Destiny Conference 2021: Andrew Wommack - Day 2, Session 3

time to get started if we could get everyone to come in and take your seats you're you're taking away my time all of you out in the concourse is mezzanine please come in and take your seat so that we can get started with our next session wasn't wayne awesome what a blessing [Applause] i tell you you know dwayne we've talked about this often but i don't know anybody that we are so alike and every once in a while we'll think well he couldn't believe the way i believe on this i remember thinking about the you know the end times and i thought there's no way we're going to agree on this we agree on that we it's just amazing it's it's like god has worked in our lives so much together we're going to be stepping all over each other throughout this entire conference saying the same thing but again i think it's really good to hear it from other people's perspective i'm going to give you an opportunity to give i know we've got a lot of students here actually they're all out in the concourse there's only half as many people in here as there was during that session and so i know you're someplace but anyway we got a lot of students that hadn't been here before maybe there's some other people that are first time and i want to give you an opportunity to give and i just want to use one scripture i'm not going to take a lot of time because i'd like to be sharing the word and doing some things but there's one scripture second samuel chapter 24 verse 24. the background of this is that there was an angel that was causing a plague in the land of israel now we're under a different covenant and god is not the one that's causing this plague but nonetheless there's still comparisons and things to learn from this but there was an angel that had i forget the exact number i think it was 70 000 people that had died and the lord opened up the eyes of david and david saw this angel standing there with his sword drawn and he was about to destroy jerusalem and he saw it and there was a man named arana i think is the way you pronounce his name and he had a threshing floor there and this man was not even a a jew he was a jebusite he was the ones that david conquered jerusalem and when he surrounded them he offered them terms of surrender and the people who were you know living there in jabus is what it was called at the time they said you can't come in here unless you take nothing but the blind and the lame. and says that you know we'll give you our refuse but you can't come in here and david got so mad he says whoever goes in and conquers jerusalem is going to be my general and so joab went in and did it and david killed all of the blind and the lame and so the people of jabus david conquered them and it was ruthless brutal what he did this arana the jebusite he had a lot of reasons to be upset and angry with david but nonetheless uh not only did david see this angel standing there with his sword drawn but arana the jebusites saw it too and so david came to his threshing floor and he wanted to offer a sacrifice and turn away the wrath of god from jerusalem and when he came uh arana saw him and he he bowed down and worshiped david and then david said i want to buy your threshing floor and he said no he says take it he says take my threshing floor take my oxen use them for a sacrifice and you can take the yoke and the wood that they have for the fire and it says that he as a king offered all of these things to david and david said in second samuel chapter 24 verse 24. have you got that so that you could put that up it says the king said to iran no but i will surely buy it of you for a price for i will offer uh for i will i offer burnt offerings to the lord my god with that which come counts cost me nothing so david bought the threshing floor and the oxen from him anyway but here's the point i was wanting to make he says i'm not going to offer to god something that cost me nothing did you know one of the reasons for giving an offering some people do it because they're afraid that god won't bless them he'll punish him or you know just on and on and on but one of the reasons for giving an offering is to say god i need this and yet i honor you and you said that when we give you're going to give it back press down shaken together and running over shall men give into our bosom father i'm giving you something this is a sacrifice for me and that should be a part of our offering and let me say it this way that if you know you just say well man what do i want to give in the offering i think i could spare five bucks 10 bucks i'll never miss it that's not a sacrifice you shouldn't offer unto god that which cost you nothing you need to give and if god has prospered you so that you have lots of money well then you need to give to where it actually cost you something to where god has to come through his word has to be accurate in order for you to be able to survive so i just want to encourage you with this this same attitude that david had that i am not going to offer to god something that cost me nothing i want you to give in a way that god i need this but i'm trusting you and when you give like that when you give a sacrificial gift man it just pushes you into a realm of faith and i want to encourage you today in the offering to give and to give so that it literally cost you something to give and if you'll do that god will come through he'll always come through god will never let you out give him i can promise you that so father we love you and we are just so thankful for everything that you've done for us thank you father for your blessings for our salvation for everything that you've done and father we want to give we want to bless you we want to honor you and i pray that people would give in a way that it cost them something that father they would give believing your promises and i believe that you multiply it back unto them and we thank you in advance for that in jesus name amen praise god man that was awesome dwayne he's a blessing and he ended up you know what both of us were basically doing last night and this morning or just telling you that no god does have a purpose for your life every one of you and it's not just something minor god's got something that will make your life so awesome so complete so satisfying that's what i was trying to get across that's what dwayne's getting across sharon and so basically we just been priming the pump so that you'd start believing god and looking for things if you don't seek you'll never find if you don't knock it'll never be opened unto you so that's what we've basically been doing and then he ended by referring to romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2. and that's where i want to start in this session and i know that he's going to be dealing with this he's already touched on it but this these are the verses that the lord just literally transformed my life real quickly let me go back last night i talked about how that even as a little kid i knew god had a purpose for me i don't know how i knew it but i just knew it and i used to wonder what's god's purpose then as i was graduating from high school i got to seriously seeking the lord and for probably 18 months my whole focus