Transcript of a sermon by Pastor Don Moore.  What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.  I bolded a few important points FYI.  I hope that helps.

SAY AMEN
SHOW 147
JUDGING, JUDGMENT, JUSTIFICATION PART 1 

We’re going to take a look at judging, judgment and justification.  Judging, judgment and justification.  We’re going to take a look at that.  I don’t know if we can get all that done in the amount of time that we have but let’s begin this study.  I know it will be a blessing to you whether we do it all in one week or two, it really won’t matter.  The reason that we need to look at the object of judging, judgment and justification.  That is a mouthful.  I didn’t think of that when I got it, you know.  Can you say that fast three times?  [judging, judgment, justification, judging judgment, justification, judging, judgment, justification - laughter]  Boy, you people are all right.  You people are all right, I’m telling you.  Oh, my goodness.  So, let’s take a look at these.

Now the reason that it is so important right now is because of where we are on planet earth in the time period that we are here. The time period that we’re here dictates a certain thing.  We’re going, and we have been for some time in the United States of America, we have been in a dry period… We’ve been in a dry period.  And during a dry period, certain things happen on the earth.  

Today it’s raining and that’s beautiful.  Today if you decided to turn up the fallow ground, it would be an easy task because the ground has soaked up some water.  Now remembering that, as I’ve taught you before, the water – water represents the [Word]. The Word.  The Word of God is expressed in Scripture as water.  Water is the Word, the Word is water.  And therefore, when God rains upon the earth, He is giving us a physical expression of what He wants to do in the spiritual.  He makes things wet, prepares them so that they can grow.  

But it is during periods of dryness that the earth is under the evil that it has done and therefore judgment from God has come.  When God wants to judge a land, He closes the Heavens, and He withholds rain.  In other words, He withholds the Word of God.  And you think of it yourself.  When you’ve been in those dry places, you stayed away from the Word.  You didn’t turn it on TV, on radio, you didn’t come to Church, you stayed in a dry place.  And when you’re in a dry place for a while, what happens is, the atmosphere over you also becomes dry, the air around you becomes dry and the ground itself, which represents you, becomes dry.  Your spiritual ground, once it becomes dried out, what happens, it cracks…[that's right]

The earth right now is going through a series of cracks, through a series of earthquakes  [that's right]  that are cracking the ground and breaking the ground.  And so, when you’re in a dry period, the ground cracks.  The other thing that happens is, it’s easy to blow away the soil.  The Bible says we become subject to the winds of other doctrines.  So when we’re dry and the wind blows, the dust picks up, the dust picks up and we begin to lose soil.  And those things that are close and important to us, because the ground is cracked and dry, that (wind sounds) the wind blows them away, so we lose, watch this now, topsoil.  The topsoil that should be fertile is now dry and cracked.  

Therefore, the things that we have learned, that hold us foundationally solid, they get blown away and we end up in doubt and unbelief.  And guess what?  We then become unsuited for seed... Unsuited for seed.  Also, when the ground cracks and gets dry, it gives birth to other insects that normally would not inhabit that area.  Crawly things start crawling around in the dust.  Animals in the dust.  You know, the snakes and different little beetles and bugs.  They come up out of the ground since it’s dry, and go on the surface and just eat away.  

And that’s you not doing your, when you’re dry, it just eats away at you.  And things that don’t usually bother you, now all of a sudden, they irritate you greatly.  You come to church and you’re just, “Aargh, arragh, I can’t stand her.  aaargh, can’t stand him.”  And you begin judging.  ”Pastor shouldn’t have preached that.  Pastor should have preached something else.  arrrgh, arraagh.”  So you become all dried up, shriveling.  Your top soil is gone and then you begin to devour the dust.  You’re eating dust… dust…. blowing around,  hawgh.  Choking, you’re choking on it.  

And when you choke on it, what do you do?  You look for something to eat.  You look for moisture.  And usually, you’ll end up devouring and judging other people.  When people get dry, they have no word in them, no water, no sustenance, and so, out of their dryness, they will become cannibals, eat other people.  And it is out of their dryness, they’re seeking for something, and so they will seek moisture anywhere that they can get it.  And unfortunately, it usually results in them becoming judgmental, looking at what they don’t have, and instead of acknowledging that I don’t have water and because they’ve stopped drinking, because they’ve stopped creating the atmosphere, you know what I mean – You have to create an atmosphere.  

You ever get to the situation where you don’t want to read your Bible?  Come on now.  [well]  Let’s get real.  You wake up, you don’t want to pray.  The Spirit of God says, “Go pray.”  And you go, what?  ”I don’t feel like it.  I don’t wanna.  Too busy.”  But, what you’ll do as a result of that is begin looking for other people who are dry or looking for people that have a lot of water, and you will attack them… You will judge them.  Since your resources are dried up, and you need, you therefore then will judge others…    But!!! Moving right along.  How are you all doing?  Everybody ok?  Huh?  None of those dry people are here today cause you got wet comin’ to church today.  [laughter]   Cause it’s just raining everywhere.  So, let’s understand it today.  

Today what I want to do is I want to break down almost all of the scriptures that refer to this and give us a wider understanding.  We’ve heard the world say, “Judge not, judge not, judge not, judge not, judge not.”  Is that true?  Is that what Jesus meant when He said judge not, or should we look at the whole length of what He said, and why did He say it?  Where are we supposed to be in the judgment continuum?  So we want to understand judging.  

Now, first of all, who’s the judge and how did they get to be a judge?  The heads of families, in the Scriptures, and we look and we see that the heads of families and the elders of the tribe were the only ones that were put in position to judge.  Let me say it again.  The heads of families and the elders of the tribe were put in position to judge.  They were expected to make the call.  

Well, why the heads of families and why the elders?  Because they had longer life, more experience, and more failure than the younger ones.  [laughter]  You become a successful judge, not based on your success, but based on the amount of failure and then success as a result of those failures.  The one who knows most about standing tall is the one who’s gotten up again and again.  [hallelujah]  How are you doing?  Everybody here?  [yes]  So, it’s not those who fall down, but those who have in falling down, get back up, who can then be in position and place to make judgment calls.  

Alright, the other ones that are successful at judging are those who have overcome obstacles, difficulties, and problems.  Because the overcomer is the one who has successfully found, watch this now, found his own flaws.  Self-examination is the foundation upon which judgment is made.  If you cannot examine yourself, then how dare you think you’re going to judge somebody else?  You have to have been successful at self-examination before you can wear the armor and before you can yield the sword of judging.  You have to.  So, if you’ve never been tested, never been tried, never been through anything, you’re immediately disqualified from making a judgment call on someone else.  The deeper the pit that they have climbed out of demonstrates the strength with which they emerge with.  

You’re not strong cause you climb out of the pit because someone helped you out.  You’re strong because you clawed your own way out by your own ability and muscle and the strength of God helping you and therefore your arms are strong, your nails are strong, and when you get out, you want to look like God.  God who is the strongest of all will judge.  He is a judge.  He is the final judge, the final arbitrator.  Because He is greater and stronger than all of us.  And therefore God wants us to judge with His nature.  

The problem is, is when you make judgments from your flesh, you have sinned.  You have stepped into the arena of hypocrisy when you judge, especially judging someone who is going through something that you do not know nor do you understand.  That makes you a hypocrite, and you are weak, and you are trying to do what?  Do the same thing I said last week, you cannot build an altar to yourself, standing on the carcass of someone that you judge.  [amen]  How we doin’?  You ok?  [yes]  You’ll all alright?  [yep]  

So God enters into the scene, deciding who can judge on that basis, the basis of what you’ve succeeded at and what you failed at.  The basis on which you’ve been tested in and what you’ve proved yourself.  The things that you have accomplished, and those things are the one that determine whether you can make a judgment call or not.  So, the elders of the tribe who’ve been through the most stuff, the heads of families who’ve been through some stuff, they’re the ones established in their righteousness, they have to be working in righteousness, in their righteousness they’ve put themselves in position to make the call, not only based on their experiences, but based on the fact that they have survived their experiences and now are standing on righteousness.  

So you can judge, you are called to judge, scripture, I will give you and will prove it.  The problem, we’re in a dry situation in America, is because America has refused to judge and therefore God will bring judgment in areas where the righteous have failed to judge.  [amen]…

Revelation Chapter 20.  We’re gonna talk about judgment and justification.  How we doin’?  [good]… Amen.  Now, in Revelation Chapter 20, verse 12.   ”And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.  And the dead were judged...” Everybody see it there?  [yes]  This is judgment.  God’s going to bring judgment.  ”…were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.  The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.”  

In other words, if there is anyone in Hades, which is another word for Gehenna, which is the burning place, or hell, which is another name for it, there are  many names for it.  But the end result is the same.  It says that some people died in the sea and their bodies, their physical bodies are in the sea.  And Death and Hades, hell, “…delivered up the dead who were in them.”  So there are some people that are captive in death, some people that are captive in hell.  And it says they delivered up, the dead, who were in them.  ”And they were judged, each one according to his works.”  

So, in other words, there is this judgment that man, all men, living and dead will go through at the end of this epic or the end of this eon.  Or the end of this aeon, however you look at it.  We are in an aeon, a period of time that is going to end and then another aeon will begin.  

Now, it says then in verse 14.  ”Then Death and Hades...”  Death and Hell as we know it, “…were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.”  

In other words, judgment has a series of deaths.  When you keel over and die, I’m looking forward to that, you’re welcome to die in service, cause I, you know, the Lord has used me to bring people out of comas and stuff like that, blind eyes, deaf ears, seen all of that.  Cancerous tumors, seen all, have been blessed to lay hands on the sick and see them recover.  But I need somebody that is flatlined, totally flatlined, [amen]  I’m waiting for that, so if you choose to die physically in the service, I’m going to be on you like white on rice [laughter].  I’m coming to get ya.  [laughter]  Like now.  Like now…

I went to the hospital, a family called me up, and said, “Could you go?”  Their background was Catholic, so they wanted me to go give last rites to this guy.  He was in a coma.  They’re figuring they’re going to disconnect him the next day and he’d be gone.  So I went up to Benedictine, matter of fact it was, I went up to the hospital, I go late at night.  When I do hospital visits, I go late at night.  When it’s quiet and I can pray and talk and hear the voice of the Lord.  So he’s layin’ there.  And they’re going to disconnect him and they know that there’s no life in this guy.  You know, he’s history.  So, I wait till the nurses and doctors leave and I pray and I get in the Spirit, and I pray in the Spirit, and I’m ready.  

So I go over to the guy, grab him and I’m praying with him, holding his hand, and I ask the nurse,  I says, “This guy moved or done anything?”  She says, “No, he hasn’t moved for days.”  He has no movement, no way he could move cause his brain activity yada, yada, yada.  And so forth, you know.  She says, “He hasn’t twitched, moved, nothing.”  So, anyway, I grab his hand anyway. I grab his feet, Yeah I grab them, I just grabbed everything, gonna pray.  Following where the Lord wants me to dismiss this guy’s spirit from.  See, I’m going to command his spirit to leave his body and go be with the Lord… That’s the deal.  They think I’m going to give last rites, no need, I’m not doing that.  What I’m doing is gonna dismiss this guy to go be with the Lord.  

So, I’m praying, getting ready to pray for this guy to die,  And it chokes up in my throat.  I ‘can’t pray, so I’m praying for his spirit to, I can’t…chokes in my throat.  And I realized something else is going on.  So I get my Bible and I sit over in the corner.  And sure enough, the doctor comes in, checks him and all like that.  ”What are you doing here?”  And I say, I’m a minister.  He said, “Well, he’s in your hands cause we can’t do anything for him.  Tomorrow when we disconnect him, you know, that will be the end of that.”  And I said, “Yeah, I know that’s what they said.”  He leaves.  So, I’m just sitting there praying and praying.  

You know, the Lord gave me a verse of scripture.  A verse of scripture.  It was like Corinthians 10:4 or something like that.  And I said, “Lord, Lord what are you saying?”  I look it up and it says Christ is alive in us.  I realized that I’m not supposed to be praying for the guy to go, I’m praying for him to come back.  [laughter]  So I get up now, I got  a word from the Lord.  I grab his hand, the minute I grabbed his hand and laid my hand on his head, cause see, now I’m praying for him to come back.  From his feet I’m praying for him to leave.  But now I’m praying for him to (motions with hands) [laughter]  Never mind.  See, if you wake up in the hospital and I’ve got your feet,… [laughter]  You’re on your way out.  [laughter]  Lord have mercy.  

So I grab his hand and lay hands on his head.  And as I begin to pray, he starts twitching and squeezing my hand, and movin’, and moving around.  You know, and his little eyes open up and all like that.  And so, I just thanked the Lord.  And I just left, and I’m laughing, you know.  Because I know what’s gonna happen.  Sure enough, they call me at 10 o’clock in the morning.  They disconnected this guy.  He sat up and asked for breakfast.  [applause & laughter]  I said, “Praise God, Amen.”   And you know, he was a good, good brother.  Came and participated in the church, and here’s what I found out.  When I was speaking to his wife, who was crying with tears, you know, they were a young couple, in their 40′s.  

And here’s what she said.  She said, “Pastor Don, I’m so glad he didn’t die.”  I said, “Why?”  She says, “He had the heart attack five minutes after I told him I wish you were dead.”  [what?]  … They had had an argument, and she screamed out, “I wish you were dead.”  Ten minutes later, he hit the floor.   Had a massive heart attack…   Isn’t that amazing?  So the Lord brought him back to resolve that situation for she never in life would have survived the guilt of that.  [amen]  … God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform.  

So, there is physical death of the physical body.  That’s considered the first death.  So if you die physically, if you drop dead in here right now, that is experiencing the first death.  Obviously if the judgment that’s coming upon man is the second death, as the scripture said, all the books will be opened, all of mankind will be judged and those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, those who have, were judged by their works and their works were evil, will be cast into the lake of fire.  Everybody see that?  [yes]  Let’s read it again, just so we’re clear on it.  In verse 13.  ”The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.  And they were judged, each one according to his works.  Then Death...” which is a spirit, “and Hades...”  hell, which is a spirit and a holding place, “were cast into the lake of fire. This is the…” [second death]  ”...second death.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”  

Now, we’re going to look at this even more so, but I want you to just look in chapter 21, verse 24.  21 verse 24. … And it says in verse 24, “And the nations of those who are saved….  and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.  it’s gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there).”  I love that song.  ”And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.”  Into the city.  ”But there shall by no means enter it anything that...” what? [defiles]  ”defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”  

Ok, I give you two scriptures so you can see it says, more that you get the flavor of it here.  Now I want you to look a little again, over to verse 14.  Chapter 22, verse 14.  22:14.  Look what He says.  ”Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.  But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.”  

