Pastor West: [00:00:00] We're going to have a good time in Jesus. Amen. Today's Mr. Matt's birthday. And, of course, he's not in the country, so he's he's in another part of the world. He's in Indonesia. And he there 13 hours ahead. So it's not it's not today. There today is tomorrow. But the reason why I'm talking about today is today is his birthday. So I won't tell how old he is, but he's not 49 years old anymore. So I don't know what that would make you, but I don't want to tell his age. Anyway, I guess if you're going to, if you're going to, you know, make that big a turn, you might as well go out of the country to do it right. Anyway, so happy birthday to him in case he gets to see this or watch this or hears about it. And we'll celebrate and throw on the fatted calf another time if you have your Bibles with you. Anyway, bring your Bible with you or you got your you got your phone, you got your sword, whatever you want to call it. The Word of God, right? How many know the Word of God is settled? How many has been settled? At least for a couple of months. How about for a long, long time? How many know? It's not going to change, but how many? How many would need? How many need a change in your life? All of us could use some kind of change, right? Well, this is this is not hard to figure out.
Pastor West: [00:01:13] God's not going to change. The word is not going to change. But we need to change. Maybe we should. Maybe we should think about that. Well, if nothing's going to change and God's not going to change, and I guess that's on our part. So let's you and I do all the changing tonight. Most of y'all look like you're through school, except for 2 or 3 people here. But when I was in school, we took a test sometimes, didn't we? Sometimes it could be on different days a week. A lot of times we got a test on Friday just to see if we knew the information that was in the test. And so tonight we're going to talk a little bit of test. In Romans chapter 15 we're going to take the test of faith okay. We're just going to read one verse, verse 13, now the God of hope. That's just good. We just stopped there, isn't it? Aren't you glad you just said the God of no hope? I mean, if we were talking about Buddha, you'd have to say Muhammad. We'd have to say now the one who has no hope because they're gone. But now it says the king. James says, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Pastor West: [00:02:28] So here we see that there are some criteria, if you want to call it that. How do we know if we're in faith? Well, how do we know if we're believing? Well, Paul says right here that first off, you need to know that you need to have hope because he's the God of all hope. He says, and he'll notice. He'll fill you with all joy. He didn't say some joy, a lot of joy, but he says all joy. So I don't know how much joy you're experiencing right now, but it looks like there's room for more. All joy and peace. How many of you have some more joy and peace in your life? I'm the only one. Notice it says while you're believing. So if we're in faith. And if we're in believing. It looks to me like there's two components that we're going to have to have in our life. And one one is you're going to be at peace. Yeah. You ever heard people say, I know you have. It's what I've heard mostly in and in ministry was like, oh, I just don't ever have peace. Or I mean, if God would just it's the number one thing that I have. I don't know about anybody else. Number one thing I prayed for. I don't mean necessarily you all or, but I mean just overall, in almost 30 years of ministry, people say, I just want you to pray that I would have peace.
Pastor West: [00:03:41] Which, I mean, I'm assuming that means I don't have peace or I don't have much peace. Well, notice right here that if you're believing, you have peace. Amen. I mean, because faith means the issue has now been settled. And if it's not settled, then we're not really in faith. We're in high hopes. Or it could be. You could be in low hopes, you know. But I'm trying to give someone the benefit of the doubt. So if we're in peace and we have joy, can you see why that would equate to being in faith? People who are in faith are believers. And how many believers do we have here tonight? So we want to see right here that that all hope belongs to you. I mean, there's no I'm telling you, there's nothing in the world. There's nothing in the world anywhere. Like a believer, a believer in Jesus Christ. Right? And so when you're a believer, you have all kind of hope. And so tonight, if you have some things that you're like, I've been believing God for this and believing God for that, but I haven't seen the meter move and this hasn't changed and that hasn't changed. Well, we're going to just change our perspective tonight because, you know, the difference between a miracle and a non miracle is just one action, one thought, one belief. Just like that in acts two. I read the word suddenly. In other words, they were waiting for the promise and it looked like the promise wasn't there.
Pastor West: [00:05:09] And then in another moment, it was suddenly it's like you're sitting at a traffic light. It's red, but a second later it's green. Of course, it seemed like the people in front of you don't know it's green they're looking for. I mean, you're looking for a different shade of aqua or whatever. It's like green instead of a 12 second pause, but so. So tonight we're on the green. So we're going to talk a little bit about faith and authority. And and I hope we cover something that you know well of if you have your Bible there again with you, go to Psalms chapter like Joe Morris said. Which one? He said, let's just let's just see if you know which Psalm we're going to just see if we're flowing. But in case you're not flowing too good tonight, we'll go to Psalms chapter eight. I haven't written down, but I like for you to see him. You know, there's times that we just need to turn the pages in our Bible and look at them. For ourselves. Mine's in the ESV, but I got the King James in front of me so I can do it either way. But here's some questions. Why were you created? Well, we were created for no other reason that we know of when we read these verses right here. We know that we've been created to rule and to reign, and we were created to have dominion, not get along, not have a better day.
Pastor West: [00:06:34] Hope it works out. No. We were created to rule and reign. And that's why we know that we're created in Psalms chapter eight. We want to read verse three through six. The question comes up and he says, when I consider the heavens and the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have ordained. What is man? Or you could say, what is about man, that you are so mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you would visit him? For you hath made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and with honor. You can see these same passages in the book of Hebrews in the first chapter, where he asks the same question. So he says, but, but what is it about man? Lord, what is it about man that you are so mindful of him that that he has all this attention from you? He says, and that you would visit him, and that you made him or created him a little lower. If you have the King James there, it says, we just read it. It says angels, as most of good Bible translations will take you over to the margin. And it's the word Elohim, right? Which is a name for God. So he's saying that you have made us a little lower than God.
Pastor West: [00:07:54] Now, I know that makes a lot of people angry when you say that, you'd be surprised. That only makes it only makes Christians unhappy because they're saying, who do you think that you are? I said, well, I think right now I'm someone who can read. That's that's who I think that I am, someone who can read a little lower than God. You say, what are you saying? I'm saying that if you're born again, you have the life of God in you, right? And you've been made in his class. You're as close and the God class as anyone on the planet. That God made you as close to himself as he could possibly make you. And here we we have a mortal body. But Jesus had a mortal body, right? And so we have what Jesus have in the sense of that he was that he was came as man, a natural man. Of course, he was a Son of God, but he came as the Son of Man. Never did a miracle as a Son of God. Every miracle he did was son of man. So that just tells us if Jesus did no miracles by deity, if he only did them as a son of the living God, or was it the Son of Man, whether it was the Son of Man? And so and he was anointed of the Holy Ghost? So aren't you anointed of the Holy Ghost? We are army.
