Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Pleasing God Pt.8

As usually happens as we've been talking about walking in the spiritual realm (walking in the areas that are pleasing to God, without faith it's impossible to please Him), as happens so many times, of course, the enemy is going to try and move in and take the Word of God out of our hearts as it's being sown. A number of needs are in our midst right now. We just want to pray and believe God to touch those that are among us. Leonel has been taken into the hospital. They believe that he has had some type of a heart attack and, I believe, some other attack again today. It could be attributed again to another heart attack. We want to just pray and believe God to minister there. Then also tonight, we want to pray with Stephanie and Helena. They've both received some reports that are not good, growths in their bodies. We're just going to go to war with these things. The enemy is coming in to many lives like a flood, but the Scripture says when he enters in, the Lord raises a standard up against him, amen? That standard is the standard, the banner of the Lord, the Lord our God, Jehovah-Rapha, Jehovah-Jireh, praise God! We are going to battle and realizing the Lord is our healer and the Lord is our victor, amen? "These signs shall follow them that believe in My name."

Helena, why don't you and Steph come right now and as you're coming and walking toward the Lord this evening, let your mind go back, as it was in the Scriptures. As those in need approached Him, Jesus asked the question, "Do you believe that I can do this?" That's the question that is being asked us tonight. "Do you believe that I can do this?" The answer was, "Yes, Lord." He said, "According to your faith be it unto you," amen? It doesn't matter if you're blind; it doesn't matter if you're a leper. The question was asked to those, and one time the Lord was asked, "Lord, if You will, You can make me whole," and He said, "I will." Let's believe that right now, praise God! Just stand with us, and I'm going to ask Helena and Stephanie to come. We're going to lay hands on you in the name of Jesus and just believe the Lord to heal tonight, see that power of God manifested in the lives of these, His children. Do you believe the Lord can do this tonight? We do believe, Lord! Just extend your faith toward these ladies, and let's believe God right now in the name of Jesus. He said, "You'll lay hands on them, and they will recover." It's the word of the Lord to us, praise God! Father, in the name of Jesus I command the growth to die. In Jesus' name, be gone. Be healed! Father, we receive it because You've declared it, Father. Our faith is in You, Lord, in the authority of the name of Jesus. Father, we command healing in this body that You might be glorified in our midst, Father. For that alone, we're going to give You the praise. Lord, we just rejoice in Your goodness tonight. We thank You, Father, for the prayer of faith that saves the sick, Lord, and You raise us up. Glory to You, Father! Hallelujah! Let's just rejoice now in the victory that's been won. Just give Him the praise. We thank You, Lord. We just delight in Your majesty. Glory to God! Hallelujah!

As you're being seated, just turn to someone next to you and say, "Our faith is the victory." Let's turn to Hebrews 11 and we'll also look at Romans 4, passages we've been spending a lot of time in. Faith is the substance of things hoped for; it's the evidence of things not seen. Verse 6 of that eleventh chapter of Hebrews tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. We were sharing on Sunday that what we're really talking about here is the relationship that we have with Him. We're not talking about a formula of faith. We're not talking about faith in faith, as so many of those in the faith movement lean toward. We're talking about a relationship with your Father. We said you could look at it this way: without having confidence in the faithfulness of God, it's impossible to please Him. You see, those that come to God must believe that He is a good God. "If you're going to come to Me, you've got to believe that I'm a good God. You've got to know who I am. When you come, you've got to come expecting that I want to do you good all the days of your life. If you come to Me, come to Me not on your own merit, but on the merit of the blood of Jesus Christ and know that God is going to honor the redemptive work of Jesus." Without that, it's impossible to please God. Without that confidence in the finished work, without that confidence in the lovingkindness of your Father, it's impossible to please Him. "Without trusting in Me, I can't be pleased with you in our relationship. I'm not content with being the administrator of the universe; I want to be your Father. I'm not content with you recognizing Me as a sovereign; I want you to know Me as Dad and be able to say, 'Abba, Father.' Nothing pleases My heart like that relationship."

