Isn't he good?
He's good.
Now, see, when you think of that and you think about it,
he keeps on getting better.
He keeps on getting better.
And then you know that you'll never forget the day because
he's so much better now than he was then.
And he's always been good.
It wasn't that he wasn't good, he just mowed better.
He just mowed better.
Gooder and gooder and gooder.
You throw grammar out the window when you start edifying
the Lord.
Grammar has nothing to do with the heart of man when it comes
to glorifying God.
Lord, you're gooder and gooder and gooder.
Mow better and mow better.
Whoo, think about where you've been.
And while you're thinking about it, go ahead and turn with me to
the book of Zephaniah.
Go to Haggai and hang a leaf.
Hallelujah.
You say, well, where's he at?
Well, take a leaf from Malachi, you'll find him.
Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
That's the last one.
You've been good to me.
You are good, good.
In the morning, you're good.
You are good, so good.
You are good to me.
Hallelujah.
Have you found Zephaniah?
Brother Tony, you might want to put it up on the screen real
quick, there you go.
We're just going to read one portion, one verse of Scripture.
It's verse five found out of the book of Zephaniah.
The prophet of the Lord records, the just Lord is in the midst
thereof.
He will not do iniquity.
Every morning does he bring his judgment to light.
He faileth not, but the unjust knoweth no shame.
I just want to exhort you for the next little bit on the
simple thought, have no doubt.
Have no doubt.
Amen.
We're all here this morning.
You may think it's an accident that you're here.
I don't believe in accidents.
I believe in the sovereignty of God.
You may think, you know, by luck's way you're here.
No, I don't believe in luck.
I believe in the servanthood and the sovereignty and the
glory of God.
Right?
No, I'm not lucky, I'm favored.
Luck determines happenstance and accident.
It just, no, no, the blessings that come my way are meant to be
in my life because the steps of a good man are ordered of the
Lord.
The Lord is in your life, God meant for it to be there.
You're just not lucky.
He just meant for you to be there.
His favor will lead your way.
Father, I love you.
I thank you for your goodness and grace.
I pray, Lord, you help me be expedient this morning.
Lord, if we get to the point of your word, the word of your
point, touch our hearts, speak to our lives today.
For, Lord, only truly you know what's behind the face of every
person in this room.
You alone know what's going on in their heart to the depths of
their soul.
And may this word encourage them, enrich them, empower them
as we leave this place today.
We give you glory and honor forever and ever.
By Christ Jesus, amen.
And amen, you can be seated.
I'm going to read you a little bit of the Zephaniah, a little
three-chapter book.
But it's a powerful, it's a powerful message, not only to
God's people, but to those around God's people.
It's pronouncing judgment, it's pronouncing woe.
Zephaniah reveals the heart of God that God has seen their
iniquity, God has seen their sin, and he's been angered by
their resistance to repent, for his people to come back to him.
He begins to pronounce judgment upon the nations, Moab and
Ammon and the Philistines and all those that have risen up
and come against God.
And he saves his choice judgment for his own people because
God's desire is that he be with his people and his people be in
his presence.
And that's God's only desire for his people.
He wants you to be blessed.
He wants to be gooder and gooder and gooder to you.
And so when you're going in the opposite direction from his
goodness, he will call you into account and get your attention
and bring you back to himself.
How many has ever been out away from his goodness and he got
your attention and brought you back to himself?
I'm going to be up front with you.
I've been out and away and I am so grateful and thankful that he
came and got me.
I told you when he found me and I'll never forget that day.
And there's some days in my life that I will also not forget.
Those are the days that I chose and I walked away from his
goodness.
Oh, come on somebody.
I walked away.
He didn't push me away.
He didn't shove me away.
He didn't drive me away.
But I turned and walked away from his goodness.
But my, my, my, he didn't let me walk alone.
He followed me as I walked away.
His grace was in pursuit of me.
His spirit was after me in pursuit after my lostness and my
my going away.
And one day again, he got a hold of me and brought me in return.
And that's what Zephaniah is talking about to the people of
God.
There's a day coming and God is mindful and God knows and you've
got to turn around and get back to him.
And in the middle of this judgment, in the middle of declaring
God's justice, all of a sudden the prophet wants them to know
that God is in the midst of you and God being in the midst of
you, he fails not.
