This is a continuation of our series on Identity -- "who are you in Christ?"  In this episode on Romans 7:10-11 I uncover a fascinating truth about sin -- is it a "thing" or is it something we do?  In other words, when we as Christians sin, what is the reason behind the sin?  When we "battle with sin" and attempt to live righteously, what does that really mean?  And... what is the implication of all of this in terms of who we are in Christ?  This is Part 1 of a two part series.

This is a fascinating insight into the interaction between body, soul and spirit.  This is Part 1 of two sessions that are part of our Identity series on "who are you in Christ?"  Based on Hebrews 4:12 and 1 Thessalonians 5:13

Has the Lord ever promised you something you really wanted, but you were afraid it wasn't true? Or, have you ever read a promise in the scriptures, maybe such as, "you cannot out give God's ability to take care of you," and yet you were afraid to fully test it and see if it was true? This episode is all about that topic. It's called Demands of Faith. A demand of faith is when you claim that which is yours, by faith, and you receive it. It's part of walking by faith, but it goes a step beyond -- it's taking authority and claiming that which the Lord has promised.   We see demands of faith with Moses, Elisha, King David, and throughout the Bible. And... we see it today in the lives of those who walk by faith. If you want to grow stronger in walking by faith, you will love this episode.  Watch the actual live teaching and diagrams on YouTube.  Visit our website at https://GetRadicalFaith.com/podcasts/?=PodcastDescription

This is the fifth of a multi-part series on Spiritual Warfare entited "Get Free of Torments, Addictions, and Constant Life Failures."  This episode teaches on generational curses and the impact they have in open doors that allow demonic spirits to torment you.  Watch the actual live teaching and diagrams on YouTube.  Visit our website at https://GetRadicalFaith.com/podcasts/?=PodcastDescription

This is the fourth of a multi-part series on Spiritual Warfare entited "Get Free of Torments, Addictions, and Constant Life Failures."  This episode teaches on unforgiveness and the impact it has in open doors that allow demonic spirits to torment you.  Watch the actual live teaching and diagrams on YouTube.  Visit our website at https://GetRadicalFaith.com/podcasts/?=PodcastDescription

This is the third of a multi-part series on Spiritual Warfare entited "Get Free of Torments, Addictions, and Constant Life Failures."  This episode teaches on the soul ties and sexual sin legal right open doors that allow demonic spirits to torment you.  Watch the actual live teaching and diagrams on YouTube.  Visit our website at https://GetRadicalFaith.com/podcasts/?=PodcastDescription

"Getting Free of torments, addictions, and constant life failures - Part 2 -- demonic strongholds that hold you back." Do you ever feel like you're being "tormented" at times, struggle with addictions, or feel like everything you do constantly fails -- relationships falling apart, sales opportunities vanish, you never get ahead financially, and more? If you feel that way, you're not a lone.  Your life could be simply full of bad decisions ... but it could also be something more. That "something more" could be a spiritual battle you are dealing with.  It could be you have "saboteurs" in your life that you can't see.  Jesus said "the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy.  I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly." If you are not experiencing abundant life now, in this life, you could be in a spiritual battle.  And if you are, this Radical Faith series on spiritual warfare will not only share what's going on, but also how to get free of it.

This is the first of a multi-part series on Spiritual Warfare entited "Get Free of Torments, Addictions, and Constant Life Failures."  This episode teaches on legal rights and how those legal rights are used by demonic spirits to torment you.  Watch the actual live teaching and diagrams on YouTube.  Visit our website at https://GetRadicalFaith.com/podcasts/?=PodcastDescription

Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)     [00:00:04] Well, hello, everyone, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm super excited and welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael.  Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I am super excited about our call today. What do you have for our listeners?   [00:00:28] Well, I am very excited about it as well, Penny, because I get to do today what I love doing. And sometimes I pinch myself saying, Lord, do I really get paid to do this stuff? And the answer is yes, ultimately. So we're going to do not a real estate marketing call. We're going to do a radical face call for those who may be new to us. As a reminder, we do two types of calls. So if you're here for real estate marketing, that's not going to be the topic of today's call. The topic is going to be living as a Christian, and what all of that type of stuff means. So if you want to enjoy that, please continue listening. Otherwise, you can turn off this episode and come back to our next one. So what I want to do when we talked last time, Penny, on the topic, Do all who accept Christ go to heaven? Do you remember that topic?   [00:01:26] Yes, I do. I do.   [00:01:28] Ok, well today we're going into part two, OK? And next time when we do, another radical faith call will be it part three. And I'm not sure if it's going to be three or four parts, but is this really incredibly exciting for me and very interesting. And I think there are a lot of deep application in terms of what we do with our lives that come out of it. So I want to go into that. So this is a quick review. We started last time with some statements that Jesus made and now we're going to test your memory. Do you remember what those statements Jesus made that we started?   [00:02:11] It was something that has to do with we were talking about do all people go to heaven if they get saved or the all believers go to heaven? And it was something it was something along the lines of, all right, that's OK.   [00:02:27] That's OK. Yeah, no, that's OK.   [00:02:30] Hey, I got it written in front of me. You don't. So that's the key. Oh so the gospels have four times God found is so important. They put four times in the gospel, the basic statement by Jesus that the one who endures to the end will be saved. Yes. Yes. The one who endures to the end by your endurance, you will gain your lives. Okay, so the question was. What in the world has Jesus talking about? So let me ask you a question. When Jesus teaches that you must endure to the end to be saved, does that mean that some people don't endure to the end?   [00:03:11] Yes.   [00:03:13] And therefore they don't endure to the end. They're not saved.   [00:03:18] That's correct. They're not going to go to heaven.   [00:03:20] Yeah, and that interesting and yet we think. Huh? OK, so we talked last time on the parable of the Sower, one of the most important parables, because it's the only one that is in all three synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark Luke is the only one that is in its entirety in all three gospels is the only one that is fully interpreted by Jesus in all three gospels and is the only one that Jesus says, if you don't understand this one, how can you understand any of the parables? So it's kind of like the key, the master key that unlocks every single parable if you dig into it. And what we learned in the parable of the Sower is several things just in a quick review. OK, so you have a sower, we assume the soldiers us, OK, it's not very clear, but go out and you sow the seed everywhere. The seed is the word of the kingdom. And do you remember who the word of the kingdom is? If you were to put a name Jesus. Right. So where it is. So Jesus everywhere and some falls on the path and birch take it away. It's rejected. Some fall in on Iraqi soil. They accept it with enthusiasm. And as soon as the sun comes up because there's no root, it withers. Then some falls on the thorny soil.   [00:04:44] Ok, we call that soil number three. If we do soil one, two, three, four. So the stony soil falls among the thorns. It grows up into a plant. It grows up with the thorns, but there's no fruit. And then there's the for soil good soil that it produces some 60, some 30, some 100 salt, OK? And Jesus and Jesus says only the see that falls in the good soil is good. And you have to produce fruit and so what we kind of came through with all of that is that three soils accepted Jesus to some degree. You know, the rocky soil accepted the seed enough that it produced something. But there were no roots. The thorny soil accepted the seed. It actually went in the ground. It produced roots because we know now plant grew, but it was bad. And then the fourth soil, the soil accepted the seed, accepted Jesus and produced fruit. And so what we start to understand is put this parable is telling us, I believe, is that not everyone who accepts Jesus goes to heaven. Not everyone who accepts Jesus actually produces fruit. We also describe that fruit is the womb of a seed is for the seed is formed. And so what Jesus is telling us and we're going to get into this today a little bit more, that unless you're unless Christ is formed in you and you're producing more of Christ, then you're not good. Okay, so that's kind of where we ended up. Any questions or any thoughts on that before we move forward?   [00:06:33] No, just such a good reminder. Such a good refresher from last week. So I'm looking forward to this week.   [00:06:41] Good. I am too. So we covered one quick topic last time and wrapping up. And I want to I want to focus on this more today. And that's the difference between converts and disciples. So let me just cut in that. What we talked a convert is one who accepts Christ. A disciple is a convert who pursues Christ. Does that make sense?   [00:07:10] Yeah, yeah, OK.   [00:07:12] And and so it's kind of like a two step process. First, you accept Christ, but accepting Christ. Doesn't mean you go to heaven, it's what happens after there, so you accept Christ and then you pursue Christ. Now, this is not saying we're going to kind of touch on this maybe in a later session, OK? The question is, if you're currently a bad soul, can you become a good soil? That's not the topic of this call, OK? This isn't the topic of once I accept Christ, do I have to do something special? That's not the topic. All I'm saying is very clearly there is evidential difference between good soil, bad soil. And so let's look at it and then let's also analyze it within our lives. So what we find is not all converts go to heaven. But all disciples do all right. And then, John, 15 eight, this is Jesus, and he says by by this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. And so can you finish this sentence on that?   [00:08:21] And so go and bear fruit and so prove to be my disciples, right, when you bear much fruit, you prove to be my disciples.   [00:08:31] And this is what Jesus is talking about. This is, by the way, the great commission go and make converts of all the nations. Now go and make disciples of all the nations. And so there's something there about this mandate. So with that, I now want to move in to where we're going to be talking about today and it's really quite fascinating. I like to look at what John the Baptist had to say about frit. By the way, this is now trivia. Do you recall anything John the Baptist said about fruit?   [00:09:08] So. Wow. Mm hmm.   [00:09:12] I don't know, off the top of my head, so let's turn to Matthew three verses eight, nine and 10 and let's see what he says about fruit.   [00:09:25] Bear fruit in keeping with repentance and did not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham is our father, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now, the axes laid to the root of the tree. Every tree, therefore, does not bear good fruit that does not bear good for it. Cut down and thrown into the fire.   [00:09:52] Ok, just a little back. Back up. Scripture uses the metaphor trees a lot as representing men. OK, so that's why you see this. The access to the trees, every tree that does not bear fruit when he's talking to people and he says bear fruit with keeping with repentance. So when you see the word tree, typically that's going to be speaking about men when there are different types of trees, is talking about different types of men or the human race. Not always, but that's one of the things. So what does this say that what type of fruit are we to bear? Fruit that keeps with resentence fruit that keeps with repentance, so let's go back and cover one thing that's really important. When we read the Bible, the Bible is a book written by a single author, God himself. And when we when we see common terms throughout, there are always going to have something. They're always going to mean about the same thing or typically. OK, so you have just as we talked about last time, you have characters in a book. And if a character named John is introduced at the beginning, the book, then when the author calls out John toward the end of the book is the same. John is the same person. In this case. We have the character of fruit. The last time we talked about with a state in the sower that the good soil produces fruit, we had to understand what fruit is. But here John the Baptist is talking about fruit bear fruit in keeping with repentance. So we kind of understand that what John the Baptist is talking about is the same thing Jesus has been talking about. Does that make sense? Mm hmm. Yeah. OK, so this fruit is fruit in keeping with repentance. Here's something also interesting. What was the message that Jesus came preaching to you? Remember what that message was?   [00:11:58] The kingdom of God is here or now, but there's one one part right before that.   [00:12:03] Do you remember what it was? It was an action and love, love one another now repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. OK. Oh, so close your so close. So there's something about repentance that's really important when we talk about healing later, whenever the Lord guides me in that direction, repentance is really a key part of of that. So so we are to bear fruit of repentance, OK, if we don't bear fruit.   [00:12:38] What does John's passage say is going to happen.   [00:12:43] Hmm.   [00:12:46] Well, if we don't, it says that every tree or person that is not very good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.   [00:12:54] Ouch. You think what do you think that's actually going spiritually? What is he communicating?   [00:13:03] Going to heaven, crash and crash and burn.   [00:13:05] Yeah, OK, right, OK, so we see this thing about trees. We see this thing about fruit. We see this thing about an axe cutting down a tree and we see this thing about being burned. OK, do you recall any other parables that Jesus uses about a tree being cut down?   [00:13:30] I do not.   [00:13:32] All right, turn with me to Luke, 13 versus six through nine. This is the parable of the barren fig tree, OK?   [00:13:45] Oh, now you remember, right? OK, yes. So let's read the parable of the barren fig tree and what we're looking for. OK, this is let me kind of give you the Cliff Notes version of all this. God works in patterns. You see the same pattern throughout scripture in all kinds of areas. Last time we saw this pattern of something about fruit is important to being, you know, going to heaven. If we want to use that term, that's really to being part of the kingdom of God is the better term.   [00:14:15] And we saw that a lot of people produce something, but they didn't produce fruit. The soils produced a plant to some degree. And so we see this pattern. And I want you to be looking for the patterns as we go through. So let's read about the parable of the barren fig tree, OK?   [00:14:33] And he told this parable a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vine dresser, Look, for three years now, I have come seeking fruit on the fig tree and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground? And he answered him, sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good. But if not, you can cut it down.   [00:15:08] Hmm. Wow. OK, so it's not bearing fruit. John talks about bear fruit with keeping with repentance or you get cut down. This is talking about it's not bearing fruit. Let's cut it down. All right. So we have some patterns and similarities there. Here's the question. Does a good tree produce good fruit?   [00:15:28] Yes, and how do we know that?   [00:15:34] Well, that's a good tree. Then that's its nature, its nature is to produce. OK, all right, so nature is wrong with it. It's going to it's going to reproduce itself, right?   [00:15:48] Ok, so seed reproduces after kind. Good. All right. Let's go real quickly. You don't have to turn there, but let's look at what Jesus says. It's in Luke 643 and he says for no good tree bears, bad fruit. Nor again, does a battery bear good fruit for each tree is known by its own fruit. So does a good tree produce good fruit according to Jesus? The answer is yes. OK, so now we're using trees. OK, keep in mind, the metaphor is mankind. Jesus is saying no good man produces bad fruit. Every man will be known after the fruit he produces. OK, there's a way to look at it. So if a tree produces no fruit, is it a good tree?   [00:16:37] No, and why is that how do we know that because Jesus just said it, a good tree is going to produce good fruit, right?   [00:16:47] Yeah, yeah. Parable of the sower. Only the good soil. The good soil is known because it produced fruit. Jesus said that. By this, my father's glorified that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples, so we know that a good tree will always produce good fruit. A tree without fruit is not good. That's soil number three. If you recall, the plant grew up but produce no fruit. OK, so that's kind of where we are here. Let me give you a little background also. This is interesting, the background on the fig tree. So throughout scripture, the fig tree, in fact, do you know what the fig tree represents throughout scripture? Did you know that? Did you know that it represented something?   [00:17:39] I know I did not.   [00:17:41] All right, so there are two trees that are used all throughout scripture, sometimes are used in the same passages, sometimes are used differently. One is the fig tree. Do you remember what the other one is?   [00:17:52] My guess would be an olive tree.   [00:17:54] Yeah, so you have fig trees and olive trees. The question is, what are they? OK, so here we go back to patterns again. Same thing as Paul talks about. The pattern of not all who are descended of Abraham are Abraham's descendants. You remember him saying that? I think it's in Romans. OK, what is he talking about? Abraham had a physical bloodline and Abraham had a spiritual bloodline. The physical bloodline is a shadow of the spiritual, but it's not the spiritual. And we see this thing with fig trees. So throughout scripture, the fig tree represents the chosen people of Israel, of the natural. OK, you can call it the physical descendants of Abraham. And within that physical descendants, it's in a sense, it's death. OK, that's that's why you see all the time the fig tree without any fruit. That's why this parable is the fig tree that's going to be cut down. But then you have the olive tree and the olive tree represents the chosen people, a betrayal of the promise. These are the spiritual descendants of Abraham. And in a sense, the olive tree is always represented with life.   [00:19:11] All the fig trees always represented with death and saying, yeah, and an interesting.   [00:19:18] So just as the natural the natural world is a shadow of the spirit world, then the people of Israel, the fig tree is a shadow of the people or the promise represented by the olive tree. So that's kind of what we're seeing here. We've got this parable, the bear and fig tree. The fig tree, by the way, is there do you recall any other place in the Gospels where there's a barren fig tree?   [00:19:51] Hmm, I do feel like this story is brought up again, but I don't remember where Jesus is going into Jerusalem.   [00:20:01] Oh, yes, yes. You see the fig tree and leave. He walks over to get some fruit and there's none there and there's none.   [00:20:09] And it's not the season of fruit. It's not the season of fruit. And he curses it. Why do you think he curses the fig tree?   [00:20:18] When it's not the season for fruit, I don't know, I've always wondered that because I've always just thought that that was one of those moments in Scripture where it's just showing the sense of humor of God.   [00:20:32] Ok, so if we if we say I digress, but this is important, is fun. So the fig tree represents the natural Israel and sin and death, even though it's not the season for figs, as a believer, it's always the season for fruit. This is why you read through revelations and and other passages like in Psalms and other places where you have visions of the heavenly realm and the trees and the plants are always producing fruit all the time. There is no season without fruit. It's always the season for fruit because there's always a season for life. OK, and so Jesus curse, is it the same as the natural descendants of Abraham had been cast with death because they're in bondage to sin, ruled by death, made a covenant with death when Adam fell. OK, and and so you see all these all these patterns, imageries and all these concepts kind of coming together in this one image of Jesus cursing the fig tree. And so we kind of have something similar here. OK, so we have this fig tree. So Israel had been chosen and set apart by God from among all the nations. OK, so this is where you have kind of the chosen people. And Israel had been given gods promise of salvation. Right in that tree, an issue with God's own people, but yet here's what's interesting. Turn with me real quickly, John, 111, so so I want I want to give you this picture, it all ties back into this barren fig tree parable we're talking about here. So the picture is. God had chosen Israel, God had given Israel the promise. Israel was God's people, OK, and now let's read what happens, John, 111, can you read that?   [00:22:50] He came to his own disguise, right?   [00:22:54] So Jesus came into his own OK, now, now finish it and his own people did not receive him.   [00:23:00] Hmm. OK, so his own people did not receive him. So we have kind of this this thing. This is the victory. OK, so now let's move back to the parable of the barren fig tree, 13, six and nine. What do you think this parable is telling us?   [00:23:22] Oh.   [00:23:27] Well, if we're relating it to what you just kind of give that description, the fig tree and the physical nature of the descendants of Abraham and bondage to them, then the fig tree. Who was in bondage, bondage to sin is not going to produce fruit.   [00:23:48] There's no loss almost that that may be a little too much, so so the parable is going to be giving basically one simple point that Jesus trying to make. Let's look at the let's look at the key aspects of the parable first. OK, man has a fig tree. The man comes seeking fruit. There is none. He says, cut it down. OK, those are the basic elements of the parable. So what this tells us is that if you don't produce fruit, you get cut down.   [00:24:18] Right? OK, yeah.   [00:24:21] And cut down. What do you think that means?   [00:24:28] Removed from your purpose, yeah, is it you think this is similar to what John the Baptist was saying just a moment ago? The axe is laid at the root of the trees, and if you don't produce fruit, you'll get cut down and thrown into the fire, right?   [00:24:42] Yeah. Yeah.   [00:24:43] Ok, so that's I think it's what's talking here is you can get cut down and discarded that purpose that you're talking about for which you've been there, you're going to lose. All right. So but what about the vine dresser? This is real interesting. It says that a man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. Where do we where do we hear about a vineyard and a vine dresser? Does anything come to mind?   [00:25:12] Yes. Jesus. He says, I am the vine dresser and we are the vine almost. No, sorry. I'm sorry. We are his the vine. The father is a vine dresser.   [00:25:24] That's right. There are the branches. We are the branches, not the fruit that. Yeah. So John, that's John Tuffin one. So let's go there real quick. I want to show you something. OK, we're just going to read what you just said, basically, John, verse one.   [00:25:41] Yeah, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.   [00:25:46] Ok, so now we have again characters. The olive tree is planted in the vineyard and the owner comes and talks to the vine dresser. Do you see all these pictures coming together now? OK, so in the vineyard, Jesus is the true vine. He's the olive tree is in the presence of Jesus. The Vineyard, who is the father is there. And the owner says to the to the father, God, the father cut it down. Now read what the vine dresser says. I want you to see this. This is really cool.   [00:26:25] This is verse eight, right? Yeah, OK. And he answered him. The vines are the the dangerous, right? Yeah. He answered him, sir.   [00:26:36] Let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on the newer.   [00:26:44] Yeah, then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good, but if not, you can cut it down.   [00:26:52] Oh, so this is the vine dresser. This is God, the father saying, hey, before we cut this down. Let me work on it special, let me give it special attention, let me let me dig around it, put in manure, let me really do everything I can to give it every opportunity to produce fruit and then if it does well and good, but if it doesn't, then let's cut it down. And that interesting. The heart of the father.   [00:27:23] Yes, he's the God of second chances.   [00:27:26] He's got a second chance for us. That's right.   [00:27:30] And we actually see this same picture. And John, 15. So Rejon 15 first to.   [00:27:41] Ok.   [00:27:43] When they get back, they're looking to all right. Every branch and me that does not bear fruit. He takes away in every branch that does bear fruit. He pretends that it may bear more fruit.   [00:27:59] Okay, perfect. So every branch that does not bear fruit he takes away. There's actually different ways to translate that takes away. And when we look at scripture, it's always multidimensional. Sometimes there's a lot more meaning than just one simple meaning. And so one way to translate in which most Bibles translate as he takes away. But another way you can translate that same word that's been used takeaway is to lift up. So you get kind of the image of if I'm a vine dresser and I'm in the vine is very valuable. This is business. This is what produces livelihood. So I'm not going to just willy nilly, you know, get rid of a branch just because it doesn't produce. I'm going to work with it. Tender care, because if I can get it producing fruit, it's worth a lot. So one way to interpret this is the vine dresser. Every branch that does not bear fruit, he lifts up the idea. You pull it up out of the ground, out of the dirt, you take the dirt off and wipe the dirt off the leaves so they can have sunshine and then you tie it up on the trestle so they can be in the sun and give an opportunity to produce fruit. But then if it doesn't produce fruit, he takes it away.   [00:29:17] Does that make sense? Mm hmm. Is that cool? Yeah, it's a great picture.   [00:29:22] So that's the same thing we see with this parable of the barren fig tree. Hey, let me give it more time and let me work with it to see if it can produce fruit. It shows the heart of the father really wants to give us every opportunity to produce that fruit. So so now with that, let's start looking a little bit deeper into some questions about this barren fig tree. Did the barren fig tree look like a mature, a mature tree? In other words, had it matured?   [00:29:59] No.   [00:30:01] Ok, so let me ask you, do you think it was standing tall like a normal tree?   [00:30:10] Possibly.   [00:30:12] Ok, yeah, OK, if for the owner to come look for the owner to come looking for fruit, should there have been fruit there? Yes, OK, it should have been, which means it's mature enough to have been producing fruit, does that make sense? Yes. OK, so it's mature enough by age and by visual appearance to be producing crude. So. So it's probably at the normal height of other trees that produce fruit, other fig trees, right? Mm hmm. Do you think it has limbs and leaves?   [00:30:51] Yeah, probably.   [00:30:52] Ok, so appearance wise, it looks like a mature plant. But the problem is there's no fruit. OK, so here's what I think Jesus is also teaching on this.   [00:31:08] The same thing we get from Parable of the Sower and some others will say if it's possible for someone to look like a Christian, think he's a Christian because he accepted Christ at some point and may even do Christian like deeds, OK, but still be dead and not born again. That's what you have with this this fig tree. It looks like a healthy fig tree. The only difference is there's no fruit, but everything else about it visually is it looks like it's like a normal fig tree. Does that make sense?   [00:31:44] Yeah. Yeah, OK.   [00:31:46] And the problem is there's no fruit.   [00:31:48] If we use to take this metaphor out and kind of convert it to what seems to be saying how we would phrase it based on the parable of the sower is. There's no Christ being formed in that person. And and if there's no Chrispin been formed in that person, then spiritually that person is dead.   [00:32:11] Makes sense.   [00:32:12] Yeah, it does OK, because we're only alive in Christ. So based on the four soils of the parable of the sower, which soil would you say that this tree is planted in or represent?   [00:32:28] I would say three because yeah, yeah, it's growing and it has leaves and branches and like you said, looked fully mature and like it should have fruit on it.   [00:32:40] Yeah, exactly. So this is that soil. Number three, this is why the fig tree is used throughout scriptures that barren, that barrenness. How many people would you think there are who call themselves Christians and look like this fig tree? They look like a Christian, but they bear no fruit while.   [00:33:04] I hate to say there's probably way more than.   [00:33:08] Then I would want to admit that there are yeah, do you think they think that they're Christians?   [00:33:15] Yes, absolutely, yeah, we see this even with Israel.   [00:33:19] They thought they were the chosen race, we're all going to heaven because we're part of Abraham. Paul says no. You know, you're you're you're not. OK, so I want to share just a little personal comment on this, because this is actually how all of this study got started for me. So I have a personal friend, a dear family friend named Rich. His parents and my parents have been best friends. His parents were in my parents' wedding. I believe it goes back that far. We've done things with Rich and his family. We've been really close. They've been down to our family farm a lot. And and what happened is in ultra high school, Rich was way a column kind of a hoodlum hurdle may be the wrong word, but he was just way off track. He was chasing the girls, chasing the drugs, chasing, you know, chasing everything. And he was absolutely not a Christian. He gets into college. He goes even more over the deep end there, and then something happens. He's presented with the gospel, he hears it, he receives it with joy, and there's life change in his life, he starts to pull back and stop some of these abhorrent behavioral type of activities he's been doing. And then he gets married and he's later on after college, he starts a Bible study at his home. Lots of people come. They share the gospel. Lots of people claim he claims to accept Christ. And then we start to work together.   [00:35:06] He actually worked here with our business for about a year, just over a year, and during that entire time, I saw no evidence at all of Christ being in him. He lives a life of extreme bitterness. He pursues women even now.   [00:35:28] He doesn't touch them, to my knowledge, but he sure does pursue them. He pursues riches and wealth that he cannot get, that he cannot get. And everything is very kind of superficial. And so he's even suing me. OK, believe it or not, I'm on something. And through all of this, there's no bitterness in my heart for him. There's only this love and compassion. And as I pray for him and as I analyze what's going on and constant the thing that keeps coming to mine, Lord, is my friend saved. I know he accepted Christ. I know there was a change in lifestyle, but I see no evidence of Christ. And so my it was my concern for my friend that started me digging, taking a deep dive. And what does the scripture say? Does everyone who accept Christ go to heaven? Okay. And and so that's kind of where we are today. And that's what prompted all this. So let me yeah, it's really interesting. So the Lord takes even difficult circumstances in your life and produces good from it. That doesn't mean he's the orchestrator of just like we talked about a while back with the story of Joseph. Okay. You know, if God is sovereign and control, does that mean everything that happens is his will? OK. And even though God did not orchestrate the evil that happened in Joseph's life, he leveraged it to produce the good that he had for Joseph. So that's kind of how this came out. Let me talk as we're talking on this topic of. People who believe they are Christians, people who have accepted Christ at some point, and, you know, my friend Rich, you know, he received a gospel with joy, just like soil number two on the stony ground.   [00:37:29] And it actually produced a plant that looked mature. But but my perception of what's going on is it's being choked out by all of the other thorns in life, by the way, sawn OK, in small number three, if you look at thorns as a metaphor, as a character throughout the Bible, it's usually used to on what chokes out life. All right. Everywhere you see Soren's, you can kind of translate somewhat loosely, but translate something is choking life out of this. And if you go back and read, you'll see that you see that common theme. So so the thorns choke out the life of of what's there. But I want to talk on this. There's another parable called I Never Knew You, or at least that's what I call it. Let's turn to Matthew seven versus 21 through 23. So there's word on this topic of the fig tree. The fig tree thinks it's a good tree, but it's not because it produces no fruit. My friend Rich calls himself a Christian, and he may be I'm not I'm not rendering judgment, but I'm rendering observation observationally. I see no fruit. The question is, is it possible to accept Christ and not go to heaven? And so let's read another parable. OK, keep in mind, the parable of the sower unlocks all the parables. So you will see this pattern. Are you ready to read it?   [00:38:57] Yes. All right. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father, who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name. And then will I declare to them, I never knew you depart from me. Workers of lawlessness.   [00:39:27] Ouch.   [00:39:28] That's pretty painful in it, that's stinging words, that's what we call the stinging words.   [00:39:34] Yeah, so so let's ask a real simple question on this one. OK, were these people focused on works or fruit?   [00:39:45] Works. How do we know that?   [00:39:49] Because everything it talks about them doing is they work, oh, did we not prophesying your name, cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name. All right. So what's the difference between works and.   [00:40:06] What do you think, um.   [00:40:10] Work is to me, this is just my personal opinion, which to me is what you can benefit or gain for yourself, whether it's notoriety or a favor. And then fruit to me comes from the overflow. It's just what's in you and it comes out by itself.   [00:40:32] Ok, I think that's very accurate. Very fair. I was summarize it slightly different. Not that that it's a different understanding. It has a different route of of source works is what you do. But fruit is Christ formed in you. Does that make sense? Yeah. And if crisis formed in you, then he lives through you. And therefore, what you do in action, what you do is from him and not you, and that's the difference between works and free. It's what you do versus Christ doing it through you. And the other thing about works in fruit, as I start to think about this deeper think about this works is created in this in this topic of what we're talking about with this terrible works is created by pursuing the activities of Christ. While fruit is created by pursuing the person of Christ. Yeah, yeah. And so when we look at what we do in a lot and I'm going through this series because, you know, the Lord has called me in ministry, I'm a full time minister, secretly describes disguised as a business owner.   [00:41:55] And he has called me to do these radical faith podcasts and teachings to teach his people that they may step more boldly out by faith, solidly on God's word and produce fruit. OK. And and that's kind of why all this comes up and why this is, quote unquote, intermingled with business, because the whole purpose for the businesses to do this stuff.   [00:42:22] And but what's interesting is. I was going somewhere with that, let me back up, let me figure out where I was going to work. This created by pursuing the activities of Christ. And fruit is created by pursuing the person of Christ and. When you pursue Christ. Then fruit is automatically produced, so we need to take an introspective look at ourselves and our loved ones and ask, what are we really doing? Are we pursuing the Christian activities?   [00:42:58] Oh, I want to go kill. I want, you know, give me this gift of healing. I want to tung's gift of tongues or I want to, you know, go help the poor and serve the widows. Are you doing those because you want to be found in favor with the Lord or are you doing those because they emanate from the Lord pulling you through it, wanting to do it through you, because you're pursuing the Lord as opposed to pursuing the work? I think that's kind of really where I want to go and hit on with this is we have to say, you know, what's what's driving us? Are we the tree with no fruit? Are we these people that Jesus says, I never knew you. So let me now let's have some questions about this parable. Back to the parable. So, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name. Too many mind works in your name. And Jesus said, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. So do you think these people looked and acted like Christians?   [00:44:06] Absolutely.   [00:44:08] Yeah. They even did the activities that Christians do. Dendi Yeah.   [00:44:12] I was going to say they did activities that a lot of Christians can't do.   [00:44:17] That's right. Yeah. So they saw a lot of times you see someone who prays for healing and the person's heal and you think that guy is really spiritual or someone who gets a, you know, prophecy or does somebody we think they're spiritual, but according to this, they could be dead. Right? So they looked and acted like Christians. Were they born again?   [00:44:42] Oh, well, according to Jesus, no.   [00:44:46] Well, according to Jesus is a good place to be according to you, right? OK. Yeah, OK. So no, how do we know that they're not born again?   [00:45:03] I don't know. OK, so back to this so parable, the sower in the seeds, OK, the seed is shown by the sea, produces fruit in good soil, and when it produces fruit, what's inside the seed? I mean, what's inside the fruit? Yeah, the seed is inside the fruit, right? OK, and so the seed is born again.   [00:45:31] Does that make sense, yes.   [00:45:33] Yeah, OK, and so born again, born again within the fruit, we know these people are not born again because there's no fruit for all who produce fruit are Jesus's disciples and a disciple knows their teacher. In fact, the definition of disciple is one who studies and follows their teacher to become exactly like that teacher. OK, that's kind of technically the definition of disciple. We know these aren't disciples because Jesus says, I never knew you.   [00:46:09] There's no fruit. So if I were to ask, were these converts or disciples, what would you tell me? Converts. Hmm, yeah, converts, they receive the Seiver joy, they receive the good news, they look like Christians. But there's no fruit, there's no fruit because they're not disciples, so did they obtain eternal life?   [00:46:36] No, no.   [00:46:38] So do you see this pattern again, it's possible to call yourself a Christian, even to those Christian type works? But not truly be born again. Do you think maybe at some point these people that Jesus is talking about had actually, quote unquote, accepted Christ?   [00:46:57] Yes, I do. So then what happened?   [00:47:05] Too focused on works and doing instead of getting to know the Lord and being transformed by Jesus in them.   [00:47:15] Yeah, to focus on works, to focus on themselves and Jesus. So if we go back to our last session on this topic, again, the parable is sweet and sour. We use a word called stewarding the soil that stewarded the seed well is the good soul that produced fruit. But when it's stewarded it poorly, it didn't produce fruit at all. And I think we can use that word here. These people accepted the seed, but they did not steward the seed because they weren't pursuing Christ, they were pursuing Christlike activities. Do you see the difference? Yeah, yeah. So now let's look at two more parables. That tie in, we're going to see a similar pattern and what I'm looking for here. I want to make sure you and everyone else sees this. There's this pattern and it's not a single time pattern over and over and over and over again. We start to see what the Lord is telling us by looking at the patterns of the parables. And as we move into our next session later, we're going to pull away from the parables and actually go into the epistles and what Jesus says, what Paul and Peter says.   [00:48:33] And we start to start to see these things and now we start to piece together. These things have been really tough to understand. Now we start to see the pattern. It all starts to make sense. And now we see what the Lord is trying to tell us. So I'm going to read these because they're long and I'm just going to truncate some things along the way. But these are going to be the parables of the miners and the talents. OK, we'll start with the miners. You can open up your Bible to it if you want. I'll read it, though. It's 19 and we're going to basically read 19 verses, 12 through 26. So, Cirlot, the parable of the miners and the talents are two completely different parables, but they are very similar. And I think we're going to see some similar truths here. So starting with Luke 1912, he said. Therefore, Jesus says a nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return, calling ten of his servants.   [00:49:29] He gave them ten miners and said to them, Engage in business until I come to the first came before him saying, Lord, your miner has made ten miners more. And he said to him, Well done, good servant, because you've been faithful and have very little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came saying, Lord, your miner has made five miners. And he said to him, and you were to be over five cities. Then another servant came and said, Sir, here is your miner. I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man. You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not. So his master replied, I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew, did you, that I'm a hard man taking out what I did not put in and reaping what I did not. So why then? Then you put my money on deposit. So then when I came back I could have collected it with interest. Then he said to those standing by, take his mind away from him and give it to the one who has ten miners. Sir, they said he already has ten. He replied, I tell you that to everyone who has more will be given. But as for one who has nothing, even what they have will be taken away. All right. So let's ask a few questions about this parable to understand who is the nobleman being represented in this parable, do you think?   [00:50:56] Jesus, yeah, so Jesus is a nobleman who are the servants? US, us as people and what was his command?   [00:51:09] His command was to be about his business, to engage in his business until he tried to engage in business until I come.   [00:51:18] And so does engage in business mean.   [00:51:24] It means.   [00:51:26] Do the business that I have given you to do.   [00:51:30] Very good, I'm going to clarify just a little bit, if you don't mind, engage in business means to take what a noble men gave them and produce more of it for the nobleman's benefit.   [00:51:45] Oh, does that make sense?   [00:51:48] Mm hmm. Do you see do you see that as represented here? Yeah, yeah. OK, so how does this pattern resemble the parable of the sower?   [00:52:02] Well, taking the seed, yeah. And producing more, so, yeah, producing more.   [00:52:10] Yeah, you take the seed, you accept it, you steward it well, you produce fruit that has more seed in and we're producing more of what's been given to us. OK, so for the servant who did nothing, why was he called a wicked servant?   [00:52:27] Because he didn't do what Jesus asked him to do, he didn't engage in business, he didn't engage in business.   [00:52:34] Why do you think he did not? What do you think is the fundamental difference between the wicked servant versus the good and faithful servants? What is the primary difference?   [00:52:47] Oh, well, the first word that comes to my head is laziness.   [00:52:51] Ok.   [00:52:53] I don't think that's it, so go back to what we just finished talking about with some of the other just a few moments ago, what did we do? What did we discuss in terms of the difference between a disciple and a convert?   [00:53:08] What what causes the difference works versus someone who's pursuing their relationship, pursuing the growth.   [00:53:18] Ok, yeah. So if we were to take that, here's what I would say. The question is.   [00:53:25] For the servant who did nothing, why was he called Wicked? He was in my what I understand he did not value the noble man enough to work on his behalf. In other words, he he merely took but he did not serve in pursuit. Does that make sense? Yeah.   [00:53:44] Yeah. It's only when you serve and pursue. You become a disciple if you're simply looking at it for what you get out of it and you treat it with contempt. You don't serve them per se. Does that make sense?   [00:54:00] Mm hmm. OK, so then if we used. So then what happened to the one who did not serve and pursue but merely took and hid?   [00:54:14] What happened to him? His his portion was taken from him and given to the one who had more, so what he had been given had been is now taken away.   [00:54:25] Mm hmm. Is this this talking about spiritual things? Right. Yeah, wow, that's pretty scary, isn't it? It is, yeah.   [00:54:34] Ok, so since this is a parable about Jesus and his servants, here's a question. Did all of the servants accept what Jesus gave them? Yes, ma'am, did all who accepted it enter into Jesus's blessings?   [00:54:52] All that, the one.   [00:54:55] Oh, OK, so if we lose so so if we go back to all who accept Jesus, go to heaven.   [00:55:05] Base, if we're using this parable and the pattern we're seeing. I say there's a difference between merely accepting what Jesus gives and stewarding it, well, does that make sense? If we use the terms, convert and disciple on this, which of the servants would be converts and which of them would be disciples?   [00:55:30] The first two would be Disciple's and the last one who didn't do anything with his portion would be the convert.   [00:55:37] Yeah. All right. So let's we wrap this up. Let's read about the challenge. So this comes from Matthew, 25 versus 14 through 30. We're going to see the same pattern. OK, so Matthew, 25 versus 14 for he'll be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted to them his property to one. He gave five talents to another, two to another, one to each, according to his ability. Then he went away. He received the five talents win at once and traded with them, and he made five Tallas more. So also the one had the two talents made to tell us more. But the one he received, the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now, after a long time the master, those servants came and settled accounts with them. He you five talents came forward bringing five talents, more same master you delivered to me five talents. Here I made five talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. And he also, who had had the two talents, came forward saying Master, you deliver to me to talent. Here I have made two talents more. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant.   [00:56:57] You've been faithful over a little. I will set you overmuch enter into the joy of your master shortie. He also, who had received the one talent, came forward saying, Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not. So in gathering where you get scared or no seed. So I was afraid and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is here. But his master answered him. You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I where I have not sown and gather where I gather no seed over our shadow, no seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers and that my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him. Who has the ten talents for to everyone who has will more be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless serpent servant into the outer darkness. And that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth now again. So when the master gave the talents his servants, did he expect them to work on his behalf to bring increase?   [00:58:14] Did each of those servants accept the talents?   [00:58:17] They did.   [00:58:19] And so what's the difference between the servants?   [00:58:24] We have disciples and we have a convert again, yeah, yeah, one love the master and it says Win at once and traded with them. They eagerly worked on his behalf and eagerly came to the master, said, Look, Master, I got you even more. Sure. Like when you have a young child that comes and said, Daddy, Daddy or Mommy, Mommy, look what I did for you all eager because they want to please you, right? Mm hmm. The last one simply dug a hole and hid it in the ground, doing nothing to benefit his master, not master, always demanding of me. He gives me this money, says do business. I I don't care, I'm going to throw it in the ground and give it back to them, right.   [00:59:12] No concern for his master. So did the servant who did nothing. Look like the other servants of the master, do you think?   [00:59:23] Yes, yeah, he probably dressed the same. So these are servants of the master, so they probably had uniforms, they had probably protocols, they probably had some prestige among the community because they work for the master. And looking at them, you couldn't tell any difference. But what happened to that servant, the wicked one? What happened to him?   [00:59:45] He was cast out. What was what was given to him was taken away. Then he was cast out and then he was cast out.   [00:59:52] So do you see any parallels with all these other parables? Mm hmm.   [00:59:57] A lot of a lot of patterns here. Right. And they all point to the same thing. So this is the key. When you start to see everything point to the same focal point, you start to pick up. This is important, right? This is something God is saying over and over and over again. We're going to see this a little bit more on the next sessions. But let me just kind of wrap up some things I think are the takeaways. All right. So the parable of the summer shows that the key. Is we have to steward what we've been given. We see that in the parable of the talents, in the parable of the miners. We see this throughout scripture. We've got a steward it if you value something a lot, you'll steward it. Well, if you value it little, you won't steward it at all. Does that make sense? Yes. OK, that's what we see in all of these parables. Are you stewarding what you've been given and both of these parables? The servants who value the master. Took what the master entrusted them. And worked on the master's behalf, you know, the question I saw like to ask is, are we taking what the Lord has given us and working on his behalf or are we taking what the Lord has given us and simply using it on our behalf? That's I think that's kind of the critical point here that that's being communicated. Those who did all the Christian like things, they were working on their behalf.   [01:01:27] Did we not heal the sick, cast out demons, do all these mighty works? So. So if we were to then go back to kind of summing this up, a convert is that person who accepts what is given without valuing the giver. A disciple accepts what is given and values the giver so much that they steward well, that which was given them. So we it comes back to where is your focus? We see this in the parable of the merchant of fine pearls or the parable that the treasure in the field where they sell everything they've got because they want it so much, they pursue it. If we use kind of Christian these terms, you know, they've all been given like if we just look at the talents in the minus, they'd all been given the million minus or talents. They've been given the gift of salvation. They all accepted the gift. But only those who stewarded it obtained the gift. And the gift was removed from those who did not. So same thing we saw in the poor soils. So kind of the big take away. A couple of other things we see on this actually. Now the big take away. Yeah, but there's one more pattern that we see in these two parables. So the minus and the talents. One more thing. Do you know what that one thing that they have in common is?   [01:02:58] Hmm.   [01:03:02] There were three every time.   [01:03:05] Oh, that's a good pattern, yes, there's three three is three is a whole number, right? OK, so there's there's something there. OK, it's a whole truth with holy.   [01:03:17] No, the thing I saw it and saw is they all occur over a period of time. OK, in other words, I think this is what Jesus is saying, telling us. You can't assess the heart immediately. It takes time to see the fruit of the heart and over time. OK, what one does? Well, evidence what their heart is truly like. And it's only the ones with a true heart for Jesus who will enter his kingdom. And and so I think that's kind of the message here. A lot of it is is the one with a true heart. The other thing that's been convicting of me as I go through this is the focus of discipleship. And if you think about discipleship, so a lot of times a lot of us, you know, we want Converse, go share the gospel list, bring in, you know, bring people to salvation, which is good. Definitely not criticizing that, but it's a focus is sharing the gospel, bringing people to salvation.   [01:04:24] Then what's happening afterwards, the way I see it, this is a low image the Lord gave me, not a vision, but just kind of well thought in my mind is it's like raising kids, OK, you birth a child and then for the next 18 or 20 years, you're nurturing and training that child and disciplining them and helping them grow to maturity. And all your focus is on those few children. And then they go do the same thing. OK, but it's not you just go berserk, you know, 30, 40, 50 kids and just, you know, have at it and hope you do well. OK, so I think there's a time to, you know, really focus on making sure that we're raising disciples and not just converts.   [01:05:11] Yeah, that's really good.   [01:05:13] All right. So we got to wrap up. But any thoughts? Anything hit you?   [01:05:19] Oh, gosh. Just so Eye-Opening, you know, I mean, I know these passages. I recognize them all, but it's just so good to kind of dig a little deeper and really get to the heart. I love how the heart of the father was portrayed with the same tree that was producing fruit. I love how I think that would be my encouragement to anyone who's listening, who feels like I've messed up. I can't. I was too late for me, that kind of thing. I've just created way too many things, that kind of thing that the heart of the father is always to restore. And I just love how that was evident in that scripture. You know, that he is the God of second, third, fourth, fifth chances, you know, because his heart just wants you to be connected with him.   [01:06:06] So you lost that and he gives time. I've got to read one saying this. This is a bonus, Jeremiah. Eighteen. Okay, because it talks on that. Jeremiah Yeah. For those people who may be saying it's too late for me, I've done so much bad, I've known the good, but I've kept going after the bad. Let me share what Jeremiah God says. And Jeremiah, he says, this is Jeremiah starting with FF7 If at any time I declare to a nation that I will pluck it up and break it down and destroy it because it's been evil and wicked, and if that nation then turns from its evil, I will relent to the disaster I promised it. What God is saying is judgment is coming. But if you simply relent or repent, this is what John the Baptist said at the, you know, bear fruit. In keeping with repentance, the Lord says, I am quick to relent if you will simply repent. And he keeps relending.   [01:07:11] Yeah, he does. And that relenting is changing his mind. He changes his mind. I think there's actually a translation of scripture that reads it that way, that he will change his mind. And I love that I do, too.   [01:07:24] All right. Well, let's wrap it up.   [01:07:26] Well, baby, thank you so much for today. This was so great. And I'm just encouraged by, again, just all the time and effort that you put into studying and preparing for all the listeners. And I hope this has been an encouragement to everyone. And I look forward to our next call and I hope that everyone can join us again.   [01:07:47] Amen. We all have a great day.   [01:07:49] Thank you so much. Bye. P023

Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:00] All right. Welcome, everybody. We're so glad you're with us again today. This is a great week for us, celebrating the other week leading up to Easter. And I'm so excited to have lady on the phone with me again today for our next session. I was calling you. Beatty Carmichael is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm super excited. I always look forward to our calls. What do you have for our listeners today?   [00:00:34] Well, today, Penny, we're going to do as we move into Easter. This will be coming out long after sometime long after Easter, probably. So at least now our listeners how long it is before from the time we do the call to the time they actually come out. But with that said, we're going to do a radical faith call for those who may be new on to our podcast.   [00:00:57] Radical Faith is where we diverge away from talking about real estate marketing and talk about what I believe is absolutely the most important thing, and that is our relationship with Christ. So if you don't have interest in that topic, you can go in and turn this episode off.   [00:01:14] Otherwise, I'd encourage you to listen and we're going to have a great discussion. This is a really cool topic that we're going to be talking about today. And Penny, would you like to guess what the topic is going to be?   [00:01:31] Well, if I think about what we've been discussing, I'm going to I'm going to generally guess something along the lines of the goodness of God.   [00:01:42] Well, that's a really broad statement, and I think it could definitely fit into that topic. The good thing you did. You did.   [00:01:51] I knew you aren't going to get to topic, by the way, for those who know how we do these on the radical face called Penny has no forewarning of what any of the topic is. So we call it a virgin call from that point. Right. So today, I want to talk about a matter of perspective, because I think especially right now, just to kind of log down where we are, no pun intended, log down. We're all down sheltered in place with a corona virus. This is this is technically mid April, pretty much right now. And most states have put a shelter in place. Law, you can't leave your house except for essential businesses. A lot of our real estate clients in some of their states, they've damed real estate non-essential. So it's been really tough. And the question is, how do we view what's going on? That's kind of a narrow focus. A broader focus of what I really want to talk about is as Christians, we're told to in Hebrews four 11, we're told to strive to enter into God's rest. We're told to rest in the Lord. And sometimes in our own phraseology, there is a I on a phrase that we'll use. And this is kind of the focus of what I want to talk about, which is how do you work from a position of rest? And have you ever heard that term working from a position of rest? Yes.   [00:03:30] Yes, I have. So in your estimation, what is that?   [00:03:38] It's working, but not using my strength or my will or my mindset or preconceived notions in order to accomplish that task. It's relying on my I can do it through me.   [00:03:56] It's realizing the Lord to do it through you. And what I want to do is I want to peel back the onion and really start peeling it back into a deeper and deeper layers and kind of show you at a deeper level. Working from a position of rest means what it looks like, how to begin to apply it to your life. Because as we work from a position of rest. I'm going to make a I'm going to make a statement that's going to sound a little far fetched, but I think by the time we get through this session, I'm going to be able to back it up and that working from a statement of a position of rest is always victorious. Think about this. A lot of times we work and we don't know if we're going to succeed, but when we work from a position of trust, it is always victorious. So let me start with our passage. I wanted to go through a quick overview real quickly, kind of give you a bird's eye view of the entire scope of what this whole concept of working from a position of breast is. And then I want to dig really deep into some scriptures that start to bring a lot more illumination to it. So let's turn real quickly to Hebrews three, verse 11. Hebrew. Because this is kind of where we start to see God's rest and I'll let you read it once you get there.   [00:05:23] All right. Hebrews three, verse 11. As I saw in my wrath, they shall not enter my raft, so they shall not enter my rest.   [00:05:33] So let me give you the backstory on this. This is pulled from the time of the exodus. This is when Moses said send out 12 spies to search out the promised land and check into it. And if you remember that God had been telling them, telling all of Israel, I'm leading you to the promised land. And in that promised land, it's going to be a land of milk and honey. It's going to be overflowing in abundance. You're going to live in houses you did not build. You're going to drink water from cisterns. You did not dig. You're going to eat grazed from vineyards that you did not plant. In other words, everything is going to be already fixed and ready for you. You remember that? Okay, then. So then Moses sent out spies into the land, 12 spies, one spy for each of the tribes of Israel. And what they wanted to do is go through, check out their land, see what's going on, and attest to the bountiful ness and abundance that was already there. The land was so fertile, if you remember. They cut a single stem of grapes and they had to carry it on a pole between two people because it was so full of grapes and so big and so heavy. This is the abundance of the land that the Lord has promised his children. So it's not just I'm going to give you a promise and your life is going to be a little bit better. The Lord sent them into this place of tremendous abundance, tremendous fruit, tremendous everything. And then do you remember what happened when those guys come back? I do not. Okay, so they give two reports, the first report is an abundant land. But do you remember the second report?   [00:07:34] I think it was that they saw giants in the land. That's right. The Giants were more than they could handle.   [00:07:41] That's right. So 10, 12 spies came back and gave a bad report that said, yes, it's abundant, but no, there's absolutely no way we can ever conquer. We were like grasshoppers in their eyes. And they gave a report from a man's perspective. The other two spies were a guy named Caleb and Joshua. They gave a report from God's perspective. And what do you think the difference between God's perspective versus man's perspective was?   [00:08:18] God's perspective was one of rest, not worry.   [00:08:23] That's right. One of rest not worry. One of, hey, we can conquer because the Lord is with us. The Lord has promised. Don't be afraid. Well, what happened is they became afraid. They believed the bad report, not the good report. And as a result, they became fearful and they would not move forward as a result. God says, well, we just read as I swore in my wrath. You will not enter my rest. And he makes them circle the mountain. All right. For now, this is about a year and a half into it, maybe two years. So he makes them circle that mountain for another 38 years. They were now in the wilderness. 40 years. One year for every day. The spies had gone out into the land. And God says those people who were afraid, who looked with their natural eye perspective. You will not enter my rest. Only those who have looked and looked from my perspective. That I'm gonna give you the land. You will enter my rest. And that's why Caleb and Josh were the only people of that generation that were actually able to cross into the promised land and enter into God's rest. So that's kind of the backstory. Does that make sense?   [00:09:44] Yes, it does. Okay, so now I want to give you kind of a synopsis of of taking it from there and talking a little bit more about what it means to work from a position of rest.   [00:09:57] And the key is it's work. It's not rest. Okay. So God's rest is not an attitude of cessation. Okay. It's technically it's an actual place. It's a place of abundance. Okay. But there is a there is a transition of going from the place where we are, which is a lack of abundance to the place where God has created for us that place of rest, which is abundance. And we see this in the micro and macro and the micro. We're always in a position of less abundance, moving towards God's promise of greater abundance, whether it's our spiritual life or any other part of our life. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. Okay. So it's happening as we speak. But then at the macro level, in the big scheme of things, we also see that the trajectory of our life is continuing to be, in God's rest, great abundance, ending with eternal life and being in the heavenly places and for ages to come, as it says in officiants. So what we see with this passage in Exodus is kind of an allegory of our life. And I wanted to peel back that onion a little bit for you. So when they entered the Promised Land, they did not rest physically. Do you remember what happened when they transitioned from the wilderness into the promised land? There's something that never occurred during the wilderness that now started to occur all the time. Do you remember what that might be?   [00:11:43] I feel like it was. They complained a lot and they felt like their needs weren't being met.   [00:11:50] Almost. Okay. So they complained before they crossed the Jordan River, once they crossed the Jordan River. Now they're actually engaging into the promised land.   [00:12:02] Something else occurred.   [00:12:05] It was led by the priests. That thing that occurred was war. Now they had to fight for the promised land that had been promised them. They had to fight to take over the possession that had already been given them. Does that make sense? Yes, it does. And so when we move in to our promised land, this whole lot just make sure you can hear me now, is that correct?   [00:12:34] Yes. I got one little crackle there, but we're good.   [00:12:37] Okay, good. So they had to start going into and they started moving into battle. I want to kind of speed this up. So what happened is in a very a very high level sense, Joshua goes and he leaves the charge. Josh Wood leads the charge. And when he's leading, he's coming at it from a perspective that God has already given them the land. Therefore, victory is assured. And therefore, when they went out to fight, they went with the perspective, we are winning because God has promised it.   [00:13:14] Does that make sense that day when Joshua did that? Do you think there was any unrest in his spirit? Oh, my gosh. I wonder how this battle is going to come out.   [00:13:28] I think for me personally, if I put myself in his shoes, if I came out with that kind of statement to the people that I was leading, then I would have no doubt I would have no fear.   [00:13:39] He's asking me to just say that he's likely right.   [00:13:43] So we could then say that he fought from a position of rest because his spirit was at rest in peace, because a victory was assured. Does that make sense? Okay, so now we're starting to see. Working from a position of rest means it means working from the perspective of what God has already promised. And therefore, you can be assured of the outcome. And it's no longer scary. Then what happened is after Joshua and the Elders died off, then everything changed. The perspective of the leaders changed.   [00:14:20] This is now it gets us into the period of the judges. And if you remember, the judge's life was miserable. They were being attacked on all sides. They would try to go in and take over more of the promised land and they would lose and be defeated all the time because they no longer work from a position of rest. They worked from a position of fear. They started to see with or naturalized rather than their spiritual lives. They looked at the natural enemy that they are facing rather than looking at it from God's perspective of seeing the victory is already won.   [00:14:54] And then we move down the line for a couple of hundred years, and then another man comes out and comes to the scene. And this guy named David. Do you remember anything about a guy named David?   [00:15:10] Yes. Okay. And so does God, where it says that David was a man after God's own heart. Okay, so David is actually a foreshadow of Christ.   [00:15:25] Think about this.   [00:15:28] David was not of the line of Aaron, but yet Aaron is the priestly line. But yet, David was a priest.   [00:15:38] He wore the E. He danced before the Lord. He prophesied he did all kinds of priestly things. He was also of the royal line. Juda. And he was a king. He was a royal priest. And Jesus was a royal priest. He was royalty. And he was our high priest. And we are now royal. So we see this this poor shattering, this type of Christ coming online. And what happened with David? Is he engaged in battle? He engaged the same way that Joshua did.   [00:16:18] The victory was certain. Now he had some fear and some Currentzis concerns. We see that through Psalms, especially as he's been attacked by Saul. But he goes out and in faith, from God's perspective of his promise. He goes out and engages in battle and he wins. And he then conquers the promised land that God had promised his son, Solomon. Then comes on board and enters into the rest of the land. So as David goes in to the land, there's war and unrest.   [00:16:55] But there's constant victory. Then as Solomon comes on line, the land is at complete rest. And now Sollom Solomon gets to focus on building up the temple. Whereas David did not have that opportunity. So that's kind of the big picture. Do you see this in the macro? Yes. Yes, I do. So what we really see with all of this is this. Working from a position of trust comes first and foremost by faith.   [00:17:28] And faith being that title deed of that which is promised.   [00:17:32] So when we're in our lives and we search the scriptures, we spend our time and the word and the Lord reveals certain promises to us and we can work with confidence towards those promises, knowing that victory is certain. Now, what we may not know is the timing. But we know that the certainty of victory is there. And that certainty of victory that starts to create that working from a position of rest. All this making sense. Yes, absolutely. So now let me share one more. I want to share an illustration, and now we're about to take a deep dive into the scriptures. This is just a real quick overview. Here's an illustration of working from a position of rest, which is the knowledge of the outcome versus working from a position of undress, which is seeing things in the natural. Have you ever watched a really tense movie? Were you on the edge of your seat and your heart pounding? Your adrenaline rushing? Almost all the way through the movie? Yes.   [00:18:38] I hate that feeling. I know. I know. I hate it, too. So what caused that feeling?   [00:18:47] Uncertainty, not knowing what was going to happen and not being able to control the outcome.   [00:18:54] That's exactly right. You're looking at it from the perspective of that character. And the music, dun, dun, dun, dun dun, he's he's going into this dark room and he turns a corner and, you know, there's someone there. Right. That's about it. Okay. Now, once you watch that movie, if you were to go back and watch it the next day. Are you this tent and sitting on the edge of your seat?   [00:19:22] No. Why not?   [00:19:24] Because I know it's going to happen. That's right. You know the outcome. That second time through. You're watching it from a position of rest.   [00:19:36] It doesn't even get your heart beat up. Why? Because the outcome is certain. And therefore, you know the certainty of each outcome that nothing's going to happen. You know, generally, if you remember well, you know, generally what's going to happen. But if you don't remember, well, you know, there's not a big deal.   [00:19:56] And therefore, you're sitting watching it from a position of Resh while the person next to you. This is their first time through. They're scared to death. Do you see the difference of perspective? Yes. Okay. That's our Christian life. We can either look at this from our eyes and be scared to death. Or we can look at it from God's eyes and be a total peace. Why do you think, looking at it from God's eyes, you're at total peace?   [00:20:30] Because she's not worried about anything, then I don't have the right to be either.   [00:20:34] That's right. So what I want to do now, I want to show you a couple other scriptures where this gets manifested and then we're going to take a real deep dive. You ready? I'm ready. Okay, let's turn to Hebrews 11, verse 17, 18 and 19.   [00:20:53] All right. 17, 18 and 19 by faith. Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said through Isaac, shall your offspring be named? He considers that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which. Figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.   [00:21:24] Very good. So here's what happened. Abraham was at complete rest when he offered Isaac up as a sacrifice. Think about this in our perspective. We're going through tough times. Maybe your job, your your livelihood has been cut off because right now the shelter in place or because of other things that come up later in your life or you have situations with relationship or situations with help or with something else. And. You're scared. When you're scared is because you look at it with your own natural eyes. But think about Abraham. His only promised son. This is the son of the promise. All of his descendants is going to be name through Isaac. All of this inheritance is going to go through Isaac. And now God has told him to do something stupid and crazy for a man's perspective. Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your son to me. Your your your love of your life, the sun. I've said this is all the promises are coming through this one person. Now I want you to kill him. Do you see the turmoil that could really be going on?   [00:22:49] I can't even imagine.   [00:22:51] I can't either. And yet. According to scripture, there is no mention in scripture that Abraham was concerned at all. Why was he not concerned? What does it say?   [00:23:07] It says that he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead.   [00:23:13] That's right. In other words, his perspective was from God's promise. Rumor says by faith, righteousness was read into Abraham, the promise. Faith is believing God's word, basically in real simple terms. So his faith in God's promise told him that the current situation had no bearing on the long term outcome. And because he had no bearing on the long term outcome. And the reason had no bearing because God's promises cannot fail. And therefore, if they cannot fail, the long term outcome is still intact, then it doesn't matter what happens right now. This is why it says that he considered that God was able to even raise him from the dead. He was fully expecting to kill his son. Stand back. And his son would miraculously come back to life. How many of us, when the Lord tells us to do something and it doesn't make sense in the natural naturalise, we say complete disaster. How many of us? Panic and cause that's not what most of us for sure. If we're going to work from a position of rest.   [00:24:36] And another way to say it is we're going to work from the promise, not to the promise, we hit that in just a moment. But if we're going to work from this position of respite, from the promise, from God's perspective, we got to do what God says to without questioning because. God has a perspective, we don't all we have to do is plug into that perspective and sometimes we don't know the perspective, but we know his promise and therefore we can rely on the promises that make sense. Yes.   [00:25:07] Okay, let's look at one more passage and then we're going to really take a nice deep dive. This is going to be fun. Okay. Matthew eight. Matthew eight versus 23 through 26.   [00:25:21] Twenty three or twenty six of Matthew eight. When he got into the boat, his disciples followed him and behold, there arose a great storm on the sea so that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But he was asleep. And they went and Wolken saying, save us, Lord, we are perishing. And he said to them, Why are you afraid? Oh, you have little faith. Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea. And there was a great calm. And the men marveled saying, what sort of man is this? That even the winds and the sea obey him. Huh?   [00:26:01] Let me ask you a question. What do you think was the perspective of Jesus?   [00:26:07] Rest, he not only rest. He was so restful. He was asleep in the middle of the storm.   [00:26:15] Yeah, well, it was the perspective of the disciples.   [00:26:19] Fear, worry. And they mean. They take what they're doing with their natural eyes.   [00:26:26] They know what was going on with their natural eyes and Jesus had a spiritual perspective. Perspective.   [00:26:35] All right. So we could say that Jesus was operating from a position of arrest. The disciples were operating from a position of natural sight. We can also say position of breath is a position of faith. Faith is God's perspective. Natural side is man's perspective, and they are always opposing each other. This is where Romans, eight says that the flesh can never please God because it is always at enmity with God. This makes sense. All of this is on this matter perspective.   [00:27:15] Now, let's start looking at perspective from God's perspective. This is going to be really cool. Let me let me just mention one thing. Perspective.   [00:27:30] Is everything perspective determines the outcome. You have God's perspective. And that creates one outcome you have man's perspective. It creates another outcome. Now, this isn't 100 percent true, but this is, generally speaking, the pattern that God's laws operate in. And we see this with Peter walking on the water. If you remember, when he's walking on the water, his perspective was where?   [00:28:04] When he was walking on the water, at first, his eyes run Jesus.   [00:28:08] That's right. So his perspective was on God's word.   [00:28:14] And God's word had inherent with it. A truth and that truth was you come on the water and you'll walk on the water with me. Then he changed his perspective. And what happened when he changed his flight? Where did he put his perspective in what happened?   [00:28:33] He started looking at the ways around town. So I took his eyes off Jesus and started looking at the water and the waves. And he became careful. Then what have you been thinking?   [00:28:48] There you go. So he changed his perspective from God's perspective, working from a position of rest to man's perspective, working from a position of natural sight, and by changing the perspective. The outcome was changed as well.   [00:29:06] Pretty cool. So now let's dig deep. So let's look at since everything focuses around God's perspective.   [00:29:12] Now let's look into what is God's perspective. This is going to be really cool. Let's look at a number of passages. Let's start with Revelation 13. Revelation 13. Eight.   [00:29:27] Revelation 13, verse eight says to all who dwell on earth will worship it. Everyone whose name has not been written before, the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain.   [00:29:46] Let me also modify that translation just a little bit, I think this may be an I.V. I don't recall the same passage. Slight different translation that articulates a truth that is a little bit clearer. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, all whose names have not been written in the Lamb's Book of life. The Lamb who was slain from the found from the creation of the world. To God's perspective, is this from the foundation of the world? The lamb was already slain.   [00:30:26] That promise manifestation.   [00:30:31] That was to come at a minimum 4000 years later, depending on how you look at the age of the Earth, 4000 years or 40 million, it doesn't matter. God's faith says the lamb was already slain. Long before the lamb was slain in the natural, does that make sense? That's the perspective of God. Let's look at this. Go to Ephesians one versus four and five.   [00:31:00] Okay.   [00:31:01] All right, effusions one, verse four and five. Even as he shows us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as son through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will from the foundation of the world.   [00:31:23] This is God's perspective from the foundation of the world.   [00:31:27] You were already chosen in Christ.   [00:31:33] Let's look at another Hebrews for three.   [00:31:39] All right. Hebrews four, verse three. For he who have believed for his who have believed entered that risk and as he said, as I swore in my RAF, they shall not enter my risk. All those his works were finished from the foundation of the world.   [00:32:01] So from the foundation of the world, God's perspective, all of his work had already been finished. Do you think this could be the work of Moses leading his people out of Egypt? Be. This could be the work of Christ on the cross. Yes. I think this could be the work that he's called us to do. Yes, it could. Yes, it could be all the works were finished before the foundation of the world. Let's look at Matthew 25 34.   [00:32:35] All right. Matthew, 25 versus 34. Says then the king will say to those on his right come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world.   [00:32:52] There we have it again. God's perspective is from the foundation of the world before it was created. The kingdom was already prepared for us.   [00:33:05] Let's look at one more Isaiah 46 versus nine and 10.   [00:33:13] Okay. All right, Isaiah 46 six, verse nine and 10. Remember the former things of old. For I am God. And there is no other. I am God. And there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning, from ancient times, things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. And I will accomplish all my purpose.   [00:33:37] So from God's perspective. From the foundation of the world. N had already been declared and finished. Before it began. What does this tell you about God's perspective?   [00:33:56] It's way bigger than our way, bigger than ours, right?   [00:34:02] So God's perspective is what faith looks like. Would you agree?   [00:34:07] Yes.   [00:34:10] From God's perspective. Before the foundation of the world, everything had already been finished. From God's perspective, think about in this way. God's perspective is things are truth, even when they have not manifested in the natural. Remember, we talked a while back on believe that you have received what you've asked for and then it shall be granted, you are from God's perspective. It's already been done. Now, this is not a name it and claim it. This is a name it and be it, as a friend of mine shared, name it and claim it as a perspective that says I'm naming something. I do not have. But name it and be it is a perspective of knowing what I already have. As a promise from God. But God's word is already said, and I am simply walking and living this out until it's manifested in my life. Do you see the difference between that? Yes, I do. So this working from a position of rest. It says God works six days and rested on the seventh, says that all of his works were finished. Working from a position of rest is. It's been done. It's finished. The outcome is assured. All I have to do is walk in faith for that outcome to be manifested in my life. This is why this story, Peter, is so important to others. But Peter's the clearest example, walking and working in reste. Gets one outcome, walking and working in fear gets another outcome. The outcome is assured as long as we operate and walk and faith. The outcome is not assured. If we ignore. God's perspective ignored trusting him and tried to do it on her own. Is this helping? Yes, absolutely. Okay, so then let's look at faith and the perspective of God a little bit more. Let's return real quickly. Foundational principles of faith. Romans, 10 17. Can you quoted or.   [00:36:49] You remember from from hearing by and hearing by what, by receiving the word of Christ. Yes. Sense 17. I get to change because I've got I've got my outline in front of me comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.   [00:37:16] That's right. Through the word of Christ. What is the word of Christ?   [00:37:22] The Bible. A little bit more. Everything that he said a little bit more.   [00:37:30] Oh, gosh. So let's talk on it this way. Will pull it off from John in the beginning was the word, the word and the word was with God and the word was God.   [00:37:48] So here we have in the beginning was the word. The word was with God. And the word was God and faith comes from hearing by the word of Christ, which is God himself. And John, 17, it says thy word is truth and where we come back to truth.   [00:38:10] God's perspective is one of truth and truth manifests itself in a natural way and acted on by faith. So we see kind of this circular. Faith comes from hearing by the word of Christ, which is God's truth, which is God himself. Faith is the perspective of God. And then we now faith is let's define a little bit different. It is the perspective of God. But what is God's perspective? Hebrews 11 one. You want to pull up Hebrews?   [00:38:46] Pull that up, because I do not that one off the top of my head.   [00:38:50] You actually did? No, it's just a matter of recalling this specific one.   [00:38:53] Yes, you're right. You're right. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.   [00:39:02] So it is the assurance of things hoped for. In Bible terms, hope for is an assured promise. It is not what we do, which is a variable that we're not sure. I hope it doesn't rain while I'm out here on my deck. Now, it is a hope, but that's not what the Bible talks about. The assurance of things, hope for the conviction of things not seen is the absolute certainty of what it is. And it's an absolute certainty because it is God's truth. Faith comes from hearing and hearing God's truth, the word of Christ. Another pass, another translation says that faith is the title deed of what has been promised. Even though we do not see it yet, we've got the title deed. So I want you to envision for a moment King David. He's out there fighting these battles. And I want you to picture this little caricature of King David. He's got a sword in one hand leading his army, charging in his other hand. He's got a crumpled up title deed that says the promised land is ours. This victory is mine. He's charging into battle, holding faith by one hand, holding the sword. And the other hand, because that faith, that title deed gives him the assurance of victory makes sense. Yes, that is working from a position of rest. Fighting for victory from a position of rest. It is working from from the promise. He's carrying the promise with him. And he's going into battle. The outcome is certain, those particular path of the battle.   [00:40:58] How many of his men he may lose? What's going to happen at any given moment? Those things are uncertain, but the outcome is guaranteed because it is the truth of God. So faith is when you look at things from God's perspective, not man's perspective. When you look at it from the promise, not to the promise. There's a number of different types of faith mentioned in scripture. I'm just going to kind of throw these out, see if this rings a bell by faith of faith through faith in faith. You remember those kind of passages used throughout scripture. So if faith comes from hearing the word of Christ is faith, therefore is the word of Christ. Faith, therefore, is Christ himself. And what we can translate with these is faith is Jesus, then it's by Jesus of Jesus, through Jesus. And Jesus. In other words, when we operate in faith, we're operating. In Christ, from Christ. And it's literally and technically Christ operating through us. We're abiding in him. He's abiding in us. We do nothing. He does it all. It's him living through us. What is it, Galatians? Three, two, twenty three. Twenty one of those. I'm crucified with Christ and is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and through me. Okay, so that's kind of this perspective. So now I want to come back and I want to bring another perspective and kind of tie this together. We're almost finished, by the way. Is this exciting so far? Is this interesting?   [00:42:58] Yes. Love it. I love it.   [00:43:01] Okay, so now I want to talk about an old covenant versus new covenant. Old Covenant is the covenant given to Abraham, and that includes the law, the new covenant. The law has been fulfilled in us. The law is still in us. That's what Romans says. But the rightest requirements of the law have been fulfilled. Those of us in Christ. So the law is still present, but it's now fulfilled. But the covenant is a little bit. I want to I want to shift the focus of the covenant from the law to the promise of the fulfillment of that. So let's talk about the old covenant. First time with me to Hebrews 11, verse 13. So this is the Hall of Fame. Faith, the Hall of Fame. And this is a statement put in between as it kind of wraps up. What's going on in Hebrews 11 13?   [00:44:04] These all died in faith, not having received the things promised. But having seen them and greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the years.   [00:44:18] Okay, so in the old covenant says that they were looking towards the promise, not from the promise, they were working towards the promise, the promise of the Messiah and of sonship being brought into the kingdom. Does that make sense? Yeah. Everything they did was from the outside looking in outside of the promise, looking into the problems. Now, let's contrast that with the new covenant and the new covenant. Let's go to Hebrews 11, first, 39 and 40.   [00:44:56] All right, 39 and 40 and all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised and God had provided something better for us. That apart from us, they should not be made perfect.   [00:45:11] So now this is basically saying the promise is ours.   [00:45:15] And apart from us, they were actually looking forward to us because we're the holder of the promise. So now, as the possessor of the promise, our perspective changes. We now are looking from inside a promise out rather than from them looking outside in where we work from. The promise they worked towards the promise is the same. Yes. Okay. Let's look at one more passage, Matthew, 28, verse 27 and 28.   [00:45:53] All right. Twenty eight. All right. 27, 28. Wait, are we sure we don't have a verse 27 in chapter 28?   [00:46:07] That's a start. It may be 26, but it starts and he took a cup and when he had given thanks. Here we found it. And he took the cup.   [00:46:18] And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them saying, drink it, all of you. This is my blood. The Covenant, which is poured out from many for their forgiveness. That's all right.   [00:46:30] Now, tell me the reference on that verse, if you would.   [00:46:34] The verses were right, but it's chapter 26, 26.   [00:46:38] That's where it was. Okay. So here's where he's going. And there's a word that sometimes you use and sometimes not. I'm going to use it here.   [00:46:48] Same drink of it, all of you. This is my blood. The new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin. So now we had the inauguration of the New Covenant. We had the old covenant, the new covenant.   [00:47:02] We are to drink the blood of the cup and drink the cup, which is his blood. And that inaugurates the new covenant as we're abiding in the promise we're now operating from the promise because now the new covenant is in us, in the old covenant. They were looking towards a promise with us. We're looking from the promise. Making sense.   [00:47:29] Yes, absolutely.   [00:47:31] Yes. Okay, so the old covenant operates from an outside perspective, looking in the new covenant operates from an inside perspective, looking out. And we're going to take the same pattern in terms of how we operate and work. But I want to show you one more verse. Go to Matthew 17, verse 20.   [00:47:53] All right.   [00:47:53] Verse 20.   [00:47:55] He said to them, because of your little faith. Truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.   [00:48:11] All right, great. So this faith to Jesus is talking about. It is only possible when you're operating from inside the promise, from inside Christ, because if you're going to move a mountain.   [00:48:27] Now, this could be metaphorically backup. So mountains and scripture are pretty much government governmental authorities. They just asked him why could we not cast out this demon? Jesus says because of the littleness of your faith, the littleness of the perspective of God operating through you. This is a governmental authority that takes a lot more faith than what you try to operate in. That's basically kind of one way that we could interpret this. But he's using metaphorically a mountain. He's on. They just come down from mount to transfiguration. Okay, so you just come down from this mountain. So he's probably talking about that mountain. They just went up to a high mountain, it said prior.   [00:49:20] And so you said if you have faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, move from here to there and they'll move and nothing will be impossible. For you, that faith is only when you have the faith of Christ. Not the safe looking towards Christ. Does that make sense? Yes.   [00:49:45] Yes. This is kind of the old test, some old covenant versus new covenant. Old covenant. Look towards the promise. Through Man-Sized with a little bit of faith. New Covenant. Is the reality of working from the premise now kind of wrapping this back up to where I started the idea of working from a position of rest. Is working from the promise.   [00:50:16] Not to the promise it's working from inside.   [00:50:22] Looking out as opposed outside, looking in, maybe an easy way to try to understand this is imagine a really tall brick wall. And on the wall is running north south on the east side of the wall is this promise. This promise is whatever the promise may be in your life. It could be a new car. They could be victory in business. It could be health, it could be anything. It could be all kinds of different things. On the east side is a promise.   [00:51:00] On the west side of the wall is where you stand. On the west side of the wall. You cannot see the promise. Does that make sense? When we operate in the natural when we operate by our natural allies, all we see is a wall.   [00:51:23] And we have no idea what's on the other side. We work and we work and we work. And we're scared to death because we don't know what's going to happen. We pray and we plead with the Lord. Save me. Help me. Please do this, because we don't know what's going to happen, because our perspective is not God's perspective.   [00:51:47] From our perspective, this man's perspective, that is not working from a position of rest. It's working from a position of site and unrest and fear and fear. Exactly. Because site creates fear. Natural site creates fear. Because natural site, when in the presence of God's promise, natural site is always contrary to God's promise because it's all the flesh. God's promises are the spirit.   [00:52:20] So when we work from a position of rest, it's as if we walk around that brick wall and now we're on the east side and we see. The promise that God has given us and now we believe it, we're looking at it now with our Spiritualized. And we believe that as certainty, faith is the certainty of hope for is the title of doubt which has been promised.   [00:52:48] And now when we work, we work diligently towards it. But we have no fear that we will not achieve it.   [00:52:59] We know the outcome is certain. We know the victory of that promise is ours because it is. And God's word, God's word spoken to us, limited to us. Impress upon us. However he communicates. But that is the difference between working towards the promise, hoping in human terms, hoping that is going to become true versus working from the promise. It's already true. And now I'm simply doing the necessary labor for it to then be manifested in my life. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. That's what it looks like. To be seated in Christ. Be rooted in Christ, be rooted in his word, having the certainty of his word and his promise in our life and therefore moving forward with no fear. Can I share a little personal testimony on this? Absolutely. I've been in business since 1997.   [00:54:11] I've had some great ups and some great downs. One period time almost went bankrupt. And what's interesting is even the times where I was afraid, I always trusted the Lord. But I was still afraid you'd say this with David. He trusts the Lord. But when you read through Psalms, you see the fear come out. But every time the fear comes out, the psalm always ends with. And I trust in the Lord and he brings me victory is likely through writing the song. He comes back into God's perspective. You see him shift from that perspective to God's perspective. Well, I was during this period of time. And the Lord gave me a passage and the passage said, you will never suffer famine again among the nations because at that time we were in a famine financially and we were about to die financially. And ever since he gave me that passage, I'd been like Superman. I fear nothing. Shoot me up if you want to. They're just going to bounce off me. Why? Because I have the promise from God. And so it doesn't matter what situation we come into.   [00:55:25] I know we're not going to lose anything. I don't have to worry about losing the house. I don't have to worry about not having food. I don't even have to worry about. I've got my youngest child is in college right now. I don't even have to worry about how to pay the college bills because the promises will never suffer famine. Now, I've got a lot of other promises of a lot more abundance. But the simple promise was that now remembering one of my business groups, one of the ladies is a group called Vistage, business owners and business people that made work through different, different things. And one folks and one ladies in my group had asked the question because they've seen me over the years up and down, up and down. But always with the big dream, always with the certainty of victory. Always pressing forward. Always upbeat, regardless of what financials might say at the moment. Her question is, how do you do it? How do you keep your attitude so positive and keep going in the presence of all of the what we see as all the setbacks?   [00:56:42] And as I was contemplating that answer, you know, the answer is because I've been promised. We'll never suffer famine again. Never is, never. And it's a promise from God. And I can't tell you how incredible it is to operate from that position because it means I never have to fear. I don't. I don't take it on presumption. I work hard. I never have to worry about the outcome. Does that make sense?   [00:57:14] Absolutely. Yes.   [00:57:16] And that's what this is all about. That's what this is all about. That's working from the promise.   [00:57:23] Beatty, I was thinking of the verse and Hebrews Chapter 11 talked about without faith, it's impossible to please God. It goes on to say, because those who come to the father must believe that he exists and he rewards those who earnestly seek can. And that that verse kept popping up in my mind while you were sharing that testimony. It is that faith. It's your faith that you've had that where you have been able to see the promise. And I love that that's such a good thing.   [00:58:00] I'm so glad you brought that up, because I love that verse on the cutting table thinking it didn't really need to apply here at all.   [00:58:12] The lies at all. I love it. That's awesome.   [00:58:15] Yes, it does. Well, we got to close up. But do you have any final thoughts or comments before you wrap up?   [00:58:21] I don't. I just love the perspective today, and I hope our listeners are able to grasp that as well. Just knowing, like you said, that we do have that promise. And when we grab ahold of it and we see it with faith, knowing that God's giving it to us, that we can operate and rest and not in fear, no matter what's going on in the natural. And I think that's the key is is seeking the Lord, keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord and not letting our vision wander to the natural to what's going on around us, the waves and the wind. Easier said than done, but it can be done.   [00:58:59] I want to make one comment on this as to our real estate friends out there.   [00:59:04] When this Corona vase hit and people started going and shelter in place. I saw so much fear among so many of our clients and clients who follow the Lord. But they operated in fear.   [00:59:23] And I'd like to just speak to you guys for a quick moment. Stop looking at things in the natural. You've got to look at it from God's perspective, what God's word has shared with you and what he has illumined to you and hold that promise, because without faith, is it impossible to please them. And it's only by faith that you get the promise of faith. When you add by fear, you get the consequence of fear. And so it becomes says in the natural what we call a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can speak to words of fear. And it evaporates. The miracle of faith. And just like Peter, you can think and say. You see, I knew it was going to happen. No, you spoke it into existence. You take God's word and you focus on God's word and you speak God's word and you believe God's word because it is the word of God and it is truth. And by doing that action, God says, I am well pleased with you. Here's the promise that I've given you by faith and that your faith has now brought to bear. So do not fear. So focus on God's word. All right.   [01:00:53] That's awesome. All righty. This was great. Thank you so much. I agree with that. I want to encourage our real estate friends as well just to stay the course. Keep your eyes on the prize and keep your focus on the Lord. Don't allow other things around you to dictate what you're feeling and concerned about. You have nothing to fear when your eyes are on the Lord. So this was a great call today. Super excited. And we bless you all. Thank you so much for listening. And we're excited to be with you again very soon.   [01:01:26] Hey, man, you all be blessed. P021  

Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)   Coping when life falls apart - Adolph Coors IV [00:00:00] Hey, this is Beatty Carmichael, and I want to do something very special on this podcast and take a kind of divergence from my normal podcast. I want to share a recording from a. I call him a friend. I've met him by phone a number times, never in person. And it's a man whose name you'll probably recognize. You may not recognize his name, but you'll definitely recognize the same his name. And that is Adolph Coors, IV. And as we go through these very challenging times, everything is uncertain. Well, it seems like everything's caving in around us with the Coronavirus and businesses being shut and their livelihoods are being strangled. And we just don't know what's going on and what the next thing is. It brought to mind this recording that Adolf gave me permission to share and his history of going through this intense, dramatic struggles to the point of death. Thoughts of suicide, losing everything important in his life. Just trying to make sense of it all. And it's an amazing story that I think you'll find a lot of encouragement in and one that I think you will if you're like most people who've listened to, will find this to be one and the most touching and life changing stories that you've heard. So with no further ado, I introduce to you, Adolf Coors IV.   [00:01:36] Our speaker tonight, Mr. Adolph Coors. The fourth is certainly an outstanding example of a biographical speaker. Mr. Coors is the great grandson of Adolph Herman Joseph Coors, who was the founder of the Adolph Coors Brewing Company of Golden, Colorado. His father was Adolph cause the third and at the end was chairman of the board of the Family Business. When Mr. Coors the fourth was 14 years of age, his father was kidnapped and brutally murdered and being the oldest son of the family, his teenage years, as you might expect, were difficult at best as the family attempted to deal with their great loss. Mr. Coors spent three years in the United States Marine Corps. He was a cold weather survival training instructor. He developed a fervor for discipline that led him into extreme bodybuilding, the martial arts and a strict health food regimen. And I think when you see him, if you haven't seen him yet, when he stands up here, he still carries that frame rather nicely. He was really driven, though, to succeed at any price. After graduate from University of Denver School of Business, he spent two years with the New York firm of Sheraton, Hamilton and Company as a commodity specialist.   [00:03:02] And once he left the rigors of the commodity business, he spent about six years working with the Adolph Coors Company. And various departments, in his experience, ranges from marketing and strategic planning, sales, borrowing, quality control and financial planning. Mr. Coors left the family brewing business in 1979 and he became the investment advisor for his immediate family. In addition, he also founded the national marketing company called Atco Enterprises. He has served on the board of directors of the Prison Fellowship Ministries, which is an internal national prison ministry, was founded by Chuck Colson in Washington, D.C.. He serves on the board of directors of the Family Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. And he also has a on the board advisors for kanika camp, which is a Christian camp in Branson, Missouri, which I know a lot of people who are here tonight have ties to that idea through children or through personal experience. Mr. Cooper's and his wife, B.J., have been married since 1967, and they live in Englewood, Colorado. He has two sons. Please join me in giving a warm Bermingham. Welcome to Adolph Cause the Fourth.   [00:04:32] Good evening, gentlemen.   [00:04:38] Dawn, thank you very much for that kind introduction.   [00:04:44] And I want to thank you, gentlemen, for taking time out of I know it's been a very busy day for all of you to be a part of this dinner tonight. And I particularly want to thank Phil Retik, young business leaders and all those who have worked very hard to make this evening a reality. Continue, gentlemen, eating your dinner if you have not finished. But while you're eating, I'm going to ask that you do lend me. And here, you know, I'll be very honest with you guys. I wish somebody had loved me enough about 30 years ago to invite me to a dinner like this. And I believe that we're all here together because of a divine appointment. I don't think believe anything happens by accident. So I'm going to ask that even though you're eating your dinner but or you are not finished with your dinner, just please let me in here, because I'm going to put up my family to you gentlemen. I'm going to be very vulnerable to you tonight. We're going to laugh together and we're going to maybe even cry a little bit together. I'm going to share with you the Adolph Coors family, as Don mentioned, a family that's recognized all over this world. It's been a very interesting family, gentlemen, to grow up in. Well, before I get into my personal story, I want to relay a story that I came across recently that really, really made an impact on me and saw before I get into my own personal story, I want to share with you the story that goes like this. Listen very carefully.   [00:06:31] One foggy night, a captain of a very large ship saw what appeared to be another ship's lights approaching in the distance. There's another ship was on a course that would mean a certain head on collision. And quickly, the captain signaled to the approaching ship, please change your course, 10 degrees west. And the reply came blinking back through the thick fog that evening. You change your course 10 degrees east insulted. The captain pulled rank and shot a message back to the other ship. The message said, I am a sea captain with 35 years of experience. Change your course. Ten degrees west. Without hesitation, the signal flashed back. I'm a seaman. Fourth class. You change your course 10 degrees east to pattern forming here. Enraged, the captain realized that they were rapidly approaching one another and would certainly crash within a few short minutes. And so he blazed. Gentlemen, he blazed his final warning. And the warning was this. I am a fifty thousand tonne freighter. Change your course. Ten degrees west now. A simple message came blinking back through the thick fog that night, and that simple message was this. I am a lighthouse. I'm a lighthouse, you change your course now. True story, guys. True story. And like that sea captain, we as human beings need to change course. Gentlemen, when we're confronted with the truth and over 20 years ago, I was confronted with a truth. One evening when I learned an incredible fact. I learned that the God of this universe that I didn't particularly have much time for, to be honest with you. When I learned that the God of this universe, who created me, who created each one of us in this room, I learned about the incredible love that he has for each one of us gentlemen. They each each one of us in this room. Now, grant me the privilege. It is a privilege for me to be able to stand before you tonight. Grant me the unique privilege of being able to share with you a journey that literally changed the course of my life. I'd like that sea captain, guys. I was headed for certain destruction.   [00:09:41] The name Adolph Cause, as Don mentioned, is a name recognized all over this world.   [00:09:47] Back in 1868, at the age of twenty eight years of age, my great grandfather, Adolph Herman Joseph Coors, twice orphaned at the age of 14 with a dream in his heart without a penny to his name, stowed one day aboard a steamer headed for America.   [00:10:11] He hid onboard that steamer, and several weeks later he landed in the city of Baltimore. And a year and a half later, he found himself in a small mining town called Denver, Colorado, in the spring of eighteen seventy two.   [00:10:32] A year later, he convinced a business partner, a friend of his, a very successful businessman in Denver. He convinced this gentleman to buy an old tannery building in a small town called Golden, Colorado. Golden has located 20 miles west of Denver, on the edge of the foothills. And those two enterprising young men bought an old tannery building in Golden and formed what was then known as the shooter, Coors Brewing Company.   [00:11:01] And it began to make beer and served that beer to the miners working in the mining camps above Golden. Seven years after that fledgling little brewery got started it all. Herman Joseph cause my great granddad bought his business partner out and formed what is now known worldwide as the Adolph Coors Company. Gentlemen, this is truly one of the great success stories in American industry. And 51 years ago, I was born into this unique family, gentlemen, a family much like yours. Tonight, a family that has aspiring hopes and grand dreams. And I know you had your hopes and your dreams tonight as well. And that's good. I was blessed with two wonderful parents. I had two older sisters and a younger brother. And as a family growing up, we did everything together. I have fond memories of the first 14 years of my life.   [00:12:10] But looking in the eyes of my father and looking in the eyes of my grand dad and hearing the stories of my great grandfather, I learned at a young age I learned that failure was not going to be tolerated in my family.   [00:12:26] I learned that there was a certain pecking order in my family and I was going to fit in with that pecking order based upon three things. I was going to either be accepted into this family or rejected this family based upon looks. Based upon how well I did in school and based upon how well I performed on the athletic fields growing up, that was the pecking order in our family. If you did well in school, if you looked well and you perform well as an athlete, you would be accepted in this family. You know, I remember looking in the eyes of my father, and I remember him telling me in so many eyes, so many, so many ways. He was saying, son, you better perform in this family if you're gonna be accepted. You better perform. In other words, gentlemen, I was raised in a family, what I would call conditional love. But I want you to file this back in your mind. You know, I wish somebody had loved me enough as a young boy. I wish somebody had sat me down. I wish they would have told me this. I wish they would have said it off course. What good is it going to be if you gain the whole world? Gentlemen, I was after the whole world. What good is it going to be if you gain the whole world, Adolph Coors. But in the process of gaining this world, you end up losing your soul. I never heard that guy's never heard. You know, I wish somebody loved me enough to tell me, Adolf, if you live for the next world, you're gonna gain this one in the deal.   [00:13:57] You'll gain it in the deal. But if you live strictly for this world, you're gonna end up losing them both. I never heard that. You know what I heard growing up in this wonderful family? About the same thing that many of you in this room are hearing right now. I heard that he who dies with the most toys wins this game called life. Is that your philosophy tonight, gentlemen? Have you bought into the lie that if you die with the most toys, you're gonna win this game called life? I hope you don't believe that tonight. If you do believe that tonight, I want to get very personal with you. I want to ask you two questions. The first question I want to ask you is, what do you win, gentlemen? What do you really win? And then more importantly, I want to ask you this. Where does that prize you're looking for? Where does that prize get delivered? Where is it going to be delivered? I want to take you three thousand years in the past. I want to take you. I want us to sit down and I want you to hear the words of one of the wisest men who has ever lived. His name was David the Psalmist, David, one of the wisest and one of the wealthiest men this world has ever seen. Listen to what David tells you and me as business.   [00:15:18] Today in 1996, he says, Gentlemen, our days are few and our days are very brief.   [00:15:28] Like the grass, like the flowers blown by the wind and gone forever. Think about those words, gentlemen. This life there we're living is nothing but a training ground. It's a training ground for where we are going to spend eternity because you see, gentlemen, you are used to making decisions. You're very successful businessman. I know who I'm talking to tonight. I know I'm in respect of you. I'm an all of you. I know who I'm talking to tonight. You're very successful, gentlemen. I know you. You are. But gentlemen, this is nothing but a training ground as one decision we have to make as human beings while we're on this Earth. One most important decision. I'm going to ask you to make that decision before I leave here tonight, because it's a decision it will determine where we spend eternity. Is that important? And I will get to that decision in just a few minutes. I want to take you tonight to a cemetery outside of the town of London, England. And I'm going to take you to two grave markers. The first grave marker reads, She died for want of things.   [00:16:42] True story. Right next to that grave marker is another grave market. I'll bet you can't guess what that grave marker says was a grave marker of her husband. A grave marker reads He died trying to give these things to her general. That is a sad commentary, a sad commentary on how two lives were wasted, believing, buying into the lie that the things of this world could make them happy. I bought into that lie for 31 years of my life. Gentlemen, I want to share with you where that philosophy took me and the tragedy it brought to my family. It caused me a tremendous amount of pain and heartache. You see, gentlemen, life is wasted if we're basing our life on the things of this world. You see, tomorrow, some of us life is consists of a materialistic if only, if only I could get that new job. That job would make me happy. If only I could get that new car, I could buy that new toy, I could marry that pretty girl, I could get that raise.   [00:17:59] That would make me happy.   [00:18:02] But you see, gentlemen, I learned many years ago that life is wasted in the endless pursuit of these things, because even if we achieve them and you've achieved many of these things, those things really don't bring us what we're looking for.   [00:18:18] You see, chasing after pleasure is really a confession of an unsatisfied life. Now, I want to get very personal, every one of us in this room are created by a God who loves us with an immense love. Now, why do you believe that tonight makes no difference? He's there and he loves us. And he creates you and me with a unique blueprint. You have a blueprint for your life. Gentlemen. No other human being has ever had in the face of this earth. We're created different except for one way. There's one thing that knits you and I together tonight, guys. One thing that makes you and me the same. And that one thing that knits us together tonight is when we're born into this world, the God who created us creates us batteries, not included. In other words, there is something missing in our lives, a spiritual vacuum, if you will, an emptiness. And many of us go through this life and we try to fill that void in our hearts. We try to fill it with our careers. We try to fill it with our athletic achievements. We try to fill it with our own importance, with titles, with material possessions, even with our family members. General, let me tell you. For somebody who's done that for 31 years of my life, let me tell you, these things were never meant to fill that void in your heart and mine. They were never meant to do it.   [00:19:50] That's reserved for one very special relationship.   [00:19:54] That's why John D Rockefeller senior, when he just before he died, said the following. And let me quote this man. It was very successful. He said, I have made billions, but these billions have brought me no happiness. That's why Henry Ford senior, just before he died, turned to one of his best friends one day and he said, sir, he said, My friend, I was happier when I was a mechanic. Now, why could these guys, these successful businessmen, why could they say these things? For the same reason? I could say at 20 years ago when I realized the void, my heart wasn't getting filled. So I want us gentlemen tonight, I want you to slow down your life long enough tonight, I want you to get real. I want you to slow down. I want you to listen. And I want us to really focus in tonight on some important issues. In the first 14 years of my life, gentlemen, Norman Rockwell couldn't have painted a pretty or picture. I was blessed, as I mentioned earlier, with a great family and as a family, we did everything together. But as a young boy, I made a tragic mistake, a mistake. I'll bet some of you are making in this room tonight. You don't even recognize it's a mistake. You see, the mistake I made was I put my faith and trust in a human being. And really for the first 14 years of my life, my father, it of course, the third was, my God. I worshipped him. You want to talk about a successful man? Here was a successful man.   [00:21:34] Not only was my father chairman of the board of our brewing empire in Golden, Colorado.   [00:21:42] He was a semi-pro baseball player, a scratch golfer, a gifted musician, an architect, an engineer, a rancher flew his own airplane.   [00:21:55] One of the best tennis players ever seen in my life, one of these guys at everything he did, everything he did, David.   [00:22:01] He did it to perfection. He was a driven man.   [00:22:08] I idolized him, but gentlemen, for each one of us in this room, life brings many changes.   [00:22:18] Some of these changes are sudden. Some of these changes are gradual. Some of these changes bring us a lot of happiness. But then again, some of these changes can bring us a tremendous amount of pain. There is a God in heaven, gentlemen, who loves us with an immense love and what he needs to tell us. He screams out to us. He says, enjoy my gifts. He wants us to enjoy his gifts. But he also warns us, gentlemen, not to put our faith and trust in these gifts.   [00:22:50] Our faith and trust needs to be a very special relationship.   [00:22:57] As Don mentioned in 1960, something happened to my family that violently tore apart a family that I'd put my faith and trust in. Thirty six years ago, this past February, my father, on his way to work one morning, stopped three miles from our home to help what he thought was a stranded motorist snowing hard that February morning, my father walked over to this man's car. But in that car was not a man who was experiencing car problems in that car was a man who had been stalking my father for two years. A man who in 1958 escaped from prison in California, a maximum security prison. A two time murder. There was a violent struggle on that bridge that morning, my father was a tough guy. And as my father was running back to his automobile that morning, Joseph Corbett pulled out a gun and proceeded to put multiple bullets in my father's back. Alive or dead? I'll never know, but the body of my father was stuffed in the trunk of this man's car and at 7.30 that morning they sped south seven long months. My sisters, my brother, my mother, myself, we all hope, beyond hope that dad would return. But gentlemen, that was not going to be the case is the remains of my father were found 40 miles south of our home, seven months almost to the day that he was kidnapped. You know, gentlemen, I had 14 years with that guy. And you know what I learned most about that man, what he taught me the most successful is he was he was very successful.   [00:24:52] We had all the things. Gentlemen, this world says you have to have to be a success. We had a war. But, you know, my dad left me a legacy that I'll never, never forget. He taught me how to throw a curveball in our backyard. He taught me how to fly his airplane. He taught me how to hunt. He taught me how to fish. He taught me how to be a dad. You see, gentlemen, that's what I remember about my father, not how successful he was, Don. He was successful. But as a 14 year old boy, you don't care how much money your dad's making. You know what you care as a 14 year old boy. You know what you care the most about. When your dad comes home from work every afternoon, he spends time with you gentlemen at the other end of life. There won't be enough stocks, there won't be enough bonds, there won't be enough trophy's in your case at home, there won't be enough toys in your driveway to compensate for the loss of your wife and your kids. There simply will not be enough. And I'll bet there's at least one person in his room tonight whose career is number one in your life. I bet there's one, at least one. It's your career is running your life right now. Gentlemen, I beg you, if that's the case in your life and only you know who you are. If that's the case tonight, I beg you, go home, reprioritize your life.   [00:26:15] Will you do that, please? I don't know here about in Birmingham, Alabama, but in Denver, Colorado, I have yet to see a U-Haul trailer hooked to a hearse going to the graveyard. In other words, Jumaa, what I'm telling you tonight, we're not going to take any of this stuff with us. None of it's going with us. You know what's going with us when we die. Our families are going with us. The legacy we leave to our kids are going with us. That's about it, gentlemen. That's about it. I graduated from high school shortly after my father's murder. I want to become an attorney. I was accepted at 17 years of age. I was accepted to one of the best law schools in the state of Georgia. Mercer University. Perhaps I'll have you heard. Mercer. Macon, Georgia. 17 years of age. Driven to succeed. I walked onto that campus, began my freshman year of pre-law, but instead of majoring in pre-law my freshman year, I majored in sorority and minored in fraternity and failed academics and graduated my freshman year with a point six grade average. You can well imagine, gentlemen, that did not sit well with my grandfather and my mother and my family. Remember, failure was not going to be tolerated in my family. And I returned home at 18 years of age of failure in my family's eyes. And Don, I remember that summer when I returned home, I barely got my bags unpacked. That summer, I found myself on an airplane one Friday night.   [00:27:58] Just 18 years of age flying to California.   [00:28:02] That Friday evening, I landed in San Diego that evening. And I wasn't greeted by friends that evening. I wasn't greeted by relatives that evening. Walking off the airplane that evening, I was greeted by five loving drill instructors at the Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot.   [00:28:24] And I was literally thrown in the back of a pickup and I was driven to the recruit training depot to begin my nine months of boot camp. And gentlemen, you can well imagine the name Adolf Coors what the next six years of my life were like. David, I was driven to succeed. Any price. I was in boot camp about 30 seconds, and I realize that if I didn't get awful tough very quick, I was not going to survive. Nine months of boot camp. Was that simple? Over the next six years, my body weight went from one hundred ninety five pounds to two hundred and seventy five pounds. In that void in my heart that I've told you about, is that one of our hearts in that void. I put a tough, macho Marine frame, 20 inch arms, a fifty four inch, just twenty two inch neck karate and the martial arts. Akino became my gods. You know, it's amazing how we can mask our insecurities, isn't it, guys, we all have a way of masking our insecurities. And I hid behind 275 pounds, full of anger, full of bitterness. But, you know, it's amazing we wouldn't worry so much about what other people think of us if we don't, how seldom we they do.   [00:29:52] Back in those days, I was what you call a light eater. Every morning when it became light, I would start eating.   [00:30:02] There's a ugly five-letter word guys called pride. And pride goes before our destruction, gentleman, and a hearty spirit before a man's downfall. Well, obviously, I made it six years as a Marine, escaped death on countless occasions. And just before I returned home to my family. I learned from my mother one tragic morning that my oldest sister, just 27 years of age, living in the state of Illinois. The proud mother of a brand new baby son. That morning had been diagnosed with incurable cancer.   [00:30:43] Twenty seven years of age. Gentlemen, are you putting your faith and trust in your good health tonight? Are you?   [00:30:52] Your athletic ability, your good looks, your academic prowess, all these things we put our faith and trust in, is that what you're trustees tonight? You remember the psalmist, David warns us 3000 years ago, he said our days are few and they're very brief. Thirteen months after my sister was diagnosed with cancer, she stepped from this life, gentlemen, into the next. And we all face death in this room. Every one of us. And we need to be reminded that as a tree falls, so must that tree lie. And as a man lives, so must he die. And as a man dies, so must he be. All through the days of eternity. Gentlemen, is your passport for eternity in order tonight, is it? Is it an order? You may need that passport. I may need that passport sooner than we dare think.   [00:31:58] Somebody once said that marriages are made in heaven, but then again, so are thunder and lightning.   [00:32:06] And I returned home twenty nine years ago to marry my high school sweetheart. But you know, guys, many girls marry a man just like their fathers. And then people wonder why their mothers cry at weddings. Twenty nine years ago, LBJ, my beautiful bride, and I began our union together. Which, you know, I'll never forget the day that we were married, David, walking down the aisle with the girl of my dreams, a girl I dated all through high school, a girl of my dreams on my right arm, Don walking down the aisle of the largest church in Denver. Hundreds of people have come to see us get married that afternoon.   [00:32:53] On my right arm was the girl of my dreams.   [00:32:55] But as I looked at her at the ride out of the right side of my eyes, I looked at her from I looked as beautiful girl. And I knew I knew here she wasn't going to feel that boy. And gentlemen, I'll tell you tonight, that beautiful wife that's home waiting for you tonight. That wife of yours, God's gift to you. That girl was never meant to fill your void either. Not really. Not permanently reserved for one relationship. Don't put that burden on your wife to fill that void in your heart. Gentlemen, don't do that.   [00:33:27] That's unfair.   [00:33:31] You know, we're funny as human beings. We spend money, we don't have to buy things we don't need in order to try to impress people, we really can't stand.   [00:33:41] And that describes the first eight years of my marriage to B.J., my beautiful wife. I graduate from the University of Denver School of Business. One of the top of my class driven to succeed. Just a few days after I graduate from University Denver School of Business, I walked into a hospital one evening, the largest hospital in Denver, and that evening, Don, where my wife, her doctor and myself, there were three of us that night and then poof, there were four laid off cause the fifth my first son 25 years ago came into this world. Now, gentlemen, you can go back and tell your friends that cause does come in fits. But guys, as much as I love my son, in fact, I am blessed with two wonderful boys twenty five and twenty, I love them as I know you love your kids, those beautiful kids of ours. Gentlemen were not meant to fill that void. Nah, not permanently. It was just after he was born that driven to succeed. I began to invest millions of dollars into the real estate market of Colorado trying to impress my real estate friends. I began to invest millions of dollars into the stock and bond markets of this world. In fact, I was trained as a commodity specialist in New York. You're putting your faith and trust in your investments tonight, are you?   [00:35:19] I used to go home every Friday night. I used to get The Wall Street Journal out. I used to get a calculator out. I used to calculate my net worth every Friday night before I went home. And if my net worth had raised that didn't increase that week, I would go home and out. Have a great weekend. If my net worth had declined during that week, I would have a horrible weekend.   [00:35:42] Well, gentlemen, in a brief period of about two years, my investments went against me. I had the best minds in the business working with me, the best minds in the business. My investments went against me and I was facing personal bankruptcy about two years later. Don't put your faith and trust in your investments, guys. Don't make that mistake. Please don't do that. A fool and his money are soon parted. A fool and his money. 1972, I went to work for the largest single brewery in the world. Two thousand acres in Golden, Colorado, had my name on the outside of the building, the Adolph Cougars Company. Two thousand acres. I had to learn the business from the ground up. Which often meant many nights without sleep, many days without returning home to my wife and son. As I began to climb the corporate ladder of success, whatever that nebulous term means, one morning about a year later, I was getting into my sports car to travel home. I hadn't slept in three days. I had a 25 mile drive each day from our brewery to our home in Littleton, Colorado, that morning, I made twenty three of those twenty five miles, I was traveling at a high rate of speed. Two hundred seventy five pounds. Nobody was ever gonna hurt me again. Invincible.   [00:37:14] Tough.   [00:37:17] Well, gentlemen, it's amazing what a head on collision can do to a tough module Marine frame traveling at a high rate of speed. My body went through the windshield as my car hit another car at the crest of a hill hit on.   [00:37:32] Putting your faith and trust in your good health tonight. All right. Thank you, tough. Thank the world can't get to you. I would just like. I'm getting real, guys, I'm getting real some of your squirming.   [00:37:49] I told you I was going to get real, my two hundred seventy five pound body went through the windshield of my sports car in a millisecond, my goal of becoming a karate master evaporated as my knees shattered as they hit the dashboard.   [00:38:04] My brain was a mass of scrambled eggs. Six days and. Unconscious. Two years in recovery. Two years. Got my attention two years.   [00:38:22] It was during that two year period of time, gentlemen, that the God who loves us so much slowed me down long enough to put me on my back. You know what he was doing? He was saying, Adolf, I want to talk to you. Adolf, I love you. I want to say some things to you, Adolf course. And you know what he was telling me? He was saying, Adolf, get a good look at your life. You've got a marriage is headed for divorce, Adolf, cause you've got a four year old son at home and you don't even know you don't have time for friends. And gentlemen, I began to ask myself three questions. One, I want to pose to every one of you sitting here tonight over and over again. I would ask myself, Adolph Coors, who are you really?   [00:39:10] David, I would ask myself, Adolph Coors, why are you here really?   [00:39:16] And where are you going with the rest of your life? Really? Gentlemen, I didn't have the foggiest idea I was going from promotion to promotion, from airplane to airplane, from boat to boat, from travel to travel. I could go anywhere. I wanted to go play park golf and a golf course in this world by anything I wanted. I'm not bragging, I'm just saying that's what it was like. But inside here, Gemma was avoid it was getting so big you could drive a truck through it. And then something happened. Gentlemen, I want you to listen to very carefully. Something happened one evening just out of common courtesy, Don. I invited one of our senior vice presidents home for dinner. My father had hired this man, I'd known him, I'd hunted with him as a little boy. He was a very successful man, one of our senior vice presidents. I invited him over for dinner. I was training under him to take his position. He was going to leave in a matter of a few months and I was going to step into a vice president's position. My goal was right on schedule.   [00:40:21] I was headed right straight to the top or so I thought into that dining room. That evening came this gentleman and his beautiful wife. The conversation at our dining room table, we talked about sports, we talked about politics, we talked about beer, lots of beer. But then suddenly the conversation became silent. And then just out of common courtesy, my wife turned to this man's beautiful wife. Her name was Vera. And b.j.'s as beer on it. An interesting question. P.J. Severo, what are your interests in life expecting that Vera would say, well, my home or my career or my children? That's not what she said that evening. Vera Sunde very quickly looked at my wife in her eyes. She said, B.J., one interest in life, that interest is serving Jesus Christ. Gentlemen, this was a Wednesday evening. I looked at my watch. It was 7:30, just about what time it is here tonight. I looked at my watch and I thought to myself, we're gonna invite these people to go home right now. I mean, that's exactly what I thought.   [00:41:31] You don't talk about religion on a Wednesday night.   [00:41:34] That's for Sunday. But you know, guys, this couple love my wife and I enough that over the next five hours, five hours in our dining room table, they open up their lives to me. That evening, I learned something that I needed to do here. I learned that 2000 years ago, a fact of history. God stepped out of eternity and into time. And the very person who his one and only unique son. A fact of history. I'd learned about his son, Jesus Christ, in Sunday school every Sunday. Growing up, I knew about him. But that evening I learned that I needed to put my faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And he loves us so much that he sent his only son to die for you and me. If we would put our faith in Jesus Christ, we will never perish. Gentlemen, we will have everlasting life with him. And then that evening I learned something. It really hurt. I knew it. But I heard it from this man. I learned that it causes a very, very sinful man, a very prideful man, a man broken off from his relationship with his creator.   [00:42:53] German. I learned that evening that because of my separation from the God who made me, I could not know his love and plan for my life. I also learned that until that barrier was separated, I would not know his plan and avoid my heart was never going to get filled. My life would really have no meaning and purpose. And then when I died, I would have eternity separated from him. You see, gentlemen, God has a unique plan for each one of us in this room, but because of our pride and our rebellion, that barrier that separates us from God separates us from knowing that plan for our lives. That evening, I learned that an order to bridge that barrier, I must put my ultimate faith and trust in God's provision for me. And I also learned that evening that I could not do this for my wife and she couldn't do it for me. We need to individually reach out and receive God's gift. Each one of us needs to reach out and receive that gift. And to those of us who reach out and receive that gift, he gives us the privilege and the right to become his children. You know, this couple was leaving our dining room 1:30 the next morning and this man stopped me dead in my tracks in our driveway. When he said the following, he said. He said, Adolph. You know what your trouble is? Adolph, you're putting your faith and trust in the things of this world.   [00:44:21] I'm putting my faith and trust in a $2 billion brewery, putting my faith and trust in a big six figure paycheck, putting my faith and trust in an airplane at the airport, a boat, a beautiful home in the mountains, putting my faith and trust in my marriage, my things. My wife stopped me dead in our tracks, getting to bed that evening. She said, you know, she said, honey, this couple's got something. We don't have it.   [00:44:52] It was three days later that my wife slowed down her life long enough to recognize the void in her heart was not getting filled. And my wife several days later said a very simple prayer. Prayer. We're going to pray together. And just a few short minutes and gentlemen, avoid it. I tried to feel for seven years of marriage, was instantly filled that morning, as she said yes to God's provision for her. My wife's never been the same since. I think it was Phyllis Diller who said, never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight. Our marriage wasn't working, gentlemen. It wasn't working. And still, several days after she made this decision, I walked out on my wife and my son of four years thinking divorce might feel. My board walked into one of the best hotels in downtown Denver. You know, while was separated from my beautiful wife of good friend of mine gave me a book that I recommend to every father and every husband in this room tonight. It's a book called Do Yourself a Favor Love Your Wife. Written by Pastor Paige Williams, a pastor from Florida. Gentlemen, I cried my way through that book several times. I cried my way through that.   [00:46:09] You know, I used to think that a macho man, a tough man, a neat man, you know, macho guy was a guy who could drink his buddies under the table, who could earn a lot of money, who could buy all the things you want to buy all these things.   [00:46:22] I thought that's what a real man was. But, you know, this book told me what a real man is, a real man as one who has his priorities in line with the God who made us. There are four of them, gentlemen. They're so simple. We missed. The most important priority we will ever have as human beings is to know the God who made us and know him in a personal way. It's the most important relationship you'll ever have. The second most important relationship, gentlemen, is the love that wife waiting for you at home tonight to love her. But, guys, we can't love our wife and our own strength. We simply can't do it. And love has to come from the God who made us. It's a very special love. The third most important relationship is the love. Those kids you're blessed with at home. You see, gentlemen, all children are the living messages we send to a time we're never going to see. And then the fourth most important relationship is to have true friends. I'm not talking about business associates. I'm not talking about golfing buddies or drinking buddies. I had plenty of those. I'm talking about a person who will attend your funeral someday and not look at his or her watch. And I had none of those, none of the above or even close making lots of money, had titles going to the top of the head, of course, company. I was going to do it. But it was about a week later that I went to hear a man speak at the request of a friend. I didn't want to go hear him. Just like some of you here tonight are here because somebody wanted you here. But you really don't want to come. But you're here at the request of a friend. And that afternoon, I walked into this auditorium surrounded by thousands of people.   [00:48:08] And I'll tell you what, I did not want to be there, but that afternoon. As this man began to talk, I learned something and I needed to hear. I learned that my salvation is found and no one else.   [00:48:28] There is no other name under heaven given whereby you and I gentlemen can be saved. No other name but Jesus Christ. You know, Marines don't cry cause men never cry. But that afternoon, as this man shared, tears began rolling out of my eyes. I began to cry uncontrollably.   [00:48:51] That afternoon, I learned that for 30 years the God of this universe had been knocking right here in my heart, but I've been running from him so hard.   [00:48:57] I was a driven man, driven. But that afternoon I slowed my life down long enough to hear the God of this universe knocking right here in my heart. And I just man closed in prayer. He asked me to make a decision. He asked. Every one of us to make a decision. And that afternoon, I recognized my voice wasn't getting filled. That afternoon, I said yes to God's provision for me. And I said yes in a very short prayer. Avoid I tried to fill for 30 years, was instantly filled.   [00:49:32] My life's never been the same since, gentlemen, I travel all over this world sharing with successful people just like you, my wife and I got back together again about a week later. You know, gentlemen, a good marriage is a union of two. Forgive us. A good marriage is not finding the right person. A good marriage is becoming the right person for your wife. And gentlemen, don't make the mistake of basing your marriage on feelings. Don't make that mistake. If you gentlemen feelings come and go in a ebony flow. Here's a triangle, gentlemen. Here's a triangle at the top of this triangle is the relationship with Jesus Christ. You are over here and your wife is over here. The closer you draw to the God who made you, the closer you become as husband and wife, the closer you become as husband and wife.   [00:50:34] Simple physics.   [00:50:37] It was not long after I got back together again with my wife that I was able to sit down one morning with my mother who was near death. My my mother was 44 years of age at the time. My father was murdered in 1960.   [00:50:50] Over the next 15 years, my mother cultivated a hatred for the man who killed her husband. My dad and I cannot describe you. Hatred, killers.   [00:51:00] Hate will kill you. It'll kill me. And the dead and the pain about hate. My mother tried to drown her songs and alcohol. Alcohol will kill us guys and kill us. If used excessively, alcohol will kill us.   [00:51:15] One morning I was able to share with my mother the greatest news in the universe as I share the love of Jesus Christ with my mom. 72 hours after I said goodbye to her on that Wednesday morning, she had a massive stroke in the home of friends, fell down a flight of stairs and never regained consciousness. But gentlemen, to those of us tonight who know Jesus Christ. Death is not a period. No, death is not a period. Death is a comma in the story of life. Gentlemen, we are really not ready to live until we're ready to die. That's why I asked you at the beginning of my time with you, I asked you, this is your passport for eternity in order. This is heavy stuff, guys. Heavy stuff.   [00:52:04] Is your passport for eternity in order?   [00:52:08] I shared this message with a successful business couple in North Carolina five years ago and an event just like this. That evening, as we closed in prayer, they made a decision for Jesus Christ. That evening, they got into their car to return home to their kids. Two blocks from the event. They were hit head on by another automobile.   [00:52:31] They never made it home, never made it home.   [00:52:37] This decision I want to ask you to make in about a minute cannot be made when God Gell-Mann has to be made. When we're here, we're alive.   [00:52:47] We'll never know who we are, gentlemen, until we know whose we are.   [00:52:52] And I'm going to ask you to do something for me tonight as you go home after a busy day. I want you to put your head down on your pillow tonight. I want you to think. I want you to get a real what you get very quiet. I want you to think about all these things you're putting in that void in your heart tonight, gentlemen. I don't know any of you, really. I want you to think about what you're stuffing in here. Your success at the office. Maybe your bank account. Maybe your athletic prowess stuffed in here, your drive. You succeed at any price stuffed in here, your toys in the driveway, stuffed in here. That promotion coming up, that trip this summer, stuffed in here at Cute Girl at the office. Well, if I could just get her between the sheets. Is she going to make me happy? I played those games. You know, I played those games, too. I know what I know. That's going to be stuffed in here. I want you to ask yourself this first question. So what somewhat.   [00:53:57] But before you doze off tonight, gentlemen, I want you to ask yourself an infinitely more important question.   [00:54:02] I want you to ask yourself now what? Because, gentlemen, in life, as in any other race, crossing the finish line first makes no difference. If upon crossing that finish line, you suddenly discover that the race you've been running all these years to the crowds while cheering just perhaps might be down the wrong track. I ran a race for 30 years. Down the wrong track nearly cost me my marriage at nearly cost me my life. It cost me several fortunes. Cost me a relationship with my first son for four years of his life. If you've never claimed your inheritance and haven't by professing Jesus Christ tonight, gentlemen, I'll promise you this. Everything that you do on this earth will be totally in vain. I promise you.   [00:54:58] And I know there's a couple of you in his room tonight are thinking, well, Adolf Cougar's I'll deal with God later. I've got my career to think about. I got my family to think about. I'll deal with God later. Yeah. Gentlemen, you should Will.   [00:55:10] But it won't be on your terms. I can promise you that.   [00:55:17] So what? Now what?   [00:55:25] Well, laid off, I got to go to church twice a year. I'm a good person. I'm going to heaven on our head off. I'm a good I'm a good guy. I'm going to heaven. If you believe that any religion is a vehicle of entry to heaven, if you believe what I'm sharing with you tonight is a religion, gentlemen. Think again. This is not a religion I'm talking about tonight. This is not a religion because religion won't do. You and me, I look good. There's a barrier that separates us from our God. It's called our pride and rebellion. And because of that barrier, Jesus Christ had to come to die. The most agonizing death called crucifixion of history. And three days after he died, he walked out of that tomb and ascended into heaven. Irrefutable proof that what I'm dealing with tonight is not a religion, but is God the God of this universe? We're dealing with God himself, and he wants to do business with you tonight. Eternal business. But I'm not going to promise you that if you make this decision is your life is going to become trouble free from here on out. Because the Christian life, gentlemen, is not a trouble free life. But there's a savior knocking on your heart right now who says, my peace, I give with you my peace I give to you tonight. My peace I leave with you. Are you tired of carrying the burdens of this life by yourself? You would never meant to carry those burdens by yourself.   [00:56:44] He wants to carry those burdens for you tonight for the rest of your life. And he promises us you'll never leave us. You'll never forsake us. But tragically, some of you are gonna get into your car in the next 10 minutes. You're gonna leave here and you're gonna go back to your offices tomorrow morning. You're gonna forget everything I said, and that's your choice. But if you believe that any way to heaven is okay, if you believe that your good looks, your talent, your money is gonna get you to heaven. I want to leave you with one last thought before I turn it back over to Don for the conclusion. Just hours before Jesus Christ went to Calvary's cross to die for you and me, gentlemen, one of his disciples one morning stopped him dead in his tracks. Man's name was Thomas, a Jew. Thomas had been following Jesus for three years. Thomas as Jesus Christ. A very important question that morning. Thomas said, Jesus. Are you the Messiah? Are you the way to heaven, Jesus? Are you the one we've been waiting for all these centuries? I couldn't ask a more important question. Who is Jesus to you gentlemen? Jesus turned to Thomas that morning and listened to what he said. If you believe truth is relative. If you believe your talents, you're going to get you where you want to go. Jesus turned to Thomas that morning.   [00:58:12] Is the Thomas. I'm the way I am. De-wei Thomas. I'm the life Thomas. I am the truth. No, man. Thomas comes to God the father. But through me no one goes to heaven, Thomas. But through me, not religion. Right out the window. Gentlemen, it knocks your talents and my talents right out the window. It's so simple. We miss it. It's faith in Christ. Guys, it's that simple. Doesn't take a rocket scientist. It's so simple. We miss it. Don't miss it tonight, guys. Don't miss it. Because none of us know how much time we have, none of us do. Your wife is not wired. Your life is not wired. Don't think it is. Not wired. So I won't ask you to make a decision now as I leave you. I couldn't give you a better gift than one about to give you an opportunity to say yes to this God. This knocking on your heart right now wants to come in. He wants to change you, and he wants you to have an impact on this city. He wants you to be a father and a husband. That you were created to be a successful business manager. You were created to be all along. He wants to change you from the inside out. If anything I have said to you tonight, gentlemen, if anything I have said to you makes any sense at all and you hear that knocking on your heart.   [00:59:31] Please don't leave here without making that decision. Please don't do that because this decision determines where you spend eternity says. It's the most important decision you will ever make. I'm gonna ask you to make it right now. Close your eyes.   [00:59:55] Get real quiet. This is between you and God, between you and your creator. Listen to that. Knocking on your heart. Listen to it. I pray this out loud. I want you to pray silently. And I want you to meet you with all your heart. Lord Jesus, I need you. And by an act of my will tonight, I open the door of my heart in my life and I receive you as savior. Lord, I understand for the first time tonight that I have run from you all these years. I have rebelled and sinned against you countless times. But tonight, I want to thank you for forgiving all of my son, my rebellion, my pride. I want to thank you for your death on that cross for me. Take control of my life tonight and make me into the kind of man, the kind of husband, the kind of father, the kind of human being. You created me to be. Thank you for coming into my heart in life right now and granting me eternity with you as you have. So promise to me. It's in Jesus Christ name. I do pray a man. And I want to thank all of you for listening. And I trust that my time has meant something to you. God bless all. P019

Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)   [00:00:06] I'm so glad you joined us. For those of you who don't remember me, my name is Penny. And welcome. Welcome to this next session of get sellers calling you Beatty Carmichael. Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing expert in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm super excited. I know you always have something great for us today. What are we going to be discussing today? [00:00:31] Well, today we're back on another radical safe's topic, which means that this has nothing to do with real estate marketing and everything to do with living boldly as a Christian. So if you're not interested in that topic, feel free to turn this episode off and wait for the next one. But that's what we're going to be talking about today. [00:00:52] Great. Super excited. [00:00:55] Yes. And so in continuation from the last radical faith call, we're on a short series. When bad things happen, is it God's will? And today, we're gonna be talking part to kind of this sub topic on this is going through dark times. Have you ever gone through dark times in your Christian life? [00:01:16] Yes. OK. I want to remember, actually. Yeah, I think. [00:01:22] I think it's part of the process that God that the Lord uses both for us and for accomplishing his will. And a lot of times it's hard to really discern what's going on. So I want to go back to kind of the core question that I asked you last time. You said that God is sovereign and that he is in control. So the question is, if God is sovereign in control and does that mean that everything that happens is his will? [00:01:54] And do we blame him for it? Right. So that's one of those questions that we all wrestle with and we talk about. There are basically four things that could be going on. Number one, when bad things happen, we really have to understand first what is bad. Okay. Bad is bad if its source is evil and the outcome is evil. Right. [00:02:17] And that can happen. And I think a lot of the real heartaches that we go through in life may actually have its roots there. We're going to talk about that on the next session. Then last session, we talked about how God directs our steps and we have the freedom to freewill, to use your terminology, to disregard his direction and place our foot down where we want to is or where he wants to. And when that happens, it says that we stumble. And so sometimes when bad things happen, it could simply be a consequence of us simply not following the Lord's direction. Okay. [00:03:04] And so I would call that not bad, but just consequence and probably inconvenient more than anything else. Another thing that happens when things are bad is they're actually directed by God because we have sinned and he's bringing discipline into our life. So it feels bad, but the outcome is good. And then the last thing that happens when things feel bad is when the source is a lord and it's all for our good and even discipline is for our good. But it but in this case, it's all for our destiny or for the Lord is leading us. So it feels bad. It seems dark. But if we could see from God's perspective, it's really an amazing journey. And that's what I want to talk about today. So we ready? [00:03:58] Was great. [00:04:00] Ok. So we're going to if we can wrap it all in quickly, we're going to talk about two stories. Two people, actually, more than two people. But their stories are known by the people are the story of Joseph. And the story of Esther. And I'm assuming you know both of those stories, right? [00:04:17] Yes. Great story. [00:04:20] All right. So let's see how well you know it. Now he's now is gone by. Alicia, details. How old was Joseph when he went out to find his brothers in the field? [00:04:36] Later, I want to say sixteen or seven. Yeah. [00:04:40] Good. Seventeen. So that's going to tie into this. So let me give you just a little background. And I'm going to just kind of read from the Bible and skip around a lot. Normally, I'd like to read, but this this kind of story forms. I want to tie it together. [00:04:59] So this starts in Genesis, Genesis 37. And for the most part, if you don't recognize some of this verbiage is coming from the living Bible, which makes things sometimes a little bit easier. And it starts like this. Joseph's brothers, of course, noticed their father's partiality and consequently hated Joseph, okay. [00:05:22] They couldn't say a kind word to him one night. Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details. His brother's causing even deeper hatred. Listen to this. He announced we were out in the field binding cheese, and my chief stood up and you're she's all gather round me and bowed low before it. So the brother said, So you want to be our king, do you? And they hated him, both for the dream and his cocky attitude. So here's a question for you. [00:05:49] Did Joseph, do you think, grow up in a loving family? Yeah. With his brothers hating him the whole time. [00:05:59] Now that a loving family. No, no. Okay. [00:06:06] So his father loved him. Yes. But his brothers hated him. It says three times that they hated him, they hated him. They hated him. [00:06:14] So can you imagine living in an environment where your closest relatives are all hating you? [00:06:21] I cannot. Would you call that good or bad? [00:06:26] Bad? Yeah, I would think so, too. So then we read a little bit long further. So now Joseph is 17 years old, his father, Israel. Okay. So just give you the genealogy. Have Abraham Isaac Jacob Jacob's name was changed to Israel and Israel had 12 signs. Those are the 12 tribes of Israel. And son number eleven, if I'm correct, is Joseph. Okay. And so he sends Joseph out into the fields to find all of his other sons. The other ten brothers at that time to his 10 older brothers. And and just check on what's going on. So this is where we pick up. And he says, but when they saw him coming, recognizing him in the distance, they decided to kill him. Okay. Here we have that loving family again. Let's kill our brother. Here comes that master dreamer, they exclaim. Come on, let's kill him and toss him into a wall and tell father that a wild animal has eaten him. [00:07:28] Then we'll save what will become of all of his dreams. So they're still jealous of what God has given him as a dream. [00:07:37] So says when Joseph got there, they pulled off his brightly colored robe. Okay, so his father given him a robe of righteousness, robes or status symbol in this one was greater status symbol because it had lots of bright colors. And so it says that they threw off his robe and threw him into an empty well. And then they see a bunch of traders come by. And so when the traders came by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him into the traders for 20 pieces of silver. [00:08:17] And they took compete. Now, can you imagine at this moment, Joseph being thrown into the well by his brothers, being rough handle and then being yanked up and sold into slavery for only 20 pieces of silver. What do you think's going on in Joseph's mind at that point? [00:08:34] He's got to feel completely rejected and was scared. [00:08:39] Yeah. So many things. Did he feel like he deserved any of this? No. Do you think he was questioning God? [00:08:50] Yes, absolutely. We always question God because we don't trust him, do you think if he trusted God as Moses, trusted God as he was as there going through the wilderness? Do you think if he trusted God at that level that he would be questioning God quite so much? Probably not. No. So what I find is we question God the most when we don't really trust him. In other words, when we keep our eyes on ourselves and not on the Lord in his word, that's usually when we question what's going on. Does that make sense? [00:09:28] Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. [00:09:30] So then we pick up. This is now in Genesis thirty nine. So Joseph arrives in Egypt, his soul to part offer a member of Pharaoh's staff. Okay. Part 4 later puts him in charge of all of his affairs. And then one day part of first wife begins making eyes at Joseph and suggests that he come and sleep with her. And what is Joseph to you, remember? [00:09:54] He says no. That's right. He says no. He says, my master, trust me, with everything in the entire household. He he's held nothing back from me except you because you are his wife. How could you do such a wicked thing? Is this. It would be a great sin against God? No. Do you think Joseph loves the Lord? Yes. Do you think he's following the law the best he can? I do. Yeah. Okay. And now this woman's coming after him, is Josef's acting properly and faithfully? [00:10:31] He is. Yeah. And what happened to you, remember? [00:10:37] I think she keeps pushing like she keeps trying to seduce them and really try to get him to go along with what she wants. And he keeps saying no. And she gets upset. [00:10:50] That's right. You don't want to give way too much. Yeah, that's right. Okay. [00:10:54] Well, hopefully most of folks are listening to this. Probably have some some recollection of Joseph, but let's read into it. Then one day as he was in the house and no one else was around at the time, she came and grabbed him by the sleeve demanding sleep with me. He tore himself away, but as he did, his jacket was robe slipped off and he was left holding. She was holding it as he fled from the house. When she saw that he she had it and he had fled, she began screaming. And when the other men around the place came running and she was crying hysterically, my husband had to bring in this Hebrew slave to insult us. She saw. He tried to rape me, but when I screamed, he ran and forgot to take his jacket. So do you think Joseph has been wrongly accused? [00:11:44] Yes. If this is this good or bad? [00:11:48] Bad? Yeah. So what's happening? Is this one bad even after another, isn't it? His brothers hate him. They try to kill them. They throw mental until well, then they sell sell them into slavery. And then he's doing well. He's acting righteously before God. His master puts him in control of everything. Now he gets slammed again and it gets even worse. So says that when her husband came home that night, she told him her story. That Hebrew slay that you've had around here. Try to rape me. And when he heard it, he was furious and he threw Joseph into prison down into the dungeon. [00:12:29] How do you think Joseph is feeling right now? [00:12:33] Or cannot be. Yeah. [00:12:36] Do you think he's going, oh, lord. Thank you. I'm so excited. I'm right in the center of your will. [00:12:43] No, I haven't. I think he probably had a few choice words. [00:12:47] Probably so. Let me ask you. Was he right in the center of God's will? [00:12:54] Well, that's a trick question. Yes, he was. I think I know, yeah. Come on the story. [00:13:01] That's right. That's right. So this is a key. When we know the outcome, we can now piece it all together going through it. [00:13:09] We have to trust the father's heart. [00:13:14] Yeah, and not worry. [00:13:18] Okay. As we always worry, but the more we trust the father's heart, the more we can handle any of these quote unquote, dark times that come our way because we know who's in control. So now this is now we're in Genesis 40 sometime later. It happened that the king of Egypt, pharaoh, became angry with his chief baker and his chief butler. So he's thrown throws him into the prison where Joseph is. And then one night, each of them have a dream. And Joseph interprets both of those dreams and the dreams that his interpretation actually comes comes true. Jon Favreau decides to hold the party. He pulls both the baker and the butler out. He puts a butler back in a position and he kills the baker. Justice Joseph said, What's going to happen? So does and Joseph said, hey, Butler, when you get out. Remember me, tell Pharaoh about me. I've done nothing to be here. I've. You know, I've done nothing against my own people who have been sold into slavery. I've done nothing wrong. Please tell him. And what did the butler do? [00:14:32] He remembered. [00:14:34] I think he if I remember right again, I want to give why he lied. But I think he tells Pharaoh, I know somebody that can interpret dreams. [00:14:44] Yeah. Okay. So so watch this. This is cool. So now we're in Genesis 41. One night, two years later. Okay. It was two years later. Joseph still is in dark times in the dungeon. No freedom, no light, no, no nothing but grunge. Okay. [00:15:09] Two years later, Pharaoh dream. Two dreams. No one could interpret them. Then the butler remembers Joseph at that point, is that are you know, I totally forgot some time ago when you you're angry with a couple of us and put me in there, Chief Baker in jail. Baker and I each had a dream. One night we told the dreams to a young Hebrew who was a slave of the captain there, and he told us what our dreams meant. And everything happened. Just as he said, I was restored to my position and the baker was executed. So Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once. Okay, now, is this good or bad? [00:15:50] This is good if he's getting called out of prison. [00:15:53] Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it sure looks good, right? Yes. OK. Can you see the Lord's hand starting to move right now in this pressure? [00:16:04] Yeah. Okay. Now to put this in perspective, this is eleven years after. Joseph has been sold into slavery. [00:16:12] He's now 28 years old from 17 to 28. He's been a slave. So then Joseph interpretted dreams tells Pharaoh that both dreams are saying the same thing, that there's gonna be seven years of great abundance. And then seven years of the most severe famine that's gonna be so severe, you won't even remember how abundant it is. And and then pharaoh says talks. His advisers said, well, we need to put someone in charge to manage all this. Who do we do? And so now I want to pick up and I'm one. Reed, this is Genesis 41, starting in thirty nine. [00:16:55] And then it says then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are, you shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command only as regards the throne will I be greater than you. In other words, Pharaoh now puts him in second in control of all of Egypt. [00:17:19] Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and and put on Joseph's hand. Here's the significance. The signet ring means that Joseph can do anything in the king's name. [00:17:30] By the way, as Christians, we've been given the Lord's signet ring. Okay. [00:17:39] So now there's some deep implications on how effectively we end up using that. But that's another story. So he takes a signet ring, puts it in Joseph's hand. And then during the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly and in the seven years of plenty came to an end and a seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. [00:18:05] So here's kind of the summary I want to go through with all this. The Lord is directing all of these events in Joseph's lives. Would you agree? Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:18:17] So Joseph was a man at God's own heart. [00:18:19] And even in his flavouring, in imprisonment, we know that he sought the Lord because he always tried to do what was honorable and. [00:18:28] The Lord always put him in charge of bless everything that was going on. So we see the Lord's hand upon Joseph. Even in the dark times. Did you in your dark times, have you ever seen the Lord's hand kind of still working with you and through you during those tough times? [00:18:44] Yes. Yes. It's hard to say. You know, you're natural. I tend to focus on the dark. But for sure. For sure. God was there. [00:18:53] That's right. And I've seen the same thing over and over again. And. And so back Joseph, because he was faithful in the small things as he was coming through. We'll call this his wilderness experience. As he was coming through this wilderness, then the lord put him in charge of much, just as what Jesus says, because you had been faithful in a little. Now be in charge of tent cities as he's the parable with the miners. And then. But here's the key. From Joseph's perspective, as he's going through it, each event merely seemed to have a natural cause and effect. His brothers hated him. He has a dream. They hated him more. He goes and they decide to kill him. They throw him in a well. Then they say, lis-, thelen, every single thing. There is a cause and effect that Joseph is putting together. Does that make sense? Oh, yeah. Okay. So from his perspective, it was just one bad even after another. I'm sure he felt bitter. Bitter. I'm sure he questioned God on what was happening. And yet here's the thing. The Lord is directing every step of his, so if you remember last session, passage after passage after passage. Lord Lord is telling us he guides our step. He directs our step. He's cha-cha-cha path even tells us where to stop and rest. And what we find here is every step is guided and directed by the Lord. And finally, Joseph comes to that same realization once his brothers come and provides food. Okay. Because Joseph set for God sent me before you to preserve life. Joseph finally figured out what was going on. Later. He figured out it was his destiny that the Lord was working on. And until we see the Lord guiding all of this, let's see. Let me think a couple other thoughts on this before we shift some topics. So. So here's a question. When bad things happen. Does guide calls it? We can obviously look at this life of Joseph. All these things that were seemingly bad. Here's the question. Did God cause all those events to happen? [00:21:23] No. No. Then what happened? [00:21:29] He used them. Yeah, he did them for yeah. Did he know they were going to happen? All right. Who knows all things? [00:21:41] He knows all things. And he used them. [00:21:45] So sometimes we find a guy who uses the bad debts in the world to propel us. To the good destiny that he has for us. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think think about Jesus. Satan was gonna try everything he could to stop Jesus. Do you think I knew that? [00:22:11] Oh, for sure. [00:22:13] And do you think everything that Satan did to stop Jesus actually playing God's hand to fulfill Jesus's destiny? [00:22:22] Yeah, they're. [00:22:25] Do you think God is a respecter of persons? [00:22:32] I think he treats us all the same. I think he loves us all the same. [00:22:36] Yeah. Paul says God is no respecter of persons, right? Yeah. [00:22:41] So he thinks of his favorite neighbor. We're all here, too. That's right. [00:22:47] We're all his favorite. So here's the thing. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. What he does, for one, he does for all because he respects no one greater than someone else. This is why when and this is what it says. You know, because faith was reckoned righteousness was reckoned to Abraham because of his faith. So is righteousness reck into us because of our faith? In other words, God sets a precedent what he does for what he does for all. And what we find here with Joseph, the Lord is leveraging all of these evil things that are going on. [00:23:28] That guy knows ahead of time. But he uses those almost like the picture I'm getting is saw like that. Have you ever played a pinball machine? Yes. What? The ball. It hits a thing. It goes somewhere else. It bounces around. Okay. It's almost like God knows every little post out there and swiped the ball in just the right direction to hit one post and another post in the next post pushes the ball a little bit further and it guides all the way to homerun. [00:23:57] Okay. Enter into the goalpost. And that's kind of what's going off and going here. So. There is a possibility that God caused some of this to happen. These think God caused a Israel to love Joseph more than the other brothers. [00:24:17] Oh, that's a tough question. No. The only reason I say no, God doesn't cause bad is because God is good. [00:24:27] Right. No, I don't. I don't. I don't. Okay. [00:24:31] Is Israel loving Joseph more than the other brothers? Good or bad? [00:24:38] Then God says, Jacob, I loved you, so I hate it. Is that good or bad? [00:24:46] Which is bad for itself, but is God good? Yes. [00:24:52] Ok, so what is good for God? [00:24:55] Can it also be good for man? [00:24:58] Yes. So if if God cause Israel to love Joseph more than the other brothers, is that good or bad? [00:25:11] Aschen, I think. [00:25:14] Yes, he says he's not causing Israel to hate the other brothers, but just to love Joseph Moore. Do you think God caused Joseph caused Israel to make Joseph a bright, multicolored jacket? Yeah. Do you think God knew that that would create jealousy and hatred among the brothers? Yes. Do you think God caused Joseph to have those dreams? I do. Do you think he knew that those trains would cause jealousy and hatred among the brothers? [00:25:50] Yes. OK. So here's what we have. We see God causing a lot of events that had the repercussions of evil responding that God uses to push Joseph toward his destiny. Do you think that's possible that he's doing the same thing in our lives at times as well? [00:26:14] Yeah. Okay. Is kind of cool. [00:26:18] Yes. Very cool. All right. [00:26:21] So. So we pick up a lot of things and just some really interesting things. Let's say this to try and catch up on where I am on my notes. When bad things happen to us. We must first try to decide, are they truly bad or are they simply not what we desire? Is it truly bad that the brothers hated Joseph? Is it truly bad that they wanted to kill him? Is it truly bad that they sold him into slavery? Are all these things truly bad? Or ultimately, are they just simply not what we desire? But they happen to be the best thing for us because they push us where the Lord is directing us and we don't. We can't tell that as we go through. OK, from our perspective at the moment, we can't grasp God's big picture. It's only after a period of time that we can look backwards and see. And for Joseph, it took twenty two years before he understood that all these bad things that had happened to him were actually God's hand leading him. Let me ask you a question. Twenty two years later. Do you think if he had the perspective before he was twenty two years as he was going through those processes, do you think his heart toward God would have been different? [00:27:53] Oh, gosh, yes. [00:27:55] Do you think he's one had it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:27:58] And so what can we pull out of this? What we can rattle out. Yeah, we got it. We got to we got to trust the Lord to be a faithful father. Quinn We know that we're truly seeking the Lord, honoring him, really following him, trying to do our best. Yeah, we stumble. But when bad things happen, things that we consider bad, we have to trust the heart of our father. Like I mentioned last time. When you can't see what the Lord's hand is doing, you have to trust his heart. Does that make sense? Yeah. So now I want to shift stories and talk about Esther, because here's what I would call the lord tells the same story with the same message over and over and over again all throughout scripture, because he's constantly revealing who he is. And it's our job to pull out of those scriptures, the understanding of who he is. And so I want to walk through another story that has really neat implications, very similar. So this is the story of Esther. Okay, trivia question, what is Esther's real name? [00:29:21] I probably can't pronounce it. [00:29:26] I right. Yes. Yes, I know that something like that. Yeah. Yeah. [00:29:33] I was just discussing the future of you. No, no, no. Big deal. Big deal on that. OK. So let me kind of give you the background and lay out the storyline of Esther. So Israel has been Jerusalem has been destroyed by neighbor Nasr. All of the people have been taken out in exile. This is the time of Daniel, okay. He was taken as captives. And Mordechai, a guy named Mordecai and Esther, are gone as well. Then never. Nasir's kingdom is overtaken by getting that guy name King a hazardous. Who's king of the purge, Persian in the Meade's or something like that. And and he's having a feast and throwing a great big party. He calls the queen in to show her off in front of all of his guests. She refuses. He gets upset. He banishes her. Then he's upset because now he doesn't have a queen. So they say, well, let's go throughout all your kingdom. Get the most beautiful virgins that are out there. And we'll bring him into your hair, him and you get to choose. OK. So that's kind of the storyline. So now we come to sue. So the capital where he is. This is where Esther is living with her uncle because Esther is an orphan. Chances are her mother and father were killed during the Beattylonian captivity. We don't know that for certain. But that would make sense. And then she's living there peacefully with Mordechai, her uncle, and now she's forcefully taken from him to be thrown into King's Haram. Is that good or bad? Bad? [00:31:18] Yeah. I would think so. Take away from our family. [00:31:23] Yeah, the only family she's got. So then she becomes king later. Mordechai gets a job working for the king. Says he sits at the Kings Gate. OK. And while he's a sharpie, overhears a plot from two people that are upset with the king and they want to kill the king. All right. Do you hear that noise in the background? Is that problematic? No, you don't. OK, perfect. Great. [00:31:55] So I'm out on my deck when I do this. And I just want to make sure you don't hear the background noise. So. So he reports. Mordechai reports this plot to the queen, who then takes it to the king. The king investigates, kills those two people. [00:32:11] The king is saved. OK. So then later, the king appoints a guy named haymon as prime minister, essentially to run the country. And Heyman is an evil man and everyone is supposed to bow down and basically worship him as he comes by. And so every time he comes by and comes by Mordechai, he goes to the King's Gate. What do you think Mordechai does as a Jew? He does not. He does. That's right. So you have an evil Preibus man, everyone's falling down except this one man who stays standing. What do you think? Who you think's going on in Heyman's heart at that point? [00:32:51] Why are you not backing down? That's right. [00:32:54] He gets real angry. Okay. And so he finds out that Mordecai doesn't bail because he's a Jew. So now Mordecai hates all the Jews. So he decides I'm going to get rid of all of them. So he goes the king and says, I'll pay you ten thousand talents. A silver. That's a huge amount for Mordechai. I mean, haymon is really rich. I'll pay you ten thousand talents a silver if you let me write a decree to kill all of the Jews because they're bad for your kingdom. King says, Hey, that's good. All right, I'll do that. So he he lets the king lets him do that. So then haymon writes a decree and sent it out through all of the province. This is basically all of the world at that time and says on this date, in about twelve months, every person can rise up against ologies, kill every Jew, every man, woman and child. [00:33:49] And whoever you kill, you can plunder everything they have. So now all the Jews are scared to death. Certain death is marked out and they're powerless to stop it. Does that make sense so far? Yeah. Yeah. Is is this bad? [00:34:05] Yeah. [00:34:07] If it's rooted in evil. Yeah. I think it might be even Satan trying to get rid of the Jewish race pressure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So then Mordechai comes to Esther. She goes the king and wants to plea for help. And so she's gonna do this through two life sessions. So she says, King, will you come to lunch with me today and will you bring Heyman's? Now, this is really, really interesting. The fact that she comes before the king, she puts her life on the line. So the king realizes something really important. She she has something really important to ask where she would not have risked her life. Okay. So he says, yes, I'll be there. He grabs haymon. They go have lunch. He says, what do you want? She says, I want you to come tomorrow to another banquet and then I'll make my request now. So then haymon goes home right after that. And he's all excited, he calls this France. He tells his wife and his friends how great he is, how powerful he is. And even the queen invited me to a private lunch with the king. And then he says, is this is hatred coming up? And yet none of this is worth anything as long as I see Mordechai alive. So now his wife says, well, look, you got the king's favor. You're powerful. Why don't you build a gallows tomorrow morning? Go ask the king if you can hang him. Mordechai on the gallows before lunch and then you can go to lunch with the king and the queen and just have a wonderful time. So can you imagine haymon all excited, giddy that night saying, oh, finally, I'm going to kill Mordecai tomorrow. You see this thing going on for now. What gods? Humor. Okay, so Mordecai is about to be killed. His runway of options is about out. He doesn't know it, but in probably 10 hours, he's gonna be dead on that gallows. [00:36:24] Okay. There's nothing he can do to escape. You get the picture of this? Yeah. Have you ever been in a position you felt like there's nothing you can do to fix the problem, you are doomed? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So but God has a sense of humor. God is in control. And what happens that night with the king? Do you remember? [00:36:53] I feel like somehow Esther says something that kind of like trapped. [00:37:01] Almost almost, yeah. So that happens in a moment. So that night, Paul Heyman is all giddy and probably can't sleep. The king can't sleep. [00:37:14] Do you think it might have been providentially God keeping the king away? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so the king says someone read me a book I know remade a book of all the good deeds in my kingdom. So these pull out this book and they start reading all night long and then they come to the story of Mordecai, how he reports this plot by these two employees to kill the king and two employees were killed and the king was saved. And the. And that's where we now pick up in an extra six. So I am now going to start reading from here. So that's the background. And let me start reading what the scripture says. So the king says, what reward did we ever give Mordechai for this? And his courtiers replied, nothing. Well, he's on duty in the outer court. The King inquired. OK, so this is early morning. He's still in bed. They're still reading. So you can get them. This is really early in the morning. And now that it happened, Hayman had just arrived in the outer court to ask the king to hang Mordechai. Okay. He's so excited. He gives up early and that's the first thing on his mind. So the courtiers replied, Hanemann is out there. The King said. Oh, great. Bring him in. So, hey, haymon comes in. [00:38:40] Now he's coming into the king's private chamber. Okay. And the king says him, What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me? And what do you think a man is thinking to himself? [00:38:52] He's going to honor me. That's right. [00:38:55] That's right. The scripture says. Well, who would he want to honor more than me? Pride comes before the fall. Right. So he replied. He so haymon says, we'll bring out some of the royal robes that the king himself has worn, and the king's own horse, and a royal crown. And it struck one the king's most noble princes to robe the man and lead it through the streets on the king's own horse. Shouting This is the way the king honors those who truly please him. Hey, man, was grand jury. Can you say this? All the pride and praise from all the people out there? [00:39:32] Yeah. [00:39:36] God, wonderful. So the king said, excellent. Hurry and take these robes and my horse and do just as you said to Mordecai, the Jew who works at the chancellery, follow every detail you suggested. What do you think's going on, right, Ben? I'm haymon. [00:39:58] I can not. I mean, I was I could fly on the wall. I'm sure his face fell to the floor. And. Yeah. Can you can you imagine? Can you imagine the embarrassment even that he probably felt? [00:40:12] That's right. And here's something I want you to recognize. All of this is happening in Mordecai. Doesn't have a clue. So often God is doing all kinds of things behind the scene and we don't even have a clue yet. And yet. God is in control. So we pick back up. So haymon takes the robes and puts them on Mordecai. I can just imagine. [00:40:40] Mordechai, come here. I want to robe you. I want to set this crown. I am ready. And I can just imagine what more ecchi is doing. He's going, yeah. The Lord is about to save us. So he puts a rose on Mordechai Mount's him on the king's own state, and leads him through the streets of the city, shouting, This is the way the king honors those who delights in them. [00:41:04] And then afterwards, who? Mordechai goes back to his job, and haymon hurries home, utterly humiliated. [00:41:15] So now he's sulking. So keep in mind, this is the morning, the second feast with the queen. So later that day, just a couple hours later, as he's mourning and he's complaining and though his wife is saying, well, if Mordechai is a Jew, your plans are gone, completely fail. No, he still doesn't know. The queen is a Jew. So then the king's men come and get haymon to bring him to lunch. And in at Lighton. And I can just imagine that haymon is all sulking and morose during this banquet. And the king asks again to Esther, What can I do for you? We pick back up. This is Esther, seven. And at last, Queen Esther replied, If I've won your favor OKing, and if it please, Your Majesty, save my life and the lives of my people. For my people have been sold to those who will destroy us. We are doomed to destruction and slaughter. If we were only to be sold as slaves. Perhaps I could remain quiet, even though then there are being calculable damage to the king that no amount of money could begin to cover. So she hits right on. There is money that's been paid on this and don't matter how much has been paid. Even if we're disowning slavery, this is gonna destroy the king. Okay. And then the king replies. What are you talking about? And who would touch you? Assa replied. This wicked haymon is our enemy. Then haymon grew pale with fright before the king and queen. The King jumped to his feet, went out of the palace garden at Heyman's, stood up to plead for his life. The queen asked her, for he knew that he was doomed. [00:43:08] You know, this happens so frequently. All that loss and the enemy that's attacking us, we think they're about to win. And yet God has everything in his hands. And in just a moment, boom, it's all gone. So. In despair, haymon falls upon the couch where Queen Esther was reclining, just as the king returned for the palace garden. Will he even rape the queen right here in the palace before my eyes? The king roared and instantly the death fell. That hood was placed over Hanemann face. And then when the king's aide says Sir haymon is restored, order to 75 foot gallows constructed to hanging Mordecai. The man who saved the king from assassination. It stands in Heyman's courtyard. Heying haymon on it. The king ordered, so that's the end of haymon. Then the king is well, Mordecai Heyman's position gives Esther all of Heyman's possessions and in Mordechai writes, a decree that the Jews can not only defend themselves on that date. This is now about 10 months to go. But he can. They can also kill every one of their enemies who hate them. And and so on that day when it comes, the Israelites destroyed seventy five thousand of their staunchest enemies. So that's the story of Esther in that. Pretty cool. Am I wrong? All right. So now let's. I want to wrap this up and I want to give some really cool takeaways out of all this, because I think this is really kind of what's cool, cool with this. So the central thought on all of this that hit and hits me as I'm as I've gone through it. Is do you think the Lord could have prevented haymon from coming to power? [00:45:05] Could have. Yes. Yes. If he prevented haymon from coming to power without a protected his people and they would never have been in peril. [00:45:16] Yeah, unless someone else came and did that. But yes. OK. [00:45:21] But God chose not to do that. Yeah. Think about it. God allowed his people. To go through tough times. So he can deliver them and not only deliver them. But give them greater blessings, I think someone said that the darker the times you go through, the greater the blessings on the other end. OK. [00:45:51] So what we have to realize is because the Lord directs those events that have a major impact on our lives and accomplishing his will then as we go through these events, even though it's scary. Are are honest response should be to be at peace knowing that the Lord is in control and that all of these things, if we're in God's will. Okay, if we're doing our best to follow his guidance. OK. As we talked about last time. Then whatever happens, we should be at peace. And content knowing that God is guiding everything that's going on for some reason, for his glory and for our destiny of where we're to be used to that make sense. [00:46:39] Yeah. [00:46:41] And how often do we get our eyes off the law and back on ourselves and we start to get afraid and question the Lord. So if Heyman comes to powers, Prime Minister, the Lord allows him to do, he's choosing to destroy all of the Jews. But watch this long before he ever came to power. God put Queen Esther in position to deliver his people. God is playing this big game of chess and he knows exactly what's going on and he's positioning the pieces. Already. But watch this, see? God could have prevented haymon from coming to power in check. Instead. He chose to show his own power and sovereignty by delivering their people once they were in peril. And. And not only that, though, here's the kind of the other key is because haymon came to power, because all these events came through, because all the Jews were terrified and scared to death for their life. Then through that problem, through that process, God deliver the Jews even more. He didn't just deliver the Jews from haymon and the threat of being killed. He delivered the Jews from all of their enemies at that time because they killed all 75000 of them. So it was a greater blessing for them to have come through that process because they ended up in a stronger, safer, more secure position. Does that make sense? Yeah. So it seems that God allows us to go through tough times, not only so he can get the glory delivering us. But that he can bless us more through that. And I think there are five takeaways is that I get from this. First, the Lord is in control of all things. In the big scheme of things, okay. He doesn't control haymon. He doesn't control the evil, but he is in control. He has his overriding control of everything that goes on. That's the first thing we can get from this. The second thing we can get is that he's coordinating the activities long before their purpose is known. [00:49:05] Think about this. So. First. [00:49:09] He coordinates the activity to get rid of Queen Baster. I think that's her name. And then that forces King hazardous to say I need another queen. Who do I get? [00:49:22] They rip ask her out of her home. They thought that was bad and God is doing all that to position her. [00:49:30] In a position of power, but not only that, Mordecai then gets a job with a king. And he overhears his plot and he reports it. That plot and Mordecai overhearing it has a key role to play in this. By the way, do you know how long it was from the time of that plot to the time that the King read back through the Chronicles and said, we honored this person for saving? [00:50:02] I felt like it was. I felt like it was over a year, but I don't know exactly. [00:50:07] Yeah, yeah, it was. It was about five years to watch that one seemingly insignificant thing. He just happens over here, this plot and reports it five years later. Is the key to saving the entire nation of the Jewish people. Then so God is causing a lot of things that we don't even see long before they ever come to fruition. The third thing we can take out of this. If the Lord allows us to face complete loss, complete destruction, or, as I call it, running off the cliff, it seems like we're just about to run off that cliff and there's nothing we can do to prevent it. He allows us to get into that position. For us to be scared to death but rely and trust on him, in fact, one of the things Mordecai said to Esther. She said, I can't go before the king because. I could be killed. And watch Mordecai Faith in the Lord. He said, we'll ask her. Who knows if maybe you haven't been put in as queen for a time such as this to save our people. But if you don't do it, be assured that the Lord will save us. But it'll be through some other means. [00:51:31] So more ecchi has this great faith in the Lord. Great worry of what's going on, but great faith as well that the Lord can take care of it. And that's what happens. The Lord allows us to go to the edge, to go right to the edge of that cliff, then force. He always intervenes. He always protects his loved ones from destruction. He allows him to get to the edge, but he won't allow them to go over the edge. And fifth, which I think is pretty cool, is during that process. And because of that process, he also as a bonus, he blesses us even more, you know, with not only with the Jews and destroying all their enemies, but Mordechai is taken from just a lowly employ to prime minister of the entire country. So it you just see God's hand in all of this. And as I go through this, I am encouraged that he's always in control. He's coordinating all these events in my life and in your life that we don't understand, that we get concerned about, that we're afraid of. Sometimes he allows us to head straight for the cliff and we feel that we have no control in the matter because ultimately we really don't. [00:52:54] We are moving down. If you recall, one of the sessions we did early about God's timing versus Manson. I mean, we're in that little pipe. You're right. Going down that raging river and you can't stop it. You know, it is moving and you're just going along with it. So there are things that we can't stop. We see this cliff we're about to go over and we seem to be powerless. And then the lord comes in. And here's how he saves us. He saves us through a miraculous set of events. We may see them as circumstantial. When we see God's hand moving miraculously in a natural, we call it providential, providential circumstances. But make no false assumption. It is the Lord's hand guiding and directing all of it directly for our care, directly for his will, directly for where he wants to lead us, and this is time back into the last one. This is where it says the Lord will get us to his destiny for us. And he says, even if I had to put a bit in your mouth and force you that direction, you will go where I am sending you then. In that call. [00:54:16] Yes. Great. And even though I was just thing about, you know, what does this guy with all those all that does does that. I mean, he was before he was just a CEPR boy, basically just a son that helped on the farm and then look at where he ended up. Yeah. Only in command under the pharaoh. [00:54:38] Well, you know, even in my own life, I'll tell you a story. I don't tell this much, but I got involved with Amway as a freshman in college. You know what Amway is? [00:54:49] Yes. Yes, I do. [00:54:51] Yeah, it's a network marketing company, pyramid company, as people call it. And I come from a well-to-do medical family. And we had a great lifestyle growing up. My dad did very well financially and faithful before the Lord. But in freshman year college, I get hooked in Amway. I get hooked into the approach of, oh, my gosh, you're going to be rich. I thought literally that I was going to graduate college as a millionaire. [00:55:25] So I was. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, that's kind of what they told. I apologize. One moment. You can probably hear that helicopter back there. Good. Is kind of loud. Can you still hear me over the helicopter? [00:55:38] I can. Yeah. OK, great. OK, great. So. So I was about to quit college because I knew I didn't need it. My parents wisely tell me, just finish it. So I did. But I changed my degree and just had a great time in college and in studying. So I get out of college and then I find out I'm not making a bunch of money. In fact, I have to go home and live with my parents and all my friends who got a regular degree. They're getting all these nice cushiony jobs and they're buying homes. And woe is me, every time I see a friend drive by in a Mercedes or BMW or, you know, I was driving old jalopy. [00:56:17] My comment was there. But for me, go I. And after a number of years of that, I really thought I'd screwed up my life. You know, that pivotal point of my life and everything was screwed up. I went from job to job trying to earn money here and there. Nothing was happening. By 10 years, 12, 13 years later, I was still broke. Okay. I found myself unemployed. We had a small house and we've been faithful to the Lord all the time. But nothing was going on. And then the Lord bless us with this business that I started. And do you know what that business was? Adele, tell me it was selling, so during this time I started to really learn about marketing, started to really consume it. I tried a couple of businesses with a friend of mine. They never really amounted to much, but we honed a lot of marketing talent and we developed a product that really was great in generating leads. And so the Lord blessed me with just a little inkling of a business. And my first customer base. Was network marketers. [00:57:39] And then we started to take all this stuff that I learned in Amway, the attitude, the go get it, all this stuff, and we applied it in business and two and a half years later. [00:57:52] We were making a hundred thousand dollars a month in profits. Wow. Can you imagine that? And I look back and I think if it hadn't been for the Lord directed me into Amway, I would never be in business today. But during the time, I really thought I made a bad mistake. And I think all of us can probably look backwards and say the Lord's hand guiding them and kind of on that same topic. [00:58:21] I want to share one other thing. I was at church one day and man was asking me how how is my how my business was. And I told him, You mean in the natural or in the spiritual? Right. I shared that, you know, in the natural. It's like running full speed. The engine is running. The drive shaft is running. The wheels are spinning. But we're going nowhere because we're stuck in the mud, because at that time it felt like we have this big elephant standing in front of us keeping from moving. But I told him in the spiritual God has told me that we're going through wilderness time. Once I get to the wilderness, he's going to move that elephant out of the way. And we're gonna then just take off. And the man said, well, you know, he has a brother and or friend or someone like that who'd gone through some dark times in his business as well. I tell him, no, we're not in dark times. I've been in dark times. My business, but now is not one of them. I said you're only in dark times when you get your eyes off the Lord and put them on the natural. When you become afraid, that's when it's dark. But when you keep your eyes on the Lord, it's always bright. And and I was sharing the example of Peter walking on the water. So when we go through these times in our lives, it's important that we don't keep our eyes on the natural because we get become afraid. We start to question God. We put our eyes on the Lord. And that's where we have our trust. That's where we have our confidence. For sure. Yes. So any any other comments? We got to wrap up. But any thoughts, your comments? [01:00:02] Yeah, just for me. Trying to turn to keep my focus on knowing that all the little things like he just said, all those little things that I think might be ruining me or a bad decision or gas, ash, gas, I should have gone that way or whatever. The Lord still uses it all in his promises to take care of us as his children. Yes. [01:00:27] And I would go one step further if we're faithful before him. And we can honestly look at our life and say there is no sin in my life. I mean, no, no focus have seen in my life. Obviously, we all sin, but there's no sin in our life. Then we can know that we're in the center of wherever he has us. And therefore, not only know that those bad things, Glaude can bring something good out of it, but he's using those bad things to bounce us like that pinball machine. The next step down the path of where he's leading us, it's all part of his plan. [01:01:05] Yeah, to become fully mature. Yes, okay. [01:01:12] He matures us and he puts us where he wants us to be. To be used in his kingdom, to build his temple. And yeah, it's really cool. Really cool. All right. Awesome. [01:01:26] Oh, Beatty. I think we're about out of time. We probably need to wrap it up. But thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for your expertise. And just that, the diligence that you put into studying the word and and teaching it to our listeners and myself as well. This was a great call and I'm excited about our next one. [01:01:45] I am, too. We'll be talking on part three. [01:01:48] Sounds good. I guess we'll see everybody then. [01:01:52] Be blessed. All righty. Bye bye.   p018

