Episode Transcript
Welcome to the World Changers Church Gold Coast Podcast. Join us as we listen to today's message. Oh my goodness.
You know, sometimes church service just runs the way it's supposed to, and other times God steps in and runs it the way He wants to. Amen? We are creatures of routine, and when we don't know what else to do, we do what we've always done.
But today I feel like we're just going to sit right here for a second and just listen to God. Lay your hands on your neighbor if they'll allow, ask their permission if you need to, if you don't know them. Everybody got, somebody go lay hands on Don. Today, we know that where unity is, God commands a blessing.
Unity doesn't mean agreement. Unity means we're going in the same direction and we will not be a hindrance to each other in that direction. Right now, we believe and receive that we're heading in a direction of care, of love, to reach the Gold Coast for Jesus Christ, to reach Southport for Jesus Christ.
For God so loved Southport, Arundel, and the Gold Coast that he sent his son to die so that we could be born again and be set on a mission to preach the gospel. It's in Jesus' name we pray and we all say amen. Give the Lord another hand clap of praise.
You may be seated. Sometimes I got to remind myself why I do what I do. Oh yeah, you guys are doing another song.
This morning during offering, yeah, no, let's not. Let's go. Yeah, I think we're good. During offering, we still want to remind you that as we did Vision Sunday last week, we've already had a response to Circuit Breaker.
We've had a response to Freedom in Christ course, which you can still sign up for. It's a 10-week course. I think they can still sign up for it.
And you just got your member care pastors that are going to give a lot of care to you and help you experience freedom in Christ, which I want to explain that to you in the best way I know how. Truth and freedom set you free from the things that hold you down and help you walk in your identity in Christ. Amen?
So as we take this offering this morning, we're giving into the stewardship. Now listen to this. You're actually giving into yourself.
You're making us more able to provide the things we need to provide to grow you spiritually. Today we take an offering for your spiritual growth. How much is that worth to you?
Well, that sounded manipulative. But it's true. So this morning, some of you do not have anything to give and you want to give.
Give your prayers. Some of you are asking, God, how do I give? Give your talent and your time.
But as we're preparing this offering this morning, and maybe you didn't bring anything with you, maybe you don't have enough in the bank account, well, maybe you can pray next week to bring your offering for next week. Because for this whole month, we're believing for a certain amount of money to sponsor the vision of this church. And we've already had some sponsorship from around the world.
Amen? We'll tell you about that. at the end of the month.
So, Father, we believe that the offering that we're about to take will be given from cheerful givers. Not those that are trying to separate themselves from a curse, and not those that are trying to follow a law, but those that give because God gave. And whether it be 10%, 53%, or 90%, it doesn't matter, God.
We know that they're giving to... How do we say this, Lord, in a modern way? I don't care. We're giving because we give an offering, a tithe, an alms to those in need.
We're giving so that we may grow spiritually. We're giving so that we may spread this gospel in the Gold Coast because we believe we're called. I didn't come across the pond just to play church.
We are called to impact the Gold Coast for Christ. So, Father, as we receive this offering, we are partnering with that mission. It's in Jesus' name we pray, and we all say amen.
Ussers, you may pass the buckets. If you want to give by Epos machine, you can do so now by going back to the member care desk. Amen.
And thank you for those. It's a funny thing when people give by PayPal. It just comes right to my watch.
I'm like, well, thank you. Praise the Lord. I get to immediately thank God for you.
But we also, if you want to give in the manner in which we're just giving, you can go online at worldchangers.life. Go to the red button. If you go in there on your phone, hit donate, and you can give by PayPal.
Or if you go on to the website later, follow the instructions and follow the way through. I believe that God's going to bless you. I still believe there's a blessing on the offering.
Amen? Do we still believe that? So can we receive this offering?
Father, we thank you that what we receive today will multiply. and it will go and grow for the purpose of ministry, for saved souls, renewed marriages, revived families, and minds to be clear of all clutter. It's in Jesus' name we pray, and we all say amen.
Give the Lord a hand clap of praise. Yes, thank you. We're going to go into, yeah, right.
We're going to go into communion. Y'all got to forgive me. I've been talking to people in the United States since Tina's there.
So I'm going to try and articulate better and slow down because if not, I'll be like, how y'all doing? I don't want to do that. So what we're going to go into before I preach today, we're going to go into a time of communion.
