Transcription
Welcome, you too, that are watching by video. May God bless your life. I've chosen, or the Lord whispered to my heart, a message that I want to give you, what I really believe.
I was sitting in a restaurant day before yesterday and, uh, thinking about you people and wondering what I... I've had several things planned to talk to you about, and, uh, Daisy and I had been talking about certain things in this generation, and, uh, the Lord seemed to whisper to me so clear, "Tell the people what you really believe." I said, "Okay." And then, right quick, three things came to my mind that I want to share with you.
And as a foundation for this, I want to read from Ephesians chapter 1, verse 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, say, "Hallelujah." Hallelujah. The Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. I only want revelation in the knowledge of Jesus. I'm not interested in any other kind in the knowledge of him. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened. And that's a wonderful experience that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places. And that's a powerful, uh, phrase that's uttered here, uh, by revelation from the apostle Paul. We underscore the exceeding greatness of his power to us who believe. That's what I want to talk about.
Hebrews 11:6 says, "If we come to God, whoever does must believe." Believe what? Believe two things principally: that he is, and that he rewards them that diligently seek him. 1 John 3, verse 23, says this is his commandment that we should believe. That's the idea. From the beginning, God wanted us to believe. His plan, his pact, his agreement, his raor with human persons whom he had created was based on the premise of believing. "You believe in me, I'll believe in you." God said to Adam and Eve, in essence, "Look, we'll have a good relationship together. You can always trust me. I want to always trust you. Let's believe in each other. Let's stick together. Let's work together." In essence, he's saying, "I want you. I want to be sure that you want me. I need you. I want you to need me. We'll share with each other and be happy together. Simple." This is the command that we... This is his commandment that we should believe.
I'm a believer. I'm not a cynic. I don't want to be a cynic. I want to be a believer. I don't want to hear so many things and be confused by them until I withdraw and decide there's nothing to any of it. I want to believe a few things that I know for sure, and I want to be happy. I don't want my believing, so-called believing, to make me miserable in life. I want to be happy. I want... I don't want to be a pain in my neck, nor in yours. I don't want religion to be a misery. I want to be nice and honest and happy. I want to be a believer because I understand from the book that believers are winners. Believers come out best at the end. We often say, preachers often say, "Read the last page, the last chapter." I have the believers come out winning. Hallelujah. But the beautiful part is, all in between, believers come out winning too. Because believing is receiving. I want to be a believer.
John 20, verse 31, says he's... he's talking, verse 30, about all of the things that have happened. He said if we wrote them all, I suppose the world wouldn't hold the books. But he said, "These are written that you might believe." I'm a believer because these things were written. It's sad how many people are members of churches but are not believers. They're religious cynics or religious miserable, you know, the miserables, the pain, self-inflicted, and the lack of joy, and the lack of peace, and the suspicion. I want to be a believer. I read where it said there's exceeding great power for those who believe. "These are written that you might believe." Hallelujah.
He came to his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them who believe. If you're a believer, you can become a child of God. If you're a believer, there is exceeding great power given to us. I want to be a believer. I want to seed people for believing, not for cynicism.
We were talking today in the car as we drove back to Tulsa, musing, reminiscing about our families, thinking about how many of them were musicians. My mother and my dad were both musicians. Several of my brothers and sisters are musical. I'm musical. I started out when I wasn't tall enough to get up to the old pump organ, holding with one hand on the front of it so I could pump and get enough air in it with one foot and play it. I learned to play it. And Daisy's family, her father and mother were both musical. Her daddy was an old-fashioned fiddler. Brothers and sisters musical, and we said, "It's strange. It seems like today there's a... you don't hear of that." I wonder why you don't hear of more musicians in homes. And I said something that I had never thought. I said, "Honey, in our generation, listen to this, young people, I don't mean you're not listening. I'm just saying this is this is a good and you'll like it. In our generation, if you wanted music, you had to make music. We didn't have any knobs to turn to pipe music to us." And I thought, that's a rather remarkable statement. In our generation, if you wanted music, you had to make music. There wasn't any music if you didn't make music. And isn't it beautiful that we both came from families who wanted music? Why did we want music? I look back now on the basis of that thought and I think about families, neighbors of ours who didn't want music. They were fighting. They were angry. They were carousing. They didn't pay their bills. They were ugly. They were dishonest. I know many of them around. I know the things they did. They didn't want music. Why did our family want music? I'm glad we wanted music. You can smile if you want to be happy, but you've got to be happy in you. But you've got to want happiness in you. You can make music if you want music, but you got to want music in you.
