Transcription
When you're when you're worshiping the Lord and talking about him, he's always the same. When you're talking about yourself and singing about yourself, then you're up and down based on your experiences. But man, there's a better way to live. That's what we've been talking about.
Let's turn back over to Romans chapter 1. How many of you, this is the first service you've made out of this week that I've been here? Could I see your hands? Wow. Well, you need to get the previous teachings. I'd love to go back and retach it all, but I just got to move on. But I've been teaching out of Romans chapter 1. We started reading about the gospel being the power of God. And then Paul went into talking about that you don't have to preach the wrath of God because it's already revealed to people on the inside. Everybody knows that there is only one God and they are not him. Some people will try and convince you that that's not true, that they don't have any revelation of God, but it is true. I talked about that last night and then today I went down to verse 21 and in verse 21 it talks about that even though people have a revelation of God, this intuitive revelation of God, that you can walk away from it. You can deaden yourself to it. 1 Corinthians or excuse me, 1 Timothy chapter 4 talks about that you can sear your conscience with a hot iron. And so even though you have this knowledge of God, you can walk away from it. You can harden yourself towards it to where you become reprobate is what it talks about here in the latter part of Romans chapter 1.
So this morning we started talking about Romans 1:21 that says, "Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." And so there's four things in this verse that it talks about people doing that hardened their heart towards God, made them insensitive towards what God was saying. And what I'm doing is turning this around the other way. And I'm using it in a positive way. These are four steps that people take away from God. But if you will do the opposite of this, then it'll keep you in the revelation of God. It'll keep what God has done fresh in your heart.
You know, there's so many things in the body of Christ today that I can comment on, but there are people today that are just constantly pleading with the Lord to pour out his spirit and to touch them. And they just they sing these songs about we're empty, we're dry, we're hungry, we're desperate for you. And there is a truth to all of that that we need to love God above anything else. and want him more than we want anything else. I agree with that. But the scripture also teaches that God has already given us everything that there is to have. And if you're hungry, it's not God's fault.
>> And yet people are praying like, "Oh God, I'm just waiting on you to touch me." No. God is waiting on you to unleash this fountain that's on the inside of you. >> You know, let me keep your finger here. I'm coming back in the name of Jesus. [laughter] But look over here. I believe it's John chapter 6. Let me see if I can find this passage. There's two times in John chapter 4. He talked to the woman at the well and he said that he that drinks from the water that I give will never thirst again. That's what Jesus told the woman at the well. And then here in John chapter 6, um, man, which verse is it?
>> Thank you very much. Somebody's heard me teach on this. John 6:35. It says, "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."
Now, how do you square that with saying, I'm hungry for you. I'm desperate for you. Oh, God, I'm thirsty. Oh, God, fill me. How do you put these things together? Jesus said, you'll never hunger and you'll never thirst. Thank you for that thunderous silence. I know some of you are thinking, "You're messing with my songs. You're messing with my theology." Well, it needs to be messed with. The truth is, it's like God has put everything on the inside of you that you will ever need.
>> All of the joy. Galatians 5:22, "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance." God has already given you all of these things. If you don't have joy, it's not God who hasn't given. It's you that aren't receiving. And when you're saying, "Oh, I'm thirsty. I'm hungry. Oh, God, feed me. Oh, God, pour out your spirit." It reminds me of a person sitting at a table with a, you know, all of the food that you could ever imagine. I mean, everything that you could ever want. And them sitting there talking about, "I'm hungry. I'm hungry. Would you please give me something to eat?" And I say, "There, everything you could ever want right here." But you just keep talking about how hungry you are. Just eat.
>> Quit talking about how hungry you are and eat. And I know a lot of Well, God has already done his part. >> You can release what is on the inside of you. We don't need to pray for God to come and pour out his spirit. He's already done it. It's on the inside of you.
>> Amen. >> I know I'm ruining a lot of people's theology. I'm going to be out of here tomorrow night and so I'm just going to say these things and leave. Amen. And other people will have to clean up the mess. But we're praying for revival. God sent revival 2,000 years ago. It's not up to God to revive us. He's already done it. He's placed this on the inside of us. And what we've got to do is release what he's put on the inside of us instead of passively praying and then waiting on God to do something. God has done his part.
So, how is it going back to Romans 1, how is it that you release this life of God, that you keep the things of God fresh? And what I talked about this morning is it says the first thing that people do that diminishes the power of God that shuts off the spot that stops the flow of the spirit of God is that they quit glorifying God. They don't give the glory to God that is due unto him. And man, I could go back and preach this morning's message all over.
Well, one of the definitions of of glory here is talking about esteem. And the word esteem means value, a price. The fact is most people have put more value on things of this world than they have on the things of God. Let me use just one verse to make this point and then we're going to move on to the next point in the name of Jesus. Here in Hebrews chap 11, it's talking about Moses. And it says in verse 24, "And by faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." And look at verse 26. esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. The word recompense means the paying back of the reward. In other words, he looked beyond this life and saw that someday God is going to reward us for the way that we've served him and followed him. And he looked at that and considered the recompense, the paying back, the rewards that he would get in heaven worth more than all of the riches of Egypt.