And communion is not just something we do traditionally. So as after the ushers are passing those out, and you can go ahead and peel the tops as I'm talking. Communion is something that I believe is done as often as we can.
Oh my, I just threw it aside. That communion is done as often as we can. And I believe that as we do it, we do it in remembrance of Christ.
Now, the difference between me and other places is that I don't believe that I have to prepare a holy sacrament because that would be a ritual. I think what I'm doing, if you can listen to me for a moment, is exercising my faith. Amen?
I'm building that muscle to say that I know, that I know, that I know that Christ has died for me. and that through his body that was broken on the cross and given for me, that as it was broken, I've been made whole. And as his blood was spilled and given on the ground, it was also given as an offering to the mercy seat that would take care of not only sin now, but sin forevermore, so that sin would no longer have dominion over me.
So I can no longer say that the devil made me do it. Amen? I now have to actively choose sin And so repentance is still something I do, but I'm no longer a sinner. I no longer identify with sin.
And so that's what this communion I want to talk about today. So as you take this bread, Jesus said to the disciples at the table, take and eat, for this is the bread of life. When we take and eat this bread of life, let's take and remember that in that moment when Jesus was talking to those he loved, he was preparing to leave.
And he said that I will never drink of the fruit of this vine again, as he talked about the grape juice or wine, until I return to be with you. So Jesus has refrained from his celebration until he meets us again. Amen?
But we get to celebrate every Sunday for what he's already done. Amen? Amen.
So, Father, I thank you for the bread of life that was given for me so that I fight from healing, not for healing. It's in Jesus' name I pray you may take, you may eat. I was a part of a Pentecostal holiness church after being Baptist, if that tells you anything.
And I remember one time we were doing communion and And the guy stopped and there was this weight that came on the room. He said, now you need to pray that you've made yourself holy before you take this communion. You cannot make yourself holy.
His holiness is what makes you holy. His righteousness is what makes you righteous. His blood shed for you is the one and only sacrifice that can make you right.
Amen? So therefore, I celebrate. I take in account that the blood was spilled for me so that I could be free.
In Jesus' name, you may drink and partake. Father, we thank you for this communion that we've taken today as we prepare ourselves to receive the Word of God. As we prepare ourselves to receive from you what you've given for us, so that we can walk in the light of truth.
Father, let there be a spirit of encouragement in the room today that we don't talk in shadows and shiftiness, but we talk in truth that brings hope to every person. Amen? So, Father, we thank you.
It's in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen. Amen.
Now, do me a favor, guys. Turn off that heat so nobody falls asleep on me and so that I don't start sweating up here. Thank you, Jeremy.
Now, we are starting our faith series this month. And, you know, a lot of people have said, well, I thought you were a grace church. A lot of people have said, well, I thought you were a word of faith church.
I want to identify with what we are. I'm going to do that before I start this message. You know what we are?
We're believers in Christ. Amen? You know what we are? We're believers of the Word of God.
And everything that that Word says I have, I have, and I have received, and I operate in. Amen? I'm not a grace church.
I'm not a faith church. I'm a follower of Jesus. Amen?
And here at World Changers, we minister the balance of faith and grace. Amen? Y'all ready for the Word?
So when I talk about faith today, it's going to be from a fresh revelation. So I'm going to tell a little story. Isn't that what pastors do?
They tell stories. So when I started in faith over 25 years ago, I got saved as a gang member, a drug addict, and a gun runner. And a Jewish man, on top of all that.
Most people would just call that confused. But I got saved, and something happened. I...
I just knew that I'd run 120% for the devil, and now I wanted to run 120% for God. Within the first year of reading the Word, it was like reading the transcripts of a movie. Everything I read, I was seeing Moses walk across the Red Sea.
I was seeing David kill Goliath. I mean, it was just like I was imagining it all. And then I would be so excited about it, and people would be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard that too about 20 times in the last 20 sermons. And I remember when I came across Gideon, I just thought Gideon was a scared little cut cat to be the biggest, strongest man following God.
And every story of the Bible built faith in me because that's what testimony does. Testimony of what we've overcome brings faith to those that don't have it. And I started running, and then I remember reading Hebrews 12, 1 and 2.