Pastor West: [00:09:08] So we have this. We have faith and we have authority. And then if you're if you'll go back all the way to Genesis chapter one, we could quote it, but I just want you to see it. And then I just had one of those days this afternoon where I would just sat and wrote, wrote, wrote, wrote. And you know how my rule is around here. I'd rather have more scriptures than commentary, but but today I have a fair amount of commentary. So those of you students of the word, you make sure that I'm, I'm on track. And and if your commentary is not the word, then it's just that's all it is, is just maybe just useless commentary. But Genesis chapter one, in verse 26 it said, God said, let us make man. After the apes. And let him evolve and evolve and evolve and evolve and evolve and all revolve and evolve and then one day drive a Volvo. No. Let us make man in our image. It's in the plural sense. Our image. Well, the only there's only three entities that can be talking about here, right? God the father, God son. God, Holy spirit. So let us make man in our image, after our likeness or similitude, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Pastor West: [00:10:46] We always make a joke. Someone always said, isn't it good to know that we have dominion over creeps? Amen. You ever meet a creep? Say I got authority over you. Look at verse 27. So God created this man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them, and God blessed them. Well, God's in the blessing business. He just can't help himself. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and get along the best you can. Is that your translation? Say, do the best you can. What does it say? Subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air. And over everything that moveth upon the earth. So here we see man has a dominion Mandate with. Built in Dominion. Built in Dominion. Why? Because we've been made in the likeness and the image of our God in the spirit. You look just like him. And when it comes to things pertaining to demonic spirits or Satan himself, the more that you understand who you are in him, the more you look like Him to God from his perspective. You know, the Bible says that we're hid in Christ. You say, well, how people get so much trouble. They they quit hiding. Just keep your head on the inside. You don't have to play peek a boo. Just. Just stay on the inside. So this is the Dominion mandate.
Pastor West: [00:12:26] We were created in the image of the class of men. When you were saved, you were placed in Christ. And you were brought into union with the creator. Now you understand union. Think about this. You're brought into union. Well, if those of us who are married. I mean, I got this ring on my finger. Finally. Anyway he was waiting for me to lose weight or stretch it, and I won't tell you which way I went. But. But anyway, this means I'm in union. Married. Not shackled. Married, right? What does this mean? In the sense of what we're talking about? The two have become one. Now, are we two different people? Yes. But in the sense of how God sees this. A man and a woman come together, male and female. Let me say that again. A male and a female that would be like two different genders and they become one with him. Paul called it a mystery. Well, in the sense of we have Union one together now. She she she took my last name. I didn't take hers, but she took my last name. She kept I think she kept all of our names. Sometimes we get something in the mail. She has, like, seven names on there. I don't even know where they got all that. They picked them up at different times in their life, and they're like Mary Michelle Davis West, you know William Stravinsky. And I wonder about the last two people because I never met them, and they're not sending any money.
Pastor West: [00:14:15] So if they're out there, I wonder who they are. And but she has all these all these names. But, but but we became one where Jesus said in John 15, he said, you're the vine and the branch, but together that makes a tree, right? There's different there's components to it. The vine is different from the branch. It's different from the roots. But we would call that a tree and we would call the tree one. We don't. We understand the components of it's different, but we don't just go down the road and say, oh, look at that. That branch tree limb root. No, we just said, look at that tree. Right. So in Christ, and because we are in him and he's in us, it's no longer us, it's him. Now, these things I know that you know or I know that you know about them. There's a difference between knowing something, knowing it, and knowing about it. And the way becomes most effective is when you come into life and you get into pressures or test. And the pressure of the test puts the pressure on, what do you really know? What do you really believe about this? And we've all been there. Maybe a different kind of test, but you know it there test. And there can be severity of test. I mean, you have people who's going to be going, you know, in outer space or whatever and all the things that they have to go through and, and, you know, condition and or military.
Pastor West: [00:15:54] I mean, I've never been in the military. Some of you have, you know, it's not necessarily just a walk in the park. You didn't go, you know, get a haircut. And then they ask you what kind of colors you like to wear and how you want your hair styled. I mean, it was, you know, pretty regimented. And there was a there was a mental part of it. Right. And there was a physical part. I mean, some people say both are very enduring, but some people say, you know, the mental part is, is sometimes just as enduring or more enduring than the physical part, because what are they going to do? They're trying to they're trying to delete you of you. They're trying to delete how you think and how you solve issues and what you would do and how you would act and how you would react. So if they can take that out, tear that down, whatever word that you want to use, and then they put in you what they want in you, so that in a time of you could say calamity or war or attack, then you will no longer respond from the old you. You will respond from the new you. That's just Christianity 101. That's what it is. It's not. It's not called going to church.
Pastor West: [00:16:56] It's not. It's not called potluck dinner. It's not called, you know, it's time to, you know, pin the tail on the donkey. It's called Christianity 101. Who in the heaven are you? Who in heaven are you? And so the more we read. So we know that we're supposed to be renewed, right? Transformed by renewing. There has to be a renewal. Because the old you and I won't work. If it would have worked. God would have just kept the old man around. He would have just worked on him a little bit. He would have just, you know, put a fresh coat of paint on it. But he says, I can't use it. So, man. So let's just annihilate them. Just just blow it up because we can't use the. Oh, you. So when we get to new you, the the number one distinctive thing about the new person in Christ is their love walk. That's the number one thing. I mean, the Bible says when you're born again, the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost. That's the number one thing that stands out about you. Why? Because in the old man, what made the old man corrupt? Well, he's selfish. It's all self. He looks out for self. He thinks about self. His cares about self. That's why everyone on the planet has to be born again one day, right? You can find it, you know, from children all the way up.
Pastor West: [00:18:16] And sometimes what? We just have adults who are older children. You heard me say this before. You can't find one verse in this Bible that says, my little adult. I share that with pastors sometimes. It's something the Lord showed me years ago. They seem to think that's funny. And I said, well, you know, because we kind of deal with things sometimes. And I said, sometimes, you know, it feels like I'm dealing with, you know, children sometimes through the years. But the Lord says, yeah, you should know. I said, well, that's not nice, but anyway. But anyway, sometimes we think like children. But the goal is to what? To grow up into him. Amen. You know, God doesn't want to just stay somewhere. It's okay to start as a child, but you ought to grow up. Look, if your mom and daddy has to come over and spread the peanut butter in you 47 years old, that's just nasty. That needs to stop right now. If they're having to do your wash and stuff like that and, you know, and they're, you know, and you just got your Medicare card, Medicaid card, you need to stop it. There has to be a growing up into him that we look like him. So Paul never, never pointed to himself. Paul said, follow me as I'm following him. Right. Peter never pointed to himself. So we know from Ephesians the measure or the standard that all of us have in this room, and we're all in different places.
