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Welcome to the live big broadcast with Derek Greer. We believe this teaching from God's Word will empower you to live a full, impactful life in Christ. Let's dig in.
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Romans chapter 4 and verse 16. And as normal, we're going to have a little background and then we're going to move into our focus. It begins in verse 16 with therefore, which lets you know we're in the middle of ideas and thoughts. You don't start something with a therefore. But he says, therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace. The same way that works are related to the law, faith is related to grace. Matter of fact, New Testament faith starts by looking backwards at the cross and. And then it's a present look at his promises. So New Testament faith is again anchored at the cross, but in our present moment, we grab his promises to bring them into our present. Somebody said this, look within, get depressed, look around, get distressed, look to Jesus, get perfect rest. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed. And that's important to us today, not only to those who, you know, have the little, you know, things coming down the sides of their head and little beanies and a little box on their head, not only to the Jews, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. Chapter four has been dealing with, from verse one, the fact that Abraham was justified by faith 600 years before God met Moses at Mount Sinai. And the idea in this chapter, and actually throughout the book of Romans, is, is that God justified people by faith long before the works of the law. And that word justified sounds like a, you know, deep theological term. But I want to give you a simple way of remembering the meaning of the term justified. So justified, if you want to remember it, it simply means just as if I'd never sinned, justified. Just as if I'd never sinned. So what happened is at the cross, Christ took our sins. It was a great exchange. And as he bore our sins on the cross, he gave us his righteousness. So that's why he told us to use his name, because he has given us his righteousness. And before God, we are as clean and as pure as Jesus Christ himself. So those who have been justified before God, they live lives just as if they'd never sinned. Now, of course, if you sin, you need to admit it and quit it and move on. But God convicts your stuff just so you can get back to knowing in yourself it's just as if I'd never sinned. You know, shame is an intensely painful and soul crushing emotion that makes you unworthy of love. But when Jesus justifies you, it doesn't matter who tries to condemn you. Yeah, you see, humans are like the lower courts, but Jesus is like the Supreme Court. And I don't care what the court of public opinion has said about you, Christ has overruled it. Do you hear what I'm saying? And he has justified. And you can live a life just as if I'd never sinned. He said, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith or of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of who? Us all. So Abraham is the father of any who comes to God not by works, but by faith. He's the father of everyone who realizes that they're not perfect, they've fallen short, they haven't arrived, but they're willing to embrace God's promises. You say, well, okay, explain that a little bit more. Why did God deal with Abraham based on faith? The book of Romans early on. Actually, a little earlier in Romans, Paul goes on talking about how the Gentiles respond to God because his law is written on their hearts, meaning every human heart. It's amazing. You know, no matter where you go in the world, people have this concept called ought to. Now just think about that. Now we know what we do, but we also know what we ought to do. And this ought to is the law God writes on every human's heart. So no matter what village you're born in, you, you ought not just punch somebody, you know, you ought not just take something that doesn't belong. Right? Okay, so we got that right. So God dealt with Abraham through what I'm gonna call the law of common decency, written on each person's heart. Now today, it's getting rarer and rarer. But this law of common decency says if something is shown to be true, we ought to believe it. So when God impressed his existence and his character upon Abraham's heart, Abraham didn't cancel him, didn't fight with him. When Abraham saw the truth, he trusted him. Faith is simply embracing truth and doing it from the heart. Verse 17. And he continues as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations. Now the way I'm dissecting the verses, it may be a little bit hard to follow here, but I'm going to go to Genesis 17 in just a couple moments. But God basically said, abraham, I'm going To make you the Father, I made you, forgive me, the Father of many nations, in the presence of whom he believe. So in Genesis 17:5, when God promised that Abraham would be the father of many nations, Abraham's response was simply to believe. Okay, again, if. If something is shown to be true, the proper response is to believe it. Now, you may not realize this, but what we choose to believe and not believe is actually a moral choice. And this is why we will answer to God for our beliefs. There are some things I don't