What Faith Is (Part 1) - Dr. Fred Price

let's pray father we thank you and praise you again for the privilege and the opportunity of gathering around your word it is our continuing and sincere desire to know you more perfectly that we may serve you more faithfully we thank you again and again that we can call you abba father that you're not ashamed to call us alone says your very own children your very own redeemed and blood washed family we thank you for jesus our great redeemer our high priest and someday our coming king for all that he has done for all that he is doing and for all that he will do when he returns to receive us to himself we thank you for the holy spirit whom you have sent into our midst to be our teacher and to be our guide we know that without his anointing we can do nothing as we ought to do it without his inspiration and revelation we can know nothing as we ought to know it but we do rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory that he is here and that he will guide us into the truth i thank you that even now he is anointing every ear to hear and every heart to believe and i thank you that my lips are now anointed to speak your word that i will speak it accurately and that revelation knowledge would flow freely into service tonight unhindered and unchecked by any force and in obedience to your word we covet earnestly the best gifts of the spirit that they would be in operation and in manifestation that the needs of this assembled body may be met in a supernatural way i personally thank you that your word declares that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world therefore with great boldness and confidence i look to the greater one who indwells me and i know that he will think through my mind he will speak through my lips and he will minister through this vessel of clay to your people and for all that shall be manifested and for all that shall be revealed we promise in covenant with you now in advance before we ever begin that we will give you alone all of the praise the glory the honor the adoration and all of the thanksgiving for we ask it in that name that is above every name the name of jesus and all who agreed with that prayer said amen all right turn in your bibles to second peter chapter one second peter chapter one i want to uh read several scriptures first then i'll give you the title to what we're going to be sharing during the course of the next three sessions that we have together second peter chapter one if you have it say i have it now i'm uh teaching from and reading from the new king james version of the bible you may be using the traditional or some other translation so if some of the words are different it's probably because of the translation however i guarantee you we will end up in the same place all right second peter chapter 1 verse 12 peter says for this reason i will not be negligent to remind you say remind you remind you always of these things though you know and are established in the present truth yes i think it is right as long as i am in this tent or body to stir you up by reminding you so say reminding you now make it personal impersonal reminding me all right so what i'm going to be sharing may be reminding you but if peter saw by the spirit of god a necessity to remind those to whom he was writing then why can't fred do that okay so some of it may be reminding but i guarantee there'll be something that will be seen in a little different light that will that will be a blessing to you now turn to first corinthians chapter third better known as three first corinthians chapter three first corinthians chapter three if you have it say i have it all right verse 9 it says for we are god's fellow workers you are god's field you are god's building notice he says for we are god's fellow workers not vacationers workers now second corinthians chapter 6. keep in mind we're god's fellow workers saying corinthian second corinthians chapter six if you have it say i have it all right verse 1 we then as workers together with him also plead with you not to receive the grace of god in vain emphasis on we then as workers together with him not workers for him workers with him so that tells us that him is doing something and is giving us the privilege to assist him we are workers together with him people i always hear them especially ministers say i want to do thus and so for the lord i want to do this for the lord whoever said the lord needed you to do anything for him i mean he did a pretty good job of creating and sustaining the universe without your help you know why do you need why does he need you to do something for him now but we are workers together with him so that means he's doing something and he's privileging us to be able to help him now in order to do that we have to be equipped and the primary thing that we need to be equipped with are material things because what he's doing in the earth realm is in context of material people physical people so it takes physical things to be able to accomplish god's purpose so we're workers together with him so i need to be equipped see god can't tell me to go do this and so if i don't have the wherewithal to do it now faith is the key that places us in position to truly be workers together with god so i want to talk to you and share with you some thoughts on the subject what faith is what what is it really what what faith is or subtitle how important is faith how important is it now the first thing i want to do is to give you some clarification on what i mean socrates who was the father of philosophy said in order for two intelligent people to converse with one another they had to first establish and agree on their terms so that when one said something the other would know exactly what the person meant so it's very important to understand for you and i in this time that we're spending together to be sure we're understanding each other you don't have to agree with it but at least you need to understand it you need to know what am i talking about after soybeans i disagree with that that's fine probably not for you anyway but the big point is that we at least have to understand what we're talking about so i want to i want to i want to clarify what i mean when i say faith because that word has been bannered about so long it is so messed up and messed over a lot of people really don't understand what it is and what it's not so i want to define for you what i mean so that as we talk about it as i share with you at least you'll know what i'm talking about in the end you may say i disagree with it well that's fine but at least you'll be disagreeing on knowledge you will have known what i had i had said and what i meant so let's find out go to first timothy chapter five first timothy chapter five what faith is how important is faith first timothy chapter five if you have have it all right verse eight paul says but if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household he has denied the what he has denied the faith f a i t h he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever or infidel if you're reading from the traditional now while you're right there in timothy go to second timothy chapter four what do i mean when i say faith all right second timothy chapter four if you ever say i have it very very very familiar passage of scripture paul says i have fought verse 7 i have fought the good fight i have finished the race i have kept the what faith f a i t h paul said i've kept the faith paul said if you don't take care of those who are of your own household you have denied the faith f-a-i-t-h in both of those scriptures paul is using the word faith as a synonym for christianity as a whole some years back many of you perhaps are too young to remember it but but some years back there was a very popular expression that people used to locate a person in reference to their religious or spiritual persuasion and so they would say what faith are you protestant catholic or jew so they they were using that word the very same way paul is using the word and then of course we've heard a lot in recent years about faith-based projects the government being involved with some things that have to do with with churches so that's a use of the word f-a-i-t-h i don't mean that when i say faith i don't mean that i don't