Turn with me please to the Book
of James, the second chapter. James 2:14 he said, "What does
it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith, and have
not works? Can faith save him?" He's going into some detail
about faith, and what is faith that produces results, and what
is faith and that he calls dead. Let's read this from the CJB,
the Complete Jewish Bible. I like the way it says it on
this. The CJB. Verse fourteen he says, "What
good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but
has no actions to prove it? Is such 'faith' able to save
him?" And the implied answer is no. "Suppose a brother or sister is
without clothes and daily food, and someone says to him,
'Shalom! Keep warm and eat hearty!'
without giving him what he needs, what good does it do?" Now this is what you and I and
our group would call a good confession. Did I lose somebody? Keep warm and eat well. Good confession. Or you could just intro it with,
"I'll believe with you that you will keep warm and eat well." Pretty much the same thing. I mean the results are the same,
you couldn't argue with that. "Without giving him what he
needs, what good does it do?" He's contrasting what some call
faith versus what is real faith. Keep reading. "Thus, faith by itself,
unaccompanied by actions, is dead." There is something the Scripture
calls dead faith. Dead faith. Keep reading. "But someone will say that you
have faith and I have actions." You're into works, I'm into
faith. He said, "Show me this faith of
yours without the actions, and I will show you my faith by my
actions!" Some have thought faith is not
discernible. "You don't know my heart. Don't judge me. My faith is between me and God." Well according to what He's
saying here, if it's really there and it's real living
faith, there will be other evidence from it than just you
saying you believe. He said, "Show me this faith of
yours without the actions." What is the implication? You can't. Show me your faith without any
action. He said, "I'll show you my faith
by what I do." You know, I think in the King
James, one of the reason I'm reading it out of this
translation, it keeps saying works, works, works, and we have
a connotation of that in our mind connected with works of the
law. And so people tend to just in
their mind push that away. No, if you look up the word,
which I did for you, it means - Thayer's Lexicon says "action,
deed, something done". Action is a good word, and deed,
something done. Real faith has action. Real faith does something. Come on, say it out loud: "Real
faith does something." If it's talk, talk, talk, talk,
talk and never does anything, it's dead faith. It's not living faith. And dead faith doesn't get
answers. Doesn't reach what you need. It means action. Deed. Something done. Listen to this. This is Kittel's Lexicon. It said the word denotes "action
or active zeal in contrast to idleness." It's the opposite of doing
nothing.. It's the opposite of being idle. Let's keep reading here in verse
eighteen. Well, we just did, didn't we? "Show me this faith of yours
without the actions and I will show you my faith by my actions. You believe that 'God is One'?" or King James says there is One
God. "Good for you! The demons believe it too - the
thought makes them shudder with fear!" There are no agnostic demons. There are no atheist demons. There's not a one, there's not
one evil spirit that is just not sure whether God is real or not. They believe. But their belief in God is not
going to save them because they refuse to do anything with that
faith. They have chosen to rebel
against Him and not submit to Him, and apparently are not
going to change. So there is saying you believe
something, but if you don't act on it some way, it is useless,
vain, dead faith. Do we need to differentiate
between a dead faith and a living faith? Just saying you believe is not
enough. I'm going to say that again real
slow. Apparently - are you reading
this with me? Just saying you believe is not
enough, not enough to get results, not enough to live and
walk victoriously in life. Keep reading. He said, "But, foolish fellow,
do you want to be shown that such 'faith' apart from actions
is barren?" And he goes into talking about
Abraham and he gives examples. We're going to actually go to
these in just a moment, but he talks about how Abraham and
others demonstrated their faith with what they did. How do we know Abraham had
faith? He offered Isaac. This is not just a matter of
conjecture that he said he believed, he proved it with what
he did. He wouldn't have done what he
did if he hadn't have not just thought about it, but was fully
persuaded, as the Scripture said. If you skip down to verse
twenty-six he said, "Indeed, just as the body without a
spirit is dead, so too faith without actions is dead." If my spirit left my body right
now, which I'm not expecting it to, but one of these days it is
- yours too. Then my body would stop doing
this. It would fall in a heap on the
floor, it would have no action. It wouldn't do anything. Isn't that what he's saying? So faith that is real faith
expresses itself in this realm, in what it does, just like your
spirit expresses itself in this realm through the body. We want miracles here, in this
realm. In order to get a manifestation
of the power of God here, what you believe in Spirit must be
expressed here. There must be an action. This is all through the Bible. And you see it in everywhere
that there's been mighty moves of God and everywhere there has
been miracles; without exception somebody did something because
they believed. Somebody did something. The man with the withered hand,
how did that hand get healed? The Lord told him, "Stretch
forth your hand," and he did. And it was made whole. Right? The woman with the issue of
blood, how did she get healed? Not staying at home singing
Kumbaya. It took - I mean, this woman
has been through all these procedures, she's hemorrhaging
every day, it's been like this for twelve years - she's not in
a good condition. She left the house. Somebody say: "She left the
house." She got up, she pushed herself
to get out of the house. She went to where Jesus was, and
there was a massive crowd there. She didn't sit down and cry and
quit and go home. Do you think she felt like being
there in that big crowd? Do you think she felt like
pushing her way through that crowd to get to Jesus? Why did she do it? Why did she do it? Why did she go through all that? She believed something would
happen. You don't do that when you
believe nothing. She believed that there was
healing there. And she believed if she could
touch the hem of His garment she would be made whole. And so she did whatever it took
and she stayed with it as long as it took until she did it, and
it happened. The moment she touched the hem
of His garment, power flowed into her, healed that problem,
stopped that hemorrhage that no doctor, no procedure had been
able to stop for a dozen years. She felt in her body she is
healed. Whoa! Glory to God! And so she slipped back in the
crowd like the cat that got the canary, everything is wonderful,
