True Faith Part 2 - Creflo Dollar, Wednesday Sermon | July 31, 2024

Father, we thank you, we give you praise, Lord, hallelujah. We thank you for this another opportunity to minister to these your precious sheep. Thank you, Lord, that revelation knowledge will flow freely, uninterrupted, and unhindered by any satanic or demonic force. And Father, I pray you will speak through my vocal cords and think through my mind, none of me, all of you, and every ear that hears the teaching tonight, let their lives be lifted up, let it be changed, let it be challenged by the Holy Spirit. You are great; we just finished singing about your greatness, Lord, and we thank you for your greatness in our lives, and we praise you for that right now, and we thank you for it in Jesus' name. Bless our study tonight. In Jesus' name, everybody say amen. You may be seated, you may be seated.

Let's go ahead and turn our Bibles to the book of Ephesians, chapter 2 and verse 8. Let's start there, and, uh, let's just get into this thing, right? And, um, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8, we're talking about true faith and we're talking about, you know, we've got to—you know, what does this look like? We find the promise in the Word of God, we find a promise of healing, deliverance, whatever it may be, and then you know that you release your faith to lay hold of it. But what does it look like? And so we're going to really get detailed in this. How many here were here on Sunday? All right, and so we're back and forth, I'm going to give it to you Sunday and Wednesday, Sunday and Wednesday, Sunday and Wednesday, and by the end of the month, you ought to have it. The glory should be increasing in your life, amen.

Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8, he says, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Verse 9, "Not of works, lest any man should boast." That's going to be big tonight—boasting. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Now let's milk verse 8 and, uh, see what he's saying here. "For by grace," God's unmerited favor, God's, um, uh, abounding provision in the unrestricted operation of his love, uh, it's unmerited love. It, uh, operates through Jesus for mankind, especially for those who depend on him. Something happens when you walk in complete dependence on him. So the grace of God, uh, it is unearned, undeserved favor, but it's an operation of his love for people who who completely depend on it.

For by grace—and now we also know that Grace is a person, right? Who is that person? Okay, the Bible says, uh, John 1:14, "Jesus full of grace and truth." All right, so Jesus. Grace is more than a curriculum. Grace is more than a subject matter. Grace is a person, his name is Jesus. So for by grace, or for by Jesus, for by grace, for by this unmerited favor, are you saved. Now Sunday, I went through the Greek word. This word "saved" is not just "born again." Okay, a lot of people, we read "saved," and we think, well, for by grace, are you born again? Now, are you born again by grace? Absolutely. But is it limited to born again? Well, not according to the original meaning of this word. The original meaning of this word comes from two Greek words, the first one is "soteria," the second one is "sozo," and they both mean this: that by the grace of God, you have been born again, you have been delivered, you have been preserved, you have safety, you have deliverance from enemies. All of the finished works of Jesus Christ came to us by grace. And when he said, "For by grace are you saved," it's just not limited to, "For by grace you are born again." He says, "For by grace you are healed, you are delivered, you are safe, you are sound." All of that is included—what I used to call the "sozo package" or the "salvation package."

So every time you see "saved" or "salvation" from this point on, I want you to broaden your thinking, that it's not just limited to, "For by grace you're born again." What you want to do is you want to understand, "For by grace I am delivered, for by grace I have protection, for by grace I am sound, for by grace I am healed." All of the finished works of Jesus—or you can say it like this if you really want to get a hold of it: "For by Jesus I am born again, and by Jesus I am healed, and by Jesus I am delivered." And this is what you remind yourself—you are already by grace gifted with these things. Okay? And now, for by grace are you saved, delivered, healed, all that, okay? For by grace are you "sozoed" or "soteria." How did you get it? He said, "Through faith." See, all of these gifts have come to us through faith. We were favored with "sozo" or salvation through faith.

Now, it's important now for you, for us, to really understand what faith is and how to live by faith because we are going to take all of these gifts—soundness, deliverance, and stuff—but you can only take it by faith. All right, so it's a tendency to put now the responsibility on you. Are you going to perform to try to get it? Are you going to sweat to try to get it? And so the next, uh, piece of this is pretty important. He says, and he says, "And that not of yourselves." Now watch the sentence structure. Just imagine if you're back in grammar school again and you're taking English. He says, "For by grace are you saved through faith"; semicolon. "And that"—underline "that"—is referring to faith. Some theologists say no, it's referring to grace. Well, we know by grace, we know grace is a gift, okay? But he's referring—it would be redundant for him to say it's grace and faith. But notice what he says, "And that," referring to faith, "is not of yourself." So he is saying that this faith is not of yourself, that this faith is a gift of God. Well, we know grace is unmerited favor, and, and, and, and God's given that to us, but we, we, we've never really zeroed in on the fact that faith is a gift of God. Faith is a gift of God. Grace is a gift of God. Now, I mention and use the word "gift" because you don't work for a gift, you don't sweat for a gift, you don't deserve a gift. If you, if you do do anything for a gift, it's no longer a gift. If you work for a gift, then somebody needs to pay you because you, you, you labored for that, all right? But a gift, the only thing you do that your response to a gift is to receive. Somebody gives you a gift, you receive. Somebody extends you a gift, you receive. So grace is a gift, and faith is a gift.

