Speaker1: [00:00:00] Good, Good. We want to welcome you tonight. And those of us who joined us tonight on the broadcast audience. We're going to just dive right into the the message tonight. Tonight was one of those things that's telling Michelle this afternoon that I woke up this morning. Some of the moments I'll tell you about when you woke up. It's like, what day of the week it is. You know, the first 30s. But before I got any of that, I heard Minister this tonight, and then I had to find out. I said, oh, that would be tonight. And what's funny about it is, you know, God with God, there is no time is I mean, he doesn't know Monday from Saturday or February from November. He said the end of the year is here. He said, go back and do some more. On finishing strong. But the way he said it was as if I had ministered it Sunday. Well, I had to go back and that was June of 2023. But he said like, you know, just go ahead and do the next one. I'm like. Okay, so it took a while for me to to locate some stuff, but then. So we're going to cover a little bit of that tonight because we do want to finish strong. The year is about to come to an end and we only have a few more days. And you know, you don't have to clock out. You can go ahead and stay in and go ahead and get all of it.
Speaker1: [00:01:19] There might be some more juice left in the seed. I believe there is actually. And our key verse, and when we taught this series back in 23, there were several verses. But Proverbs 1814 and this is what it says. It says the strong spirit. We're talking about strength tonight. We're talking about finishing the race. You know, a lot of people start, but they don't all finish. It's not hard to find starters, but you're sometimes hard pressed to find a finisher. And so Proverbs 1814 says. The strong spirit of a man or woman will sustain them in bodily pain or trouble. But a weak and broken spirit who can raise up or bear the message. The message says a healthy spirit conquers adversity. But what can you do when the spirit is crushed? So a strong spirit will sustain us, strengthen us, keep us moving, keep us going forward. Once again, the message that a healthy spirit. Well, if you could have a healthy spirit, then I suppose you could have an unhealthy. And we're talking about not tonight. All this. But, you know, sometimes we divide spirit, soul and body for the soul of under or for the, for the purpose of understanding and study. But really they're all connected. I mean, these are yes, we are a spirit and we do have a soul and we live and we do live in a body.
Speaker1: [00:02:52] But actually all three of these work together at one time. And so you don't want, you can't exclude. Obviously the body by itself. Because without the spirit, without the without the soul, the body wouldn't function. It would just it would be what we call dead. Right. And so here he talked about if your spirit is strong, if your spirit is healthy instead of a weak spirit, then even if you go through a time of bodily pain or trouble or adversity, your spirit will carry you through. If it's strong. In Ephesians chapter six, verse ten, Paul said, be strong in the Lord. Draw your strength from him, and be empowered through your union with him. That's really good, isn't it? Be strong in him. You know, people talking about, you know, I'm strong. Well, yeah, but one day you're going to meet your match. A day will come that, you know, we'll things, situations, life. You may not even have to take a devil to do it. Just life itself will find the match for your for your strength. People may have more fortitude than others. More strength to endure certain things. But Paul didn't say, be strong in you. He said, be strong in him. Draw your strength from him. Be empowered through your union with him. And be empowered through your union with him and the power of his boundless might. That's really good. Would like to say it this way. That's a very familiar verse in Ephesians six nine where Paul says, because it's a letter, actually, it starts with, you know, in conclusion.
Speaker1: [00:04:36] So he's coming to the end of the letter, and then he tells you in conclusion, be strong, notice, be strong was a commandment. He needs us to be strong. The way I got the the message which I told you this morning, if it came to me that way, he needs us to be strong. When he says, Minister, this tonight. He needs us to be strong. You know the old saying, only the what's the what's the only if there's a song or the saints that only the strong survive. He said, wasn't that in a song years ago? But anyway, it would be true that the strong are the ones who survived. First Corinthians 1613 says, be on guard and stand firm in your faith. Be men and women of courage. Do everything in love. Be strong. Be on guard. Stand firm in your faith. Be of good courage. What he. What he did not say. And sometimes you can know what he. Sometimes you can hear it better by knowing what he did say. He didn't say. Try not to be weak. No, he said be strong. He didn't say be strong in most things. He didn't say be strong. Most of the time. What can you actually be strong at all times? I mean, is that is that even possible? I mean, is it.
Speaker1: [00:06:00] I mean, I'm just. I'm asking you all. I mean, is it that is it that that we could be strong at all times in all things? Well, some people would would beg to differ with you, but if you're if you're more focused on your, on the flesh than you are the spirit, then no, you can't be. I remember I had this written down that I a year and a half ago and it was and we said this instead of using I'm human as an excuse to walk in the flesh, try using, I'm saying, as a reason to walk in the spirit so you can walk in the spirit, and you can be strong in the spirit if you if you're living and walking in his ability and his might, can't you? Amen. Let's do a little strong versus weak comparison. Strong when I looked it up in the Strong's and just the dictionary, it says having the ability to bear and endure firm and to be solid, able to sustain attacks. So there's some benefits here that if we're strong in him, we're strong in our faith, we're strong in the in his word and his might. He didn't notice. He didn't say, if you're strong in him, you can avoid the attacks. Always. That's what I used when I first got started in the Things of Faith and 1990. I thought, well, if we can use faith, we'll just use faith to stay out of trouble.