and then she noticed Jesus stopped. He did not keep going and He is
saying, "Who touched Me?" And He's looking her way. But when she finally did come
and acknowledge and told Him the truth and what she did, what did
He say? What did He say? "Daughter," God decided to heal
you just then? God in His sovereignty decided
to heal you right now? He could've said the anointing
on Me has made you whole. He didn't say that either. He didn't say happy day, you're
one of the lucky ones. Because you know sometimes it's
God's will and sometimes it's not and we just don't know. But you, hit the jackpot. Now why am I saying all this? Because people have varied
pieces of this as theology. What did He tell her? Come on, what did He tell her? Your, He didn't even say His
faith. He's not having a healing
meeting. He's not praying for the sick,
He's not laying hands on the sick. He's not having a service. He's walking down the road and
she didn't even ask Him if she could have a healing. She didn't ask for permission. She didn't ask if it was God's
will. She didn't ask is this is a good
time. She just came and took a
healing. Just believed - just took it
when she touched. Because she was saying, "If I
could just touch the hem of His garment. If I could just touch - I'm
going to get it, I'm going to get it." And she pushed and she shoved
and she pushed and she probably stumbled, and she got back up,
and she was so weak she didn't think she could make it, but she
found the strength and she pushed on and she soldiered on. Why? Because she had faith. How do we know she had faith? Because of what she did. Because of what she did. Now something the Lord quickened
to me and I want to share it the best I know how. He's not pleased with - is that
people are waiting. Many are waiting. They are waiting, waiting,
waiting. They have been waiting for
months. They've been waiting for years. Waiting for God to do it. Waiting for God to move. Waiting for God to change it. And the Lord would say, "You're
not waiting on Me. You're not waiting on Me." Saying you believe and
indefinitely waiting, does that sound like living faith to you? Do you think a lot of folks are
doing this? Waiting. "Wait, God is going to do it." So what are you doing? "I'm waiting until..." Until what? Until He decides it's the right
time? Until what? Who initiated the healing of the
woman with the issue of blood? This is what religious folks
won't acknowledge. They won't acknowledge it. But what did Jesus tell her? Oh, somebody needs to see it. Turn there. Mark five. Somebody needs to see it. You have theories, you have
ideas, you have opinions, and then you have this. You have this. This is right. This is how it really is. This is how it really works. Mark five, when she pressed
through and touched and He said who touched me and she did. Verse thirty-three, "She came
and fell down before Him and told Him all the truth," Mark
5:34 now. He said to her. What did He say? "Daughter, thy," we would say
your, "faith has made you whole..." He didn't say God made her
whole, He didn't say He made her whole, He didn't say the power
made her whole, come on are you listening? Certainly all this is involved,
but if He would've wanted to put the emphasis on that, He would
have. If that was the determining
factor, that's what He would've said. He would've said well, praise
God it was the will of God for you." He didn't say that. Praise God you are able to touch
Me and because I am so special and anointed, My anointing
healed you. It was the anointing on Him, but
that's not what He emphasized. And that's what the others were
saying, "Master, the multitude throng Thee," if it was just
contact with Him, there would've been all kinds of healings all
around Him. It took more than the will of
God. A lot of people don't like that
statement. It took more than the anointing
on Him. Did it or not? This is not something He just
decided to do to prove He was the Son of God. No. If so, He would've said that. Girl, you're in the right place
today. I need to show these Pharisees
something, so just stand right there. No. No. No. Who initiated the healings? "Daughter, your faith has made
you whole." That's some of the best news you
heard in your whole life. If her faith would make her
whole, I said, if her faith would make her whole and God is
the same as He was then, and faith is the same as it was
then, then your faith can make you whole. But you have to quit waiting. You have to quit waiting for God
to notice you. You have to quit waiting for God
to decide to do something for you because that's not reality. Phyllis and I have been
pastoring for a few years now and in the ministry longer than
that, and we keep seeing this. And I'm not pointing any
fingers; we've made mistakes in this area too. But you keep seeing people
waiting, waiting while things get worse and just worse and
worse and waiting and waiting and waiting. And saying some good things, but
years pass by. If there's no action, it's a
dead faith, which answers a lot of questions. Doesn't it? How many believe the Book of
James? Do you believe the New
Testament? Do you believe the Bible? And you know, if something
corrects us, that's good news because now we know what to do
to get some results. That some of the best news we've
heard, right? We don't need to be haughty and
arrogant in our thinking and blame God. Did it never occur that maybe we
are missing it somewhere? No, God is good. His will is freedom and
soundness. Is that right? Liberty, victory, plenty, that's
His will for everybody. And faith in God is powerful. It works. I said, it works. No such thing as a faith
failure. It was something somebody called
faith that wasn't living faith. Because real faith, living
faith, faith that acts on what it believes, always gets
results. Always. Let's don't feel bad because of
our mistakes and shortcomings, I have them just like you. Let's be inspired. Let's forget the things that are
behind and press toward the mark. What do you say? Let's rise up. Don't get offended, don't get
your feelings hurt. "What are you trying to say
preacher?" I'm reading Scripture. Don't get huffy with me. "You trying to say I don't have
faith?" I'm going to tell you boldly you
nor I are anywhere near where we could be in faith. No, the problem has not been
that we have all this faith but there is some other reason why
things are not happening. No, no, no. No. It's pure and simple lack of
faith. Weak faith, no faith. Dead faith equals little
results, no results. Nothing happening. Somebody say, "Hallelujah
anyhow." I know not everybody likes this
kind of preaching, but you do. You do and I do. Right? Go with me Isaiah forty. There's a lot more to see about
this. Isaiah forty. Faith without doing anything is
dead and get no results. So what about this waiting? And I believe the Lord said that
to me. People are waiting. Waiting. Waiting. He's not pleased with it because
they think they're waiting on Him and they are not. And it can be tragic. Just can just wait, wait, wait,
wait, until it gets worse, worse, worse, worse and nothing