So, what do we have then here?  Look up here.  What we have is that the end of this aeon, at the end of this epic, at the end of this time period, the Bible only covers 6,000 years of man’s existence.  At the end of that time, God is going to judge each and every one of us, the living and the dead.  The believer, the non-believer.  And we’re going to look at more of those scriptures there.  And what does He say?  He says that He is going to judge Death and Hell for they are evil.  If you remember, when Adam and Eve were on the earth, there was no death.  They were designed to live and be companions to God forever.  But the process of sin entered the world and therefore God is going to judge that whole process.  

And the scripture ends with the reality that the City of God will be under a new Heaven and a new Earth.  But outside will still be that which is evil.  For it will be judged and it will remain so.  

Romans 14 beginning at verse 9.  ”For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”  So Christ is Lord over the dead.  Why would it say the dead?  It is referring to those who have already, previously, physically died.  He has to be Lord over everyone from Adam who has died all the way up to yesterday.  He is Lord over the dead, all of the dead.  He is Lord over all the living.  All those that are alive and all those that are going to be alive prior to the stopping of this aeon.  The end of this aeon, or the end of this age.  Everybody got that?  [yes]  

He is Lord.  What does that mean?  He is CEO.  He is boss.  He is God and over all of that.  The living and the dead.  

Now, let’s go on, verse 10.  ”But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.  For it is written: “As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”"  So, verse 12.  ”So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.  Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.”  

Don’t you know that when you judge your brother you can put a stumbling block in their way when you judge them.  And that weight of that guilt or that accusation or that contempt has the ability to cause someone to stumble.  We need to understand something, the scripture, there is not a blanket “do not judge.”  But Jesus gives us guidelines and we’re going to look at those guidelines.  

The Apostle Paul is saying to us here, hold on Church of God, who is it you’re to judge, and who is it you’re not to judge?  And here’s what it says.  It says that I am not to judge another brother in the Church as to whether he is condemned or not condemned, going to hell or not going to hell.  That’s not.  I cannot see the heart of the individual, therefore I must not attempt to be Jesus.  I must not attempt to be God.  I must not raise myself up to a God status and bring judgment on someone.  

What kind of judgment is he talking about?  The judgment of hellfire.  We’re not to judge another brother and say, “Listen, you believe Jesus, you confess Jesus, but you’re going to hell.”,,, everybody got that?  [yep]  

Now, there are other scriptures that point out how and when we are supposed to judge.  And we want to look at those.  But right here it’s saying, don’t you know, in the Church of Jesus Christ, when you don’t like how short her skirt is or how much cleavage she’s showing.  When you judge that and say she’s going to hell, and she’s a sister in the Church, guess what?  You are causing yourself to sin, you’re not helping her.  You’re bringing her under condemnation.  And He says, you shouldn’t judge each other that way… How do you know, maybe it’s the only clothes she has… Maybe she’s never been taught… Maybe she doesn’t know… Maybe she just came from the streets and you the first one she meets.  Whoa… alright here?  huh?  Don’t send anybody to hell cause you be on the way there with ‘em.  [laughter]  

Now what is Paul referring to when he gives us this section of scripture?   So let’s read it again so everybody’s clear.  Verse 10.  ”…why do you judge your brother?  Or why do you show contempt for your brother?  For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”  Before the judgment seat of Christ.  So then he says in verse 14.  So we keep in context here.  ”I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.  Yet if your brother is grieved because of your food,…”  What in the, what’s he talking about?  He is saying, hold on now.  When it comes to cultural things, and people’s own traditions, people have established certain things that they say are right, wrong.  He’s saying don’t judge them brother, there.  

 

I hope this sermon blesses you.

Heather

Please consider ranking my review at the following link.  

When the Hurt Runs Deep by Kay Arthur

 

We live in a world where no one is exempt from pain and hurt.  Sometimes in the midst of great pain we are tempted to blame God or think that He has forgotten us.  Our minds struggle to figure out why God would permit such suffering.  We have a choice.  We can hold on to the pain in bitterness and unforgiveness or we can apply God’s truth and find lasting healing.  The principles and Bible studies that Kay Arthur shares in When the Hurt Runs Deep give practical examples that readers can apply in their circumstances.

 

Kay Arthur shares twelve healing truths to remember when we are in the midst of our pain.  Most of her truths are based on an understanding of the true nature of God.  That God is sovereign and loves us.  If pain is permitted in our lives, God will use that pain to help us grow.  He will never permit any pain that is not beneficial to our lives.  At times God permits pain to bring us to the end of ourselves, so that we turn to Him to help us. 

 

Through Biblical studies of the lives of Job, Joseph, David, and Paul, Kay Arthur shows us how God uses pain and suffering to help His children grow and put them in places where they can be of benefit to God’s Kingdom.  If we think God doesn’t understand our pain, she shares how Jesus felt every kind of shame, rejection, hurt and pain that we experience. Kay also shares testimony from her life and the struggles and testimonies of others to encourage the reader to understand God’s healing.  Only when we take our problems to the Cross and turn them over to God can deep and significant healing occur.  Kay assures us that there is no problem that is too great for God to heal and handle.  God can heal pain in our present situation and deep pains caused by hurtful past experiences.

 

She deals with the important issue of forgiveness.  We need to forgive those who hurt us and we need to forgive ourselves when we have sinned.  If we hold on to guilt and anger we are not trusting in the complete work of Jesus on the Cross.  He died to forgive us all from sin.  We need to make a decision to believe God.  Kay says, “The more you discipline yourself to diligently study the Bible rather than rely on the writings of men, the more deeply you will experience His healing…Complete healing will never come if you don’t first believe that all your sins are forgiven – forgiven by God Almighty, by His Son, and by His Spirit. Until you accept this fact by faith, there will always be a shadow between you and God, a shadow where lies and unjust condemnation lurk in the darkness of unbelief.” (p 182)

 

Kay’s book includes a helpful appendix detailing practical helps to get through the pain while we wait for the healing of God in our circumstances.  Reading the Word, walking in faith, holding on to God in the midst of the hurt, praise and worship music, and taking care of our physical needs are a few of her suggestions.  There are also study questions that help the reader to process the information in the chapters.  These questions would be great guides for small groups to explore healing from hurt and pain.

 

Knowing God as I do now, the principles in this book make sense and I can see how the truths of God bring lasting healing.  Had I come across this book before I had an understanding of who God is, before I knew of His incredible love, and had a foundation in the Word of God, I am not sure I would have been able to read the book from cover to cover.   Some of the principles that Kay covers in her book, for example God’s sovereignty, His permitting pain for the greater good, and the need to forgive those who hurt us would have been difficult for me to believe and receive.  Before I had a relationship with God, these concepts would have angered me.  If you give this book to an unbelieving friend, I would recommend reading and discussing the principles with them.  Better still, first lead them in a study that would help the person understand the deep love of God.  Without understanding God’s love, this book will be hard to absorb.

 

I highly recommend When the Hurt Runs Deep to anyone who has suffered hurt and pain.  Kay lovingly and gently leads the reader through the Bible and lays out principles that can be applied to help overturn hurt and pain. 

 

I was given this book by Waterbrook/Multnomah for review.  I hope this review blesses you.  Heather Marsten

This is a transcript of a sermon by Pastor Don Moore, Living Word Chapel, West Hurley, New York.  What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says. I edited slightly to make it easier to read and highlighted some of the important points.  I hope this sermon blesses you.  Heather

You can read part one of the sermon here.   Part two  here.

SAY AMEN
SHOW 146
Victory in Faith Part 3
2/29/10

As we look at the enemies of faith and the victory through faith.  There are many things that present obstacles to faith and if we’re going to fight the good fight of faith.  If we’re going to live the life of faith, these enemies and obstacles must be understood in order to be overcome.  And what better place to go to understand then the Bible.  In the Bible we have people’s testimonies of faith, but more importantly, we have the Lord God, Himself, responding when their faith failed and responding when their faith was successful.  Telling them exactly what they did that made it work or telling them why it didn’t work… So, will you walk with me through the scriptures as we look at the enemies of faith but also the victory of faith?  And I’ve got ‘em all marked out here, we’re not going to mess around.  We’re going to just get this done.  How many of you are ready?  Huh?…

Alright, first enemy of faith [worry].  Worry.  Anxious mind.  
Second enemy of faith. Come on.  [carnal reasoning]  Carnal reasoning, trying to figure things out.  
The third.  [negative eyes]  Seeing with negative eyes.  Letting your circumstances dominate your faith.  
Here’s the fourth one.  Which is always prevalent as an undercurrent.  Fear…Fear.  Fear.  

If you’re writing these enemies down, when you get into a faith situation, you can just go down the list and say, “Huh, let me address these and get this out of my body, out of my mind, out of my house.”  Take them item by item.  I do!  [amen]  … Yeah, I do.  

Two nights ago I woke up 3 o’clock in the morning, and the devil had leaped on me with both feet.  And you know, Cynthia, I never finished telling you did I? I never finished telling you.  At 3 o’clock in the morning, jumped on me with both feet and all of a sudden in my mind and in my body, I’m feeling, I’m in a full-blown gout attack.  On my left foot, I just woke up an a terror, like in a sweat.  Gotcha now.  You have a full blown gout attack, you won’t be able to walk tomorrow.  You’re going to be in pain for the next week.  You know, it’s just swollen, you’re just going to be miserable.  Just in the middle of my sleep.  And in my mind, I could see my foot, and I could see it all swollen, and the pain.  While I’m in the middle of my sleep.  

You know, I didn’t even wake up.  My Spirit man rose up and said, “This is a lie from the pit of hell.  I don’t receive it.  I don’t have it.”  …[amen]  Cause a spirit of fear was trying to come on me, in my sleep.  And I says, “I don’t have it and it’s a lie. I don’t receive it.”  … [amen]  I don’t receive it.  I just rolled over and went back to bed.  Woke up in the morning, fine.  Didn’t even think about it until about 9 o’clock and that’s when I told my wife. I said, “Remember, I said, you won’t believe what happened to me last night.”  

If the devil can get you into fear, he will come in the middle of the night, early in the morning, anytime that you’re not watching the shop.  [amen]  You have to be diligent about watching the shop.  He will sneak up on you and give you a symptom that you don’t want.  And if you volunteer for it through fear, he’ll lay it on you.  

Now here’s another way he can lay it on you.  Chapter 9.  You ready?  Chapter 9 Verse 1.  “So He got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own city.  Then behold, they brought to him a paralytic lying on a bed.  When Jesus saw their faith, He said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good cheer;…”  Read the next line. “...your sins are forgiven you.”  Your whata whata?  [sins]  

An obstacle to your faith is sin.  When you have sin in your life, you are afraid to go to God.  Now, come on, tell the truth.  You get, I’m afraid, I’m afraid to ask God for anything.  Why?  Cause you know you have sin in your life.  You don’t expect the blessings of God to fall on a man that’s a sinner.  You don’t expect that when you’re not walking right, not talking right, not acting right, you don’t believe that God is going to bless you, that He’s going to heal you.  That He’s going to deliver you or do anything else.  Because sin is an obstacle to your faith…

He says to this guy… He says to this guy, “Your sins are forgiven.”  And then in a few more passages, a few more scriptures, He says, “Huh, is it easier for me to forgive sin?”  He says, “Well, if you don’t believe the Son of Man has authority to forgive sin,”  He said, “Pick up your bed and walk.”  [right]  Because why?  Since He forgave the man’s sin, He removed the obstacle to the dude’s healing.  [right]  Cause sin was his problem… If you got that shake your head.  [yeah]  Sin was his problem.  And therefore, he couldn’t get his healing until he dealt with his sin.  But he didn’t even deal with it, his sin.  Jesus dealt with his sin.  And said, “Guess what, you’re forgiven.”  In other words, the highway is now clear, you can be healed.  [amen]  

… Sin is an obstacle.  And everybody’s not walking in their righteousness.  There’s a lot more deadly sins than drinking and smoking dope…. A lot more sins.  A lot more deadly sins.  Your tongue and a critical mind is a greater sin than your physical act of hurting your body.… Cause with it you destroy other people.  You demonstrate a weakness of character. … Moving right along.  [laughter]  

Let’s go to Luke 7…. I’m taking all of these, boy, and they’re no room for, you ain’t going to find an exception to these, they’re just all over the Bible.  Here, Luke, Chapter 7… Jesus is in Simon’s house and a woman comes in.  She’s kissing Jesus’ feet, she’s crying, she’s anointing Jesus’ head, she’s pouring out this beautiful fragrance.  In verse 47, watch this.  ”Therefore I say to you,…” Verse 47.  ”…her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.  But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”  

Remember, at the beginning, what did I say you need at the beginning to receive this Word?”  You need to be humble.  You need to be humble.  This woman is humbling herself.  She’s humble.  And so what Jesus is saying, is, “Your humility will permit you to go places that your pride can’t take you.”  … And so, what does He say.  He says, “Guess what, your sin has been a problem in your life.”  And He says, “But, guess what, it’s removed now.”  …

And look at verse 50.  Since He removes her sin problem, verse 50 comes into play.  ”…Your faith has saved you.…”  Hallelujah!  ”…Go in peace.”  Well, what was her faith in?  Her faith was in the fact that when He said her sins were forgiven, she believed Him.  She believed Him!  When He said, “Your sins are forgiven.”  She believed that, and therefore the way to salvation opened up for her.  Her faith had saved her…  Sin is an obstacle.  Pride is an obstacle.  A critical tongue and a critical mind, they are obstacles.  So we need to humble ourselves.  