Watch what he says in verse 9. He says it is a gift of God, it is not of works or performance. He said faith is not of your self-effort, your performance, the works of the law. No, no, no. And that's exactly what we thought. We thought at one time that faith is of works, it is of self-effort, it is what you have to do in order to get what grace says. No, no, no, no, no. Now we've missed it, and unfortunately, a lot of people haven't been receiving a lot of the glory because they keep adding works to a gift called faith. And when you add works to faith, then you destroy grace. I want you to see that. When you add—see, faith is a gift, and grace is a gift.

You remember Romans 11? Look at Romans 11, and I believe it's 6 in the NLT, Romans 11:6 in the NLT. I got to get my mind away from "I got to finish this tonight so I can start this." Forget this, this may last two months, man. You know I'm over. Look what he says here. He says, "And since it is through God's kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God's grace would not be what it really is: what? Free and undeserved." Now look at this in the King James, same chapter and verse, Romans 11:6: "And if by grace, then it is no more of works." He says if it's by grace, it's no more works; otherwise, grace is no more grace. If you add works to it, it's no more grace. And so think about adding works to your faith to try to get what grace has made available. You destroyed it, you destroyed it. He says, "But if it be of works, then it is no more grace." You see what I say—it destroys it. If it's works, then it's no more grace. Ain't no more grace if it's works. Somebody needs to be writing you a check, somebody needs to be going in the back and getting some money, 'cause you have earned something, you've been laboring for something. He says otherwise, work is no more work. And so what he said is grace should be what it is: free and undeserved.

Okay, but we get this grace through faith. Faith can't be work, or we would say we get this grace through work, and then it would no longer be a gift anymore. And so you have to look at this: it's like if faith is work, then he says if your faith is working—he says we got all of these things that we just talked about by grace, we got it by grace, grace made it available to us, but through works we get it? He said, "Uh-uh." He said no. And that's what we've said for a long time. We've said for a long time that faith is work. But I say if faith is works, then grace is no more grace, grace is no more grace. And I'm like, "Why come I couldn't see that?" Faith can't be works; if it is, it destroys grace. Is that pretty plain in this scripture? It destroys grace, right? So faith is a gift. Didn't he tell us faith is a gift? Go back to Ephesians chapter 2 and 8. He just told us what faith is, but you know what we do? We turn around and say no, it's a work. And so you know what we do with our faith? We try to figure a work, a work that we can come up with to get what grace has made available. You got it by grace, you receive it by grace, a gift, you receive it by faith, a gift. He says, "For by grace are you saved through faith." You're saved through faith, you're delivered, you're sound, those whole things, and not of yourself, all right? So it's not of you, none of your effort, none of your self-effort, none of your performance, none of your performance could get "sozo," none of your performance can deserve soundness, deliverance, healing. None of your behavior can deserve soundness, healing, and he says it's not of yourself. He says why—this faith is the gift of God. So God gave you grace as a gift and then he gave you another gift so you can get a hold of the first gift.

I'm going to show you tonight—you can't take credit for nothing. This teaching tonight is all about getting yourself out of the way. Quit trying to impress God by trying to deserve something. You can't deserve it; it's a gift. You didn't deserve a gift. And some people still don't know how to receive a gift. Mama gets you a car for graduation. "What? This ain't the one I wanted." Boy, I will knock that afro off your head, what you talking about? You know, you didn't pay for it; you receive. You're not being critical of it, you receive it. You didn't have it before; receive the gift. And so he's walking now. Why? Because he tried to make it works, and work destroyed the grace, and Mama took the car back.

All right, look at nine: "Not of works." Not of works. Now, this is interesting. Now, you see right here, it says "not of works." It could be referring to not of the works of the law, and the works of the law was all performance and self-efforts and thinking you deserve it, so not of the works of the law. Now, here's what we've done. Um, God give me the way to say this. We have tried to add works to faith to get what grace made available, instead of understanding that it is grace. We were saved by grace so we can do good works. Good works is not going to get you what grace has offered. You get saved by grace and not—you get saved by grace through faith. And through faith, if you have the real saving faith, then it will start working in you to bring out of you good works. We keep trying to add good works to faith instead of understanding that if you're saved by faith, good works come out as a result of faith. You're going to want to do good because faith in you is producing those good works. The good works are not going to produce the faith.

Think about that. Think about it. No, and I know we—the scripture you're talking about—we'll teach on it, you know, faith without works is dead. But I told you before, James was not talking about adding works to your faith in order to be justified. James was saying that if you really have saving faith, then out of that saving faith should come the fruit of good works. Yeah, so what he was saying was saving faith without proof or fruit from that saving faith is dead. That's what he was talking about. But we thought he was talking about if you believe in God for your eyes to get healed and you don't take your glasses off, because faith without taking your glasses off is dead.