happens. "I believe. I believe." Well, the demons believe too. "I believe." If you believe, there will be
action. There will be things you do
because you believe, and it is that action that meets the power
of God. Gives Him a right. There are actually laws - it's
like the law of gravity. It's like the law of
electricity, the laws that govern electricity. You step off the roof, you go
down. Is that right? It's something that's in effect
all the time, twenty-four seven. And it is no respecter of
persons. If you are white and you step
off a three story building, you go down. If you're black, you go down. If you're a man, you go down. If you're a woman, you go down. If you're rich, you go down, if
you're poor, you go down. If you have a degree, you go
down. If you never finished high
school, you go down. Is that right? Why? Because it's a law. You know the Bible talks about
the law of faith? Faith is a law. You act on what He told you. You act because of what you
believe from what He told you. It is not going to be a nothing
action. At the end of your action,
you're going to meet somebody. You're going to meet the Spirit
of God. You're going to meet the power
of God. When He told the woman with the
issue of blood, she acted on her faith, leaving the house. She acted pressing through the
crowd, and when she reached the end of what she could do,
everybody say: "Do. Do. Do. Do." When she reach the end of what
she could do in faith, the power of God manifested and did what
she couldn't have. But this would not have happened
laying at the house praying. Laying at the house, making
confessions. It wouldn't have happened, she
wouldn't be in the Book, waiting on Jesus to notice her. Waiting on God to take notice of
her. Waiting on Him to initiate
something. She initiated it, and He was
happy about it. Is that right? And she was healed. Glory to God. We got to get a revelation about
this waiting, waiting. Waiting on God. It's a mistake, it's wrong
thinking again and again. Isaiah 40:28, "Have you not
known? Have you not heard, that the
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the
earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?" God doesn't get tired. That's a new concept for us, we
have never experienced life like that. He does not get weary. He doesn't faint. He never leans over on the
throne and goes phew... man, it's a job keeping all
these stars burning and keeping gravity the way it is. No. No. No. "There is no searching of His
understanding." And, "He gives," of that
inexhaustible, "power to," those who are, "faint..." There's a source of
inexhaustible power available to those who get weak and those who
feel faint. He gives it, the power to the
faint, and He gives, "to them that have no might," and "He
increases strength." But I want you to notice how it
works though. "Even the youth shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall," what does
that mean? The youngest of the young, the
strongest of the strong. It's so quick they are out of
gas. I don't care what kind of shape
you think you're in physically, mentally, every other way, you
do not have unlimited strength. How quick you can be zapped,
tired, done. But keep reading. "But they that wait upon the
Lord shall renew their strength." Somebody says, "See there
Brother Keith, that's waiting." Yeah, I thought about that. That's why I'm talking to you
about it. Because we need to look at the
whole verse. "They that wait upon the Lord
shall," wait? And wait? They that wait upon the Lord
shall wait? What will they do? "Mount up," mount up! Does that sound like staying at
the house? "They shall run," does that
sound like doing nothing? "They shall walk..." Listen to the Young's Literal
translation. Young's Literal, and Doctor
Young obviously knew a lot about the language, author of Young's
Concordance. He says it like this, "Those
expecting Jehovah," this is very literal, meaning of the words. Those expecting Jehovah, "Pass
[to] power," he didn't try to make this read easy for
Westerners. His objective is to be accurate. "They raise up the pinion as
eagles, They run and are not fatigued, They go on and do not
faint!" The implication is they rise up,
they run, and they keep going. They keep on going and don't
quit, and don't faint. What we are to do is to seek the
Lord and seek Him until we find what we need to do, and then we
do it. Come on, are you listening? And we keep on doing it, and we
keep on doing it, and that's how you get your miracle. But to sit back and say I'm just
waiting, I'm just waiting, and next month you are still
waiting, and next year you are still waiting, "I'm just waiting
on the Lord. You know, when the Lord gets
ready." Well, some things that have to
do with the plan of God unfold at different seasons in your
life, but we're talking about your healing. We talking about money to pay
your bills, come on, are you listening? We're talking about being free
from things that have you in bondage. You and I are not waiting on God
for these things. I know most of the church world
believes some form of that, but it's just simply not right. But it would be just as accurate
for a lost person to say, "I'm waiting on God to save me. As soon as God gets ready to
save me," what would you tell them? No, you're not waiting on God. The price has already been paid. Is that right? The price has already been paid. You're not waiting on God to
decide to save you. Can they initiate the new birth
in their life? They can, tonight, tomorrow
morning, they can come and receive, and if they really
believe it, there will be some action. Is that right? There will be action in what
they say, there will be action in what they do. We're going to have baptisms
just here - is it this weekend? This weekend. Both places this time. Sarasota and here. We got a new baptismal down
there now. And we were talking about it
earlier this week. What is water baptism? Why do we do it? It is an action. Come on, can you see this? It is identification with
Christ, and it is public confession. You do it in front of everybody. Back then, and it's that way in
many places in the world today, you get water baptized in Jesus'
name, you will be ostracized by the community and a lot of
people their own families in certain part of the world. It's a very, very big deal. You could be where people won't
do business with you, it can cost you. That's not the case so much in
the U. S., thank the Lord. Right? But the same principle applies. If you say, "No, I don't like
being around crowds and I don't like being around people and my
faith is just between me and the Lord, and I don't want
anybody..." No. That's not okay. Jesus said, "If you're ashamed
of Me and My words in front of man, I will be ashamed of you
before the Father. But if you will confess Me
before men, I will confess you before the Father." You have to be willing. If the faith is really there,
there will be some action. There will be something you do
that can be seen, heard, known. True? So yes, waiting on the Lord is
something the Bible talks about, but not the way some folks have