Yeah, drunkenness, the Scripture’s clear about that.  It’s clear about pharmacia, and drug use.  You know.  Pharmacia, drug use, drunkenness, you know, the Bible’s clear on all of that.  But what we have to understand is what is He saying?  He is saying that all sin is an obstacle.  

And you want to see the biggest one, that’ll block you?  Go to Mark 11… Mark 11.  Somebody groaned because they know which it is.  You there?  [yeah]  Mark 11.  This passage begins with God demonstrating His great power, His great faith.  He curses a fig tree, the fig tree dies.  Jesus, when He cursed it, He didn’t care what it looked like.  He knew He cursed it.  Therefore He knew the manifestation would come.  Instantly after He cursed it, it looked the same.  Come on somebody.  Anybody here?  When He cursed it, at the moment that He cursed the fig tree it looked the same.  [yep]  It took 12 hours, a minimum of 12 hours before the manifestation of the curse became manifested in the tree.  He spoke the curse and it took some time.  

Don’t look at your symptoms and wonder why they’re still there.  They’re already gone.  It’s just that you still see them.  Don’t let what you see be a negative confession to a hold and let the devil stay.  Jesus cursed the fig tree, and went about His business.  When I have sickness in my body, and you know, God has done a great thing in me.  You can’t, I can’t, nobody in this church can come up with a, “Pastor Don wasn’t here because he was sick.”  … Come on.  I’ve been preaching here a long time.  How many of you remember a Sunday that I was so sick I wasn’t here?  I’ve preached here many times sick.  Fever running all through my body.  But I believe, I receive, and if I believe I receive, I’m going to ignore the symptoms and get my behind where I’m supposed to be.  On time, dressed, looking good, ready to do what God’s called me to do.  And never has the symptom remained after I’ve delivered the message and done what God told me to do.  [right, amen]  But if I look at the symptom, I’d be down there in bed and just get worse and worse and worse.  [right]  … You can’t go by the manifestation, you can’t go by the symptom.  You can’t go by what the devil tells you.  [that's right, that's right]  … Gotta hear God’s voice.  

And so, here, in this passage, watch this now.  It goes from the fig tree to the great lesson in faith.  Verse 22 “…Have faith in God.”  What you say, say to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,”  Believe in your heart.  Don’t let doubt get into your heart.  I’m not going to teach this message now, but you can see it’s right there.  Therefore, Jesus says, “I say to you,”  Verse 24.  ”…whatever things you ask...”  whatever you say, “…when you pray,”  believe you have it, and you shall.  … Then He gives us the kicker in verse 25.  Let’s read it together. “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you...”  come on.  ”…do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”  

An enemy to your faith is sin.  And an enemy to your faith is unforgiveness.  And you cannot get around it.  You cannot get around it.  You’re gonna have to forgive.  How many times?  490 if you want to be a literalist.  You’re going to have to forgive them 490 times.  Do they have to repent?  Yes, they have to repent.  Do they have to repent to you?  Who knows?  They’ve got to repent to God, or somewhere.  And what do you have to do?  You have to go ahead and forgive them.  And you say, “Well, I’ll forgive you, but I won’t forget.”  [laughter]  You have to say, “I’ll forgive you.  And I’m working on forgetting.”  [amen]  If you’re holding yourself in unforgiveness, the ceiling to God is broken… But not in your favor.  It’s blocked.  There’s nothing in scripture that says that you can hold yourself in unforgiveness.  

The Apostle Paul, he talks about his sins.  He was a murderer.  He put people in prison.  He did vile things against the Cross and against God.  But what did He say, what does the Word say?  He says that He repented to God, he brought it to God.  Opens the window of Heaven, opened, and God withheld no blessing from him.  

So yeah, we can’t.  And a lot of us suffer with that.  We have unforgiveness for ourselves.  You know, it’s different.  You know, you can have a shame.  You can be ashamed you did this, this and that.  You can be ashamed that you did that.  And that’s good because that’ll hold you into a sufficient amount of guilt that you will what? Hopefully, you will not do it again.  That it will work you, you say, “That shamed me so much, that shamed my Father.  I’m gonna, I’m not going to do that again.”  Anybody like that?  I got that.  I won’t do that to my Father again.  I won’t do that.  I’m not gonna, I’m ashamed of what I did. I’m not gonna do that again.  So it becomes part of your testimony.  

But if you hold yourself in unforgiveness, you are in error.  You’re in sin, still.  Holding yourself in unforgiveness, He just said, holding anyone, doesn’t it say, “anyone?”  ”Whenever you stand, if you have anything against anyone…”  How many of you all are an anyone?  [yep]  So if you’re holding it against yourself, you also have an enemy that you’re using, or permitting to block heaven.  Alright?  

Now let me show you another one, like that.  Matthew 15….Matthew 15…. Matthew 15.  The 15th Chapter of Matthew.  How are you all doing?  Sometimes a Bible study like this’ll change your life, when nothing else will.  [amen]  Matthew 15, verse 27…

I know why the Lord has put this on my heart.  Because we’re in the time period where you are going to begin to do signs and wonders.  [amen]  And if you don’t know these principles of faith, you will not know how to operate in faith, believing.  To see these great miracles that God is going to do through you.  If the Church of God in the last days is to be the Church of God, then we must see greater manifestations of healings and deliverances and salvations.  Especially in the younger generation.  [amen]  You should be able to pray with greater faith because you haven’t seen as much failure as the adults have seen.  We’ve seen generations of failure.  And you’re coming up in a spirit-filled church.  You should be quick to pray for the sick and see them get up off the bed.  [amen]  

Chapter 15, you there?  [yes]  Chapter 15, verse 27.  ”And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”  Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith!  Let it be to you as you desire.”  Let it be to you as you desire.  What am I trying to say?  One of the last enemies to your faith is your feelings of unworthiness.  

This woman comes to Jesus and Jesus basically says to her, “You’re not worthy.  I’m sent to the Lost Sheep of Israel.  And you don’t make the cut.  You’re a Gentile woman, I’m not here for you right now.  You’re not worthy.”  … Hallelujah.  Something rose up in her and she said, “Yes, Lord.”  You spoke the truth.  That’s right.  You were not sent to the Gentiles.  Yes, Lord.  But I have something…”  [laughter]  Lord have mercy. “I have something that you have to respond to.  I have something that is going to move you to help me.  And that is, I am worthy of your anointing.”  … “I’m worthy to have the anointing operate in my favor.  If it has to operate as an afterthought, I’ll take the afterthought.  If it has to operate as a crumb, I’ll take the crumb.  But guess what, You cannot violate the Word of God.  And, concerning the Word of God, I’m coming to you in faith, therefore, my faith makes me as worthy as Abraham.”  [yes]  ”And you have to respond to faith.”  

When we allow the enemy of unworthiness to block us, to feel that we cannot go to Daddy.  To feel that somehow He won’t heal us, He won’t deliver us, He will not meet our need, because we are not worthy.  That somehow we missed the cut.  We have to really, really remember the Syrophoenician woman, cause she said to the Lord of Lords, she says, “But I got something …I’ve got something that you have to respond to.  I believe in you.  I believe in your ability.  And I believe you can do this.  Am I unworthy?  Yep.  I’m unworthy.  I am a dog.”  She accepts it.  She says, you don’t fight it.  ”Yes, I’m a dog.  Whoof, Whoof.  Whoof.”  [laughter]  But guess what, even the dogs get to eat the crumbs of the Children as they fall to the floor.  [amen]  … pffhew  I don’t know about you, but that gives my faith a chill.  [oh yeah]  You are worthy.  You are worthy because He has made faith available.  If you have faith, then that faith has to operate and the King of Kings, what?  He has to come at your beck and call.  [amen]  pffhew.  That’s good news.  That’s really good news. [yeah] That’s really good news.  [applause]  That’s really good news.  

Remember with the paralytic guy?  He says, He saw their faith…. This is what… He said He saw their faith.  Jesus had to respond to their faith when He saw it.  They had enough faith to rip the roof off of somebody else’s house.  [laughter]  That’s some serious faith.  [yeah, amen]  Don’t try that at my house.  [laughter]  I got two guns, and they will greet you.  [laughter]  They had enough faith to know, if we get to Him, He’ll do something about it.  [yes]  And they ripped off a guy’s roof.  I wonder, I can’t wait and get to Heaven, I want to meet this guy and say, “Did they put the roof back?”  [laughter]  ”I just want to know, did they put the roof back?”  

Anyway, let’s look at this a little bit closer… I’m talking to you, now, about the last three things that make your faith work.  First of all,  you are worthy.  Second of all, there is an action of faith.  Are you willing to rip somebody’s roof off to get your blessing?  Are you willing to say to the Lord that you are worthy?  Even for a crumb?  Are you worthy to do that?  Are you willing to do like the woman with the issue of blood.  Are you willing to push through, even though the Law demanded that a woman with an issue of blood, flowing blood, was unclean, ceremonially unclean, and that she made everyone that she touched unclean.  She pushed through a crowd of people that she made ceremonially unclean.  They could have taken her and stoned her to death.  Are you, do you have the faith that says, if it costs me everything, I’m going to get my healing.  If it costs me everything, I’m going to get my deliverance.  I am prepared to act on my faith.  I’m prepared to act out my faith in spite of what people may say, in spite of how they may put me down, in spite of what they think.  I’m going to go get my healing…. Are you desperate?  Are you desperate?  Are you willing to exhibit boldness?  What is the action?  There is an action associated with faith.  

There’s something that you’re gonna have to do to demonstrate that you have defeated the enemies that are trying to block you.  You’re stepping out of worry of mind.  Come on.   You’re stepping out of sin.  You’re coming through fear.  You’re rebuking doubt and unbelief.  You’re accepting the fact that you are worthy.  And you’re willing to do, what?  Exert a work.  It says, faith without works is what?  [dead]  Faith without works is what?  [dead]  Alright, that’s not just talking about good works.  But it’s talking about doing the work of faith.  And later, after that, He says, if there be any sick among you, call for the elders of the church, who’ll pray the prayer of faith and anoint you with oil, and the sick shall get well.  They shall recover.  Well what does that mean?  How’s that happen if you don’t then pursue an elder and say, “Oil me up.”  [yeah]  

There should be an action associated with your faith, that has to be demonstrated.  And that action, when God speaks the action, you must exhibit that action.  You must go forward with it.  You must have a point of contact in your mind.  That you say, “When such and such happens, I’m going to release my faith, and do it.”  

Now let’s go to the greatest example of faith, is in Luke 7:7… Luke what?  [7:7]  Matthew, Mark, Luke.  7:7.  Verse 7.  ”Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You.  But say the word, and my servant will be healed.”  … But what?  [say the word]  Say the word and my servant will be healed… What overcomes everything?  What overcomes the fact that he doesn’t feel worthy?

 What overcomes doubt, unbelief, and everything?  What overcomes all of that is you believe the Word.  Your belief in the Word will overcome all the enemies of faith, all the obstacles of faith, all your foolishness, and all your pride, and all everything.  Stay humble enough to say, “I believe the Word.”  Look at the error, hold your finger there.  

And go to 8:22.  Luke 8:22…. Luke 8:22.  You there?  [yes]  ”Now it happened on a certain day, that He got into a boat with His disciples.  And He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side...”  What’s the difference between the disciples and Jesus?  Jesus, when He said, “We’re going to the other side,” Jesus believed it.  He said no storm or nothing else is stopping us.  My Word is, “We’re going to the other side.”  They fell to the enemies of faith, because they didn’t put any faith in His Word.  His Word was, “We’re going from here to there.  And I’m gonna take a nap in the meantime.”  They didn’t believe it and when all the enemies of faith, fear, doubt, unbelief, negative eyes, wrong reasoning, when all of those dropped in, doubt and unbelief killed their possibility and guess what. The waves and the roar of the sea became bigger to them than the Word of God.  

Whenever the Word of God is diminished in your life, to where you can’t hold onto it, to where you can’t walk with it.  To where you can’t stand on it.  Then guess what?  You have been defeated, but Jesus Christ, His Word is the Word.  He is the Word of God.  When His Word goes forth, it shall not be denied.  The sea must obey.  The wind’s gotta stop.  The problem has to change.  [applause]  Everything is subject to His Word.  [yea, applause]  You gotta believe it.  

“Well, I don’t know Pastor Don, about my circumstances. I don’t know about my symptoms.  I don’t know…”  Forget it, shut up! Do you believe the Word?  What does God say?  Find something that God said about it.  Lock on to it, with a bull dogged tenacity.  Lock your jaw, don’t let go.  Because, if He said it, He will do it, He will perform it, It will come to pass.  [yeah, amen]  His Word will not return void.  That means His Word will not come back empty.  [amen]  It will accomplish where it’s going.  [yes]  

Don’t be afraid to admit, I want to stay humble.  I want to stay in line with God.  I want to stay lined up with the truth.  Faith, in the Word of God, means you have faith in the sovereignty of God… Understanding this revealed truth alone, was enough for the Centurion to have his servant healed across distance.  Across time… The favor of God will not be denied you if you will believe the Word.  All the excuses that we have are overcome when you believe the Word.  [amen]  None of the enemies can stand when you believe the Word.  [that's right]  

You know how powerful the Word is?  It’ll make a 90 plus woman give birth to a baby. [yes]  Do you believe the Word?  [yes]  It’ll help a murderer do what?  Lead a nation for 40 years in the Wilderness and then plant them in the Land… what’ll it do?  It’ll take a 14 year old girl and turn her womb into the temple from which the creator of all things will come.  [amen]  What are you talking about?  If you believe the Word, it’ll make the blind eyes open, it’ll make the deaf hear, it’ll make the dead rise.  The Word, believe the Word.  If you will believe the Word, it’ll take a little black boy from the South Bronx, and make him a senior pastor up in the mountains.  [whew, yeah, amen, applause]  Believe the Word. [amen]  Let’s pray.  Let’s talk to Jesus for awhile.  How are you doing?

Transcript of sermon preached by Pastor Don Moore, Living Word Chapel, West Hurley on February 29, 2010

I slightly edited to make it easier to read (closed captioning is one solid passage, no paragraph breaks.  I cut out repeated words and highlight important points in my slight editing.)  What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.