mean i've kept the faith i don't mean if you don't take care of your own you've denied the faith let me show you what i mean turn to romans chapter 3. because words can be pronounced the same way spell the same way but have entirely different meanings and if you don't understand the meaning that the person that's speaking to you or writing to you what they mean by the word you can miss it by 49 million miles back in the 1970s young african-american men came up with a descriptive word to describe an attractive female and they would refer to a pretty girl or a lady as a fox is this an expression that the you whoo she's a fox all right right around that same time in the 70s a brand new automobile manufacturing company came online called audi their first entry into the automobile marketplace was a small compact car called the audi fox fox ever since time immemorial there has been a pointed nose short leg bushy tail pointed ear animal called a fox fox so i come in here tonight whoa y'all should have been with me today i saw a fox now what comes to your mind female automobile or animal [Applause] spelled the same way pronounce the same way entirely different meanings so i could be talking car and you think an animal we didn't communicate and that's exactly the way it is in the body of christ in reference to many expressions and particularly this word f-a-i-t-h so roman chapter three if you have to see i have it verse 27 paul says where is boasting then it is excluded by what law of works no but by the law of faith i submit to you that faith is a spiritual law that word also translates out into principle and principles are very important principles never change our attitude towards principles may change but principles can't change two and two will always be four you can call it nine if you want to but two and 2 is 4. that's a mathematical principle and it does not change faith is a spiritual law it's a spiritual principle and it will never ever no way change so when i say faith i'm talking about a law that operates in the kingdom of god in fact this law is so important that it is the it is once a person comes to christ and accept jesus christ as their personal savior and lord according to romans 10 9 once a person becomes a christian notice how i'm qualifying this now because i'm getting ready to say something gonna rock your chair okay once a person comes to christ then the most important thing for them to learn is the law of faith there is nothing else in the kingdom of god that is more important than the law of faith absolutely positively unequivocally nothing else is as important nothing you can't find anything in the bible you can't think of anything that's more important than faith now before you display your ignorance don't come at me with yes brother price but what about first corinthians 13 it says now by its faith hope love these three but the greatest of these is love so how can you have the audacity to tell us that faith is the most important thing when the bible says that love is well you missed it by 93 million miles all right let's talk about that for a minute because all of it's connected together for us to understand where we're going and so that we can know when we get there now where in the bible do you find first corinthians chapter 13 can anybody tell me new testament well let me help you out first corinthians chapter 13 comes right after first corinthians chapter 12 and right before first corinthians chapter 14. now you think i said that to be funny but i didn't what is chapter 12 and chapter 14 about in first corinthians it's about the charismata it's about the operation of the gifts of the spirit if you read the first chapter of first corinthians paul says to those at corinth you come behind in no gift they had all the manifestations of the spirit of god in operation but they were out of order they had no order everything was confusion one was trying to outdo the other so paul wrote the letter to help bring clarity and some order into the proceedings so right between the two chapters that are the most powerful chapters that tell us about the operation of the gifts of the spirit the supernatural power of god he sandwiches in this particular chapter first corinthians 13. so he says though i speak with the tongue of men and of angels and i have not charity or love i become as a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol it goes all the way through the chapter and gets down to the part where it says now abides faith hope charity or love these three but the greatest of these is love what is he talking about is he talking about the greatest thing in the world is love absolutely not love is not the greatest thing in the world why did i say that who this group right here got real hostile when i said that so i'm gonna move over here i'm gonna get over here i mean they got real hostile over there yeah okay watch this now follow follow so first corinthians 13 is not telling you about what's the most important thing in the world what it's talking about is motive and there is no greater motivator than love it's the greatest reason why you should do what you do for god so loved the world that he gave so that love motivated him there is no greater motive motivation for doing what you do other than love okay he's not talking about what's the greatest thing in the world he's talking about the greatest thing that will motivate people to do something now the difference between that and faith is that love is the greatest motivator but faith is the greatest activator and if you don't understand how to activate the covenant benefits and principles you're going down the tubes that's why i said once a person becomes a christian then the most important thing for them to learn is the law of faith because everything in the kingdom of god is activated by faith so if you don't understand it know what it is what is not how it works so for and so on then you'll never get the full benefit out of your covenant benefits because your covenant covers everything that you could ever need and everything that you could ever desire that is consistent with a godly life notice how i qualified it it's covered in the covenant everything you could ever need everything that you could ever desire everything that you could ever want that is consistent in a godly life or consistent with a godly life is covered in there that's how i got my first rolls royce was by using the covenant and people got all upset someday what is a preacher doing with a rolls royce why should he drive a roll roll because i wanted to you know it's that simple it's just that simple because i wanted to and i i found it in the bible i found rolls-royce in the bible you see you think i'm being facetious i'm it's in the book just because you haven't found it in there don't say it not in there i found it i can show it to you it's in there right now and so so so so faith activates everything in the kingdom of god you have a new covenant and that new covenant provides for you everything again that you could ever need or that you could ever desire that is consistent with a godly life can i come down here and walk down here a little bit is it okay all right i'd like to be a little close to folk you know i can't pick anybody's pocket from way up there right now hey reach in there okay but but seriously everything in your cup you have a covenant and that covenant was given to us so that we could be workers together with god faith is the way that you activate the benefits of the covenant so you have a everything the covenant says you are you are everything the covenant says you have you have every place the covenant says you are you are and everything and everything the covenant says you can do you can do it not because you may presently be doing it but that's who you are that's what you have that's where you are and that's what you can do if you once understand it and learn how to operate in that principle that law of faith it activates the entire system you have a new covenant in your covenant matthew mark luke and john are not the new covenant what you heard me matthew mark luke and john i know what your bible says if you go to the first chapter of matthew and then go back one page you'll find probably a nice big white page that'll say the new testament and it might even