You Have More Authority In Christ Than You Think

The pressure is real right now. When the world feels unstable, rumors multiply, and fear tries to take over, we have a choice: live by what we see or live by what God says.

We start with a simple but powerful reminder: Jesus loves every person, He paid for the sins of the whole world, and grace is available to all. But it still calls for a faith response.

This message will help steady your mind and strengthen your walk with God as we talk about living by the Holy Spirit instead of emotions and fear. You’ll be encouraged to walk in the authority you have in Christ, press into deeper faith, and bear real fruit even when things get hot.

If you need biblical encouragement, Holy Spirit fire, and practical discipleship for these times, this message is for you.

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Transcript

Grace For All And Welcome

SPEAKER_00 0:00

He loves us. And you know what? Jesus died for everybody. He paid for the sins of the whole world. Now, that doesn't mean everybody's saved. It requires a faith response in that grace that He's provided. But we don't know who's going to choose the Lord or not. And He loves everybody. He doesn't love one more than another. The saints of God are all who believe in Jesus Christ, not just the ones that some group of men in Rome decide to hang on the wall and call a saint. That's foolishness. That's the traditions and doctrines of men, not of God. He calls all believers his saints. So welcome, saints. And if any of you don't know the Lord yet, you're just looking through the window, tipping your toe in the water, that's okay too. He loves you, he died for you. And maybe today you'll hear something that'll that he's using to draw you to himself. See, nobody comes to God. He draws you, he loves you more than you could ever possibly love yourself. Praise God. I threw all that in for free. And to all of you who are listening, we've just we've just switched over on the from SoundCloud to Pod to uh to Buzz Sprout. And I'm saying, I'm talking about things that I don't know much about, but I know that we migrated 500 of my sermons from one platform to another one, and now it's dispersed to like oh 15 or 20 different podcasts apps, Apple and all those. So there may be a transition period. And if any of you are having any issues with that, that's the thing. And it'll all sync up pretty soon. If you watch on YouTube or something like that, well, then there's been no change there. And all of those video, I mean the audio sermons are available also on our website, gtcuston.org. So praise God. Heavenly Father, thank you for this awesome day that you've given us to come together and to worship you, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Use me today as that willing vessel, the conduit from heaven to your people. Lord, I am just here to help to raise up your children for the work of the ministry. So thank you, Lord, for that privilege and opportunity today. Let your word take root and bear fruit in their lives in Jesus' name. Amen.

When The World Heats Up

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Well, if you haven't noticed, things are heating up. And I don't just mean because we're in South Texas down here on the Gulf Coast where it gets really hot in the summer. That's a fact as well. But I mean things are heating up all over the world. This fallen world is going crazy. Just like the Bible said it would. We see wars and rumors of wars, just like Jesus said we would. We see a great falling away from the true faith in Jesus Christ. And we see great deception all around, just as the Bible foretells. While I might add simultaneously, we are seeing a third great awakening on the rise all over the world. Just as Jesus said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Praise God. My question for us today is this When are we going to start believing what the Bible tells us? When are we going to start believing what the Bible says about who we are and what we have in Christ? And about the things prophesied that must and are taking place. And start living a life after the Spirit instead of a carnal life being moved by. Carnal doesn't mean sinful necessarily. It just means governed by our emotions, what we see instead of the Spirit of God within us. That's all. The word of God. So the Lord is having, he's asked me first. And he says to encourage his people to think about that. Don't live by sight. We're called to live by faith. A life of after the Spirit, that's a capital S, the Holy Spirit, instead of our carnal minds being moved by every rumor and situation and circumstance and the what if that come to pass, you see, that may not come to pass and usually don't. I was telling my nine-year-old granddaughter and six-year-old grandson the other day, I said, you know, come on in, Lord. This is your church. The wind caught it. Praise God. So why don't we just resolve to allow Jesus to be Jesus and lay hold of that for which he's laid hold of us? Isn't that a good idea? I mean, we've been baptized by Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Isn't that what his cousin John the Baptist foretold? I hope we have. If not, then ask, believe, and receive today. Praise God. I say it's time to heat things up and make a mark for the glory of our Father God and his Son Jesus Christ. With the help of the Holy Spirit, who was sent here, who Jesus told us about, to be a helper, to be our paraclete, the one who comes alongside us and takes a hold together with us against every mountain that confronts us. We're not supposed to do this alone or in our own strength. In our weakness, he is strong. Amen.

Eternal Investments And Popcorn Faith

SPEAKER_00 6:19

I mean, it's time to lay hold of everything that God has for us and to start laying up treasures in heaven. To use the time, the resources, and the strength that we have before the Lord's return to purchase for ourselves friends in heaven. Now I know that might sound a little funny. I'm referring to, of course, Luke chapter 16, verse 9, where Jesus says, Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. Now, that sort of sounds like he's saying, Go buy yourself some friends. Well, listen, the night life used to be my life, and it weren't no good life. And we know that buying yourself some friends does not work in this life. Some of you probably know firsthand. I certainly do that. The prodigal son found out, didn't he, in the Bible? He found out that the friends are gone when the money's gone. When it runs out, so do they. But that's not what the Lord is referring to in this passage of Scripture. He's referring to a spiritual, supernatural truth. And he means that we should use our temporal or temporary earthly resources to help others come to know Christ, sowing our time, our strength, and our resources into the gospel, into Bible-based ministries, and saving and discipling souls who will turn, and they will turn out to be the friends who welcome us into our heavenly home in eternity. That's what he's referring to. So it makes it an eternal investment into precious souls rather than into literal worldly purchases. Does that make more sense? Let me just share with you today one of my little truth bombs, those I have in that last book that we published. I like those little truth bombs. They kind of stick with you. And this one just says that when the devil comes knocking at your door, don't answer it. Let him stand outside in the heat. He needs to get used to it. Hallelujah. Luke chapter 10, verse 19, Jesus says, Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions. And listen, he's not talking about bugs or snakes. He's talking about demons and devils, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. And our enemy is not flesh and blood, it's the devil and his demons. We know that. Amen. So that's what he's talking about to you here. And that's who that's who your opposition is in this life. Your battlefield is right here between your ears, and the one trying to buy rent space in there is the devil. A person isn't the source of your joy or your peace. Jesus is. So they can't take it from you, and the devil can't take it from you unless you allow. You have great authority more than you know. How many of you like popcorn? Some people eat it, some people don't. But if you don't, you're used to. So everybody knows about popcorn. I'm gonna tell you about the popcorn principle. Because this is something you can relate to. Because everybody's either made popcorn or seen popcorn made in your life, haven't you? You know, if you haven't, you're missing out on one of God's blessings, so you need to find out about popcorn. But a popcorn kernel doesn't pop until it gets really hot. Spiritually speaking, the same is true with us. When we choose to press into God and get excited and hungry for the fire of the Holy Spirit, and He wells up inside of us, that's when we become useful to God and for being a kingdom builder. Now He loves us anyway. He can't love you any more than He already does. But He also wants you to mature to a place where you're not only helped, healed, empowered, loved, and prospered in every way yourself, but that you're living out of the overflow so that you can go help others with that same help you've received from Him. Amen. So just like that popcorn that gets hot and pops and becomes wonderful and useful, it's the same with us. Otherwise, we can fulfill our days half-heartedly praising God, giving him lip service, and someday go on to be with him in heaven. And instead of well done, good and faithful servant, we may get come on in, but you smell a lot like smoke. Or worse still, and I'm only saying this because he says it himself. He he said, Not all who say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of God. Some he's going to say, Depart from me, I never knew you. So people like that are gonna find themselves locked outside of the wedding banquet, aren't they? Like the five foolish virgins that Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 25. You know, if you've ever made popcorn, you know, there's some of those some of those seeds that end up going in the trash. They never did pop. We don't want to find ourselves in that situation, is all I'm saying. It's supposed to be encouraging. I'm not trying to drag you down. Because no matter where you are, whatever's left of the life that God has given you, He can do more with one day of a life than we can do with eight or ten decades in our own strength. So be encouraged.