turned it in to. They have turned it into a
passive, faithless thing, I'm just biding time thinking it's
all up to the Lord. And this runs through much of
the theology of the church, "God is in control," and when people
say it the way to say it and emphasize it the way they do,
it's out of line with the Scriptures. Everything is not up to Him. He's left some things up to us,
and you can't live up to Him what He left up to you. Go with me to the Book of
Matthew, please. Matthew seven. Actually, the sixth chapter. We'll work into seven. Matthew 6:32, talking about
food, clothing, housing, what we would call the necessities and
desires of life, "(After all these things do the Gentiles
seek:)," everybody say: "Seek." "For your heavenly Father knows
that you have need of all these things. But seek ye," in other words but
you seek, "first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and
all these things shall be added to you." This is a manifestation of
faith. Seeking or searching. Somebody say: "Searching." Same word is translated search. Looking for it. You don't look for it if you
don't believe it's there. You don't continue to look for
it unless you believe you can find it. Hmm? Seek ye first the kingdom of
God. Look in the seventh verse of
chapter seven. Matthew 7:7 he said, "Ask, and
it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it
shall be opened to you," every one of these is doing something. Doing something. "For every one that asks
receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks,
it shall be opened," to you. Hallelujah. Somebody say, "Thank You Lord." Does anybody remember Hebrews
11:6 the great faith chapter? Hebrews 11:6 put it on the
screen for us. In fact, just turn over there to
the tenth chapter. Well, I guess you'll be there at
eleven, too. "Without faith it is," what? Didn't say it was hard. Said it's, "Impossible to please
Him: for he that comes to God must," it's not optional, must,
"believe that He is," and what else must you believe? You must believe that He God,
"Is a rewarder," of who? Who? "Those that diligently seek
Him." Those that diligently seek Him. Why would you put this next to
faith? Would you put it in the same
sentence with believing that God exists? Because you are going beyond
demon faith. What is demon faith? Demon faith is dead faith that
acknowledges and believes that God exists and He is the One
true living God. But they are not going to act on
that towards Him in any positive submissive way. They are His enemy. But you and I go beyond demon
faith. If all you believe is that God
is real and He exists, that's what they believe. But, you also believe He is a
rewarder of them that what? Diligently, earnestly, search
for Him. Why would you earnestly search
for Him? Because you believe He's real. Right? And you believe He's a rewarder,
a responder, a blesser of those that genuinely seek Him. And you believe you can find
Him, you can get it, so you don't quit until you do. Oh, somebody say, "Hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah." You can't just wait and wait and
do nothing. You know, my father in the faith
Kenneth Hagin said this many times throughout the years I was
around him. He said, "It's not just going to
fall on you like ripe cherries off a tree." Anybody ever heard him say, "The
blessings of God are not going to just fall on you like ripe
cherries off a tree." What does he mean by that? You have to believe God. You have to do what He told you
to do. Right? You can't just wait on it to
just happen, if and when God gets ready. We're poking some holy cows here
tonight. Do you hear them? Mooooo! Yeah. I haven't called any names, have
I? Have I called any names? I'm not attacking anybody
personally or any specific anything. I read some Scriptures. Do you think they're right? And we're not judging anybody
else, we're looking at ourselves right here. Right now. We're saying we need some
changes. Back up to the tenth chapter and
the thirty-fifth verse. Hebrews 10:35, "Cast not away
therefore your confidence," confidence is a word for faith. It's your persuasion, it's your
expectation. He's talking about faith. "Which has," what? "Great recompence of reward." That sounds like 11:6; see, this
is just a few verses before it. He's talking about that, it
flows. "For you have need of patience,"
some people heard that and to them that means just waiting and
doing nothing. But that's not what that means. It means perseverance. It means endurance. "That, after you have," what? Waited? After you have waited? After you have, "Done the will
of God, you might receive the promise." Are we okay? "For yet a little while, and He
that shall come will come, and will not tarry." This is true concerning the
second coming. All of this. "Now the just shall live by
faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure
in him." What do you mean drawback? Pull back, quit. Cast your confidence away. Stop. Lay down. Give up. My soul will have no pleasure in
him. Why? Because what pleases Him? Faith. So if you draw back, that means
you have quit your faith, so you're not pleasing Him anymore. We talked about this recently,
but, so many times being natural, people can be too
result oriented. "Well God will be pleased when I
get the money..." Didn't say without money it's
impossible to please God. "God will be pleased when my
symptoms change." Didn't say without symptom-free,
God can't be pleased. No. What pleases Him? You can have that right now
before anything changes, and God is pleased with you right now. Got to watch about waiting. Waiting until this. Waiting on that. My soul shall have no pleasure
in him. Keep reading. "But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition," or destruction, "but of them that
believe," and what is real living faith? A faith that does and doesn't
quit and doesn't give up and keeps on doing, "to the saving
of the soul. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." What is real faith? And he gives an example after
example in chapter eleven of living faith. And which verse did it said they
waited and they waited and they waited? "By faith Abel offered," a
better, "sacrifice," that's doing something. "By faith Enoch walked with
God," that's doing something. "By faith Noah... prepared an ark," it's a ton of
work. Is that right? And you don't do that unless you
believe, right? That the flood is coming and
what God is said is true. You're not going to do that for
year after year after year. But he did. Proved he believed. Him and his whole house were
safe. The Bible said, "By faith
Abraham," went out, "not knowing where he was going." But he did what? He left. He left. "I can't leave if I don't know
where I'm going." Yeah, you can. He did. "I can't move if I don't know
how I'm going to make a living and where I'm going to live and
all that." You have to be willing to take a
step, and then take another. But if you just sit and wait,
months are going to pass. Years are going to pass. And you will be frustrated and
annoyed and aggravated, and you can think you are waiting on