So now I got to do something so my faith won't be dead. That's wrong. It's because you thought James was saying add works to your faith to be justified, and James was not saying that because it's clear in Romans chapter 4 where he said, um, Abraham was justified by faith and not by works. But James sounds like he's contradicting, um, um, Paul, and he said no, um, you are justified by your works. He was using works to talk about you're justified by the proof of your faith or you're justified by the evidence of your faith. So context is important. We'll study the whole thing in James chapter 2. Somebody showed up naked, hungry, and somebody else came, and they said, "All right, by faith I believe that you're healed, uh, uh, that you're clothed, and by faith, I believe you're filled." And James said, "What?" James said, "Uh-uh, show me your faith without works or proof, and I'm going to show you my faith with works or proof." In other words, my faith is going to produce evidence that I have the saving faith in me and good works going to come out of me just 'cause I'm born again. Glory to God. Your faith—you think that your faith, uh, says, "Be healed, be clothed, and be be this." He says, "But your faith is not producing any fruit that you have the real genuine gift of faith on the inside of you." You don't have saving faith; you got some other kind of faith because good works are not coming out of you. When you get born again and you start living like a Christian, then I'm telling you right now, you're going to want—you're going to seek good works. You're going to have a desire to do good works. You—you're not going to be able to handle people not being clothed, and you can't hardly stand going by people right now. Even though there are a bunch of cons at the corner, you don't know which one it is, and every time you're tempted to pull out some money because that's just the saving faith in you, you just want to do good works. Everybody—I spent so much time on that scripture, everybody got that? All right. Now, what is this squeaking noise up here? All right. If it's a mouse, I'm gonna stomp on it. Don't y'all report me, I'm just playing. See what that is? Turn that off 'cause it's bugging me. All right, um, now look at this part right here. He says not of worse works lest any man should what? Lest any man should what? Boast, boast. Now boasting—boasting about what you did. You're boasting about what you did. I prayed for five hours, that's why this happened. I fasted for 20 days, that's why this happened. I've just been so good, that's why this happened. You're qualifying why these things were happening to you.

Now I want to show you something. Go to, um, Judges chapter, uh, 7, and I start at verse 2. Judges chapter 7 and verse 2. All right, now I'm going to show you a shadow of what I believe I'm—that we're talking about in Ephesians chapter 2. All right, uh, and the Lord said—somebody ought to be moving up here behind me to find out what this noise is that I want to just, you know, cut off or unplug something. Look. Tweet—sounds like Tweety Bird behind me. The whole—thank y'all. Uh, and the Lord said unto Gideon—that got it. Thank you. And the Lord said unto Gideon, "The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the—the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me saying—" Now now look at this same one I meant to tell you in the NLT. Look at this in NLT, John chapter 7. Judges chapter 7 NLT: "The Lord said unto Gideon, 'You have too many warriors with you. If I let all of you fight the Midianites, the Israelites will boast to me that they saved themselves by their own strength.'" So what did he do? He thinned the army down to about 300. Okay? And he went in with those 300. It's probably where they got that movie from, but he went, he did it with the 300. All right, now look at verses 3 and 4: "Therefore tell the people, whoever is timid or afraid, they may leave this mountain and go home." So 22,000 of them went home, leaving only 10,000 who were willing to fight. But it was still too many because you would go and boast about how you did that. You still wouldn't see my hand in this. All right, verse 4: "But the Lord told Gideon, 'There are still too many. Bring them down to the spring, and I'll test them to determine who will go with you and who will not go with you.'" So in this situation here, God said, "I—I don't want a—I don't want any situation to happen where you think that, uh, you can take credit and start boasting about this victory." So God's very serious about us as Christians—get you out of the way so you won't boast. Look what he just said: "We were saved by grace through faith, um, that not of yourself, it's a gift of God, not of works so that no man will be able to boast." And what God is saying is if you can boast about the results, I ain't had nothing to do with it. Somewhere in this thing, you took credit for a gift that I gave you. Now look at religion—all of us have been a part of religious churches. Look at that. You hear that all the time, boasting about all of the things that they have done to be more spiritual, to be more this. And he's like, you know what, dude, I ain't have nothing to do with that. Somebody owes you some money because you're boasting about it, which is evidence that you haven't received it as a gift. Somehow you're performing and giving yourself credit for that.

Now I want to go through some scriptures. Now, what is this judges showing us here? Go to, go to, uh, Hebrews 10:1. What is Judges showing us here? Uh, in the King James: "Uh, this is a shadow of things to come." He said, "For the law having a shadow of good things to come." So we're talking about moving from a shadow to the very reality. We're in a reality now. "And not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offer year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect." So no matter how many animal sacrifices they give, they're going to still need Jesus, who will be one sacrifice, who will die for our sins forever. Okay? And then I think it is, um, uh, Romans 15:1, says that, uh, these things were written aforetime for our learning that we might—that we—that we might learn based on these things that are going on.

So let me read you this scripture, 1 Corinthians chapter 4:7 in the NLT. I want you to pick up this same type of deal about you not being able to boast. If you can boast, then grace was destroyed somewhere. Faith was not received as a gift, but you added works to your faith. Remember what I said last Wednesday. Was that here last Wednesday? What was that last Wednesday? I was on the West Coast last W—okay, well, the Wednesday before that, the Wednesday before that, um, I said that faith is a non-work. Remember that? It's a non-work. If it's not a non-work, then grace is no longer grace.