believe just because I don't want to believe, not because I've not been convinced, not because I see evidence, because I don't like it. What we believe and what we don't believe is a moral choice. And it is a choice God's gonna hold us accountable for. When the sun rises and sits and you see the beauty and you see the way things are organized, you see the design in creation, you know the stars have been talking to you every night. Everything about the planet has been saying, there's a God. But if you choose to go in another direction, you might say, well, I don't see the evidence. But God says, I know you have made choice. And this is why, you know, as we sung that song, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus, blood and righteousness. Each of us who sang those lyrics at some point have made a choice. The Holy Spirit. Maybe it was through minister teaching, or maybe, I don't know, something hit you as you watch this sunrise, but God was striking your heart, saying, I'm out here and I'm for you and I love you. And in that moment, you had a choice to believe or disbelief. It says, I've made you the Father of many nations in the presence of him whom he, Abraham, believed. So what it says here, and it's a little bit complicated, and I'm going to get to our focus in just a second. But Abraham did not just believe in what God would do. Abraham believed in the character of the God who would do it. Because whenever it seems that his promises delay, his character is all that we have to trust in. Cause sometimes things don't go as planned or as I thought. And I'm like, well, Lord, I'm believing you, but I gotta trust you are still faithful. You're gonna work all things together for good. I know this is not happening as I want, but I know you're good. And sometimes that's all I can fall back on. That God is good. That sounds so simplistic. It sounds so simple. It's not deep, but when I'm really struggling and God seems to be delaying and he's nowhere, it seems to be found. My faith gotta kind of go back and get back to the basics. You know what, God, as bad as this is, I still trust you are good. And if character is lost, all is lost. If God's character is lost, all is lost. And then he goes on. God who gives life to the dead. What Paul is about to say to us is that God has a modus operandi. God has an MO God has a penchant. God has a style. And throughout the Bible, we find him constantly, over and over again, whether it was a barren woman, whether it was a man with leprosy, whether, you know, just a million different things. Lazarus, come forth. God constantly gives life to the dead. In fact, dead and hopeless things are God's specialty. And I want to warn you a little bit, God hasn't really become your God yet until he gives life to something in your life that has died. Until he's revived some area in which you were desperate. So here's the thing. If we really believe the Scriptures, if we really believe in a God whose main thing, his sum and his substance, is to give life to the dead, why are we so upset, so shocked when God lets things die? Because if he lets something die, it's just a setup for God to do what only God can do. He's a God who specializes in giving life to the dead. I'm not sure about you, but I know in my life a lot of things have had to die before they lived. Jesus said in Matthew 10:39, he said, Whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it sometimes in God's plan. And you might think, you know God, how did you let this happen? But in God's plan, sometimes you lose a job, sometimes you lose a relationship. Matter of fact, sometimes your basic plans in general die before God raises them back to life. I could not count the number of times I put on life support things that God really would have wanted me to just let die. I mean, I sat in the hospital room, I prayed and I cried. I cried and I prayed. I listened to the beeps and just tried to nurse that thing back to health. But unless I let go of my past, I have no room in the present for something better. So death with God isn't a thing to us is everything. But to God, it's like, you got, that's it. That's what I do. He's like, but that's what you need me for. He's the alpha and what omega. So he knows how to bring a beginning out of an end. God. Now listen, not just a theology, not just church talk, but God who gives life to the dead. May I confide in you? May I keep a secret of those people lives to me. I've been struggling for a little while with the idea that I'm too old. A couple years I will be 60. Isn't God good though? And right when I start thinking maybe it's time to hang up my jersey. Maybe it's time to cash in my chips. Maybe it's time for me to slow down. We go from reaching thousands in a week to millions. But you see, God is wise and his timing is always right. You see, in his wisdom he knows I'm too old to worry about what people think about me. Too old to care about whether they like me or dislike me. Been around too long to mess around with foolishness. And I'm too tired at the end of the day to pretend some of y'all feel me. There's some good things about getting older. So I've come to the conclusion that I've not really been aging. God's just had me marinating for the right time. So God gives life to the dead. But there is an and conjunction calls those things which do not exist as though