Closeness With Jesus Over Religion

SPEAKER_00 13:44

We have to have a strong personal relationship with Jesus. That's what he wants. That's why I talked about closeness. Goshen is what that means when Joseph was a type and shadow of Jesus in the Old Testament, and he brought his whole family to Goshen, the best land in Egypt, so they could be near him, where he could have a relationship with them and care for them and protect them and provide for them. Amen. And that's what God wants for us. But in order to do that, we have to have that strong relationship, a personal relationship. You can't do it by proxy. You can't sit down in a box and knock on the box and talk to the guy next door and let him talk to God for you. I'm sorry, that's not the way God set it up. I'm not against anyone. I'm just trying to be honest because I've read this Bible. And anything that I say, I want you to confirm yourself. Don't believe it just because I told you. Paul, the greatest grace preacher, great apostle of God, he said, if me or an angel from heaven tells you any other gospel than the one that you've already been preached, let them be forever cursed. So it's up to you to go have it find out for yourself. You can talk to God just the same as me. Jesus is right there with you. He will never leave you, never forsake you. A friend that sticks closer than a brother. You may recall King David, God called him a man after his own heart. And that's interesting to some people because David made a lot of terrible mistakes. A lot. But he was still a man after God's own heart because he loved God and he would run to God instead of from him. You see what I'm saying? So it's always a blessing to look into the life of

David Dances Past Criticism

SPEAKER_00 15:44

David. And in 2 Samuel chapter 6, without telling the whole story leading up to it, there had just been a terrible incident, an unfortunate thing when they tried to move the ark someplace, somebody touched it, they ended up meeting an untimely end. And so David got discouraged and he left that ark in the house of Obed-Edom. This is in 2 Samuel, and he left it there for three months in the house of a man called Obed-Edom. And God really blessed the household, the whole family of Obed-Edom, while it was there. And when David found out about that, he got really excited again. And he went to get the ark. And in 2 Samuel chapter 6, it talks about this. It says when King David heard about it, he got so excited, he went and brought the ark up from the house of Obed Edom to the city of David, which is Jerusalem. And he did it with great joy. The Bible says in 2 Samuel chapter 6, verse 14, it said, Then David danced before the Lord with all his might. See, they would take a few steps with the ark and they'd stop and they'd they'd make a sacrifice, and David was dancing and praising God the whole way. And in 614 it says, Then David danced before the Lord with all his might. He was leaping and turning and dancing with everything in him, completely unashamed and on fire for God, you see. He was the king of Israel. But his wife, Mikal, that was Saul's daughter, who had been God's first choice for a king. But he didn't make it. But she looked out the window and she saw David, her husband, the king, dancing and jumping around like he was, and he was half dressed. And the scripture says that she despised him in her heart. Later she came out and she mocked him, and she she she talked terribly to him, that saying how undignified he was in front of the people of Israel, and how he shouldn't be acting that way. You know, it was undignified and unbecoming for the king. And she was just embarrassed and ashamed of him. But you know, David, he basically told her, I'm dancing before the Lord, not you. And nothing good ever came of her life, unfortunately. He didn't let her criticism put a damper on the joy of the Lord and the fire inside of him for God. He loved the Lord and he didn't care who knew it. He didn't care who saw it, he didn't care what anyone thought about it. The fear of man brings a snare of the devil, the Bible says. And so that's a choice every one of us face in this life. Will we be like David, passionate, on fire for God and unashamed? Or will we be like Mikal, negative and cold and critical and more concerned about what others think than what we think of God?

