The following is a transcription of one of the “highest” messages I have ever heard preached. It was delivered by Mike Bickle on Tuesday, February 21, 1984, to the congregation of Kansas City Fellowship.
Be forewarned: Mike has a tendency to paraphrase and interject when he “reads” or “quotes” scripture. However, because this paraphrasing and these interjections contain valuable insight into the topic, they have been included unchanged. Consequently, for the sake of accuracy, each scriptural reference has a footnote in which the appropriate verse(s) is(are) quoted verbatim.
[Testimony of healing by one of the congregation.]
Sounds like a relatively easy task for the God who set the Sun into its place. Anybody else? Real quick.
[Testimonies of healing by two of the congregation.]
[To a medical student in the congregation, jesting] Jeff, I think you’re in the wrong school. We’re going to put those doctors out of business yet. But the church will be bigger and we’ll need janitors and we’ll take your application. [Laughter.]
Okay, let’s pray. Boy I’d like to see [one of the doctors in the congregation] pushing a broom; wouldn’t that be something? [More laughter.]
Father, we thank you for your Holy Word. God I’m thankful that, in these ways that are important to your children, you move. That, Lord, it’s an easy thing that you can move in the hearts and the lives and the bodies of your people. For who is the Lord that it is hard for Him to move on behalf of those that call upon His name; that put their hope in Him. Thank you, Holy Father. Faithful is your name; true and faithful. In the name of the Lord Jesus, thank you for your word that it shall go forth tonight and it shall bring forth the fruit that it was sent to bear. In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Amen. He is so faithful. You know some people think—and this is… I used to be like this. It’s just a terrible way to be. “Did that guy’s back really hurt?” Oh come on! I mean what’s the big deal? I mean, if God can set the Sun into its position and the Earth into orbit, what’s a little backache? You know, just a little wiggle of the finger of God. It takes nothing. It doesn’t hardly take a… just a small word from His mouth.
You know God sent His word. He sent it in the form of His Son. Jesus Christ came. The Word’s already been sent. Those are easy things for God, real easy things.
In Proverbs 29, verse 18, there’s a very familiar passage. I’ll just quote it to you. It says, “Without a vision, the people perish.” 1 Or the New American Standard says, “Without a vision, the people are unrestrained.” 2 That if we don’t have something that’s clearly defined in our mind that’s the vision for why we are alive on the Earth—the purpose for why we’re on the Earth—the word of God says we’re going to live unrestrained; we’re going to have no restraint on us. Because only by having a vision do we live in discipline and restraint. Amen?
When I look at a person’s life and they have no discipline, that’s a person without a vision; they have no restraint on themselves. And they are perishing because of the lack of this vision.
Without something worth dying for, you have nothing worth living for. If you don’t have something worth dying for, you don’t have anything to really live for. And life will be boring and monotonous. And I find that a lot of believers are bored and depressed in this life and it’s simply because don’t have anything to die for. They don’t really have anything to live for. They say verbally it’s Jesus Christ. But in reality they wouldn’t die for Him...evidenced by the fact that they’re not dying for Him daily. But I find that life has a tremendous zeal and an enthusiasm, and the Spirit of God has a supply of motivation and energy for the man or the woman that’s prepared to die for the thing that we’ve embraced.
What is the vision of your life? Really? Really? That’s not just a preacher question. That’s something I really want to talk to you people tonight about. What is the vision for which you are, (not will, but are) sacrificing everything to follow? If you’re not sacrificing everything to follow a vision, you have no real purpose of living tomorrow morning, and the next day, and the next day. I want you to think for just a second. Everybody close their eyes and just think: What is the thing for which you are prepared to sacrifice—and you are actually doing it—everything you are sacrificing for this thing.
Some people do it for a job. Some people do it for a relationship. Some people do it for God, for the Lord Jesus Christ and for His cause on the Earth. In Matthew, chapter 22, Jesus Christ gave one of the greatest statements right from the heart of His Father. He gave the very vision of life for which the body of Christ is to be committed, even unto death. Matthew 22, verse 37, answering the question of what is the great purpose, what’s the great requirement, the great command of God. What is the thing for which men should do everything? And he said this in verse 37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your soul. With every ounce of your mental strength you should pursue him and love him.” That is the greatest purpose for this life. That is the greatest requirement. That is the foremost commandment that God ever gave to the Earth. “And the second commandment is like it. You shall love; you shall sacrifice for other human beings. You shall love them like you love yourself.” 3 You will serve them. On these two commandments the entire Bible depends and rests upon. The word of God is not even relevant outside of those two commandments. Let me say that again: The Word of God has no real serious relevance to you unless you are seriously pursuing those two things with every ounce of your being. It’s amazing how alive the Word of God becomes to the soul that’s pursuing this. And it’s amazing how boring and dead and lethargic the Word of God is to the soul that isn’t pursuing those two things. The whole of the Word of God depends on those two things as the vision of your life.
I want you to ask yourself a question: When you got up this morning and opened up the scriptures, before you went to work, were the scriptures alive to you? If they were not alive to you, I would suggest, as a rule—there’s a time in the Lord to where there is a barrenness—but that shouldn’t be the rule of your life. There are seasons, and days and hours of barrenness, but apart from that, if the Word of God is consistently a legalistic thing of which you force yourself to do out of a sense of obligation, it’s simply because these two commandments are not the goals of your life. The whole Word of God depends upon those two things driving your life.
The Laodicean Church [cf. Revelation 3:14-22] has no vision worth dying for. They have no vision worth sacrificing all of their money for. God deliver us from being Laodiceans. Let me say that again. The Laodicean Church has nothing worth dying for. Now I want to say this nice and reverently and in love and humility, but some of the churches that some of us were raised up in, we’ve even been a part of ourselves, we’ve been in leadership, there’s no vision that we would have died for. We wouldn’t have given our last dollar and the shirt off our back for that vision. And that alone qualifies us as Laodiceans. A Laodicean doesn’t need any other qualification except for that one; they don’t have a vision that they’ll die for. And I trust by the Spirit of God that God is forming that heart in this people.
Now I’m not presumptuous enough to think that we’re in a mature place in that, but I think that there’s a heart in this people here that is at least contemplating the idea of dying for something. How many of you sense that with some of the brothers and sisters that you’re fellowshipping with? The whole Word of God depends upon those two commandments. It depends upon you pursuing God in that way, because if you don’t pursue God with all of your strength, with every fiber of your mind, then you will never understand the Bible, because the word of God depends upon you living that way before it will become a living book to you.
Jesus Christ wants to break the scrolls on the book, and He wants to open up the book to His people. But it depends upon us pursuing these two things. That was one of the great statements—probably the greatest statement—of Jesus Christ when He spoke them into the Earth. He delivered unto them the very heart of the Father, that men should love God, literally, not parabolically, not some kind of unseen symbolic way, but literally live in a way in which they would sacrifice everything they are to express devotion and love to their heavenly Father.
In Matthew 18, there’s a verse—verse 3—that says that unless you’re converted, unless you become as a child and are converted, you can’t enter God’s kingdom. 4 Now when Jesus was talking about conversion, what was in His mind? What are we going to be converted to? Unless we are converted, we cannot enter into God’s kingdom. We can go to church. We can name the name of Jesus. But we will never see the kingdom of God in its glory and its power unless we are actually converted to something. A radical change of mind, a radical commitment to something, and what is that thing to which, as children, in simplicity and in faith we are to be converted to? The lifestyle of loving the Lord our God with all of our soul, all of the emotions of our heart, and all of the power of our intellect, giving ourselves ruthlessly into that thing and in serving men with the same passion so that they might love the God that you love and have given your life to.