SAY AMEN 
SHOW 145 
VICTORY IN FAITH PART 2
2/29/10

Part One here.

Now the story of the boy who was demon possessed, the crux of the point.  The point is that Jesus is not going to be bound by what He sees.  The Apostles were not able to drive out the demon because of what they saw.  Looking with negative eyes.  They saw the young boy hit the ground and go into convulsions, they assumed it didn’t happen.  Immediately it registered with the demon, they just let go of their faith.  They’re not expecting it to happen. They, with their eyes, have looked.  Doubt and unbelief has risen in them and the demon said, “I don’t have to go.”  [right]  He tried the same thing on Jesus.  He tried the same thing on Jesus, I just read it to you.  

It says that when Jesus approached the boy, He only moved on the boy when He saw the people were coming.  Now, why would Jesus want to cast out the demon before the people got there?  [unbelief]  Because of their unbelief.  What did you say Brad?  [too much interference]  Too much interference.  It breaks the continuity of the moment of faith.  In the moment of faith, we cannot mix unbelievers with believers.  It says not to be unequally yoked, when you’re unequally yoked it’s when a believer is tied to a nonbeliever.  The people are coming to see a show, [that's right] they’re coming to see a demonstration of power.  They’re coming to see, to be entertained.  

And Jesus knows that when they come, having already seen the Disciples fail, they’re just going to bring more doubt and unbelief, and the demon is not going to be bound by the Word of Faith, he’s going to be bound where he can show off.  He’s going to put on a show.  ”I got this.  I got this, I got this boy.  I had this boy.  I got this boy and I’m going to keep this boy.”  Well, Jesus sees the unbelievers coming and He does what?  Watch what He does in scripture.  It’s just so easy.  

Mark, chapter 9 it says, “…the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly….”  What’s the next say?  [and came out of him]  ”…and came out of him.” … Because, when he convulsed him greatly, Jesus didn’t look at him and go, “Oh, I’m … huh, it didn’t work….It didn’t work.”  No, in the realm of faith, Jesus gave the command, knew that it had to happen because He had authority.  He knew that He had faith.  He knew that He had given the command that it had to happen.  [that's right]  So Jesus’ response wasn’t that it didn’t happen, but, verse 27.  He, “…took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.”  [hallelujah]  Took him by the hand, lifted him up and he arose.

Later the Apostles, the Disciples, this blew their minds.  Cause they saw the same thing and worse, and they lost faith.  We cannot let what we see through our negative eyes limit our faith… A lot of times healing, in a healing situation, the symptoms have to get worse because why?  Because it is going to heal.  [amen]  

I can remember, you know, here I’m dying of an incurable lung disease, dying of an incurable lung disease.  The man of God said that I was healed.  The Word of God in me said I was healed.  And the symptoms got worse. You know what dawned on me?  That same night, after being healed, I received healing.  I knew the healing power was in me.  Middle of the night, 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning, the symptoms came back worse.  Like a raging storm.  Now I’m puking up chunks of meat, blood, guts, all coming out my nose and my eyes, everywhere.  Just chunks of meat.  And I almost looked at the circumstances and the situation and almost said, “That was a wonderful moment with God, but maybe it didn’t work.”  And right then I says, “Ohhhh, don’t do that.”  I was just a baby Christian.  I mean not a baby Christian but I was just a baby faith person. And I says, “Wait a minute, don’t do that.”  And down in here the Spirit of God says, “I have to get all of that sickness out of you so that you can walk in the newness of health.”  [yes]  Just walk.  And I got it. All that sickness in me had to come out.  All the scabs and the dead tissue had to come out because God was rebuilding new tissue.  [amen, yes, glory]…

What are you talking about?  You’re believing God for your marriage, of course things are going to get worse for awhile, because the heathen that you’re married to doesn’t want to get fixed, but the power of God is moving on her, and she’s going to fight it, kick against the goads, and you just have to know, “Yeah, that response, honey, sister, I stand while you hate me all the more, now.”  [yeah]  ”Because God is making room so that you can love me the way you’re supposed to love me.”  [right! yeah! amen]  … Didn’t work for you but it worked for me.  [laughter]  Made me feel better.  Do you understand?  

Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better.  But you can’t go by your negative eyes.  Alright, first enemy of faith, [worry]  Worry.  Anxious mind.  Second enemy of faith, come on….[carnal reasoning]  Carnal reasoning, trying to figure things out.  The third.  Seeing with negative eyes.  Letting your circumstances dominate your faith.  Believing God,

Watch this, believing God to financially prosper.  You know, if you make a commitment at the altar by God, you say, “I’m going to live by faith.  I believe in the Name of Jesus, I’m going to financially prosper.”  Don’t you know, the next thing to happen to you is you going broke?  [laughter]  You’re about to go broke.  And the reason you’re going to go broke is, if God lets you get wealthy on the foundation of filth, of lie, and poverty that you’ve built in your world, if He lets you get prosperous on top of that foundation, you won’t stand. So He’s got to crush you down to the bottom, baby.  He’s got to break you down to the bottom so that you will be in faith, believing and appreciate every nickel, every dime, you will do it.  

I remember believing for prosperity and my uncle, before he died, he came to visit us.  He’s riding around with me in my Volkswagen, and I’ve been talking. You know, I’m talking faith to him.  I’m believing for prosperity and whatever, whatever.  He said, “Stop the car son.”  I stopped the car.  And he says, “God’s not going to bless you until you get all these pennies, nickels, and dimes up off the floor of your car.”  He says, “If you don’t have respect for the little bit that you have,”  he says, “why should God give you more?”  … [amen]  … When he got out of the car, I got down on my hands and knees and you know, I started finding nickels and quarters and dimes, all up into the crud on the floor.  [laughter]  Pushed McDonald’s out of the way and found another nickel.  [laughter]  … Glory to God.  

Your faith, your faith will sometimes cause the manifestation to go down before it goes up so God can rebuild it.  [right]  He’s not going to rebuild a marriage on the bad communications skills.  No.  He’d rather there be silence for awhile until He can rebuild on something that’s solid and good.  Alright?  So, just because you’re sick, you pray to be healed, the symptoms get worse, don’t let go of your faith… Don’t let go of your faith.  You might be in the wrong business, you asked God to prosper you and you’re in the wrong business.  He may have to get you fired… cause you won’t quit.  

I was working 17 years at the Pines Hotel.  Band leader.  Master of ceremonies in charge of the whole thing.  Speaking and singing to thousands of people night after night, hundreds of people night after night.  I says, “Man, I’m going into full time ministry.  Lord, I’m believing by faith I’ll be in full time ministry.  Father I’m going to live off of whatever or nothing.  I’m going to preach the Gospel.  I’m going to teach the Gospel.  I’m giving myself wholly, totally to You.  Totally to You.”  I went to the hotel and told the owners of the hotel, It’s been wonderful these 17 years, and all, but, I’m leaving. I’m going into fulltime ministry.  I’m out of here.  And they said, “You’ve been leaving for years and you never got out of here.  You’ve been leaving for years and never got out of here.  Don’t worry.  We’re going to give you your raise, anyway, just like we promised.  We’re going to give you your raise and whatever, and after Christmas break, we know you’ll be back, we’re going to give you a raise  and everything.  We’ve got you and you’ll just keep on coming, everything’s going.”  I said, “No, I’ve got, really, I’ve dedicated myself to go into full time ministry.”  ”Well, do you have a church?”  ”No, I don’t have a church.”  Well, do you have a job?”  ”No, I don’t have a job.”  ”Well, do you have a ministry degree?”  ”No, I don’t have a ministry degree but I’m going full time.  Full time I’m going to serve the Lord.”  ….

December 4th, December 4th, I’ll never forget the day.  The week before, I called the guys and I said, “Listen, after the Christmas break I’m not going back to the Pines Hotel.  I’m not going back…. I’m not.  I’m not going back.  You guys go get jobs, I’m not going back.”  And they said, “Yeah, sure, sure, sure, you need the money, you love singing and playing.  Yeah, you’ll be back.  You’ll be back.”  I said, “Lord, do whatever you have to do to keep me from being tempted to go back.”  On December 4th it snowed 2 feet of snow.  [laughter]  And the main dining room caved in at a Jewish Hotel.  You cannot keep a hotel for Jewish folks open if you can’t serve them food.  [laughter]  The roof caved in on December 4th and I never went back.  [amen, laughter]…

You know what I had to live off of?  You know what I had to live off of?  I still have it.  I have a tin can this big, that big, that says, “In His Name Ministries,”  that tin can, that big.  One of the ladies in the Bible study group painted it, and put graffiti on it, and sprinkles and sparkles and everything.  And that’s all I had.  That was my only income.  My wife, thank God, was still working.  But that was it.  And many Tuesday nights, I’d put out the can, and there’d be absolutely nothing in the can.  But then, other nights, somebody would leave a check for 20 bucks, 50 bucks.  Living off the can.  [amen]  Vision.  But if the roof hadn’t caved in, I would have been tempted.  I would have been tempted.  

But sometimes, your faith can sustain and it has to, in the face of absolute – it just got worse…. [yep]  What’s going on?  It just got worse.  Where’s your faith then?  Where’s your faith then?  Where’s your faith then when your wife says, “Well how much money did you make this week?”  And I’d go, “Well, 22 dollars and 50 cents was in the can, baby.”  [laughter]  And then, you know, thank God my wife didn’t, she wasn’t negative.  She didn’t say, “Are you sure God called you?”  … “Are you sure, O man of faith, are you sure God called you?”  … It’s an enemy of faith, don’t see things with negative eyes.  Don’t let your circumstances run you out.  Let’s go now, you there?  

I want to go to Luke, Chapter 8…. Luke, Chapter 8.  Matthew, Mark, Luke.  Chapter 8… Chapter 8, I want you to go all the way to verse 49.  “While He was still speaking, someone came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, “Your daughter is...”  What?  [dead]  Your daughter is, what?  [dead]  ”Do not trouble the Teacher.”  But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, “Do not be….” [afraid]  Do not what?  [be afraid]  Do not what? [be afraid]  Ok, we have worry and an anxious mind will kill faith.  We have what?  What’s the second one? [reasoning]  Say what?  [carnal reasoning]  Ok, I wanted to make sure, reasoning, carnal reasoning.  And then the third is what?  [sight]  Sight.  We don’t want to see with a negative eye.  Here’s the fourth one, which is always prevalent as an undercurrent.  Fear. … Fear.  Fear.  

In verse 50, Jesus said and heard it, and “He answered him, saying, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.”  Do not be afraid… These people are looking, in verse 52, they’re looking at what they see.  They see a dead girl. They see a dead girl.  And they limit the possibilities of God at their doctrine.  And their doctrine is, don’t trouble Jesus anymore, why?  Because our doctrine, our reasoning of our mind, has said, He cannot do anything.  He’s done…. Reasoning is done.  

I had to say this once to somebody.  I says, “Well you’re giving me you’re such a faith giant, let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question.  When your daughter died, after you said you had faith to heal your daughter, and your daughter died, what was the next thing that you did?”  You know what they said?  We buried her.  Well, there’s something that should have happened between that if you had all that faith…. I’m not trying to be mean.  I’m just trying to help you all learn.  What would have been the thing that would have happened between the daughter died and you buried her, if you were such a giant of faith?  … [prayed to raise her]  thank you… Ok, can we move on?  Don’t get mad at me, I’m just telling you what the Word, what the Word is.  If you was such a giant, then you would not have looked at death as a final destination and an absolute answer to the problem.  

Cause it isn’t the absolute answer, because God is greater than death, because death, He only looks at it as sleep.  He’s saying, “She’s asleep.” They’re saying, “She’s dead. She’s dead.  Final, final, no possibility.”   Well, that’s not always the case.  It’s not always the case.  Jesus looks at death as, “Hunh, you can recover from that.”  … [that's right, amen]  I’m going to go wake her up.  How are you all doing?  Stay ha..ha…ha..humble.  Can we stay ha…aa…humble? [yes]  Come on, say, “I’m humble.”  [I'm humble]  I’m teachable.   [I'm teachable]  Yeah, yeah, stay humble.  Let’s stay humble, alright?  I don’t know everything.  But I know God does.  Jesus is not afraid of death.  He doesn’t look at it as a final thing.  

And He warns Jairus, He warns him, He says, He says, “Do not be afraid, only believe...”  Don’t be afraid.  Don’t let fear rock your boat.  Don’t let fear rock your boat.  Fear will lead you to doubt and doubt will lead you to unbelief, and you’re dead in the water.  

Go to Mark Chapter 4….Hold your place here.  Matter of fact, while we’re here let’s do this.  We’ll do this.  I don’t want to skip around too much but we have to.  But I want you to see what’s happening here.  Remember, I said reasoning?  Your theology can mess you up?  [yes]  The theology of the Jews was that this woman with the issue of blood in Luke 8 verse 43, 43.  ”Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians…” and couldn’t get healed.  She “…came behind and touched the border of His garment.  And immediately her flow of blood stopped.” “….”Who touched Me?”  When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master…”  There’s a whole bunch of people, what do You mean, “Who touched You?”  He says, “Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out of Me.”  

Now, let’s  fix the principle of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Scribes.  The teaching of the Pharisees and the Scribes is that healing, when the Messiah comes, He will have healing in His wings.  [yes]  Now, healing in His wings, of course Jesus didn’t have wings.  But He had a prayer shawl.  Do I have my prayer shawl up here?… Got  my prayer shawl.  Now, here’s what that scripture meant.  And if we can understand what this woman is doing.  It’ll really help.  

All the good Jewish guys had prayer shawls.  And they wore them like this… You know.  Now my name just became Donald bar Bona.  [laughter]  From the Old Testament.  Alright?  Now, here’s what that scripture meant.  It meant that a good Jewish man had a prayer shawl.  When Jesus said, when you want to pray, go into your prayer closet, He wasn’t talking, I did it though.  I kicked the shoes to the side and crawled in the closet, and started praying.  You know.  But you know, the Lord honored my ignorance.  He met me in the closet.  And then He said, “Don’t smell so good in here, get out.  I’ll meet you, you know, in the main room.”  [amen]  But, he met me right in there, I’m praying and you know, and I’m smelling the socks and that stuff, and I [laughter]  Lord have mercy…  [laughter]  You know.  Get me out of here!  [laughter]  So, I got out of there, then I studied the scriptures more, and I realized what Jesus was talking about.  

