B (24:47)
I was sitting down a couple days ago and I just took a shower and I'm thinking about. And there was two things I didn't do that day. I had to put a fuse in my truck and I had to check the oil. And I was thinking about it and it started to really bother me. And I thought it would take me five minutes, but I don't feel like doing it. But I said, steven, why don't you quit being a lazy person and get up and just go do it real quick. And so I got up, I had my pants on, you know, I just took a shower and I went and did those things. And after that I felt better. And I thought, what if I just lived my life with all those things adding up? How would I feel at the end of the day, you know? And I just live like that. I convict myself. When's it going to get fixed? Well, stop it, stop it. Just get it done. You know, I have seen ministers, people that have been in faith longer than I've been alive. And you'll go talk to them full out, faith speaking, but no execution of the faith. So what have they done? They've given up, but they've convinced themselves that they are actually still in faith. Because nobody wants to say, you know what, I've given up. We have convinced ourselves of things that aren't true. We've all done it right. We can make excuses till the end of time because nobody likes failure. And we will always make an excuse. So it's important that excuses aren't made. Why don't you just be straight with me and say, you know what? I'm not believing for a new building. I'm really not. I'm saying it, but I'm not doing anything. Let's just be straight. So what's it come down to? You have to say, am I giving up? Yeah, I probably am. Then fix it, get it done. I thought to myself, I thought, you know what? I don't want to live my life with a car sitting down there and I can't enjoy it. And I look at it and just talks to me and I go and I make an excuse why I can't do it. Doesn't matter, just get it done. God is more than enough. You say, well, that's a luxury item. Who cares? Then do it. Amen. I'm telling men, if you want to get it done, get it done. Quit making excuses, whatever. I don't know what you want in life. Maybe it's not cars, maybe it's a deck, whatever. Why don't you just shut up and get it done? You know, faith is speaking, but it's acting. I don't care if you just go buy a box of nails. It's movement, you know, I mean, you could do something. Movement. What are you waiting for? For, you know, faith is an act that you have to do no matter what it looks like, no matter what it feels like. And I've seen people and they said, well, I physically, you know, can't do that. Well, did you try? Well, no, I didn't try. I just know I can't. But I believe I'm going to get better. Are you sure about that? Because faith is always an action. It always has a physical movement. We, you know, it's important if you say something that you are who you say you are and you're going to do the things you say that you're going to do. I was just talking with Josh and said, josh, how long have you been here? Just about 10 years. We hired a pilot 10 years ago when we didn't even have a plane. But it was a movement towards getting an aircraft. And today. And we would do flight planning, we would do all these things. We would go look at hangars and act like we had a plane. They'd say, what kind of plane you have? We're in the market, you know, there's no we can come up with a big plane. How much space you got? We have two spaces. Two spaces sounds good. We'll take two spaces. That's no problem. Because we acted like we had one. We just started moving. We didn't wait till all the stars line up. We didn't wait till we had X amount of people in the church before we moved. We just started doing stuff. There's a minister that has been renting a church since I was a child. And it's like, when are you going to buy a church? When are you going to believe for it? And to this day they still don't own any property. And I think to myself, oh my God. But what if I asked him, what did you think he'd say? I'm believing. I'm believing God. We're going to get us a bill building. No you're not. No, you're not. You're not doing anything. You just pay the rent bill every time it comes and don't do anything. So giving up can be decloaked in faith. It can be hungover and hidden where you've convinced yourself of something that's not true. You have to be careful. Got to be careful. I'm halfway through my sermon, me. Okay, so write this down. Giving up can be deceiving. It can be cloaked with positive words. The meaning of cloaked means hidden or disguised. It's disguised as faith. So the question is, how long before you give up? How long before you give up? You can have vision for something based on unrealistic conditions that you have set. Basically, when they say, well, when such and such happens in my life, then I'll do it. You sure about that? You sure about that? When are you going to get your business straightened out? Well, when I get