Hallelujah.
What a reminder.
And when I was walking away, I needed to hear that, that God
was in my presence, that God was always in my midst and God
never left me.
He never forsook me, but he pursued after me.
I'm so grateful that the Bible declares that he's married to
the backslider.
Hallelujah.
Because he come and found me where and I walked away from
him and he drew me back into his love and his marvelous grace
and that mercy that was extended toward me.
And I am so thankful.
And in the midst of these judgments and the warnings and
the woe, all of a sudden the prophet declares that God is in
the midst of you and he fails not.
But look over into verse 15 in this third chapter, the Lord
has taken away thy judgment.
He has cast out thine enemy, the king of Israel.
Even the Lord is in the midst of thee.
Here we are again.
And thou shalt not see evil anymore.
In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear thou not and be
and to Zion, let not thine hands be slack.
The Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, is mighty and he
will save.
He will rejoice over thee with joy.
He will rest in his love.
Hallelujah.
And he will joy over thee with singing.
Oh, that gives me some good hope as I begin to read this little
three-chapter book and see the anger of God stirred and the
wrath of God stirred because of the sin of the people.
Oh, God, just leave us holding on with our breath held because
of his wrath and anger before he lets that go.
He wants you to know of his wonderful grace and his marvelous
love and that he wants to rejoice over you with joy.
And he wants to rejoice over you with singing.
Hallelujah.
And he wants you to know over and over in just those three or
four verses that I am in your midst.
I am in your midst.
And the judgments I'm going to take away because what I do, I
fail not.
And because I do not fail, I will rejoice over you.
I will have joy over you.
And not only will I have, but hallelujah, when his joy is over
me, I'm residing in that joy.
And so that means I'm rejoicing with singing in my heart.
And I'm rejoicing because my iniquity has been removed.
Hallelujah.
Just a little summary of the book of Zephaniah.
So when we think about that Cliff Note summary, circumstances
arise in our lives.
And as circumstances arise, have you ever wondered concerning
the character of God?
Have no doubt about God's character.
Because when you think about his character, the character of God
is that he faileth not.
Are you hearing me?
God does not fail.
He will not fail you.
And if you'll take an examination of places when you
think God has let you down, you'll probably be like myself
and have a little self-reflection and realize that it was me
that I let God down.
He never failed me not.
One time, if there's been low and woe in my life, I brought it
on my own because he's not low and he's not woe.
Once my iniquities, once my sins were washed away, once I
repented, it's always been good from there on out.
Even the reproof and the instruction toward my life,
it is good.
I can't look to God being evil because God tempts no man with
evil because there is no evil in him.
His character, in a character, is that he is good.
And because he is good, he can do nothing but good to us,
for us, and through us.
So when I look back and maybe see low points and away places,
it's always been on me.
It's never been on God.
So somebody, you need to quit having your doubts about God's
goodness in your life.
If you're not walking in that goodness, then you better take
a good self-examination.
Well, things aren't necessarily good.
I didn't say things were good.
I didn't say life necessarily was good.
Sometimes life stinks.
Hello?
Sometimes there's circumstances that we have no control over
that invade our life, and those circumstances are not good.
Your flesh is subject to disease, and when you get a report from
a doctor concerning a disease in your life, that disease in
itself is not good because it brings destruction to the body.
I'm not saying life is good, but I'm saying God is good in life.
I'm saying God is good in spite of life and have no doubt about
His goodness over your life.
Oh, but I'm going through this, but He's not forsaking you
in going through it.
Oh, but I'm having to deal with this, but He's right there with
you dealing it right alongside you, and if you don't forsake Him,
He won't forsake you, and even if you do forsake Him,
He's going to pursue after you until He over...
The very nature of God is to be faithful.
So therefore, the inability of God to have failure is substantial
in the enhancement and the growth and the upbuilding of your faith.
You cannot fail.
Is there anything too hard for the Lord?
No.
Why?
Because Jeremiah would say, nothing is too hard for thee.
So when you look at things and the impossibility of your efforts
and efforts of other humanity, don't lay that on God because He is able.
Why is He able?
Where we've been resting the last couple of weeks in Hebrews
where he declares that He that is promised is faithful.
