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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Faith Is The Secret To Success | Kenneth Copeland | Friday PM | Holy Ghost Meetings 2023
01:44:14
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. Well, give the Lord a shout. Hallelujah. Praise God. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Whoa. Thank you, Lord. I don't know why I thought of this right at this moment. Well, I do. The first day that we drove into the campus of Oral Roberts University University, Kelly was just a little girl standing up in the seat now. You can tell she said, oh, Daddy, Jesus lives here. Well, Jesus lives here, I'll tell you. And it's obvious he's in manifestation tonight, so let's praise him for a moment, please. Oh, Lord, we praise you and we worship you and we magnify your name. Our most benevolent and wonderful, gracious heavenly Father. Thank you for giving us life. Thank you for bringing yourself into this world and burying our sins in your own body on the tree. That we could be dead to sins and live. Glory to God. Dead to sins and live unto righteousness. And we praise you. Tonight. We glorify the God of the universe, the King of heaven. Hallelujah. Well, shake hands with two or three people and say you're glad to see them here tonight. Praise the Lord and the Word works. Then you can be seated. Well, good evening, everybody. Praise God. And, well, Jesus didn't come in 2022, but he'll be this year. I'm looking for him. I'm looking for him. Every day. Every day is one day closer to the Resurrection. Every day, every day we breathe is one day closer to the resurrection. And it's going to happen. It is going to happen. There was a woman that gave her testimony in a woman's meeting. Gloria was present, and she said that all of heaven is preparing for the next great event. And it's the marriage supper of the Lamb. Oh, and the thing that was so blessed out of that. Gloria's little brother, Stanley, was a journeyman rock and brick mason. And the boy, I bought him a new dress shirt one time to wear it as something special. The first thing he did is get scissors and cut sleeves out of it, put his coat on over it. And his waist was about as big around as that microphone, and his shoulders were about like this. Well, he carried those mud buckets and rocks and all of that. Put his sleeves on, you know, and cut his arm. Well, he was asleep in a truck. There's a right close to our prayer cabin there in southwest Arkansas. There's a pretty tight turn, but it's an adverse lean instead of the road leaning like this. It leans like this, and it's. They've had a lot of accidents there. Stanley was asleep in the truck, and the young man that was driving was driving too fast, and he started around that curve, and the truck just flew into the trees and burned. Well, you can imagine that hit our family hard and. But she was giving her testimony, and after the morning session, she came over to Gloria and she said, gloria, I've never met you. But she said, in the most massive dining room you can imagine. She said, it's impossible to describe it. And she said, people are so busy putting out place settings, and people keep getting saved and they keep putting out more place settings. She said, I was standing there, and this young man put his plate down and walked over there and said, would you tell Gloria I was not in that truck when it burned? She said, the strange thing about him, his garment didn't have any sleeves in was Stanley. Now, that's faithful God. If he didn't want to wear sleeves, he doesn't have to in heaven or anywhere else. Amen. But he's coming. There's coming a day Very soon it.
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Will be the voice of God will be calling me I walk the streets of glory I'm going home. The heart will blow the angel will cry the Father's love will fill the skies.
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I'll see the face of Jesus I'm going home.
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But until then I'll go on singing until then with joy I'll carry on until the day my eyes behold my Jesus. Until the day. I'm going.
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Home.
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Come on, sing it with me. But until then we'll go on singing until then with joy we carry on until day our eyes behold that city.
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Until the day.
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We're going.
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Get a deep breath. Well, give the Lord praise Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord Jesus thank you, Lord thank you, Jesus. He walked the street to Calvary the.
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Rugged cruise he bore the crowd stood.
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By and they watched this man they'd heard him preach before.
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No one could ever be worthy of such love I'd never find when he was on the cross I was on his mind. The look of love was on his.
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Face, On his head.
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The blood that.
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Stained his scarlet robe had stained his crimson red.
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His eyes were all that crowned that day yet he looked ahead in time when he was on the.
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Cross.
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I was on his mind. He knew me yes, he loved me he whose glory makes the heavens shine no one joy of such mercy when he was on the cross he had he on his when he was on the cross I was on his arms. He knew me.
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Think about that. He knew me. He knew you.
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Yet he loved me. He whose glory makes the heavens shine. No one's worthy of such worship. When he was on the cross.
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God.
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Oh, give him praise. Give the Lord praise and worship.
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His healing power is here. His healing power is here right now. Glory to God. Oh, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus, thank you. Oh, glory be to God. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. There are those that say, O Lord. Oh, Jesus, we would that you'd come today.
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We long for for you.
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We long for you to come. Well, saith the Lord, you have no.
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Idea how I long to come.
