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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
A Life of Humility, Part One | Stephen Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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Hi, I'm Grant Dufresne, and welcome to Dufresne Ministries podcast channel. We believe that as you listen to this message, your faith will be stirred and you will be encouraged in whatever you are believing God for today. Stay tuned at the end of this message to find out more information about our ministry. Hallelujah. It's an honor to be here today to be with y'. All. I've been telling my wife for weeks, you gotta let me preach. And she says, no, I'm preaching. That's not true. That's not true. Praise God. Praise God. I'm excited to get to be with my home church this morning. I'm kind of like a mercenary preacher, you know, I just kind of go wherever they want me to go and preach what they tell me to preach. But praise God, he's been good. He's been giving me a lot of revelation this year about different things. And I've been getting into the Word, and, you know, all of it really is. It's about me. It's about changing myself. This whole year has been me having to change myself. And praise God for that, because we need to be changed all the time. When you don't change is when something's wrong. We should be changing, refining ourselves in a greater way to the Word of God. If you want the fullness of God, you got to be changing to be more like the Word of God. If you're not, that's why you don't have what you're believing for, because you're not changing. Amen. You got to be one step ahead of the enemy. And if you're not, then you're getting beat up. You got to outsmart them. Amen. It's like my kids playing hide and seek. They find a good spot and they go back to it. But then when they get found, they still go back to it because it's a great spot. But their sibling already knows where they're gonna go. So I told him, I said, you gotta be changing. You gotta be going to different spots, learning different things, trying different things. Amen. I've been ministering for a couple months now on the road and just getting a greater revelation even as I'm ministering about humility. Humility is something that is a lot of times overlooked. We can overlook it, and we lose a lot because we overlook it. And I want to look at some things about humility today because we need it in our lives. Because if you don't have humility, then you have pride. And where did pride stem from? From Satan. And we have to be careful because pride, we tell ourselves and people have told us, our parents have told us that you need to have pride in who you are. You need to have pride in where you come from. You need to have pride because of your last name. You need to have pride in you because you're a man. And yes, I understand it may be a little bit mislabeled, a little bit, but you have to be careful with that word, pride, because it's very dangerous. Because in the word of God and the things of God you can't have any pride. So we have to be very careful. And I hope today I can help you and help myself to refine it in a greater way, to look at things in ways we've never seen before. But today it's humility. It's humbled and be healed. Humbled and then be healed, not healed and then humbled. Humbled. Humility equals healing. Humility equals healing. And if you need healing in your body, even today as the Word is being ministered, you can be healed right where you're sitting because of a heart change, because of something in your head that's been stupid. You're bad thinking. We all have bad thinking. We have bad thoughts. We've become people. Maybe we thought was a good person, but in the word of God, it's not such a good person. Amen. So that's what the word of God is for. You never stop changing for the better in the word of God. And as you do, and I've mentioned this before, as you say, I want more of God. And he goes, okay, I'm going to give you some more. But as you, you continue this path, you have to leave all the things that you kind of like behind. Well, I kind of like to gossip and I'm sorry I can't take you on this journey. Well, you know, I like being mad at people and I like having mood swings and you wouldn't say that publicly but in you I kind of like it. Kind of like to stir the waters, you know, I kind of like it. And you have to be careful because when you walk the road gets thinner and thinner and yeah, you have, you start off on a 10 way highway but as you go it becomes less lanes and people start falling off. And you say, well, what distinguishes me from everybody else? Who you become in the word of God? Amen. I want to mention something to the Bible school students. I've been, I just had it on my heart that we've seen a lot of Bible school Kids come through here and not all of them make it. They don't. The devil gives them a hard time and they're done, they're out of here. He's just got to do a little bit. He just got to show up. And they're like, oh my God, I got to get out of here. They believe that if they leave this place, the bombardment will stop and more than likely it will for that season. And they say, well, I'm be. I feel like I'm being led. If you're young and in Bible school, I'm going to go on a limb and say you probably don't even know the voice of God very much. Amen. So to say you feel led because you can feel led because of pressure. And that pressure pushes you. Yeah, it's leading you alright. And it's saying, turn around, turn around. And you go, yeah, that's God telling me to turn around. God's leading me. You know, I'm being led. That word led is a funny word because people use it in just in the funniest ways. And you go, boy, you don't know up from down. Because if it doesn't go in line with the word of God. Because it was funny because God led you here and you're telling me he's leading you out now. It's really funny to hear. So I encourage you that if you come to Bible school, you will get a hard time. The devil's gonna give you a hard time, but that means you're doing something right. Anytime I was ever about to go through something in my life, the Devil gives me a hard time. Amen. So I encourage you Bible school students, don't be wieners and quit just because of pressure. Well, you know, this is a. There you go. So that's why I don't ever go to Bible school, if y' all are wondering, because it's not my gig. But I'm just telling y', all, don't give up. There's too much ahead of you in life to be given up. Because if you give up now, you give up on the next thing and you give up on up on the next thing and you give up on the next thing. And before long, God can't even use you because you're a quitter. Amen. There you go. All right, back to my message. Humbled and then be healed. I want to go to James 4. 