True Christianity is a conversion to this goal without any compromise whatsoever. And I fear that quite a lot of us have been involved in is a false gospel because true Christianity is an absolute, uncompromised conversion to loving God with all of the power of our being and serving people in the way that, in sin, we used to serve ourselves. If these two goals are not defined and are not passionately pursued we are not the Christians that we are telling our unsaved friends that we are, and that’s why they don’t want to be like us. Because the Spirit of God will not witness to our words when we tell them about the glory of Jesus Christ. Because, you see, the Spirit of God will not witness, He will not anoint what we say unless we are living and embracing the thing that we’re telling people that is true. The Word of God says that I will anoint that which is true when it is true in your heart. And the great need in the body of Christ today is to see the Spirit of the living God beginning to witness, to anoint, to bless, with unction the words of His holy servants.
When I look at a man in the face and say, “I love Jesus Christ and He loves me and He changed my life,” that needs to mean I have been converted to loving God with every ounce of my being and that’s the way that I’ve been living since my conversion. And when that is the way in which I’ve been living and I speak that word to another brother or to an unsaved person, the Spirit of God will cloth that word with power and it will go as an arrow right into the conscience of an unsaved man, because He will bear witness to the testimony that comes out of your heart. The problem is that, in days past, I know, in my own life, I have sought to teach witnessing classes and methods of witnessing without living in the reality of conversion. I’ve sought to bring people into conversion without being converted myself. Very, very difficult to convert somebody to something that you’ve not yet been convinced it is relevant enough for you to be converted to.
We tell our friends it will totally change our life when in reality our life has not been totally rearranged and changed. Our vocabulary is sometimes the same. Our attitudes are the same. Our judgments are the same. Our impatience has not been changed. Many of the things that have been unconverted in us and God says this: “I will anoint you, I will cause the Word to be as a flaming sword and a fire in the hand of God when you speak that which is true in your own heart. And then you will be the vehicle that brings other souls into conversion when you have embraced—not fully matured—but when you have embraced conversion yourself.”
Jesus said, “Unless a man is converted, he will never enter God’s kingdom.” And certainly the Word of God will not be real, because the Word of God depends upon you pursuing those two things. “The whole of the Word of God,” Jesus said, “depends on these two commandments.”
What does it mean to love the Lord your God with all of your heart? It means that you, according to 2 Corinthians 5:9,—Paul wrote this, he said this,—“It is my ambition to be pleasing to my heavenly Father.” 5 Paul said, “No matter what else is happening in this world, my sole ambition is to be pleasing to my heavenly Father.”
Until pleasing our heavenly Father is the ambition of our life....unless it is the ambition....I didn’t say that you are arriving, I said that you were striving for that thing, that you were pursuing it. Because God is much more interested in the pursuit of God than He is the attaining, because God knows that you’ll attain if in time you pursue. If you will pursue, in due season you will attain. And He’s not worried about the attaining, because the attaining is His part. The pursuing is our part. We will attain if we pursue and so He says, “Concern yourselves with pursuing and I will concern myself that you attain.”
Paul said, “It is my sole ambition in life...it is not to be comfortable, it is not to be happy. It’s not to be blessed, it’s not to be promoted, it’s not to gain more. My ambition for my hour on the Earth, my sole ambition is to be a pleasure to God, my Father, while I’m on the Earth for one hour.” And sometimes in my own life I have sought pleasures and blessings and security as the ambition of seeking God. And God says, “As long as that is your ambition for seeking me, you may find a lot and a portion in the Eternal City in the End.” I think it is possible to find a portion in that city, that you might even end up in that city, though security and pleasure and friendship and prestige and honor is the thing that you’re seeking, at the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m not saying you can’t find a place in heaven; you might be able to. I’m sure that, we must, somehow, be able to find at least an entrance by the skin of our teeth, as though by fire. But you will never experience Christianity living that way.
And after we’ve lived to bring pleasure to our heavenly Father through our own personal response of obedience and gratitude and diligence, then we are to seek to bring other people, we are to commit our life to serving other men that they might enter into that same dimension of commitment to God. We are to bring glory to God through getting other men to that place through serving them. So through our own personal response we bring pleasure and through our serving other people we bring glory to God through the results of our ministry to other people; kindness and love and patience in serving, tireless zeal in serving other people, because we want to love our neighbors in the same way that we love ourselves.
A life committed to getting other people to please God. And we do that through serving them and building them up and encouraging them. We become like God ourselves and we bring pleasure to God. But we say it is not enough just to be pleasing. “God that I might be a vehicle in your hand to bring glory to your name by getting other people to live in a manner pleasing.” Paul said, “It is my ambition to be pleasing.”
You know there is going to be a day and an hour when everyone of us in this room will stand before the living God, and I will say, “Father, I want a high place in your eternal kingdom.” And He will say, “What is the thing that recommends you to a high standing in the eternal kingdom?” I will say, “Father, by your grace,” by faith I will say, “I lived a life pleasing—that was my ambition—to bring pleasure to you while I was on the Earth.” And God will then give us a place in His eternal kingdom, a place of honor, a place next to His throne, because it was our ambition on the Earth to be pleasing to Him. And then, He will fulfill that ambition, giving us a place of honor next to Him in that eternal kingdom.
How many of you know that there are different ranks and there are different rewards and there are different levels of authority in the eternal kingdom, in heaven? There is. I want to be close to the throne. I want to be by the throne. I want to be in a place to where, when God and the 24 elders gather to arrive at a decree for the universe, I want to be a part of that gathering. I want to be in the very heart of God. He’ll say, “It’s been your pleasure to please me all of the days of your life.” And He will give me a corresponding place in His kingdom when I get there, and yourself included.
Pleasing God and serving men is an end in itself, the Bible teaches. We are not to please God, and we are not to glorify God through serving men, in order to gain personal happiness. The Bible never, ever taught us that a pursuit of God was the means of pleasure and happiness in this life. You will get it. It is an inevitable result, but serving God and pleasing Him is an end unto itself. We want to discipline our lives, not so that, in due time, we’ll gain a ministry. We want to discipline our lives so that we can please God and that’s an end in itself. I have seen so many young men and women—and myself, I have done this so often that I sought to serve people and to be diligent and to give all of my money, all of my time, because I was looking for a place of friendship, or I wanted to have a true message that God would bless. Or I wanted to gain a ministry or a place of blessing, and God said, “That’s good, but that’s how the novice does it. I want you to throw yourself at my feet in service as an end to itself. To whether you are ever promoted in this life or not, to whether you ever gain the financial advantage that you gave your money to gain, that’s not the moving, the driving motivation in your heart, but you’re doing it simply because it pleases your heavenly Father to offer that kind of heart to Him.”
This alone is true Christianity. Living by a totally new motive in this life.
God says that you’ll find no real portion in the praise of men. You know, so often we’ve sought the praise of men to find fulfillment. There’s no real, lasting portion, there’s no satisfaction in that. Our only joy, our only portion is truly found in living to be pleasing to the Father.
It becomes a real issue of motive, a real issue of motive. Did you know that with the right motive, you can’t lose anything? If you’ve got the right motive, you can’t lose anything because your whole portion, your whole supply of joy, is found in God and in pleasing Him. And did you know that nobody can take God away from me; nobody can! There is no recession, there is no depression, there’s no car wreck, there’s no broken relationship that can take God from the soul of man. Nothing in this life can take God from me. Nothing! It is a treasure that neither rust nor moth can enter in and destroy. With the right motive in life, you can’t lose anything because your whole portion is in God and you can’t ever lose God.
