← Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Dufresne Ministries Podcast
In Your Place | Joel Siegel | Holy Ghost Meetings 2022 | Thursday AM
01:20:23
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. I want to share some stuff with you today. Some, some things, you know, spiritual things we love, don't we? We, we talk about the things of the spirit and what have you, but there's some spiritual things that don't look a lot like spiritual things. They actually look a whole lot like natural things. And that's a problem because people think that they're not as significant or not as important because, well, that's just natural things. For example, this is not my topic today, but it's not something like faithfulness that looks very natural, but it has tremendous spiritual significance. Amen. God has blessed us over the years. He's put us with some wonderful people to help train us and different things. And I'm convinced if you were to hang around me for a day or two, you would go away saying, they're really blessed, they are really blessed. And you might even say, lord, make me like, make me blessed like that. Now we're not where we're gonna be. But I'm just saying to this point, God has so blessed us and I want to share some stuff that would help you have that same thing in your life. And not only that, for the past couple weeks, God has just been ministering to me along the lines I'm going to speak today. And I'm reminded of so many others that have similar calls to me, similar calls to others and aren't doing well, different ones, not just ministers, church members as well, that they struggle and long term struggle. And I've been around long enough, I mean, I'm not old, of course, but been around long enough to see some patterns, to see some things. And I see that some of the same reasons why we may be blessed, those are some of the same reasons why others are not. Whether they do certain. Whether they just do certain things. And so really, if you ask me what are just some of the. Some of the most simple things that have blessed our lives, number one, we endeavor to. We discipline ourselves to stay hungry for God and keep going after him and not just, not just sit back. That's important. That's important. But I'd say the second thing, and the thing I want to talk to you about today is that, and this is really almost. This is by God's mercy and God's grace, not because we were so bright, but we've managed to stay in the place that God has put us. We've managed to stay where he's put us. And in doing so, we have passed up the many opportunities to exit the right place. And you might say that sounds so simple. That's what I said. That's spiritual. I said that's a spiritual thing that affects your life in such a huge way. And like I said, I know so many people that they either have taken an exit off of God's plan, or they're doing God's plan the best they know. But because they lack help and they lack a connection, they're not going as far they could go. And you understand, in our days, we don't need to be leaving folk behind. They used to have, years ago, a thing called no child left behind. There needs to be no believer left behind. But you know, that is God's plan. Jesus said, I won't leave you orphans. I'm not going to leave you fatherless. Yet so many are because of their lack of recognition and perception of things. So we see in scripture that the people that were used so greatly have a common trait, and that is this, that they, that they stayed in their place and followed the ones they were supposed to follow. And I want to just look at a few, if we can. And then I'm going to give you some scriptures, several scriptures. And then I have three points to get. Three cute points, three juicy cutie pie points to give you. And you know, I'll tell you what, one thing I remember about this meeting is agree, birth and commit. And so it worked. Praise God. You give it to me cute. I'm good. But we just. We're going to start by looking at some stories here. And if you would go with me to Exodus 33. Hallelujah. Exodus 33. And we're not going to talk about everybody in the Bible, how many know that a guy named Abraham, he did pretty well. He followed God. And then, you know, Moses, he did, he did start off poorly. He took himself out of Egypt, right? But once he got to the desert, he stayed. He stayed until God moved him. I said he stayed until God moved him. Stayed in a place of obscurity, stayed in a place of discomfort. Amen. But picking up towards the end of Moses reign. Well, not really the end, but in the 33rd verse, 33rd chapter rather, of Exodus. And in the ninth verse, it says it came to pass as Moses entered into the tabernacle. The cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle. And the Lord talked with Moses, y', all, like that cloudy pillar. You know what that is? That's God's presence. That's God's glory. They had. Israel had something that man, the church ought to do this. Well, they had the cloud by day, and what did they have in the evening services? Fire by night. Fire. I like when we have the cloud by day and fire by night. But I'm not the only one that liked it. The Lord talked with Moses. All the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door. And all the people rose up and worshiped every man in his tent door. So they had to stay kind of far away. And look at this. And verse 11 says, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. And he turned again into the camp. So God talked to Moses. And now Moses is going to deliver what God says to the congregation, the children of Israel. But I want you to notice this next phrase here. It says, but his servant Joshua, the son of nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. Now, this. This shows me something. Joshua is not. You know. You know, if you were jockeying for position, if you were trying to position yourself to be the next in command, then when Moses goes out to speak, you want to stand right next to him, right? You want to be there so that everybody sees you. Hello. Come on, now. So that everybody sees you and knows that you're up and coming. But what was Joshua? Come on. He's like, hey, Moses, are you good? Because. Are you okay to go? Because there's some things that I need to take care of here. No, he didn't want to leave the glory. He got in the presence of God. He's like, oh, oh, oh, I like this. I like this. Moses. You all right, Moses? Like, I'm okay. I'm going to stay here. Just stay here. Stay here. Hello. And what happened with Joshua? Joshua did what Moses didn't get to do, which was actually take the whole congregation into that next level. Into that next place. Yeah, go over to. Well, if you go just past Judges, you know where Judges is? Just past Judges is Ruth. Hello. Hello. Hello. Why are you making us turn to Ruth? You need to turn to Ruth. Do you know the story of Ruth and her family? Ruth, the mother in law's name was Naomi. Naomi had two sons, and the two sons married Moabite women. And that's what Ruth was. Ruth was one of her sons in law. Daughters in law, rather, was. Was Ruth. And Naomi's husband dies, and then both sons pass away. And so she's widowed in the land of Moab, with two daughters in law and she's. And so she's trying to get these two girls to go back home because she hears that things have turned the positive direction back in Israel, where she was from. And so she's trying to get them back home. And verse. Oh, goodness. Verse 14 said they lifted up their voice and wept and. Orpah. Not Orpah. Orpah. You don't know