6. I've had such a. I enjoy to be in the Word. If you don't enjoy to be in the Word, it's Because you don't understand the Word. When I first started, I didn't even like reading the Word of God because I was too high strung and I didn't want to take the time and figure things out. But as I grew, you start seeing revelation. Amen. You got to have revelation. Revelation is something you need. And just because you got revelation last year doesn't mean you don't need it this year. You need fresh revelation all the time. Well, Brother Stephen, how do you get revelation? It's usually one word for me. I'll hear Brother Copeland say something, one word. And I'll say, that's it for me for the year. And I'll hear that, and it changes my life. And so sometimes you got to be ready to always be listening for revelation, you know, because we need it. Amen. Are y' all there? In James 4, 6. But he gives more grace. What's grace? Grace is everything that's good in your life right now. Grace is God sending Jesus to die for us so we can live healed, live in prosperity, live in a sound mind that we don't have to die and go to hell because of what Adam and Eve did. They gave it up. And he says, I'm giving you grace to be wealthy. I'm giving you grace to be healed. I'm giving you favor. I'm giving you blessing. I'm giving you these things. I'm giving you grace. But who's he giving it to? Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, the proud, the proud. But gives what Grace? Or we say healing, blessing, favor, financial stability, focus, wisdom. Do you need wisdom? But gives grace, which is all those things to the humble. To the humble. To the humble. And we have to Put yourself under your own microscope. Don't think everybody else needs a change. If everyone around you is a problem, I'm gonna guess maybe you're the problem. If nobody around you, if everyone is so much lesser than you, nobody can drive, right. Nobody can push a shopping cart. Right. Nobody can do this. Nobody can say the right words. Don't you know? Don't you know? And what's happening is you're saying all these people are the problem. You're all the problem. This show is stupid. Everything you do is stupid. What's the problem? You're the problem. You're the problem. Amen. Stop blaming everybody else because you think you're superior. That's pride. Amen. And because God can't never use you to minister to people. Why are we here? To help people. To help people. But if you're so prideful and so well, why can't they get their life straight? Well, why can't they see these things about faith? Why can't they see what is this? You have to have the mercy of God. You got to say, father, how are you seeing them? How are you seeing these people? It's very important the way our outlook on people. Because I see people and boy, they are falling down a hill and they don't even know it. They're going backwards. They don't even know it. And I could say, boy, you so dumb, you are dumb, dumb, dumb. But I say, father, help them in any way you can because they don't notice. They, they, I mean they're a glutton for punishment. They come back for more and more and more. They don't. They just continue to go backwards and backwards and they don't even know it. And what do they need? They need help, but they don't need your criticism. Amen. So who's he giving grace to? The humble. How are you successful? I'm asking you if you in your life have successful by the grace of God. If you've ever said, I'm a self made man, I'm a self made woman, this is going to be your downfall. Because everything you are and everything you will become is because of God. And if you say, well, I'm a self made man, I'm a self made woman. Where did you hear that? Well, my daddy taught you taught me that. Well, I heard that from my uncle, I heard this from that. Then you know what, what is that? That's pride. That's pride. Why don't you give glory to God and say, you know, everything I am is because of God and everything I have is because of God. What are you doing? You're setting yourself up to receive greater blessing, greater grace from God rather than making it yourself. And you got to be careful because even though grace comes and helps you, you can start feeling, look at me, look at what I accomplished. Look at what my faith did. Your faith? Where'd you get the faith? Well, I got the faith from meditating on the Word. That's right. You received faith from God, from the Word. But when you think it's you, well, it's my faith. None of it is your faith. It's given by God, learned. Because without the word of God we'd be damned to hell. Pretty much. Amen. Because we wouldn't have any future. We wouldn't have anything. The Bible says that. He says because my people. He's talking About Christians, My people perish because of what? A lack of knowledge due to the word of God. If you are going backwards in your life and things are going backwards in relationship, it's because your knowledge level is so low. You need a greater level of knowledge from the word of God, a greater refinement from the word of God. You can't go to a river and scoop out a bunch of dirt and say, here, there's gold in there somewhere. What's it worth? They say, it ain't worth anything until it's refined. That's right. And what do you do when you refine it? You first get the rocks out, and then you go through sizes of dirt levels, sand levels, and then you get down, and what's left is there's a very small left and there's very small amount that truckloads of dirt, but what's left. And