“Men of whom the world is not worthy” the scripture says. You can’t lose what you don’t own. You can’t lose what you don’t own. And when we came to Jesus Christ, in a true conversion, we submitted everything in our lives to Him, with gratitude and joyful submission. It wasn’t a concept of, “Oh God!” Like I’ve heard some people say, “Lord, do I have to tithe?” I’ve said, “You haven’t comprehended the Gospel yet.” “Do I have to do this thing?” We never, ever look at obedience as a thing as which we have to do. Because if you’re looking at obedience and gratitude as a thing that you have to offer up unto God, you have not understood the glory of what Jesus Christ, by His Spirit, came to produce in the hearts of men. But He was to give men the ability, by His Spirit... He was to allow us, by the ability of His Spirit, to give a whole hearted response unto Himself. He was to give me the ability to give my heart back to Him, so that I could live free while on the Earth. And I could be a true son of God, with gratitude and willingness and joy I submit myself to the disciplines of the Gospel because in disciplining myself, I can bring pleasure and glory to God while I’m on the Earth. And that’s the only way I can bring pleasure and glory to God, is through the disciplines of faith and the disciplines of obedience.
And because my whole desire and because the Gospel is a way that God, by His Spirit, can change my heart and give me the ability to be pleasing to my Father. I live upon the Earth, in the disciplines, because I want those things because we’re true sons of God. We’re not the tare; we’re the wheat. We’re not the false prophet; we’re the true sons. We’re the ones in whom our hearts there is a cry that says, “Abba! Abba, Father!” It’s the Father that we want.
How many of you have witnessed, in your own heart, a cry, “Abba!” It’s God that I want. I don’t want a ministry. I don’t want a big church. I don’t want a TV ministry. I don’t want a radio ministry. We don’t want praise now. We’re not asking for money. We’re not trying to prove a point. We’re not trying to show people what we can do. It’s “Abba! Abba! Father, Abba.” Romans 8, verses 14, 15 and 16. It says that the spirit of God cries and testifies in the soul of a man that says.... There’s an “Abba!” that’s crying in the heart of Man. 6
That “Abba!” is not in everybody who professes to be a believer. I have found many believers, that even have the Spirit of God living in their spirit but there’s not an “Abba!” in their hearts. There soul has not been united to the soul of God to where from their very emotions they’re crying, “Father, it’s you. I want Father.” And you know why? Because at our conversion, we allowed the weeds to grow up in our life and they choked the life of God. And that thing never became a strong cry of “Abba!” in our hearts.
Some people think that the cry of “Abba!” is in everybody who names the name of the Lord. That’s not true, because there are some people who have named the name of the Lord and they were choked... the life of God was choked in them because of their desires and their sin in a way that they lived undisciplined and they carelessly... they carelessly played with the desires of this world and those desires came in and choked them. And it’s a grueling discipline to sit before God. There’s no cry of “Abba!” in their soul, in the heart. Anybody know what I’m talking about? But to the soul that gave himself to God in a Biblical way, there is a cry, there is a shout of “Abba!” in that soul.
“Abba” means “Dad.” It’s the most intimate... the most intimate term that a young boy in the Greek society called his father. He said, “Dad! I’m yours. I’m your son.” And the Spirit of God wants to produce that cry, that yearning in the soul of His people because, when the yearning is in the heart of God’s people, then obedience is a very, very easy thing to do. Anybody understand that? When God, by His Spirit, produces the cry in the heart of man that says, “Abba! It’s thee and thee alone God. It’s thee and thee alone that I serve. I’m not serving you with a private plan of getting a bigger house. That’s not the point of why I’m serving you. It’s not that I want financial prosperity and promotion and gain.” If God wants to give them to you, that’s fine and He will. He might give them to you that you might give them back.
You know, one of the greatest lessons that I’ve learned in the Lord is that God offers many, many privileges so that we can turn them down. Not that we’d receive them. And so much of the gospel that is being preached today is a gospel that says that you are to grasp at every opportunity that comes your way. “It’s good. It’s the blessing of God.” See, Jesus, in Philippians 2: 8 & 9, 7 He was equal to God but He didn’t grasp that opportunity at equality. He laid it aside. And if we are to come into the likeness of Jesus, there’s going to be a time and an hour when the blessing and the privilege, even that God gives us on occasion, is not to be grasped immediately, because sometimes He gives us an Isaac that we might put it on an altar right back to Him. And sometimes He says, “Don’t slay Isaac because Isaac is to live with you.” And sometimes He says, “Slay it.” And you don’t ever know unless you’re sensitive to God.
But I fear that the mentality that has crept into the church is that anything that has any semblance of financial gain... it is automatically the very blessing of God for a person to his whole heart into, and in that very embracing of the blessing of God, the “Abba!’ in their heart has been choked and destroyed. I’ve seen many people who, under the guise of promotion, have destroyed themselves. Because the thing of which they were quote “a steward over,” became the thing that ruled and owned them in due season. Because God never wanted them to take that quote “blessing.” You see some of them are the test of the Devil. Some of them are the test of God. And some of them are the things that God wants you to take. But I’m convinced that many opportunities that he gives us we are not to take, many of them. Many, many, many promotions... we are not to receive them.
I tell you just....
You say, “Well, how do we know.” If you’re in the frame of mind that would turn a promotion down and a.... And I’m not talking about a promotion in a job. I’m talking about a promotion in life itself, in any way. If you have that frame of mind, you’re going to know. Jesus Christ turned down many, many, many good things. That was the test of His sonship; that he wanted “Abba, Father,” and that alone.
You know just.... I was talking to Gary K.—just the other day—yesterday when he left and... and uh.... (Boy you really gotta tear him apart to get some of these things out of his life. I mean because he doesn’t willingly share them but....) Before Gary was converted, he was a multimillionaire. He retired at age 36 years old. He was a rancher, an engineer, a farmer. He had lots of livestock and land and many different things. He had several million dollars. He got converted. Went through some different situations that I won’t go into detail right now (because some people might try and repeat them themselves) and uh.... You don’t want to imitate what some... uh... Anyway, he ended up, when it was all said and done—went through a lawsuit and just said take my money, and gave the rest of it away to a church organization and went out in the wilderness and into, literally, the woods for five years and lived in prayer and fasting. [He was] intelligent, very, very successful man; 36 years old.
The anointing of God came on his life for signs & wonders and healing, and God said, “That anointing has come upon your life that you would sit and do nothing until I tell you to do it. You’re not to get in front of the first camera. You’re not to jump in front of the first meeting. You’re not to take the first opportunity.” So for a number of years, with an ability to work signs & wonders.... You think, “Why wouldn’t he help the people of God?” Because God said that that anointing was upon him to bring his heart into maturity and that the anointing that would bless the people of God would come in the future; that God gave him that anointing to see what he would do with it. Just like God gave Joseph a throne in Potiphar’s house. He gave him a rulership and a promotion in Potiphar’s house to see if he would sacrifice it to obey God. And he did sacrifice it. He did obey God. He refused Potiphar’s wife (in Genesis 39 and 40) and he ended up in another pit. So the first throne was only given to him—not for him to reign on—but to see what he would do with it. He didn’t covet the first promotion and he got the next one.
And so often God will give us two anointings. He’ll anoint us the first time to see what we will do with a little bit of anointing. The average man jumps in front of every opportunity, gets in front of every TV camera and gets everything in his newsletter he can squeeze out without lying too much about it. He promotes himself around the nation and they never, ever get their next promotion. God says, “I wanted to see what you would do if you had a little bit of blessing.”
So he’s out in the wilderness. This healing anointing comes upon him. He spent five years in prayer and fasting. He built a log cabin with his hands and lived out there in the cold, and without running water. And just some crazy lifestyle that God told him to do. And taught him what it meant to have available opportunity and say no to that, so that when God gave him big opportunities—I mean big ones—he would have the same unconcern for them that he did in the days of little; that he was unmoved by opportunity. He’d be moved only by the Spirit of God, and that alone.
