Develop Your Faith | Roberts Liardon

good morning to all of you and happy birthday and pastor that's okay because birthdays are special and in the church we should celebrate them amen and so we say i want to be 96. i want my mom to be 96. my grandmother went to heaven when she was 94 so we have longevity jeans in our family plus my mom has lived right and i've tried to live right and if you obey your parents and live right long life will you have so i guess she lived right and honored her parents she's got a long life there so your departure date to go to heaven has not set it can be shrunk and it can be enlarged by how you live and what you do thank you for the four amens on that praise god so if you would open your bibles to the book of romans the 14th chapter and we'll have a good time here this morning thank you pastor and the team for all the good things you've done this week for me i've enjoyed it very very much excuse me and even though my voice has been scratchy i think it's survived hallelujah it needs yes it causes the glass that is so funny i talk about that up walks the glass so praise the lord um we have a verse here in verse 23 and the latter part of the verse says this for whatsoever is not of faith is sin romans 14 23 have you found that yet now that that's a that's a big statement it's also kind of rude if you look at it in a certain emotional way it's like if you're not in faith you're in sin that's what it's saying whatever is not of faith is not just a mistake it's a sin so if that verse is true then we should make sure that we look at this thing faith a lot closer than a lot of us do the word faith i'm going to break down for you the people of the world secular people will say that there are people of faith now they use that word faith in this way they say that anybody that has a belief system is a person of faith so christians are people of faith muslims are people of faith buddhists are people of faith because they have a belief system so we we accept that we accept that that's a secular label that we are people of faith the next level of defining the word faith in the secular world or as you come into the religious world is what particular faith are you this is secular talk and so in this house we are christians so the secular world the non-christian world will look at us as a christian religious group of people that subscribe to the teachings and the directions of jesus and the holy bible and so that's the way they call faith and then you are people of faith which one and then since we declare ourselves we are the people that follow jesus so we are now christians under the word christian we have now have we use the word what particular denomination or flavor of faith are you i can say it that way so we have catholics and protestants as the next definition division so you all are happy protestants you don't protest anymore but you call yourself a protestant did you get that because the word protestant means a protestant one i think we should keep protesting at the devil and sin and social ills and keep up with our title now i was not raised catholic i was not raised around the catholic faith but i do have catholic friends today in my life i would like for them all to come out and become protestants and be happy clappy pentecostals but some can't make that journey so i'm not god so that's between them and their lord we can be their friend i can teach the word i can encourage but it's up to them so catholic protestant now under the world of protestantism we have some other different things when you're a protestant then you have a particular denomination or i call it like the flavor of how you live out your christian faith so there is the baptist there's the lutheran there's the methodist there's the young brethren there's a church of christ they don't believe in pianos and you've got all kinds of people that are christians they subscribe to the bible to to some degree enough to call themselves christians and there's variations and among that group of protestants we also have what we call pentecostals charismatics which would be you now when you get to the the uh christian faith and these different denominations there's another divisionary line be called evangelicals and pentecostals and so it splits again so welcome to the world of faith as the world would call it no wonder they can't figure this out plus they don't know jesus and that's the biggest problem but then you have evangelicals and pentecostals slash charismatics an evangelical and a pentecostal believes almost the same thing about what i call the major doctrines and foundations of the bible the divinity of christ the virgin birth and the holy word of god and christian character and you know salvation by faith and grace and eternal home and most of those things we agree with without much variation in it there may be some little nuances they all argue make a big deal about but at the end of the day they have a born-again experience at least to some degree and then but where we separate is on this we separate because pentecostal full gospel we want to list the whole name of all of them we get we we have so many names for ourselves it's funny i want to know one of the lutherans and the baptists can't figure this out because by the time they know what we are we have a new name for ourselves uh now we're apostolic prophetic people uh we we've gone from full gospel charismatic pentecostal you know all those things and now we're apostolic prophetic people hallelujah and just call yourself a pentecostal be happy and but the difference is get back to my my point is the full gospel people the pentecostal charismatic people that you are part of believe this and this is where we separate to some degree with evangelicals everything that we have in matthew mark luke john and acts we believe still happens today to you through you and for people around you and so none of it in our understanding and belief has been done away with so the gifts still are there god still talks and people can hear his voice see a vision or have an inner knowing god is still talking man is still listening and there is deliverance there's healing there's prosperity there's right and all these great things there's angelic activity in our life nothing has been done away with and we want to walk in all of the fullness of the word and of the spirit and so that's where we separate because some evangelicals don't believe in speaking in tongues some evangelicals are called that you're of the devil and you're demon possessed if you do that well then i like my devil you're going to accuse me of that then i'll just own it now it doesn't seem to be as hostile as it used to be when i was a younger minister but there's still attitudes out there like that uh there are some of the well we don't believe healing happens today well it don't happen in your church but it doesn't ours because we actually accept the healing presence of christ in the now not just in the past and so you begin to have denominations or individual churches that will say i don't believe this i don't believe that so when you pick a church you want to find a the term from the romans it says full gospel peter said or paul said i have fully preached the gospel that's where we get the name full gospel from because we don't want to be half gospel or fourth gospel we want the full gospel we want it with all the powers graces and virtues and teachings we don't want anything that christ promised us to lay dormant in our life we want all to be active and working and so because of that particular thing we have been separated from the evangelical community sometimes politely sometimes rudely and so and then many full gospel ministers spend their whole life trying to get accepted by the bunch it just kicks you out my advice to you stop that and just obey your call with joy and and happiness and as people see the fruit and when they need a miracle they'll come to your church and just let it be like that you know it's good to build friendships i'm for all of that but i'm not gonna water down slow down or lower my volume so that you're comfortable why do i have to be uncomfortable for you to be comfortable that's why in many of these ministerial groups and towns and cities uh when they allow a pentecostal prayer they give them instructions don't speak in tongues don't pray too long don't pray too loud what do you want me to do just do a hail mary and what is it so i'm i don't i don't accommodate this if you invite me then i am what i am you don't like it they don't invite me i i'm just tired of kissing the butt of that religious spirit i'm not the i'm not mad at the people i'm not just going to back off from what has made me and given me victory in my life does that make sense and a lot of times pastors i know there are some watching there are some here they they they're trying to find acceptance in places of unity we need to unify on the highest common denominator not the lowest spiritual unity is determined by your highest your vision your pursuit of that's where you should find unity and so much of our unity is based on what do we all agree on down here that we can be at peace and talk and do well that's why most pastors little groups in towns are born and nobody goes to them because they can't go anywhere because somebody will get mad good morning everybody so you know um if there's a hunger in the group that's a different story if there's those who are saying we're willing to press beyond our denomination or even our personal experience to have more of what the word you can work with that but we do not need to spend our time trying to get accepted where we have been professionally rejected okay now we're not isolated people we're not arrogant people we're not trying to be better than you people we're just like you you don't like what we are it causes trouble for you god bless you we'll go over here and live by the river and baptize everybody we'll have a good shower or whatever you know and so because i tried that in my whole ministry of life when i pastored in california i tried i tried and i finally said you know i'm done i'm a pentecostal person and i like it i like that i speak in tongues out loud and strange sounding words i like that my people my church whoa and run down the aisle i like that i like that people fall on the floor and get up heal or get up happy or get up having a vision from the lord i'm happy for that now where some full gospel pastors get nervous because then we get accused of certain things that are true they say your services are so out of order well for a methodist or a lutheran or a baptist we certainly are even for catholics we're like really wild people but catholics like us more than they like all the others do you ever notice how catholics do like because catholics do believe in miracles sometimes they don't come from heaven but some another they're believing in some place at least they got that we believe in the supernatural we believe in the signs and the wonders in the way that they have subscribed to over time and they believe in miracles but then they add well they add stuff and that's where we have a problem between our protestant and catholic type of faith but but some of our evangelicals don't believe hardly anything but just salvation and wait for the rapture and we believe in dominion why we're here occupy until he comes we believe in evangelism taking church building doing everything we see jesus do and the apostles do we do but then in our church services we we we have like what we had this week now just just for a moment go with me and think like this if you come from an evangelical type of church are the historical churches we may call them and and they are out there and you come into a building like this now just say that you're a nice nazarene or you're a nice united brethren or you're a good southern baptist which the south full of the baptists are like every other church thank god for baptist ministry they'll get you saved every sunday and you will not go to hell you'll go to heaven you might get there early but you will go to heaven some people don't laugh no matter how i say anything but when when they come into uh your church service even this morning or even in the conference just think from it that you've never been around anything like this and you've got flag people trying to you know land an airplane you know they're and then you got ballerinas who don't know how to do the ballerina thing they're gonna cross the front and then you've got some people in the crowd that oh there's crime everybody else is happy and singing and we have all kinds of things going on and our music is normally not hymn music it's happy clapping music that's that's and i like that music but they're they're like more to the hymns and to the sacred songs and i enjoy them amazing grace the everlasting arm and all the all the great what a friend we have in jesus oh blessed assurance i mean all those are great songs i love them i think the young people should learn to sing some of them not all the time but just when they fit have that in your your your list of things you can do because i asked one person can you sing amazing grace and they sing the i think the bethel song or whatever it was i thought no that's not the amazing grace i need i need the one that was written by john newton please you know who's that and we had to change the song because they didn't know how to play that one so we we need to make sure that our younger has that as a part of their their uh list the thing that they can play they understand what they are a little side note here i'm just i don't know why i'm in this vein but i'll just stick with it when i pastored in california california is a young state an entrepreneur state now i live in florida where they're old people they all well they go there to die and retire retire and die one of the big businesses in florida is shipping dead people out of florida back to the northern states to be buried in the graveyard they paid for and so it's just two opposite states it's like having two opposite children i got a church in both and um in passing in california had a lot of young people entrepreneur kind of people and they love all the new songs back in those days hillsong had just got going darlene check it just hit you know the high level of influence and that was a great time for uh the next step of christian music and i wish it had stayed in the worship side of that and i've gone into the concert only side that that's the i didn't do nothing and uh praise the lord be healed and um and so uh we're going to have to work through that somehow or we're going to lose the the true worship that we're supposed to do you know christian concerts are great in a christian concert i want the smoke the lights the loud music and all the wilds that's what i want a concert when i come to church or a conference i don't really want to