God, and it's just not true at all. Look with me in Romans, the
fourth chapter. Romans chapter 4:12. They'll put it up on the screen
for us; you could just read it off the screen with me. Abraham who was one of the
greatest examples of faith in the Bible, he's the father of
faith. He is heralded as the premier
example of the one fully persuaded. And it says he's not just, "The
father of circumcision... but also those that walk in the
steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had
being yet uncircumcised." We saw he went out not knowing
where he was going. How did he do that? Practically he took a step. And then he took another. And then he took another. Is that right? Everybody say: "Steps of faith." Say it again: "Steps of faith." Phyllis and I now have been in
the ministry for a few decades, and the things in ministry
before this church and in the church here and now the church
in Sarasota, and the projects that are ongoing, and the things
that are coming up. Those of you that have been with
us, how did they happen? How did they happen? You seek the Lord, you start
with that, you seek the Lord. What are we supposed to do? How is it supposed to happen? What do we do? He's not going to tell you the
whole thing. Why would we seek Him? Why would we pray and seek Him? Because we are fully persuaded
He hears us. He knows our name. He's got a good plan, is that
right? He loves us. He's got it all covered. We don't have to come up with a
plan, He's got a plan. We don't have to figure it out,
He already knows. But we do have to seek Him and
that part is not up to Him. We have to seek Him. And you have to overcome the
laziness of your flesh to do that. I do, you do. You could say, "Well, we're
doing okay. Not bad. Let's just be happy." But if you know in your heart
God has more, He's got more, what do you have to do? "Well, just wait, just wait and
if He wants to do something, I reckon He will." And talk about one of these days
God is going to do something. Don't you believe it? Oh, I believe it. You believe it? We believe it. If that's all we do is talk
about how much we believe it, that is demon faith. That's dead faith. Until it gets us out of our
chair, come on are you listening? Until it gets us seeking God
earnestly, "Lord, what are we supposed to do? How is it supposed to work here? What are we supposed to do? What's the next step?" I don't have to know the whole
thing. But I have to know a step. And I don't just need to make
stuff up. That's what some people have
gotten - they heard the part about faith without works is
dead, so you have to act, you have to act, you have to act. So they ran and threw their
medicine away, ran out and did this, ran out and did that, give
away everything they had, but the thing is they didn't seek
the Lord, they didn't hear from Him, He didn't tell them to do
that. So it didn't work. It's not just doing anything,
it's not just doing something, it's doing what He said. Faith in what? Faith in what He said. What He said in His word and
what He said by His Spirit to you. When we first came up here to
Branson, and it's very similar in Sarasota, I mean the story
unfolded just about the same way, because the principle is
the same. All we had was that we were
supposed to come up here and look around. Didn't know why, didn't have an
idea that there would be a church involved at that point. We're a traveling ministry. So, we got a step. We took a step. We came. We drove around, we looked. We talked. We prayed. Well, we had things to do, so
we're back out on the road, traveling, had meetings. All the while we're out on the
road, Branson keeps coming up to us. Branson. And it's a beautiful place, but
it wasn't that we were overwhelmed with the geography,
it was something else. Something we need to find out. So what do we need to do? We don't just need to wait on
Him, we need to seek Him. Why? In faith, to find out - the
Bible said, "Don't be unwise," Ephesians says, "but
understanding what the will of the Lord is." Does He expect us to seek Him
and find out what His will is? He does. Many people don't accept that,
but He does. It's not His responsibility for
us to find out. It's our responsibility to seek
Him. Why wouldn't you seek Him? You either don't believe it or
you don't care. Either one, you don't qualify. And He's not going to grab you
up on the map of the neck and force it on you. Some people try to tell you that
He will, but He won't. He said, "Behold, I stand at the
door and knock." That's on the outside. And if you don't hurry up and
let Me in, I'm coming in because I'm God. No. No. No. If you don't invite Him in, if
you don't want to hear from Him, if you don't want to know,
you're not going to hear it. You're not going to find out. And that's just. Because if you and I don't care
enough to want to know, we are not worthy of it. We don't qualify. And it's not like we can't
search for something, because if you spent six hours trying to
find the right shoes, if you spend a hundred and eighty-three
hours online searching for the right car, but you can't search
for the will of God or the plan of God, you don't have time,
it's a lie. It's not important enough to
you. You either don't believe it's
real, or you don't care enough. It's just not important enough
to you. And all us, you and me, all of
us, have made mistakes in this area and our priorities haven't
been what they could have been. But, if you want to see some
miracles, if you want to have some things happen, then you
become fully persuaded that God is a good God. He's got an amazing plan for us. And I'm not waiting on Him, I
need to seek Him and find out what I need to do to take the
first steps. Because it's hard to steer a
parked car. "Oh, God lead me, guide me, lead
me, guide me." You got it in park with
emergency brake on. How is He going to guide you? "We're just waiting in the
garage." No, no, no. And a lot of times folks - He
said, "Okay, put it in reverse. Back out of the driveway." And so people just sit still. Why? "I have to know where I'm going. I don't even put it in reverse
until I know where I'm going." You don't understand Him then. Because that's how He operates. He gives you word of knowledge. Not even a sentence. Not a paragraph. A word. "Back up." You think God, why? You know enough if you're going
to walk by faith. If you really want to know why,
back up. Is that right? Because when you get to the end
of backing up, there's going to be something else. He'll say okay, put it in drive
and take a right turn right here. Why? Do it and find out why. That's exactly how it has worked
with Phyllis and I in the ministry and the churches every
time. Came up here, while we were out
on the road we keep thinking about Branson. What is it about Branson? So this is not God's
responsibility. He has let us know something. Now we need to pursue, somebody
say: "Pursue." We need to pursue. So as soon as we could, we come
back. Well, this is your rest time. We are spending money, come on
are you with me? But, what does that matter? We want to please God. We want to find out. So we began to think maybe we're