is god what is your purpose for my life i was beginning college and i had to make decisions and i didn't want to just make decisions and do something because this is what i was told to do i wanted to know what god's purpose was so for 18 months i was seriously seeking god and asking his will and then in christmas in between christmas and new years of 1967 our church youth group always went to cloudcroft new mexico and we had a time there where during the day we would go tubing and we'd go down to white sands new mexico and go sledding on the sand dunes and do different things and we would do things during the day and then at night we'd have a devotion and it wasn't real deep but it was just a devotion and and anyway during that time there was a man that read romans chapter 12 verses 1 and 2 and that says i beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of god that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto god which is your reasonable service and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of god and those last phrases are what got my attention i had been seeking and asking god what's your will and it said you do this you will prove and he said that the word proof means to make manifest to the physical senses see that's what i wanted i believe god had a will for my life i just didn't know what it was so i believed it existed but i didn't know how to get it manifest and this said you do this you will prove make manifest to the physical senses what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of god and man that just was like a bolt of lightning from heaven it's like this is what i've been seeking this is what i wanted to do to know and i forget exactly what his purpose was but i remember when he read that verse it was like god just struck that into my heart so that was at christmas time 1967 and for four and a half months all i did was study that scripture and say god what is this what does this mean and i mean i just poured over this and then on march the 23rd 1968 is when i had my life-changing encounter with the lord and i mean he totally revolutionized my life and often i'll give the testimony about what happened on march the 23rd 1968 but people don't always you know get the whole story in the connection but it was me seeking god what is your will and those two verses is what plowed the ground in my heart and made me ready for what god was going to do so really that was the whole key to everything and let me just share with you some of the things that the lord shared with me out of those verses and i've got an entire book on this entitled how to find follow and fulfill god's will i think we gave that to everybody who registered and is a part of this and so it'll go into a lot more explanation but here's some of the major things that god shared with me dwayne hit this right at the end of his thing that i learned that god's will isn't my vocation and it's not what i do i forgot the exact wording that dwayne was sharing but it's it's about being a living sacrifice that was god's will that's god's will for every one of us is to be a living sacrifice totally committed unto him and then as you renew your mind you'll prove the good the acceptable and the perfect will of god you'll find vocation god will lead you into what he wants you to do but god's will for every one of us is to be a living sacrifice completely submitted unto him that's god's will and then how he uses you is actually secondary it's immaterial in a sense did you know god wants me more than he wants my service i was raised in a denomination that we had songs about i was born to serve the lord and we talked about sacrificing and how you had to do all of these things and there is a truth in all of that but god loves you and me more than he loves what you can do for him and our society i don't i don't know all the reasons for this but we are just so performance oriented we are so goal oriented it's all about doing something and and this is what most people think that finding god's will is all about is god what do you want me to do do you want me to be a a doctor or a lawyer do you want me to live here do you want me to go do this well that's all an outgrowth that's a result of god's will but god's will for you is to be a living sacrifice holy and surrendered unto him in every single thing and if you haven't done that then if somehow or another you stumble across what his vocation is for you how he wants to lead you where he wants you to live who he wants you to marry and all of these things if somehow or another you were to stumble into the things that he's wanting you to do you'd mess the whole thing up if you aren't a living sacrifice but on the other hand you become a living sacrifice here's the way the lord said it to me as i was studying these verses for those four months the lord spoke to me and he says if you become a living sacrifice if you yield yourself completely to me he says you it would be impossible you would have to literally backslide and turn your back on me to keep from fulfilling the good acceptable and perfect will of god it's like if you make yourself available it's like you know they build a ship they don't build a ship to sit in dry dock you build a ship to put the sea and if you yield yourself to the you know divine shipbuilder and if he makes you the person that you're supposed to be i can guarantee you he wants to use you more than you want to be used if god isn't using you it's because you aren't usable so instead of praying oh god use me and oh god open up a door and oh god help me to get this done what you need to do is just make yourself available and say god here am i and i want to be a living sacrifice i want to know you i want to know your will i want to be the person that you want me to be as dwayne was sharing about man standing before god and am i done have i done what you want me to do that ought to be every one of our heart cry it's not about fame and credit and getting notice and money and all of these kind of things it's all about knowing god i used to pray in the beginning oh god use me oh god use me and the lord told me he says the reason i don't use you is because you aren't usable never pray god use me pray god make me usable and i can guarantee you the moment you get usable god will use you the moment he can trust but one of the reasons that god hasn't revealed his you know his vocation or the other things that are so important in our life one of the reasons he hasn't revealed those things to you is because he loves you so much that if he was to give you revelation of what it is that he wants you to do and if he was to open up doors and to push you out there if you aren't yielded to him it would destroy you and he loves you too much to do that you know just take my life i was sitting here this morning and i was just worshiping the lord and praising god and thinking god this is awesome i just love god so much for everything he's done and i was looking at this is the lord's doing it is marvelous in our eyes and you don't some of you have heard my testimonies but you don't appreciate what god has done in my life the way i do i was so poor i couldn't pay attention when jamie was eight months pregnant we went