>> You know, every one of us has seen those movies about Egypt and the opulence that the rich lived in, the ruling class and stuff. And Moses was second or third in command to Pharaoh. He had everything that you could ever possibly imagine. And he esteemed, that's what that word glorify means. He glorified what God could do. And he considered that better than all of the wealth and the things of Egypt. Brothers and sisters, most Americans today esteem the American dream and all of the things that we can get more than God. I couldn't tell you how many people have come to me. There's a person came to me today talking about that they possibly could lose their job if they speak up and stand for the Lord and they but I've got to have a job. I need this. You are esteeming that job and instead of God is being your source. And I was using this example this morning like a seessaw. If one end is up, the other one's got to be down. You got to get to where you esteem God and say, "God, I count you worth more than anything. you died for me, I'll live for you. And if it cost me my job, if it cost me my friendships, if it cost me my church, I've had I've had a number of people come to me today and say they've been kicked out of churches because they receive the things that I said. And man, Christians don't like the gospel. It'll get you kicked out of church. One time I couldn't go to a church. They they turned me down and wouldn't let me in. And I was kind of whining about it. And the Lord said, "Don't worry, Andrew. They won't let me in there either." Amen. But you know what? If you get to where you want to be accepted and you want to, you know, all of this stuff, well, then the moment you glorify and esteem that, then your value on God. And that's the reason that you lose your joy and you lose your peace. It's not because God quits. It's because you have glorified something else.
>> And so you have to constantly just glorify God. That nothing compares with God. Nothing is worth as much to you as God. Man, I'd give up my life for God. I' I'd do anything because he's changed my life. And I just to the best of my ability, I'm trying to do everything that God tells me to do. I don't do it perfectly, but I'm doing it as much as I possibly can. And because of it, God is just blessing me. So, back to Romans chapter 1, you have to glorify God. And if you start esteeming other things, then you are de esteeming or disesteeming or delorifying God. It won't work that way.
The second thing here it says that you uh they didn't glorify God. They were not thankful. Did you know being thankful uh is these all things all fit together. I believe that they're progressive steps. If you are really putting the glory and the worth and the value on God, if you are loving him for all that he's done for you, you can't help but be thankful. If you are not thankful, if you aren't just constantly thanking the Lord and saying, "Oh, God, it's so awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." If that's not your attitude, it's because you're esteeming other things. It's because you're looking for a house, a car, a job, the esteem, the recognition from people, something's not going your way. But when you are truly putting the glory on God and glorifying him, you cannot help but be thankful. It's impossible if you truly recognized how awesome God is to be. It's impossible to be anything but thankful. If you understood it, if you were to understand the price that Jesus paid for your salvation,
>> man, how could you not be thankful? Amen.
>> You know, I was just preaching last week at our Easter services, and uh I won't go through the whole thing, but the scripture says that Jesus was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Before God created the worlds, he knew that you and I would rebel and that sin would enter into the world. And so he had already decided to send his son and to die for us before he even created mankind. [clears throat] That's an amazing statement. But yet that's verified in Colossians chapter 1 and other places. And I said that one time in our Bible school and a guy came up to me and he was just shook. He says, "Wait a minute. are you saying that God knew what was going to happen in advance before he created the human race? And I said, "Yeah, that's what those verses are saying." And then he got really upset. He says, "Why would God have created the worlds and all of us if he knew the terrible things that were going to happen? if he could foresee Hitler and the slaying of millions of Jews and Stalin the killing of millions of Russians and all of these things. If he could see all of the rape and the hatred and the plunder and the terrible things that are done, the heartache, why would God have created this world if he knew all of this was going to happen? And you know what? That caught me off guard. And I'm I'm not sure that I have a full answer for that yet. But the answer that I gave him and the only thing I can see is that he valued you and me so much and the fact that we would accept his love and that we would respond to him and he said we're worth it.
>> We're worth any price he has to pay.
>> And you know what that does? that puts tremendous value on each one of us. And if you were to get a full revelation of that, I'm not sure that I'm I know I don't have a full revelation of it, but to the degree you understand that, I guarantee you, you can't help but praise God to think that God Almighty would send his best, his son down here and die for you and suffer. Jesus didn't only suffer on the cross. Jesus suffered from the moment he entered into a physical body. Think about God Almighty who is limitless. It says that even the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain him. It says he holds the universe in the palm of his hand. Amen.
>> And somebody that infinite and that great limited himself and became a physical human being. That right there is suffering. Having to be confined to one place to being hungry. Jesus had to learn how to crawl, how to control his boughels, how to eat, how to walk, how to talk. God Almighty became a man. I can't even imagine. I don't love anybody enough to do something like that. If I would have been limitless like God, man, I it's just awesome to think that God did that. And then it says that he was without form or calmliness in Isaiah chapter 53. And there is no beauty in him that we should desire him. What that's saying is Jesus wasn't a beautiful person. You know, if any of you have ever felt like you're just not one of the beautiful persons and uh you've had to endure being less than everybody else and stuff. You know what? Jesus felt what you felt. He didn't come as the perfect person. Man, if if I had been God and if I could imagine becoming a man, I would have been the best specimen of manhood that ever existed on this planet. I'd have made Hercules look pitiful compared to me. But Jesus came into a form that he was nothing special. He was ordinary. People walked by him. People that he created walked by him and ignored him. Didn't even notice who he was. Nothing special about him in a crowd. He didn't stand out, man. I can't even imagine all of this. He went through suffering death. He saw people die. Man, Jesus suffered for 33 years just being a human being.
>> And then he suffered all of the things on the cross. And then he took your sin and my sin. And if you ever got a revelation of that, if you truly glorified God, esteemed him, valued, and thought about what he was doing, your little petty problems would seem like nothing.
>> It would just reduce all of our things down to nothing.
>> I talked about this some this morning, but you know, people reject you. And in America, they don't put us in prison yet. It's going that direction.
