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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Outlasting The Storm | Morgan Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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To the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you for your word. We have humbly come to receive answers, to receive help, to make changes and corrections. And we thank you for the Holy Spirit. He's helping us, he's guiding us, he's showing us. Father, I thank you that he's working on hearts, mind included. He is ministering to us. He's our great helper. And we thank you, Father, for it. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Well, turn with me if you would. Let's go to Matthew chapter seven. I ministered on some things this morning in the Bible school in both. The first with the second year and then in the first year two. Kind of took two different paths, but kind of went the same direction. It just seemed right to go that direction tonight. And God the Holy Ghost gave me even more for this evening. Matthew chapter 7 in verse 24 reads, so everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them, obeying them, will be like a sensible, prudent, practical, wise man who built his house upon the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And as Pastor Nancy has taught us, there's a progression to that storm, there's a progression to the test. And we can see those four things. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat against that house. There was at the end, it really, it took the hardest hit. Then at verse 26 it says, and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a stupid, foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell. And great and complete was the fall of it. And when Jesus had finished these sayings, the Sermon on the Mount, the crowds were astonished and overwhelmed, bewildered, wondering at his teaching. For he was teaching as one who had and was authority and not as did the scribes. So they were hearing teaching coming from a different place. They were hearing these words and Jesus was telling them that, you're going to hear my words and it's up to you. It's your decision what you do with them after you hear them. This is not talking about this passage, is not talking about those who have not heard, those who have not chosen, those who have not received him. This isn't even talking about people who don't come to church regularly. This isn't talking about what I told the Bible school students. I said, this is really Talking about those who love church come to church, come to Bible school. They listen to Brother Copeland and dad Hagin. They hear the words, but they make a decision to do something else. They act on something else. They have not built their life around and on God's word. On the word of God. So I want us. Tonight, we're going to look at this because this is what happens when pressure comes and we see storms come. So we see, first of all, the house can't stop the storm. The house is built to outlast it. You cannot stop a storm. You cannot get in the middle of the storm. The house has nothing to do with the storm. But you can build your house in such a way that you outlast. When Jesus. And we'll talk about. We'll look at. When he went into the wilderness, what did he do? He outlasted the test. He was so full that the devil, it said, left him, you know, for a season. He outlasted that. He didn't get rid of the devil. We're not looking to get rid of the test. We're not looking to get rid of it. We're looking to outlast it and come out on the other side. Still standing. Standing. Fortified with a firm foundation. It's all about the foundation. It's not about what comes and goes. It's about the foundation. So these two homes, these two houses, both of them have heard the word one. Obey. Obedience. We see here with this passage. Obedience is the key to outlasting whoever hears these words of mine and obeys them. You see that? The amplified says, verse 24. So everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them so not hearing them doesn't equal obedience. Doing them equals obedience. Responding to them equals obedience. How do we know that we've obeyed? We don't. Obedience isn't for times when it's easy to comply. It's for the difficult times. That's true obedience. I know with my own children, there are things that they, you know, doesn't really bother them. You tell them to do it and they. They don't mind it. You know, there may be chores or things that don't bother them to do. My oldest, he has to clean out the dog cages that are in the kennels that are in the garage. Every day he needs to vacuum them out. He goes. And he enjoys that because he gets to use the shop vac. You know, there's like some kind of tool involved with that. And, you know, he's kind of like his dad. And you get to pull out that tool and it's loud and you get to use the attachments, and so there's a little bit of enjoyment with that. But then you give him another task, like maybe taking out the trash, and it's a little bit heavy and there's no tools, and you have to stop what you're doing. And you know what if you make a mess and we have to