stop opposing yourself part 3 | 4Jun2023: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

stop opposing yourself part 3 | 4Jun2023: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Pastor West:
Okay. Well, good morning and welcome. Those of you joining us by Facebook or other means or audio at another time, We bless you. We're in a we're in a series in this summertime and school's out and people are traveling solo. I'm thinking about a series is that it's like a recipe. And if it has 12 ingredients and you weren't here for the first three and you come in at four when and if you go from 4 to 12, if there's 12 steps, your meatloaf probably won't taste the same as this one. If you're like, Oh, you're supposed to grease the pan. He's like, Oh, you need meat. Yeah, you need a meat. Yeah. You know, so there's things there. So it's kind of I mean, no one there thinks about it. Y'all don't think about it. But I do. Kind of frustrating when you really want to get something across the people that you know will change their life. Bless their life. But you just can't cover it all in one time. It's like going to Bible school and, you know, going to Bible school for two years. That's three and a half to four hours every day for five for five days, for two years. That's that's that's if you think about it from 830 til to noon every day for two years. And you would sit in and you would have different topics. You would go to this class for an hour and you'd walk down the hall and a bell rang and you'd go another topic and you would open up that and you have another instructor.

Pastor West:
And then you do that and you go do another one. And then you run, go home, eat your sandwich. If you had time, go work a regular job, then come home and do all your homework and just do that for two years. So you would compress a lot of information, you know, into two years. You didn't have time to study it out or walk it out or live it out, but you just you left with a lot of information. And that's what happens, I think, sometimes with Christians and churches that people they leave with information, but they never take the information and it never actually becomes a working knowledge to them that we just know things. And so the only way to the only way to know something is to master it. I mean, you know the old saying that, what is that jack of all trades and what master of none? In other words, you know how to do a little bit of a lot of things, but you don't. But you're not really skilled. They're not going to give you a certificate and say you're a master, you know, of this profession just because I mean, I always laugh at me every time the car tears up. I'll do it just on purpose. You know, something goes wrong. I'll pop the hood and I look at it and I'll just walk around like, uh huh, uh huh.

Pastor West:
I'm a guy one time. What's the matter? We think, what's wrong with us as well? He said, What do you see? I said, That's a motor. Okay, But see, I know who to call. Well, I don't know. You know, I don't. I wouldn't know how to fix a car inside or outside. I don't even know what Bondo looks like. Well, being in the floor business. I know. I know how you, you know, fix the low place in the floor. So I figured that's some form of bondo. But I know Bondo don't stay there forever. I know the parts didn't, so I don't know. Bondo was going to stay there for 30 more years. It may not, but we don't want to. Bondo this morning. We want to go to our our scripture. We've been reading from second Timothy chapter two and we'll go to verse. We'll just stay in the King James. If you don't have that, do the best you can. Or if they put it up, you can read from up here and we'll go over just a few things. But I want to hit on a whole different vein today. Are y'all ready? Y'all ready to to to increase in progress. How many you be willing to change if what you thought you were doing was right and then you found out it needs to change or be tweaked.

Pastor West:
Amen. I'm going to destroy some of my own teaching today. I'm going to tweak it just so that we're sometimes it's not altogether wrong, but we didn't see the other side of the mountain and people assumed you said this or meant this because you didn't say all of it. They left thinking it was just like this. And it's not that it's wrong always, but it's just like it's not it's not complete. And the Bible says we're complete in Christ in Ephesians chapter four, don't go there. It says, The purpose of the five fold ministry, you know, the pastor and the apostle and teacher and so on and so on, is to equip the church, equip the saints to do the work of the ministry. I'm called anointed to help equip you and others for us to do the work of the ministry. Then it went on to say that we that we as the body, we come to the fullness of through the equipping, we come to the fullness of the stature of the measure, not of the Apostle Paul, not of Peter and John. But we come to the fullness of Christ that we become a whole man because we are a new man. Now, that's a That sounds like a tall order, don't it? Jesus said first John four said Jesus. John said, as Jesus is, so are you in this life. First time I read that, I said that couldn't be right.

Pastor West:
I mean, that'll be in heaven. And you can read any translation you want to and it'll tell you as Jesus is. So are you now in this life. If you know who you are in this life, it won't be just because you got saved. That's where you start. But that's not. That's not the fullness. Everything that you need came in the moment you got saved. But that doesn't mean that you're experiencing all of it. I know I'm not experiencing all that God has. I mean, what's your. This is. Yes, this is no, this is like I don't know yet how many experienced all of it yet. No, no. Okay. Okay. I just make sure I was in the right place. All right. So second Timothy, chapter two. If you didn't find it now, just forget it. You won't find it. But it says in the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men apt to teach and be patient in meekness, instructing those who oppose himself. If God prevents your will, give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover them themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive at his will. So we we entire this stop opposing yourself. So Paul, is the is the is writing this epistle to his son in the faith, Timothy. And he's a young minister and apparently Timothy is getting some flack from people who his age or older, like who do you think you are? What do you know young as you are.

Pastor West:
And Paul, Paul in essence was saying, be kind to him, but pay him no attention. It has nothing to do with your age. Hmm. James, five, said, If you're sick, call for the elders of the church and let them pray the prayer of faith over you and the Lord. And the Lord. You know, no one with oil and the Lord will heal the sick. And if you've committed any sins, you're forgiven you. And people thought, well, the elders of the church must be people. That's the oldest in the church has nothing to do with being age. You could be 14 years old and be an elder if you know who you are. I mean, there's young, foolish people and there's old, foolish people. There's some people who get saved and they never grow at all. They're Christians. They're going they're going to heaven. But they might go to class for 20,000 years. The first 20,000 years they're there just to, you know, just when they get in the front door and it'll be awesome. It'll be a great class. And I'm sure we're all going to go to one. I'm looking forward to it, really am. I mean, Jesus is going to teach us. I mean, what's that? I mean, he's called the word, right? Jesus is the word. What's that going to be like when he stands up and the word opens the word? He says, I'm going to read from the book of me, and that'll be awesome, won't it? So we talked about it says, he said, instruct them.

Pastor West:
The people who are opposing themselves. Wow. Can you actually do that? Well, he said they need instructions because they're opposing themselves. If God prevents, you will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. They need to acknowledge the truth. This is why they're opposing themselves, that they may recover themselves. Out of the snare of the devil. Who the devil has taken them captive at his own will. I don't like anything about that. Being taken captive by the devil at his will. Because I'm opposed to me like Eric. Stop it. I mean, I'm opposing me, and he's having a hay day with me over here at his will. Uh uh, we played that long enough. Am I in the right place now? Can I just talk plain? Let me tell you what I did today, because this thing is so broad. I think I could teach it for six months, and I don't know if I'd even scratch it. So if I don't put boundaries, I know me. If I don't put boundaries on me, it could go everywhere. I know me. So I had to sit down and write something. And I had a big talk with myself where I got here and I said, You will stay with these notes today.

Pastor West:
It will help them, I said. And I started to walk away and I heard me say, Get back in the mirror. He wasn't paying attention. And I look back and I said, You listen here. You will read these notes and and it will help them to help you. Now go do what you're told. I said, Yes, sir. I said, By the way, you look pretty good there. Now, I didn't say that part, but anyway, so we didn't want to pose ourselves. So what does it mean to pose yourself? Well, pose means you're working against yourself, right? And so you can put this in anything you want to. I've been kind of teaching it in the area because I know a lot of people need a lot of help in the area of healing. But but you can pose yourself in any area, your mind, your emotions, your relationships, your money, your business, your calling. I mean, put it anywhere you need to. So if I say healing, I mean just say like, well, thank God I'm getting help. But at the same time, it's like, I'll put this anywhere I want to. It's like if I give you money, you could save it. You could go out to eat on it, you could buy clothes with it, you could put it in missions, you could put it anywhere you want to because money will spend. How do you figure that out? Oh, yeah, it will.

Pastor West:
I mean, you know, when I called Delta and I said, look, I'm willing to bring some missionaries. We're going to bring we want to bring a prophet from Wales. I said, Well, great. We're coming and going every day. And I said, Well, just send him on because he's a man of God. And they said, Well, we sure will. Is how much it cost. I said, Well, no, no, no, no, no. He's in the ministry. He's a prophet. And this is well, this is how much it costs to get a prophet to America. Oh, but, you know, money talks and money answers. Then when I give them that information, they says, no problem, sir. Stamp, the thing gets done. Man, I love that. Praise the Lord. So here we go. So let's just say. Let's just say because we're going to tweak this thing. Say we're accepting. A lie. That we don't know is a lie. You know, if you if you if you believe a lie, the truth, then what will you do with the truth? Because you've already rejected it, because you accepted the lie, because you was deceived to think something that was not true. Jesus said, You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. He didn't say religion would do it. He didn't say going to church would do it. He didn't say doing religious, quote activities would do it.

Pastor West:
He said, truth will set you free. Truth is not always easy. It really isn't. You know, some people say, well, you know, a pastor should be loving and caring and kind. I think that's all great characteristics. But they also should tell you the truth. Some people don't want to know the truth. I mean, I want to I want to be friendly and be a friend to you, but I'm not here to make a friend. And if I. If I don't tell you the truth so that we don't have any, you know, conflict, which I don't we don't really that I know of. But if I stand before him and say, well, I didn't really want to say it like that because, you know, if I said like that, someone probably would have said this. And Jesus, you have to understand, it was 2000 years and our culture has changed. And if I just say it that straightforward, I mean, people might have left. And I said, You understand, don't you? If the judgment. He said, Oh, yeah, yeah, that's okay. You think that's how to go? No. Jesus told the truth and it got him killed. And he was the only one. Right? Right. But that's what he came for. So the truth is not always. Truth is the most beneficial thing that you can have, but it's not always received by everyone. But Solomon said a wise person loves truth. A wise person loves correction.

Pastor West:
Amen. The the wise love to hang out with the wise. And they said the truth always increases me. So correct me every which way that you can. I mean, think about this question. I'm going to say something. Who could actually speak to you and change your mind about something that you are doing or might be doing or thinking about doing and you would actually not do it? I've almost met almost no one who does that. Of council people. So when they ask for council and but very few people in just my experience ever changed when they were so set on doing something. And then if it went the whole other way, they said, okay, well we're going to pray about that. And then they come back and said, We don't really understand, but we're just based on what you're saying here, we're going to we're going to heed the counsel for now. We'll take a certain amount of maturity to do that, put a lot of responsibility on me, but I take the responsibility off me and put it on him real fast because I am not the Lord. Y'all figured that out? Yeah. I'm not him. There's not. I don't know about you, but there is no book of Eric in there anywhere. But he talks about me in there all the time. Now go to Romans chapter six real quick. We have we have to see this with our eyes because we're just covering some ground, but then we're going to take off.

Pastor West:
Like a 747 off the runway. Oh, I'm sorry. Romans eight. Sorry, Grace. I didn't mean to. She's helping us. Okay, here we go. Romans eight, verse five. For they that are after flesh do mind the things of the flesh and they that are at the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because and thank God he tells us why. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. Because the carnal mind will is not subject to the law of God. And it can't be. That was a mouthful. So if you walk after the flesh, you do mind the flesh, you give attention to the flesh. Now the flesh. Let's define it. And let's let's put it in simple terms. The flesh is simply your physical senses. All five of them. That's you can say it 100 different ways, but the carnal mind and the carnal behavior is acting in believing and walking in the information that you have taken in all your life from your physical senses. If you make decisions based upon those, you're going to run into failure. If you make decisions based upon symptoms in your body, you can die from it too early. If you make decisions based on symptoms in your body before you get the truth, it won't be God prolonging your sickness to teach you something.

Pastor West:
God doesn't teach people with sickness. Would you teach your kid with sickness? And so we're better than God. These things that you hear all your life. Well, God's just teaching them something with that. Oh, God. Took them to because he needed an angel. We've all heard that. But there's no scripture for that. Did did you know that you're created in a much higher class than an angel? So if God takes a human off this earth, a born again believer makes you an angel. You just got demoted. I know. That's hard to say. We used to be a shaman. A shaman tissue years ago. You got to be over 25 or 30 years old. Remember this? But a shaman tissue used to have, like, little baby angels. You know, it was real soft. And then I would think about that when I'd hear people going to church and I was a kid, like, well, he took so and so just, you know, we prayed and it wasn't God's will. So God needed another angel. In my all my ignorance. I told a few people that years ago. I said, Well, why did God take my child? I said, I don't know. I mean, we I know we prayed and apparently it wasn't his will. So I guess God needed another angel. I remember someone telling that to some kids who both parents was gone. Both parents. And they were neither one of them.

Pastor West:
Even nine years old. One was four, one was eight and didn't have either parent. That was the was told the kid. But the kids end up hating God after a while. God needed your parents. So both of them are gone. And then you then you leave that with a with a with an eight year old. And you think they're going to love God the next day when they can't find mom or daddy forever? These things are, you know, they're hard to talk about. You know, to to express to people. You certainly don't do it at the funeral. But there's reasons they said, well, it happened for a reason. You know, some things happen because people do wrong things. If you walk if you walk out on the interstate just to see what will happen if something happened eventually, I mean, if you walk out there long enough, someone ain't gonna be able to stop. You know, if you run enough red lights, you know, probably Nathan will get some business. If it don't, total it out. If you know, because there are spiritual laws and if you if you violate spiritual laws long enough, then something's going to happen. I mean, God just put natural laws, in fact, in a spiritual sense, but just for an earth to exist, he had to put gravity here. I always said of gravity is is is just here within the United States, but it's not in Africa.

Pastor West:
Or if it's not in Canada, then that's not that's not a spiritual law of the earth. That's a phenomenon to one country. But gravity works everywhere. You say, well, what if but you have a one Baptist. It works. Well, but it may not work for me because I'm Catholic. Well, it works. It doesn't matter who you are. It's irrespective of your age or your beliefs or your IQ. Right. Gravity is what gravity is and does. So whether you believe it or not, and you go to a ten storey building and say, Well, I don't believe in gravity and jump off, well then you're going to believe somewhere before you pass out, hopefully, and hit the ground and die. You will be a believer somewhere because you won't float up because gravity works everywhere. See, faith works for everybody because Romans Chapter three says faith is a law. Oh, how about that? Faith is a law. The law of faith. Some say, well, people have someone has more faith and we need to pray for more faith. Jesus never taught you to pray for more faith. Never. When you get into pistols, Paul never tells anyone to have faith. Jesus did because he hadn't died yet. He was talking. He came as an Old Testament prophet. Jesus did. And he and he told people have faith. But in the New Testament, he don't tell you to have faith. Why? Because when you got born again, all the fruit of the spirit came into you.

Pastor West:
And faith is one of the fruit. He don't tell you to have what you have. I'd be like me saying, Hey, tray, in the morning, you ought to think about growing a beard. Now, he might. Could tell me that. Like, what's that? You know, But I wouldn't tell him in the morning. But he got to be a male and grow beard. That'd be stupid, wouldn't it? Right. You know why? Why? He already is. So you're already a believer. So why would I tell a believer to believe when he's a believer? I'd be like, Tell him. I said, you know, you ought to think about, you know, paying cars. Fixing cars. Well, that'd be foolish for the obvious reasons he already does. I been telling Mr. B you ought to take up mechanical, learn something about it. You know, done already did. I'll explain that for you. Those of you in Australia in another time or it's Alabama, it's just redneck stuff. So I'll do another idea. Well, I have already accomplished that. God has already done that. So. So you have all this. So it doesn't mean that your faith works as proficient as someone else. But Romans 12 three says God has given to you the measure of faith. Watch here. It didn't say a measure. It says the measure. He didn't measure out more than Billy Graham. And then give you, you know, 1/100 of Billy Graham.

Pastor West:
It's like when a baby is born, it has every organ that a full grown person does in a smaller body. Right. And the baby has just as many muscles as you do. They're just not developed. Some people have used their faith and they're developing their muscles like we were talking about Parker Namely, they're exercising their huge faith muscle that that I'm forming. No matter how this thing works, I'm formed to think, you know, why don't we just believe God? I mean, who knows? You know, we could go help people all around the world, but we have to, you know, we have to have somewhere to come back and live. And someone has to, you know, keep the water bill paid for us while we're gone. What's he going to cost, $100,000? Well, they ain't never made $100,000. They only been married, what, a year or 15 months or a year and a half? I don't think they've ever made $100,000. I don't mean to tell anyone's business, but I don't. I don't. Would you? Making 100,000. You got born again when you got born again or unborn again. And your first year when you're 19, 20, 23 years old. I wasn't. And so but so what do they do? They're taking their faith and they're exercising that muscle. So you have the measure of faith. Who's faith? His faith. So he didn't give you some kind of faith? Everything that Christ gave you was his.

Pastor West:
So he gave you his nature. His nature? He gave you his faith. Well, what will the faith of Christ do? Well, we'll just go back and read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you'll see what it will do. That's why he said the works that I do. Shall you do? You can't tell someone to go do the works that I do and don't give them the tools to work with. Does that make sense? I hope I say things that make sense sometimes. I don't want to be, you know, theological and methodical and just like, oh, thou knowest. Nous, nous, nous. And hitherto. And what's all that? I mean, you can't spend that at Winn Dixie. Just. Just, just. Just put it where people live. Mm hmm. Just. Just, you know where the rubber meets the road. Put this scripture in 2023in life where it is, and you'll find out this is the most current book, the oldest book on the planet. It's still the best selling. This is the best selling book in the world and has always been. And it's just as current now as it was when it came out. In those tomorrow. Knew you before you was. Before your mom and daddy got together. God knew you. You say, How does that work? I don't know. But you can ask him when you get there. Y'all are planning on going, right? Okay. Eric, get back in the mirror. Get back to your notes.

Pastor West:
Okay, I'm going to do that right now, so y'all have to listen a little bit faster. Here we go. Doo doo doo doo. I'm getting there. Praise the Lord. Here's the here's how I wrote this down yesterday. Why is my healing taking so long? I know no one's ever thought that. If you ever meet someone on the planet who thinks this, maybe you can help them with this. Why is my healing taking so long? Or why I said if it's not healing, put it in anything that you're praying about, believe in God for. But in this case, why is my healing taking so long? Have you ever thought that? Have you ever known someone who ever thought that? Well, in in actuality, the answer is in the question. Now here comes the truth. It's not always easy because a person who's still looking for their healing to take place and to have it has never believed God for healing yet. Oh, they've never actually received it yet. When I say received it, I don't mean they have all the everything feeling just like they want to. See. Healing is spiritual before it's physical. You can't. You don't receive a spiritual healing. You rent it from the physical to the spiritual. The flesh. The flesh. The five senses. Cannot we just read it? It can't. Please, God. It can't receive the flesh. Can't receive from the spirit because it's governed by the senses.

Pastor West:
The flesh can't receive something by faith because this information is just natural. Does that make sense? You, your body, your. The senses of your body can't receive something spiritual because it has no there's no inlet to it. It has no access to the spirit. Your body has no access to the spirit. It's all natural. So so when you're trying to interpret this book with your body, boy, it's going to be a mess. That's like putting a first grader in calculus and thinking, you know, we want you to ace the class. Probably not going to happen. They're not ready for that. So you. But God made you a spirit and he's a spirit. So you receive from him spiritually. Take that word and renew your mind so that you think like he thinks. Then your body. Then your body begins to take orders because it comes under. It comes under the. You're a spirit. He's a spirit. You have a soul. You have a mind. You have emotions. You have a physical body. But someone has to be in control. If you don't know who you are and you don't know what Jesus did and you have a physical body, when things go wrong, your body will feel like it's in control or your emotions will feel like they're in control or both, or your finances will grow crazy or your marriage will be all or whatever because you're processing people through natural thinking and means.

Pastor West:
So when God says you can't walk in the flesh and this is not pleasing to me because I didn't create you as a flesh person, the flesh person. One day when you leave this planet, you're going to leave the flesh here, aren't you? I mean, I asked you before. I mean, anyone mind getting a new body for eternity and leaving this one? I mean, God will come back and get this body, and he's going to. He's going to fix it up really good. You're going to like it. You're going to have it for eternity. I ain't never going to age at all. You won't have a body. You ain't never going to need no sleep. Just like Jesus. You never grow old, never be sick. You won't. No one will know what medication is. No one will go for any kind of treatment. No one will need no help getting along. No one will ever require sleep for eternity. You have the same spirit body as Jesus did. You'll be able to walk through walls, which will be fun. We'll be messing with people all through eternity, like walk through the wall, say, Boo, What time are we going to eat? That's pretty cool, right? So that's, that's that's in your future. Now watch here. So you you can wait a long time for to be healed. And you could wait too long. If you wait too long. Not understand the truth. You could leave the planet.

Pastor West:
Because people are still looking to the physical for the proof to be the evidence that they're looking at their bodies for proof that they're healed. Y'all hear what I'm saying? They're waiting on the manifestation. This is a good word of faith talk. I can say what I want to. I'm picking on me. They're waiting on the manifestation. That they may know in their mind that by his stripes they're healed. How many know that verse? That's not for to you. That by your stripes you're healed. So. But see, you can know that intellectually. And you know it. And actually, if I asked you, do you believe it? You'll say, Yeah, I believe it. You could you could know that and believe it and never get healed. I can't say it ain't playing that. I don't know how to say it any plainer. You could know it and believe it and still never receive healing. Can I go a little further? Okay. Claiming it. Possessing it. Confession. Possession. Speak to the mountain. Decree. Declare it. Name it and claim it. All of that when properly understood. Is correct when properly understood. With the improper understanding you're taking a you're taking a truth, but you're what we're still doing is we're still taking the truth, but we're still living it through through the physical senses and the physical mind and not living it in the New Covenant. So you subtract the grace of God. I'm really trusting the Holy Ghost to give me this so clear and plain that I want all of us to be able to leave here and say that that helped.

Pastor West:
So you can understand some things about the New Covenant and grace now than you could have years ago. True, because we've covered some ground for the last since 2011. But that doesn't mean that that's worked everywhere in your life. That just means you saw some things over here that changed your life. But it doesn't mean that the grace of God has multiplied, you know? Paul talked about the multifaceted place of of the grace of God will work in every area of life. But you have to treat you get healed by grace. You got Did you not get saved by grace? Well, God have a different method for healing you. He said, Now we're not going to use grace anymore and faith for that. We we got a different way. How many How many, How many? You get up every day and confess that you're saved. How many are confessing that there'll be enough oxygen for you to breathe today? How many? Who is married? Get up and confess you're married so that you'll stay married. Don't raise your hand. How many you married in your confession? You're not. Not kidding. This game. I mean, to my little faith, medium sized faith, Big faith. That's not really in the scripture. People just talk about that. Reinhart Buck, you used to say he said, America's own place to teach us that little faith, big faith.

Pastor West:
Faith is faith. That just means some people exercised it, as we said, more than others. In other words, Michelle and I have been married 40 years. 40 years. How about the Hansons? 60 years. Anybody top that today? Manager. How long have you been married? 31. Well, 31, 40 and 60 and then be. How long you been married? 28. So some of us have been married longer than others. Okay. The Hansons win, the Nobel Prize being 60 years right now. Who's been married less than three years. Less than two. Okay. So we got some less than two or less than one. Okay. Are they more married than your. But. Well, did you not understand the question? But they've been married 60 years. That may make them more married. Oh. Is everyone here saved? Am I more saved than you? Because I'm a pastor? Yeah, but I'm a five fold ministry. Oh, yeah? Yeah, it's a different brand. Yeah, but I received. Jesus Christ. The son of the living God. So am I more saved? No. So. So you're not getting up every day and confessing that you're saved and married and you got oxygen? Huh? How many get up every day and believe that the sun shines and it gets dark at night. And when I've used faith for that. So it looks like about the only thing that we confess over and over to get most time is healing or when we need something.

Pastor West:
When we don't even confess salvation of being married. Your identity. You don't even. Well, I don't care. I can't even use that anymore. Scratch that. Find something. There's less and less. You can use the example. Okay, I got to get off because, I mean, I want I want this to be aired, but, you know, boy girl that's in store in my world that's there for anything further than that, just email me and I may write you back and may not. So but here's the deal. So we're not even confessing these other things because they're so. But word confession. People who'd been taught the power of the spoken word. I think unknowingly are confessing things because they feel like they know by his stripes they are healed. They know that. They believe that they can give you other scriptures, too. They go, we go to Isaiah 53. The only reason why that you can know that you're saved and healed is Isaiah 53. Huh? He was wounded for our transgressions and he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace. Our peace was upon him. And by his stripes, we are healed. Isaiah prophesied that before Christ was even born into the earth. Matthew, 817 says this about that, and he's really quoting Isaiah. He said, who his own self fulfilled. And he quoted what he quoted what Isaiah said about the Jesus to come.

Pastor West:
First, Peter, 224 said, Who is own self bore our sins on he bore our sins. First Peter 224 said who? His own self. His own self. Who? Who is he? Who is he? Who? Jesus who? His own self bore our sins on his body on the tree that we now being dead to sin should live unto righteousness. By whose stripes ye were healed. Now see, Peter is talking about after the the birth, the life and the death and the cross and the whipping post. So Peter is pointing back to the cross. Isaiah is pointing to the one to come. Matthew is saying, We hear. So in the only way that you know that you're saved is because he was wounded for your transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement he came to, he came to die not just for your sins, but he came to die as your sin. Right? So. That's that's the evidence That's the proof that that now that when you receive Jesus, that you are born again and you become a new creation, But it's the same evidence that you're also healed. But we don't question the salvation because, I mean, what are you going to do with it? You don't you don't have a salvation card to float out of heaven, but you believe it, right? But, you know, it's when we leave here, we go there. When he comes, we go there either way.