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And the moment my father says I'm on my way, I'm on my way. But until then, the greatest days in the history of the universe are at hand. The final moments of this entire workings is at hand. The final days, the final moments, the final hours. You have no idea how close it is. It's here. It is here. 1948 signaled the day. That generation, that's the generation. We are that generation. Glory to God. Hallelujah. 1948. I was 12 years old. Didn't have a clue what the world was on about, but God honored me by allowing me to learn. The 24th of this month will be the 56th year of this ministry. And Gloria and I, Gloria and I have been married 60 years and nine months, 56 of it, have been serving this God. Hallelujah. And I have had a wonderful time at it. And I'm still having a good time. Thank you, Jesus. Aren't these guys something? Glory to God. Man, I'm telling you. What, you can't sing with those guys. Just forget it. You just can't sing, that's all. Somebody asked me one time, said, how long have you been able to sing? I don't know. I don't remember when it started. I really don't. I was in about the fifth grade, I guess, in elementary school, Fair park elementary school. And Mrs. Webb was our music teacher that day. Day. She was a good friend of my mother's, which was dangerous. And I mean it now. I'm not kidding. She would have a luncheon for my teachers every year, and she'd say, if he needs to spank him, spank him. But call me and let me know I'm gonna give him another one when he gets home. She wasn't kidding. Well, I'm not going to tell you how many times it happened. But anyway, we were in a music room. They had that school had A lower floor and a top floor and the music room. Everything was upstairs and had a small stage just about the size of the middle part of this. And all the desks got here. And everyone was singing. I don't remember what we were singing. All the students standing there next to the desk. I don't know. It might have been the national anthem. I just. I don't remember. She walked up to me. She clutched the class down. She turned the class over to somebody else, said, you come with me. I thought, oh, man. But we walked right past Mr. Anthony's office and got in her car. We only live six blocks from that school. And we went down this way, and we went down that way, and I could see it coming. I thought, I've had it. We walked in the living room and we had a little Wurlitzer spinet piano. You've seen that piano. It's the one that Kelly has now. And she sat down there and she said, now sing. Okay. She turned to my mother and said, vanetta, did you know he could do that? She said, well, yeah, I guess. That's the first I remember now. Before that, I just made a lot of funny noises. I was an only child. I was my only. And all the barnyard animals that, you know. And I say, My dad would say, stop that. You know, you spend your time doing something. Oh, Lord, but we had a fun family. We'd go on vacations, and my mother and I drive my dad right up the wall. But it was a lot of fun. Father, we thank you tonight for your word. Praise you, Jesus. Thank you. Open your Bibles with me. Oh, look what I did. Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm. Heal it, Jesus. Hebrews chapter 10. Please. I am gonna need something to mend that. David, would you hang on to that till I need it, please? Hebrews chapter 10. Look at the 38th verse. Now, the just shall live by faith that happens in Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38, and Habakkuk 2:4. Now, anything God says four times. But what does it mean? What does it mean to live by faith? Let me give you an example, David. We have that where we can play that clip of Gloria, please.
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The way you tell if you've got a spiritual mind or not is when you hear something, when you hear a bad report, are you established in the Word, or do you cave in the first thing? When sickness tries to come to you, are you dependent on something else? Or do you start saying the word of God? When you hear on television about how bad things are and so on. I don't think they're as bad as they say either. Really. Someone was talking yesterday and they said, well, where we live, people are doing so well. Businesses say they've never had so much business. You can't believe that television. If it's not the word of God, you've got to believe this book here. And even if it were true out there in the world, you're not in the world. You're in God. And that makes all the difference in the world. Glory to God. So you have to have that just ready. You have to be strong when discouraging things come to you. What do you think about? Do you just rebound? You ought to just rebound with the scripture. I mean, you know, somebody says, well, we're going to have a crash in 93. Financial crash in 93. Well, up out of Ken's mouth came no crash for me in 93. See, that's what you need to do. You need to rebound with the word of God. You need it in you and to such a degree that fear doesn't even have a place to start. I like that. I never said that before. You need to have the word of God in you to such a degree that fear have a place to start. You ought to immediately respond with the word of God. Whatever it is that's trying to take your peace, your spiritual mind ought to bring up the word of God to rebuke it and to stop it. Glory to God.
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Now, now, isn't she pretty? Isn't she beautiful? And she's mine. The people that live by faith all the time are the same way. When you get up in the morning, the same way when you go to bed at night, the same way at the breakfast table, you're the same way. I don't care where you are, doing what you are, you're the same way all the time. The person that lives and walks by faith never has to change his lifestyle because of the time. Now, that was 1992. The New York Times article May 1993. Growth in the United States economy slowed to a near standstill in the winter of 93 while inflation sped up, the Commerce Department reported yesterday in its second look at economic performance. Between January and March, the gross domestic product expanded at a barely perceptible rate. First quarter inflation was at the highest since a 4.9% rate 1Q91. And it just gets worse and worse. The United States entered a recession in 1990, which lasted eight months through March 1991. Although the recession was mild relative to other post war recessions characterized by a sluggish employment recovery most commonly referred to as a jobless recovery. Now what a jobless recovery is. I don't what is that. Unemployment continued to rise through June 19, 20, 1992, even though a positive economic growth rate had returned the previous year. KCM donations went up 18%. Why? We said it. And if you're around our place and you say anything else, you're an oddity because household does not tolerate that. And it's so foreign to our ideas that there's any possibility we could fail. And I hear people, oh, this United States is going down the drain. It isn't. No. Some of it may. We're not. The word of God's got the drain plug, brother. I'm not going down the drain. I'm standing on the word. But you have to think that way, you have to talk that way and you have to stay in the book continually, constantly, all the time. It has to become a way life until that's just what you are. And you are that all the time. Now