who Orpah is, do you? You know why? You don't know who Orpah is. She left. She skedaddled. Now Naomi. Naomi was trying to get them to go, but she was a drama queen. Just read the whole book. Everything is woe as me. God's dealt harshly with me. It's so rough on me. So, I mean, that was just her mode, you know? I mean, you guys just need to go. Don't worry about me. Just go, honey. Just go. And Orpah said, okay. And maybe you can't blame her if she was, you know, full on drama, but anyhow. So Orpah kissed her mother in law. She said, bye. But it said, but Ruth did what? She clave. How many here you've claved? Not caved, you've claved. What's it mean to cleave? I mean, that's talking about digging your fingernails into it. You know what I mean? That's Wolverine. How many ever watch Wolverine getting your hooks in it? She clave. She clave to her mother in law. And Naomi said, behold, look, your sister in law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return now after your sister in law. And Ruth said, entreat me or don't ask me to leave you or to return from following after you. For where you go, I'll go. And where you lodge or where you stay, I'll stay. And your people shall be my people. And here's the most important one, your God shall be my God. Because I don't think her God was doing her all that well. Didn't you love the story the other night about the cowboy boots? Muhammad ever buy you any boots? No. No. Jesus get you your boots. Come on. You remember that story? Go back. Listen to it. If you forgot it already. That was Brother Jesse's service, huh? And so Ruth's like, I ain't going back. Going back to what? Go back to what? And she said, where you die, I'll die. And there I'll be buried. And the Lord do so to me. And more also if anything but death parts you and me. And you don't hear anything else about Orpah But Ruth goes with Naomi. They go back to Israel, and she sticks with her. And Ruth ends up marrying one of the most influential, wealthy individuals in town, Boaz, who had a son with Ruth named Obed. And Obed and his wife had a son named Jesse. And Jesse and his wife had a son named David, who became the king of Israel. And the Bible follows her story. She succeeded not Orca. Orpah. Orpah the Orca. You never hear of her again. It's not the book of Orca. Say it. Thank you. It's not the Book of Orpah. It's the book of Ruth. It's the book of Ruth. Why? She stayed where she was supposed to stay. And she passed up the opportunities to get off and to leave and to go different directions and to take different orp. Opportunities. Come on, now. She had orpur tunities that she was. You don't want to take every opportunity. We'll find a gear. Just stay with me. Hallelujah. She ends up in the lineage of the Savior. And what? She wasn't from the right family. She wasn't from the right nationality. She wasn't from the right side. What can God do with you? I said, what can God. Well, that's the point. He can do more than he did with Ruth. Even if. If. If. If you do what. What Ruthie did. Just go over another book to First Samuel. And there's some of these verses. I'll tell you what, They've been precious to me for years and years and years. And it's just time that I share them with you. You know, First Samuel, the tenth chapter. This is talking. And of course, you know, time doesn't permit us to give you all the background or read it all. But this is talking about when the prophet Samuel set apart Saul to be king of Israel. And they had a ceremony, kind of a coronation type thing, and then they all went back to their place and people went back to their homes. And this is just such a passing little verse that it'd be so easy to miss it and read right over it. But it says something so great. And in verse 26, it says, and Saul also went home to Gibeah. Look at this, everybody. And there went with him a band of men whose hearts God had touched. And then it says this. But the children of Belial said, how shall this man save us? And they despised him and brought him no offering or no presents. Two different kinds of people. You have the ones whose heart God touched, who stayed with. And then you have the sons of Belial, who is actually symbolic and talked about in the New Testament as that references the devil. Huh? Who? They did the opposite. And not only did they not go with him. Hello? Not only did they not go with him, they didn't even recognize anything, that anything was there. There was no recognition. Said they despised him. They said that they. They sized him up according to the natural. And even though Saul was a tall dude, even though he had the. The goods and that said, who is this? Who is this? This is nothing. Come on. This is not for. This is no big deal. Why? Because something would have been required of them. God is all the time endeavoring to touch the hearts of church members toward their pastor. He's endeavoring to touch the hearts of ministers towards the ones that God has set over them. But you have to respond to God's touch. He'll endeavor to touch your hearts. But that doesn't mean that touch will accomplish anything. You got. You got to let God work. And, you know, church members ought to have a love for their pastor that God put in them. Not nothing romantic. I'm not talking that. You know what I mean? I'm just talking a spiritual love. I, you know, I really. I've only been a member of two churches before, leading ministries of my own. Okay. So the church I got saved in, First Baptist Church of Greater Miami in Florida, that's where I got saved. And thank God for that church a lot. I learned a lot there. I have a lot. You have a lot of illustrations that I use from that church. But then the other church that I was a member of and for a longer time was. Was called Rhema Bible Church. And my Pastor, Kenneth Hagin Jr. Most of you know who I'm talking about. We call him Pastor Hagin. I can't see them or. And I. And it's not God's plan that I'm full time there or anything like that at the moment, but I. But I endeavor, you know, if they're in my area or which they were just recently, maybe over the summer this last time. And any. We drove, we were flying out the next day. We were flying out the next day, but we drove three hours each way to go be in their meetings. And every time I hear their voice, it does something in me. It's not the main place I feed. Right. But because of that, because, see, God had put. He had touched my heart. And any. Anytime their name comes up, you know, Brother Philip and I serve them for a long time, we'll. We'll talk and say, I. I love I love, I just love. I love, I love Pastor. I still call him pastor because that voice was a pastoral voice and a connection in my life. And that doesn't go away. It just doesn't go away. If, if, if you recognize it and if you respond to it and if you let God develop something there precious, it's a precious, precious thing. There went with Saul, a band of men whom God has touched. You know, when God calls somebody into a work to go do a work, he will touch the hearts of people to help them. And it can be amazing how few respond to the touch of God. It can be amazing. Sometimes you just, you just want to say, lord, are youe? And I'm like, lord, are youe going to deal with anybody to help me? We need help. Are you going to deal with anybody? But we found out over the years he's dealt, he's dealt with a lot. Oh, my Lord. Do you want to know the amount of people that God has dealt with and who have come and told us? Not just supernaturally, because it's all supernatural when he does