concert i want to worship god in the house of the lord that i'm in with my fellow brothers and sisters together and lift up our voice and honor our god and worship the majesty of our king and so it's two different things but we've replaced most of our worship with concert type of stuff now that doesn't mean you shouldn't have excellence and you shouldn't be skilled i'm not preaching that is wrong have all of that but have the worship side to it and so i would ask for because i was raised in the church i mean i i grew up so i grew up with the hymns and i i appreciate them and i love the courses and so my church folks my young people didn't know any of the hymns and my older folks said we never sing any of the hymns well they both were right so i had a problem as a pastor like what am i going to do about this so i thought if i sing a hymn that young people just start counting the ceiling tiles they don't they don't like the the bead and the sound and they they don't understand the songs that cause us a way some of them are worded so i thought well i'm going to teach a hymn a month i'm going to take some time out of one of my sunday services and i'm going to teach on where the hymn came from go through the words and explain what's being said and how it's been and kind of modernize the understanding of the verses and the chorus and and gave the story that it's well with my soul and all the the storyline and the young people absolutely loved them when they got to the hymns they all heard they got to say i thought good it's working and my old people were like yes then i had another little problem i had to teach choruses to the old people here's what this course means and it's only four lines we don't need 50 000 words just take the four lines and memorize them and get lost you know in the spirit when you're singing and so we would explain those things and do that and it works so beautifully there is a way to take the old and the new and put together the old is not the greatest the greatest is what's in front of us but the old or that which we've come from still has a presence and a voice with us and there are times that those manners and those ways are needful for the health and the function of a church or a conference or even a denomination does that make sense so in all of our learning let's make sure we keep the good from the past and go forward now i'm known as a historian so i'm going to make a statement here if your past is better than your future you're present then you are backslidden if your church its past is better than its present then the whole bunch of you are backslidden if your network or your denomination's past is better than your present then the whole thing is backslidden the greatest thing is watch in front of us and we stand on the shoulders of those of past generations and there are things that we should admire about their life their motivation and even some of the ways they did many or ministry style don't have to copy all of it so i thank god that i we don't copy the 1700s style as close as as others do i'd have to wear a black robe this morning and make sure that i covered myself with what we call a clergical uh robe and garb and things like that i'm glad i can dress like this and pastor can dress like that and you can dress like that i like that i'm glad tires ties have become of the devil now that was the greatest thing to read like thank god we can throw these things away i have about five left i used to have hundreds of them because that's how we all dressed so when i retired them i was so happy to throw those things out of my life and i only kept five and i carry one with me just in case i land in a church that really needs to tie on sunday morning so i can accommodate that faith becomes a active tool in your life that's where i when i preach faith i preach faith from that final definitional position and most people in christianity just use the word faith as a label or an identification and not as a working spiritual tool in their life faith is a working mechanism by which the christian hears obeys and overcomes if you do not have faith you cannot be saved if you do not use your faith you cannot receive any of the promises we are all done by faith everybody say faith all right hebrews 11. all right now some people think they they get into a storm and the devil convinces them they don't have faith i call this the faith discovery test that'll help people you can raise me up just a little bit now in verse 6 it says in hebrews 11. without faith it is impossible we've read this verse before believe me most of you know it by heart but look at it again afresh with me it's impossible to make god happy without this thing called faith not faith of identification but faith that is actively working in you and you are consciously activating your faith on behalf of the promises and with god so god does not get a big smile if you don't have any faith then it says in this verse he that cometh to god must believe that he is and that god is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him now i had people come to me throughout my ministry and say i don't have any faith i've lost my faith and i thought now lord how do i convince him besides just saying yes you do you know you know i can say that to some people and it'll carry some weight others go and then they'll come back at you and because i don't have that influence or however they are processing the moment they're in is that they have no faith but here's the test the lord said ask them if they believe i exist if you believe that god is that is a sign that you have faith even in the most terrible time of your life so i even do that to myself i said roberts you still believe god exists yes then i got faith does it help anybody so if you go through a storm or a person through the storm just ask them a hebrews 11 6 question do you believe that god exists and at that moment most people well yeah he he he's there but you've got faith you must believe that he is and secondly that god is active he is a rewarder of the person that does not just seek him but a certain style of seeking a diligent seeker god rewards casual seeking gets casual blessings no seeking gets nothing see gotta let the word talk to you not your feeling without faith it is impossible impossible to please god well i sing he didn't say singing does this singing has a place well i go to church well the devil goes to church he's the best church member in town he's there early participates in everything and leaves late and if you don't drive him out he'll take over and i appreciate coming to church especially after all that we've gone through the last year in our nation in the world i appreciate that you're here i appreciate that you're mask-free if i if i can say if i can say that and not be stoned later i'm like some states i go to is like the question is mask or no mask and the whole church is fussing about it like get over it those are mainly blue states if you live in a blue state you may want to pray about moving to a red state just a personal thought diligently seek him diligence means this to give special attention to a duty or a task assigned to you so when it says seek god we've got to give special attention to the seeking of god in the way that you feel you should do more bible reading more prayer or both or whatever it is that you are doing to seek god to give special attention to it that's what diligence means when it says watch your heart