supposed to relocate to here. Didn't make sense. We travel, we operate, we have a
little plane, and the airport up here wasn't very good for that. This is before we got our new
airport. And it just wasn't convenient in
some ways, but that's reasoning. So we kept seeking, and as the
days and weeks went by, we began to earnestly - because we know
there is something here. And the more we prayed about it,
the stronger it was. What is it? We didn't know. Nothing had been said about a
church, nothing. Wasn't in our minds. Because we never thought about
pastoring. We are busy doing what we do. One time driving up on
forty-four, we were talking about it and wondering kind of
out loud wondering what's going on with us, Phyllis began to
shout. She said, "I don't know why am
so happy. Something is going on." Hallelujah. What are we doing? We're seeking Him and we are
getting another piece. And were getting another piece. We're getting another piece. So we said okay, we're going to
stay up here for a week or so now because we worked it in, and
we're going to look for a place. That's not always fun. And to make matters less
enjoyable, no money to do it. I mean, we had operating
expenses for the ministry and everything was covered, but not
to just waltz in and buy a place, we didn't have that. So we looked around a little bit
and I told Phyllis one day, I said I'm just going to stay here
and pray. And she said, "I'm good to drive
around here and look." I said okay. I'm praying, and praying, I'm
praying. And I will go through all of it,
but she was looking at the Yellow Ribbon Theater over there
through a series of events, and she calls and says, "You have to
come see this." Because I said maybe we could
get a place where if we needed to we could put a hundred people
or something, and shoot some TV. Well it's got two thousand
seats. What do you need that for? But she said, "I don't know, I
don't know why, but you need to see this." And when she said it, I knew it
was right. I just knew it in here. I thought well, okay, I'm
coming. We stood there looking around
thinking what are we doing looking at this? Abraham went out - come on, he
didn't stay at the house. He went out not knowing where he
was going. I don't claim that we've always
done everything perfectly, I'm not saying we're the perfect
example, we've made mistakes too. But there are many people in our
so-called faith circles, the Lord dealt with them about
something and they have been waiting now for years for
something to happen, and nothing is happening. And it's because they're not
waiting on Him. He dealt with them to do
something, but it didn't make sense and they didn't see how:
it was going to require faith. And if the Lord deals with you
to do something, He's always going to deal with you to do
things that you can't do and you don't see how. You don't see the way. But you don't have to. You don't have to make it
happen. You don't have to produce it. You don't have to produce the
money. You don't have to heal yourself. What you do have to do is
believe it enough, believe it enough that when He says, "Go
look at Branson," you go look at Branson. Take a step, do this, look at
this, and both of us knew we're supposed to endeavor to get this
property. I don't know if I can fully
express to you how impossible it seemed. So we set up an appointment and
talked to the owners. And I had tried to think
creatively. Lease/purchase. Lease/lease/purchase. Some way to get in and get
started and get going. We didn't know anybody here. Hadn't talked to anybody, hadn't
done any demographic studies, nothing. And we talked to them and they
said, "No, no, we just want to sell it." So I offered another scenario,
maybe more interesting. "No, no, we just want to sell
it." Okay, offered another scenario. "No, no, we just want to sell it
outright." Okay. Thank you for your time. Good to meet you guys. Went back to the condo. Phyllis and I looked at each
other. That's all I know to do. I don't know what else to do. So we cast the care of it over
on the Lord and went to sleep. Are you listening? We weren't just waiting at the
house. We went as far as we could. We kept taking steps. We are endeavoring to do this. Well the phone rang, I think it
was seven o'clock the next morning. The Lord had dealt with one of
those gentlemen that we should meet again. And they offered us a scenario
that was just great. And we thought yeah. So we agreed, we got the initial
paperwork, Phyllis and I came back over and looked at the
building, it was just us two. This thing is going to be some
big bills too, right? To operate this thing. We never had a service. Don't know if anybody would
come, have no proof of it. Never pastored before. The bathrooms, they were dirty
bus driver lounges, it didn't look like a church. It wasn't a church. It needed everything. It needed a bunch of work and
money just to make it ready for a service and man, and then that
was just getting started. So we went back out the door and
went back to the condo. Our staff is in Oklahoma. They don't know what we're
doing. So, that night the Lord dealt
with us to go to church in St. Louis with some friends of ours. We were a little tired. The plane was down for some
maintenance, our little plane. And so it was going to be a
drive. You know, your flesh would say
why? But, whatever He says to you,
it's the key to miracles. So Phyllis and I talked about
it, I said I feel like we need to go. She said, "Okay, I'll be ready." She's a good 'un. We load up, got up early, got to
get up early. We drive up to St. Louis. It's our friends Jeff and Patsy
Perry. And they saw us and we enjoyed
the service with them and they said, "Stay and eat with us." We said sure, sure. So, we tell them at lunch, looks
like we're moving to Missouri with you. Oh, they were happy, they
shouted. And told him about what the Lord
had done and we got the property. And Brother Jeff looked at me,
he said, "You have to start on Easter Sunday, Resurrection
Sunday." Well, it was three weeks away. Three weeks away. I mean, when he said it, it was
just like that's ridiculous. And the Spirit of God said,
"Listen. Listen. Pay attention." Everybody say: "Steps. Steps. Steps. Steps. Steps. Steps." Listen. So I sat there and I buttoned my
lip and let him tell me how that - he has pastored for years. He said, "You need to start on
Resurrection Sunday. It's the perfect time. You need to start on
Resurrection Sunday." And I just nodded my head and
I'm thinking, how in the world could this ever happen? And he brightened up and he
said, "Let us help you." I said, how? They have a disaster relief
organization. And at that point I felt like we
qualified. Called Service International. I said really? He said, "Yeah, yeah, it's the
Lord. Yes, yes, yes. I'll talk to them, they will
come down, we will help you get up and get ready to start
service on Resurrection Sunday." I was just overwhelmed. I thought, God - let's just stop
right here. What if we had slept in? Because we had no idea that
would happen. We had no idea God would move on