tell him to clean it up. And so there's things. Obedience, really. He'll do that on his own. He'll clean out the dog cages on his own. That's really obedience in a way. But he enjoys it. The true obedience and the true discipline shows up when you don't like what you've heard or you were in the middle of doing something else and now you know, there's a change of instruction. How often were we acting a certain way, going a certain direction, and the Holy Ghost and the word of God redirects us. That's obedience to discipline ourselves. And that's part of the foundation our life as has been built on. So when do storms come? Storms come, and this is what we were talking about this morning. Pressure storms come in. The natural storms come at the change of pressure, when air pressure changes. Anybody who knows, and if you watch the weather and any. At any point, they'll talk about high and low pressure or two pressure systems coming together when the pressure changes, the storms come when pressure meets, when two pressure systems meet together. And this is what we see in our own life. When pressure comes, when financial pressure comes, when pressure with our family, when pressure with our jobs. This is where storms are created. The rains start, the winds. What is the rain and the winds? That's the words. That's the outside. That's what you hear. That's the thoughts. That's what I liken to, you know, I remember, you know, talking or thinking, meditating on this. And God said the rain and the winds are the words that the enemy brings to see if you'll open up the windows, to see if you'll walk outside and get out in those words and get out in that the wind and get wet and take in and listen to. But we've got a choice. And so then when the rain and the winds come, you can either what happens. You know, as kids, we had lots of storms growing up in Florida, and we enjoyed hearing the storms. And my parents even put a metal roof on their house. They built a home and put a metal roof on it because it was so enjoyable and soothing. And they even have apps now. Where you hear the rain and people, you know that's not the way it is. That's not what we're talking about here. Because the rains and the winds mean imminent danger, destruction, and thoughts come and they're not comforting. Where are you going to get the money? How are you going to do this? What happens next month? Because this month doesn't look so good. What are you going to do? What happens when your kids and this happens and this happens and that happens in your. Your business and your marriage and the economy and anything you can think of that affects you in the natural. The enemy's going to come with wind and rain. He's going to come with his own words and his thoughts about your life. But his thoughts aren't God's thoughts. Amen. So with this, the storms come at the change of pressure. We all go through pressure, we all experience pressure. I. You probably aren't even alive if you haven't experienced some form of pressure. Pressure comes even at the change in the seasons. You know, that's when in. In. I know in Florida, when there's the change of seasons, we experience storms at that time. When seasons. When you're in transition in life and things you will experience. This is when storms come and the devil is looking to see how your life is built. When. What foundation do you have? Now let's get into what the Holy Ghost has. When pressure comes to an empty man, he pours out that emptiness onto those around him. When pressure comes, we're built. Our firm foundation is on what Jesus says. And we were talking about this in the second year, this morning. When pressure comes, the home should never be empty. A home should never be empty. Right. We have furniture. You have maybe a family. You hang up pictures, you build. The home isn't just the structure, it's what you fill it with. A life of God is not just, I'm born again. You fill yourself up with him. You fill your life. The Holy Ghost is there to fill you up. Daily, we should be filling up daily. We should be full of the Word. Daily, we should be fellowshipping with him. But an empty man, when pressure comes, an empty man pours out that emptiness onto other people. This is we were talking about in the marriage and family. This is what happens in marriage. When pressure comes to that marriage, when pressure comes to one or the other, the husband or the wife oftentimes, instead of pushing back and answering that, they will take that pressure and they will put that pressure that's on them. They'll put that on their spouse. What Is emptiness. What does it look like? Well, the first thing is it looks like strife, anger, sarcasm, impatience. If we're responding to those in our life, if we're responding to one another impatiently, with sarcasm, with harsh words, bitterness, what is that? That's your emptiness being poured out onto somebody else. You're empty. There is a substance to emptiness, and that substance is strife. That substance is bitterness. That substance is discord. That substance is impatience. Empty people do have something to give, But it's not from God. You're not giving from a God filled place. Why? Because we are always full of