it. I mean, spectacular dealings. Like, I'd be in a place preaching and not somebody's local church. I'm not talking about fishing people out of someone's church, but in a different, more neutral thing, I'd be in a place preaching. And this person said, I never go. I never go there. But God dealt with me go there that day. And I went to sit down in my seat and the Holy Spirit spoke to me in an audible voice and said, let me show you my future. Your future. Pay attention. And he said, move to that city. Help these people. We need help. We do. We need help, Jesus. We need help. And so that happened not one time. That's happened really a big handful of times. And then, then several others who didn't have such a spectacular thing, but. But also had those similar leadings. And they'll come. Most of them don't, but then some of them will come. And two months in, we haven't recognized their gifts like we should have recognized their gifts. You know how this, you know how the whole thing goes. Come on any. And this and this happens and that, and. Oh, man, it's expensive to live here. I know. It is expensive. Tried to tell you. Tried to tell you anymore. Now when they, when they say that, we really try to talk them out of it just so they don't go through the whole pain of it. Hallelujah. But we believe God and, and ministers, we all believe God for those whose hearts He'll Touch to come alongside. Run with us. Help us get this worked on. Amen. In the 22nd chapter of First Samuel. We doing okay here this morning? It is good. It is good. This is juicy stuff. This is. Yeah, really good. So, you know, we were talking about King Saul. How many know, things went south really quick because of Saul. And I don't know what happened to those men whose hearts God had touched for Saul. But hopefully they stayed around and got connected to the plan of God. But we know who Saul's successor was. God dealt with the prophet to anoint one of the sons of Jesse, David. Right. And Saul wasn't on board with his transition. It was like when God gave the children of Israel the promised land. He forgot to tell the inhabitants of the land. It's like, lord, you told us, but you didn't tell them that this is our land. Now get out. What are you guys doing here? And they don't know anything about it, right? So David gets anointed and Saul's like, I don't know nothing about that. Still my kingdom. So let's kill him. Let's just kill David. So they're trying to kill him. So David has to actually leave town and he ends up living in a cave. And you're going to love this. In chapter 22, verse 1, says, David therefore departed and escaped to the cave Adulam, the king's living in. Not in the palace. Not in the palace. In the cave. People always ask, is there such a thing as cavemen of. Yes, David was a caveman. You remember the Geico commercials? It's so easy. Even a caveman can do it. That's where they got it. That was David living in the cave. And it says when his brethren. His brethren. Do you know who David was? The youngest. His brethren couldn't stand him when he came around to help and see how they were doing in the battle where they were all afraid and running from Goliath. Like, who do you think you are? What are you doing pretending to be a soldier? You're no soldier. We're soldiers. That's why we're running so fast away from the giant. Really great soldiers. So his brothers and his father all say, let's move to the cave. And not only that, verse two says, everyone. Say everyone. You say it because I like how you say it. Say everyone. That's it. That's how you say it. Everyone. Everyone that was rich, blessed God, touched their heart to come support him, lift his arms. No, no. Everyone that was in distress, which I've evidently His family was. Everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented gathered themselves to him. He's got a mental hospital. It's a mental hospital. He's got people. He's got people. Do you have any Adderall? I mean, they're throwing around. They're trading prescriptions. Everybody there that's unstable, they all came out to the cave to David, and he became. The Bible says he became a captain over him. Well, you got to take charge of that, huh? Listen, if everybody's struggling that bad, somebody's fellowshipping with devil somewhere. And so, you know, that would all get in. And there was about 400. 400 people squeezed in the cave, And y' all wanted to be ministers. God bring the people. Bring the people. That's what it looks like. But out of Those, there was 37 that ended up becoming David's mighty men of valor. Now, these mighty men of valor were what we would call in the Marvel universe, super soldiers. No exaggeration. They were absolutely. Because, you know, you've seen the Falcon and. No, you guys don't watch them. But super soldiers. That's what these guys were. I'm no joke. Like, one of them would kill 300 at once. They'd take on. That's not even believable in the movies, but that actually happened. And the one just slew so many men. His buddies had to stop. They had to stop him and peel his fingers off his hand, became one with his sword. Like, dude, you got them all drop. Drop the sword. Drop the sword. It's like, I can't drop the sword. Let me help you. They peeled his fingers off that thing. Glory to God. You get connected with the right person, you get connected with the right person, you'll go from depression. Well, see, they just needed an outlet for their. For their problems, and David found it. He said, go kill that city. No. They connected with the right person, and things completely turned around, and the people who were the biggest losers on the planet ended up being the mightiest warriors. What could happen to you if you were connected where God connected you? What could God do? What could God do? My goodness. Well, then you're in. First Samuel, go over to Second Kings. Now, that's the name of the book as it's printed in the Bible. We all know it's really Second Debbie, but that's. I had to say it. If you don't know what I'm referring to, that's all right. Second Kings. Second Kings. Oh, Jesus is Lord. Verse one says it came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Did I tell you right? Yeah. Chapter two. We all ought to, if you were in the spirit. Well, never mind. All right. Second Kings, chapter two. Are you ready now? Finally. Can I go? Verse one. And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And. And Elijah said unto Elisha, what did he say, Terry? Here I pray. Just stay. Just stay. For the Lord sent me to Bethel. It's not in the budget for you to go along. It's just not really there for you to come along on this trip. So just stay. And Elisha said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. We don't talk like that today. We would say, ain't no way on God's green earth you're going without me. And so he might have had to buy his own ticket. Might have had to buy his own ticket. Now, sister, Pastor Ruby here. I heard you preach this sermon. I've never forgot it. Remember when you preached, I bought the ticket. We bought the ticket. Talking about how different times when. When they needed to go help the Defraynes do stuff, and they didn't have the money. She said, but we bought the ticket. We bought. You preach it better than I do, of course, because it's your. Your message. But she bought the ticket. Elisha bought the ticket. He bought the ticket. There ain't no way. No, no, no way. There is no scenario in which you going without me. And so they go down to Bethel, and the sons of the Prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha and said, don't you know the Lord's going to take your master from your head today? He said, yeah, I know. Just hush. And verse 4. Elijah said to him, elisha, tarry here. Wait. Just stay here. Stay here. Because the Lord's sending me to Jericho. These are not just like. Just right next door. These are trips. The Lord sends me to Jericho. And he said, as the Lord lives and as the. As my soul lives, he. I will not. No, don't ask me to. Don't ask me to leave. Don't ask me to leave. So they came, and the sons of the prophets said the same thing. And then verse six. And Elijah said, terry, I pray here for the Lord sent me to Jordan. And what did he say? Well, I'm out of money. I already bought two tickets. Just go on. Whatever. Huh? What's he following. Something on the inside of him was. Was just connected. Just connected to the anointing, to what God was doing. And he said, you're not going to disconnect me from that. I mean, Elijah was just. He was being polite, you know, I don't want to put you through all the trap. We're traveling. We're. We're going every day, you know? Come on. Remember, people came to Jesus and Jesus said, follow me. They said, I need to go take care of this. I need to go. Let the dead bury their dead. But Elisha won't have it. No, no. As the Lord lives, as thy soul live, I will not leave thee. Look here, in verse seven or the end of verse six, what does it say? And they, too. What did they do? They went on. They went on. They went further. They made progress. They went higher together. And again, 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood. Let me talk to you about these sons of the prophets. They all had a knowing, just like I'm sure Elisha did. I don't know if Elisha was a prophet yet, but these sons of the prophets, the ones in prophet school, they knew he was going, but they weren't interested in following. You know what they were doing? Getting his partner list. They're sitting there working on take. How do we're going to take. Whoa. He's. He's getting ready to take off. Well, we better. We better get organized. We got. We're taking this thing over. Yeah, you think. You think you're taking this thing over? You think you're taking this thing over? Who's got his mailing list? We need to get his mailing list so we can. So we can be ready. That's not how you get ready. You get ready by staying. Hello. You get ready by staying where you're supposed to stay and following close and passing up every opportunity to leave. And so here they go, and Elijah takes his mantle to get up to the Jordan. Elijah takes his mantle and snaps it at the river, and the river splits and they walk over on dry ground and they go over. And Elijah said, what can I do for you before I go? I said, that anointing you got, I'd like that and more if you got more if there's more. I'd like that and more. And he said, well, keep your eyes on me. Stay with me. Stay with me till I go. And they went on. Look at. Look at verse 11. It says. And it came to pass as they still went on and what? And talked, you know, the sons of the prophets didn't get in on that. They weren't there. They didn't go on. But they're talking. What do you think they're talking about? How did you do that? How did you do that with the river? Tell me how. Tell me how that works. Tell me how this works. And he's getting imparted to. And then you know the story. Elijah, go. Elijah goes up, his mantle falls, and someone's there to pick it up. Someone who followed is there to pick up the mantle. All the sons of the prophets who everybody would think would be the successor and the heirs to his ministry, they didn't get no mantle because they were mental. Come on. Because they're sitting there analyzing and strategizing and thinking, how are we going to do this? How are we going to do this? They're sitting there mental, and they miss the mantle. But he picks that thing up and they already had the conversation, and he said, where's the God of Elijah? Boom. And across they go. And you know the rest of the story. Why? Why, why? Why did it happen? Why him? Because his name was similar. Can I. Can I share. Can I share a little piece of revelation super quick, and then I'll get off of it and never talk about it again. These things don't pass down because you have the same last name. It's following. Staying with them, Staying with. I've had two individuals, been so blessed to have two individuals in my life who were what we would call fathers, really. Brother Hagin, the main one, my spiritual father who brought me up in the things of God. And then Dr. Dufresne, I could call him a father. He didn't birth me in the things, but he helped me from the point I was at to some different things. So he was. In that sense. And the one thing I can say, it's not anything that I'm so great, but one thing I say, I stayed with them until they were done. Stayed with them, just stayed. You don't want to know the opportunities that I've had because people think, well, you got to travel with the prophet. It's pure glory. Yes. If that's what you call glory. I could tell you stories, which I won't because I've. They're in the vault. I've locked them in the Disney vault. Yeah. And they'll never come out. Stories of difficult situations on my flesh that I was put in. And really, the easiest way to get out of those situations would have been to just step away from that. Just step away. Come on. Some of the others don't know anything about no difficult situations. It was all glory, wasn't it? Just 100. All glory. 100%, all the time. Yeah. See? Right. So. But not for me or for them. Actually. I could tell some of their stories, but I won't do that. They tell some of their own. No. God. God, the devil will see to it. Oh, yes. Always. You might think this is the perfect situation. This is the greatest thing. I'm traveling with the Prophet. Does it get any greater than this? There were times of great glory. There were times of amazing impartation. Sprinkled. Sprinkled along the difficult times on your flesh where you just wanted to. I just want to get out of this. I just want to get out of this. Hallelujah. But I stayed until they were done, Dr. Dufresne, I stayed with him. And it's not. Again, not that I'm so smart. I'm pretty sure I ain't. But I can look back and say, staying with the ones that God put me with, that has been an enormous key for me. Big key. Really, really, really big key. Like, super big. Like, you can't almost even express how big a key that is. Just staying where God has. Where God has placed you and passing up the opportunities to bail out. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And then, you know, we could go through and there's more in scriptures, more stories, and there's even people who stayed put that weren't even welcome. Those I like. Think about that Syrophoenician woman, huh? Every time you remember the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15, read it sometime. It'll really bless you. It's a great story. But she came and she said, oh, son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. Well, the way your daughter gets grievously vexed with the devil is you open the door wide to the devil by participating in ungodly, demonic, filthy activity. That's right. You don't get devils in church. You didn't come here. Nobody came here for a devil this week. No, you get a devil by acting like the devil. That's what this woman did. That's the only way. It's the only way you get devils, huh? They're not inherited anyhow, but anyhow. So the door was open and this lady comes and starts putting on all this show of words, you know, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me, oh, son of David. Messiah. You ain't no Jew. You. Not even close To a Jew, in fact. What did he call her? Called her a dog. Told her to go away, go away, go away, go away, go away. And she just took a page out of Elisha's book. She said, you can tell me, go away all day long. I'm not going away. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving. And the only person we have record of in Scripture that the Lord told no when they came for healing, got it. And made it in the book, made it, made it into the. The Bible. The others that came and they said leave and that just left. They're not in here. Could you go to one more of these? And this is all introduction to my sermon. You're going to love the message. You're going to love it. I got three cute points. John, chapter six. Friends, I've observed in my short time in ministry and on earth, I've observed a discouraging amount of people who don't make it as they ought to make it, ministers who get off. Or like I said, this is the bigger one, that don't make the progress that they ought to make. I've seen it. I watch it all the time. And we need more who are making it, who are making full progress. We've seen church members, all of us have. We've seen church members do this. We've seen Bible school students, oh, hello, come on. We've seen them walk across. They put on the big gown and the big hat and they move their tassel and they act so happy in graduation and don't make it a week and a half outside school before they go the wrong direction. And it's not because I didn't tell them. And it's not because you didn't tell them. Now, when I come to the Bible school, I have no mercy on them. I just sit there and pound it and. Take them and shake them. You're going to do the right thing. You're going to do the right thing. You're going to do the right thing. And even that I don't know. But anyhow, John, chapter six. We're going to go to John 6:66. That's got to be the devil's verse. John 6, 6, 6. It is the devil's verse because look what it says. Jesus was ministering, he said something. All of the sermons he preached that were so wonderful, all the parables that they loved because they're just stories. Oh, I like the stories. The stories. And then he says something doctrinal and they didn't get it. And in verse 66, it says, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. That's the devil's verse. Yes. But then Jesus said to who? The 12. Well, everyone's leaving. Now's a good time. If you're going to go, go. Just go. Jesus actually experienced what I call an outpouring. The people poured out of his ministry. Any pastors you've ever had an outpouring in your church, he says to his 12, he says to the 12, Y' all gotta go. This is the time. Now's the time. I mean, you know, the bus is pulled up here and I think there's empty seats on it still. And you know what Peter said? He said, lord, where are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life. But here's the thing. I can almost guarantee that Peter didn't understand the sermon either, because I don't how many of you here, you have the full revelation of eat my flesh, drink my blood. Peter didn't. And he heard that same sermon, you know, when God called the 12. Because Jesus didn't just pick those 12 randomly. He was. When God called those 12, you know what he looked for? He didn't look for ability. He looked for loyalty. Who's going to stay? Who's going to stay? Because if you. Because if you find the ones that are going to stay, those are the ones that we can use. Oh, hallelujah. No more outpourings. Praise the Lord. Well, those are the ones that stayed. What about the ones that didn't stay? Do you know their names? No. You don't know their names? You don't know their names? There's some folk in the Bible that didn't stay. It's. It's sad, but how many know lot didn't stay? Do we have any idea what his destiny, you know, he. He didn't leave his family to go with Uncle Abraham and leave to go on the same journey that Abraham was on and not have a result similar to Abraham. That was God's plan, was for him to be substantially blessed. But he wasn't. You know that rich young ruler that came to Jesus, you know his name? No. You know why you don't know his name? Why do you need to know somebody's name if they're not staying? It's not my. It's not that I have a poor memory, but when I meet visitors at church, I don't get their name until like three, four weeks in. Why I don't need to clutter my mind up with somebody's name that's not gonna be because, you know, listen, you know when they say, am I doing all right? You know when they say, pastor, we just love this. This is. We just love this church. Oh, and we gonna be back next week. That's code for, you will never ever see me again. So, like, hey, I'm so so and so I'm like, tell me next month. Tell me some. We don't know the rich young rulers. He was offered a spot on Jesus ministry team. We don't know when Judas fell, he might have been the one to slip right in. And we never hear him again. Everybody say, bye, bye, bye, bye, rich young ruler. All he could do was cuddle up to his investments and probably, like, lot. He probably lost it all. Just like lot lost it all. And then, you know, you think about, this is not just bad people making bad decisions. These are good people. And you think about somebody named Barnabas called the Son of Consolation Man. Barnabas was an encourager. He was a preacher, he was a teacher. He was a valuable guy traveling with Paul, God, but didn't recognize, hey, God put me here. He thought, hey, I work as hard as you do, Paul, you and I equal partners. You don't want to do it my way, I'll just go my way. And that's the last time the New Testament mentions Barnabas. Name Paul. We know. Don't know what happened to Barnabas. Wow. In First Corinthians 12, if you want. I know this is more. More scripture than I usually have you turn to, but it doesn't hurt anybody to kind of pound it in there a little bit, does it? Now we're going to get into the message. Just wanted to set that up for you. Hallelujah. Somebody. All I can tell you is what's worked for me and I know how significant being where I'm supposed to be. You got to understand, when I got saved, I told you I went to. I went to First Baptist of Greater Miami. And they were good Southern Baptist folk and they taught us a lot about the Bible, a lot of good stuff about the word of God. Just right there in North Miami Beach, Florida, this church was. And I grew up right there. So I go. I started getting hungry for God. And I looked in my pastor's office because I want to, you know, I want to know, what does he know and how's he learning what he's learning. And I saw all these long bookshelves with these 23 volumes. The pulpit commentary, Preacher's homiletic Commentary. And I thought, well, that's how you know God. And so I thought I'd go. We had, back in those days, we had what we call Christian bookstores. They remember how big those were. Christian bookstores before Amazon. And I'd go to the Christian bookstores and I would look at all these Commentary sets and I'm like, maybe I could afford one, like volume one and then come back and buy volume two. But they only sold it by the set, so I couldn't afford them. But I saw go look at them. I was hungry for God. And behind all those big sets on a little spinning rack were these little booklets, 32 page mini books. How to write your own ticket with