Pastor West: [00:19:37] We are at all different places. But the measure that we're going to is the fullness of the stature of him and who we are in him. So the more that we continue to see him, the more we continue to say, well, what did Christ do in a similar situation? What was his action? What was his reaction? Then I began to take off the old man and his thinking, and I begin to put on the new man. And a new man will have a new mouth. You see, you can be born again, and you're born again in here, but you can still have the old potty mouth. I mean, I remember coming in, you know, things, word of faith in 1990. And, you know, I grew up in a Pentecostal church all my life, but I didn't know nothing about Powerworks. I mean, if they preached it, I don't remember. Do you remember anything? I don't remember one thing in a Pentecostal church about the power of words. Certainly didn't know nothing about faith. Didn't know nothing about authority. Didn't know nothing about who we were. But we were full gospel. We was full of something. So we were full. And so that was the one thing that amazed me when I found out that the Bible talked about your words make a difference. Because I always said, you know that little saying, you know that sticks and stones may break my bones, but words would never hurt me.
Pastor West: [00:21:01] No, they won't hurt you, man. They can kill you, which is worse than hurt now. So I had to begin to hear about words. And when I began to hear about words, then I had to begin to pay attention to my own words. Then after I begin to, you know, to graduate just a little bit, you know, I get out of the kindergarten, and I finally got into the first grade of words. And the second. And the third. Do you do you remember being around people who had no revelation about the power of the words? And then when you started getting hold of that word, and then all of a sudden you started noticing what other people saying around you and you're thinking, oh my gosh, I can't believe they're saying that. Well, that was you about two months before that. You were them, right? And that was one of the things that I noticed. The first was how far my words is out of a line, and I could see it best when I heard them, when I heard them saying what I used to say all the time. All kinds of things, you know. And we won't get into all that. But, you know, we're not, you know, trying to be the word police, but having, you know, the words matter. Why do they matter? Because you're made in the image and likeness of God.
Pastor West: [00:22:05] You can't have the dominion of God and have no control of your mouth. If if your words are out of control, your life is out of control. It doesn't work any other way. You can't say, well, I mean, I know about faith and authority, but you're talking, you know, calamity all the time. You don't understand faith, and you can't understand authority, and you can't understand dominion, and you don't have control over your mouth. That's why the Scripture says, put a guard over my mouth. And and so we we're we're we're not saying things because I'm afraid if I just say this, that's going to happen to me. If I'm afraid if I say that, you know, that's that that tickled me to death or whatever. I've never met anyone who's tickled to death. Did you? It's not. It's not that the things that you say, every little thing is going to happen just like that. It's just that you. We need to have to understand that your heart, your spirit doesn't know the difference between you fooling around and jesting. The Bible calls it jesting, foolish, vain talk. And so when you need to, when you need your words to really matter, you want to talk about when you get in a situation in life and your words need to really matter. A joke won't do. Jesting won't do. We need. At that point, we're wanting what happened for God in Genesis chapter one.
Pastor West: [00:23:31] And God said, and God said, and God said, and God said, and then God what he saw, what he said. And that's what we're looking for. Well, this is not something you either switch on or you switch off. This is the life of the just and the just do live by their faith, by their faith. And so we want to always give ourselves an examination and say, what does my mouth sound like? How how am I listening? Because out of the abundance of your heart, the mouth will leak. It'll leak and it'll speak. It's speaking. And you know it's no mystery to it. Jesus taught things that were so simple that you would need a Pharisee to help you mess it up. And he. Jesus, found a lot of Pharisees to help him mess things up. But I'm saying he said, you shall know the tree. How? How will you know a tree? Jesus said by by its own fruit. He said, well, that's judging. No, it's not judging when it's right there. That's not going to motive. That's just called fruit inspection, right? You say, well, in other words, I'm going to make a judgment here. Now, that's a green chair you're sitting in. You say, well, you ain't got no right to say it's green. Well I do, I can see it's green. I'm not colorblind. It might be different shades of green, but that is a green chair.
Pastor West: [00:24:53] Why? I inspected it with my eyes. How many believe it's a green chair? How many? Don't believe that. Okay, I see those hands. Yeah. Did you raise your hand? She's not listening tonight. Okay. Praise the Lord. No, I'm just kidding. So the Bible says as he is. As he is. This is first John four. As he is, so will you be one day in heaven? Is that what it says? Do we actually believe that as he is? So are you now on this side of heaven? My gosh. So everything connected to the order of the old man was crucified and died buried. And please let it stay buried. Everything that was crucified and died buried and now needs to stay buried. So we're talking about identification in a time of life where people are confused about identification, even their own self, even their own gender identification means to you just look at it means to make identical or to consider or treat one and the same, to treat one and the same. So from the time Jesus went to the cross until he sat down at the right hand of God, everything he did, he did it as man's substitute. He was your stand in, right? He was acting on man's behalf. He didn't come down and do this for himself. He didn't need this man. He didn't have a problem. He didn't have migraines. He wasn't confused. Jesus didn't come down here to be canceled.
Pastor West: [00:26:31] The Holy Ghost didn't come down here to sit on the advisory board. That was the last I never forget that. 1999, you and I went to Pastor John Osteen's church in Lakewood, and we went there in November 99th. And he passed a couple months after that, in January of 2000. And that was his theme for the week. The Holy Ghost came to take charge of the church, and I'll never forget it. I'll never forget him saying he did not come to sit on the advisory board. He's not casting his vote to see if the votes turn out. No, he came to take charge of the church and the Holy Ghost. If you'll let him, he'll take charge of your life. He'll take charge of that mess that you got. Amen. Here. You say what? Mass? You know what I'm talking about. But you look at me like that. You say what? Mass. No. He'll take charge of that situation. He knows what to do. He has so many ways to do it. We're trying to think of one. And he knows 5000 ways to do it. Next 10s. His biggest thing is just like, which one do I want to do this time? And sometimes what we do is we watch God do a miracle for us. Then we get in the same situation, a similar situation. You know, six months down the road, two years down the road and we and we and then we go to prayer.