with all diligence that means give an extra glance to review your heart than how you view your foot but your heart is where the issues of life naturally and spiritually come out of you and he says diligently give special attention to that that your heart can keep doing what it's supposed to do for you without faith it's impossible to please god you must believe that he is that he exists and that he is an active god that will reward them that gives special attention to the seeking of his face so how many believe god exists look around the room all these people have faith like you we all have faith we've got that settled now then people talk like this you have more faith than i have now in some cases that's true but not for the reason the way some people think it's true there is truth in this room today there are people that have bigger faith than another person sitting in this room or watching me now that doesn't mean you're a bad person it just means that's the way somebody has conducted their life let's go to romans 12. everybody still with me i'm giving you a faith matches so i can get to the point that i want to get to at the end of it sometimes as a teacher and it seems like that's what i've been mainly this week you take you have to build you know because sometimes we we preach the last point and people don't know the other steps of why we're there and then you create flakes that way flakes are created by um not hearing the whole message and on how to walk in in its correct manner in its fullness and they're only doing one or two aspects of it and they think they got the whole thing and that's why it doesn't work and it's weird and it's not quite right and you're a flake that's why you got to come to a good church like this and have the pastors and the elders and folks teach you the bible and read teach some of you the bible and remind some of you what you forgot i've already heard that here it again okay romans 12 verse 3. some of these things you know but i'm going to just rehearse them with you the last part of verse 3 says god has dealt romans 12 3 god has dealt to every man that includes women too when you see that in scripture all this this culture thing we're going through well the bible is a very male chivalrous book no because you know how to read it you crazy thing you when it says every man it means mankind most of the time when you read it you can always reserve mankind or include men and men and women it's it's inclusive we can't let cancer culture interpret the bible he has dealt to every man and woman the measure of faith all right not just faith notice the words he has dealt to every person the measure of faith the thee gives a distinction to this that it is the same amount that god gives to every person to start with so let's say faith is a size that can fit right here in the palm of my hand everybody that god walks with and you walk with god has been dealt or given the exact same measure the same potential in every measure the same everything in every measure the difference comes in with what the person does with their measure not how the measure was given out does that make sense so let's cure the point like you have bigger faith in me and people say because god favored you over 50 other people well that violates the scriptures that peter talks about that god's not a respecter of persons meaning he doesn't play favorites we all are the apple of his eye god is so vast that he can handle all of us as the preciousness of his sight but many times people have taught because they didn't know better or they wanted to be bigger over other people my faith is bigger than yours well praise the lord that kind of talk should never really be among us it may be observed among us we may see a person's faith and encourage us to keep building our faith to become like that so let me say it this way the same measure that mother mary had for all you catholics you've got two the same measure of faith that peter had and paul had and john had and saint matthew had we all had the same measure the same measure that barnabas had you have the same measure that john wesley had you have the same measure that wigglesworth got you got the same thing the same measure of faith that katherine kuhlman used it came the same exact way the same amount with the same potential in every measure of faith god has dealt to everybody the exact same beginning deposit of faith in your life the change of the difference comes in with what you do with what god has given you now there are people in the in this in this church that go to the gym and you can tell it their shirts are too tight their legs are so big that they don't need skinny jeans their legs won't fit in skinny jeans it won't not work for them they'll be ripping them just to get movement because they've gone to the gym and they have diligently sought to increase the physical strength of their body every one of our body has strengthening potential in it but you can look at me and tell me that i don't go to the gym that often and i will confess that is true so that's why my arms are like this and the bigness of my legs is on because of muscles because of other stuff okay now i could have bigger biceps and stronger legs than you know the six-pack that i had when i was like 18. sort of took a picture i haven't seen it since i was 19. i'm 55. i haven't seen the six-pack i know it is in there somewhere but it's not said hello to me for many many years well it's my fault there are other people that are even older than i that are fit and ripped and because they did something with what they were given they said i like my body but i want it to be this way and here's how you do it and they went and they did it that's like faith you have the same measure like you have the same body what you do with your body will determine if your muscles get stronger and bigger you can't there and sit there and say well you just have a different body than i do no we all have the same body we sit the same way we eat we have two eyes two ears one nose one mouth same muscle everything it's what you do that makes the difference what you don't do leaves you where you are and you can't get mad at somebody who does what they want to do and get the results you say well brother roberts just lay your hands on me and pray that my faith increases faith don't do that faith won't increase by me going receive faith brother i would be getting everybody to zap me like that if it worked like that i've had people say receive faith which sounds really nice but it means absolutely nothing except if you had a religious experience and a prayer line and you have a fake hope that something happened your faith does not come to you by somebody screaming in your ear nor does it grow by someone going receive faith faith don't grow that way well are you still in romans go to the 10th chapter just a couple chapters back i know most of you know this but for some reason i felt led to teach this today i love teaching faith i like taking the mystery out of it faith oh please well brother roberts you never know what god may do yes i do he tells me ninety percent of his god activity is in his book if not a hundred percent it's in his book so god's not mysterious you just haven't read his book well i is not seeing ear is not heard would you please keep reading to the next verse your blind bat except then that god has come to and revealed it to them so you know like you quote half a verse you don't finish