A 70 years old man in Montana called him into his office, the guy is worth about 150 million dollars; probably the wealthiest man in that whole part of the country. He called him quote “a Spirit filled believer.” I think that means he talked in tongues; I’m not sure what “Spirit filled” means. I’ve got a feeling it means more than talking in tongues, don’t you? Anyway, this guy was quote “Spirit filled.” (I don’t know if he was governed by the Spirit of God.) He calls him into his office and says, “Young man,” (he’s in his thirties), he says, uh.... A relatively new believer. He says, “Uh, this anointing you’ve got,” he says, “uh, you’ve got something I need and I’ve got something you need.” He says, “I have 150 million dollars. You have given everything to follow God. You had several million yourself; you sowed it all into the ground. God has come today to bless you. All of my wealth is available to you. I’m going to put you on TV. I’ll put you in the newspapers. I’ll promote you. I’ll bring you before the public eye and this anointing that is on you... together we can see the kingdom of God go forward.”
By the witness of the Spirit that was within him, Gary K. looked at him and he said, “I appreciate your love and concern but I don’t need you filthy lucre to promote the kingdom of God.” He said, “My heavenly Father will promote me in the hour in which He wants to promote me.” Because he had discerned that in that man there was a fraudulent spirit. This man had never, ever been refused by a man; ever in his life (that he could remember). He bought and sold everybody he dealt with. Gary looked him in the eye and all of the other believers and many of them said, “Gary, you gave several millions of dollars away to the work of the Lord.” This is God giving you the hundred, two hundred, three hundred fold return. Gary says, “No. It’s the scheme of the Devil to steal the voice of God from my soul.” He says, “I don’t need your money. I will not sell my soul.” And he went back out in the wilderness for another four years.... Waiting upon God for the perfect hour to promote the thing that He’s put into his heart.
That’s why you always see a little tear in his eye when he talks about obedience. I’ve heard some people say, “Uh, Gary’s a pretty big stick.” Few people have any comprehension where he’s come from, what he’s done and where he’s been living. He’s been living—and I can say this because he’s not here—he’s been living in a dimension of reality with God that I’ve never met in any man that I’ve ever met living today. He has turned down and waited before God and developed a patience in his soul—he’s not a perfect man by any means—to a degree that I’ve never, ever seen or rarely ever heard about outside the gospel and the Word of God itself.
I tell you one thing. When Gary leaves we give him a check and he says, “Well, uh... Brother, uh...” He says, “I’ve got my plane ticket to the next place I’m going.” He says, “I’m sure I’ll have food.” He says, “Uh... Why don’t you just.... I’ve got some bothers in Austria. Send them this. They need some money. They’ve got a poor fund. Send it to them in my name.” I say, “No! No, Gary. God wants to bless you.” He goes, “Brother, brother, you don’t understand,” he goes, “I’ve got... I’m sure they’ll get me the next plane ticket. If they don’t, then God will keep me there for a season.” He goes, “I don’t... I don’t really need it. I appreciate the love that you’ve shown but just... just....” He goes, “I’ve got some brothers down in, uh, New Zealand that are caring for the poor. Send half of it to them.” I said, “Obviously, you’re not here for the money. [Laughter]
And the advantage that I’ve got over some of you is that, when I hear him, I know the life and the reality of which he is speaking out of. He’s not speaking vain theories. He’s not speaking of the doctrines and precepts of men that he got out of a book in a seminary. And, uh.... By no means is he perfect. By no means does he have everything right, but, I tell you, in that man, I found a man that my heart is prepared to imitate. Not the way that he does everything, but the commitment and the consecration. And one of the great lessons that he, in the year that I’ve known him, that he has pressed in me over and over again is this: He says, “My little brother, more good men have been destroyed by accepting opportunities that were not the perfect hand of the Father. Because they did not have a discerning ear because their foundation was not pure. Because there was an impure foundation in their heart, they could not discern whether it was God, the will of Man, or the will of the Enemy. Because if the foundation of our hearts is to gain, there will be many opportunities to gain. If the foundation of our heart is to be pleasing to our heavenly Father, there will be times to gain.... There will be times to abound and there will be times to abase. There is an hour to abound, he says in Philippians 4:11, 12 and 13. 8
As a matter of fact, I think that would be a good passage to turn to. Philippians chapter 4. See, we’ve got to be a people that walk, without any concern, in and out of every situation, that there’s no ulterior power that is pulling at the fringe of our hearts. Do you understand what I’m talking about? We are unmoved by circumstances because it is irrelevant to what we’re after. Because.... Did you know that you don’t need the pleasure and the approval and the promotion of any man to do the thing that God’s called you to do: To be pleasing to Him and to love other people? You don’t need people to be nice back to you for you to love them. You can fulfill the whole will of God without anything happening outside the will of the Father, because no matter what man comes against you, if it is against the will of God, He will put that thing down in the hour that He wants it down. No man can come against you and prevail. Nobody can! Nobody can hold your ministry back. Nobody can hold your ministry back. If it is being held back by a man, it is only because God isn’t removing the man. If a man unrighteously has you in a pit like Joseph was, he was only in the pit because God did not exalt him immediately. But even Potiphar could not keep him in a pit when God had a mind to get him out of the pit. So I don’t care what kind of ministry you have in your heart, nobody, no circumstance, no person, nothing can hold you back except for an impure foundation in your heart that is seeking something besides the pleasure of God.
I see so many people, they say, “I get so discouraged because I do so much, and nobody appreciates me. Because the goal of our life is to give, because giving to other human beings pleases our Father. And if we’re giving for another reason, we’re going to be ensnared in due season. If we’re seeking and praying and preaching and fasting to gain a ministry, we are going to be ensnared because that’s not the reason to be preaching and giving and visiting the sick and the orphan and the widow, to gain a ministry and prominence. That is not the reason. We will always be ensnared. You will even get promoted a few times, but eventually you’ll be ensnared because you’re not living in the gospel. Amen?
Philippians, chapter 4, verse 11. “Not that I.... Not that I speak from any want (because I desire anything), for I have learned to be content in any circumstance in life. I have joy in my heavenly Father in whatever circumstance or adversity that comes against me.” How many think that Paul ever did something where he wasn’t appreciated? [Laughter.] I have learned.... I have learned—because learning this secret is a process. Learning this is not something that we’re automatically born into with the gospel that is being preached today. It’s cultivating.... I’ve learned, by the Spirit of God, to be totally content. When my husband’s against me, when my wife is against me, when the employer doesn’t like what I’m doing, when the pastor ignores me, when people are down on me, when God doesn’t answer me, I am content in whatever circumstance I’m in. Because my whole portion is in God and I know I can’t lose God. Or I know that I can’t lose that which God has for me if my heart is established in faith and obedience to Him. We’ve got to get to the place where we are waned from look to people to give us that which God said He would give us. We do need encouragement, but we will receive encouragement from the Spirit of God if we will give our self wholly to Him, and God will send people. You don’t need to argue and complain because people aren’t encouraging you. You cry out to God that you need your heart to be lifted and God, you Father, will send somebody to you.
He says, “I’ve learned to be content, no matter what circumstance. I know how to get along with humble means, and I know how to live in prosperity. In any and everything, I have learned the secret. In everything! In anything and everything, I know the secret of being filled or going hungry. I know the secret of every and any circumstance, of having abundance and I know the secret of suffering need. I can do everything through Jesus that strengthens my heart.” You see that?
Now so many times I’ve heard verse 13 quoted, “I can do all things through Him that strengthens me.” But the “all things” that we can do through the strength of God is to suffer need joyfully; that is the “all things” that he is talking about. That we could go without the thing that we think we need and have joy in God and contentment in it. And the other thing that we can do through Him that strengthens us is that we can have prosperity without being defiled by it. In the book of Psalms, it says that God tests the heart of Man through praise. Paul says, “I could be prospered in God—I could be prospered financially, I could be prospered in anything—and I know the secret of having my contentment in God and not in that prosperity.