>> But you don't get physically tormented. You don't get beat. You don't get put in prison. You don't get killed, beheaded the way that Christians are being done in other places. But you know what? It's just the rolling of the eyes. Somebody looking at you like, "Oh, you're one of those fanatics." And you know what? Most Christians can't even stand that. That just hurts too much. They roll their eyes at me, man. You haven't [applause] you hadn't glorified God. You hadn't put the worth and the value on him. If you ever saw how much he suffered for you, how could you not tolerate somebody rolling their eyes, somebody just thinking that you're a religious zealot? I tell you, it's because we haven't glorified God. It's because we aren't doing these things. And part of this is being thankful.
Look over here in Romans chapter 11 and in uh verse 13. This is the Apostle Paul speaking. He says, "For I speak to you Gentiles in as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my office." Did you know that the word magnify right there is the exact same word that was translated glorify in Romans 1:21 to glorify means to magnify to make bigger. You have to make bigger what God has done than what people are saying about you. You have to make bigger like uh it talked about Moses that he esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures that were in Egypt. You have to make God bigger in your life than anything else. And it's up to you. Your mind is like a magnifying glass or a set of binoculars. Whatever you focus your attention on, it grows and it magnifies. You know, a friend of mine, Clifton Coulter, uh Wimblewell knows him. He was preaching with me one time in in um Fort Worth and he was talking about this very thing and he was confessing that he just takes these little tiny things, a little pebble that Satan puts in his path and he focuses on it and thinks about this person said this about me. And as he thinks on it, it just grows and grows and grows until it becomes this huge baseball bat. And the devil's just beating his brains out with this little tiny toothpick. But you just magnify until it becomes this big thing. Did you know if you were to keep keep a journal, I'd challenge you to do that. And if you were to write down the things that bothered you today, did you know if you kept a journal and you went back and looked at it in a year's time, you would be shocked >> at some of the things that just ruined your day. You had a flat tire and because of it, man, your whole day was ruined. I had a flat tire Wednesday morning and you know what? It didn't affect me for more than 30 seconds. I just got my other vehicle and left. When I get home, I got to change a tire. But there's people that let things like that just get to them because you magnify this and you you aren't glorifying God. If you aren't glorifying God, you're going to be magnifying something.
>> And you've got to make sure that you magnify the Lord, that you glorify him, that you make him big in your life. And it takes focus. It takes effort in order to make that happen. And so remember this that you magnify. He magnified his office. That's the exact same word that was talked about, glorify.
Now look over here in Psalms chapter 89. And this is a prophetic Psalms. I hadn't got time to prove that to you, but if you read it, I think there's either four or five times that Jesus quoted Psalms chapter 89 and applied it to himself. And in um man, where is this? You know what? I should know where this verse is. Anyway, I'll tell you what it says. Maybe somebody can find it. But the Lord was speaking about, I will magnify the Lord with thanksgiving. And so, this was Jesus speaking, and you magnify God when you begin to thank him. So remember over in Romans 1:21, it says that the first step is they didn't glorify God, which that word means to magnify. And then he comes along and he says, "I will magnify the Lord with thanksgiving." You magnify God through praising him.
>> When you are focused on the Lord and when you are thanking him for the awesome things that he does, it focuses your attention upon God and it makes God bigger. You magnify God. Every time you begin to say, "Thank you, Father, for touching my life. Father, thank you for the times that you've moved in my life." You make those things bigger. You know, I mentioned this morning, March the 23rd, 1968, that's where God really rang my bell and started my relationship with him. I'd been born again for 10 years, but that's when he really started speaking to me. And I go back every day of my life. There may be a few days I've missed, but it would be very, very few in 47 years. And I thank him for touching my life.
>> I've never gotten over it.
>> I remember God touching my life. And I didn't deserve it. I didn't I wasn't seeking him as I mean, I guess I was to a degree, but I didn't even know what I was seeking. It was just the goodness of God. And God touched me. And I thank God for that constantly. I am always thanking God why he chose me. If I was God, I wouldn't have chosen me, man. Sometimes I get really, you know, just like, God, why don't I do things better? Why don't I talk better? Why don't I communicate things better? I'm disappointed with me. But you know what? God loves me anyway. And I'm just so thankful that God has chosen me. And I thank him constantly. And as I thank him and think on what God has done, it makes God bigger. God is so big in my life. He is so important to me that it just overwhelms everything else. It makes these little tiny problems that you have shrink in comparison. And I'm saying this by the spirit of the Lord. There are some of you that magnify your problems. You focus on your problems until they grow bigger and bigger and bigger. And you are letting these little tiny things relative to God. They're little tiny. I know some of you are thinking, "Oh no, mine are really big." That's because you have spent time magnify them. Amen.
>> I've had people in my prayer lines come up here and they tell me what's wrong and they're just crying and they're telling me and I honestly there is times that I've nearly laughed at them. I have to bite my tongue sometimes to keep from laughing and saying that's it. This is what's bothering you. I had one of our Bible college students come in one day and on a Monday he came into my office and he was just crying. and he was so beside himself I had to wait for him to quit crying so he could tell me what was going on. And I said, "What happened?" And he said, "Oh, I went to church yesterday so hungry to hear the word." And he said, "I was there ready to get a word from God, and there were two women in front of me that were just laughing and talking and and and joking back and forth, and they distracted me, and Satan stole a word from me, and he was crying. Man, I had just gotten off the phone with a friend of mine who his wife of 50 years had died. And I called him to see how he was doing. And he was just praising God. He said, "Oh, God is so good. God's faithful. God's being good to me." And this guy was glorifying God. and his wife of 50 years had died and he was rejoicing. And then in contrast, here's this guy who was crying because two women in front of him were talking. I tell you what, spirit of slap wanted to come all over me. If I was God, I'd have just drop kicked this guy into space. Amen. I said, "Why didn't you get up and move?" He never thought of that. He prayed and asked God to get them to shut up. He just could have got up and moved. You know, I've had people try and kill me. I've had people kidnap me. I've had a lot of things happen to me. And you know what? They are insignificant compared to what Jesus has done for me.