two weeks without anything but water not one piece of food we were so broke and to see what god has done is just it's a man i got i totally lost my train of thought i got to thinking about how blessed i am i forgot where i was going with that but man i'm just blessed i am blessed blessed blessed but anyway i think it was something along the lines of it was just impossible if oh here's what it was god loves me so much that if he would have put me into the position that i'm in right now with the responsibilities and the all of the things and if he would have done that for me 20 30 years ago if he would have done it for me 10 years ago it would have destroyed me one of the reasons that god hadn't opened up the door and don't don't think it wasn't because i wasn't knocking on the door don't think it wasn't because i was not seeking the lord man i lived decades in frustration because i had i knew what god's will for my life as far as vocation and what he wanted me to do and i was so frustrated that it wasn't coming to pass i mean it was hard but one of the reasons god didn't open the doors is because i wasn't ready i hadn't grown to that place you know just in the area there's multiple areas but just in the area of finances man i struggled with finances i went decades in this ministry with collection agencies after us constantly i got to where i i was the one that would answer the phone because my staff just couldn't handle the people that were coming and telling us some christian you are can't even pay your bills and i felt bad for my staff so i'd take all of those critical calls and had people tell me say you know anyway it was bad and we struggled and struggled and i had a real blockage in the area of finances and it wasn't because i didn't love god i just i don't know all the reasons for it but i was taught that you know having money was a was a bad thing that's not the right way to say man i'm struggling to say this without telling you stuff and minister on finances but anyway i had a wrong attitude about finances and i was struggling and my vision was bigger than what i could do and finally i had this man dean melton come and i went to his church for 32 years in a row and this man amazed me because he lived in a house that he paid 2 500 for and he had lived there for 50 years 2 500 700 square foot house and it didn't have indoor plumbing and he had redone it and put indoor plumbing in and stuff but he still lived in a 2500 house that he bought and he didn't take a salary from the church he had a tire business he owned about 20 or 30 houses that he had bought and he got rent from them that's where he made his money and he gave 90 of everything he owns to the lord and took no salary from the church gave away 90 lived on the 10 percent and i saw this man prosper and do things i mean i would go to his church and he has less than 100 people in his church and i'd go to his church and he'd give me 350 000 for a five-day meeting it was unbelievable and i saw him operate in prosperity not for himself but for the lord i always was taught that prosperity was selfish so anyway i'm saying all these things to say that see i as long as i had that wrong thinking god couldn't prosper me and he wouldn't have put me into this position because it would have killed me did you know right now i have to have over 9 000 an hour 24 hours a day every day of the week every day of the year we have to have over 6 million dollars a month just to make our basic needs if the lord would have put me in this position and opened up these things that i was begging him for and pleading for it would have destroyed me i couldn't have handled it and yet now it's just amazing god has grown me and brought me to a place that it's no problem now and anyway that pastor dean melton came and he taught in our school and i sat down with a yellow pad a paper and i was going to take notes and i listened to him for two days and i didn't write a single note he didn't say one thing that i didn't know the difference was he believed it and i didn't believe it i knew what the scripture said but i had a bad attitude about finances i thought it was selfish and man i did not want to uh i did not want something that would turn my heart away from the lord you know the scripture talks about you know those who love money pierce themselves through with many sorrows and and foolish lusts that drown men in perdition and i love the lord so much i didn't want that anyway i had to get my thinking straightened out that was in 1996. and did you know that immediately once i got a revel i mean i sat down and realized i was operating in unbelief and i was letting other people's opinion about finances hold me captive people criticize ministers probably most of you are you're the fanatics and you're okay with this but i get a lot of criticism we've been trashed in the paper here in this area i had one guy that wrote an article about me and just blasted me on so many levels but he says he's one of these prosperity preachers and they came out against me and you know what the guy who wrote that article he just moved into an 850 000 house i live in a sixty thousand dollar house and he lives in an 850 000 house and i drive a car that was given to me i didn't buy it i didn't spend any money on it i don't know what kind of car he drives but anyway he was criticizing me and he couldn't find anything to criticize me over so he criticized me that kenneth copeland and jesse duplantis are my friends and so he came out and talked about them and their planes and criticized me over what they've done but anyway i'm just saying that there's this attitude about finances that hinders ministers from really standing up and speaking the word and stuff because you're going to be criticized for it and god showed me that he was looking for somebody who would stand and suffer the persecution that it takes to to believe in prosperity and anyway he spoke all these things to me and since then i mean our finances it is phenomenal everything you're sitting in it's all debt-free in this garage that we owed 28 million dollars on 25 months ago it's it's going to be paid off by december and then we'll we've got at least 150 million 200 million dollars worth of buildings still on the inside of me and i'm going to build them and it'll all be debt-free see god had big plans for my life and i knew it was bigger than where i was but until i got some things straightened out it would have killed me if god would have put this much responsibility on me it would have killed me and brothers and sisters it's the same with you god loves you more than he loves what you can do for him god wants you not just what you can do for him a lot of people honestly it's kind of like when you stick a straw into one of these cups and you just you know suck on it until you hear at the end and then you throw that away and go get another one this is what most people think god is god is just out to do these things and he's going to use you up and just waste you and then throw you to the side and he'll go get somebody else that's not the way that god is god is more concerned about you than he is what you can do for him and if he ever gets your heart i can guarantee you he will get your service