Faith for Victory - By Dr. Rodney Hardgrove

hi good morning welcome to life church my name is ian i'm your host this morning listen we are excited here at life church and what god is doing we have had a phenomenal week and today we get to celebrate and worship as one family together with our entire life church congregation and you sitting right there in your home welcome again my name is ian i am your host and this is live church live and uncut that's right this is life church live raw and uncut friend we are excited because we just had this past weekend our first deeper life service for the entire year what does that mean for you deeper life is where we press in a little further than we would on a normal sunday morning to experience the presence of god and it results in signs wonders release impartation and miracles listen guys the worship has gotten started so i want to encourage you let's join the worship and i'll see you guys in a few moments right after the worship [Music] [Music] there's nothing that's difficult for our god [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is love surrounds me [Music] there's nothing to fear now for i'm safe with you [Applause] [Music] to you for jesus there's nothing impossible for you when all i see are the ashes you see the beauty is [Music] [Music] foreign us nothing can stand against the power of our god you shine in the shadow you win every battle nothing can stand go [Applause] [Applause] [Music] when my hands are oh one minute okay guys does anybody have a battle this morning that they need to lift up to the lord i know i believe in god for a miracle there's a miracle i can't tell you about but i believe in god now does anybody else have a battle this morning i want us to sing that bridge one more time and i want you to sing it over your battle you lift that battle up where you start envisioning the miracle that god is gonna do all right so lift your battle up let's go when i fight so when i bought my hands lifting heart oh god oh battle belongs to you one more oh god hallelujah so follow your word says in john 14 21 whoever has your commands and keeps them is the one who loves you and the one who loves you will be loved by the father and you too will love us and show yourself to us heavenly father so this morning we come before your throne of grace heavenly father with a heart of love and adoration heavenly father because there are no words there is no context father that can describe the way that you love us so father we just thank you this morning and we pray that you are honored and that you are blessed as we worship you this [Music] love morning patience you fill my heart [Music] with so much peace [Music] you're amazing you make my life feel brand new [Music] you're amazing you make my life feel brand new jesus [Music] jesus oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] with so much peace you're amazing [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] your love is amazing your love is amazing your love is amazing your love is amazing your grace is amazing your grace is amazing your grace is amazing [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] too much [Music] oh [Music] good morning good morning church good morning life church i feel like i'm at home my name is adriana and i am from reading california and this is my fourth time here actually visiting you guys thank you i love you guys too [Applause] um but i have a one of my interns here mackenzie come on up mackenzie she's from ohio can we give it up for mckenzie please and she's got a testimony that she's gonna share hi guys you guys are all so fun and i really enjoy being here so thank you so much for having us um i just wanted to share a quick testimony from the um healing thing that we did the other night um i was sitting in the back with adriana and val and you guys know val she's great she is um but anyways so val had been sitting over by the wall and then she came and sat next to us and then all of a sudden she turned and looked at us and she said that when the word of knowledge was given about healing neck injuries she's had neck pain for a long time but she didn't come up because it wasn't from an injury and as soon as she sat down in the back with us the pain just lifted [Applause] instantly yeah so if you guys have neck pain go ahead and raise your hand and we'll just go ahead and pray and release that testimony over you does anybody have neck pain in here see one yay yeah god can heal you just from being in the room obviously because that's what happened with val but i'm just going to go ahead and pray god thank you so much for this family and thank you that your healing power is always available to us god i just released the testimony of what you did with val over these people today and i just declare your full healing in the name of jesus amen yeah so mckinsey is one of my students she's actually this is her third week of third year and so she's doing great and then ina as well so thank you so much for giving us your time but yes [Applause] amen as we continue to worship um just an encouragement for somebody today that don't despise your story don't despise your journey your story is your own and god promises to restore restore your story even change your story but don't despise your story because he made you unique god says i know what i'm doing i have it all i have not abandoned you plans to give you a future and a hope when you call on me when you come and pray to me i will listen so god promises to listen to you when you come looking for me you will find me yes when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else i'll make sure you won't be disappointed god says he will not disappoint you and then this part here is the part he says i'll turn things around for you i'll bring you back from all the countries into which i drove you and that's the part this morning that is for someone this morning don't despise your story your journey because god says i can turn it around and make it better [Music] so holy spirit just come [Music] come holy spirit [Music] as