Pastor West:
But we go there so we can just put that off there. But the same evidence is for your healing. But you have things in your body contrary to that that tells you that is not so. So you won't use your confession for anything that's already nailed down, so to speak. But we use it all day long. Wear it out for. For things that we don't experience or can't see or can't can't seem to get working in our body. But you can't say that if your faith person because if you say that, Oh my God, he said he didn't feel good for those days, maybe I don't feel good, you know, whatever. When I was 20, I didn't even know I had a body. When I was 30, I didn't kind of I know I had a body. Some were about mid 40s. I was like, What's that? And when I got in my 50s, I didn't say, What's that? It told me now that I went to the next decade, it talks all the time and I say, Shut up, tick a lot. Am I in the wrong room? Amen. I know you don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm just saying. But live on. Live on, baby. Keep these notes, Pop. Papa's gone. Keep these notes. Hallelujah. Now watch here, boy. I'm about to run out of time. So we're waiting on a manifestation, claiming it, quoting it hundreds of thousands of times over and over, but still not experiencing the benefit, quoting the scriptures.

Pastor West:
Now, when I quoted the scriptures, they encouraged me, even though sometimes I wasn't even experiencing the healing but the scriptures. I would quote them sometime hundreds of times, thousands of times without the experience. But they would encourage me. And here's why I believe it encouraged me, because the spirit it wasn't the interpretation that I was putting on it. The spirit was encouraged me because of the truth of what the Scripture was. Amen. Now, how I now how I interpreted it or lived it out. So I would get encouraged to say these things. But it was like endurance. It was like, how long can we do this and for how long? You're waiting for someone anointed to come by who's got a healing ministry or whatever. You're a special time. And then other people who aren't taught as well in the scripture are thinking, Well, God has this time now, not there is no time to be healed for something he died for. Some things do work that way, but everything that he did in his redemptive work, it belongs to you right now. Amen. Amen. I know people all over the world who's been healed of things that they should have died from and were dying from. And then when they found out why they were healed, they thought, well, I've been sick for four years for no reason until I found this out.

Pastor West:
And when I found that out, this thing left in my body in a few minutes or a few days. It wasn't God's time. They just didn't understand the truth. Can I say that? Amen. Amen. Amen. It's just like someone sometimes they approach me because they think I'm this and that and I minister like, like someone would come around and no cost and say, I'm sorry. It's like, well, you think I'm going to melt or something because you cussed. I mean, it's like, you know, I'm just I was born in Detroit, Michigan. They said it was a boy. You know, it was January 9th. Parents said the car barely cranked. It could have been born. That had been terrible. You know, at home in a car that wouldn't crank and Detroit and, you know, had sisters and brothers. And we fought and fought and had fun and whatever. And Barbara's though. So she you know, she just controlled us for so many years. She pinched our cheeks off. I mean, she's like this me and Chris, you know, Chris left home because of it. Not kidding. Just kidding. And we were you know, and I hate to say it, but, you know, during the summer, I got bored. And so I picked on George. She was three years younger than me and she was sucked her thumb too long. So I figured I waited until no one was there. I made sure my parents at work and I decided I'd kill her one day of sucking her thumb.

Pastor West:
This is like it's too long. I said It's going to be bucked out and it's just looking pathetic at your age. So I threatened her if she told mother or dad, You know what I did? Because I knew. I knew what my mother would do to me. She just I wouldn't existed probably. But I sprayed stuff on her finger. I dipped it in stuff, and I sprayed bug spray, red perfume, everything soap, and then stuck it in her mouth. And that closed her mouth up and made her stand out and she's crying, whatever. And I said, Now, do you like sucking your thumbs? She said, No. I said, So don't ever do it again or I'm going to do this tomorrow. If you tell mom I'll beat you, I'll beat you. Daylights out of you. She thought I guess she thought it out and told Mommy anyway. And I got the daylights beat out of me. So I remember we had a tie, you know, the tie powder box. And I put her hand down there and had all the, you know, the powder. And then I sprayed raid on it and Windex and everything I could find and. And I said, Now suck that. Now stop sucking your thumb. Grow up. Well, I've been I've been really called to try to help people for a long time. It's just the Lord wouldn't sit, you know, he couldn't turn me loose because my methods were kind of questionable.

Pastor West:
I suppose. I suppose. But I mean. Right. I mean. Right. I really do. So. So. So the scriptures encourage me, but it's not necessarily the understanding, the interpretation that the Holy Spirit was was saying. That's right. The intellectual carnal mind. Now, listen. The intellectual. You know, the the. What does it say? We're talking about Stop opposing yourself. The carnal mind can't please God. It can't receive. The carnal mind can't receive nothing spiritual. It's carnal. Carnal just means like if you go to a Mexican restaurant and you order What? Chili con carne. What is chili Con carne? It's what Chili with meat. The carnal mind is meat. Flesh. We can only say, Well, you're a cardinal, so you're a meathead. It's just it's just you're making all your you're making all your decisions based on your knowledge. And that together is not always bad because you live in a natural world. And sometimes you, you know, two plus two is four spiritually or physically is still four. Right. So we use that. But spiritually, he says, the carnal mind, the natural information is enmity. It doesn't mean you're God's enemy, it just means it's in opposition to God. Because God is not dealing with you by math or 24 hours a day. God does not change his word because your kidneys doesn't do something. I said, Well, you know, I have to take some scriptures out there because their kidneys won't work.

Pastor West:
Well, first off, you're not a kidney. Mhm. Okay, Stick to the lesson. Here we go. So listen this. So we can mistakenly define healing. By the absence of symptoms. We can mistakenly define healing by the absence of symptoms. Oh, my. Are you there? Maybe someone's still struggling with that. If you were to ask people who are taught in faith, do you believe you're healed on this condition, they will say yes, of course. And quote first, Peter 224 or Hebrews 11 one and but yet still do not have the experience of the healing. Now, I have about ten minutes and I want to cover this, all these things on the website. Now right can be will be in a PDF within a day or two or whatever. So you can go back to, you can listen to the audio, you can go back and watch Facebook. But if you go to the website, you can you'll see a place that is there that you can tap on it. And everything said today will be in will be in a. Format that you can read. I don't know if you can print it off or not, but you can't. You can print it off. So we've got a program now to where you can just go on there and print the whole sermon off. Would that help? If you can't write everything down.

Pastor West:
Okay, So let's talk about the words and why we're using them. Because I don't want you to leave here thinking, Well, he's saying the words aren't. No, no, no. I'm not saying that at all. I'm talking about the method of why we use them, how we use them. So sometimes we activate words because we're trying to produce results. And are you hearing what I'm saying? Sometimes we're using the words that we understand about faith and the authority of the words, but we're trying to produce a result. And it's important to note that the words can work for us and against us. True. But it's not just the speaking of the word itself. Many of us have thought have thought that if we if we're sick and I repeated healing scriptures enough such as first Peter 224 which is so important and to many of you all with with the understanding of that. But there has been a disconnect because results were not happening. The understanding I had was my speaking those words repeatedly would take me to a destination or a desired result. You know, because I know the same verses you all know. You all know the same verses. I know how many you believe that Proverbs 1821 that says death and life is in the power of your tongue. Amen. That's true. How about Proverbs 1218 says the tongue of the wise promotes healing or health. Wow. How many know Mark? 1124 says speak to the mountain and it shall be removed.

Pastor West:
Is that true? Yes. But people have done all this and not had results. Is God wrong? Is God holding back? Is God not keeping his word? Mhm. Much of this is taught puts much of this that's taught puts the burden of your healing and deliverance on you. And what you say. But it puts confession and the burden of the result on you. Was was the burden of salvation on you? No. Oh, so this is so we're going to put healing in a whole different category. Now we're going to put it on us because you got saved by grace through faith. But. But healing. We're going to do it another way. You understand that? I'm not talking about not speaking the word, but I'm talking about the method and the motive of why we're doing it. So what I want to share with you today is that, yes, words are very important. I do mean very important. But what I want to stress even more, this is just my notes. Write them down yesterday. Is what makes these words effective. What actually activates those words we are speaking to produce the fruit or the result that we think that we're saying them to get. We should never use our experience or someone else's experience to make doctrine or explain the word. You have to use the Word of God and the integrity of that word, and that has to be our understanding.

Pastor West:
You can't use your experience unless your experience lines up with the Word of God. Now without going there. This is. You're all aware of the scripture, I'm sure. But if not, this is a scripture that you ought to keep around you all the time. And it's just one. It's just one page. There's not chapters. There's just one page, Philemon or Philemon or I call it filet mignon, verse six. And where he says. He's not just saying, he said here to acknowledge the good things in you, in Christ. In other words, what he says. Philemon said this in verse six. He said that the communication of your faith. Your faith will become effectual. When you begin to acknowledge the good things which are in you. In Christ Jesus. Now think about that. The communication of your faith will become effectual. You want your faith to be effective. It's effective when you acknowledge the good thing which is in you, in Christ Jesus. Now, where do you see anything in there about you doing anything other than acknowledging something? Do you Do you see you. It works good when you confess something 7500 times. No, he said, acknowledge the good thing. Which is where in you? Because we cannot realize we're doing it. But we can confess something because we are your five senses. We we don't have this. We don't feel good. So we're we know things. So we start speaking these things.

Pastor West:
But what we don't realize is we've mistakenly put them out there. So we think that if we can hear, we think that if we speak them long enough because we believe them and that word is true, that somehow some unknown amount, no one knows the amount of that. If we speak them long enough, it'll eventually tip the scale and slide by slide down into your life. I don't a lot of ways to say it, but that's just saying, did you get saved that way? Asking the Lord over and over and over and over and over to save you. I did. To stay saved as a kid and teenager. I've saved unsaved and I saved unsaved saved. I mean, I. You know, make mistakes. Thought I was not saved. Like, you know, y'all didn't do this, but I made deals with God all the time. Oh, God. If you just get me out of this. Oh, I'll never do this again. Oh, God, please. Oh, God. I mean, hail. Hail stayed hot on me all the time. Every little thing. I thought that he was mad or I lost my salvation. Or they would tell you that you need to come to rededicate your life because you. You walked away from God and now he's turned his back on you. Everyone I've ever heard that story. It's all lies from hell. You have a bit of. They didn't know it, but you know.

Pastor West:
And just like there's things we didn't know and we tell people. But that's wrong. God's not confused. He didn't put his nature in here and then go inside of your spirit, rip it out and put it back in and rip your spirit out and put it back in and rip your spirit out and come back in and rip your spirit out. Put his righteousness in. Rip it out. You know, you made a mistake. Rip it. He sent angels down there. He says, we're going to be ripping and tearing all day, boss. So, I mean, you ought to read the prodigal son and find out that God ain't near as moved by this as you are. That's right. I mean, you think God's you think God's really surprised when you make mistakes and sin? It's like, I can't hardly believe it myself. And I'm God. I know it upsets the preacher a whole lot. I remember when it used to upset me a whole lot. He says, Well, you just preach grace too much. You're going to give him a license to sin. And you know how we always say that? I said They were saying, Without no license, I ain't giving no license. They didn't ever come to me. Sir, can I get a permit to sin or a license? When you preach the grace message, it's so good. And that's why that's why pastors don't want to preach it, because they say if you tell people that God's not going to pay them back or God, God ain't paying you back.

Pastor West:
But but if you so you do reap because like gravity works, if you so you do reap. I think God paying you back. You're just sowing. But if you think God's holding it against you and keeping record, you're wrong. You don't have scripture for it. You think you have scripture for it. Like I used to think I had scripture for it. I was wrong. I was in the wrong covenant. But get in the right covenant. You'll find out that you think over here he's mad in a bad mood. Then you find out he's in a good mood all the time. And not surprised. But when if you if you remove the law which has been removed, you say, well, if you just tell people that, he says they'll they'll just do all kinds of things. Well, all that means what you just said, All you really means is when you remove the penalty, you'll find out what's in their heart. If they would get the speed limit of 65, you would know what I really think. Just sometimes it don't work. There are some people went ahead and did it anyway. Sometimes they get caught, sometimes they don't. I got caught one time going 98 miles an hour. And I thought, what am I going to say? And so I just told him the truth. And he said, I just come back from Mississippi, went to a meeting.

Pastor West:
I was ready to get home. I was in a Suburban had. But, you know, I found out it had a governor on it. The hunters, if you go hunt it, it stopped. So I stayed at 98 and he pulled me over and he says, I want just like to know why in the world for what reason? At 130 in the morning, why in the world would you be going 98 miles an hour? He said, Well, just just tell me the truth. I said, Well, I will. I'll just say true. I said I wanted to go 100, but if I do, this car will cut off so I can just come here, right, right below it. And he said. He was so impressed with me telling the truth that he just wrote me a warning. He said, Would you slow it down? I said, I will. And that's the truth. And I went down to 95 because I was still in a hurry. I mean, after I left a while. Don't do this lecture. I'll take that car away. You can't have a car tied in your name at 16. So he said to acknowledge the good things right in you acknowledge means a full understanding. So when you acknowledge the good things in you means you come to a full understanding. It's not just an intellectual understanding or a mental assent or a nod to it.

Pastor West:
Like, okay, okay, okay. It's where your heart knows and embraces the truth when you're faced with all contradictory facts and feelings. Now, notice that Scripture said the communication of your faith. You remember that part? If you do some study on that, you'll find out it's it's also the word communion. Do you understand what communion is? The communion. Or you could say, what are you in communion with? You know, when we talk about confessing the word, which is all through the scripture, confess, just this is all it means. It means to say the same thing. So when you're confessing the word, you're just agreeing with God and saying the same thing about you that he says about you. When he says you're the righteousness of God and you confess that you're just saying, I agree with you, I'm forgiven and I'm the righteousness of God. When it's just by his stripes, you're healed. You're confessing that because you're just agreeing with the word. You're agreeing with the spirit of God. What he said, that's why you're confessing it. But you should be confessing it because you are not trying to make it so. The only reason why you do that is because you have a body and you feel things. So your body says you're not healed, you're sick, you're in pain. The x rays and the doctor says this you're in trouble. And because you don't feel better, we turn confession into a work into a instead of a grace.

Pastor West:
And we somehow repeatedly say things over and over and over, actually really believe in it and sometimes have seen it healing so many times in our own body or have laid hands on people and seen them heal. But then we're not receiving healing. But the problem is, is because you've taken it and you've put it into a work and it's not a work, it's a grace. It's a settled issue. Amen. Because the only way you could be healed was by his stripes. You were healed, and he's not going to come back and be beaten again. Amen. How could you be forgiven? He had to go to the cross. You think you can talk him in to come down and do nothing again? No. So he's doing nothing about healing and nothing about saving. He's just waiting for you To receive what? He's dead already. Past tense. Done. So when your body says this is this and this is so. And sometimes you can have fear of these things, and I'm running out of time. So if I go too far, you'll quit listening. And I know that. So I'll stop here. It'll take me 20 minutes to finish. But I can't do that. I'll do it Wednesday night, so. Don't raise your hand, but sometimes you can have some things alarming going on in your life. Like I said, you don't have to put this on and put it anywhere.

Pastor West:
But if you have something alarming going on in your body, don't raise your hand. But have you ever just kind of felt a little anxiety about that and a little fear about that, even though that you believe healing? I'm trying to say this so many ways. You have to see it. You have to. If I could just say it, if I could just, you know, put another garnish on the plate, It's it's still you know, it's still, you know, chicken and broccoli and whatever. And I'm just turning it around and just rearranging things. That's all I'm doing. But if you begin to confess the word because you're afraid or in fear. Then you still. See you. What's your motive? What is the motivation of your confessing it now? Your confession. Because you're afraid. Because the symptoms are alarming. The x ray was alarming. The doctor's report was alarming. And now you're beefing it up, so to speak, because this is not a good thing. And two of your relatives died this way. So now you begin to confess the word which you wouldn't do for salvation, which you wouldn't do if you're married, which you wouldn't do for oxygen, which you wouldn't do for food for the day. I mean, how many of you got up this morning and confessed to God that you would have food to eat today? None of us did. We don't even think about it because we will. So why do we put healing in a whole different category by itself? It's because your body is doing the talking and you're letting symptoms make the decisions for your life because you feel that you can't do a salvation because you said, Well, I'm leaving, I'm going there.

Pastor West:
And that's sad. There's nothing to deal with about that. But in the physical senses and the body and the flesh, the flesh has a voice and it talks. So Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90. And they've been they've been carrying this promise around for 24 years. And Hebrews four said Abraham just decided to believe the promise. Let's go there. I'll finish there real quick. Can I take three minutes? Three minutes. Go to Romans chapter four real quick and go to verse 13. This will. This will bless us going out. Okay, here we go. Romans 413. This Bible was barely together anymore. But let's say if your Bibles is not a wreck, your life probably is. And if it if it is a wreck, you know? So I'm going to keep this wrecked up Bible because my life's in better shape. All right. Now, watch here. I'm trying to kill two things. What I'm trying to kill is quit trying to work for what's already yours. Amen. Amen. You can't earn it. You can't. I mean, say, I don't have to teach you any longer about. You can't earn salvation. You know that, right? You can't earn healing either.

Pastor West:
Boy, I'm going to get this as plain as I can right now. If I quit pastoring, don't ever confess the word. Don't ever read the Bible again. Don't ever give a penny. Don't ever even come to church. Rest of my life healing belongs to me. It ain't nothing nobody can do about it. I'm just as saved as the Pope. I don't even know if he's saved, actually. But anyway, so I don't want to compare myself to the Pope. God bless you. But, I mean, that was a terrible comparison for me. I don't know where you are. So the promise that he should be the heir of the world to about Abraham. Oh, me. I'm troubled. Was not to. What? Are you all seeing it? You all read it for the promise that he should be the heir of the world. Y'all ready with me? Was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. The promise that God gave Abraham to be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law or through works, or through doing deeds or through keeping rules and regulations. I mean, here's a man who could be the heir of the world by not keeping rules. Now, here's the real deal, because we get excited about Grace and say thank God we never we know under the law more. Well, look, you actually never were your energy.

Pastor West:
The law was the Mosaic law was to the Jews. I mean, you Jewish. Some of you might be. And if you are, that's that's really great news. But you were never under the law. Abraham was never under the law. The law came way after Abraham. And God says, I'm going to bring this because he said, this is a shadow of what is to come. And when Christ comes, he will fill the law, jot and tittle. Christ fulfilled all the law for you and put it down to your credit like you did it and you didn't do it. The Lord worked for 40 or 80 hours a week and you got paid and you didn't even show up. How do you not like him? Well, I don't know if I'm ready to give my life to God. Are you an idiot? I mean, look what he does. So can we see it one more time for the promise that that Abraham would be the heir of the world was not given to him or to his seed, us, his natural seed and spiritual seed through keeping the law. But through the righteousness of faith. So God preached the gospel to Abraham before there was for the gospel could become. And Abraham believed it. And God said, okay, here's how it works in the New Covenant. Here's the gospel. What I say is right. If you believe that, that makes you right with me, so we'll call you righteous.

Pastor West:
If you believe God, he'll say, That's right. Now let's just call you right now your righteous, which just means you are right. That's why you see terms like Justified. You're justified. Which means you have been acquitted of sin. You've been acquitted of all wrongdoing. There's no record on you any longer. Not only are you, you know, you're not even on probation now. Your mother in law and your brother in law, they may hold you at arm's length the rest of your life, but the Lord don't even have papers on you no more. There's no probation officer to work with. Now, there's one who thinks he is. He's called the accuser of the Brethren. That Satan. He thinks he's your probation officer. Boy, I saw what you did Thursday. You broke probation. I ain't on probation, fool. Yes, sir. You ought to go back and find out where he says. My. My foot treads upon your head. Does that feel right? Because I'm right. Yeah. And I'm wearing boots to tread upon serpents and scorpions. And over all the power of the enemy. Even when I made a mistake. Amen. Amen. What are you going to do with that? You said about preachers don't want to preach this. You take the limits off and people be driving like. No, they might for a while. But when they find out about the goodness of God, the goodness of God don't make you want to go smoke marijuana and take dope.

Pastor West:
I mean, you might do it for a while. That's what I mean. It wouldn't bother me at all if they come in and they want to come in high for a while, as long as they ain't making noise. I mean, they go to sleep. I'll just lay them down, let them lay across the seat, and I'll still be speaking their spirit. If they don't want to, they don't. They miss often time one of us go back there and they'll decide for them to take something out. And it's like, Man, you're good. Go home. I'm not like most preachers. I understand. I'm just forget the preaching part. Now watch you verse 17 as it is written. Same chapter. Romans 417. As it is written. God said, I have made you a father of many nations. Now, how many kids does Abraham and Sarah have when he hasn't said this? I have none. That's. I have four. And they're not all here. But, I mean, if you could find them, I have four. I can prove it. The Lord is telling Abraham, I made you a father of many nations. He don't even have a kid. God talks crazy talk. There is no kid. These people are old. Sarah was bearing all her life, could even have children. And you talking to 190 years old. Going to get together and conceive and have birth. But see, God doesn't say you'll have a child.

Pastor West:
He says, I've already made you the father of many nations. And. And he conceived yet. What is this? It's called the Promise. Before whom he believed he is doing the believing now. Abraham. Even God who quickens, which means made alive what was dead in his body. And then God called the things that be not as though. As though they were. So faith will call something that you can't see, that you say, Where is your money for the light bill? It looked like it'd be not, but I've called so it actually be. Well, where's it at? You mean you're saying you got things you can't show us? Uh huh. Well, you ain't got them. Yes, I do. Well, they be where they don't be where you can see them. They be where I can believe them. Amen. When you get a summons to court, that's what he called things that be not the called in the Strong's concordance that uses the word summons. If you get summons the court they're expecting for you to show up. If you don't show up, they're going. They're going. They're going to look for you. When God calls summons, something to come into being. If it don't show up, it'd be in trouble. So when you speak God's word and you call and you summons it to come forth, you're not asking. You're not asking. You're telling. You're confessing because you're agreeing with God.

Pastor West:
But I'm not confessing to make it work because it already is. No matter what my body is telling me. Huh? Y'all see this? Okay. We're almost to keep on going. Who? Against Hope. Yeah. 190 years old. No kid who against hope. Natural hope. They believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. According to what? So he didn't have a kid and he has no hope of having a kid, naturally. But he's going to believe in hope anyway. This is your spiritual father. Your spiritual father believed this. According he believed it. According to what? Because physically he was still pretty good shape. Sara was still pretty. What was the basis of his faith upon himself? His physical condition because they have a kid for 20 something years, but they finally changed their mind to believe what was spoken, which was so shall thy seed be, keep on going. And being not weak in faith. Here we go. Oh, here it is. Abraham would not consider his body. Are you considering yours? Oh, Abraham would not consider even his body that was now dead. When he was 100 years old. Neither Yet the death of Sarah's womb kept going. Please. He would not even stagger at the promise of God through unbelief. But he was strong in faith, giving glory to God. A little bit more. I think he was fully persuaded that what God promised God was watch here. I know you know this, but watch it. Abraham was fully persuaded that what he had promised. He promised.

Speaker2:
He. Who's he? Oh.

Pastor West:
Was able to perform. Who's doing the performing? Who gave the promise? But someone's got to believe it. So you got saved. That's how you get healed. That's how you live. That's how you live in divine health. Yeah, but the my body. Yeah. Is in opposition. Stop opposing yourself. That he who the devil at his own will takes you as his own will. I hate that. The devil at his own will will take you and mess with you at his own will. Paul said you have to teach them. Give them the knowledge that they need to find out who they are because the devil they are posing themselves. They're trying to bring something from the spirit through their physical senses. And it can't happen. And you're thinking that you're just waiting on God to do something. And if you just keep on waiting and believing God and the right person prays for you and they put oil all over you and you get elder so-and-so and deacon so-and-so and so-and-so and hotshot comes in from whatever, whatever. You never get the spirit to flow through a physical pipe. You can't get water in the ground to come to your house in a controlled manner if it's not controlled in a pipe or some type of conduit or a hose or something. It's just everywhere called water the spirit. But when you hook in to the water, whether it's through a PVC pipe or whatever it is, you're now hooked into the you're hooked into the the substance itself.

Pastor West:
And you brought it into being through the spirit. No longer confess the word out of fear. No longer confess the word to get to a place to where you're trying to get to a place that when you say it enough and you just get your believing enough, and if you just, you know, get your hopes up enough and you get your expectation up enough, somehow you'll tip the scales and it'll happen. And don't tell me we ain't never done that before. Me being the president. But how about just come to the place where the blessed God, This is what it is? Then now the spirit can flow into the physical being and to the mind, to the emotions and to the life and restore that which is missing, that which is broken, that which needs healing, that which needs to be restored in you, whether it takes two minutes, 20 minutes or 20 more days. Choose not to consider your own thoughts or your own body. Do not let your body give the voice. Do not let it cast the vote and decide how this thing works. I am trying to say this so many different ways that you have to get one of them. Amen. Abraham couldn't do anything about having a child. He's 100 years old. Well, you ought to go to the nursing home sometime and say, be a husband and wife from there.

Pastor West:
And if you had a husband, wife and one's a hunter. And I said, Y'all ever thought about having any more children? Huh? Y'all ever thought about having any more children? He hears and he says, Hey, baby, I think they ought have been putting him in here. Instead of us thinking like that. That's what actually happened. And he's the father of your faith. See they got to where physically there was no way they could do it. So they had to depend on God because they can't do it. And Abraham says, Why don't we just. Why don't we just believe God? Amen. I mean, what do we stand to lose? We already got the problem. So they just decided to quit considering their body and their age. And I just believed God that God would perform in them what he said about them. That that the communication of your faith, who you're in communion with, who you're in fellowship with, what you're in communion with, what your communication, what you are in harmony with. You begin to acknowledge that the truth. And let the truth itself sets you free. Do not use God's word and turn it into a work. Trying to make what God said work. You didn't start that way in salvation. It won't work any other way. And you're opposing. We're opposing ourselves and we're opposing the work of the holy. Of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.