Grace Withdrawals And Real Authority

SPEAKER_00 19:27

You know, as a believer, you have a lot more than you think. You have real authority in Christ, more powerful than you really know. I think even any of the generals of the faith, so-called, or those who are walking in great power and victory and ministry in this life, even the best of them, even men like Smith Wigglesworth, who saw people raised from the dead, and Andrew Womak, who saw his own son raised from the dead after being in the morgue for five hours with a toe tag on, dead in the cooler for five hours, he's alive today and serving in the ministry and his little granddaughters there and everything. It's wonderful. But even the even those who have pressed in and been on fire for God and have experienced really wonderful things, I think we're still just scratching the surface. Because Jesus said, the things that I do, you'll do, and even greater things because I go to the Father. And what did he mean by that? Because I'm going to the Father, I'm going to send the Holy Spirit, the helper, your guide, your strength. The same life that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in you and gives life to your mortal body. You're a supernatural being if you belong to Christ. Even if you're in a small church, which we would we are reaching out, we're using what we can with what we have, and we're reaching people all over the world. Thank God for that. And I believe that this church is going to grow and prosper, and God's going to give us a bigger place of our own to do all the different things and have all the different ministries. But I'm not concerned about that, and neither is he. God's not looking at the outward sides, he's looking at the heart on the inside. And I believe we have a wonderful, loving church and church family who truly love God and love his people and really want everything that he has for us. I don't want to leave anything on the table when I'm done here in this world and I go to meet him face to face. Even if there's two or three gathered in his name, like I mentioned in the beginning, there he is right here in the midst. When we pray, when we praise, when we proclaim. The word of God, we can change the world. I know that, I've seen it, I've experienced it, and it's a fact. The kingdom of God is a kingdom of opposites. It's not like the world, and it does it's it's nothing like the world, it's just the opposite. Just so many examples Jesus gives you. He says, believe you have what you pray for when you pray. Believing for a Bible, say, believe you have what you pray for when you pray. Well, in the natural, I didn't, I really didn't have it yet. I'm believing for something. When we're believing for something, it's because it's not in our possession physically yet. But he says, believe you have it when you pray, and you shall have it. Now that's the opposite of what the world says. The world says, because I said, I lay hands on people and I say, be healed in the name of Jesus. I say, God wants you well. And they say, I hope so. And I say, unfortunately, it's much harder to receive from God that way. You have to believe it now. And it'll begin manifesting in the natural because it takes place in the spiritual realm before it manifests in the natural. And it takes that faith to that faith is our hand that reaches out and lays hold of the things that are already provided by grace. Hallelujah. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 28 and verse 18, All authority, all authority in heaven and earth have been given to me. Speaking of himself. Then he turned right around and gave that authority to us. He delegated it. In Luke chapter 10, verse 19 is one of the scriptures. He said, Jesus said, Behold, I have given you authority. So God gave it to him, the Father gave it to his son, and he gave it to his children, his new brothers and sisters. I'm leaving and I'm handing this over to you. Behold, I've given you authority over all the power of the enemy. Now we know that the devil is in charge of this world for a time until Jesus returns, which is soon. But he's not in charge of you if you have Jesus. You have authority over all the works of the devil, the power of the devil. You just have to find the promise that pertains to you, speak it out. Believe it, speak it. Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, you see. When you really believe something, you're gonna say it eventually. And that's the goal. Because when you do, in the name of Jesus, the devil will flee. Colossians 2:15 tells us Jesus disarmed the powers and authorities, and he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. So the war is won, the victory is already won. Church, the devil is not in control of your life. You are because of the name of the Jesus of Jesus Christ, the authority is already yours. So no matter what you're going through, if it's physical, if it's financial, if it's relational, all of the deepest hurts and pains and resentments and regrets and disappointments, there's grace for that. But it has to be applied. Titus 2 11 says, For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, but not all are saved. Because it requires that faith response, doesn't it? So grace has already been provided. That unearned, undeserved, unmerited blessing and favor of God that Jesus died to provide us with, all the divine exchanges of the cross. Everything you need to walk in victory in this life and power already have been deposited into your spiritual account. But are you making withdrawals? That's the question we all need to ask. Do you have more in your account than you have in your possession? You know that I hear stories of people who have died