the spirit was moving over the water spirit come move over us come rest on us come rest on us as the spirit was moving over the water spirit come move over us come rest on us come rest on us so calm [Music] [Music] me [Music] [Music] [Music] moving over the water my [Music] when you when you fill the room [Music] oh [Music] you're [Music] you're all we [Music] do you want him this morning is [Music] your i know i know me [Music] [Music] do [Music] when you move and make my [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] when you fill the room you're here and i know you are moving i'm here hallelujah we're gonna sing that again [Music] but it's the image that would have come to me turn this over me john [Music] in genesis 1 the bible says that the earth was without form and void but the spirit of god was hovering over the waters and that's what happened and it's happening right now where the spirit of jesus is hovering over the waters where the spirit of jesus is hovering over the void and the confusion and the crisis and the infirmity and the illness and the same way by the spirit of god he entered into this chaotic world and he brought order god says today he's going to bring order into your life he's going to bring order into your life he's going to he's going to some things by the spirit of god and so when we ask him to rest upon us we are surrendering to his operation in our life where he will rest upon us and just like we shared earlier you don't have to even have a special altar called you to step into the river of what god is doing and as a spirit rests upon you not only will back injury and neck pain be healed but you start healing some other things that are going on in the room not only is the anxiety that you're going through he will rest upon you and he'll bring healing there too and bring it all right even irritability and upset god is able to do it if we would just allow him to rest upon us so we're gonna sing that again to the lord and as you step out in faith you need to come to the altar and to say god rest upon me god is gonna do it today and we're gonna experience it because god is a real god and his spirit is really here come now lord [Music] come and when you [Music] when you move you make holy spirit [Music] you're here and i know you are moving i'm here and i know you will feel me come down spirit when you move you make my heart crowd when you feel the room you're here and i know you are moving i'm here jesus thank you lord father we bless you we worship you with all to god thank you holy spirit that you don't leave us in our in our mess and our confusion and our disorder but god you've come and you've brought us peace you've brought us hope you've lifted our despair lord god you lord jesus you are everything and god we give you thanks and we give you praise and we give you glory jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus this is for the next 30 seconds or so let's just experience his presence just lift your hands to the lord or [Music] jesus jesus says be still in and know and acknowledge that he is god god at our hearts be stilled jesus jesus [Music] jesus jesus jesus jesus jesus [Music] jesus jesus thank you [Music] jesus thank you lord [Music] yes jesus thank you lord [Music] jesus thank you lord jesus you give the enemy notice right now that every darkness must go in the name of jesus where the holy spirit shines his light there will be no stone unmoved every thing that is not of god we give you notice right now in the name of jesus you leave this space you leave this place in the name of we jesus you for your sweet spirit here father thank you lord we thank you that you love us jesus that your mercy is our new everyday god jesus thank you for the hope that rises in this place right now for the faith that rises in this place god for new vision new dreams new hopes god you restore thank you lord thank you jesus thank you lord jesus thank you lord [Music] thank you lord let's give it's okay to in the stillness of his presence experience god and so [Music] there are different ones you've experienced in him today and and so there's bask in the stillness of his glory as he gets deep inside every heart and every soul jesus jesus jesus thank you lord he's moving across this room [Music] oh jesus jesus [Music] as you experience him you kind of start thanking him just start lifting your voice and just thanking the lord because he's so good thank you lord [Music] i see glory over so many faces today thank you lord for what you're doing jesus come rest on us come rest on us come rest on us holy spirit come rest on us [Music] only you can come rest on us [Music] rest on us the rest on us the rest on us [Music] um [Music] [Music] thank you lord jesus so father we bless you we thank you and we glorify your name we bless you lord why don't we do that let's just put our hands together and shout out to god let us thank him for his goodness and for his mercy let us flip to our voices hallelujah hallelujah the psalmist says clap your hands all you people shout unto god with a voice hallelujah glory glory jesus hallelujah let's do this why don't we go bless each other for a minute let's just for about the next two minutes you walk across the room you give a knuckle a high five a shout if you you call be cautious give a hug i mean just go bless somebody and let them know that god is here and he is with us hallelujah sweet hi good morning again welcome back from our worship i know the spirit of the lord was able to minister to you right there in the room and i believe that even as we were singing just now that the rest of the lord will be upon you i just released that into your home into your life that the peace of the lord and the rest of the lord would settle your heart would bring order to your life and will bring peace in in just in your entire environment i just release it and thank god for you hey just while you're here i want to just give you a few things and how you can connect to us right here at live church we would love to connect with you we'd love to know that you're