Speaker1: [00:07:32] And we won't have we won't have any trouble. We'll just use our faith to stay out of problems. And then we thought people had problems. You know, there's something wrong with their faith. Well, if that's true, Paul had no faith at all. He was the most messed up of the bunch. Could be you're having some attacks because you got some things right. And then you've you've got the attention of some people south of you that you're causing them a little bit of trouble. So they, they're wanting to come and talk to you about it. Yeah. I'll save that gun for later unless somebody wants it right now. Anyway, I wonder why the paper wouldn't come off the podium. Who would do something like that? So strong versus weak. Having the ability to bear and endure things. What Jesus said in this life, you're going to have problems. And no one bought that. No one bought that tape series. No one wants that tape series. No one wants to buy the tape series. You know about the fruit of the spirit, and no one wants to buy the tape series where it says you know, walk in love. And love pays no attention to a suffered wrong while you're suffering. No. No one wants to series on that. I mean, they don't actually they're not going to pay for it. I mean, who wants to go to a series like that? How to how to survive a crisis for the next 90 days? No, I don't want to go there.
Speaker1: [00:09:03] I want to go that at all. Tell us how how, how we're going to be all rich in 60 days. Yeah, we want that. Tell us about prosperity and what God's just about to do. You can't you you can't hardly find seats for everybody to sit down. Well, what does week mean? Well, if you just look it up, it means to be soft. You know, I know a thing or two because I. I've seen a few things, too. I have been, I've been around enough to to see and observe and to pay attention. You know, back when we used to do a lot of cassettes and, and then CDs, people would order certain things. And it was, it was just interesting to see what they would order. They didn't they didn't order the stuff that, you know, that was the, you know, that was the the meat and potatoes. Well, not even that. They didn't order the, you know, the broccoli, Brussels sprouts. And they didn't get the asparagus and and the broccoli and the rutabagas. They got the apple pie and the chocolate cake. You know, things that make you shout. Want to run around the room? But if you, you know, I'm not mad at chocolate cake, I'm just going to let you know. And but you can't eat it every meal because you'll get soft, especially around the gut.
Speaker1: [00:10:15] You'll be full gospel when you might need to be a lean, mean preaching machine. So if you're not going to be strong, then you might be weak. And weak means to be soft, to give away, not able to bear under great weight. If you're weak when the enemy comes, you're not able to resist a violent attack. Wow. Isaiah seven four says, take heed and be quiet. Hey, like a verse like that let me give you a modern day translation. Listen and shut up. Take heed, be quiet and don't. Don't fear and don't be faint hearted. See, these are commands. Don't be faint hearted. Don't be afraid. Well, a strong spirit is confident. Some people think that the people who's, you know, live according to who they are in Christ, and they understand who they are. They misunderstand, you know, their confidence for arrogance. They think, you know, he's just he's just sore. He just thinks he's something. He's trying to be like God. Well, he actually is. Probably because he found out the word he supposed to be. So when you have a strong spirit, you'll be confident, but you'll also be unmovable. So even when the report comes, it won't feel good when you first hear it, but you don't have to let it move you. You can move it. You know, the report doesn't doesn't have words to speak over itself. It's just it just comes with words. It's just sitting there. Quiet. The paper doesn't speak.
Speaker1: [00:11:47] When the doctor gives it to you, the x ray just sits there. But it has no ability to make itself worse or better. But when it gets in your hands, you do. The scripture says, whose report are you going to believe? That's why I don't ever and never have. All these years people say, well, I'm going to go to the doctor. I want you to agree that x ray is going to look just like this next week. I say, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to find something natural of this world, of the flesh and put my faith attached to it, to an x ray look a certain way. No, I'm going to believe the report of the Lord, because I've done this so many years that I've seen our faith applied. Change the x ray. You may not have been instantly. It may not have been the next x ray. But I've watched it changed many times over and over and over. I've watched people not have funerals many times. I've watched people not not lose limbs many times. And so I'm not going to put my faith on, on some x ray because think about it. You attach all that to something natural and they go the next day and have a have a negative report, and your faith goes right out the door with it. Not going to do that. And so, I mean, could you imagine Jesus if they'd had x rays.
Speaker1: [00:13:01] Now Jesus Thursday I'm going to go get an MRI on so-and-so. I want you to believe it's going to look like this. And Jesus said, okay, let's go see who's your doctor. And I need to know the medical stuff before I pray. I gotta know all the situations. Tell me the whole medical thing so I'll know how to use my faith. Jesus didn't. I mean, he just didn't. He never. There's nothing wrong with that. You know, people do it. I've done it. Whatever. You know, if you want to provide the information. But I don't see where we have to have a medical degree to pray for people. Do you? I mean, you can, you know, when you say, by your stripes, you're healed. What's not healed is taking a command. I mean, Jesus either said, you know, he he generally just addressed. He said what he wanted. The Bible says Peter's mother in law. He rebuked the fever or if it was a demonic spirit. He says go. Leave. Get out! He didn't have a conversation with the devil. He said go. Leave! Get out! Enter in no more. He called it a spirit of infirmity many times. And I've said this jokingly, but you know it's gotta be true. If there were spirits of infirmity, then there's got to be spirits. Infirmity. Now, I mean, does anyone believe that? I mean, if they existed, then don't they exist now? But when you go to the doctor and you got insurance.
Speaker1: [00:14:14] I mean, Blue Cross doesn't have a code for spirit infirmity, so they can't put that down. I mean, just call Blue Cross or someone and say, yo, I mean, what's the code for spirit of infirmity or a spirit of divination? What do we call it? They're not going to pay for that. No, it's got to be something different, something educated, something smart. Well, we get to make a choice. A strong spirit is steady under trouble. I like that. I like it, I like to be with people who steady under trouble. You know, sometimes when you feel like you're sinking and you got one nostril and one lip above the water, and all you're saying bubbling is, I'm. I'm winning. Boom, boom, boom boom boom boom. Then you're down. The lift's gone. Now it's just one nostril above will come out. No. I'm winning. I like people like that. I like people who don't quit. I like people who do quit. But I don't want to hang out with them all the time. Amen. You can get that spirit on you. Sometimes. It's like stepping in, you know, stuff gets on your shoe. You had to wear it for a while. And so, you know, you get around people who believe God and they're excited. They they help build you up. There's a strength that we get from each other because we're believers, Bible said.