I was out at lunch today with the grandbabies, and Hailey came over and said, "Grandpa, can I sit on your lap?" I said, "Of course you can," as she got up in my lap. She's getting pretty big for a six-year old. (Kimberly was also the tallest one in her kindergarten class. She finally reached that towering height of five-one.) She's a big girl now and in school. She got up there. "Can I sit on your lap?" I said, "Of course." She got up there, and then I leaned over and I whispered in her ear. I said, "You're Grandpa's baby. You can sit on my lap anytime you want, anywhere." She just giggled--hee, hee, hee.

What pleases you more than being able to say that to those that are precious in your sight? Is that the relationship you have with Father? Without trust, without confidence, the Father's heart isn't pleased. He's not satisfied with the relationship until He can bring you to that place of absolute reliance upon Him. In the process, there's a lot of purging and pruning that takes place in our lives, a lot of proving to us that we can't do it without Him, a lot of proving to us that He does love us and He's never going to leave us nor forsake us. We realize that goodness of the Lord, and it gives us that confidence that Romans speaks of in the fourth chapter.

Turn over there. We see that, in verse 19, Abraham was not weak in his faith. We begin to find out what strong faith was here, that he considered not his natural circumstances, or, as the Scripture says, "He considered not his own body now dead.neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief." We spent a good amount of time talking about what it meant to stagger, to be double-minded, to judge against the promise. That's all we're doing when we doubt; we're judging against the promise of God. We're saying that my understanding (my understanding of physics, my understanding of the natural laws) I trust in more than the promises of God. They're more real to me than the spiritual realm. Abraham staggered not at the promise through unbelief. "Unpersuadableness" is what that word means. Anytime that we're not in faith, it's because God has not been able to persuade us to trust Him at this given moment in our lives. We're unpersuadable; we will not believe the promise as it's being contrasted with the circumstances that are visible. Faith gives substance to the things that you can't see and understand. We talked about that ability to believe in the unseen and to trust in the unknown. "[Abraham] was strong in faith [we saw what that strong faith was, it was] giving glory to God." Even when you don't understand, you give glory to God because you believe that He's good and that He's a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. "[He was] fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, he was able also to perform." Father is trying to bring us into that place of full persuasion. We saw in Abraham's life that even though this Romans 4 account says, "he didn't stagger," we see him staggering, don't we? There's no way you can deny that this man was staggering as he went in to Hagar. He was staggering. As he asked the Lord to bless Ishmael, he was staggering. As he made the decree that Eliezer would be his heir, he was staggering, but the blessing of God's perception as an eternal being! He can speak these things and they're so absolutely true because God doesn't pass judgment on the momentary circumstance, but on the end of our faith. The final outcome God already knows, so He could make these statements concerning Abraham's life as He reveals to you and me that he did not stagger; he was fully persuaded; he was strong in faith, giving glory to God.

"And being fully persuaded that, what [God] had promised, he was able also to perform." Why? Because the fruit of it ultimately manifested in his life. The enemy is going to discourage many of us and let us think that our faith failed. Hey, it's not over yet. Amen? This thing's not over yet, praise God! The final chapter has not been read in my life. How many of you are glad that God doesn't judge you based upon your immediate circumstances, but that He judges us on the full scope of our lives and what we're going to end up finally being? To those that endure to the end, what happens? They're going to be saved, praise God! So, if God doesn't judge you that way, then you don't have any right to judge yourself. What am I sharing with you? Don't doubt your faith. Don't believe your doubts; don't accept them. Don't be double-minded. The thoughts will come, but pull them down, praise God! Call them what they are: lying vanities trying to exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. Begin to "call things that are not as though they were" (Romans 4:17) and begin to give glory to God. As your life begins to work through these momentary fears and doubts and failures and you begin to rise up--"the good man may fall seven times, but he rises up" (Proverbs 24:16) because "faithful is He who called you who will do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24)--once we make it through that part of our lives, then we find ourselves with another challenge.