Now, "For what gives you the right to make such judgments? What do you have that God hasn't given you?" Think right there. Now, all right, let's pause. What do you have that God hasn't given you? 'Cause whatever you have, he gave you breath so you can inhale and exhale, and without that, you wouldn't have. So what do you have that God hasn't given you? And if everything you have is from God, all right, so I will, uh, assume that you answer the question. What is it that, uh, you have that didn't come from God? I would assume your answer is nothing. Everything came from God, right? All right, so what did he say? He says, "And if everything you have is from God," watch this, "why boast as though it were not a gift?" And we got a lot of boasting going on in religious church right now. We have conferences to boast about something that's God's. Everything we have comes from God. So if everything we have is a gift from God, how you going to be, college Paul coming out—how you gonna find yourself boasting about something that didn't come from you, but it is a gift? I need y'all to stay with that for a minute, man. That's what this whole grace life is about. It is a celebration of gifts that God just bestows upon us over and over and over and over again, and you keep trying to look for a way to try to earn something that's a gift. Grace is a gift; faith is a gift. But the biggest injustice we've done with faith is we've added works to faith. We've turned faith into works, and faith has got to be a non-work because we get all that grace has given us through faith. And if we add works to faith, then we get rid of grace. Grace ain't no more grace, right? I know this is weird to your ears. It's weird to your ears; it's weird to mine. I mean, I spent, um, 30-something years, I didn't see it. I just—I couldn't see it. I just couldn't see it. My thing was always, "Well, but what—what do you do? But what do you do? Well, what do you do?" And I'm going around trying to find out, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? And basically, what I do is I receive. What do you do when somebody offers you a gift? You receive, right? You receive. Your faith is a now positive response. How do I respond to this—to these gifts that God is giving me? How do I respond? Grace is a positive response to I mean, uh, faith is a positive response to what grace has made available. I receive, I receive, I receive.

So what is the evidence that I've received what grace has made available to me? Rest. When you see me not worrying, when you see me not full of care, when you see me working—now, if you're going to labor, he says don't labor to try to get the promises. Don't labor to try to get rich. Don't labor to try to get healed. Don't labor to try to get, uh, your great business. He says labor to rest. Rest. Labor to rest. And so what is my faith doing? Where's my faith resting? Where's my faith rest? My faith is resting in the love of God because God loves me, then I know I have what he promised me because God loves me, so I'm not struggling. My faith is just resting in the love of God. So you—you—I wanted to know, where is faith resting? It's resting in the love of God because when he loves you and you know he loves you, then you know you can have what he says you can have. And so watch this. So it's easy to receive what grace has made available to you because you know—you know he loves you. Say out loud, "My faith rests in the love of God—in the love of God." See, the evidence that your faith is has been received as a gift is rest. So what happens when I see Christians that are working, working, working, working, working, working, and then you know what happens after you finish working, working, working? And if Miss Mercy brings it to pass, you're going to start boasting about all of the work you did to make it happen 'cause you still hadn't received it as a gift. Ooh, I'm going to get some letters. I ain't going to read them. Are y'all seeing this? We got a good way to go, but if you can start understanding true faith, you'll start seeing the glory and the manifestations in your life. And when people ask you how you did that, you're like, "I received it like a year ago and kind of forgot about it and yeah, you know, yeah, God's good, isn't he?" You can't even try to boast. And the Bible says if you're going to boast—come on, if you come on—let's look at it. Um, Proverbs 25:14 in the NLT. I have so much to share with you. I thought I finished the series last week, but I actually finished it today 'cause I had another thought. I needed to explain, uh, big faith, little faith, strong faith, and to show you there's no degrees. Your faith better be the same faith. It's patience all the way.  I'm not going to miss a week. I'm just so excited. I'm geeked up about this. My wife know I couldn't wait to get the Bible. Let me go to Bible study, man. I got a Bible study. I was willing to wear whatever she, you know, bought me. I just need to get to Bible study, man. Let's go, let's go. Bring it on. All right, now watch this.

"A person who promises a gift but doesn't give it—is like a cloud and a wind that brings no rain." 15. Patience can persuade a prince, and soft speech can break bones. Dude, we got to learn how to receive. We don't operate in this—in this position where, you know, we find ourselves in a situation where, uh, we can boast about it. I can't boast about none of this. Look at Jeremiah 9, uh, 23 and 24 in the NLT, and then I'll move on real quickly. Uh, Jeremiah 9:23 and 24. See, I have to rush you during our Bible study teaching 'cause that clock be getting zero quick. I'm like, dang, you know, it's like 14 minutes left. I'm like, I just got started, 14 minutes, what? All right.