that's right you don't when you're sitting there trying to coerce people and like you know dwayne made reference to how our president is shaming people into trying to get a vaccine and wear a mask and doing all of these kind of things god isn't like that god is not going to force you to do anything god loves you and god wants you to voluntarily do it matter of fact there's so many scriptures first corinthians 13 3 if you give all of your goods to feed the poor or if you give your body to be burned and don't do it motivated by love it profits you nothing god is more concerned about your heart attitude than he is about your service and about you going and accomplishing certain things he wants you so that's the reason that in romans 12 1-2 he said first of all by the mercies of god this goes to what dwayne was saying that god's not going to do make you do something that you hate he'll change your heart if he wants you to go live in africa it'll be you'll love it we got a lady dottie hammond who came to our school and graduated this woman is so country she makes me look posh that's hard to do when this woman came to school she brought me a five uh gallon jar of pickled venison that she had killed herself she lived in west virginia and she would take her gun and knife and be gone for two and three days this is how she fed her family and she came here and anyway on her missions trip she went to nigeria to kenya and just fell in love with it and she went back to kenya this has been 15 could have been even more than 15 years ago with 500 dollars the person who brought her there turned out was a crook and he took 400 of it she had 100 and she went to bagholma kenya and has been there for 15 16 years has never come home and she now has 15 adopted kids she feeds over 200 widows she takes care of them and she's never come home uh has never come back to see her kids and her grandkids she loves kenya that's and she says this is where i'm going to live it's where i'm going to die and she's just totally giving herself to it you ought to go check out her testimony on our website it is absolutely awesome and she owns her house a hundred thousand dollar house and she's done all of this stuff and went there with with nothing and she loves it she says she is the most blessed person on the planet and some of you think that's terrible no if god wants you to do it you'll love it i beseech you by the mercies of god that you present your body a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto god which is your reasonable service it's the mercies of god i'm telling you brothers and sisters god's plans for your life will fulfill you and make you happy and complete more than anything you have ever wanted to do in your life you were designed everything about you is designed by god for a purpose and it's only when you find that that you are going to find that sweet spot that you're in you know i've had so many people come to me and right now i'm just living in a situation where god's blessings are just coming upon me and overtaking me and i've had people ask what are you doing i'm not doing anything it's just god's blessing and i've been walking with him for over uh five decades and it builds up momentum and i'm just seeing things happen i'm just where god wants me to be and there is a supernatural flow when you get there you know in the beginning i pastored three little churches because it's all i could do i there wasn't anything there wasn't any other way that i could minister and i pastored three little churches just because i had a fire burning in my heart i wasn't called a pastor but it was the only way i could minister and so i did that for six years and then we came to i went on radio which was a major deal that god led me to do and then the very first time i went and ever held an independent meeting after leaving those three little churches that i'd pastored and i held the very first service in colorado springs at the sheridan up at academy and i-25 that first night was amazing i remember when we went back to the hotel i was in tears telling jamie what's what is this i said this is awesome because i was in where i was supposed to be bible school for me was pastoring three churches pity the people that were in my church it wasn't for them it was for me i learned a lot pastoring three little churches but when i started doing what i'm doing now it's just like there was a special anointing that came on me when you are where god wants you to be there is a supernatural flow a divine flow that you can't accomplish just through your own strength and your own power so by the mercies of god because this is best for you you will love it more you need to become a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto god and i'm telling you you can't sacrifice yourself you can crawl up on the altar but god's fire has to come so see this is what i went through for four and a half months i was meditating on these scriptures god what is a living sacrifice what does this mean and i longed for it and i said god help me i don't even know how to i don't even know how to do this and four and a half months of praying that and then i had this experience march the 23rd 1968 where i mean god showed up and i hadn't got the words to describe to you about i saw the glory of god i saw his holiness and i saw my relative unworthiness and it was the fact that i was a religious pharisee i was trusting in my goodness and you'll probably take this wrong way but honestly i was the best person i knew i lived holier than anybody i knew i've never said a cuss word in all my life never taken a drink of liquor never smoked a cigarette i mean i was living as holy as i possibly could and i was proud of it and i was trusting in my goodness and thinking god look at all i'm doing how come you haven't done more for me but when i saw the glory of god my relative unworthiness to god you know it says we've sinned and come short of the glory of god jesus is the glory of god and if you ever see the glory of god i guarantee you you're going to repent of all of your self-righteousness and stuff those of you who still think you're awesome it's because you're comparing yourself with me or with somebody else if you ever get a vision of god i guarantee you you'll lose your self-righteousness and your self-promotion and when i when the lord showed up and showed me all of that man i repented i spent two hours or hour and a half or two hours in front of the leaders of the church in front of my best friends repenting and asking god to forgive me and you know what that was that was when i became a living sacrifice i'd prayed and asked but god showed up and it's a living sacrifice it's not just a one-time deal it's not like march the 23rd 1968 i sacrificed myself and my ambition and everything to god and that was it and i've never had another problem man it's a living sacrifice it's something you have to live every single day of your life but you have to crawl up on the altar you have to begin the process you need to recognize that this is god's will and what good would it do you to find out his direction his vocation for your life if you aren't yielded to him you'd blow the whole thing if i wasn't yielded to god if god