>> It's not a big deal. And I know some of you, well, you just don't know what's happened to me. You don't know what Jesus did for you.
>> I'm telling you, regardless of how bad your situation is, God's supply is infinitely greater than your problem. I am not saying that you don't have problems relative to me or relative to somebody else, but relative to what Jesus has already done, relative to the glory that is prepared for you in eternity, you got zero reason to be griping and complaining.
>> If you die, you go straight to heaven.
>> You're going to be with God forever in heaven. You could be praising God for that. Amen. [applause] I know somebody's thinking, "Well, but you don't understand. I'm going through a divorce." You can still praise God. Praise God that he'll never divorce you, man. Take the scripture that says in heaven they neither marry or nor are given in marriage and say, "Thank you, Jesus. This is just temporary." Amen.
>> [applause]
>> You can find something to rejoice at. If you're poor, man, rejoice that someday you're going to be in glory. You're going to be living in a mansion on streets paved of gold. I believe in victory in this life. But this life is not all there is. And if you never saw the fulfillment of your faith here, you're going to be so blessed in heaven that there is zero reason for you to gripe and complain about anything. That's right,
>> man. The Bible says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice." [applause]
>> I believe that the reason he said, "Again, I say rejoice," is because he knew people were going to think he couldn't mean what he's saying. He m I must have misunderstood him. So he says, "Again, I say rejoice in the Lord always." There is no reason not to be praising God.
>> There is zero reason. When a person experiences some defeat in their life and because of it they get mad at God and they just think I can't praise God. You know what? You are magnifying the problem.
>> You are in pride thinking that God's not fair to me. Boy, again, you ought to be glad I'm not God. Man, praise God that he understands the feeling of our infirmities and he's compassionate towards us and he he can have mercy even on those that are out of the way. But I tell you to to sit there and be angry at God and feel like God hadn't treated you right. You have magnified the problem. You have glorified the problem. You think on the problem way too much. I'm telling you, this is a progression here that first of all, you've got to glorify God. You got to put value on him and esteem him. And one of the ways you do that, make him bigger and magnify him is to be thankful. We've got to be thankful people. Amen.
>> One of the reasons we make our students go on a Ford and mission trip is because they've got to get out of this selfish, selfserving culture to where if you don't have five flat screen TVs, you're just you're poor and they need to go someplace and see people that have it worse than them. And you know what? It affects you. You come back feeling like, "Oh, God, we're blessed. Amen.
>> Man, I've been to places where I've seen people living in cardboard boxes on dumps that were born on that dump and have never left the dump in their life. You know, Pastor Derry and Karen were talking about ambassadors to the nations. They have a booth out here and we help them. And through them, I was able to build this lady, Elena, a house for 40, what is it? $4,800. And Elena was 78 years old, had never been in a house in her life, had never used a flush toilet. She lived in a hammock strung between two trees and had three of her grandchildren that slept underneath her on the ground. And praise God, I got to build her a house. And I went over to Nicaragua with Derry and Karen. And she was so thrilled with her one room house. It had one big room. I is it what? Two bedroom. Two rooms I guess. She had a bedroom, a living room, and then a bathroom. And she was so proud of her house. I went over there. She just tugged me and she uh took a cover off of a fan and made a grill out of it and fix me some chicken >> and fed me and just thank me and thank me and thank me. And you know what? That changes your attitude.
>> All of a sudden, uh you don't have to have a million dollar house to feel like you're blessed. then you can go home to your house and be really really blessed with it.
>> God's not against us having things. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying, but I'm saying we have magnified the wrong things. And because of that, we feel like we are just struggling and getting by. Most people on the face of the planet would love to have your poverty.
>> They would love to have your problems.
>> Man, we are blessed. We need to be thanking God. And the strange thing is if you would give thanks to the Lord, it makes God bigger. It magnifies him and it shrinks all of your problems and it decreases Satan's access to you.
>> Satan can all, you know, it's like Adam and Eve. If he hadn't gotten their attention off of God and off of all of the good things that God had given them and got them to focus on the one thing in the universe that God told them not to have anything to do with if he hadn't made them focus on the one thing they couldn't have. They would have never entered into sin. If he would have approached him, let's just say that there was 10,000 trees in the garden. I don't know how many there were. But if he had come and he says, "Has God only given you 9,999 trees to eat from?" If he would have approached it that way in that temptation would have been a reminder of how good God was and how God had given them all of this stuff. And if they would have approached it from that way, they would have thought, "Well, who cares about one tree? God gave me all of these others. it's going to take a whole lifetime to just make the rounds and taste every fruit and they wouldn't have ever partaken of it. But Satan seed will always say, "Has God kept this one thing from you?" There are some of you that feel until you get a bigger house, a nicer car, more of this, more of that, all of these things, you can't be happy. Go back and think about your parents, your grandparents. Not everybody came from a good family, but many of you, your parents and grandparents were happy and rejoicing, and they didn't have onetenth the stuff that you had.
>> True.
>> True. True.
>> They didn't have any of these advantages.
>> And yet, they had more happiness.