Pastor West: [00:27:46] And in our prayer we tell the Lord how to do it again. Well, he doesn't need our advice and he may not ever do it that way again. But just know this he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. And he can't wait to give you your answer. I'm telling you, he's excited to give you your answer. The Lord wants to get this to you more than you want it. Oh, I don't know if y'all even heard what I said. Some of you are basing that on your experience and say, well, you're just trying to preach positive thinking. Well, I'd be better than negative thinking, but I'm not trying to do that. The Lord wants you to have the answer. He wants you to have the breakthrough. He needs you to have the breakthrough. Because if you could get a breakthrough, you'd know how to help someone else get a breakthrough. If you know how to get your prayers answered, you could teach someone else. That's called discipleship. This is not the long and suffering life This is the place where I prayed. God heard the righteous and he delivered me from all my troubles. You ought to come to know this. Jesus. Yeah, it's called good news. Then the people come. Keep piling in. They keep piling in. Why? Because they heard a testimony. They seen the goodness of God. You put God on display.
Pastor West: [00:28:57] You got him in the showcase window, and they want to come and hear about the God in your life. Because they see him answering your prayers. They see you smiling, full of joy, and you're happy and you work at the same place they do. They think they can't work here. Like no one can work here and be happy. But you are. Then they want you to take a drug test to see why you're really happy. And you're happy. Not because of what you're taking. You're happy because of who you are and whose you are and who you know and what you know, right? Count it all joy. Because you know you know. Amen. Now, so Jesus went on our behalf and through the through the death of Baron Resurrection. You could call this the divine process, the death, burial, resurrection. And he went to annihilate the the old sinful man that we were. And he made us a new creation out of that. A brand new creation. A brand new species of being. Someone that has never existed on this planet. You're a god, man. You're a god woman on this planet. You went through the divine process called the new birth. And now you identify with that. Because now Jesus, when he was resurrected through his mighty resurrection, he resurrected you too. So we're the new creation. We're the we're the new creation nation through the new birth. And you've been born out of God.
Pastor West: [00:30:23] One translation says, he says your womb mates with Jesus. My gosh, womb mates with Jesus. Boy, that just makes you want to spit in the cup from here in the foyer, don't it? I think it would carry the weight of it. And you got to plug it back in our mouth. And we could just. We could wring the can 40 foot away. Womb mates with Jesus, my Lord. Who came out first? Well you didn't. He did. Amen. We just. We just grabbed his coattails. Or his tail. I don't know which one we did anyway. We came out with him. We grabbed his. We grabbed his ankles and came out. So here we are, born of God. I got to watch that. And Lord, forgive me for that. Amen. Born out of spiritual death. Born into spiritual life. Well, we don't want to talk about who we used to be so much, but we did. We came out of death. We came out of misery. We were some kind of a mess. We were a wreck. But now we got a testimony. Ooh, man, we got a testimony. We're the new man. We're the new woman. I mean, y'all the woman. I'm the man. Amen. I mean, you got to preach more of this specifically in our day and time because confusion. Amen. Now. And and out of this new man, we are connected only, only to a holy God. Listen to this. You got to turn there.
Pastor West: [00:31:47] But this is a paraphrase. It's called the freedom dynamics. It's Romans 425. Listen to it. When we acknowledge God as the awesome power who restored life to Jesus, we recognize he made His son our stand in our agent as our stand in. He paid the death penalty due us by law for our crimes. And as our agent, he is restored to life and has made us accepted as though we were deserving as he was. Man he stood in made us deserve it. He didn't used to be deserving, but now he's made you deserve it. Because as he is, so are you. Is Jesus deserving as he is? So are you. Well, I'm just in no wreck. No you wasn't no wreck in the wreck and all that. But now you're not a wreck. You're the son of the living God. Sons of the living God. Adopted sons of God. Your blood children. You're. You're a blood child of a blood Jesus. Amen. Now, let's shift gears a little bit. Let's talk about spiritual warfare. No one wants to talk about that, but we've got to do it anyway. You know why? You know why. We need to talk about spiritual warfare. Because some of you don't even know you're in a war. I mean, I mean, you might think, well, that's what this was. Yeah, that's what it was. I mean, you might as well know that you're in a war if you're in one, right? I mean, if you've been attacked, don't you want to know that you've been attacked? I'm just telling you, it's Wednesday.
Pastor West: [00:33:17] But it's not just any kind of Wednesday. It's this way because of the time that you're living in. But it is called spiritual warfare. And it's all about beliefs, okay? I mean, I've read I wrote this down this afternoon, and I made it just as simple as I know how to make it. Spiritual warfare is all about beliefs. Your adversary is trying to get you to believe wrong. Can you understand that? Is that hard? No. Every attack the enemy makes against you is to negatively affect your faith. He's trying to deplete you of what God has deposited in you. He's trying to make a withdrawal, and God has already deposited In your spirit. That's why it's called. And you know we won't go there. First Corinthians 612. It's called fight the good fight of faith. What is a good fight? It's one that you win. Right. Not a good fight if you lose. But Paul calls it the fight of faith. It's a spiritual fight. It's not a physical fight. It's a spiritual fight. It's a faith fight. It's an act of war. Amen. It's not imaginary. You say, am I just imagined this trouble? No, no it's not. It's not a figment of your imagination. It's real. Yeah. Your faith is being challenged and tried, and someone is going to be left standing.
Pastor West: [00:34:43] Because it's an act of war. So spiritual warfare is a battle of beliefs. So therefore it has to do with thoughts. We started off in Romans 15. I didn't know. How do I know? I'm in faith. You got joy and you got peace. Why? You believe it? You mean, are you telling me I could have joy and peace and be in war? Remember, Paul was locked up in a stockade. In acts chapter 16 at midnight. And he was. He was singing and he was dancing. He was doing the woo woo. And Paul and his wife Silas. Remember? Remember Paul. His wife Silas. Locked up in prison. Tell me. Y'all know better than that. You know, wasn't his wife. Paul and Silas, they were locked up at midnight, and they were singing. You ever. Anyone ever worked in prison ministry? You ever go in there and most of them aren't singing. They're. They're not singing. So here they're singing. Why are they singing? Because they have an inner joy. They have an inner peace. And their circumstances can't make that go away, no matter what the circumstances are. It can't make it go away because the world, the saying is the world didn't give it to you, so the world can't take it away. When Jesus gives you peace, it doesn't matter what happens in the storm because it's his peace. Remember he said, my peace I leave with you. He didn't say, look here, I got some peace down at the thrift store.