they did. So if you know God, you know he specializes in raising back up dead things. But the second part of his nature when you get to know him is that God talks really funny. He constantly talks about what we can't see. He always is stretching us beyond touch, taste, smell and natural sound. He always requires us to be grateful before he does that great thing. He asks us to give before we even have a whole lot. He tells us to act happy even before we're happy. God is of a different mind. And God is the Alpha and the Omega. He knows the end from the beginning. And he speaks like God. He speaks from his mind. He's not just looking at what is matter of fact. I thought about it. I'm like, lord, have you looked around the planet lately? Man, I'd be crying, bawling, falling off my throne. But you see, God don't think like we do. He don't see like we do. He sees the end from the beginning. And this storm is passing over one day there's going to be a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. You hear what I'm saying? There's going to be a river of life flowing in on both sides. The tree of healing of the Nations. Let's read that again. And God calls those things which do not exist as though they did. I'd like to take a moment to tell you about the trouble this verse has caused me and the way God thinks has come caused me. You know, when Grace church was only 12 people, I worked and I preached and I acted like we were 120 people. But then we get to 120 people, I'd say we're 250 people. And people literally look around the room and start counting the empty chairs. They start talking to the boy crazy. The boy can't count, he's on an ego trip. But then we get to 250. I'd say we're 500. We get to 500, I'd say we're 1,000. And finally, after we got to about 5,000, people learned not to say anything anymore. But right about 5,000, God decided He was going to start to show off a little bit. And he had us build this impossible worship center in the midst of the greatest worldwide crisis you or I had ever seen in our lifetimes. And then while churches are declining across the nation, we grow to 7,000. But here's the deal. All of this happened is because I had some of us who are like Caleb and Joshua, people who were willing to see it before they saw it. Vision is the gift of seeing what others don't see. Yet you see, we're not limited by our abilities half as much as we are limited by our lack of vision. Peanuts have been around the globe as long as there's been a globe. But people were handling peanuts for eons. But one day, George Washington Carver looks at a peanut and he sees in the peanut that people have been handling for centuries over 250 uses. I mean, he's lighting lanterns with peanut oil, peanut butter, and all the peanut stuff that we got came from a guy that looked at a peanut and saw something. And you might feel, God's just giving me peanuts. But in that peanut that he gave you are 250 different uses. If you just have a little bit of vision and see, see it before you see it. Let's go to Genesis 17:5 where Paul's been talking about. And this is where God told this 99 year old man with an 89 year old woman that he was going to have all these babies. And God showed up and said, no longer shall your name be called Abram, which actually means father. So Terah named him Father, but your name is going to become or shall be Abraham, which is a strengthened or heightened form of father. And what it means is not just father of a clan, father of a household. It means father of many nations and a father of multitudes. So instead of Abraham's age causing God to back down from his promise, like, okay, yeah, yeah, it's a little late. You know what? I'm sorry about that, Abraham. Instead of God backing up, God turned it up. I want you to think about being Abraham. Now, we typically get our nicknames when we're kids, but he's 89 years old. He's lived a full life. And I want you to imagine if you were a person that lived in the projects all your life. But God tells you to go down to the courthouse, and I want you to change your name. Matter of fact, your first name, to Wealthy. So every time someone knocks on your door, you require them to call you Wealthy. Been in the project all your life. Now family's like, what, Call me Wealthy? Consider the situation Abraham's in. Imagine a man in a wheelchair, been there for years. He goes down to the courthouse and he changes his name to Run like the Wind. Or imagine the 2024 commanders changing their name to Always win. Imagine the faith it took. But watch this. Watch how God spoke to Abraham. He said, this is going to be your name. Then he says, for I have made not I will make. I have made you. Sarah was not yet pregnant. Matter of fact, she'd failed to get pregnant for 89 years. But God spoke to Abraham like it was already done. For I have made. Past tense. You the father of many nations. Because God calls things that are not as though they are things that don't exist, as though they did. And what we see in the scriptures is God is a shot caller. God is the ultimate baller, if you will. And the way God plays the game of life, you know, you can like it to a game of pool. He's like, Mr. Devil is going in. In that right corner pocket on my right side, and there's nothing you can do about it. And if we're going to be like our father, we got to stop just saying