watching and we'd love to know how this ministry has been an impact in your life so what i would ask you to do is this if you would just text the word connect again text the word connect to two 760-228-8123 you can connect with us you can send in your prayer requests you can even send a testimony let us know what the lord is doing in your life also you can go to our website at vvlifechurch dot me forward slash connect again that's vv live church dot me forward slash connect and there you can also click on our connection card and connect with us through that way there you can also find prayer requests there's a tab in there to find a prayer request and submit additional prayer requests there you can connect with us in multiple ways if you if you make a commitment to the lord today and you feel the spirit of the lord is calling you to make a deeper commitment with him we want to know and we want to partner with you to help you to walk through to that next place of commitment in your life with the lord again go to vvlifechurch.me forward slash connect and indicate on the connection card your commitment today thank you so much thank you so much today we have a guest preacher with us coming all the way from austin texas his name is dr rodney hartgrove and he is an evangelist and he's been with us over the weekend sharing the word of the lord and in this room we've seen signs wonders and miracles pastor paul is back in the pulpit and shortly after him we'll hear from pastor rodney hargrove let's join pastor paul right now and i'll see you in a minute welcome to life church i want to welcome you this morning i'm so grateful that we are here together in the house of the lord glad that we are alive amen so weeds [Applause] so for those of you who are our guests visiting for the first time you want to say special god bless you thank you for being here i'm pastor paul on behalf of the team and all the family here want to say a very very special welcome to you to our friends that we haven't seen for a long time we want to say welcome home god bless your spare hands and say hey it's good to have you [Applause] sweet and for all of us who are always here faithfully serving making sure that everything happens i want to say to you god bless you thank you for being here and guess what if it was not for you this would not be happening amen and so god bless your hands together for those as well so in the seats in front of you there should be um what is called a connection card when i ask if you would not mind just to reach forward grab that connection card that is there and they're in the seat as well should be a pen if you need it you can keep it as well i'm going to invite you if you would just to fill out the front of that card that if you could put your name and your email address at least and then of as much of the card as you feel comfortable um sharing if you could do that for us that's for if you're here for the very first time or you're here all the time this allows us to stay connected to you all of you know the body of christ needs to be connected amen and so what we're going to do is ask everyone if you could fill that out at the start of the service at the end of the service after the word is delivered we're gonna have an opportunity to commit to connect or to serve here at life church and also for you to put your prayer requests or any special needs that you may have and so if you get ready you can start filling that out as well from now or at the end i'm going to ask you to fill it out then and then you'll drop it in the bucket as we are receiving our tides and our offerings at that time also you should have on your chair in front of you a little thing that talks about october october is a very big month for us here at life church we're going to be doing some major celebrations everybody say celebrate now let me tell you something about celebration that not many people actually would have known it came home to me as a strong revelation a few about a month ago when we're getting ready for my daughter's wedding and the many of us know the verse that says the joy of the lord is our strength how many of you know that verse but i'm going to tell you many of you actually don't know that verse because when you read the first part of that verse it actually starts out by saying these words it says do not grieve it says gather together have fine food and sweet drinks and give to those who don't have any and he says don't cry on this holy day but instead celebrate because the joy of the lord is our strength so therefore rooted in the jaw of the lord is our ability to gather and do what celebrate not crying that day he said right this is when ezra kind of preached the to the people he says no more crying it's time to celebrate and october we're going to celebrate hallelujah you know you know what why celebration is so powerful to allow strength to come to you because celebration allows you to rehearse the good things god is doing complaining allows you to rehearse the things that you're losing or you're grieving or what god is not doing and that leads to depression but instead when you celebrate you're remembering when you celebrate a birthday you're remembering and rehearsing the good stuff right and that gives you what strength so guess what all of october is our strength month we're going to celebrate all october and so if you have everybody has one of these little blue cards in your thing if you don't have one just wave your hands i'm going to ask the ushers to just bring some out um you have any more left hey get some more for them have them print some more now and bring it for the service please and so we're going to be celebrating all of october this is one unique thing about october though because we want everybody to celebrate together we're going to have one service one service at ten o'clock so we're gonna fill this out some more we're gonna double sanitize to keep it more covered free but we're gonna have one service at ten o'clock for the entire month of october and so please bear that in mind if you're a nine