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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
Thou Shalt Judge | Morgan Dufresne | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. It's good to be with the family, almost the whole family. It's different than just seeing a couple here and a couple hundred here, 100 there. We all get to be together this morning. At least it's been made available. And there's more than one way to skin a cat, huh? As the saying would go, just chucking the corn. A different way today. It's good to be with the family. There's no better, no better place than being with family. Amen. This morning. Why don't we turn to Hebrews? Hebrews, chapter 11. We're gonna keep moving in the direction of faith. We've been teaching on faith on. I've been teaching on faith on our midweek service. And I just want to continue this morning because the word says the just live by faith. That means there's no other way to live. And if I'm going to know how to live, then I've got to know about faith. And we talked about Tuesday night, the difference between the principles of faith and the spirit of faith. How many of you were here on Tuesday night or watched Tuesday night? There's a difference between knowing principles of faith and having the spirit of faith. We having the same spirit of faith. We believe and we speak. Well, you got to know what to speak. The principles of faith, as we talked about Tuesday night, are the foundation that we build our life on. So principles. You have to know the principles. When you don't have principles in your own life, you'll be shaken. Your honor will be shaken. Your good name can be shaken. The family. We say the family name. If your family isn't built off some good moral, ethical principles, your life will be shaken by other people, by circumstances, and you'll be tempted to compromise those principles that you know were right. And so we must have the principles. But that's. We build our life on the principles. But remember this. It's not the principles that you live in. We stand on the principles. But the spirit of faith builds your life. A good home. We want to have good, robust faith that at every opportunity, at every opposition, we are able to withstand every single storm. The foundation must work in conjunction with the walls, the two by fours, the drywall, everything, the bricks, the mortar, the stone, so that when tests and trials come, it's not just a good foundation you need. The whole house must be built right. And the spirit of faith is. Is the home. And the house that we actually live in. It's what brings those things into our life that we desire, that we're seeking. And so those with great faith that we see in the Word in this Hebrews chapter 11, with the spirit of faith, what did they do? They changed the world around them. They change their situation. Those with principles, who know the principles of faith, that's excellent. But it's very hard when the spirit, spirit isn't there, when the thrill isn't there, because just principles alone won't get you thrilled. As Pastor Nancy says, with the word of God. It's when you catch something. It's when you hear what God did for somebody else and it stirs on the inside of you something to get you up out of your own seat, get you up out of your own situation. Maybe you've been dealing with something for 10, 15, 20 years. When that you hear the, the spirit of faith or you get around those people with the spirit of faith, you can't help but say, I'm not staying here any longer. I'm not putting up with this any longer. I'm not living broke any longer. I'm not living behind any longer. Amen. The spirit of faith causes the very life of God on the inside of you to rise up and determine the direction that you go. The spirit of faith is, is the life giving power to the principles of faith. It gives power. And so we talked about that Tuesday, that the spirit of faith brings the power to the faith that God's put on the inside of you. Every one of us has a measure of faith. Say, I have a measure of faith. Remind yourself that when you're faced with circumstances the devil wants you to make you feel like you got no faith or you don't have enough faith. But if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, God isn't judging your measure of faith. God's just saying, take what you do have that I gave you and start doing something with it. He will never judge you for the amount of faith. You know, small faith can still be great faith. You know what the definition of great faith is? Great faith is faith that's acted on. That's great faith. Because we see here In Hebrews chapter 11, there was all different situations that these men of faith, women of faith faced different circumstances. Well, how do you know which one had great faith? Those that acted on it. That's why they're in here. They acted on the measure that they had. Turn with me if you would. Hebrews chapter 11. And I preached a message about 10 years ago, and I haven't preached it since then. And it began to stir in my heart today. Hebrews chapter 11. Because of faith. Verse 11. Because of faith. Or the King James says through faith