say words of jesus in red hallelujah but you know remember men put the canon of scriptures together and and they you know they didn't call me and ask me i would have told them but they didn't ask me and so they messed up because they put it in there like matthew mark luke and john the new testament matthew martin luther matthew mark luke and john are not new testament it's impossible for them to be new testament see testament is also in the legal profession it's called the will haven't you ever heard the expression the last will and testament of so-and-so well that covenant is the last will and testament of the lord jesus christ and by law a will is legally unenforceable until after the person who makes the will physically dies that person legally is called the testator the will is of no value of no force it cannot be enforced by law until after the testator died so stop and think about it jesus doesn't die to the last of mar the last of matthew the last of luke and the last of john therefore everything before his death has to be the old will or the old testament the old covenant so the book of acts is a history book it tells you about the establishing of the church not a new covenant book the book of revelation is eschatological book big theological word that just means the doctrine of the end of everything your covenant is romans to jude everything in there belongs to you but you'll never get the benefit of it personally unless you know it and learn how to activate it by faith and that's why faith is so important it's the most important activator in the world you know we live in a very technologically advanced civilization today even though it's screwed up it's still technologically very advanced and and almost everything we do nowadays is all electronic i mean we got every all kind of gizmo you got pagers you got ipods m3 three players the laptop computers we got satellites we got big screens like this we got all the electronic equipment i mean everything almost everything that we uh work with every day is all electronics worldwide and therefore the most important thing for electronic gizmos or gadget is electricity whenever the electricity goes out everything crashes it goes down every electronic gadget is activated by electrical energy either direct current from a battery or ac current from the wall and the battery has to be recharged by the wall and that comes from the generator that produces the power and sends it to your home or office or wherever you are so we're we're in a age now where everything is electronic it's cell phone i mean everything is electronic and if you've ever been in an area or a place where the power went out man that the fan went off the air conditioning went off the phones went down the tv went down microwave wouldn't work i mean everything crashes electricity is extremely important in in our technologically advanced age just to that same extent so is the word of god activated by faith that's why faith is so important and that's why satan fights it so much because he knows that if my the people of god ever get a hold of that law and that principle and ever learn to work that principle he will not be able to curtail their advancement and they're working together with god okay now now so so when i say faith i'm talking about a law now let's look at something else let's look at the importance of faith now you know i'm a pastor like your pastor and as a pastor you have certain requirements that god expects you to do in reference to the sheep and the lambs but then there can be certain aspects of the anointing that's on your life to deal with certain particular subjects perhaps more in detail than you would other subjects so the subject the law of faith is a part of my equipping okay doesn't mean i know everything about it but i know some things about it and that's the area where i really uh do my thing do my thing you know what i mean i've done a thing okay and particularly when i'm outside of my own pastoral whenever god sends me out this is basically what i just i talk about this all the time because this is a part of my my assignment now what happens is a lot of times people and particularly ministers because really what you have in the in the well we don't have pews here but you know what i mean when i say a pew that means the seats in the church but what you have in the pew is predicated on what you have in the pulpit you if you have a sick pulpit you got a sick congregation you have a prosperous pulpit you have a prosperous congregation you have a scared pulpit you have a scared congregation you have a prejudiced racist pulpit you have a prejudiced racist congregation that's all you can have the congregation is a result of the pastor and so some pastors are leeches what i mean by that is that they don't wait and get anything from god to find out what's their assignment or what they're supposed to do they just look around and see what other pastors are doing oh i like that oh yeah oh he oh my goodness look what he did i'm gonna do that i'm gonna do it and they just do things and they really don't have a conviction in their heart they don't have a leading of the spirit of god to do it so they'll grab on to anything that seems like it's current and popular then when it doesn't produce for them then they want to cop out by saying the lord is doing a new thing god is doing a new thing and that's what happened to the the principles of faith you know god has to work through people and sometimes we're so habituated with our traditions that he can't get a word in edgewise as it were so he has to wait until somebody has an open heart and an open ear that he can plug into by his spirit and give an emphasis on a particular part of his covenant so some years back this faith thing came up real big it was real popular in fact people called it the faith movement which is a misnomer makes me want to spit every time i hear people say that because it's not true but they clashed it as a move month the faith movement and so then after a while for a lot of them as i said it didn't work because their motivation wasn't correct it wasn't right they weren't in it because they wanted to please god they were in it as a gimmick something gets something they wanted to get get something and what happened sometimes those of us that have that have been charged with this kind of ministry you know you can't teach in a vacuum so you teach with illustration jesus did it i mean i personally i got mine from jesus he taught parabolic messages a farmer went out a sword went out to sow i mean people could relate to that so when you talk to people you have to give them something to relate to truth doesn't stand out there all by itself it's related to something so sometimes we'll use personal experiences i'd have to use my i can't talk about you i'll talk about you you'll get mad we'll come back to church i had that happen one time i didn't know it i was just using talking you know and teaching and i use the person in the audience because if you've ever seen my tv program you know i get like get closer to people and i talk to people and i was using this lady as an illustrator woo that woman got so mad at me lord jesus he wanted to take me out and she got really mad because she thought i was embarrassing her you know put out now hey just using an illustration so what happens we use illustrations about personal things not to brag but to show you that what we're teaching you produces results and here it is in living color we're not talking about somebody that lived 200 years ago we're talking about somebody living in the same current screwed up world you have to live in with the same idiot people running the government that you know that you have to live with paying the same outrageous gasoline prices and taxes and all the rest of the stuff but look what the word of god has produced and that's an encouragement and an inspiration and a motivation to get others to go along with the story so what happened some of these men because their motivation wasn't right and they just got on the bandwagon as another trick thing to use to try to get something and it didn't work because it won't work if the moti's not right are you following me and so then they gave up on it and they called it a wave and they said well the faith wave is gone god