Watch this, this is what the Lord says: don't let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. 24 But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me. They understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the Earth and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord, have spoken. You know, we're talking about boasting in the gifts, boasting in the gifts that you've received, and he says if you should boast, boast in the Lord. But what he is saying is do not boast in yourself. But the way we have operated in faith was also so we can boast in ourselves, even if we exaggerate it a little. You, I use my faith, and you know you actually got a $2 raise and "God gave me a $200 raise." But see, you don't see it as a lie because your, your, your faith, you're still believing for, and we don't, we don't know, like I told you. I don't know what to say to you sometimes because I go in, and I greet you like "Hey man, how you doing? You know this is the day the Lord hath made," and I'm thinking, dude, I just, I just say "Hey," just a, just a "Hey" back. You know, I'm speaking faith, or I mean, like I said, I met this lady at a restaurant one time, and she on crutches, and she had, bro, she had a cast on her, I think it was our, no, I think it was arm, well, cast somewhere, and I said, uh, I said, "Hey man, we apologize for your, your, your, your, your leg or whatever it was, and believing for a quick healing." "Oh ain't no wrong me, I'm, I'm good," I said, okay, so "No, no, no, my leg ain't broke." "Okay, so, all right," so if you and, and she called that faith, I call that, I call, you say what, fake. I love that I'll give you credit tonight; next week I'll say like I said that's fake. Yeah, I, I think she just answered a question because most people look at Christians like they're fake cuz we don't even know how to communicate right. "Hey, how you doing?" "Well, I broke my leg last week, but I believe I received the healing that God's given me by grace." Yeah, yeah, well, how y'all doing at home? "Well, we were close to getting a divorce, but praise God, he fixed it," instead of "How you and your wife doing?" "We doing great, fine, wonderful, we ain't never had an argument for as long as we've been married." Now you're lying, you follow what I'm saying. And so, and so people, that's kind of fake because we both, wow, now let me show you something real quick.

Here, Romans chapter 12 and 3, I mentioned this Sunday, go there. Romans chap 12:3 in the King James, let's see, I have time to deal with this, I think I will. All right, he said I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, that's a, that's the foundation for boasting, right? But let him think soberly according as God has dealt to every man, which means the woman as well, the measure of faith. All right, you see it again, God has dealt to every man what? God gave it to him, right? God gave it to him, right? God gave him the measure of faith. Now notice he didn't say God gave a measure of faith cuz that would indicate that there can be another degree or another measure of faith, so he didn't say God gave her a measure, gave him a measure, gave them a measure, so that means they might have different measures. But I think somehow how we did that as a church, we start looking at other people and say well, they must have a greater faith than I do, my faith must be weak, their faith must, must be strong. You ever heard that before? All right, let's, let's just get real for a moment, let's, let's have a vulnerable moment. Have you ever felt like there were people in this body of Christ that their faith was stronger than yours? And have you ever felt like when you were believing God for something and you didn't see it right away that your faith was weak? And so that indicates if you think like that that faith is dealt in different measures. Some people have weak faith, some people have strong faith, some people don't have any faith at all. But right here, that's what that would make God a liar because he said he dealt to every man the measure faith, just like in your physical body every person has a bicep muscle. Now when you flex, we don't see nothing, but that doesn't mean that you don't have a bicep muscle cuz every person has been dealt a bicep muscle. Well, every person has been dealt the same measure of faith just like everybody's got a bicep muscle. All right, now can we, can we look at this real quick? All right, go to Romans, uh, um, um, let's start back. Go to Matthew 14:22 and 23, and let's look at this in the King James. Now I'm going, I'm going to extend my time because I'm starting something here, I can't let him go home without getting all this. All right, it's going to rain in a minute anyway, so just all right, 22 And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him unto another side while he sent the multitudes away, 23 And when he had sent the multitude away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray, and when the evening was come, he was there alone. 24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, it was tossed with waves for the wind was contrary. Five, and in the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went unto them walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying it is a spirit, in other words, um, to break it down, they were, they were afraid because they thought it was a ghost. All right, it's a spirit, and they cried out for fear, 27 But straightway Jesus immediately spake unto them, saying be of good cheer, it's just me, don't be afraid. Next verse, and Peter answered, there go Peter, Peter answered him, and he said, Lord if that's really you, he really put Jesus's back against the wall, then allow me to come unto thee on the water. Now what else was Jesus going to say? It be not me, so there was only one thing he could do, next verse, he said and he said come cuz it's me, basically what he was saying is it's me come, and when Peter was come down off about out, uh, out of the ship, he walked on the water, he walked on the water, he walked on the water. A man born from a woman was walking on the water, somebody said Jesus was the only one that could walk on the water, but Peter walked on the water, amen, somebody said yeah, but he sunk, but he walked on the water before he sunk, that is not easy to do. I've tried it, it is just not an easy thing to do. All right, he said come and when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus, watch this but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, he began to sink, he cried saying Lord save me, and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hands, caught him.

I like to say it like this: and immediately Grace stretched forth his hands, caught him, and said unto him, "Oh now, now, now, check out what he said, 'Oh thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?'" Okay, all right, Jesus, I mean, you know, but bro, we ain't never seen no man walk on the water besides you, and he walked on the water. I don't care how many steps it was, he walked on the water, and you said he had little faith? Well, give me some little faith! He was saying something much more, folks. What he was saying was, "Oh ye of a short burst of faith." Have you ever had a burst of energy? It didn't last long. There was no patience there. Patience is consistently, constantly the same, and he said that was a short burst, you know, uh, "Oh ye of little faith." Basically, what he was saying was you were, you were, you had received what I said it come. You started walking on the water, watch this, you gave your attention to something else, lost focus, lost focus, right? It's a these little sudden visitations of fear, you know what I'm saying? And he doubted, and he had, he had a, they said Jesus said you have little faith. Now why would he say that? All right, let's look at this other one real quick. Luke 6:17 and 10, Luke 6:17 and 10, all right, and the Apostle said unto him, "Lord, increase our faith." Can that be done? Cuz we have people going around trying to get more faith. Okay, when he says you, you, you got the same measure of faith, so now we see all these measures. We see little, then we see the thing increase your faith. Let's read the rest of this. Verse 6, so likewise you said for likewise, uh, and the Lord said, if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you see what Jesus said? You're talking about increasing faith, and Jesus is going to say, what he was saying is no. Let me show you what a, a, a mustard seed can do. He said if you had a grain of mustard seed you might say to the sycamine tree, turn your neighbor, "You sick of yours, I'm sick of mine, sick of mine, sick of mine."