We’ve got to learn to be a people that know how to say no to “blessing” (quote unquote), because so many quote “blessings of God” are the snares and the entrapments of the Devil, the Evil one. And so many promotions have been offered only to turn down. And like I said, I’m not talking about... When you think of promotion, you think of a job. I’m thinking of many, many, many, many more, many more things besides a job. There’s many ways in which you could be quote “receiving the blessing of God.”
We don’t want to have a hand that takes quickly that which is put before us without first pondering it. Somebody may come to you and promote you as an Elder. That doesn’t give you any right to take it. It gives you no right whatsoever. Because you’ve got to learn the secret of being content in prosperity, even in the House of the Lord, because if your heart isn’t solidly founded in God, that promotion could be the thing that the Devil sent your way to destroy you.
Few men have the caliber of commitment to God to where they could turn down an Eldership. Where they could turn down money and an opportunity and a television interview. I really mean that! Few are the men in God that can turn down, because the never learned the secret of being content. Because there is only one secret of being content: You are living to be pleasing to Him.
You see, getting a big church is not and end... is not anything. Getting a big house, getting anything is not anything. Do you understand what I’m saying? The goal of life on the Earth is to be pleasing to God. I’m not seeking to please God so that one of these days I will have “this.” I don’t care about that. Because I will have achieved my goal whether everybody in the Earth abandons me, my goal will be achieved: To please God and to serve men, because I can do those two things without any person supporting me. So no matter what anybody does to me, I will still be an absolute success in this life, by the grace of God. If no one came to another meeting, ever, and God permitted that to happen, then I am a total success, because my success is not a big meeting and a big offering and a big building. I have no success in that. My success is in being pleasing to God, and whether any of that thing happens or not, it’s a... it’s... it’s... it’s irrelevant, because I can be totally successful—and so can you—regardless—whatever happens in life. Because if you are in faith, and that circumstance does not change, that is because God does not want it changed—if you’re a man of faith. And so I don’t fear circumstances that don’t change, because they can’t hurt me. I say, “Father, this thing is not of you.” And I can resist it and resist it and resist it, and, if it doesn’t move, after a time, I just keep resisting it in gratitude, knowing that if it is not of God, it’s going to move. If it is of God, I’m thankful for it.
But the Lord wants us to get to a place where we can’t lose anything because we don’t own anything. That’s a tremendously free place to be, because God is your portion. But with a wrong motive, you can’t avoid being hurt. If you’ve got a wrong motive for serving God, you cannot avoid hurt and loss. You will suffer loss and hurt day after day, and discouragement, and disappointment, because you’re in this thing called Christianity, the Kingdom of God, to gain something apart from the pleasure of God.
And God will give you many things, but the foundation of which you came to the kingdom, of which the whole law and the prophets depend, is that you’re in it to please God and to serve men. That is the foundation motive of being in the kingdom. And with that foundation, on which the whole Bible depends upon—that you live in that foundation, the whole Word of God depends upon that—that foundation, you will be successful, regardless of who shows up at your meetings. Too many people are hurt because their heart is in gaining something in this world, whether it is friendship, or gaining appreciation or promotion or finances. Their heart is in gaining. Their portion is in this age and therefore they get hurt constantly and they’re constantly depressed. Because when you lose it—and you will lose position and appreciation and prestige—you will lose those things, not if, but when you lose them, because you will lose them, in the seasons that come and go in this life, we will lose many things that we gained in the temporal realm. When they lose them, they get hurt because they’re following a false gospel. You can’t be hurt when your whole heart is in the hand of God, because God will never withhold anything from those that seek Him. Never, ever, ever! Praise the Lord!
Now why do we serve men? We serve men because we love God. I don’t serve men because I’m trying to be promoted in the church. I don’t visit people because I want to make people happy so they will join the church. That is a terrible reason to visit somebody. I want to visit people, by God’s grace, because in visiting people God is pleased. Because that person needs encouragement and God says in Hebrews 6:10, that God will never forget—listen to this—Hebrews 6:10. “God is not so unjust as to forget the love you’ve showed towards His name by encouraging the saints.” 9 And I know that when I go out to lunch with a brother, or when I go to a sister in a hospital, or I visit somebody over here, and I stop to take time and spend time with a person, I know that God is not unjust to as to forget the love I am showing to His name by doing that thing. The neat thing is (I found a lot of it here in Kansas City is) that I actually like the people I’m with. Makes it even easier. But we want to be with people not so that we can win their hearts, to gain something from them. We don’t want to be with the quote “the leadership of the church” to gain a position of prominence. That is an evil thing that is in the hearts of men. We want to be with people to give to them, to love God and to serve Man, because, in that, the whole Bible depends, if you’re to be a real believer.
The only way that we will be able to love our enemies is to live unto God in this way. If you don’t live as unto God—to be pleasing to Him—you’ll never have the ability to love our enemies. That’s the only way you can love your enemies. I don’t love my enemies, in the beginning, because my heart is filled with love for them. I love my enemies in the beginning because God says to love my enemies and I want to be pleasing to God. And that’s the way you begin the whole journey of loving your enemies. If you’re trying to love your enemies to gain a blessing, you’re going to lose heart, because you’re going to be convinced that hating your enemies will get you more blessed than loving them. If you’re loving your enemies for any other reason than because God asked you to, because that’s the way that you honor His name, you’re going to lose heart in the end and quit loving you enemies. And if we seek to get people to love their enemy before they are living as unto God, and before they are living to be pleasing to Him, we’re going to fail constantly. And so what God wants us to do is to build a foundation in this life of living in a way that brings glory to our heavenly Father.
Now in Matthew, chapter 6, I’ll just quote a few verses 10—you all know them—he talks about giving money. And he talks about fasting and he talks about praying. And he says there are two types of people who do those three things. In Matthew 6 it says, there’s one group of people of people who do it to be seen of men. They want to gain something by doing it. There’s another group of people. They do it... they give their money to be seen by God. They don’t care whether men promote them or see them. Or their not even necessarily doing it for promotion. They’re doing it to be seen by God, because they honor God by giving their alms and their tithes and their offerings. They do it because they fear God, not because they desire men to promote them. They pray and they fast because they fear God. They do it in secret because they want God to see them doing it. And they say, “God, I love you. That’s why I’m persevering on my job. Because I love thy name, that’s why I’m doing this thing.” Because in Colossians 3:25 [••bad reference••] 11 it says that we’re serving and honoring the name of Jesus Christ when we’re diligent in our jobs. That’s the only reason to be diligent. That’s the main reason, at least.
The end of Matthew, chapter 27… I mean Matthew 7, verse 24 to 28, he says this:—I’ll just tell it to you real quick because you know it (for the sake of time) 12—at the end of Matthew 7 he’s said, “There’s two types of men. One man builds his house on the rock and one man builds his house on the sand. And when the flood comes”—how many of you know that the flood is coming? The flood will come in many, many, many different ways. It will come in many.... The flood is sent by God on some occasions and the flood is just the hatred in helmet anger of the Devil against you. Sometimes the flood is sent of God, sometimes it is sent of the Devil. If it is sent of God, it is to reveal your heart to yourself; if it is sent of the Devil, it is to destroy you. God never sends a flood against you to hurt you. He always sends it to reveal your heart, to deliver you, to bring you up higher. And the only reason that God would even allow the Devil, in his anger, to come against you, even in that measure, is so that you would gain faith in putting the Devil down.
But he said, “There are two types of men: they build their house, their life, their joy, their happiness on the rock; some of them build it on the sand.” And he said this, “when the flood comes, the man whose house is built on sand”—and sand has got a whole lot of rock in it, you know that don’t you? He wasn’t talking about rank unbelievers. He was talking about people in the church. There’s a lot of rock in sand.