Pastor West: [00:36:13] I'm gonna send it to you in the mail. This is not thrift store peace. My peace. I will leave with you. Then he says it's not the kind of peace that the world can ever give you. He said, it's my peace. And Jesus is the prince of all peace. So you have the prince of all peace kind on the inside of you, so you can stay calm. You can stay peaceful. You can stay full of joy. You can smile. You can be happy when everything around you seems like it's falling apart. Now your mind, while all this is happening. It is writing out an essay about what's going on with you. I mean, this essay goes on for, you know, I mean, it's many pages to it. It's got chapters. It's got sequels to it. It's telling you where this thing is headed, and it's. No, it's not. It's not a good story. And then if it's a physical thing, your body says, yep, yep. That's it, that's it. Mama had it. Granddaddy had it. And then? Then you. Then you do the math and see how long they was here. And then you figure out your life from there. So. Oh, my gosh, I only have, like, 12. 12 years, 12 days, 12 months. Where does that information come from? Who told you that? Who? Who told you that? Who told you that? You didn't get it from the book.
Pastor West: [00:37:26] That's settled. That's right. You didn't get it from the book to settle. I mean, if you leave here 42 years old, you ought to be the happiest 42 year old ever walked the planet. No one who goes to heaven at any age is sad. They're there. Can you imagine? You said I left Jefferson and I was the only 36 years old. And now I'm in Paradise. You think you're gonna need counseling to be in Paradise? Oh, you mean you want to come back to Jefferson? Yeah. I was just about put in the job application over at Piggly Wiggly. And the Lord took me. Well, he may not have took you. You might have volunteered. You know, when you walked in front of that bus. Yeah. You might have took yourself. Anyway, let me go on. So spiritual warfare. It's the battle of beliefs. So it has to do with thoughts. Because that's how you came to believe something. I told you, it's going to be simple. Thoughts was revealed to you. How? Through words and ideas. How am I communicating to you tonight? Through words and ideas. And some of it's foolishness. But that's on purpose by design. Especially on night services. Why? Because Paul says the foolish to the preaching. Right. It doesn't make any sense to the mind. This is God. This is how God chose to reveal himself and to reveal to you and to bring faith into your life.
Pastor West: [00:38:57] It's through thoughts and words and ideas. Your beliefs govern everything in your life. Everything. Your beliefs are governing everything in your life. So therefore, that's why the war is over. After you believe. Now, that doesn't mean that there's not a tax. But in other words, it's like an earthquake and it happens. But whatever happens, happened. And now just the rumblings. And that's just the tremors. But it's all but it's all over now. And it looks like it's. No, but but it's all over. It's completely over now. So your your beliefs govern everything and they govern everything in your life. We know, we know. Proverbs 23 seven as a man thinks in his heart. So is he. You notice he didn't say, as your pastor thinks in his heart, that's who you are too. Doesn't work that way. Let me be good if it worked that way. So every war is over. Control. Think about what's happening in Israel right now. What's it over? In one sense, in the natural side of things, it's over control. There's someone who wants control of this land and of that land. And so the war is over control. And when the war is over, it's the winner who has control. Right. And Satan controls people. That's what he wants to do. Control people. How does he do it? He can only control people. Christians, if they have an unrenewed mind. He can't do it any other way. He does it through deception of a sin conscious mind.
Pastor West: [00:40:40] Now we're talking about believers. He's not supposed to have control over a believer. But he's most effective to deceive a believer if he has a sin conscious mind. Not not a son, son of God, not a son conscious mind, but a sin conscious mind. The more Satan can make you aware of your faults and your mistakes, the more he will control your destiny. When a person who is saved understands that there is no longer no condemnation to those who is in Christ Jesus, at that moment, he loses total control. I thought someone might be happy. I just let me go. There's a church up here, I think. I mean, did you see right there when I read it, said Those in Christ Jesus, you know, he loses control. Well, I thought that was good news. Okay. You go sit on the back and bring them. Bring somebody else. I don't even know if you give an offer. And I don't even know. What are you. Can't go home with somebody. I might be in trouble. He loses control, but he runs a bluff, man. You're not talking about that today. He'd be good at poker, wouldn't he? Yeah. Boy, he got a bluff. He got a face like that. I mean, you think he's got, you know, the winning hand every time. He doesn't have anything. He's playing the old mate. He's. He's playing old mate. He tells you go fishing.
Pastor West: [00:42:23] I said I ain't going fishing. You go fishing. My, my, my sins is in the sea of unforgiveness. I ain't going back and fishing for them no more. I might snag one. I'm here to forget it. Did you ever notice that the Satan will never let you forget what you did wrong? Them and a few family members, but I'm just about. But other than that, you know, I think Satan has some cousins, some nephews, and they kind of remind you of down there. Boy, I tell you what, you remember back. No, I don't remember that. I said that wasn't me. Well, it was you. You ain't gonna sit there and tell me when you did so-and-so. No, I never did that. They look at you like if your name was Ralph, they say, Ralph, how could you not remember when you did like this? I said, I never did that, and they'll tell you all the lies like, oh, oh, oh, oh, well, he died. And they was like, what's wrong with you? Well, you got the mind of Christ finally, right? You put on the mind of Christ. They think you lost your mind and you didn't. They didn't even know that was your goal. My goal is to lose it, right? Your goal, I guess, is to keep it. You need to lose your mind. Your cotton picking mind. I know that's probably wrong to say cotton picking today is like, whatever.
Pastor West: [00:43:46] They threw it out with Aunt Jemima and all that kind of stuff. My gosh, I think it'd be the funniest thing to where we all get to heaven. Jesus. Just as black as the ace of spades. I mean, I mean, Christians would faint all over the place in Jesus, and then he'd do a little like this, like this, and like, can I transfer? Yeah, you sure can if you want to. Yeah, but. But see how even words like this, they say this means this, and this means this. And tearing statues down. Most of them didn't know there was a statue to be tore down. Right. And what it's supposed to represent, you know, there's only two races on the planet. Yeah. Saved and lost. Right. Amen. Amen. I learned that from Pastor Buzzy. He first said it. He said there's only two. And I thought I told him. I said he must. He must be tired tonight. She said why? He said his own traces on the earth. I said, everybody know there's at least four. But he kept on preaching. He explained it. He said, yeah, they just lost and saved and lost. That's the only two races there are. He told me one time he said, I don't I don't know if I have any more. He said this one time, but he meant it too. He says, I don't know if we have any more room in my church to grow. He said, I wish some of the white people leave some room, some black folks.