Speaker1: [00:15:42] We're believers. There's you know, Ecclesiastes said two is better than one. I imagine three is better than two. Four might be better than all of it. So it didn't take didn't say how many numbers? How many? Bible only said it only takes two. If two shall agree, you say, well, I don't have no one to agree with me. We'll get the Holy Ghost. Agree with you. He probably agrees with the word. He might. He. He probably knows a few chapters. I suppose he does. So can we be steady under trouble? Here's another way of knowing that you have a strong spirit. Even in the trouble. You have joy full of joy and peace. I don't know if there's a whole lot of people like this. You're supposed to be because they're believers. But if you went by, if people is full of joy and peace, you would never know they even had any trouble. You just seem. Now there's someone who's never had any trouble. I mean, every time I see him, they're just always laughing and smiling. I mean, it's like. I mean, it just seemed like the odds. Eventually they, you know, they'd have some trouble, but I guess they don't ever have trouble. We used to do, you know, live music every every Sunday. You know, that's that's kind of what it looked like, you know, during the praise team, they come out there. This is the day, you know, Barbara could tell you she's had many people tell her through the years.
Speaker1: [00:17:02] I wish I had your life. Why is that? Well, you just don't have any problems. You're just happy all the time. You just up there laughing and clapping and just shouting and dancing and you're just happy all the time. But if you had my life, I thought if you knew what was going on in her life, you'd be sitting there cleaning up. You'd be filling up a Kleenex box. But she wasn't talking about that. She was talking about the word. She was singing the word. Why do we do that? Because that's what leaders do. Leaders set the temperature in the room. They don't reflect it. That's not always easy. Sometimes it's real difficult. Leaders can't take Winnie the Pooh days every day. It's okay to have some of them, but you don't. You can't strain too many of them along, you know, just you got to space them out. So a strong spirit will empower you through not only the physical attack, but the financial problems. You mean God will get involved in finances? Of course he did. I mean, they came to Jesus as a baby with gold, frankincense and myrrh and Bitcoin. Or I don't know that last one. I'm still studying that. I'm not sure what it is. Anyway, Jesus was the baby and he was rich. Amen. Is that they were able to pay off that that Hilton hotel bill, you know, in the trough.
Speaker1: [00:18:27] Remember, that strong spirit will sustain you during emotional issues. You know, sometimes your emotions try to get in in play. I don't mean from watching a movie that makes you cry. I'm talking about life. I'm talking about a phone call. I'm talking about one bad report. One serious talk with a doctor. You said. Well, I know what I do. Well, I don't. Well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't really know that you know what you do until you're in that situation, you can assume that you know what you would do and how you'd feel. But until a doctor utters those words to you, you don't really know what your faith is. That's just my opinion. You can do whatever you want to with it. You can assume this is where I'd be, but until you hear the doctor tell you this, you don't really know where your faith is. That's just my opinion. I can't prove that by the scripture. I can go around it and I think I can, but I want to interject that my opinion is until you're in that particular situation, until you hear those words, whatever those words are, you really don't know where your faith is. You know, God's not putting you in a test to see where you are. I think he's smart. He probably knows where you are. The test just reveals where you are. That's all it does. I mean, just think about going to school as a kid when you had a test.
Speaker1: [00:19:46] They graded it. What did they do? It just it just it just revealed where he was at. Are you paying attention? Are we communicating? Are you understanding what I'm teaching? Are you doing your homework? Do you care? That's all the test did. And when the tests of life come, it just reveals where we are. That's all it does. I've lost some battles. I don't know about you, but I have. I've had my rear end handed to me several times. I found, like Brother Hagan said, I found my head where where my feet was just a moment before then. Did it feel good? No, I didn't like it at all. And then. But but I got I got tired of being down, so I, so I got up. I got that scripture. What is it, Micah. He said, don't laugh at me, devil. Don't rejoice over me. I'm getting up. It's okay to fall down. Ain't never falling down. But I always said it this way. If you're going to fall down, fall on your back. Because if you can call on your back, if you can look up, you can get up. Amen. Any real leader is going to have some fall down moments. Amen. Why? Because the leader is going to get all the tomatoes thrown at him. Well, I want to climb the ladder. Well, the more that you climb, the more you're going to expose your rear end, the more they're going to throw stuff at your face.
Speaker1: [00:20:51] Yeah. Well, so these are things that we ought to consider. If you have a strong spirit, it will stop and silence stress, worry, fear and depression. Boy, that was a mouthful. Notice it didn't say. If you have a strong spirit and you take these pills and these pills, you won't have worry, fear or depression. It said a strong spirit to get it done. Well, we'll get to you in a moment. But. But how do you get a strong spirit? Well, maybe I find someone who has one. Lay hands on me and the gift of impartation. And I'll just be strong. If that works, let me know. I'm next in line. Because you found a great shortcut, and I went the hard way. No, it didn't work that way. And a strong spirit will fill you full of joy. Put a smile on your face. Put a spring in your step. Will lead you into victory. And will silence your adversary. Because he doesn't expect you to be too happy at this moment. He can't understand why you're happy because he knows what's wrong. How does he know what's wrong? Because he's the one that brought it. If he's the one who brought the problem and he knows that you have it, what is he doing? He's gauging you for your reaction. And when you're sitting there laughing, when he knows he's already buried three people with the same problem last Thursday, and you're laughing.