>> You know, I'll say some things here. I hope y'all don't get mad at me. I'm I'm bucking our culture, but I'm I'm doing it on purpose. But we've got people today that just feel like they have a right to gripe. We've got African-Americans that just wear a chip on their shoulder and everybody owes me something. You know, I've read the stories of John Jasper. I don't know how many of you have ever heard of him, but he was an American slave and he was a preacher. And John Jasper was awesome. This guy was praising God. He was a slave and he was happier than many of his free descendants today and he was being beaten and he talked about the terrible things that were done. But he was magnifying God and he was so happy in God that he was freer than many blacks are today because they look at somebody who doesn't serve them that doesn't do something that gives them you know a look. Am I saying that people are always treating you right? No. But I'm saying magnify the good. Magnify what God has done instead of the bad. [applause] I'm aware I'm aware that there's bad things done to people today and I'm not supporting that. But I'm saying there's bad things that have been done to me. And I don't magnify it. I don't think about it. You know, I was drafted in 1969 and it was during the height of the racial stuff that was going on. And the army in an effort to deal deal with that just basically made it that if a white and a black got into a fight, the black always was right. The white got punished. And so there was no recourse. You could not sit there and say anything to anybody. And in my barracks that I was in, it was about three or four to one, blacks against white. And there was only 15 of us white guys in there. And the blacks treated us like dirt. And there was this guy uh named Duck was his name. And he was a pimp in the world. And he was in the bunk next to me. And I got to witnessing to him. And his dad was a Baptist preacher. and he knew better. And when I witnessed to him, he respected me for that. And because of that, I had this other guy. He was he was a black man. And there was another black man who was the uh sergeant, the trainee sergeant over our uh barracks, and he hated me. And he put me on latrine duty every day. And he just treated me bad. He gave me the worst of everything and did bad things to me. And guess what? I didn't suck my thumb. I didn't talk about it. I didn't whine. I didn't do something. I just did what I had to do. And you know what? God used this pimp to defend me. He found out what was happening. And he got the other black guy and threw him against the wall and says, "If you ever treat Wamock that way again, I'm going to kill you." And I had a pimp become my personal guy that followed me around. and protected me. [applause] And one time they got drunk on a weekend and they went through and they got the whites one by one and pulled them out and we had cement floors and a drain in the middle and they started beating their heads on the floor and there was so much blood that flowed that it stopped up the drain. you could slosh through the the blood in our deal. And out of 15 or 20 whites that were in my barracks, I'm the only one that didn't go to the infirmary. And it was because I was the last guy he came to. I was just laying on my bunk. I couldn't I wasn't a fighter before and I certainly wasn't going to overcome 50 black guys that were there trying to beat me up. So, I was just laying in my bunk praying and Duck came over and he grabbed me to pull me up like he had done all of the others. And when he saw me, he recognized who I was and he just threw me back on my bunk and went over there and laid down. And I'm the only guy that didn't get beat up. Did you know they took an entrenching tool to the guy, the white guy who was the um trainee field sergeant and while he was asleep, they took an entrenching tool. If you know what that is, it's like a shovel and they literally beat the guy's face in and killed him.
>> They killed a number of people while I was there. I'm not saying this to get pity. I'm just saying that look, I've been persecuted. I've been beat up and I'm not I don't have a chip on my shoulder. You blacks don't owe me something. I don't hold against you what somebody else did 47 years ago.
>> Amen.
>> I'd go sit down at the table and every single person would get up and leave. That happened to me all through basic. And you know what I the point I'm making is I'm not saying that you don't have problems, but I'm saying I've probably suffered as much or more than most of you and I still don't have a chip on my shoulder. I'm one happy person. I'm glorifying God. The whole time that they were rejecting me, I was glorifying God. [applause] And I know that there's some people mad at me now. and you're going to reject me and stuff because I told you the truth. Galatians 4:16. Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
>> Man, you just have to start glorifying God. Who cares what people do to you? I've had so many people get mad at me and say terrible things about me. And you know what? I just keep loving God and serving God. And many of those same people who hate me and are upset because of the things that I say, they come around. They see after a while and God changes it. This is the way you overcome prejudice and stuff is not by demanding that you respect me. You go out and earn their respect.
>> You go out and do the right thing. So anyway, I know that that's a subject that a white guy is not supposed to talk about, but I'm just telling you the truth that you are glorifying what people say. Oh God, they rejected me and oh God this and that. I've had as much rejection as most of you have gone through and I'm still loving God and I'm not bitter and I'm not griping about it and I'm not mad at you because of the color of your skin.
>> Amen. You need to get over it. [applause] If you would glorify God, it doesn't matter what anybody does to you. It doesn't matter if you're a female and they won't let you preach. You know, we have women in our school and they say, "Well, why don't you teach on women in ministry and all of this and give us ammunition so that we can go out and set people straight?" That's not the way you do it. Don't waste any of your time defending yourself and trying to preach to people. You know, I had a prophecy come right when I was in the midst of getting kicked out of the Baptist church and people were criticizing me and a guy called me out and he said, "I see you like a runner on a track and you're running this race and you're leading the race. you're winning, but the people in the stands are yelling at you and telling you you're doing it all wrong. And I see you getting off of the track and going up into the grand stands and arguing with the spectators. And he says, "Even if you win the argument, you're going to lose the race. Stay on track. Stay on track." And [applause] I tell you that has been a word for me. And I do not spend time sitting there. I've got thousands of blogs that are written against me. And I had my staff come to me and show me some of them. And I was kind of impressed by him because they all started off. He's not like the typical guy. He [clears throat] gives his stuff away. He's not the name it, claim it, blab it. and they would give you compliments and then they'd stab me in the back and say how bad I was. But I thought, man, they even my critics are saying some nice things about me. So, but anyway, they wanted me to do something about it and I said, "No, I'm not going to spend any time on Well, a couple of months went by and then they came to me again and they showed me some more and they said, "We can stop this. there's things we can do that will take people's uh you know they won't be able to click on these websites and I got kind of upset and I said I already told you that we aren't going to do this. I said I will not get in the grand stands and spend my time trying to defend myself. I said if I do then Satan wins. Even if I win the argument I'm going to lose the race because now I'm not using my time to glorify God and to magnify him. I'm magnifying myself trying to defend my reputation. You just don't do that. And you don't. If you are bothered by what everybody's saying about you, it's because you are glorifying yourself and it's you're so important to yourself. I tell you, you just aren't that important. And there's some of you that really take offense over that. But [laughter] truth is, you just aren't that big of a deal except in your own mind. You need to get to where you love God. Where God's more important, his kingdom is more important than you.