It's not in the notes. And I remember reading that first line, for we are surrounded by a cloudiness of witnesses. I was like, well, Tina, do you see people?
You know, but I realized what God was saying in that moment, that we're surrounded by people that have lived, overcome, and transitioned to heaven greater than we have. that there are stories of faith, of people that have gone to jail and never came out, people that have died for their faith, people that have walked and ran miraculously to just meet someone on the side of the road to baptize them in mud puddles. The Bible is full of stories, but then there's our life.
There are so many God encounters every day. If these people get cold, turn the heat back on. If you see people getting cold, turn it on.
But people, there is stuff that we encounter every day that we overcome with God by faith. And so this phrase came to me in the last 25 years, and I want to share it with you. It's a simple thing.
God can, God knows, trust any way. Sometimes when we're going through things, and especially when we live in this day and age, we want everything fixed now. There's a problem.
Now. It's too much pressure. Now.
Man, the people in the Bible had to wait 400 years for a Savior. Died believing for a Savior based off the words of the prophet. People dying in the wilderness believing for a promised land.
Amen. Could you go to heaven... believing for the thing you're believing for, knowing that the next generation might get it. Because as believers, we become so self-absorbed that our faith is all about us.
Do you know that that Bible is not all about you other than the fact that you are saved and now you're a pilgrim in a strange land passing through and your responsibility... Somebody get me some water. Your responsibility is to simply do something... to reach as many people out of that burning fire as you can. That house that is on fire, your job, he's getting the water.
Thank you, Jeremy. You know, your job is not to sit there and go, ooh, I know that house is burning and there's people in it, but can I have a new car? I know that house is burning.
I know some of y'all got a new car. I ain't talking about you. Um... Don't y'all get convicted over simple analogies, praise the Lord.
Faith that I believe in is faith that puts self aside and looks to God. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Oh, man.
I remember when COVID happened, the biggest argument was vax and no vax and should and shouldn't, and we made it everything, and we made it about God, and we made it about this, and man, everybody's still making everything about God. I don't care if you got the vax or didn't get the vax. Amen.
last week or two weeks ago, we were thinking World War III was going to pop off. Guess what, guys? It didn't happen for the fourth time. But we get so focused on us that we can't see that all we got to do is stand when there's nothing else to do but stand.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were told to worship an idol, and they said no. And As they're getting ready to be thrown into the fire, the king was so pompous that he said, well, where's your God now to deliver you? Their response is where I base this sermon.
And their response is what gave me life and truth when my son had lymphoma. It's what gave me life and truth when I was laying in a hospital bed. and they were trying to put a pacemaker in me.
It gave me life and truth when I was dead and raised from the dead, and someone had raised me from the dead, and everything was not cool, and my body was going off, and God said, see what I can do. These things, when you're going through things, or you're even not going through anything, sometimes you just got to believe that no matter what, God can. Whether he does or doesn't, doesn't matter.
God can. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego went into that fire believing, well, we know God can. I guess we're about to meet him.
And guess what they did? They met a fourth man in the fire, their deliverer. Amen?
That's the faith that we got to have in today's world. We want things. I mean, I love Christians.
I do, I do, I do. Praise the Lord. But my wife one time, she said, honey, we're about to go into a busy parking lot.
Let's pray for front row parking. I drove for an hour for front row parking. I could have gone in and got everything I need in 15 minutes.
And we're a whole shop. And then next thing you know, we got back row parking. And we were young in faith.
And she goes, but we asked, we declared, we decreed. I said, honey. I said, I don't know that God cares about a parking spot for us, but he does care about us being safe.
He does care about us having the finances to buy what we need. He does care about the people we're going to encounter in there that we're going to show light, and we're not going to go in there being mad about the parking space we didn't get. We're going to go in there and be happy that we got money to buy groceries.
Amen? Hallelujah. I can tell I'm getting in some of y'all's cookie jars.
So faith that I'm talking about today, though, is not just for emergencies. You know, every time we preach, we talk about the problems in our life. We talk about the things we're overcoming, and I just want to do something different.
Faith is not just for emergencies. It's for our everyday lives. Amen?
the choice to believe in God's power, wisdom, and goodness, even when we don't see the full picture. You know, with people trying to plan their life so far out, they're not living now. I remember when me and Tina got married, her family didn't even show up.