the verse and you have a whole world going like would you please read the rest of the verse please the mystery is for the non-readers and the non-diligent seekers and then we make up these statements because it offends people when you preach and talk and live like this you're not a very good pastor no i'm not i'm not a babysitter i'm a trainer i think a pastor should be trainers and not babysitters to be honest the pastor should work him or herself out of a job that you train your people so well they don't need you anymore they can hear god for themselves correctly interpret the bible correctly obey the lord fight the devil then then what are we supposed to do find a new bunch and start over and let the ones you've trained become now helpers in your church or go help build god's churches other places or assist other things most pastors don't like to hear that because we want to gather together together together the bible is gathering training and shipping gather train ship gather train ship gather train ship notice that god's name is two-thirds the word go there's no stay in his name and in his nature he's more of a goer than a stayer good morning everybody romans 10 and verse 17 a verse that you probably have read and heard before but let me read it to you again and look at it like you're hearing it for the first time so then faith cometh italicized that means that the british folks put it in there by hearing and hearing the word of god faith is energized faith grows faith gets stronger by one thing not two not ten one this verse says faith expands and gets stronger when you do this hear hearing not having heard hearing the word of god talk to you read to you and studied your faith can be as strong or as big as you want it there is no scripture that says faith can only grow this far and no farther your denomination may say that the people you're around may say that but it's not in the bible so you can have the the wildest strongest kind of faith that you want to build yourself see i grew up in the faith camp and in the days we were persecuted we were hyper faith people i thought well if there's hyper faith i want it if there's a nuclear faith i want that too any kind of faith out there because i want my faith to grow and i wanted to be big and i wanted to produce for god and for my life and for my people i want the hyperis the biggest the wildest the craziest the most authentic faith i can get and i wanted to have babies i wanted to grow so the accusation against the faith camp didn't bother me it encouraged me like well if that's hyper faith then i want it because there's no limit to where you can grow your faith i was asked to go preach in australia many years ago for phil pringle and i did it i think it was oz fire used to call us at a new year's conference and and so i didn't want to go to austria because it's so far down there i mean it's like the eternal flight you leave from l.a in 18 hours you go to sleep you wake up and you still have to go back to sleep before you ever get there it's like have we died and been sucked into outer space and we're never going to get there and so i really didn't want to go because it was so far i mean it's the uttermost parts of the earth that in new zealand really it's the farts you can get from jerusalem so i guess that's the way to put it you're closer to antarctica than you are anything else who wants to go there freeze there and they're only oh there's wall rushes and penguins there's no humans i like humans better than animals how about you i like puppies i like dogs i like all that but people are more important than a dog please dress your baby and leave your dog alone so i wrote back and i said no i don't know i don't i don't know if i want to come and they wrote back we feel like you're supposed to come well everybody says that just being honest everybody says that you know and really god has directed people and sometimes people just want you because they were blessed by something and that's okay but i didn't want to go so i was so stupid so i wrote back and said i'll only come if you can guarantee me that i get to hold a koala and have a picture because in my family my i have a sister there's only two of us i'm the oldest and my sister's a year and half younger than me and she you know what girls get into these animal things they love dogs they love cats they love ducks they love rabbits and she was in a koala phase so i thought has one way to really torture her you know brother sister stuff you know and so uh i didn't think they would say sugars i i didn't know about koalas at all i do now but um they go no problem we got a guy here that has like a koala farm i thought oh god i gotta go to australia so i go to australia and have really a great time i love the australian people it's just so far down there and so i went there and i stayed for a long time so i don't have to do the trip again too soon so i traveled around the country even went over to perth and i had a great time that made some very good friends great people and australians have a little unique sense of humor all their jokes bite you a little bit does that make sense there's well they're ex-convicts so it's in their culture because i didn't know if they were serious because because our jokes do not try to bite you or slap you but every other on that trip all the australians were there laughing and we were at table and everybody and i didn't know if they were really hitting at me because they made fun of me being an american i was obviously an american and then there's that man so i had to learn so i thought i'm just going to give it back to him when i give it back to him i got accepted so you get around australia and they slap you a little bit slap them back take your little joke and go back at them and then oh okay then that took me two weeks to figure that out and so once i learned to come back at him we had a whole different relationship so i'm standing in the koala farm behind all the little glass with the koala guy that goes to the church he hands me a grandpa koala and a little baby koala and they give it to you on the back of a little teddy bear because koalas have those little hands or those claws and then and they hold on to the tree and they'll they'll go into you not meaning to so they put them on the back of a teddy bear so they grab a hold of it and you pick that up and oh yeah it's really nice so i i i said well where's the camera well we didn't have cell phones that we do today we had to find the camera where's the camera i got to get this because i'm going to torture my sister so i'm holding the grandpa koala and the baby koala and they're you know they're asleep during the daytime they're just kind of sitting there looking at you and they're so cute he's like oh but they smell but they're so cute so i'm sitting there having my picture taken with the koalas and the koala guy starts the koala speech which i didn't care about i i didn't i don't want to know about a koala it's the last time i want to touch one i'm on touch with my sister and have a good brother-sister fight and that was the whole thing and he starts on koalas it's this it's not a bear it's a marshall nothing the whole thing and then you know they do this and then they do to australia and he keeps going and i'm like wow like shut up skip through it give me the reader's digest version don't give me the textbook version but he was giving me the textbook version and in the middle of this 