>> And if somebody at your work rejects you and won't talk to you because man, you love God and you're going to stand up for God. Well, then praise God for it. Bible says, "Shout and leap for joy when men speak evil of you because great is your reward in heaven." Paul actually understood this because he was a persecutor of the Christians and put people to death. And Paul said in Philippians chapter 3, I glory in persecutions so that his life may be made perfect in me. Most gladly I suffer these things. because he understood that when you suffer the rejection of people that man, God accepts you. He was on the road to Damascus and the Lord said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" He didn't say, "Why do you persecute my people?" He said, "Why do you persecute me?" God takes the persecution of his people very seriously. And if somebody rejects you and criticize you because of your witness is a Christian, man, God takes that seriously. Did you know the first martyr of the church, Stephen, in Acts chapter 7, he was stoned to death? And the scripture makes a number of references, Hebrews chapter 10 and other places about Jesus being seated at the father's right hand. But when Steven was stoned to death, the heavens opened up and he saw Jesus standing at the father's right hand.
>> He's usually seated. But when the first martyr for Jesus died, Jesus in honor of him stood at the father's right hand, gave him a standing ovation. And I guarantee you that's one reason. [applause] That's one reason that Stephen was able to remain faithful is because he was magnifying Jesus. He saw Jesus. He saw his acceptance. If you would glorify Jesus, magnify him, if you would thank him and praise him for the good things he's done, you would get to where the people, the rejection of people is nothing. It is nothing. It's nothing compared to Jesus. The only reason what people say about you bothers you is because you aren't magnifying and glorifying Jesus. Amen.
>> Let me share this passage with you out of second Timothy chapter 3. These are signs of the end times. And Peter said on the day of Pentecost that the end times began on the day of Pentecost. That was 2,000 years ago. If 2,000 years ago was the end times, we are in the end of the end times. Somebody says, "Is Jesus coming back in our lifetime?" I don't know. But I'm acting like this is it because you know what? This is the only lifetime I've got. Amen. [laughter] I'm acting like this is it. I'm doing everything I can. Second Timothy 3:1 says this, "Know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves." Man, I could preach on every one of these things. I think there's 16 things listed here and every one of them is you could take today's newspaper and on the front page you can find every single thing listed right here. This isn't hidden somewhere on the back page. This is describing American culture today that they are lovers of their own selves. man, covetous. Colossians 3:5, covetousness is idolatry. Americans say, "Well, we aren't idolatrous." If you have to have more and more and more and you aren't content with what you've got, that's covetousness. It's idolatry. Those are strong statements. Boasters. Muhammad Ali, I am the greatest. You know, that was offensive back when he said that. People wouldn't say things like that, but now that's calm compared to what people say about themsel. We even have a show that's called American Idol. What a sorry, sorry name. Mercy, proud, boasters or excuse me, proud blasphemers. disobedient to parents. Does anybody doubt that that's described in our day
And age? And look at this. Unthankful and unholy. Unthankful is listed right in between rebellion and being unholy. Did you know that unthankful is a characteristic of the last days? And man, we are living in it.
For us to just be kind to people and to be thankful, to say thank you. Did you know today it separates you? Most people feel like everybody owes me something. And if you don't do something, boy, you come in and you demand your rights. I've been out to eat with ministers that I'm embarrassed to be with them because they demand everything and they criticize this. I've seen ministers send food back three and four and five times just being nitpicking. And I mean, I understand one time I got some food that had a cigarette butt in it. And you know what? I can understand that sometimes you got to send food back. But I'm saying I just see people gripe and complain over all kinds of things. They're unthankful.
You know, I just try and be a thankful person. And I thank people all of the time. I'm not saying these things for my benefit. I wouldn't say this except that I want you to see that we've got to be thankful in small things. But every time I'm at my office, if I have time, I'll walk around and say thank you to every single person in my office. We've got worldwide 500 and something employees. And I'll go around and try and say thank you to every one of them every day if I can. Now, I can't do that every day and I sometimes miss it, but I'm saying I try and go by and just say thank you to people. I say thank you to our people that are here. You know what? You got to be thankful for what God has done.
It's a sign of the end times, our unthankfulness. And man, we go around thinking that everybody owes me something. Nobody owes you anything. This is one of the things I hate about American culture right now is that we're getting this entitlement thing where you're going to make everybody do stuff. That's wrong. It's wrong to sit here and demand that everybody treat me right.
That's wrong. Should people treat you right? Yes. But you don't have the right to demand it. You are not the center of the universe. You know how you can tell an American? How many Americans does it take to screw in a light bulb? Just one. Because you just stand there and hold it and the whole world revolves around you and it'll automatically happen. That's the American idea. Everybody owes me something. We don't owe you anything. Man, you ought to humble yourself. Like Ashley was talking about, the last will be the first. To be great, you got to be the servant of all. Being unthankful is an indication that you just think everybody owes you something. That you deserve so much more than what you've got.