carnality. We're always full of carnality. So if you're not filling up with God, the fullness of your carnality, the fullness of your natural man, you gets poured out onto other people. We understand that. I'm going slow so we can build on this, okay? So we have to catch ourselves. Am I affecting those around me? How? How am I pouring out onto other people? Am I pouring out the car now, carnal man, the carnality, or am I pouring out the fullness of God? And what I pour out, and if I'm pouring out, oftentimes is the effect of the pressure that's coming on me. You know, it's very easy to take. As I said to the students, we feel the pressure. And I told them, we feel the pressure on our mind and our body. The mind takes that, you can feel it and it builds. That you feel, physically feel. Listen, when we're in Colorado, you can physically feel the house shifting. When the winds get so fierce and so gusty, they come rushing through, you can physically feel the house shifting. It's physically felt. You know, we can go out in Florida. We could go. We have so many trees. You go out in the yard, y' all could do the same. You can go out in the yard and you can see the effects of the wind on the property. There's an effect from that, that change in pressure, that storm that comes in. There are effects in our lives, but those effects don't have to determine our future. It doesn't have to determine, you know, even today, I don't have to live by the effects. I can live with the fullness of God and let that Isaiah told him, you push back at that pressure. What happens is that that pressure comes on the mind and comes on the body. And you feel. And because you feel it, you sense it. You take that pressure and you just want to get rid of it. You want to get it off of you. You want to Take. And so you take that pressure and especially husbands and wives, you turn and you start affecting the one that you live with. Because you're under pressure and it gets projected on them is you're trying to get relief and you think they're your problem. When you don't realize right here is your issue. They say one little thing and you think that's your problem. And you don't realize the devil's been talking to you all day and you think their one statement is your issue. It's not your issue. The problem is, is you've been listening to the wind and the waves or you know, the wind and the rain all day long and they say one thing and you fling that door wide open. You know, and before. And you, you didn't realize you've been listening to the wrong thing. And you think that they're, they're your problem. That's not your problem. You know, this is why I told the students, I said this is why people have an issue with substance. You know, abuse you, you, you cannot. Those that are in the world, that pressure comes and they, they don't have a hope of relief. They don't have, they don't have an expectation like you and I do. They don't have the comforter, so they're looking for comfort. So they go to the substances because the substances bring relief. The chemical, the way those substances affect the chemicals in the brain temporarily lifts that pressure. It changes the feeling in the body so that for a moment that pressure comes off of them. And when those effects lift, they're back under it again. And then they have to go back for relief from the pressure. Folks, we are called to live such a wonderful, peaceful, joy filled life that all we have is to pour out peace and joy and kindness and goodness even in the midst of changing seasons and changing pressure. That the words that Jesus spoke, the word of God is our firm foundation. We're not moved. And not only are we not moved, our house is so filled with the goodness of God, the presence of God. We're filled. A body wholly filled and flooded with God himself, with the Holy Ghost. So what is emptiness look like? Is carnality. If you're not full of God, you're full of yourself. You're never really empty. You're empty of God, but you're always full of something. So the biggest issue when the pressure's on, it's to take away the peace which affects your patience. This is the order. This is how you write. If you're impatient and you're Trying to rush things. You're impatient with those around you. You're impatient. You know, we want things done and we want them done yesterday. Why? Because we want the pressure off. Right? The time passes and the pressure increases because the. The rain and the winds and every. You know, the devil is looking to see if you're. You really believe what you said. You believe God is wanting to make sure you believe what you said. You know, he can't. He doesn't stop the storms from coming. They come to all of us. Yes, but he can equip us to outlast it. His word is so we are built in such a way we outlast it. We're so full on the inside that we don't even hardly notice sometimes what's going on the outside. And when we do as I told the students, you can push back at that. Amen. So when we get impatient, we could say this. A lack of peace will produce a lack of patience. If you make the effort to be full, you don't have to try so hard to not be carnal, right? If you make the effort to be full, you don't have to try