is doing a new thing and then somebody else said it was a season and now the season is over and god is doing a new thing and a lot of immature baby christians follow right along with it and lost a lot of ground that they should have gained because they listen to stupid teaching faith the law of faith has never been a wave it's never been a movement and it never been a season and it never will because it's a law it's fixed forever it can't go out so you better plug into it you better learn how to operate in it and get on board or you're going to be left at the station okay so it's not a movement so what i want to do now is i want to go by scripture and show you how important faith is why we need to study why we need to master it and understand it and then to also prove by the word of god that faith was never a movement not a movement not a season not a wave it's a law and it works 24 7 365 and always will so turn now to romans chapter one you still here all right talk to me now romans chapter 1 what faith is or how important is faith now again it's not the only thing in the covenant it's not the only thing but as i said i personally believe it is the most important thing simply because not the only thing now i didn't say only thing but i said the most important because it makes everything else work are you following me it activates the covenant so if you don't know how to activate the covenant you can't take advantage of it are you following me the benefits of it so let's show you let's find out from the word of god whether faith is the way of the season it's gone or god's doing a new thing and you know i hate to you know when when god you have to go back and analyze when god says he's doing a new thing it doesn't mean a replacement thing because if it meant a replacement thing then it would mean that god has a problem with creating inferior product line because if he has to change it then it means he didn't know what he's doing in the first place so when it when it when it says new it doesn't mean new lack never was but it means like renewed reinforced god knows what he's doing from the day first day so he's not doing something he didn't know what he was doing okay all right roman chapter one if you ever say i have it all right verse 17 says for in it the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith now the word just j-u-s-t whenever you find that in the new covenant just justified or justification it simply means declared righteous that's what it means declared righteous you know usda choice and you understand that in other words the meat is good for human consumption you understand all right but he says so we can read it like this for in it the righteousness of god is revealed because that's what he's talking about the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith as it is written those who have been declared righteous shall live by faith okay did you get that the just shall what live by faith now pardon me if i point to you but i'd like to get people involved so if i point to you don't don't you know don't don't be offended but i'd like to get you involved okay now watch this verse for in it the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just or those who have been declared righteous shall live by faith okay you got that now i have a question i have a question you look like an intelligent young lady in the course of a 24-hour day how many hours do you live she she kind of hesitated i yeah 24. all right great all right in a seven day week seven day week how many of those days do you live six four and a half seven interesting all right in the 365 day year how many of those days do you live 365. now i'm going i'm i'm heading us somewhere follow this some things you can figure out if you just think watch this now for in it the righteousness of god is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith 24 7 365. so if god is doing a new thing and he takes faith out tell me how the just are going to live talk to me if god takes faith out and he's going to do a new thing and replace it he's the one that said it not me he said the just shall live by faith and then he obligated himself by putting it in hard copy so you can't delete it if you take it out you're gonna have a gap between verse 16 and 18 didn't he know that when he had the scriptures originally designed why would he put a verse in and he's going to take it out and leave a gap it says the just shall live by faith so if you live 24 7 365 and faith goes out how are they just going to live so it can't be a wave can't be a season [Music] come on they can't go out if they do if it does then how how are they just going to live now that's only one scripture i'm not going to stop there go to ephesians chapter 2. the bible said in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established and it's just amazing to me how so many people got on the bandwagon yeah that's right god god god doing a new thing god doing a new thing just ignorance you know bible ignorance it's amazing just follow like it's called the herd mentality don't do any thinking for themselves that's why i always point people to the scripture don't take my word for it could sound clever sound reasonable sound like it's right it's not right because it sounds like it it's only right because it can be validated by that word i don't care what any preacher tells you if you can't find it in that word at least the seeds of it in that word you may not find a fully developed tree but you should be able to find the seeds if you can't find the seeds be careful all right ephesians chapter two if you have as i have it all right verse eight says for by grace you have been saved through faith in that night of yourself it is a gift of god verse 9 not of works that anyone should boast all right notice verse 8 says for by grace god's unmerited favor that's the simplest definition for by grace you have been saved how through faith well if anyone got saved through faith then everyone will get saved through faith so therefore if faith goes out how's anybody going to get saved excuse me it says for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god now i personally believe that when it says not of yourselves it is a gift of god we know salvation is a gift but i don't believe that that's what that verse is talking about i think that verse is talking about the faith to get to salvation is a gift that god has to give to you and how does he do it by proclaiming the word to you because faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of god god has to give you that faith the god kind of thing see there's natural human faith but there's the god kind of faith bible faith spiritual faith that comes out of the recreated human spirit everybody has natural faith but this is talking about the god kind of faith that only comes from god so it says for by grace you have been saved through faith so if faith goes out then i wonder from this night on if faith is out how's anybody going to get saved you got to get saved through faith so faith can go out if it does how folk going to get saved are you still here all right go now to first timothy chapter six we're talking about the importance of faith how how important is it well it's like saying how's import in these days and times how important is electricity and everything will be shut down in fact you'll be stuck in the parking lot tonight you can't even drive your car without electricity car won't run without electricity so if you how important is electricity you better believe is important so how important is faith extremely important all right first timothy chapter 6 did i say first timothy chapter 6 and let's look at verse 12. it says fight the good fight of f-a-i-t-h lay hold of eternal on eternal life to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses he says fight the good fight of faith did you know that that is the only fight that christians are called on to fight is a faith fight that's the only fight that we're called on to fight the faith fight we're not called on to fight satan because he's already been fought and defeated by jesus we're we're not called on to fight demons they're already defeated where does the bible ever say fight demons fight devils or fight satan nowhere no jesus said in mark 16 in my name you cast