Man, if you would be thankful for what you've got. I've seen people that are so thankful for virtually nothing. I was over in India and I was in a millionaire's home and he was so proud of everything he had and I ate on his plates and it took all the faith I had to eat on those plates. He was poorer than most all Americans are and yet relative to others he just thought he was great and he was so thankful and it changed my attitude about a lot of things. I'm telling you we are ungrateful. We don't appreciate what God has done. God has blessed this nation. There's very few if any nations on the planet that have ever been blessed like America. We've got so many things.
Every day we ought to be thanking God. Look at this convention center. You know, this is one of the world's largest convention centers and we're using this facility. Man, praise God for this. We got air conditioning. We got seats to sit on. I've been in Uganda where they will walk four and five hours to come and then sit on a board or dirt and sit there for hours and listen. I've been in these huts in Uganda. I went into a place in Uganda and it was an 8 foot diameter hut that was about 4 foot tall the first story and then the second story was four feet. There was 10 people that lived in that 8 foot diameter hut and it had cow dung for a floor that they had watered and made it hardened into kind of like a plaster and they had just cooked 10 rats.
The name of the village was loi which means rat and that's what they ate. And they had nothing except the clothes on their back. And there were some of them that didn't even wear clothes. There were women that were unclothed and stuff and that's the way that they live. And we're now reaching those people. We're bringing things to them, bringing all kinds of stuff to help them. But man, you go over and see something like that, you know what? You'll be thankful. You'll be thankful for what you've got. And it and when you begin to start thanking God, you magnify him with thanksgiving. and it makes him bigger and it decreases your worries about these things that you don't have. You would find out you would be happier if you would be thankful.
Satan takes advantage of unthankfulness. You know, I could go back to Genesis chapter 3 and show you that Satan focused their attention on the one thing they didn't have. And before Adam and Eve could sin against God, they had to be unthankful. If they would have just been magnifying, God, look at the wonderful world that you've created. Thank you for so much abundance, thousands and thousands of trees and perfect climate and everything is beautiful. If they would have been thanking God for those things, they never would have griped over the one tree that he told them not to take. But they became unthankful. They felt like, I've got to have more.
And did you know the same thing is happening to people today? There are some of you in here that just feel like you cannot be happy until you have a bigger house, a bigger car, until you have more clothes, until you get the jewelry, until you have your fifth flat screen TV, until you get the iPhone 6, whatever. You can't you just you you've only got one of those old ones, man. Brothers and sisters, it's it's so simple. We just aren't putting our our worth, our value on God. We aren't loving God first. We love ourselves. We love the appraises of people. We love the things. We esteem them. And the moment you start esteeming something like that, your glory and esteem on God diminishes.
Thanksgiving will make you focus on the good things of God. If the doctor tells you you're going to die and if you say, "I'm going to make my request known to God with thanksgiving." That's what Philippians chapter 4 says. And before you ever mention what the doctor says, you just go and say, "Father, first of all, I just want to thank you. Thank you for my salvation. Thank you for what you've done. Thank you that if I was to die, I'm going to go right into heaven."
Thank you, Father, that if I lose, I win. Thank you that I can't lose for winning. And you just start thanking God and you start praising God. And then by the time you get around to, oh yeah, the doctor says I'm going to die. It's like that thing is shrunk down to so small that it's insignificant.
Some of you might have heard my testimony about my youngest son that was raised from the dead. We were told on March the 4th, 2002 that we were woke up at 4:15 in the morning and my oldest son called and said, "Dad, I'm sorry to tell you, but Peter's dead." And I asked him what happened. Then I said, "Don't let anybody touch him till we get there." And it took us, we had to get up and get dressed and it's an hour's drive into town. So, it took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get there and we didn't have cell phones and we didn't know what was going on. And on the way in, you know what? I just started feeling grief and sorrow and all of the things that anybody would feel if you were told that your son was dead. But you know what? I have developed a habit of just praising God. And I'm going to I've made a decision that I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Psalms chapter 34. My soul will make her boast in thee. The humble shall hear thereof. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. In John 16:33, in the world you shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer. See, the Lord's telling you to be of good cheer. Not just when everything's going good, but he says you are going to have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. John 16:33, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. Philippians 4. And there's just so many scriptures.
I've made a decision that I'm going to praise God. I don't care what happens. If they hang me, I'm going to praise God. It's a brand new rope. Amen. If they slit my throat, I'm going to say, "Man, it's a brand new knife. No rust, no germs." Amen. I'll find something to praise God about. I don't care what's going on. And you know what? I started praising God and just thanking God, even though my son was dead. And I started saying, "Father, if he doesn't come back, because it was his fault. He overdosed on drugs. He killed himself. God wouldn't have been unjust if he'd have let him stay dead. And I just started saying, "Father, you're a good God regardless of what happens. I love you. This isn't going to affect me. You didn't kill my son." And I just started praising him and thanking him. And I'm telling you when I did that, the Bible says in Colossians chapter 2 verse 7 that you abound in faith with thanksgiving. When you just start thanking God, it makes you take your attention off of the negative and look at the positive. Thanksgiving magnifies God. Amen.
You know, the reason I couldn't find that scripture earlier, I said it was Psalms 89. It was Psalm 69. That's the reason I missed it. Psalm 69:31, I think it was. That's where it says that I'll magnify him with thanksgiving. And when you begin to thank God, you magnify God. You make him bigger. And I mean, I abounded in faith. And all of a sudden, my faith rose up. And I just knew that I knew that I knew that Jonathan Peter was gonna live. And I started laughing. Jamie looked at me like he's lost it. And I told him, "Nope." I said, "You know what? This is going to be the greatest miracle we've ever seen." And when we got there, he had been dead for nearly five hours. They had stripped him naked, put him in a cooler in the morg with a tow tag on and he just sat up and started talking. And praise God, he's alive today and doing well. Amen.