Pastor West: [00:45:07] He said he said they'll amen you. He said they get excited. He said they love to worship and praise. He said they make some noise. They'll help you preach. He said, I love, I love, I love them. He said, there's enough black folks in my in my church to make two Tarzan movies. I said, oh my gosh, I can't believe you just said that. But he didn't mean nothing bad about it at all. At all. He said some of the most genuine people on the planet. He said, my, my best friends. And so he said, yeah, there's only two races on the entire planet. See, when you personal love, then you don't. You're not thinking about racist remarks. You're just. You're just, you know Amy was playing basketball years ago when she went to CA up here, and she came to watch her play one day and and one night, and she just had one of them nights, you know, it was just like, well, she probably took you out to me, I don't know. But anyway, she was stripping the net every time she put it in her hands. She was doing in three pointers, remember? Amy? He just liked it. Like she just couldn't miss one. And she was from far away, and she just. And after a while, he he said he just jumped up, you know, CA and there's a, there's a few pale faces there and he says, he said that's my niece.
Pastor West: [00:46:21] And he was out on the floor like this. And everybody looked at him like, you need to tell us something. Of course he left and we were all there. You know, we had to explain all that. But anyway. But that's exactly what he meant. That's exactly what he meant. He said this is just family. We are all the family of God, man. I'm having a good time, and I gotta stop. Keep going. Well. What else did I pay you to say tonight before we got here? Melissa, you left the list in. Okay. So, yeah, after every war is over, it's just over control, right? And he wants to control your destiny. But, but but that's not what's going to happen here. And so he wants you to see your life. Satan wants you to see your life through you. Like. Like you're running it. Oh, you're not, are you? You're not running your life, are you? Oh my gosh. We probably need to meet tomorrow then. No. He. He's warning you. Satan wants you to run your life. He's telling you, you know you need to have control of your life. He wants to put you as captain of this thing. No, but you see, it's not about you. If it's about you, then Jesus died in vain. Yeah. And you're. And we're actually saying that we that we. If it's about us, then he died in vain.
Pastor West: [00:48:02] And then we're not accepting him as our substitute. Which means now you have vain imaginations. Which is now means you're alienated from the life of God. Oh. That means that we take all of our directors from a sin conscious mind, which is called death. Oh. That means Satan is in control because you don't even know who you are. Oh. That means now righteousness has been unseated in your life because you're making all your decisions from a natural mind void of spiritual realities. Oh. How? However, you're only one belief away from going from defeated to victorious in the spiritual warfare. Amen. I don't care how far you went down the road, you can be lost for 50 miles. But as soon as you turn around, you may have a little while back. But as soon as you say, I'm going to get off the interstate, we went wrong. And as soon as you turn back and go the other way, you're on the right path. Amen. Amen. And what you do there is called a critical juncture. Don't go there in first Timothy chapter four, verse one. It talks about the end of days. The pastor, the pastor translation says in first Timothy four one, the Holy Spirit has explicitly revealed at the end of the age many will depart from the true faith, one after another, devastating themselves to spirits of deception and following demon inspired revelations and theories.
Pastor West: [00:49:30] King James says demons have doctrines. Your King James says that doctrines of devils, and they don't mind preaching to you. If you won't cast down thoughts and imaginations, then you'll you'll lose the faith that you have. You see, you're not possessed with God's promised you to take possession of what God has given to you. You're going to have to fight the good fight of faith. The Scripture says that we're supposed to lay hold of this eternal life. We're supposed to take possession of it. Amen. There's some stuff that you're called to, and there's some stuff that's called to you. Amen. Amen. Your posture has to be in this fight of faith. This posture will determine the outcome. You're not called to be sick and broke any more than you're called to live in sin and die and go to hell one day. You ought to be as mad about being sick and broke as you are about anything. You ought to be as mad as sin as you are about your child being attacked. I mean, if you had a cobra going down your hallway and going into the kids bedroom or rattlesnake whatever, I mean, even those who don't even want to touch one. But if it was going to your child, you'd be grabbing everything that you could bat, fly, swap 14 books, whatever the shoes, whatever, right? Because something precious is down in that room and something's after it. And we would even in our snakes, you know, we would still go on the attack with me.
Pastor West: [00:51:21] I know my wife. Would she be calling my name like nobody's business? She'd be on the table. Get in here, Get in here, get in here! Amen. We started remodeling this old house, and we found out there was roaches up there, and we sprayed them, and they got bigger. They said that's the best cocktail they'd ever had in a long time. I don't know how old that old house is. I imagine it's 115, 20 years old. And they said, we ain't going nowhere. We got here long for you was our great, great great great great great great great granddaddy is buried just right over there. And I just kept on pouring the juice to him, pouring the juice to him, you know, the old big ones. And you get up at 4:00 in the morning, you know, to go to the kitchen. You ever go to the kitchen 4:00 in the morning? Yes. This scripture. The Bible says, walk in the light and follow the light. And there's a light inside my refrigerator. It's calling. Wakes me up and there's that big old roach. He's on his back like this. Fell off the seat. Yeah. You know, I got an old saying. If you're gonna fall on your back, you know, if you're gonna fall down, fall on your back. Because if you fall on your back, if you can, if you can look up, you can get up.
Pastor West: [00:52:41] That don't apply to roaches. I said, if you fall on your back, you're you. You know what's mine? Fly swatter. Bam! I don't need my foot. I don't like that crunchy. It's like nasty because someone has cleaned up and they ain't gonna be me. Amen. Everything I say is not scriptural, but I want it to help you in life somehow. I mean, it's not all in the Bible. Amen. I've been accused of that for a long time. Amen. So. But we have this idea that that, you know, that it's going to take all these works. And I have to earn it with my faith. Boy, I remember when I used to think like that. I remember when I used to actually preach it like that. I didn't really say it that way, but it's what I was saying, that I had to earn it with my faith, that I had to get my faith stronger somehow. And it wasn't working. And faith comes by hearing, and I just need to get here and here and here and here and here and here and here. Now you can die hearing man. So somewhere we gotta we, you know, we got to get the order in. Somehow we got to take possession of it. And and because I didn't have it, I felt like there was something wrong with my faith. And so I just go back to hearing and hearing and confessing and confessing and confessing and, you know, I'd fess up.
Pastor West: [00:54:05] Y'all ever fessed up? I don't mean, you know, you know, in the booth where you go and tell the priest about the confession and confession is real. It's right. But but I was trying to confess it, to possess it. Yeah. And I even got books that says, you know, confession unto possession and there's a sense to that, that would be right. But I would have to hear you explain it to know if I could agree with that anymore. You see it would say, you know, confess it in. Well man, if it ain't already in, you better already be in it. You ain't going to confess it in. No. You just take possession. I mean, if you if you if you have the money to go buy a new car, then if you lay the money down, you can possess it. You don't get the money. And they go and then they go and tell y'all to go makes one. They do make them. But you might wait a minute right now. If you got the money, you lay it down and you, you take it home. That day. I guess it works the same way forwards to I don't know if you got the money, it probably does. But watch here. I don't earn it. With my faith. I access it with my faith. Amen. Amen. You see, is that much of a difference? Oh, gosh.