eating basically cat food and things like that. And then when they passed away and finally found them in their house, they had hundreds of thousands of dollars stuffed into their mattress. But anyway, when they came into the promised land, all the land that God had given them, the tribes went out and they had to go take the land. It was theirs, but they still had to go fight some battles. They had to clear it out and take it. But God had given it to them, so the victory was guaranteed. You see what I'm saying? But there was a few that just liked hanging around Shiloh. They didn't want to go. They were complacent. And God had Joshua go tell them, How long will you put off taking possession of the land God has given you? And now we don't have, like the Israelites, who's always our example in the natural of the things that we have in the spiritual. Never forget that. And that's not changed. But it's time to stop being afraid of the giants that confront us and remember, as Joshua told and Caleb, the two the two positive spies have the twelve spies. God is for us. So who cares how mighty our adversaries are in the eyes of the world? Our God is greater and He is for us. And if God be for us, who can stand against us? It's a rhetorical question. The answer is nobody. James 4 7 says, resist the devil. First, it says, humble yourselves. People say, don't ever pray for humility or patience because God will put a terrible trial on you. No, that's not true. Humility is something God tells us to do over and over again. Humble yourselves. God's not going to do that to you. He gave you a free will. He'll let you reject him and stiff arm him all the way to hell if that's your choice, because he didn't come for robots. He came for children who would choose him because of his goodness. It's the goodness of God that brings repentance, not hellfire, and brimstone. I threw that in for free. But we have that authority. Humble yourselves before God because God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. He said, but resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Now there's a promise. That's a fact. It's not he might. You got much larger churches all around us within walking distance, some of them. Great parking and coffee and child care. And they'll tell you, we can pray, and you never know. God might do it. Those preachers are like weathermen. They got it so easy. Well, hey, he's God. Never know. Might not have been in a good mood. He might have put cancer on you or caused your divorce to teach you a lesson. That sounds crazy and it's meanness. And I don't mean it to even mention that sort of thing, except for the fact that it's happening all over the world in churches. And God is not pleased with that. Jesus made it so clear in John 10 10, because they always accused him of be having a devil or being of the devil. He said no. And it's so sad that he had to say these things. He said, No. The thief, the devil, comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they might have life. Zoe, Z-O-E. That's an abundant life. They may have life and a life more abundantly or to the full. It's a sozo, S-O-Z-O, salvation. It's all inclusive. It frees us from spiritual death and gives us eternal life. It gives us healing for our bodies and provision for this life. All things pertaining to life and godliness have been granted to us. That's the Bible. That's what the Word of God says. It's a promise. People don't understand it because it's in the spiritual realm and we have to exercise, we have to cooperate with God to learn the spiritual laws, learn the promises that He's made to us and claim them. Yeah. He said it. If He did it for one, He'll do it for me. He's no respecter of persons. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. I'm just gonna make that mine. Lord, you said, What did I say, baby? You said, I'm blessed. You said, Your favor surrounds me as a shield. You said all things pertaining to life, this life and godliness have been given to me. Thank you, Lord. Your blessing is upon me, your favor surrounds me, and wonderful things are going to happen for me today. And every day that you give me. What do you have for me today, Lord? I'm gonna go spend all the grace that you've given me for today, and in the morning, your mercies are brand new, and I'm gonna start again. I'm gonna say, Good morning, Father. Good morning, Jesus, good morning, Holy Spirit. This is your beloved Sandy. This is your beloved Eveliz, Barbara, Joey, Bill, Samuel, especially William. No, I'm kidding. First thing when I get up, before my feet hit that ground, I look over, and then my dresser, there's a mirror there, and I have I have a thing right there on the mirror. It's got a heart, and it says, Look who Jesus loves. And I look right over there. I have to lean over a little bit like this. And I smile. And I say, I love you too, Lord. Let's go, Jesus. Oh, we all need to take it personally like that. Because he doesn't love any of us any more than the other. It's just getting a revelation of it in all the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. John is the only one that called himself the disciple whom Jesus loved five times in his own gospel. And he's the only one that died of natural causes at an old age. They tried to kill him. It says history, not the Bible, but history tells us that they tried to boil him in a hot substance like oil or something, and they said he swam around in it like a refreshing bath. I believe it. It's up to you. It doesn't, if it's not in the Bible, you don't have to go along with it. It's not going to matter when we, it's not going to keep us from getting into heaven. I just think it's a good story.