they refine it, and they refine it and they wash out all the garbage. But what's left? The gold, it's not precious in the state of a shovelful. It's precious once it's been refined, that's when it's precious. Because with all the garbage, it's not 99.9% gold. It's not in its purest state. It's when it's put under fire and melted and everything is burned off is when it's in its purest state. And that's the same way in your life. If you've continued to not burn off things that were in your life, you can never be used at your full potential because your purity is not good enough. Your purity determines your worth to God. And most people like to be a little dirty. They like if we look at Sodom and Gomorrah, she looked back. Why? Because she liked it a little bit. She liked it even though she knew what was right. It didn't matter. But she looked back to sin. And when you look back, God sees you look back, and he says, I can't use you anymore because you have a draw to it. And that's why you have to be very humble about what you see and what you don't see. And when you think you see everything, it's a trap. Oh, I know how. I know who I am. I know what I'm capable of. No, you don't. Because as you change, you become a different person every day and say, you know, Steven's the same way yesterday and forever. No, you know, I kind of used to say that, but now I say, you know what? I need to be changed every day because I don't need to be the same man I was a year ago. I need to be in greater love with God. I need to be more refined. I don't need to be saying the things I need to say. Well, Brother Stephen, you don't talk to people in the church. It's because I'm keeping my mouth shut. Well, how come you don't talk to people? It's because I don't. I don't feel it's funny because I got to be very careful because I don't want to say too much about stuff because God's been dealing with me on different things about that. But. But you got to learn to be quiet sometimes. Amen. I want you guys to be able to receive from me and my wife, and if I'm out there buddy and buddying with everybody, it can be lost. Amen. So you have to learn to always keep a reverence for people that you're around. And so I'm always very conscientious about keeping a level of respect that y' all can receive from us. Amen. Because I'm human. I can say things. And you guys think, oh, well, Brother Steven says that, yeah, but maybe I messed up. So always refine yourself through the word of God. Amen. You always got to be careful what you say. Most people don't. They don't go back on their conversations and question if they said what they said was correct. I got a text from a person not too long ago, and I was ministering about this, and they were saying, I never look back at the conversations, that I had to see if it was appropriate to see what I said. Would that affect a person? From what I said, was it appropriate if what I said was there doubt and unbelief laced in the conversation? And you need to be careful and learn to evaluate your conversations just because you're cutting up and having a good time. I understand that. But sometimes you can say things that aren't appropriate. And so in that you need to learn to be quiet. You need to learn to be quiet. You need to learn to not always be talking. People that are always talking, they're always having to. They're always saying things that they don't really mean just to be funny, but it's just rambling. It's just garbage. And you say, well, Brother Stephen, why don't you talk that much? Because I don't want to be saying a bunch of junk I don't not really mean. Amen. I don't mind being Cordial and nice, but to great. Sometimes you have to be careful as you grow. You can't just be spouting off of the mouth all the time. Amen. Amen. Some of the greatest men of God that I've met, they don't really talk. Why? Because they are seeing things and people think they're rude, but instead they're keeping a place that God can use them to impart into their lives. Amen. If you just get familiar with me, oh, that's Stephen. Oh, that's Brother Stephen. And then a word from God comes up and you go, that's just Brother Stephen. That's Pastor Morgan. That's just Pastor Nancy. You have to learn to distinguish what's Brother Stephen and what's God using. Me or Pastor Morgan or Pastor Nancy. I've always kept a reverence for people. When Brother Roberts comes, he is the most talkative, wonderful man you can meet. But you can become kind of relaxed in the atmosphere. And when he says something, it's of no value because you're relaxed in the atmosphere rather than saying, what is he saying? Could be for me. And so even though we're in a relaxed setting, I need to keep my faith ears, my reverence up. Amen. So that's what I'm talking about. You have to learn to see the things that he's saying. He's a man, I'm a man, she's a woman, whatever. But be listening all the time. Amen. There you go. That's a little side note for you. Humbled and be healed. That stood out to me on a great way. Because if we're not changed anytime, you just expect to be healed. You've missed it. Well, God, I'm down at the church. I'm serving you. Why am I sick? What is this ungratefulness? This is a level of ungratefulness that you think it's owed to you, that you think healing is owed to you because of you're a Christian and you serve in the ministry. You serve in ministry of helps that biblical things from money favor, blessing is just owed to you. And it's not. It's not. It's given by grace. It's given by grace through humility. And when you forget that, and I've done it, and I'm sure maybe you've done it, you've asked yourself, why is this happening to me? I mean, I serve, I give tithes, I do this, I do that. When you've done that, you're in a dangerous spot. You're in a very dangerous Spot to say it's owed to me. And you don't have to tell anybody, but inside of you, you feel that it's owed to you. I've worked hard for this. I've worked hard for my healing. Oh, this dangerous. We have to be very careful. Ephesians 5:2. I encourage you to highlight this. If you have a highlighter, if you have a pen, use it. God, really? I heard this somewhere. This is what