And then I thought, wouldn't the tube and the radio furnish everything? So we don't need to create. It's already done in super Hollywood fashion. What does that do to people who are born to be creative? No wonder in religion people don't think. People don't think much in any fields except a few, because a few do the thinking and get the product and market it to the tube, and everybody else just buys it and uses it. How much more in religion? And you know how I'm using the word religion? I hate it, but I'm using it for for the context. You understand, with quotes around it. How much more in religion? Is it any wonder that people gobble whatever preachers preach? We're the gobblers. We have the tube to gobble from. Everybody has one, and everybody gobbles, and they go to church and gobble some more. Whether it makes sense or not, if a church, they say what someone said on the gobble machine, then the gobble machine proves that it's right. And so if you line up with that, you're right. If you're different, you're wrong.
And I thought, wouldn't it be something if we ran out of preachers? If we just had a few who cared, and they got on the tube, and they set the pace, and everybody else looked. And here all these little churches without preachers, and seemed like prophetically I could see little boards sitting around voting and fussing, "What preacher they'd hire for this weekend, and what they'd hire for next weekend, and who they'd get for the third week of March, and the first week of April." These little boards hiring these little hierlings that went and got him a degree and learned what to say. That's like the gobblemaker says. And and and they go out and they and they know to say the right thing, and they're for hire. "Give them 200, and they'll preach." Some of them up it to five. Wouldn't that be sad? You say, "What are we doing? Is this a pessimist?" No, I'm just thinking. And I was, and in the context of thinking like that, it's been going on a couple of days. The Lord said, "Go tell them what you believe." People need to hear something they can believe. We hear so much that we can't believe that we're tired of hearing what we're not sure about. And the the the method is to make nothing really convincing. Leave it up for grabs. People are not even aware that that's the way it's done. Nothing is handed out as fact. No interviews on the tube are ever conducted so as to tell you what's what. Everything is always left so that one side's about as good as the other. Otherwise, the masters of the tube, the boards who control, will not let it be run, be run if it's too absolute. It must be left so that either way is okay.
And so we come to church, and there we are. And the Lord whispered to me, "Say what you believe." Daisy was talking, we were talking along this line. Daisy was talking about the women's meetings. She's not pleased about them. They're not that... the last one didn't grow, and she don't like that. And I said to her, "Well, honey, uh, uh, do some thinking." And here's she did. And she said, "You know what? What does seven weeks have? Do there seven more weeks? Is it this year? What's what's going to happen seven weeks from now? I mean, seven months from now." She's got... Oh, she's going to be home seven more months before she has to go overseas for something. Says, "I've got seven months left. I'm going to go back and tell them, and I want them to spread the word. I'm going to preach every one of those rallies myself, and I'm going to preach what I believe." She's coming out of her corner. You ain't heard nothing yet. Isn't that wonderful? Boy, the world wants to follow someone who can say what they believe. That alone may be what you're up here from Jamaica for, to hear this sermon tonight. Okay. Have I set my course?
There are really some things I believe. Number one, I really believe in peace. The peace of God. I really believe in peace with God. Romans 5:1 says, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." I've noted before, I've said to you, every epistle that Paul wrote began with the words grace and peace. And you can't have one without the other. There's no peace without understanding grace. 'Cause if you don't understand grace, you'll always try to earn your peace, and you'll never be able to pay enough, because the devil will always keep you groveling. There's no peace if you don't understand the fact that Jesus paid it all and suffered all condemnation and bore all judgment. And there's nothing left for us to do but accept and believe. And there's exceeding great power to them that believe. Hallelujah. You believe it. Glory to God. I believe, really believe, in peace with God. I do not believe in condemnation.