You know what the sand is? The sand is a life that isn’t wholly committed to the Sermon on the Mount, because that passage, that parable is spoken at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. And the sand and the rock are the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. Another way of saying it is the rock—living with you house on the rock—is living with your motive to be pleasing to God and to serve man, regardless of consequences. Because you’re not gaining anything except for the pleasure of God and the glory of God through serving men. Your not there to gain anything from the people; you’re there to give because you love the Lord your God. And if that is the reason that you’re living, then your life is on the rock. And when the tests of life come—which they will come on a daily basis, but there’s going to be some big ones at the end of the age—when it comes, you will be unmoved. When the person does not appreciate you, when the money doesn’t come like you thought it would, when the promotion is long and waiting, you’re unmoved because you didn’t do it for those reasons. You did it out of love for God. You will not move. You will not be depressed and you’ll never complain.
You see, when you get depressed or when you complain, its the test, it’s the alarm system telling you your life is built on sand. Complaining is when you’re convinced that God will not move. Complaining is when you’ve given up on God and you want something to change and you’re convinced God won’t do it and you don’t like the diet He’s feeding you so you complain. No man complains if he believes God’s real and will remove the thing if it is not in His will. That man rejoices. Complaining and depression are only possible if your life is on the sand. Because you sought God for something besides what the gospel said. You know, a lot of people need to get converted!
And they’re so discouraged with the gospel because it’s not working because they’ve never, ever tried it. Because the gospel isn’t something that you try, the gospel is something that you throw yourself on the rock. And when you commit yourself to God on that basis, depression will not be a thing that you are very much acquainted with. Depression is the inevitable result, like complaining, of the person whose life is on sand. They are going through the motions of Christianity with something besides the goal to serve God and to serve men. They’ve got an ulterior motive. They’ve got pieces of the rock in that sand, but it’s not the rock. It’s not the thing.... It’s not the truth in the way God said. What the Bible teaches us is, in essence, is that it’s very possible to do the right thing in the wrong motive. And if you’re doing the right thing with the wrong motive, your life is on the sand and you will constantly fight depression. And when you fight depression, it is because your life is on the sand and your not doing things as unto God, your fasting, your praying, your giving so that people will do something for you, and they’re not doing it, and you’re getting discouraged and you’re complaining and now your depressed. Because you’re not getting out of the thing what you wanted in it, because you don’t find joy, your portion isn’t in pleasing God.
But there’s another group of people—and a number of you are right here tonight—your whole goal is to be pleasing, to be wasted on the Father. And whether it comes or whether it goes, the promotions, the adversities, it’s really kind of irrelevant because you’re in this thing to be pleasing to God. You’re consumed to please God because you want to be a David, a man after the heart of God. You’re a man who is going after it.... You... You’re striving hard. Your going after... You’re chasing the heart of God to be pleasing to Him. That’s a man that followed hard after God’s heart. And it’s Davids that are going to sit in the place that God can exalt them, because David didn’t serve God to get exalted. That’s why when God exalted him.... It’s not going to mess you up when you get exalted, because you’re not in it to get exalted. And God is looking for people that will cry “Abba! Father!” Not people that say, “Oh God, promote me. How much longer? And what do I have to do to get it?” Those are illegitimate children.
The freest people in the world... Or I wouldn’t say necessarily the freest, I would say the only free people in the world, is that Revelation 12:11 gang who said... the Word of God said, they did not love their life, even unto death. 13 I wouldn’t say they’re the freest, I would say that they are the only liberated people in the world, because as long as you love something, you will fear loss. These people.... And I... I’m trusting God that Revelation 12:11, which describes that company that overcame by the word of their testimony, that did not love their life, even unto the death, the loss of all things. They didn’t care! They had no fear of loss! If you don’t have any fear of loss, you can’t... you are a liberated human being in God. “If you want my money, you can have my money.” They walk into the job, and they’ve got to compromise, they say, “Take the $80,000 job.” They say, “I don’t need it, because the $80,000 job has nothing to do with my goal in life. My goal in life is to be pleasing to God and I can’t do it. Take this job. I’ll go flip hamburgers at Wendy’s, because then I can be successful in God, because I’m not interested in your promotion. I’m interested in leaving my one hour on the Earth, standing before God and saying ‘I was pleasing to thee’ not I got promoted when I was in my jo... employment.”
We need to just throw those things out the window as quick as you do anything else. We need to have somebody offer us a $20,000 a year raise in salary, and just laugh at it; not in their face [laughter]. We need to go in our office and say, “Who cares! My portion isn’t in that thing. I don’t care about it one way or another.” And go and seek your heavenly Father and if He wants you to take it or not, and go back and say, “No. It’s not God’s will to take it.” And they say, “If you don’t take it, your going to get fired.” “Well I’m sorry, God said no. I appreciate the time I was with you—the 32 years I was with the company. [Laughter] God bless you.” And walk out the door and go do the will of God. And don’t go around and give a testimony at church. And don’t be written up in a news bulletin. And don’t let somebody tell you their ministry made you do it and all that kind of garbage. Just walk out of the door and rejoice because you know you are free in God. Because you don’t love your life unto death and you don’t love nothing that you would not throw away in a moment. No promotion. No secular, temporal thing.
I pray that, by God’s grace, that prophecy of a group of people in Revelation 12:11, I believe in all of my heart, that that prophecy will be partly fulfilled by this church. That when John saw a company of people at the end of the age, I... I believe in my heart, that by the spirit of prophecy, a number of you sitting in this room were in the heart of God when that thing was written and revealed to John. A company of people that could just... that could laugh at promotion; that could take it or leave it—it made them no difference—because they did not see it as anything that determines success in their life, one way or the other. Praise the Lord.
Complaining and depression is the result of doing the right thing with the wrong motive. Complaining and depression are the things that you do when you serve in the Church with all of your heart and no one says “Thank you” and you give up, because you’ve done the right thing with the totally wrong motive. Complaining and depression are the things that happen to you when somebody says “No. We’re taking your eldership with you... from you” because you were serving in your eldership with the wrong motive. Because nobody can take an eldership from you—and I’m using that as a promotion in the Church—no one can take it from you and keep you from obeying your goal in life, because your goal in life is to please God and serve men. You can do that without an eldership. You can walk right out of it and say, “No problem!” You can sit in the front row. You say, “I can still please God. And I can still serve men. So my goal in life hasn’t been touched. I don’t need an eldership to do that.” You can walk free in this world.
I believe those are the things that God wants to give us. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. I just want to read a passage to you and we’ll end with this. God wants a group of people that are free. He wants a group of people that are built on the right foundation, and the only foundation of authentic true Christianity that will not collapse, is a life that is seeking the pleasure of God and to serve man with no promotion on the other end of it.
Money is something that God uses on occasion—and many times He doesn’t use. Money is something that God puts in front of you so that He can find pleasure in your refusal of it. I know that God has brought money my way on occasion so that when I turned it down...He says, “I just.... You cried out that you wanted to be more pleasing. I wanted to give you a way to do it. I never wanted you to have it. I’d have never given it to you unless I wanted to give you this opportunity you cried out for. You cried out you wanted to please me, so I brought you a promotion that wasn’t in my will and I took joy when you said, ‘No. It’s not God’s will.’” He says, “I just wanted to get that blessing out of your heart today because I know you love giving them to me.”
He says, “I just put you in that eldership for a year or two just to set you down so you would have an opportunity to rejoice and prove to all of the Earth and all of the angels, that your whole portion was in God, not in promotion. You could come and go. It just made no difference.” You know? You see what I’m saying?
There’s going to be a day when God is going to give us a great building and we’ll go into it and say, “Hey! Appreciate the walls; that’s nice,” you know. We’re going to forget about the building and praise God. Say, “Oh yeah! Today’s the dedication service. Yeah. Bless the building God.” And we’re going to go on. We’re not going to glory in it. We’re not.... It’s just no big thing, because we can fulfill the will of God with that or without that. Can’t we? We can still be pleasing to God and serve men without those things. It makes it more convenient and if God pleases to give us one—which He will—it’s nice. It’s a nice blessing. But it is not the thing we’re after. That’s not why we’re enduring the present tense—to get something out of God, to squeeze something.