also. So it's through faith that's number one. Through faith. Not her mind, not her emotions, not even her desire. You cannot just say, I have a desire. We touched on this a few weeks ago. Remember the messages the Holy Ghost helped us with when we. I was preaching on that my faith, my experience. And faith is not based on an experience. See, she had never had the experience of being pregnant. She had never had an experience of what? And really, had she ever seen someone have a baby at almost 100 years old? So she had nothing to base her faith on. She had nobody else's testimony to. To base her faith on. I'm not against testimonies. We need testimonies. Again, they stir us to act as if God's word was very, very true in our own lives because it was true for someone else. The word of God is a never ending truth, but you have to make it your truth. You can't live by somebody else's truth. You can hear them testify of their truth, but you still have to make it your truth. And, and so here she didn't even have anyone to base what she needed. She needed a baby. She wanted a baby. God had promised her a baby. But she had never seen someone have a baby past age. So here it says, through faith, through faith, Sarah also. Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was passed age. There it is. The promise overcame the natural circumstance because she judged him faithful who had promised. She judged God faithful. She judged him faithful. What are you judging? We could say the title of the sermon today is Thou shalt judge. You always hear, you should not judge. We should not judge. That is not good. No, it says here Sarah herself judged God. Almost sounds sacrilegious to judge God. We're taught you don't judge other people, and we shouldn't. But God is saying, judge me based off of my own words, based off of my own promises, based off of my own provision. Judge me. He is calling us today to judge him. He's calling us today to hold him to his word. And so when she judged God to be faithful, and I'll never forget when God showed me this, you know, with every circumstance and with every situation in life, you are going to have circumstances that testify on behalf of defeat. You know what I'm talking about. They continually come up and testify. It could be your feelings, it could be the symptoms, could be your body. Let me tell you, how many times has your bank account testified to you over and over. And your mind wanted to say amen. Your mind wanted to go, yes, I agree, this is impossible. The pressure is too much. What about time? Time will speak and testify and try to get you to rule in favor of defeat. And God is asking us to be like Sarah. Judge him. Judge him. You are the judge of your own life. You are the one who stands up and rules and has to rule in favor every time of the promises. So, so we see here with Sarah, she judged God faithful. Well, what is on trial here? You've got victory and you've got defeat. Jesus already won the victory. He's already did. You know, in your situation, you can say, victory has already been won for me. You're not trying to get something. You just need to judge and rule in God's favor. You're not trying to hear. The devil wants you to even listen to the case of both. He would like for you to sit back and listen. You know, in a, in a court, in trial, it's only fair that both sides give their account. Did you know that? It's only fair when someone or something is on trial. Somebody's been done wrong, There's a lawsuit, there was somebody that maybe committed a crime. Crime. It's only fair in today's court in America, in a. In a civil court, that both sides get to get up and give what they. Their testimony, what they have, what they see is truth. Well, I'm going to tell you something. Your body is going to get up to you every morning, every night. Your finances, your family, your business is going to try to. To have a testimony that seems like it's got a case in the court of your life. But it's your job to say, I judge. No, I rule. You're out of order. You're out of line. And I'm going to judge God faithful. You don't have to listen. You don't have to hear. You know, as they would say, they hold people in contempt of court. They say, overruled. You have every right. When symptoms rise up in your eyes, say overruled. No, no, I overrule you by the word of God and the word of my own testimony, which is God's word in my mouth. Overruled. You have no place in this court, in my life. I'm going to tell you. Your emotions are going to testify to you, your feelings are going to testify to you more than anything else in your life because you're going to struggle when things, times we were not promised. As dad Hagin used to say, floating along on flowery beds of ease. We weren't promised that as believers. The winds come, the storm came, the rain, it fell, the winds blew. But the house still stood because those in the house had the spirit of faith and judge God faithful. They had built their life on the principles of. Of God's word and of faith and judged God to be true, that he was going to help me withstand the storm. You are not called to stand in that storm alone. You're called