Okay, you are not saying that's a bad confession. "Oh okay, be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted into the sea and it should obey thee, but which of you have a servant plowing of, of" and this is important, "which of you, you have a servant plowing?" This is so important: plowing or feeding cattle will say unto him by and by, when he has come in from the field, go and sit down to meat, and I will not rather say unto him, "Make ready wherewith I may may su and g thyself and serve me till I have eaten and and drunken and afterwards thou shalt eat and and and drink." Does he thank the servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I TR not. "So likewise ye, when you shall have done all those things which are commanded you of you say we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty today." You know what he's saying? He was saying don't come off the field until the job's done, and it's the same thing where your faith is concerned. It doesn't stop, you don't come off the field, it ain't over with. You don't stop thanking God for all the, all the grace gifts he's given you. You keep doing it, you keep you, you're grateful and you're thankful. You don't come up, "Well, that's enough for the day so far." In both of these occasions, there was an interruption. Patience is consistently, constantly the same. There's an interruption of patience right here. If you're, if you're perfect, and, and, and, and if you're, if you walk in patience, you'll be perfect and tired and wanting nothing. Patience doesn't mean putting up with. Patience means remaining the same, and the question is, is does your faith, is your faith remaining the same? Are you the same as you got up this morning when you go to bed tomorrow, three months from now? Are you the same? No matter what happens, you're still, "I'm sound, I'm whole, I'm protected, I believe I receive the gifts, glory to God, I just thank God for the gift, I'm, I'm, I'm laboring to stay in that rest, I am healed." I am and I'm not coming off the field just cuz I, I feel differently or the report is differently or I ain't seen what I want to see right now. No, my faith is constantly, consistently the same.

Patience and faith are power twins. Let me show you this real, real quick, uh Hebrews 6:15, then I'll answer the question for you. Hebrews 6:15, he says, "And so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise." Huh, faith that stays the same. Yeah, look at this one: Hebrews 10:35 and 36, after patiently. Hebrews 10:35, 36, "Cast not away therefore your confidence which has a great recompense of reward." Confidence, I'm still confident about what, what I receive from, from grace through this faith. I'm not going to add any works to it. I believe I receive it. My faith is resting in the love of God. It's going to stay there. I'm going to stay there. I ain't changing what that's concerned. I know God loves me and therefore I know I have what God promised me and tomorrow I know God loves me, therefore I have what God promised me. Next, next year I know God loves me and I, I don't care what it look like or nothing, I don't care. I'm not, I ain't moving off of it. Look at this last one and then  I'll say some things. James 1:2-4, James 1:2-4, you're familiar with this. Look at verse 2, he says, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into different temptations, tests, and trials, knowing this, so you got to know something when you get in trouble, that the trying of your, of your what?

Your faith is on trial, but when your faith is on trial, employ patience." What does that mean? When my faith is on trial, I'm gonna keep my faith out there, I'm gonna employ patience. We're not changing, we're not changing.  I'm saved, I'm saved by grace, but I got it through faith. All right, 4, "But let patience have our, what? Perfect work, that you may be perfect and tire wanting nothing." How many of y'all ready to enter that place of wanting nothing? All right, now watch this. Patience is simply faith applied over a long period of time. Patience is simply faith applied over a long period of time, enduring faith. So your faith is weak when it's not in use, and your faith is strong when it's in use. Real simple. When is your faith weak and little? When it ain't being used, when you called it in off the field, when it's no longer patient. Your faith is strong when it's in use, when you keep it out there, you're still the same, you're consistently constantly the same. I am saved by grace. I get it through faith, which is a gift, and I'm not going to add any works or performance to this faith. By faith, I believe that I've received and I'm not calling that out of the field. You got to stay to work. I believe I received it and that's your response. Your response is when tribulation comes, "Well, I know I, you said you was healed last week by faith, but it seems like it's getting worse." See, I ain't changed my mind.

 I believe I receive. See, faith is a stance on what you believe you receive, and life is about trying to knock you off that stance, and you're like, "No, I have the gift of faith, praise God. I've received all that God has given unto me, and I'm not going to sweat to get it." And you're tempted to, you're tempted to do something to to to egg it along and bring it further down the road. You you want to do something, "Well, maybe if I'll fast for 3 days, then it'll break through," and then you'll go to a conference, and they say, "Five ways how to get your faith to work quicker than than than a year." But now, now you've destroyed Grace. I've seen more manifestations come from faith mistakes than I have from people who add their their works trying to get faith to produce what faith received already done. Faith received it already done. Faith received it already finished, and we took it off rest and we started adding stuff to it because we are conditioned in, "But you got to do something, but you got to do something, but you got to do something, but you got to do something, but you got to do something."