If you're going to marry him, we ain't going to be a part of it. That's what it said. You know what I said?
Cool. I'm going to get married anyway. A little bit of rebellions.
I remember when Alex was born, Claire. Man, you remember the first child. I remember somebody looking at me going, were you ready for kids?
I was like, how can you be ready for this little ball of flesh that's puking and peeing and pooping everywhere? Crying every five minutes and needing something. And it just starts crying.
I just want to go, what's wrong? And all it does is cry. You can't be ready for kids.
You can't be ready for marriage. You can't even be ready for your new job. Only thing you can be ready for is what God is preparing for you right now.
And sometimes we're so focused on 20 years, 5 years, 10 years, 3 months ahead that we're not living right now. Faith is about living. in hope, living in encouragement, knowing that I don't have to worry about tomorrow.
Isn't that what the scripture says? Take no thought for tomorrow because tomorrow is the evil of that day. But today, focus on your riches in heaven.
Amen? Am I making sense to anybody? Am I talking to anybody?
Is this preaching to you? Amen. And give the Lord a hand clap of praise.
We often come to God with ideas of what we should do or how things should go. Isn't that funny? Our faith is human faith before it's ever God faith.
Now you've been given a measure of faith. Everybody know that? Where did that faith come from? So there's two types of faith.
Faith of God and faith in God. I'm about to mess with some people. Faith of God is the faith that God gave you Faith in God is the one you exercise every day.
It comes from a place of surrendering your flesh, your mind, will, and emotions, and saying, I'm going to believe God no matter how I feel. That's faith in God. But faith of God is what God said He was going to do, and He will fulfill what He said He's going to do, and nothing can stop what He's going to do. We just got to have faith in God because He gave us the faith with His words that what I say, my word will not come back to me void. So therefore, if I'm going to have faith of God, it's got to be founded on the word of God. And if I'm going to have faith in God, it's got to be from God, in God, and by God.
Man, I cut my teeth on faith before I ever did grace. Y'all about to get a double barrel of faith. Praise the Lord. This isn't blind faith. It's anchored faith.
It's grounded in the unchanging truth that God can, God knows, and we can trust Him anyway. What do you believe in God for right now? Hand it over to Him and say, God, I know you can.
His power is always enough. I remember when I laid hands on my mom when she was diagnosed with neuropathy, and nothing happened. I'd just come from a six-week revival where I'd saw a man's eyes go from cloudy to clear.
Where a man took out his hearing aid and could hear. Where a man got out of a wheelchair. Where a woman came in a walker, was able to walk.
Where a woman that had 7402 levels in her blood had 96 by the time we got done praying. We had nurses to prove all this. And I prayed for my little old mom and nothing happened.
Nobody could explain that to me. Faith of God. Faith in God.
People kept telling me, well, she just needs to believe more. She needs to have more faith. Huh. You know what God said to me?
I'm enough. I'm enough. And if your mom believes in me and I in her, she'll be healed.
So I went to my mom. I said, do you believe God? She said, I do.
I said, well, what do you believe about your sickness? She goes, I believe that God's given it to me as a testimony for others, that what I'm going through will show faith. And I looked at her, and I said, Mom, that couldn't be so far from the truth.
God doesn't produce evil to produce good. Amen? I said, Mom, all you need to do is have faith in God about what he said.
Amen? Amen? Next thing, next thing came along for mom.
And my dad got, he had a hip surgery and knee surgery. This is when my dad passed away. And we were praying.
They called me. You going to come home? I said, there's nothing I can do.
God had already spoken to me on a few things. And I said, mom, what do you want? She said, I just want him to be able to talk to your brother before he goes.
He was in a coma. I said, well, have Ty call me, my brother. I said, have Ty call me because he needs to hear what I got to say.
And my brother called me and he said, Kyle, because he calls me Kyle, I hate it. Right? But he said, Kyle, I don't know what to do, but I got some things I need to say to dad.
I said, cool, let's pray. Well, I ain't going to do nothing. I said, do you have faith in God?
Do you have faith of God? He said, what do you mean? I said, do you believe that your prayer won't do anything or do you believe that God can?
He said, well, I believe my prayer won't do anything. Let's shift that. and let's put faith in God of God. And I said, well, let's pray. I prayed.