Speaker1: [00:22:06] He's like, he's gauging the success. And he's like, either this is not very effective or he's just stupid. I don't know what it is. He should have died no later than Friday. But no, we didn't do that. You know, there's not a verse in the Bible that asks God to get the devil off of you. You say, why would you mention that? Because I've got that a lot through the years. Lord would. Pastor, would you just pray and ask God to get the devil off me? They asked. Brother Hayden got that a lot when he traveled. He said, you want me to pray? What? To ask God to get the devil off of me so I wouldn't have so many problems. He said, you want me to pray, you die? No, I don't want to die. He said, well, that's the only way that's going to work is the devil to get the devil off of you. Wouldn't it just be wonderful? We just pray, Lord, I need you to handle something for me. What is it? The devil. What's he doing? He's awake. And I think I'm the only one he's picking on. And? And the guy said, oh, don't worry about that. 20 minutes, that'll all be gone. I can tell you what he did say in James four six through eight. He said, but he gives more grace.
Speaker1: [00:23:25] That is why the Scripture says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. But if you're proud he he opposes you himself. Wow, man, who'd want to be on the side of God opposing him? But he gives grace to those who are humble. That's verse six. Most people know verse seven, but they don't know the verse that I just read. They don't know this verse right here. Submit yourself to God, then resist the devil. Then he flees from you. To resist, you have to be strong, wouldn't you? If you're resisting the devil and winning, you have to be strong. Weak people can't resist him. I don't know if it's helping y'all. It's helping me. We are learning this. I don't know why we ever go over it again. Because we forget sometimes, don't we? Yeah. I woke up this morning. I was still laying in bed. I was like, what day is this? And you know, that first 30s to a minute, I'm trying to figure out what day it is. He said, Preach again on finishing strong. You're about over. And I said no. Oh, okay. I thought, it's Wednesday. But I mean, it was it was like, you know, it's like we had five day a week service and we just met yesterday and preached it. I thought, that's a year. That's a 18 months ago. But he acted like it was just, you know, that next one. Wow. He might even know what we need.
Speaker1: [00:24:54] I don't know. He. He might. Well, how do you know if you're weak? And how do you know if you're strong? Well, I'll give you a little indication. If your mind is governed or if your mind is being governed by your body or in your mind and your emotions, then you're living in your flesh. It's the flesh. Evil know. I mean, the flesh is not evil in that sense. I mean, I mean, I mean, we have to understand that God gave us all these senses to bless us, to to live in life. How many have something tasty for Thanksgiving? Go and have something for Christmas. Aren't you glad that you have the ability to taste? What if, what if? I mean, because there's people who have that issue. They have that problem. They can't taste anything. So they eat just to survive. But they can't taste anything. Wouldn't that be terrible? Well, so God gave our senses to us, to to help us, to bless us through life, but not to govern your life. And when your spirit's not in control, then generally your body and your and your senses are. And since that's in the area of the realm of the natural senses, the flesh, that's the area that the enemy has free reign. And he's good at it. He is good at it. I mean, there's no there's no need lying. He's good at this. He's good at attacking the flesh and the mind and the emotions.
Speaker1: [00:26:22] He's good at telling stories. He likes to tell you the ending of them too. He likes to tell you what your situation is going to look like. You know, tomorrow or in five years from now and all kinds of things. And I mean, you'll get a pain, you know, on your elbow. And he'll say that's, that's triple cancer right there going to take your elbow off next week. No, I mean you just hit it on, on, on the table or something on the counter. No that's a triple cancer. Your great great great great great great great great. Now, you didn't even know him. He had that lost both elbows. Hello. You get to believing that they'll be. They will. They'll bury you Tuesday. And so if your mind is governed by your senses, then you're living in the flesh. Then can I be honest with you? You're weak spiritually. You are. And weak people don't please God. He understands you starting that way. But he don't understand you staying that way. Everyone starts that way. You know, everyone here has been to school. Everyone here is almost finished school. Almost. Come on. Lexi. Almost finished school. Come on, Carter, let's finish school now. But, dad, was you allowed to stay in kindergarten or the first grade? The second grade. You. You passed. You got promoted, and you got promoted. And you got promoted. What if everybody who's ever a child in this church stayed in the nursery? I've been doing this long enough that some of them came in as small kids in their late 20s and 30s.
Speaker1: [00:28:03] Now, wouldn't that look? Wouldn't that be a sight? Whiskers and everything. That's not the plan of God, is it? No. So a person. Proverbs. Proverbs 2410. Listen to this in the message. You don't mind if I read the Bible, do you? Okay. Thank you. Message translation Proverbs 2014. If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in the first place. If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in the first place. A person with a strong spirit will be walking, controlled by the Holy Spirit, who will now take control of their mind by directing their mind to the word. I'm Lisa. I'm saying these things is about as simple as I know how to say them. A person with a strong spirit versus a weak spirit. They're walking, controlled by the Holy Spirit, right? In other words, he said, if you walk in the spirit, you won't. You won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. You won't. You won't live controlled by the central, the flesh realm. A person who's not even born again. You won't be living that life. So here's what you can do if you want to find out where you are, you can give yourself a self-examination test. You know, there's some tests that you can do at home now.