hadn't done some things in my life i guarantee you to give me the influence and the position and the things that he's given me now and if my heart wasn't right i'd ruin the whole thing and this is what's happened with so many ministers for whatever reason they like dwayne was saying you know he was still a teacher before he even got right with the lord he had this gift of teaching on his life there are people that are musicians and people that are ministers communicators and so they may tap into that and because of the anointing on their life they can build a ministry but if you don't have the character you're going to destroy the whole thing and we've seen this with people who wind up going out and committing adultery and stealing money and and doing all kinds of things and it's brought shame on the gospel and stuff i'm telling you god is after you not after what he can do through you he loves you and if you haven't actually yielded your life to him to the point that you're a sacrifice then that's the first step that's god's will for your life and if you do that and do it over a period of time he will begin to mold you and make you into the person that he wants you to be and then finding the direction and how he wants to use you and what he wants to do through you that's immaterial it's secondary god's will is for you to be a living sacrifice and you know that's what it's all about last year in the very beginning of the year a friend of mine john donnelly over in scotland he had been praying for me and he says god has given you the choice that he gave samson or not samson solomon excuse me he gave solomon about you know ask for anything and he says you know i don't even know how to go out or come in i'm a child and i i want you to give me wisdom and john told me he says he's given you that choice and so you know what i thought man that's awesome and so i spent two or three months praying about it i didn't want to ruin my choice i didn't want to waste it on something else and i spent two or three months praying about things and man there's so much stuff i need hundreds of millions of dollars i need a lot of stuff and i thought about a lot of things but you know one day i was praying about this it's about three months later and i was walking out the door and saying god what is it that i really want more than anything else and i just said you know what i want more than anything else is to know you who are you and help me to know you and to make you known and as soon as i said that i said you know what that's it if i know him i'll get all the money i'll get everything that i need and i just decided that's it so i made that my official request and see this is this is all goes back to romans 12 1. this is what it's all about it's just knowing god it's being a sacrifice i can't relate to people that say well god is telling me to do this but i can't i don't even go there it's been 53 years since i said god here's what you want me to do but here's what i want to do and again some of you may misunderstand what i'm saying but honestly i ran up a white flag march the 23rd 1968 i gave everything i had to god i hadn't got anything left to give and if he was to tell me to do anything i've said this often that if he was to tell me that i was supposed to go to africa and turn this over to somebody else i'd walk away from it in a heartbeat i really would and somebody may think oh i'm not sure you'd do that i would there is no reservation i've been living for 53 years as a living sacrifice now i have not seen that i've done it perfectly and here's another thing you need to learn is that the reason it's a living sacrifice is because it keeps crawling off the altar it's not like you just do this and it's perfect from that time on god can't deal with all of the junk that's on the inside of you all at once you couldn't stand it if god was to show you everything in you that needs to be changed right now and just give you a whole picture of it you would despair of ever uh getting to a place that god could use you he'll just deal with you one thing at a time and you'll find that there's things in your life that are wrong that you didn't even realize that you were wrong you know one time i had been on bob tilton's television program i don't know how many of you know bob tilton and stuff but uh anyway i was on his television program and that's back when i was only on radio nobody knew what i looked like and so i went and visited his church a year later or something like that and there was 2 000 people in the church and i was sitting in that church service thinking about i bet you a lot of these people listen to me on the radio and i bet you i've been able to uh god's used me to touch their life and i was just sitting there thinking i wonder if anybody knows who i am i wonder if anybody knows that i'm the one that god used you know what that is that's pride that's arrogance and i i made a commitment not to be that way march the 23rd 1968 but it'll just sneak up on you sometimes i've had people before say could you cast selfishness and pride out of me i can't cast it out that's your human nature the only way you can get rid of that is for me to kill you and then you'll pass on to this other realm and you won't have any of that but as long as you're breathing you're going to have selfish thoughts things are going to come it didn't mean that i didn't make a commitment to the lord it just means that it's something you have to live constantly it's a living sacrifice and anyway i was sitting there thinking this and and the lord just smote me about there you go again there's that old flesh rising up thinking about yourself does anybody know who you are and man he was dealing with me and i was repenting in my heart and right at that moment bob tilton said we were blessed to have andrew wommack with a stand-up andrew and i felt like i was naked in front of 2000 but here was god exposing me about my wrong attitudes and at that exact moment when bob tilton had me stand up and so my point is then i made a commitment but you know what the flesh is still there and you just you i heard a man one time say that i died to my flesh 20 years ago and i've he says i've never been in the flesh since and the moment he said that i just wrote ichabod over him the glory has departed that is not true you have to deal with this flesh but there has to be a starting place when i say that i've died to myself and i've crawled up on the altar and became a living sacrifice march the 23rd 1968 that's when this process began and i mean i meant it with all of my heart but i've had to deal with my flesh as you will but i tell you something significant happened and i just like i was saying i can't relate to people who say well god told me to do this but if i if you can convince me that it's god telling me to do it i'll do it and there aren't any restrictions on that if you are still debating whether you'll do what god told you to do you aren't a living sacrifice you've never died to yourself you're still alive you're still calling shots you're sitting on the throne of your life that's not the way god called us to be the first step in finding your vocation and all of these other things is that you need to quit being