At the same time, I really believe in following my Lord and in living conscious of him. People who come and pray and find what they try to to to twist into what they call peace for the moment, or praying through, or whatever they call, and go out and fall in the same traps and follow the same line of thinking and do the same things again, have a problem. Because if we come to God's altar, wherever in our heart, here in church, wherever, if we come and we cry to him, and we receive him, and we believe him, and we have him, and then to go out and contradict that, there's something wrong. And that kind of lifestyle is becoming popularized by religion today, that we understand that everybody gets happy and prays through Sunday, and then they're down in the dumps again by Wednesday or next Sunday, and they need some more. I don't want that. I don't believe that. You can't have peace like that. You can only have peace if you believe that Jesus paid it all, enough for everybody, for me, for now, for eternity, and I identify with it. Now, what goes with that then is to live the lifestyle of reverence for that fact that he paid for my sins. How could I go out and fall in the same trap knowing? I mean, I mean, see, it don't match up. We talk about in Paul's terms, crucifying our Lord afresh, but there remaining no more sacrifice. And that those words are are are redemptively sound. Because if, if we go out and do again the things that we did before, we're making a mock of what Jesus did to pay for what we did before. And to go do it again is a denial that we really believe that he paid for it in the first place. And and and what we do, we harden ourselves. And then there remains no more sacrifice for us. There's only one cross to talk about. There's only one salvation to talk about. There's only one suffering of Jesus to talk about. There's only one time he died on the cross. That's that's the message. If that one doesn't work, there remains no more sacrifice, and we crucify him afresh.
I really believe in peace with God. I really do not believe in condemnation and judgment. I really do not believe that has anything to do with my lifestyle, my life now or hereafter. I am free. I am free. I am saved. I have peace. You say, "Come on, preacher." No, I have peace with God. I always love the story of D.L. Moody. In his dying days, I don't know if it's true or not. I suppose it is. I don't know where I read it or who said it, but the story that as I recall it, in his dying days, as he... he was dying, and he knew he was dying, and he uttered these words, as I recall them. He said, "I have no plea but the blood of Jesus Christ." Or so, or I trust in no none other. My plea is only something along that line. Anyhow, he was at peace. He was... he was happy. He knew he was going to die. There's nothing else to do. There's no other sacrifice to make. There's no other punishment to bear. He had peace. I really believe in peace. And I want to tell you, there is real peace with God. There's true justification by what Jesus did.
Really believe in conversion. I really believe that a person can hear the gospel and come to Jesus and receive him, and there is a conversion that takes place, a regeneration, and a new species is born, a new creature, no longer a sinner, really converted. Hallelujah. I really believe in that. I recommend it to you. If you don't have it, get it. Hallelujah. And talk about that. That's what the world wants. Nobody talks about that. They can have peace, and it's easy, and you've got it. And hallelujah. You believe it?
You know, I've always been so touched by that story of Malcolm Muggeridge, the great British reporter turned communist, went to Russia, wasn't happy, came back. Reporter, one time the most famous reporter, I believe he... he's still alive, one of the most f... at one time the most popular reporter in all of Great Britain. Cynic, went off to Africa, lived lived native style for a good long while to experiment everything, everything, all their superstitions, and every, everything that he tried, uh, disappointed him. And he ended, of course, reporting all the time, ended up hearing about Mother Teresa in Calcutta and decided, "Boy, I could get some good pictures, and I know the papers and journals, magazines, TV would buy my stories. I could make a load of money off of that little gal." And so he took off to India and settled into Calcutta to live there, and really, like a real reporter would do, really get the inside scoop. And he worked at it and worked worked at it and worked worked at it and visited and visited and visited and watched and watched and watched and quizzed and quizzed and quizzed. And he could not believe that woman giving dignity to dying people, lepers, homeless, hopeless