God. Why tongues? And I saw the name on it, Kenneth Hagin. And I'm like, what a heretic. I didn't read anything inside, I just read the titles. Talk about judging a book by the COVID That's what I did. And so in my mind, the biggest false teacher on earth had to be somebody that I'd never listened to actually. Kenneth Hagin. And I just kept that in me, you know, Kenneth Hagin. And where does God end up putting me? You think that was an easy journey to get that out of my head and get turned on to the other? Nuh. Nuh. Anyhow, so first Corinthians 12, verse 18 says, but now has God set the members, every one of them in the body as it has pleased him who sets us. I know you probably know this so well you probably don't even need to hear it, except you do, because I do. God sets. God sets you. God sets you. The problem is everyone tries to change the setting. I don't like the setting. I don't like. I didn't like that God was dealing with me about this guy named Kenneth Hagin. I didn't like it, I didn't want it. I wouldn't hear it. I wouldn't hear it. I was dealing with such depression and stuff as a, you know, I'm saved. But that doesn't mean much if your mind's unrenewed. I mean it does for eternity, but in terms of your life, I'm dealing with thoughts and discouragement and I just flip on the Christian, the radio station and I hear this teaching on ministering to the Lord. I'm like, oh my gosh, there's something there. I'm listening to it, listening to it, listen to it. I'm like, this is good, this is good. And it's helping me and this voice comes on and says, you've been listening to Faith Seminar of the Air with Reverend Kenneth Hagin. I took that radio and just. I said, I don't care how good it is, I won't have it. I won't hear it. Wanted nothing to do with that heretic. And I didn't even recogn that that's how messed up religion will make you. I didn't even recognize that things were working and changing in me in like three minutes of hearing truth. Sorry, can't hear that. Can't hear that. Now, there's a passage right here in First Corinthians 11, and this will be the last place I go to Praise the Lord, everybody. That, to me, shows just how big this issue is. First Corinthians 11. And it says, talking about what we would call receiving communion, the cup, the bread. And verse 27, though Paul was writing and it says something real interesting. He says, who? Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the lord. And verse 28 says, Let a man examine his neighbor. Say what? Huh? Let a man examine his pastor. No. Look at yourself. Look at you. Look at you. Boo. Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eats and drinks unworthily eats and drinks damnation. Or we could say judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. I understand that on the surface this doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but verse 30 says this for this cause. Other translations say this is the reason for this cause. Many? Not a few. Many. How many? As many. A lot of people are weak and sickly. Not in the world among you. And many, many sleep. We would say die prematurely for this reason. What reason? Not discerning the Lord's body. Not discerning the Lord's body is the reason why many in the body of Christ are sick and weak and die prematurely. Well, that represents one area of defeat in your life. That would be difficulty in your physical body. But you know, that's not the only kind of difficulty you could have. If that's the reason why people experience physical difficulty, it could also be the reason people experiencing financial difficulty, it could be the reason why they're experiencing difficulty making progress in lots of different Be the reason for a lot of things. And if it says not discerning the Lord's body is the reason why these bad things happen, wouldn't it stand to reason that if we do discern the Lord's body, then that would be the reason why you make it. That would be the reason why you healed. That would. Come on. The New Testament does not give several different places where it says, this is the reason for this. This is passage that says, this is the reason. Can I have 10 minutes to wrap this up? You need a break? Are you okay? Okay. This is the reason why something called not discerning the Lord's body. Now just talk real quick about what that means. Because if we're supposed to do this, we want to do it. And if not doing it causes so much trouble, we don't want to fail to discern the Lord's body. Now, I see. Just studying this, I see two main applications of this phrase. Not discerning the Lord's body and the context that it's sitting in in this passage supports both of those. Right. The first one you'd see is what does it mean, not discerning? Discern just means to recognize. Not recognizing the Lord's body. The main thing that we see is that it's possible to not recognize what Jesus accomplished for us in his own body on the tree as he was judged, made sin for us in redemption. You understand, Jesus has redeemed us and that redemption is in force all day long, all night long. But if you don't know it, it means nothing to you. And by not recognizing the Lord's body, we could. I could actually, this could be taught over a period of several hours right here, encapsulating. But by not recognizing the Lord's body, what he accomplished for us, you don't partake of it. You don't partake of what you don't know. And so for that reason, you could die prematurely. You could be weak and sickly. But the other application, also supported in here, because this talks about how during communion, people were not treating other people right. This thought of discerning or recognize the Lord's body in the sense of the church, which is his body. And there's three things. Remember I told you I had three points, three juicy cutie pie points. What's it mean to fail to recognize the body of Christ? To me, and others might see other things, but to me, I see three main things. The first one is this. Not recognizing your place in the body, not recognizing your place in the body. Number two, not recognizing the place of others in the body. And then the third thing I see is not bringing your supply to your place in the body. I'll say it again. For you, we're talking about this aspect of not discerning the body of Christ when we're talking about the church which is his body number one. You can fail to recognize your place in the body, you can fail to recognize the place of others in the body, and you can fail to bring your supply to your place in the body. And those things that I talked about, those things right there, not recognizing or taking your place, not recognizing the place of others where God set you and not bringing your supply. This is the reason why folk don't make it. This is the reason why some get off and either they die or their ministries die or things don't happen like they ought to happen for them and they end up on what Brother Hagin called the spiritual junk heap. You know, this is the reason not being in their place, not recognizing the place of others, not bringing their supply. Now, I'm not going to attempt to dictate to you what that means fully for you. Like my daughter taught me years ago, this great phrase should be in the Bible. You do you, meaning this. Some of this, some of this you can say across the board. Other things you have to discern, you have to discern with the Lord. So what might be true for me might not be true for you. So you do you boo, right? You got to do you in this. But here's where folk miss it. And most of