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text][/fusion_text][fusion_text]  Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:01] Hi. How are you? [00:00:03] I'm good. [00:00:05] Great. Well, I'm so excited about today. To all of you out there listening, this is Danny Thomas again. And I'm super excited to be here on our next version of Sellers Calling You a Beatty. Michael. As you all know, Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber and the creator, Agent Dominator, one of our top marketing experts in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm excited. What are we talking about today? [00:00:30] Well, today on this radical faith call, which obviously has nothing to do with the real estate marketing, we're gonna be talking about the topic of God's timing versus man's timing. Have you ever had those experiences in your life anywhere? Maybe God had indicated something was going to happen and it just keeps taking longer and longer and longer. It hasn't happened. Or, you know, you're seeking the Lord in prayer and asking for some sort of answer and or an outcome. And it just doesn't seem to happen quite as quickly as you want. [00:01:09] Ever had that goodness? Probably more times than I care to admit to. [00:01:17] And I got frustrated one day, I'm sure, probably many days. And I said, what in the world is going on? Right. God. Until I made this. And yet, where is it? Like Abraham or back when he was Abraham, God said, you're gonna have a son, Abraham. And you're going to have descendants like the stars of heaven. You know how long it took for Abraham to get that promise? [00:01:42] A very long time, 25 years. [00:01:49] And yet he never wavered on something that Lord hit me. I'm reading through Hebrews and he's talking about the men of faith. And one things that says that Abraham believe God for the promise and therefore he was willing to offer up his son, Isaac. And it hit me what that was really all about. I always thought that connection. And this has nothing to do with guys timing, but it kind of ties into it. And it dawned on me, faces in the amplified Bible says Faith is the title deeds of things we do not see yet. And so I was thinking was Abraham, you know, he has this title. The title Deeds says, through Isaac, all of these descendants are coming. And therefore, Abraham had no qualms about sacrificing his son because he knew the promise was good. The title, they would say, was solid and therefore nothing could sort that promise from coming true. So God, if you want me, I offer up Isaac. No big deal because I know something's going to happen because you can't fulfill your promise except through Isaac and therefore it's all temporary. I just thought that was kind of a cool understanding. [00:03:15] Yeah. Yeah. [00:03:17] So let's get into this whole topic of God's timing versus man's timing and where I think the problems come from. If I were to ask a couple of questions, kind of setting this up, the questions I would want to ask are going to be things like why does God delay in answering our prayers that are clearly according to his will? [00:03:45] And I think it's in James that if you pray according to his will, we know that he hears us. And if we know he hears that, we know that we will receive that for which we are familiar with that passage. [00:03:58] Okay. So we're asking clearly, according to God's will. Here's something that comes up a lot of times, especially for parents. Lord, I know it's your will for my child to have a personal saving relationship with you and you pray for that child. He or she is now 20, 25 and 30. And 35 and 40. And 45 and 45 and 50. Okay. And your keep do you keep praying? [00:04:24] And why isn't God answering that? Or maybe another question. Sometimes we act on God's promises and yet we don't see the results we feel we should have. I think Abraham was perfect. Just kind of a case study on that. He's living by faith. And yet where is this child? And then he has his child, Isaac, and he's living by faith. And now God says to sacrifice him. [00:04:50] And it seems like what God has promised and the fulfillment. [00:04:58] Something's missing in that. Gradient, does that make sense? [00:05:02] Yeah, absolutely. [00:05:05] Maybe another type of issue is God. I know you say I'm been healed. Why am I still sick? I'm praying for my healing. Or money. All these things in our lives where we can go back to scripture and we clearly see God's promise. [00:05:29] And we feel that that promise is spoken to us. The scripture gets into us that this is God's promise to us, and yet we don't see things happening. What's happening? There's lots of things that can be going on. Faith, belief, timing. But I want to try to bring some focus into timing on this call and to start off. I'd like you to read a passage for us. And the passage is Mark Levin versus 22, 23, 24. And just to kind of set the stage on this passage, disciples have just come to Jesus and asked a question. And Jesus is now going to teach them about faith. And that's kind of where we are. But within faith is timing. And this is what's going to be real interesting. So let me know when you're ready. [00:06:31] Okay. All right. I'm ready, Mark. Eleven, twenty or 24. Then Jesus said to the disciples, Have faith in God. I'm telling you the truth. You can say to this mountain, may you be lifted up and thrown into the sea. And that will happen. But you must really believe that will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything. And if you believe that you receive that, it will be yours. [00:07:00] Ok, so here's we kind of have two things going along. We have faith and timing. Obviously, we cannot pray. [00:07:09] Without faith and expect to receive it, James says the person who doubts not expect to receive anything from the Lord. But then we also have an element of timing and the timing is in that very last sentence. So read that last part for me again. [00:07:26] Okay, I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you received it, it will be yours. [00:07:34] If you believe that you've received it is received past, present or future tense. [00:07:44] Okay, so if you believe that you've received it. It's already years. That's what he's saying, right? [00:07:52] Mm hmm. When did you get it? Put the next part. [00:07:57] It will be yours, it will be yours. [00:07:59] This will be past, present or future. [00:08:05] I actually think it could be present and future will be. [00:08:11] Does that mean it's right now? [00:08:13] No, that's future. [00:08:15] Okay, so here's the problem that we're running into. [00:08:21] Past tense. I believe I've already received it, but future tense will be granted to me. Do you see the problem? [00:08:32] It's a problem because in our physical world, everything is based on a linear chronicle chronological time. But when you get into the spirit realm. Time really isn't quite so linear. And faith for the most part, has no time constraint at all. We may talk about that a little bit later on. I don't want to go there, but I just want to kind of pose the problem that the problem we're running into with God's timing versus man is God operates in a different frame than we do. And faith operates in a different frame. Faith says you must first believe that it is years that you actually hold that title deed in your hand. And then in the future it's going to be granted. You're granted. And so now we go, Lord is mine. Where is it? Right? You say I'm healed. Where's my healing? You say. He will be safe. Where's the salvation? You say you're going to get us out of this terrible mess we're in. When is it going to happen? Because I've been praying a long time and it hasn't happened. And so we have this constant stress in our life. If we're not careful, but this level of anxiety and level of confusion as to what's going on, and that's that's where the challenge starts to come. So I want to talk about two rooms. I want to talk about the spirit realm and the physical realm. And we see this used throughout scripture and even in our own vernacular, lots of different ways. You have the natural and you have the supernatural. [00:10:15] That's the same thing as the physical versus the spiritual, which is the same thing as the earthly realm versus the heavenly realm. All of these are basically interchangeable because there's this contrast between what we see in the visible world and what actually occurs in the invisible. Are you following me so far on that? [00:10:42] Yes. Yes. [00:10:44] So here's another question for you. If you were to put us on, put it on a scale and weight 1 as greater than the other. Are we? [00:11:00] More natural or supernatural? Or said another way. Are we more physical or spiritual? [00:11:12] Are you asking for my personal opinion? Yes. My personal opinion is that I am more spiritual than I am natural because I believe that my spirit is the only thing that's going to live for eternity, either in heaven or in hell and in my case, in heaven. So I believe that I'm more spiritual than I am physical. [00:11:32] Yes. And I would agree with that. And I would agree with it. For those same reasons. But I would agree with it for one additional reason. If you look at it as you look at authority and control, does the physical have authority over and therefore control over the spiritual realm? [00:11:57] Or do you think the spiritual realm has authority and control over the physical realm? Or are they completely separate and neither one impacts the other? Which one do you think? Which of those three options? [00:12:10] I think the spiritual has control over this goal, but I also believe that whatever you give the most control to or allow to control has the. The most authority over you. In other words. [00:12:30] Yes. Yes. Yes, I agree. [00:12:34] But if we can start with the premise. Or the truth that the spirit realm has authority and control over the physical realm and that there's something there. It doesn't mean that every single thing that occurs in the physical is driven by the spirit, but it does mean that in the hierarchy of things, the spirit realm has authority and impacts the physical realm much more than the physical realm impacts the spirit. It's kind of a one way direction on a two way. There are things we do in our lives that can impact our life. But I would say that those things we do in our lives impact our lives first and foremost, because they either neglect what goes on in the spirit realm or they take advantage of what goes on in the spirit room. When we focus on ourselves and on our own situation as opposed to focus on God, we get one outcome. But when we focus on and trust in the Lord, we get a different outcome. Does that make sense? Yeah. So what we do in the physical impacts, but ultimately if we do in the physical is either rejecting or neglecting the spirit or it is falling in line with the spirit. [00:14:02] And therefore it's still the spiritual side of what goes on that makes the impact in our lives. Is that. [00:14:11] Yeah, it's a matter of fact, I was thinking when you were saying that I was just thinking about creation, creation of the world God created. He spoke and the world came into being. But all of that came after the spirit. That to me, I mean, that was just something that popped in my head. I'm like, okay, well, clearly the spirit realm has authority because the created world came through the spirit realm. [00:14:40] Yes. Bingo. And so when we start to understand that, then things start to make a little bit more sense because we're so trained, we only look in the physical, we don't look in the spirit. [00:14:53] And I'm not talking about we have to have spiritual, spiritual eyes and see in the spirit realm like a like a quote unquote, a or. But we can't neglect what's going on in that room. So let's move into an element of the spiritual realm. And since you brought up creation, let's go there real quickly. Let's go to Genesis 1 1, Genesis 1 1. [00:15:22] Genesis 1 1. [00:15:24] Before you go out on me, I want to set the stage as we read these. We read them with an understanding of where we're going. I want to show us that God transcends time. That God is outside of the realm of time. And because he's outside the realm of time. What we think of this time or when something shouldn't happen is different from our perspective than his perspective. And I want to first take that up from scripture and then I'm going to give you kind of walk you through an example of how this operates within our lives. And it's really cool. So let's let you region says 1 1 1 1. [00:16:07] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. [00:16:11] All right. So in the beginning, God created. In the beginning. God already existed. Does that make sense? [00:16:25] Yeah. [00:16:27] So we have this first statement of guys, the eternal existence. That exists. I want to say even before time. Give me a moment. I'll back that up scripturally. Let's now turn to John 858. [00:16:53] All right. John, eight fifty eight. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth. Before Abraham was even born, I am. [00:17:06] So now we have Jesus claiming that he existed not only before Abraham, but that Jesus exists eternally. That's what I mean. That means I am. It's not that I was or I was created. It's an eternal existence. The same as with the Lord. And we know obviously of God as these exist eternally so as Jesus because they're one. All right. So let's look at let's look at Titus. 1 2. This is going to be really cool. We're getting closer. [00:17:42] We want to be. Go ahead. [00:17:44] All right, Titus 1, verse 2. This truth gives them confidence that they have eternal life, which God who does not lie promised then before the world began. [00:17:58] Promised before the world began, the amplified Bible says, before the world or the ages of time began. So now we're getting a little bit closer that scriptures are starting to indicate God existed before time. But let's look at one final verse. Let's go to Jude. 1 and we're going to read 24 and 25. [00:18:30] June 1, 24, 25. Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away. And we'll bring you with great joy into his Gore's presence without a single fault. All glory to him. Who alone is God? Our Savior. Jesus Christ, our Lord. All glory, majesty. Power and authority are his before all time and in the present and beyond time. [00:18:59] And that call for all time. [00:19:03] And now beyond all time here, we have scriptural reference that says. God created time because God existed before time began. When we start to look at God's promises. And the impact of this whole thing called faith, believe you have received it passed. And then it will be years, future tense. We can't reconcile this problem in the natural because the natural is bound by time. But when we move outside of the realm of time now, it's really easy to reconcile what's going on. And the more we can understand from God's perspective, the more we can live in a way that honors, the more we live by faith and faith in a very simplistic type of definition. [00:20:01] I mean, it's multifaceted, so you can't just put it in a single box. But ultimately, faith is seeing everything from God's perspective because it's seeing it through his eyes and not our eyes through what he knows as truth, not what we think of as reality. This kind of forming making sense. So I want to I want to use a tube as an example. So picture a tube like a garden hose. Okay. So imagine right now you've got a 10 foot garden hose. With a 10 foot garden hose, it's hollow all the way through and I can put water in the front end of that garden hose and that water is going to travel through the garden hose and go out the other end. Are you picturing the picture right now? [00:20:54] Yeah, yeah. [00:20:56] So this garden hose, in essence, represents time. Time starts at the beginning. You put some water in at the beginning and then over time it comes out on the other end. If we were to look at the garden hose as time, then you could say that that garden hose starts in Genesis, the creation of the heavens and the earth, and it ends in Revelation, the new heavens and the new earth and everything that happens through Genesis, through Exodus, through first and second Samuel into Chronicles, into the mind all the way through the New Testament. There's this linear timeline that those events are traveling through this garden hose of time. [00:21:52] Picture that if we were to take a zoom in on that garden hose. Now, that garden hose can represent your life. And my life from the point that we born travelling through to the point that we die, everything in our life is contained within that garden hose because that garden hose is time. Now, here's something interesting in this garden hose. Let's assume that you you were to become like the old movie, Honey, I Shrunk the kids. Right. So you become really tiny and you get a an inner tube and it's really tiny and you start the journey at the beginning of that hose. All right. If there are waterfalls. This is a 10 foot hose. If there's a big waterfall at marker number four foot and you're just starting the hose, do you see those waterfalls? [00:22:58] No. [00:22:58] No. When did you get to see those waterfalls? When do you get to experience that waterfall, when you're going through the hose, when it was like right behind you. [00:23:08] About to take you out. [00:23:09] That's right. When you're right there. Okay. Now let's. Now, let's assume for a moment did that garden hose is made out of clear plastic. Okay. So you're the honey who shrunk the kids, let's say. I know I'm the guy who shrunk the kids and I shrunk you and you're starting on your journey through your hose and foot. Number four, there's a raging waterfall. You don't see it until you get there. But I'm outside of the hose. Do I see it before you get there? Oh, yeah. Do I see it as you begin your journey at the very beginning of the hose? Yes. Yeah. Not only do I see the waterfall at foot number four, but I see also what happens at foot number eight, nine and ten. Does that make sense? Yes. Why do I see it? You don't. [00:24:09] Because you're on the outside. [00:24:13] I'm on the outside looking in. So now let's take this hose a little bit closer. So let's say, for example, that I am God, I'm not. But let's say that I was in this example and you were Penny and I see you traveling through your homes. And in that traveling through, you ask me, I really want this special gift. And I promise you, I have already given it to you. Now, you're right now on foot. Number five. I put that gift at foot number six. Here's the question. Did I already give you the gift? [00:25:10] Have you already received it? No. Hold on. Pray you have received it. Have I given it to you? [00:25:22] Yes. If I've given it to you, then have you received it? Yes. Okay. When will you take physical, physical possession of that gift? [00:25:36] When I get to it, you get to it. [00:25:40] So now we start to get this understanding. How can you receive past tense? And yet it will be your future tense. Okay. And you can receive it because when God gives a gift, he's not operating inside of our homes. He's operating on the outside of it because he created the hose. He sees the whole thing. [00:26:12] Hmm hmm hmm hmm. [00:26:13] He's going to put that gift marker number six feet and says, I have given it to you. And then it's your job to go down the hose until you receive possession, but you have to believe. Okay, so let me share some other fun implications of this. [00:26:34] When was Jesus crucified? According to the Bible. [00:26:40] As far as age. [00:26:44] When was he crucified? [00:26:47] Well, he was crucified in 30, and it was a time after Passover. [00:26:58] And then when the time line. [00:27:02] Was he crucified? [00:27:06] Let's say he was crucified on. It was Passover the next day. I believe the day after Passover is when he was crucified. [00:27:18] All right. All right. So what year would that be, roughly? Generally speaking, let's say. [00:27:32] A lot of math, I guess we know about 33 is a calendar date. But here's the question. According to the Bible, Quinn was crucified. [00:27:51] That's a good question. [00:27:53] According to the Bible, he was crucified before the world began. [00:28:00] Yes. Do you remember that that's in Revelations crucified the lamb, crucified before the foundation of the world. [00:28:11] So how could he have been crucified before the foundation of the world and yet. Two thousand years ago, we see him up on a cross. [00:28:21] Yeah, that's really good. [00:28:26] What's the implication? The implication is. Kind of a lot. Boy, this could go really deep if I'm not careful. So let me make it simple. So let's go back to the timeline of just 2000 years. We're going to keep this kind of simple at the point of crucified crucifixion or at that point of of Jesus becoming the lamb slain for the righteous to make us righteous. [00:28:56] Then when you accept Christ as your savior. Are your sins forgiven immediately, immediately. [00:29:10] Is it only past sense or future sense as well? Okay, but you haven't committed those sins yet. So how can it be that when you ask Christ to come into your life, that you're forgiven for all past sins? And those that have yet to commit. [00:29:35] Well, because I'm not perfect and there's only one perfect person, Jesus Christ, because I'm a human and not perfect. It's very possible that I'm going to sin in my life. God's saying I'm going to go ahead and take care of that. [00:29:51] God's guarding all say I'm going to take care of it. But a little bit more. Let's look from God's perspective, not man's perspective. So I've got this. This 10 foot clear plastic garden hose in front of me that represents all of the generation of men from Genesis to Revelation. Somewhere around probably foot number five, let's call it somewhere halfway in that process. It could have been before or after the physical time chronologically when Jesus comes to earth and is crucified. And at that point, God says sins are forgiven. Right. [00:30:38] So when he says sins are forgiven, he's speaking that truth outside of the timeline, outside of the tube. And therefore, it impacts the entire to not only those who look forward to the coming of the messiah and their faith was counted to them as righteousness, but also those that come after that chronological point in time that look backwards to what Christ did. Their faith is counted to them as righteousness and righteousness means a sense have been forgiven. Follow me. Yes. Okay. So what that means is that chronological point in time when we say, Lord, forgive me of my sins, please come into my heart. Just say whatever little simple commitment that we make. It is in the spirit realm already done for our entire life. We have been made righteous in our life, not just to that point. That's kind of the technical reason. There is a very simplistic version of technical reason why when we've asked Jesus into our life, our sins are forgiven, including those that we have not yet done. We don't know we're going to do that, but God looks in that little clear plastic tubing, says, shame on you. But I've already forgiven you. He knows what's going to happen and it's all been forgiven. [00:32:11] Yeah. Yeah. [00:32:14] Okay, so then. We ask for a special gift or God gives us a promise of something to come. [00:32:24] And now we have a slight variation to this tube that I have to make to help illustrate what's going on within this timeline. Have you ever seen one of those little splitters that you can put on a garden hose that you screwed in one end and then it has basically to end so you can now have two garden hoses coming out of one? You know what I'm talking about? [00:32:47] Yes, I do. Okay. So that is a decision junction on this garden garden hose of our time. So now here's the point. I want you to understand. I want you to see if we can make this simple. So you're cruising along because I shrunk you. You're on your little inner tube going through your clear plastic tube of your life and you don't know what's coming ahead of you because you can't see it. But I as God, I see everything that's going on. I know what's going to happen before you even know what's going to happen. And therefore, I can say, Penny, trust me, I got your back on this one. Okay. [00:33:29] So now God says, first off, let me come back and ask a question. Do you think there have been any times when you've asked God for help? It would have been within his will that you receive that blessing, but for whatever reason, you never received it. [00:33:56] I'm not going to do. [00:33:59] Not that you just have been delayed receiving it, but maybe you missed out on the blessing deeply. That's possible. [00:34:06] I do. I do. [00:34:09] Yeah. Because we even see this back in that passage. What was it? Mark Levin, 24 What ever you pray and believe that you received them and they shall be granted you. What if we don't believe that we receive them? Is it possible that we miss out on those things that we've asked God for? [00:34:32] Yes, because I think even if it's there, if you don't believe, you're not going see it. [00:34:39] Yes, absolutely. So now this takes me into the decision junction and this is now another element of God's timing. God says first you ask. You ask me. I'm God and this little example, you asked me, God, I really want this special gift. And I somehow communicate back to you, says Penny. I've given it to you. Now, believe it. You're to believe that you've received it. [00:35:18] What I do at that moment is ahead of you. [00:35:22] We have a decision junction and I place that gift on the left hand junction. The left hand junction, actually, we'll call it the right him, because that's more biblically accurate. So on the right hand junction, you get to the fork. You can go left or right on the right hand junction. I place your gift to face. On the left hand junction, you bypass it completely. So now you come to the decision point. This junk decision junction in your life and you're trying to decide which way to go. Is it possible that you believe by faith and you take the right hand junction? [00:36:07] Okay. [00:36:08] And if you believe by faith and take the right injunction, then as you're going down that inner tube of life, you're gonna run right into the promise that I've given you because I place it right there. But is it also possible that when you get to that decision junction that you doubt? [00:36:27] And you end up going left instead of right. Sure. [00:36:32] Okay, so if you doubt you go left. Does that make. My God, my promise of giving you a gift null and void? In other words, did I lie to you? I told you I was going to give you this gift and you didn't get it. Did I lie? [00:36:52] No. What happened? [00:36:56] I chose the wrong path. [00:36:59] You acted by sight, not by faith. You acted in fear and doubt rather than by faith. And these decision junctions always come up in turbulent waters. And in almost all cases, the passive face looks like a raging waterfall and tumultuous rapids. And the task of doubt looks like calm water. Have you ever experienced that? [00:37:32] Yes. Yeah. Okay. So what we do in our natural is we go, oh, that can't be right. Right versus left. [00:37:42] That can't be correct. Right. That can't be correct. It's not going right. I must need to go left because how much easier it is. And God always asks us to do something bold and step out. Faith is living on the edge because faith is not living by sight, but living by God's word alone. It's doing what God says to do even when our naturalize say, that's crazy. And when we get to these decision junctions. [00:38:21] It is possible, I believe, to miss out on God's highest and blessed and greatest blessings for us in our lives because we choose the wrong path, because we make a decision by sight rather than decision by following him. And so this is that fork in the road. And let's read real quickly a couple other things. Go to first, Peter, 3 8. This is a passage that we're all probably familiar with. First, Peter, three, I just want to kind of illustrate what I think this passage is kind of saying. [00:39:04] All right. First, Peter, three verse eight, finally, all of you should be of one mind, sympathize with each other, love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tender hearted and keep a humble attitude. [00:39:20] First, Peter. [00:39:21] Maybe I am first here. [00:39:24] Okay, then maybe a second, Peter. But the one I was looking for is with the Lord. One day is a thousand years and years as one day. And just try to grasp that, because with the Lord being outside of time, you know, whether it's one inch or one centimeter, one foot on that timeline. He sees it all. There is no time within the Lord. [00:39:51] The time is only within our livelihood turn. One less, one less passage on this, James, 1, 6 and 7. [00:40:02] Saying. [00:40:05] All right, James. 1, 6 and 7. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. [00:40:28] Okay, so we get down to that decision junction. [00:40:33] Can you see how easy it is to start to waver left, right or left, right or left? We pray to God. What are your eyes telling you has to be the best solution. When you pray to God, what are your eyes telling you? [00:40:52] Whatever. The easiest path. [00:40:54] Easiest path, right. And sometimes God's word says. The right path, not the left path. And so this is when we start to waiver. What happens is if we waver too long, we pass right on by where we ought to be and we go down that path of doubt. And this is what I think James is kind of talking about when we get to these decision junctions, not to expect anything from the Lord if we don't fully trust him. The things that he gives us, he gives us by faith. Spirit realm overrules the physical realm. He gives us in the spirit realm first because it's outside of time. He places it in our future some place. But it's us going through our physical realm, making the choices of faith that lead us to that promise that's been given first in the spirit room and then it manifests in the physical. But if we doubt and waver, we end up taking the wrong choices and we totally bypass where the Lord had for us and those great blessing. That doesn't mean that he can't move that blessing down the line again, but it does mean that we're missing the best path for our lives. And that's this whole concept of the timeline and kind of how it works, the implications on this. I think it's several. We need to remain persistent and safe if we take that low definition we've been working on. [00:42:28] Faith is choosing. To believe an act on God's truth rather than choosing to act. On the reality of the natural, it will never make sense. And usually when we choose to act on God's truth, the natural is saying, don't do it, don't do it. It's nothing but danger and hardship. And yet God is saying, come on. Trust me, you won't believe the blessings that await you if you just trust me. Okay. And so we have to remain persistent in faith because when God has promised. His promise will come true if we persistent faith. Hebrews 10, 35 and 36 basically says don't throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. And he says once you have done the will of God, you'll receive what was promised. He's talking about this whole thing, that these promises are received by faith, just like just like salvation is received by faith. I think the second implication is stop asking. And start thinking about this. Have you ever been in a time in your life? Let's call it financial, because I think we all go through financial struggles. Have you ever been in a time in your life financially where you're almost pleading with the Lord, help us, help us. We're about to sink. We need help. Have you ever been kind of desperate stage? [00:44:08] Yes. [00:44:10] Prior to getting into that, has God's word promise that he will take care of you as long as you trust him? [00:44:19] Yeah. [00:44:20] Okay. So when we come into that state where his work says he'll take care of us. [00:44:25] And now we're pleading. Oh, my gosh, I'm about to sink. Is that. Pleading a prayer of faith for prayer site. [00:44:36] Definitely it's based. [00:44:39] The site is fear based because the devil wants us to believe what we see because we'll get afraid and God wants us to believe what he says. And it's totally two totally different things. One other implication of this whole timeline concept is realizing that we can't see what God sees. And if God is promised, then we need to stop asking. Or maybe I should say stop pleading. And start thinking now if we take the story of Alija and the rain. Okay, so this goes back to the time of the Kings. [00:45:25] Israel and Judah has broken and have broken up. Ahab is now king and Elijah has. He's up on Mount Carmel. And he's just finished killing all of the bill process because they prayed for far to come from God to light their sacrifice. And it didn't. Elijah prayed for God to. Bring far down and it totally sucked up and burned up all of the sacrifice, the stones, the water and everything else. So there's just been this great victory. And then Elijah tells Ahab. Hop on your chariot and go before the rains come and you get stuck in the rain and everything was dry and dusty. Elijah believed God that it was going to rain. [00:46:17] Follow me so far. So we're at the stage where a promise has been given. Elijah knows what's going to happen. But then what does Alija do? Do you remember what he does right after he tells? They have to hop in his chair and go. [00:46:33] I don't remember, he goes up and he bowed down and he prays and he tells his servant, look out over the horizon and tell me what you see. The servant comes back and says, I don't see anything. So what is Elijah do again? [00:46:48] He tells me to go back and look again. [00:46:52] That's right. Elijah prays again and says, go back and look. Elijah does that seven times until there's a little cloud the size of a man's hand. So here we have how we should operate. First off, let me ask you a question. Do you think Elijah believed rains were coming? [00:47:14] Yes. [00:47:15] Yes. Why did he pray? Was he pleading with God, please, Lord, please, we need the rains, please. Or do you think his prayer was something different? [00:47:27] I think his prayer was thanking, thanking God for the rain, just believing that it's coming. [00:47:34] Yes, it's a different level of prayer. Different type of prayer. It's a prayer of Lord. Send the range, according to your word. Because I know they're coming. I thank you in advance for those rains that are coming. That is what our prayers ought to be when we come before the Lord. Not a prayer of pleading and fear, but prayers of anticipation and thinking because we know God's word is true. And then the third implication is sort of like Yogi Berra, you hear these Yogi Berra saying when you come to a fork in the road, take it. I just see this physical fork sitting there. And when you come to when you come to a fork, take the fork and the knife also there's a knife. But in this case, when you come to that fork in the road of your life, that decision junction always take the fork of faith. Because that's the only way that you're going to receive these abundant blessings that God has for you. Now, his overriding grace will still bless you, even in your abundant blessings are only going to come when we take those forks of faith. [00:49:01] So that's the. [00:49:06] Any final thoughts or comments before we wrap up this call? [00:49:12] I was thinking when you were talking about the path and choosing the path, it's usually rockier. The one that the Lord has tends to sometimes in the natural look like the one that you don't want to be on. And I was thinking about myself included, but I know so many others tend to pray when they're going down that path or deliver me like deliver me from this storm. Please make this storm stop. It's just overwhelming me and whatever. And it just hit me that a lot of times women are praying to be delivered from that. If God were to answer that, then we would miss the promise that he had set out for us, because if we're praying to be delivered or removed from that situation, we're not gonna be on that path anymore. And we're going to miss that promise. [00:50:05] What you were just talking about, the God's already put out a sobering thought, especially at those storms are brought about as a test. We all go through a wilderness in our life. [00:50:18] And I would think if you zoom in and out of our life, there's like a little wilderness is the wilderness is a time of testing before we receive a blessing. There are times when we're being attacked and there's some discernment there. But I think the main thing with all of this is I remember one time I was going through some really tough times financially with the business and I was pleading with God. I was pleading because I was afraid almost to the point of tears. And that's a moat. And so for me to be almost the point of tears, it was really dramatic. And I remember the Lord speaking to me and just see my spirit and saying something along the lines of, do you not trust me? Taking care of you all these years. Do you really think I'm going to let you down now? It wasn't quite those words, but that was the gist of it. And it really kind of shook me and I thought, you're right, I need to be. Acting in faith and not in fear, and I think that's the junction we come to the forks in the road. Which way are we going to act? Because Peter walking on the water, so long as he acted. Taking the fork of faith, he walked on the water. As he took the fork of sight and fear, he sunk. He missed out on God's greatest blessings for him. At that moment in his life, because he acted in fear. And that's the whole thing here, is it's all part of that timeline and which way you go. [00:52:03] Oh, well, Beatty, I think we're about out of time. This is great. Today, I really appreciated this talk. And just hear your insight and your wisdom on this subject. P011 [00:52:15] It was wonderful. [00:52:16] I appreciate that. All right. Well, until next time, we'll see you guys later. [00:52:22] All right. [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

  Transcription (was completed by automated process.  Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)   [00:00:00] Hi, Beatty. I'm so looking forward to carrying on our conversation today. For those of you who were not with us last week, we will be talking more about my medical plan. We're going to be naming Beatty Carmichael next. I guess I was calling you Beatty master Barber. The creator of Dominator is one of the marketing experts in the real estate field. And Beatty, I'm just really looking forward to hearing this discussion. No, I'm fine.   [00:00:35] Yes. And again, just as a quick disclaimer, if you're coming to this call to learn about real estate marketing, this is one of our radical faith calls. We're not going to talk anything about real estate. We're all gone. We're going to be talking about Christian principles and living your life for Christ. So if you don't want to listen to this one, go on and turn it off and go to the next podcast. When it comes out. So. Yes. So last time we talk about ties today, I want to talk about offerings because ties and offerings go together because they're both our treasure that we usually hold on to because it's our money. But before we do, I wanted to clarify or actually correct one thing from the last session, if I may, Penny more in the last session we talked about no longer under law, but under grace and I talked about it no longer under the Mosaic Law. Well, after the call, the law kind of convicted me, said you better research that, because that may not be exactly accurate. So I went back to Romans 6 and Romans 6 and 7 and 8 and 9 and realized, no, it's not. The mosaic clocks that were no longer under it is the law that then Moses wrote down. But it's not. All of the light of the Mosaic Law are the do's and don'ts of all the little action items that you do. But I want to clarify what scripture says is the difference between underline under grace. So real quickly, I'm just going to go through a bunch. This is in Romans 6, 7, 8 and 9. I just want to pull out some some things if you go through it.   [00:02:23] Paul is making a constant comparison between law and grace, but he starts to use different terms. I think as I run through these, you'll start to see the difference. It's not that galore. We're no longer supposed to do what the law says. That's not what. No longer under law, but under grace means we still do it. It's just that we do it from for a different reason. So Romans six 13 is where it says we're no longer under law, but under grace then enrollments six, 17 and 18. It says that we went from slaves of sin to slaves of righteousness. So now we start to see that under law, you're a slave to sin, under grace, you're a slave to righteousness. Then we move to Romans seven. Twenty nine. And and Paul says that I serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, I serve the law of sin. So you're still talking about under a law? Under grace. Under grace. I serve the law with my mind. Under law, I serve the law of sin with my flesh. Then we move into Romans a wine. And it says, The law of the spirit of life has set you free from the law of sin and death. Still going back to no longer under law, sin and death, but under grace, which is spirit of life. Romans age six to set the mind on the flesh his death. But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. So we've gone from law slave to sin, which is flesh, which is that grace is slave to righteousness, which is mine. And the spirit which is life is. Are you following me on this, Penny?   [00:04:12] Okay.   [00:04:14] And the end of the final thing is Romans nine thirty and thirty to the Gentiles have attained righteousness by faith. But Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not obtained it because they pursued it as if it were based on work. And so here is basically what it means and not no longer under law, but under grace. It's two sides of the same coin. So we have a coin. In that coin is God's spiritual law. This is what we were talking about last time. We were going to talk about this time. Last time, the spiritual always focused on tithing. This time we're going to focus on offering. But on the law side of the coin, you have to do the works. Works could never get you there because it says in Romans 7 the law is spiritual, but the flesh cannot comprehend the law cannot do the law. So it is always the law of failure and therefore sin and death. But on the other side of the coin is still the spiritual law. But on the other side, it's grace, which is by faith. I've been saved by grace through faith, say by faith. Through grace. I think it's grace through faith. I'm not no longer myself. But the work of Christ that has worked within me. Okay. So it's we come at it from a different perspective. I'm a slave to righteousness because I'm now righteous as opposed to I'm a slave to sin because I'm central. That's no longer under law, but under grace. So that's the clarification. All right. So let's jump in to financial stewardship really quick through this. I want to look at a couple of things. So if you've got your Bible handy. I'm going to have you look it up. So we're going to start in Second Corinthians Nine so you can just kind of turn there. We're going to start with first six in just a moment, but I want to lay the groundwork for what we're doing. OK.   [00:06:13] So when the Lord has us, he has our money. If he doesn't have us, he doesn't have our money. As I mentioned on the last session, you can look at someone's checkbook and their calendar and say pretty much exactly what they really believe in. OK. How do they spend their time and spend their money? So when we talk about ties, we talked about it being a spiritual law of tithing and it's holy to the Lord. But tithing is 10 percent. OK. It's the first tenth is what God says it is. So the next thing we want to talk about is this thing called offering, because offering now takes us above the time in real simple terms to kind of put some terminology when we earn money. A tenth of it automatically belongs to God and the 90 percent of it belongs to us to handle it in a way that God wants us to. Now we know that God owns it all, but from a spiritual law standpoint, the first tenth is holy and set apart to God. The rest of it is ours to do with as we choose within levels of righteousness and how it would please him. Follow me so far. OK. So now we want to look at is what is this thing called offerings and how is is expressed. And so in Second Corinthians 9, Paul is talking to the Corinthians on financial giving, but he starts to use some really interesting terms. So read Second Corinthians 9 6.   [00:07:57] 0 farmer or a small crop, but the one who won a general crop.   [00:08:07] Ok. So right now, Paul is using an agrarian term to express financial truths, because this agrarian term actually is a spiritual law. It's a law that seed always reproduces after its own kind. The seed of man produces man. The seed of a fruit tree produces another tree of that same fruit. The seed of sin reproduces sin. The seed of righteousness produces righteousness, the seed of God. It says that Jesus was formed that from the seed of God, essentially. And that he had no sin in him because his seed was righteous. And so we have this concept that a spiritual law that seed reproduces after its own kind. And now Paul is talking in financial terms as a seed. Okay. So then let's read the next next first verse 7.   [00:09:14] All right. We must decide in your own heart how much to go and don't get reluctantly or in response to peer pressure. God was the person who gets cheerfully right.   [00:09:28] So we have a couple of things here that you must do. My translation says, Lady, each one do justice. He is purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. So it just takes fewer words to say the same thing. So the first step is it's a heart thing. It's not a mind thing. It's a thing of the heart. Okay. If you only do what's required, it's under compulsion. What your. Your version says peer pressure.   [00:10:02] I think you can go beyond peer peer pressure and say, well, the Lord requires it. So let me give it right. And that's not what the Lord is looking for. Let me have you. I want to show you something real interesting. Do you remember Cain and Abel?   [00:10:18] They are all OK and they both offer sacrifice or in offering up to the Lord, God accepts one and rejects the other.   [00:10:26] Remember that war? Do you remember why?   [00:10:34] I think it was the heart, the heart behind it. One of them gave cheerfully and knew that what he had been given was the laws in the first place. So he was happy to return it to the Lord or to offer it to the Lord as a sacrifice, cause he knew where it came from. And then the other one. I feel like it was a jealousy thing in his heart. That was a heart issue.   [00:11:00] The jihadist who must turn their traditions genesis for verses 3, 4 and 5. For Genesis 4 versus 3, 4 and 5.   [00:11:12] Would you marry that? Yes. All right.   [00:11:15] When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift. The best portions of the firstborn lands from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift. But he did not accept Cain in his gift. This made team very angry, and he looked dejected.   [00:11:38] All right. So tell me. Look at the look at what he just said. What is the difference between the two offerings that Cain and Abel made? What is the scripture? Tell us about how it describes those offerings.   [00:11:53] Cool presented some of his crop. He took a portion of what he had or horrible as a gift to the Lord. This all part of it doesn't it doesn't specify which part, says some partners. All Moore brought the very best course. The first part.   [00:12:16] Yeah. So. So that this is the difference. Cain brought his gift under compulsion. I got to bring this offering to the Lord. Let me just swipe some of my fruit and I'll come bring it to you.   [00:12:31] Abel says, I won't give the Lord the very best of the very best. So he's not only the first. It says that he gives of the first born of his flock, but he gives the fat portions of the firstborn. So the fat portions are the best of the best of that animal. And so he gives the best of the animal of the best of all of the animals. Do you see the difference? Yeah. And so one was giving under compulsion. The other was giving cheerfully out of a heart of love. That's what God looks for. He honors the heart, not the action. Simply to give and to give more doesn't do it. And this goes back to it's a spiritual thing. It's not the action that we go through. It's the heart in which we go through. In fact, James talked about this. He said. You say you have faith. I have work. And I'll show you my faith by my works. In other words, the actions emanate from the heart. And that's what that's what Paul is talking here. In Second Corinthians 9 7, God loves a cheerful giver, not one who gives under a compulsion.   [00:13:48] Ok, so let's go back to Second Corinthians 9, and that's why.   [00:13:54] So let's go now to the next verse. Verse 8. OK, so real quickly, Sade reproduces after its kind. God wants us to give from the heart out of a cheerful heart, not any compulsion. And now we're in verse saying, let's see what it says there.   [00:14:13] All right. And God will generously provide all war. Well, will all come every single point we love to share with others.   [00:14:24] God will generously supply all you need. Does that sound like it's a maybe or it's a fact?   [00:14:34] Welcome back.   [00:14:36] Well, now for those more literal translation is out there. You'll read an ESB or an ISP and it says, well, hold on, it says God is able to make all grace. How are you getting this? God will do it. OK, we'll generously give. So. So let me talk on this. This is really cool. So my version, NAACP says and God is able to make old grace a bounty. So, Penny, when you and I use the word able, like I say, hey, Penny, are you able to grab that chicken out of the oven for me?   [00:15:21] Are you OK?   [00:15:23] What does that mean that you will or does that simply mean that you physically are able to if you choose to?   [00:15:35] If I ask them, how are you able, what are thinking about how I grew up in school?   [00:15:41] Me that means I'm physically able to make them do it.   [00:15:46] You can do it. Exactly. So that's not how this word is used, because the actual Greek word that says that's been translated into the English table actually means is powerful, mighty and will very emphatic. Just like your translation says he will generously give. Okay. So the key point here, one of the key points. Is that God says that he will generously give back to you. Rick, you read your your version again. I love the way it reads.   [00:16:25] God will generously provide all your stuff for you.   [00:16:29] Oh, God will generously provide all you need. My version and God is able. Will is powerful, mighty, and will make all grace a bounty. So they're saying the same thing will generously provide all you need.   [00:16:47] Ok, now continue.   [00:16:51] Then you already have everything you and you left over.   [00:16:56] Always does that sometimes. Part of the time or all the time. All the time.   [00:17:02] Always have everything you need. Does that mean there going to you know, you're going to run out of money and can't pay your bills?   [00:17:11] No, that's everything.   [00:17:13] Everything you need. All right. And then what's the last part of that verse?   [00:17:16] And plenty left over to share with others.   [00:17:20] Ok, so now for the really deep questions. You ready?   [00:17:28] Ok, I hear that hesitancy.   [00:17:31] Ok, so the last time we talked about the tide being 10 percent, because that's technically what the tide is.   [00:17:38] That's what God says. The first 10 is mine. So an offering is everything above the tide. Are you following me?   [00:17:50] Ok, now we're supposed to give the tides cheerfully and not earn a compulsion. But regardless of how we give it, it's supposed to be given.   [00:17:58] Ok, so but the offering is purely what's called a freewill offering. It's from the heart. So if I give 12 percent of my income, technically what that says is I'm giving tithe plus 2 percent offering. Follow me so far. OK. Does God God's word ever lie?   [00:18:24] Now, is it completely true?   [00:18:27] 100 percent.   [00:18:29] Ok. So based on this passage, Second Corinthians 9 8.   [00:18:35] If I cheerfully give 12 percent of my gross income. Does this mean that guy? Can and will meet all of my needs and everything at all times.   [00:18:53] Absolutely.   [00:18:55] All right. If I give 14 percent of my income. Does this mean that God will generously meet all my needs in everything at all times?   [00:19:09] Yes.   [00:19:11] If I give 20 percent of my income. Will he still meet all of my needs and everything at all times?   [00:19:20] Yes.   [00:19:22] So here's the big question. At what point is God unable to do that, to meet all my needs? At what point of my giving is God unable?   [00:19:35] I think about the fact that his nature and his character is not. It's not possible for his nature and his character not to meet a need. Does that make sense? No. I came out right, but I just I'm thinking about his nature and character. It's actually it would go in complete opposition of who he is as a father to not me to meet.   [00:20:01] I might qualify that statement because there are some technicalities there. There are people who have need of healing that don't get healed. Would you agree? When there are people in financial struggles that aren't getting out of financial struggles. Would you agree? Well, OK, so that statement is true within two caveats. Number one, that we're living and acting by faith and that there is a legal opportunity for the law to act in that direction. Say when we sin, we give the enemy a legal right to attack us. And when we have unrepentant sin, that legal right remains. God may want to relieve us of the attacks, but legally, until that sin is repented, he is not able to release that legal. That legal right from the enemy. I don't know if that makes sense. Am I right? I don't want to get too far in that direction, but.   [00:21:07] Okay. Okay.   [00:21:09] So. So there is God at the heart of God. And then there is the spiritual laws that God is put in place. And he wants us to follow his spiritual laws.   [00:21:25] And when we followed them by faith, forgive those who have trespass against you. And and we have repented of our sins. We've denied ourselves.   [00:21:37] When we do all of these things, the more we operate in unison with the father, the more the father can bless us fully as his son.   [00:21:50] But the less we operate in unison with the father, the less the Lord can bless us as his son.   [00:22:00] Did I lose you or is.   [00:22:02] No, I'm just thinking, yeah, and I totally agree with that. Okay. So, yeah.   [00:22:07] So I just want to qualify your statement because it's not quite so black and white. But generally speaking, it is, yes. So. If so, back to this topic. If there is no point in giving that we can give guys ability to meet all of our needs and take care of us and provide an abundance. Then here's a simple statement that we can pull from this Scripture. You cannot give God's ability to provide for you as he has promised.   [00:22:45] Would you agree with that statement or or.   [00:22:49] Ok, so now let's look at another passage. We can go back to Malachi 3, verse 10. So last time we talked about verses 8 and 9. Which says because you haven't been bringing in your ties into the storehouse, as is my spiritual law, you are Kirst with a curse. And he's talking to the Levitin, the priest of which we are royal priesthood.   [00:23:17] So he's talking to us. But then he says something really interesting right after that. And so now we're going to go to Malachi 3 10 and read that verse.   [00:23:29] Ok. Bring all your tie into the storehouse. So there will be enough food in my temple. If you do that as the Lord in heaven. Amen. I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing. So great you won't have room enough to take it and test me in there.   [00:23:52] Try it.   [00:23:53] Perfect. Did you hear that last part? Test me. Where have we put something else? We've heard in the Bible about testing the Lord. Anything come to mind?   [00:24:03] Oh, for sure. Old Testament.   [00:24:07] Do not test the Lord, not just the Lord, but yet hear the Lord's suggestion.   [00:24:14] How do we reconcile those two statements? Jesus even told us. Satan says no, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And yet here the Lord says test him. What is the difference? This is important to understand the difference.   [00:24:34] That's a good question. Yeah.   [00:24:38] All right, so let me let me make it real easy. All right. When your child disobeys you, are they testing you?   [00:24:47] Yeah. Okay. That's.   [00:24:51] The type of tests that God says, do not put me to the test, do not test me like a disobedient child. But the Lord also has put certain promises in place and he wants us to test those promises. In other words, to prove those promises, true. Here's a picture, an illustration. I build a chair out of wood and I want to make sure that it's going to hold you up. I want to make sure it's strong. So I have to test the chair. I'm gonna get on it. Stand, jump, jump up and down. I'm gonna find the biggest, fattest, heaviest person I can find. Or two or three of them say, y'all sit in the chair all at the same time, jump up and down on the chair, and the more they can stress the chair and the chair doesn't break and the chair has passed the test. Does that make sense? So what the Lord is saying in Malachi 310 when he says test me now and this he is saying, this is my promise if you'll bring the whole time. And we know that he's actually talking about ties and offerings because the verse right before is talking about ties and offerings. So to bring the whole tied into his storehouse. He will open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. That's my translation that it has. And he says, test me now in this. And prove it true. So here is the cool part. If we go back to Second Corinthians 9.   [00:26:29] God says there is no limit to how much you can give cheerfully, and I not only cannot but will not generously provide even more for you so that in everything and at all times you will have an abundance.   [00:26:50] But then he says here in Malachi, test my promises and let me prove them true to you. You see the connections here. So now what do you think the implication is now that we see what God's word says? What do you think is the implication?   [00:27:13] Overflowing, blessing, abundance, always having what we need.   [00:27:18] All right. What's the implication for?   [00:27:23] Us personally.   [00:27:30] Well, if we're testing a promise that the Lord has given us, and he tells us that the command test, when I read that it's a command to me, he does put me to the test. Yes. Then I have to have faith and believe that when I do put him to the test, that he is going to fulfill the promise that he just gave me.   [00:27:51] Yes. The implication is, number one, we have to test him. And we need to test it by faith and trust him and see what happens. So let me share a story. I want to share several testimonies on this because it's cool. So. We go back to 1988 for some of you listening to this. You go, oh, my gosh, are you really that old? Yes, I am. And others, you're going. I remember that, you know, 1988 wasn't all that. I don't want to ask you if that's old for you or not.   [00:28:25] Good.   [00:28:27] So at this time, I was out of college, I had a class, a job. And and I started to prior to that, I I realized that the, quote unquote, required giving the spiritual law, you know, God's ties. What was his was 10 percent. So I gave 15 percent because I wanted to be sure I was giving cheerfully. So I gave over and above what was required. And that's where I found myself in 1988. And I read a book called Trust God for Your Finances. And in this book basically hones in on these two passages in Second Corinthians 9 and Malachi 3. And I was convicted in my heart that I needed to test God's word because that's what his words said. Now, is that what his words said? But his words said, there is no way you can give my ability to take care of you. So. This was my prayer and this is no embellishment. This is exactly as I remember it. The heart and even the words make it the words wrong. But the heart is there. All right, God. So pure, that big of a God. Prove it to me. If you if you if you can take care of me. Improve it. I'm going to triple my giving from 15 percent to forty five. Oh, I forgot to tell you last part of the story. Every month. I only had twenty five dollars left over after paying all my bills I had. I mean, I was month to month on my cash. And so I said, if you can if I cannot, I'll give you. Prove it to me. Show me you're that big.   [00:30:16] I'm going to triple my giving for 90 days and I'm not going to look back until 90 days.   [00:30:22] So I went from 15 percent giving to 45 percent giving for 90 days.   [00:30:30] And guess what happened? You always had enough.   [00:30:35] Yeah. Nothing changed.   [00:30:39] At the end of each month, I had twenty five dollars left over, and then at the end of 90 days I looked back and I thought, wow, I save twenty five dollars a month. Just like before. But I had triple my giving and the Lord providential words and reducing my expenses that allow that giving to go through. But he didn't increase my income. He didn't give me more money after his all said and done. He simply made it all work out. Moving forward, I can never see how you can make it work out. Looking backwards when God acts providential, you can always see what how God made it work out. But we always act before we can see that's what faces and so Faith is acting on God's word in such a way is that you're completely out of control. That failure is certain unless God intervenes according to his word. And that's what he did. And so that gave me this great confidence. I can trust the Lord. So I increased my giving to 20 percent as a way of life. And then fast forward. I'm going to give you a whole little set of testimonies are all focused on trusting the Lord because you'll see this pattern. Nineteen ninety seven. January 1997.   [00:32:02] I have a home with a mortgage payment. I have a car with a mortgage payment. If you ever had one of those.   [00:32:10] My wife was a stay at home mom. We had a small Beatty and another one that was coming that year.   [00:32:17] Our number two, we had five thousand dollars in savings and I was unemployed. And I gave the five thousand dollars in savings in the month of January to a missionary. So now we had nothing. And I did 13 different things to make money that year. My adjusted gross income, which is what you actually is, is what you end up keeping out of after any business expenses was eleven thousand eight hundred and eighty two dollars for the year.   [00:32:58] We had no savings and we continue to give 20 percent from every dollar we earned before we lived on anything. So let me ask you a question. You're a mom to live in. This is nineteen ninety seven. So 20 some odd years ago. Eleven thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars to pay a mortgage payment to pay a car payment to pay off food, all expenses, diapers and everything else. By the way, my wife had to have a root canal that year and it was eleven hundred dollars in cash that we had to pay. So you had to factor that in those eleven thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars, cover all those expenses now.   [00:33:48] And that was the year I got married. No. Okay.   [00:33:53] All right. So let me tell you even more. We never missed a payment on anything that year. We were never so much as even late on a payment. I don't think we even had a late charge on any payment. How can you do that?   [00:34:15] Looking back, I can see what guy did.   [00:34:17] But moving forward, we live by faith based entirely on his word that says you can out, out, give God's ability to take care of you when you give cheerfully. He will always provide for you.   [00:34:31] Does that make sense?   [00:34:34] All right. And then I want you to look up a verse, Hebrews ten thirty eight.   [00:34:45] Say ten or thirty eight. And my righteous ones will live by faith, but I will take no pleasure and anyone who turns away.   [00:34:58] Yeah, my version, but my righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, that means turns away. My soul has no pleasure in him. The only way you can please the Lord is to live by faith, which is acting on what he says is true. Anytime you live by sight because you don't believe what he says is true, he takes no pleasure in you. So what we did that year, not two not boasting on me, but just showing how true God's word is. We live by faith. We didn't know how he was going to provide. But we knew he would. And therefore, we lived as if he would. And then he always did. So something else happened that year. In October, I one of the 13 things I did was starting a little business that I didn't think was going to go anywhere, and it ended up being the business that we still have today. But it goes even further. So that was October 1997 when I started that little business. Two years later. And I think it was October and maybe in September of nineteen ninety nine. In two years we bought a new home and the second most influential suburban city in Birmingham called this debut. And one of the nicest sections of that segment of that area. And we paid it off in five and a half months.   [00:36:43] Wow.   [00:36:46] That's the increase. Of what God says will come to pass. Whatever you say, so that all seed reproduces after its kind. You cannot give my ability to take care of you. You cannot. Out, give me to meet all your needs at all times and poor. If you go back to Malachi and test me now and this, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.   [00:37:18] Ok.   [00:37:20] And so I got to continue this story because it doesn't always end as nice as you think it might. So we buy our new home. We paid it off in five and half months. I then increased our giving from 20 percent to 40 percent and then I wanted a different house. OK. There is a home that is coming on the market over in Mountain Brook, which is the most influential of financial influentials area of Birmingham. And it was in the nicest section of Mountain Brook.   [00:37:56] And I wanted that house. And and I started to feel this nudge. By the Lord to increase my giving even more. More than 40 percent. And I'm going, no. And that nudge was persistent. Have you ever had one does know just by the law that just continues to persist?   [00:38:17] Yeah. Yeah.   [00:38:19] All right. Advice. Handle it now rather than later. OK. It's a lie. He's not gonna give up on you. You're eventually gonna have to do it. So I kept resisting and resisting. And then we took this trip down to a place called Marco Island, Florida, with a missions group that we're involved with. And late one night, I went out on the beach and just kind of wrestled with the Lord on this issue. And and basically, here's the wrestling increase you're giving. No. Why? Because I want this house. Increase your giving. No. Why? Because I want this house. I want to save up more money so I can buy this house. OK, the spirit versus the flash, right? Law versus grace. I mean, this whole thing I do the things I don't want to do because it's a sin in me. As Paul says. And and so. So then God changed his request rather than saying increase your giving. Do you know what he didn't said?   [00:39:28] You said give me give me the house. Why do you think he would say, give me the health?   [00:39:37] He wanted you to trust him with it instead of you trying to figure it out on your own.   [00:39:42] Yeah, almost. The house. Was keeping me from obeying him. It was the obstacle. Look with me real quickly, Matthew. Six twenty one.   [00:39:56] Paul?   [00:40:00] All right. Matthew Sick and there's 21.   [00:40:05] Wherever your treasure. There the desires of your heart will also be.   [00:40:11] That's right. For where your treasure is there, will your heart also be? My heart was not with the Lord.   [00:40:22] Because my heart was with the house. You make. Does that make sense?   [00:40:27] The house was my treasure and that's where my heart was. So he said, give me the house. And do you know what I said?   [00:40:36] Yeah, I said no.   [00:40:40] And then he said, give me the house and that's for a few more times. I finally said, OK, I'll give you the house. And so in this figurative illustration, I grabbed the house from my left side and I shifted it over and lifted it up to the Lord to my right side. And I gave him the house. And when I gave him the house.   [00:41:06] What followed with it? He know.   [00:41:12] That came later before it followed with It was my heart. Because where your treasure is, there also is your heart. So when I gave him my treasure, my heart went with it. By giving him my treasure, I gave him therefore my heart.   [00:41:29] You know what the law said in. Tell me. Now increase your giving. And you know what I said?   [00:41:41] I hope that is that okay? That's right. I said, okay, how much?   [00:41:47] You said because you say what happens a lot of times in our world of giving, especially in these offerings. OK. Because these are kind of their freewill offerings is we have obstacles that hold us back because they're our treasures. It may be school for the kids. It may be this vacation we're saving up for. It may be a new car. It may be moving to that new house.   [00:42:12] It may be buying new clothes. It may be anything. But when it becomes an obstacle to answering that nudge on your heart that the Lord is directing you to do, to test his words, to live by faith, then that obstacle becomes your sin.   [00:42:31] And it's impossible to please God with that sin, because now your heart is no longer with the father but with his creation. And he says, don't worship my creation, worship me. So when you identify whatever it is that's holding you back and you give that to the Lord, that treasure, your heart goes with it. And when the Lord has your heart, then you're willing to do anything he asks of you. Are these is this connecting a lot of dots?   [00:43:04] So then I said, OK, how much? He said 60 percent. I said, OK, we'll give 60 percent. And so for a long period of time, not not today, but for many years thereafter, we gave 60 percent of our income. 60 percent of everything we had. We gave back to the Lord and the Lord continued to sustain us.   [00:43:24] And and you cannot out give guys ability to take care of you. So does this mean that you ought to be giving 60 percent? No. The Lord chooses what he wants everyone to do. The key is to not resist what he's asking of you. He will let you know as you want to test his word. He will let you know what he wants you to do. The key is don't resist it. Because he has his best and highest will and desire for you. So just kind of wrapping up a lot of this stuff right now. I know that the Lord because I just know how the Lord works. The Lord is probably talking to you, to whoever is listening to this, that you've got to increase your giving because you've been holding back, because you've been giving by sight and not by faith. And in giving by faith, living by faith starts with giving him your treasure. Okay. Figure out what it is that's holding you back. And relinquish it to him so that your heart is with him.   [00:44:40] And then you can easily act on whatever he's calling you to do, so on.   [00:44:47] Maybe just put in maybe just some categories, some people, you know, maybe you need to do a three month test, go way out. I'm doing a three month test right now. That scares me. You know, a three month test back then 15 to 45 percent and giving. I didn't have a whole lot to lose. I'm doing a test right now for 90 days testing God's word. And it's kind of scary because just because of the magnitude of what I'm testing. So maybe do a three month test, just give got a chance to prove his promise is true in a short term test so you can see how he works. Okay. Or maybe others. Lord is just directing you to give increased your giving permanently. Okay.   [00:45:38] You're giving it X amount and you really fill in those. You need to be giving more and ask the Lord how much. And there's some of you that are listening to this that probably, hey, you know, all this is old news. I've been through this. I'm content. I don't feel any nudging by the Lord. And that's great. So I'm just kind of wrapping up what, you know, this whole concept of radical faith. It's acting on those promises of God, acting on the things he's promised us, acting on the things that he's directing us. It's living with a question that he would ask. Do you trust me? And your answer says, yes. And I'll prove my trust or my faith in you by doing the work. The actions taken, the direction that you've called me to do. And if you don't do that, remember of without faith, it is impossible to please him. So before we wrap up, Penny, since you're the only one I can get feedback from or questions, any questions or points of clarity or any comments.   [00:46:46] Before we wrap up this call, actually, does that last little bear that you were just talking about this of speaking to our audience and people that are listening? And I was thinking, you know, there's a lot of people that that might actually be giving more than their 10 percent like you did for so long, Beatty. And there may be thinking why or to give more than ten. And the thought that popped in my head was sometimes it doesn't always have to be financial. I know we're talking about finances right now. So absolutely. But maybe you're in one of those positions where you already give above plan and there's something else that you could still give that you're not sure what it is. And it could be things like your time sacrificing some of your schedule and things like that. I was just trying to categorize for myself personally places where my treasure could be, where my heart could be. And I know that scandal is a big one for us. We're just in a busy season of life. And so that was something that kind of stood out to me.   [00:47:44] You know, I think that's great because I'll just share personally kind of what's going on with me. And I share part of this. And a radical faith session before with Caroline, not with you. But there are two things that hurt me as you were talking on that. And I just want to share these because these may prompt some people to say, hey, I can step out that way also. The first thing is my quiet time. You know, the Lord says to give him the best of all, we have the first of everything. And so years back, I said, Lord, I want to have I want to honor you. And I want to trust you before I rely on me. And I want to honor you with the best of what I have, so not only financial giving, but I started thing about my time, my most productive time as a business owner is the first part of my day. That's before the chaos starts hitting. That's when I'm brightest and clearest and unable to really zone in and focus. So I said, Laura, I wouldn't give you the first part of my day. Not the leftovers. I'm not going to get up super early for I can barely stay awake. I want to give you that time of the day. That is crazy. To give up because it's the best time to be productive in the work you've called me to do, so my quiet time is in the mornings. You know, it's typically somewhere between seven and eleven.   [00:49:19] Okay. Plus or minus on those. But isn't the best part of my working day because I give that up and offer it to him as as my sacrifice for the best of what I have. And then the Lord has been directing me to what I call build his temple, use my teaching ability and my understanding of his scriptures and the things he's led me through to teach others how this whole radical faith teaching series started. And I have kept putting it off because business is so crazy hectic. It's always a struggle. Either it's feast or famine, but it's never stable. Okay. And and so there's been a lot of times where this is one of the things that's important but not urgent. And the Lord finally showed me it's important to me, Beatty, and therefore it should be urgent to you. So as part of my commitment to him is to take significant time out of my working day over and above what I do on my offering, my my quiet time offering and focus on. Doing these type of this type of work, which has nothing directly to do with business, but it's the best of what I have to offer him. And that's the offering sort. So what you're talking about is not just money. It goes beyond money. But I think most people need to start with their finances at the least, because that's where most people stand. Yes, but it's not just finances. It's much more than that.   [00:51:05] Yeah, every area of our lives, the best with my spouse, the best with my kids.   [00:51:10] Or again.   [00:51:13] All right, well, we'll wrap up. Hope you guys are enjoying this. We got some other great things coming. All right. Y'all have a great day. See you later.   P010  

  Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:00] Well, hi, everybody. This is an example. And I'm really excited to be on the phone with Beatty Carmichael today for our next session, I guess I was calling you Beatty. Is this a massive grabber and the creator of Agent Dominator, one of the top marketing expert in the real estate field. I'm super excited today, Beatty, because I believe we're going to be discussing the topic of financial stewardship.   [00:00:26] Yes. So this is gonna be part of our radical faith series, which means as if you're a real estate agent listening to this, we're not going to talk anything about real estate. We're gonna talk about stepping out by faith on the lord, on his word. So if that offends you, you don't like that. Just go turn off. Otherwise, you will get a lot out of today's call. I'm real excited about today. This is actually the session, Penny, and the next one. So today we're going to talk about tides and the next one we'll talk about offerings, because how people treat their money is a huge indicator of how much trust they place in God and in his word.   [00:01:06] So it's going to be a real, real fun time today. Paulson.   [00:01:11] All right. So I guess I called the meeting, so I'll get it started. Does that work?   [00:01:15] Oh, great.   [00:01:17] Okay. And so let me just do a quick review on faith and kind of where we've come from. Our come to this point so that we can then usher in what we're gonna talk about today. So Hebrews Eleven One says that faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. Now, just a brief reminder, the things that are hoped for. That's a biblical hope for not a natural hope for. Naturally, we say I hope it doesn't rain, but it may rain or not in the biblical sense. What you hope for is when God has given you a promise and you hope for the fulfillment of the promise as a confident assurance. So that's why faith is the confident assurance of those things hoped for. But the most important part about this first. For what we're going to talk about moving forward is it's the conviction of things not seen. If we look over at Romans 10, 17, then it tells us where this faith comes from. How do we have this confident assurance? ROMANS 10 17 says faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ or the rama of Christ, the Greek word ream of which means in our very loose definition in the series. It's kind of it's God's message specifically for you. OK. Then we look at Hebrew, ze love and sex.   [00:02:38] And this tells us that without faith as it is, it is impossible to please him. So what we start to see is that faith, you can have this confident assurance because the Lord Jesus tells you you can't. The Lord Jesus gives you a truth or a promise. We don't see it, but we act by it. Because if we don't act by it, if we without faith, is it impossible to please the Lord? Ultimately, we're going to kind of build into on a later session that faith is really seeing things from God's perspective. So then we have no passage we talked about in the series. James 217. And it says that even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, been by itself. So what we find is kind of this this conundrum that a lot of people struggle with. I thought faith is believing, but you say it has to have works. James says, I'll show I'll show you my faith by my works. And so what this shows us is that when we see from God's perspective, we do the things that God does. If we say we see from his perspective and we don't do the things he does, then we really don't see from his perspective. We think we do. But really, we're seeing from our perspective, because this is kind of makes sense spending.   [00:04:02] Ok, so then we find that faith can not exist by itself. This is the key. Faith is always accompanied by works. And so one of the things we're going to talk about is how we handle our money, because that's part of our works. And it exhibits what our faith really is. And just a little simple definition that we've developed along the way is faith is acting under clearly defined will of God as revealed to his word. That's in the form of a promise or a direction. And one other part of that faith, that faith is usually stepping out in such a way that failure is certain unless God intervenes according to his word. If failure is not certain, if there is no personal risk, it's not faith. Does that make sense into the room to do that?   [00:04:59] Wah, wah, wah, wah. Okay. Challenge.   [00:05:05] Yeah, it is. It's a huge challenge, but it is exciting. You know, I want to do a whole whole session on on healings, okay? Because that's kind of stepping out in faith and you're nervous and you hope guy's gonna others first thing go down about to ask him to. Okay. But, you know, that's just a little painful thing.   [00:05:28] Let's shift into financial stewardship. And one last conclusion. I want an interest for this quick review. One last conclusion is faith is actually nothing but a choice if we really look at it in terms of what it is. It's a choice to act on what God's word says and therefore it's an act of the will. Okay. Now, I don't want to. I'm not making a one to one connection. Faith is not. You can't will yourself to have faith. But ultimately, our works are done, are exhibited by the choice we make based on the faith we have. Okay. We can choose to act on what God has told us or we can choose not to act. And the choice is usually based on where we look. If we keep our eyes focused on the Lord, we choose to act in that direction. If we take our eyes off the Lord and put him on the natural circumstances, then it changes our actions. And just like Peter walking on the water in one way, you get a miracle, in the other way you get consequence. So with that said, the Bible talks a lot about money and it talks about ties and offerings. And and there's kind of a misnomer that comes out a lot of times. You've heard, I'm sure, Penny, that we're we live under grace and not under law.   [00:06:58] Right. Okay.   [00:07:00] The question is. Is tithing part of the law? What do you think?   [00:07:08] I do believe it was part of the original law. Yes.   [00:07:12] Ok. All right. So now we have where the conundrum is, should we ties? Do we have two ties or is that part of the law that we're no longer under? OK. Do you remember when the law came?   [00:07:28] Oh, man, I wonder why the first or Bamberg, huh?   [00:07:33] And let's talk about the person through whom it came. Do you remember the person through whom the law was given?   [00:07:42] Oh, I know.   [00:07:44] Yeah. So Moses was the one who received the law. OK. Now, when we use the word law, there's actually several laws are going on.   [00:07:54] Romans Seven says that God's laws are spiritual and therefore flesh cannot fulfill them. And so we have Paul talking about spiritual laws that still apply today. Those are different from the law that we're no longer under. The law that we're no longer under is what is commonly termed as the Mosaic Law, because they came from Moses and the put the Mosaic Law was designed to do as we find out in Romans. Is this designed to expose us to sin? So it it does two things it exposes us to sin. It tells us from physical actions what we must do to be fully righteous and therefore we can never fully, fully be righteous and fulfill all the elements of the law. And therefore, that shows us that we need a savior. Does that kind of make sense? Those little connections.   [00:08:53] And so this is different than the law in Romans 7, where Paul talks about the spiritual that God's laws are spiritual. And then right after seven in eight, he says. Therefore, now we're no longer, you know, under condemnation. And he says to live by the spirit, not by the flesh of mine. On the spirit is life and peace of mind on the flesh of sin and death. So he's making a separation not on the Mosaic Law, but on God's spiritual laws that continue to operate and continue to need to be followed spiritually. So with that said, when we talk about tithing, I think I'm going to show you that tithing is not part of the Mosaic Law. But it is part of God's spiritual laws that we still operate under. So the question really comes up is this if Christ is your all. If you say that your surrender to the Lord, you're following him, the question is, does he really have your all? I remember someone once said, you can tell what a man believes. By looking at his checkbook and looking at his calendar, where he spends his time and where he spends his money, we'll show you what he ultimately believes in. And so does he ultimately have all that you got? And here's the big thing I find. If the Lord doesn't have your money, he doesn't have your heart. Do you remember? I forget exactly where I think it's in, Matthew. But Jesus says where your treasure is there. Will your heart be also.   [00:10:27] Okay. So we have to look and say, where's our heart? And we can look at our heart by looking at our treasure. How do we handle our money? Do we handle it the way Jesus would have handled it? Or do we handle it the way that. The natural man would handle it. So let's look at a couple of things. Do you have your Bible handy?   [00:10:49] I do. Great. Let's go to Genesis 14. Genesis 14. We're going to read three or four verses versus 17 through 20, let me give you the background on this. This is about Abraham.   [00:11:07] Abraham has just gone out and conquered a bunch of kings who stole, who came through and stole Abraham's wives and the wives of his family and his servants and all of his belongings and those of the town in which he was living. So Abraham takes his his male servants. They go and conquer all these kings and bring it back here. So. So let's read this right now. So Genesis 14 versus 17 through 20. Can you read that for us?   [00:11:39] I think after Abraham returned from his victory over Cal Doran and all his allies, the king bottom went out to meet him in the valley. And there. That is the King Valley. And now isn't that the king of Salem and the prince and gardener's pie brought Auburn and bread and wine. Now President Blessed Abraham with this blessing, blessed the Abraham. My God, most high creator of heaven and earth, and blessed the gardener's tie. Who has defeated your enemies for a year when Abraham gave no president. Appoint them all the good that he had recovered.   [00:12:20] Wow. So let's put this in chronological perspective. Did Abraham come before Moses or after Moses?   [00:12:32] Therefore, I believe.   [00:12:34] And do you have an idea? Any idea about how long before or time frame?   [00:12:40] No, honestly, I would be guessing.   [00:12:43] All right. Four hundred and thirty years, roughly. Remember, it was Abraham's grandson. Jacob, who became Israel that then moved to Egypt during the famine. And then they lived there 400 years before God brought them out through Moses and the Exodus. Okay. So what we have is. Abraham this is before he became Abraham. Abraham. Four hundred and thirty years before the Mosaic Law. Gives a tenth of all that he has to the priest of God most high. In other words, if we were to use today's terms, he gives a tenth to the Lord.   [00:13:33] All right, so let me see if this makes sense. Malcolm is a deck king of Salem. He's a priest of God most high. They come and have a worship ceremony with food and wine and a broom takes a tenth of all that the Lord has given him and gives it to milk Hassidic. So do you see this ties concert going on right now? OK.   [00:13:57] So this ties. Is long before the Mosaic Law. Let's look at another passage, Genesis 28, verse 22. And as you turn there and and almost read it. So this now is talking about Jacob. OK, so you have just to put this in perspective, you have Abraham who becomes Abraham, his son. The promise is Isaac and Isaac, son of the promise is Jacob. Okay, so this is now Abrams grandson and Jacob. God changes Jacob's name to Israel. Israel has 12 sons and this is now the 12 tribes of Israel. OK, so this is kind of chronology of what's going on. So read Genesis 28, verse 22.   [00:14:53] Jacob thinking on this memorial pillar former will become a prophet worshipping God. And I will present a bomb or oracle.   [00:15:04] Wow. Here we have a tenth again. Did God ever tell them? Here's my law you had to give a tenth or do you think God may have somehow implanted it in his soul or somehow communicate? I mean, DDC. They're both giving a tenth. The question is why? Okay, so now let's turn to Leviticus. Leviticus is more of the Mosaic Law.   [00:15:34] So now what we have is we have a we have a convergence of laws, a convergence of spiritual laws that have not been fulfilled in Christ. And we have that converging with the Mosaic Law that has been fulfilled in Christ. And it's hard to separate unless you start to look at it in layers and kind of understand it. So, for example, let me see, the Ten Commandments is not a law given by Moses.   [00:16:05] Given that given by God to Moses, by God through Moses.   [00:16:09] Okay, perfect. So is that part of the Mosaic Law?   [00:16:16] Ok, so you shall only have one got no other gods before me. We no longer have to follow that because we're no longer under law, but under grace, right?   [00:16:27] Correct. Are you sure you're not at all three do not commit adultery. We no longer have to follow that because we're no longer under law, but under grace.   [00:16:36] Right. Is that what we're saying? Do not murder you. Not still. Do not lie. Honor your mother and father. Keep the Sabbath. Holy. Honor the Lord. Your God. Serve him only. Have these been done away with that? We're no longer under because we're under grace. Or are these still valid laws that are spiritual laws that still operate today?   [00:16:59] Well, I absolutely think they are valid spiritual laws and we still operate in a different way.   [00:17:06] Ok, so. They're still valid today, is doing a sacrifice. Every Passover or having a feast of booze during that timeframe. Are those part of the Mosaic Law that Moses gave us?   [00:17:27] Well, are we still to do those two day now?   [00:17:32] Ok, what's the difference then? OK. You say this is rumbling. The difference is the Mosaic Law, our actions we were to do that pointed us to God, but they were not. The spiritual laws that are still active today of which do not commit adultery, I would say is still a spiritual law that God still says that's still valid today. In other words, it's not the law we've been released from or that's been fulfilled from. It's still part of the law. Do not fornicate. Do not commit adultery. Paul's been talking about that all through his epistles.   [00:18:08] And yet Paul's not under law, but under grace. So we can start to see that not everything that are the laws given by Moses are the law that we're no longer under. And that's what we're going to see here in Leviticus. So let's read Leviticus 27 30.   [00:18:28] They were thoroughly. One of the parties on the land, whether grain from the field or fruit from the tree, belongs to the Lord and nothing fell apart. Holy.   [00:18:43] Perfect. Okay. My translation says, does all the time of the land. Your says one tenth of the land. OK, so here we have now the definition of what a tie is. So that one tent is. So we have Abraham and Jacob. Four hundred plus years before the law was given the Mosaic Law giving a tenth. Now we have Moses defining what this is. The same way he defined the other spiritual law as you shall only have one God. You shall keep the Sabbath. Holy shall honor your mother and father. You shall not murder shall not commit. Adultery is not still all these things. Okay, so we have now this definition of a law, the love, the tenth the type. And we find three things about the tide. Number one is it's a tenth part. This is why Abraham gave a tenth to male CASA deck. And while Jacob says to the Lord, I will give a tenth to you because ties as a tenth part, that's 10. That's the actual definition. Hebrew word translate tight. The second thing we find out about this.   [00:19:59] Is if the Lord's. That's what they said. That's all the tie to the land of the sea, to the land or the fruit of the tree is the Lords. So we find that a ties belongs to the Lord.   [00:20:17] And the other thing we find out, it is his sacred instead of apart, in other word, it is wholly.   [00:20:26] When God calls something holy, does that carry of special significance with it? Or is that just a. Just a simple designation?   [00:20:37] I think it has. I think those are pretty weighty significance. If the Lord himself is calling something holy.   [00:20:44] That's right. It is a very weighty, special significance. And when? When the Lord through Moses says the tide is mine, it's holy to me. There is a huge weight of significance on this that we got to understand because most people live in financial bondage because they are violating a spiritual law, the law that Paul talks about in Romans 7, that God's laws are spiritual, not fleshly. All the Mosaic Law was fleshly, but the spiritual laws are still going and this is one of them. So we find that the ties is a tenth part. It belongs to God and it is holy. Just as God is holding. What does that mean? Okay, so now let's talk about tides versus offerings, because on this next session, we'll actually talk about offerings and that's when it gets really exciting. But this is just laying the groundwork. So tide versus offering a tide is what you give to the Lord. By his command.   [00:21:57] Okay, not by Mosaic Law, but by spiritual law. It is what you give to the Lord. By his command. And it is a tenth percent. If you say I'm tithing five percent, you're not. Because the definition of a tide is a tenth part. Okay. So it's a tent that you give back to the Lord by his command. An offering is what you give to the Lord. Over and above what already is designated as holy to the Lord. Okay, so while we can we say, you know, God owns it all.   [00:22:34] Which is true. All that I have is the Lord's, which is true. But there is a difference between that versus. The first tenet belongs to me, says the Lord Almighty. There's something about him claiming that first tenth is his versus the general understanding that all belongs to him. Are you following this so far? And so that which he claims is his is more significant his than that which just generally belongs to him. So when we give an offering is when we give from that part that's been entrusted to us.   [00:23:13] But as. Over and above that part, debt already is claimed by the Lord. So that's the difference between the tide and an offering. And that's where we'll talk next time. So then the question comes up. It's OK if I'm to give a shit of all that I have, do I give net or gross? What do you think?   [00:23:38] We have always personally given on the ground because we feel like it. Like you just said, Beatty, it's all the Lord's anyway. We actually have a saying in our family that, you know, some people will get hung up on. Giving a tenth because they're like, oh, gosh, that's 10 percent. That's a lot. We've always looked at it as we get to keep 90 and he's only asking for 10 percent. I mean, you know, it's kind of those percentages that help keep things in perspective, but we've always tied on the growth.   [00:24:11] Good. And I have to. But let's now back it up scripturally. Okay. Okay. Spaniards don't count. Let's see what God's word says. Right. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Let's turn to Proverbs 3.   [00:24:26] And we're going to read versus nine and ten Proverbs 3 versus 9 and 10.   [00:24:32] Okay. Honor the Lord with your well and with the best part of everything that you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain and your that will overflow with good wine.   [00:24:47] And my translation says, Honor the Lord from your wealth in front. The first of all, your produce. The first is the best. Okay. But the first is the best of all your produce. So here's a simple question.   [00:25:03] Let's say you get a paycheck is net all or partial once you are sole? That's right. So.   [00:25:13] So now we have the biblical mandate that we're to give from all that the Lord has given us. So that means that when we tithe, we ties off of gross and not off of net. Okay. Makes sense.   [00:25:28] All right. So. So now let's ask another question. Let's say you own a business, because now it gets kind of complicated. You got all kinds of sources of revenues, all kinds of expenses, all kinds of very thing. How do you manage this when you have a business? I struggle with this for years because I've been in business for myself for many years. And here's what I've concluded. Now, this is my opinion. OK, as opposed to God's word. My opinion is. God blesses us with what's leftover. That makes sense.   [00:26:04] Okay, so after I get all the revenues in, I pay all my expenses of cost of goods, sold my rent and taxes, business taxes and not personal taxes.   [00:26:15] I pay all my employees. Okay. I pay all my lease payments, whatever's left leftover. That now hits my you know, it hits my benefit.   [00:26:28] That is mine and that is from is the portion from which I pay and do my giving in my tithing. So that's just an easy way. Okay.   [00:26:42] And so does this apply to personal expenses? No, because personal expenses are not part of what it took to generate the business revenue. So. So that's a simple designation. So like if you're a realtor, you're listening to this. Okay. You have your MLS fees. You have your broker fees. Okay. You have expenses you spend in marketing and helping fix up clients homes and stuff if you do that. All of those are business expenses in my perspective. They help you generate what the Lord blesses you with. What's leftover and what's what's leftover is what you end up taking off. So that's kind of a real simple opinion of that. So now here comes a good questions. Do you tie during bad times? Have you have you and Brian ever had bad times financially?   [00:27:37] Absolutely. All right.   [00:27:41] So the question is, when you can't pay all your bills, do you still tight?   [00:27:48] Well, this OK, so we're going to I'm going to repeat what you just said. This is personal opinion. I can't necessarily say that I have found this to be backed up in scripture anywhere. But Brian and I personally, when we know. Okay, Lord, we can't afford to pay this and this and this and still tied. Something's gotta give. Clearly, we don't want to default on our mortgage and things like that that need to be paid. So in those moments when we know we cannot give a tenth, we give what we can give because we know that the Lord. And that's just our personal opinion. We know that the Lord is still going to honor that, even though it's not 10 percent, because he's looking at our heart. He obviously doesn't want us to lose our house either.   [00:28:37] So. All right.   [00:28:39] So now I'm going to challenge your perspective. I don't want to ask you that same question again in about 10 minutes. I'll walk you through a few things and then I'd like an honest answer. If you still believe that or if you believe now something different.   [00:28:57] Ok. All right. Good. So this is gonna be fine.   [00:29:02] All right. So I can't pay all my bills.   [00:29:05] I can't pay my mortgage and do the tie and all that stuff. How do I handle the tide? Let's go back to. The first. Of the issues turn back, if you would. Leviticus, 27 30. Okay.   [00:29:21] Ok.   [00:29:23] And read that one more time.   [00:29:28] One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the field or fruit from the tree, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy.   [00:29:40] What does it say? Must be set apart is not optional. If you're in tough times.   [00:29:46] Must is a pretty direct word, I wouldn't say that's an optional.   [00:29:51] All right. It must be set apart as holy. It's Holy See, it's strictly optional, you can use it for personal needs if you have a need for it.   [00:30:00] No holy is the Lord.   [00:30:03] Ok. So we have one scripture that says. It must be set aside because it is holy to the Lord, because it belongs to the Lord already. My starting to persuade, you know.   [00:30:17] Ok, so here's the question. Should you take that which is sacred and holy and must be satisfied to God to pay your bills and give it to man?   [00:30:30] According to that picture. No.   [00:30:32] Ok, so now let's look at another answer coming at the same question. What part of what you earn should you give?   [00:30:43] Ok, so let's go back to Proverbs 3 9 and tell me what Proverbs 3 9 says.   [00:30:54] Okay. Three. By noon. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the very best part of everything we produce.   [00:31:03] All right. So let me ask you, is the very best the first of all, you have or what's left over after you've given man what he wants?   [00:31:13] The very best and the first. Yeah. OK. Off the top. The glass.   [00:31:19] Ok, not the net. What you just said earlier that you gave off a gross, but then you said you actually gave off of that if things got tough.   [00:31:27] That's right.   [00:31:29] All right. So should you give benefits to leftover or from the first before anything else is given?   [00:31:38] Before the first, absolutely, yeah.   [00:31:42] So this is kind of where I was going, and I'm not badgering you. I'm not trying to spank you on this boat. But this is this. This is where a lot of people are. And this is why I said you can look at someone's checkbook and see the priority in the faith they place in the Lord and his promises. Do they act by faith or act by sight? Let me ask you a question. If you give based on what's in your checkbook, but based on other expenses that you have.   [00:32:13] Is that giving by faith or giving by sight?   [00:32:18] If I'm looking at what's in the textbook, I'm giving up on that, that's giving off a fight.   [00:32:24] Okay. So if you make your decision based off of go to pay all these bills and I still want to tithe and so you choose tithing or not based on your bills that state or face.   [00:32:38] That's by say.   [00:32:40] Yeah. All right. And if we go back up to I won't turn there. But Hebrews eleven six, it says without faith it is impossible to please him. You see, so this this this problem that we're running into when we say we, I don't have enough money, so I'm not going to take on this.   [00:32:58] This time that I have no faith.   [00:33:02] It means that ultimately that you're not trusting the Lord. Okay. Yeah. Okay.   [00:33:09] And it also means that you're not pleasing the Lord because you're not trusting him. It also means you're not pleasing him because you're taking holy offering and giving it to Martin. It's all these. We have these spiritual laws that are all playing a part here. OK. Not the Mosaic Law, but the spiritual laws that came long before the Mosaic Law and we don't really understand them. And because of that, we don't really understand the consequences that it brings us. We think what we go through in life financially is just the way it is. But yet we don't realize a lot of times we bring it on ourselves. Peter, walking on the border, I'll keep using this over and over again until I'm blue in the face because it's a perfect example. Same situation, two completely different outcomes simultaneously, based entirely on whether he acted by faith or acted by sight. So let's look at a third answer. OK, so the first answer do you tie during bad times? The first answer is it's wholly. It must be set apart. Second answer is what part of what you earn? Do you tithe from this third answer is whose is it? Okay, so we go back to Leviticus 27 30 again.   [00:34:31] It says that all the tie to the land is the Lord. It belongs to the Lord. Right. So let me ask you a question. I'm going to loan you my car. OK, it's your car. You're using it, but it's mine. Who owns that car? Either. OK, I say I need it back on Monday. And Monday comes around and you have a trip that you want to take. And you now make a choice, do I return the card, Ebadi? That was my agreement. Or do I take the car on a weeklong trip? If you take the car. Did you just steal it from me? Well, OK, so now ownership plays into how do we handle this type? So if you have something of the Lords and you don't return it to him. Isn't that still stealing? OK, so now let's bring this into a natural illustration. So you have a bunch of bills coming due and you're struggling because you don't have enough money to pay all the bills. So you go down to the local convenience store and you rob it and you get four or five hundred dollars out of the cash register and now you have money to pay your bills. Does that honor the Lord?   [00:36:07] No. Okay.   [00:36:09] Well, the Lord bless you and say, well, I understand your heart in the matter that you really want to honor me, but you just tight financially, so I overlook you're stealing from an okay.   [00:36:22] Which they think is worth stealing from man or stealing from God.   [00:36:28] Oh, well, if you still for man, I think you're probably stealing from God as well.   [00:36:34] Ok. But in this light, in this context, what do you think is a worst action to to sin against Manderson, against God? I do.   [00:36:47] Yeah. Okay. So now let's look at Malachi 3. This is the last book in the Bible. He's actually an Italian prophet called Malarkey. That's a joke.   [00:37:01] Malachi. Malachi 3.   [00:37:06] We're going to start. We're going to be versus eight or nine. But let me give you the background. Malachi is written to the Levi's and the priest. Do you know whether it's the role of the Levi? It's in the priest's.   [00:37:20] I don't recall, excellent.   [00:37:22] Ok. So out of the 12 tribes, one tribe are the live vertical tribe. Believe it's their whole role is to serve the Lord. They are the staff of the church. They are the pastors. They are the associate pastors. They're the the people who are employed by the church. Their whole function, their whole livelihood is serving the Lord. Everyone else, they out there, they're out there. And they have business. They have farms. They earn money. And they bring all their ties and their offerings into the Lord Storehouse, which we would call today into the church. OK. They give to the church. They give to ministry and they leave lights. Are the people like the missionaries, the parishes and those people that go out and then use that? Use those funds. And that's how they're supported. You follow me so far.   [00:38:15] Ok. So the leave lights were also under the spiritual law of tithing. And they were supposed to give a tenth of all that they received into the storehouse as well during this period of time. They aren't doing it. So now pick up Malachi 3 versus 8 and 9.   [00:38:40] Just eight and nine. Yes. OK.   [00:38:43] Should people cheat God yet you have cheated me. But you ask, what do you mean? When did we ever cheat you? You have cheated me of the tides and offerings due to me. You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating on me.   [00:39:02] While you are under a blessing, is that what you said? It does to say, I understand your heart and I know you're trying to do good, but you just don't have enough. And so I'll continue to bless you as that's what he says. No.   [00:39:18] So what do you think it means with the curse? Is that good or bad? Not bad.   [00:39:24] So does that mean if we put it in financial terms? Does that mean financial blessings in abundance or probably financial lack of funding to lack?   [00:39:37] So when we're in lack and we use gods ties to pay, man. We don't get ahead.   [00:39:47] Because God said, I curse you.   [00:39:51] Because you have taken my ties, are you following what Malachi says? Yeah. Yeah.   [00:39:57] Okay. We're going to talk about the next pass. Next part of that, probably next time. So here we have. The third answer. Whose is it and what's the consequence? If we use it wrongly.   [00:40:15] Do you remember? Let's go back. I want to talk really quickly. Holy. Remember when the Lord directed Moses to build the ark, the Ark of the Covenant? Was it holy or was it just normal?   [00:40:33] Holy.   [00:40:34] It was holy. Holy. Right. And placement of the ark is in the holy of holies. And how many people got to go in there?   [00:40:45] The only one. Only one. The priest, right?   [00:40:48] That's right. Yeah. OK.   [00:40:50] So now you remember when David is bringing the ark back and it's on an ox cart and a two tons of the priests are walking beside it and a cart stumbles put at risk the ark falling off the cart. So one of those priests I was walking beside stuck his hand out to protect the ark, to keep it from falling on the ground.   [00:41:13] And then what happened to him? Put it God to. He was killed, right? He was killed instantly. Fly. It's a big question. Why did God kill him?   [00:41:24] That is a good question. You know the answer. I really don't. Because I've struggled with that because it was like he said, he's reaching out for help.   [00:41:35] Yeah, I said he had a good heart. Danny surely God will show grace. But here's what happened. As soon as he struck that guy, dead guy's next word was to David. You treated my holy ark as profane. I told you always, you only carry with poles on the shoulders of the priest and you put it on a cart and you had a man touched my ark never to happen because it is holy. This is what God thinks about when he says holy. It is serious business, as you said earlier. It's very weighty. And so unbeknownst to Dave and unbeknownst to the man who had a good heart, he violated a spiritual law on something God considers holy. That's what's going on here in Malachi. The Levi's were violating the spiritual of what God says is holy. The spiritual law that far predates the Mosaic Law. And because they violate it, they're being coerced. They don't even realize that so much of the current challenges that they're going through right now is because of one thing, they're not tithing. And I want to give you a real interesting story. So my pastor who started our church. He's now pastor emeritus. But when he was pastoring, he had a business man come up to him and say, here's my pastor's name is Frank Parker. And the businessman said, Frank, I need prayer. Would you pray for me? He said, What's up? Said, almost about to lose my business. I'm almost about to go into bankruptcy. He said, All these things are happening. I'm losing accounts, I'm losing money. Nothing's you know, I need prayer. You know, the first thing that Frank asked him.   [00:43:36] What is it? Are you tithing?   [00:43:41] And he says, no, I can't afford a child. Frank said, you can't afford not to tide. And he starts to point out this stuff. And he prays for him and said, Lord, help. Call this guy's bill, this name Bill. Just to put some names to, you know, Lord, as a you bless Bill's business, that you would encourage him to honor you with his ties first and that he would just take care of, you know, something like that. But he instructed Bill that the tide is the first of all, you have not what's leftover. That is holy. It must be set apart for the Lord. And without setting apart for Lord, a lot of his financial problems could be caused by God cursing his business because it's a violation of God's holy spiritual law. So then Frank sees him about a year later.   [00:44:37] I think I have the time frame right and says, Bill, how's business? Oh, it is booming. We are doing more business than we've ever done. We're just making more money and all this stuff. And Frank says, that's fantastic. How, you know. And he says, pray for me some more. I say, I will. Frank said, I will. How's your tithing? You know what Bill said?   [00:45:04] He said he's doing it.   [00:45:06] He said tithing. Do you know how much money that would be, how much money we're making? I can't afford a tie. There'd be too much. So here's Frank's prayer. Lord, please bring his business back down to the level where he can afford to ties. And those are no, no, no, no, I'll tell Ty. I'll drive. Okay. But it kind of gets the point back. A crisis. Sometimes we think we can't afford to ties because we don't have enough. But we don't realize what we're actually doing. Sometimes we have so much we think we can't afford to take because it'd be so much and we don't realize what we're doing. The curse that God will bring upon a nation is the same type of curse God brings upon it. But an individual just the same way that the blessing he'll bring upon a nation is similar to the blessing he'll bring upon an individual. When we follow the Lord and step out by faith and follow his word and honor him, first of all that he gives us.   [00:46:03] He blesses us, whether it's an individual, a family or a nation, would you agree with that?   [00:46:09] Well, we do.   [00:46:11] Ok, so that same thing happens when we withhold those things that belong to him.   [00:46:18] When we act by sight and not by faith. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So when we start to pull back from our tithing because we can't afford to. That doesn't please the Lord. It's violating his word and there will be consequences. Those consequences may be financial. They may be in other areas, but there will be a withholding of blessings and therefore the introduction of curses because he will discipline his people to correct them to go the right way. Would you agree with that?   [00:46:58] Well, I do.   [00:47:00] Ok, so now let me ask you the question again. I tell you I was going to ask is, did you try during bad times? I know you gave me your opinion originally. Has your opinion changed or how?   [00:47:10] Oh, well, I absolutely will.   [00:47:14] Ok. So. So here's this kind of wrapping up. You know, this whole thing of financial stewardship, it's really a it's not so much about money. It's about faith. It's about how we see God, how we believe his word and how we choose to obey him, because tithing is a choice. You can either. Obey, which is acting by faith or disobey, which is acting by sight. And this is kind of where I'm saying that living by faith more than anything else is simply a choice, is choosing which one we believe and therefore of which one we act on. Any thoughts on this? Any insights that hit you? Before we wrap up the call.   [00:48:05] Just change of change of perspective and just sort of seeing it all come together from beginning to end. And the promise of blessing. That's the biggest thing, is focusing on the promise of blessing if you're doing it the way the Lord designed. And not living in fear of there not being enough. Because if God says there would be. Then I have to try that faith part.   [00:48:35] Well, the next session, we're going to talk about offerings and I'm share some really cool stories on that, just as testimony to how good the Lord is and how much he can bless when you honor him faithfully by his word. So on. So we'll get there on the next session.   [00:48:56] Sounds great. I look forward to it.   [00:48:58] All right, well, we'll wrap up this call and look forward to the next one.   [00:49:05] I did, too. Thanks so much, Beatty.   [00:49:07] All right.  