Words That Bless And Healing Testimony

SPEAKER_00 35:36

Isaiah 54, 17 declares, and I'm almost done here, Julie. You're a great praise and worship leader, sir. No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue rising up against you, you shall refute. You shall condemn. You have a part to play. If someone speaks a curse over you, which is witchcraft, and I'm not trying to get all off into the weeds on this stuff and just don't go start telling people that they're witches and all that. You'll freak them out. You're not going to draw them to Jesus. But trust me, when they speak a curse, anything that doesn't line up with the blessings of God, and they speak what the devil says over you or towards you, that's a curse. And you know what? You're not supposed to let that lie. Now remember, your enemy is not flesh and blood. It's the devil who inspired them to say that. That doesn't mean that they're necessarily of the devil. Sometimes he'll use your closest loved ones to do the his worst work if he can whisper in their ears and get them to repeat. Because we are the creative beings, created in the image of our Father who created everything that we know and see with his words. And he created you in his image. You are a creative being. You're creating your future tomorrow with your words today. And if you allow people to speak, there are people, I know of a minister, and I'm just getting off in the weed a little bit, rabbit trail here, but I know of a minister, friend, he was talking about another minister friend of his. He was in his 50s or 60s, and he said he couldn't, he couldn't even, he couldn't screw in a screw without stripping the threads or dropping the screwdriver. And he found out that when he was a little boy, he was, he he, his father was his hero, and he he because his dad fixed all kinds of things, and he would try to help him, and he would like screw in stuff in. And his dad said, Boy, you're so clumsy. You can't do anything right. You can't even screw in a screw. And for the rest of his life, until he got older, he he couldn't. Now I'm not saying that those things are binding, but I'm just saying, and you know what? My friend prayed for him, and I think after that time it all cleared up. I know one thing, I know my neighbor came, I talked to him yesterday, and a few months ago, I said, What's going on? He had a patch over his eye. He said, I woke up, he goes, I can't see. He goes, I woke up this morning, I had a detached retina. He said, I'm blind in that eye. I said, Well, he just came from the doctor. He says, they they said there's not really much. I said, Whoa, hold on a minute. That's not true. You're gonna be alright. He goes, Ah man, I don't know. They say, I said it doesn't matter what they say. We're gonna pray and we prayed for it. He goes, Oh, by all means, I pray I prayed on it. I prayed for him. He came back, and listen what happened. Now, something's happened to my other eye, and it's I'm going blind in that eye, too. And they say it won't be long. I'll be totally blind. I said, That's a lie. I prayed for him again. So when I prayed, it got worse. You see what I'm saying? I prayed again, and I said, In the name of Jesus, you lying devil, you get your hands off of him, and by Jesus' stripes, you're healed. Eyes, I command you to be restored, made whole, perfect vision. Well, he went on a vacation to Costa Rica. I didn't see him for two weeks. I saw him yesterday. I said, How's it going, man? He said, Well, I just came back from my last eye doctor appointment. He said, and it looks like I'm gonna have 2030 vision. I said, Well, God answers prayers, doesn't he? He said, He sure does.

unknown 39:41

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 39:44

Don't let that lying devil speak over you. Even if it's a doctor. Thank you, doctor. I appreciate, I appreciate all you can do, is all you can do with the science that God's given you, but you know, and and the the things you've learned, but but I have a higher power. And I and I believe that by Jesus' stripes I'm healed. You can even write it on that negative report if you want to, and stand on that. Don't say anything opposite once you claim it.