Speaker1: [00:29:33] Self-examination. You can do a pregnancy test. It's pretty accurate. I don't know. It's not it's not totally accurate because Michelle and I had four kids and it never showed me that I was pregnant, ever. And we had four kids, so I don't know. But it worked. It worked for her. Every time. A self-examination test Romans 1513 says, Now the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Ghost. Now what did Paul just say? May the God of all hope. May the God of all hope fill you with joy and peace and believing. Well, in this verse, Joy and peace in believing. A believer has what? At least those two components. What are they? Joy and peace in their believing. So you can do a self-examination test if you want to. If I were to ask you, how is your peace tonight? You say about what I say. Yeah. Are you full of joy? Oh, yeah. Oh, Joy. Well, you got to be able to fog up a mirror first. Joy, joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope. By the power of the Holy Ghost. Was Jesus weak? Was he a pushover? Was he wimpy or sheepish about Jesus? No, he was strong. He was bold. He was a champion, wasn't he? Did you know that you're one with him in spirit, and you just got through telling me he wasn't a pushover and he wasn't sheepish, and he wasn't.
Speaker1: [00:31:26] He wasn't a wimp. But he was bold. He was a champion. And you're one with him. You walk with him. You. You abide in him. You remain in him. You. You abide and remain with the champion. You imitate his character. But see if your picture of Jesus is wrong. Oh, well, that's a mouthful, isn't it? If you got the wrong concept and the wrong idea of Jesus, if you see him incorrectly, then you will imitate him improperly. People sometimes say and they actually mean it. So I'm suffering for Jesus sake. Really? Why? Why? I'm bringing him glory and honor by suffering for him you are. We'll just put that in the other room. Okay. You can work for a fortune 500 company, and you're going to go out, and you're going to lose millions of dollars, hundreds of million dollars to glorify your company. Take it into football. You don't mind if I use Nick Saban? I know he's not the coach. Now you're going to be out of position and not tackle. You're going to fumble the ball. You have several turnovers and you're going to glorify the university. And Nick Saban, he's going to be so thrilled. He'll be so happy. So happy with you. Does it does it glorify our Savior to be kicked around? No obviously not. Well it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't glorify the father of all glory, does it? No.
Speaker1: [00:33:12] So we're one with him who's not weak. So we don't want to. We don't want to miss. Understand? Have a strong picture of Jesus. You say, what are you talking about? I'm talking about continuing. I'm talking about this a few days of 2024. Well, here's what he said to me this morning when I was trying to, in the first minute, figure out what day of the week it was. He told me to preach this message. And then he says, he says, what's going to manifest in 25? Now, this is all in the first two minutes. And I said, what do you mean? He said, what's going to manifest in 25? And I just sat there. He said, what could manifest in 25? We've been in a I don't want to use the word camp. I don't like the word camp. Company. Who? And this is not always wrong. I'm for the prophetic word and prophecy. But we've had we've had prophecies that rhymes with the year for many years to 2020. 1994 the year or more and rhymes with all that. But I don't hear a lot of testimonies from that other than the one that preached it and got the offering. I'm not saying they weren't weren't from God, and people do have to take it and do good work for it. But he never told you to be led by somebody else's prophecy.
Speaker1: [00:34:45] He never told one person to go out and have a prophecy for the whole body of Christ. And then people try to live their life by that person's prophecy the rest of their life. Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God, and there's more than one son. And so if we're going to persevere. So he said, what's going to manifest? And I said, he said, what's going to manifest is what you've planted. He said, would it be the mystery to a farmer? But he'd be shocked that he manifested corn if you planted corn taters. He said, so what's going to manifest in 25 for you? He said the only the only thing that's going to manifest is what you have planted. You wouldn't be shocked, would you? We talked about this. I was telling Michelle about it a little bit at home. I said, now occasionally we bought seeds before we go to the feed and seed, or you can go get a pack or something and maybe a stray seed got over into the other bin and that kind of came up, but it was kind of unusual. We've all bought onion rings before, and there'd be a French fry in there about French fries to be an onion ring. We didn't order that, but somehow one got in the bin. But there's there's no way. There's no way that y'all have planted watermelons. Ten acres of watermelons. You got ten, ten acres of field peas.
Speaker1: [00:35:51] It just didn't happen. No farmer would expect that. So there's just spiritual laws, like gravity that works. So he's saying what is going to manifest in 25? It was a question. The thing that you've seeded and you've watered. But how do you get there? Well, there's there's the time from seeding to sowing. I mean sowing until harvest. And sometimes you got to get the hoe out and you got to get some weeds away. Has anyone ever noticed that you don't have to plant weeds in Johnson grass and kudzu? It has a way of finding whatever you do. Yeah. I laughed years ago, 1996 I met pastor Bill and Miss Debbie. She's in heaven now. I sure do miss her. And they didn't know they were from Texas. And she got to they got to move down here riding around looking at things. You know how Alabama is so green compared to Texas. You know, just flat land and wind blowing all day long and dry heat. And she asked someone she didn't know what kudzu was and she noticed it was everywhere. And everybody had some. She said, where do y'all get y'all's kudzu? You know, the plant? And they said, do what? She said, well, someone said that was kudzu. I said, yeah, where do you I mean, y'all seed or do you grow so far? Then you plant it. I mean, it's means everywhere. Where do y'all get your kids to plant? I said no, people go to great measures to kill it.