god you need to bow the knee jeremiah 10 23 oh lord i know that the way of man is not in himself it is not in man that walks to direct his own steps god has given you a free will a free choice he's not going to force you to do anything but the right choice is to say god i'm not smart enough to run my life and so i crawl up on the altar i make myself a living sacrifice and god i'll go anywhere i'll do anything i'll be anything i'll be less i don't have to be the main singer i'll i'll be in the support role i'll do anything until you literally sacrifice all your own selfish ambitions you aren't going to see god really use you the way that he wants to because he can't trust you he puts you up on the stage and you're liable to preach your own message you're liable to say your own thing do your own things but if he can get you to where you have yielded to him and you literally have just died to your own self and god whatever you want that's fine that's when god is going to really start revealing himself to you and that's when things begin so i'm going to be talking in the other sessions about other ways how that you can get specific direction about how to do things but really nothing else matters until you get this established this is like if you had a ladder that went up to this roof you don't jump from where you are up to the top rung on the ladder you start with that bottom rung you have to take it step by step and this is the very first step and brothers and sisters i'm saying this in love but if this is a typical group the vast majority of us have never become a living sacrifice it's not even on our radar much less making a commitment and just being in process and maybe not doing too well but i would say that the average christian has never even really seen this as this is just for you people that are full-time ministers but man your life is your own you'll watch what you want to you'll listen to the music that you want to you will make decisions that you want to you'll decide what you want to do and ask god to bless it that's not a sacrifice a sacrifice isn't giving any directions you aren't calling the shots when i made that decision within i'd say within a well nearly immediately i lost my desire for everything else but god and i was in college and i just lost my desire to be in college and so i just said off the top of my head i'm gonna quit school and boy did i get in trouble my mother didn't talk to me for two weeks i was threatened to be kicked out of my church they said you can't be a christian and say that god would tell you to quit school not get an education i was going to lose money from the government and just a lot of things happened and so i wavered on it for a while and then john 4 romans 14 23 says whatsoever is not a faith is sin and i made a decision i've got to decide this i may talk about that later because this is one of the ways that you learn the voice of god and how to hear his voice but i made a decision and so i finally decided to quit and it cost me 350 dollars a month it cost me the acceptance of just about every person i knew and it gave me an all-expense-paid trip to vietnam and i mean literally i could have died and i was content if this is what god wants for me that's fine i remember being in vietnam and people all around me dying and it looked like i was going to die you could see the muzzle fire from the weapons of people coming up the hill and you know what because i had become a living sacrifice and i was just so in love with the lord i know some of you are going to think i'm weird but i think you're weird but i out people dying around me and all of this and i was just so excited i was thinking god this is awesome i could be in heaven before the night's over and i was feeling so much love and joy and peace and i felt compassion for the vietnamese that i was firing my weapon in and thinking god i know where i'm going but if they die and i was praying for him and asking god to bless these people that we were trying to kill i know it's weird but i'm telling you i just literally put my life on the line and i haven't done it perfectly i've messed up but i have never ever had to go back and say oh god i didn't mean it back in 68 no i meant it with all of my heart because i'm flesh i fail to be the person i'm supposed to be and there's times that i have to deal with it and get up but i have never ever ever gone back on that commitment that is my heart's desire and i'm telling you if you aren't there if you are still running your life if you are the one in control then this is the first step for you you don't need to go any further than this you got to start with this bottom rung on the ladder and climb up and so i'm asking you today to make that decision this you may think well i wanted to know god's vocation again that's automatic nearly it's byproduct of knowing god i can guarantee you if you make yourself a living sacrifice and present your body to the lord and say god i'll do anything go anywhere be anything i'll be less i'll be whatever you do that god will use you it would be you'd have to backslide on god to keep from fulfilling his will for your life and i'm proof of it i'm proof god has done things in my life that man it's just god right before my mother died in 1999 she was 96 years old and she was having me tell her about all the things she worked for me for about 15 years or so and she just loved what god was doing in our life and i told her about all of these things and she looked at me and she said andy you know this is god and i said yes ma'am i know this is god and she says you aren't smart enough to do this and i said amen it's true i can guarantee you this is the lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes billy introduced me this last tuesday and he says andrew has never been the smartest man in the room that's what billy said when he got up here or no excuse me that was paul milligan i i spoke wrong it was paul milligan our former ceo he said that's not the reason he's the farmer but he said andrew's never been the smartest man in the room and it's true i tell you the only thing i got to my credit is that i know god and god knows me and i love god and god has done things in my life that are so far beyond me i ought to be a sermon a encouragement to every one of you that think how could god ever use me god chose the weak things of the world based things of the world things that are despised things that are not to bring to not things that are so that no flesh would glory in his presence i'm telling you what god is looking for is a surrendered vessel not a silver vessel if he can get your heart he'll have everything else and yet many of us have been substituting god i'll give you my service god i'll give you money god i'll do this but what he wants is you he wants you and i'm just asking you today this is the first step in finding god's will for your life is to recognize that god's will is for you to be a living sacrifice that's for every one of us now he's going to lead some people into being lawyers or bankers or preachers or whatever but every one of us god's will is for you to be a living sacrifice a living sacrifice where it's continual right now for the rest of your life every day of