Verse 32 of chapter 10: “But remember the former days, remember the former days, the days when Christianity first began,” this is some 20 or 30 years later—40 years later. “Remember the former days when, after being enlightened.... Remember when the book of Acts first... they had great persecutions in Jerusalem. You endured a great conflict of suffering in those days when you were first converted. You were made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations. And you partly endured that suffering by becoming sharers with those who were treated like that.” He says, “Remember the early days, when James had his head cut off and the believers were scattered throughout all of Samaria because of persecution.” He says, “Remember those days when you were first enlightened, when you saw the glory of the eternal kingdom; you saw the futility of this age. And how you acted. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners,” the believers that got thrown into jail. “You accepted joyfully the seizure of your property. You didn’t care if they took your property. It made no difference if you gave it up or not, because it didn’t make any difference to you. Remember those days?” he’s telling them, because some of them were getting a little discouraged. “You accepted joyfully the seizure of your property. You didn’t own it. That’s why you didn’t lose it when they took it from you. God owned it and you knew it and you didn’t care. Because you knew if God wanted you to have it back, He’d give it back. And if God didn’t want you to have it back, it didn’t make any difference anyway, because you would still be successful whether you had it or not. You can still serve men and please God without that piece of property.”
“Knowing that you have for yourself a better possession, an eternal abiding one, therefore don’t throw away the confidence of everything God has promised you. Don’t throw away the confidence, which has such a great reward. It will bring you in the very presence of God; don’t throw it away and be discouraged. For you have need of getting more endurance, like you used to have when you were first brought into the kingdom. For when you have done the will of God, you will receive what is promised: eternal things. For yet, in a very little while, He who is coming will come and He will not delay, the Son of God, Jesus Christ. But my righteous ones shall live by faith. He will be grateful in every circumstance, knowing I can deliver when I please. Knowing that if man opposes you there’s a God that’s over the man that can move the man. You stand in faith in every adversity. But the righteous man will live by faith, confident, with gratitude in his God. But if he shrinks back, my soul will have no pleasure in him. I will not be pleased if he shrinks back and goes to that Earthly, temporal value system that he came out of before he was enlightened. But we, we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but we are those that are confident in gratitude. We persevere to the saving of the soul.” 14
Chapter 11. Verse 24. He uses this to illustrate that principle in chapter 11, of people who endured. He says, “Moses, when he had grown up, he refused the 150 million dollars; he refused it when it was offered to him. A promotion came and he refused it and walked out of it and he went a lived in a little log cabin out in the woods in prayer and fasting for five years. He refused promotion, even by Pharaoh. He said ‘I don’t need your promotion to do what I came to the Earth to do.’ Choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the passing, futile, vain pleasure of sin. He considered the reproach and the adversities and the revilings of following Jesus Christ greater riches than all of the treasures that Egypt could ever give him in this world system. He said, ‘I’d rather suffer reproach and cry and have people mock me and laugh at me and laugh me out of my own family. I’d rather enjoy that.... I consider it a greater riches than all of the treasures of Egypt.’” Because he was looking to the reward, the reward of being pleasing to his heavenly Father.
“By faith he left Egypt with its promotion and its riches. He didn’t fear the wrath of the king. He didn’t fear man at all.” A man that lives like that has no fear. “But he endured because he saw Him that is unseen and His glory, he saw it. By faith, he kept the Passover.” 15 He goes on... and on. Verse 32. “What more shall I say. The time shall fail me if I tell you of all the men that persevered like Moses. Gideon, Samson, Samuel, etc. David.” Verse 33, “Who by faith, they conquered kingdoms. By confidence in God in the face of adversity, by faith, they performed acts of righteousness. They attained promises. They shut the mouths of lions. They quenched the power of fire.” They set fire around those guys, Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego, fire didn’t touch them, because God was their source. They said, “Whether the fire burns us or not, it makes no difference. If God chooses not to deliver us, it makes me no difference, because I’ll be pleasing to God, and I don’t need to be alive on the Earth to fulfill that goal. I’m going to go down pleasing to God.” “They quenched the power of fire. They escaped the edge of the sword. From weakness and fear and trembling and all of the depressions and complainings and gripings, out of weakness God made these men and women to be strong in God. They became mighty in war. They put foreign armies to flight by the word of God, rather than by the power of armies.” 16 David did it many times.
“Women received back their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured. They would not accept the release.” They said, “We’ll release you, just give in!” They said, “We would never accept the release, never. Torture our bodies. We don’t care,” because they wanted to obtain a better resurrection. “Other’s experienced mockings, some of them whippings and scourgings. Yes, there were some of our forefathers that experienced chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. Some of them were sawn in two. They were tempted. Some were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute. They were afflicted. They were ill treated. These were men of whom the world is not worthy. They wondered in deserts. They gave up thrones and kingdoms and all kinds of privileges in sin, and they wondered deserts and mountains and caves. They lived in the holes in the ground instead of thrones and kingdoms and comforts of Egypt. And all of these things have gained approval through their confidence in God. They did not even receive the thing that was promised,” which was the Messiah. Because God had provided something better, for us, as new covenant believers so that apart from us, those men that suffered could not be made perfect until the Messiah came to bring us into the fullness of God.” 17
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses, so many of our forefathers, so many of them, that gave their lives. Shouldn’t we also lay aside all of the encumbrances. Shouldn’t we lay aside the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run the race of endurance that God set before us.” 18
You see there is a difference between sin and encumbrance. Sin... everybody knows what sin is. You know what encumbrance is? Encumbrance is an opportunity that isn’t the perfect will of God that you take. Encumbrance is enjoying something that isn’t in God’s perfect will and it trips you. It’s not like sin. It’s taking something that isn’t the highest thing that God has for you. It will entangle you in the end. You see, the 150 million dollars that I told you about and Gary, it wasn’t a sin, but it was an encumbrance.
“Fix your eyes on the Lord Jesus, how He suffered on the cross, how He gave everything to do the will of the Father. He’s the author. He’s the perfecter of our faith who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross. He despised the shame, but He did it anyway. He sat down at the right hand of God the Father, His thrown.... It was the joy of being pleasing to His Father and producing a people that would love God. Consider Him. He endured more hostility than any of you will endure. But you don’t grow weary and get discouraged when people don’t appreciate you all of the time. Look at Jesus. For you’ve not, yet, shed... resisted sin to the point of shedding blood, have you? But He did! He shed blood. And He endured. Many others shed blood and they endured.” 19 You can put sin down and some of these carnal opportunities. You haven’t even shed blood yet. What are you getting so discouraged about? The guy just forgot to say thank you to you, that’s all. You haven’t even shed any blood yet, and you’re already giving up. You didn’t get the promotion.... You didn’t get the money you thought you’d get because you gave a tithe for the first time. You haven’t shed any blood. Don’t give up yet.