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Stop Opposing Yourself Part 2 | 28May2023: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Stop Opposing Yourself Part 2 | 28May2023: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Pastor West:
About this weekend. So we want to remember that this morning that as we remember those always not of those who are serving today, but those who have served our country faithfully for the years. We won't know all of them, but we owe we owe a debt to every one of them. Amen. And for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. For their country. It's more than a barbecue. It's more than a three day vacation. It's much more than that. We're talking about the ultimate sacrifice of the blood of our savior. Amen. But thank God, as many problems in this country has. And it does, and it's changed a whole lot. And there's things happening that we we don't like. But if you go visit some other countries, if you go visit a few other nations, you can still come back and say, thank God I'm an American. Amen. So if you have served or you have family that served, we we thank you for your service. And you may have family members who gave their life and we want you to remember them. And so, Father, we just bless you this morning. We thank you, Lord, that your hands are and your good hand is upon these United States of America. We thank you, Father God, for the privilege that we have to be citizens of this nation. You said blessed is the nation whose God is their Lord. So, Father, we pray for every individual, every family, everyone who has lost a loved one, Father God, who has given their life as a sacrifice for the freedom of this country. We thank you, Lord, that we're still in a place where freedom reigns. We thank you, Father God, that we only reign because we reign with you. We only reign because Jesus gave his life and gave his blood. But we remember these families. We lift them up. We pray peace and comfort upon their hearts today. And we thank you for all your goodness in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. We're up and going on Facebook and YouTube, and that's the way we do around here. So I welcome you all and welcome those who are watching.

Pastor West:
We we do that live simultaneously on Facebook and YouTube. And then we after about a day or however long it takes to put it up, we we do an audio format into 40 different countries. We have an active listening audience. Every time that we say hello, we have an active listening audience around the world of 1100 people at this time. So, so those of you in the balcony and the overflow room and those of you who are not at the beach, ha ha, it's going to be a good day. Last week we talked about I'm always looking for title names, but I don't know, that's not my specialty. But last week we titled it Stop Opposing Yourself, Stop Opposing Yourself. And I would like to build on that. I don't know if it'll go one, two, three, 4 or 5 or will be three today. We certainly can't say it all, won't try to say it all, but I want you to go to second Timothy chapter two. And we'll reiterate just a few things from last week. We didn't we didn't get to all of it. I'm famous for making good notes when I'm studying and somehow when I get here, they don't always it doesn't work that way with me always. What kind of get on another journey? I don't know. But we're going to try to keep it within the confines because I believe this is a very important study right here. These things I wished I had known as a young believer. Someone asked me a few years ago, they said, you know, having been in the ministry almost 30 years now, what would you say in your experience, looking back, was one of the most important things that either you knew or did not know or that you didn't see the, you know, the the bigness of it or you wish you saw a greater view of it, had a greater revelation of it. I said, I mean, there's probably a lot of things I said, well, there's you know, there's a lot of things you know, we the Bible says we know we go from this point to that point. We go from faith to faith and from glory to glory.

Pastor West:
How many know more than you did ten years ago? Yes. And how many know you won't be here a thousand years from now? You all did the math. Yeah, and so? So. But we go from faith to faith. We go from glory to glory. Precept upon precept. Here, a little there, a little, the Bible says. But the one thing that stands out to me over 30 years that I wished I had known more about from the very beginning was simply this the goodness of God. Mean, I was. See, you might have thought I was going to bring out some mystery about who we know, a second cousin or whatever. And you know what happened after this. And, you know, how do they procreate History, which is important. You have eternity to ask questions. Not me. Him. I mean, I haven't got past. When when did God begin, you say? Well, he always was. Don't you know that? Yeah, I know that. But I don't. I don't know how you do that. I mean, but I'm talking about before then. He said, Well, he was before then. Yeah, but I know. But before then. Before them. Before them was what was them. And see, the thing is, you're an eternal being, right. I mean what are you going to be doing 10 million years from right now? Wow. The shortest thing you're ever going to do is the day you were conceived, the day that you leave here. This is the shortest thing you're ever going to do. We're going to go there for seven years when he comes gets us, or we if we leave by the grave and we go that way, either way, we're going to be there for seven years. And the scripture says in Revelation, and we'll go there for the marriage supper. The Lamb How are we looking forward to that? Having a supper for seven years with no carbs? Well, you'll have carbs. You just won't bother you. That's one reason to go to heaven. You can't think of any other. Right? But then we go from there.

Pastor West:
But then we go to the reward seat. It's called the Bema seat. Bema seats reward. And it's a judgment seat. It's not for it's not for a Christian to be judged because you've already been judged. Jesus took your judgment. I never knew that as a kid growing up because our pastor always told us, God, when we got to heaven, he's going to sit us down. And I just thought, they never told us this, but I just thought there'd be a big movie screen and everybody would be watching it. And my and my mother would still be there. And she she still think I wouldn't be too big to whip. But that's not it. The judgment seat of Christ for a Christian is not your being judged for your sins and your mistakes. Jesus already was judged for that. He already paid it. So if you want to go pay for what you did wrong, you're overpaying. Look, when you pay the car off, quit sending the notes. It's paid for so well, it just doesn't seem right. It's the 23rd of the month and I'm just used to doing so. I'm just going to send another payment, send it here, and then I'll tell you when I'll send it in or not. Send the difference if it bothers you that bad. Amen. So I went to the beach, you know, we went to the beach for a few minutes and we come back with, you know, finances to send Emily and Parker and places, and they don't even know it. I'm going to pay at least a month's worth of utilities and apartment rents and all kinds of stuff while they're going down to the mission trip. Amen. I think I'm supposed to go to Panama City and then didn't. Didn't do no fish. Street seafood. But this morning I found out Pastor Matt taught us how you catch a fish with a fish. That's two. That's two for one, right. He caught you. Caught you caught a bass with a with a brim. Now, I can't tell you the story, but that works almost in everything. I've learned how to catch a devil with a devil.

Pastor West:
I put a devil on the devil britches. And he don't even know what he's about. Now I'll learn that because I got him tired of biting the back of my britches. And I learned I could set him up because he was that stupid and I let him buy him. So we want to stop imposing ourself. Y'all okay to have fun? Just a little bit? How many? You don't want to spend eternity in theological school for ten gazillion years? I mean, just be honest, y'all. Y'all not that spiritual. Oh, come on, Adjust your halos. Or tilted just a little bit. No one wants to hear, you know. I mean, do you really want to hear the book of Leviticus for 10 million years? And who begat and begat? There's a lot of begetting and and that's that's really important. If they didn't beget, you wouldn't be here. Amen. Second, Timothy, I'd better start for I get a lot of trouble. Second Timothy chapter two verses. And I'm going to put this in context. Verses 24 through 26, Paul is writing an epistle which is simply a letter to Timothy, which is his spiritual son in the faith, and he's giving him instructions of his calling of a pastor. Timothy has some issues within himself because of his youth, and he felt like, I'm sure because some people was probably saying to him, What do you think? You know, you're just you know, you're still wet behind the ears. What would you know? So Paul was admonish him. He says you teach them the word of God. Doesn't matter what your age is. And so he was instructing him. And so we'll just pick up there in verse 24, it says, The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men. He must be apt to teach patient in meekness, instructing those who are what. There it is. Oppose themselves. Is that it's not in every translation. But this is the king James, if you have it. How many of your Bible says oppose right there? You ought to underline that. Do you have a Bible, the kind of Bible you can write in if you don't go the thrift store?

Pastor West:
They got some you can write in. So I was sitting I told years ago I was sitting where Michelle and I graduated Bible school. We were at Rhema Bible College in Oklahoma and it was homecoming week and we were sanctuary. They can put 6000 people in there and then church is huge. So they have a they have overflow rooms and they have the rainbow has a church within the church so that you so if you want to have a wedding or if there was a funeral, you could have it there. And it it sits 500. So they have a church within the church. And so there's we were sitting in the choir loft. They said, Well, if you're an alumni, you can come sit here. There was nowhere else to sit. So we sat and then church began, you know, and we were sitting there in the choir loft, you know, we're looking, you know, the speaker going to we're going to be behind Brother Hagan and and all these people are there. But there was just two seats in front of us. And after about the second song, a door opened off the choir loft. Now Rhema stage is is as long as this building is just their stage. Their stage is 100 by. Well this is. Yeah, it's 100 by 60 just the stage. So we was in the sanctuary and all of a sudden Kenneth and Gloria Copeland come in and they sit right down in front of us. And I thought. I thought he was taller than what he is. Tv. Tv does him a lot of help and a little bitty fella, and he's taller than her. And and I couldn't help it. We were sitting in the row above him. I could just see in their Bible. And I think he had I think he had a brand new Bible. But Gloria, she'd had that one a minute and I could see over her shoulder. And I mean, there was more written in her Bible. I mean, she wrote more there than God did. And now I don't know if this is notes for Ken to go do this, you know, whatever it is.

Pastor West:
But it's okay to write in your Bible. In other words, it is your it is your book to success. This is the most successful book that's ever been written. Yeah. It's not New Age. It's old age, but been tested for the new. It never needs updating. It covers any situation that you have in your life. Everything. It'll tell you how to have a home. It'll tell you how to be a husband to you, how to be a wife to you, how to be a mother to you, how to be a businessman, To tell you how to be a good employee, tell you how to be a minister of the gospel Minister. Reconciliation. There's nothing that you don't that you'll ever need to know that this Bible doesn't give you advice. It tells you how to get away from a woman who just yakking in your ears all the time. In Proverbs, he says, better to sit on a roof and have a woman yakking. I said, Amen. I know that not for my wife, but I mean, I've heard things. I've heard things. I've heard things I've counseled a few people through the years. I know a thing because I've seen a thing or two like the insurance people said. So I asked you last week, well, let's go here to the scripture. He said, The sword of the Lord must not strive. Be able unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness, instructing those who oppose themselves. If God prevents, you will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Verse 26. That they may recover themselves. Oh. Out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at will. So, see, these are people who are opposed. They are opposed in themselves. Do you think they're trying to oppose himself? I don't. Do you do you do you willingly want to oppose yourself? So Paul is telling this is what happens with Christians. They oppose themselves. He says he says they're going to need to acknowledge the truth. Repentance means change. All repentance means a change of mind. Right. It doesn't mean fill up a Kleenex box if you need to do that, but repentance means change your mind to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who is taken captive of him by his will.

Pastor West:
Verse 25 generally instruct those who pose. This is the new living translation. You don't have to go there but on the screen. But the New living says generally instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change the people's hearts and they will learn the truth. Then they come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap, for they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants them to do. I don't like that. Do you? So when it says the snare and I know a lot of you know this because you studied these things out, but that word snare the snare of the devil. If you look up the Greek word, what it really means in today's world, it's like the it's like the part of a trap, you know, whether it's a mouse trap or whether you're trying to bait for an animal. It's like Pastor Matt was doing. He he he had a brim, but he didn't want a brim. He wanted a bass. And he wanted he wanted to get the attention of the base. So what did he use? He used a broom. And he got his attention. So the enemy will do things in our lives to get your attention, to draw you away from the truth. So that you see that shiny thing. I mean, if you're fishing with a lure, that's what it is. It just lures them. It's deception. The enemy is a master deceiver. Now, we're not going to sit here and give him props because he doesn't have any. But he's a master at deception. He's had a lot of practice. He's worked with a lot of humans. Just in today's world. I mean, just think how today's world is, what it's like, the deception of people who don't even know who they are. Amen. I mean, I'm still when I'm out and doing things and we was going I mean, there's places I walk into and there's like four bathrooms. I'm like, oh my gosh. It just to be real simple, there was like a dress and there was a man with trousers. I could just figure that out.

Pastor West:
And now there's all kind of figurines. I was like, Oh, boy, I got to go. I told you last week I went into the bank down here with my deposit, and I said, I said, first off, I want to let you know that I'm thankful for y'all been banking here all these years. You're all so good. But I want you to know today I identify myself as a millionaire, and I'm here to make a heavy withdrawal. You understand? You know, you can identify yourself this way or that gender or this gender. And she said, Well, let me look up your account. She said, It won't work in your behalf. I said, But I identify myself. She said, Take it up with somebody else. So it didn't work for me. I don't know if it worked for you. So I asked you last week. I said, Are you saved? And you said that you was. And I asked you, do you have any physical evidence of that? And no one ever no one gave me any physical evidence. I mean, I can open my wallet right now and and I can I got a shell account on gas and and I got a Citibank card and I got a Sam's Club. I'm part of that. Don't go there very often because we're go to spend 100. We come out on $700. I got all kinds of things. I got a I belong to things and some of them are taking my picture. It broke their camera, but all that kind of stuff. But I can give you physical evidence with, you know, these have account numbers, as you know, just like you would have. But you're telling me the most important thing in your life would be your salvation and you can't prove it at all. How many you believe that you're saved? Can I convince you otherwise? You just know when you're nowhere. Now, you do have evidence. The evidence that you really have. It's not physical evidence, but the evidence that you have one scripture would be Romans ten. Nine says. He said, We believe in and confess that if with our mouth, the Lord Jesus Christ, if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

Pastor West:
If you not just saying those words, but believing those words and saying those words. Believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth unto salvation and you are saved. You become a new creature in Christ Jesus, but you don't have any physical evidence. So you take all that. So you never think about it, do you? How many of you woke up this morning and just, you know, you was concerned there would not be enough oxygen in the world for you to breathe today? I mean, you didn't give that a thought. I get that out of your head to think about that. If you tell people to not think about what they do. Like if I tell you I said I do not. I mean, I forbid any of you in the name of Jesus. Now that like, that was that was just me yelling. It wasn't spiritual, but in the name of Jesus, I command you not to think about a pink giraffe. What do y'all think about a pink giraffe? But I told you not to. Well, that's where the Bible says that. That's where seeing gets its strength from the law. Seeing? Seeing got its strength from the do not. How many went to the church for years to do not. So religion changes people that tries to change people at the heart of of commands and laws and the law of God is good. Roman said. But no man ever kept it. No man could keep it. And God knew they couldn't keep it. Never was. Never was. God's purpose to give man a law to live by a law. God wanted a relationship. He didn't want you to love him because of a law. That's not love. I mean, if you was forced to love your spouse. No, please don't raise your hands. I mean, I see eyes moving around, but if he was forced, you know, if I had to get up and read the script. Good morning, honey. Did you sleep well? I heard something roaring in the corner. Oh, it was me. Gee, that's a nice outfit. Does that sound like a great relationship?

Pastor West:
I have to read it every day. It doesn't at all. You think God wants that? No. He just wanted a family to love. You know, God's not near as bad as people make him out to be. Actually, there's more preachers than God, is there? There's some mad. There's some mad, angry preacher. Can I. Can I just tell you the truth? I mean, I should, shouldn't I? It goes with my occupation. I should. Pastors hate three day holidays. If you're in America, it's like, get three days. We gone. Amen. I'm old enough now. I don't care. Have fun. Praise the Lord. But. But here's the deal. It's not rules and regulations. It's just relationship. God just wants to have a relationship. God loves you so much, it's beyond your comprehension. Ephesians three said that he wanted you to be rooted and grounded in love. Mm. Rooted and grounded in love. He wanted you to know. She said he gave it a different dimensions. The breadth, the length, the height and the depth of his love. He said, Which far surpass your knowledge? Well, we can have knowledge. We can read scriptures about God's love. But he said, I want you not to just know that by the word. I want you to experience my love. I want ever experience his love. Amen. I've just watched God do miraculous things through the through the years. And I just watched how it would change people's lives. I remember being in the service years ago. This one I was in ministering for, I was in Tuscaloosa. I was on 65th Street off 69. And church is not there anymore. That's where it was at the time. And Pastor wasn't there. And a girl came who's now married to the guy that she's married to, but she'd never been in a church where they raise your hands. And they were they got very loud, you know, praising the Lord. So she was kind of scared. She went with her boyfriend. Her fiance. They've been married now for years, have have a family and still in that church.

Pastor West:
But I was the guest minister. And so for my friend who went to Texas that weekend, so I was just getting ready to minister and I just heard on the inside of me a word of knowledge, you know, the gifts of the spirit. And I just heard a word of knowledge. He said, there's somebody here who has jaw pain, TMJ. Is that what you call it? And I didn't say TMJ. I just said they have severe jaw pain. And if you'll come now, you'll be healed. And I said, I also hear this and I hear this and I hear this now about 3 or 4 things. If you'll come now, you'll be healed. Well, she was real apprehensive because she'd never been in church with one. And she said she said, you know, they were talking out loud, they were praising out loud. And she said, I've never been in that kind of atmosphere. And she said, then they had their hands raised up and I was looking to see if they was pointing at something. And she said I was in a different kind of church. So, you know, to come forward in front of all that, that was a lot for her soul to be into. You know, to just her surroundings was more than she was used to. Well, I don't know. Anything's going on. I'm just up here. The Lord says, Do this. I say, Yes, sir. Right. And so she said she was telling this testimony. She only waited 20 years after it happened to tell me about it. So I was back there ministering years later in another location. And she she was telling this she was telling this testimony. And she said and I was just scared out of my mind. And she said, then I started to get out of my seat. And she said, my husband, Barry said, he said, come on, I'll go with you because I know, I know that's real painful for you. She said, I got on my seat. She said I walked about 5 or 6 steps. She said the pain just went away and to this day has never come back.

Pastor West:
And she said, she said, I probably should have told you 20 years ago. I said, Well, it would have been nice, you know, to to, you know, just know something about the Lord. And she said and I said, Well, did you come on up? She said, No, the Lord. I didn't have to get any closer. And she was still scared to come up. You know, I guess I'm scared. But anyway, I mean, it was just different for her, you know, just a different type of church. And the Lord just healed. Well in that same building was the girl that got new knees, you know, a few years later that that I didn't get a word knowledge. I just said there's someone came to be healed that night. And it was on a Wednesday night. Same pastor and his family was in Texas, took his service and last five minutes of the service, Matt was with me. He was there. Service was over, wasn't it? I mean, I was past time. And so this girl just came up and she, you know, she walked like this. She was only 19, but she'd had three, three knee surgeries and and everything went wrong. There was nothing they could do to help her. And I didn't know at the time she was a pastor's daughter of a different denomination. I didn't know she was I thought I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't hardly know anyone there. And so she just came to that church that night because she she found out from their worship minister that she knew it went to school with her, that that church believed in healing. And I said, you're right. They do. She said, But she told me, she said, But I don't. I said, You don't? She said, No. She said, I mean, I believe God could. I just don't believe he will. And I've been prayed for by many people and nothing's ever happened. She said, I know it could, but I don't believe you will. And I said, Well, I got a question for you. Why did you come? She said, I hope I'm wrong.

Pastor West:
I said, Well, here's the good news. You are. Because I was already hearing on the inside what God was was wanting to do. And and I knew that. I knew that. I knew I couldn't prove it. But I knew on the inside, it's wonderful to be speaking the same time and the same time. This is what you call filled with the Holy Spirit. Whichever one of you is, you have the new birth in you. And I'm having a conversation with the Holy Spirit. Why? I was talking and he said, he said, I want you to lay hands on her. He says, and I'm going to put new knees in her tonight. And I said, Wow. So I just now that I know I can play around a little bit. And she said, Well, I don't. I just think before you pray for me, you should know. I don't believe I said, I think you should know that, that I don't care. I did it on purpose just to take the pressure off her. I said, Baby, I don't need your faith tonight. I said, Jesus has a cover for both of us. I said, Let me give you an analogy. See if it'll help you. You see, Jesus never told the seek to have faith. He told the believers, Lay hands on the sick and get them recovered. He didn't say they had to meet a basic requirement. No one in your family should ever have to earn your love. You didn't earn the Lords. I didn't. I didn't earn it. Jesus went to the cross for the whole world, and the whole world was guilty. We didn't earn anything but his death. She said, Well, I just she'd had some experiences of a negativity. She was almost tired of being prayed for. And and I said, I understand. And so I started. I said, I'm going to lay hands on you if you let me. I said, I don't even have to do that. But if you like me, I just lay hands on you. And I said, The Lord's going to heal you tonight.

Pastor West:
Well, I say heal. There was nothing there to heal. He had to recreate. And that's what he did that night. He recreated two brand new knees in her body. She went to the floor, looked like she'd been you know, it looked like she had a hold of A22 20. And I don't know if it was 4 or 5, six, seven, eight minutes. And she just shook on the floor. And it was Wednesday night. Most people were ready to go home and they worked all day. No one was ready to go home. They were all running up there. And and I never saw a miracle like that. That particular one. I seen a lot of miracles, but not like that. And you could see her pants, legs move. You could hear bones popping and cracking. I mean, you could literally hear truth. And so that's why everybody was running. And and I was just acting like, oh, yeah, we just do this every week. And it's like, praise him. I'm like, God, I can't believe myself. I mean, every miracle can be it's the same. God is the same power. But it's just it's wonderful to see how it manifests in her. And she just shook and and then she went, oh, well, she been this way for three years and she was going to Samford in Birmingham, but she, she couldn't make the upstairs so they had a satellite classes for her and then they had she had things she would hold to at home just to get her out of bed, bathroom, everything that would lower her down and then pick her back up. And that was her life. She got church at night with two friends. They put her in the back seat of the car and they they split her because her her legs are straight. She can't bend them at all. Because I asked her, I said, well, you can do this, can't you? She said, I did that three years ago. I can't do that. So she just walked like this. She said, I broke up with my boyfriend last week because I'm not going to let him marry me.

Pastor West:
He won't never have a life. And. And I said, Well, we can get back with him. We'll just see if he's worthy of your love when we get through. She said, Well, I hope. I hope so, but I don't have no faith. I said, Yeah, we covered that. And I said, But everything's going to be fine. So I laid hands on her. She she went down. Now here's what's funny. You can impose yourself. In her mind because it's been so long. She's had that condition so long, she still has it. That may help you when you're ministering to someone. When I just said because it may look like nothing's happened, whether they feel something or not. But when you lay hands on the sick, all you're doing when you're laying hands on the sick is you're imparting life. When I say life, I'm using a Greek word in the Strong's two, two, two, two. That should be. Remember two, two, two, two. And it's the word Zoe. Zoe. Which means the life in the nature of God. It really. It literally just means the life that God has, being God. He put a measure of that on the inside of you. And you born again. You have his life inside of you. So when you release, when you lay hands on the sick, what you're doing is you're just releasing his life. What makes God God in a measure is in you. So all this becomes as jumper cables and boy, if someone will receive it, it can jump. So that night she she she went down and when she when she got back up, when she kind of quit shaking, we picked her up. The ushers picked her up and she looked at me and she was like, what was that? I said, Well, I said, you have new knees. She says, She said, what? She was like an intoxicated. You know, that's kind of what it is. I'm sorry, I have to use that word, but if you ever been in that kind of atmosphere, when when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, it can feel kind of intoxicating.

Pastor West:
But here's here's it's legal. You may not be able to drive for a while, but but but it can be kind of intoxicating. Now you say, well, you shouldn't make light of that. I'm not making light. I'm telling you true stories. Acts Chapter two. Right. Actually, if you look on your calendar, today's Pentecost Sunday, that's when it happened. And Peter had to get up and explain to all the people why these people are drunk, as you suppose. Why would you suppose someone's drunk, right? Something that happened to them outwardly and their expression or the mannerisms that Peter had to get up and explain it. Like, you know, Lucy and Ricky, she had to explain. She had explain. And so she her mind was still where she was three years ago, although she had this experience on the floor for, you know, 5 or 10 minutes. And so in Acts three, I learned years ago that when Peter and John came to the gate temple, I don't know why I make notes. I just it's absolutely just maybe one one day it might be a book. I don't know. It may no one ever read it. But. But they went to the gate. Beautiful. Remember Acts chapter three. And there was a man who had been he had been lame all his life, and he had a license to sit there as they go into the temple to pray and to beg and ask for money. And so they were asking and Peter and John went there, went that day, and in Acts Chapter three and he was asking for alms albums. And but he was lame all his life, 40, 40 years. He was born lame. And so Peter said, he said, look on us. He said Silver and gold I do not have today, but such as I have given you in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. Now, what did he say? He said, I'm not here to give you money. I don't have the money that you're asking for. But I do have something to give you. And what I have is good and such as I have, I can give it away.

Pastor West:
Oh, that's big talk, isn't it? Look on me. You know what the media would do with you or ministers to say, look on me, I got answers. Well, they're supposed to your Christ in the earth today. Jesus said he was the light of the world. Now he says you are. Time to get your flashlight out and make sure your batteries are already charged. If they're not, I can show you how to charge them so that you are the light of the world. So he said, look on us. He's such as I have give I the name Jesus, rise up, walk. And then Peter did this. Peter reached up and took his hand. He took his hand and pulled him up because 40 years had never walked. So his mind doesn't work that way. So Peter had to show him that he can walk. I had to take that same girl. She said, What happened? What can I do? I said, You're not going to walk, She said. And she said, I can't walk. And I said, Of course you can. You're healed. She says, I am. I said, Oh, yeah, you am. I mean, I'm just not great English. But I said, You are. So I said, took her by the hand. And she was real apprehensive because of her condition for three years. In her mind, she was opposed in her own healing. Many people oppose their own healing. They don't even know that they're already healed because everything the devil does is a is is deception. And every symptom is a deception. Any symptom that you have in your body right now, if you're a believer, is a deception from the enemy that tells you you're not healed. So you need to go do all these things or keep doing them too. If you keep accumulating enough knowledge, if you keep confessing the word so much over and over and over again, if you get enough people praying, if you get enough oil put on you, if you get enough believers laying hands on the sick, if you get enough people petitioning God, somehow you'll come to this accumulated vast amount of whatever you need that no one knows the sum total that perhaps one day you can sway God to do something for you.