We want to talk about that part of Abraham's life tonight. Turn over to Genesis 22. We see him working through the birth of Isaac. Isaac finally is manifested, and the promise is there at hand, and Abraham's life has been being proven, but there's a final test. Genesis 22 speaks toward that final test. We're all very aware of this particular story. In the twenty-second chapter, it says, "And it came to pass after [all of] these things, that God did tempt Abraham" (verse 1). I want to tell you something about genuine faith: it will be tried. Amen? If you're saying, "I just don't understand the pressures, the trials," you ought to rejoice in it because it's proof that you have genuine faith. It's being tried, and the trying of your faith works--say it--patience. Now, here's the part that we have a little trouble with, isn't it? Count it all--say it--joy, when you fall into different tests and trials. Can you count it joy? What, the circumstances? No. Count it all joy that you have faith. Rejoice in the measure of faith that's been given to you. Rejoice that God has been working in you, and that now that's being proven in your life so that it's sufficient until the end.

Abraham had been through a lot of stuff up until this point. It's one type of faith to believe God for something; it's another type of faith to give something up. One of the greatest trials in our lives is giving up what God has given us, leaving fathers and mothers and houses and lands for His name's sake, being able to turn and walk away from your vocation, as Matthew did. We're going to talk about that over in Matthew, chapter 10, a little bit tonight, the call of God in these men's lives and the fulfilling of that through God's supernatural provision. There is no greater faith than after God has blessed you, being able to turn it all back into His hands and live by the daily bread of faith, claiming ownership to nothing, owning nothing while we possess all things.

He says that he was tempted of God. "God did tempt Abraham" (Genesis 22:1). You know, many of the things that we think are tough in life are only preparation for the big trial that hasn't yet come. That doesn't sound like good news tonight, does it, the counting it joy that we can learn patience, consistency, that which God is wanting to perfect in our lives? The Scripture says that at this moment of temptation, the Lord spoke to him and said, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest." The strongest faith, or, as James says about this trial, the "perfecting of faith," is only revealed through the proving of our love for Him being greater than all of these. "Lovest thou me more than these?" (John 21:15). You know, Peter went through a lot of trials, but there was one last issue that had to be settled in his life. We saw the great victories in Peter's life. We saw the failures; we saw him denying the Lord; we saw God drawing him back to Himself as he was a broken man. One other issue had to be settled to determine whether or not he had the faith to finish this course and to feed the lambs of God, and it was this: "Do you love Me more than these?" What do you love tonight? If we're going to walk in true faith and true trust and reliance in God, we're going to have to understand and believe that everything that we have and love He gave us, and He will not allow us to love it more than Him. There's going to be the proving of that in each of our lives. So the Lord speaks to him and He says, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest [the son of promise; the son that cost you everything, and I want you to offer him up] for a burnt offering." The burnt offering, of course, was an offering of worship and thanksgiving; the burnt offering, that which is offered to God in recognition of His provision for our redemption, our eternal life. He said, "I want you to find the mountain in the land of Moriah." "Moriah" is an interesting word. The word "Moriah" really talks about "the manifestation of Jehovah." Did you know that in your trials is when God manifests Himself? That's when you're going to see Him the clearest; that's when you're going to know Him the purest. We're so afraid of trials, and yet you're never closer to God than in the midst of your trials. You're never more aware of His provision than when He's delivering you in adversity. We're so afraid going in, and we're so fulfilled coming out. The greatest moments of your life are when you're coming out of that furnace, that lion's den, and the intimacy of your Father has been established again in your life.

As the Scripture goes on (we're very aware of the story and we won't spend a lot of time on the details of this), the Scripture goes on and it tells us that Abraham obeys God in this. He "rose up early." You want me to tell you something about your faith being tried? Don't just sit around and say, "I wonder if this is God wanting to prove something in my life." Just rise up early and do what He's telling you to do. If He's asking you for something, put it up on the line, and let's find out what God's going to do. "[He] rose up early.and went unto the place of which God had told him [and when he] saw the place [he left his servants behind, and he speaks this statement of faith].I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." "Now," God said, "offer him up as a burnt offering," and yet Abraham knows God. He's calling things that are not as though they were. He's glorifying God against his own knowledge and understanding. How's God going to do this? I don't know, but I know one thing: if you give, it will be given unto you. Are you ready to give it all up for God? Are you willing to walk in the realm of faith to where you can give everything to God and truly believe that He's going to give it back to you? You see, you can sell a lot of books and tapes off this next thing if you pervert it this way: "Not only is He going to give it back to you, He's going to give it back to you a hundredfold in this life, and in the life to come eternal life." That sounds pretty good, but that promise was only made to a few people. It's not to everyone. The promise that was made there was made to those that were called of God for a specific purpose and left all to follow Him. As you're determining God's working in your lives, the question I have is this: Are you willing to give everything up to God even if He doesn't give it all back to you in this life but will in the life to come? Will you die in faith like those in Hebrews 11, not having in this life obtained the promise? That's what is trying to be proven in your lives as you're experiencing trials, and that's the type heart that has to manifest if you're going to please God.