o'clock person no worries come early we're having prayer time here um to get ready for the services and you can join us and we let's get to intercede together but at 10 a.m every sunday in october we're gonna be meeting the 11 o'clock people they're gonna have to wake up early hallelujah and so please read this card at the end of our service pastor ian we'll give you some more details about some of the exciting things that are happening but each week we're gonna have a major celebration for october and just kind of like lift the roof is that all right sweet no it is my privilege my honor my my joy to introduce to you our speaker for this morning on friday night we had our first deep life service um yep yep yep deeper life is back in the house and therefore every second friday of the month we'll be having deep life here on a friday night from seven till whenever um just experience god but pastor rodney hargrove is somebody we have known now for many years and i've heard of the renowned of his ministry as an evangelist as someone who operates in the supernatural as he's ministering and so it was just a joy um about a month ago we were at the funeral service together and i said hey our group when are you going to come to visit he says man i'm going to make it happen and then he's called me about two weeks ago and said hey i'll be in town doing some ministry in a few churches would it be a good time for me to stop by and i'm like oh my goodness that just in the time when we were doing our deeper life service and we're praying about a man of god or a woman of god who would move in the anointing of the supernatural flow that god would send him to say hey i'm available and then because as the lord unload everything to line up i'm like thank you jesus come on hey i've never won the lotto but when these things happen it's like winning the lost it's like wow you know i was excited and um we were not disappointed on friday as god ministered through him and therefore our heart pounds with an excitement of what god is about to do this morning and so if you could in life church fashion could you stand to your feet put your hands together and let's welcome the man of god for the hour pastor rodney hargrove could you come on up sir hallelujah this is for you sir you want it down here all right he wants to get close to you you're in trouble thank now apostolic anointing upon his life and upon the life of his precious queen for them to plant churches so please be prayerful in reference to that amen it's a great work that's been placed upon his shoulders to do he and his precious queen and life church you are all a part of that amen i'm going to get ready to get started here amen can we just settle into the presence of the lord what i love with churches like this is that there is no pressure to perform only seeking for a real god who loves his people amen and we serve a real god and you know what he's looking for for real people that desire a real change a real touch of his presence bow your heads please amen thank you hallelujah your only son [Music] no sin to hide but yet you send him from your side [Applause] to walk upon this guilty sod and to become the lamb of god your gift of love they crucified they mocked and scorned him as he died your humble king they named a fraud and sacrificed the lamb of god oh lamb of god sweet lamb of god i love the ho little lamb of god please wash me your precious blood till i am just a lamb of god oh lamb of god sweet lamb of god i love the ho ho little lamb of god please wash me in your precious blood oh god until i am just a lamb of god [Music] you gave me my hands to reach out to men to show them your love and your perfect plan oh you gave me my ease i can hear your voice so clearly i can hear the cries of sinners but can i wipe away their tears you gave me my voice to speak your word to sing of all your praises to those who never heard but with my eyes i see a need for more availability i see hearts that have been broken so many people to be free and lord i'm available to you my will i give to you i'll do what you say do use me lord to show someone the way and enable me to say my storage is empty and i am available to you lord i come today [Music] to empty out all of everything you desire to give to your people no flesh shall glory in your presence no flesh shall be on display lord i look for you i search for you i'm looking for you lord come holy spirit come and minister unto us now in the mighty name of jesus let the people of god shout amen and amen hallelujah i'm excited for what god's going to do today i've got a word in my spirit i don't plan on finishing this message today that takes all the pressure off of me i don't plan on finishing amen i know that there's a lot that god has given me this message was birthed out of a desire from the lord to convey to his people an increase in the level of their faith how many know the bible says in romans 10 17 so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of god so the way that our faith grows the way that our faith increases is that you cannot have faith in god apart from the word amen that's not possible you must have the word so let's go to the book of matthew we're going to pick up in chapter 16. we're going to begin with verse 13. but you pray amen in your spirit just pray amen hallelujah matthew chapter 16. i'm reading from the king james the king james is a more poetic kind of a archaic language we don't talk like that today and so sometimes it becomes somewhat confusing to modern contemporary believers when you say but thus saith the lord and thou and shout but i love it though that's what i grew up on the king james so then it gives me an opportunity to share you know the way that i have received it from the holy ghost i'm one of them old school preachers amen this grade didn't get here by accident amen verse 13 said when jesus came into the coast of caesarea philippi he asked his disciples saying whom do men say that i the son of man am and they said some say that thou art john the baptist and some elias and others jeremiah so one