Pastor West:
That's called works. That's called legalism. And Jesus hated it. Amen. So with every symptom in your body right now, I have to tell you the truth. By his stripes, you were healed. That's right. Amen. So one day you'll have to settle that issue. If you're not healed, when will you be? If you're not saved, when will you be? So you don't think about salvation. You'll think you know. Because that's done. It's over with. But you can't prove it. So what are you taking as your evidence? You're taking this word, but you go to healing and we go a whole different way. Well, you know, I know God can do anything. God, you know God can do anything. What does that mean? That ain't $0.15 worth of nothing. The devil, the Bible. The devil knows better than we do and trembles. See well. Well, I know we can do That. Doesn't mean anything. See, they believe most people believe God can do anything but don't believe he's done a whole lot. He thinks this thing's finished and wrapped up. Amen. Amen. Amen. So your body will go along for the ride if you'll take it there. Because it doesn't have a voice. It has a voice when it talks to you. But see, that voice is not supposed to be running the show. Amen. Amen. I do know what I'm talking about. If I didn't know what I was talking about, we wouldn't be talking about this. Amen. I have seen. I have seen blinds. See? I I've seen. I've been in the miracle. I've been in service to all have happened. But I've been privileged to see it myself. Well, I was the one praying. Well, you don't. You are blind. And then you see, well, you are deaf and don't even have ear drums. And you get ear drums, see? Well, you are dead. And now you are alive. That's a fun one. That's a fun one. That's real fun. Where limbs will be amputated in the morning to stop the staff in their bodies because they're going to die because they'll go throughout their body and their bloodstream and then lay hands on them and curse that infection and it just disappears and it all goes away.

Pastor West:
And the Lord sends them home with both of their feet and both of their arms and both of their legs and all their fingers and gives them back to the family. Whole w h o l e. That's who we are. In the New Testament, you're called the Sons of God, and it says the earth is groaning and travailing. The Earth is under pressure of all that's going on in the sin and the corruption in the world. And it says the earth is growing and it's waiting for the sons of God you to come into the being of who you really are and take charge. The earth groans waiting for you to rise up and be who you really are. Hmm. I know what it's like to watch. I know what it's like to watch cancer die. Because you were just lucky. Well, then I get lucky a lot. It has nothing to do with me. It has nothing to do with my faith. I don't even have any faith. You don't have faith if you're born again. You have faith. But it wasn't yours. Galatians five gives you the fruit of the spirit, and what it is gives you the whole list of it. First being love, right? You got gentleness, meekness, kindness, faith, temperance, loving, you know, on and on and on. But faith. Galatians Chapter two said, Paul is giving you an analogy of a substitution. What happened to you? Paul said, I was. He said I was crucified with Christ. Well, was Paul there actually crucified with Christ? No, he said then after I was crucified with him, I died with him. So we know that Paul wasn't crucified. At the same time, we know he didn't die at the same time. He said then I was buried with Christ. No, he wasn't. He said, Then I died with Christ. No, you didn't. He said Then I was raised with Christ. We should. That's for Alabama blocks just right there. But what is he saying? He's saying by substitution. When he died, when he was crucified, it was for me and I died with him.

Pastor West:
Amen. He says when they took him off the cross, they took me off the cross. When they put him in the tomb, he said they put me in a tomb. When he went into the pits of hell for three days and suffered all all the agony, the sin, the sickness, the disease, everything because of the curse of man. Jesus went Jesus himself went into the lower regions of hell for three days until the all all justice was satisfied in the heart and the mind of God. And God said, That's enough. And then the Bible says that God raised him from the dead. So it was God's greatest feat, wasn't creation. It wasn't any opposition to creation. He just spoke. But every demonic spirit, I mean, Jesus, they're having a party. We killed him. We killed the Son of God. We got him right there. But he woke up and he got up and he was raised up. Now, the Bible says when he raised him up, if I was making this up, it'd be a great story. But I didn't even have to make it up. It's actually written right there in that book. It says when he raised him up at the same time. See, by substitution, he raised you up. Ephesians said and he raised him up. And now he is seated you with him in heavenly places. See? And the heart and mind of God. And you have to you have to grasp this from the word is that your God only has one time. He created our time. He understands 24 hours. He understands all that because he created. We need that for the service. But God doesn't live on that time. He lives in a place called now. I mean, yesterday was now tomorrow's. Now It's always going to be now. So the Bible says when he raised up Christ, he raised you up together with him and hath he has seated with you. You are seated with him presently in Christ Jesus, your your in the throne room with him. Now, spiritually speaking, you're in two places at one time. It's a it's a wonderful study.

Pastor West:
We don't have time to get into it now, but there are several scriptures where Jesus alludes to being in heaven and at earth at the same time, his physical body being on earth. But he was with he was with the father, several scriptures. He's in two places at one time. And the same scriptures show that you're in two places at one time. How about that, Gomer? You say, Well, I don't work for me because you just don't believe this shit. That's a short answer. There's things that I haven't come to believe yet. I'm still like, wow, okay, I'm pretzel. Like a pretzel all twisted. I'm like, wow, we are. Wow. So I was doing this study years ago. I said, We're seated with him and I did all the Greek and and all this and reading the commentators and the scholars and all that. And sometimes, you know, some people who called scholars, they're not that scholar. Sometimes they can't find their vehicle in the parking lot. I think, you know, they're smart, but they don't have any common sense, the IQ's running off the chart. But, you know, they don't even know how to lick a popsicle because, well, you know, you know that tree, you know, man, got to hold this thing, man, man, man. Got to hold this thing. You don't even know what it means. All that. I mean, you can't really read all that you can. Like, shut up. Because the Bible said, we have the teacher. I've had the Holy Spirit said, Don't, don't read that. Go get your other. What's translation? He just read that. He says, that one's true. You say? What? Can you prove that? No, but I don't have to. Hmm. When you can have faith like a child, you'll see all kinds of things happen because the child believes anything. Children have the most wonderful imagination. I mean, they can think of anything. Sure. If you don't mind me doing this. So when we use that day, we get things out of Amy's shop or whatever they said. She said, I want to ride with him back.

Pastor West:
She said, Can I ride you back? And I said, You'll have to ask. It's not up to me. And I'm used to having a little you know, I have a lot of grandchildren, so and their imagination soars. So in, what was it, five miles from there to your house? Six miles. There was quite some stores. There was lots of stores. And we was going we was going down 31, you know, head back to Alabaster. And and we was going about 50 miles an hour. And she said, Don't let this trailer turn over. And I said, I'm not. She says, she said, because it'll flip. She said if it flips, don't flip me on my side, flip it on yours. I said, okay, okay. Well. I was like, I was like, you know, we would go from a little girl to this brilliant mind. It was just like, wow, you know? And then she would give me these analogies like, how old are you? I mean, there's like and then was going down the road and she did her window all the way down and, you know, and I can feel my hair out of place. It's one of my things. She makes fun of it, but she twists her hair all the time on this. We bought the car and I followed her home and I was taking a video behind her. And that's her habit. She twisted the left side. I was like, If you go bald, I don't know if you're going to be together. I understand. Because if you create your baldness now, we're going to have a problem. And so so anyway, I got the window back up now. So, you know, we're just riding and I'm just asking her a little stuff. And now she turned the radio wide open. I mean, wide open. And it was just like, whatever. And I said, turn. She says, I like it that way. And then about three more went about two more miles. And she says, I want you to stop here. And she says, I want a combo. A combo? How old is she?

Pastor West:
Seven. Yeah. A combo. She. Yeah. And she says, and I want, I want the large size of the combo. I said, anything else you can think of because we still got a mile. And here's the funny thing. We got ready back. I'm trying to back this trailer up, you know, She says, You want me to do it? I don't know. Maybe she could have. We all had imagination, something like that as kids. Where did it go to? How did we lose it? How did we lose it? We just lose it in life. We go to school, we lose them up there. We get older, you know, and we figure we're going to tame the whole world and we figure out, you know, I don't know what age you figured it out, but then when you get to. 50th, they tell me. Y'all do know I'm over £120 now. Yeah. And so you get to 50 at Cole. You say Ed's in heaven now. He say when you get over 50, he said the charm kind of wears off. He said, in other words, you know, it's no excuse not to walk in love. He said, I'm just saying that it will take you less words to say what you need to say when you get past 50. And I found that that was true. Then when you get 60, it takes less words than it took in 50. And at 70, you just. I guess. Well, God wants you to keep that imagination. He wants you to have the imagination that he has. Think about it. You're talking to someone who created billions of galaxies. You're concerned about the Alabama power bill. He's like, I mean, how do you have a conversation with someone who loves you, who created billions of galaxies? Who knows everything about everything. About everything. Could you not trust that person? Would their answer be correct? Yeah, the answer would be correct. So what he would want to fix with us this morning if we needed anything fixed, was he. He'd want to put some questions to bed, so to speak.

Pastor West:
So I want you to go to Romans chapter eight. We only have a little bit of time left. Very little time left. But Romans Chapter eight. Acts. Romans. I'm sorry. I should have told you. Page 2046. Verse five. Let's just break in here. It says, for they that are after the flesh. Do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. Don't let the word flesh throw you off. It's not necessarily talking about, you know, it includes it flesh. It will use different words. They who pay attention or do mind the things of the of the the census. Your five senses they who do mind the things of your physical being. They who pay attention to symptoms. They who pay attention to circumstances. So your physical senses is is information. I mean I mean an interstate of just it's lasting from here to yonder of all kinds of information stored in your mind and your subconscious mind. You have everything that you've ever learned, that you've heard, that you are learning. The physical part of you can the scripture says can receive nothing spiritual. Nor can it interpret anything spiritual. Your your fleshly body and your senses cannot. Bosses cannot, cannot receive, will not accept and will oppose anything spiritual. It's not it doesn't have an open communication to it. God doesn't not has never one time ever talked to your body. Your body doesn't have an access by the spirit to take any information but your soul in your mind does. But see, but your soul interlinks connects with your body. So when you get your mind renewed to how God thinks and you're willing to lay down what you think or your experience or what Granny said may be tough for some of you all. We love Granny, but she might have been wrong about a couple of things. Granny told me all the time God was going to get me because I was always doing something that I needed getting for. She never told us God. I mean, Jesus is going to get us. I told you God is going to get you.

Pastor West:
You know. So I grew up with a picture that God just stayed about half mad all the time. And if you crossed him, the club's coming out. And Granny would enforce that. Now, she would get me along with God. You know, there no da back then. I don't think it is. They still be serving time. There wasn't no back talk. You know, I still I mean, it tells my age, but when I'm sitting there and checking that line and I'm watching some parent count to their kid. Now you stop that. One, two, three, four. Like the kid is learned. My my mama and daddy know how to. They. They know how to count to ten. You did it. My mother. You got passed one. It's over. You know. So that's a whole nother generation. They didn't believe in sparing the rod. And my mother told me one time, she says, not that God's man is going to get you. She says, But I want you to be trained to learn to obey God quick, because now God's going to get you. Because if you don't do God's way, then the enemy is going to take advantage of you. So if you're sitting there counting when God tells you to do something, you're going to lose out, son. Will that help me? But she brought in the physical way of doing it that, you know, God put nerves throughout your body, put some in the rear end, and these these nerves in the rear end, they go directly to your brain. And my mother knew that. So she knew she had a switch or a stick and she got these nerves. Quickly. Send a message to the brain. Stop it. She's right. And it worked every time. Now watch here. So there they have the flesh. They they're at the physical demand, the things of the physical. But they either have the spirit, they mind the things of the spirit. So to be carnally minded or to be physically minded or to be symptom minded. Well, does that help anybody? To be carnally, physically, fleshly, circumstantially minded is death.

Pastor West:
I didn't say it. The Bible says it. But to be spiritually minded is to be life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity. Now, that word enmity doesn't mean enemy. It means opposed. We read in time with you. We started the that Satan takes a snare. He baits a trap to draw you in, to have control of your life by putting something of the physical nature in front of you or uses your body sometimes with sickness or disease or whatever it uses to bait the trap for you to grab hold of this thing, to take you away from the truth of his words. Because if you accepted the truth, you would be free from him. See that girl couldn't get healed on her own. But I had a word of knowledge. Well, I never saw her again. I was over at that church. I went back there three years later, not to minister. I just went to a meeting they were having and she came up to me and I didn't remember her. She remembered me, I guess. So she said, Hey, hey, hey, Do you remember me? I said, Oh, I'm sorry, help me. She's. I'm the girl that you prayed for with the knees. I said, Oh. So I had a gazillion questions, one about her parents because her dad was a pastor. And she said, So, you know, Dad's still he's he's still in the Southern Baptist. She said he preaches healing everywhere. She he has all kinds of miracles. Well, I never met her dad. I didn't have to convince him or anything, you know? You know what convinced him? The miracle. We didn't have to run 40 scriptures in front of him. The miracle spoke for itself. And I said, Well, what about the knee? She said, Well, let me just show you. And I said, Well, did you go back to the doctor? She said, Oh, yeah, we're back to doctor. She's the one that did all three surgeries and that's the way to do. She said. He X-rayed both knees. I said, What happened? She said she he just like was shaking his head.

Pastor West:
He said, I just never saw him like a mile off. I never saw anything like this in my life. I said, Well, what happened? She said, I have two brand new knees. And she said, All the parts, the metal, the screws and everything was disappeared. I said, Do you get a refund? She said, I never thought to ask him that. I said, I went there first. Now this is Chilton County. I went to school here, graduated here. I never got a class on how to. Put these in people and take parts out. Did you? I didn't see him leave. Now. That'd been cool. Like, whoa. I don't know if Angels was doing it. I mean, she was, like, shaking pretty violently. She would go, Oh, I guess there's a lot of nerves and things doing things. I mean, it was kind of loud. I mean, it was loud enough. You could hear bones popping. Everybody around the front. Everybody were on the front. I know y'all have heard the story, but if you could just saw what happened when she got up. So when I told him, she got up and she said, what am I going to do? I said, we're going to walk. She said, I can't walk. I said, Yes, you can. So I said, We're going to walk. And she said, But I say, still opposing herself. And she has new knees, but she still locked into yesterday. I said, So I had to do this. I said, Baby, I'm going to take you by the hand. I'm going to walk with you. And I said, And then we're going to try it. Then we're going to run. She said, I can't. I said, We're going to go or I'm going to drag you all over this place. And she didn't know if I would or not. I mean, I wouldn't have it, but she don't know that. So I'm a pretty good bluffer. I have been called on twice in school, beat up both times. But anyway. But she is always over a girl though.

Pastor West:
And she she said, I said let's go grab you by the hand and has about 5 or 6 steps. It broke whatever was in her mind. And then I went into a little trot and then she did too. And then she broke away from my arms. And then she ran around and around and around the sanctuary. And she was screaming and laughing and crying. And she couldn't even believe it's her body. She couldn't even believe it. And then everybody was coming up to me wanting. It's like, would you pray on this? Would you? We got someone in the hospital, Would you take this handkerchief? And I said, Well, yeah, but I mean, see, everybody was ready to go home. It was a Wednesday night then nobody wants to leave. That's what that's what ministry without confirmation is just information. And the ministry itself has gone too long with no confirmation that what we're doing is we're just taking people's information. That was a generation before us. And then we memorize that, and then now we're giving second hand information. Brother Hagan said, either you said it this way, he said, either you're going to be a voice or you're going to be an echo. And you ought to be a voice. You know what, Echo? Just like, Hello, hello, hello, hello. But you can get the word and be a voice for God himself. So if you mind the things of the Spirit, then you'll have life and peace. But if you mind. If you. I'll close here, if you mind the flesh. This is, if you don't mind, I'll just. This is what it came to me yesterday. I wrote down this way. The word of God says by his stripes you were healed. So we're not waiting on an event to happen. Do we have to wait till we get to heaven to be sure that I'm forgiven? The answer would have to be no. Because if your sins are forgiven at the moment that you receive Christ, then you will make heaven to find out the answer. Okay. These are present tense truths. You are forgiven.

Pastor West:
Saved. You are healed by his stripes. There is no condemnation to you. Those who are in Christ Jesus. No. Zero combination. Every evil thing that has the same source is called lies. Demon is a spirit that carries a lie. Well, it all boils down to is the lie that you aren't healed and that sickness. And if it does, that sickness still has power in your life. It tells you you need to do something. Or maybe the pastor tells you that, or you need to do more of what you're doing to gain a response from God that you don't really already have. So if you're waiting for a symptom or a circumstance to change, then you really aren't. You see in faith. We're not believing what the word says, so therefore we have nothing for the Spirit of God to cooperate with us in. What I'm saying is it's our belief that allows the Holy Spirit to work freely in us, to release everything that we have already have past tense. See, I'm out of time. So if you just read Galatians, you would see it's the same thing. Paul asked the Galatians the same question because he can preach this message of grace where they were trying to keep the law, the Mosaic law, and they accepted Christ. But he would leave in the judaizers come back and said, you can't just you can't you can't be righteous based on believing in this man, Jesus Christ. Now you have to go do all this stuff and keep all these laws. And Paul came back and they were right back to doing what they were doing when he left. He said. How did you receive your salvation? Was it through belief in Christ or was it through your works? They said, Was it belief in Christ? He said, It's the same way miracles works. He said the miracles that you saw was of your doing or of his doing. I said, Well, it was his doing by faith in him. He said, So if you're going to start your life off by believing him, he said, Why don't you finish it that way? Amen. And they're like, Shazam!

Pastor West:
But, you know, that's the same thing. That's what they've heard all their life. It takes a minute for it to soak in. Would you tell a person who's lame or hurting or in pain that by his stripes you were healed the same moment you were saved? They'll say, I know I'm saved. But their body says, Preacher, you don't even know what you're talking about. I heard so many places you can't even name all of them. I said, Yeah, I know You heal. See that that girl was healed and didn't know it. Now, she had all kinds of physical evidence going on. And after everybody runs up there and she was healed. The Wilsons rent is paid if it ain't already paid for next month or next year, and they don't even know it. It's just a matter of me getting on the computer. And there it is. I said, Lord, if you'll send it, I'll send it. He sent it. I sent it. What am I can do it. I ain't the big deal. Hey, man. I mean, it's kinda important. We thank God for the electricity and the heating and the cooling and the lights for illumination. But if you go into the Sealand house and you look up as you know, there's going to be you won't see the wire, but there'll be conduit which the wire goes through. That's supposed to be the code. Don't look everywhere in Chump County. It ain't all code and chunk County. So but if you go through here, the conduit just carries the power through, you know, to the lighting, to the. To the plugs. What are we do it? Are we the big deal? No. Are you the power? No. All you are is conduit. So my. My question to you is, who are you hooked into? Are you hooked into the belief, into faith? What is faith? Faith is really just let's keep it simple. Faith is just believing and trusting that what God said he means and will do it. You believe and you trust that what God said He will do it.

Pastor West:
And you're and you're just you're you're on swayed from that truth no matter what it says. And after a while your body will just have to whatever until you get to the place, to where you're saved by his stripes, I'm healed. And you end it. Then you keep this conversation going forever and the enemy will accommodate you with all kind of symptoms for the rest of your life because you're waiting for enough faith, the right minister, the right anointing. Go the double portion service double what you do. You have Christ in you in the New Covenant. How are you going to double Christ tonight? Just double Jesus night. So come on, that's old covenant. Come into the New Covenant. You're the Bible says of his fullness. You have received the Bible says you are complete in him. The Bible says you have nothing missing, nothing lacking. Isaiah said peace to whose mind is stayed on him. Jesus said, If you abide in me and I abide in you. He said, you can ask what you will and it shall be done. I can ask what I will. He said, Yeah, if you abide in me and my words. So if you're abiding his word, you want to ask for something wrong? Amen. When you lay hands on the sick, you expect him to get healed. You shocked if they're not? Man. I'll tell you a story from This is really my closing. My closing is have three doors. This is the last door. Brother Curry was talking about. He was in a meeting one time. And he said it was in the beginning of his ministry and he said he prayed for 20 people and nothing happened. He said in the 21st, person got healed. Whatever it was. I mean, it was something that everybody could see and everybody just, wow, the first 20 people, something, something did engage the 21st person did, he said, Now, if the Lord would have told me, now, Kerry, I want you to go tonight. I want you to pray the first 20 is not going to get healed, but the 21st person in the line will get healed from there on out, he said.

Pastor West:
Back then, what I would have thought was, Well, let me just get the 20 and get to the 21st one. Makes sense to you. I mean, it wouldn't be kind, but you're just thinking, well, if we're going to get results, don't go through the 20. If I'm not going to get results, let's just go with number 21. He said, Would you be wrong? But on the 21st and he got results. He said, Now what I do, if I were to hear a word like that, he said, he said, I just go down the line and I get number 21 or 22, 23, 24, 25, 26. Then he said, I get the first 20 and because I have 21, I put the first 20 to get healed because now the one didn't get healed. Number one is now 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27. You just go back through the line because all you're doing is just releasing life. It's his life. It's not. It's not you. It's him. Same life that you were saved from. Picture was hard to get healed. Was it hard to get saved? Is it hard to get saved? Do you have to intercede? Has anyone ever called you and asked you to have me? I'm sure. Does anyone ever call and ask you to agree with them about something? Raise your hand if someone's ever said. Would you agree with me about something? I think all of us are. Has anyone ever called you to say, John, would you agree with me because. My brother, he send a big one. I mean. Oh, gosh. I mean, I hate to tell you how big the sin was, but would you agree with me that God will forgive him because John wants to be forgiven? But it's so. The sin is huge. And I just need a bunch of people to agree with me that when he prays tonight that God will forgive him. Have you ever done that? Why don't you do that? You think the blood of Jesus took care of it, right? You think Jesus death and resurrection took care of the sin?

Pastor West:
Why don't we believe he did it when we heal? Same offer. Same body. Same Jesus. Same time. It's because the physical senses, the flesh, the carnal mind is ruling and the emotions are ruling. You can put heaven off over there because it's done. Without. He says the man who walks in the flesh cannot please God. What does that mean? Please, God. Is he hard to please? No. Hebrews 11 six says Without faith, it's impossible to please God. Because you're opposing the life that's in you. The life's already in you. But if you're thinking I need to do all this stuff to get an accumulated effect, to get to the place, then the life can't come into you to flow into your physical being because you're opposing it coming in, because your mind says this has to be done and I've got to cross every T and dot every I and I've got to be here just the right. And then when I make the time, make sure it's the gross. And if it's 0.66, take it up to the seven. Because if I don't, you know, I'll be rebuked or whatever. No, you've been redeemed from all the curse of the law. Christ was made a curse for you. You're not under a curse, folks. Isn't that good news? Yes. Amen. See, the old Covenant said the curse does not come without a cost. You can't find or talk like that in the New Testament. You can't find anywhere in the New Testament where Paul or any teacher in the New Testament told a believer to have faith. Now Jesus did. But he came. He came as a minister of the Old Testament. Amen. He's a prophet of the Old Testament. So he would say, have faith. And they would say, Have faith in God. You can't find Paul. Anyone telling you to have faith in God. You know why? Because you're born again. You have the faith of God in you. Paul would say, Wake up and act like who you really are. So the greatest mystery. This is the this is it.

Pastor West:
I'm going to give you 30 more seconds. Well, that's four minutes right there. Paul said the greatest mystery that's ever been preached. He said if there was if you were to say, this is a great this is great. Paul said the greatest revelation that has ever been preached that God kept for a specific time. That was not released to other generations, is now being released. And Paul says, I am now being given the authority to give you the highest revelation that's ever been preached in this book called the Bible. And you will find it in the book of Colossians, the first chapter. And all it means is this God is no longer in a box. He's no longer behind the veil. He's no longer in a, you know, a man made temple. He said he has moved out and he's moved in. The greatest mystery ever to be told is now Christ in you, the hope of glory. He said that has never belonged to a group of people until this day. Amen. Amen. We don't go. We don't go to the priest. We don't go knocking on the door. We don't need 14 people to get to us to talk to one person. I'm not saying any more than that. You now have Christ in you, the hope of glory. And Second Corinthians says now what He was. You are as he is. So are you. First, John 417 as Christ is, so are you in this earth. If he said heaven, we said, Man, that'd be great. No, he said, as Christ is, so are you right now in this earth. You are the Christ in the earth. Christ simply means the anointed one and His anointed. You are the anointed one. You could say your last name is Christ. Now. Don't run off and get stupid with that. Don't you know I'm going to go home? Create a galaxy or two. Let us know how it works out. The anointed one lives in you. You are his representative on the earth. Isn't it awesome? What's awesome? I've never represented the mayor of Jefferson before.

Pastor West:
Know him. Talk to him. I've never met the the the governor. Or is it governor or how you say that of Alabama. But you represent the God of all gods. There's only one God. Where is he at? He's in you. You see, I feel like I pray I don't. My prayers don't even get past the ceiling. I don't have to. He's right there. Put your head down. Hello. Christ is where in you The hope of glory. What does that mean? That means you're a carrier of this. You're a carrier of glory. You're a carrier of glory. You're worried about Covid. You're a carrier of glory. You're whatever he is, you're a carrier of it. You can bring restoration. You can bring hope. You can bring health. You can bring strength. You can bring joy. You can stop travesty, tragedy in people's lives. When you come upon a car wreck and they're they're dying and, you know, they're dying for Amazon, you're there. Know what that's like and lay hands on them and then see them healed. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing when you're watching blood flow out and then it just stops. I mean, it's just gushing out and then it just stops. I mean, you know, the scriptures, but you never use them for. Then it just stopped and you're like. Wow. It affects you. It affects you. Amen. Okay, If we don't stop, y'all going to get me preaching. Y'all so easy to minister to. There's hungry, then there's hungry. Amen. How many y'all ever get hungry? Amen. Praise God. Well. Not meeting this Wednesday meeting June the 7th. Right. So we'll be back here next Sunday if we don't see you before we bless you in Jesus name, Amen.