what we have and begin to call things as God has promised. Your child may be acting up, but you might need to look him in the eye and say, you are a good boy. You are a good boy. You are a precious girl. You are a smart girl. You're a smart boy. You need to. It's easy to call things what they are. You need to be like, God. Call things like. Like, yeah, listen, y'all don't know this about Me. But the first thing God touched in my life was not my behavior and the things I did. And they were foul. It was my tongue. I had a foul mouth. When I got to college, one of my friends nicknamed me violence because of the foul speech that would come out of my mouth. But God saw that foul mouth and saw a preacher's tongue. He called that which did not exist as though it was, and I'm all the better for it. Who, contrary to hope in hope, believed. That's a complicated and kind of awkward sentence, but it says a whole lot. You see, the problem is, we think it's supposed to be easy, but that wasn't the case here. Conventional wisdom said, listen, Abraham, you're too old, Abraham, this will never happen for you. But God gave Abraham his word. Abraham used God's promise to combat his doubts. Circumstances say, but God says. People may say, but God said, I can't tell you the number of nights that the devil would visit me. And he didn't visit me in red pajamas. He'd visit me in my mind with thoughts. And he started whispering in my ear, talking about, why are you making your family suffer? You need to walk away from all this foolishness. You aren't built for ministry like others. You need to go out there and use your skills and talents and get a real job. A job where they won't criticize you and talk about you. A job that they don't have such high standards and everyone's not finding fault. You see, anyone could have done what I have done if they're willing to fight the doubts that I had to fight. You see, you have your promises in your life, and just like I had to fight for the promise God gave me, you got to fight for the promise God gave you. You know, later, when Abraham would cut the animals for his covenant with God, later in the evening, after he cut the covenant, the furnace and the lamp walked through the covenant of blood. But the Bible says that after he cut these huge animals, there's blood, you know, all over the place. Vultures tried to come down, steal the sacrifice. And whenever you sacrifice something to God, there will be vultures swooping out of nowhere trying to steal that which you've dedicated to God. And you might have seen vultures, by the way, on television. But you need to understand, vultures are not little birds. They have very, very powerful jaws and beaks. And vultures run off a lot of animals because they're very strong. And vultures could be, you know, three feet tall. But the Bible said Abraham would beat off the vultures. And sometimes when God gives you a promise, you gotta learn to swat away the vultures as the doubts and the fears, the anxiety and the worries try to steal the thing you dedicated to God. It's simple, but it's not always easy. And you got to learn to stand up against the doubt and unbelief and the vultures that will certainly come your way. And the only reason, though the vultures show up is because there's something there. The devil wouldn't be trying to talk you out of it unless God was in it. Matter of fact, let that pressure in your mind be a reminder that you know what. God must be up to something. Understand what I'm saying? So Abraham, contrary to hope in hope, believed so he had something in him to resist the things trying to come out on him from outside of him. And because he fought this battle and won this fight, it says so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken to him, so shall your descendants be. Now, I'm talking a little bit about my story, more than I normally do. But the reason for that is what I want you to understand. God didn't bring me through because I'm stronger or smarter or better than anybody else. God brought me through because I stayed close and I stayed at it. You know, the only secret, only strategy I have with God is to get into his word until it gets into me. Linger in his presence until his presence lingers in me. Jesus said it this way, abide in my word and my word will abide in you. And then he said, ask what you will, it will be given. But you gotta abide. You gotta stay at it. You gotta live. Abide doesn't mean visit. It means to live. That's your address. I had to make my address a place of faith. Vultures, come, I'm going to fight you. I'm going to swat you. I'm going to resist you. I'm going to take you to church, and you got to follow me in. And then the church going to start swatting them away as I'm swatting them away. Contrary to hope, he believed in hope. And then it says, and not being weak in faith, he did not consider his body already dead. You see, in his 80s, Abraham was still able to produce ishmael. But by the time he reached 99, that bird could not fly anymore. That dog could no longer hunt, if you know what I mean. He did not consider his body already dead since he was about 100 years old. And then to compound that not Only did he have issues to work through. Sarah was barren. And by the way, his stuff worked because he had Ishmael, but Sarah was barren. That's it. Okay, so not only was the