of the prophets he saith unto them but whom say ye that i am who do you say i am peter said watch this and simon peter answered and said thou art the christ the son of the living god and jesus answered and said unto him blessed are thou simon by jonah for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you but my father which is in heaven verse 18 is where we want to make a pick up he says and i say also unto thee that thou art peter and upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it i want you to know child of god that no matter what's going on in the world when the enemy released this terrible disease of covet 19 he thought that he would stop the church but the bible says that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church verse 19 and i will give unto thee the keys notice that underline the word keys in your notes underline keys make a mental note if you're not taking written notes and i will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven look my way please there are keys to the kingdom of heaven and the key that i want to release today is the key of faith it is a key that opens up or gives us access keys are for either locking or unlocking doors and so god by the holy spirit has given us a key that will unlock the realm of god's power that can only be accessed through faith i will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on it shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven then if you will please first john amen first john i believe i want first john 5 and verse 4. amen when you find your place there say i'm there amen amen well give me a chance to get there to amen praise god amen for whatsoever is born of god watch this over cometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith what gives us victory our faith and so the title of this message what i wanted the subject content i want to magnify is faith your key to victory jesus said to peter i'm going to give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven whatever you loose someone shall be loosed in heaven when we talk about faith there are five levels of faith possibly more but this is what god revealed to me that there are five levels of faith i want to talk about these five levels of faith i may not get a chance to finish them today because certainly um we need to be out by what time pastor 10 10 10 30. okay well amen amen i'm watching too so i'll get us out of here probably before then amen probably before then can you guys write fast and you know how preachers sometimes we say the same thing over and over again so when you see that happening just know that i i i don't have alzheimer's it's just a habit amen chapter 16 13-19 is where i want you to look at um and then first john 5 4 when you get home look at that and study over that and you'll see that what this preacher is talking about is five levels of faith write this down please number one is starting faith these are the five levels of faith amen when you um see these in the scripture they'll make a lot of sense the next is standing faith starting faith say that starting faith standing faith number three is sustaining faith number four is surplus faith and then number five is superlative faith superlative faith um is just like starting faith is also known as saving faith starting faith saving faith they're one and the same we're going to go through the scriptures and look at them but then we have standing faith how many of you know that we need standing faith amen and then there is sustaining faith surplus faith and then finally superlative faith i probably won't get to superlative faith but let's look at starting faith romans chapter 12 verse 3. romans chapter 12 verse 3 amen are you guys going to put it on the screen as well no romans 12 3. all right good good good he says for i say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as god had dealt to every man the measure of faith god has dealt to every man the measure of faith now whenever i read the bible some scriptures they start to say things like hey rodney just four minutes stop and say something about me so sometimes when preachers do that before long we will have gone much longer than we want to go although the scripture at the beginning is calling for me i'm going to stay focused and stay right here where it says well god has dealt to every man the measure of faith the word dealt is the word marisol the word marisol m-i-r-z-o the word marisol it means um to separate it means to divide in equal allotments and shares or portions so god has dealt if you would think of it this way if you ever played cards before and i don't know about you but i grew up in the baptist church and i can tell you now they taught us if you play cards you're going to hell better not touch a deck of cards now you can smoke a cigarette but you better not touch no cars you going to hell and you bet not let me catch you at the movie you shall go in the hell all right and some of the pentecostal churches will like that too but notice what he says dealt it means to equally distribute so when you're playing cards everybody gets a card so god he gives unto us starting faith everybody gets the same amount of faith at the beginning it's called starting faith but it's also known as saving faith he gives us faith to be saved you cannot even be saved except god give you the faith to be saved and so you got to understand that starting faith now what's unique about that is that all of us start in the same place in the faith race we all begin he says he's given all of us the measure the word measure is the greek word metron which means he gives unto us an equal allotment nobody starts out in a different place everybody starts out come on brother uh pastor come real quick stand here if you will your queen and you come stand here for a moment if we were all standing here and we're on the starting line everybody has to get even on the starting line this is how it is with faith we all start in the same place but we don't all stay in the same place have you ever noticed that some people are further along