so hard not to be carnal. We direct our efforts to fullness, not trying to get rid of carnality. Okay? In every arena. In every arena, if you will endeavor to get full, go with me. Actually, if you would. Let's go to John. John, chapter 14. What happens when pressure comes? When storms come? What do we want? Do we want to reach out to God? You know, God. God's my answer. God help me. I mean, even the unsaved will recognize and acknowledge that God exists. God will help us. You know, even those that are don't know the fullness of the Word the way you and I do, they don't maybe understand even the faith message. What do they do? They turn their. In times of trouble, they turn to God. They ask for prayer. Saints, will you pray for me? Will you start the prayer chain? Have hands laid on you? You know, you're always reaching out in some way. You're reaching out to him, right? But this is what Jesus said. Look at verse 23. Jesus answered and said unto them, if a man love me, he will keep my words. And my father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not, loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings, and the words which he hear is not mine. I told the students this morning, jesus, when you get born again, Jesus has your heart, God has your Heart. So he's not after your heart. That's why it's, it's deceiving to come to church and go to Bible school, listen to teaching. And just because you love God, he's not looking for your heart. You, you don't recommit your heart now. You recommit and consecrate yourself to him. But he should always have your heart. You gave him your heart one time, don't take it back. So he's not after your heart. He doesn't want. I love you God. I love you God. He's not, he's not after that. He's after your mind. This is what we need to give him right here. Not my heart. I need to give him my mind. I need to give him my thought life. And so saying to him, I love you Lord. I love you God. You know, and you're always sincerely from your heart reaching out to God in times of need and in worship. We were you sincerely, you love him and you want to worship him and you want to yield when in service, when the Holy Ghost is made moving and when everybody's responding because you love him. But what happens when you're by yourself or you're facing your situation? Does he have your thought life? He can only move in our lives to the extent that we allow him to move in our thoughts. He's already moved to the fullness in your heart. You're born again, washed clean, brand new. He's done all in your heart. What determines your will, not your heart, it's your thought life, it's your mind. So this is why people misstep, this is why they don't. They end up at some point choosing not to follow God. They never gave God their thoughts, they never gave God their mind. Young people, they lived under the, the discipline and their parents renewed mind. And when it came time to give God their mind, their thought life, they didn't do it. And they walk away and they maybe leave and for a time they walk away from the plan of God for their life because they didn't understand it wasn't my mind. I was living under my parents mind that was renewed. My mind needs to be renewed now. My parents can't give God my mind for me. I have to give God my mind. I've got to renew my mind for him. He doesn't do it for us. Okay, and this is what, let's keep going. This is what I want to get to here. He that loveth me, not my sayings and the word which he hear is not mine, but the Father which sent me these things I have spoken. And you being yet present with you. But the comforter. Here we go. The comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name. This is the divine exchange. He shall teach you all things, bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said. You notice the help of the Spirit comes in connection with what Jesus has said with the word of God. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. That's why Jesus saying, the peace at the world, the way the world gets peace, how they find comfort, you know, it has to come from the outside. It has to come from something that they put in them, something that they're taking in from the outside to look for relief. Relief and peace are two different things. You can have peace without getting relief. You can be have your home, the home that you've built. I'm talking about your spiritual home. So full full that you don't need the storm to stop. You just outlast. Doesn't mean you don't still hear the wind. It doesn't mean you don't still. It doesn't mean that it's not still beating upon you. But you're so full. You are so determined. You will not quit. Jesus didn't quit when the 40 days and the 40 nights, he was tempted. He didn't quit. No food, heavy bombardment. But he was determined to do the will of the Father. How do we know he was full? Because he answered every time. He answered with the word of God. So this is what I want to get to. Who is the author who brings that peace? Who? As we, if we look there, we don't have time to turn there. In Philippians it says he builds. There's a garrison around our heart, in our mind. That's the job of the Holy Ghost. But if the Holy