people. Interviewed her again and again and again. Never could believe her story. She would tell him, "I do for these people what I would do for Jesus if I could see him. I see him in them. I can't see my Lord, but I can see these people. I can touch them. So when I touch them, I touch them and do for them what I would do for my Lord if it were him. Why? I love them. My Lord loves him." Malcolm couldn't believe it. One day, alone, agonizing, because see, when you come in contact with the real thing, it will affect your life. That's why I said tonight, don't throw this in the pot with everything. This is a milestone. This is a milestone. When you come in contact with the real, with truth, it'll affect your life. He was in agony. He had met truth and didn't know what to do with it. A lot of the world is like that. They were like that when Jesus was here. They quizzed him and quizzed him and quizzed him and quizzed him, not because they wanted an answer, but so that they could catch him and find out where he was kidding them, where he was dishonest, to find the weak spot, to find the mental gap, to find the way to prove he was a farce. People haven't changed. The world hasn't changed. And Malcolm did that to her. But in this agony of self-analysis and trying to analyze what makes that little woman tick, he said, "I was in a dungeon, handcuffed and ankle-cuffed, figuratively speaking, in a dark dungeon." And he said, "One day, it seemed like I looked up, and there seemed to be one little window, and the brightest ray of light that I ever imagined came piercing through that window and pierced through me." And I... [Music] knew Mother Teresa was telling the truth. And he said, Malcolm says it, "I was reborn. I received the Jesus that Mother Teresa talks about." Beautiful story. I believe in real conversion. Don't ever spoil it. Don't let yourself become a cynic. Don't do it and do it until you get cool at it.
I really believe in peace. There's wonderful peace when you guard your believing heart and walk with God and don't become a gobbler of every idea. People chase ideas in the last days. Their ears will itch for new doctrines. Don't do it. I've brought to you tonight three things I really believe. Number one, I really believe in the peace of God. Number two, I really believe in the power of God. I do. I do. You'd be amazed at the people that are warming the benches of of so-called charismatic churches that are still looking for the hitch. Still looking for what's back of what looks like a miracle. I really believe in the power of God. That's an absolute with me to say that. I mean, I really believe in the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. John came preaching with a new idea about water baptism, but he said, "That's not the big point." So, so much as to say, "That's just to get your attention. There's one coming that's so much greater than I that I can't even untie you." He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Oh, hallelujah. I really believe in that baptism in the Holy Ghost and fire. I have been baptized in the Holy Ghost and with fire. And I know what it is for that fire to burn in me. And I don't have to get prayed through for it to burn. I really believe in peace. That's first. People that have to work this power up to a pitch to make it flick. Something wrong. This power is 24 hours a day, constant running, baby. Never a glitch. Not in the stuff I'm hooked up with. It'll work in any meat market. It'll work in any supermarket. It'll work in any, any, any city. It'll work on any street. It'll work in any home, any hospital, any church, any place, any prayer meeting. It don't just work in prayer meetings in the holy altar. It works everywhere. I really believe in the power of God. There's power, and it's transmittable power. You, Jesus said, "shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you." But here, that power could not come until we call it that day of Pentecost. People weren't born again until then. Peace comes first. I really believe in peace. Hallelujah.