Pastor West: [00:55:26] Oh, you don't earn it with your faith. You access it with your faith. Your faith will access all the grace of God if you allow it. So then what will be your problem then. Well nothing's impossible with God. There are things that God has given to you that are yours, but you don't see them yet or have them naturally. Amen. God gave them to you when he said it. Not when it shows up. If you want to think like God thinks in his mind. He said he's giving it to you. Yeah. Amen. Amen. I mean, just think about Joshua chapter six. There he is, standing right there. And Joshua's like that, and they're looking at Jericho, and he says, you go and read it some time. Joshua chapter six, verse one. What does he say? See the city I've given to you. And Joshua is like. That one. The one with all that military one with all them guards. Yeah. I gave that to you. You did? Do they know that? I mean, have you all worked out of some kind of deal I don't know about yet? Oh, yeah. Well, there's going to be a few things. Y'all going to march around that say nothing, and one day you're going to say something, and then. Then you're going to shout, and then walls are just going to fall down when you shout. He says the walls are going to fall down when we shout.
Pastor West: [00:56:48] Oh yeah. Lord, you've been on this job a long time, ain't you? When's the last time you had a vacation? You're telling me we going to walk around there just quiet as a church mouse? Then on the seventh time we're going. We're just going to shout. Yeah. Yeah. And it's going to fall down. Just like how he said it's going to crumble. When we shout. I allowed. Everything to be destroyed except for Rahab. We're going to save the prostitute. The church always wants to save the prostitutes. Not so much. Well, so nothing's impossible, is it? No. So in God's mind, he. He says. Well, let me ask this question to you. How God thinks. Does God know time? Does God live in time? He created our time, right? But does he live in the time we created? No. I mean, is it 8:00 in heaven right now? You say? Well, I don't know if God's on Central Standard Pacific or Mountain Time. Which one is he? Yes he is. He's 10 million years ago and 10 million a year. He's in that time. See, when you know everything, it's it's easy to give advice, right? I mean, if you knew everything, couldn't you have a great day on the stock market tomorrow? I've never invested a penny. I'm not against it. But if I had that kind of knowledge, I could have me a banner today. Can you, Mr. Keith, if you just knew everything, I'd be borrowing money from all y'all.
Pastor West: [00:58:38] I'm thinking. I know it sounds bad, but just trust me, it's going to be a great day tomorrow. I have talked with God. Hunt's ketchup is the way to go tomorrow. We are in bowling balls. We are it going to change your life forever? Amen. Why? Because we got some inside information. Amen. I mean, for God, it would be insider trading. But what are they going to do to him? Right. You can't arrest someone you can't see. So when God told Abraham, he said, I have made you the father. I have made you the father of many nations. Your descendants, you can't even count them. He says, I think I can. Wayne got in there one. I mean, my descendants are greater than the seashore and the stars, he says. He says, Lord, have you had a vacation since Joshua asked you about Jericho? No. He says no. Now, you just said to me, you made me a promise 25 years ago. We are owed. Which is more than old. Owed? Yeah. Owed. Me? Me and Sarah. We have our own bedrooms now because we can't stand each other's snoring. We don't even want another kid anymore. That was back when we didn't know better. Yeah, but you're going to have one. Lord, I'm 99 years old. You better know something about faith. Yeah. Not just to have one. That'd be part of your faith. It's like raising it after 99.
Pastor West: [01:00:33] Of course, he had a lot of servants. You know, they were rich, right? So he didn't have to play with the kids. He just tell them. Play. Play that boy. Play. Change diaper bottle play. And every now and then, you pick him up. He says I am your father. I got to quit eating Chinese food for ice cream. That's something. It does something to me. I don't know what it is. So. In God's mind. Was Abraham already blessed to be the father of many nations in God's mind? Had it already taken place? Naturally? Had it taken place? But was it as good as done? Amen. So if we. If we could just believe that simple. This thing that I have struggled with for so long. It's done. Amen. How? By faith. Right. Amen. Then you would adjust your thinking and you're believing. Remember faith test. How do you know your joy and peace? In what? In your believing. Right. Well, see if you have to give a definition to faith. And I'll finish here. If you have to give a definition with faith. Just say faith received. If it's ever going to be faith, you've finally got to come to the place that you say before you see it, I got it. If Hebrews 11 one means anything, if Mark 1123 and 24 means anything, what things soever ye desire, when you pray, believe that ye received it. I mean, that means took it.
Pastor West: [01:02:31] Received means. Took it. And see in God's language believe that you received it when you prayed. That means got it, took it, received it. You say, well, I don't see it. Well, it doesn't mean it don't exist. Right. There's all kinds of things in spirit realm that you don't see with your eyes at all. We are always counting on oxygen to be in this room. We got here, but we don't see it at all. But apparently it is here. How many? Never saw your brain. I mean, you never took it out. And they. Because you just want to see it one day and then they put it back in. But you know but you know, we have one right now. So you're not earning it with your faith because you can't earn something that already belongs to you. You can't earn what God has past tense provided to you by grace. Someone said, well, it was unbelief that kept him from possession. Well, that's true, but why get into unbelief? You might say, well, unbelief kept him out. Well, yeah, but why go there? Why get into unbelief? Why didn't they act on second Corinthians ten three five? Why didn't they cast down thoughts and imagination? Everything. Because I told you it was a war. I told you it was a fight. I told you it was a good fight. But I told you you'd have to fight. But you're fighting from a place of finished.
Pastor West: [01:03:51] What are you doing? You're enforcing. You're enforcing. That's all you're doing. You're enforcing what's already finished. Amen. A policeman is only enforcing the laws. That's on the book. He's not making them. He's enforcing what already is. What do we do? We just enforce. Enforce the victory that Jesus already fought and paid for. The only battle that you have to fight that's yet determine what the outcome is. Did you hear what I'm saying? The only battle that you as a believer have to fight with an undetermined outcome is anything that Jesus didn't pay for. Now let's think. Oh man, that's good. Wow. So Faith would have to say what? All things are possible to him that believeth. Man, you ought to. You ought to stir yourself up in these things. Amen. Amen. Amen. Somebody say, well, I already know about faith. Do you? I don't know how he know anything about it. Why don't you sit down and help me? I barely know anything about it and have some great days out of that. Looking for some more We can go from faith to faith and from glory to glory. Amen. Just because you know you knew of something doesn't mean you're steadfast in it. See, sometimes we just like. Well, you know, I don't know that I've really been speaking things like I should. I don't even know that I've been actively thinking about this is a war. Well, he doesn't want you to think it's a war.