to call on the name of Jesus, plead the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus is the guard for your life. You can call on that blood anytime. You know the biggest for me, the biggest. When I learned the day, the biggest stand of faith was to learn how to plead when everything is screaming at you. Defeat. When it seems like the testimony is so valid, it's so. The case is so convincing. Have you ever watched one of those court shows and in the show the case is so convincing, the argument is so convincing that you know, and in the movie you know which is right and which is wrong, but it's so convincing. And the devil will bring up, you know what he's going to bring up first? Your past. He is going to testify and bring up. And that's where the blood of Jesus comes in. Because when God sees your past, he only sees the blood. You tell that testimony of your past. You're out of order. Contempt of court. Overruled. The blood of Jesus has overruled every mistake, every miss, every. Every wrong word, every wrong relationship, every wrong move, every wrong financial decision. Listen, the blood of Jesus has covered it, washed it and restored back to you. But see, here's what she did. Sarah judged him faithful. Who are you ruling in favor of today? Who are you when you get up in the morning and the flood of thoughts come, who are you ruling in favor? What are you ruling in favor of? Are you ruling in favor of the emotion of the situation, the intensity? I tell you, when my husband and I were going through the process of purchasing our home, we had 20 days. And every day it would have been easier to rule in favor of defeat and walk away. Because the flesh would have felt so much better not having to wonder and have the bombarding thoughts. And I'm sure for Sarah, when she realized and said, I'm old, I'm 90. How is this ever going to happen? At one point, she did rule in favor of her emotions when she said, go get your handmaiden. This is how we're going to do this? Because she stopped judging God faithful. Don't compromise. You don't quit. Don't give up. God fulfilled everything that he told her. And not only did he fulfill it to her and Abraham, but we see it fulfilled in Isaac, in Jacob and all those descendants. You. Even when the children of Israel were captive in Egypt, it says God says in his word in Exodus that he heard the cries of Isaac's seed. He heard the cries of the people. People. And no people had ever been delivered like that. Nobody else had ever been supernaturally delivered the way God was able to deliver his people. Why was that? Because Isaac's mother held to God is faithful. What? How you judge God will affect your children. What you rule in favor of in your life and what you allow will affect your children. But because God found a man and a woman that he could make covenant with that judged him faithful, Abraham was able to march his son right up to the altar. And at the very last minute, he trusted that God was going to raise up his baby, raise up his promise. Amen. When God says a promise is yours, judge him faithful to not only fulfill it. Because for us, once we bought the home, we had to refinance. That was not an option. And we were running out of time. And we had to do exactly like Abraham, bring it to the altar and trust that God was going to provide another route, another means by which we would be delivered because he gave us the home. What has God given for you? The spirit of faith will not be satisfied to let go or let any amount of defeat. Amen. In any arena, she judged him faithful. Your senses are going to testify. The enemy is going to. He. He has a foothold. If you let him have a foothold in your thought life, that thought life is going to testify for defeat. It's going to get up continually. Have you ever noticed that when someone is found guilty, they can appeal? Just because you've ruled in favor of God and his word wants and victory once, oh, let me tell you, the devil is going to try to appeal over and over. He is going to show up in the courtroom of your life trying to appeal the ruling appeal. You can get up one day and said, no, I believe by his stripes I am healed. And the next day the symptoms show up to try to appeal that ruling. You cannot just be satisfied and think that one day I'm going to rule in favor of God. I've got the victory. And then that the next day. See, the spirit of faith is willing to get up every day and fight the good fight. What is the good fight? Always ruling in favor that God's word is the final truth in my life. He completed all that he said he was going to do. He completed what he promised. Amen. So when the enemy tries to bring up your past, you can say, you know what? That's stricken from the record. That's no longer a. A valid argument in this courtroom. In my life, the blood of Jesus has wiped that past clean. If God isn't dwelling on it, you don't dwell on it. Amen. Then faith always calls to the witness stand the blood of Jesus, the cross, the finished and complete work on Calvary. Listen, if that's all you know, that's what you got saved with. You got saved with the testimony of Calvary that Jesus paid the price. I