them out didn't say nothing about fighting them cast them out luke 10 19 says i give you power to tread walk on serpents scorpions and over all the power of the enemy don't fight him just walk on them step put them under your feet ephesians 4 27 says neither give place to the devil that means the devil satan cannot oh get this now satan cannot have a place in your circumstances unless you give it to him amen because if that were not true then it would be fallacious of god to tell us don't give him any place if i can't keep him from having a place then why tell me not to give him one. so if the devil blowing up your skirt messing over your life you gave him a place now you might not have intended to do so but he can't have a place unless you give it to him neither give place to the devil and that word in that scripture near in ephesians is very it's a very pregnant word the word place comes from the greek word topaz t-o-p-o-s that's the word that our english word topography comes from and you know what that means it has to do with the contour of the landmass what everything looks like rocks mountains hills lakes valleys rivers whatever so what the word of god is telling you don't even give the turkey a rock don't give him a pebble don't give him a grain of sand he can't have it unless you give it to him james 4 7 says resist the devil and he'll flee from you it does not say that that's what most christians quote and that's why the devil beats their brains out that's not what it says it says submit yourself therefore unto god resist the devil and he will flee if you're not submitted to god the devil does not have to flee hallelujah praise the lord and what is submitting to god means it means submitting to his word because god is not here physically because he's not a physical person but his word is here and his word is him just like your word is you if i can't count on your word i can't count on you you are only as good as your word if your word is no good you are no good submit yourself therefore to god resist the devil and he will flee if i'm not submitted to the word of god the devil doesn't have to flee so the devil is defeated we don't so when he says fight the good fight of faith it doesn't mean fight the devil it doesn't mean fight churches fight people fight ethnic groups fight denomination it's talking about the fight of faith why because satan will come against you to steal your faith because if he can stop your faith he can stop you because the only thing you have is of any value to the devil is your faith that's the only reason he's harassing your marriage harassing your relationship harassing your job or business or whatever it might be is to get you off of your faith once he does that he'll break your head he has nothing else he can do if he can separate you from your faith the law of faith to know how to access the benefits of your covenant he'll have you up the creek in a boat with no oars so that's why it's a fight things that come against you to steal your faith to get you to compromise god's word to get you to go with with with fads and so forth and so on instead of staying with the ever living never changing word of god we're in a fight but it's a faith fight not a people fight not to fight people amen it's a faith fight fight the good fight of it and then watch this this is a very important word he says fight the good fight of faith why why didn't he just say fight the fight of faith and we would have known it wasn't a football game why put the word good fight of faith you know why because god expects you to win and it was always a good game when our team won bad game when our team lost that bad game oh it was a lousy game or did you see that game yeah everybody oh but brother when our team did you see that game whoa yeah good fight god expects you to win and you can win not sometime all the time every game you win every encounter you win doesn't matter how long it takes the game is not over till fred wins if it gets dark we turn the lights on if if the victory hasn't come by morning we turn the lights off and go with sunshine but we play till i win because he told me to fight the good fight of faith i'm a winner i'm going somewhere to happen how about you fight the good fight of faith all right first john first epistle of john we're talking about the importance of faith the just shall live by faith we're saved by faith that makes it pretty important then he tells us to fight the good fight of faith first john chapter five faith was never a wave that's what the devil wants you to think it's a way so go do something else all the other things not going not going to turn for you the kind of benefit that you need it's the key that makes everything in the kingdom of god work it's not the only thing but it's the thing that makes everything else work in fact watch this watch this you might not have thought about this watch this in first corinthians chapter 13 to talk about faith hope love these three the greatest of these is love then in galatians it talks about uh faith that works by love i got news for you it's not written in the bible but love works by faith and that's why a lot of you have a real big challenge relating to other members in the congregation because everybody unfortunately is not lovable lovable there are some people you can't even like them forget about loving them but i had to learn as a pastor with a large congregation like just all these people here how do you relate how does a pastor relate to all these people they have you stretched out and strung out you'll be on a stress leave every other month fooling with people with all their crazy ideas and their whims and their changes so i what i did is i learned how to love people by faith so that way everybody's on par and i don't ever have a problem with you i love i don't care how ugly you act do what you want to do do your thing talk to the hand i don't i'm gonna love you by faith i don't have to like you but i have a command to love you and so you learn how to do that by faith you won't have problem with people you know i'm telling the truth some people you can't even you can't even like them forget about loving them they just they're not even likable forget it you can't even like them you want to take them out it's what you want to do in love when you want to take them out so you learn how to do it by faith you'll never have a problem people don't bother me you know i don't make me know doing what you all do y'all can be ugly if you want to be ugly you can act whatever i just i just stay the same i love you bye god i have to love you don't have to like you but i do have to love you that's the command of god nowhere does it say you have i i i command you to like them no love so the big difference are you following me all right did you find first john all right chapter 5 look at verse 4 it says whatever for whatever or whatsoever is born of god overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith now pick up on this pick up on this it says for whatever is born or whatsoever literally should be whosoever because the whatsoever can't be born of god but whosoever can that's a person for whosoever is born of god overcomes the world now pick up on this we're talking about has faith gone out is it a wave was it a wave was it a season no watch this now it says for whatever is born of god overcomes the world and this is it doesn't say this was past tense doesn't say this will be future tense this is present tense this is the victory that has through christ overcome the world what does that mean it means the world system it means the environment in which we have to function and operate we overcome it should not overcome us we should overcome it but how do you do it by your faith this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith so if you understand how to operate in that law that principle of faith you can overcome all the crazy stuff that's in the world all the things that we get faced with in the world probably one of the biggest challenges well let me say it like this i really don't know about texas but i can tell you about los angeles biggest issue to survive in a city like l.a is money like that illustration about electricity and reference to electronic gadgets money well the bible says that money answers all things in