Hallelujah.
So those who have received the promise must themselves also be faithful
and have faithfulness returning out of their life so that the faithful God,
the good God of glory who fails not, is able to extend His mercy
and His grace towards you and the goodness of His favor that it rests upon your life
and the circumstances of life are counterintuitive to the goodness
that you wish to experience and have go about in your life.
So when my faith goes to Him, His faithfulness is responded to my faith in Him
and the promises of God that are yea and amen in Christ Jesus
become made available because of the faith that I have in Him.
I guess I'm preaching to the preacher today.
I sure am making myself feel good.
I'm telling you, every now and then my faith needs built.
I would probably get down there but my feet sore.
Travis had me on the roof of the house three days this week.
My feet sore.
Hot.
I told him two or three times, I said,
Travis, I'm too fat, I'm too old to be up here.
That's truth.
You know what?
Thursday, he sweated six and a half pounds off of me on Thursday.
In one day, I told his cat, it was that third chin, it just disappeared.
No, I'm not working up there with him more.
Nope.
You see, those circumstances of such nature reminds you of the goodness of God.
It reminds me that this is my trade and my craft now, not that.
He's been good, good to me, faithful to me.
It enhances my faith substantially to know of His character,
the innate of His being that He is always faithful and He never fails.
He fails not.
So I don't know what you're looking at.
I don't know what you're dealing with.
But if the enemy's been trying to cause you to doubt and that God is not able to do what you need,
I'm here to reverse some stinking thinking this morning because He is faithful.
And because He is faithful, you will overcome it.
Don't lose your faith.
Don't give up on your trust and have no doubt.
You see what that revelation will do for you when you understand this faithfulness of God and that He fails not.
It'll cause a revelation that will have a launching effect of your faith.
And it'll cause you to be ever increasing in momentum toward trusting God.
And it'll cause a fresh look at every situation that you begin to proclaim.
Thus saith the Lord over your situation, not thus saith me, not just saith her, not just saith him,
but what just saith the Lord.
It'll cause a light to come on in your life.
And it really doesn't matter what the devil says.
It really does not matter what the world proclaims over your life
because there is a proclamation that brings revelation into your life.
And have no doubt, He faileth not.
Trying to get to this first point.
Search to understand this one verse, not even the whole verse, not even trying to bring into account His justice.
Right?
Not even to try to bring into account that He's in our midst.
Just those three little words.
He faileth not.
Don't try to get a grasp of the whole, you know, I wish Brother Mills was here this morning.
He's still in Africa coming back Tuesday.
How does a pig eat an elephant?
One little bite at a time.
That's how it's accomplished.
Don't try to take in the comforts of the whole word.
If you could just get a hold of one, two, three little words,
it will revolutionize your relationship with God.
I don't have time to take a stroll and give you some of these two or three word phrases
because if you could just get a hold of them, if we could just take a grip,
if you could just get a good grasp on the Lord is my shepherd.
And if you got a hold of that one, just take the next phrase, and I shall not want my God that overdo you for the next 10 years
because circumstances that arise in your life, it's not your,
it's not your prerogative to get you out of them.
If the Lord is your shepherd, let him be the shepherd because a continuation of that 23rd Psalm
lets you know what your shepherd will do for you that you don't have to do for yourself.
And what that is going to be is get you beside some still waters.
He's going to get you in the green pastures.
He's going to notch your head.
He's going to restore your soul.
Hey, have no doubt.
Never doubt him.
But in faith, believe in trusting.
So with that, we begin with that his word fails not.
He faileth not.
Have no doubt that his word does not fail.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word is going to stand forever.
What does that mean?
When the earth is covered with the firmament of smoke, and there's cloud, and there's fire,
and it's raining fire, and this whole earth is being purified with fire, not by water, but by fire,
my God, could we not back up and preach on the salvific power of water
and then move our way through to the regenerating empowerment of the fire?
Don't make me back up to a Red Sea.
Don't make me back up to a Jordan that rolls back.
Don't put me there because if we'll go there, we'll end up in Solomon's temple.
And then he prays and the glory falls, and the priest can't minister,
and we'll make our way to Acts when the glory of God moves and fire falls from heaven.
His word fails not.
The psalmist declares in 1.1989, forever.