the pitfall is to get in a habit of being that way and it becomes mental assent and sounds good. The Lord began to talk to me a year ago about a positive negative. And you want me to demonstrate one now? Devil, I'm telling you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, you have to go. You have to go. You have to go now. I'm telling you, you have to go now. I'm telling you, Satan, you have to leave now. You have to leave. No, he's not going anywhere. No, he's not. You're just badgering him. James 4, 7 says, Submit yourself to God and then resist the devil. He'll leave. So, Father, I submit myself to you. Satan, get in the name of Jesus. You're gone. At that point, it doesn't matter how you feel or how it looks, he's gone. And just keep holding the word on him. Just keep holding the word on him. Just keep holding that word on him. Amen. All right, we are going to talk about faith now. Let me read down through these and then we'll go in the direction that the Lord has impressed me to go. Faith, active living. Faith is the secret to success. That life is the secret to success. Now there is a difference on some levels between what people think about success and prosperity. My dad's older brother, my uncle Dale, lived in San Angelo, Texas. He was born in 1900. I asked my dad how old my uncle was. He said he's the same age as the calendar. So you can always remember that he was the oldest. I'll tell you a little something about him. He went to World War I and he came home. Now, my grandmother was about this tall. Gloria's five three, I think. Granny was probably five two. And she called my grandfather Pampa. She called him Mr. Copeland. She called him Mr. Copington all the time. Well, Uncle Dale came home from the Navy kind of sassy. And he's a big man, tall man. And, oh, he did the unthinkable. He said the D word in Granny's kitchen. She didn't say anything. She just picked up a skillet and hit him right there. Knocked him flat of his back, sat down on him and said, sonny boy, now, you're not going to talk that way in Ma's kitchen anymore. She said, no, ma'. Am. No, ma'. Am. That's it. He's about 6:1. But he wasn't very tall. After she got through with him, she put a knot on him. Amen. Praise God. Now, faith is the secret to success. Now, the reason I brought up Uncle Dale, he was not a wealthy man financially, but he always wanted a full service station. I mean, everything. Everything from parts to tires. I mean a shop, mechanics. And in San Angelo, Texas, right downtown, he had a corner service station. And everybody in San Angelo, Texas, knew where Copeland's was. He was a successful man, did well financially, but his prosperity and his success were wrapped up in his dream. You see that? That's what he always dreamed of. And he did it. Took good care of his family, raised a good family, strong Christian people. Amen. And so, very successful man. That was his dream. And he knew God. And he and my dad would get together and talk about the wonderful things of life. And God was always a centerpiece in every conversation that's successful. Now, the success, when you put the laws of faith into that success, into that dream, it will produce wealth. You have to work at it to keep it from it. That's right. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. That's just what it does. Amen. That's the way God designed it. Praise God. Amen. Yes. The word does not say God will meet all of your needs. No, it says, he will meet all of your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. That's right. Not according to something down here. According to his riches in glory. That's the difference. And I had a man say to me one time, he said. He walked up to my car and he said, brother Copeland, he had a big smile on his face. And I stopped in the shopping center. Walked up to the window of my car, and he said, now, Brother Copeland, I knew I was going to get me a Bible lesson right here. And he's one of those repeaters. Yeah. God never said he'd drink our wants, but only our needs. Only your needs. Only your needs. Only your needs now. Only. Not your wants. Not your wants. No, no. Never promised to make a want. Just our needs. Just our needs. Just our needs. Just. I said, well, is that right? That's right. The Lord is my shepherd. I do not want. I see you, Brother Copeland. Somehow the devil talked him into that rut. That's a faith excuse, When you take God at his word and you take the limits off. Had more than one come up. One man I'm thinking about right now. He said, well, now, Brother Copeland, he said, you know, we're doing fine. And he said, you know, we make. I make a good living. And that's all. That's just fine. We really don't need anything else. I said, what about your pastor? Well, what about him? I mean, what about him? I said, well, what about missionaries and the laws and. So? Well, he said, you know, no, that wasn't even part of his life. And he made the statement, like, about, well, you know, back in those days, you know, 10, $15,000, that's plenty for us. I said, you know, if you had 100,000, you're not required to keep it. See, that concept didn't dawn on him because he had the limits on it. No dream. Just get by without any problems. Just take her easy. Many of these days, I'm going to get to quit. That's the guy. When he quits, he won't last long. All right, let's go. Turn the page. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You can put it up on the screen. I want to read that from the classic Amplified or Just listen to me. Now, faith is now. That's a statement. Faith is now. Hope is future. But you put the two of them together, and God's plan comes to pass. The easy way to look at this, hope is faith's blueprint. I've only met one man in my life that was building a church with no blueprint. Jack Moore in Shreveport, Louisiana. That's where Carolyn Savelle was raised. Jerry. I was preaching there when Jerry Savelle accepted the Lord and they were building a new sanctuary. I said, jack, why don't you come home with me for a few days, and we'll just spend some time together. I Said, I'd like to talk to you about your time with William Branham and all that. Kenneth. He said, I can't do it, son. I said, why? Well, I got this building going. I said, you got all these people working here. I said, they can follow the plans, can't they? He said, there's not any. I said, what do you mean you're not in? He said, brother, they all up here. That's faith without hope. Real Bible. Hope is when you see that word that says, by his stripes you were healed and praised God. By his stripes, I. Well, how can you dare. How can you hope to say that? Why would I not hope? God said it. Well, don't get your hopes up. Well, your faith won't work. Jack it up high as you can get it. Shoot for the moon, brother. Faith is God's invisible creative force. Faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for being proof of the things we do not see, the conviction of their reality. Faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the physical senses. When it becomes real fact, than it belongs to. Thank you, Dave. When it becomes real fact, then it belongs to him. Amen. It's the title D. It's mine. It's mine. Southwest believers convention. Jerry Savelle was preaching. All of a sudden the word of the Lord came. Came to me. Now, at that point, I knew that Cessna had built a citation 10. It was a new program. It was the fastest civilian jet at that time in the world, which was a new