“Have you forgotten the exhortation which God gave to you as His dearly beloved son. Don’t regard the disciplines of the Lord lightly. Don’t faint and give up when God reproves you a little bit by withholding a few things. For God loves the one He disciplines. He will whip every son that receives Him... that He receives.” God is going to whip every one of you that accepts Him. It’s the discipline that you are enduring. God is allowing these things to build discipline in you. For God deals with you as sons, for what son is there whose father doesn’t discipline him? If you don’t have these disciplines then you are... and you have become a partaker, then you are an illegitimate child and you’re not a son. You’re an illegitimate son. You’re a bastard and you’re not a true son if these disciplines don’t come upon you.” 20
“Furthermore, we had Earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them, shall we not much rather be subjects of the Father of spirits and live for they disciplined us for a short time as seemed good to them, but God our Father disciplines us for our good that we may share in His holiness. All discipline, for the moment, seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet to those that are trained by these disciplines, they will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore go strengthen the hands of the weak, and strengthen the knees of the feeble. Get their hearts back on God and get their hearts off of promotion and the things of this Earth and get them on God. Go strengthen them and encourage them with the Word. Make straight the path for your feet. Walk the straight and narrow so that the one, which is lame, would not be pulled completely out of joint, but rather that weak area of your life would be healed. Repent and get your life right with God. Pursue peace and sanctification, wholeness of heart which no men will see God if he doesn’t have it. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God. Let no root of bitterness spring up in you. See to it that none of you are immoral people. None of you are godless like Esau, who sold his own birthright for his... his own physical, sensual pleasure. For you know that afterwards, he wanted to inherit the thing he gave up. But God rejected him. He found no place of repentance, even though he cried out with tears, God wouldn’t give it back to him.” 21
“For you have not come to an Old Testament... the old covenant. You’ve not come to a mountain that may be touched, into a blazing fire, the darkness and gloom and a whirlwind.” That’s the Old Testament, Exodus, chapter 20, when they get the Ten Commandments. “You’ve not come to the blast of a trumpet, to the sound of words, to the sound which was such as those that heard it begged that no word would be spoken to them.” That’s what happened when God gave the Ten Commandments. The old covenant people could not even bear the commandments.... So terrible was the sight that Moses said I am full of fear and trembling when they saw the God of the old covenant. But you have come to the new covenant, to Mount Zion. You have come to the city of the living God. You’ve come to the heavenly Jerusalem. You’ve come to 10,000 10,000 angels are the witnesses of what you’re doing, to the general assembly, to the church of the first-born. You’re enrolled in heaven. You’ve come to God. You’ve come to the judge of all mankind. You’ve come to fellowship with the spirit of righteous men who have been made perfect. You’ve come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. You’re sprinkled with His blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.” 22
“See to it then that you don’t refuse Him when He speaks to you.” Don’t refuse Him when He tells you to quit sinning and to do this or to give up that or to go here or to discipline yourself. Don’t refuse Him. “For if those people, under the old covenant, if they did not escape, when they refused him, Moses, who warned them from the Earth, how much more are we, in the new covenant going to escape when we refuse Him who warns from the heaven, Jesus Christ. For his voice, it shook the Earth,” in Exodus 20, when He gave the Old Testament... uh, Ten Commandments. “But now that same Jesus, who shook the Earth, he said once more I will shake not only the Earth, but I will shake the heavens. This expression, ‘yet once more’ denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken. It speaks of created things, in order that those things that cannot be shaken would remain strong, after this great shaking happens. Therefore, we have received a kingdom. Let’s not be shaken. Let’s not be moved. Because let’s show gratitude to God for even having a part in it. For by which we offer acceptable service to God, with reverence and awe, with our gratitude, because our God is a consuming fire. That’s the one that we serve.” 23
“Let the love of the brethren continue. Don’t neglect to show hospitality to strangers.” Verse 3. “Remember the prisoners as though in prison. Remember those who are ill treated since you yourselves have a physical body.” You know what it is like to get whipped. It hurts! “Don’t forget them. Pray. Visit them. Strengthen them. Bear reproach with them”—that’s in times of persecution. That’s not guys who stole a car; that’s guys who got persecuted for the name of Jesus. It’s not talking about “prison ministry”—although that’s not a bad thing—but that’s not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about brothers, because so many of the church was ashamed to identify with a brother in jail because they’d end up in jail. “Let the marriage bed be held in honor among all. Let marriage be held in honor among all. Let the marriage bed be undefiled, for fornicators and adulterers, God will judge them. Let your character be totally free from the love of money. Be content with the things that God has given you, for He Himself says, ‘I will never leave you. I’ll never desert you.’ He’s your helper. Don’t be afraid. Remember those who led you. Paul. Peter. John. Remember the lives of those who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the result of their conduct.” Well they got their head cut off. “But imitate their faith.” They were pleasing to God! “Because Jesus Christ is the same today, yesterday and forever. He’ll reward those that get their head cut off and those that lose everything for their zeal for God today, like He did then.” 24
“Don’t be carried away be varied and strange teachings. For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods to which those are thus occupied were not really benefited. But we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle...” in the Old Testament, in other words, the Jewish priests who hadn’t been born again, “they have no right to eat of this altar. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the Holy Place by the High Priest, they’re burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, so that He could sanctify the people, through His own blood, He suffered outside the gates. Let us go outside and bear reproach with Him. Let’s go outside of the respectable walls of religion. Let’s go out and bear reproach with Him, for here we do not have a lasting city but we are speaking of the city which is to come.” 25
“Through Him then, let us continue to offer up the sacrifice of gratitude that we can serve God, regardless of what it costs you. That is the fruit of the lips that gives thanks to God. A grateful, not a complaining, depressed... but a grateful heart that is wholly given to God’s eternal kingdom. Don’t regret doing good and sharing for with such sacrifice... God is pleased when you do that for His sake! Obey your leaders. Submit to them for they will keep watch over your souls as those that will give an account to God for the way that they ministered to you. Let them do it with joy, not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you if they just put up with you.” 26
“Pray for us for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring good conduct, honorable in all things. And I urge you all the more to do this that I may be restored to you the sooner.” 27 Amen.
Let’s just pray.
This message is reproduced here with Mike’s permission.
1 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. (Proverbs 29:18, King James Version [KJV]).Back
2 Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law. (Proverbs 29:18, New American Standard [NAS]).Back
3 And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40, NAS).Back
4 …and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3-4, NAS). Back
5 Therefore also we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:9, NAS). Back
6 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God…. (Romans 8:14-16, NAS). Back
7 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name…. (Philippians 2: 8-9, NAS). Back
8 Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11-13, NAS). Back
9 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. (Hebrews 6:10, NAS). Back
10 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
“And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need, before you ask Him.
“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.’ For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
“And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:1-21, NAS). Back
11 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality. (Colossians 3:25, NAS). Back
12 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.” The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at His teaching…. (Matthew 7:24-28, NAS). Back
13 “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death.” (Revelation 12:11, NAS). Back
14 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly, by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners, and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. FOR YET IN A VERY LITTLE WHILE, HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME, AND WILL NOT DELAY. BUT MY RIGHTEOUS ONE SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; AND IF HE SHRINKS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:32-39, NAS). Back
15 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh‘s daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that he who destroyed the first-born might not touch them. (Hebrews 11:24-28, NAS). Back
16 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. (Hebrews 11:32-34, NAS). Back
17 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, in order that they might obtain a better resurrection; and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground. And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:35-40, NAS). Back
18 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…. (Hebrews 12:1, NAS). Back
19 …fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin…. (Hebrews 12:2-4, NAS). Back
20 …and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. (Hebrews 12:5-8, NAS). Back
21 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. (Hebrews 12:9-17, NAS). Back
22 For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word should be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, “IF EVEN A BEAST TOUCHES THE MOUNTAIN, IT WILL BE STONED.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I AM FULL OF FEAR AND TRemBLING.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:18-24, NAS). Back
23 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.” And this expression, ”Yet once more,“ denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:25-29, NAS). Back
24 Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,” so that we confidently say, “THE LORD IS MY HELPER, I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT SHALL MAN DO TO ME?” Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever. (Hebrews 13:1-8, NAS). Back
25 Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were thus occupied were not benefited. We have an altar, from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Hence, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come. (Hebrews 13:9-14, NAS). Back
26 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing; for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. (Hebrews 13:15-17, NAS). Back
27 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things. And I urge you all the more to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner. (Hebrews 13:18-19, NAS). Back