more people. You sure about that? When are you going to get the foundation of your business straightened out? Well, when such and such happens. That's not true. That's not true. You're not building a business. You're building a job. A business should be something that you've created such a foundation that you can walk away from and go do what you want. But if you can't do that, you've not created a business. You've created a job for yourself. Don't convince yourself that you're doing something you're not. Be sober. Be sober. It takes money to make money. Amen. That's a side trip, but whatever. So let's go to Luke 18:2. And there was a certain city, a judge, who did not fear God nor man. Now there was a woman in the city, and she came to him saying, give me justice for what I want, and he would not for what? But afterwards, he said, within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow's trouble, I will avenge her, lest her continuous coming wearies me. So it's somebody that makes steps every day to get to where you need to go, that you don't give up. And let the devil talk you out of timelines and money and certain things that you've made up yourself that are not realistic. That you say, I'm making a step towards the next thing, I'm making a step towards that way. So here's a woman that wouldn't quit. She came back every day. Do we have any strong women in here? Amen. That wasn't very strong at all. That was. Y' all must be housewives. Y'. All. Y'. All. Y' all a bunch of housewives. Come on now, let's hear it. Look, look. They come alive. They come alive. There you go. Now you're away. Now you're awake. These women are empowered. Now they come Alive. So it takes somebody with enough unction and say, I'm not giving up. You say, well, I want to build a building, and the city's telling me no. Then keep bugging them. Keep doing stuff. Get a shovel. I don't care what you got to do. Just do something. Because if you're not, then you're giving up and you're convincing yourself that you're actually in faith. And you're not. And I realized that there were certain things that my dad taught me, some good, some bad. But one thing my dad did not like was junk laying around. He said, I grew up seeing that crap in my life, and I don't want to see it now. So all that junk that you have vision for, get it done. You know, quit making excuses, because it takes vision to get it done, but it takes action to complete it. You need action in your life to tell. You need to tell yourself you're being a lazy person. Amen. I'm just thinking of something my dad would say. There's preachers. He said, there's truck drivers that should be preachers and preachers that should be truck drivers. I thought, that's pretty good. I don't know if he came up with that or not, but I was just thinking about that a couple days ago. I thought maybe I wanted to be a truck driver. Shifting gears and passing well, you can feel in the rest. So the question is, how long before you give up? We know dad Hagin was dying on a bed, but he knew that healing belonged to him. And he's waiting for God to do something. Is that true? And he says inside of himself, why don't you get up? A healed man should be up at this time of day, he says. He wears the varnish off on the post because you got to get up and do something. You got to get up and act healed. Because laying there is just giving up. It's giving up with words of faith and actions of doubt. So it takes somebody with faith to say, you know what? I'm getting up. No matter what pain comes, don't let pain tell you what to do, because it won't be long until the next morning. I mean, now I can just turn my head slow, and all of a sudden, I pull a muscle in my neck. I don't even know what happened. And I'm walking around like Batman, you know? So I'm thinking to myself, I'm not gonna let this thing tell me what to do. Don't act like I'm the only person that's happened Well, I can't look that way. Well, move your whole body, stupid. You know, quit being dumb. Do something. So God will let you have whatever you want. Write that down. God will let you have whatever you want. If you want to talk to all that faith and do. No, no acting. You can have that. You can convince yourself that you're a faith person. But really, you've given up. So it takes people to speak it and act it on it every day. So when you're believing for healing, if you aren't doing anything physical, you've missed it. If you believe what you say, why don't you do it? Why don't you make goals? Why don't you say, you know what? Tomorrow I'm getting up and I'm walking down to that place. I'm walking out of here. I'm doing something with every pain. Well, it hurts. What do you think it's going to do? Get up and do something. I have seen people time and time again. I'm almost done. That have given up because they don't feel like getting up. Well, I didn't feel like getting up and putting oil in my truck and putting a fuse in it. But my conviction