thing for Cessna in the first place. I knew about it, but it was just a beginning program. All of a sudden, it came up on the inside of me. I want you to believe me for a Cessna Citation test right now. If I tell you to go to Tokyo in the morning, I don't want you to have to ask somebody to go. Well, it just dropped down on the inside of me. All of a sudden. Gloria popped through the curtain. I was sitting. She was out front. I was sitting back behind the curtain there with the monitor on. She popped through that curtain. She said, the Lord just spoke to me. I said, he just spoke to me. What did he say to you? She said, you first. And I told her. She said, he said the very same thing to me. At that moment, we owned a citation 10, Title D. Now we just have a process to go through. Now, the first thing you have to do so is seed. So that is number one. That was on our. That's first thing on the prayer list. Father, to whom do we sow and how much. That's the first thing. Once that seed was in the ground, it's just a matter of time. It's just a matter of time. Now, let's take healing. All healing is a process. You take those healing scriptures and stay there. I mean, you stay there if you have to stop everything else you're doing. And you stay there night and day. You get in that book and you just stay there and stay there and stay there and stay there until it rises up on the inside of you and the time will come when you own it and then it's processed. Now, take, for instance, a broken bone. Now, David, how long. A broken arm. How long does it normally take a broken arm to heal? Approximately six weeks. Six to eight weeks. Six to eight weeks. That's the healing process. The body has that process built in it. The anointing of God can do that very same process in 10 seconds. But. But it's the same process. Now, I'm going to show you something. Where's my little sack? Things are that way because that's the way the Creator made them. Now, this electricity is to the natural world what? The anointing is in the spirit. I read that from John G. Lake, and then I've seen it, learned it. I've heard Brother Hagin talk about ways you can short it out. Now this. These are two electrical devices. Now, that works. Because that's the way the manufacturer made it. And he made it to work, right? That doesn't work. You can't make it work. You can do surgery on it and you can't make it work. It'll short circuit. And I don't care if it's two Christians. The anointing won't flow. You trying to do that? That's right. Neither will that one. No, sir, There is no connection. I just wanted to go on record. It doesn't take long to figure that out. You don't need a medical book to figure it out.
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That's true.
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That was made to work. That was made to work.
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Yes.
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God made people so he can flow through them for humanity. That's what faith is all about. That's why I'm about to read here. It's impossible to please him without it. Amen. Amen. This doesn't work. But now wait a minute. Oh, yeah. See how that went together? Now the power line can run through that.
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That's right.
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You know what that is? That's a man and a woman in love with God being what they're supposed to be and bringing life to Humanity and the other. Other is a prayer matter. And it's a matter of praying and interceding for people and holding people up before the Lord. And I'll quote Oral Roberts, a man said, my creator made me that way. Well, obviously he thought Oral's answer to that was this. God has never made anyone, never created anyone to be something he's already forbidden. He never created anybody to be a thief. He never created anybody to break any of those commandments. There's life in those commandments. Amen. I've never done that before. The Lord just dropped it in my heart today to make it a public thing, not being in any way hard or vindictive. That's just the way it is. So if you want God in your life, two things have to happen. On one side of the equation, equation repentance and fix it. On the other side of the equation is love and patience and kindness. Praise God. Amen. Can you say amen? All right. Now then, Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God. Now, Psalms turn there. But Psalm 33:9 says that or 1933:19 says that by his wisdom he did it. We understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Now, God did not create this universe out of nothing. No, he said it wasn't visible. It just said he did it by faith. You couldn't see it, but you can sure see the results. Because he said, light be the light travels at 186,000 miles of second 24 hours. And there was over 16 billion miles of universe and it's still expanding because he said it and his faith did it. Same faith. Same faith. Jesus said, Mark 11:22, have the faith of God. Well, it said, have faith in God, but the cross reference have the faith of God. Well, let's look at the book of Ephesians then, because you can't get saved without faith. In the second chapter of the eighth verse. For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves. It is gift of God. You didn't have any. I didn't have any. If I'd already had some, I'd have been in a whole lot better shape than what I was. But I was in bad shape. I didn't know it. Well, I did too. But I found it out. He just arrested me one night, the second day of November, 1962, about eight o' clock in the evening, north of Little Rock, Arkansas. He arrested me. I'd just Flown a trip and came in. Gloria waited supper on me, and I came in the living room there. All of a sudden, it just seemed to me like just the whole room filled up. And I just froze and shut my eyes. And I heard him. Kenneth, you don't get right with me, you're going to a devil's hell, son. Well, that'll get you to thinking. It stopped me up short. I said, I know it. I did know it. But I didn't know what to do. I said, what do I do now? I heard my Sunday school teacher. I was 12 years old. Mrs. Taggart won me to the Lord in 1962. And she was. We called her Old Lady Taggart. She was old. She called herself Old Lady Taggart. She's a widow woman. Wore black all the time. A little black straw hat, little artificial flower stuck out of it like that. And she taught boys Sunday school. And. Well, you know, Southern Baptist Sunday School was too much like school to start with. I mean, they just keep doing grades and all that. Well, all of us boys just told the Sunday school superintendent that if we promoted us away from Mrs. Taggart, we just wasn't coming back. So they just promoted us and Mrs. Taggart along with. And that's the reason why, because she always led her boys to the Lord. Well, she finally got me after a lot of years. But I heard her voice. That seed was still on the inside of me. Now, you know what that says to me. Mrs. Taggart had faith in her words. They stuck to me for all those years because I was 25 years old. So they'd been with me, I guess, 12, 13 years. I heard her voice. I said, that's Old Lady Taggart. She said, boys, you have to ask Jesus to come into your heart. Only she said it her way. Boys, you have to ask Jesus to come into your heart. I thought, well, that sounds just as dumb as it did the first time. I just heard it. But