, man, you know, I did that with daffodils before I planted them, and they didn't come up, and I said, Well, that that was the bummer, those were some bummer, uh, they're not seeds, what are they called? Bulbs. Those are some bummer bulbs. And I don't know why I got negative, but even with my negative thinking, it it did not steal the life from the seed that I had put in the ground. And the next year they come out so beautiful. So beautiful. And I was so blessed. And you know, I just spent so much time out there praising God and talking to Him about that and learning from that. Oh, if I could just tell you the amount of times I've learned stuff just from weeds and seeds and flowers and things like that that I've planted, because everything in the kingdom of God is in seed form. Hallelujah. And when you open your mouth, I want you to think about today. I want you to think about I'm just remember how when you were a kid you spitting watermelon seeds and having all those little fun things we did that are so gross? Well, your words are seeds. And when you open your mouth from the abundance of your heart, the mouth will speak, and you are sowing seed, and you are cooperating. You are you are you are you're causing a spiritual law to go to work and you are going to reap a harvest of what you sow. So make it good. Amen. Amen. Do you believe it today? Hallelujah. Well, I can't wait to hear some great praise reports from you, from all of you, and from all of you who will hear this at any other place, at any other time. Make sure you let us know what's going on in your life. Now listen, every head bowed in meditation right now and thoughtfulness toward God. If you have never received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, well, he's right here with open arms asking you. He's standing at the door and knocking right now. It's not anything that can be earned. You can't be good enough, you don't get cleaned up to take a bath. He's inviting you in. And if today you've heard this message and you have been filled with faith, something inside of you has been triggered and you say, I believe that. I believe that, and I want that. Well, you didn't find God. That's him drawing you to himself, and he wants you to be a child of God. So just say this prayer after me. Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. But I have heard the gospel that you came and were born as a man, you lived a sinless life, you died on the cross for my sins, and you were resurrected on the third day, and you live today. And I ask you to be my Lord and Savior. Amen. If you've done that and you mean it, and you've accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior to the exclusion of all others, then you are a blood-bought child of God, and we'll see you in heaven. But do yourself a favor get the word of God into the garden of your heart, protect it, allow it to take root and bear fruit. And watch what God will do. He loves you. Now, the favor, the blessing of God has been spoken over you if you are a child of God. It's a done deal. The favor of the Lord surrounds you, and you need to expect good things to come your way. Declare it, believe it, receive it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I love you all. Praise God. Give God the glory today. Solid Gloria. To God be the glory.