Going to your prayer closet. [amen]  He’s locking Himself up in here and He’s dobbing at the wall, and He’s praying, and He says, “And in your prayer closet, He says, you meet God in there.”  And He says, you know, you’re praying. So, He’s dobbing and He’s praying, and He’s praying in His prayer closet, and He says, “And no one will see or know what you’re praying about.”  And then, if you notice here, if I take this shawl, and do like this (moves arms up and down like bird’s wings)  What does that look like?  [wings]  Doesn’t that look like wings?  Ok, so in the book of Mal-ach -i, the Italian prophet, it says, that He, when the Son of Man comes, He will come with healing in His wings.  

The lady is not trying to molest Jesus the Christ, and grabbing on His clothes.  She wants to touch the fringes of His prayer shawl.  It was believed that this Man of God prayed in this shawl, therefore by transference there was holy power in the thing that He had dedicated to God where He’s spent His time meeting God, therefore even though it was cloth, it had the ability to transfer and hold the anointing.  [amen]  Somebody got that?  [yes]  You need to have things that are dedicated.  You need to have things that you hold as holy and spiritual.  

They should be people of course.  The reason you shouldn’t blast pastor is because you should have some respect for the anointing that is in my life.  You should have that same kind of respect for your wife and for your husband.  You should have it for your children.  You shouldn’t speak to your kids any old kind of way.  You should talk to them like what they are, Children of God.  [amen]  Don’t raise your voice, call them ugly names.  

So she wanted to touch His prayer shawl.  she wanted to touch His garment. The fringe on His garment.  But when she touched it, she touched it with the power of faith.  Faith came out of her.  Listen, Jesus is just walking through the crowd.  He’s walking through the crowd.   People were all over Him. He was as anointed as a rock.  You know what I mean by that?  He wasn’t thinking Holy Ghost, whatever.  He wasn’t praying in tongues.  He was just walking from one place to the other.  But when she touched Him, He knew what faith felt like.  Faith has an anointing with it. Come on, I want to preach right now.  But that’s what’s rising up in me.  You know, faith, faith has the ability that when it’s present, Lord have mercy.  When it’s present, the anointing comes in manifestation and it can be felt and can be touched.  

I was at a meeting last night and a lady’s standing over on the side and she says, “Boy, I can feel that.”  Brother Roderick said, “Yeah, I can feel that.  Can you feel that?”  What was that?  Faith is in the air. And when faith is in the air, things begin to happen.  [amen]  The Presence of God.  So Jesus turns around and He says, “Who touched me?”  What He meant was, who touched me with the touch of faith?   Who was trying to draw power.  And the light inside Him had to come on to the power switch, why?  Because faith touched Him.  And when Faith comes in touch with the Man of Faith, it exudes faith.  And faith is released.  [amen]  She released, He released, and says, “Whoa, ho, I felt something.  Ho, what was that?  Yeah,”  

You know, an anointed man can feel the touch of sin?  I hate to tell you cause some people now are going to be avoiding me.  [laughter]  But when the devil’s on you, [yeah]  I reach out and touch you.  The Lord’ll show me.  He’ll show me.  I had a guy just walk in my office one time. He’s telling me he’s all righteous and everything.   His only problem is his wife.  [laughter]  I said, “Man, let me hold your hands here for a minute.”  Then I started reading his mail and telling him about the affairs that he had hidden from his wife.  About the women he was playing around with his wife.  His wife was sitting there crying.  You know, and he’s just was getting all busted up.  Cause he had a lying spirit on him.  You know what I mean?  Anyway, moving right along.  

The enemy of faith, the enemy of faith in this case, I can finish this with this on.   No, no, somebody watching by television will think I’m trying to become Jewish.  They don’t know I’m already Jewish. Yeah, my great grandfather was a Jew.  Can you imagine that?  A guy named Rosenberg marries a black woman in Mississippi, back in the 30′s.  [oh my]  What’s wrong with that man?  [laughter]  She signed off for double discrimination.  You know.  And Mississippi, no less.  My goodness.  It’s in my family tree.  When I get up to Heaven and meet this guy.  I’ll say, “Thank you for the Jewish blood, but what were you thinking?”  [laughter]  Who knows.  Maybe he had a dark tan.  You know.  He could have been from Egypt or somewhere.  

Alright.  Now let’s get this and get this really, really, really good.  This woman had the touch of faith, therefore her faith was released, but notice what Jesus says to her in verse 48.  ”And He said to her, “Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well.“”  And He tells her to go in peace… In other words, there is another enemy.  We have an anxious mind and worry is an enemy of faith.  We have, I forget number two all the time. [reasoning] Reasoning, carnal reasoning.  We have negative seeing.  We have fear.  We have doubt.  

Mark Chapter 4, verse 40  Mark 4:40 Jesus is asleep in the boat on a pillow.  [laughter]  Well, how does He do that?  Look at verse 35.  Verse 35 “On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.”  …  Let us what?  [cross over]  to the other side.  Who said that?  [Jesus]  Jesus said, He said, “Guess what, we’re going to the other side.  Let’s just cross over, let’s go over there.”  Now as a process a great storm rises up in verse 37, the winds beat against the boat, and the boat’s filling with water. Jesus is asleep.  Mmn mmn mmn  ”…Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”  [laughter]  

Now that’s some reasoning there.  Isn’t it negative reasoning?  The see the wind and the waves, they reason, we’re dead.  [laughter]  We’re gonna die.  This thing’s gonna kill us. Who said it’s going to kill you?  Who said it?  [they did]  Based on what?  [reasoning]  bad reasoning and negative eye.  And here’s why.  Fear got in the boat with them. When we reason wrong, and we see things with a negative eye, expecting a negative outcome, fear gets in the boat.  Now I want you to watch and see who  else crawls up in there with them.  Well, let’s see.  Jesus says, “…”Peace, be still!”  The wind ceases.  And He tells us right here.  I’m not making this up.  ”…Why are you so fearful?  How is it that you have no faith?”  And scripture just confirms it.  ”...they feared exceedingly...”  Well, what happened?  Their fear then turned into doubt and unbelief.  Cause, doesn’t He say, “What happened to your faith?”  [right]  Fear will lead you to doubt and unbelief.  When you get there, your faith can’t operate…

Nothing wrong with admitting you’re afraid.  But then you’ve got to pray the spirit of fear out of your place.  Out of your life.  If you’re writing these enemies down, when you get into a faith situation you can just go down the list and say, hnh let me address these and get this out of my body, out of my mind, out of my house. Take them item by item.  I do.  [yeah]  I do.  

Notes from Pastor Don Moore’s sermon preached 2/29/2010

This is the transcript used on TBN presentation, I slightly edited it for readability.  What is in [brackets] is what the congregation responded to Pastor Don.

SAY AMEN 
SHOW 144
Enemies of Faith & Victory Through Faith Part 1
2/29/2010

Amen.  Amen.  Hallelujah.  We’re so glad to see your smiling faces today in the house of the Lord.  And we just want to greet you and we want to greet the people in TV Land and Radio Land.  And our God is still on the throne and He’s working great miracles. Today’s Bible study is for my wife, who grilled me with questions yesterday and the day before.  And, I decided, well, if she wants the answer to these, it would probably benefit you as well.  So you are permitted to listen to my wife’s Bible study as we look at the Enemies of Faith and the Victory Through Faith.  

There are many things that present obstacles to faith and if we’re going to fight the good fight of faith, if we’re going to live the life of faith, these enemies and obstacles must be understood in order to be overcome.  And what better place to go to understand than the Bible?  In the Bible, we have people’s testimonies of faith, but more importantly, we have the Lord God, Himself, responding when their faith failed. And responding when their faith was successful, telling them exactly what they did that made it work or telling them why it didn’t work.  [amen]  

So what I have done is I’ve gone through the scriptures, I’ve pulled out all of the examples of miracles, signs, and wonders, that the Lord did in his time on earth. This may end up being a two-parter, but I’m going to get through this Bible Study.  I want you to take notes, I want you to know that today this study was especially for you.  It is especially for you and for those of you that are listening and watching, I’m going to make it as clear as I can, cause we tend to think that things are deep and complicated.  No, it’s just that we are human and we don’t have all the answers.  I don’t have all the answers.  I’m not that smart.  But I know Who does  [amen]  have all the answers.  So, will you walk with me through the scriptures as we look at the enemies of faith, but also the victory of faith?

The first thing that is required to have your faith work is humility.  Can you say, “Humility?”  [humility]  You must have humility.  You are not God.  Therefore, if it doesn’t work, if God says, “Faith works.”  And you are in a situation where your faith doesn’t work, be humble enough to be teachable, because God did not make a mistake.  If you prayed for it, thought you were in faith, asked for it, and it didn’t happen, it is required that you be humble in order that God can teach you.  Prideful people are not teachable people.  Arrogant people are not teachable.  But the humble person can receive correction and thereby improve.  

And that’s why we take, that’s why when I’m in the pulpit, I say, “I don’t have all the answers.  I’m only human.  I make mistakes.”  I say all of that so that you can receive this information from me. For if I stood up here in total arrogance, even you know, and there’s a difference between arrogance and confidence isn’t there?  [yes]  And so we must remain humble of heart, that if what we think should work, the way we think it works, maybe we should open the glove compartment and look at the operator’s manual.  [amen]  And we’ve all been in that situation.  

All of us have gotten a car, we don’t familiar with, and we thought the radio worked one way, and we messed around with it and couldn’t get the station we wanted, then out of desperation, we finally open the glove compartment box and pulled out the operator’s manual and read in the table of contents, “radio”, went there, and then figured out, oh, this is one of those pre-set jobbies, where I have to pre-set the stations or I’m not going to get radio.  Anybody had that experience?  I have it every time I get a new car.  I get it every time I put in something for my wife, a new microwave, or refrigerator, or something. You have to know what makes it work.  Now, we’re going to take the first enemy of faith.  

The first enemy of faith.  We’re going to go to the book of Luke, Chapter 12.  Book of Luke, Chapter, what?  [12]  The Book of Luke Chapter 12… I just love days like this because I sincerely believe it is the will of the Lord for some people.  God told some people, “Get to church today,”  and they didn’t go.  Told other people turn on the TV, and they didn’t do it.  And that means that it wasn’t for them.  They will remain in their ignorance, while you are the intelligent ones who will get the food.  You’ll stay humble and get the food.  In Luke, Chapter 12.  Luke Chapter 12, hallelujah.  In verse 22, it gives us the first enemy for your faith.  DO NOT WORRY… Jesus said to who?  [His disciples]  ”…His Disciples….”  

How many of you want to be a disciple?  To be a disciple means a follower of Christ, a student of the Word.  ”….I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat;…” Nor what you will wear for your body, what you will put it on.  Life is more than food, your body more than clothing.  Consider the ravens, and He goes on and on.  Then He gets over to verse 29.  Verse 29.  Are you ready?  [yes]  ”And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink...” Let’s read it together.  ”nor have an anxious mind.“… Do not have an anxious mind… That means a mind that is bouncing off the walls, looking for something to worry and be concerned about.  Don’t be anxious.  Don’t anticipate with negativity.  Anxious is to anticipate with negativity.  Well, what do I do if… What will I do when?  What?   An anxious mind.  So write it down.  An enemy of faith is an anxious mind.  Everybody got that?  

Now, we want to go to Matthew, Chapter 6. We want to study the Bible.  Matthew, Chapter 6… Matthew 6, verse 30.  Watch the way He expresses it.  ”Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”… You of little faith.  

Now many of you have been here when I have taught you that mustard seed faith is very specific.  A mustard seed cannot be cross germinated with any other plant.  A mustard seed, though it is very small, grows to be a very large bush.  And in that bush, it says that the birds come and they can find shelter and so forth.  Your faith is not, now watch me carefully.  Your faith is not quantitative, this way.  Your faith is qualitative.  

You may have faith for one thing, and not have faith for another.  So, having little faith means, let me get right down to it.  Having little faith means you have faith for salvation, that you are born again.  But you can’t seem to believe anything else…. You can believe that God could save you, get you to Heaven, but you can’t believe that God can save you on the earth.  You’ll believe that when you die, you’ll go to Heaven, but you don’t believe that God can keep you from dying, from the disease that is in your body.  O ye of little faith.  You can believe God for a job, but you can’t believe God for a car… O ye of little faith doesn’t mean you need big faith.  It means you need faith specific to the circumstance you are facing at that time. Do you have faith to believe “X”.  Do you have enough faith to believe that your daughter is going to be ok?…  Do you have enough faith to believe that she’s going to be ok, that you raised her properly, there’s some good right and wrong in her, you have faith for that.  Specific to the circumstance.  

So, being anxious prevents us or stops us from following through and what does He say here?  Verse 32.  ”For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”  Come on, let’s read it together.  ”But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  Then He says, “Therefore, do not worry…”  

The problem is, that when we think of that verse, here’s the problem.  Many people will read that verse and not have faith to believe that God said it and therefore it’s so.  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and everything will follow.  And they go, “I don’t believe that.”  … And we go, “Did God say seek you first?”  If I go after the Kingdom of God, did He say, He’s going to take care of me?  Did He say that all the pieces of my puzzle are going to come together?  Do I believe that or not believe that?… Enemies of faith.  Worry and being anxious.  But to receive the benefit of faith, you must believe God… You have to believe God.  And you can’t believe just the parts you like… [come on now]  You’ve got to believe all of Sovereign God’s Word.  

He said, seek first the Kingdom and everything else’ll come.  He didn’t say, come to me and ask for anything you want, and you’ve got it… Some people don’t get healed because they won’t be a good testimony… They will not seek first the Kingdom of God, so God says, “If I heal you, who’s going to get the credit?” … And He says He will not share the glory with anybody else.  So you may have to get a medical healing, rather than a spiritual healing… I told you, today’s going to be good for you.  [yeah, laughter]  Moving right along.  