conception a miracle, but the act itself was a miracle. Mayor woods said in Friday's rln, He said, this faith doesn't work until you do. They still had to take the actions. They had a part to play as they waited for their miracle. They had to get busy. Listen, this is not the virgin birthday. So they had a part to play in the miracle. And some miracles you gotta work out. It said, Abraham did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief. See, God's promise was a huge challenge. But what we're about to see in a moment, in Abraham's mind, he let God keep his finger on the scale. It says, but he was strengthened in faith. Now, the weak in faith consider their own abilities only they consider their own resources only they don't consider God's ability, God's resources. But Abraham in faith refused to focus on his circumstances and he focused on his God. Watch this next statement. Giving glory to God. Now, that word glory in Hebrew is kabad. In Greek, it's doxa or doxa, however you want to pronounce it. But the term literally means wait. So, you know, we would say things like, you know, that person's a heavyweight, meaning, you know, that's the idea of glory, that that person has major impact and influence. But what he says, he was strengthened in his faith, giving weight or glory to God. So the idea is that when his faith was tested, he weighed his fears against God's faithfulness. He weighed his problem against God's protection. He weighed his worries against God's word. He weighed his need against God's supply. And the scales in his minds tipped always in God's favor and what we must learn to do, yeah, there's a problem. But give glory and weight to God. If God be for you. He owns a cattle on a thousand hills. He's faithful and just. Every promise in him is yes and amen. If he parted the Red Sea, what's going to be the trouble with your particular issue? And in his mind, he gave weight and glory to God. And sometimes, you know, on those nights, I'm struggling and I start giving weight to the problem, weight to the situation. Wait, to the people. And I find myself discouraged. And then I got to get in that work to lift this tail back up. No, no, no. If God be for me, I can do all things through Christ. Which strengthens me. Lord is my fortress, my rock, my shield, my buc. He who watches over me neither sleeps nor slumbers. And being fully convinced, this is where we miss it because we're a little bit microwave. We get partially convinced but don't stay at it long enough to get fully convinced. And we gotta learn not to despise the day of small things. You know, every great oak tree, it begins with a little bit of seed, little bitty acorn. And I know in my life God gives me a little bit of light. And then I keep looking at that light. It's like the sun rising. Actually, in Peter, he likens it to the morning star. But what happens is I get a little bit of light. And if I keep looking at gets bigger. As I keep looking, it gets bigger. And if I'm faithful over a little over time, it becomes much. And before you know it, I got a sunrise in my heart. On the inside, it's still dark on the outside, but there's a light on the inside. Because I work with my seed and I stayed with it and I grew it and I kept focusing on it. And before long, I'm no longer moved. Folks are moved, folks are running away. But I'm fully persuaded. I am fully convinced. And you gotta get to the place where you're not satisfied with just, I hope so. But you get into that word till you know so. And being fully convinced that what he had promised, God was able to perform, God means what he has said. Whatever he has promised, he is able to perform. Whenever and whatever we surrender and submit to, God's control can never go out of control. Please hear me correctly. Life can be fearful. Life can be challenging. But as fearful as life is, God is faithful. And when you keep God's word and you hide it in your heart and you let it grow and build, you have a weight to you. No matter how hard the wind blows, you are not moved. You are anchored. And there's roots in you nobody can see. There's a weight in you of glory that God's been working because you stayed put and stayed your ground. But you're going to have to deal with your vultures. Doubts are going to come and you're going to have to swat them down. You're going to have to guard that which Paul says was entrusted to you. You are valuable. And the only reason the devil is messing with you is because God is working in you. In ancient warfare, when the king fought amongst his men with sword, et cetera, the way you knew you were getting closer to the King was because the quality of the soldier rose because the best men in the kingdom were armor bearers and protectors of the King. Because if the King goes down, it impacts the whole nation. So the further you fight in, the tougher the battle got. So if you're in a season where the warfare is getting tough, all that means is you getting close to where you need to be.
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Thank you for joining us. Until next time, remember, you have what it takes in Christ to live big. We also invite you to partner with Derek Greer Ministries in bringing the life changing and impactful teachings of God's Word to the world. Get started by visiting Derekreer.com by clicking the link in the description.