30-minute talk about koalas he goes and they only eat one thing one thing that's kind of a picky eater what do they eat do you everybody know that's right they don't eat maple leaves they don't eat anything only from that tree so any place koalas show up in the zoos around the world they have to grow that or have access to that particular tree because that's the only thing that they eat they will sit there and just starve faith has the same disposition it eats one thing only chapter and verse chapter and verse chapter and verse your faith when in each chapter and verse starts moving gets energized and starts growing and starts and as long as you keep feeding it what it needs to grow brother robbers what about singing and worshiping no what about crying no what about giving no faith don't grow because we worship god and i love worshiping god but it didn't say faith grew worship does other things in your life but it don't grow your faith crying does nothing for your faith growth level it helps your emotions and sometimes god takes up knowledge of your tears but most people's tears god don't even watch because it's done from the emotion and self-pity i know that hurts but it's true i watch them in church oh god oh shut up because some of those tears are not from the heart they're not they're just emotional things that we've learned to do uh as an expression of what we feel and it's okay and there's nothing wrong with it but it's not doing for you what if you think it's doing for you it does not grow your faith it does another work in your life faith is like the koala it eats one thing only now you can disobey this verse and say every other way you want to say it but i have chapter and verse and all you have is talk the bible says so faith cometh faith grows faith is energized by hearing not having heard but continuous hearing makes your faith to grow of the word of god so if you want big faith don't find a person with big faith and ask them to pray for you because your faith will not grow because someone prays for your faith to be like theirs in size the size of your faith the strength of your faith is your fault it's your fault you personally so you can't blame god didn't give you that size faith i've just taken the scriptures and murdered that false doctrine hopefully i kill it real good so i can't have any more babies and you get your life a little bit stronger the right way now then people will say this well what about special faith because scriptures say there's special faith special faith can kind of be categorized under the gift of faith in the gifts of the spirit so what is the gift of faith it is different than your measure of faith in this way notice that the gift of the spirit is called the gift of faith first corinthians 12. you want to write that down look it up a little bit later the list nine gifts in the nine categories there is the gift of faith the gift of faith the best way i know how to explain it to you is like this you're in a storm of life and you've grown your faith to be this big but your storm is this big and you are pleading the blood activating angels sowing seeds binding and loosing and believing and speaking all this and you're not winning because your faith is not strong enough to handle the battle you're in at that time have you ever been there i've been there more times i wish to count i love the gifts of the spirit and what happens when god your father looks down and looks over your life and sees that you are doing what you know to do the best you can and you're holding and you're believing and you're doing the mature if one more thing comes i'm going to die i've been like see the devil knows that one war won't cause much problems but he gives you multiple warhead attacks and that's where you'll get overwhelmed multiples because one or two after a while you become a veteran of a one or two conflicts at the same time you can get through that but four or five one with the home one with your money one with something else i'll hit you bam and god looks down and says they've been growing their faith the best they can and they've been doing well but the devil thrown storm bigger than what their faith can get them through to the other side and god loves you so much that he pulls from his great bank his great treasury a gift of faith and god takes a portion of his faith and sends it to you through the gift of the faith gift of faith supernaturally five minutes ago you were bleeding and dying on the jericho road and they give to faith hit you like whoa you become a mighty general like no problem and then they all think you're on crack by that time because you've gone from what hallelujah that's the gift of faith god doesn't give you all of this faith he gives you a portion of the faith that you need to get victory in the situation where you're at now the gift of faith may do one or two ways to get your victory instantly move you from despair to total miraculous breakthrough boom that matter just a few moments but the gift of faith can also do this give you the ability to endure with joy and peace until you win it comes either way i've seen it both ways now that's the gift of faith i'm not teaching about the gift of faith i'm talking about your measure of faith that you live by in everyday life of your own heart that makes sense that faith god will assist by the gift of faith in the storms of your life when you need it and i am thankful that god gives us a portion of his faith in a crisis time of our life because then we get our victories and we make it faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of god all right ii corinthians you still got a little bit of time i got about two more verses i think first closing none of you believe it now anymore you don't laugh don't be like all right how does faith operate faith operates mainly by two things or it's released or activated by speaking and intentional actions okay second corinthians chapter 4 and verse 13. we having the same measure of faith according as it is written i have believed and therefore spoken we also believe and therefore speak faith operates on a believing speaking mode in its major activation or releasing your faith to god that's why your mouth has to stay purified and you don't let foul things come out of it you keep it holy and keep it as strong as you can in the right way so that your words carry more weight and power when you speak you cannot curse and have your faith confessions be powerful you cannot have a loose mouth on monday through saturday and be holy on sunday with your mouth because it won't work that way you got to have a mouth that speaks life and is corrected when it makes mistakes and you deal with it believing and speaking faith operates or is activated by believing and speaking now some people believe and don't speak some speak and don't believe and that's why both of those groups get nothing it is a dynamic duo in the bible believing and speaking that's how you got saved you believed in your heart that god raised christ from the dead and you confessed with your mouth thus you are born again you got saved by believing and speaking you got born again by believing and speaking and faith operates like that in every other circumstance the promise believing and speaking now faith last verse hebrews 11 go back to hebrews 11 last verse are you enjoying this this morning hebrews 11. verse 33 faith likes to do stuff faith is not something that wants to be bored your faith