Enemies of faith.  Let’s look at another one.  Luke Chapter, what are we in now?  We’re in Matthew.  Right?  Let’s do Matthew 16.  Matthew 16. Just remind me to go back to Luke, OK.  Matthew 16… You there yet?  [yes]  In Matthew, Chapter 16, the Lord is having a verbal reasoning battle with the Pharisees and Scribes.  The Pharisees and Scribes are the teachers of the Law and the Sadducees kind of keep the written scripture going… But they have theological differences.  The Sadducees tend not to believe in anything really supernatural, they don’t believe in angels.  They don’t believe in ghosts.  They don’t believe in the supernatural aspect.  And the Pharisees are more literalists.  They believe kinda what the Bible says.  But they have their own twist to it because they reason in their minds.  So, let’s see what happens here.  

So, Jesus says then, in Verse 3. “…It will be foul weather today, for the sky is read and threatening.  Hypocrites!  You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern...”  Look at this.  ”…the signs of the times.  A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah…”  In this case He’s talking about the sign that will be given will be three days he’ll be in the grave, and then he’ll rise again from the dead.  Then we go on, and we say, well what is the problem that Jesus has with these Pharisees and all?  In verse 5, He says, “Now when His disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.  Jesus said to them, “Take heed and beware of the leaven...” Now remember, leaven is a yeast agent that gets, it’s in the air, but it’s particularly in yeast.  And when you leaven the bread, put the yeast in it, it cause it to rise.  Everybody got that?  

So, He’s saying, there is something that the Pharisees and Scribes do that causes sin, doubt and bad faith, in other words, unbelief, to rise in them.  It is an enemy that kills faith.  Everybody say, “It’s an enemy that kills faith.” [it's an enemy that kills faith.]  Would you like to now what it is?  [yes]  The first one was, what?  [worry]  Worry. The first one was worry, having an anxious mind.  The second one here, watch this.  This is very powerful.  And Jesus says, “And they reasoned among themselves,…”  Circle reasoned.  [right]  Put an underline on it.  ”…saying, “It is because we have taken no bread.”  But, Jesus, being aware of it…”  Meaning, being aware that they’re reasoning and reasoning wrong, He says, “…O you of little faith,…”  What has killed their faith?  He says, “…why do you reason…”  Underline it again.  ”…among yourselves because you have brought no bread?”  Then He hits them again.  ”Do you not yet understand,…”  And look at verse 11, He says, “How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? –but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees ….” Verse 12.  Look it, He tells it again.  And, “...they understood...”  They finally got something.  ”...He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees…” and scribes.  

So, what is this other enemy?  This other enemy is your own carnal reasoning and your own personal doctrine… Stay humble now.  Stay humble.  A lot of the things that you think are true are false.  A lot of the things you had reasoned in your head as to how you think God works are phony reasoning, bad, bad theology.  Bad doctrine.  But, because it’s yours, you think it’s good.  [amen]  And so you reason through your life.  You reason through solving things.  

You ever walk into a room and decide somebody didn’t like you?  Only to find out that they don’t even know you.  And they don’t even care about liking you or not liking you.  Cause they don’t even know you.  But you put together a reasoning plot between your ears.  And so Jesus is saying, the Pharisees and Scribes have reasoned through all of these processes as to how they think God should work.  How God should operate.  How God should heal.  But the reality of the situation was, they have established doctrine based on their intellect and it’s all wrong… They’ve reasoned wrong.  

And Jesus says, it is a leavening agent that will rise up and kill your faith… Can I give you a brainstorm?  [yes]  Can I?  [yes]  If you can figure out God, why ain’t you God? [that's right] … You ain’t God.  

You can’t even figure out what screw goes in what unless you look at the instructions.  [laughter]  I remember buying an aluminum shed and I’m going to put this aluminum shed together.  And I got all the parts, laid them on the ground and said, “I can do this.”  So I’m just screwing things together, I was just putting them together, and then at the end, I got the frame up, I got the outside up, and it’s all together.  And then it said, if you want it to hold together, you must first, before you do anything, put in this center support beam.  Now, my shed looked pretty good without the center support beam. [laughter]  But the way it was designed if you don’t put those screws in first, there is no way to finish the rest of the structure…[well]  I reasoned in my mind.  I’m trying to help you all.  

You cannot get to a problem, medical, physical, financial, and reason your way through it when you need supernatural help from God.  [amen] I’m sitting there with the banker.  The banker came to my house, a Christian man, and I was so, we were so far in debt and he said, “This will never fly.”  He said, “We cannot refinance your house, there’s no way we can do this.  I can’t help you get out of debt.  No way.”  The banker said to me, “Why don’t we pray.” …  [amen]  The banker… said, “Don, why don’t we pray.”  I said, “I’m good with that. Let’s pray.”  You know, God, in two days later, gave me a God idea that I never would have thought of, that the way to get out of debt was to build my wife a new and bigger and better house…. I never would, I never would have come up with that.  I couldn’t afford the house we were in, and God gave me a God idea to build a bigger and better house.  I called the banker back, and he says, “You won’t believe this.”  He said that $35,000 you owe on that bulldozer, didn’t show up on your credit report, and the bank will write you a loan.  But your, watch this, but the loan amount you’re asking for is too small… I said, “How about a big and new house?”  He said, “That’ll work.”  [wow]  

But we reason and we eliminate faith.  We take God out of the mix.  Jesus is saying, that the enemy and we just have to be humble.  Come on, say, “I’m humble.”  [I'm humble]  The reasoning of your mind is an enemy to faith.  Okay?  [yep]  

Let’s move on to another one.  Now in this one, in Matthew, in Matthew 16, I want you to notice that He says that they’re looking for a sign… Now this is just a little side journey but it will help somebody.  When you’re looking for a sign, and your attitude is God owes me a sign, [hmmmm]  I will believe You, God, if You da da da dah.  God if you will da da da dah, then I’ll serve You.  I’ll believe You.  I’ll know that You’re in this.  I know You’ll rescue me if You give me a sign.  Well, here’s what Jesus is saying.  Jesus is saying, “Wait a minute, if you’re looking for a sign, God’s not going to give you a sign.  But what you need to do is look at all the signs around you.  Look at all the things that He has done.  Look at all the signs that He has provided already.  If you will look at what He has already done, you don’t need a personal sign, for a personal sign is a demonstration of your lack of faith.  [that's right]  … Don’t pray with people, “I’m going to pray and God’s going to do a sign for you.”  [laughter]  It says, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek diligently seek Him… He’s going to reward those who are after Him.  Not those who are after a sign…

You know, I had somebody say, pray for a healing, and she kept saying to me, “But the,”  you know, “but the, the mark on my skin is still there.”  And I said, “Well, wait a minute now.  Didn’t we pray against the disease?”  ”Yeah. But, you know, I can’t believe I’m healed as long as I have this thing here.”  And I said, “Well, wait a minute, wait a minute.  Healing is a process.  If you can believe that you’re healed of it, what’s going to happen to that?”  ”Well it should go away now.” … “No. No.  The manifestation is that you’re healed from the disease, and then all of the signs or the leftover manifestations will eventually, in time, come.”  … [right]  You’re struggling with that.  

See, we’re so busy waiting for the manifestation that we forget that the manifestation is there as a result of something that is greater than what is being manifest.  [yes]  What is being manifest is not the greater thing, the thing that caused the manifestation is the greater thing.  Therefore, our faith removes the cause, and then, guess what, we don’t care that that’s there.  We go on and live our life and do what we have to do, knowing full well that’s inconsequential and that it’ll be gone.  And if we do it that way, guess what?  We look down there a couple of days later and totally gone.  [amen, yep]… [laughter]  …

But as long as you are sight controlled, let’s look at that.  I got one in here, go to Mark, Chapter 9…. Sight control.  Ok, so your reasoning is an enemy of faith.  Your worrying and being anxious of mind is an enemy of faith.  But watch this one.  Your seeing can become an enemy of faith.  You can see things through a positive or you can see it through a negative.  If you will see things in the negative, guess what?  You have an enemy of faith.  [correct]  Alright?  Now, let’s see, in Mark Chapter 9 what’s going on here?  What’s going on here?  In the 14th verse.  He’s with the disciples, the great multitude, and “Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed...”They ran to greet Him and so forth.  And Jesus asked, “What’s going on?  What are they talking about?”  One of the crowd said, “…Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit.  And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid.  So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”  …

Well, is that the truth?  [no]  No, that’s not the truth… Something happened.  What does this demon do when he takes power over this boy?  [he puts on a show]  He puts on a show.  He throws him down, foams at the mouth, and whatever, whatever… What did the disciples do when they saw it?  When they saw it, they says, “Ah, we couldn’t do it.”  We go, “It didn’t work.  We couldn’t do it.”  They saw it through a negative eye of failure.  In other words, we see a manifestation here, we see something in operation.  That means it didn’t work… Was that what Jesus does?  

Let’s see what Jesus does.  You all ready?  [yes]  Can you handle this?  [yes]  I can handle it.  I can handle it.  Let’s see what Jesus does.  In verse 19, Jesus says, watch this.  ”…O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?  Bring him to Me.  Then they brought him to Him.  And when he saw Him,…”  Meaning, when the spirit saw Jesus, “…immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.”  Let me ask you a question.  Is Jesus upset that the demon is demonstrating?  Well obviously not.  Cause he goes on and has a conversation with the father.  So He stood there while the boy is wallowing and foaming at the mouth, doing his thing on the floor.  

Jesus in verse 21 says, “Oh guess what, how long has he been like that?”  [laughter]  He says, “I see a show going on here, how long has he been like that?”  And the father says, “He’s been like that since childhood.”  But the father’s probably doing this.  The boy’s laying over here and Jesus is here.  And Jesus says, “Oh, how long he’s been like that?”  And the father’s going, “He’s been like that since childhood.” And what are the apostles doing?  They’re going, “Oh, it didn’t work, it didn’t work again, Oh! It didn’t work, it didn’t work.”  Looking with negative eyes.  [that's right]  

Had somebody this week tell me, “But Pastor Don, I still have the symptoms.”  And I said, “So what.”  [that's right]  ”By faith we’re believing you don’t have the sickness, who cares if you still have the symptoms?  What does that have to do with anything?”  The boy is wallowing on the ground, and Jesus is going, “Yeah, he’s been like that since childhood.”  Now, you say, Jesus is God, how didn’t He know?  Well no, Jesus is the Son of Man and also He is also operating as a man and at that point in time He has to rely on information from the Holy Spirit or information from the father so that he knows what type of demon He’s dealing with.  And the type of demon He’s dealing with here is this epileptic type of demon, which is one of the harder ones to get out, and Jesus knows it’s one of the harder ones to get out.  Because why?  He got the information from the father.  But what else does He know?  He knows that this is a bully spirit.  [that's right]  The sucker’s a bully.  And it’s taken advantage of the child, watch me carefully.  Taken advantage of the child cause he’s young but also taking advantage of the parents because they are ignorant.  [that's right]  They saw a symptom and panicked and said, “Oh, our kid is possessed forever. Our kid has got this disease forever.  we’re lost.”  They did not know, that the demon was in there going, “Can I stay?”  

*****

I hope this sermon blesses you.  Sometimes I think it is good to do a faith check, to find out what is challenging our faith in God.  

Have a blessed day.

Heather

Transcript of sermon preached 2/7/10 by Pastor Don Moore, Living Word Chapel, West Hurley New York.

What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.  

SAY AMEN
SHOW 143
POWER OF GOD’S WORD
02-07-10

But now that we’ve prayed, I want you to open your Bibles to Luke Chapter 7.  I want to share three passages of Scripture with you.  And I know that this will encourage you.   We went to the Holy Land in Florida.  We visited the TBN Holy Land in Florida.  We’ve visited the Holy Land before TBN had it.  And I can say unequivocally, without a doubt, it is improved.  TBN has done a wonderful, wonderful job.  And the prayer, the opening prayer that I gave was emphasizing the power of the Word.  

At TBN at the Holy Land, they had different dramas and presentations.  The one that they did on the day we were there was the Centurion.  And so they had the teaching of the Roman Centurion who had a servant who was ill.  And I think many of you know the story and we’ll just pass through it a little bit right now.  In it, they acted it out.  They had to change a few things in it, it wasn’t biblically perfectly lined up, but in order to make a drama you have to fill in the parts that weren’t there.  So they showed the Centurion and his relationship with his servant.  We know from Scripture that it was a close one.  And that he cared for this man and didn’t want his servant to die.  

And they’re going through it, and I’m sitting there with my wife and we’re watching this dramatization.  And I’m thinking to myself, well that guy there isn’t the Centurion.  But, you know, he could look kind of like this Italian boy running around up there on the stage, and he’s, you know, that’s not an authentic Roman uniform but it’s close enough.  It does look like some of the stuff they wore back then and then the servant girls were even more elegantly dressed than a servant girl would have been in Biblical times.  

And then this, we’re sitting there and here comes Jesus.  And He’s coming from the back going up toward the front.  And here’s this tall, long haired, blonde haired, six foot two, six foot three guy, [laughter].  I mean, he was huge.  If I was as tall as him, I’d still be playing in the NBA. This guy was huge.  I mean, he was tall.  Huge guy.  And so, they’re walking down the aisle with this pretend Jesus, you know, I mean he had hair, longer than his shoulders.  Had all this flowing long hair, and He’s got on this nice robe, and He’s smiling at everybody.  Coming in.  