Pastor West: [01:05:28] He doesn't want you to think about a war. He just wants you to think it's just life. And you got problems all around you. Okay, this is where we're finished. Right here. So they said, well, it was unbelief. Sure it is. But you didn't have to go there. You should've went to second Corinthians ten three five. Cast down thoughts and imagination, everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. They were heading down the wrong road, listening and communing with the wrong spirit. They were expressing thoughts and feelings when they should have been resisting. They fixed, fixated on something other than the truth, which is one of the main taxes of spiritual warfare, is fixing your thoughts on things that are lies and deceptions of the enemy, blinding the eyes of the minds of those who believe not, lest they believe, lest they believe. Blinding the mind. If the mind is blinded, the heart doesn't believe. There's nothing any more powerful on the planet than a believer, a believer, a believer. Who are you? You're a believer in him. You live and move and have your being. While I'm fully persuaded, I'm easily persuaded to believe. It shouldn't be hard. I'm easily persuaded to believe. What did God say? That settles it. That's right. Yeah, but my body. See? It's not denial. I'm not about denial. I'm not talking about deny the symptoms. I'm not talking about deny the lack of this. I'm talking about going to the promised book of over 33,000 seeds in here and saying, this is what said it's not me, it's him.
Pastor West: [01:07:12] It's not me to make it good. It's impossible for God to lie. People say, well, nothing's impossible with God. Well, there's one of them. It's impossible for God to lie. So I know he has one impossibility. It's impossible for God to lie. Stand on that. Stand on that word. So how long until you don't need to stand anymore? But you do it in a posture of rest and joy and peace in believing. See, faith has its joy, you know. I mean, it's not believing. If you're like, I'm. I'm. I'm being believing God. Really? You want to come to church with me? We're we're believing God. You know, times are tough, but we're believing you want to come. No. No, no. Well, I'll be like you. Yeah. You could be like us. No, no, no. So you could have joy in the testimony, right? That Daniel was okay when they put him in the lion's den? Did he have some thoughts? He probably did. There's a natural side about being lowered down into a den of lions. I mean, I don't know. We'll ask him when we get there. Right? I mean, the man knew the penalty. Let's just be honest. Most of us would have closed shutters, went down to the basement and did our praying that no one would ever know, and said, God, you do understand.
Pastor West: [01:08:42] I'm still going to pray, but not so much in open for the next three days. He just opened. It was just Thursday and they called him. They knew. They said they knew how they could catch him. They said he, Daniel is a non flincher. You know I won't do this to you, but thank you. You know how people do like this right here. Make you flinch. Daniel was a non flincher. Anyone prays to any anyone? Nebuchadnezzar. That statue right there. If you pray, it's over. Well, you got Nebuchadnezzar. You got that one. You got that one. So he went into the lion's den. He went in there. Your faith don't always keep you out of the trouble. It will keep you in the trouble. He said I'll be with you in trouble. I prefer out of the trouble. We all do, right? But. But the Lord went in to the den, and the Bible says he shut their mouth. Amen. He shut their mouth. You got some devil's been bothering you? He shut their mouth. He is shot in a big, stupid mouth. Amen. Amen. I'm not thinking of anyone. I'm just saying. I told him. I did say demons, right? Right. Yeah. I didn't say you. Cousin, I'm talking about demons. He shut their mouths. You say? Well, maybe. Maybe they'd already fed the lions that day. Oh, well, I don't think. I don't think that's what it was.
Pastor West: [01:10:17] I mean, yeah, just go to the zoo and put your hand there and say, well, did y'all feed them? Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna go and try this. Then you pull out. You thought I used to have a hand there. It was like sticking it in a school full of piranhas, you know? Just know it's because he shut their mouth. Amen. Did you know that the next thing that's going to happen, even in this church, that I tell y'all. Great joy. Great joy is breaking out everywhere.
Congregation: [01:10:50] Glory.
Pastor West: [01:10:51] I hope we'll still be able to preach every now and then. No. I'm serious. You know how I know that? He told me. But he said, Go to acts chapter eight and read verses five through eight. You know, Philip went down to Samaria and he preached and people were getting delivered, healed, set free, delivered. It says, and there was great joy, great joy. Why do they have great joy? People get delivered everywhere.
Congregation: [01:11:13] Yes.
Pastor West: [01:11:14] So if you're in a service Sunday or any other time and great joy hits you, go, go ahead and let it out. Yeah. Don't hold great joy in. Don't ever do that. It will expand you at the hips. You could get two more chins. You let great joy out. Because sometimes. Sometimes people don't live by faith. They live by the personality. And they just need someone like Mr. Beale who might just take a lap or two. And you think, wonder what he's so happy about. I bet he ain't got nothing. I bet that man ain't got a problem in the world on his second or third lap. I said, now he can have no problems like me. I bet he never had a challenge. Just watch him just run around and we all should have done. We just got in there and you know, and he was the locomotive and we just looked we just, you know, hooked up and went with him. Forgive us, Mr. Bill. Amen. We're going to start believing the Bible just like you. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. Well, we're not receiving any offering tonight, so praise the Lord. But we'll do that Sunday. Yes, sir. No, not against it.
Pastor West: [01:12:21] But I mean, there's there's no. We were on the air conditioning like, all day long, but but that's, you know, just whatever. Every now and then someone will say all they want is your money. I thought, well, I'll kill that real quick. Well, you ain't taking none tonight. I watched Brother Copeland do that one time in Branson, and they was at least 3500, 4000 people in the room, and you could tell he didn't know he wasn't going to do it until he said it. He said he said that he was getting ready and in the service this time. And he says well, we're not going to do an offering tonight. And you just think, you know, you could watch preachers like the wheels turning, like, you know, all them people ain't going to be back tomorrow. Oh my God, that 3500. Oh my gosh. Does he know what he's doing? He he knew what he was doing He knew who his source was. And it wasn't the people right. See, that's that's part of the joy, too. Yeah. Isn't it great joy? There's great joy in giving, but there's great peace in knowing that God is my source.
Congregation: [01:13:31] That's right.
Pastor West: [01:13:31] No matter what the stock market does, no matter who's in the white House. Right. Because great joy.
Congregation: [01:13:40] Amen.
Pastor West: [01:13:41] I bless you in the name of Jesus. Thank you for joining us tonight.
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