in their faith than others so you have some good and take four or five steps forward go ahead and keep right there stop and then if you will please take another step forward stop and then if you will go past her in your where you are and then i'll go even one step further you have people that start in the same place but it's going to be dependent upon how much word you've got in your reservoir that determines the level of faith you're going to be on so all of us start at the same place but we don't all stay at the same place you ever notice that some people seem to be at a different place in faith in their walk with god then others thank you so much so i'm moving fast here [Applause] i got passed so far i got past starting faith we all have what starting faith now i know that some of you you know when you read in the book of 2nd thessalonians chapter 3 it says that deliver us from unreasonable and wicked men because all men have not faith but if he gave everybody the measure of faith how is it that all men don't have faith well see it's not a contradiction at all when it says for all men have not faith what it means is is that everybody has not come to the place where they recognize that the faith god has given them is for them to be saved by so their faith is dormant it doesn't mean that it's not there it simply means it hasn't been activated yet so they have faith but they and to prove that to you that they have faith how can you believe in something else if you have no faith they believe in something they just don't believe in the living god hello somebody so it's what starting faith and everybody starts at the same place in the faith race okay so all men have faith what kind of faith saving faith but every person does not live by faith the next is standing faith standing faith if you will please let's look at second corinthians chapter 1 verse 24. ii corinthians chapter 1 verse 24. so we all have faith right what kind of faith do we have we have standing faith amen but everybody does not operate in standing faith it says now for that we have do not pardon me not for that we have dominion over your faith but our helpers of your joy for by faith ye what stand you stand by faith how do you know that in the book of ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 it says finally my brethren be strong in the lord in the power of his might put on the whole armor of god right so he says to put on the whole armor of god why so that we can stand he says for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities powers rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places if you don't have any faith to stand they're going to take terrible advantage of your life so he says stand having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace so the gospel is the good news of god and we got to have the word of god in order for us to be able to stand you're not going to be able to stand if you don't have faith and then he says having done all to stand what do you do after that stand see the problem is we think because we stood today we don't have to stand tomorrow you're going to have to stand every day of your life the enemy's not going to back away just because you start crying he's not going to back away just because you're feeling like god doesn't love me because i'm going through this no that's not an indication matter of fact it's a contraindication whenever you think god does not love you because of what you're going through god loves you but you got a real enemy the bible says he's a thief he comes to steal to kill and to destroy and the only way that you're going to be able to overcome him is you got to have what standing faith but we don't know where we are many times in our level of faith because what tends to happen to us is that we're at one level but we need to be at a different level in our faith but we'll never be able to um graduate or be developed or grow into the level of faith god wants us to be at as long as we are not really being honest with ourselves in the level where we are faith must be developed it's a process it's called the process of faith so i get saved by faith right the bible says that we get saved by faith it says for by grace are you saved through faith i get saved by faith but you know what's amazing many of us are saved by faith we just don't know how to live by the faith we're saved by so the bible says the just the just shall live by faith romans 1 17 put that on the screen for me romans 1 17 it says for here herein is the righteousness of god revealed remember what i said it's on levels or stages from faith to faith god wants you to go from what faith to faith to faith to faith till you get to the highest level or the highest order of faith and that is surplus faith but before you get there you must understand that if you say listen if you say i'm here when you're really there what you do is deceive yourself the bible says for a man not to think himself to be something when he is nothing or in essence it's it's actually in the greek it says don't fool yourself and think you're at one place when you're really in another place so if i'm going to develop or grow in my faith i must first identify what level i'm on and many of us we're only at the saving level or the starting level of faith and faith has not been developed because the only time we get a word is when we come to church to get a word from pastor no we need to be in the word every single day amen every day we need to be in the word so our faith can what develop or grow the next level of faith is sustaining faith second thessalonians let's look at verse number one second thessalonians verse number one sustaining faith you guys enjoying this second thessalonians verse number chapter one verse three it says we are bound to thank god always for you brethren as it is meat or as it is fitting because that your faith groweth exceedingly your faith groweth exceedingly and the charity or love of every one of you all toward each other abounded when we are actually loving the way we're supposed to love then our faith is