Here's Abraham and he says, "I and the lad will come to you again." What does Abraham know at this moment? He doesn't know how God is going to do it; he just knows God. The Bible says that he saw him raised in a figure (Hebrews 11:19), or, "in a parable" is a better rendering of that word "figure." He saw Isaac raised in a parable, not a parable like a little story that we would hear Jesus tell, but a parable is a truth that's manifested through another illustration or story. He saw him raised in Jesus through the covenant that was cut as God swore by Himself because He could not swear by a greater, as we saw in Sunday night's teaching (Hebrews 6:13). Abraham was resting in that. He was hoping against hope. He was calling things that were not as though they were. He believed that God was somehow going to manifest Himself through this child, but didn't know where he was going. He just went.

Verse 8 tells us, then, that Abraham said, "Son--." I like this passage. This is the passage that we came over to this chapter for. Isaac says, "Father, uh, I see the fire and I see the wood. Where's the sacrifice?" Abraham's comment to him was not, "Son, I hate to have to tell you this. God spoke to me and He told me that you were to be the sacrifice, and I've got to obey God. I don't know what God's going to do, but we've just got to obey Him at this particular point." He spoke into his son's life what he had always spoken into his son's life. "My son, God will provide himself a lamb." "God's going to provide a lamb." That word spoken by his father is what gave Isaac the faith to crawl up on that altar. He wasn't tricked into getting onto that altar. He was provoked by the word of God, by the promise of God. Abraham didn't say, "Look!" [Points away to distract Isaac] and then hit him on the head and put him on the altar. You've got to remember how old Isaac is here. Isaac could have said, "Yeah, forget you, Jack!" What caused that young man to subordinate his life to his father and willfully put himself upon that altar and be ready to have his throat cut and offered up as a burnt offering to God? The word of the Lord that said, "God will provide himself a lamb." Did you notice where I put the emphasis? "God will provide himself a lamb." Who was the lamb without spot or blemish? The Lamb of God. "God will provide himself a lamb." In this instance, he's saying God will provide unto Himself an offering acceptable.

The Scripture then says, verse 9, "And they came to the place.and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and [he] bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altarand Abraham stretched [out] his hand.to slay his son." You see, many times when we read these stories, we think, "Well, the Lord is just wanting to know if I'm willing." No, he was going to kill his son. It was a done deal. How do I know that? Because everything in his life points to his obedience. Will you believe God every time but this one? Obedience becomes a lifestyle. Obedience becomes a habit. Obedience becomes a part of your character. "Woe is me if I preach not the gospel," the apostle said (1 Corinthians 9:16). There's nothing else I know but to obey God. There's no other place I can turn but to trust in Him.

He takes his knife and he reaches out, and he's just getting ready to cut Isaac's throat. Then we see the great appearance of God, Jehovah-Jireh. What does that term "Jehovah-Jireh" mean? "God shall provide." There's another aspect of that, though. It's not only the provision; it's not that God provides separate from Himself. There's another part of Jehovah-Jireh that the Hebrew speaks to that really gives some beautiful insight to this. It really refers to this: "the Lord shall appear." It's a personal provision. He doesn't UPS it. He hand-delivers it, praise God! He's present with you in your trials. Can you say "praise God" for that? He's touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He never leaves us nor forsakes us, praise God! There's not a furnace that you'll ever enter that He's not there with you, a storm that you'll endure that He's not in the boat and the Master of the wind and the waves, Jehovah-Jireh, the one who appears and provides.