So what is faith based on what we've talked about here tonight? I'm going to give you some real shocking stuff here. Number one, faith is simply our positive response to God's grace. Faith is simply our positive response to God's grace. You see what grace is made available to you? You are responding in line with what grace is made. Faith is not something you do to get God to respond. Faith is not something something you do to get God to respond. Faith is simply your, my, positive response to what he's already done. Faith is not something you do to try to get God to respond. You know that's called dead works. Now you're trying to do something to deserve something.

Number two, faith doesn't move God. Let me just stop right there. Faith doesn't move God. Somebody's going nuts right now. That God, that man just sent up there, he's just lying. Faith doesn't move God, because I I was trained that my faith is going to move God, and if I'll do it, my faith will move God. Faith doesn't move God; it moves us into position to receive what God has already provided by grace. So faith moves us into a position of receiving what God has already made available through his grace. I thought my faith moves God. No, your faith should move you to get in a position to receive what God has already made. You see what happens when you start hearing all this religious stuff? You just start saying it, and you don't even think about it. You seriously, somebody said, somebody said, "My faith moves God." God done already moved. You you you think you can move God? You can't. How you move? You you ain't moving God. God's already moved. You got to get where he is. You got to receive what he's already done.

Number three, faith does not cause a positive response from God. Faith does not cause a positive response from God. Faith is your positive response to what God has already provided. Faith is your positive response to what God has already provided. And then the last one, this is a big one, faith only takes possession of what God has already provided by grace. Faith only takes possession, listen to this, faith only takes possession of what God has already provided by faith. If God hasn't already provided the thing, if God hadn't already provided it independent of your effort and prior to you needing it, then your faith can't make it happen. Your faith, faith is not making something. If if it's not already provided it, faith only takes possession of what God has already provided. Faith is not making nothing; faith is taking something. Remember, grace made it; faith what takes it.

Okay, so what is what's been our thinking about that? "I'm going to use my faith to make the promotion make that all." That stuff has already been provided for you. You're trying to use your faith to do what God's already done. If it hadn't already been provided before you needed it, prior to you needing it, faith can't make it, because grace makes. By grace are you delivered and saved and healed and prosperous and favored by grace. So you're trying to make, and that's the thing that really, oh, you talking about frustrating God. You're, you're trying to do what God's already done. You just won't receive it. You won't, you won't take it. You want to do like they did that got all this stuff started in Exodus 19:8, when Moses presented the law to the children, children of Israel, and, and, and Moses and, and the children of Israel responded like this: "We can do everything you ask." Are you serious? And God wanted to hear, "We can't do nothing without you." Yes, and we still doing the same thing today. We it, we're still doing the same thing today, and so we go to great lengths to try to figure out what's the secret.

Faith was the secret sauce. "Pastor, how did you do that? I believe I receive, I believe I receive." Oh, Father, I just thank you for most of my prayer time is, is praising and thanking God and quoting the promise that he made. "Father, I thank you that that I'm this," and, and imagine when I went through the three years and, and, and had the cancer and all that other stuff every day. "Father, I thank you, I believe I receive, I'm healed right now." I had that one devastating day when I went and just did that, and it just tried to knock my patience or my faith completely over because I was seeing some results, and then go back and I I had to recover real quick and say I still believe. I still believe. It didn't happen overnight, but that's why that patience, it wasn't time to take it off the field through the pain through the reports the operations I'm I mean and there it is I mean here it is you follow what I'm saying here it is it's here but it's not a dramatic Faith Life where you're doing all these weird things here's what God promised I receive it by faith I'm not going to add any performance to the it I'm not going to add any Works to it I'm going to be consistently the same and if something happens and you know it wasn't quite what I was doing I'm fine I'm like well I still receive it maybe it wasn't for this situation but you promised it so I receive it you you know better than I do I receive it.

I still receive. I receive. I'm delivered before I'm in bondage, amen. See, the first place your faith is going to show up is in your mouth, and it should. That's the first place. I show you believe in your heart the Lord Jes Jesus and confess with your mouth what you believe in your heart. Yeah, these principles that we've learned—I'm not trying to throw the principles away—I'm trying to get you to see it properly through the lens of Grace, and it requires you to get out the way and completely trust God. And you keep coming in with this, "I'm gonna do this, I'm strong in faith." Well, if you, if your faith is still out on the field, yeah, you are strong in faith, yeah, but so is every everybody else whose faith is still out there on the field working. But as soon as you dismiss that and and and and and and insert your effort into this life, oh well, you've destroyed—I mean, grace is no longer grace, grace is no longer grace.