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2023.05.21 stop opposing yourself FRMP3.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

2023.05.21 stop opposing yourself FRMP3.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Pastor Erik West:
Can somebody say Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Glory to God. You may be seated. You may be seated. This is a wonderful day to get together. I said, this is a wonderful day to get together. How many would rather be here in the best hospital in Alabama? Oh, amen. Say this way. Say the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. In green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. Beside the still waters. He restores my soul. Restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness. For his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil Hear no evil For thou art with me Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me Table in the presence of mine enemies You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. My cup runs over. My cup runs over. My cup runneth over. One more time, my cup runs over. Surely. Goodness and mercy. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The House of the Lord. You agree? Amen. It is so. Amen. Praise God. Well, glad that you're here this morning. We're going to have a good time this morning. Amen. Always good when you can be together.

Pastor Erik West:
People like precious faith who love God, who love his word. I just hear this is my spirit. Nathan I hear I'll say it just the way I hear it. He says, Never be concerned and fear not for your for the years ahead of you in times of age and whatever. And how will this come to pass? It seems like it has to do with your business life, which is the monetary thing that everyone is interested in. You know, money's not everything, is it? But having us up there with oxygen. In other words, try to live without it. And so the Lord said he's already prepared that way and he's already made the way. You may have plans. It might be the plan. But he said, I have the plan. And he says, And and as you have been generous to give and to too generous to him and generous to the house, he has prepared all the days of your life. You were never lack anything. You will never no need for anything. All the days of your life. Amen. That's a pretty good word. I think I'd take that for myself. Amen. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord. So that that could be said out of Psalms 23. If you don't mind me saying this, I just. Just. Whatever. Miss Heather. Good to see you here this morning. I. I don't even know what this is. It's real simple. Something that you've been believing God for, something that's not has.

Pastor Erik West:
It's. It's a stubborn resistance. I don't know if it's a person. I don't know. I don't have any particular at this time. But before the summer's end, the thing that hasn't budged, the thing that hasn't happened, the thing that looks like there's no way it's going to come to pass, it will fall just like the walls of Jericho. And you and I hear the Spirit of God saying today on this side of the mountain while the mountain is still erected, he said, You have much cause for rejoicing. Amen. Praise God. Well, hallelujah. Second Timothy, chapter two. We want to welcome our audience this morning, who's watching, if you will. When you come in, share the service. It's real simple. You have to hit share. Share. Just s h a r just hit share. And if you're watching, tell us where you're watching from. Now, if you live two miles from here and you're not sick, I'm going to send someone after you. So you probably wouldn't want to do that because I don't really get that, you know, for Satan not to send yourselves together. But there's reasons why some people can't. I love that we have the ways to do this, especially when you're if you're working or if you're out of town, you're on vacation, you can still be part of the service. We have some we have some people that can't physically be here, but they they through today's means of doing things, they're a part of every service.

Pastor Erik West:
And I'm so glad that we can do that. So just share what you will when you come in and tell us where you're from and if you want to talk. I don't know if someone can talk to you the whole service. That's not really what I would do here. But Elliott likes to say, Hey, back to you. So anyway, just let us know what you're doing and where you're from. So second Timothy, chapter two. If you want a title for today and we're going to title this, stop opposing yourself. That would be grammatically correct. But I just want to say stop opposing you. Thus. So what he wants to do is that's kind of a it's kind of a wild title, like, hey, stop opposing yourself. And you said, well, I don't know that I was. Well, let's see what Paul said to Timothy in second Timothy chapter two, and we're going to read verses in the King James. We're going to read verses 24 through 26. If you don't have the King James, do the best you can. Verse 24 says in the servant. Well, let me give you a little. This is Paul writing a letter to Timothy, which is a young pastor, and he's in this whole chapter which we're not going to read. He's giving him instructions how to go about being that he's a he's a very young pastor.

Pastor Erik West:
And Timothy, he's had some issues, you know, because people say, I can see how this went. All this not in there. He's had people tell him, Who do you think you are? You're only this young. What do you think you're telling us about whatever You don't know anything. You haven't lived enough enough life to know. Come on. From Sikkim. That's the West translation, not the West. There's the West. That's the West. Translation But so Paul is instructing him how to do what he's called to do. And then he verse, I'll even back up to verse 23 just so that you'll get a little context, he says, But foolish and unlearned questions avoid. In other words, Timothy is already wrote Paul and telling some of the problems. So he's telling him avoid their foolish and unlearned questions knowing that they do gender strifes. Verse 24. And the servant of the Lord must not, must not strive, but be gentle to all men apt to teach and patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves their It is in meekness and struck people who are who are opposing themselves. If God prevents your will, give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth that they may recover themselves from the snare of the devil who are taken captive by his will. That's that's a that's a mouthful right there. Now watch here, he said in meekness as he instruct these people who they they are opposing themselves.

Pastor Erik West:
If God prevents you will give them to repentance, to the knowledge of the truth. Now watch here that they who they themselves may recover themselves. Out of the snare of the devil who has taken the ones who are posing themselves. Knowing or unknowingly there have been. They have been taken captive by him. The devil as well. You don't have to do this, guys, on the screen. But I'm going to read the last two verses in the NLT. He says gently, Instruct those who oppose the truth. Perhaps God will change the people's hearts and they will learn the truth. 26 of the NLT says. Then they will come to their senses and escape from the devil's trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants to do, whatever the devil wants. Well, how many want to cooperate with the devil? We will. We're not going to give him any glory because we're a new creation in Christ. But there was there was a time in my life before Christ where I was helping him with his cause and shared it with others. I was I was a disciple. Well, we all were right. The Bible said before you came to Christ, you were by nature children of wrath. I mean, what do you think that means? And so. But thank God we're not that anymore. So what we want to do this morning is we're on a we're on a whether you understand this or not, we have you know, anytime you get people together, people at different places, and that's kind of the difference between the signs of preaching and the art of preaching.

Pastor Erik West:
The signs of preaching might be the word itself. The doctrine, the art of preaching is trying to say something in a way that it affects everybody in the room. That I'm not talking about having great oratory skills, because if that was it, I need to go find me a new profession. I'm talking about speaking in such a way, ministering in such a way that it can touch the youngest to the oldest. Amen. Amen. Because everybody's at a different walk. I mean, I used to say a prayer. You probably said one, too. If you said your prayers at night, we said something like this. What? Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord. My brother has washed his feet. We shared a room together. Now, praise Lord. And you know how it goes on. How many of you still use that prayer as an adult? No one use that. Well, you're aware of it, but you don't use it. Why? Because you have matured. You have grown. Nothing was wrong with it. But, you know, we're not we're not singing ABCs anymore. And it's like when you have kids, you're going to become and you have small kids, you're going to get to watch a lot of cartoons and shows.

Pastor Erik West:
I mean, I don't know if you're 25 or 30 years old that you really like SpongeBob that much or whatever a show is that your kid likes. But how many of you have seen those same shows over and over and over again? Now, as a grandparent, I have done this, you know, and watching kids and then it's on. And and here's what and I hate to admit this, but sometimes they have left the room and I'm still watching it. And they don't even realize for the 47th time, like I'm waiting to see what's about to happen. The. She asked me some time. She says, you know, she won't see nothing on. She says, You won't watch Andy Griffith. I said, No. She said, What's wrong with Andy? I said, Nothing. I just know everything they're going to say before they say it. I mean, I know everything they're going to say before they say it. I could even do the Barney moves, you know, and just ask him. He's about to go, like, you know. And so there's things everyone's at a different place. So I'm going to endeavor to because I think I think one of the things the church has done that's a mistake, me included, for years as we have tried to change people, help people, change people. You want to say at the level of we, you need to live a better life.

Pastor Erik West:
However, however, they say that sometimes you just go church and all you hear is you need to do better the next week. It's just another it's just another way of serving it up. In other words, you know, I know you love Jesus, but you know, you need you need to come on and you need to upgrade. You need to do better this week. You need to do better the next week. You need to do better the next week. And people never grow because they stay babes. And Ephesians Paul said that we're all supposed to grow to the fullness of the stature of Christ, not him Christ, Right? Hebrews five He told the people there, he says, By now, every one of you ought to be teachers, he says, But you're not, because you've never grown. The way that you grow is that you hear the word and then you go do it. Hearing is one thing. Hearing is good. It's better than not hearing. But there's no growth out of not doing. Jesus taught that a couple of different places in Luke you can find it and we usually go to Luke where, you know, he likened a house in a storm and a man built a house on the sand. Another one built it on a proper foundation and it says the storm came. He didn't say if a storm comes, it says when the storm came, the house was built on the sand.

Pastor Erik West:
Of course, it was demolished. The house that was built on the rock, it withstood the you know, it withstood the storm. But it was the same storm for both people. So if you build your he says so those who so what he was saying in in that allegory that teaching he's saying for those who hear what I say and do not practice it. He said they are foolish. If you read, I think it's like Luke 646 to 40 8 or 9, somewhere at the end of the chapter, he says. So a foolish man would build his house on the sand. A foolish man would would come to church. A foolish man would just hear the word but never put it into practice. They have 45 reasons why it won't work. How many? You know, some people that no matter what the answer is, they got some reason why for the solution that you got for them. Well, that won't work. I don't work. One of their favorite words is. Yeah, but. Yeah, but yeah, but yeah. But you know what's always in their way there. But their butts in their way. Yeah but yeah but yeah but yabba yabba yabba. And then you got some people who's always telling you what you should do, you should do this and you should do that. How many people are telling you should do this and they're always shooting on you. You should.

Pastor Erik West:
You should do this. I understand what I said. You should do this. You should do that. But see, they're not you. Okay, now I'm through. Let's get back to the word. All right. So it makes me feel better. Get that off my chest. I've been carrying that all week. Let me ask you this. Are you saved? Amen. Your. Oh, that's great. How do you know you are? First few minutes we can talk here if y'all will sit down and actually wrote this Friday out just like I was having a conversation. I mean, I was in the room with you at my house and I said, Are y'all saved? And y'all said you said, yes. I heard you say yes at my home two days ago. And then I said to you, okay, great. And then I said, Do you how do you know you are? Then I said, Will you show me the physical evidence that you're saved? And then it was quiet, just like it is right now. I mean, this is like a script. I actually wrote it out. And then but someone says, Well, I think it should be Romans ten. Nine. Where Paul said, you know, he believed and confessed that if you believe and you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Would that be the scriptural evidence of it? Right.

Pastor Erik West:
I'd been there a long time, but I am a member of Sams and never been a member of Sams. Did you get a card or Costco? They got your card. Can you show me your saved card? Does anybody have one? How many You're convinced you're saved. Can you give me any physical proof? Can anyone give me physical proof? You're saved. But every one of you believe that. And you all are wild. I may have a credit card or a gas card. It is assigned a number and you can purchase whatever you want to purchase from anywhere. If you want to purchase it because it's got your name, it's got a it's got a card number and then got the little number on the back. Know that they ask for all part of security to acknowledge who it is, who are you? And you can do whatever you want to with that. And it's tied to your identity. It's who you are. So we believe all these things. But the major thing, you know, whether we live to be five or 50 or 150, is that when we leave here that we go to be with Christ that we have in heaven the goal. When you leave here now, I mean, go on to heaven is not just the goal. That's not the reason why he brought us here. He wanted the family and he has he has a wonderful purpose for your life. And after that, the goal will be to heaven.

Pastor Erik West:
I mean, you don't want to go to hell. You know that. That's what y'all told me two days ago in my house when I was writing this. I thought I saw one hand going up, but I realized they were young and they were like. And I was like, okay, well, take off. I mean, you shouldn't, but I can't. I can't stop you. So you have no physical evidence. So so I asked this. I said, I asked this. I said, So what is your unit of measure for salvation? And the answer would be your answer was the word of God. So don't think it could be right. And now you have hope right now that you say that you have hope. Now the hope gets hope gets thrown around and hopes made into a bad deal. You know, even in, you know, Christians say, you know, hope's not any good. You know, I mean, you got to have faith. Hope won't do anything for you. Well, that's not what the Bible says. You have to have hope to have faith, you know, without going there. Hebrews 11 one says now faith is the substance of things. What hope for the evidence of things not seen. Now, faith is Hebrews 11 one, which we won't go there. But now faith is the substance of things hoped for. Other translation says Faith is the evidence. It's the title deed.

Pastor Erik West:
You know what that is? Other things hope for. See, hope really is just is a expectation, a good expectation, A confident expectation that what you hope for. Faith. Will be the substance that will bring it into manifestation. So if you have no hope, you have nothing for faith to have substance to. So now that you you have a hope that you're going to go to heaven, you have a knowing. You have a confident expectation, What you just told me, you have a confident expectation with no physical evidence whatsoever that for eternity you're going to be in heaven, but you have no evidence. And you wonder if you have faith sometimes. That's pretty amazing. Everyone here believes the same thing and no one has any evidence to it. If I asked you, do you have a belly button, you would say, Yes, I'm not going to ask you to show it for proof. But we have aunties and we have Outies and we have some way outies and praise the Lord. And so but you have that. You could you could prove that there's a number of things that I said. Do you have it, man? Do you have a wallet? You say, Yes. I don't. I actually left mine. I got halfway here and I thought, well, I don't get pulled over, say, Well, where's your license? I said, at the house. So if you leave me alone please, I'll have it next time.

Pastor Erik West:
Well, you could prove that. Ladies, do you have do you have identification? You could prove that you could show your license. You could that you are who you say you are. Now, you have to think about it. That Jesus died 2000 years ago. And you. And you believe this. But you weren't around, were you? None of us was around. There were people on the earth with him. We know this here in the scripture. But were you one of them? Have you actually met Jesus yet? No one hears about him yet. Right. You weren't there to hear his teachings personally. You did not witness the crucifixion. You didn't witness the death, and you certainly didn't witness the resurrection. Now, here's some questions for you. This is questions, y'all. Class. When does salvation start? You don't have to whisper. Immediately after. What? After you confess, Jesus is Lord. So that's when salvation starts. How many all agree that salvation starts the moment that you confess Jesus as Lord. Amen. Or is it or would it be? Or does salvation start immediately after your physical death? Then salvation starts and you go to heaven. Is that when it starts? No. Okay. You can't always get this many people to agree on this many things. This is. This is good. This is really good. So we're saying, according to the scripture, that we believe we're saved, born again, made a new creature in Christ. As soon as you believe.

Pastor Erik West:
Is that what you're saying? Amen. So when I heard the gospel believe, asked Jesus into my heart question, was my past sin or sins or the multitude of sins and transgressions, was it able to stop my salvation? But one, if he is a drug addict, could it stop it? No. So before you come to receive Christ, was there any any sin that could stop? If you truly wanted Jesus to come to live in your heart? Was there any sin that could stop? At the moment. You received Jesus as Lord. Could any kind of sin stop it? Well, let's just know. I hate to say this, but what if you murdered someone? What if you as a serial killer? And I won't go into whatever. What if you had hurt children? Would Jesus still receive you as Lord? Really? What if you had burned someone alive? I'm thinking of a minister right now that Norvel Hayes had a daughter. You remember Norvel Hayes. He's in heaven now. And the devil would just mock him. He said, Norwood. He said. But it feels kind of foolish to travel all over the world helping everybody else and their kids. And you can't even help your own. He said. He said Zola was so crazy. She you know, he said she'd go to the bars all night and she's so high on drugs. He said there was two of her friends that went to the beach. They were so high that they poured gas on themselves and lit themselves on fire and burned to death.

Pastor Erik West:
But what if he was the person who did that? Someone? Would Jesus still receive you? I don't know that it did. I don't I don't have any evidence that it did or did not. If Hitler, before death, had asked Jesus to forgive him, would Hitler be in heaven? Really? But you know what Hitler did, right? So. So there's no you telling me there's no conditions of sins or transgression that can stop the salvation. Well, that's kind of funny, isn't it? Because sometimes we feel like we can't go forward and we can't get past this. And the devil is opposing you so strongly, and he's just got this thing bound up and. And the greatest miracle you could have would be salvation, right? It really would be right. And with one scripture. Romans ten with John 316. You beat the devil with one scripture. Amen. Good of all that he's built up to be other than other than the Book of Revelation. And I know the people been here a while know this, so just endure with me for those who are watching or haven't heard it, other than the Book of Revelations, the devil's only mentioned four times in New Testament. So I always said if this was a play, a theatrical play, a drama, he didn't get that big a role. He's only mentioned four times and all four times puts him in the all four times.

Pastor Erik West:
If you look at the reference of how he's mentioned, it's that he's been defeated and stripped of all power and authority. That's his that's his role in the New Testament. Now, the old bugger, he'll raise up in Revelation and he'll he'll put a hurt on a few people and he's to the place, to where he still thinks he can win this thing. He's going after it. Now the reason why the Antichrist hasn't come. Now, this is for people who believe in the rapture. There's a great deal of people who do not believe in the rapture. Whether you do or whether you don't, it doesn't matter to me. I mean, some people can't get along together because if you don't believe this, I ain't talking anymore. I said, Well, how are you going to do in heaven? Well, I didn't believe all that. Don't be around me. I have friends and I have people that that I that I listen to that minister to me in other things that they don't believe that we're physically going to go up in the rapture. I'm of the persuasion that we are. How many? I want to ask you, but how many you be okay to leave when he comes? But you know, if we stay here, it's going to be okay. I mean, just. Just go back to the Israelites in Egypt. They got locusts.

Pastor Erik West:
You don't. You know they got frogs. You don't. They're in darkness. You're in light. There plagued you aren't death Angel comes in, their first born dies. You're not. So if God can do that with Egypt, he could do it if we're here. But I don't. I've listened to both sides and I can kind of see some things that they're saying. I don't see enough evidence that says we stay here. But we'll be okay either way. So but, you know, every time that there was things that took place where there was going to be destruction throughout the scripture, you see that God always removed his people. You see, with Noah and the Ark. You see it with Sodom and Gomorrah. What did he do before Sodom? Gomorrah was. Was destroyed. He brought the righteous out, Right. The reason why the Antichrist can't come right now is because you're here. Darkness cannot overtake the light. So Satan has always had to have someone ready to be the antichrist. Always. I mean, I just always used that baseball term. He's always had someone in the bullpen had to be ready because they have to be ready when Jesus comes or when it comes and we're gone. He can't come. Antichrist can't come because you're here. You're the light. So he would like to run the show. But since he doesn't know when that moment comes, Satan's always had to have someone ready. I'm thinking when he. When he had Hitler on the earth, he thought he had someone.

Pastor Erik West:
Boy, this would be a great time to come because I got someone here that that's going to, you know, give us all that we need. But Hitler died, so he knew he had to have somebody else. So he cannot come because you're the light and you're here when we leave. He will come. The scripture says he will come, but he will become as a peacemaker. He will come. He will come as someone. He won't come with horns. He won't come with a whip. He won't come with fire. He'll come as someone who is a great orator, who's concerned for the peace of the world, and since the world is going to be in such chaos, they're going to listen to him. You know, the tribulation don't even know why I'm talking about this right now. We know it's seven years. It's broken up into two. You know, it's the it's the it's the tribulation. The first three and a half years, the second three and a half years is is called the Great Tribulation. Tribulation. Great tribulation. The only difference is the intensity is so bad in the last 42 months that the Scripture says that if Jesus didn't come back when He did, no man would survive it. No man. But the greatest revival that will probably ever take place. When you read the Book of Revelations, you find out will happen when the church is gone to the marriage supper of the lamb.

Pastor Erik West:
All kind of misconceptions say, Well, the Holy Ghost won't be here. Well, of course he'll be here. You can't get saved without the Holy Ghost. He will be here. You have the 12 tribes of Israel. You have all. You have the 144,000. You have people that will be ministering in Israel and all over the world. And at that time, they'll know that they was actually wrong, that Jesus was not just a great teacher. He was not just a prophet, but he was the Messiah himself. God will give them every opportunity to repent during those seven years. But when he comes back, we come back together with him. We come back on a white horse. When he comes back, it is not the dispensation of grace. He comes back with wrath and he comes back with fury. And we come back together with him on a horse. So if you don't like horses, you need to start liking them and a little bit and and practice now and do the giddy up because we're going to look here. I mean, how many y'all believe the Bible? We're going to fly through the atmosphere on a horse? I mean, have you ever rode a horse? You like horses? Have you ever flown on one? This is going to be so cool. I mean, Star Wars don't they don't have anything. I mean, just think about the rapture.

Pastor Erik West:
He says you'll be changed in the twinkling of an eye. Well, you can't get ready for church that quick, can you? Wouldn't that be cool? Oh, let me do something. I to be there. You're there. You're going to be changed in the twinkling of an eye. I mean, NASA doesn't have anything that can go to space that quick. I mean, you're going to be with him and already changed before you can blink an eye. I mean, can you imagine what it's going to be like? You know, just like you're going a billion miles an hour, like, boom, There you are. Hello? A lot of fun, exciting things. People say church is boring. It doesn't boring about it. I mean, just think about I mean, think about the rapture. I mean. I mean, what Rocket could stay up with you? Faster than a speeding bullet. You know, we might even get a Christian cape to go in. I don't know. This is nowhere in my notes where I talk to all. I was doing this conversation. I was talking with y'all two days ago, so someone pulled me off over there. So if you don't like that, it's someone in the room. Pull me off over there. I just lost the Holy Ghost. If I go that way. Amen. Either that it was the oatmeal I ate. I don't know which one it is. So you said that no sin can stop our salvation now.

Pastor Erik West:
Okay, I know this is simple, but is your salvation? Is your salvation that you're now saved? Was your was your salvation reliant on God's timing? Did God keep salvation away from you on purpose? Until there was a perfect time. If someone wanted to be saved, would he say no right now? Does anyone believe that? Thank you. No one believes that. And it's funny how we introduce sovereignty into so many things except for salvation. We believe that if you really in your heart, you were sitting on a bar stool somewhere, half lit, whatever, and everybody in the room, but you had enough consciousness about you and you were truly as Jesus to come that you could be around. Dope addicts and drunk, as you know what? But if you truly mean it in your heart, how many you believe that God would save you right there in that bar room? Does anyone believe that other than me? Can anybody say amen? Amen. So it's not relying upon a specific time. I mean, there is something called what we call the age of accountability. For me, it was the fourth grade. I just woke up one day thinking, he's coming today. I knew he was coming that day. It was the most worst, horrible day of my. It was the best. It was the worst. I mean, my mother should have realized what was going on because I went to school. I just woke up and I just that's what it was.

Pastor Erik West:
I didn't know I was I was fourth grade. I was in Miss Byrd's class in Clanton. I don't know nothing. Miss Byrd said she was singing all day long, and I was terrified because in my mind, I mean, you go to church and, you know, they would give an altar call. And just as I am, I wish I could sing, but just as I am. And people would come up right, if they was going to come up. So I thought the only way you can get saved is you have to be in a church. A pastor has to preach. He has to give an altar call and you have to answer the altar call. I mean, that's the way you have to get saved. I didn't know I could ask him. So all day I was terrified. And Miss Bird said, she said, Eric, are you okay? I said, Yes, ma'am, I'm fine. She said, Do you need to talk to somebody? I said, No, ma'am. All I was doing was crying. I was begging God. I was so thankful. It was Wednesday and I knew we was going to go to church. Because you didn't ask my mother, Are we going to go to church Unless you wanted a lot of trouble. So I knew we were going to church, but I knew on Wednesday it was you. The the real church was there on Wednesday.

Pastor Erik West:
Right. So I knew then he would not give an altar call because he ain't gonna have no visitors on Wednesday. But I told my mother, I said, So I got home and and I was thinking, oh, dear God, I'm still not talking to my mother because I know this is how it has to work. And I'm sitting there looking at 5:00, two more hours and he's got to preach. So I hope he don't preach long. So I said, When we get there, tell tell, tell pastor to give an altar call. I want to get saved. And she says, Oh, good, that's great. And but I didn't ask her because I know you have to be in church. You have to be in church and they have to ask and you have to say, okay. So I just knew he was coming. I knew he was coming. I knew he was coming. So he preached about 25 minutes on Wednesday night. We had a few songs and a few terrible testimonies. And then so he'd already been told, Mom said he's real anxious about getting saved. I said, Well, that's good. He says, I'll make sure I give an altar call. He said, If there's anyone here tonight who would like to accept Jesus, I'd like to Roadrunner. I was like, I don't even know this person. I don't know nothing. The man preached. But when he said, Is there anyone here? I was like, I said, beep, beep.

Pastor Erik West:
Hurry, hurry, because I got to get every word out because I mean, it don't count, you know, legally.

Pastor Erik West:
And he said, would you? Yes. And so, you know what are you, ten years old? So it was traumatic for me because I mean.

Pastor Erik West:
I barely got in under the wire. And for me, because I got in.

Pastor Erik West:
It was so traumatic.

Pastor Erik West:
To me, to be honest to God with.

Pastor Erik West:
You. It was like.

Pastor Erik West:
I heard the.

Pastor Erik West:
Hallelujah choir in my head and I made it like.

Pastor Erik West:
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Oh, God. But then I thought, oh my gosh. And I knew my dad wouldn't say.

Pastor Erik West:
And I went home and and to knock on his door. You don't do that. And I went to his room and I just I got home. I said, Dad, I said, I got to tell you something.

Pastor Erik West:
I got to tell something real quick.

Pastor Erik West:
He said, What is it? This is not a conversation you would have. My dad. And I said, I don't have time, but this is so important. He says, What is it? I said, Jesus is coming today. I said, I'm shocked he hasn't already come. And I said, But he is coming today, Dad. And I know you're lost.

Pastor Erik West:
Because you're mean a lot and you cuss a lot. And and it didn't matter because Jesus was going to come and he didn't have time to ground me or beat me. So I just said, You're mean a lot. And you cuss a lot and you're angry.

Pastor Erik West:
A lot and you don't have much time. I cannot even believe we're still here. I said you need to receive Jesus right now. I said, Are you ready? He says.

Pastor Erik West:
I'm fine.