likes projects i never met a general a great man woman or god that didn't have a project they were believing for some have two or three at the same time oral roberts had projects or in the multi-million dollars his projects were huge brothers somewhere else projects were a lot bigger than mine hebrews 11 33 the four main things faith likes to do through you and for you who through faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness and obtained promises and stopped the mouths of lions four main things conquering correcting obtaining and stopping that's what faith likes to do you should have at least four projects if you can in your life one for each one of these now the most popular thing here is the obtaining of promised faith that's where most people live and die they read god's promise and they believe that promise and that's it so they live in the faith of obtaining promises they don't conquer nothing wrought or correct nothing and they don't stop them they just obtain they're obtaining faith we receive we receive receive and you get it because that's what it works but you've not conquered shelby you've not conquered the county the shelby's in we've not conquered the eels of our generation your faith likes to subdue kingdoms or conquer things your faith likes to rot or correct things and to make you come in the right order your faith obtains and it stops stuff by believing and speaking mainly sometimes your faith is released by godly uh led action or i said this way an intentional action that you release your faith or activate it by buying somebody groceries or giving an offering or doing a trip or whatever it is that god tells you to do and those intentional actions can release your faith too that makes sense so your faith needs at least four projects i don't want to conquer nothing chicken i don't want to correct nothing lazy person i just obtained nice i don't want to stop nothing i don't want to stop evil from taking over my county and here's what i'm waiting for the rapture big chicken faith likes projects faith has a voice and it likes projects and the just shall live by the measure of faith that god gave you not by the identification of faith but the use of this thing called faith the great men and women of god that i studied they would take their faith and use it like a tool their faith was a working tool in their private life and in their ministry and they worked it all the time and the more they worked it the better they got at it i asked one time i told this the other day but i'll tell it again because it fits here real good i asked roberts the other day or several years ago now are you rich he just looked at me and goes what do you mean i said well you know brother roberts since i was a kid in tulsa people talked about how much money you had your secret swiss bank accounts and all that i said isn't that true he goes i wish it was i said well i just said i'm the guy that asks all the questions that people think and they're too embarrassed to ask them because my attitude is you may be dead next week i better ask you today because you may be gone so i ask all kinds of questions and then i said to brother roberts i said well how much money have you raised in your lifetime well that was a good question he looked at me he you couldn't handle that i said i'm a believer i believe stuff try me he goes no and his wife was cooking lunch for us evelyn and from the kitchen she goes oral tell him oh thank you mama roberts and so they had a great marriage that a great flow between them it's beautiful to see and he goes well since mama said tell you i will tell you i said thank you mrs roberts and they all laughed and he goes i've raised 1 billion 500 million u.s dollars so far in my life one man raised a billion and a half in his lifetime for the gospel so you can see where i spent my money go to that university and see what i built out there and then all the tv shows will be paid to be on air all over the nation of all the thousands of people that got saved and healed or in church today because we did tv specials and we did weekly tv shows and we went after the heart of america to get saved and get healed and get spirit filled i said yeah i gave you some of my money i believed in it i gave money my family gave money to that and we are proud that we did it but i said brother roberts a billion is he that is that legal i didn't know churches could raise a billion dollars because i thought we all supposed to just be barely getting by that's what it was kind of talked to me as a little pentecostal kid just hang on and god will rescue you at midnight i got so tired of midnight rescues i wanted to quit the ministry but that's what they understood and they taught midnight rescue mainly for the book of acts paul and silas was in the innermost part of the prison and it was dark and it was dreary like it is in your life today and at midnight the darkest hour of your life god will rescue you the last moment before it all collapses his hand of strength shall undergird you we all go whoa yes so i grew up knowing about rescue side of faith i didn't know anything about the lifestyle of faith i didn't hear that so in ministry thank god i went to a good church and a good family because my family were rescue faith people we loved god but we knew that right before they repossessed the house god would pay the bill and that's what we got right before they came and took the house somehow some money showed up and we were able to keep it for another two months before we had to do this rescue thing again you're all laughing because you're guilty you understand don't you no thank god for the rescue that's in faith not believing it not nothing i appreciate that we didn't lose our house didn't lose our car god rescued us but that's all the kind of faith i was taught in my church when i was a little boy love god get saved so you don't go to hell and burn and when you're in trouble hold real close to jesus get around that cross and wrap your arms around and don't get pulled away because god will rescue you god loves you enough to rescue you well that's all i was ever told that's what i believe that's what i heard i heard and my faith had rescue faith ability it didn't have lifestyle to it the first time i heard a prosperity message from getting a coping offering he came to our church to preach and i loved brother copeland that's the first time i heard him or at least i remember hearing him i said that way billy joel doherty my pastor said to brother copeland you just come and receive your own offer now let the people know what they're giving to and and receive it and i'll i'll never forget what he said he got him and said i don't need your money but that's an interesting way to start an offering my bills are all paid three months ahead of time i never heard that before from any preacher in my life into that moment i heard many healing sermons holy spirit but that i like a coward a new gay like what and i had my offering you know i thought well since you don't need it i won't give it to you and i put it back in my pocket that's what i actually did i thought well my bills aren't paid three months in advance i'm gonna keep this and do that for myself he goes on and talks a little bit more about you know prosperity is determined by what you do know what people do to you i thought really and that phrase i don't need your money my bills are paid three months in advance if you want to be blessed then give