I'm talking about. And I'll explain this. But God has, at the end of this verse, God put this inside of me and I will explain this to you and how revelation comes to me and walk in love. Is that where y' all at? Ephesians 5:2. Always want you guys to see it. I just don't want to give you a bad verse and you guys are off in a different place and walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given himself for us. An offering and a sacrifice to God. For what? A sweet smelling aroma. A sweet smelling aroma. Have you ever driven past. All of us have driven past either a dead animal, a cow farm or a skunk. It doesn't have to be present. But what is lingering? The aroma of what was there or what is there? I've been to different countries with wonderful people, and I would never diminish people, but their hygiene is on a very, very low level where the BO is tremendous. And even though, even though they come in the appropriate attire with a suit and they look nice, but when they get close, I'm not even seeing how nice they look because I know how dirty they are underneath it. That. Right. It doesn't matter how nice they look, because when you get in the car and you shut the doors, turn the AC off, don't blow it to the back seat, that aroma is a sign that nothing has been washed. They're not taking care of themselves, but they're giving the physical appearance of looking nice. And when you come to God, you come wearing the correct biblical face, but underneath you stink a sweet smelling aroma. Well, if something can smell sweet, something can smell dirty. Is that right? So it's important that this is revelation. That I saw is that my humility is an odor unto God, it's a smell unto him to represent what's inside of me. Just like your hygiene is a sign to show nobody, everybody expects you, that you took a shower last night. But if you haven't taken a shower for four days, you people start seeing, hey, you're dirty, you're a little dirty, you're a little Stinky. It's like a teenager's boy's room, you know. It smells like tiny wipes thrown on the floor, you know? Amen. It's not a sweet smelling aroma. And how do you present yourself a sacrifice? Anytime that person would come, bring a living sacrifice of an animal to God, it was to be presented the best product. They had to be burnt. They didn't find roadkill or something in the bar ditch and throw it on top of the flames and say, here you go, Lord, Why? It wasn't acceptable. It's not acceptable to do that. And it's not accepted by God. Amen. Abraham, he went out and the angel said, I want you to sacrifice your son. And he knew he didn't have to do that, but God sent a ram to replace it. Solomon had the best cows in the whole nation and burned them up in a pile to show his love for God to give the best offering. And the life that you're trying to give to God is not always acceptable. And you say, well, brother Stephen, that's who I am. Exactly. You need to change who you are to be. Because you say, why do I have to do that? Because if you want a greater blessing from God and to have more of God in your life, you need to become a sweet smelling aroma that your life there's not sin pouring out of your armpits when you present yourself to God, sin is not a sweet smelling aroma. Amen. God has nothing to do with it. So if there's no part of that in God, he can't accept you to be the way you are. You say, father, I come. Tell me what I need to remove in my life. Ask God what you need to be removed. Because we need to be acceptable, a sacrifice to God to be used in a greater measure. If you want God to use you in a greater measure, you must cleanse yourself of sin. Amen. A sweet smelling aroma. My life needs to be a sweet smelling aroma to God. And how do I keep myself in a sweet smelling. By continuously refining myself, cleansing myself with the word of God. The Bible says that consistently God is helping the consistently that pursue righteousness. If you continue to pursue righteousness, God can't reject you. He can't because you're asking to do better. Amen. If someone says and comes here and says, brother Stephen, I'm only capable of this, but I can learn more. I can learn more. I got to accept that and say, well, I appreciate you learning. It's the people that say, I ain't learning that. Then I'm sorry you can't work here because you've refused to grow. And that's what people say in a spiritual form. They're saying, God, I'm giving you what I got. And if it's not good enough, you just need to accept me the way I am. And we say that in our spirits and we say that with maybe a little nicer tone of reverence. But overall we're saying, this is what I am. If you don't want me, that's it. And that's not what we're supposed to do. We're renewed day by day. Amen. Amen. Mark 9:17. I want to show you cases of humility. In the Bible, if you think you know everything, you're in trouble. You don't know everything. And to accuse people of not knowing. There was a time I didn't know anything either. But by bumping my head enough, I've learned, hey, that doesn't work. And I'm able to refine myself and say, that didn't work. I'll do it this way. And it worked and I learned how to do it. But we need to have enough compassion on people that when they bump their head, because we would want that same rebuttal of that same love walk to say, you know what? That's all right. But it's about coming back into God's grace. It's when you get mad at God that you've just completely. I mean, when you're mad at God, I'm going to go out on a limb and say, maybe if all of us have been maybe upset with God sometimes, but he's saying, it ain't me, it's you. And we, we want God to accept us in the state we're in, but it's not good enough yet. The reason he can't prosper you to the wealth that you want is because of your level of intake. You don't have the capability of what to do with it correctly. The only reason God's going to give you money is to be a supply. There's no other reason because of your selfish means to consume it. It would be just a selfish reason just to consume money without being a blessing. So you have to say, well, I'm believing for money. I'm believing for money. For what purpose? For