Oh, how I want to reach out and say something to people who don't have that peace, who walk in fear, who self-condemn so easy, who become reticent and backward and and so easy. Oh, I want to communicate something that'll help people stand up once and for all. Draw the lines. Accept the covenant. Step across and say, "Now, devil, I'm on new territory." And you're in trouble. Hallelujah. Oh, I long to communicate something that'll give that to people. I guess Jesus did. I guess every sincere preacher that ever walked the earth yearned to do that. And I guess that's what the Holy Spirit is doing in me tonight, yearning to say something to help you know where you stand on two or three things and leave most the rest of them alone. Take the two or three things you know and go with them. Paul said, "This one thing I do." Of course, the old statement, "I'd rather do one." I'd rather... you know, he didn't say these 40 things I dabble in. "This one thing I do." You know, I think we might reach the point that we would nail down four or five things here at International Gospel Center. We call them our 10 Gospel Basics, but a few things that I would give my life for, that I believe I'm committed to. I will never back up from. I know they are real. I know the power of the Holy Ghost is real. He said, "You'll receive that power, and you'll be witnesses unto me." Hallelujah. I know what that power is. That power is burned in me all over the world. The night those 11 lepers were led up there, brought up there on the platform. We knew they had escaped from the leprosarium. We're in the meeting. We didn't pray for people individually. Big mass of people. You couldn't. But Daisy and I both felt it strong. Those 11 lepers, we found out they had sneaked out of the leprosarium. They made a break for it. And there they were. And they were in secret hid among the crowd. The police found out about them. They'd haul them back to the leprosarium. And our hearts went out for them. We thought, we talked, "How would how would we feel if we were them out there?" And so we thought, "Let's bring them to the platform." Hallelujah. "Let's honor the lepers." I believe that's something like Jesus might have done. You know, a lot of folks, he just said, "Go your way, you're healed." When the leper came, fell down the dirt before him, and said, "Get up." And it touched him. Hallelujah. Put forth his hand and touched him. I love that about Jesus. Praise the Lord. And we wanted to do that that night. We wanted to get them up there. Make them public. Praise the Lord. Wasn't that we wanted to show you couldn't see anything. They were healed. A leper, you wouldn't see him healed right there unless there'd be a transformation of his flesh, instant like that. And and then people out there in that crowd couldn't see up close flesh, you know. So, it wasn't that. It was that we... I believe it was the compassion of Jesus. That's what I believe it was. We brought them to the platform, and we preached about the healing of the leper. And then we lined them up. And Daisy and I both. Oh, I'll never forget how hot that Holy Ghost was in me that night. Praise the Lord. Oh, to put hands on 11 lepers and pray for them and heal them. And we did it in the name of Jesus. And within a year, we got the last report. All of them had been released. All of them. Hallelujah. Some of them became preachers. This that and the other. Hallelujah. Oh, I, I, I'll tell you, you, I, I want you to know that power that's in you is there when there's a need. Don't be afraid of it. Trust in it. Believe in it. Hallelujah. Whether you feel it burn or not, don't matter. I believe in the power of the Holy Ghost. Hallelujah. I, uh, I, I, I know what it is. I received that baptism. I didn't know what it was. I didn't understand what it was for. Unless we understand the communicating part of the gospel, then we miss the biggest part of what God offers to us. We went, we, we had this experience before we went to India as missionaries, and we were disappointed out there. We couldn't do anything. We, we could... there were no miracles when we prayed. We came home brokenhearted. We had spoken in tongues as much as anybody. But, uh, and we had prophesied, and we had given messages, and and we'd prayed till there were calluses on our knees, and we'd fasted till it's a wonder we didn't die. You know, all of that is only religion. All of that is only religion if it's not hooked up to gospel. You understand that? It's only religion. Religions all over the world fast. They pray more than we do. Muslims pray five times a day. See, all of that. It's all religion if it's not hooked up with gospel. Gospel is liberation. Gospel is freedom. Gospel is peace. Gospel is, as the brother from Jamaica said tonight, gospel is the creation, God's creation, how he did it in the beginning, Christ's restoration, how Christ restored the plan, and then our justification. Hallelujah. The gospel is the gu... is is Adam, Jesus, and D.L. That's what gospel is. Hallelujah. Gospel is God's dream, and God's restoration of the dream, and God's manifestation of the dream in me. It's not gospel until we understand that. Once we understand that, then all this other has purpose. Then power has a reason. Amen. Wow. I'm glad I believe in the power of the Holy Ghost. I'm glad I believe that power is in me to give witness of Jesus Christ. And that leads me to my third point.