your life god i want your will above my will i want to know you more than i want anything you could give me that's what god wants out of every one of us and so i'm asking you today to make that commitment and some of you may think well man i'm not sure i'm ready well you could at least say i want to be ready i want to become a living sacrifice just like with me i saw those verses and for four and a half months i prayed and said oh god what's a living sacrifice help me and it took me four and a half months but i guarantee you god showed up god wants relationship with you more than you want relationship with him and if you will make this the desire of your heart and begin to move in that direction i guarantee you whatever it is that he needs to deal with to make it come to pass he will do it but you have to make the commitment god is not going to force this on you i have no way of knowing how many people have literally made a commitment to where they just give god everything they've got but i believe it's a very very small percentage the vast majority of christians they've cried out for salvation so that they won't go to hell they've asked god to forgive him they may serve him and do some things for him but to say that he has their heart and that he literally could command them to do anything and they'd be willing to do it there's not very many people like that and so it's not because he doesn't love you and doesn't want it but he just won't force it on you this is something that you have to do you have to make yourself a living sacrifice you have to crawl up on the altar and if you'll do that god will wait until he sees that your heart is really sincere in it and then when you seek with all of your heart i guarantee you the fire of god will fall and he'll burn up that old flesh and he'll take care of stuff and and it'll begin you on a it'll put you on a path that i guarantee you you'll look back and say it's never going to be the same i believe that for many of you today is what the 17th of september is that correct many of you could be referring back to september the 17th 2021 is when i crawled up on that altar and i became a living sacrifice and you'll be able to if the lord tarries 50 years from now look back and talk about man what a ride it's been that you have to start the process you know there's one last thing i want to share with you i had jim irwin who was one of the astronauts that landed on the moon and i did some television programs with him and he signed his books and gave them to me and i signed my books and gave them to him and anyway i just started pumping him for all this information because in 69 when they landed on the moons when i was in the army and we i was in basic training i didn't see any of it i missed out on it i heard about it but i never saw it so i was interested i wanted to learn things you know like how do you go to the bathroom in weightlessness things that you probably won't hear and jim irwin told me he never did figure it out he says it was not good but anyway i started asking him questions and i had this thought that they the technology was so awesome that they just flew that thing towards the moon it landed and i was just so impressed did you know i've heard since then that your cell phone has something like a hundred or a thousand times the computing power of the lunar module i mean it was primitive what they did and jim started sharing with me that they just blasted off and then they threw the capsule towards the moon and every 10 minutes for four days they had a course correction and he said sometimes the moon would be that direction and they'd be going 90 degrees opposite to the moon and they'd have to have a burn to come back on other times it was just a fraction off but the truth was they went to the moon like this they didn't do it perfectly and then they had a 500 mile landing strip that they had planned to land in and he says when they landed and got out of the lunar module and put foot on the moon they were within five feet of being outside of this 500 500-mile landing zone they nearly missed a 500-mile runway and yet they got there and as he was telling me this the lord just spoke to me and he says that's the way it is with becoming a living sacrifice you don't just say all right i'm going to die to myself i'm going to make jesus lord i'm becoming a sacrifice you don't do that and then just perfectly do it the rest of your life you head in that direction and then there's a course correction every 10 minutes for the rest of your life and it doesn't mean that you didn't blast off and start but it just means that god can't deal with everything all at once he'll just deal with things some of you by the time you get out of this service you're going to go out there and if they have the gelato truck there somebody else will be in line in front of you and get the last thing that you wanted and you've got an opportunity for a course correction [Applause] somebody's going to pull out in front of you and they're you're going to say why are they driving so slow and stuff you've got an opportunity for a course correction god will be correcting you the rest of your life but it doesn't mean that you didn't start it just means that you don't do it perfectly but you do have to blast off some of you have never blasted off some of you are didn't even know that you were supposed to blast off you didn't even know that there was a launching pad some of you feel 100 justified in promoting yourself and look what they said about me how dare them say that about me what makes you so important you're going to have to die to yourself you're going to have to recognize that there's somebody god and other people that are more important than you and you aren't that big of a deal and you'll be having course corrections the rest of your life on this but i want to give you an opportunity i also want to preface this by saying that if you've already done this and even if you aren't doing it well and today is a major course correction for you i don't want you to stand be honest enough to say god this is my heart's desire and i have literally made this commitment and i'm moving in that direction and you need to just stay seated but for those of you who are saying that man this is i've never done this i am in control of my life i am lord over my life i have not crawled up on the altar i haven't blasted off and if you're saying i want to do it i know i need to do it and i may not be totally ready but today i'm ready to become ready i'm ready to start the process if that's you i want you to stand where you are and i'm going to pray for you and we're going to make this commitment and i believe that it's going to start the process in your life if that's you i want you to just be humble enough to stand up right now and make this commitment and i know that there's somebody who's saying well i need to do this but i don't want to stand up in front of people and let them know that i'm a uh selfish and that i'm running my own life i think i'll just receive it as you pray i'm going to pray specifically this won't work if you aren't standing if you're seated i'm going to pray this won't work for you if you're going to receive this prayer you got to