those folks to help us get in that building either. We're not going to find out
these things waiting until we get the whole picture. Thank God He helped us to follow
Him that time. And he talked to his guys, I
mean just a day or two later, a hundred and thirty of them
showed up down here, including carpenters, electricians,
plumbers, housewives, teenagers, and they descended on that place
and they cleaned it, and they stripped it, and they painted
it, and they built a platform, and steps and took up all stuff
that was bad tile and bad carpet, and then they were there
for the whole week, just hung out there, slept there, cooked
on grills and slept in sleeping bags, just like that. And the next week another
hundred came in. And in three weeks, with a half
a page advertisement in the local paper that somebody else
paid for, and that was all we did, and some five hundred
people showed up. Somebody say, "Glory to God." Glory to God. That's a miracle. And as it progressed, I mean,
were able to fulfill our lease and then buy it and pay for it. Somebody say, "Glory to God." Just like that, that's a
miracle. Getting it, the people coming,
the money is just as much a miracle as somebody getting
healed. It's a financial miracle. It's a miracle in the kingdom. How do we get miracles? But Phyllis and I couldn't just
wait for something big to happen for us. We believe in big things. So what are you doing? "We're just believing God. Waiting for God. When He gets ready, in His own
good time, in His own good way, something great is going to
happen." Not in response to dead faith. That's not how it works. When the Lord deals with you
about something, you have to take some initiative, like the
woman with the issue of blood. You can't lay at the house. Let me go over on this side a
little bit. I said, you can't lay at the
house. We had a number of folks in this
church that make a lot of confessions, but they won't do
anything. They won't do anything year
after year after year. "Great things are going to
happen. Great things are going to
happen." They haven't happened and
they're not happening. Are we sure we're waiting on
God? And a number of people the Lord
told them what to do, and some of it was through people that
were over them, and they absolutely rejected it and still
waiting on God to do something. That's not how it works. You have to take that step. You have to put your flesh
under. You have to seek. This property here, we knew we
needed to expand the land around the one over there was very
expensive. We looked at it, we talked about
it, but we couldn't get a witness that it was right to
pursue it. See, you could've just said
here's land, we need it, let's start a project. And that's when you get
something that just drags on and on and on, and there's no umph
to it, there's no quickening to it, and it's not working because
it was just your idea. But, month after month, the
classes are crowded, you feel the pressure to do something,
but what do you do? You seek God, you keep seeking
Him, and you look, you keep looking. We looked at this, we looked at
that. You don't just look at
everything you can look at, I'm not talking about that, but you
keep seeking until you find. You do it because you believe
it's there. God has it for us. Is that right? And you keep doing it because
you believe you can find it. You don't just sit passively and
wait and do nothing. You go after it. You look. Is it always convenient? No. It's rough on your flesh. And you get tired of looking
because you want to be done with it. Yeah, but you're not done with
it. I'm tired of looking, I'm tired
of seeking. It doesn't mean a thing. You either have it or you don't. Right? And you keep on until you know
what to do. And when I found out what to do
about projects, that's when I let you know. When I found out what to do. This is not Keith and Phyllis's
churches, this is your church. This is our church. Right? That's why all of us need to
know the vision, all of us need to know what we are believing
for. This is not our personal stuff
we're talking about on these projects. And once you find it, you pursue
it. And we have gained momentum. The Lord helped us get this
place, we got that fifty acres, boom, it was paid for in just a
few months. Remember all that? And thing after thing, gave us
that sign up there, and thing after thing after thing, give us
the aircraft. We sowed it. Got the one we got now so we get
seed in the ground. Right? And then if things progressed,
like recently with the TV, we released faith for it, it was
there in what? Three or four days? One night. A million dollars. That's a miracle. That's a miracle. How many believe it's a miracle? It's a miracle. How did it happen? Well, it was God's plan, but we
had to find out about it. We had to seek Him. Right? And then be willing to take a
step. Thing after thing that we've
released our faith for it seemed how are you ever going to do
that? How are you ever going to get
that? Unbelief would just say don't
bring it up, you don't want to be embarrassed. But if you have heard from Him,
you step out not knowing where you are going. Not knowing how you are going to
get there. Not knowing what comes next, but
being absolutely persuaded that He is the Almighty God, He is
real, He is powerful, He is more than enough, and when you
diligently seek Him, He is good and faithful to show you and to
help you and to take you by the hand and get you all the way
from here to there. And your pictures become
fixtures. And your vision becomes sight. Hallelujah. It's the same way with a
healing, it's the same way with personal finances. You hear stories about the great
healing meetings in the tent revivals. And the great miracle that
happened, people that hadn't walked in months or years came
to the meeting with new shoes. Why? Why buy new shoes? Why you need new shoes? God told them to get your shoes. Right? Do what you couldn't do. Stretch forth your hand, rise
and walk. But you can't do it. Yeah, but they did. First of all they got to the
meeting. Oh friend, God has not changed
His mind about miracles. He is not making everybody wait
for year after year until He gets ready. That's not what's going on. What's going on is waiting,
waiting, waiting. Thinking we're waiting on Him. It begins with earnestly seeking
Him. First of all you believe He is
good. He is real. He is your Father, He loves you. And you believe He already knows
what to do about this situation. He's already got the answer,
He's already bought and paid for my healing, He's already got my
finances, come on, are you listening? He's got everything I need. I don't have to figure this
thing out. But I need to hear from Him. If you need to, you fast and you
spend extra time praying and seeking Him. Why don't people do that? Because they are not convinced
He's real enough or they're not convinced they can find it, so
they just don't even try. Or, they do it for a little
while but then they quit and gave up. Why would you quit? Because you think it's a waste
of time. Oh, but hallelujah, don't cast
your confidence away. It has great recompense of