Somebody say that with me, forever.
Oh, Lord, thy word.
Listen to this.
It's settled in heaven.
So it doesn't matter how much us earthlings get unsettled by his word.
The criteria of the establishment is not earth.
It's heaven.
Because we have a heavenly tabernacle.
Come on, somebody.
Don't.
I need some Bible readers to wake up this morning.
I need some help today.
For I have not seen and ear has not heard,
neither has it entered into the heart of man what God has in store for those who love him.
You can't see it. You can't feel it. You can't touch it.
But I can sure let my mind wrap around it, and I can let my imagination be carried away.
And gates of pearl, not pearls, plural, but pearl.
One pearl per gate.
That's a big gate.
And I let my mind grasp a hold of a crystal river.
And on the banks of the crystal river is a tree of life
that grows eternally for the healing of those who make their way
and partake of the tree of life on the banks of the crystal river.
You can see an earthly throne where a river might flow.
But there's a heavenly throne.
There is that tabernacle above that the river flows from.
And I let my mind wrap around a sardonic stone.
I let my mind wrap around a transparent street of gold.
And I let my mind be encapsulated.
Oh, he fails not, have no doubt.
Hey, thank you, Lord.
Hey, his word fails not.
Forever it's settled.
What does that mean?
There's no more discussion.
Well, can I just tell you there never was a discussion?
There never was a discussion.
So get that part out of your mind.
He discussed it with who?
Who's he going to discuss it with?
He and I, being father, son, and Holy Ghost.
And they agreed on everything.
So there was no discussion.
Forever.
That's a long time.
Thy word is settled in heaven.
My God, I wish we could settle a little bit on earth, don't you?
I wish we could just live by a good portion of it.
I started to say all of it, but boy, that's a high task, isn't it?
Because some of us still hadn't crucified that old flesh.
Now, see, I almost messed up a good message.
Let's get off the flesh.
Let's don't dwell on sin, bad habits, right?
No sense of messing up a good message.
Meddling in your business, you're comfortable with your sin.
I know.
You enjoy your sins.
Yeah.
You can sit all week, come on in on Sunday.
Whoo.
Feel good about it.
So I'm not going to mess in your sin.
Why would I mess up a good sermon?
For those of you who are just visiting today, that's my sarcasm.
The last three minutes reverse that.
I do care about your sin.
Because my desire is to see you in heaven.
And for you not to go to hell.
So because his word is forever settled in heaven, it has to spill out on the earth.
And if it spills out on the earth, we'll hear the author of the Hebrew letter declare,
lay aside every weight.
Are you ready for some book?
Lay aside every weight and the, say it out loud, it don't hurt, say it.
And the sin that does so easily.
I'm going to throw you the King James.
We're going back up.
Beset you.
Mess you up.
Trip you up.
Cause you to get back out there and not serve God.
That's what the word beset means in the water's parallel dictionary.
So that you can get rid of the sin that messes you up.
Let it aside.
So that being said, let's move on.
Psalm 10720, his word.
He sent his word and he healed them and he delivered them from their destruction.
You see that word that settled in heaven spills out and the power of that word from heaven spills out onto the earth.
And that word, this power that is on the earth, delivers you from your destruction.
Right?
So what word are we referencing to?
It would be found in John chapter one, verse one, where there is the declaration in the beginning was the word.
And the word was God.
The words were with God and the same was in the beginning.
And then you look down to verse 14 of chapter one and you'll see that that word was beheld in its flesh.
And that flesh was in the form of the body of Jesus Christ, who is the word.
He is the logos.
Amen.
He's the spoken, but he's even so more.
He's also the fulfillment of the rhema, the living, the now, the fresh.
He that will impart into you his word that is settled in heaven and empower you while you're making your way through the horribleness of the earth and living out the life here below.
But it's his word that is settled and his word that fails not that establishes our going.
Isaiah 55 and 11.
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.
It shall not return unto me void, but it shall.
Somebody say shall say that leaves no doubt.
Have no doubt.
Did you get that little?
It shall.
Reverses the idea and the thought of maybe.
It's his word.
Amen.
It's his word that establishes the accomplishment of his word.
It shall accomplish that which I please now, not you, not me, but what he what I the Lord.