what you think is appropriate for your life so i didn't give him nothing i thought your bills were paid you don't need any money i do i'll keep your money for myself but all that week i kept hearing this phrase over my head i don't need your money my bills are paid to three months in advance i don't need your money and he's like just tortured me like i bind you but wouldn't go away and so and what it was was the holy ghost was taking that word and it was working into my conscience to say there is something more than what you've known and you just got a little glimpse and when you first hear a truth most of the time not every time but most of the time you think it's wrong you look and then if you're if you're a good person you you go back and study the bible for yourself on it you go back and get the tape of whatever you heard that challenge you in that deeper way and listen to it again and most the time you will have an aha moment i went and bought the tape next sunday brother copeland's sermon to see if he really said what i've been tortured by all week long i thought maybe i misunderstood him and god's man because i kept the money yes i'm working all this out my little my little gospel brain and loving jesus but a lot of tradition inside there that time i didn't know no one ever told me that faith can create a lifestyle of daily blessings protections daily enhancements daily prosperity over your ministry your business and your life i didn't know that i only knew faith that rescued me because that's all i'd ever heard i got the tape he did say exactly what i remembered i kept rewinding it it's back in the cassette season you know it's back then it's play rewind play and i learned there was something more than what i had now let me get this i'm trying to close third closing my grandmother is a great blessing in my life along with my mother my grandmother should say all the time we'd go to church or do our lady walks together if somebody has more of a god than you do don't criticize them get over there and get it now she tell that to me all the time if somebody has a revelation or something functioning in their ministry or life that you don't have don't criticize them go over there and get it from them learn from it receive from it that's why churches should get along a little bit better because some churches are real strong and some things that others aren't and you all get along you can exchange those things and help each other out and have a have a great community and lose no church members or nothing you you're always becoming that voice that one voice in your community faith creates a lifestyle of conquering correcting obtaining and stopping it creates that faith is not an identification label it is a spiritual tool that you use willfully when you come into circumstances or in daily life every person has been dealt the measure of faith and your faith grows by how you hear and keep hearing i asked robert to finish that story i asked roberts how how how did you raise over a billion dollars he goes third john verse 2. okay what does that mean he said me and my wife got a revelation one time early in our life that beloved i wish above all things that you prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers that's well i've read that verse but i'm not prospering like you he goes because you've not developed your faith for that like i have he said i've been developing my faith for financial resources to do the call of god on my life since i was in my mid-20s and i got a revelation and i pounded this i mean this teaches to you that verse 3rd john 2 the key to it is the last phrase of the verse according see it up there even as your soul prospers what is soul prosperity it's the increase of your understanding so as your understanding increases these two things if you're studying will get bigger in your life all right let me teach you this way john 8 32 you all know this you shall know the truth and the truth shall yep and let me give you the lairdon translation you shall know the truth and to the depth you understand that truth to that degree will it work for you oral roberts had developed enough faith in him to create that ministry and all the money to do what he was called to do and he did a great job you can follow oral roberts's life and faith good man but my faith still not where his was but he understood more about things about giving and receiving and operating in the law of faith for financial resource and material things you need to do life and ministry with more than anybody i ever met the second guy that has the strongest in my relationship is kenneth copeland kenneth copeland flies one of the biggest fastest private jets in the world people get real mad at him inside edition hanging out they all get mad at him and even christians go i just can't believe brother copeland finds that he just first he's a pilot he likes flying stuff i don't i like it in the back looking important and so it's two things he likes to fly so one of his little hobbies i guess now watch this he gave away 27 airplanes in his life have you given away a car yet so if you give away 27 airplanes there's a big one coming back at you and when it shows up we the body shouldn't criticize that we should rejoice and say if god can do that for him he can do that for us and our babies notice how the clap was on that because some you're still like you're processing faith is a lifestyle job 36 11. if you'll obey and please the lord you'll spend your days in prosperity and your years in pleasure if you obey and serve the lord you will spend your days those it's plural not a day days notice the word year is years s that speaks of lifestyle what is years in pleasures i learned in translation says it this way anxiety free living that the stress of life the anxiety of life does not consume you like it does so many and everybody said amen did you enjoy the message this morning did it help you this morning praise the lord see when you teach faith properly the mystery leagues now you know what to do now here's going to be the problem now you're responsible for what now you know you can't go i didn't know god goes you're in the lairdon service he took an hour and a half and talked and distinctly for you to get it so i can't lay my hand i mean we can pray for you in a moment but i can't lay my hands on you and say receive faith it don't come that way this is something tanking personal responsibility to grow your faith and to get your faith projects and to go at it amen father we thank you for today we're so happy that you have been kind to us this weekend you were kind enough to be among us you were kind enough to speak to us and you were so kind to give answers and to heal and to strengthen them that have been here and so we say thank you we are thankful that you were among us and that there was peace and love and unity all through the comfort we thank you father and we thank god's people for walking in those paths father seal everything over this weekend into our hearts and our mind you're called the great teacher and i ask you to take even things i've said today adjust them so that everybody hears them correctly in their heart and helps renew their mind i pray that for you in jesus name amen pastor

Channel: Jesus My King Church

Views: 3,668

Rating: 4.8775511 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Tb6QYhM3_IY

Length: 75min 17sec (4517 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 24 2021