And so my time's so gone, but I feel like we getting ready to rock with this thing, man, because see what's happening is, this is so interesting, what's happening is you're weighing what you have always heard with what I'm showing you in the Bible. Ain't that amazing? You can read it in the Bible, but even though reading in the Bible, I can say 2 plus 2 is four, and you can see 2 plus 2 is four, but if you came up all your life thinking that 2 + 2 is six, then I'm going to have to keep attacking that traditional way of thinking until you see 2 plus 2 is four. I got to get four apples and four bananas, and I got to get orange. I got to do everything to let you see. Other than that, you'll still be in blindness, and you won't be able to see this is not hard, but we we we got to do something that we can boast about. What can I do to boast? I tell you one thing: I gave that $20,000 last night, and after I gave that $20,000 last night, I got me a $500,000 raise. You want to know how I did that? Join my podcast, subscribe, and I'll tell you five ways to get what I got the way I got it.

Real people of faith don't have to do that. We walk every day possessed with the promises of God. The glory of God is on our lives every single day. Thank you. God is God is causing me to walk in a a spirit of ease and I'm concerned about some stuff I used to be concerned about. Oh, Lord Jesus, that meeting, that's a half-million-dollar budget. Well, I'm not praying fellowship with God; I'm praying out of fear and desperation. "God, where that money going to come from? Oh, Pastor is not 500,000 there." [Music] "600!" I start praying machine gun tongues. It's not like that, it's not like that. I'm serious. I get up there, and I mean, I spit, and I go to work, boy. I get off that floor as a puddle of spit, and I feel like I'm I'm getting something to happen. And then I get a cramp on my toe. Come on, y'all, wake up. See, Jesus said, "My yoke is easy, my burdens are light," and you you you still want to live by some laws. You want to give, you want me to give you 10 more commandments. 10 more commandments of how to get healed, 10 more commandments of how to prosper, 10 more commandments of how to get a better job, and you ain't no 10. Jesus has already, by his grace, given you everything that pertains to life and godliness, and he says you if you will receive it through the other gift called faith and not of your works and let that start working in you. I'll start bringing up out of you wisdom of what to do. I'll bring up out of you good works of what to do. I'll bring up out of you strategy of what to do. You don't need to do, you don't need to look for nothing to do. He will walk with you, talk with you, and the perfect picture is when you're walking on the water, and you sink, he'll pick you up, and y'all will walk through life together. It'll be grace in you walking through life together with a spirit of ease.

All right, uh, well I done hollered, I didn't mean to do that. Go back and read the scriptures again. I think this coming Sunday we're just going to spend all of our time on being free from performance-based religion. We got to be free from that. You know you supposed to be on the plane about 5 minutes ago. I figured if you ain't plan nothing, then I'm going to keep on talking. That zero ain't official. Oh, Father, thank you, just after, at at each session, just just deal with us, and even when my articulation may be a tad off, I just trust that you're speaking, that you're speaking in the hearts of people. And and I thank you, Lord, that we're going to learn how to live life and not having to add works to our faith because if our if our faith is not at rest, then our faith is not at work. Help us, help us to labor to stay in that rest and not struggle to try to prove to something. We're going to walk with you every day, and maybe things don't turn out exactly like we wanted them, but we just trust that you're going to they're going to turn out exactly how they needed to turn out. Hold on a minute, you know that's another thing too. We keep putting this thing on God where, you know, we turn in an order and, you know, it's kind of like you go order at a fast food place, and then they don't give you what you order. Then you, no no, that ain't that ain't how this work, that's not how this works. God is going to make sure you get what you need for how he wired you. This is not Burger King, "Have it your way," nor is God a Genie in a lamp where you like, "Come on, Jesus." If you really want to know the will of God, you would be willing to do what God tells you to do, even if it's something you don't want to do. You want the will of God, "Lord, show me your will." See, you want the will of God as long as it's something you want, but what if the will of God is is not quite lined up with what you want? But God knows your heart, and he's like, "Okay, let's see what we're going to do here. What I want you to do, I want you to do do this right here." "But but Lord..." "No, no, no, no, no. But Lord, no." Your faith is out there for it, and he knows exactly the path you got to take to get to where you're believing, but he also knows stuff that needs to be prepared where you're going, so you got to trust him. I would not, I promise you, I would not be teaching the series, I would not have wrote this series had I not been delivered from approval addiction. No way. I know too many people that believe contrary to what I believe, and I didn't want to hurt their feelings. I don't want them to be mad at me. I don't want if I had been delivered from approval addiction, there's no way I would have preached this now. I would not have been able to serve God, cuz when you're addicted to people's approval, you can't serve God.

So you see what I'm saying? Why we got to work this out? Cuz I'm saying stuff that's contradicting for some of you 20, 30, 40 years of what you have, and and and this is called breaking up the fallow ground, yes. And I can't do it just by talking. I got to show you scripture after scripture after scripture after scripture. I got to come in and preach it on Wednesday, I got to preach it on Sunday, I got to come back and preach it on Wednesday, I got to preach, and then hopefully in one of those sessions, you and the Holy Ghost will have a session, and and and he'll just open your eyes like, "Oh, I got it, I got it. Faith is not me working, faith is me receiving the work, the work finished." Did y'all hear that? Faith is me receiving the finished works, and that what Jesus said on the cross: "It is finished." Amen. Well, I feel kind of chatty tonight. I better get on off the stage. Somebody, "My God, is he going to ever shut up?" All right, I got him, you already gave us some scriptures, he's still talking. Praise God.