Ghost is going to do his job, we have to do ours. We've got to know, what did Jesus say? What are his words? Because he said, the Holy Ghost is going to come and he's going to remind you of what I've said. If you don't know what Jesus said, if you don't know what God has said, what have you given the Holy Ghost to work with? What have you? And so when we, in our time of emergency, in our time of need, and we say, oh, Holy Ghost, you're my peace, you're my comfort, you're my joy, and you haven't taken time to build your foundation on the Word. He's got nothing to fill. And what comes out is carnality. We crumble at the pressure. But I'm here to tell you, if you will fill up with the word of God, the knowledge of God, then the Holy Ghost, when he comes, see, the world has to get outside help. They've got to get outside relief. We have inside help. They said to the students, that's dead help. What man's man turns to the substances that man turns to, it's dead, it's been altered. It fills them up and alters the mind and affects the body so that they can get relief that is so temporary. But what we have is life. The Holy Ghost, he's right there. That when you reach out for God's Word and you say God, I want to respond based on your Word. I'm tired of responding to this pressure. I'm tired of taking this pressure on me and thinking that it's other people around me and thinking that other, other situations are my issue. God, I see it. My real issue is I am not full enough to handle the pressure. And step number one is get full of the Word so that the Holy Ghost has something to remind you of. We go where, God, I need an answer. Well, when you're full of the Word, he's got an answer to draw up. So the Word of God is where. That's why we say it's our foundation. So when we look to the Holy Ghost to be full, so that we don't want to be full of ourselves and our carnality and we pour out of that emptiness, he's got something to draw from. He's got a firm foundation that you've already laid your life on, you've already built your life on. And so getting full of joy, getting full of peace is easy. And so oftentimes again we turn and we want God. We're endeavoring to respond. And we. We want his help in times of need, when the tests come and the storms come. But we didn't get into His Word and we don't know what His Word says. And the Holy Ghost has nothing to draw on. Amen. He said, my peace, peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. How do we know what his peace is? My peace? Well, we can see it when he was in the wilderness. If you look at Luke, chapter four, Matthew, chapter four, we see it when he was in the wilderness. What is his peace? It was him so full of God's Word. That the Holy Ghost. It's like the tool that the Holy Ghost can use. Well, the word of God. We've got the weapon of the Word to answer. Pastor Nancy has so skillfully taught us that there is, you know, I told the students, there's the fruit of peace, but then there's that peace that it talks about in Philippians. There's that peace he's talking about right here. It's a tangible. Just as people are looking for a tangible substance to put in their body or tangible relief, there is tangible relief, and it's the presence of the Holy Ghost. It's the help of another being there. You know, we don't have to turn to outside relief when we've got inside help. He's a man. He's. He's a being, a person. Amen. You don't have to turn to a natural person. The words that that is are preached from this pulpit, come out of. From a man's mouth, but they're coming from the help of the Holy. The Holy Ghost. Amen. So we have to look to his help. Look to. But if we are not full of his word, it's very hard for the Holy Ghost. He works in conjunction. That's why I've told the Bible school students, you think you're going to have in the marriage and family class, you think that you're going to have, you know, a quarrel or something, you know, a fight with your spouse, and you go, I got to go pray in the Holy Ghost. If you're not following the word, praying in the Holy Ghost doesn't help you. He's got nothing to draw up, to give you your answer and to correct you with. You know what I'm talking about. Because you can pray in the Holy Ghost all you want, and your mind is still running and you're so empty with no word in you. And there's been times where, you know, we've had a disagreement, and I'm struggling, and I told God I'm struggling, but I knew it wasn't. You know, my answer was not to go pray in spirit, because I tried that, and I'm going, oh, my gosh. The whole time I'm praying. I cannot believe he said that. I cannot. You know what? I should have said this, and I should. I'm empty, and I'm wanting the Holy Ghost to fill me up. He doesn't do the work, folks we do. We've got to take the time every day to get filled up with his word so that when situations come, he's got oh, he goes, remember this scripture. Remember, remember what Jesus said. Remember what God's word says. When a financial pressure comes, you can, you don't have for a. Have to, for a moment, take the thought and the pressure. With finances, you can be so full of God's word that you immediately put pressure back on that