no longer have to be a slave to sin. I no longer have to be a slave to sickness, to drugs, to alcohol, to poverty. How many of you could say, boy, you saw one day somebody preached and you realize, I don't have to be poor anymore. I'm done living paycheck to paycheck. And you realized that with being saved and salvation brought prosperity. You've got to continually, in the court of your life, you've got to continually keep ruling in favor of that. Don't let a testimony get off the witness stand. The thoughts, the thoughts that are contrary to God's word, get off and say, that's. That's in contempt of this court. Courtroom. Amen. You know, Jesus is our great high priest, and he's always ready to take the witness for you. In heaven, right at the right hand of the Father is always testifying on your behalf. Jesus is always, it says he makes intercession for you. You know, I said this a few weeks ago. When you're making your confession, do you realize there's somebody who's making confession with you? Stop picturing yourself making confessions by yourself. Because every time I declare God's word and I confess his word, it'll bring a lot more life to your confession and to your prayer time, when you realize every time you're confessing God's word that Jesus himself, the great high priest, my intercessor, is making confession at the right hand of the Father for me and for my situation. So when I confess over my finances, when I confess over my children, when I confess over my family, meaning I'm speaking the word of God, I'm declaring what the word of God, it's not my word. It's God's word. It's his word. It's Jesus blood. It's God's faith that's on the inside of me. And it's his son who's confessing with me. It's his son who's declaring alongside me as I confess. He confesses. You would begin to look at your life of prayer and your life of confession so much more different when you realize your great high priest is confessing with you. Amen. But he can't speak unless we speak. As we declare on earth, so it's declared. What you bind on earth is bound in heaven. What you loose on earth and loose is loose in heaven. Notice earth is mentioned first. We are first. Jesus is not the judge of your life. You are the judge of your life. You have the power of your own life. Stop giving the power over to the enemy. Stop letting him get up and testify and letting your emotions and your feelings and the symptoms and the need testify over and over and over. You have the authority to shut that down and to plead the blood of Jesus and to say, not in this courtroom. And when you get up the next day and the appeal comes and they begin to appeal, the thoughts, the bombarding thoughts, when you wake up at night, begin to appeal and testify on behalf of defeat. You get out God's word and you do everything, exactly what Sarah did. And you judge God faithful. You can judge him by his own words, his own actions. And so God had never done anything because of Abraham and Sarah judging God the way God has asked us to judge him. Did you know? God has asked us to judge him the same way Abraham and Sarah did. That's why we have this heroes of faith, Hebrews chapter 11. Because he's asking us to do what they did. In fact, go with me, if you would, to the end of that chapter. Go to the end of Hebrews chapter 11, verse 39. After they We've read through, we've looked through, and you can take time to read this on your own. Hebrews chapter 11 is those that judge God, faithful that those that held to his word, held to his promises, held his provision, and verse 39. And all of these, though they won divine approval by means of their faith, did not receive the fulfillment of what was promised because God had us in mind and had something better and greater in view for us. So that they, these heroes and heroines of faith, should not come to perfection apart from us before we could join them. God, you are the fulfillment of the very perfection of the promise of God. They didn't have perfection. Our covenant is a covenant of perfection. Everyone, every situation can be made perfect according to the promise that God has given us. Our covenant is. Is one of perfection. Don't settle for anything less than the perfect will, the perfect plan, the perfect body, the perfect business, the perfect finances. Perfection was laid up for us. Their covenant for what it could be was good. It was perfect for what he could make it. But perfection was waiting for us because we're in Christ. Anyone who's in Christ is a new creation. And God does not make faulty creations. You were never made with faults and failures. You are in Him. Amen. And so your life with what's on the inside of you. The spirit of faith draws on what's on the inside and not what's on the outside. Judge God based off what's inside of you, not based off of what's testifying around you. And once we see this, once Sarah got a hold of that, once she realized, oh, Letting. Letting Abraham. You know. Doctor used to call it shack up. Let's one of his terms. Shack up with the servant. That was not God's perfection. That was not God's perfect plan. Go. She went back and she judged him faithful. It