Pastor Erik West:
You go to your room. I said, I'm not playing with you.

Pastor Erik West:
I remember I'm not playing with you because you know. So when you believe you're out of time, you'll get pretty bold. You got to be bold like that now. So then I called a couple of my friends just getting kind of late.

Pastor Erik West:
And I called the parents and I said, May I speak to I won't tell the names. I'll just say Johnny. And I said, Johnny, this is Eric. Hey, look, man, I got to tell you something real quick. He said, What is it? Because my parents don't want me. This is too late to call. And I said, Well, I told him it was it was serious. So that's why the parents let me do it, you know, call because they were already in bed. And one of them got up. He said, Well, what is it? I said, Man, it's serious. He said, What's happening? I said, Jesus is coming tonight.

Pastor Erik West:
And I said, You know, you, me, best friends and I know you're mean.

Pastor Erik West:
As you know what.

Pastor Erik West:
I know you're I know.

Pastor Erik West:
You're going to go to hell.

Pastor Erik West:
And I said I was too, until tonight. But I'm saved now. We don't have much time. And I remembered what this is, what the preacher said. And then he told me afterwards, I could have done this all day long.

Pastor Erik West:
And I was thinking, Really?

Pastor Erik West:
That's what I been through? I have, haven't.

Pastor Erik West:
Eight nothing I've had. I've had.

Pastor Erik West:
You know, diarrhea. Sorry, but I just like I sick I mean, this is honest to God truth. Can I go to the bathroom? If she said no, I'm still going because, you know, like, oh, I was sick to my stomach. So I said, John, you're going to hell because you were just like me. And he says, he said, He's come now. I said, Yeah. I said, Say this. He said, okay. And I called another one, got him, said.

Pastor Erik West:
Here I am.

Pastor Erik West:
Today.

Pastor Erik West:
939 and and Jesus still coming soon.

Pastor Erik West:
You better, you better get with it. So. So nothing you said.

Pastor Erik West:
Nothing can stop your salvation now what can stop your salvation? Let me tell you, according to the scripture says.

Pastor Erik West:
What can stop your salvation is not believing on the Lord Jesus.

Pastor Erik West:
Agreed. Amen. Not confessing him as Savior. In short, what stops you.

Pastor Erik West:
From being saved and what stops you from.

Pastor Erik West:
Anything? Is unbelief. So if you actually.

Pastor Erik West:
Read the scripture, even though we pray this way.

Pastor Erik West:
We ask we ask people to pray with us through Christ, and we ask you, Lord, forgive us for all our sins. That's that's not actually in the Scripture that you were ever asked to ask him to forgive you of all your sins. You only had one sin. You said, Well, no, I had a bunch of sins. The only one that was going to send you to hell was not all these other stuff. You only had one sin. You. And the sin was you had rejected Jesus. Who was the payment for your sin. So? So someone has to pay for sin. Jesus did. But if you don't receive him, then you have to go pay for it after he already did.

Pastor Erik West:
Amen. So if you reject him, you are rejecting the payment. So on belief in him equates to you being.

Pastor Erik West:
Lost eternally.

Pastor Erik West:
Because you was.

Pastor Erik West:
A sinner. You say, Well, and I will say it this way what do painters do? What a welders do, right? What did cooks do? What does Sanders do?

Pastor Erik West:
Hello. So? So it wasn't no shock to Jesus that she was sinning. You were a sinner. You were by nature a sinner. So you. You would only leave here and go to hell because you hadn't received Jesus Christ who was the fulfillment of everything and died for all your sin.

Pastor Erik West:
So.

Pastor Erik West:
For those who hadn't.

Pastor Erik West:
Heard it, listen to.

Pastor Erik West:
This. Really good. You may think this is just a play on words, but it's not. Jesus did not die for your sins. Ready.

Pastor Erik West:
He died as yersin.

Pastor Erik West:
Do you. Do you understand what.

Pastor Erik West:
I'm trying to say?

Pastor Erik West:
He didn't die. He didn't come down here and.

Pastor Erik West:
Say, Well, the boy did this, this, this.

Pastor Erik West:
He didn't die. He didn't die for your sins.

Pastor Erik West:
We were by the nature. By nature. The scripture says.

Pastor Erik West:
Because of Adam's transgression, by nature, we were the children of wrath. He died as your sin.

Pastor Erik West:
He died as your guilt.

Pastor Erik West:
And the scripture said in Colossians, when he was raised from the dead.

Pastor Erik West:
He took.

Pastor Erik West:
Everything that was contrary to you.

Pastor Erik West:
Contrary, was you was guilty of all sin.

Pastor Erik West:
James said, if you you could.

Pastor Erik West:
You could.

Pastor Erik West:
Give 99%. Good. But if you miss it.

Pastor Erik West:
One point you're guilty of everything.

Pastor Erik West:
So the Bible says Jesus came and fulfilled all the law.

Pastor Erik West:
See, sometimes when we're talking about the law, Twin Grace, we think, well, the law is a bad thing. I mean, it's just like this law was pitiful.

Pastor Erik West:
No, it was God's law.

Pastor Erik West:
It was God's standard of holiness. But the law never perfected anybody.

Pastor Erik West:
It couldn't because no man could keep it. The law was when you saw the law, when the law came in, when you when.

Pastor Erik West:
You you had Ten Commandments, then you had.

Pastor Erik West:
613 others. Ceremonial type.

Pastor Erik West:
Commandments.

Pastor Erik West:
I mean, some like like on some days you can only take so many steps. You can't cook on this. You can't visit the bathroom on some days. True. Six in the 614, which.

Pastor Erik West:
I always said, you know.

Pastor Erik West:
On that Sabbath day.

Pastor Erik West:
When you can't.

Pastor Erik West:
Even go to the restroom, you better really watch your diet.

Pastor Erik West:
Today before that.

Pastor Erik West:
Right? Don't stay away from the prune juice.

Pastor Erik West:
And the prunes. I mean.

Pastor Erik West:
Because the next day you're in major trouble.

Pastor Erik West:
I know that's a pitiful joke, but it's absolutely true. When the law came down for the first time, do you know what the first person died of? Do you know what they did for the first person who died after the law was instituted? It was one man who on the Sabbath day was doing what he always did. And now he went to go pick up sticks to gather a fire to cook for his family. And that was forbidden in the law. And he was stoned to death.

Pastor Erik West:
Before there was a law.

Pastor Erik West:
There was no transgression. God had. He has.

Pastor Erik West:
All children. But if he had. But if you think you've had problems sometimes your family.

Pastor Erik West:
This helped me years ago.

Pastor Erik West:
When I had a few.

Pastor Erik West:
Issues at home and I said, Lord, where did I go wrong? He said, you know, because I just I mean, where did I go wrong? He said, What do you mean?

Pastor Erik West:
I said, Well, I told him, you know, what was going wrong in my family.

Pastor Erik West:
He said, Well, where did I go wrong? I said, What do you mean Where did you go wrong? You've never been wrong, he says. He says, Have you ever read about Cain and Abel? I said, Yeah. He says, Those are my kids. You would call them grandkids. He said, Where did I go wrong with Adam and Eve? I'm not a good enough father. I didn't teach him right. I didn't spend time with him. I thought, Well, no, you're perfect. He says, Oh, so people do make choices on their own. I said, Well, yeah, that helped me so much. Not just to take it off me, but just to see that that, you know, you know, all these.

Pastor Erik West:
Problems is going on in your life, in the world.

Pastor Erik West:
There are all his problems. He's got a lot of problems.

Pastor Erik West:
He doesn't seem to be moved that much by him. The Lord, the Lord's not being.

Pastor Erik West:
Medicated daily.

Pastor Erik West:
Because of all our.

Pastor Erik West:
Problems. He's like, I'm not. I'm tell the Lord doesn't have anxiety attacks.

Pastor Erik West:
Just like he has all your problems. And then the problems of seven.

Pastor Erik West:
Almost 8 billion more people. Amen.

Pastor Erik West:
And sometimes you think you need counseling. If I could give you all the problems.

Pastor Erik West:
That I have with this church.

Pastor Erik West:
And say, this is now.

Pastor Erik West:
Your situation and I'm going Hawaii. You think, Well, what is there? You'll know in about a week. You'll know when your phone goes off.

Pastor Erik West:
At 2:00 in the morning.

Pastor Erik West:
And and all they want to know is, Pastor.

Pastor Erik West:
Where is this in the Bible?

Pastor Erik West:
We're like, we don't do that. I did that 30 years ago. Call me. Know where Scripture is. Well. The Lord is not concerned. He's not worried. I'm kind of getting away from here, but I really follow the Holy Ghost. Now watch here. Some of you have some problems. Look here you can't fix. Just be honest.

Pastor Erik West:
Sometimes it. This helps me so much. Sometimes to just be honest with the Lord.

Pastor Erik West:
You think you ought to be? Yeah, but I'm saying I want you to hear that literally.

Pastor Erik West:
Go to the Lord. Now he knows.

Pastor Erik West:
He already knows. But if you're like me, it kind of helps to lay things out. You ever done that? I've laid out bills before. I remember laid out bills before and I'm like, okay, I got this much money and I got that many bills. And I wasn't great at math, but I was enough to know that wasn't working. And then we'd have these people You ever heard? You may not have heard them, but see me. I've served as a call bill collectors.

Pastor Erik West:
And some of them get mean.

Pastor Erik West:
I mean, they're just mean. And I got so tired of it. One day I came home from work one day, and that's when we had answering machines. I remember answering machines and mine was lit up.

Pastor Erik West:
Green, boom, boom.

Pastor Erik West:
And it was like 14 messages. I'm just telling on me today. But have you all ever have you all ever known where your checks going to go before you get it? Yeah, me too. I knew where several checks was going to go for I got and it wasn't enough. I went to a dentist one time because I had to finally go and he says, Boy, you. He said, I know what your problem is. I says, What's wrong? He says, I know. I know why your mouth is in the shape that it is. I said, Why? He says, Because of four kids. He said, Chad Taylor, Amy and Kristin. You spend all your money on them. He says, your mouth is a mess. Well, I had all these cares and I and I found.

Pastor Erik West:
Myself trying to fix things that I couldn't fix. I know you've never done that.

Pastor Erik West:
But I'm just admitting to you today that I sometimes have tried.

Pastor Erik West:
To physically.

Pastor Erik West:
In my in my strength and my care and.

Pastor Erik West:
My compassion.

Pastor Erik West:
Have tried to fix things that.

Pastor Erik West:
Really I wasn't fixing, I couldn't fix.

Pastor Erik West:
But I felt like somebody has to do something.

Pastor Erik West:
I was like, I prayed the Lord and he just sitting around.

Pastor Erik West:
I was like And I was like, I mean, I couldn't say, but I want.

Pastor Erik West:
Like, do something.

Pastor Erik West:
Like, you know.

Pastor Erik West:
I know you got a throne. You ever thought about getting up?

Pastor Erik West:
I mean, I mean, that's just my thinking. Not today. I mean, a long time ago. And so. So since he wasn't working on it, I did.

Pastor Erik West:
And I was.

Pastor Erik West:
Getting all kind of results. One of the worst days I ever had. And I can't go into details. Was. Number of years ago. Me and some people who's here today in this church tried to help a young man who who had every disadvantage to life and home and family and parents. Um, he just lived in a pitiful situation.

Pastor Erik West:
And.

Pastor Erik West:
Probably wasn't the wisdom of God to do what was done, but. A couple in this church cared so much to take him into their home, away from his home. Which gave him some presence of sanity. What we didn't know was over a period of time when we was at church and he would go home with different kids. He'd go home to different families who had kids. And then we went to a like a summer kids camp where a bunch of kids are this kid who was 18 or 19in.

Pastor Erik West:
Age, but probably 12.

Pastor Erik West:
To 14in his mind. We found out actually my my wife, we were we were just playing cards one night. It wasn't poker. Don't, don't don't write me a letter. We was playing cards, so I'll cut my grass, you cut yours. And we were just playing cards one night, and he was with us that weekend and he was with my kids. And we were at a pool. There was a pool and just a little four foot high pool. And they were not small kids, but they were they were still young, 12 and under, 13 and under. And he was up there. And then all of a sudden, my wife said, Where's so-and-so? I said, They're in the pool. She says, something's wrong. Something's wrong right now. And I'm thinking God, shoulder or something. I'm thinking water pool. And I ran out of that house and I ran as hard as I could to that pool. And they were all okay, except the oldest one had his britches down and he wanted to show him his rear parts. That night the Holy Spirit said to me, He didn't say this to me. I was. I was. I fell asleep. And in a dream I saw him in all these different people's homes that was in our church and at this camp. And I saw what he did to those kids. And I thought, Is that real? I never had a dream like that. So I knew where he was. The next day. And I knew the presence of his mind was younger than his age.

Pastor Erik West:
And. And I'll just say his name was, you know, Joe. And I said, Joe, I know what you did when you were at so-and-so's house and use it so-and-so's house. And he said, Who told you? And I got so sick on the inside and he, not knowing, admitted to everything that I saw in my dream. It was terrible what happened to those kids. It was all of them. Wasn't as bad, but some of them it was they were abused in every way that you could be. And you just wanted to cry. A bucket of tears. But yet no one when he came out of was was horrific. And I had to go see the law enforcement. And I said, what would happen if someone had a situation like this and they came out of this kind of home? But this happened. But the kid, he's just he's just Pastor West. He says, you're giving me the what ifs. He said, But you've got a real situation. And he says it has to be taken care of now. And if you don't do it. And you even send him away. He's going to do this again. And when he does, he says, does. Then the day that he's arrested, then we're going to come back and arrest you for all these things that you knew I hate. That was his situation. But he has to be taken off the street. So I had to tell him what I knew. And they.

Pastor Erik West:
Went and picked him up.

Pastor Erik West:
And he had to admit to it. And he did. And he was 19 years old. And he he is serving because I initiated the whole thing. He's serving two life sentences. Oh, that was not a fun day of pastor. For everybody involved. Some of those families. One of those families never stayed together. Their whole family split over. The kids were messed up. Their grades went sideways. Some of them ended up in all kinds of trouble. And I carried the weight of that for so long. Like I should have heard from God. I should've never done this. I just carried it. It was just eating me alive. And I was sitting with a friend of mine who's he's in heaven now. He just died a few months ago and he was a pastor years beyond my experience. Before that, he was a sheriff. So he had a lot of experience. And I told him. And he says, I hear what you're saying. He says, But you've got to change your thinking. And I says, Well, he says, I'm going to say something and you're going to repeat after me. This guy has strong personality. I said he was a sheriff and he had a he had a motto about devils. He said, I'm just giving you a look into his personality because he's he's he's about to help me in his own way. And so but his motto was, With devils, there's two ways to get a devil out. Cast it out or beat it out. So he said, Now say this with me. We'll just call this boy Joe. He said, Joe is going to prison.

Pastor Erik West:
For two lifetimes census, which is that would be 15 years and then another 15 years. So it was going in at about 20 and he will come out at 60. Can you imagine from a messed up home from a mind that's not really there, from people from family in his home that did the same thing and he just repeated it. But now he's going to be my age. And he went in at 19 because I had to turn him in. I'm not want you to feel sorry for me. I'm just trying to give you an idea of what I'm saying here. So. So, Pastor, my friend said he said he said, say this to me. He said, Joe is going to prison for 30 years. I said, Joe is going to prison for 30 years. He said, okay, ready? I said, Yeah. He said, And I don't care. And I said, What? He said, Say this because. And I don't care. I said, I'm not saying that. I mean, how could you even say that? He said, Derek, he says, Are we going to do this one more time? And now that was now the guy. That was two ways to get a devil out. And I was at his home way out in the country where if you got lost, no one would ever find you out there. He said, Joe is going to prison. I said, okay, Joe. He said, No, I don't care. And I said, He said, I said, Say it. And I said, and I don't care. He said, Now.

Pastor Erik West:
Do you know why you don't care?

Pastor Erik West:
And I said, You'll have to tell me that one. He said, Because God cares.

Pastor Erik West:
He said, The problem with you, you become.

Pastor Erik West:
Incapacitated to do anything for yourself.

Pastor Erik West:
Or help anyone because you're.

Pastor Erik West:
Taking the care of this. He said, You care and you have a concern, but.

Pastor Erik West:
You don't take the care. Amen.

Pastor Erik West:
And that's real simple. But for where I was at in the situation, I couldn't see all the other like this. I couldn't think clearly, he says. And I said, Joe, Joe is going to prison for 30 years. God loves him, but he's going for 30 years and I don't care because God cares. And I felt the burden. God just lift off of me. And I've been able to pray for that kid, which is now a grown man. All those. All those years. And that's what happens when we try to do things in our own strength and our own ability and our own might. Is we we take something that doesn't belong to us. It's not yours to take.

Pastor Erik West:
How many of you agree that if.

Pastor Erik West:
You're born again.

Pastor Erik West:
That even you don't belong to you? Amen.

Pastor Erik West:
If he's Lord now, there's a lot of folks who got him a savior, but they're not Lord. He's. See, your.

Pastor Erik West:
Spirit belongs to.

Pastor Erik West:
Him, right? If he's your Lord, so does your soul and your mind. And then your body belongs to him. You can't.

Pastor Erik West:
Do anything you want to with your.

Pastor Erik West:
Body because.

Pastor Erik West:
He owns your body. Amen. The way that you have to deal with that is.

Pastor Erik West:
You have to say.

Pastor Erik West:
If Jesus come down.

Pastor Erik West:
Today.

Pastor Erik West:
Would I invite him to go do.

Pastor Erik West:
This with me? And you pretty much have your answer. See, there's things that that boy, I'm so far away from them notes. I mean, I don't even know how to get back over there. I'm running out of time. I mean, it's like a bridge to get over there now. But there's. There's things. There's, there's things. There's paths that you set out on. And sometimes you get stuck because you got to a place to where.

Pastor Erik West:
You're you're not able to move forward and you're just kind.

Pastor Erik West:
Of stuck there. I know what I'm talking about. I don't know who I'm talking to. I think I'm talking to some of you. I mean, I don't.

Pastor Erik West:
Care if you're in the fifth grade.

Pastor Erik West:
Or if you're 70 years old. We've all get to a place, to where we've come to. A place that I can't go on anymore the way this is or the walls are up and I feel surrounded. I feel isolated. And. And. And it all looks real.

Pastor Erik West:
And factually it is real. But the Lord is not moved.

Pastor Erik West:
By it at all.

Pastor Erik West:
He greatly cares. But see, you really haven't.

Pastor Erik West:
Given him the care.

Pastor Erik West:
Because you're whatever dominates your thinking is.

Pastor Erik West:
Dominating your life. Whatever moves your emotions is what has control of you. Who or whatever emotionally has control that that is who's in control of your life. I'll say that to help you. So but you have to be honest with yourself. If if you're afraid and you're in fear.

Pastor Erik West:
All of it, really. I'll be honest with you.

Pastor Erik West:
You know, the Bible says in the the carnal mind is enmity against God.

Pastor Erik West:
That doesn't mean.

Pastor Erik West:
The enemy of God. That means.

Pastor Erik West:
It.

Pastor Erik West:
Means this the carnal mind is enmity or the carnal mind is in opposition. See, Paul told Timothy, he says, you're going to.

Pastor Erik West:
Have to teach these people because they're opposing.

Pastor Erik West:
Themselves.

Pastor Erik West:
And they can set themselves free, but.

Pastor Erik West:
They're not free.

Pastor Erik West:
So therefore, he has them captive and they're doing his will. He's running the show.

Pastor Erik West:
And they're not.

Pastor Erik West:
But he didn't say God would have set you free. He said, you can set yourself free. If you quit.

Pastor Erik West:
But you're going to have to quit opposing yourself. You say, well, well, well.

Pastor Erik West:
Tell me how. Back up. I said, okay.

Pastor Erik West:
I'll back up. Let me back up. How am I opposing myself? Okay, here's how you're opposing yourself. This is at least one way. How many know the scripture? We won't go there, but seven Corinthians 517 if anyone be in Christ. He's a what? A new creation. Brand new. Never existed before. New species of being.

Pastor Erik West:
Now why are you why are you a new creation?

Pastor Erik West:
Is it because that you got a new hairdo? Hairdo?

Pastor Erik West:
Who do?

Pastor Erik West:
You change your clothing, change your profile page on. You know, it's just like.

Pastor Erik West:
You got all these signs of.

Pastor Erik West:
The end time and they're all over you. I mean, some of you may not like this, but I'm used to that. I'm real used to that. So that doesn't affect me a whole lot. I'm not trying to make you mad, but I'm just saying. But. But some of the end times, it says, you know, they will be lovers of themselves. You see people all the time, like on Facebook, you know, taking pictures every three days. It's a different picture.

Pastor Erik West:
Let me let me.

Pastor Erik West:
Let me let me let me look at me. You see me in the mirror. You know, like, look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. They got the stick on. Let me look at me. Look at me. Look at me. Did our numbers just drop off dramatically on Facebook or YouTube? I hate that guy.

Pastor Erik West:
It's like he said one way that you'll know you're at the end, he says. He said, There'll be lovers of themselves. It's all about me. What's your favorite TV channel? My vision. Lyrics to that song used to sing his song.

Pastor Erik West:
Whatever it's all about. You made the song? Yeah. No, I want to change this all about me. It is not about you because you died. But the Lord would take better care of you than.

Pastor Erik West:
And He wants to. Than you would take care of yourself.

Pastor Erik West:
Amen. But you have to stop opposing yourself. So. So here's how you oppose yourself.

Pastor Erik West:
So you're a new creature in Christ Jesus. How many know when he came into.

Pastor Erik West:
You, he brought. How much of him did he bring into your spirit?

Pastor Erik West:
I'm hearing all faintly.

Pastor Erik West:
Are you being kind or are you just wanting not wanting to get on the tape or.

Pastor Erik West:
They're going to think you don't agree with anything I'm saying.

Pastor Erik West:
If they can't hear you now, according to. I mean, I got gobs of scripture. We just don't have time. So when.

Pastor Erik West:
Jesus came.

Pastor Erik West:
Into your heart, how much of him did he bring in?

Pastor Erik West:
Oh, did the Bible not say of his.

Pastor Erik West:
Fullness you have received?

Pastor Erik West:
Did the Bible say that you're.

Pastor Erik West:
A complete in him?

Pastor Erik West:
Did the Bible say that you're lacking nothing? Now, okay, now he's a spirit and you're a spirit.

Pastor Erik West:
Are we still on the same path?

Pastor Erik West:
Are you a spirit being? You have a soul and you have a body.

Pastor Erik West:
But you're a spirit. One day you're going to vacate this body.

Pastor Erik West:
And you're going to get.

Pastor Erik West:
A new one. Are y'all okay with getting the new one? How many? You want the upgrade? Forever. Yeah, me too. But he's actually going to take this body when he comes back and he's going to pull it up from the grave. And he's going to make it a spirit body, too. You're going to like. You're going to like that new suit that you're going to wear the rest of your life. I mean, the rest of eternity. It's going to be really cool. Amen.

Pastor Erik West:
You think you're a good looking now?

Pastor Erik West:
Just wait till you get to heaven. You might be taking like.

Pastor Erik West:
Look at me.

Pastor Erik West:
Look at me in my heavenly suit. And they'll say, Put it down. We all look that way. You're going to look like Jesus.

Pastor Erik West:
I always thought.

Pastor Erik West:
It'd be funny.

Pastor Erik West:
For white folks.

Pastor Erik West:
We get to heaven If we get to heaven. It'd be so cool. And they found out Jesus was black.

Pastor Erik West:
And they're like, Oh my God. Or he's Asian or he's. Or he's an Indian. He says, How are you doing? How are you doing?

Pastor Erik West:
We know why there's at least four colors on the earth. We're made out of dirt. There's four colors of dirt.

Pastor Erik West:
Mm. That's why he deceives people. Love has no distinction. No one wants to. But if you take us to the hospital and put us in a surgery, and if they cut off a 16th of the pigment of your skin and someone saw.

Pastor Erik West:
You know, they never saw you.

Pastor Erik West:
Before, they wouldn't know what color you was. That you can need a kidney. You know, you're Asian.

Pastor Erik West:
And a white man or black man living in.

Pastor Erik West:
Sacramento.

Pastor Erik West:
May have the match and be.

Pastor Erik West:
Willing to give it to you. And your body can live and function.

Pastor Erik West:
And you're going to die. You don't really care what color they are, do you?

Pastor Erik West:
Huh? This is all the tactics of the enemy is what it is.

Pastor Erik West:
This church knows I've been.

Pastor Erik West:
Believing for a lot of.

Pastor Erik West:
Black folks in this church for a long time.

Pastor Erik West:
Somebody who can sing. I mean, we got people who can sing, but I'm talking about.

Pastor Erik West:
I want some soul in here sometime.

Pastor Erik West:
I like Pastor Keith Green, you know.

Pastor Erik West:
And is he still in Birmingham? Pretty good size church and.

Pastor Erik West:
It's a good.

Pastor Erik West:
Mixture of white and black. And he says he says.

Pastor Erik West:
It's just amazing what we can do. He said, we only have two problems.

Pastor Erik West:
He's preaching this year and going there. And I listened to it and I said, What's he going to say? He's going to say somebody to black folks and the white folks.

Pastor Erik West:
He said, it's the black folks could just come on time. And if the white folks could just clap on time. You know, my.

Pastor Erik West:
Wife.

Pastor Erik West:
Used to, like.

Pastor Erik West:
Get rid of the gum. We'll have a better chance. I mean, I'll remember Miss Reed. I used to have my church come out of church before she passed. Man, what a voice. Dear God, what a voice. She said, What do you want me to do, Pastor? I says, I just sing. And I said, Just. She said, Any request. I said, Yes.

Pastor Erik West:
Please just don't bust my speakers.

Pastor Erik West:
That woman had a stadium voice that was just.