I really believe in the purpose of God. What is his purpose? He said it to Abraham. Genesis 12:2, "I will bless you and you shall be a blessing." That's the purpose of God. Say, "I like it." I like it. Jesus's first call to us, to people. Matthew 4:19, "Follow me. I'll make you fishers, catchers, hunters, seekers, distributors, communicators." Hallelujah. Of people, purpose. I really believe in peace. I really believe in power from God. I really believe in the purpose of God. I get it and I share it. I really believe in that. I really believe that's what Christianity is all about. I really believe if we haven't caught on to that, all of the other will become boring. You can't stack enough Holy Ghost power in meetings to keep folks turned on if they don't catch on to the communicating part of the gospel. We've reduced Holy Ghost power to tongue talking and shouting and quivering in the church. And oh, my friends at IGC, don't ever settle for that. Holy Ghost power is witness power. Holy Ghost power is Jesus communicating power. Holy Ghost power is communicating power. Without communication, there is no purpose of Holy Ghost baptism. And that's been missed greatly in the church. That's why I say, Pat and Earl, hang on. There is no church. There is no power. There's no need for power just to make us happy. The power is to make us proof producers, to make us communicators, to make us touchers with life. Hallelujah. Believe in the power that's in you, and believe in its purpose, and go touch somebody, and you'll touch them with power. If you touch them with peace, if you touch them with condemnation, you cut the power line. The power flows because there's peace. You believe that? Is this too simple to interest you? Probably I ought to quit, you know. Uh, you know, I, I, I'm too full. I'm, I'm, I'm too full of it. It's, it's God just wants to use us. God wants to give us peace. He wants to give us power. He wants to give us purpose. That's all. That's all, baby. Don't chase all them other doctrines.
We've got a church that's operating on an authority phobia. I'm hearing preachers. I didn't know. I never used to listen to the radio. Now since we're on, and I found out I got me some of those little ear things, and I found out you could get one of those that's got a little radio in it. And so when I jog, I, I listen to them preachers. I didn't know they were sung up. They really are worried about authority. And it seems like the authority matter mostly concerns the women. I'll declare, I didn't know the church was that bad. I, I mean, I, I mean, had it that bad. Don't mean the church is bad. You know, I don't mean that. That was a slip. But but I'm sorry for people that are so insecure that they're worried about a woman maybe coming to life and doing something, and they turn their doctrine and their preaching into messages about women. But it's never redemption for women. It's never gospel for women. Gospel and redemption equalize everything. Otherwise, it's not gospel, and it's not redemption. It's impossible.
But God wants us to be simple. You see, I, I keep saying it to you. There's a world out there that's hurting. They're getting divorced. They're beating up on each other. They're scaring their little kids. They're talking bad to their children. They're producing little people that'll grow up and be be weird and and and do the same things that they saw their parents do. And and then people are out there cheating and and doing all this, and they're scared, and they're following wrong principles. They start a business, they go broke, they lose their money because they make wrong decisions. And we've got everything that'll heal all of them. All they need to do is talk to us. We've got it. But if we don't share it, how are they going to find out? We're the light of the world. We're the salt of the earth. We're the communicators. We're the touchers. You lay hands on the sick, they shall recover. They're sick. They're sick in business. They're sick in marriage. They're sick in every, in their ideas. You can heal them. They'll get well if they get acquainted with you because you're so wonderful. Don't despair. Don't become a cynic trying to digest all the fancy good-for-nothing doctrines that proliferate. Learn a few things and go tell it. Just tell it. Just share it. And you'll get so rich you talk, and the so-called charismatic world will stand in awe when they hear you because you talk different and sound different because you really believe a few things good. Hallelujah. And that's enough to keep you busy the rest of your life. I don't want much. What I want, I want to share. Why get so spiritual if there's no market for it? I want to help people. I really believe in that. That's the purpose of God. I really believe in peace. I really believe anybody can have it. I really believe in power. I really believe there's a power from on high that can come down here and change anybody and perform any kind of a miracle through me. When I tell it, I believe in it. I've seen it. It's wonderful. And the world needs it. And I really believe in purpose of God. That's Sherid. Go back to Jamaica with those three absolutes. Teach those to Jamaica, and Jamaica can change the world. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
Would you stand to your feet, please? Believe with me as we pray for those that have watched. In the name of Jesus, I pray that you today will accept peace. And if there's any need in your life, that the power of the Holy Ghost will come to you where you are now. In Jesus Christ's name, I rebuke your enemy. In Jesus' name, and command that the devil's oppression be broken from you. I really believe in the power of the Holy Ghost. It's coming to you right now in Jesus name. I really believe in taking that blessing right now and sharing it with somebody. Will you do it? I know you will. God bless you. Write and tell me about it. We love you. Hallelujah. Give him a hand. We love you. Praise the Lord. God's with you. Praise the Lord.