We realize, then, that the Lord speaks, and the issue is settled in verse 12: "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do [him any harm. Look at it] for now I know that [you fear] God." God already knew that. When we read the Scriptures, we need to really understand what's being spoken of here. What's really being said is this: "Now you know that you fear God." Now it has been revealed; now the test is over, and it's established that you believe God because "thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only sonAnd Abraham [the Scripture said] lifted up his eyes.and behold.caught in a thicket by his horns [the offering].the ram, and offered him.in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen." What shall be seen? The provision of God. Calvary was seen that day on Mount Moriah. When do you see the victories? When do you see the presence of God? When do you know Jehovah-Jireh in your life? When is it that we can walk by faith and we know Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord who provides, where every day manna is sufficient, where every day you can pray, "Give us this day our daily bread" and live in absolute peace without knowing where your next meal is coming from because God is your provider? Until we can come to that type of a trust and reliance, God isn't pleased, and we haven't matured yet beyond the blessings. We haven't matured beyond all of those blessings that we thank God for, all of this abundance and provision, whatever it might be. Let's move from material things such as food and raiment. Let's talk about our physical being. Can you give glory to God in the midst of your pain, in the midst of the arthritis, in the midst of the warfare with the fear of these diagnoses of these growths and what they could potentially be? Can you give glory to God and not be afraid like the world is? The chorus says, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow." Amen? "Because He lives, all fear is gone." Why? "Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives." Praise God, there's a purpose! What I am experiencing, there's a purpose; there's a proving of my own heart to myself. There's a ministry that's going on toward others that are around me who are being touched, who are being affected, by seeing God's faithfulness in my life. The fact of the matter is this is what every one of us is being called to.

Turn over to Matthew for just a moment. Let me show you something in the call of God. It's a very important part in the call of God. A lot people say, "Oh, I wish I had an opportunity to serve in the ministry full time. Oh, praise God, the call of God." One of our young people said, "You know what? I'm just looking forward to, as the Lord continues to bless me, I believe that I'm going to prosper and that God's going to call me into the ministry, give me a beautiful wife and a lot of money!" That's a typical adolescent perspective. We could call it faith. I would call it adolescence. If God is going to call you into the ministry, let me tell you what He has to say about that in chapter 10, Matthew, chapter 10. If that becomes your perspective, if that's what is valuable to you, then even if you get called into the ministry, you're going to have a small church, an ugly wife, and no money! He's not going to have any other gods before Him. Somehow, you will be purified and learn to trust in Him.

The Scripture says in chapter 10--take a look at this as He's getting ready to send forth the disciples. This is one of the things that I encouraged Ron and Tony in the last time they were leaving: to make sure that they were walking in the spirit of the call of God to where there was absolutely no trust or reliance upon a faithful group of people (who love them and pray for them and desire to assist in whatever's taking place in that ministry). I shared with them. I said, "You're going to go over there and you're going to be impotent if you're looking to man. You're going to have to go out there and realize that you've got to believe God on a daily basis for your daily bread." Psalm 118:8 tells us very clearly, "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man." Amen? That's the only thing that pleases Him. Do you need a man?--to bring (I guess I shouldn't have paused so long on that!) Sorry, ladies. I wasn't trying to bring you into temptation. Do you need another person to make your life full and have purpose, or is there sufficiency in the Lord? Is your self-worth in your job, in your title, in your own sufficiency? Is that where you get your self-worth? Is that how you identify who you are, or are you being identified in the Beloved because that's really where our worth is? Do you want to be known as a self-sufficient individual or a dependant on Jesus Christ? The fact is, in our flesh, most of us don't want to be dependent upon anybody but ourselves. As we see the Scripture speaking here and the admonition to move into that trust and not put confidence in man, the practical part of that is seen in this tenth chapter.

Look what He tells these guys. It's pretty interesting. "I'm going to send you into the region of the Gentiles, but that's going to be after you've proven yourself in ministering to the lovely, proving yourself in the commission. There's going to be a time when I'm going to put you out there in these highways and byways, but it starts in Jerusalem, and I want you to do this." "[As I send you out] go [and] preachHeal the sick [look at verse 9] Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats.shoes.staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat" (Matthew 10:7-10). Now, think about that for just a moment. We know that this is speaking toward the apostles, their call into full-time ministry. Paul goes on and very clearly makes it a doctrine in Corinthians that the laborer is worthy of his hire. You don't muzzle the ox that treads out the corn. In the pastoral epistles: "those that labor in the word and doctrine are worthy of double honor" (1 Timothy 5:17). Those all become doctrines, but the key to this thing is, He says, "the workman is worthy of his meat." In other words, "Don't make provision for yourself. I want you to be an example to the nations (starting with the household of faith in Israel) that anybody that will absolutely put their trust in Me, I'll provide for them exceeding abundant above anything that you could ask or even think." You want to please God? Come to the place of absolute dependence, where there is no provision for the flesh, that everything that's being done is being done in biblical order for the glory of God.