And I asked my brother, do you believe? He goes, yes. Do you believe God can?
He said, yes. While I'm on the phone, my dad opened his eyes. and began to speak to my brother.
And for 18 hours, 23 years of reconciliation happened. Because that's what God cared more about. Amen?
And that's what they were praying for. Come on, somebody. Amen?
And so here's the thing that I'm getting at. When they ended the conversation, my dad looked and he said, don't pray for me, son. I I'm ready to go home.
I believe God's calling me home. Hardest thing that me and my brother had to do was not pray. We said, God, receive our father into your hands.
He said, he looked at my brother and he said, I know that I'm not going to come back from this operating table because God has told me. He was Baptist. Didn't even believe in hearing God that way.
He said, but God's told me. He didn't come back from that operating table because that's what he believed. That was the faith in God he had.
Are you beginning to see the difference? Come on. Am I talking to anybody today?
We need to have faith that's not just operating off our cliches. We need to have faith that's operating off of God. Amen?
You can't say a bumper sticker prayer and get results. It's got to be a fervent prayer. Do you know what fervency means? Pure, red, hot prayer.
I mean full of fire, not full of yelling, not full of grit, not just pure. Oh, God, I know you can. You don't even have to have words.
Is anybody getting anything out of this? God's power is the ability. His ability and power is not tied to your circumstances. Can I tell you something?
God is not surprised by what you're going through. You are. God is not changing his mind. God did not need a blue pill or a yellow pill this morning to help him make decisions.
He spoke it. It's still heading in that direction. God doesn't need a counselor to help him decide what he's going to do with you.
He's got a story. He's got a direction. He said it.
It's happening. Faith of God. My faith in God is to say, I surrender to the spirit of God so I can follow what God has placed before me in faith.
Amen. And so that I can speak with authority and power and declarations and intercession and drive demons away. Amen?
Too many opinionated Christians out there. So one of the things that I thought about this morning that I didn't know I'd share with you or not as we go to Ephesians 3 and 20, I'll share another story If y'all are enjoying this, I'll keep going. Ephesians 3 and 20 says, Now unto him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us.
Huh. Right there. According to his power that works in us.
Amen? He can do more than we can ask or think. I want to point something out, no matter the version.
Every version translates to a working power in you. If I have faith in that working power, that working power will release from me, in me, through me. Amen?
But when I try and think about it, when I try to explain it, when I desire an outcome, I am clouding it all. Does that make sense? Faith is about knowing that there is dynamos power that you own on the inside of you.
That when you speak, heaven moves. That when you speak, angels are commanded to work on your behalf. That when you speak, the Holy Spirit begins to work in others and not just because of the power of your words and life and death in your tongue because God has placed authority on you by the grace he supplied it on the cross by Jesus Christ therefore you walk in abundance therefore you walk in power therefore you walk in healing therefore you can overcome anything shit fuck fuck Someone came to me the other day.
Like I said, I don't know if I can share this with you. They said, man, you look at so much peace and rest. You know what my response was?
Really? That was my response. You look like you're just at rest and so much peace. I said, really? You sure?
Because I know what I'm going through. Just this week, I know what I'm going through. I had a wife that showed up without luggage in America.
Spending money I didn't have. But she's worth it. Praise the Lord.
She's worth it. Come on, she's worth it. We need an organ right there. She's worth it.
Anyway, spending money I didn't have. Then she got a migraine and was still having to go to this conference because that's the type of leader she is. Throwing up in the van and me getting mad.
Why didn't you just stay home? Working with lawyers all week on things in the background for this church. Busy, busy, busy.
And man, I said, God, I just don't know. And he said to me, have faith. I said, doesn't that just contradict everything I am saying?
He said, no. Believe in the working power in you. Stop trying to do it by yourself.
Stop trying to do it from yourself. There's a difference between self-effort and redeemed effort. And when I have redeemed effort, I'm operating independently.
of the faith of God. And when I'm operating in redeemed effort, I have faith in God of the faith that he has placed upon me and the working power that's in me that no matter what I face, I can overcome. So when people continue to say, well, how are you still smiling?
Or how are you still this? Or how are you still standing? Oh, I'd never want to be a pastor off of knowing everything you and Tina go through.