reward. Hallelujah! And after you have done the will
of God, you're going to receive the promise. Can you say, "Amen?" Hallelujah. Go to James please in closing, I
think. How do we get our miracles? How do we see amazing things
happen in our life? We don't just wait and wait
passively and indefinitely. We seek Him, we find out what to
do, what the first step is, and repeatedly we're not going to
see how it fits in with everything, why do it? Why go up to St. Louis to go to
church? But the Lord knew, He had a
plan. He always has a plan. James one. Verse twenty five, I believe it
is. I tell you what. Let's read more of that. I know this will sound familiar
to you. James 1:22, "But be ye doers of
the word, and not hearers only," because what happens if you just
hear it and don't do it? "Deceiving your own selves." What does it mean when you are
deceived? It means you believe something
is true that is not true. You believe something is right
that is not right. And who did it? He said you deceived yourself. Keep reading. "If any be a hearer of the word,
and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face
in a glass: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and
straightway forgets what manner of man he was." He didn't do anything with that
knowledge and didn't keep it in front of him. "But whoso looketh into the
perfect law of liberty," that means you don't just look and
then go away and forget, you look and keep on looking. You keep on looking for it. Whoso looks into the perfect law
of liberty, "And continues therein," everybody say:
"Continues." You stay on it. I'm trusting the Spirit of God
is communicating this to your Spirit, but Sarasota, the same
way. We went down there. We felt like we got direction,
but it looked like - the building we have down there they
said it was already sold. It had already been put in the
newspaper, the big newspaper, and the TV stations had
announced it. So that would make you think
boy, we must've missed it on this one. But thing after thing - I won't
go into all the details, but we got it. And so then the papers had
something else to write about. And this is what they said. They gave us the front page. Mega church swoops in, scoops up
the property - we didn't mess up anybody's deal. We asked them. They were mad because they said,
"No, there's no deal. They hadn't paid for anything,
nothing is done, there has been no money and they are telling
everybody?" They were upset about it. We said, "Well, if for some
reason it doesn't work," they said, "It's not working." So they put it on the front page
mega church - I thought, say it again. Mega church? I didn't know I was a mega
church. A mega church! Say it again. Swoops in, scooped up the
property. It was not flattering. And yet, we had a bunch of
people come to the church because they saw it in the
paper. And several of them are there to
this day. They said, "Yeah, we saw it on
the front page. We didn't know you we're here. Glory to God!" You can't buy the front page of
the paper to advertise your meeting. They gave it to us for free. But, prior to that happening,
there were what? Two years of seeking what to do,
how to turn this factory into a church. As you might imagine, thousands
of decisions. And then the money, believing
for all the money, the millions that it took to do it. And you haven't had a service
yet. Everybody say: "Steps. Steps. Steps." You take a step and then you
take another and you take another and sometimes you can
feel weary. You can get tired of looking and
get tired of pursuing because it's not done, it's not half
done. But He gives strength. He gives you might. He gives power to the faint. He gives strength to them that
have no might. Why? So you can run, baby, run. So you can keep on keeping on as
long as it takes until you get all the way and experience the
miracle that God intended for you to. But that is not sitting at the
house waiting for something to happen. That's not what that is. Don't be a hearer only, be a
doer. "But whoso looks into the
perfect law of liberty, and continues therein he being not a
forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man," not just
everybody, not the other guys, but this guy, "shall be blessed
in his deed." That means you are to see some
miracles. You're going to see God move. You're going to see things
happen that folks said couldn't be done. Hallelujah! And it won't be you that did it,
He did it. But you were involved. He used you. You had to pursue Him, you had
to obey Him, you had to follow Him, so He let you have a part
of it. This is God honoring us. That's why it doesn't all just
fall on you like ripe cherries on a tree. Because who should receive a
reward for something that was thrown in their lap? You didn't do anything. The reward God has planned for
us, He is righteous to bestow on us, because He gave us
opportunity and He said, "Come get it. I got it all for you right here. Come get it." And millions on the planet will
not even bother to try. So they are unworthy of it, they
don't qualify. You remember the story of the
man that had the one talent and he just buried it? What does that mean? He didn't even try. Didn't even try. And that's what that Scripture
in Hebrews ten is talking about, God has no pleasure in that. That displeases Him. But those that say I know it's
here, I know it God, and I know it's good. And You're going to show me. You're already endeavoring to
show me, and I won't quit You. Then you get enough to go do
this, so you don't know how in the world that's going to fit
with everything, but just in faith you step out and do it and
then you find out why He said back out of the garage. And then you find out why He
said take a right and go here, you find out. You keep taking steps and steps
and you wind up at the place under the spout where the glory
pours out. You wind up at the right place,
at the right time, and God uses you, and He gets all the glory
because you didn't figure this out, you didn't even know where
you were going. And yet, He's got a right to
reward you and give you an eternal place of glory in it,
why? Because you believed Him enough
to do it. And you wouldn't quit when
others did. And He will call you faithful. You've been faithful in a few
things. I'm going to give you,
hallelujah, I'm going to make you ruler over much. Enter thou into the joys of your
Lord. Ha ha! Oh, brother, sister, at that day
no sweat, no extra praying will be thought too much, is that
right? You will not even cross your
mind that you all had to work so hard, that won't even crossed
your mind. You will be thinking thank God
He helped me to stay with Him and not quit, not give up. "Seek, and you will find it. Knock, it will be opened to you. Ask, you will receive it." Step out and take a step not
knowing the rest and He will take your hand, He will lead
you, the Holy Spirit will carry you if you need carrying, if you
will just keep after it, you will get there. But don't sit at the house
waiting, waiting, waiting, refusing to do anything. Not a hearer only, but a doer. Stand on your feet everybody. Glory to God.