Speaker1: [00:37:17] Not not plant it. Well she did. No. You know, everybody had some. So you don't have to plant that. You won't have to believe God for problems in 25. You will not have to believe God for adversity or anything to use your faith for. I can promise you that the devil will be the same in 2025 as he was last year. What was he? He was a flake in 23 and 24 and a far back, and he'll be a flake next year. He was defeated last year. He'll be defeated this year. How do you know? Well, because I'm building up. I'm building myself and whoever. Listen for strength and all. On Wednesday night. You got the choir section? We got to sleep in on Sunday, so we don't lose some of them. Yeah, well, I couldn't make it, I was tired. Yeah. I'm glad we weren't tired. Yeah, I'm glad we didn't do nothing all day. Praise the Lord. I'm not mad at you. I'm just. I'm just saying Amen. So Jesus as he is, Jesus put pressure on pressure. Well, what are you doing? Pressure comes in, you pressurize it. Put the pressure on your pressure. Jesus was strong to resist. I got all kind of scriptures. We don't have time to go there for him. He was bold. He was fearless. He was courageous. You're a one step. Just one step is what separates your comfort zone from your destiny.
Speaker1: [00:38:49] Many people are. One step away is what separates you from your destiny by leaving your comfort zone. Andrew Wommack says it this way. He says if you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room. Amen. I got a little bit right here, I wrote down. Beginning strong is easy. It's one of the one of the main reasons that we may look forward to to a new year every year, a new year on the calendar. I want to talk about because it's the hope of a fresh new start. We all do. Sometimes it's like a new beginning, is it? You turn the pages new. It's a it's a do over, so to speak. The new year. But what about finishing strong? Do we think about the hope of a new year? Starting over, making changes. People make resolutions. I don't know how well that works. I never saw a lot of success in that. They generally last anywhere from ten days to three weeks. And I'm trying to I'm being really giving a lot of latitude there. But finishing strong. See, because that that proves to be a little bit more of a challenge, doesn't it? And as this year is 2024, that will be in just a few more days. We probably all know people and and including ourselves that there were things that we didn't see that we would like to solve this year.
Speaker1: [00:40:21] That hasn't happened yet. Many promises or perceived promises, or maybe someone spoke a word or just the Holy Spirit spoke something to your life, but you haven't saw the manifestation of it. But what will manifest in your life? 2025? Well, if you didn't say it, I know you won't be seeing it. That's just that's just that's just normal in it. You might say, well, I'm going to use my faith this year and I ain't buying no gas. I'm going to call my my tank filled every day. Well, Amen. Praise the Lord. Let me know how that works for you. But did you know sometimes God doesn't work on your calendar, But he's still faithful and true, right? His promise is always faithful and true. But God doesn't have our calendars. We're 60% of the population in the world. He doesn't do what America does. God doesn't have America First campaign. He doesn't even have signs that say Make America Great Again. He just says he's great. He says, you can come with me and have fun and be great right along with me. Hebrews 314 says it this way, for we are made partakers of Christ. If we hold the beginning of our confidence, steadfast unto the end. Well, how important is that verse? Listen to that. You're made partakers of Christ if you hold the beginning of your confidence steadfast to the end. Hebrews 314. Hold your confidence steadfast to them. See, I'm talking about finishing strong.
Speaker1: [00:42:06] We're talking about persevering. We're talking about endurance. We're talking about something most people aren't willing to do. In the Christian life. Many people are sprinters. I wrote this down. I need I should have checked the dictionary, see if it's word. But, but, but, but we're not to be sprinters. We're marathoners. We run marathons. But most people are sprinters. Would you agree with that? And both can require hard work. Either one. But there's vast differences in ways to excel. Sprinters train for a short, fast, quick burst of energy. Kind of reminds me of a shooting star. Quick, fast. I mean, amazing, like, just watch it. Wow. And we've seen some of these people in the body of Christ. I've seen you wouldn't have to be young, but a lot of young people, personalities come, new ministers come on the scene, and there's a big whatever. Or you or someone who's well known to athlete or movie star gets saved. And, you know, they got three weeks into knowing Jesus and and they got a world ministry around telling everything they know. They don't know anything. What they need to know is sit down and be quiet and be taught, be discipled, and that time will come. But it's not now. And then you wonder where they are. Well, they they're like a firecracker. They shot their mouth off and that was the end of it. You had to go get another firecracker. I mean, firecracker will shoot, but it's true.
Speaker1: [00:43:52] Sometimes you buy a firecracker and they don't even do that. They're duds. I mean, you met a few duds. Don't raise your hand anyway. But, see, they didn't train to be a marathoner. They trained to be a sprinter. They had a quick short burst of anointing. Then they were gone. But to hold your confident, steadfast endurance to the end requires that you have a a foundation. And that foundation is strong. We've talked about some of these pillars in this room. The ones on the corner and these big ones right here in the middle. An engineer developed that based on the circumference of this building, the height, the depth, how wide it was, how long, what the pitch of the roof would be. And then he he determined how big the metal beams had to be, how close they had to be, how many thousands of pounds they had to hold up. He had to do it with, you know, putting in storms and wind storms and everything to determine that all, all steel beams aren't that size. Some are a lot smaller. But it took a certain one in that place to do what it does. I'm glad it's there, but they didn't just put it on top of the dirt. It goes way below the dirt. It's on a firm foundation. There's nothing exciting sometimes about building a firm foundation. If you're looking for something flashy and exciting, what have you been doing? I mean, I've been doing a firm foundation, dude.
Speaker1: [00:45:26] Well, I've been digging in the dirt, putting down rebar. Where's it at? Can't show you. It's covered up. You know, when you when you finally get to build your dream home, you want to see the real stuff. You. I mean, you're looking for the windows to come in, you're looking for the cabinets to go in, and and they're digging around in the dirt for 2 or 3 weeks, you know, pouring concrete and rebar. And it's just like, stop it already, boy. Don't don't don't hurry him up. Let him get that right. Because everything about that house, what it is and never will be returned. How well they do that job out there. Your foundation is everything. How come most marriages don't make it? Every other one fails. Doesn't mean all the rest of them are happy. Just because they didn't. Time take time to build a foundation. They just like Donny Osmond. And they called it puppy love. But then the puppy grew up and he had stink breath. Yeah, Kookaburra's in his hair and he wouldn't get them out. And he went over to the other puppy's house, has some love over there. And they were divorced. It's a very failing statistic. But it's true, isn't it? So we lay a strong foundation. Why do we do that? Because those of you who's here tonight, you purposely came out on a Wednesday night.