"And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; [go into that house and] abideAnd when ye come into an house, salute it" (verses 11-12). That doesn't mean a military salute. It means you're going to speak a blessing. There was apostolic authority. The Scripture said that you could speak peace upon a house, and if they would receive it, if they'd believe that you were the representative of God, that peace would remain there (Matthew 10:13; Luke 10:5-6). I've spoken peace on many of your marriages, and many of you are living in that peace today as a daily provision of God. There's a real, real beautiful principle given to us here that we can learn from. "If they're worthy, speak peace upon it and then remain there." This is something we've got to come to grips with, beloved. You go in, and the first one that receives it--"Praise God. I recognize this ministry; I recognize the work of God in your life"--and you go in there and you speak peace upon that house. Then all of a sudden--it's a trailer house, a mobile home. You may be a redneck if the wealthiest person in your family's home has wheels. Here's the mobile home, and then all of a sudden somebody with a mansion, driving the best of cars, comes and says, "Praise God! We'd just like to really put some support into your ministry. We see that God's hand is upon you. Why don't you just come on up and stay with us? We have a wing that you can have all to yourself" (and the only wing you were gettin' in the trailer park was a chicken wing). How are you going to respond to that when this is the admonition of God? Now, don't miss the point that I'm making here. Can God provide for us? Yes. Jesus' ministry was supported by rich widows. There's nothing wrong with wealthy people. God lays up the wealth of the wicked for the just. We understand the different biblical principles. We understand that there are going to be rich among us that we charge to distribute and to communicate. That's not the message that Jesus is bringing here. The message is this: don't look to better your life through natural circumstances. Don't trust in the arm of the flesh. "The reason I've sent you is to prove My sufficiency. Don't rob My glory by your advantage." Without faith it's what? Impossible to please Him.

You see, the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount was this (as He's speaking toward this same principle): Seek first the kingdom of God, His righteousness, and all of these other things will be added unto you. Faith, beloved, as we close for tonight, is seeking first the kingdom of God, the principles. What promises is my unbelief violating? What judgment, what indictment, am I bringing against my Father by my inability to trust, to rest, to rely? How can I bring more glory to God through becoming more dependent? Now, that dependence doesn't mean that we're slothful and we just lie around and say, "Well, God's going to provide." The dependence may bring great abundance, but it's coming through God. It's coming through our obedience. It's coming by His ordering of our steps. He said--listen--He didn't say that He wouldn't bring abundance as we're in the way. He said, "Don't take these things on the way. Don't start off with stave and parchment and shoes and two coats, but move out and see whether I can bless you where you are or not."

You want to know what's going to happen? (We'll end with this for tonight.) What's going to happen is, if you're moving in true biblical faith, you may be in this particular situation (the first place that God's put you), and you know where He put you? He put you with a widow who has a couple of sticks, a little bit of meal, and her game plan is, "We're going to eat it and die!" And the prophet says, "Make for me first, and then."--just like Abraham made his statement, "The lad and I shall come again"--"Make for me first, and then for yourself and the lad." Let's honor God first! Why don't we stop looking at these couple of sticks and that little bit of meal, and why don't we start looking to God and see if He isn't sufficient in this thing? You want to get what you already have multiplied? Then give glory to God. Be strong in faith and give glory to God. Be thankful for what you have and put it in the hands of God and believe for Him to be glorified in its abundance, in its multiplication. Believe verse 10! You're the workman of God. Believe that the workman is worthy. Do you believe that you're worthy of the supernatural provision of God? "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread" (Psalm 37:25). We expect God to provide for us! "Find those that are worthy and propagate this doctrine," is what He's saying in verses 11 through 13.