I don't know what else to do because other than her, I'd never heard that phrase. Now, in 1963, Gloria in January then of 63. And this is 2023. Now, how long was that? That's a long time ago. We were both baptized in the Holy Ghost when she received the Holy Spirit. First time she ever heard the term, born again. We were scriptural illiterates, both of us. Every time we saw a church steeple, we wanted to find out what was in there. And I read things. First time I read this 11th chapter of Hebrews, I said, gloria, I found the hall of fame right here. I said, we figure out how to get this faith. We got something. Well, then Brother Hagin came along. We fixed figured out we already had. It is the faith of God. But you can't go any further into this without realizing that all of this. Well, let's get over there. In the book of Hebrews, I was still in Ephesians. All of this entire 11th chapter has to do with this creative force in the lives of all the people. Up to there faith. God started it in faith. And Malachi was ministering in faith when he finished it up. Praise God. By faith. By faith. By faith. By faith. By faith. By faith. By faith. By faith. Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. By faith. He offered it. He did it by faith. Well, what does that mean? He had come to that place there where in his inner man understand that this powerful force was so alive in him that he gave God the best he had. Don't get the idea now that Cain was in trouble because he didn't have a lamb. That's not right. He maybe could have bought one from Abel, but that wasn't the issue. He's a farmer. But if you study it, he was taking God the nubbins. Now, if you're not from a country, you don't know what that is. That's when you keep the best corn and give God the nubbins the runts. I was very impressed with what Oral Roberts said. His family were corn farmers. And his dad told his boys, he said, now, boys, we take the best of this crop, the best we have separate the best and biggest ears of corn. Put them aside. We're not going to eat those. That's our seed corn going to sow the best. We take the best corn and sow the best seed. Because he said, if we keep sowing and if we eat the nubbins and keep sowing the best, within five years the nubbins will be as good as the best was five years ago. That's what faith will do to grow. Particularly if you're tithing and you give him the best. And he said, now that's the way God does things. He gave us his best, the very best, and he did it by faith. Well, how can you say that? How can you say God gave Jesus by faith? It says he did. He gave his only begotten son so that many sons could come to glory. He planted him as a seed. If he had no plan for a seed, then it was a murder. Come on, somebody. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It was A seed. And it worked. Glory to God. It got me and it got you. It worked. And a lot more of them are coming now than ever before. So now let's flow here for a little bit. Faith offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous God, testifying of his gifts. And by it, he, being dead, yet speaks. His faith offering is still speaking. Come on. By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him. For before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God. You know what he did? He did what God said. He just simply did what he said. Now the war was on in the Garden of Eden. God made a statement. Now, after that, anybody that looked like they were a prophet or anything of God, Satan set out to kill him. Prophet after prophet after profit. But he didn't get this one. Because he pleased God. But he had that hanging over him. There's one coming. There is one coming. And Satan never sleeps. So this is on him night and day. He stoned the prophets. But one day, one day. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And now he had a target. He knew who it was. He knew who it was. Praise God. That was the prophet he was after. And he went after him every way he could think of. And it didn't work. And it didn't work. And it didn't work. And then all of a sudden, it did. Can't you know? Satan is saying, wonder what I did right? All of a sudden he's doing these dumb things. He's just walking into this. No, you walked into it dumb. Die, boy. You are sucker. Had the princes of this world known, they would have never crucified the Lord of glory. I guess not. Glory to. Amen. By faith, Noah, being warned of God, things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house. By which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith. Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after to receive for an inheritance, obeyed and he went out, not knowing where he went. By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also, Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age. Now listen. Here's why? Because she judged him faithful. Because she judged him faithful. What does that mean? She just believed what he said. Most people don't realize what faith did there. They weren't two old, wrinkled up, ugly people having a baby. They weren't old and wrinkled up anymore. Their youth was renewed. You go look at the timeline. There were men chasing after Sarah more than they chased after Sarai. That's they were after her. Come on, Sarah. Sarah died. Abraham remarried and had six more children and lived to be 175 years old. And then he left. And he was dead when he started. Come on. He considered not his own body now dead. You know what he said? Old man, you don't count. He turned around and said, old woman, you don't either. We have a promise. So come here, sweet thing. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Now don't you know? Isaac was a fine looking young man. Had to be, had to be. Therefore sprang there even of one and him as good as dead. So many as the stars of the sky in multitude and the sands by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, not having seen them afar off, persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had the opportunity to return. Let's talk about that a minute. The Bible said Daniel had a spirit, excellence in him. A spirit of excellence. What is an excellent spirit? Jesus Ministry. A ministry of excellence. And the word came from the excellent glory, saying, this is my beloved sin. Listen to him. An excellent spirit refuses to come compromise. An excellent spirit does not say, well, I wonder if I'm healed or not. No, no. An excellent spirit said, well, what saith the Lord? What is his account? He shed his blood. That settled it. That settled it. The moment. The very moment. Picture in your mind. Mary thought he was the gardener. But when he called her by name, she knew him. But he said, don't touch me, I have not yet ascended to my father and your father. So now you go to the book of Hebrews and you find out what happened. He had to appear before the heavenly of heavenlies. And his blood had to be ministered heavenly utensils of worship and cleansed them from Adam's sin. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, that's right. He had to appear to the Father and be accepted. Yes, sir, that's right. Then he came back the moment he stepped out of that throne room when God's scepter was pointed to him. We were saved. That moment we were healed. That moment. That finished the devil off. That finished him. That finished off Adam's deal. It was done right then. It's over. Glory. God said, that's enough. Turn all the judgment over to him. I retire. Praise God. Done my thing. I created it all. I gave it a big spin and got it going. Can't you hear God saying, I fought a good fight. Yeah. I had to put up with the devil and all of this over all these thousands of years to get that law book into the land. How to? When Cain killed Abel, it wasn't against the law. It is now. It was right after that. But that law book had to be written. And once it was finished, Jesus was born. That first book, that first covenant was finished. Jesus was born right on time. Micah prophesied it. 715 years. What Micah said controlled armies, controlled the heavens, controlled the constellations. And on the proper moment, that star in the east began its journey. And two years later, it showed up over Nazareth. Praise God. No rain. That little two year old boy was on his way. And the moment, the moment that he sat down at the right hand of the Father and became the Lord Advocate General, Commander in chief of heaven and earth. Hallelujah. And he is the author of our faith and the developer of our faith. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Oh, thank you, Jesus. Oh, where are we here? I like this by faith. Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. Now I want to spend some time right here in these couple of three verses here. He was tried, he received the promise, offered up his only begotten son. Now that phrase is in there for a purpose of whom it was said, Isaac, shall thy seed be called accounting. That God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. Now look up that word figure. It's the word parable. He found it somehow. He found it in that covenant. He had a vision of it. He saw it. He's I'm the father of many nations. Now I'm going to do what my father, what my covenant partner has asked me to do. I'm going to sacrifice him. But somehow or another he's going to raise him up out of these ashes because this is my seed here. I am the father of men and nations. And he's the next in line. That's the reason he spoke by faith. And he's going up on that mountain for a Sacrifice. And he tells the guy that's with him, hang around here, buddy. My son and I will be back. That's right. And he already knew what he's going to do, man. I mean, he raised the God, foreseeing that the day would come that Jesus would say, let this cup pass from me. No, he can't. He is covenant of blood obligated because his blood covenant partner. He said, as for me, my covenant is between me and thee. Now, Abram didn't have to accept that, but he did. He said, all right. And he took the name change and called himself the Father of Men. And now that name, he put that H in the middle of it. The H is Hashem. The name. It's the H in Yud. Heh, Vav heh. He put his name right in the middle of his. And he knew it. I'm going to have that son. And whatever he wants out of him, it's his. This boy belongs to him. If it hadn't have been for this covenant, I couldn't have had a child. I would have died few years. If it hadn't been for this, my wife would have too. We'd gone, But it was his only begotten and God knew it. And he said, no, no, no, that's far enough. That's good. That's good. It was settled right then. So now it was settled again in the throne room of God when the books were closed on that first covenant. And now Jesus on his way to paint a picture of the true Father, really who he really is. He'd been lied on and lied about all those years. Years. He is total goodness. There's no darkness in him at all. None. Total goodness. And Jesus manifested him in the earth. Hallelujah. And gave us the same faith. The same faith with which Jesus went to that cross. The same faith with which God created the universe is living in us now. What are we going to do with it now? It's time for increase. It's time for the increase in all things and ministries of Jesus. We're there and it's time for it to happen. Now. According that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence he received him in a figure. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped leaning on top of his staff. By faith. Joseph, when he died, made mention departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. Glory to God. Didn't say anything about his Body. His bones. Bones don't decay. They're. From now on, brother. Amen. Don't you love it, Moses? They were not afraid of the king's command. By faith, Moses, when he's come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Some people don't pay enough attention to the fact that Moses was already out there in the wilderness. Had been there 40 years. He'd been there a generation. He knew that place. God prepared him. He knew it everywhere on that walk, everywhere they went, he'd already been there everywhere. When God said something, he knew exactly where to. He knew exactly. He knew the whole place. God prepared him for 40 years. Hallelujah.
- [75:00]
B
Hallelujah.
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A
Now, what do you think was going on that whole 40 year period of time? Preparation. Preparation. Getting him ready, Getting him ready. Getting him ready. And I can see things in my life. I can look back on them and I think, my, my, my, all of that, all of that was preparation back there. I realized, I looked back on it and I had such a desire to fly. It just, was a, just, just in me. I just. This the first time I ever got in an airplane right at the close of World War II. It wasn't over quite yet. It's in 1990. A man called my dad. There's a man there by the name of Wooten, Wooten Hotel, Wooten Furniture, hardware, business. And he said, we're going to fly Mr. Wooten's airplane. Now, you know that you've seen the airplane that Amelia Earhart flew around. It was one of those, his little Lockheed 12. It was either a 10A or a 12. And he said, would you and your son like to go fly? Well, of course. And of course my dad said yes. Well, the pilot put me up in the front and I guess he saw the glaze on my eyes. He said, don't you touch a thing. I sat on my hands. I finally got off of the ground. Ground. Now, I never heard of Mark 11:23. We walked down and the doors got stuck. And I had 20 more minutes of cockpit time. And of course I was in the cockpit. I was the last one out. My dad had waited on me. We were walking across the tarmac and you know, we took, you know, 25, 30 stories. I stopped. I had him by the hand and I stopped. I turned around and I said, daddy, I'm going to do that. He said, what? I said, I'm going to fly airplanes. And pointed. He said, boy, you can do it. Now, that's the kind of dad I have. Ah, you kill your fool self. No, he just didn't do that. Boy, you can do it. I said, yes, sir, I'm going to do it. And anybody ask me, yes, sir. I don't know when, but I'm going to do this. I found out later that God put that in me to introduce aviation to the body of Christ and get this thing on the move. And then now look at the airplanes that are operating. Samaritan's purse. I'm telling you that Franklin Graham, he's a good pilot to start with. And they fire some nice airplanes, but look what they're doing with them. Amen. Yes, amen. Because somebody stepped out in faith. That's it. The day that citation 10 dropped into glory in my spirit, I mean, it is done. We just entered into the process and just kept walking it out, walking it out. And I mean, I can remember step by step by step, and we were just believing God. And it got to work. I was just praising him for it. Just thank him. I