I appreciate you for letting me know that. But God is more than just, He is more than enough. He is for everyday situations, whether big or small, God is able.
You just got to believe Him. The Bible summarizes it in the New Testament to two words, only believe. I have proven experience that God is able to do more than I can imagine, ask, or think by the working power that is within me.
So therefore, Mark 9 and 23, for them that believe, all things are possible. I have a working power in me by the power that's been placed in me, by the cross that Jesus died on, by the tomb he came out of, by the resurrection, the ascension, and the Holy Spirit being deposited, by my salvation, by the truth of his word, I'm able to overcome the world by the name of Jesus Christ. Somebody, come on.
I'm ready to run up here. Hallelujah. So God, what is it about faith that makes it so hard on people?
Well, God can means he's enough. God knows means even when we can't see it yet, we live by faith. Even when we know that God has said it, God, you told me to open up this business.
Even though we know God has said it, God, I know you called me to ministry. Even though we know that God has said it, I know that you set me on this path. Even though we know that God has said it, sometimes it looks like a dark tunnel with no light at the end and we're thinking, did I hear God?
No, that's so you thinking that. Stop trying to logically walk out faith. God said it, I believe it, I'm doing it, and nothing is stopping it because no man can shut a door that God has opened.
Amen? We quit our faith long before faith ever starts. 2 Corinthians 5 and 7 talks about living by faith and not by sight.
And that means trusting in what God knows, not what we see. I've shared with people over the last few months, believe in God's goodness, not how you're expecting him to perform. Amen?
If you believe in his goodness and you believe that he loves you, he has made a way where there is no way. Amen? And by grace, we overcome.
Through faith, by grace. By grace, through faith. Come on, somebody.
Amen? Come on, somebody. We're too cloudy in our words.
We're too busy talking about the problem. Then we are living God's promises. Amen?
Isaiah 46 and 10 says, you got that? Yep. Only I can tell you the future before it happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish. I love God's attitude here. That's so gangster right there.
It's just like, only I can tell. I know what's coming. I know what's happening.
I know what will come to pass. And I'll do what I wish because I know what's best for you. Man, if that don't sound like a father right there.
Amen. That sounds like something I'd say to one of my children. I'm your daddy.
I do what I want to. I know what's best. I've lived longer than you.
You just happen to be on the front row. Oh, you two here too. I love, especially this one.
I'm going to pick on him. This one right here, the middle child. Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. He's the best one, I love him, but he's not, they all my, they're not my favorite, they're not my favorite. Y'all all my favorite.
I just said that because I'm about to pick on him. This one right here loves to tell me how I should do things. I like with your little 20 something life trying to tell me how to do things.
You watched it on YouTube, you just read the book. I've lived this situation 50 times. You little YouTube watcher.
I went to Alex on something on the job site. I said, how are we going to do it? He said, YouTube.
Faith in YouTube. Amen. But we got to have faith in God.
We sometimes go to God like children do, telling him how he should do it. And he's like, I do what I wish because I know what's best. Your faith is not about telling God how to do it. Your faith is releasing God to do it.
That spoke to me. I'm going to get myself an offering. I don't think I got my wallet up here with me.
Your faith is not telling God how to do it. Your faith is letting God do it. We're trying to make things align and be perfect.
You ever work one of them little Rubik's Cubes? The more you try, the worse it gets. And then some joker that comes along, just knows the pattern.
When you're trusting God, it's sweatless. Let him be God and you be his follower. Amen.
When God leads us differently than expected, it's not because he's withholding. It's because he sees more. He knows the best way, the right time, and the deeper purpose.
Trust in his goodness. This is speaking to somebody. I believe this is rocking somebody's soul right now.
So we surrender not because we understand everything, but because we trust in the one that does. God can, God knows, trust anyway. So trust anyway, this phrase that I've lived with for 25 years in faith is It's for the areas I couldn't understand, and I let peace pass my understanding because he is the prince of peace, and I decide to trust him when I don't understand the outcome.
Trusting God is where your faith in him grows. The faith of God doesn't change. Your faith does. It trusts more.
It relies more. It believes more. It surrenders more. It hesitates less.
I just had a teenager. She's no longer a teenager. She was 17, 18 the last time I saw her. She was one of my kids in New York, and she called me her best friend, which was her way of saying, you're not my dad, but you might as well be.