And I go, that’s a pretend Jesus.  [laughter]  And so pretend Jesus goes up there with His pretend disciples, and they all sit down.  And the pretend Centurion comes over and the Word.  [hmm]  And they speak the Word as it is in Scripture.  And the Presence of God just showed up.  And I’m sitting there with tears in my eyes.  The power of the Word of God will overcome costumes, decorations, [laughter].  It just overcomes it.  There’s something about the power of the Word.  Let’s listen to the power here, of this Word…

In Chapter 7, “Now when he concluded all His sayings. in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum.”  Or Capernaum.  ”And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear to him, was sick and ready to die. So when he heard about Jesus, he sent elders of the Jews to Him to come and heal his servant.  And when they came to Jesus, they begged Him earnestly, saying that the one for whom He should do this was deserving, for he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.  Then Jesus went with them.  And when He was already not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself, for I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof.  Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You.  But say the word, and my servant will be healed.”  And listen to this. ” “For I also am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me.  And I say to one, “Go,” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.”  When Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him, and turned around and said to the crowd that followed Him, “I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”  And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant well who had been sick.”  [amen]  

The power…is in the Word.  [yes, amen]  Let me say it again.  The power is in the Word.  [amen]  Oh let it be known throughout your heart and your mind that your words are of great importance.  [come on]  Know that the words that you speak are power.  They have creative force.  You are made in God’s image.  And the way that you’re made in God’s image, is you have the ability to create with your words.  [yes]  You can turn your situation around.  It is the rudder on the end of your life that will steer the boat that will turn it right or left.  Words are important.  But a word must be spoken.  Watch this now.  In conjunction with what God has already spoken. [Yes], and a Word must be spoken in obedience.   Not in doubt.  Not in excuse making or questioning.  

The difference between the centurion’s faith and the faith of the other men is in the simple phrase.  Are you ready?  Can you say it?  Yeah but.... [yeah but, oh preach, pastor]…. Yeah, but…. yeah, but….Look a little bit further in scripture, to verse 30… Verse 30.  ”But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.  And the Lord said, “To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like?  They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying:  ”We played the flute for you,”  Yeah, but.  ”…you did not dance…. We mourned to you,...”  Yeah, but.  ”...you did not weep.”  For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, “He has a demon.”  The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, “Look, a glutton and a wine bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”  

Well, what is the difference between these two groups of people?  The difference is that the centurion did not, “yeah but” Jesus, when he found out what Jesus could do.  He just said, “Yeah.”  [laughter]  Without the “but.”  [come on]  When Jesus is dealing with the Pharisees and the scribes, He is saying that your faith is terminated, your obedience is terminated, because you have a, “yeah but” that keeps us from seeing the hand of God in operation. I’m convinced of it, I’m sure of it that when God gave man free will, He gave us more than we really thought we were getting.  [amen]  In that we really forgot, we forgot some key things here.  

But the main thing that we forgot was that inherent, intrinsically in the Word of God, is free will and that free will can terminate and destroy the active desire that God wants to fulfill in our lives.  [amen]  And that, yeah but, oh my goodness.  And why is it, I get a kick out of this.  But why is it we feel, when we are questioning that we are somehow more intelligent than someone who is just flat out obedient?  [hmmm, come on pastor, laughter]… Come on.  Am I right?  [yes]  I missed you guys.  [laughter]  But, you know, come on.  We look at someone who is just flat out obedient as they’re stupid.  But somebody that asks a whole lot of questions and has a whole bunch of yeah, buts, we somehow accredit to them a higher value of intelligence.  

You know, while I was away on vacation, I was reading this book called, “The Disillusionment of Disbelief.”  And in it, he pointed out, and he did it by quotes.  I have always heard that Einstein was an atheist, or an agnostic, but that he did not believe in God.  Well, this guy did the research to go through different things that Einstein, one of the greatest minds, even the Bible Code, the Bible Code says, when you put in “Einstein” the Bible Code says, “a very smart fellow.”  [laughter]  See to God, he’s only a smart fellow, he’s not, you know, brilliant or off the levels.  You know.  God’s not impressed with him.  But he was surprised that he was a smart fellow.  

But, nonetheless, he quotes, he quotes Einstein and people that were close to him, and Einstein refused to be identified with the atheists.  He refused to be identified with the agnostics because through science, he had discovered the order of the universe is so well set that it could not have happened by chance.  [amen]  Glory be to God.  Glory be to God. Isn’t that wonderful?  So we have to recognize that being intelligent at a certain point, you, watch this now, you must, if you arrive at the higher levels of intelligence, you must arrive at the point where the questions stop, and faith kicks in.  [yes, amen]   cause there has to be a point at which you believe God knows more than you, God understands better than you.  The Word that God has spoken is more powerful than any word that has ever been spoken.  And therefore, when God gives you something that He wants you to do, or He speaks into your life, and it’s time to move instead of time to stay.  And it’s time to go and rather, than time to draw back.  It’s time to act rather than to sit idly by.  And God says, “Do it!”  Then it’s time not to say, “Yeah, but.”  But it’s time to get up and move as God has directed you.  [amen, hallelujah]  Somebody say, “Amen in this house.”  [amen]  Glory to God. I said, “Glory to God.”  [glory to God]  

Look at Luke, Chapter 6…. Verse 46.  We played the flute for you, yeah but, you didn’t dance…. We played a sad ditty for You to mourn, but yeah but, You didn’t mourn.  Well, why didn’t You?  Because you were questioning at each juncture what to do, than going, “Yeah, but.   Yeah, but.  Yeah, but.”… “Yeah but!”  [chuckling]  Now, that’s a good point.  Did you hear what she said?  She said, “Pastor Dona, was teaching and she said that whatever follows the but becomes greater than whatever preceded it.  [ooooh, yea]  If it isn’t greater, at least stalls the effectiveness of what preceded it.  Ok, everybody with me on this?  You understand where I’m going?  Or at least where I’m coming from?  

So Jesus is saying, what are we supposed to do with you people?  You know, we sent John the Baptist, he’s a teetotaler, and he’s out in the woods and he’s eating just honey and all, but you didn’t follow him.  You said, “Yeah but,” to him.  Now Jesus says, I come, I’m hanging out with the sinners and the tax collectors, and you go, “Yeah but” to that.  He says, so you have to realize, as a believer, the people that you want to lead to the Lord will yeah but you to death, because they have no vision, and they don’t have the Word of the Lord yet in them.  So how do you expect, you’re going to come up with something that’s gonna work?  [hmmm]  Huh?  Cause at some point, you just have to lay it down and say, “I’m going for it.”  [right]  I’m going for it.  I’m just going to do what the Lord says until I get, let’s see.  

Now Luke 6, verse 46.  It’s a very famous verse, you all know it.  He says, “But why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and not do the things which I say?  Whoever comes to Me and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:”  What’s he like, Jesus?  ”He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.  And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded….”  what?  [on the rock]  Say it again.  [on the rock]  One more time. [on the rock]  There, those are my people.  ”But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately.…”  notice it says immediately”…immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”  

But, what’s He talking about?  The ruin of the house was great.  He’s saying, Lord have mercy.  If we build it on a rock, if we build on the rock of the Lord who has spoken things that are true, truisms.  The problem is that when we go, “Yeah, but” to a truism, we treat it as if it is a falsehood.  [right]  Right?  [yeah]  You say, this will work for you.  

This will work for your marriage.  How do you know?  It’s in the Word of God.  That’s the way it is.  Well, then when you alter that, guess what?  You’re treating a truth as if it’s a falsehood. And therefore, you are standing on your question and your question  cannot sustain you.  [that's right] … The brilliance of your question cannot sustain you in the face of the truth.  Let’s do one more, now.  

Go to, in Chapter 6 go all the way back to verse 33….33… “I have to turn the page.  Are you there?  [yes]  He says, “And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners do the same.  And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you?  For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.”  

Let me ask a question.  Is that the truth [yes]  Sure is.  And then, look what He says.  “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.  For He is kind”...He is kind to the unthankful and evil.  [hmmm]  ”Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is also merciful.” 

Now I just want, I just want to play with your head for a second…. What is that saying?  Jesus isn’t establishing these as maybe they work.  He is giving Spiritual truth.  He said Spiritual truth.  The Father is merciful.  Spiritual truth.  If you act like Him, and are merciful, guess what He’s saying.  You will receive, what will you receive?  [mercy]   Mercy.  If you lend without expecting to get it back, what will you receive?  [great reward]  You will receive great reward.  He isn’t treating those as if they are suggestions that might work.  He’s giving them, He’s giving them as tenets of truth that they definitely will work.  

Than why is it that even in the Church, when someone asks you to lend you something, you ask them, how much you going to pay me, and when are you going to pay me back?  [laughter]  [now, come on now] … Why do we do that?  And how about this one.  Well, I would have loaned him, but… I would have loaned him the money but what?  But I know he can’t pay me back, and I know.  I know he’s just a lowlife… We do that even in the Church.  And it’s not Gospel.  It’s just cheap.  [yeah]  …. So, what are we doing?  We are saying, “Yeah, but”  to the tenet of truth, which is, God is merciful, therefore be merciful like God.  God is giving, so be giving like God.  Don’t be judging.  If the guy can’t pay you back, then God is saying, “I guarantee you, that I God will pay you back.”  [amen]  That’s a truth.  [that's right]  I’m just trying to use that one because most of us might be guilty of that at some point in time.  

Cause I’ve done it.  I’ve had people, that I know can’t pay me back, ask me for something and I go, “Yeah but, you slime ball, I know you’re not going to pay it back.  So, I’m going to withhold this five bucks.”  As if somehow the five bucks is going to break me.  How many of you know that that ain’t going to happen.  [yes]  Yeah. Come on, elbow the person next to you and say, “Be giving.  Be merciful.”   [be giving, be merciful]  If nobody’s sitting next to you, do yourself.  [laughter]  Ok, that’s the truth, isn’t it?  [yes]  It is the truth.  So, let’s say it together.  God is generous.  [God is generous]  and so am I.  [and so am I]  

Let’s look at some “yeah but” situations.  I’m just, I’m almost about out of time.  But let me just help you with a few “yeah but” situations.  

King David is told not to take a census.  King David goes, “Yeah but.”  Cause he wanted to really know the size of his people, so he could put his chest out and say, “We have enough whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever.”  And it brought a curse upon him and upon the people of Israel.  And a plague broke out.  All because of his, “yeah but.”  

King Saul is going into battle.  King Saul’s going into battle.  And the priest was late coming to give the sacrifice.  [laughter]  And so, King Saul decides, “Huh, some of the people are leaving me.”  Is there anybody here, that you’ve looked around, you were going into a difficult situation, somebody promised to be there with you, and you looked around, and they are not there.  [laughter]  Has that ever happened?  [yes]  Yeah.  Come on, some of you wives know.  [laughter]  Some of you wives know.  He said he was going to go shopping with you, but when it came down to it, he found a way to get out of it.  [laughter]  Now, what I’m saying is, King Saul.  God has given him instructions, the king is to do what the Kings to do, and the Priest does what the priest does.  And the priest gives the sacrifice and the king’s not supposed to be involved in that thing.  And sure enough, he looks around, some of the soldiers are leaving.  He had his strength in the people around him, not in God.  [come on]  He was looking for somebody to do something about his situation.  

I love the President, the Congress, and the Senate.  But trust me, they ain’t going to fix this thing.  I’m not looking for them to fix this thing.  I’m putting my trust in Jesus Christ.  [yea, applause]  He’s the superstar here.  [applause]  He can fix it.  And He can fix my finances and look out for me.  

So, King Saul looked around and says, “Where, where are the trustees?  Where’s the army?”  And half of them were going over the mountain.  So he decides, he’s going to give the sacrifice.  Now the priest shows up…  The priest shows up and says, “Hey, yo, whatcha doing man?”   He said, “Yeah, but…”  [laughter]  I had to do something, yeah but.  Noooooo.  That was his “but.”  Wasn’t it?  [yes]  God snatched the kingdom away from him.  [that's right]  

You see, God has made provision for you and for your own greatness.  Can I preach to you for a second?  God has made provision for your own particular individual greatness.  He’s made provision for it.  He has set people in place to bring it.  He has timed it out.  He has a schedule that you’re going to reach point “A” at such a time.  And then be at point “B” at such a time.  He’s done it all.  But the only problem is your “yeah but”  will detain you.  Will get you off course.  Will hold you back from arriving at the place He has for you.  Where your greatest blessing is going to emerge and you shall have the victory.  But you can’t get there because your yeah but is keeping you on your butt.  [laughter]

I’ve been away for awhile.  I just save it all up for you guys.  But you know, there’s so much that we can, that we can learn from this so that hopefully, yeah but will get caught up in your mouth and you won’t be able to question it.  How many of you know, you’ve heard from the Lord at one point in your life, at least one time?  [laughter]  At least one time.  How many of you will admit it that sometimes that one time was answered by you with a yeah but.  [yes]  Yeah but Jesus it’s too big.  It’s too big.  How about this one.  It costs too much.  [yes]  You know, it costs too much.  I’m afraid of the price tag.  And you go, yeah but, I’ll buy it if it’s free.  [laughter]  I saw a bumper sticker.  It says nothing was free till nothing became nothing.  [chuckles, amen, oh yeah]  Nothing is free until nothing becomes nothing.  So, until it has no value, then yeah, nothing is worth anything unless it has a price tag on it.  And everything that’s worth anything has a price tag on it.  

The most expensive thing to me in this room is my wife.  [there you go, amen]  She’s the most expensive thing I have.  But she is also the greatest value.  [amen, that's right]  I got the best return on value from my wife.  I am way, way ahead for what I spent as a 24 year old man, to get this woman.  I am way ahead.  [applause] … What are you talking about?  What are you talking about?  She wanted a diamond.  Went and bought it with her own money.  [whoot, laughter]  Don’t tell me I’m not blessed!  [laughter]  I’m thoroughly blessed, come on.  We have to see something.  

Things of great value come with a great price.  But if you yeah but during the negotiations, how’s God going to be able to bring it to pass for you?  [amen]  Nothing’s free out here.  But your yeah but…  How many of you have ever had the Lord speak a word to you, and half way beginning you went, “Yeah but.”  

You know what we do in the Body of Christ?  We call it, I need a confirming word.  [laughter]  I need a confirmation.  I don’t think that was the Lord.  Why?  You didn’t think it was the Lord because it was going to cost you more than you wanted to pay.  But you took your eyes off of what the prize was going to be, and you forgot, wait a minute, if It’s God, if God’s in it, the reward is going to be greater than the sacrifice I’m going to make to get it.  [amen]  But my yeah but will do what?  Will withhold it.  It will do what?  It’s an excuse.  [right]  We need an excuse for our fear.  