told me, you're a lazy SAP. You have to talk to yourself with that tone. If you don't, you won't ever get nothing done. I'm sitting outside and I'm looking, and we had all that rain, if y' all didn't know. Boy, we had buckets of rain. And them weeds are just like, I'm coming out. I'm coming. And I'm like, oh, my God, and here comes the sun, and they growing three inches a day. What am I gonna do? What do I gotta do to get hold of it? I gotta get out there and deal with it. Get out there and deal with it to get results, because it will get worse. But I can convince myself, I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it tomorrow. You know, I go, I don't want to do it, but I got to do it. Because you know what I'm doing? Doing? I'm saving myself for tomorrow, and I'm saving myself for the next day. I'm creating a person that I need to be. I'm training myself that. Why don't you just go ahead and deal with it now? Deal with it now. So that's the way that you have to process it. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm not. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have cars or stuff. I'm not saying that. That's my conviction. But don't fool yourself into thinking something that you're not. You've bamboozled yourself. Amen. So we know the lady with the issue of blood. How much did she spend? All that she had. So that's an action of faith, that you would spend all you had to do it, and she was still, what, no better. But that didn't stop her because she don't have nothing left. So what does she do? And she hears about Jesus, what she say? If I could just, what? I will be healed. She needed to do some action, not just sitting there. So it matters what you convince yourself of. It matters what you tell yourself. Be sober about yourself. If you're believing God for a house, go look at it. Walk into that house like you own the place. I can afford this. That's no problem. That's not a problem for me. If you always go and dismiss yourself and just speak it but believe, you'll never get it. You've already set yourself in stone. It's over. I don't care what you say. It's what you do. Your faith speaking should result in faith acting. It should have results. Amen. I was looking at buying a. Which I did. I was looking at buying a car lift and this thing. And I was. Last Thanksgiving, I was looking at buying one, and I was up at your place. And, man, I'm just thinking about it, and I'm thinking about, well, this is a car lift where you put your car on and you can raise the car up real high and park another car on the bottom. I want to stack them because I want to be cool. I want to be the coolest kid on the block. The man that dies with the most tools wins. That's the way it goes. Am I. I'm beating y'. All. You guys gotta catch up. And I'm looking and I'm thinking about this thing. One thing that I do. I sit and I figure everything out about everything I'm gonna purchase. And I'll think about it and I'll read more about it. I'll go to forums. And I think about it so much, I wear myself smooth out. And I said, I don't even want the thing no more. I just thought about it so much. Well, a year ago I thought. And then they had the Black Friday deal, and I was like, okay. And I went to your night service and I came back and they were sold out. I thought, oh, my God, I missed it. And I thought, well, you know what? I'll See if it comes up. Well, then the tariffs hit and everything just went sky high. So I just dropped out. I was like, well, forget it. And that really bothered me that I gave up. And I said, you know what? That really bothers me, and I don't need it, but I want it. And I thought, you know what? And so this year rolled around and I said, you know what? And I found a different company that's local, and I said, you know what? I'm gonna buy one, because I'm not gonna let that thing have me. I'm not gonna give up on it, because I don't like living with the thought of, oh, one day I'm gonna get it. One day I'm gonna. I'm just gonna go buy it. So I went down and bought it and put it up, and it's beautiful. And I thought, you know what? I don't even need this. But I'm not gonna live thinking about it no more. I don't think about buying it no more. Now I'm like, do I need another one? I don't know. What else do I want to buy? But that's one thing about me, is I break something down. I was looking at a certain piece of precision machinery, and I've never seen one in my life, but I developed a hunger for it. Isn't that crazy to sound? But I developed it in such a way that I became precision minded because I realized the junk I'm using now cannot create the results I need. So I need to get onto another level of precision. And the precision I'm talking about is with a human hair or less. And I thought that's where I want to be. Because the stuff I'm using now is pretty. It's kind of a general ballpark on a tape measure, you know? And I thought the only way I could get this is, you know, it's