what purpose? Amen. What's the purpose of consuming the money? And that's where you refine yourself and say, father, I don't even know how to give willingly. Show me how to give willingly. That's a big thing, is Because a lot of us see money as a collector's item, and the more we have, the greater the collection. But really, God's saying, you need to become more like me, be a giver. God has been giving to us from the beginning. So the Bible says we need to be more like God. And to do that, we have to be givers. Personally, I've quit seeing. When I do give, I've quit seeing it as giving. It is giving, but I've seen it. I'm becoming more like God because when I become more like God, he is able to use me in a greater way, way. When that rises up, you need that money. I say, you know what? That money is not even mine anyways. It belongs to God. And so you have to. You have to learn, train yourself how to accept the greater things of God. If, if God were to give you a great anointing for healing, and you think it's you, it's easy to do that. It's easy to lose the humility. All of a sudden you start feeling chested a little bit bowed up, well, I've got this. And God's blessed me with that. And God's. That's not humility. This is a level of pride. It would be an honor that God would use me in any way. And I'm grateful. And it's never me. I'm not a healer. I'm not the provider. I'm not money bags. But when you think that you're better and that you're one up, this is a problem. If you always think you're better than everybody else, that I've cut people off on accident before too, haven't I? And they've gotten mad at me. Have you ever done that? But 10 minutes later someone cut you off? Don't they know I'm here? And 10 minutes later, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I did it, too. We have to be. And sometimes I say, you know what? I see it was an accident. Even if they did it on purpose. You know what? Not a big deal. Not a big deal. Because you create this level that everyone needs to be a superior driver as you. But maybe you're not as superior. And people are saying the same thing about you. I've cut people off. I have gotten in the fast lane and gone slow. I've done it. I think we've all done it. Amen. I mean, I thought I was going fast, but they're going a little bit faster. And I thought, they shouldn't be going that fast. I need to be King of the road and show them how to drive. And we can't be doing that. And you have to learn. Why are you doing this? Because there's levels of breath. How come men don't stop for directions? Why? Is it because they're so humble and they feel not worthy to go in? No, it's because they have a pride issue that is superior to the guy that lives at the gas station. Well, but Scott, now we have gps, but back in the day, you had an atlas and you didn't even know where he was on the atlas because you was lost. And you need to find out where you were and how to get to where you was going. Isn't that right, brother? Guys? And so you had to do that. But your wife would say, just go in and ask. Bless God. I ain't going in and asking. And this is that level of pride. And now you've driven around for many hours, less gas, more mad, more hungry, wife's upset. You could have had a nice evening with your spouse, but you've declined it because you refused to ask the gas station man for directions. But instead, humility says, I'm lost. I'm lost, and I don't care that somebody knows I'm lost. And I'm going to go in there like a whoop dog and say, please help me get to where I'm going. And when you do that, what do you do? You've bypassed the puffy chest. The I know better, blessed God and said, five minutes later, you back on the right track. See what humility does? It goes and asks for help. It asks for direction. It's the people that think they know it all is lost out in the boondocks with no gas, upside down, whatever. Amen. Everybody's upset because of pride, because of pride. Prides run. How many families has pride ruined? Bless God. I ain't saying sorry. It's her. It's him. That's right. Yeah. I ain't gonna say it. Why not? Because of pride. Women and men alike. Well, it's him. Well, who cares if you can get it resolved and move forward. But no, it's. I need to show you where you're wrong. I need to show that person how they're wrong. I'm going to show my spouse. I'm going to cut them off. I'm not going to talk to him. And we have to be careful. Me and my wife can still do that a little bit sometimes. But at the end of the day, even though I don't necessarily want to, that's the physical man. That's the physical woman. Even though it doesn't matter how you feel. Humility says, I'm sorry. And I'm gonna tell you why I'm sorry, not, I'm sorry, sorry. We've all done that. God, just shut up. I'm sorry. I've done that. I think me and my wife have probably fought every which way there is a fight. I think we all have. If you've been married long enough and the only reason you're still together is by God's grace, because the world, they don't have the grace and they're not making it. Amen. But you got to walk in God's mercies and you got to learn how to overcome and get out of your flesh. I don't care what your flesh wants. What's the Bible say? The flesh wants to do sin. It wants to go fornicated. It wants to go out and drink. It wants to do drugs. It wants to be lazy. Every part of the flesh is lazy. And we're so good at being lazy. We found out ways how not to do stuff. Is that right? I mean, human nature. We're so smart at being lazy that we found out how to get machines to do the work for us. And we have to be careful about this word, laziness, and apply it to our own lives and find out when it comes to the word of God, you can't be lazy. You got to learn it. You can't be lazy. There you go. Side note. All right. Amen. Are you all there? All right. Where are we at? Mark? Is that what I told you? Yeah. Mark, 9, 17. Then one of the crowd answered and said, teacher, I have brought you my son who has a mute spirit. And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down. He foams at the mouth, gnashes at the teeth, and becomes rigid, stiff. So I spoke to your disciples that they should cast him out, but they could not. Okay, Mark that point. How many disciples were there? 