prophecy money money i think prophecy ecclesiastes but money answers all things if you have enough money all other things being equal you can pretty well make it but boy when the money's short you don't have enough money and see the system if you don't learn how to operate in the context of god's covenant the system will keep you strapped and christians have been tricked into thinking that they have to go with everything that comes down the pike and so a lot a lot of many christians and many churches around the world are crippled financially all it takes to do what god needs done in the earth realm is money obviously a willing heart but the bottom line is money every everything that any ministry wants to do it's all about dollars and cents if you have enough money on hand you can do whatever you need to do accomplish whatever goals you need to accomplish i mean everything's about money if you don't think so anybody here have a regular i'll use this anybody here has a regular uh 40-hour week job raise your hand yeah maybe all y'all rich folk in texas you don't have to work huh well you know 40 hours 90 hours 80 whatever anybody have a regular job you get a paycheck right now i'm going to tell you something i'm a prophesied thus say it's prayer i'm going to prophesy prophesied to you and tell you why you go to work why are you going to go to work tomorrow i'll tell you why you're going to work tomorrow you're going to work tomorrow for only one reason one purpose only one thing you go to your job for money don't lie to me and try to tell me that you do what you do because you love it so much you're telling a lie and i cast out all 75 of them demons come out in jesus name you working for one thing only and that's money and they're not paying you enough now you're whining and crying about getting some more of it because if you love your job so much you would work for free and tell them to give your salary to somebody else i don't think so i wonder are there any honest people in here that's it and if you so the kingdom of god needs finance that needs money and we're we have to get the money and that's that's where the law of faith can come in because this world system is not going to by and large let you get ahead it's not designed for you to get a hit it's designed to keep you chained to the computer terminal or chained to whatever it is so that the fat cats can get richer and they trick you into thinking you got some now i don't know about here but in l.a and in most churches that i minister in most of people i mean you go out to the parking lot and it looks like a new car showroom all these fine automobiles and y'all don't own nothing you know you just drive you just you just driving the man's property i mean most people that met now maybe here this is a different kind of congregation maybe maybe all on all your automobiles but most places i go to they don't own them looking good and their chain up to here in credit now there's nothing wrong with credit if you know how to use it but when it's using you you got a problem and i know you probably all don't have you don't use credit cards here in texas you know like a discovery card or mastercard or visas or american express those kind of car you'll probably don't use those here but most people and this is the sad commentary christians are included in the number they have credit cards and they're making payments on credit cards monthly payments that's a fool going somewhere to happen if you pay payments on a credit card you are in bondage all you've done is take your credit card and made it another installment payment and then what is so awesome is that you have christians i know none are in here tonight like that but in some of these places where i go and minister people will bark i mean just get righteously indignant when you talk to them about tithing 10 you must be crazy fred that's outrageous that's bordering on fanaticism 10 you mean 10 to the church you may give god 10 that's what i said now you'll pay 18 to the credit card people and smile while you're making the checkout to pay this but you buck about 10 for god's kingdom you know i'm telling the truth the reason i can say it because i've been there and done that but i took this law i took this law and in 1970 i retired from the system i used the system but it no longer uses me and you got to learn how to operate outside the system i mean to really get ahead okay i mean to really make it i'm talking about the majority of it a few always get through but i'm talking about the majority of the body of christ ought to be living like this financially independent of the circumstances the system won't let you get ahead it's going to keep on taking from you taking from you now they're like i said they'll let you get these big cars you're riding all these fine cars and all these fine clothes and alligator shoes and all this kind of stuff and you ain't got a pot to cook in you know that belongs to you amen you know i'm telling the truth no point getting hostile amen my wife and i i'm only using this as an illustration next month march my wife and i will have been married 54 years no no i just heard that no no no i didn't do it i didn't say that for a clap but we have four children we're very close-knit family a lot like your pastor and you know on holidays we get together for dinner and thanksgiving things like that we always talk over the years we've talked about things and and my kids know that i don't lie i do not lie it's just a choice it's not that i'm so spiritual even though i am i say that modestly but we're talking around the table and sometimes current things will come up current events and things and we'll talk about who might look at the gas prices gone crazy three dollars a gallon and i tell the kids when mama and i got married we bought gas for 16 cents a gallon in that ridiculous 16 cents a gallon we could buy groceries a week's worth of groceries for 10 dollars and if we spent 12 dollars in the market we had gone hog wild [Laughter] we lost it now now think about it think about the money you make now if all you had to pay with 16 cents for a gallon of gas and 10 dollars for groceries in a couple of years we'd all be millionaires are you following me but to sit they're not gonna let that happen they're gonna keep yeah they're gonna give you a raise but at the same time they give you raise they raise all goods and services too so you right back where you were before with nothing instead of overcoming the world the world's overcome you so i decided that this i was already down for the count so i figured you know what i don't have anywhere to go but up i'm serious i was down so far there was piping sunshine to me by federal express you know that's that's bad you get that i mean we were down down so much we had to declare bankruptcy the right reverend dr price in the bankruptcy court thank god for bankruptcy laws because if it were not for the bankruptcy lost i'd be in debtor's prison tonight they repossessed the car because i couldn't pay for it out of control repossessed the tv couldn't pay for it out of control they called back the few credit cards that i had was left with nothing and i decided you know what i'm tired of playing this russian roulette game that i can never win in this system and i got a hold of this system the f-a-i-t-h system god's covenant system and my wife and i started working it we started working it and we realized that the way to get into the system and get over and above everything in this world to overcome the world was we were going to have to play the game by god's rules so that meant we're going to have to tithe yes hallelujah we're going to have to we're going to have to get at ten percent you know that ten percent and and we were so strapped financially it was such it was it was terrible but we decided we wanted out of the rat race it took us took all of her faith and all of my faith working together to believe that we could give 10 of our meager income and survive on the 90 that was left over when we weren't making it on 100 but i saw that we had we had to get we were under the curse we were operating in the curse see when you don't tithe you operate in the curse it's not that god curses you it's the fact that adam let the curse in in the garden of eden and it's running all the