And I'm telling you, praise is an important part of that. If I would have let my feelings and emotions go and if I would have gotten bitter and angry and criticized God, that's not faith. I'm telling you, praise makes you get into faith. There is nothing to praise God for outside of God. This world is a mess. Things are bad. If you don't have a problem now, hold on. You will. If everything's just wonderful for you right now, I guarantee you, just hold on. You're going to have some major problems. We live in a fallen world.
In the world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer because Jesus has overcome the world. This is something you need to just make a decision that man, I'm going to with thanksgiving let my request be made known unto God. Don't ever just run to God and start spewing out all of your hurt and pain. The scripture says, "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. and the peace of God that passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. All of those things work together. If you aren't letting your request be made known with thanksgiving, then the peace of God won't be there. It won't keep your mind. You'll be in turmoil. You'll be in unbelief.
And I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, we got a lot of unthankful, ungrateful Christians today that aren't praising God. You're looking at what you don't have instead of what you do have. And I can guarantee you, what you do have is infinitely greater than anything that you don't have. You got a mansion in glory that is so superior, who cares if you ever see it manifest down here. You are going to live in blessing for all eternity. You got a glorified body. You've got a glorified body that I guarantee is just going to be awesome. And then someday we're going to lay this one down. We'll get a new body. And I believe in walking in health and victory now. But even if you don't see it manifest, because we've got an enemy out there and it doesn't always work. Not because God isn't faithful, but we just are fighting the devil and and things. And so even if it doesn't work, you're going to win. And if you would be thanking God for that, I guarantee you it would just stop so much of what Satan is doing.
I've dealt with many people who were dying and they were so afraid of dying that I try and minister to them that God wants them well. But finally I just say, "All right, let's think about it. What happens if you die?" And I go to talking to him about heaven, about how awesome heaven is, and about how that the, you know, the sting of death has been taken out because of Jesus. And when they confront it and realize and they look past death and see that that's not the end, man, that's just the beginning. It's going to be awesome. All of a sudden, their fear leaves and the struggle and the turmoil leaves and now their little bit of faith that they had is able to work and they get healed.
I'm telling you, if you are just thankful, there is there is something to be praising God for. I don't care what's going on in your life. There's no reason for you to be upset. Let me rephrase that. I guess there are reasons, but there's no excuse. There are things that happen to all of us, but man, you can glorify God. And you can put your attention upon him. I'm telling you, thanksgiving, being thankful is nearly a lost art today. You need to be thankful.
You know, we were in Atlanta on an airplane and it turned cold weather and Atlanta isn't set up really to deise planes. And so anyway, they had to deise all of the planes. And because of that, they made us sit on the runway for two hours in the plane waiting to be deiced. And boy, people were getting angry. The air wasn't working right. And it was stuffy in there. It was sweaty smelling. And it was it was just a bad situation and stuff. And I don't even remember what I did. But you know what? I try and just be polite to people and be nice to people. And they sent me a voucher for $400 after I got off because they said, "Your attitude was different than the other people." And somebody noticed it and they sent me a travel voucher for $400.
I was on a on a British Airways flight over to England and they canled it. And they for a long time they canceled every flight. Matter of fact, Jamie and I got to where we booked a day early cuz you could count on them cancelling the flight. And so we were expecting it and we went up and they canled our flight. It was like 10:00 at night and man, hundreds of people were on this plane and we stood in line for a long, long time and people were yelling, cussing, they were doing terrible things. We got up to this lady and I said, 'First of all, I just want to say that I know you aren't the one that cancelled the flight. And I said, 'I appreciate you putting up with all of these people and the things that they've said. And I said, just thank you for having a good attitude. She nearly reached across and kissed me. She got tears in her eyes and she says, "Oh, it's true." She says, "If it was up to us, we would not do this." And she says, "Thank you so much." And this woman put us in a suite, gave us all of these vouchers, and the next day upgraded us to first class as we flew over. Amen.
I didn't do it to get something, but I'm just saying that you know what? You could be polite. You could be kind. You could say thank you.
You know, in the instance where 10 lepers were cleansed, 10 were cleansed, but only one came back to give thanks. And Jesus said, "Weren't there 10 that were cleansed? And is there only one? And that one is a gentile and they came back to give thanks." And he says, "Because you've done this, you're made whole." All of them were healed, but not all of them were made whole. the parts of his body that had been eaten away were restored. I'm telling you, when you just cultivate being thankful, I pray that tonight when you leave, just go home, go to your room or go home if wherever you are and just start thanking God for things being as good as they are. They could be worse.
Some of you aren't thinking about what could have happened. It could have been much, much worse. Amen. You know, my son that was raised from the dead, sometimes he's a pain, but I never have him do something that I don't look at him and think, "Thank you, Jesus, for the problem that he is. Thank you, Jesus, that he's here to give me these problems. Thank you, I just love it. It could be worse. It could be worse. Whatever's going on in your life, it could be worse.
One time I was preaching on this at our ministers conference and Bob Nichols, who's a friend of mine, Charlie and Jill were there, others were there, and they could testify to this. But I was preaching on this. We ought to be thankful. Bob Nichols daughter Janet had a car accident, bumped her head, and she started having seizures. And over three or four years, she had a massive seizure. in anyway. I was there in the hospital when the doctor says, "Pastor Bob, she's dead. Take her off the machines and he refused to do it and they put a tracheotomy in so that she could breathe." And anyway, that's been I don't even know now, but it's been 15 or years ago. And she is at home, but she has to have 24hour a day nurses care. Um, and it's a miracle that they say that she's even alive, but she still can't talk. She get she