And she called Mama T, Mama T. And when we decided to move here to the Gold Coast, she was so mad. She stopped talking to me. I just met her son for the first time yesterday.
And we're on FaceTime, and she's apologizing and apologizing and apologizing and how much she didn't understand now as a kid. And I said, listen, I loved you, and I still love you. and you're still like one of my own, that's water under the bridge.
I could see further than you and I could understand more than you could see at the time and I just watched your life from afar while you went and lived it the way you wanted to. Now who does that sound like? Faith grows in the places of trusting God.
Amen? Trust isn't passive, it's powerful. It says, God, I believe you.
I believe you know, so I'll keep walking in faith no matter what. Is that not what faith is? Amen?
Hebrews 10 and 23 says this, Let us hold unwaverly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Do you know that the faith you have, which means the title deed, the hope of the unseen things, is the fidelity that God provided? That he is a husband that will never cheat on you, never leave you, never forsake you, and he is a partner in your life that will always do what he says?
He who said it is unwavering in what he said. So if he says you have it, you have it. If he says you should declare it, you should declare it.
But this right here, And this right here hinders your faith so much. You're offended and you pray out of offense. You're hurt and you pray out of hurt.
You're disappointed and you pray out of disappointment. You don't agree, so you pray out of disagreement. Not one prayer will be answered that way.
The more you, let's just say my buddy Guy over here, and I'm going to use him as an analogy because he's got tough skin. He's got nothing to do with his life. This is all made up, by the way. Guy, all of a sudden, he decides that he's going to go in a certain direction, and I just completely disagree with it.
I start praying in faith. Lord, just intervene. Put roadblocks in Guy's way.
Just send Holy Spirit around him. Drop some holy bombs on him so that he turns direction. That's not a fervent prayer.
Fervent prayer that is in God of God says, Father, I see your son, Guy. Give him wisdom and strength and courage for the directions he's heading in. May you be the word of life into him, and may he profess in faith every step of the way. That is a fervent prayer.
Amen? Does that make sense? But when you go to pray against something, do you know that you're praying against God's child?
We do not war against flesh and blood, but of principalities. Quit wasting your time on tearing down each other in prayer. Start praying against the stronghold, the spirit that is oppressing people's life and take authority over the things that are in operation in the spiritual realm and watch things in their life change.
Quit praying against them and start praying for them as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane. Trust any way. Faith isn't about predicting outcomes.
It's about anchoring ourselves in the character. He is faithful, steady, and always working for our good. This kind of trust shows up daily in our choices, choosing peace over control.
Man, when I wrote that down, I said, Lord, help me. I don't like when things aren't running smooth. I don't like when I'm not agreeing with what's happening.
But I choose peace over manipulation, trying to control the outcome. You know what? Me stepping back and being in peace lets God move more.
That's faith. Speaking life when things are unclear. Man, when I release my faith, you best believe I'm not sitting back watching out for feelings of the enemy.
I'm praying hard. I'm standing strong and I'm saying exactly what I believe in. Amen?
Worshiping before breakthrough. Faith, you don't even know how it's going to turn out and you put on the garment of praise and you enter into worship as you go into your breakthrough. Before you've even had your release of peace, you've said, God, I don't understand, but I'm going to follow you anyway.
That's faith. Amen? Am I talking to anybody?
Amen. Is anybody being built up this morning? Obeying before seeing the full picture.
This is mature everyday faith. When you're trying to control how the outcome is going to be, I stopped planning 20 years ahead. Even with this church, I stopped planning a year ahead.
I started praying a year ahead. Y'all understand what I'm saying? Because we have this one variable in everything we do.
It's called humans. And a lot of what we do is on the will of mankind, and they're surrendered to faith. So sometimes we got to stick on a topic and pray for a little while before we can move to the next thing.
And we as pastors got to surrender our control so that we can lead you in the right way. So I stopped planning the next year. I started praying for the next year.
I started declaring over my next year. I started confessing over my next year. I started taking communion over my next year. I started saying, God, align me with your plans for the next year.
And then I released my most holy faith. Amen? Anybody hear what I'm saying?
Is this changing anything about anybody? Is this rich to you? I mean... You ever ate like a good meal that makes you sleepy?