This is the Lord speaking.
It will accomplish what I please.
Now herein lies the conundrum with you and I here below.
We want something other than what he desires for our life.
And so we'll read the word and we'll take our own adaptation of it and what I want to receive from it.
But that's not the promise.
Hello.
The promise is that which pleases him, it will not return void.
So what are you saying, Pastor?
I'm saying that we have to align our thought process with his thought process so that we're in line together so that what I want is what he wants and what he wants is what I want.
And that word will not be void.
It will not come back empty, but it will perform that which he pleases in your life.
And that word, what pleases in your life is that you are blessed, that you are favored, you are instructed, you are corrected, you are delivered, you are healed.
I know we don't like the instruction part, but that's still part of it.
I mean, this goes with it.
Just line up.
His word fails not.
First Kings 856 Solomon declares, praise be to the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel.
Just as he promised, not one word has failed.
Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant.
Not one, not one.
Solomon said, I can't think of anything that God said he'd do that he didn't do.
Not one, not one thing.
He kept every single promise that he made Moses.
So what does that mean?
That means you can trust what he's promised you.
Well, because he's not a man that he should lie.
So he can't lie to you.
There's no evil in him.
So he's telling you the truth.
If God has witnessed something in your spirit and he's witnessed it through his word
and the promises of his scripture, then you can latch on to it.
Well, I'm not saying it.
You may not.
It may be in your children or your grandchildren.
But I tell you, because God is not bound in the circumference of time,
which we try to tie him up, loop him up and bind him up in.
Abraham, every place you put the sole of your foot is going to belong to you.
Do you know before Abraham died, all of the promised land that he actually possessed was a burial tomb?
He purchased a burial tomb to bury Sarah.
That's all he got.
Now, for some of us, we say, my God, all I got out of it was a grave.
Sour grapes right there.
That's all we can see is what we didn't get.
Like somebody cheering, crying because they don't get what they want.
He didn't even have that when he started walking.
He didn't even have that.
But it wasn't all about him.
It was about those stars that were prophesied to him.
Oh, are you hearing me now?
It was about those grains of sand that was prophesied to him.
It was about his posterity that was to come.
It wasn't just about Abraham.
I hate to bust your bubble.
I know the world we live in is me, me, me more than it's ever been me, me, me.
But it's not you, you, you.
It's us, us, us, and everybody else.
Amen.
What God may be doing and establishing in your life, you may never see actually.
And you may only possess just a small part of it.
But do you know what that means to the next generation?
God's going to be faithful.
Do you know what it means to the next generation?
God's going to be faithful.
Oh, my Lord, by the time Jacob got down into Egypt, there's only 75 of them.
But can I tell you right now, when Abraham started walking,
it was him and Sarah.
He didn't have another.
There wasn't another one.
A few hundred years later, here are 75.
He's gone.
Amen.
Isaac's gone.
And Jacob's now on to Gona.
And his boys are full grown.
And when they made their way down to Egypt, there was a 75 head count.
But when they come out 433 years later, I don't know what the number is.
It's estimated into the millions.
And I'm telling you, Abraham only got a grave.
But when they come out, Moses in front.
And when he came out in the front, millions made their way.
They went through the baptism of the reds.
Have no doubt.
That's all I'm trying to tell you.
Have no doubt.
Just because you don't have a good hold on all of it,
it don't mean all of it's you, but it means all of it's yours.
Oh.
Whew.
I got to settle where I can see.
His word never fails.
As I alluded to John's gospel, from the beginning was the word.
As believers, we often require reassurance.
We often require reassurance of and for our faith and the hope that we have.
Don't you sometimes, you're going through that dry place and you think,
God, are you still there?
Right, and it's only been two days.
Huh?
It's only been two days.
God, have you left me?
Two days in.
Oh, God, you've forsaken me.
God, you haven't done what I told you to do with her or him or them.
God, I told you.
Two days in.
No different than children Israel.
There's only a couple days in, graphing already.
You know, people are consistent.
Humanity is consistent.
Two days in.
Oh, God, oh, we beg and we're, I mean, we're in that inner voice when the
spirit's moaning and groaning through you.
Two days in.
Try 40 years in.
You're walking.
But while you're walking, are you ready?