had everything that I could possibly do in that. Of course I did it. And I was just driving down the street one day, and it rose up on the inside of me. And the Lord said, you better check your finances. I said, why? He said, well, you're closer than you think. Well, we were. We were right there. I didn't realize it. And we got putting it all together, and we had the required amount. We had it. So we put. It was originally $5 million, I think. So we put it on there, and we got the serial number, number 240. It was ours. And there's some people from cessna. Contact me, Mr. Copeland, if your ministry would consider going ahead and paying for this. It was a demonstrator, and they said, we need to finish using it here, but we'll never put over 300 hours on it total. But if you decided you want to pay it off, we'll just pay you 6% interest and pay you every 30 days. I said, well, no, I'm going to pray about that. I don't know about that. So they waited a little while, and they called back and said, we'll pay you 7% and pay you every 30 days. I prayed about that about as long as I need to. I checked it. We had the money to do it. They paid us 700,000. Think what that did to the price of the earthquake. I mean, the blessing was on the move. It was happening. Praise God forevermore. It was happening right then. And it just. The only reason I'm not flying it today. I Flew captain for 15 years and now airplane. The only reason I'm not flying today, I got so old that the insurance company wouldn't insure me anymore. Now they had to insure me in the right seat. Only now, if you can't fly, just talk on the radio. But there wouldn't have been. That wouldn't have been bad, except I required to go back to flight safety twice a year, and that's very expensive. Well, there's no way I could put a bill like that against the ministry. That's not right. And so I sit in the back seat. I just fly something a little smaller. Amen. Anyway, now here's what I like about this. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. For he had respect unto the recompense of reward. By faith, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king. He endured as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith, they passed through the Red Sea. Did you know that? By faith they passed through the Red Sea. Everybody centers up on Moses. You center up on Moses, and he did what God said. But they had to pass through by faith. Come on. That's good. That's spooky. All of a sudden, the whole ocean's standing up on each side of you. Come on, bubba, let's hustle. So God said, well, sometimes of year, the Red Sea in that area is not but about six inches. And somebody said, that's a bigger miracle than I thought it was. Brother. Pharaoh drowned in six inches of water. By faith. The walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days. Now, look at this one. By faith, the harlot Rahab. God always sees to it that you know, that she's in Jesus bloodline. She's his great, great grandmother. I wouldn't call her that. No, God can handle the harlot part. It's religious people can't handle. Amen. Hallelujah. We're going to get to see her. Oh. And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David also, and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises. Now every one of them had to go through that faith process. That faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. They had to listen. They had to have the faith and know how to use it, or they wouldn't be on the list. It doesn't work. But one way. Amen. They weren't stumbling around trying to figure out what to do. They were looking for a city built by God. And they found it. And they're all there right now. And Jesus led captivity. They were all in paradise. But he opened the door and they left there. And they finally, finally, finally got home. Don't you know that was some kind of party. Praise God. And the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles got together. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Come on. And we're one day closer. One day closer. Quenched the violence of fire, Escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong, Waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. That's the apostle Paul. And others had trial of cruel mocking scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds, imprisonment. They were stoned, sown asunder, were tempted, slain with the sword, wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted and tormented, of whom the world was not wicked. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise. God having provided some better thing for us, that without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore, seeing we are also compassed about, but with a great cloud of witnesses. They're the cloud.
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B
They're the cloud.
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A
Let us lay aside every weight and sin that does so easily beset us. And let us run with patience the race that is set before you. Notice, he didn't say, with faith. It's faith and patience. It's faith and patience. Faith opens the door and patience holds it open. Patience is the endurance. Let patience have perfect work that you'd be entire wanting nothing. Glory to God forevermore. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, hallelujah. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. How looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher, the developer of our who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. Lest you be wearied and faint in your mind. Hallelujah faith is the secret to success. Hallelujah. They succeeded. They're in the book. Well, there's a lot more of them, but they're in the book. Oh, and you can turn back over here and find their stories, go through there and look at it and see the example of it so that it's impossible to please God without fail. You can't be saved without faith. You can't live the Christian life without faith because the just live by faith. You can't overcome the world without it. We overcome the world and this is a victory. Even our faith, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Romans 4:23. Faith then begins where the will of God known. Where the will of God is known about healing. That's where faith begins. Where the will of God is known about prosperity financially. That's where faith begins. Praise God. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Will you stand with me, please? Now this, this is the beginning of the year. It's time to make decisions and choices and we're going to talk about some of those tomorrow. A number of years ago I wrote this little book, the decision is yours. Now, in 1983. In 1983, January of that year, I took off the month, canceled everything and fasted, prayed, seeking God for the future. I had a lot of problems physically and had a lot to learn. That first half of my life. And that turned out to be the first half of my life. I was hungry all the time, all the time. I don't care how much I ate, I was hungry all the time. Well, consequently, I was big as a blue. There was a time I weighed 265. I was bigger in the waist. Now I am in the shoulders. And when I went in the army, my first day fell out, you know, fell out in formation that first day. And I can just see him, I can just see old top sergeant major major and well, he's a great soldier. Had a tremendous record as a soldier. Career man, stood about 6465 and just good looking black man with a waist about that big around and had that campaign hat on. I mean just soldier all over him, you know. And he could tell, boy put on a uniform, he'd been downtown and. And he walked up there and punched me in the stomach and he laughed and he said, we're going to let the wind out of you. Well, they did. But then after I got out, it just came right back. I learned about a quality decision, a decision based on the word of God. A decision about which there is no more argument. A decision from which there is no retreat. I had to learn that. I weighed 265, measured 46 inches around the waist. I weigh 185. My waist measurement is now 36. That's when I wrote this book. The missing element was the exercise part. My average weight in 2022 was 162.3. So that's 100 pounds gone forever. Quality decision, fixed the diet. I said, lord, you delivered me from smoking, you delivered me from drinking. How are you going to deliver me from eating? Now, this is over a period of time. He said, I didn't deliver you from smoking. No. He said, I didn't deliver you from breathing. I delivered you from breathing smoke. He said, I didn't deliver you from drinking. I delivered you from drinking a wrong substance. Now what are you going to do about all those sugar filled soda pops you've been drinking? Well, it is Perrier from that day. It's over, Gone. Bread was. I was allergic to it, addicted to it. I haven't eaten a slice of bread in nearly 40 years. Don't care for it. Gone out of my life. Amen. So we talk about decisions. It's not going to be all about food, but a big piece of it is because you're killing yourself. The United States of America. The leading cause of death in this country is heart disease. And it is not hereditary. The diet is what's hereditary. Every four seconds somebody in the United States attack. It ought not be that way. The only one worse is Russia. And that's because you add that much alcohol to it too, it will kill you. Now, I was preaching for Mike Barber in a prison or close to Dallas, and I got real short of breath. Never had a pain of any kind. And so I went, you know, had checked out and they checked me. I had one blocked artery, but it had bypassed itself. I didn't need a stent or anything like that because I've been eating right for a long time. Time it was started, but it was arrested. But it got out of time, so I needed a pacemaker. So I said, lord, I'll just get that pacemaker by faith. And the word of the Lord came to me and he said, no, you're too far behind the power curve. That's an aviation term. You can get so deep into a stall that the airplane doesn't have enough power to get. He said, take the pacemaker by faith. So I went to the scripture and got my promises, got everything settled up and made my covenants with the Lord and went after it, took it by faith, prayed over that thing received it. Now it had a built in defibrillator in the thing. Now the FAA had a lot of experience with pacemakers, but not that built in defibrilla. So any of you know what the Bruce protocol is? It is the granddaddy of all stress tests. And so I started training. You have to have corresponding action to started working training, went to work at it and got a good treadmill. Oh, by the way, I just crossed a little over 800 miles on my treadmill. Since I've been keeping mileage, it's more than that all on one pair of shoes, 802 miles just before we came. In fact it was yesterday. Crossed 800 miles. But when the time came then that stress test was just part of the day because my body's in good shape. It's the best physical shape I've ever been in. And my heart is in excellent shape, excellent condition. So I took this Bruce protocol with the defibrillator inside there. And then when I passed it, the tech rep came out and paired up with this thing and turned that defibrillator off. I don't need that. Somebody ought to say praise God, my heart is in such good condition, I don't need that thing. Praise God. Now what is all this important about my flight physical? No, that's just the cream on the cake. I had the Lord say to me, will you do this for me? Will you get your spirit in the best spiritual condition it can be in? Will you get your soul in the best mental condition you can be in? Will you get your body in the best physical condition you can do? I said yes sir, I'll do it. Because I got a little over 30 years more to go. That's what it's about. And the flying part of it, I mean that's just that to me now, flying now is just, you know, it's just fun. I mean what I. The way I fly doesn't mount to much because I don't. I'm not doing it like I used to. But. I am in an agreement with God on Genesis 6:3, he asked me to do it. I'm going for that 120 and I can't do it weighing 245 pounds and eating like a furreal hog. I can't do it eating the hog. Some decisions have to be made. What are you going to do? Nobody can make the decision but you. Spirit, soul, body, financially, socially, got a blank slate in front of us. Eleven and a half more months to go. Oh, I'm telling you, let's turn this one into the best one that's ever happened. Glory to God and just hand the devil his hat and let him go on. Praise God. If I don't quit, you'll never get to. Father, we thank you. Now I stand in claiming healthy, healed bodies tonight for everyone in this room and everyone in the sound of my voice. Healed hearts, healed sinuses, healed stomach, divine health. No more headaches, no more sinus trouble, no more allergies. Glory to God. I mean, you can just live and enjoy life like we were supposed to have done in the first place. And we thank you for it, Father, In the name of Jesus, Someone in the sound of my voice. Stomach oak are a thing of the past now. It's over. It is over. Just begin to praise and thank him. Praise and thank him. And praise and thank him. And praise, worship. Thank you anyone online that you've never accepted Jesus as the Lord of your life. That's the greatest miracle, miracle of all. Jesus did everything but make your decision. I was headed to hell because I never had made a decision. And I can look back on it. I can see where God was after me all the time. And I just. Well, like I said, when she said, boys, you have to ask Jesus to come into your heart, that just sounded dumb to me. I should have done it then, but I didn't. Jesus did the hard part. He hung on that cross, went to hell and suffered like no man has ever suffered. But the decision is ours. Billy Graham's ministry. Only heaven knows how many people have come to God through that man's life and ministry. And the whole thing was based on make a decision for Christ tonight, right now. Don't put it off. Do it right now. And they just came by the tens of thousands because of a decision. Just a simple decision. Well, it's just the same simple decision will get you healed. The same simple decision. Will it fix your finances? The same simple decision will fix family problems that nothing, love will fix that. And faith works by love our family. We never had any family problems. The only problem we had, I mean, we just get together and have maybe too much fun, but our family was in love with one another. But I've seen families that have just completely turned completely around in a moment's notice because somebody decided to love. And it works. Thank you, Lord Jesus. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us@DefrainMinistries.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 Dufresne Ministries.