Why I’d be faithful in Church but I know I got one of these days man, Pastor Don’s going to walk up and ask me to do something.  [laughter]  So let me practice my excuses.  What are you talking about?  If I ask you to do something that didn’t give a blessing of God is going to be on it, and you’re going to be more blessed than you were before you were asked to do it.  [amen]  What are you talking about?  What are you talking about?  

Excuses.  The other one, the yeah but will do is throw you a postponement.  [yep]… You know, you ever go to somebody’s house for dinner and sit awaiting for them to serve the dinner?  No, that doesn’t happen to you all.  But trust me, as a pastor, it happens.  [laughter]  You know, they invite you for dinner, and you sitting there, and they’re talking, and then you’re sitting there, and they’re talking, and you’re sitting there, and they’re talking and you’re sitting there, and they’re talking.  [laughter]  I lean over and say, “Was this a counseling session or dinner?”  [laughter]  Do we get to eat in between their talking?  [laughter]  They’re just postponing the meal.  Come on now, you all.  It’s like they’re afraid that if you eat, you’re going to run.  You know.  The sooner you feed me, I’m going to sit and stay.  But postponement.  

Do you realize how many times we postpone the blessing that God has for us.  He’s got something really, really good for us, but we postpone it because we’re yeah butting it.  [yes]  Does anybody know what I mean?  (singing)  Surround me, oh Lord.  Surround me, oh Lord.  Surround me, oh Lord.  Let your presence fill this place.  Oh, just invite Him into your heart today.  

This is a closed captioned  transcript from a Sunday Sermon preached by Pastor Don Moore on 1/8/10

I lightly edited it for.  What is in [brackets] is what the congregation says.  This sermon aired on TBN.

SAY AMEN
SHOW 142 
WATER AND SEED
1-8-10

Well hello my friends.  We’re so glad that you’re with us.  I’m Pastor Don Moore, and we don’t want to waste time talking, so let’s get right into the Word.  

Today’s teaching, I want to meld together an understanding of two words that Jesus talked quite a bit about.  One word is water, and the other word is seed.  And the two come together very importantly in terms of discussion of the receiving of the Word of God, but also the growing of the Word of God as well as surviving the onslaught that comes from our minds and comes from other people against the Word of God.  

Now, in the book of John, in the third chapter Nicodemus, who is one of the teachers of the Law, comes to Jesus at night, and this is a very powerful passage.  I want to read a little bit of it and then let’s get some clarification…. Yes.  Here it is.  And so, Nicodemus comes, “Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”  And then Jesus, in verse six, gives us a clear and interesting distinction.  He says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”  And then in verse 8 He tells us. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  

So here we have a teaching that Jesus is saying that to be born again is by the action of the Spirit, and He says that when the Spirit moves in this way, we may not see it coming or see it going, but we know that it was spiritual, that the Spirit did something.  But prior to that, He tells us that the Water, He says that you must be born of water.  

Now, when I grew up, a young man in the Gospels and all, it was taught that that water is from the water that is in the belly of the pregnant woman.  That when her water breaks, that is the water, so you must be born of water.  The water, you know, that fluid that comes out.  But that can’t be so because it says flesh is born to flesh and Spirit to spirit.  So we have the flesh and we have spirit and therefore flesh is not pregnancy and the water, all of that, is that all not physical?  It is.   And so it is of the flesh.  

But He says something interesting.  He says you must be born of water.  Therefore, we must remember something.  The Bible is it’s own definition of its own terms.  The Bible, when it uses Bible terms, we must look into scripture to find out what it’s talking about.  And therefore, water here, is not referring to H2O, nor is it referring to pregnancy of the fluid, nor is it saying baptism.  This has been taught for a long time, that it is of baptism.  But isn’t baptism of the flesh?  Isn’t it physical?  It is a spiritual act that we are carrying out, but we are carrying it out in the flesh realm.  

We take our physical bodies, our fleshly bodies, and immerse them in physical water and we come up out of the water.  Is that not the flesh making a decision to go down and the flesh coming up?  And we know for a fact, many people, many people get wet but don’t get changed in baptism.  Therefore, it has to be flesh upon flesh, when what the Apostle is telling us, what Jesus, as an Apostle, as a Prophet, as a Teacher, as the Great I AM. Is He not saying that there is an experience from God of the Spirit causing change?  But there’s water.  What is that water?  So, if we’re gonna say it’s not the fluid.  If we’re going to say it’s not the water of baptism.  

We’d have to look into the Scriptures to find other places where there is mention of water and see if we can get what the Bible says this water is.  Now, when we look at this, we realize that, from the other scriptures, we have a number of passages that can help us with this.  One is in Ephesians, Ephesians 5:26  It tells us that Husbands should wash their wives in the water of the Word.  Washing them in what?  The water of the Word.   And then it also tells us in 1 Peter, let’s turn there.  1 Peter, Chapter 1, verse 22-23 and this is a very powerful passage that Peter gives us in Chapter 1, And He says, beginning at verse 22.  ”Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,”  And here it goes, verse 23, are you ready?  ”…having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible,…”  How?  ”…through the word of God which lives and abides forever,…”  So we can see from these passages of scripture that the Word of God is not only referred to as seed, but it is also referred to as water.  And we have the washing of water, through the Word.  

For you Bible students, you can also look up Ezekiel 26 verse 25 and Titus Chapter 3 verse 5.  These are also references to the mystery of the Word of God as being the Water of God.

Now, let’s take a look at the seed.  We go into the book of Mark, well, let’s go to Matthew first.  No, let’s go to Mark.  Let’s go to Matthew, let’s go to Mark.  Which do you want to go to?  Ok, we’ll go to Matthew.  So, in the book of Mark, I got a kick out of that.  I don’t know if that helped anybody, but that sure helped me.  

In the book of Mark, in the 4th Chapter verse 14.  The book of Mark in the 4th Chapter.  Jesus is talking about the parable of the sower.  And right away in verse 14, we want to look at that.  Verse 14.  Here’s what He says.  ”The sower sows the word.  The sower sows the word.”  So we have that the Word of God is also expressed as water, but we see here that Jesus is using it as an expression of seed.  And He says that the sower goes to sow seed.  

Now, in our culture, we don’t see many sowers.  But a sower was one, he’d have a bag over his shoulder filled with seeds.  He’d reach in and he would then spread the seed over the soil that had been opened up and prepared.  They’d dig in, grab a handful, and he’s sow it.  So He says, then, that the sower, which is a picture now of the believer, a picture of the saint, a picture of the teacher, a picture of the preacher, he takes the Word and he spreads it.  You, my friends, are also sowers, and you should be spreading the Word of God, sharing it with neighbors and friends, with your children and people that come into your life.  Spreading it about.  Believing that some of it is going to, like the scripture says, is going to fall on thorny soil.  Some of it’s going to be choked out by the worries and the cares of this life.  But the promise of God is, some of it will fall on good soil, and bring forth a crop, 30, 60, and even a 100-fold blessing.  

Now in seed, when we talk about seed, you know, pastors can’t help it, but to talk about sowing financial seed and bringing forth.  But in this particular parable of the sower, Jesus is talking about sowing the Word of God.  And then in Mark Chapter 4, if we look again, at this passage, as we follow it to its natural conclusion, He tells us something in verse 21.  He says, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed?  Is it not to be set on a lampstand?  For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.”  A little bit later He says, “Take heed what you hear.  Take heed what you hear.”  He says, “With the same measure you use,…”  to hear  “…it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.  For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”  

This passage is not talking about money, He’s talking about hearing what the sower has sown.  Hearing the water of God, drinking in the water of God.  And so we get a better picture by realizing that a person who hears the Word of God, guess what?  His hearing will enlarge.  

Romans 10:17 says what?  “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  Doesn’t it?  Therefore, our faith is increased because we hear more of the Word, and if we hear more, then He says, more Word will be given to us, if we hear.  Now, let’s look at it in another further passage, in the same text.  In the same book of Mark.  ”And He said, “The kingdom of God...”  watch this.  ”The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.  For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.  But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”  

In this passage we get a lot.  Remember, the Word is the seed.  The sower sows the Word of God, the Water of God grows the seed, because faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.  The Seed is the Word we water the Word with more Word, and that Word brings forth more Word for those that will hear.  But He says something, sow the seed, not knowing how it’s going to sprout.  Too often we judge people that we minister to.  We tell them about Jesus and we expect that they’re going to be born again and on fire for the Lord overnight.  But He says, you don’t know the seed that you sow and that you water, you don’t know how it’s going to spring forth.  And Jesus tells us that at first it’s going to come up just a little bit, then a little bit more, then a little bit more, then it breaks forth unto the harvest.  

We get another clear picture, and I love talking about seeds.  But the mustard seed is the one that Jesus really nails down.  Let’s take a look at the mustard seed.  In verse 30, Jesus talks about the mustard seed and He says, “To what shall we liken the kingdom of God?  Or with what parable shall we picture it?  It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on the earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.”  

Now you might be wondering why did Pastor Don have this big artificial tree here.  Oh I know, on TV it looks real, but trust me, it’s plastic.  But look at this beautiful picture.  Let’s say, if this were a mustard seed, we would be getting an example and we can understand the mystery of it.  He is saying that the mustard seed’s small.  If you shake out some pepper out of a pepper mill, the seeds are very, very small.  That’s how small mustard seeds are.  They’re just little tiny specks.  But a mustard seed would grow to a bush like this.  It would be big.  And it would have a lot of stuff.  And He says the birds would come, and notice we’ve got these nice artificial, can’t fly red birds here.  And they nest in it, and they find a place of shade in it.  

Jesus is telling us that faith, when we look at faith and the Word of God, watch this now.  The Word of God is water, it causes things to grow, seed causes what?  Something to spring up and be multiplied.  In other words, our seeds are Words of God, Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.”  If we will speak and sow the Word of God, guess what?  It will grow the largest, it will grow the largest of all things on earth.  In other words, it will cause growth that will be greater than doing anything else we could do, if we will have mustard seed faith.  

We need to know something about mustard seed faith.  Faith, described as mustard seed, Jesus is trying to tell us two things.  First of all, it has been told to me, that the mustard seed cannot be cross pollinated with anything else.  In other words, you cannot mix doubt with your faith.  You cannot mix unbelief with your faith.  You cannot mix wishing and hoping with your faith.  That your faith must remain pure.  And so, faith, though, mustard seed faith, means that it is pure, it is faith without doubt in it.  

And then, one of the greatest teachings of all, Jesus said, mustard seed, it can be small as a mustard seed and your faith can move mountains.  Well, what did He mean?  What was the mystery?  He is saying, that our understanding of faith has been wrong.  We’ve prayed for years, “Lord, give me more faith.”  Well, you can’t get more faith.  You can only get, listen to me carefully, either you have faith or you don’t. Mustard seed, small as a mustard seed, if you even have that much faith, you have enough to move a mountain.  You don’t need anymore faith because faith, my brothers and my sisters, it is qualitative, in the sense that you may have faith for sickness, but not have faith for salvation.  You may have faith for walking on water but not have faith for the common cold.  You may have faith for healing of cancer, but you may not have faith for blind eyes being opened.  

You may be like the apostles, who had faith for the multiplication of fish and loaves, but when they saw the water troubled, they were afraid and thought that they would die.  They did not have faith for that.  

So in conclusion, my brothers and my sisters, let us remember that the Word of God is the water of God, the water is the Word, the Word is water.  That seed, when He’s talking about seed, He is talking about faith that can come by the planting of the right Words.  And that Water and the Words are right.  And we are but sparrows, we are pictured as these birds that can hide in the tree of faith.  We are pictured as birds that can find the shade by faith.  We can find the secret place, a hiding place.  We can find a place of security.  We can be like the little sparrow, that the song talks about.  That if we keep our eyes on Christ, our seed faith will grow.  

The Word of God, the Water of God will pour upon us, cleansing us and provide for us, not just a hiding place and a place of safety, but also a place of power.  May this word richly, richly get down into your heart.  Be careful, make sure you’re sowing Word Seed.  

The money thing is true and it works, but your seed faith must also be the fruit of your mouth and the Water of God, and He says, that if you have that, out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.  God bless ya.  

Let us now enjoy the music of minister Joy Fisher Pollard.  (Singing)  Why should I feel discouraged?  Why should the shadows come?  Why should my heart be lonely and long for Heaven my home?  Jesus is my portion.  My constant friend is He.  And His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He’s watching me.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me.  Let not your heart be troubled.  His tender words I hear.  And resting in God’s goodness, I lose all my doubt and fear.  Go by the path He leadeth, only one step at a time I see.  Still, His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me.  That’s why I sing, because I’m happy.  And I sing because I’m free.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He’s watching me.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me.  That’s why I sing, I sing because I have to.  Oh, I sing because Jesus set me free.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me.  His eye is on the sparrow, and I know, I know He’s watching me….

(singing)  Oh Lord, there is no one like you.  Not in Heaven, or earth, or beneath.  You spoke the Word and formed the mountains, and you breathed your Spirit in me.  You are awesome.  You are marvelous.  You made the planets.  You made each tiny babe.  You are mighty.  You are wonderful.  Maker of Heaven and earth, and me.  Maker of Heaven and earth, and me.  By your Word you created the mountains, the stars as your story still stand.  By your love, you sacrificed Heaven’s Treasure, scribed my name in the palm of your hand.  You are awesome.  You are marvelous.  You made the planets.  You made each tiny babe.  You are mighty.  You are wonderful, maker of Heaven and earth, and me.  Maker of Heaven and earth and me.  You are awesome.  You are marvelous.  You made the planets.  You made each tiny babe.  You are mighty.  You are wonderful.  Maker of Heaven and earth and me.  Maker of Heaven and earth and me.  Maker of Heaven and earth and me…

(singing)  Hallelujah, hallelujah, you are Holy God alone.  Hallelujah, hallelujah, you are Holy God alone.  Jehovah Jireah, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nissi, Ts-idtkenu, You’re my Provider, You are my Fortress.  You are my Shield, and my Righteousness.  Hallelujah, hallelujah, You are Holy God alone.  Hallelujah, hallelujah, You are Holy God alone.  Jehovah Jireah, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nissi, Ts-idtkenu.  You’re my Provider, You are my Fortress.  You are my Shield, and my Righteousness. …