pressure. Don't tell me, don't, devil, don't. Don't come and tell me that you're going to put pressure on me. You are the one that has to withstand the pressure, the victory pressure. You know what I mean? Put it back on him. You have the authority and the right to do that. You have the ability, divine ability, through the power of your words. That's how God operates, through the power of his words. His words are still upholding everything that we see. His words, they build up, they create. Put his words in your mouth. And when that financial pressure comes, when that physical pressure comes, you put it back on Him. Amen. Don't take as the moment. Listen, it only takes you taking one thought that the enemy, all he has to do is bring one thought and your carnal mind will produce 20 more after that. You know what I'm saying? He doesn't even need to bring multiple thoughts. He just brings one. And your carnality will take the rest and run with it. But if we're full of God's word, then immediately the Holy Ghost, he rises up and goes, ah, but the word of God says this. Oh, thank you, Holy Spirit. And you answer, we can become skillful at building our homes, filling them with the word of God, the presence of God and the Holy Spirit, that our ability to outlast storms is so skillful. It's so skillful. And what happens when we become skillful? We're able to help other people. We're able to help and take others in while they need help and minister to them from that full place. Amen. But when we're empty and we're pouring out on everybody else from that empty place, we end up with strife, impatience, bitterness, you know, all the things that we're trying not to have that we don't want to become, that we don't like about ourselves. Does that make sense? People want God's help, but they don't want to make time for his word. So the helper has nothing to help us with. We have our part. God did his part. So we better make sure when we ask for his help, we're willing to do what he asks us to do. Amen. And put in the time. So I Wanted us to see there. We'll go ahead and we'll close with this. Turn with me. Let's just go and look at it. Philippians, just so we can get our eyes on it. Philippians. Here we see verse 6. Do not fret or have any anxiety. Philippians 4, verse 6. Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything. But in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition, definite requests with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. So we have pressure that comes to get us into fear and worry and anxiety. And the Word says, we bring that by prayer and petition to God with thanksgiving, giving and God's peace shall be yours. A soul assured of its salvation through Christ, fearing nothing from God and being content with this earthly lot, whatever sort that is. That peace which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ. If God didn't have your mind up until that point, it's going to be very difficult for the Holy Ghost to do something with it. You've got to do something with your mind. If the Holy Ghost is going to guard it, if he's going to have a say so. Because look at verse eight for the rest. Brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is any thing worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things, fix your minds on them. Practice what you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and model your way of living on it. And the God of peace, of untroubled, undisturbed well being, will be with you. It all starts with your mind. We can see in this passage. It all starts with. With your mind. I don't believe you can be successful at verse six if you're not practicing verse eight. You've got to practice verse eight and verse six will be easy. Amen. Casting that care, not yielding to anxiety. That's very easy when your mind is already full of God's word again. Then the Holy Ghost, the Helper, has something to help you with. He's got tools to help you to withstand the storm, to withstand the change in pressure. Amen. So we must be careful that we're not taking that pressure, taking it in that we're so full. Because when we don't, when we're not full, we take that pressure in and then it ends up coming out on other people. It affects those around us. Amen. Amen. So that's all we have for tonight. I appreciate everybody coming out. It looks like Sunday is going to be a good day. Nice and warm, not hot, but just a nice day. So thank you everybody. We will see you actually just stand with me to your feet. Let's thank God for the word. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the answer. Father, we are so grateful for the help of the spirit. But we're so grateful for your words. We're so grateful for the living word of God. It's sharper than any two edged sword. It's dividing, Father, our thoughts and our will and showing us what your will is so that we can do something with our minds. Father, we thank you that tomorrow is going to look different than today. And it's because of your word. And we give you all the praise and all the glory for it. In Jesus name, amen. We'll turn to somebody before you dismiss. Tell them you love him, it's good to see him and you'll see him on Sunday.