Like y'all getting fed this morning and I can just see y'all going, hmm. That's right. Praise the Lord. This is the minute. This is the moment. This is the time.
This is the faith that pleases God. Hebrews 11 and 6. Did we get that one to me?
And without faith, is it impossible to please God? Because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Now, leave that up there.
Call me later if you don't agree. James said, faith without works is dead. There's the works.
you must first believe that he is existing. That's the first working of your faith. And then he will earnestly reward those that seek him.
That's a work. Now you must receive what he's given. You must believe he's existing and you must receive what he's given and you've got to operate in what he's given.
That is the working of your faith. God can, God knows, trust him anyway. The working of your faith is saying, God, I know you're real.
And therefore I declare and decree based off of what you've said to me and what I've read in your word that these things shall come to pass and these things shall pass. And I'm operating earnestly and I know that you reward those that seek you. And therefore I know that I have what the word says and I speak in faith of faith.
Amen. We're getting tied up in so much in our faith. Had somebody come to me, Michelle.
I'll use animal. Had somebody come to me and just look at me. I just come against your faith.
I said, what you mean? Just everything you believe. I believe the Bible says this.
I said, well, I believe it says that too. Well, I believe the Bible says this. Well, I believe it says that too. And I believe the Bible says this. I said, I believe it says that too. And they said, well, we believe the same thing.
Yeah, I know. You are just operating from a place of thinking you know what I believe, but we've never talked about what I believe. You are judging me because I was a pastor instead of knowing me as Kyle.
You are criticizing me because I was a Christian on the job site before you ever got to know me and who I was and how far I come. See, my faith doesn't react. It responds.
It responds. I'm going to say that again. My faith doesn't react. It responds.
You ever know that feeling like that sense of emergency deep down in there? And then you know that one that's just like, I don't know if I can do that, but it seems right. You know that one?
You know the difference between the two? One, that pity, pressuring, anxiety, that's you. But that that's gonna be hard that's gonna be a lot to do but yeah that's right that's God you're operating too much of this when you should be operating this you're operating too much of this head knowledge when you should be operating off the revelation of God that's in your heart Faith doesn't control outcomes.
Faith believes in outcomes. And I'm dropping some nuggets today, Holy Spirit. Praise the Lord.
You are just preaching today, Holy Spirit. God can. God knows.
That's enough. Wherever you are today, whether you're on the mountaintop or in the valley, whether you're waiting or moving forward, whether you're stepping into something new or or waiting on something to happen, know this. God is not behind.
God is ahead. God is not unsure. God is faithful.
And He's not limited by what you can see. He has infinite wisdom far beyond generations. And you are a part of the race, but you are not the finisher.
Jesus is. Amen. So keep walking.
Keep believing. Keep saying, keep praying, keep interceding, keep fasting, but do them in faith not to move God, but to move you. To get in line with what God has already said.
Oh, man, I'm about to say something radical. You ready? You're going to love this.
Faith is a solid expectation and believing for that God will do what he said he's gonna do. And my words are gonna align with that. And therefore I shall see the goodness and glory of God in the land, in my life, over my family, in my house, in every area of my life.
I shall see the goodness of God because he's done it. He said it. He sent it.
I received it. I have it. I say it.
It's done in Jesus' name. Pastor Kyle, you're preaching right to me today. Me too.
I think everybody's receiving a word today. Amen? God can.
God knows. Trust anyway. So what do I got to do, Pastor Kyle, to walk in faith?
That's always the question. How do I know that I have faith? For them that believe, all things are possible.
Let go of every weight and sin that so easily besets us from that race. Let us believe that many before us have overcome the same things. Therefore, so shall we because we serve the same God.
Let my words... be a response to God's word, not a reaction to my situation. So if, brother, they told me I need a pacemaker, I don't feel one yet, and I ain't going to have one. Every time the enemy tries to tell me something's going wrong in my heart, God fixes it every time.
Cuckoo, ca-choo, devil, you can't get to me. Amen? Hallelujah.
Hallelujah. And if God be for us. If God be for us.
If God be for us. Amen. Amen.
Thank you for tuning in to today's message. To connect or find out more, you can reach us online at worldchangers.life. Remember to subscribe for more uplifting messages from our pastoral team, and may you continue to walk in faith and transformation until we meet again.