While you're walking, at least have the wherewithal to do a little
self-reflection.
Look at your feet and you'll see your shoes growing what you put.
Huh?
You know what bread does to you?
Huh?
Eat you a couple pots of manna a day.
Huh?
Bread, start packing up.
But your clothes keep getting bigger.
Mine don't.
I got to go get some more.
You walking around the wilderness 40 years.
Manna, what is it?
That's exactly it.
What is it?
What meaneth it?
I don't know.
I just wonder.
If you could get your wafer and think of a good old ice cold watermelon.
Eat that manna.
Boy, it's good.
And you want to go wiping your chin.
Huh?
Come on.
I don't know.
I didn't get none.
I had some Sous Caricate yesterday.
Yeah.
So don't go to panicking.
Because he just showed up the day you got in.
It may get a little hot before he gets you out.
May be a little furnace action for you.
I don't know.
But I do know this.
There's times in my own faith.
Let me just talk about me.
There's times in my own faith that I need a little reassurance.
I assure you, four and a half years ago, I asked him more than five times, are you sure?
Hello?
Are you sure?
That's where you want us to go?
Hello?
So I need a little assurance of my faith.
Don't you know that first year, I asked him again, are you sure that you were sure?
I'm sure.
When I get in there, knowing I get too transparent, so I'm going to be.
Memorial Day, 2019, fast approaching.
We've been here four and a half months.
Memorial Day's coming.
And a preacher worth his salt that likes Memorial Day.
The church.
It's the gateway to summer.
You people go everywhere.
School just got out the week before.
Huh?
Oh, yeah.
I'm preaching right now.
My number used to go down 150 on Memorial Day.
School just got out.
How many times would you please tell me, can you go to Dollywood in one summer?
Would you?
I was up there four or five years ago, and I still had my field.
But my God, y'all can go five times a summer.
Leave out!
Forget church on Sunday.
My God, we're doing our thing.
Well, I'm just going to tell you, I couldn't bear the thought.
It started weighing heavy on me on Monday.
I said, God, I can't go in there Sunday.
It's Memorial Day.
We only had, I mean, about that time we were running about maybe 100, 400, 505.
Then, I think, God, I can't look at 50 people Sunday.
I can't do it.
Matter of fact, I said, God, I'm not doing it.
I'm not going.
What I told him, I ain't doing it.
I'm not doing it.
And I didn't.
I called Brother Terry, bowed on Saturday afternoon, late.
I said, Brother Terry, you got tomorrow.
I'm not coming.
Sister Kathy says, well, what are we going to do?
And I thought, well, what am I going to do?
I'm not going here.
God, you think what you won't think.
I'm just telling you.
Have no doubt.
We got up Sunday morning.
Pastor friend of mine in Troy, Tennessee, are you here with me?
The furthest point up in the little hill of this state is where I went.
It's far away in the state of Tennessee as I could get.
I got up and left that Sunday morning, drove five and a half hours,
and got there 15 minutes before church started.
They had been in revival.
The place had exploded.
They went from about 150 to 450 in just several months.
And I thought, I'm going to go get me a piece of that because I need it.
Let me just tell you how God sent you human works.
I got there and it was their graduation Sunday and I said.
So there we sat going through graduation Sunday.
I thought serves you right.
So I called Pastor Terry.
Whenever they got out, which is on slow time, how was it?
Oh, we had 90 something.
I said, Hallelujah, but I had doubts.
I just couldn't bear myself to look at it.
I couldn't bear myself to think you're on the lake and I'm here with half of you.
So let that settle on you next Saturday and the Saturdays that follow
when you think about it.
I just don't think I'll go no more.
I do miss you.
And from time to time you're going to miss me
because I ain't going to be here.
Hello.
You say, what's that got to do with the thing that you're talking about?
Really? Nothing. It's just a beanie.
I just talked about me needing some reassurance in my own faith.
And I just gave you an example of where I didn't trust God to trust you.
Now, a few of you did skip, but not all.
So there's times that I need reassurance in my faith.
To do what I do, yes, I have to be reassured.
Believe it or not, you pinch me and I'll scream or slap.
I'm flesh.
So I deal with the same human emotions that you deal with.
Now, granted, I know I should deal with them a little better.
And some of them I do.