more believable or more real faith works by love you can't say you have faith in god but you're running around still angry and and upset and hating on people that surround you every single day so how does real faith work well this sustaining faith is your faith growth exceedingly this word exceedingly is the word aksano it's the word hooper oxano the word hooper is actually spelled hyper the beginning of the word is hyper which means an accelerated uh growth process so how do i get to sustaining faith we really need to know that sustaining faith is when our faith is growing exceedingly oxana it means to be watch this it means to be above average and beyond normal so when i have hyper or hupa oxana faith it is above average the average person they have the saving faith and some people sometimes they stand sometimes they don't it's so it's kind of like you know the the peanut commercial it says sometimes i feel like a nut sometimes i don't sometimes i make it sometimes i don't sometimes i'm standing sometimes i'm not i can tell you like this this is a true story i can tell you that there were times that i was standing until something came and i was not at that level to stand so then i began to fall because i hadn't gotten to the place where my faith was growing exceedingly above average and beyond normal the average person they're going to react rather than respond when something happens i can tell you now i've seen many christians with the bumper sticker on the back of the car cut them off on the freeway we'll find out where you are amen bumper sticker in all life church y'all know what i'm talking about i don't know how y'all do it here but we got a special kind of wave we do in texas amen amen and so we got to have what's sustaining faith sustaining faith sustaining faith is why faith is growing or increasing can i share this last one it's my favorite let me see it's uh oh yeah i got a couple of minutes here amen how many of y'all give me three minutes let me see your hand i ain't gonna do it like i did like three six nine you ever heard that 12 15 18 21 24 27 come on say it 30. y'all remember that what y'all know about uh you know what was that that just come on in the morning school of rock conjunction junction what's your function we need to use that in church ain't that there's some conjunctions in the bible that ties some stuff together we just want one side though you know amen let's look at surplus faith we've talked about and i'm giving you the skeleton all right i got a lot more but i'm kind of giving you the skeleton there's a book that i've written a little booklet that's um it's going to be available you can actually pre-order it it's going to have all of what i'm talking about right now in that booklet it talks about these five levels of faith but surplus faith is where we want to get to well what is surplus faith well starting faith is also known as saving faith standing faith sustaining faith but surplus faith is also known as strong faith and a lot of us never get to the place where we're walking in strong faith strong faith or surplus faith is faith surplus think of this if you go to a supermarket it means that there's more than enough just for you in the supermarket it's it's enough for everybody if you go into what y'all have your state brothers if you go in stater brothers or one of the other supermarkets it's not just you shopping in there it's a whole lot of people shopping in there and not only do they have stuff on the shelves but back in the back they got some more and if that's not enough they got trucks on the way god almighty surplus faith is when your faith not only affects you but your faith starts to affect everybody around you you got some people they can pray and they're in standing faith it may help them you got some people that get to a place where sustaining faith it gets them to the realm of where they're full but surplus faith is not just full it's faith overflowing let me show you faith overflowing or surplus faith in the life of jesus christ go to luke chapter 7 and we'll pick up our narrative in verse 11. this is surplus faith this is faith overflowing luke chapter 7 jesus meets he's coming into the city and as he is coming into the city there's somebody that's going out of the city it's a woman it's her only son her only son has died and then you know what i read this story was so sad because it says and she was a widow can you imagine that she's not only lost her son her only son but also her husband verse 11 said it came to pass the day after that he went into a city called name and many of his disciples went with him and much people now it says now when he came nine to the gate of the city behold there was a dead man carried out the only son of his mother and she was a widow and much people of the city was with her and when the lord saw her watch this faith overflowing my god he says and when the lord saw her he had compassion on her and said unto her weep not and he came and touched the buyer and they that bare him stood still and he said young man i say unto thee arise and he that was dead sat up and began to speak and the whole church emptied out and the people ran down the street saying how in the world can a dead man get up that's just the black folks though some of the other folks stayed around you can't raise nobody from the dead rather but listen i know my people amen if you raise them up you raise up a dead man and we're thinking freddy krueger chucky uh nightmare on elm street has come to my street you understand so jesus raised this man from the dead surplus faith in operation is this he had faith that operated beyond the level of where they were because if they had faith they wouldn't have been out marching him out to the funeral home to me to the graveyard but jesus comes stops everything another um example of surplus faith is when we look at the life of abraham let's look at romans do we have time let me look at this oh yeah just a couple of minutes romans chapter 4 see abraham's faith not only affected abraham but the bible says i don't even have time