the time they don't realize that they're missing it. There are every person on earth, every believer. God has a place for them in the body. For every believer, that would be their local church. Folk don't like to hear this. We had a little mini outpouring at our outpouring out of people at our church. I don't know if you know, I have a book on the local church. Matter of fact, it is the second best book on the local church out there. It is, it is. Pastor Anderson has the best book on the local ship. So if you're an ultra high achiever and you just have to have the best, read his. If you want to get through it quick, read mine. Ain't nothing wrong with second place. But anyhow, I had a gal, precious little gal who was so talented and she was a writer and she was helping me edit so that it actually is readable. And so she was helping me and she came across some of the stuff I said about being in your place and being rightly connected and she said that's not what I've always heard. And I mean she really choked hard on it and ended up going around to all the different ones in the church and saying, you know, I've studied cults all my life. And. And Joel and Amy, their leadership style is cultish control tactics and this and that. And she went and she got the ones that were already looking for an excuse to exit. She got them to exit, maybe did us a favor, I don't know. But then she got to one of our gals, been with us for about 20 some years. And that gal said, excuse me, wait a second. All this stuff you're talking about, I never seen him do it. Can you give me even one example? She said, no, but the signs are there, you know, it could go that way. I don't know. I don't know what the problem was anyhow. You know whose life I'm trying to control? Mine. Just mine. Just mine. And I'd love to help you learn how you can control yours so I don't have to get involved. The only control I'm trying to do. Anyhow. How did I get on that? Not recognizing. Not recognizing your place in the body of Christ? I was saying that every church member has a local church and they have to recognize the significance of that. But then if I could say something that would apply to the ministers. God will position and place people and connect you with others like he did with me with Brother Hagin and the Defrains. And I told you I was. I was slow to recognize that. That first connection with the Hagins. Oh, I mean, I was slow. I thought you could. You can't blame me. I thought I was crossing the line over into. Into frank false doctrine and heresy. Didn't realize it was light and truth. I couldn't tell the difference. I was slow. And then Brother Hagin, of course, was with Brother Hagin. And then he went home to be with the Lord. And, you know, you always. You think, well, what do I do now? You know? And there was another minister. Good, very respectable minister, and still is today. I assumed that that's where I would just connect because. Assumed. And the only thing is, I could. Like anytime he had a meeting, I go looking at flights and it's like there was not even a schedule that would get me from where I was to there. It was the weirdest thing. I just couldn't physically get there. And every time I tried to go there, I ended up in a meeting with Dr. Dufresne. It was the weirdest thing. Whose ministry? I had met him, but his ministry I wasn't familiar with at all. We had a. He had. I Got a letter from a pastor in Mississauga, Ontario, saying, we're having. Kicking off the new year in 2004 with Ed Dufresne. We want to invite you to. Because we knew him. And so we went up there and we're sitting there and we heard. We heard this ministry, and he's going along, ministering, stops in the middle of his sermon, speaks in tongues, says, that's for you guys. Goes on. And we're like, look what we found. Look what we found. But we didn't recognize that as that that was going to be any kind of connection. And really, it took a number of years. We'd go to his meetings every once in a while. A couple years into it, we heard Pastor Nancy for the first time. I said to my wife, that's not fair how she preached so good. That's not fair. Why don't I preach like that? But it took. It took. It took a couple years. I was slow. I'm not. I'm not quick to connect like that. But then we came out, our 15th wedding anniversary, and we just celebrated our 30th a couple weeks ago, but our 15th wedding anniversary. We said, what do you want to do? Because it's in December. And we said, let's go out to these meetings here. And so we did. We came out to here, right here for the first time, and we said, God's connecting us here. There's a supply. And I had to recognize my place in the body. Now, what did that do? And I am trying to close it up, wrap it up. But what did that do for me? Being in that meeting when I just went to see him in Ontario or went to see him in. We'd go to Ohio and see him sometimes. That blessed me. But being connected propelled me. I said, attending blessed me. Being connected propelled me. Now, I'm using my example with this ministry here. I'm not saying everybody's supposed to be connected here. I get it. And I'm not saying that it's not possible that somebody would. Would God would say, be connected here, but also spend a lot of time, maybe about around another minister. I'm not saying that's wrong. What did I say? You do. You do you. But I do know this. I do know there are many that God would have be connected. And instead of just being blessed, you can be propelled. You know what propelled is? That's what a jet engine does behind you instead of a rowboat. And I just tell you our lives and our ministry, when we got connected to not. Not just Attended, but connected in all the ways that you connect. You know, you're sowing and feeding and all. And I've just never been led to connect elsewhere. That's just me. You do you do you. I'm just talking about me. I've never been led to connect. I just. I just get fed. It just blesses me. But it's taken me places. There's no way I could have gotten there otherwise. The office that I stand in, I am 100% certain had I not connected with Dr. Dufresne because his anointing helped propel me into what I'm doing today, wouldn't be there otherwise. And there's many. Listen to me now. There's many, maybe some here, but really a lot that will watch this later or watching it live stream that your ministry and your life needs that connection, be it here or be it where it needs to be, where God is leading you, dealing with you to find your place. Find your place. Recognize not just your place, but recognize the place of others that God would put in your life. And then the last thing I'll just say real quick is talk about bringing your supply to that place and what God has led me to do. And you do you. But what he's led me to do is apply what we could call the principle of first things, or the first principle in the word, meaning that my place of supply, my place of feeding, I want to look after their things first, before my things. Now we have a ministry. We've been at it for a good long time. We have vision assignments. I could take all the money that all of you have today and have it already spent. You know what I mean by that? Most of you know what I mean by that. And I'm not just talking. I'm just using me as an example because it's better than using you. I've got plenty to do. But that's not my primary interest. It's not. My primary interest is I'm more. I'm more. Not concerned, but more interested for me in Pastor Nancy getting her vision fulfilled. That's just