a 3000 machine. It's precision accurate. And I thought, that's where I want to be. And I fed myself on everything. I've never seen one in my life. And I went to go see it, and I knew everything about it before I even touched it, because I walked. I'd never seen one in my life in person, but I watch videos after videos. I probably had 30 hours building up myself. And I knew all the collets it needed and the bits and all the stuff and the run out and all these things because I developed a hunger for it. And I wasn't gonna let price or time beat me. And so after I knew enough, I said, Now's the time. And I called the company and I said, I want it. And I went and got it. And this day I developed myself. But that's the way that I am. I don't like to be beat by not knowing how to do it. I want to know how to do it. The greatest thing you can learn is how to figure it out, you know? And that's what I do. And that's a side quest. But what I'm saying here is don't give up because you can't figure it out or you don't know or there's no more path. You can always go a little bit more. You can always dig a little bit deeper to be better. You can do those projects that you've had. Don't give up. Don't stop believing God for what you got. Don't, don't. Don't give up inside of yourself. Don't convince yourself of a lie that you've told yourself. Have you been blessed? So I'm not even going to go this way, but yeah. So we know that it's important that you continuously develop. Don't lie to yourself. Next time you convince yourself, well, I'll do it. Stop. I can do it now. I'm going to get it done now. Because you're setting yourself up for success, that you can say, you got a pain. You go, well, you know what? I can tolerate this a little bit. I can put up with this a little bit, and the devil will just pull a little bit more out every day. Every day. Before long, you're bedridden and you've convinced yourself, well, tomorrow I'll get better. Tomorrow I'm going to get better. But really, no, you're not. No, you're not. Let's be straight. You're just lazy. You're just lazy. But it takes men and women of God to really say, you know what? I'm dealing with this right now. I'm getting out of this bed. I don't care if you got a gauze around me because I'm bleeding. Just put me in a sack and I'll just walk around. You think it's crazy, but I'm talking faith here. I'm talking biblical stuff. I'm talking 4D here. I'm talking about faith for miracles. Because you can say you believe in miracles, but really, come on, are we giving up because we've never seen it? Dr. Bill was talking about a stick that is a staff. And it started growing leaves. To us, that's not possible. But he's in another place. So he's feeding himself on miracles. Things that are not possible, that we've never seen. We're going to have to get to this place to say, hey, I believe that. I believe that. Hold on a minute. Are you convincing yourself? Are you really believing? Because it sounds good. Because you would never tell me, oh, I wouldn't believe for that. But you wouldn't act on it. Have you been helped today? Let's go ahead and stand. Just real quick now. Tony, where you at? There you are. So look at that. Y' all should be out by a certain time. I'm not a long preacher, but I've knocked you in your teeth. You feel good? Y' all not offended, right? Men are like, man, I got all these cars laid out in my backyard. I'm gonna go get them. Do what you want. I'm just saying, it's. It's that. That. That's how I evaluate life. You do what you want. But if. If you can't be here tonight, you absolutely can't be here. We want to lay hands for healing on you today. Because when hands are laid on you, you will be healed. This is a ministry of miracles. We're believing for the most miraculous things that our grandfathers saw that the old people. I'm not gonna live on Smith Wigglesworth's miracles and say, wow, look how cool that was. And there's two words I hate. Fixing and getting ready. God's fixing to do this and he's fixing to do that. Get ready. How about now? How about now? It's a dismissal of faith because it puts no responsibility on you. Oh, I'm fixing to do that. No, you're not. You gave up. You gave up. Don't lie to yourself and me. Don't convince yourself of victory. Act on it. Act on it. So if you need healing, cannot be here tonight. Come up if there's nobody. That's fine. Father, in the name of Jesus, if you're watching, I say in Jesus name that you are healed. From the top of your head to the soles of your feet. Your head is healed, your back is healed, your legs are healed, your stomach's healed, your feet are healed. In Jesus name, and I say, receive it now. And from this day forward, you are healed. In Jesus mighty name, have you been helped today. Don't give up. Don't convince yourself of stuff. Be a man of your word. Say, you know what? I'm doing it. We're gonna get it done. I'm not gonna let time and money push me In Jesus name. Amen. And Amen.