Born For Such A Time

SPEAKER_00 40:11

This is our moment. This is our moment in time and in the history of mankind. You were born for such a time as this, and you can make a difference. I'm trying to tell you that today. I know we're in humble settings here, and you just you're like, man, I just, you know, I just wanted to get a little bit of encouragement today. I didn't, I wasn't trying to change the world. Take the limits off. Take the limits off. I dare you, of what God can do. You were born for such a time as this. And you know, here, and all those who are listening, by now you know that I am believing, we are believing for a billion soul harvest in this third great awakening. Hallelujah. We are praying for the church, we're praying for this church, we're praying for the church all around the world, we're praying for our nation, we're praying for a free Persia. Hallelujah! Where the biggest underground church in the world is growing right now to be free of that demonic Islamic regime, and I believe they're about to be. We're believing for revival all across Africa for Christians to stop being slaughtered and persecuted, and we're believing that God is gonna defeat all those demonic regimes and and stop the killing of Christians all over the place and give people an honest and free chance to receive Jesus Christ, and we're gonna see revival all over the world before Jesus returns. That's why he's waiting in his mercy. It's his will that none should perish, but that everyone should come to Jesus. And that's his desire. Of course, they're not all going to, but we don't know which ones aren't, so we should keep trying. And your prayers make a difference, and we're praying for the protection of Israel and the peace of Jerusalem. Don't ever let anyone deceive you about that. What if your prayers do make such a great difference that when you get to heaven, just all those things in places all over the world that I just mentioned, and you take it seriously, and you go start praying for those things and those people, and these people and yourself and believing the things that God has said, and you start taking your authority and speaking it into the spiritual realm over these situations. And when you get to heaven, you a lot of those people from all of those places and all of those situations come to you and invite you into their homes and say, you know what? We heard your prayer and you made a difference. You were one of the ones praying for us. And I know you didn't know it because you were sitting in that little, little humble setting in Cyprus, Texas, but y'all's prayers made a difference and it it it shifted things in the spiritual realm and it it made a change and it helped us. And thank you. Because that's how it's gonna be. Praise God, if you can believe. Speaking of Israel, I just want to mention one last thing. Psalm 105, verses 8 through 11. God says, He remembers his covenant forever. The promise he made for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, to Isaac, not Ishmael. He did not recognize Ishmael. Isaac was the child of promise. His name means laughter because his mother laughed when the Lord told her she was going to have a baby in her old age. Said, Why are you laughing? I wasn't laughing. Yes, you were. You're gonna have a son, and his name is gonna be Isaac. The Lord has a sense of Humor. His sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant. Say, To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance. There's no ambiguity there. We stand with Israel. I I like to speak about things that are that are happening from the pulpit because you need the biblical perspective. There's so many Facebook prophets and and hateful other things out there. You need to hear things from here. And I'm just gonna tell you this you pray about it, you take it for what it's worth. We stand with Israel because of covenant, not politics. We owe everything we know of God, even his own son, to the Jewish people. We support them and we pray for them, regardless of politics, because we walk by the spirit, not by the flesh. And I just, in closing, I also want to mention we want to be prayerful, keep the people of Venezuela in prayer who have been devastated by the recent earthquakes. We thank God for the tremendous change and regime down there. The people are free and happy, and to the extent that they hold on to it, God will be able to move in that situation and they can open and work openly worship and and and and and come to know Jesus, you see? Not that they ever stopped. The underground church there was very strong as well. But when those demonic regimes come into power, you put any face you want on it. It could be uh Mao or Stalin or Ayatollah or any kind of corrupt powers, they're gonna always say they're gonna give you everything, and then they're gonna take control and absolute control corrupts absolutely. So you see them and their friends, and then the military, because they need them to protect them from the people who are gonna find out and get mad at them after they realize they they made a bad bargain. It's the same way, whatever face you put on it. So pray for the freedom of all these people and be praying for those who are hurting down there in Venezuela. We are the end times, church. We recall that when they wrote this New Testament 2,000 years ago. If it was the end times then, it's really the end times now. I could even make a case that it's very close. Now, if anyone tells you they know the time or the day or the hour, they're lying because the Bible says nobody knows that, just the Father. And the reason he's waiting like he is is his love and his mercy because he's wanting as many as will to come into the kingdom of God. He's a merciful and loving God. Our redemption is drawing near, and we need to number our days aright. That's all we're saying. Get on fire for God, let that popcorn pop. Don't be one of the colonels that get thrown into the trash and never made it. So let's pray and praise and proclaim the word with fire and resolve and lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy. Because that's where our real home is. Praise God. Say this with me: I choose to follow Jesus and to be on fire for God. I will pray, I will praise, and I will proclaim his word. I walk in the authority of Jesus that he gave me. The fire of God is within me, and I will shine bright as a beacon of his light, all for his glory in Jesus' name. Amen. Somebody give the Lord a hand clap of praise. Thank you, Father. Thank you for this wonderful day. Thank you for these beautiful children of yours. Thank you for the word that you've the seed of your word that you've spread today. Let it take root and bear fruit in their hearts and in their lives, and to all those who hear this message at any time

Invitation To Follow Jesus

SPEAKER_00 48:46

in the future. If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have listened to this message, and Jesus is calling you to himself, and you believe that he is the Son of God and that he is who he says he was, and he did what he said he did, and that God raised him from the dead. Say this prayer. Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus is your Son, that you sent him to earth, and he died for my sins on the cross, and that you rose him from the dead on the third day. I know that he lives today, and I ask you, Jesus, to be my Lord and Savior. Amen. If you said that prayer and you meant it, I believe I'll see you in heaven. God bless you. Hallelujah.