12. All right, so mark 12. Remember that. And he said unto them, o faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long will I bear with you? Bring them to me. Then they brought him to him, and when he saw him immediately. So the Father has a son and he's bringing him to his disciples. Why is he bringing them to disciples? Because he understands Jesus is busy messing with other people. He understands that. And he's under the impression that the disciples are anointed by Jesus to be able to do the same thing he's doing. Right and he is having enough reverence for Jesus to saying, I'm coming to. You know, if a Bible school person says, I want to talk to Pastor Nancy and doesn't even talk to Brother Graves, more than likely it's not going to happen because they don't have enough reverence to actually go to him first. Amen. So they, they. So this father's been dealing with this from the child's birth and he's always having to watch him. Why? Because this child will literally have a seizure. Fall on the fire, fall on the floor, foam at the mouth. You have to be watching this, probably bite his tongue off. Right? Okay, so we know this is some kind of seizure that this child is having. He's been dealing with this a long time. This is a full time job to take care of people. And when you take care of people and you see something every day, it can affect you in your believing. It can break you down mentally and physically enough to where you don't even know what to do anymore. Amen, verse 20. Then they brought him to him, and when he saw him, immediately the Spirit conversed him and he fell on the ground and roaring, foaming at the mouth. So he asked the father, how long has he been like this? How long has he been like this? And he said, from childhood. He's been doing this his whole life. So this is a long time. This father has been messing with this. The father obviously could have got upset when the disciples weren't able to lay hands on the child and get him healed. But what does this man need? He needs some humility. Because right now is a good opportunity to get upset. Because you guys come to the village, you declare that there's healing, you declare that there's this here, but it's not working. So this man needs to keep humility. And sometimes you can get mad at God. Well, this person prayed for me and that person prayed for me and this happened and that happened. But it's not working. You always have to have humility inside of you to say, you know what, I don't know what's going on, but what I do know is I need help. You still need help. This father still needs help. He could have left without his answer. He could have left without his boy being healed. Amen, verse 22. And often he has thrown him both into the, into the fire and into the, into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, you're pretty desperate at this point, right? I mean, if you can do anything, that's humility. If you can do anything. Have compassion on us and help us. Help me. So this man had a wonderful opportunity to get upset with the disciples, to see that this isn't working. But he's coming with humility. Humility is the key to getting your miracle. If you need a miracle, humility is what you need to say, I don't know everything. I don't know what's gone wrong in the past when people laid hands on me. But you know what? I come to you and ask you, show me what I need to do. Amen. And he said, have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said to him, if you can't believe, if you can believe, if you can believe, all things are possible. To him that believes, this man could have said, I believe. When your disciples laid hands on him. How many disciples were there? 12. So first person comes, it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Do you see why the man's a little bit upset? This is 12 times that this has been going on. He's been here for a while. And these disciples have been grabbing this boy. And this boy just been getting worse every time they touch him, convulsing, throwing himself down. Do you see why the devil would use this to break him down, to say, you know what? This is a bunch of foolishness. I don't even know what I'm doing here. I brought him all the way here, you guys. He needs humility. I don't understand, but I still need help. I don't understand, but I still need help. I still need it. Just because you believe God for something and it didn't work, humility says, I don't understand, but help me to understand what happened. And he'll say, because you put a timeline, you did this. You walked out of love, whatever. But pride says, I don't know what happened. It don't work. It's foolishness. This is a bunch of foolishness. Believing God for this stuff, this is crazy. That's what pride says. Pride believes it's wise in its own eyes. That's why when you think that you're better is probably your downfall. And I praise God. I learned that at a younger age. I learned, and you can ask my wife. I've been upset with people sometimes, but I always say, father, help me to help them. Show me how to be a blessing. I don't understand everything, but still help me to be humble, to not get upset. Just because someone did you wrong. That doesn't give you the right to be upset. And as the natural. We want to be upset, maybe it was wrong. But you know what? It doesn't matter. Well, they did me wrong. Well, it doesn't matter. You got to get over it. People gonna do you wrong the rest of your life. And you just decide how much of that you let build inside of you. Amen. I see people come short of the promises of God. I've seen people come incredibly short of the promises of God due to pride, due to situations. And I say, father, I say to myself, I say, father, help me not to do that. Instead of, don't they know? Don't they know they're missing it? Don't they know if you just believe God, don't they know? If you don't give up, don't they know? But humility says, father, I could be in their shoes and I could not see the things that you're showing me. And I ask you to have compassion and I ask you to help them