Speaker1: [00:47:01] Just because you train differently than others? You're not sprinters. There's no one in this room as a sprinter. You got some battle scars. And I'm not talking about cellulite. I'm talking about. I'm not talking about Bondo. I'm talking about. We got some life, you know. I'm not talking about some of our stretch marks, man. I'm talking about. I'm talking about life. You got some bondo in you. We may not look like much, but I tell you what. You can trust people in this room to go the long to the long haul. If they. And if they find out people's in need, they're going to come and they're going to stand beside you and they're going to believe God with you. They find out that you're in a mess. They're going to do something about it. They're going to give even when they don't have it to give. And they're going to bless and thank God with you. They may weep with you, and may weep for the night. But joy comes in the morning. You know why? Because they're not sprinters. It's not even about them. It's about Jesus. Jesus wasn't a sprinter. If he did, he wouldn't have made it to the cross. He wouldn't have made it to the garden. As soon as they began to tug on that beard, he said, that's it, angels? No. He endured. If you're going to be a if you're going to be a marathoner, if that's a word, you're going to have to learn how to conserve energy.
Speaker1: [00:48:29] Sometimes you're going to need to know when to rest. Really? There's a natural side to, you know, you're going to need to know when I need to take a little break. You're going to learn how to conserve your energy. Marathoners know how to deal with the highs and the lows because you see the leaders and you think they just always have highs, but they have lows, too. They just don't tell you about them all the time. They may tell someone about them, and that's okay. If it's the right someone. Everyone needs to talk to someone sometime. I mean, you don't have to fake it, but you know what I'm saying? They're not some people. You don't have to wonder what they're thinking because they're about to tell you everything. And out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will leak. Speak. I mean, and so you guys train different than sprinters. You do. You just do because you don't allow yourself to be distracted. You look away from all that would distract. Hebrews said, you have everything that the other people have and sometimes you have a whole lot more. You felt like quitting. Many times. They did. I was talking to a minister today. He said, do you ever quit? I said, yeah, I've quit. I quit a bunch of times. He said, well, that's not good. I said, I know I did it anyway.
Speaker1: [00:49:50] He said, you mean you actually quit? I said, yeah. I said, I can think of 4 or 5 times I quit. I did it. Just just. I said I got tired of things, and I said I knew I wasn't going to quit, but it felt good to say it. And I said, I quit and I threw everything down. I said, I ain't got to do this. I ain't got to do that. I ain't got to put up with this. I ain't even got to stay in this town. And I said, I got one, 280 and I had to sit in a nice restaurant. I ain't got to be here. I ain't got to do all this. Then when I got, you know, through the day, I looked around a little bit and summit and, well, I came back home, but I quit for a few minutes or a few hours. Kind of felt good. Just say I quit. I didn't really quit. I just took a break. And that's what you do sometimes you do some self analyzing when you go through something that kind of shocked you, that it turned out that way, you thought that wasn't going to happen or couldn't happen that way, or you thought you was further along than you find yourself backwards. And that was that was the moment, I mean, the moment that I decided how it was going to turn out Was it in my best days? It was in my worst days.
Speaker1: [00:51:00] Anyone can make those kind of decisions when everything's great. When I decided that I was going to go all the way, it was in my hardest times. It was never in my best times because that was the times I really wanted to quit. That was the times I was the most discouraged. That was the time where it was the easiest to get in. But that's when I had to get alone, and I had to begin to hear and listen and come back to the knowledge of the truth. You know, sometimes being rebuilt is better than what you started with. Because I was strengthened. I started off in the flesh and I came back spiritually bionic. You couldn't build a $6 million man. Not. Not by anonymous. You can't. I mean, I know he's leaving in a couple of weeks, but how much would it take to make a $6 million man with Joe Biden? 6 billion. Well, it's a little bit pork in there. We'll get it done. That's good. 6 billion. You know, the apostle Paul said, I fought the good fight. I finished the race. That sounds good to say that I talked about your. I talked about your life. How about the the day. One day when we. If it works out that way. And Jesus didn't come back. The day that you know that you're going to leave to have the satisfaction, you know, whether you're in your chair or you're laying in a bed or, you know, whatever you're doing.
Speaker1: [00:52:38] You say, I fought the fight and I finished my race. I finished it. I did it with joy. And, you know, you're about to go meet the holiest person, the entity that's ever existed. And of course, your mama, too. You understand? But. But I mean the satisfaction to know I fought this fight. Thus Paul said it was a fight. I fought this fight. See, no one in heaven is saying that no more than Paul. No one is fighting in heaven. But you're on earth right now. And Paul said, I fought this fight. It was a good fight. And Paul told you he got knocked down a few times. He did. One translation says, I got knocked down, but I didn't get knocked out. The first few times I got knocked out. I'm going to be honest, I didn't do as good as Paul. Did you ever had the breath knocked out of you playing sports? Yeah, I wasn't playing sports and I've had the breath knocked out of me a few times. We didn't. It didn't. I didn't feel like getting up. I thought maybe I'd get hit again. I'm just being honest with you. But then I just had to sit back and I had to remember. See, the good thing about remembering your past victories is because they'll bring you strength again today. Go back and visit where God already came through for you several times over.