Not all.
So when I think about this reassurance
and I think about that his word fails not
and when I begin to try to encourage us to have faith in God,
I'm not just preaching to you.
I'm preaching to the man behind the counter.
I am encouraging my own faith.
I'm enriching my own life as the anointing pours in
and it begins to lift up and God begins to enrich us all.
It builds my faith because now I look across the crowd
and we have 200 plus and it makes me feel good
and I was here this memorial day.
Because I figured it out.
If I grill you hamburgers and a hot dog and homemade ice cream,
you'll show up.
Have no doubt.
This assurance that we have, and I'm going to close
because I just killed it, I know.
This assurance in our life comes from various sources.
It comes from the source of prayer.
Do you pray and aren't you encouraged when you pray?
When you worship?
I'll be honest with you, I wasn't 100% this morning.
I wasn't 100% this morning when we started.
Total dependent upon God today and he failed not.
Oh, he's failed not.
Total dependent upon him this morning.
I wasn't on my A game today.
Didn't feel like it when I came in.
Had to force myself to raise my hands.
Had to force myself to get into his presence.
But I'm so grateful that I did.
I'm so grateful that I began to think and reminisce
about his good, good, good.
And he keeps on getting better.
He keeps on getting better and more better and gooder and gooder.
And then the word that he deposited in my soul
began to come alive right there.
And then I began to think about I'll never forget the day.
How dare I forget the day?
How dare I forget what he's done for me?
Those many long years ago when he brought me out
and he took me out and I think about his word has never failed me.
When I think about how faithful he is and he has never failed me.
And it's settled in heaven and therefore declared upon the earth
and the goodness and the faithfulness of God.
I need that reassurance day by day by day by day.
So I come to tell you this morning whatever is going on have no doubts.
No doubts.
God doesn't make mistakes.
None.
He doesn't do something like oops I'm going to make this out of it.
No.
When he does it, it's done right.
So if he's leading you have no doubt he knows where he's going with you.
Oh my God.
No doubt that he's mindful of where you are.
And if you were following him to get to where you are,
he's not going to leave you there.
The old spiritual said he didn't bring me this far to leave me.
He didn't bring you this far to leave you.
He knows what he's doing in your life, child.
The best we can do is try not to make a mess of it.
The best I can do is try not to mess up what he's got going.
And man, oh man, I tell you this,
you can go as far as you want to go but it's not this.
You can try to get away from it and you're going to get over there
and you're going to be thinking man I wish I was there.
Have no doubts.
Stand with me, I'm quick.
The source of worship, the assurance we've made over comers
by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony.
There is no greater assurance than his word.
And his word reveals to us in many different types and figures
a very significant picture of the word who is Christ.
The Old Testament points to him, are you hearing me?
He points to him and any of that other stuff but him doesn't qualify.
He points to him and the New Testament reveals him.
So we see these road signs, if you will, of the Old Testament.
He points him out as the seed that will bruise the heel.
The doorway of the tabernacle, the shepherd,
the fountain that never runs dry.
Isaiah points him out as the well of salvation.
He declared him as wonderful, counselor, prince of peace,
mighty God, and upon his shoulders the establishment of the government would stand.
The sweet words of Solomon declare him to be the lily of the violet.
He declared the bright morning star and the rose of Sharon that forever blooms.
We see the road sign that points him as rising with healing in his wings.
We see him revealed in the babe in the manger
as the angels declare his glory on earth.
We see him revealed as the lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world.
We see him revealed as the door, the way, the truth, the life, the bread, the light, the vine.
And need I go on?
That's my assurance.
That's your assurance.
Have no doubt.
Father, I love you this morning.
I thank you, Lord, for your help today,
for I have truly felt the stirring of your anointing.
For every person in this room
who may be at some level or another having any kind of doubt,
the voice of the evil one that may whisper,
you can stop now, you can quit now, you can give up now.
God doesn't love you.
God doesn't care.
If he cared, then he'll go listen a litany of reasons to why the devil would tell you
if God cared that things wouldn't be happening the way they are.
His word never fails.
And he faileth not.
And he wants to joy over you.
He wants to sing over you.
He wants to dance over you.
Why, pastor?
Because he is in your midst.
What's that mean?
He's in your midst.