to go there but but i i want to show you this well okay romans four let's look at verse where do i want to go if we started verse 17 i probably can get out of there romans 4 and 17. so abraham was told by the lord he says get out from your country and from your kindred to a land that i will show you i will make of thee a great nation and then he says later that all the families of the earth through abraham would be blessed but abraham had a problem abraham had a problem you know what the problem was see abraham believed god it was counted him for righteousness abraham had to have faith that listen listen to this verse 17 you ready romans 4 17. as it's written i have made the father of many nations before him whom he believed even god who quickeneth the dead and call it those things which be not as though they were can i make just an interjection right here real quick and move real quick real quick real quick can i move quick okay you know what we do in christianity the bible says that abraham believed god who quickeneth the dead and call it those things which be not as though they were you know what we learned in christianity we learned to call those things which be as though they be not see he didn't call those things which be as though they be not he called those things which be not as though they were you say is there a difference the revelation is all the difference see if you're walking around saying i'm not sick i don't have cancer and they looking at cancer they've diagnosed it they see it the doctors are not wrong you have cancer you can i don't have cancer i don't claim it you know it reminds me of this joke it was a it was a baptist guy and then there was a word of faith pentecostal guy they both died and they went to hell the baptist guy he says i can't believe i'm in hell i thought once saved always saved the pentecostal looked at him and said i might be here but i ain't claiming it faith does not call those things which be as though they be not you don't say i'm not sick the bible says let the weak say i am what strong the sick don't say i'm not sick the sick say but with his stripes i am healed can i tell you that there's a difference between there's a difference between facts and truth see the facts are a it's a fact i may be diagnosed with that but the truth is but with his stripes i am healed and truth will always outweigh facts amen so here we got abraham i'm closing i'm closing let me see i got uh this is my third clothes i usually get four amen this is my clothes amen it's 10 19. so abraham called those god called those things as though they were who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations according as it well to that which it was spoken so shall thy seed be and be not weak in faith that word weak is the word astoneo the word astoneo means powerless and being not powerless in faith he considered not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old neither yet the deadness of sarah's womb he staggered not at the promise of god through unbelief but was strong in faith this is surplus faith abraham was strong in faith his faith how he became the father of the faith movement is his faith with strong faith surplus faith is strong faith and we can get there but we first must identify where we are the word astoneo is um the word weak or powerless many of us have you ever had some things happen you seem to be powerless against it well that's not the truth though the truth is we do have the power and when i'm preaching in the second message i'm going to be preaching about kingdom authority when we talk about walking in kingdom authority i want to show you how when you activate that you actually can take authority over things that have been really vaunting themselves to be more powerful than what they really are what it reminds me of is the wizard of oz you remember the wizard of oz you remember when when uh toto you remember toto what would you remember when dorothy was looking for toto toto teller where are you and they had this man back behind the curtain i am the great and powerful laws all the lightning and he's banging on stuff drinking drinks and being little total pour the curtain back and say there he is do you know that that's the way the devil is i am the big bad devil i'm going to kill you and then god pulled the curtain back doesn't know the scripture says is this the one that made nations to tremble is this the one that caused people to fear and the bible says they shall narrowly look upon him he's just a big bag of wind he's not a lion he's as a roaring lion and we can shut him down when we talk about the kind of faith you got to have the bible says this i'm closing with this he says he considered not abraham considered not his own body now dead neither the deadness of sarah's womb it's one thing if you got one dead person it's another thing all together if you got two dead people some of y'all looking at me strange say what do you mean he was dead um abraham couldn't even make an ishmael i think you got it about five or six of them may have got it hey man keep living that's all i gotta say yeah young folk what is uh that preacher talking keep living you'll discover what i'm talking about what i'm talking about is he didn't have the ability to produce children he said neither the deadness of sarah's womb you know abraham wasn't even looking for sarah no more god says to he says to sarah you and abraham go have a child sarah start laughing oh god you got to be kidding me abe is dead amy's dead abe don't even come by the room no more looking for me [Applause] and furthermore i ain't looking for abe either he did i'm dead but the bible said they considered nothing he considered not his own body what now dead neither the deadness of sarah's womb but this is what it says but it said he was strong in faith giving glory to god let me come and give god praise 10 23 i didn't do too bad amen i think i'm gonna get a

Channel: Life Church

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Length: 85min 50sec (5150 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021