Pastor Erik West:
And I was sitting here before.

Pastor Erik West:
She passed at her house and her husband said.

Pastor Erik West:
Could you stay.

Pastor Erik West:
Here a few minutes? I need to run the store. And I said, Oh.

Pastor Erik West:
She was at the end.

Pastor Erik West:
I said, How long are you gonna be gone? He said, You know, medically I was not comfortable. This is 20 more years ago. All right. So Reed Reed is on the couch. And I said, okay, so Jimmy takes off. Do you remember Jimmy? He went, his name Jimmy. Her name is Rita. He takes off. And and I said.

Pastor Erik West:
Well, praise the Lord. I mean, you see me like, praise the Lord, and.

Pastor Erik West:
She ain't moving. And I said, Oh. And so I start doing what you do. If you're Pentecostal, Jesus name.

Pastor Erik West:
Be healed.

Pastor Erik West:
Be strong. And I'm looking I don't see a blouse moving. I don't see.

Pastor Erik West:
I don't see no heartbeat. And I get real close and I said, Oh my God. Oh, I think he just died. Oh, my gosh, Jimmy's gone. Reed's to die. So I said, So I started. I said, I rebuke the spirit of death. Death go life like this.

Pastor Erik West:
And nothing. Ten minutes and.

Pastor Erik West:
I can't even see her breathe or move. And I sit down thinking, think. Oh, God. He just went to the store and his wife died with me here. And I'm supposed to be your helper, you know? So now I'm really going into my bag of tricks. Singing ain't one of them.

Pastor Erik West:
So I'm sitting on the other side of the house from me, and I start singing and I start singing.

Pastor Erik West:
Jesus, you know?

Pastor Erik West:
And then.

Pastor Erik West:
And I'm trying to sing.

Pastor Erik West:
I'm worshiping in the spirit, you know, trying to bring her back. I think she's dead.

Pastor Erik West:
And all of a sudden, about two minutes later, she says, Oh, she's passed away. She said, Please, please. She said, I'm already dying. She says, she says, Just stay with your gift. That was her last words to me. She said, Oh, I'm already fighting death. So I went to a funeral.

Pastor Erik West:
In Birmingham and and I told Pastor, your brother, I said, he said, well, I ain't going. I said, oh no. Are you going. No, no, no. Are you.

Pastor Erik West:
Going.

Pastor Erik West:
I said, I never been to a black funeral and.

Pastor Erik West:
I'm going to be the only white person. Now you are going.

Pastor Erik West:
You are.

Pastor Erik West:
Going, you send it to my church, you are going. He said, Well, I wouldn't. I said, No, you're going.

Pastor Erik West:
You're going whether I drag you or. But you're.

Pastor Erik West:
Going.

Pastor Erik West:
Turned out I had the best time of my life because white folks don't know how to do no funeral.

Pastor Erik West:
They say they celebrating. It's like, when are y'all going to start.

Pastor Erik West:
Like and man, we worship.

Pastor Erik West:
And praise in the Lord. And there was like several pastors who knew her. So I just kind of followed the lead, you know, And I got and they, you know, they get up there and praise the Lord Saints.

Pastor Erik West:
Praise for.

Pastor Erik West:
Praise the Lord. And and I got up there, that anointing got on me and I got, you know, I'm the only white guy in the house, which I didn't care, but it was just like, I ain't never done a funeral like this.

Pastor Erik West:
And I said I said.

Pastor Erik West:
Well, praise the Lord Saints. And and they all laughed. And I said, Praise the Lord. I said, Uh huh. They said, Uh huh. I said, Jesus is wonderful. They said.

Speaker3:
Amen. I said.

Pastor Erik West:
I'm looking for a new pastor.

Pastor Erik West:
Oh, but just the soul. Just just the soul.

Pastor Erik West:
That, you know, that you feel on the inside of you. It's not just words.

Pastor Erik West:
You know, You.

Pastor Erik West:
Feel it. And that's what you get from the Bible. When I read it, I don't read no story, man. I'm in the story like the woman with the issue of blood. If you put yourself there, who are you? Are you Jesus going to be ministering? Are you in the crowd? Are you the woman trying to get there? Which one are you? What would be in your thinking? If you're the woman, what would you be thinking? If you was Jesus, what would you do? If you people in the crowd put yourself there, Change your.

Pastor Erik West:
Mindset.

Pastor Erik West:
So as long as you stay in your flesh.

Pastor Erik West:
How am I going to take this?

Pastor Erik West:
This is a miracle to do this. If you could receive healing for your body the same way that you receive salvation.

Pastor Erik West:
You would stop imposing yourself.

Pastor Erik West:
Because all of Christ came into you.

Pastor Erik West:
And you say, you told me. You said you got the complete package. Huh?

Pastor Erik West:
That's what you told me.

Pastor Erik West:
You said all the fullness.

Pastor Erik West:
Of him came into you. Romans 811 says the same spirit.

Pastor Erik West:
You all know this. Listen.

Pastor Erik West:
The same spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

Pastor Erik West:
Who would that be? Thank you. Say louder.

Pastor Erik West:
The same Holy Spirit who raised Christ from the dead now dwells in your spirit and quickens, which means makes alive your mortal body.

Pastor Erik West:
Now, it is true that there's a measure.

Pastor Erik West:
Of it, not the fullness of it. We get the full measure when we.

Pastor Erik West:
Get the new body in the rapture and we get the full measure. But how many you believe there's enough of that measure of the same.

Pastor Erik West:
The same identical spirit, the same generic brand? This ain't like, you know, well, this is whatever brand. And then we got the we got the.

Pastor Erik West:
Walmart's brand called Great Value. Like, no.

Pastor Erik West:
You ain't getting the same spirit. You can have.

Pastor Erik West:
A greater a lesser value.

Pastor Erik West:
Brand. The same spirit, the same. The same.

Pastor Erik West:
Spirit that raised.

Pastor Erik West:
Christ dwells and does what makes alive.

Pastor Erik West:
Your mortal body. Amen. Now, how do you oppose that? I'm going to have to minister on this several times just to correct myself.

Pastor Erik West:
Because word people can get too wordy. They can turn their confessions into works. Works of confession. You can say by his stripes, I'm healed. And you believe that? I believe that. I know you believe it. You actually believe that, don't you?

Pastor Erik West:
By his stripes, you are healed. How many believe the word? Amen. You have to go to Isaiah, who prophesies.

Pastor Erik West:
Of Jesus. Who tells you that he that surely he bore your grief and he bore your sorrow.

Pastor Erik West:
He bore.

Pastor Erik West:
Your sickness. He bore your pain. He bore your transgressions. He prophesizing before he comes. Matthew eight, seven, eight, 17 Bears witness to to what Isaiah said because he's seen it every day. He said what?

Pastor Erik West:
What Isaiah said.

Pastor Erik West:
He's. He's bearing their.

Pastor Erik West:
Infirmities right now.

Pastor Erik West:
Peter looks back after it's all happened.

Pastor Erik West:
Death bearing, resurrection. Jesus is gone and he looks back to.

Pastor Erik West:
The cross and he said, Who is own self bore our.

Pastor Erik West:
Sins on his body on the tree that we being.

Pastor Erik West:
Dead to sin should live unto righteousness.

Pastor Erik West:
By whose stripes? Back there you were healed. Amen.

Pastor Erik West:
Can you remember back there when you were saved?

Pastor Erik West:
Well, then why don't you go.

Pastor Erik West:
Back there when you was healed? Amen. Amen. Amen.

Pastor Erik West:
Amen. Now, you have to really listen to this.

Pastor Erik West:
To get this.

Pastor Erik West:
It's not complicated.

Pastor Erik West:
But sometimes people who know too much have.

Pastor Erik West:
A hard time hearing. Sometimes when people don't know.

Pastor Erik West:
Much of anything, it's just really easy because you have things that compete with it.

Pastor Erik West:
Kirsten Elliott has this program that they were telling me about. You know, that you can put something in there and it'll spit out all kinds of things. You can do a comprehensive study on anything.

Pastor Erik West:
You can argue with it.

Pastor Erik West:
I said, show me where I'm wrong and it'll tell you where you're wrong. And then.

Pastor Erik West:
So.

Pastor Erik West:
She told me to do that. So I said.

Pastor Erik West:
I said, I.

Pastor Erik West:
Don't agree with what you just said.

Pastor Erik West:
I said, because this, this and this.

Pastor Erik West:
And then I said, answer. And it says, Well, yes, what you said is true because this, this, this and this. And I said, Well, it can't be both ways.

Pastor Erik West:
And then a machine artificial intelligence says it.

Pastor Erik West:
Appears you're right.

Pastor Erik West:
I think I knew that when we started talking because because they don't know the difference between two countries and mixing them. It'll just say what God said, you know, when he was this before for the covenant of grace. So go back to when you was saved. So if I can say it this way, if you if you're using.

Pastor Erik West:
If we do.

Pastor Erik West:
This but we don't realize we're doing it.

Pastor Erik West:
The carnal mind.

Pastor Erik West:
Can't please God.

Pastor Erik West:
What's Romans eight six say?

Speaker4:
The spiritual.

Pastor Erik West:
The carnal mind is what is death and the spirit is what so carnal? All it means is what? Flesh. Which means what? Your five senses. So if your carnal, that just means.

Pastor Erik West:
That you're making.

Pastor Erik West:
Decisions out of your your five senses. You take, you assimilate this.

Pastor Erik West:
Information, and, you know, like this, you take your.

Pastor Erik West:
Experience, you take some doctrine and you heard over here your belief about this. You put it all together like artificial intelligence. Then you come up and say, this is the answer. The problem is you're a spirit. You have a flesh, but you are a spirit and God doesn't deal.

Pastor Erik West:
With your flesh. He deals with you.

Pastor Erik West:
Spirit to spirit. Okay, now watch here. I'll put it in healing. For the carnal mind.

Pastor Erik West:
The physical.

Pastor Erik West:
Man.

Pastor Erik West:
When he considers his symptoms. He considers his pain. Brings him to death.

Pastor Erik West:
You know why?

Pastor Erik West:
Because he's opposing what Jesus already did. See what you have to really know, and you know it because you're. You're intelligent. You've been your.

Pastor Erik West:
Word minded.

Pastor Erik West:
People.

Pastor Erik West:
And sometimes that's our problem. Here's here's what I'm trying to say. By his stripes, you were healed. You know that? You can quote it. You can quote.

Pastor Erik West:
Our scriptures like like this. Like this. And you know them. But you don't know the truth.

Pastor Erik West:
You say, well, that is the truth.

Pastor Erik West:
Does it mean you know it? Because when you keep on confessing the word.

Pastor Erik West:
Over and over and over again and over again and over.

Pastor Erik West:
Again for 4 or 5, six, seven years and nothing happens.

Pastor Erik West:
You've been taught that the word is medicine, and that's true. You've been taught death and life is in the power of the tongue. That's true. You taught that. You were taught by me that Jesus spoke to the fig tree. He did. So we emulate all that, where we miss it.

Pastor Erik West:
Because where we miss it. When you have symptoms.

Pastor Erik West:
And you have pain.

Pastor Erik West:
Or you're suffering.

Pastor Erik West:
In some area, is you.

Pastor Erik West:
Have forgotten that Jesus already dealt with.

Pastor Erik West:
This.

Pastor Erik West:
And he's not moved by your symptoms because he knows he's already healed you and he knows that you can't take your physical senses and.

Pastor Erik West:
Fix a spiritual problem. Amen. And you don't even realize it.

Pastor Erik West:
But you're trying.

Pastor Erik West:
To.

Pastor Erik West:
Do enough say enough speak enough. Live a certain way. Enough for a different result.

Pastor Erik West:
I've done it. Have you? Because you believe it. It's not like you don't.

Pastor Erik West:
You do believe it. But what? You don't even realize What you're doing we're doing is we're trying to take the word and we're trying to work it.

Pastor Erik West:
You're going to.

Pastor Erik West:
The mall with your faith.

Pastor Erik West:
Card to get something. There are all this works. Instead of taking your faith.

Pastor Erik West:
Card and go to the throne of grace and just cash in. Then don't use your faith to try to receive things that's already.

Pastor Erik West:
Been paid for.

Pastor Erik West:
Use your faith to go and access the grace that already supplied it. Amen.

Speaker3:
Amen. Amen.

Pastor Erik West:
You see, when you go out this driveway, you just look down at the ground, the left, you'll see a water meter like you got one at your house.

Pastor Erik West:
I didn't put it there.

Pastor Erik West:
Jamison put it there. But Jamison said, if you.

Pastor Erik West:
Want water that building, y'all gonna have to lay some pipe yourself to the building.

Pastor Erik West:
So Grace Jamison Waterworks supplied me with a meter and brought water to it. Wherever the water comes from in Jefferson.

Pastor Erik West:
To this building, it comes right there at the water meter. Just like at your house. Right?

Pastor Erik West:
But. But the city doesn't.

Pastor Erik West:
Lay pipe to your house. You have to do it, or a plumber has to do it.

Pastor Erik West:
So Grace supplied it. Faith didn't do it. Grace did. Grace is not a thing or a doctrine. Grace is a person. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ brought water.

Pastor Erik West:
To the house and I said, I see that. I believe that. I do believe it.

Pastor Erik West:
Now, how did Abraham become righteous? He just believed. Amen. Amen. Abraham was born, lived, and died about 1800 years before Jesus was ever born. If I hadn't gone 47 different.

Pastor Erik West:
Ways today, we'd read about it.

Pastor Erik West:
In Galatians two, where God wanted to use this man as the father of our faith to bring Jesus through him. So in Galatians two and three, you'll see where God preached the gospel to Abraham about this Jesus, his Son, who would come.

Pastor Erik West:
And what the purpose for him coming in Abraham, 1800.

Pastor Erik West:
Years between.

Pastor Erik West:
Him and Jesus said, That's what you're going to do. He says, Yeah.

Pastor Erik West:
And my son is going to come through your lineage and you're going to be the father.

Pastor Erik West:
Of faith for everyone who believe.

Pastor Erik West:
He says.

Pastor Erik West:
What say you, Abraham? He says. I believe it. God said, Mark that down as righteousness on Abraham sake. He's a righteous man. And those who believe, just like he.

Pastor Erik West:
Believe gets the same inheritance. Amen. See, it wasn't doing. He just believed in his heart.

Pastor Erik West:
Amen.

Pastor Erik West:
So if you're not really healed right now.

Pastor Erik West:
And you be how many you believe by his stripes, you were healed. Amen. But if you have manifestations or symptoms in your body and I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand and I'm going to keep my hands in my pockets. You know, when you're 20, you don't even know you have a body.

Pastor Erik West:
When you get a.

Pastor Erik West:
Little bit older, it'll tell you, you know, different areas. So if you're if you're not really healed of that situation or your symptoms, when will you be? Win. If you're not healed today, when will you be healed?

Pastor Erik West:
I started off asking you what you saved and you said, Yeah. And I said, I said, Well, you get saved when we leave this and go to heaven. And you said, No, we're saved. The moment we.

Pastor Erik West:
Believe when Isaiah said both both both of them happened at the same time. You were saved and healed at the cross and at.

Pastor Erik West:
The whipping post.

Pastor Erik West:
Actually.

Pastor Erik West:
It wasn't the blood just at the whipping post.

Pastor Erik West:
Jesus bled way before then. He bled in the garden, praying to her blood.

Pastor Erik West:
Came out of his eyes.

Pastor Erik West:
Because the capillaries were so pressurized. The blood came out of his eyes and the blood was flowing in the garden because he knew what was about to happen. He wasn't trying to get out of the crucifixion.

Pastor Erik West:
People who preach.

Pastor Erik West:
That I love them, but they're wrong. I think they said, Jesus said, if there's any other way to do that.

Pastor Erik West:
He knew his whole reason for being here was to.

Pastor Erik West:
Go to that cross. What he didn't know was, I know what it's like to.

Pastor Erik West:
Be separated.

Pastor Erik West:
From my father. I don't I've never experienced what it's like to be separated from the father.

Speaker3:
To where you bleed.

Pastor Erik West:
And the blood that came out of his eyes was in the garden. And that's the same blood that belongs to.

Pastor Erik West:
You for every need that you have.

Pastor Erik West:
In your life right now. When they nailed him to the cross, he could have called.

Pastor Erik West:
Legions of angels, but he wouldn't.

Pastor Erik West:
Do it.

Pastor Erik West:
And that blood still speaking today.

Pastor Erik West:
Amen.

Pastor Erik West:
So if you're not healed now, when will you be? So what we're doing is we're listening to the symptoms. When we're saying by his stripes, we are healed and three years later, we still feel the same.

Pastor Erik West:
It's because really, can I be honest with you? Include me. Include me.

Pastor Erik West:
It's really just unbelief.

Pastor Erik West:
We don't really believe we're healed. We're being moved by the.

Pastor Erik West:
Symptom because the symptom is saying this, this and this, and you need to address.

Pastor Erik West:
That. Mm hmm.

Pastor Erik West:
I'm not preaching you something I don't know about. I ain't preaching something. I ain't never been walking in or.

Pastor Erik West:
Not walking in today. I talked to a doctor.

Pastor Erik West:
This week who told me there's nothing we can do for you anymore.

Pastor Erik West:
We can give you all these pills.

Pastor Erik West:
I said thank you.

Pastor Erik West:
I went home, looked up to Peter, and I said, My God, man, if I took that, I don't know what I can identify myself as a drug addict for sure. For long. To keep you out of pain. I said, Yeah, if you stay awake and it don't eat up your liver and your kidneys and everything else. And the answer is really simple.

Pastor Erik West:
So when he says the carnal, the flesh, it's just physical. So your pain is physical. Your sickness is physical.

Pastor Erik West:
Your anxiety is physical. Your emotional stress is stress is physical. So when you're not moved by the physical.

Pastor Erik West:
That's because you come into the spiritual.

Pastor Erik West:
And what's been stopping.

Pastor Erik West:
Your healing is because.

Pastor Erik West:
You've been.

Pastor Erik West:
Opposing what God has already done in you. That same spirit.

Pastor Erik West:
Because your spirit, his spirit, and now you're opposing it because you're.

Pastor Erik West:
You're dealing with the symptoms.

Pastor Erik West:
You let the spirit to come over to.

Pastor Erik West:
The natural.

Pastor Erik West:
And now you've taken the word which you believe in, but you've made it a work trying to accomplish something.

Pastor Erik West:
That he's already finished with. He's already finished with it. Amen. Amen.

Speaker3:
Hallelujah.

Pastor Erik West:
I'm sorry for the time, but can y'all give me two minutes? How can you give me two minutes? Well, there's 12 minutes right there. Just d4. No, just two minutes. The way that we know that we're healed is what? By the.

Pastor Erik West:
He was whipped.

Pastor Erik West:
He was beaten by his stripes. Were hit by his stripe. That word stripe is actually the word wound or healed. It became so large across him, it looked like one huge stripe. Isaiah, 52, said When I was prophesying about him coming into the world and it prophesied about him being to the cross and dying there, Isaiah prophesied. When you look upon his his figure, he's talking about the cross.

Pastor Erik West:
He said.

Pastor Erik West:
Is that a human?

Pastor Erik West:
Is that a human? It wasn't. They gave him 40 little stripes. Isaiah said, Is that a human? And to say, well, God could heal. I mean, can you imagine being tortured like that and then saying, like, God could heal? Can you imagine what an offense that.

Pastor Erik West:
Could be to him.

Pastor Erik West:
That you beat beyond the.

Pastor Erik West:
Place that they don't know you're human.

Pastor Erik West:
So when was you saved The moment? You accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and everything from heaven came into your spirit. Amen. When was you healed? The moment that you were saved. Amen. So when I get someone saved, I always do.

Pastor Erik West:
Especially if they're older. And I got situations and I know they don't know anything, which is the best time to get anything done, I just go ahead and get them healed and feel the Holy Ghost at the same time.

Speaker3:
Yeah.

Pastor Erik West:
So lastly, just to reinstate this, because, you know, we've been taught different ways, even by me.

Stop there. Huh?

Pastor Erik West:
Just to state this. How am I opposing it? But I believe. I believe Eric. I believe Pastor Wes. I believe you. I believe that. Bastrop Starshield. I know you do. I've been trained well. I know that. The last part of my tongue. Yeah.

Pastor Erik West:
Please. I'm not saying don't.

Pastor Erik West:
Speak the word.

Pastor Erik West:
Please don't leave here and think.

Pastor Erik West:
Well, he's saying we don't need to speak the word. Believe God and confess the word. No, no, no, no. I'll get to all that.

Pastor Erik West:
Second Corinthians 413, Paul talks about the spirit of faith, and this is what he said. He says, we we believe.

Pastor Erik West:
Therefore, we spoke. When I got into word of faith in the 90s, I was taught the opposite way. You just need.

Pastor Erik West:
To speak and speak and speak. And speaking. Speaking. Speaking. Speaking. Speaking. Speaking. Speaking. Speaking. Speaking. Speaking. Speaking. Speaking. Speaking, speaking, speaking, speaking. And one day that will change your heart and your belief. We didn't know if it would be 100 times 100 million. Some people can die before.

Pastor Erik West:
They get to that number. Right.

Pastor Erik West:
So you. So we don't even know. We take the.

Pastor Erik West:
Proper use.

Pastor Erik West:
Of speaking and faith and authority and words, and then we turn it into a work. We leave. We leave Grace in.

Pastor Erik West:
Turn the word.

Pastor Erik West:
Into a work. Because we're following a symptom like Peter on the water.

Pastor Erik West:
What made Peter able to walk on water? Did he have flat feet? Is that what helped him? How could Peter walk on the water suddenly real quickly? Even before that.

Pastor Erik West:
So there was a directive. There was a question.

Pastor Erik West:
And then there was an.

Pastor Erik West:
Answer, which was a directive.

Pastor Erik West:
Peter said, If that's.

Pastor Erik West:
You, bid me, come on the.

Pastor Erik West:
Water.

Pastor Erik West:
When Jesus said, come. That was that was the directive that now you can do what I just said. Amen. Can a man walk on water? No. But when he tells you to do something, you can do it. The Lord told me a few weeks ago about. About giving something that I didn't think I had the money to give. But then I know this story and this happened to me many times before. He says, But I told you you could do this.

Pastor Erik West:
I said, Yes, sir. Then it's done. Just as.

Pastor Erik West:
Soon as I can get.

Pastor Erik West:
It done. It'll be done, sir.

Pastor Erik West:
And before I mean. I mean within minutes after I gave and did what I was supposed to do, which was none of my business. I don't I don't I don't own a.

Pastor Erik West:
Penny here at this church.

Pastor Erik West:
I'm not in charge. I don't like them. Old signs used to say, God, God, I'm the pilot. God is my co-pilot. I'm thinking, maybe you better.

Pastor Erik West:
Swap seats in a hurry like God is. Go sit over here.

Speaker3:
Like, All right, Now, if I need you, I'll call him.

Pastor Erik West:
Now I'm back here. You know, in.

Pastor Erik West:
First class, they ordered me a ginger ale and some peanuts. I let him drive.

Pastor Erik West:
So as soon as I did what he told me to do, within minutes, within minutes. The same day, within. Within less than three minutes, everything that I had just given came back to me and more. Amen. I mean, just that quick. And then before I got home, he said he said, Lord says, See, I really know what I'm doing.

Pastor Erik West:
I said, Yes.

Pastor Erik West:
Sir, you do. I mean, I said, You want me to do it again?

Speaker3:
Can I do it again?

Pastor Erik West:
And he didn't answer anything about that. He said so.

Pastor Erik West:
So Peter walked on the water because Jesus said so.

Pastor Erik West:
So why did Peter fail?

Pastor Erik West:
He looked at his symptom. He was in the flesh. He was in the five senses. It says, man.

Pastor Erik West:
Can't walk on water and look at the waves. But Jesus said you was already healed. You say.

Pastor Erik West:
Yeah, but you ain't.

Pastor Erik West:
Looking at the symptom.

Speaker3:
Did y'all get that?

Pastor Erik West:
You said, But.

Pastor Erik West:
What am I doing out here? You can't walk on the water. The doctor can't help me no more.

Pastor Erik West:
You're looking at the.

Pastor Erik West:
Symptom and.

Pastor Erik West:
You're opposing the life that's already in your spirit that.

Pastor Erik West:
Now can't come through.

God bless you.

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Mother's Day | Kristen West Lawrence | 14May2023: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Mother's Day | Kristen West Lawrence | 14May2023: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Kristen West Lawrence:
And I'm thankful for each and every one of you in this room. All the moms here and even the ones that aren't here today that may have had other plans or I know Mel and Julia may be with her mom today. Yeah, she's with her mom. And and just all the all the ones that, you know, I've had the privilege to know my entire life to grow up watching, you know, just that, you know, the Bible talks about. You know, especially when Paul is talking to Timothy and he's encouraging Timothy and he draws Timothy back to the faith of his grandmother and his mother and the things that they instilled in him and, you know, that has eternal value and eternal weight. And, you know, it's just amazing how it just keeps through the years. And I've had the privilege and the opportunity to grow up under powerful women of God. And this morning, we want to take just a second to honor a very special one. I have the privilege of not only having her as my pastor, but also as my mother. And, you know, I've I guess all my life. Yeah, all my life. That's that's well, she's been my mother all my life. No, but my entire life, you know, I have. You have been y'all have pastored. And so I've got to see behind the scenes and things that most people don't see and don't know and will never know. And, you know, every time I, I have normally I don't present her the card because I do not want to get emotional because when I start thinking about how thankful I am for her, the tears will flow. But they're not going to flow This morning. In Jesus name, I got a job to do, so I'm not going to cry. But you know, when I read the love scriptures about especially about how love is so selfless, God's love is so selfless, and I cannot think of any person other than Jesus, you know, that I know personally has been on this earth that I know of. I know we are, you know, all of you moms, but I'm talking about in a personal way, just just knowing all that you've done over the last 20 of my life, but 28 years of ministry, too, and the spiritual mother, you've been to other people and and just the things nobody will ever know and you didn't want them to know.