stand see there's some people standing up you were going to bootleg this prayer it doesn't work that way [Applause] well brother couldn't you have everybody bow their head and close their eyes so they wouldn't be looking i'm asking you to humble yourself i want everybody's eyes open looking around so that you get the maximum humiliation out of this praise god you know all of us were born selfish you didn't care that your mother had been up all night long giving birth you just wake her up in the middle of the night do whatever i want to be fed i want this you're born selfish all of us there's not a single person that hasn't been this way this is going against the flow to die and just make god absolute control over your life but i tell you it's the key it's the key to the kingdom amen so father i pray for all of those who are standing right now thank you father for them humbling themselves and father we are thankful that you've pointed this out i know that there's not many people that'll say these things and so many of the people this may be the first time they've really been confronted and father we just are thankful that you have shown us what the problem is thank you by the mercies of god because of your goodness we want to make our body a living sacrifice father we want to give it to you let you have control over what we eat over how we act over what we think over what we ingest as far as the culture we want to give you control over everything and literally just let you dominate every single thought everything that we have father we are crawling up on the altar right now and we just say that we ask for the fire of god to fall just as elijah called fire down on that sacrifice father i'm calling the fire of god to fall upon these sacrifices that the holy spirit right now would just light a fire on the inside of people that father we would get the desire to put you first to love you more than we love ourself to be like revelation 12 where they overcame the devil by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony and they love not their lives to the death father that we would love you more than we love our own life father this is our desire and we just ask for your power to come and make it a reality we write this down september the 17th 2021 the day that we made this commitment and just as we sang today that you are faithful father we believe that you are faithful and just to keep that which we have committed we make a commitment right now and we believe you're holding us to it we believe that you are going to give us course corrections we welcome you to speak to us and to show us father where our flesh is rising up and that we are living independent of you and we make that commitment and we just thank you father we believe that you receive this sacrifice and we praise you by faith for the great great difference it's going to make in our life and father we thank you for it in jesus name amen amen praise god you can be seated you know let me just give you a word of instruction that if you really made that commitment god is going to start working on you you have given him permission to come in and reveal things to you and in the beginning it may be painful it may be painful for you to start realizing that you're the problem not everybody else but but it's going to be healthy and he won't do it he doesn't do it for the purpose of hurting you or rejecting you but you can't you can't turn from something until you realize it's wrong so there's going to be things that he'll be showing you and and changes that you'll need to make but it's it's a good change and he's doing it in love it's like my father used to tell me when he'd give me a spank and this hurts me more than it hurts you and i said sure it does i didn't believe him but you know now i understand and and i guarantee you god loves you and sometimes it's painful but it the end results of it will be good no chastening for the present seems to be joyous but afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness hebrews chapter 12. and so anyway i just want to encourage you write this down make a decision and i believe that you're going to see a change and again i promise you the vocation all of the other things that god wants for your life they are incidental compared to what you've done right now you do this he will perfect his perfect plan for your life amen so i'm going to ask our prayer ministers to come up here again well we saw a lot of people touch last night a lot of great things happened i believe people were healed and awesome things happen but if there's any of you here that need any prayer for anything we are here to pray with you and to help you and uh it's going to be an awesome time we've got afternoon services i'm going to let mark come up and give you all of the details have you noticed that mark isn't from the united states he he's a south africa he's a blessing he and his wife claire i saw claire come up and hug him today and i said you know it's really good that you hug your wife every once in a while and he said we're so busy we don't even see each other they had to come up at the start of the service so thank god for uh claire and mark and all of the people who are helping us make this work it's awesome thank you andrew we love being part of this and we wouldn't have it any other way so guys this is just a few announcements man i just feel so blessed with the message this morning it's like man as i love where you guys help equip us to be successful with the lord and our walk with the lord thank you very much for that and doing that for us um guys please join us back again at 1 30 p.m for pastor duane's going to come and give us the rest of his message and i'm excited about that um there were meal tickets the ones if you guys bought your meal tickets i'm not even going to try and pronounce what is in the banquet hall because it's i know it's chicken chicken something so please go to the banquet hall guys it's across from where we are now at the moment and your meal ticket is chicken there um i just found out that the guys at the cafe has actually got a turkey combo for you guys so if you don't have a meal ticket um there is still good food at the cafe i just got word from my source that mr gelato is here so please go and help yourself it is good uh blackberry swirl i would recommend that one and so guys i just want to bless the food for us so father we just thank you so so much for who you are thank you for jesus thank you for your holy spirit on the inside of us father thank you for this awesome message this morning i pray father that every day we can just be more and more a living sacrifice for you lord and father we love you i pray just that for every single one year more than any for anything father that you'll just pour out your supernatural uh portion of your love all over his father in a tangible way that will just feel wrecked father i speak a blessing over the food i bless it to our bodies and bless those less fortunate and we are praise us in jesus name amen [Music]

Channel: Charis Bible College

Views: 1,583

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: IsulYJL545o

Length: 69min 8sec (4148 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021