"[But those that won't hear this doctrine] shake off the dust of your feetIt shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha [than for those] in the day of judgment" (verses 14-15). That's quite an indictment against those who won't live by His daily bread. Without faith, it's impossible to please Him. I'm speaking tonight, as we close, toward the subtle trust that we have in natural provision and natural things. You want to please God tonight? Get free. Cast the care of it over on Him in absolute assurance that He cares for us.

Father, we thank You for Your Word tonight. As our hearts have been fixed in this study, this pursuit of how to please You, we look at this tonight and we see that it's only by living from daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. What are you trusting in today? Is it the arm of flesh? Is it your own ability to provide? Is it what you've already provided, the abundance that you might have? Is it your credit card that'll bail you out in rough times? Is it the wisdom of the world: "I can always find work. I've got multiple talents. I can always come up with something"? I have another question. What are you teaching your children to trust in? The whole point of this tenth chapter was this: "Take what's become real to you and infuse it into the household that I might be glorified, that the generation of the household of faith could be seen being provided for, and then the Gentiles can believe, and then you can go to the Gentiles. Put your house in order, and then you can go to the Gentiles. You've been called. You are the anointed of God. You are the chosen of God. Show your faith, and then the Gentiles can be reached. Don't go to the Gentiles until you've proven your trust first, and then I'll send you to the Gentiles." Father, make that real in our lives tonight, that men could see the works and glorify You. For it, Father, we'll give You all the praise, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord tonight.

As we shared with the missions team this evening, a way has been provided now for us to get to Africa. It looks like it's going to be toward the end of July, into the first couple of days of August. The only problem is they raised the prices on us by about three hundred bucks. For some, that's going to be a little bit of a burden. We just read that God is going to provide. What a great opportunity to have your faith tried! Begin to look to the hills from whence comes your help. Begin to look to Moriah. Begin to realize that Jehovah-Jireh lives there, praise God! How can you ever know Jehovah-Jireh if you don't ever have a need?

I want to encourage you tonight, those of you that this seemed to be a mountain thrown up before you. The Lord's got a question for you that was answered in some other lives tonight. "Do you believe I can do this?" Is anything too hard for the Lord? Let me ask you a question. If you can't believe for that, why bother going? What are you going to tell those people over there? See, the commandment is to go into all the world and preach this gospel. What message do you have to take, "Trust in Visa, NASDAQ, Taco Bell"? We live in such abundance that we forgot what it means to trust God. Without faith, He's not pleased. He's not pleased by our daily strolling through life and not thinking about Him as our provider. He's not pleased that we trust in our abundance instead of our God. Now, that doesn't mean you have to get rid of everything and just go out and live hand-to-mouth; that's not necessarily faith. It takes faith to live that way if you're looking to God, but it takes greater faith to rely upon Him when you already have abundance. It takes greater faith to offer Isaac up after you've already receive him. We're full of Isaac, and God wants us to offer him up to trust Him again. Without faith, it's impossible to please God.

As Gary plays for us here in just a moment, let the Lord speak to you and let Him just stir your heart to look to God and to begin to realize that we have to return to the supernatural. The natural abundance has robbed my spiritual energy to live in the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit. I've lost my thanksgiving because I don't need anything. Oh, it doesn't please Him if we don't need Him. Let us return, Lord, to our first love. Let's sing it together. "Lord, You are so precious to me." Thank Him for His love tonight. Just rejoice in the love of God as it's shed abroad in our hearts.

Robbie brought in a magazine, The Voice of the Martyrs. First time in modern times when pictures like this were disclosed; photographs were taken thinking that they were going to be taken to their superiors to show how good of a job was being done. In fact, they were smuggled out and placed into the hands of this ministry, The Voice of the Martyrs, actual pictures in China of believers being tortured for their faith. As I was looking at some of these pictures yesterday, and you see the pain and anguish, you hear the statement of Pastor Lamb, one of the leaders of the underground church in China. The Lord actually, supernaturally (some of you may remember the story) led Robbie to this man. When they asked him about the martyrdom and the persecution, his statement was basically this: "The church cannot be healthy without trials, without persecution. It's good for us." Count it all joy, choosing, as Moses, to suffer the reproach. Where our treasure is, is where our heart is. He's looking to make you more dependent. Turn to somebody next to you and say, "Trust in the Lord." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print