Speaker1: [00:53:59] Visit those things if it's a place. If you can get there, go visit those places. Sometimes I'll get in my vehicle and I'll go drive to certain places where I won great faith victories, and it will be as a memorial to me. And I can remember the circumstances. Sometimes they were financial. It was completely impossible. Completely. No one could help me. Or if they did, they wasn't going to. I mean, I didn't even know anyone who could help me or would help me. And I sit there and look at that place, whether it be real estate or whatever. And I remember the circumstances. And there's just there comes a confidence and of the faithfulness of God to think, I must have been the only one person out of at that time, seven, 8 billion people. And God knew my very need, knew every circumstance, and did this and this and this and caused this to happen. Then I'll go drive over here and I'll see where he did this. And we did this. And I go back and everything's changed. You know why I changed? My perspective changed. I quit looking at it from the other side. It's okay if you're down. Sometimes you just don't stay down. And don't stay down long. Get up as quick as you can. Get up. Because if you stay down too long, you'll be you'll get comfortable down there and you'll say, I don't want to get hit again, so I'll just stay down.
Speaker1: [00:55:17] Don't do that. Don't do that. Amen. Well, let me finish right here. Every Christian has a destiny, and God has a course for them. It could be you're a nurse, you're a doctor. You might be a minister. You might be the best mom that you can be. That's probably one of the hardest jobs that I know of. Being a stay at home mom. Because the kids stay. Stay there with you. So how about the baby's day out? Whatever your course, know this, that you were called to begin it. But you're also called to finish it. God doesn't have a program of starters and not finishers. You could go to Hebrews chapter 11 to the great Faith Hall of Fame, and you can find many starters. And in that chapter you'll find many finishers. It's a great source of encouragement. There's a scripture that I've read many times through the years. It's found in first Corinthians 927. And the apostle Paul said this, but I discipline my body, and I brought my body under subjection. The last one I preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. That means we walk the walk. We don't just talk. We walk the walk. Anybody can talk. But will you walk the walk? And will you talk the talk? Paul lived what he preached. That he should have let your life be a living testimony to others.
Speaker1: [00:56:51] The best scripture they ever read is you. The best book you'll ever read is Your Life. Some people won't ever see the Bible. Some will never read one page. But they'll read your life and they'll be encouraged by your life. What can one person do? One person that gives their life to God? I read a verse when I was 32 years old. I was in my office and the other building and I began to weep, probably because of what I was thinking about. But it was a quote by Smith, Wordsworth, and it was something like this. Paul said, when any man or woman believes God on the earth truly believes God. He said a ministry was just born. A ministry was just born. If any man or woman believes God. A ministry was just birthed. You may think God has a lot of people. I don't think he does. Thank you. I mean, I think he has a lot of people around, but I don't think he has a lot of you around. You know, leaders, there's one here and there's 2 or 3 over there. It's true here in this church as it's been in any other place I've ever been, 20% of the people in this church make it happen. The 80%. Wonder what happened. It's just true. That goes from everything to the facilities to the the things acquired, the finances. Who's going to work in the classroom? Who's going to serve in the ministry? 20% of the people make this happen.
Speaker1: [00:58:30] They're overused, almost to the point sometimes of abuse. And it shouldn't be that way. But they're faithful and they don't. They don't ever complain. I'm going to tell you, God takes good notes. You get to heaven and you'll never be sad about it, I know that. Amen. I pray that God appoints your days ahead. Psalms one two, three, four. And we'll close with this. The psalmist said, God redeems my life from destruction and crowns me with loving kindness and tender mercies. He crowns me with glory and honor. Crowns you. He redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. Because you're a marathoner, you're not a sprinter. And Jesus has redeemed you from every curse of the law, hasn't he? Being made a curse for us. So you're free from this day, from everything Jesus redeem you from and from any kind of generational curse. You say, well, that I don't believe in generational curses. Well, they they exist whether you believe in them or not. There. Not in the New Testament. Jesus never dealt with one, but that doesn't mean they weren't there. If you did believe in him, they'll come visit you. Some of them who knew you? Great great great great great great granddaddy was. And if you go in that direction, they'll come into you. So all curses I declare are broken in your life right now, in Jesus name.
Speaker1: [01:00:06] And you will finish the course, and you will finish it strong. And you will do it with joy unspeakable and full of glory. You know what the secret of the Christian life is? It's no secret. You can't live it. Only he can live it through you. Of your own might, of your own ability. You're not ever going to be able to do it. You heard me say it many times. Is living is living the Christian life hard? No, it's not hard at all. It's impossible. That's why it takes the spirit of grace to do it. I mean, there's no spirit of your name. There's the spirit of. There's the Holy Spirit, the spirit of grace. And he he lifts us up and he energizes us, and he creates the want to on the inside of it. It's easy to get started on a new life. Make, make plans, make make changes in your life. Walk out of an old life system that you was in and get excited for a few weeks, a month or two, but then settle back down into the same patterns that people do that all over the world. They get excited, they rise up, and then they settle down. You're about as far in life as you thought you'd be. I just said a mouthful. I don't have no notes and said that I just. I just heard it on the inside. You're you're as far in life right now as you thought you'd be.
[01:01:29] No further. Amen.
Speaker1: [01:01:33] You say? Well, that's kind of depressing. Well, then let me finish with where I started. What's going to manifest in your life in 2025? Tell me what you've sown and I'll tell you what's coming your way. I believe it's good things, don't you? Amen. Amen.
[01:01:51] Praise the Lord.
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