what. That's how God led me. But it's scriptural. I know it's scriptural. And you might apply this towards your pastor or you might, because Dr. Frank taught us that, remember, if we need carpet and the church needs carpet, be more interested in the church getting carpet. God. God led us to. God led us several years ago to purchase a home here, which is wild because we don't live here. I mean, last time I was here was November. I've thought about it. It's like I haven't been here in six months. Been here a long time. But he still, he led us to do. When I say, led us to do that, I'm like, okay. And I said, lord, why can you share with me why? And he said, he said, it's interesting. He said the same thing that he told brother Copeland about the land. He said, I have need of it. Like he said about the donkey. Yeah. The colt. Tell him the Lord has need of it. And so I said, okay, if that. That's fine. Good to go. Good enough for me. And so why was I sharing about that? First things. Oh, yeah, yeah. Thank you. First. Absolutely. So that house was newly built. It's all done on the inside, but there's not a stitch of landscaping. Still isn't. And I need a driveway. It's got dirt, you know, and so there's. And then there's just a lot of projects. She wants to put a pool in a lot of projects. There's a lot of projects on that land. And I prayed about it. This is many years ago now. I prayed about it. And the Lord said, I expect it done. He said it like that. Like, don't just say this is on the back burner. It'll never happen. He said, I expect it done. Very good. So I'm okay. Look, what can we start on? What can we start on? Well, about that time when he said that to me, Pastor Nancy had just bought her castle and the spirit spoke to me and he said, first her house, then your house. Now what does he expect me to do? Pay for her entire renovation? No, but do something substantial. For which, glory to God, we were able to do this past year. This past year, we were able to do something significant when they had her birthday off. Well, see, that's a principle first. First hers. And I'm not saying that's the last time we'll sow into it. It won't be both. Now, what can I expect now? Now it's going to be time for some of our stuff, you see what we're saying? And then. So there's. There's that two way supply that will propel you. I'll give you one more story and then we'll turn you loose for the day here. But with this same house, I've never told anybody this other than maybe two or three very close people to us. But that same house, couple years, really about a year after we bought it, I had some business involvements that, that the people that we Were invested with. They went under in a bad way, and I lost a huge portion of my income. And we got behind on. On everything. Like, on everything, because we have mortgages. Not believing to always have those because you have a bank involved. Ask me how I know. And so we got behind, and we were able to keep our main residents in Colorado going, you know, but we got. We got just one payment back too far on this one where the bank said, you are not allowed to make any more payments unless you pay it all. And we didn't have. I mean, everything. I even owned a home that was paid for, and I almost lost it. I came within 30 minutes of losing it for back taxes. But thank God, I called pastor Laketic and I said, if I could have this money to you tomorrow, will you take a check over? And he did for me, like, 30 minutes before they closed. You might say, what did you do wrong? No, I was in the will of God. This is in the will of God. And you better know you're in the will of God. Don't buy an extra house if you don't know. So anyhow. So anyhow, we got behind, and it fell into foreclosure. And don't look so sad, okay? It fell into foreclosure. I never thought that would happen to me. I didn't tell my kids, but I think they figured it out. My son was living there and getting mail like you wouldn't believe. I mean, thousands, probably thousands of dollars in postage. So everything's certified, all this stuff. We're getting the same mail in Colorado, where we're at. And I'll tell you one thing. We stayed in peace, and we stayed in joy, and we stayed in faith. But, I mean, I'm getting phone calls from the. From the bank every once in a while, and they said, Mr. Siegel, you've got a ton of equity in this home, which we do. And they said. She said, sell it. Sell it, because we will take it. Sell it. Sell it. And she just called me over and over and kept saying, did you put. Did you list your house yet? And God didn't tell me to sell it. And I didn't tell her this, but I said, God, you said you had need of it, and you've never changed that. And until you tell me what to do, I'd rather lose it than disobey. I'd rather lose it. But I know we won't. I just knew we wouldn't, but I didn't know how. But this kept snowballing, and the process took like Over a year. So now I owe, like, a lot, a lot, a lot of money. And. And I'll tell you what. I was here in a meeting like this, a conference like this, and Pastor Nancy's preaching away, and she just stops one of those interruptions. And she stops and stands right here where I'm standing. And we're sitting like right there in one of those rows there. And she said, I don't know who you are, but you listen to me. You will not lose your house. Do you remember it? Did you know that was me? No, I didn't tell anybody. I didn't. I didn't tell her. You might say why, it wasn't pride that I didn't tell her. I just wasn't led to. I would have. If I was led to, I would have nothing wrong with that one. But I mean, like, just a couple days before it was going to sell and now it was going to go to auction, it would have sold because it has now close to a million dollars of equity, equity in it that would have sold. Somebody could pay that money and then get all that equity a couple days before auction. I arranged to get that thing paid, praise the Lord. Except the person that was supposed to send it didn't do it by the deadline. And so now it's the morning of. And 10 minutes before the auction, I'm on the phone with the bank. I said, I arranged. I took care of this. They just didn't send it. And the bank said, we don't care. You didn't pay us. I said, you didn't let me. You didn't let me. You told me I couldn't make any more payments. I asked you to let me and you wouldn't let me. So anyhow, they said. They said no. Sorry, they were no fun. But glory to God, thank God that the processor knew what was going on, actually had pulled it from the sale. I didn't even realize we got that thing taken care of. And now for several years, we've been all good and current, but you don't get that kind of help. That's why I was telling you about that. We didn't lose it, by the way. We got it. And we're still. God expects it all done. And we've gotten a lot done. And we're working on projects now. But that word, that doesn't come where you're not connected. And that was the anchor for our soul that we needed. Recognize. Discerning the Lord's body, recognizing your place, recognizing the place of others, submitting yourself to those you're supposed to be submitted to, bringing your supply to that place. And instead of just being blessed, you'll be propelled. Hallelujah. Thank you. Hey, it took a little bit for me. You know, I don't usually go that far long, but thank you and love being with you and love all of you. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at dufresneministries.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.