and help me to never do the same thing they're doing. That's what humility says. Don't ever judge people. You got to stop judging people. You'll be blessed. Learn to. I'm going to give an example. There was a minister that. And I've said this before, there was a minister that people didn't believe he was a pastor. And so it was going around that this man is starting a church, and it's not right because he's not a pastor. He's just not a pastor. He shouldn't be starting a church. And so I heard that. And the person I heard it from, I had a lot of respect for, and I expect I respected what they said to be true. And we can do that with people that we have a reverence for. We can receive the word that they said and say, well, this person, because I have a high esteem for them, that they're right, then these people ain't pastors. So I believe that they weren't a pastor due to what I heard, because I had respect for this person. Later on in life, they started a church and it's been incredibly successful, incredibly successful. And to this day, it is still there and incredibly successful. And I told my wife, I said, I will never have another opinion about somebody that is doing something for God, even though if I would think it was wrong, whatever. I mean. And they're preaching the word of God. I mean, it's good stuff. So I said to myself, that's it. I will never have another opinion about another church or another minister. I don't know what God's told them, well, did you hear what they said? I don't care what they said because I could say the same thing and I would ask for mercy rather than condemnation. I'm not perfect and neither are you. Would you hear what they said? It doesn't matter what they said, because I could possibly say the same thing. Amen. We need mercy. Amen. We need to be humble enough to show mercy. Amen. So this young man having seizures and Jesus says, if you can believe, all things are possible. To him who believes immediately. How fast? Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, this is humility. He didn't say, well, I tried. I tried. Humility cries out and says, lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. If there's any part of me that isn't believing because there's been times that I personally have been believing. And if someone says, you're not believing, I'd say, I don't think that's true. Because every part of me, as far as I know, is believing. Have you ever had that before? Where you felt like every part of you was believing? And if you weren't, you need to know where you weren't believing. That's what you need. What do you need? You need God's help to show you and say, this is where you're missing it, rather than, so he's coming crying out and say, I believe. Help my unbelief. If there is unbelief in me, help me. Help me to see it in my life. Amen. That was this man's saving grace. Help my unbelief. With the exclamation mark, he is saying, I am reverence enough that when your disciples laid hands on him, I started to develop unbelief that it wasn't for me, because it happened 12 times. So there's unbelief there now. Right? You can see how this man was saying this. Help my unbelief. And when Jesus saw the people running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit to him. Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you to come out and enter him no more. And the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly and came out. And he became as a dead person. And the people were saying, is he dead? And Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up. He. And he arose. And when he had come into the house, what happened? His disciples asked him. When? Privately, because they messed up. Something happened. What happened? Why could we not cast him out? Why couldn't we do it? And he said, to them, this kind cannot come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. What is he saying? So that does. Did Jesus say, you know what? This young man has a spirit, unclean spirit. Let's go fast and pray? No, he cast him out. Why is he telling the disciples, you need to fast and pray because you need greater faith. You need greater faith to overcome that because obviously you have some pride in you. And they said, why can't we cast him out? It's not the we. It's not them. Because they started and were all capable of it, to get a little prideful. And they were starting out in the ministry of Jesus, seeing signs, wonders, and miracles. And Jesus is saying, you can do it too. And they said, if we could do it. And what happens? The natural man starts to say, I can do that. I can do that. And what happened? They believed that it was their faith, but they forgot and said, it's. It's God given. Jesus has anointed us to do it, and we're all. And I would have been in the same boat if I was there, too, because Jesus was only here for three years. You will understand that. So they were getting a rush order of faith in how to live correctly. So for them to fail, praise God, they did, because now we know what not to do. And that comes from refining. And they corrected themselves. Like Jesus said, eat my flesh and drink my blood. And people said, boy, those are some hard words. You're talking about. Cannibalism. They didn't understand it. And a lot of them said, we got to leave because we're going to get in trouble by the Pharisees. I can't be around them. And the disciples said, he. And he turned around and said, well, you going to leave, too? And they said, where we going to go? Where are we going to go? We're here. So they were hungry enough to stay. They're hungry enough to say, just because you don't understand. They didn't understand that sermon. But you know what? They got revelation later. They got the revelation later. Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean you leave. Well, faith doesn't work. It doesn't matter. It's because you don't understand it. You don't understand. Amen. And this man got his miracle. And the disciples learned what not to do. Amen. Humility determines how much God can use you. Humility determines how much God can use you. Amen. Let's go to Second Kings. No, I don't think I will. I think I'm gonna. I Think I'm gonna close up here pretty quick, because if I go down that road, we're going to be here another 30 minutes. And I know y' all are like, brother Stephen, can you please shut up so I can go to lunch? Amen. The man. There's so much more here that I can get to, and we will get to it. But I want to encourage you today, if there is pride in you, you need to seek it out and say, and I always ask myself, is that appropriate to say? Is what I'm doing correct? The correct thing to do in my life? Is it going to be beneficial to me? Amen. Should I say that because out of anger, or should I just keep my mouth shut? Amen. So I hope y' all was helped today. God cannot work with pride. He can't, because it's complete opposite of who he is. It's like oil and water. They don't mix. They don't mix. A lot of people come from families that, you know, the husband didn't tell the mother, I love you. And I expect the level of compassion was really low. And I think we all saw that in certain homes that there was things that were put into a home. Just because your father said it, just because your parents said it doesn't mean it was right because it goes against the word of God. Well, that's the way I was raised. Yeah, but maybe the way you was raised. I'm sure there's good in some of it, but it's not always acceptable. Well, my dad said, you don't ever say sorry. You stand up and be a man. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness says I'm wrong. A real man of God will stand up and apologize to everybody that was that needs to be apologized to. I don't have a problem apologizing to people. Maybe part of my physical man. Yeah. No one wants to say you're wrong. No one likes to be a loser. But you know what? Sometimes you got to say, I'm wrong. I'm wrong. And I'm gonna tell you why I'm wrong. Not just, I'm wrong. I'm sorry. Why are you wrong? What did you say? And how can you fix it next time? You know, me and my wife have had many conversations because sometimes I get worked up and my voice gets elevated. Not like screaming, but I'm, like, intense, you know, and it's elevated. And she says, honey, I don't work good in that environment when you're like this, and I'm like, well, you need to work good Because I'm really worked up, you know, and we can get elevated. Have y' all done that before? You just elevated? And one day I was doing laundry. She had me beat down enough. I was doing laundry. And she said, honey, I don't work good in that environment. You know, that level of where you're high strung. And I said, no, I understand what you're saying. I see that how that could be a little bit demeaning. And it makes the environment uneasy, and I'm going to do better. I apologize. And I see that I may do it again. But I ask you to have patience with me. Have patience. I may not cure it right then, but I ask you to have enough mercy on me. Right? The Bible says that when you mess up, if you truly repent, truly repent, it's remembered no more. True repentance is the correcting of not repeating that. Amen. Because people say, well, God forgives me. But you're not asking for mercy. You're just saying it because it sounds nice. But really, in your heart, you can go out and do it again. You've already done it again in your heart. I'll just ask God to forgive me. What is that? That's levels of pride. There's no humility. So we always have to be very careful with that. And because my humility needs to be radiant in my family and in this ministry, I don't want people. I've seen ministries ruined because the pastor was fighting with the congregation's members. It was completely unnecessary. Well, you did my other people wrong. You pulled these people out. You did this. It's like, dude, don't get involved in that. You know? So we have to be very careful. Amen. Well, go ahead and stand. Praise God. What an honor to be. To preach to y'. All. I know it may. It may not be a chair jumper, but you know what? Sometimes we gotta just clean ourselves up. Amen. We gotta address ourselves. And ask yourself. You have to ask yourself and say, lord, was that right? I said that? Or is it right that I'm thinking this is it right? Because most people don't. They don't ask themselves if they're right or wrong. They just assume they're always right. And this is a trick of the enemy. That's why. That's why he got cast out of heaven, because of pride. And so we don't want that in any part of us. And you say, brother Stephen, I'm not a prideful person. Well, there you go. You're already saying you've conquered It. Pride is like weeds in the yard. You may kill them one season, but what happens if you don't stay on top of them? They come back. It don't matter if you say, well, I'm pretty good right now, but it'll come back because it's human nature. And just because you're doing good now doesn't mean you're always good. It's like, hey, you gotta go pluck them weeds out and say, you know what if you went to your neighbor and said, there ain't a single weed in my yard. And he looks and goes, there's one coming through the cracks right now. No, you're. There's not. There's another one coming. So you always have to say, you know what? Is there one coming through the crack? Is there pride in my life? Have I said things that are wrong? Because that gets you. And I would like to finish this sometime because I didn't even get to where I needed to be, really. Because there's so many people in the Bible that were destroyed because of pride, and then there's so many people that were successful due to humility. Amen. But you know, I love y', all, me and my wife, you guys are precious to us. We want this church to be a church where people are growing tremendously in faith. They're reading the word of God. They're understanding the Word, they're getting revelation and changing. If the church people never changed, that's a problem. So I encourage you to check yourself as you read the word of God. Refine your life to a greater level. Amen. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at defrayministries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings, share your testimony, become a partner, or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Defray Ministries.