Kristen West Lawrence:
You know, you are the type of woman that is the behind the scenes worker and lover and encourager and supporter, so that everything that we do see runs efficiently and smoothly like it does. And, you know, it doesn't get seen a lot, but you are so appreciated. And I want to thank you so much. We love you immeasurably. I'm not going to cry. Happy Mother's Day. Yeah, Thank you. You're welcome. No, don't. Don't you don't start crying because then I'll definitely cry. Amen. Well, yes. So this morning, a pastor asked me to do the service, and I'm honored to do that. And as I was getting ready, you know, I had just been praying over this past week, especially about, you know, the direction to go in. And it's Mother's Day. And, you know, because I wanted to know what Holy Spirit wanted to do and the word that he wanted to give this morning. And so what we're going to talk about today and Minister on is not just for moms, although it may come out more like that because I am a mom, so I may relate it more like that. But this is for all of us, men and women alike. Amen. Because we're all called of God. And you know, the scripture says that in Jesus there's not Jew and gentile. And the difference is no male or female, but we're all one in Christ. Amen. Amen. And so for just a minute, we're we're going to touch on Proverbs 31 for just a minute. But we're not staying here. We're going to look at different aspects of things. And I believe the Holy Ghost will tie it all together because he knows what he's doing. Amen. But in Proverbs 31, we're talking about the Proverbs 31 woman for just a minute. And most of us know the story behind this proverbs. You know, when you read this kind of woman and the things it lists and talks about things that she does, things that it's praised her for. Well, we know who it's who it's referring to. And Bathsheba. And she was not a perfect woman by any means.

Kristen West Lawrence:
Right. But things changed in her life and actually went and read the story. I hadn't read it in years about when her and David repented before the Lord and and the work that God did in her life, like, wow, you know, And so I just want to cut in, though, when I was reading this story, the the part that the Holy Spirit really just blew up for me in verse 25, it says, strength and dignity are her clothing and her position is strong and secure. She rejoices over the future knowing that she and her family are ready for it. And the NLT says she laughs without fear of the future. And I don't know, just something. When I read that verse, I thought I just it came, you know, I knew. I knew what my mission was at that point. She laughs without fear of the future. So I got to thinking, Well, why is she laughing? You know, I mean, this is a woman that you read. You read the Proverbs 31 woman. She has a lot to do. She's a busy woman. You know, she's responsible for a lot of things. She's not only ministering to her children, but she ministers to her husband doing all these things. So most of the time when we equate someone who has a lot of responsibility and is busy. And things like that. We are not thinking about them in the sense of laughing, right? We think they're busy. They're serious. They've got to get things done there. You know? So I'm thinking, well, when I read that verse, it was like Holy Spirit said, Well, why are you laughing? So but why? Why what? Really? How can she laugh with without fear of the future? So I thought, Well, is it because she's out of touch with reality? Is it because she doesn't have a Facebook account and she doesn't know the latest happenings? Right. Well, of course not, because it says that she is wise, she is observant, she is watchful over her house. I mean, if anybody had eyes in the back of her head, it is this woman it is describing.

Kristen West Lawrence:
She knows what's going on. Right. So why is she so unafraid of the future? Well, part of this is because she knows who she is, rather whose she is. She's a righteous woman of God. She knows God intimately. And it's so interesting to go in and read the commentators notes on Proverbs 31 because it's a picture of the New Covenant in the right standing that we have with God. The woman described here as both a picture of a virtuous wife and a mother and an incredible allegory of the end time victorious church full of virtue and grace. So, yes, it's a sense of a woman who is full of the grace of God, the power of God. But it's for all of us, really. We can all laugh without fear of the future for men and women alike. Amen. So when it talks about her in this sense and like I said, we'll allude back to that a little bit, but she knows who she is and she trusts God, right? God is her source like Pastor was just talking about. He is her source for everything, which means she knows who she is. And so for a minute, I want to talk about identity. Her identity and our identity is in Christ. If we're born again and you're a believer and I know everyone here is and those watching. Good morning and happy Mother's Day to all the moms watching. If you're watching and you're not here, we sure do miss you. Pray you have a blessed day. But Romans 814 says for many, as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father, and the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then that means that we're heirs. We're heirs of God and we're joint heirs with Christ. If so, be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together with him. And so we cut down here to verse 19. It says, For the earnest expectation of the creature awaited for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Kristen West Lawrence:
So in other words, the whole creation is longing. Everything is longing for God's design. And God's design is for sons and daughters to take their place in him, to rule and reign. And so I got to thinking about that, you know, in reading in the Proverbs 31 woman and watching the ebbs and flows in her life. And, you know, a lot of times I know, as I can say from my own experience as a mom and I think most everyone in here that's, you know, could agree, whether it's in mothering or fathering, sometimes you feel like you can lose your identity in parenting. It just becomes, you know, with moms because you do the same thing every day, you know, especially whether you're working or you're at home with the kids. Because every day you have to feed the child again. They want to eat again. You have to brush the hair again. The diaper gets full again. It's amazing, but it happens all the time. And if we're not careful whether it's raising children or the job that we work or situations or whatever, we can lose our identity in that and we can take on the identity of, yes, we are a mom, but before we're mom, I'm a daughter of God. Before. I'm a father. I'm a son of God right before it is. Whatever you do. Your identity is who you are in Christ. You're a son and your daughter. And there's a difference when you function and you live life because you know life isn't. We don't have separate lives. We don't have a church life and then a Monday life and a Tuesday life. And then when we go over to this person's house, we're a little bit different over there. And then we come over here. No, we are a son and a daughter of God no matter where we go. Amen. Amen. And so, you know, when when I was reading that this is this is what Holy Ghost gave me, and I pray that it helps somebody. I know it helped me. Amen. But just that when we function from who we are, it changes. It not only changes us, but it changes the people around us.

Kristen West Lawrence:
You know, when you think about it, as moms, we are daughters of God. That's our first and foremost calling is a daughter of God. And then we're raising sons and daughters of God. We're showing them what living life day to day looks like. And not only that, but grandparents, grandmothers, grandfathers. You know, you're we're instilling in them that rich heritage that has eternal weight. I mean, this is a huge, huge responsibility. But we're never called to do it in our own strength. Amen. Amen. And so our identity is not in what we do are doing is supposed to come from our identity. Amen. We are not our own source. You know, it's really easy, especially, I can say, in mothering and parenting in general. You know, when a child is so little, you are their source. Because if Ella comes to me and says, Well, or Carter, if they come to me and say, I'm hungry and I'm not going to say, Well, go buy some food, they're going to say, I don't have any money. Well, I don't know how faith in God. I don't know what to tell you. Right. They're not at the point where I can point them, you know what I'm saying? But they're watching us. And so when you have people that are looking to you as as their source, it's you can take the care of something and think, I am the source. I have to be the source, I have to be all these things for all these people. We can think of that in parenting, but we can think of that no matter what our influence or our sphere is at whether it's at work, whether you're over people, whether you're a business owner, of course, you know you've got the responsibility and you know I'm responsible for these people. Well, in a sense, but if you're not careful, that will become your identity. That I am the one that has to do this. I am the one. But that's not right because we are sons and daughters of God. He is our source. And so, you know, especially with kids, they're watching you. And you know, something that I've learned and I'm grateful for is I have watched I've had the privilege and the honor to see growing up what that looks like of parents who know that God is their source.

Kristen West Lawrence:
And because I can see that God is their source, you know, you get that glimpse of who God is and God's love and God's character and God's nature. We're supposed to get that from our parents. I understand their situations. And, you know, we live in a fallen world. So sometimes you don't have that in parents, but you still have it in God. But if you can have that example and say, you know, I know I can trust God no matter what comes because I saw him provide for my mom, I saw him provide for my dad, I saw him provide for my grandmother and my grandfather and my aunt and my uncle. And I have stories of generations and generations of where God has always come through, you know, like Granny dad's mom, you know, she said he's told this story before where she talked about praying over needs and things like that. And she said, There's never a time that I can tell you where God did not come through, where he didn't answer the prayer, where the need was not met. And even I think of that to this day sometimes, you know, that heritage that she had. And I think, where would we be? Where would I be if not for granny? And then and then I'm learning more about her parents, her mom, her great grandmother, you know, in the ways that they trusted God and knew God, I mean, really knew God. They didn't just go to church and shout on Sunday and then live like the rest of the world on other six days of the week. They knew God. They had a relationship with him. And so, you know, when when our kids can see that and our grandkids and people around us can see that there's a there's a trust developed there in their hearts just from a little age that says, I can trust God. He is love no matter what's coming or going, he's going to take care of me. You know, when they're little bitty is is, you know, I see that they're my parents source. They're my grandparents source. He's my source. And they children learn the most by watching. You know, I know me as a kid, I didn't really learn anything by just reading.

Kristen West Lawrence:
I mean, I could learn a little bit, but if you could give me an example or you could show me or I could watch you do it, then I could learn it. And I think that's I mean, you read any kind of statistics on that? If you have if you're teaching kids especially, but even adults and you have a hands on example, the percentage of retaining that knowledge and actually understanding is way beyond. And so, you know, we're supposed to be a living example of this. Amen. So we're a living example of a son and daughter. So I wrote some examples down. But like I said, we can use these in any area of our life, no matter what we're called to do, no matter what we're doing. I wrote down this. I'm just as much a daughter of God in union with him speaking to you right now as I am when I step off the stage and I go home and I go do dishes and I wash clothes and I sit in the floor and I play with Ella and I cook dinner and I do homework and I feed the dogs and I'm breaking up arguments. She's looking at me. He's looking at me. You know, everybody look out their own window, you know? But even in that moment, I'm just as much a daughter of God anointed with the Holy Ghost as I am. If I'm up here speaking or I'm praying for somebody or we're out, you know, with Kingdom builders ministering to other people, I'm just as much doing God's work right. I'm just as much doing Kingdom business at home as a mom doing what I'm supposed to do. There's there's not a this is a greater thing and that's a greater thing. No, the ministry may look a little bit different because of what you're what you're called to in that moment and how you're functioning in that moment. But no matter what's going on, first, I'm a God's daughter. I'm God's son. And then when I know that I can take the pressure off of me because I am not my own source, he is my source. Right. And he's going to take care of me.

Kristen West Lawrence:
I'm his child. You know, like Pastor has said before, there's not a scripture that says my little adults. It's my little children, my child. Now we are called to grow up into him. And yes, of course. But we're always going to be his child. And so our identity is in him and our trust is in him. And so in Colossians two. Verses nine. I'm going to cut in right here where Paul is talking. He says, for in him dwelleth dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Well, who's he talking about? Jesus. For in Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Okay. Um, Colossians two, nine and ten in verse ten says. Yes, she may get it on the screen in a minute. It says, and you are in him. You are made full and you have and you are having come to fullness of life in Christ. And the amplified version says you too are filled with the Godhead. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and you reach full spiritual stature. And he is the head of all rule and authority of every angelic principality and power. So Jesus in Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead. But it says, But you're in him, you're complete in him and he's in you. And you dwell with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That's what the Bible says. I mean, isn't that amazing? I mean, you really think about that no matter where you go, you're taking the godhead with you, no matter what you're doing, whether you're at home, whether you're working a job, whether you're, you know, wherever you go, that's who you are. That's what you have. Like Pastor says, you're a mobile throne. You're taking them everywhere you go, right? So our identity, our identity is in him alone. When I'm doing all these daily things, the Godhead dwells in me too. The Godhead dwells in me while I'm changing a diaper, while I'm up with the baby all night. When I got dishes piled up in the sink. Right when we've got 17 loads of laundry to do before in the morning, we're no less functioning as a daughter or a son than we were we would be if we were doing something the world would call more important.

Kristen West Lawrence:
God doesn't say it's more important. God doesn't say it's more important than, you know, the man who has a, you know, a very successful business. That calling is more important than the woman who's at home with the kids or the man who picks up trash or whatever. That's how the world labels things and views things. That is not there's not a scripture for that. That is not what God calls each and every one of us because we're a body. A body has all these different parts, you know? I mean, I don't want to lose any parts of my body. I'm like, No, I need my hands just as much as I need my feet, right? I need I need my ears just as much as I need my eyes. So we all have a part to play and we're all called to different things, but we're called to function as a son and a daughter first because that is our ministry to him first. So when I know that and I can function in that, I know that I'm not my own source. He is my source for every single thing that we do, Right? And if we go one more chapter over to Colossians three. Verse 17, unless you get there. Verse 17 says, Whatever you do, no matter what it is, I'm in the amplified grace. Whatever you do, no matter what it is in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in dependence upon his person. Giving praise to God, the Father through him. I love that verse. Whatever it is, whatever you do, no matter what it is, whether you're speaking, doing whatever's going on, it says, do everything in the name of Jesus. You're doing it unto him. But you're not just doing it in your own strength. It says in dependence upon him. His person giving praise to God, the Father through him. And it goes on down here to say, I'm going to cut. This is a different translation. We don't have it says, Let your whole style of life, words and deeds portray your relationship to Christ and you be a living expression of gratitude to God in that amazing that everything that God doesn't view this as big and this is little and this is whatever.

Kristen West Lawrence:
No, we're sons and daughters and our functionings and our callings may be different, but they're all important nonetheless. And then if you go on down to verse 23, he says, Whatever may be your task, work at it heartily as something done for the Lord and not for men, knowing with all certainty that it is from the Lord and not from men, that you will receive the inheritance which is your real reward. The one whom you are actually serving is the Lord Christ the Messiah. So whatever we're doing and whatever capacity our life looks like right now when we're serving kids and we're doing this, yeah, we're taking care of kids and we're serving kids, but we're really serving Jesus. We're doing it unto him, you know, motherhood and and fatherhood, too. I'm just saying motherhood because, you know, it's Mother's Day, but we can apply this to all areas. A lot of people, you know, we can think this is a thankless job, right? Mothers are always on call. We're always doing this. We're always doing that. You know, nobody appreciates me. Nobody. We've all had that moment right where we have felt like no one appreciated us, that we do all these small things and no one sees it. But the word says right here that God sees it and you're doing it unto him and you're doing it for him. And He gives us the strength and the ability to do it. And not only that, that he is our rewarder and he doesn't miss anything. He sees everything and he sees the heart with which we do it from. You know, when you when times are there's a lot going on and there's so much to be done and you feel, you know, sometimes, you know, we feel like we're overwhelmed and and such such as things like that. But, you know, if we stop and take a minute and say, No, I'm doing this unto the Lord, you know, I don't care if they never know it or they don't see it or I feel like I'm not appreciated or I feel like this, I'm doing this unto him, I'm doing this unto God. And he sees me and he knows how he I'm so important to him and I'm so and loved by him.

Kristen West Lawrence:
Right? And so when we can see that, it changes our whole attitude. We're happy to do something right. We have the energy to do something. We want to do it because we're serving him. There's there's a greater purpose than just, you know, unloading that dishwasher and loading it back up and cooking that spaghetti for the billionth time. And, you know, all the things that we do know, there's a purpose there that that's the ministry you are you are doing it unto him. And so our kids are watching us, how we live and how we respond to those little things. How we handle the little things and all the things that pile up and how we, you know, are we getting overwhelmed And we all do it. We are. We're all guilty of it. But to take a moment and say, you know what, I'm not going to be overwhelmed. Thank you, Lord, you are my helper today. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. You should say it out loud where your children can hear it. Though I have made I have made it a practice to do that. You know, Carter said something the other day. He's like he said, Mom, I'm sorry to add to your list of things to do, but if you don't mind doing I forgot what it was. And I realized at that moment the reason he said that is because I probably seemed overwhelmed. That's why he would have said that. And so I had made the conscious decision to say, Oh, so I had a decision to make right there instead of, Yeah, okay, I'll add it to the list of things I have to do. I stopped and I said, Oh no, I'd be glad to do that for you. And yes, I do have a lot of things going on today, and I appreciate you recognizing that. But you know what? We're going to get everything we need, you know, to do. We're going to get it done today. Holy Spirit's our helper. He's going to help us. And so I made the decision right then to say it out loud, to change the whole attitude and the atmosphere in the house and said, No, this is how it's going to be, because I'm not doing it in my own strength.

Kristen West Lawrence:
I don't have to. And he told me, Don't do that. He's like, Don't try to do everything. He said, You can depend upon him. You can rest your entire being on him, everything that you have to do because he is our strength. Amen. Amen. And so when we see that, that is a moment of teaching that sticks with them, whether it's our kids or even our grandkids or great grandkids or our nieces or nephews. Right. This is this is how a son and a daughter of God functions in day to day life. When things get hectic and things get stressful. And then because remember, we're raising sons and daughters of God because we are sons and daughters of God. Amen. And Jesus. He's our example. He is our example and it says that he was anointed by the Spirit of God, functioning as a son of God. Right. Acts 1038 tells us that how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, who went about doing good. Right. And he and he is destroying all the works of the devil. And that's what we're called to do. We have the same Holy Spirit. He didn't give us a different version. Like, you know, we don't have to keep getting upgrades like our, you know, like our phone does, you know, like, oh, something feels off with me. I have a Holy Ghost upgrade. I got to do an update. I got to do. No, we have the same Holy Spirit. He doesn't have a different anointing. We are anointed sons and daughters to do every bit of what he's called us to do. Right. Because Jesus is our example and we are to grow up in him, to grow up into Him, to look like him. You know, everywhere Jesus went, the kingdom went right. Everywhere you go, the kingdom goes. Jesus was telling his disciples in Luke ten. He was sending them out and giving them instructions and telling them these things and what to do. And he says to them, And when you go, you heal the sick and you tell them the kingdom has come unto you. Well, wherever we go, whatever we're doing, we are taking the kingdom with us.

Kristen West Lawrence:
Whether we choose to let that manifest or not, that's up to us. But but we carry. We are carriers of the glory, right? It's Christ in us. The hope of glory. Not, you know, like what someone said on shared on Facebook. One of my friends is a quote by Elizabeth Elliot. It says, Christ in you, the hope of glory, not you. And another set of circumstance. No, it's Christ in you, not you in a different set, you know. Well, if my life looked different than this or if I wasn't dealing with these things. No. It says Christ in you, the hope of glory. Amen. So we got the kingdom package. Well, what is the Kingdom of God? Is righteousness, peace and joy. Right? Righteousness. The state of being right and acceptable to God. The peace of God. Heart. Peace. Assuredness. Soundness. Man. We all need that, right? Especially these days. And Joy in the Holy Ghost. That's that's comforting. That it's joy in him, not not joy, because life is going exactly like we want it to go. He said, Joy in the Holy Ghost. Well, if Jesus being our example, Jesus was anointed with the oil of joy more than anyone else on this earth. Hebrews one nine says. And I got to thinking about that. You know, sometimes when you see a portrait of Jesus or the older shows of Jesus, you know, he's walking around real stoic and emotionless, and he's that's not how the word describes him. He wasn't like that. He was a blast to be around. He was fun to be around. He spoke with authority and power. He brought destruction to the kingdom of darkness. He knew his purpose. He knew what kind of death and torture he would suffer for us. And yet he was overflowing with joy more than any of his companions. I mean, sometimes our day gets derailed. If our biscuit didn't, you know, come out to us, Right? You know, you know, much less. We're going to go through all these things. And at the end of this, you know, we're we're going to be crucified and tortured.

Kristen West Lawrence:
Well, it's not the end. It's the beginning, but you know what I mean. He was overflowing with joy more than any of his companions. And I can't think of anybody on this earth. There's not one more person on this earth that had more responsibility, more demonic things coming against him, more, if you want to call it stress. Jesus was faced with a lot of stress, but he showed us how we walk as a son and a daughter of God in our everyday life amid all these things. So if we can see him in how he dealt, you know, we think of yes, you know, he spoke to this and he and he, you know, used his words and he, you know, dealt with this situation and that situation. Yes. And with that, he was full of joy. Amen. Amen. C.s Lewis said joy is the serious business of heaven. Well, Jesus was here doing serious business. And he was full of joy. He was doing kingdom business. His father's business. Right. Well, that's what we're doing. Whether, you know, whether our calling is maybe you're a missionary and you're going all over the world, you're doing Kingdom business. But whether you have a whatever you're doing, it's kingdom business. If you're doing it unto him, and this is what he's called you to do. But Mom's at home and Dad's at home raising kids in the day to day life. And, you know, it can get monotonous every day doing the same thing. But you're doing kingdom business, you know, motherhood and fatherhood and the union of a man and woman having kids was ordained by God. He called us to do that. And we're doing his business. And the wonderful thing is, is he never told us we had to do it in our own strength. Amen. Thank God. So we see Jesus being full of joy, doing his father's business. And we'll wrap it up here in John 15 five. Let's go there real quick. Well, we're actually going to go to John 15 and we're going to start in verse 11. So Jesus is talking to his disciples. And he is talking about abiding in him.

Kristen West Lawrence:
And we're going to go back and see that in a minute. But in verse 11 right here, he says, I have told you these things. That my joy and delight may be in you and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing. That's what he says we are to have that his joy. He was more joyous, had more joy than anybody and his delight. It may be in us and our joy and our gladness may be a full measure. What does that look like? What is full measure of joy look like in our day to day life? I think everybody we all have room to grow in that where it's complete and it's overflowing. Well, before he talks about that, having that joy that his joy in us. Hey, when you start chapter 15, right before that, he is talking about abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can you except you're in me. I'm the vine and you're the branch he that abides in me and I in him. The same bringeth forth much fruit. He says, For without me you can do nothing. Well, we know we're never without him. But that's what he's saying is if he's the vine and we're the branch. He is our source for everything. We are one with him. We're connected to him. We're his sons and his daughters. Right. So he goes on to talk about and he he says it to him a few different ways about the life union that we have with Jesus. And how we are one spirit with him. And he says whatever is flowing through me, he said, It's flowing through you if you're connected to me. He said, I've told you these things. So it means he's speaking to them so that you would have you may have my joy. So we have his word that produces that joy. And as we're connected to him and we're taking time to spend time with him to, you know, to. Meditate and look at. Who we are in him and what we have in him.

Kristen West Lawrence:
And and it's us focusing on the truth, because there's a lot of you know, as we said in the beginning, the virtuous woman, she laughs without fear of the future. And I jokingly said, Is it because she doesn't have a Facebook account and she don't know what's going on? You know, because if you know, it's interesting, if you watch the news and you watch different things and all that, you know, there's a new shooting, there's a new, you know, you know, wreck that killed five people. There's, you know, and it's a kid and all that. Well, when I know as a mom, when you see something like that happening to a child, what's the first thing you think of? It pulls on your heartstrings because you have children. It's the love that's in you that you automatically you think your children, your grandchildren. But you know what? The news doesn't talk about? It doesn't talk about the millions of people that made it home perfectly safe and the millions of kids that went to school that day. And they're perfectly safe. No shootings? No. None of this. Well, we know that. But because our attention, we're hearing things right. We're taking it in. All these seeds of fear can get planted if we're not careful because of, you know, it's the world that we live in. But it says that she laughs without fear of the future because she knows who she is and she knows who God is and she knows she's in covenant with him. So when we when we spend time connected to the vine, whatever's flowing through him, it flows through us. The joy that's in him is the joy that's in us. Yeah. And. And he, like he said, he goes on to say, I told you these things that my joy and my delight will be in you. And we know and I'm closing here in Nehemiah 810. It says that the joy of the Lord is our strength. He could have said all kind of different things, but he chose joy. He could have said. Praying will be your strength. But he didn't say that. Should we pray?

Kristen West Lawrence:
Of course. I'm not saying we shouldn't. But he said the joy of the Lord is our strength. If we're low on strength, we're low on joy. We're told to count it all, Joy, when we go through any sort of trial. You know, trials are not the time to give up our joy because it's our strength. We need his strength in that hard situation. Right? We need his. We need his strength. No matter what we do or we need his strength just to go to Walmart. Right. We need his joy. And we have his joy. Now, it didn't say. It didn't say. Our better feelings are our strength. No, joy is not a feeling. We have his joy. If you're saved and you're born again. He's in you. The kingdom is in you. Righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. We already have that. But if we're looking to ourselves as our source instead of him as our source, we are not going to draw upon that joy. We're not going to draw upon that strength. Amen. So we're not going to do that. We're trusting. We're not going to trust in our own ability, in our own strengths. We're trusting in him. We're a son and a daughter of God, and he's given us everything we need pertaining to this life. He's giving us everything we need, no matter what our job is, what our purpose is, whether it's in raising kids or running businesses or doing all of it. No matter what we're called to do, we have his grace, which is his ability, Right? To do everything that we need to do to function just like Jesus did. You know, if you think about it in this term, if if Jesus was in this house right now, just talking about at home or wherever you're at, it's easy to think of Jesus being here, right? Because we associate that with church and whatever. But if we're at home and say there's this and this going on and you're, you know, mom, you feel, oh, you know, I just I just need a minute. I just need whatever.

Kristen West Lawrence:
But just think of think a second. If Jesus was in the room right now, how would Jesus handle this situation? Well, you have everything in you to handle that situation, just like Jesus would handle that situation. Amen. You have that same Holy Spirit, that same helper and comforter and strengthener, that same guide and standby. You know, Jesus gave us the helper because he knew there would be times that we have to have help, right? He gave us the comforter because there's going to be some times that we need that comfort. And so joy is a choice. We can choose joy no matter what's going on in the middle of everything, no matter what. And when we choose joy, we choose strength. Strength to be able to do and to function just like him. And what he's called us to do. Amen. Amen. Well, it is. It got the time. Got here fast. I will. I'll stop there. So I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to minister. Happy Mother's Day to all of you moms. And we have the gift for you out on the book table. And we have service this Wednesday. Yes, it's the third Wednesday. Amen.

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