time but the way to get out of this so it can't bother you is to get in line with god's program so we decided to make a long story short we started tithing it took all of our faith to give up that ten percent i mean we were shaking i mean literally i'm not trying to be foreseen we were shaking because i'm telling you we weren't making it on a hundred now we're gonna give up 10 and make it on 90. but i saw we got to get out of here and this scripture says this is the victory that overcomes and i like winning so i was determined i was going to win so we started tithing ten percent and we start putting that money in sowing that seed and after a while it started to produce it's not gonna produce overnight you have to stay with it it's not a quick fix there are no such animals as quick fixers you're blowing in the wind if you think you're gonna get a quick fix it's gonna take some time you gotta stay with it so we put that ten percent in and finally it started a little bit started coming back a little bit started coming back the harvest started coming in so then we went up we said gee this is so good and we robbed god for so many years not that i felt an obligation i just wanted to do it i said i want to give god more so we started giving 12 and a half percent then we went to 15 then we went to 20 then we went to 25 then we went to 30 then we went to 35 right now tonight today we give away 40 of all of our income now watch this watch this now i'm talking about faith the law we give away 40 and we live better on the 60 percent that's left over than if we had robbed god and tried to live on 100 percent no no i didn't say that for clap i'm just trying to show you i'm living color somebody right in front of you we give away 40 of all of our money just like this check tonight the pastor gave us 10 thousand dollars my mind is like a computer whenever i see money only thing and the first thing i think about is not what i can buy me or what i can buy my wife the first thing i think of is 40 that belongs to the lord that's just what we've committed to do right so that's whenever i see money i see 40 first the rest of this left over that'd be my money that'd be our money but that 40 belongs to the lord and i'm telling you cannot be god-given you can't beat him in 19 or 2005 that woman and this man personally using this law that's the only reason i'm telling him that bragging because what i'm getting ready to tell you i've already done it so i'm getting the blessing for it if i don't if i don't tell you it's not going to change anything but i want to inspire you i want to motivate you i want you to know this works today 2007. it works today 2005 she and i personally sowed into the kingdom right at 1.6 100 1.6 million dollars personally just that just she and i 1.6 million personal now you know we had to have a little something left to live on now here's my point the only reason i'm sharing that with you think about it if every single one of you gave or give 1.6 million you could buy fort worth forget about the land you just take over the whole city are you following me you could do whatever god would call you because all it's about is money but you got to overcome the system the system's stacked against you you're not going to get ahead in the system you got to operate outside the system legally legally through the principles of the word of god this is the victory that overcomes the world system i pay cash for everything now i use credit cards but they never use me not anymore i use them for convenience i have a one of my one of my credit cards one of my many credit cards it has a personal hundred thousand dollar limit now some of you had a hundred thousand dollar that you'd be in jail next week because you're out of control you're not you're not disciplined by virtue of the word so every new thing that comes out you got to have one i used to be like that our first years of marriage i kept our family in debt because i was in the tour and i had to have everything oh my god it plays in color i gotta have one of those and if i don't get it this week they're gonna stop making it i'll never get a chance to get it again i got to have this now i know the kids need shoes for school i know they need clothes but i got to have one oh it plays in reverse too oh i got to have one of those every new thing comes out christians just like all the rest of the sheep just go out there and buy it up stay bound up all the time never really freed up to be able to just give just always screeching out some money trying to squeeze out a little bit give to god overcome the system get in line with the word of god and you'll become independent of the circumstances and totally depend upon god okay first john 5 this is the victory not was is so it's faith's not going anywhere this is the way you overcome not only use the i only use the the material things only because they're easy for everybody to relate to they're all kind of challenges that people have interpersonal challenges and things like that but these are big things that everybody can relate to when i start talking about money you'll say oh i wonder what he means what's he talking about 1.6 million what is that what is that you ain't no problem with that you you understood everything i said didn't you so that's the only reason i use it are you following what i'm saying so that you can see that this worked this is the victory that overcomes the world now james chapter one now how's my time should i stop okay i don't want to keep you that i was told i need to get through at a certain time my poor my wife is so she's so she didn't want to she didn't want to rock the boat pastor you the man okay all right all right i will not go past the clock all right but you got to get this you got to get james chapter one if you haven't seen i have it okay we're talking about the importance of faith james chapter 1 and i want to look at verse actually verse two and three it says my brethren counted all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience now i like to use the word whenever i see the word trial that also means temptations and tests all of those words are summed up in that word so i always like to say it this way temptation trials and tests covers the whole gamut temptation trials and tests now watch what he says he says my brethren counted all joy when you fall into various temptations trials and tests now he didn't say it was joy he didn't say the temptation trials and tests were joy he says count it as joy which means in plain english act like it's joy but you got to know something see the bible originally as you know wasn't written in chapters and verses it didn't have a designation verse designation two and three verse one two three four that those kind of things so sometime and then punctuation marks they were added by the translators and sometimes they can change the real emphasis or the meaning of the word now uh anybody have a traditional king james bible close by yeah it's traditional okay all right now uh verse says verse 3 says knowing this that that the trying of your faith is that what it says yes in the traditional kingdom knowing this okay now here's what i want to get because i like that even though the new king james is good that kind of emphasizes it notice what he said i want you to drop the numeral two in the numeral three in fact hold that for me and let me let me read that let me read this and you'll be you oops you'll be able to see it would read like this my brother in verse two my brother counted all joy when you fall into diver's temptation trials and tests knowing this so you gotta pass by the numeral two because it it halted the flow and you miss it he says my brethren counted all joy when you fall into divers temptations trials and tests knowing this so you have to read it all together because god's not masochistic because how in the world can you count a joy and the doctor just told you you've got six months to live and then joyful about that that's right the marshals at the door foreclosing on your house because you can't pay the mortgage payment there's nothing joyful about counting all joy god's not masochistic but what he says is this count it all joy knowing this you can't count it joy if you don't know this now what is the this that we're supposed to know that