doesn't matter where you've missed it, where you let go what you you've tripped up over in the past. Get back in line with God's word. Go back. God's word always rules in favor of victory for your life. Amen. I'm so grateful. You know in Luke 10:18, Jesus said, Behold or I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Do you know Jesus was there when Satan fell from heaven? Jesus was there when he kicked him in the head on the way out of hell. And Jesus was there living on the inside of you when the greatest miracle that man will ever know took place on the inside of you. Jesus has been there from the very beginning. He will be there to fulfill at the very end. He's the author and the finisher of your faith. Jesus beheld Satan fall out of heaven. And he watched him have to suffer in defeat when he didn't realize three days later he was going to be raised up. That's why we can judge God. We judge God through the eyes of Jesus. You must have heavenly judgment. Have you ever heard clouded judgment? Earthly judgment is clouded judgment. Heavenly judgment is seeing things clearly. It's seeing things from Jesus perspective. God has called us to judge him the way Jesus judges him. He saw God be a just God and kick the devil out. He saw God fulfill his word. When he sent Jesus to die on the cross, he saw God fulfill everything he said he was going to do when three days later, he reached out and pulled him up. What makes you think God is not going to fulfill the very promises that Jesus provided in your life? Amen. How are you judging God? What is your judgment? Cloudy today. Has it been cloudy? The Word of God is the only thing that you know. It's like a mirror that gets fogged up and you can't. You can see the outline of yourself. Have you ever been believing for something and you only. It's like you only saw the outline of it. You knew what the Word says, but it was so faint, it seemed like it was taking everything you had to make out and to see clearly God's plan. You know what? That's what. When you get Jesus perspective, that's what the blood does. It washes all the cloudiness. The word of God, the washing of the water of the Word, it wipes all of that haziness. The Holy Ghost, he comes alongside with the help of the Word. And then you go, I see it clearly. I see that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. I see that even though it looks like next month I don't have the money to pay my bills. I see clearly that he has provided and supplied all my needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. It's about having a heavenly perspective, heavenly judgment. So today we examine ourselves. We what have we let cloud our judgment? Is it emotion that's been testifying? Is it a feeling that has been speaking to you? Is it something? Has it been time that continues to testify over and over and over and take the stand. Here it comes today, taking the stand saying it's been two years, it's been five years, it's been three months. And time continues to testify on behalf of defeat. You are the judge of your life, just like Sarah was. And you can tell time that it doesn't matter because in heaven, God, there is no time. I'm on God's timeline. God doesn't work in time. He works by faith. He works by faith, not a calendar. Man is the one who works by the calendar. So you are authorized to say the calendar means nothing. But faith means everything. The promise means everything. So she we, we see that the greatest witness that you're ever going to have in this life is the witness of the Word and the witness of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost, you understand? The Holy Ghost has been there from the time the devil got kicked out Jesus and the Holy Ghost have been there. They are willing and eager and ready. As soon as you reach out to God by faith, you've got Jesus at the right hand of the Father and you've got the Holy Ghost here on this earth. And they come together and they say, let me tell you something. What God is about to do, God is working. I love what my husband says. We thank him for what God has done. We thank him for what God is doing, and we thank him for what God is going to going to do. That covers it all. Amen. Who's testifying in your courtroom? Who have you let speak up for too long? Who have you not spoken? What have you not told is overruled by the word of God. We overcome by the Word, the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. You overcome in the courtroom of your life by the word of your own testimony. Nobody can testify for you. But remember what I said. Jesus himself is testifying. The moment you begin to speak the Word, the Holy Ghost will stir up God's word on the inside of you. And the moment you speak the Word, Jesus himself is confessing with you. He's making intercession for you. Amen. Well, I'm so thrilled with the Word of God. I'm so thrilled that we got to be together today. Amen. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us at defrainministries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings. Share your testimony, become a partner or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Dufresne Ministries.