the testing or literally the proving of your faith produces the bible says patience but the word literally in the greek means the endurance the ability to stand see count it all joy knowing this that the proving of your faith produces endurance the ability to stand now who are you now now you can know that it's not god is the one that brings the temptation trials and tests because god already knows what you're going to do why would he waste his time and your time testing you about something he already knows about the only reason you run a test on anything at any time is because you don't know what the product is going to do it has a certain design characteristic and the computer said it ought to do this but you won't know that it will do that until you run a test on it so why would god test you he already knows what you're going to do so it's not god that brings the temptation trials and tests it's satan that brings the temptation trials the test to separate you from your faith because notice what he says he said my brother encountered all joy when you fall into diver's temptation trial to test knowing this that the proving of your faith not the proving of you it's not you that's under discussion it's not you that satan brings the temptation trial and test for it's about your faith he knows if he can separate you from your faith he can take you out oh you didn't get that awesome listen listen knowing this that's approving of your faith now who are you proving it to god absolutely not satan who cares about what he thinks you're proving it for you so that you can know where you are see you don't know what you will do in any given circumstance until that circumstance is fine that circumstance finds you you can sit back and talk about yeah well i would never do that i've heard some women somebody look at the way he treats that girl lord have mercy i never let no man treat me like that six months later she married and he's whipping her head and kicking her backside big difference when you actually in the situation wow you never catch me doing that right see you don't know what you you don't know what you can do you don't know what you can take you don't know what you can overcome until it comes against you and once you get a victory oh sweet then nobody can talk you out of it see i don't care and i have people write me letters and try to tell me well tithing is was under the old testament we're not supposed to tithe today well i know you're probably not i'm the one that's supposed to tie so that the winners of heaven blessings could keep on pouring out on me probably all for me because i am after all god's favorite child you know that you can look at me and tell i'm god's favorite child right yeah so he says count it all joy no not not the the temptation trials and tests now job he said count it as joy now watch this let me show you another thing because the bible uses a very interesting word here but in the english language it doesn't convey what it really literally means it says here my brother counted all joy when you fall and when we think when we think of fall when we see that word we always think of you know tripping and falling it literally it does not mean that this is what it literally means it means it doesn't mean fall what it means is it means come up against that's the literal greek meaning when you come up again and if you live in this life as a christian you are going to come up against temptation trials and tests but count it all joy knowing this that the proving of your faith for yourself that's an awesome thing to know i can give away 40 of my income 40 of all the money i get 40 and live better on the 60 that's left over it but it took time to get there the temptation trials intensive life kept coming against us but we kept plowing through them proving our faith it take you you it's not doesn't make you better it doesn't make you more spiritual but it does give you an advantage in reference to the circumstances through which satan operates with the temptation trials and tests i know i mean there's no fear i told you when i first started with the 10 i was in fear and trepidation how we gonna live how are we gonna make it how are we gonna make it now we'll give away forty percent nothing and it makes us more productive to be workers together with god god can tell me go give somebody a hundred thousand dollars would you say fifty thousand dollars you can't do that if you don't have it no point god telling you to do if you don't have it because he works through human hands he doesn't drop money out of the sky oh wait a minute at least in california he drops money out of the sky here in texas i know y'all just put baskets out every day and just collect the money oh yeah there it is wait a minute yeah right right here lord yeah they did i don't think so he works through human instrumentality so he can't tell you or me or us or the ministry or whatever to give or sow if we don't have it and satan's out there chomping at the bid every minute 24 7 365 to see that you don't get it but you can operate outside the system in the kingdom of god with faith now one last scripture i think i can make it before my time is gone go to hebrews chapter 11 we're talking about the importance of faith how important is it i think you could see from the scriptures that we've already covered how important it is the judge shall live by faith we're saved through faith fight the good fight of faith we overcome the world by faith count it all joy when we come up against temptation trials and tempt knowing this hebrews chapter 11 if you haven't said i have it now watch this carefully we're talking about the importance of faith it says but without faith it is impossible stop right there stop stop stop look at me look at me but without faith it is impossible it doesn't matter what comes after the word impossible without faith is impossible you get that doesn't matter what it is he said without faith it is impossible that means not possible it means no way can't be done without faith now watch this it says but without faith it's impossible to please him for or because he who comes to god must must imperative necessity must believe that he is oh yes brother price hallelujah i believe that god is glory to god hallelujah i believe that god is and that's where most people stop reading they say i believe that god is but the verse is not over you got to get the rest of it it says must believe that god is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him not who diligently seek things seek him if you seek him the things are automatic but if you seek the things and all you get are thing and you don't have him you up the creek in a boat with no oars but how important is faith if faith goes out tell me this how we're going to please god look at it but without faith it's impossible it's impossible to please him for he who comes to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him now you don't have to come to god he will make you you don't have to come to god you can go to hell no i mean literally you can go to hell and god will protect your right to get there he'll marshal his angels around you and they will escort you right up to the very gate of hell and they'll see to it that you go inside of hell and nobody interfering with you i'm not trying to be funny or facetious i'm trying to show you a principle here god will not make you come to him but say but i said say but i didn't hear it i didn't hear you i didn't hear you but but he who comes to god must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who just diligently seek him god won't make you come to him but if you come to him if you want to please him you're going to have to have f-a-i-t-h or you will not please him so how important is it to please god well if faith goes out what are you going to use to please god with so faith to use my very best grammar faith ain't going to be going nowhere you understand that faith is not going anywhere so you better get on board learn the law master the law of faith because it is operational 24 7 365 god is so we i think i have shown you from the scripture how important faith is

Channel: Austin Lingerfelt

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Length: 81min 22sec (4882 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021