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Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:00] This is the Get Radical Faith podcast. And I'm Beatty Carmichael. This podcast is all about stepping out by faith and trusting the Lord in your life. Get more resources on our Web site. [00:00:11] Get radical faith dot com. And now here's the next episode of our podcast. [00:00:18] Today, I'm excited that we're going to be talking about another topic, a radical thing. Beatty, would you like to give our listener here a little disclaimer? Well, what's is going to be about? [00:00:29] Yes, I would. And also one little disclaimer for those who've been listening. These you'll notice that Penny is not Caroline. So we're excited to have you on these calls moving forward. As far as today's topic. So most of our guests, Ella, is calling you topics, as you know, is all about getting sellers calling you. Today's topic is not today is all about Jesus. OK. So if that offends you, feel free to turn off this particular podcast and listen to the next session. When we talk about business, but otherwise, we're going to talk about a personal relationship with the Lord and how to live by radical faith. How's that for a good disclaimer? [00:01:08] I think that's awesome. [00:01:10] I love it, too. OK, so let's see where we've been going. [00:01:14] So the last topic I was talking about, the topic of kind of getting out of the boat and the source stepping out in a radical fashion with faith. And today, I want to talk a little bit about what it means to believe in faith a little bit different. But there is this conflict between the natural and the spiritual. And there's there's always this conflict. And I guess the kind of focus, the kind of message on this is actually going to be sort of a short topic. But living a life of radical faith is a constant conflict between choosing to focus on God's promises and trying to ignore what we see in the natural does. [00:02:02] Does that make sense? Penny? [00:02:06] Well, any and I'm catching you off guard, but any personal experience come to mind that might kind of clarify that in your life or maybe how you have battled the same issue in your life? [00:02:19] Oh, for sure. I think, first of all, this is where my feel like there may maybe just the old dry cell phone in Italy. So based on what I can see in the natural because the natural is in my day every day, it's best that I see the bills that keep coming. Well, you know, the finances might not be there that lines or something. You know, things like that that are just easy to take my focus off of what I should be looking at. It's easier to look at the natural and be distracted by what's going on in the natural and really to lose sight of the fact that I'm working even though I caught you with my eye. [00:03:04] So true. In fact, for you mentioning that there are two stories that came to mind. [00:03:08] One is actually at your church and one is a friend of mine who used to work for me years back. So the lady at your church, her name is Yvonne, and she went on a missions trip with a group called Global Awakening. I think it is. And just had a great time over in Kenya. And so they're taking another trip down to Brazil. And he really wants to go. But three thousand dollars and she doesn't have the money. So she's been praying for it. And she was sharing with me this past Saturday that a friend at work called her up at work and said, hey, Yvonne, can you meet me downstairs? And she said, yes. So she went downstairs and met him. [00:03:46] And he said, you know, he's just an average worker, not no super special, super high income. We see my wife and I've been praying about your trip to Brazil and we'd like to help you out with. And he gave her an envelope and she said, oh, thank you so much. Thinking is it gonna be, you know, maybe 100 couple hundred dollars? Now, the trip to Brazil is like three months from now, two or three months from now. So plenty of time to try to raise money. She gets back a fair and open set and there's three thousand dollars in cash. [00:04:15] The entire trip totally paid for. And just thinking, you know, how we look in the natural and you go, how in the world can I afford this? And yet God has already made her way in that kind of go, oh, that's so good. [00:04:29] He saw that movie before he even really started to panic about the. [00:04:33] Yes. And I won't tell you another story. [00:04:36] So my programmer years back, he's since gone off and start his own business. But he he and his wife moved into this house and it was a rental house initially. And then they wanted to buy it, but they needed thirty five hundred dollars for a downpayment. And they did not have thirty five hundred. So in the natural, there is no way we can buy this house. And then they go to church one day. And this is the most amazing thing. A couple walks up to him. No one knew about this house and said the Lord put it on our heart that he wants us to give you this money. And it was a check for thirty five hundred dollars. Exactly what is needed further down now? [00:05:20] Yeah. And this is what's so cool about the Lord is we can't keep our eyes focused on the natural because the natural is ruled by the supernatural. What happens in the natural is real by God's truth of who he is. And all the goodness that he has and all the promises that he makes are not going to be seen in the natural until he chooses to manifest it. And so when we look in the natural and say, this must be my reality, that's not true, because God's truth trumps reality all the time. And if we want to walk by faith and live by faith, we have to believe in faith, which is to believe his word first before we believe our eyes. [00:06:01] And there's a passage. Second Corinthians 5 7 says we walk by faith, not by sight. And I think this is really kind of what it means is we can't live our lives based on what we see and believe that to be truth. What we see is true because it's our reality, but it's not fixed. Truth is fixed. Jesus says I think, what is it? I think we call it the high priestly prayer. John, 17, Jesus is praying to the father on behalf of the apostles. And I guess all of disciples of his. And he says to the Lord, you know, your word is truth and truth is fixed. [00:06:42] And that's why we can step out by faith. You know, if we go back to Hebrews, see love in one. Okay. We're gonna test your Bible knowledge real quick. Any other way for those listening to us? This is pennies, if you've figured out first. Radical faith call and speed. She doesn't know quite how much I push back on her. So do you recall he briefly loving one by chance, is talking about faith? [00:07:09] I believe that that talks about faith being the reality of what we hope for is the thing that we cannot see. [00:07:18] Bingo. It is the reality of what we hope for now. In the biblical terms, hope is different than what we express as hope. You and I, in the natural, we say I hope it doesn't rain. Okay. And what that means is our desire is that it doesn't rain, but we really don't know what's going to happen. Does that make sense? [00:07:41] Whoa, whoa. [00:07:43] In the biblical term analogy, hope is when God is given a promise. And now we look forward expectantly toward it as a truth yet to be manifest. So if God said it's not going to rain today, then we say, you know, my hope is that it does not rain. But it's not going to rain because that's a biblical. How does that make sense, manmade kind of can confuse that a little bit warmer than that. OK, so so faith is the reality of what we hope for. It is the reality of what's actually going to happen. And as the evidence of things that we have not seen. And so this whole idea of faith is, is we root our root our eyes in God's word, which is truth. And it overcomes everything going on that is conflict with what we see. Now, I want to give you just a couple examples scripturally on this. Do you by chance have your Bible handy? I do. [00:08:46] Great. Let's look up Exodus 34 21. Just a short verse as you bring this up. I'll give people kind of background so access. This passage in Exodus is part of the what we'll call the Mosaic Law. And. And in this particular section is another law called God's Ten Commandments. OK, now we're no longer under law, but under grace. But that doesn't mean that the Ten Commandments are not the law we're under. OK. Those are spiritual laws that always rule. And and this is one of the laws. And I want to talk about it just a little bit. So Exodus 34 21. [00:09:30] And read it when you're ready. [00:09:33] I think, though, it will for your ordinary work, but then you must stop working even during the season of the plowing and harvest. [00:09:42] All right. So let's talk about the significance of this. So plowing harvest, when you start to plow, there's only a limited time available in between range and between a few things. We can get all of your plowing done. This is your entire livelihood. You have a small window of time before rains start coming again and you can no longer plow. Harvest time is the same thing. There's only a short period of time when you can harvest, when all the fruit is ripe to be harvested and you have to harvest quickly before the rains come again and cause it to mildew in moulding and cause it to right. So harvest time in plowing time or the two times that everything is put aside. This is the time you do your work. Does that make sense? [00:10:34] Yeah. So here is the problem. God's word says you work six days. And you rest the seventh even during plowing time and harvest time. So in the natural. It makes no sense. This is the time I've got this. In today's world, I've got this huge sales presentation due on Monday morning and I've got to prepare for it on Sunday. Right. Because I've got to make this thing happen. Is that what God's word says? Seeing the natural reality says, I've got to prepare for it because the God's truth says, honor me first. And this is where I'm talking about there's always this conflict between sight and faith. [00:11:24] There's always this conflict between what God's word says that we should do and what our logic tells us that we should be doing as well. Want to share another example is actually a personal example from years back. So back in I think is about I think it was November 2001. Set the stage for you real quickly. Or just before November, we're moving through a period of time. It was a tough time in our business and I'm going without a paycheck. During this time, we brought on an account or trying to bring on an account is consuming a lot of resources to get set up. [00:12:05] We we empty all of our bank accounts to keep things going. We start drawing on our lines of credit and we drawn everything on our line of credit. We actually we are now at a point of crying wolf, not crying wolf, but crying help because we have no more resources and I've got no paycheck. I have three months left, OK, in savings. And at that point, there is just absolutely nothing more to live on. And the business is consuming every bit of cash and more than we have. [00:12:38] And I'm not. I'm preparing on a Wednesday night to give my stewardship testimony at church the next Sunday, and I'm going to talk about how, you know, you live by faith, how you give. I say, thank God, always meet your needs. Okay, so here's the scenario. I have three months left where we're maxed out on all of our lines of credit. And I'm about to tell people that you cannot out give guys ability to take care of you. And and in this slow process, I'm working on some kind of roleplaying, what I might say on Sunday morning and part of process is sometimes, you know, I always say some will come up to me, say, hey, Beatty, I just lost my job, my car broke down and my water heater busted. What do I do? My standard response at that time was always, well, increase your giving because God's word says we'll talk about this in the next couple of sessions. God's word says you cannot out give guys ability to take care of you. And so when I was going through this role play, Penny, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, do you really believe what you're about to tell these people? [00:13:48] And have you ever had these conversations with the ward where he talks and you talk him back and forth? Have you read it? [00:13:54] Yeah. OK. [00:13:56] So I'm doing that and say, well, yeah, I really do. [00:13:58] And then Laura said, Well, then why don't you increase your giving then? I said, well, hold on. Because at that time we're giving a lot of money. I won't say the amount, but it's like someone's paycheck each month and we're giving a lot of money because we have these commitments out there and I've got three months of savings remaining for our family expense wise. [00:14:21] As a bit lower, I'm are giving all that I got and more. What do you want? He said, do you really believe what you're about to tell those people? I said, Yes, I do. So well, then why don't you increase your giving? I said, OK. Make sure it's you talking and not me. Right. We're gonna do a little test. I said, Here's what I'll do, Lord. No one has asked me for any money in months. Normally they're calling me all the time because they know I give a lot. And I know once they ask me for any money in months. So here's what I'm willing to do. I've got three months of savings left tomorrow. If you want me to give, then you have someone or multiple people call me and I'll give. I'll give. I'll meet their need. Entirely up to everything I have in savings. [00:15:11] And and so I kind of got excited, I'm thinking I'm going to go into work tomorrow on Thursday and someone's going to ask me for a lot of money and I'm going to empty out my savings account and trust entirely on the Lord. Does that sound exciting? [00:15:26] Mm hmm. So, um. So I got to work. And there was a voicemail. [00:15:33] A guy named gushed. The name totally slips in. [00:15:38] But he's a guy at our church who manages relationships and things of that sort with different organizations. Chuck Morgan. And. And now I got this voicemail. Lady, this is Chuck over the church. I've got an organizer and this is how he started. Sorry, hymns and haws. There is an organization that's looking for some money. Need some help? I don't know if you can help a little bit or lot or just whatever the law may put on your heart. I'm going. OK, Chuck. Okay. How much do you need? I'm ready. How much do you need? And he said and they need three hundred and seventy five dollars. I laughed. I picked up the phone. I called and said, Chuck, you got your three seventy five. What do you want me to send it? I stroke a check for three hundred seventy five dollars then. And then I I was excited all day. OK, Lord, send me the next one. Finally. The next one. And guess what happened? [00:16:28] Nothing came. [00:16:30] Nothing. Exactly. So then I went home. I'm thinking, OK, they're gonna call me at home. And guess what happened at home? Nobody called. Nobody called at ten or ten thirty at night. I'm going back before the launch. I thought of what happened. I was ready to give it all. Why did you make it so easy on me? [00:16:49] Does that sound like a fun way to be? [00:16:52] Hmm. And then the first vision I've ever had, I get this low vision, just a fleeting moment of a ram's horn caught in a second. And as a laudable frequently do with the vision, as I'm kind of learning, is he gives you the entire meaning of that vision all instantly at the same time. [00:17:10] And the meaning was, I made it easy on Abraham to talk about the sacrifice of Isaac. And and that's. [00:17:21] And that taught me a lot. Okay. But this is what I'm talking about. It's it's been willing to step out firmly on God's word, even when it makes no sense. And this is what that passage in Exodus talking about. You know, during plowing time, in harvest time, the most important critical time for you to labor and labor from crack of dawn until dark. [00:17:45] All day long, because this is your entire family's livelihood. God says. You shall rest on the seventh day. It makes no sense in the natural, but in the supernatural, in the spiritual. It doesn't have to make sense because God's truth trumps everything. Was this kind of making sense? [00:18:07] Yeah. [00:18:09] So then we we ask the question, why is there is this conflict? Why is there always a conflict between what we see by sight in the natural? And what we see they face. In the spiritual. But our eyes are telling us what is true versus what God's word is telling us what is true. Why is there always this conflict? The simple answer is because that's what faith is. Is the conviction of things not seen? We got to walk by faith, not by sight. And and it gives us an opportunity to truly prove whether we trust the Lord's word over. [00:18:57] What our eyes tell us is true. So do we trust man? Or do we trust God? Do we trust fight or do we trust God's word? Which one is unsure, unshakable, immovable? And which one is nothing but sand and stubble? So on, so kind of the bottom line with all this is if you're scared. But God's word tells you to do, and it doesn't make sense. And it seems like you're going to fall apart. You're going to be clobbered. You're going to lose it all. Whatever the issue. Then that's OK, because that's the way it is. [00:19:36] That's the conflict between faith. And the natural. Any thoughts on that? [00:19:45] Actually, yes. I mean, this is just all so good. I'm enjoying this a lot. And I was actually reminded so much of this story in the book of the first came after 17. And that's where Alija is going to the woman and telling her about the flower and the oil. And she says, well, basically, I don't have enough left. And he he gives her command from the Lord. And he says, if you will do this, if you'll just make this one little make a meal for myself and you and your son, then the Lord will always make sure that you have enough flour and oil left. You'll never run out. So she obeyed that word. And because she did, there was always enough flour and oil left in her containers. And so I'm just reminded of the fact that in the natural it didn't make sense. It didn't make sense for her to use all that she had left to prepare for somebody else and for herself and her son. [00:20:44] But when she obeyed, when she stepped out in faith and said, OK, I'm going to do it, then God came through on his promises. And I just think so much of what you said, Beatty, about seeing things in the natural. If we if we see things in the natural, then that's really putting the focus on ourselves and our own effort. It's easy to see with our own eyes, but it takes faith to trust the Lord for the things that we can't see. [00:21:12] It does. We're going to talk on another session about faith and belief and kind of the mechanics and mechanics may be the wrong thing, but to really get a clearer, more accurate picture on that. But let me share one other thing that also comes out with that story. So just to give people the background check for those who may not be as familiar, there's a king of Israel named Ahab. He's at the time the most wicked king Israel has ever had. Alija is his nemesis because Elijah is God coming to the wicked man. Tell him he's always wrong. And so Alija calls for a drought. It says the righteous, the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much. And Elijah called for a drought. There was a drought for three and a half years in Israel. And during this drought, God sent him to Zehra fast to this widow that you're talking about. And so he goes his airfare. And. And the Lord sustains him and the widow during the drought with that jar of oil and a little flower, low jar flower as well. What's interesting with this is we see a very similar dynamic as we see in this passage in Exodus. We talked about you shall work six days and on the Psalms, you shall rest. The reason we rest is because it's an honor to the Lord, because the Lord works six days and rested on the seventh. [00:22:41] So he's called us to honor him. That's what he did. And where to do it? The same throughout all the scripture, Old and New Testament. There is also the overall theme that you give to the Lord first, that you serve the Lord. First, that you give him the first fruits. In fact, even the first born the first born male that opens the window is dedicated and belongs to the Lord. I mean, all of these things. And so when you have a life, you're talking to the widow. Elijah says, give to me the man of God, i.e. give to the Lord to make a bread cake. For me first and then you can have what's left over. We're gonna talk about this. God first and then we keep what's left over in the next session when we start to talk about financial stewardship. It's really, really amazing. But every time we see the Lord wants us to honor him first, to put him first, to trust him first. And this is where this concept of living by faith, serving him first, giving in the first of what we do. Giving him the best of what we have. It's all one and the same in essence, because it's all focused in the same direction. Does that kind of make sense or did I'm confused? [00:24:02] No. That made perfect sense. Absolutely. Yeah. [00:24:06] So it's really neat. So what I want to do right now is there's some questions that have been asked over the years as I've taught this, and they're good questions. And because we have some time because as I mentioned, this is a short lesson. So this is where we're going to do some frequently asked questions. I want to give them questions and then give some thought to those questions, because I think this will help probably clarify a lot of what we're talking about and maybe answer some questions that have been out there as well. So one of the questions that was asked is apply radical faith to illness or sickness. Sometimes all the faith in the world won't prevent death. [00:24:49] Does that question or statement make any sense to you, Penny, and any thoughts about that before I go into kind of my thoughts on it? [00:24:59] It does make sense to me, and I, too, have been asked that question so many times. Why does God heal some and not heal others? And the best answer that my husband and I have ever come up with. And honestly, we've heard that the great Bill Johnson and several others sort of in the same way is that I don't know. [00:25:20] I don't have it. But my my job is just to pray. [00:25:24] My job is to believe that that's the nature and character of my good father, is that he is a healer. Yeah, that's my thought on that. [00:25:34] Yeah, I think that's a great answer for me. I won't give up. I kind of give a high level answer. [00:25:42] That's at the big picture of what's going on. And then I won't give more of a prepared answer. I prepared for this person who would ask this question. So at the very highest level. Why does not. Why does God not heal? Some people. I had my pastor asked me this question when I first started to pray for people and start to see God heal a lot of them. He asked me because he's a he is what I would call a secessionist. That gives a feeling those type of things have ceased. He doesn't he doesn't believe that God doesn't heal anymore or miraculously can heal. He just believes that a gift of healing. So and it may be more semantics, but in this conversation I'm talking about, you know, at this very beginning, one third people fully heal, one third partially healed and one third nothing at the time. And he was saying, well, why do you think not everyone was healed? And based on how the conversation was going, I know what he was driving at. And I wasn't going give him that pleasure. So I. So I simply gave the most accurate answer. I said, because I'm not Jesus. Think about it. [00:26:54] Oh. Right. Because if Jesus had prayed for those people, they didn't get him. Do you think they would be healed? [00:27:02] What are you saying? Yes or no? And here is the question. OK. [00:27:07] You have the people that I prayed for that were not healed. If Jesus had prayed for those same people, would they have been healed? Absolutely. [00:27:18] Ok. So what we see real clearly is that the heart of the father is to heal. Jesus never turn anyone away. They came to him for healing. So the question is, when I pray, why are they not healed? We can say, well, must not be God's will, but yet God's will was clearly seen in Jesus. So there's got to be a different answer. And here's the best answer that I've come up with, and this is borne out of some things the Lord has shown me that will again talk about on another session a little bit more deeply, but ultimately speaking. Jesus is God on Earth. Jesus only did what he saw the father doing, which means every miracle that Jesus did, every healing and raising some from the dead. [00:28:04] They'd already been healed and raised from the dead in the heavenly places. And Jesus merely manifested that well in the earthly places. Does that make sense so far? Okay. So then the question is, what's different between Jesus and me? Well, yeah. Jesus, this guy. But but Jesus was on earth as a man as well. So he was fully man, fully God. So is it simply because he's fully God? Yes. That definitely has a lot to do with it. But I think it goes a little bit deeper from an intrinsic understanding. Jesus there is because Jesus was fully surrendered and yielded to the Lord. Then the Lord could do completely, 100 percent the Lord's will through him, so everything he did, it was as if, you know, Paul talks about. [00:28:58] I think it's in Romans that we are a branch, the gentiles are a wild olive branch grafted into the tree. And what he and then is the tree that produces the fruit, not the branch. But what happens is the tree produces the fruit by sending the fruit in and a non fruit form through the branch. And when it comes out the other side, it buds in the fruit. So it's like that branch is simply a conduit between the tree and where the fruit is going to manifest. Are you following me so far? Well, okay. So, Jesus. Is the exact representation of God has no resistance to God's will because Jesus, his entire will is God's will and therefore God is able to bring supernatural from the heavenly realm. Through Jesus, into the earthly realm and completely passed his will through Jesus. In fact, it says that so Jacob's ladder. There's something I read in my quiet town this morning that finally made sense. Jacob's ladder there's a ladder connecting heaven and earth angels going up and down on it. And John, first, first. John won it. Jesus is telling his disciples that, you know, you will see angels going up and, you know, up and down, ascending and descending on the son of man. What does that mean? I think what it probably means. Okay. Just my opinion right now is that Jesus is connecting the heavenly room with the earthly realm, bringing God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Right. And so God's will is for them to be healed. And for them to be raised from the dead. But we. Resist God's will. And therefore swore like that that if you if we talk about that branch on the tree and if we want to make a very simplistic, not totally theologically accurate, it's but close enough for for understanding purpose. If we were to take Jesus the man. As a branch grafted onto the tree, then it would be a hollow branch. [00:31:14] Absolutely no resistance. So that the tree could then produce and push all the fruit out. When we get grafted on, we got a lot of junk in our life that impedes that fruit. That fat from going from the tree all the way through us and more were yielded to the Lord. The more we surrender turned, the more we get the flesh out of the way so that we live by the spirit, then the less resistance we have. Allowing God's will to flow through us is just kind of making sense. [00:31:42] It probably does get poorly paid to what you were talking about earlier, which is that the whole faith being in our faith has such a huge part in healing. [00:31:56] It does. [00:31:57] So let me kind of not to bring light to me by any means, but as I've pursued this further and trying to understand it and as my heart has pursued the heart of the father a lot more, there is a deeper intimacy. What I've seen is really interesting. When I first started to pray for healing, we'll probably have a whole session sex session on Mondays. As you know, I prayed for healing, but one third would get fully healed, meaning all the symptoms that they experience, pain or sickness or tightness would be completely really. That's my definition of healing. OK. For this very simplistic purpose. One third for one third partial. One third nothing. Today when I go out, it's like 80 percent or 90 percent full and only the remaining percent partial. What happened? [00:32:49] Ok, it can't be that God's will has changed because he's the same yesterday, today and forever. So it's gotta be something within me and within me is have I matured more in faith, renew my mind, more of the Lord renewing my mind? Have I gotten more my flesh out of the way? You know, there's a lot these things going on. So anyway, that's kind of the big picture. Now, let me tie it back into some scriptural stuff, because I think this is pretty interesting. Back to the original question. Apply radical faith to illness or sickness. Sometimes all the faith in the world won't prevent death. My answer, the prepared answer is wrong. All it takes is a little faith to prevent death. But this is what we're talking about. Faith. You got it. You've got to be there, okay? You've got to allow God's will to flow through you because faith is not an action. It's a being. Faith is a substance, it's not. It's not your thinking. This is where we're going to talk on a little bit late on another session. But I want to show you some passages with Paul and just kind of show you great men of faith. [00:34:03] And what happened with Paul, so let's pull your Bible out real quickly and Act 20. [00:34:10] Versus nine through 12 x 20 versus nine through twelve. Can you read those for us? [00:34:16] Mm hmm. 1912. OK. As Paul spoke on and on. [00:34:22] A young man named I Can't Even Pronounce You is sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped the rape story to death below. [00:34:39] Paul went down, bent over him, took him into his arms. Don't worry, he said. He's alive. Then they all went back upstairs, shared in the Lord's Supper and eat together. Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left. Meanwhile, the young man was taken home, alive and well, and everyone was greatly relieved. [00:35:03] So. Wow. Yeah. [00:35:05] Well, simple statement, Paul. By faith. Raise the debt. Would you agree with that? Absolutely. All right. Now, let's look a little bit later. Act 28 versus 89. [00:35:19] X 28 versus 89. [00:35:33] And that rain. As it happened. Probably his father was ill with fever and dysentery, all went in and prayed for him and laying his hands on him. She healed him. Then all the other sick people on the island came and were healed as well. [00:35:55] So Paul by faith heals all of the sick that came. Would you agree with that? [00:36:02] Well, okay. Now let's turn to Philippians. This is Philippians 2. [00:36:10] Versus 25 through 27. [00:36:19] All right. Three twenty five and twenty seven, meanwhile, I thought I should send you a for dieters. Back to you. He is a true brother, co-worker and a fellow soldier, and he was your messenger to help me in my time of need. I'm sending him because he has been longing to see you. And he was very distressed that you heard he was ill through 27 boxes. And he certainly was ill. In fact, he almost died. But God have mercy on him. And also on me so that I would not have one sorrow after another. [00:36:57] All right, Paul had no faith to heal his friend. Would you agree with that statement? Well, for now, we start to see a question. Why could Paul raise the dead, heal all the sick on this island, but he couldn't even heal his own friend, whom he loved dearly. Something's going on here. Let's look at one other second, Timothy for 20, second Timothy 4, verse 20. [00:37:33] Ok. Rested, stayed at Corinth and I left Trofimov sick at militant. [00:37:41] Yeah. Why do you think Paul would leave his friend sick? If it could heal people. [00:37:49] The first word that came to my spirit was distraction. So perhaps he was distracted on another goal. He was sidetracked. He was thinking about something else and he he had not. Being with a father did not spend that time with the father. Like he said, had the first thing that popped in my mind, and that might actually be it. [00:38:11] My answer is a little bit simpler. I don't know. [00:38:17] I don't know. [00:38:19] What I do know is if Jesus was there, Jesus would have healed him. Paul, being purely a man born of sin with a seed of sin as opposed to see that is sin less as Jesus was born then. [00:38:33] There's something there that prevents God's will. From always occurring. And so anyway, I don't know the answer to it. All I know is. I'm not Jesus. And that's why not everyone is always healed. [00:38:52] That's a good answer. Yeah. [00:38:54] So another question that was asked, how do you draw the line between faith and presumption? [00:39:01] And that's a good question. [00:39:06] So. And you weren't here on the previous topics on this, but we're talking about Ramus and God's kind of spoken word to. So faith is acting on God's clearly defined will as he has directed you. Okay. That's the bottom line presumption is acting on what you hope God's will is not hope in the biblical sense, but hope in the natural sense. So real simple story. Kind of a tragic ending. There were some teenagers this is over in South Korea and at the church they go to. They talked a lot about faith and stepping out and walking by faith. And these teenagers were going to a rural area to share the gospel. And they came to this raging river and they're like three, 3, four girls and two, three, four guys, and the girls were saying, look, this is God's will. And we have faith. We have faith that we can walk across this raging river. Just as the Israelites walked across the raging Jordan during flood season when they came across to Jericho to conquer the promised land. And so we're going to step out by faith. And go into the river and God's going to protect us. And guess what happened? [00:40:34] They got hurt. [00:40:35] They found the bodies three days later downstream. Wow. [00:40:40] Yeah. And so that's presumption. Had God told them, specifically made it really clear. I want you to step out into this river and I will stop it. Then that stepping out by faith but simply trying to connect dots and acting in the natural. That's presumption. And so that kind of leads me into the next question that was asked. You say guy told me. Sometimes you get different answers. Have you ever had that happen with you any more? [00:41:12] Yeah. Yeah. [00:41:15] Okay. So here's a here's what I like to suggest. [00:41:17] You never have gotten different answers from God. [00:41:22] You've only gotten different answers that you heard, but God's answer is always gonna be the same because we know that God is never changing. His will is always the same. His truth is always. Fixed his will for you is always fixed in any situation. And the key is that we're listening to the right voice. And so. So back to this. [00:41:49] You say, God told me sometimes you get different answers. You only get the different answers when your self gets in the way. And I remember reading a book about George Mueller. Does that name ring a bell? Do you know who George Mueller is? [00:42:03] Sounds familiar. [00:42:05] Ok. So he is a real old godly man. Eighteen hundreds to nineteen hundreds. Right. In that timeframe, he was over in Bristol, England. And the Lord led him to start an orphanage at the peak of what he did. They were printing, printing and getting out millions of pamphlets a year. This is like in the late 1980s, 90s, millions of pamphlets a year supporting a couple of hundred missionaries and had an orphanage that housed 20000 children. And he never once asked anyone for any money to support the cause. Everyone was all amazed and and he would also he would have a prayer book and he would write down the prayers that he had and almost every single one of his prayers were answered. And so he became just one of those people, you know, across the Western world. How do you do it? And people would seek him out and he had a very simple formula. [00:43:18] And how do you know God's will? In other words, how do you know what God is telling you to do versus not? And the first step, he said. Well, you got to get your will out of the way. You have to get to that point in your heart where you have no will of your own. For example, he had this ministry, 20000 children in the orphanage. And doing a great work. And he felt maybe the Lord was telling him to shut it down. Think about that. You have a ministry. You're providing the livelihood of 20 thousand children who have no parents. And the Lord telling you to shut it down. That's a pretty hefty thing. You've invested your life for the last 10 or 20 or 30 years in that orphanage. So you just like your Beatty that you've grown up and now into a mature adulthood. And the Lord is saying shut it down so you can imagine a lot of emotional tension tied into that decision. Could you would you agree? [00:44:23] Oh, absolutely. I cannot imagine the weight of that kind of decision. You know, feeling I should say, feeling the weight. [00:44:31] That's it. I can't either. But yet he said, you've got to get to that place in your heart where you have no will of your own. [00:44:40] Kind of what we're talking about with Jesus totally surrendered, totally yielded no will of his own. He was only doing his father's will. And so the first step in hearing God is you had to have no will of your own in the matter. And this is the hardest part for most of us, because apart the things that we want to hear the Lord in the most are those things that are most important to us. And as long as they're most important, we can never be absolutely certain that we are hearing God's word, God's will, God speak to us because our will is so wrapped up in it. So I'd say that's really the kind of the first step, the second step in hearing God's word and being able to discern his word over someone else's has to do with the natural. So much of what happens in the natural mirrors, what happens in the spiritual and penny that you guys have children. [00:45:37] We do. Yeah. We have a 60 or 70 year old and a 13 year old. [00:45:42] Ok, I want you to go back to the time just before you had any children back then. If you're in a room full of young moms and they had all their little babies there, you've had no babies have your own. Could you easily discern one Beatty's voice from another or do they all sound the same? [00:46:02] Prior to my children, they all sounded pretty similar. [00:46:07] Yeah. So now advanced a year or two. Now you have a Beatty of your own and you're in a room with all these other children, all the other moms. And then your Beatty cries out. Can you discern your Beatty's voice clearly among all the other babies? [00:46:23] Oh, my God. Yeah. [00:46:25] So what different what's different, how could you discern your Beatty's voice so clearly when just previously you can discern one Beatty's voice against another? [00:46:35] Because I was with my Beatty all the time, I always spent time. Lived in the same house. I mean, you know, just in the same room together, just always spending time. So is like constant hearing them. [00:46:53] So that's how you can this know that you're hearing God's voice. When you are intimate, so intimate with the father because you spend so much time. Pursuing him. Involved with him, not just your law. I got my 30 minute day, you know, quiet time in. I read the Bible some I'd prayed a little prayer and I'm off flitting around doing my own sector in the day. I'm telling you about pursuing intimacy in long gated extended periods of time with a father. [00:47:25] When you become as intimate with the father as you were with yours, with your child. Then at that point, you can easily discern your father's voice from all the other voices. Does that make sense? [00:47:37] Well, absolutely. I totally agree. [00:47:41] So then the simple question and this just be a real short answer as we move on, because I've got a couple other questions before time runs out is how do you become intimate with the father? I think, you know, there's probably four things that. I don't wanna say these are the first steps to becoming intimate because intimacy is all about the heart, but there are four things that are involved in that process. Number one is you study is word a lot. You just eat it up. You want to know everything he has to say about everything. So you get to know him. Second is you praise, spend time and praise and worship all the time with him in your quiet time, because that's. What he wants you to do and as you praise and worship is like his spirit comes on and comes home more richly involved in your life. You spend time in prayer. Prayer is not just petitioning him, please do this, please do this. You know, it's not a checklist. It's talking to him spending time and then it's fasting. By the way, I have to tell you this one story two weeks ago, we go out. I'm taking a man that I led to Christ and we're going on praying for people. [00:48:55] And I saw more healings and more dramatic healings on that outing in a short period time than I've ever seen. As I'm out there praying for people. And I've seen broken bones healed. I mean, you know, names are just torn apart because of it. You know, ligaments torn, totally healed. You know, big old dude, 300 pounds almost doing deep knee bends after he walks in with crutches in excruciating pain, all kinds of things. Now it's asking the Lord why. And just prior to that. Um, about a week prior, I'd spent six days consecutive days in fasting, preparing for a very special event, and the Lord spoke to me and said, is the fasting? I don't know what it does. All I know is there's something spiritual about it. Okay. So, uh, those things studying his word, praise and worship, prayer, fasting, are those things that create a real intimacy with the Lord. And you can start to hear his voice much, much clearer. So last couple of questions. I think I've got three left on this. How long must I have faith before my trials end? What do you think is the answer to that one? How long will I have faith before my trials in? [00:50:11] I'm going to answer that question with a statement. The statement is there is no time in the spiritual realm, though, right? [00:50:22] Oh, I'll give a little bit more natural answer. Sorry if you're living a life of faith. Trials will never end because that's the whole thing about faith is. [00:50:35] It's always a trial because it's always a battle between your flesh versus your spirit, between your eyes naturalize versus your spiritual eyes, between what reality says is true and what God's word says is truth. [00:50:51] Trials will never end as you live by faith. Does that make sense? [00:50:55] Yeah. Jesus even said that, you know, you're going to face trials of many time. [00:51:01] Yeah. So last two questions, one is, why is my face so weak? How do I learn to live now by faith? How can I better apply faith in my everyday life? How can I increase my faith? And, uh, my simple answer on this is faith is a muscle. It's like a muscle. If you don't exercise it, it doesn't grow. If you want to increase your faith, you better start stepping out and doing something really bold. By guys clearly defined word and use and boldness, it for me is to find that utter destruction unless God actually shows up and does what he says he's going to do. You can't grow your faith living in the comfort zone. You got to be in the battle zone and and be willing to step out like that. So this session we just did last time that you were on when Caroline was here. We talked about Peter getting out of the boat. You know, takes a lot of faith, too. You got raging waters. [00:52:06] Two and three foot swells. The wind blowing hard. Peter says, Lord, if that's you, command me to come walk. Jesus, come on, man. And so Peter steps out of the boat. [00:52:19] That takes some boldness. You can't do that in the comfort zone. So the only way you're gonna increase your faith, know strengthen your faith, so to speak. You just gotta get out and do it. And the last thing that question is, how do I determine the balance between faith and planning? And I want to rephrase this question because I think it's wrong. This question is saying how do I balance obeying God versus obeying my own wisdom? And that's why this is a wrong question. How do I determine the balance between faith and planning? The better question is how do I balance? Planning and faith, and the simple answer is. You plan on your wisdom. But when God tells you to do something different, you follow God. Okay. Even if it goes against your planning. And I'm doing that right now in our business for some things. I'm going. Are you sure? God. Because it makes no sense and goes up because it makes no sense. But trust me. Okay, God. And that's it. So that was the lesson for today. Was it a good lesson? [00:53:32] Oh, great. I really enjoyed that. Let's get reminders. So much of that, you know, changing your mindset and really focusing your attention on the Lord. [00:53:48] Yes. Yes, it is. [00:53:50] So long time to wrap up, so hopefully if you're enjoying this, please be sure to subscribe. Sorry for the airplane out there and tell others about it. Hope you're getting a lot out of this and hope you go play it. You'll have a blessed day. Thanks. [00:54:10] If you've enjoyed this podcast, please tell others about it. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Get more content to help you walk by faith at our Web site and get radical faith dot.com. 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Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:00] Hi this is Carolyn Springer. Welcome to the next session. I'm calling you with Beatty Carmichael Beatty is the CEO of Master grabber. He created agent dominator and he's one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Today we're going to be having one of our radical things call they'll welcome me. I'm excited to get started.   [00:00:21] Well thank you Caroline and I am excited as well and for just as a note for those who are joining in from the real estate side of things. If you're looking for marketing this call is not going to be doing any real estate marketing. We're going to be talking entirely about living a life as a Christian and how to step out in faith. So if you're not interested in that topic just fair warning. That's what this entire call is going to be about so you can move on if you don't have interest but. Oh yeah. So what I wanted to do today Caroline is kind of pick up where we left off the last time we're talking about getting out of the boat and what that means in our spiritual life I saw a plane off not playing off the title but the title of guy's book if you want to walk on water you've got to step out of the boat. So just out of curiosity without putting you on the spot there's no right answer. Does anything come to mind that stood out from our last call that you thought was really interesting or something you really picked up on.   [00:01:36] Well I do remember being just really challenged. I love the way that you explain a lot of you know almost what God expects of us in faith because I think a lot of times we kind of weather it just day to day. We don't really think about being there. You know and just you know the way that faith pleases God really is such a good challenge to be reminded of it's just the way that you explain things in the way that you take scripture. It feels more like conviction than just something that kind of warm and this conviction you know and like a charge and challenge I guess if that makes sense. So that's that's the feeling I remember leaving the last call with. So I don't know if that's something specific but I do always appreciate the way that you explain Scripture with a lot of you know fire and passion and tenacity. I love it.   [00:02:34] I appreciate that. You know it's interesting. If we truly live our life for Christ then there should be that fire and passion just like if you are truly in a marriage where you love your spouse there's gonna be that fire and passion as well because in our life with Christ is a relationship.   [00:02:56] And it's not a list of it's not a set of techniques. It's not a set of do's and don'ts. It's a relationship. And the more you know the person you're in love with the more you know how their heart beats the more you know how they respond and how much they love you then you just flourish in that environment. Does that make sense.   [00:03:22] Absolutely. I mean I think you know that's part of that's a good illustration with a marriage. I mean that's what our relationship with the word should be. It should be the most important relationship in our lives. Then you know to know him that's how we can begin to understand and serve him and so knowing him and loving him and what makes his heart be and I love that that's a great description.   [00:03:44] Yeah. So my goal with these calls is to try to open up what causes that heart to be. And there are laws okay. At the end of Romans 7 Paul talks about the law and how with the law comes recognition of the sin in fact without the law there is no sin but he starts to talk about God's laws are spiritual laws okay. We don't grasp them in our physical body our physical body is unable to do the spiritual laws and that's why our flesh is always at war in conflict worth God's laws and can never please God as it says later in Roman say but in when we have these spiritual laws the more we understand the spiritual laws that's the heart of the father because the father created these laws for us and and so my goal is to try to you know open up what these laws are so we understand more of God's heart and we understand more of how we live in relationship with that.   [00:04:57] Let me do a quick review on just a couple of key things we talked about last time. So this thing we're calling radical faith OK. Which is probably it's a term I started many years back and I'm not sure I will use it today only because I have to re-explain it in Christendom. There is no radical faith here either a yes or no you have faith or you don't have faith there is no degrees of faith that says that.   [00:05:27] What is it. I think it's Romans 12. God has given all a measure of faith. And you don't get more faith or of less faith you either have it or you don't. And in a technical term in what's called programming languages a Boolean. A Boolean is either true or false. OK. That's kind of what faces. But we in our fleshly minds tend to categorize things and degrees and we think that someone has faith because oh look at them there they're walking with the Lord.   [00:06:02] They must have faith or they pray or light. So they have faith but then we see someone that does something more dramatic and they go. That's really a lot of faith that's radical. OK. So using the term strictly from that point radical faith is really what God says this is faith. And what we talked about last time is that this concept this understanding of faith is really choosing to step out on God clearly defined will. And when we step out on. Clearly defined will we see God act when we step out at great personal risk or sacrifice. OK that's a little nutshell definition and this is the point I wanted to kind of underscore from last time. We talked about some things now I want to go into a little bit more application that we see from Scripture and maybe from other people's lives today. But the understanding is this is not simply stepping out trusting God to take care of us. What faith is it stepping out trusting God when we step out on what he directed us to do. Because a lot of times will presume upon God's goodness and when we presume upon God's goodness. God doesn't always act does that make sense.   [00:07:31] Absolutely I think you know the faith has to be placed in his word. And you know in his nature so that makes sense and that's a great explanation.   [00:07:42] Yeah. Let me give you an actual example real life story from to kind of talk about this. The. Let's see. I'm just shooting you a quick text.   [00:07:59] So on this story this is a bypass or over in Korea named Dr. Paul younger Cho. He wrote a book called The fourth dimension. Really fascinating book. It was written back in the 80s I think. And at that time his church was much smaller than it is today. At that time his church was only 500000 members. Okay. Today it numbers into the millions. But he was sharing this. He was talking about this this idea this understanding of faith and what it is and how we apply it. And he was sharing an example. That kind of I'm trying to lead into and that is it's not presumption. Faith is when we act on God's clearly defined well enough when we act on what we think his desires. And so there has been there was a lot of discussion during this timeframe about stepping out on God's will and stepping up by faith God's going to move and do frequently do the miraculous. So these teenagers were headed to a remote village to go share the gospel. That's God's will to go share the gospel with these people. They came to an impasse. There was a raging river. Much like the Jordan was a raging river at the time Joshua crossed the Jordan to go to Jericho. When God finally led them into the promised land and these teenagers there was a group of three or four girls out of this group of teenagers that said hey guys wait hold on. We're doing God's will. We need a step out by faith just like the priest did when they crossed the Jordan says they put their foot in the Jordan. The Jordan River dried up so they could cross on dry line dry land. So we need to trust God to do the same thing here. When we walk into that raging creek raging river god will dry it up and we're gonna walk across on dry land. So they stepped out and guess what happened.   [00:10:10] Did not part. That's right. They're not art.   [00:10:14] They found their bodies three or four days later. Okay so that's presumption. That's not faith. And this is the key. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ and that hearing the word that word is Raymer. And in a very simplistic I was corrected by my pastor.   [00:10:36] One of my pastors a couple of years ago said you know the word Ramo actually has like you know multiple different definitions and stuff. So I'm not being real technical I'm being very general on this. The general idea with Reema is it's a specific message to you and those girls do not have a specific message to go step out in the creek in the river. So when we have the specific message then when we step out by faith then that's when God moves. Fun fun interesting story years back Smith Wigglesworth is praying for this guy who has no feet.   [00:11:17] And he said tomorrow when you wake up you will have feet. So you need to go buy some shoes today. So the man goes into the shoe store and says I need to get some shoes and the shoe man shoe salesman said what size. He said I don't know just pick any size. Therefore a guy looked as though you don't have any fees said not today but I will tomorrow. So he bought the shoes and he woke up in the morning in the Etsy. So now you could wear the shoes and they happen to be. I'm sure the exact same size as the shoes that he bought.   [00:11:56] So that's stamping out by God's direction. OK.   [00:12:02] But if you're not stepping out by God's clearly defined well then you're not standing up by faith. So just be cautious on that. So when we do step out this is the thing that's interesting when we act on quote God has clearly directed us even though what God has directed us may seem contrary to all natural laws. It doesn't matter because I think we talked about this earlier Thy word is truth remember. God's Word is truth.   [00:12:34] Truth is always true. What we have in N on the earth is simply reality and God's truth trumps reality all the time. So when God tells us to do something and it doesn't line up into what we think it should or could. That's where faith comes in because faith is is walking not by sight but by faith. So we find that God shows up when we step out sometimes God shows up providential and sometimes he shows up miraculously. We're having this challenge right now. I'll just share a personal story. It's not a challenge. There's this constant conflict. My wife and I and my son who goes by my name Beatty Junior and the Lord's been directing Beatty Junior to fast too fast for extended periods of time. Okay so you see a lot of people when they seek the Lord in the Bible they fast for 40 days and 40 nights. Now if you know anything about fasting the body usually can go about two or three weeks without food and then it goes into extreme stages of starvation. So 40 days and 40 nights and still have energy is miraculous.   [00:13:55] Well my wife is our concern because Beatty Junior is losing weight. I keep going but he's following guy's direction. Don't worry about it. So there's this natural conflict because she sees it in the natural but you got to have nutrition. And I keep saying. But if you feast on God's Word and God's word provides the sustenance your body needs. This is what it says back in in Rome and say that the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead gives life to our mortal bodies. Okay. Sustaining life. And so you have this conflict that it doesn't seem natural but because it's not. So are you going to trust the natural or are you going to trust God's word. And and so this kind of brings us back to one key element. You can't put God in a box based on what you see and experience. You can't put him in a box that it can't be true because. OK that's it. You know if you have a limit to what you're willing to trust God on then that means you've got God in a box and God doesn't fit in a box because he's infinite. And what he chooses to do goes beyond anything that the human mind can can dream up something and comprehend.   [00:15:24] Thank you. And so this is where. And so that's kind of the review I want to do one last thing that we talked about last week and then move on from there in two days visit. So last week we also talked about or last time we talked about Peter walking on the water and I just want to go back to that passage. So this is Matthew 14 versus 28 331. And it says this. So Peter said to him meanings to Jesus Lord if it's you.   [00:15:54] Command me to come to you on the water and Jesus said Come. Okay. So Peter's saying Lord if it's you give me a Raymer. Right. If we want to use these terms and so Jesus gave Peter a Raymer he commanded Peter come. And with that come in is the intrinsic promise of sustenance. Come walk on the water and you will walk. So so Peter now has this Rama. And so Peter with this quote unquote radical faith he steps out. He chooses to step out to do God's clearly defined will at great personal risk. OK. So there is our definition. And here's how Peter does it. And Peter got out of the boat and he walked on the water and he came toward Jesus. It makes no sense in the natural. But truth overcomes reality. And so he starts to walk on the water. And now God provides not profit initially but provides miraculously and then it continues and he says. But seeing the wind. He became frightened. So now we have the problem. Peter takes his eyes off of Jesus with his which is the truth and puts his eyes onto the natural which is reality. And something happens. But seeing the wind he became frightened and beginning to sink. He cries out. Lord save me. So as soon as he changes where he places his focus living life in the spirit versus life in the flesh if we go back to that Roman terminology kind of loosely okay then as soon as he does that the miracle stops and a natural consequence occurs. Until at that point he prays. He says Lord save me. And at that moment God answers his prayer immediately. Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and saved him. Right. And so we think sometimes that because God answers our prayer we're doing great.   [00:18:18] But that's not the case all the time because here God answers his prayer because he failed to do God's highest and best because he got his eyes off of Jesus and he got them on to reality. He shifted perspective and then Jesus rebuked him. There's only a few things that Jesus rebukes his disciples for the one he rebukes them the most often is this one you have little faith. Why did you doubt. And so now we have little faith and doubt. Doubt is the opposite of faith. Faith is seen from God's perspective. Doubt is seeing the opposite of God's perspective. And we could say that fairly simply and mostly accurately that doubt is seen from the natural perspective faith is from God's perspective. Doubt is from the natural perspective. And so here's the cool part that we start to pull out of this passage.   [00:19:22] Is that when we act in faith. God acts on our behalf. Either miraculously or providential both when we act by sight. Then what happens is those miracles or gods acting on our behalf stopped and we start to get the natural consequence.   [00:19:44] Did I share. I think I did last time about that period of time in my business like fears back where we were losing money losing money and I came to the law and said When are you going to let up and he said well if you believe my word to be true how would you act differently. Did we talk about that.   [00:20:02] We did. Yes and how you had cut back on salaries and then even though the numbers didn't add up. You kind of changed it around according to faith.   [00:20:12] Yeah yeah.   [00:20:13] So you know the cool thing is nothing changed except we now spent more money because we put everyone back at full pay and immediately without any any comprehension of how we did it. We started making money again.   [00:20:32] Okay. And this is what what happens when you step out by guys clearly defined well. So when he said you know if you really believe my word to be true how would you act differently than you're acting right now. When I acted differently then that was me acting on his. Okay. And so that kind of brings us in to where we are. And here's the here's why I want to kind of take off from here as we walk through our lives our life of walking by faith with the Lord. Nothing is set in stone in terms of what's going to occur in a kind of in a natural sense. Okay. In every situation there are two possible outcomes the outcome if we step out by faith and follow God's word or the outcome if we step out by sight. And follow our eyes. OK. And and as violence we follow God's word. We're gonna have his promises but if we fight if we if we resist his word because it doesn't make sense and therefore we're believing in our logic and in believing in our intellect and believing in what we see then at that point we don't get his promises we get the consequences of our actions and and both of those are true outcomes which is dependent on you.   [00:22:03] So I wanted to walk you through a couple of examples scripturally on how this works. Just to try to build out this picture a little bit more because what what I've learned is God starts to take what ever it is that we have. And then he usually multiplies that in some form or fashion to accomplish what we need. It's not that he does a creative miracle by itself is that he either does it create a miracle starting with what we have or he does a providential supply starting with what we have. But it seems like he usually starts with what little we have. And I want to I want Have you read a passage and then we'll kind of talk through this.   [00:22:48] So this is coming from second King's second Kings chapter 4 and the first six verses. So as you're getting there. Let me just kind of give the background. So this is a story about Eliza and a widow and not Elijah but this is Elijah successor Alicia. And let me know if you've got it pulled up and then I'll let you read it.   [00:23:16] Yes.   [00:23:17] Taking kings for starting first six verses OK here's how we read it.   [00:23:25] Ok so the wife of the man from a company of prophets cried out to Elijah your servant my husband is dead and you know that he revered the Lord but now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves. Elijah replied to her How can I help you. Tell me what you what do you have in your house.   [00:23:46] It has four walls also just kind of give you the framework here. So at this time you have what's called debtors prison and debtor slavery. If you owe money and you can't pay it you then come either thrown in prison until you or somebody brings the money on your behalf or you go into slavery to work it off. That's what's happened here. Her deceased husband had borrowed money. They have nothing. And so now she's about to lose her sons to become slaves. So da situation you pick up from there again.   [00:24:26] Ok so this is her replying to a license. She says your servant has nothing here at all she said except a small jar of olive oil like you said go round and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your son. Pour oil into all the jars and as it's filled. Put it to one side. She left him and shut the door behind her and her son. They they brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. When all the doors were closed he said to her son bring me another one. But he replied There is not a jar left. Then the oil stopped flowing.   [00:25:03] Okay great. So here's we start to see the same pattern that we're going to see throughout. And that pattern is that.   [00:25:14] We come into a dire situation in fact I was reading in Psalms this morning and it says and it said that God takes pleasure and is honored when we cry out to him in times of trouble. He loves rescuing us. And so here we have a situation bad situation. The widow has nothing to lose her sons. And then she hears God's word God's Rama spoken through a life of the prophet. And first off God asks her What do you have. And she says I don't have much. All I have is a jar of oil. So then there's the Rama.   [00:26:05] We'll go grab all the jars not little ones and not just a few as many big ones as many jars as possible throughout everywhere in the village.   [00:26:15] Go on and bring them all. And so they act by faith. They can't see. They don't understand. If they were to try to understand in the natural they would completely doubt. But they acted on God's word. And then when they acted on God's word God starts to do a miracle. He starts to take the little that she has and produce the abundance that she needs. But he starts with what she has which is the little that she has and her faith. And then we see one other thing. Okay as long as she acts by faith and there's more jars to pour the oil into what happens to the oil.   [00:27:06] It stops flowing once the giant.   [00:27:08] Yeah. Once they're out of charge. But as long as they continue to have jars and continue to act by faith God continue to produce a miracle.   [00:27:18] But then my second question was going to be what happened when they ran out of jars when they ran out. They stopped acting by faith and the oil stopped. It's the same pattern that happened with Peter walking on the water isn't it.   [00:27:37] Peter walked on the water as long as he acts by faith. As soon as he starts acting the miracle starts. But we see that guy there with a light show. Let's pull up another one. Pull this up. So then let's shift over to Mark and I'll read this. This comes from Mark Six. This is Jesus feeding the 5000 people. We see a very similar pattern. OK so this is starting in verse 35. It says when it was already quite late His disciples came to him to Jesus and said This place is desolate so just set the background okay.   [00:28:21] Jesus has come over here to a large area on the side of the lake. The Sea of Galilee. Crowds of people are there. He's been teaching them okay. They've been there apparently for several days and now we we pick up on this and it is already quite late His disciples came to him and said This place is desolate and is already quite late send them away so that they may go by themselves something to eat but Jesus answered You give them something to eat.   [00:28:54] How much have you have. How much do you have. How many loaves. We have some kind of skipping around. And Jesus says go look. Tell me how many loaves you have so same thing that happened with Aisha. He asked the widow first. What do you have. That's now what Jesus is doing. What do you have. And when they found out they said five and two fish. So they don't have much. And their need is very great. So then Jesus commanded them all to sit down by groups on the green grass.   [00:29:27] And it says that they all eight and were satisfied and they picked up twelve baskets of the broken pieces and also the fish fish. And there were 5000 men who ate the loves. So we know obviously that there's 10 to 15000 total people by the time you add women and children. So here we see the same thing happening. God takes the little that we have and produces the abundance that we need. Because he takes the little that we have and produces the abundance that we need when we are following him. When we act in faith by faith on his direction when we serve him because he always takes a little that we have and produces the abundance we need there should never be any time of fear in our lives because we don't have enough of one ever because I know one of the things that most of us struggle with is oh my gosh we don't have enough money to pay the bills or we don't have enough of this or when it comes to health or anything like that we're always start to get our eyes on the natural but God says follow me when I give you a direction step out in faith and I'll always provide for you I'll always give you what you need I won't share one other story from biblical account and this is the story of getting in Do you remember getting in the Bible.   [00:31:02] I do. I don't remember much about him. OK.   [00:31:07] Yes. So. So Gideon is one of one of the judges. OK so to give you a historical perspective the Israelites have moved into the Promised Land. Joshua has now died. And when Joshua died the leadership who trusted the Lord and believed in the Lord and follow the Lord went away. And then people kind of went and did their own things. Okay. So you lost the unity you lost the leadership and therefore you lost the. The receiving of the full promise. So there was a period of judges where God used different people. He called judges. There were basically rulers of the people that would come up and provide protection for the people and guidance and Gideon is one of them. So the way it happens with Gideon is the Lord speaks to Gideon says Gideon. So at this time many knights were coming and raiding the Israelites and they would read them during harvest time. So you'd go out there you'd work all the time you know get a crop in get your olives in get your grapes in and then these bands of warriors would come and attack you and take all your food. So people were living in caves.   [00:32:35] They were storing their food in secret trying to do everything they could to protect themselves. And that's the time that we find Gideon and God comes up to Gideon and says I think I've got this turn right. Oh mighty warrior. OK. And getting in says who me and God tells getting that I want you to go defeat your enemies for Israel. And getting in says I'm not sure this is real. I'm the least of the least of all the tribes and the youngest of my family my family is the least of the tribe. Okay. And so from a hierarchy he has no ruler in ruling or leadership opportunity. It's sort of a caste system there and he's at the bottom of the barrel. But God says no it is you. You know I've chosen you right. And we're gonna want you to do it. So if you remember the story the fleece getting put out of fleece. This is really you and this is your word then cause the police to be wet but the ground to be dry. God does and then he does it again but just it cause the fleece to be dry. But the ground to be wet guy does. And so God has patience with Gideon as Gideon wrestles with what he sees in the natural versus gods clearly defined well for him.   [00:33:58] So now we fast forward just a little bit. Gideon steps out by faith he takes away the altar that his father had made to an idol and and then we fast forward to the point that I want to talk about at this point the MITI knights are now invading the land they're coming against the land. And God tells Gideon you know go and defend Israel against the media nice So Gideon goes out any recruits about 30000 soldiers you call them soldiers. These are peasants for the most part they're farmers. They don't have any swords. I think out of the whole group there may be like three or four swords at that. Okay but come out with Ploughshares with slings whatever they have. And and they're up against thirty one hundred and thirty five thousand Medhi Knight soldiers armed for war. Okay so. But Gideon acts by faith and then God says getting this too many people tell those who are scared to go home. So he tells those who are scared you can go home. So 10000 leave. And now he's left with twenty thousand and now getting into getting a little nervous. Would you agree.   [00:35:23] Yes.   [00:35:25] Twenty thousand force a third of my troops. And we're going to get one hundred thirty five thousand armed warriors all right.   [00:35:32] Those numbers don't add up. Those numbers don't add. So what do you. So what does God say.   [00:35:38] Oh remember. I mean it's been so long.   [00:35:41] Yeah. God says getting you still have too many.   [00:35:44] Yeah. Yeah. But you still have to man.   [00:35:48] So he says Tell everyone to go to the creek go to this river and drink. And based on how they drink there are two ways to drink water you kneel and you cut it in your hand and you bring it up to your mouth and the other way to drink is you kneel and you stick your mouth down to the creek and actually drink out of the creek.   [00:36:08] And he says tell I won't go down and drink. And based on how they drink and I think it's the ones who kneel and stick their mouth into the creek to slurp it up just tell all of them to go home. And so now median is down. Gideon is down to 300 men from thirty thousand three hundred. And guess what God says at that point.   [00:36:35] He says more. Oh no. He says that's perfect. That's all you need.   [00:36:41] Three hundred men against a hundred and thirty five thousand meeting tonight. Okay but then God tells get in to do something strange again. He says now what I want you to do is I want each of you to carry a torch underneath a jar and carry a trumpet. Or a bugle. So if you think about it these days. Okay. You'd have to carry the torch with a jar in one hand and the bugle on the other hand. There is nothing else for you to carry. So he's sending these guys out there without any weapons of warfare. Against one hundred thirty five thousand million AIDS. And here's the plan. All of you get straight down the line marks out there. You take off the jars or break your jars all at the same time. So now there's a flame of torches across one into the other. And then everyone blows the trumpet and says for Gideon and for the Lord. But before he since getting out there God says one more thing. Gideon if you're scared go down into the camp and listen. So Gideon takes his armor bearer. They go into this camp and they hear a story of a dream Being related by one to midnight soldiers to the other.   [00:38:05] I had this dream and this this song this loaf of bread roll down and fell on the tent and crushed it and the other person is now interpreting the dream. By God's direction thing. Well that's nothing but the sort of Gideon he's going to destroy us all. Okay so now Gideon is hearing this go okay. We got this. So now I want you to picture the situation. Gideon goes back and tells these 300 men hey here's what God has told us to do. Here's what we just heard in the camp. Guys we got this. Let's go forward. So they stepped out and they start to march in the middle of the night to do what God has told them.   [00:38:48] Here's the question I have for you. Do you think their heart was beating fast. Do you think they were nervous and maybe a little apprehensive as they went out there or do you think they were cocky confident.   [00:39:06] I would think their hearts would be beating fast even though they heard that you had that word I would think would be.   [00:39:14] I would think so too. OK so firming up by faith is it a lack of concern.   [00:39:22] But it's your choice to step out on God's Will overruling and overpowering any concern you have in the flesh. Okay so it's not like people talk about oh you're so brave. Talking about you know battle warriors. So I wasn't I was scared to death. I just did what I had to do. Okay so the same thing faces. It's not that you have no concern is simply that your commitment to do what the Lord said overrides any concerns that you have.   [00:39:54] And so that's where we find Gideon and the rest the story is they go down there they break their jars so no one holds out their torch. They all blow the trumpet. So you know the trumpet in that time the bugle is a call to war.   [00:40:08] And so three hundred men with trumpets our bugle start blowing their bugles and yelling for Gideon and for the Lord and they round the media night army and from that little bit. The entire hundred thirty five thousand Mitty nights were completely cool. They not only start killing themselves but then during this battle the other Israelites that were the 30000 that did not come with them they muster arms and they come out and they start pursuing them until they're all destroyed. And so we see the same pattern the pattern is that God takes the little resources we have. And frequently he puts us in a position to have only a little bit of resource so that we don't rely on ourselves but we rely on God. And then he tells us very clearly what we should do when he tells us clearly what we talked about in one of the other sessions he highlights scripture for you and he speaks it to your heart or in some way he makes it very clear you know Caroline or Beatty or sue. This is my word for you. I want you to do this. And he makes it very clear to us. And then we step out by faith to do what he has said and we have no comprehension really of how he's going to accomplish protecting us. We're scared we're nervous but we do it anyway because it's God's word to us. And then when we do that God shows up. That's how this whole radical faith concept starts to play out. Is this making sense.   [00:42:01] Oh yes it is. I mean I think even just your description using that story with Gideon is you know encouraging too because I think a lot of times in our mind you know when we think of radical faith or you know what kind of basis we think that pleases God you know maybe we pop ourselves out a thing because you know it's okay to still have you know maybe a question or our heart beating back and you know I think that's encouraging to know. No I mean that's okay. It's about obedience. It's about taking that step even in the midst of you know that kind of question. So I think that was really encouraging for me.   [00:42:44] Let me let me share just kind of personally a time in my business where we weren't doing all that well financially business was hard. Revenues were down. Customers were not very prevalent. Trying to get new customers was tough. And we were on the verge of you know in the natural going out of business. And and the Lord told me focus on my temple not your business. Okay so this message is Hagai one in two. So let me give you the quick synopsis of Hagai Hagai one.   [00:43:26] Okay so this is during the time of Zachariah and Azra it's at the end of the dispersion of the Israelites as God destroy Jerusalem destroyed the temple and shift and sent all of his people Israel and Judah into exile and then God calls them back and they start to rebuild the wall and rebuild the temple. So Hagai is in that timeframe. And during this timeframe they were told to start to rebuild. So they they built the wall up OK. And they were also supposed to build a temple but they stopped building the temple the place of worship. OK. In the Old Testament the temple is a physical structure in the new temple in the New Testament.   [00:44:17] And now the temple is the body of Christ. We're all living stones that we build out the temple of the Lord because the temple is where the Lord dwells and that's us. Okay. So so the correlation into two days time is building the temple is is is sharing the Gospel nurturing people deciphering them being gods hands and feet and building up to the body of Christ. So in Hagai one it says you know you work hard and you get nothing in return.   [00:44:53] He says you put money in your pocket and it goes out in the holes in your pocket. God says I blow it all away.   [00:44:59] And why do I blow away all of your work and all your labors because your focus on your house by my house lies in ruins. And then in Hagai 2 he tells him something really interesting. And it's one of these things that makes no sense. He says. Stop focusing on your own house.   [00:45:21] Stop focusing on your fields. Stop focusing on your provision. Stop focusing on trying to harvest in the grapes and the olives and the figs and all your crops because I just keep blowing them away. You have nothing because I choose for you to have nothing because you've been disobeying me. He says instead focus on building my temple. And if you do then I will bless all of your crops and all your fields and all your heart I'll bless all of that and you'll have an abundance.   [00:45:55] So in this timeframe in my business it was one of those situations where I was working really hard because everything was going south. Figuratively speaking and it required all of my focus just to keep the business going and God kept telling me this is your problem. I told you earlier to build my temple but you keep focusing on your house and Sir my house take me at my word. Focus on my house first and then see what happens. So you know what I did.   [00:46:35] Thanks direction. You have that kind of vision be back in the place. I don't know.   [00:46:42] Yeah I started to focus on saying Okay I'm going to take my time my mental energies my efforts that I would normally put in the business to try to work the business and get it jumpstarted and I'm instead going to abandon that direction and focus on building the Lord's house. Now I still have some business responsibilities I had to do during that time okay. And so I maintain them but my focus shifted to not be concerned about my house but to be concerned about his house.   [00:47:15] And guess what happened with my business.   [00:47:20] Yeah I worked less in the business I had less stress in the business because I turned it over to him and I was now focusing on building his house and also my business starts to grow. It makes no sense in the natural. But it makes all kinds of sense in the spiritual because it's the truth. The truth is when you act on God's direction his clearly defined well for you and you step out at great personal risk or sacrifice because what I was risking is I could lose everything if if I'm wrong.   [00:47:54] But yet even though I was nervous about it I chose to take God at His word and God provided the same thing that we see throughout all these scriptures.   [00:48:07] So that's pretty cool I can tell you some other stories On My Mind in just a moment but I want to kind of go through a couple of what I call truths in all this. So this and the truths of radical faith. Ok first truth is that God is going to use the little that we have to produce the abundance that we need. When we step out on his word he always provides enough. So he's going to always take a little that we have and always provide. The abundance we need. That's the law. That's one of his spiritual laws. Gosh I love to tell you some more stories. Let me move on. The second truth is we must act in faith without any doubt. OK. Once we doubt. The miracle stops or the providential supply stops. Basically when we act by faith which is on God's clearly defined will then God always produces as he's promised. But when we stop acting by faith and we start looking in the natural we get our eyes off of the Lord and on to our circumstances. Then we stop receiving the Lord's providential blessings and we start to receive circumstantial consequences. And the third truth that we can pull out of all this is we have to be willing to accept risk. You cannot live a Christian life without risk because by definition faith is all about risk. With what we see because by definition faith is seeing things from God's perspective which is not the world's perspective. College is kind of making sense.   [00:50:13] Those are great. I hope they will. Let's rewind. Write this down. Those are some great principles. The premise is even more laid on a little longer. What a great way to kill this thing.   [00:50:28] Yeah. So I love what so one of the guys that I learned learned is the wrong word one the guys I studied and that helped me a lot and going on and praying for healing and seeing God heal as a guy named Robbie Dawkins and.   [00:50:52] He says faith is spelled out. I ask. It's risk.   [00:50:59] And here's the way that I think I may have shared this in one of the other visits. Here's the way he expresses it in healing terms. His son one of his son's name is Judah and his son is at a McDonald's. And did I tell the story last time. If I did not tell it again.   [00:51:21] Remember McDonald. Okay Green. I don't know but I'm all for the now.   [00:51:29] Okay folks I'll let them know we finish the story basically redundant then totally a. So. So Judah is at a McDonald's a bunch of high schoolers are in there and one the high school kids is on crutches with a bum food. So what happened is that I broke my foot. So does it hurt his head hurts a lot. So would you like God to heal it.   [00:51:52] Well sure. First off do you think that that high schooler had any expectation that God was going to heal that foot right then. No probably not.   [00:52:01] Probably not. You just said Sure I love regarding yoga but he had no expectation. So here's the question. Did Judah take him off into a corner by himself or no one could see to pray for that foot for God to heal it instantly. Or do you think Judah called everyone in the restaurant to come watch it happen.   [00:52:27] I mean I'm sure. Which way would you do it. I don't know that I would.   [00:52:33] Call everybody to come see it. Whenever we pray for people we do whatever the natural circumstances are we wouldn't necessarily take them away or sue people away but I don't know that we would also sometimes think that they are. But you know I'm thinking wait a minute. Let me tell stories before where he's caught people that won't be my words.   [00:53:01] That's what happened here. So keep in mind Judah is Robby's son and Robby spells faith. Ah I ask. So far Judah did and this is kind of where am.   [00:53:11] This is one of the truisms okay to a degree of radical faith. Is all about risk. You have to be willing to accept risk of what Judah did.   [00:53:20] If he yells out to the entire restaurant Hey guys you want to see a miracle. God is about to heal this broken foot right now.   [00:53:27] Come over and watch that stepping out at great personal risk right. Because you could be greatly embarrassed if God doesn't show up. And then one of the guys said I'm an atheist. I don't believe in that. And so Judas said well then you come up front because you're going to wipe something happened. And so he prays for the foot instantly Hill. The guy throws away his crutches jumping up and down everyone's amazed. God gets the glory. Okay so stepping up in faith always requires risk.   [00:54:06] And I would even say that to the degree of risk you take by acting on God's word is the degree of amazement you're gonna have in watching God work in your life. Let me share just a couple of stories and then we'll wrap up because we're getting close to the time so provision. OK. I want to tell the story of how I got started in business because it's really interesting but it has it ties all this together and shows how much God takes care of us. So nineteen ninety seven is the starting of the story. My wife and I are young married. We have one child just coming out of diapers or maybe still in diapers. We have another Beatty that comes that year. And I find myself first off she's a stay at home mom. So she has no income. We have a house with a mortgage. We have a car with a mortgage. If you ever had one of those and I was unemployed we had 5000 dollars in savings and I gave that five thousand dollars to a missionary couple. So by the first of the year we had nothing in savings. That's where we found ourselves. I did 13 different things that year to make money.   [00:55:40] None of them were very brilliant and none of them did a whole lot because by the end of the year my total adjusted gross income. What you what you actually pay taxes on before you have any giving deductions or maybe after I forget but my total just adjusted gross income was eleven thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars. That's after giving. And during that time what we did is we were giving at that time 20 percent of our income. So every time we earn some money first thing we did is we honor the Lord with it. We gave 20 percent first to the Lord and then we lived off the rest. And I'm a firm believer in Malachi 3. And second Corinthians 9 both of which talk about you cannot out give God financially if you trust him and and give generously that he'll always take care of your needs. So. So here's the cool thing. Not only did we have both mortgages. Not only did we have a Beatty come that year. My wife also had a root canal which cost eleven hundred dollars cash. Not only words are adjusted gross income eleven thousand eight hundred eighty two dollars and not only did we have nothing in savings but here's the cool part.   [00:57:04] We never once miss a payment on anything.   [00:57:08] Well we never once were even late on a payment. We always had an abundance for all of our needs. How does that happen. It doesn't just happen but God moved providential me throughout that entire time and took care of our needs but we stepped out in faith giving the little that we had to him first because we gave by his clearly defined will that he wants us to give and he promises to take care of us when we do. And so that's just you know just another example of not bringing sorry to me but bringing story to how good God is. And we've never once have gone through a period of time where we did not have enough. We've gone through a period of time where we almost went bankrupt. But God always provided and we always had an abundance. And there was never even any great fear because we knew God would always take care of us. And that's kind of what I'm talking about with this radical faith that's trusting at that level that that God is gonna move. Let me wrap up the last couple of thoughts on this because I've got to we've got to start wrapping it up. Last couple of thoughts on this faith is the absolute trust that God will do what he says he will do. And that's where on the last call at the end of the last call I was told you know God asked me what you really believe my word to be true. How would you act differently than you're acting right now.   [00:58:49] If you're acting differently then you would act if you really believed God's word to be true.   [00:58:56] Then you really don't have faith because faith is that absolute trust that God will do what he says he will. And therefore you're going to do exactly what he tells you to do. Faith ultimately can be kind of wrapped up in a simple question Do you trust me. Do you trust my word to be true. Do you trust me to be faithful and true. Do you trust that I'm going to do what I say I'm going to do. And it's not so much about our ability to handle things. Our ability to fix our problems. The thing faith is all about trusting God to act on his promise. Now if we don't have this promise if we don't have his word then we cannot act by faith. It starts first. Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. So we have to do that. And then the last thing I want to share is how much faith does it take. I mentioned earlier at the first the call that faith is you either have it or you don't. It's either true or false. Everyone's been given a measure of faith. When the disciples said to Jesus increase our faith Jesus doesn't say how to increase faith he says well if you have faith of grain the size of a grain of mustard seed you could tell this mountain to be taken up and thrown into the mountain into the ocean. That is not how much faith you have it's simply that you have faith. So I want to show you something. So this comes from Mark Martin 9 versus 23 and 24. To set the stage Jesus has just come down from the mount of transfiguration.   [01:00:36] So this is where Moses and Elijah you know the Prophet the law and the prophet and now Christ's grace and the new covenant all appear the law and the prophets disappear.   [01:00:49] All you have left is the new covenant of grace and Peter blurts out before the law and the prophets disappear. It says Shall I make you a tent for all three of them. Okay. So then they come down the mountain they find a commotion and a commotion is there's a man there with a boy with epilepsy who brought the his son to Jesus his disciples to cast out the demon to heal a son and they could not. And so that's now where we start to find this passage and then he says Lord help me help. Help me if you can.   [01:01:31] And then Jesus says starting in Mark 923 and Jesus said to him if you can. All things are possible to him who believes. And immediately the boy's father cried out and said I do believe help my unbelief. So here's the question. Caroline how much faith did that father have.   [01:01:58] Very little. I mean I guess you could say the size of a mustard seed that Al Gore would need to work with what we have.   [01:02:06] That's right. He had very little in fact the only faith he had. He brought his son there. But even by his own admission. I do believe help my unbelief and all it takes is a little bit of belief. God takes the little that we have.   [01:02:26] And then he miraculously produces the abundance that we need to accomplish what he said is gonna happen. And so it's not a lot of faith is simply acting by what we do have. And last couple of statements on this is that you cannot receive God's promises without faith office promises or promises. From the spiritual realm they emanate into quite frequently into the physical realm. But just like his laws are spiritual so are his promises and you cannot receive those promises except by faith. The other final thing is faith and doubt cannot coexist. If you doubt you don't have faith.   [01:03:18] This is what James says but not the one who doubts expect to receive anything from the Lord. It's okay to be a little bit afraid. It's okay to be a little anxious just like Gideon going down there. I'm sure his heart was beating and they're probably perspiring and they're going oh lord I'm doing what you said but please show up. Okay. And we did the same thing. But the fact is that you act by faith just like the guy that I was selling about Smith Wigglesworth. If he did not go and buy those shoes would he have woken up with his feet. I don't know but my guess is probably not because it was that little act of faith. Trusting guy was gonna do what he did. And we see this even with Jesus. He tells someone he will go wash your eyes and it's only when he wash his eyes that he starts to see.   [01:04:12] So that's pretty much it. Any thoughts or comments anything stand out for you.   [01:04:20] Well I think it was kind of like we started off earlier. It's just a challenge you know to examine your heart. And it's a challenge to step out and risk when you feel holy spirit pumping are you. You hear the words too you know to go for it whether it's praying for somebody or believing for healing or believing like you said the provision whatever it is. I think sometimes that it's easy to believe in your own family or are against it. For my experience to believe you know four things because I can reflect back and know has always been faithful and things like that for my own family and for this and. But it's definitely been these calls have been challenging me as far as stepping out for the evangelistic side because that's not always the easiest thing to operate in as easily as my husband. And so as always it's a good reminder just to go and to to kind of. I don't love this terminology but you know for lack of a better word it's just the verse uses under the bus. But let's do it like you've got to show up guys. And so I don't know. I always walk away challenged. So thank you for inviting me to be a part of this.   [01:05:39] Ok. Well you're welcome.     P006

  Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:00] Hi this is Caroline Springer and welcome to the next session of sellers calling you Beatty Carmichael Beatty is the CEO of Master grabber and the creator of agent dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. Today we're gonna be talking on one of our radical faith calls and I'm going to pass it over to Beatty for our little disclaimer on just explaining what that is.   [00:00:23] Real simply this has nothing to do with real estate today. It has everything to do with Christ. So if you don't want to hear about Christ and this podcast that's pretty simple isn't it.   [00:00:34] Pretty simple.   [00:00:37] All right. Well I guess I'd call this meeting so I'll start the agenda. Actually I think Caroline has been a little while since we did the last radical faith call. So if I recall correctly the last one we're talking about is faith. So maybe less just a real quick recap on what is faith and not trying to put you on the spot. But if you if I were to ask you Caroline what is faith. What would you tell me.   [00:01:16] Well the first thing that come to mind is just like being sure of what we do not see and believing not just what meets the eye but what goes beyond that. So that's kind of my first thought that first from Hebrews immediately comes to mind. But I know it's definitely multi-dimensional and something that we walk through our lives processing with the words. But that's the first thought.   [00:01:43] Great. So first in Hebrews we're talking about Hebrews 11 1. Can you quote it.   [00:01:48] Do you remember it faces the assurance of what we do not see and nothing about it.   [00:02:03] It's about it's about what we do not see right.   [00:02:06] So Faith assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen. And faith comes from where do we get that level of faith.   [00:02:18] It's a gift from God.   [00:02:20] It comes from Romans. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ and that word is actually the Greek word Rama. Now there are lots of uses for Rama. But in general you've got two words in the Greek so the New Testament was written in Greek and then it was translated ultimately into English. And there are two primary words in Greek use that's translated as word one word is logos logos I guess is how our logos logos and the others Ramo are EMEA. When we were talking last time we're talking about logos means primarily just talking about a concept or an idea. Rima is very specific Okay real simple explanation. I want to tell you about the Kingdom of God that's going to be logos but I'm going to say Caroline can you give me please give me that water. That's a Rima I'm directing you on something or I'm going to say Caroline. You're going to have another child in the next year. That would be arraignment if that were actually from God's word. So is something that's very clear specific and most importantly it's specific to you.   [00:03:48] Does that make sense. It does. Great explanation too.   [00:03:53] Yes.   [00:03:53] So faith is when you've had that word some revelation some word from God and it is now faces the conviction of things not seen in other words we it's not something that we have to work on believing it's intrinsic and within our being. And that's what faces faith is not something that we well up and try to belief. If you have to try to believe if you have to will yourself to believe that's not faith that's simply in the natural. That's what we'll call hope. We're just hoping it's really true. But you know we have to work on trying to make ourselves believe it. So this thing that we talked about last. Is is all about this. This alternate. Understanding of faith being a clear direction a clear revelation a clear truth from God to us and we act on it. That's kind of where we're talking and where I want to talk about today kind of the topics that we're going to move into now is taking this understanding of what faith is and starting to see how it's applied in our lives.   [00:05:21] And I call this topic stepping out of the boat or getting out of the boat and I remember I read a book I love the title I got a little bit of the book but I get more out of the title Jon Burge wrote a book. I'm sure you've never heard of it or you don't recall it. Do you recall a book that John Burge wrote.   [00:05:42] I do not.   [00:05:44] The title is real simple if you want to walk on water you've got to get out of the boat right. And so that's kind of where I want to take our call today if you want to walk on water if you want to do the most amazing things in God's work by his direction then you've got to be willing to step out of the boat. So also just to cover a couple of things I want to use the term sometimes radical faith. In reality there is only one faith. It's just faith. We kind of think of it as radical because for us as it's what I call normal Christians or Western Christians. Faith is well I believe in God and I pray and I go to church right. I'm sure you know some people like that don't you.   [00:06:38] Definitely in the south definitely in the south. Radical faith is when you go oh my gosh I can't believe you go do that. Well that's actually what Jesus expects of us.   [00:06:52] So let's see. One of the things that we came out with is a definition that radical faith or this true thing I call faith is choosing to step out on God's clearly defined will. His revelation or his direction for you in such a way that it's usually great personal risk or sacrifice. In other words when you walk by faith you're not walking by sight and therefore you have to step out in faith and trust that you can't see it. And it's at great personal risk in fact. Do you remember there a great example of this and I'll watch the movie in search of the Holy Grail not Monty Python. But this is Raiders of the Lost Ark. You remember when do you remember. I think it may have been the last the last part of that series. And they're searching for the Holy Grail. Did you ever watch that movie.   [00:07:57] I did. I'm sure my husband had toward the end of the last scene.   [00:08:03] Here's where they are. What's his name. Who's the main actor in that. The name escapes me. Harrison Ford thank you. Harrison Ford has just come to this. He's he's somewhere in the middle of nowhere in this cave or chasm and he comes to the edge and there's this great big chasm below him and across the way maybe a hundred feet or maybe two hundred feet is one of the nights of many years back story like a crusade or type of night.   [00:08:45] And there is the Holy Grail the goblet that Christ used at the Last Supper. And Harrison Ford has been walking been following all these clues and secrets on how to get here. And now he has to take a leap of faith. That's basically the next clue is a leap of faith. He looks down in this chasm and it's straight down for a thousand feet or whatever it is and this is sheer death. But he chooses to step out by faith and so he steps out.   [00:09:19] He can't see anything but yet his foot now lands on solid ground that he can't see. And he starts walking across this invisible bridge is basically what it is. That's kind of an idea of what faith is. You can't see it. You know it's there you trust is there and you trust is there because God said it is. That's God's word. And that's kind of what I mean by stepping out typically at great personal risk or sacrifice because if God doesn't show up in the way that he says he will then all is lost. And so I want to talk in terms of showing you how this applies from biblical things and start to apply to our lives.   [00:10:04] Do you have your Bible handy by chance. I can't.   [00:10:09] Okay. I want you to pull up Matthew 14 and let me know when you get there.   [00:10:18] And we're going to do Matthew 14. This is versus 28 and 29. And as you get there let me just kind of give everyone the background of what's going on. So Jesus has just the day before. Literally that afternoon before has fed 5000 people with five loaves and two fish. He sends the people away he sends his disciples back across the lake in a boat and then Jesus goes up to the mountain to pray. Now it is early dawn before the sun is risen and the disciples are rowing against the wind and they see Jesus walking on the water and they can just make him out and they all get afraid because they think it's a ghost. And Jesus says no it's it's me. And now that's where we picked up Matthew 14 versus 28 and 29 Can you read that.   [00:11:16] Yes. This is Peter. He says Lord if it's you Peter replied tell me to come to you on the water. He said Peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water and came towards Jesus.   [00:11:32] Okay.   [00:11:36] So Peter says Lord if you command me to come and Jesus has come and Peter gets out of the boat and walks on the water and comes toward Jesus. So here's a question when Peter stepped out of the boat and started walk on water. What happened.   [00:11:54] I didn't know you're asking me directly. Well he doubted. I mean he he took his eyes off of the word and saw the wind and fear.   [00:12:04] Hold on. Okay. Before that we're going gonna get to that before but when you get out of the boat at the very beginning what happens. Does he walk on water.   [00:12:13] Yes he walks on water. And how does he walk on water by faith by listening to the word of the Lord Jesus said Come on he's not gonna let me think.   [00:12:24] That's right. So here's a little truism that we start to see when we step out of our comfort zone because we stepped out by the Lord's direction. So Jesus Jesus's revelation if we want to use that term or his direction or his command if we want to use those terms to Peter was come and so Peter steps out of the boat. Great personal risk and sacrifice. If God doesn't show up he's sunk no pun intended. And guess what happened. God shows up. God does a miracle.   [00:12:59] Do you see the little equation that's starting to come up. We stepped out by God's clearly defined well for us. We have faith that God is going to perform because faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Now the word hoping that Sharon says things to hope for another translation gives it faith as the title deed is the absolute. You actually own the title to what has been promised. Is that confident. So that's what faith is. That's what Peter does. He steps out of that boat and when he does something happens and what happens is God shows up and does a miracle. Pretty cool and it really cool. So the question then is or the comment on this is when God acts the God showing up moments because this is what we want in our lives. How do you live this life of faith and what does it look like. This life of faith is when God constantly shows up and he either shows up miraculously like he did with Peter walking on the water or he shows up providential where he just kind of organizes and orchestrates all kinds of events.   [00:14:22] Now I want to talk in terms of these things. I think one of these I may have to fall back but does the name George Mueller ring a bell to you.   [00:14:34] He's an author right.   [00:14:36] Well he's written several books were maybe better spoken several books were written about him. He was actually a man of God back in the eighteen hundreds and early nineteen hundreds. He was in England in a town called Bristol England and he felt the Lord leading him to start an orphanage. And so he started an orphanage and within 10 or 20 years that orphanage was housing I think it's 20000 children. And he never once it was faith based people gave and contributed and supported the work and he never once asked anyone for money.   [00:15:26] And he later said in light that the reason he started at the orphanage was not because there was a great need. There was a great need. And it was not because he felt that this was his life's calling. He started the orphanage. He said to show people how to live by faith that he could by God's direction start an orphanage. Never ask anyone for money but trust God for all of the resources and God continue to provide more and more and more resources to start it and to grow it. And so a lot of the books have been written about George in terms of how do you get your prayers answered. How do you live by faith.   [00:16:07] And I want to share an example because this kind of talks in terms of what this stepping out by faith really means getting out of the boat. So because it is faith based ministry they never really had much money at any given time. They didn't have this great big bank account with lots of money to carry through months and months. They live basically day to day trust. It's like what Jesus says Lord give us this day our daily bread. And so I want to read you an excerpt from one thing that happened with George. So here's the extra one morning. So this is in an orphanage and they bring all the children together for breakfast one morning all the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. There was no food in the pantry and there was no money to buy food. The children were standing waiting for their morning meal just as they would always do. And Mueller said children you know we must be in time for school and then lifting up his hands. He prayed Dear Father we thank you for what you are going to give us to eat that pretty bowl.   [00:17:23] That's really all.   [00:17:26] I love it too. So then here's the rest of the story. There was a knock at the door. The Bakers stood there and said Mr. Mueller I couldn't sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn't have bread for breakfast. And the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2 o'clock this morning and baked some fresh bread and then brought it.   [00:17:47] And then Mr. Mueller thanked the baker and no sooner had the Baker left when there was a second knock at the door and there was a milkman he announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front the orphanage and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could empty his wagon to repair it. So here's my question.   [00:18:09] Do you think that was orchestrated by the Lord.   [00:18:16] I do. I mean obviously if the Lord inspired those people spoke to them to do those things but I think it I think it can be inspired by the Lord. But I think also partners with his faith his willingness to say my husband lovingly says All right Jesus. Are you under the bus. You better show up. I'm just gonna put it out there. So I think it's kind of a partnership of both.   [00:18:45] It is. I think partnership.   [00:18:48] I think this is the key I think you hit it on the right word. It is a partnership because the Lord gives us a revelation gives us a promise like the promise he gave. Mueller was I'll meet all your needs. Mueller takes that promise at face value. And he says Lord thank you for giving us whatever you're to give us. Mueller had no doubt that the Lord was going to provide food. And yet here's the thing that's really interesting. When did the food arrive at the orphanage a long time before Mueller prayed a long time after he prayed or   [00:19:29] At the moment he prayed.   [00:19:35] You remember when you said at the moment he said Father thank you for what you're going to give us to eat. And then there was a knock at the door right after he prayed thanking by faith the Lord showed up. Does that make sense right.   [00:19:50] But now here's a bigger question. This is what's so fascinating about this. When did the Lord prepare everything to show up at that moment. Did he prepared at that moment or did he prepare it beforehand he prepared it beforehand for the baker. He got the baker up at 2:00 in the morning for the meal and he had the milkman leave at a certain time go through his route and all of sudden his car breaks down at that moment. So here's what's really fascinating and this is a hot topic for a whole nother discussion that we'll do. Is that faith actually operates outside of time.   [00:20:30] Think about this for a moment when Mueller thank the Lord. By faith all of these things were put in place prior to him thanking the Lord. Here here's a hypothetical question If Mueller never thanked the Lord by faith do you think those people would have showed up.   [00:20:52] That is a bigger question. I think that sometimes there is a grace over our actions and the Lord does show up but I think how much more soul or delight in our faith and our willingness to you know to believe and to step out and how much more fun is that for us to partner with it. I don't know.   [00:21:15] Good thing he's sovereign is sovereign. We don't know the answer entirely but let's say for a moment that Mueller was scared.   [00:21:27] He doubted that he doubted God's provision and therefore he really couldn't pray in faith and say Lord thank you for what you're going to give us to eat. If he was in that situation what do you think would have happened. Do you think the Baker would have shown up and do you think the milkman would've shown up.   [00:21:49] They might not have. I think in those months like I was saying I think there can be a grace that can happen and you can you're just blown away at God you're so faithful even when I'm not. But then I think also there are things that we missed out on. From not believing and not stepping out and taking a risk in faith with the Lord just even the way you just worded it I did envision I mean if you hadn't. They might not have shown up.   [00:22:18] So let me ask you a question because this is kind of the fascinating part with all of this. So let's look at when God moves when God shows up when God showed up with Peter and he walked on the water which was an absolute miracle. Was that. Any more of him showing up than him coordinating the baker and the milkman to providential show up at the same at the right time is walking on the water. Any greater an act of God than coordinating what appears to be human events.   [00:23:01] I don't think so. I mean I think that's the privilege of walking through life awake and aware of the Lord and how he works is that we're constantly in awe of every miracle he does whether it's walking on water or the provision in those moments of orchestrating all of that. So my my personal answer would be I think it's equally as beautiful and miraculous.   [00:23:29] I think you're right on that.   [00:23:31] I think you're right. Let me ask this question. Is it any harder for God for someone to walk on the water versus coordinating those events for them to show up.   [00:23:43] No I wouldn't think so.   [00:23:45] Is it any harder for God to heal someone from a cough versus heal them from multiple sclerosis and getting him out of a wheelchair. Is it any harder.   [00:23:55] No. No it's not.   [00:23:57] So when we look at things from God's perspective this is kind of tapping into where I'm going with this thing on faith. When we look at things from. God's perspective there is no level of difficulty greater than another and what we do in our lives whether we walk on the water or whether we bring some people to show up and bring bread and milk. It's all God acting he does it through different methods but it's all God showing up. Faith is actually seeing everything from God's perspective. This is if you go back to faith is the assurance that things hope for. It's a title deed to those things that God has said is the conviction of things that you cannot see what it actually is. In a broader scope in a more realistic scope. Faith is seeing things from God's perspective.   [00:24:54] And when you can see from God's perspective with Mueller God's perspective is I've got people bringing you stuff. So Mueller had no doubt from God's perspective with Peter on walk. Walking on the water. It was it was happening. It doesn't matter because God's perspective. God knows what's going on. And faith is when we operate from the perspective of God because we're operating from the Word of God and the word is absolute truth. I'm making some connections there. Does that make sense.   [00:25:30] It does. And what an honor. An amazing thing. Jesus made possible that we can see things through the lens of heaven and operate from that place because that's ultimately what it means to be a son or daughter is to operate with him and seeing things in the way that he does and walking in that kind of faith. Absolutely that makes sense.   [00:25:55] So then let's put it.   [00:25:57] Let's take this a step further because this is another truism we'll get into this a little bit more on another session but just to kind of open the door real quickly into this Jesus says Thy word is truth.   [00:26:10] Remember that I think it's John 17 and what Jesus is saying about the father's word is that it's true. And I'm gonna use the word truth with a capital T.   [00:26:26] Truth.   [00:26:28] Is not the same as reality. Reality is in the moment and reality can change. Truth is always absolute and always truth. Now when I'm talking in really deep terms for a moment. But are you following me kind of following at least generally the concept I'm trying to articulate.   [00:26:53] Yes.   [00:26:55] So now let's go back to Peter walking on the water. I'm gonna bring this up again a little bit later I think but go back to Matthew where you were and read where I stopped you from reading.   [00:27:09] Okay so let me let me catch this up 28 and 29 and you read from after that so catching up 28 29 as Peter says to Jesus Lord at that you command me to come on the water jesus gives Peter a command a word a word of truth come with that word of truth that command come is intrinsic within that the the truth that if he operates on that command then he's going to get what Peter asked for which is walking on the water so from that one word is encapsulated the truth of what's about to occur. Are you following me so far. Mm hmm mm hmm. Okay so it says Peter guy got out of the boat and walked on the water and came towards Jesus a miracle occurred as Peter operated by faith according to God's word according to the reign of Christ. Now pick up from there and tell me what it reads.   [00:28:13] So in verse 30 it says that when he saw the wind he was afraid and beginning to think he cried out. Lord save me right.   [00:28:22] And then what would Jesus do.   [00:28:26] Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him a little face and said Why did you doubt.   [00:28:32] Perfect. Okay now here's something really cool. If you pray and God answers your prayer does that mean that you are righteous. Does that mean that you have great paper or does that mean that you're really special because God answers your prayer.   [00:28:54] Yeah. I was thinking about because I know there is the righteous the righteous man or the right to effective prayer for a righteous man accomplishes much.   [00:29:07] James Right. But generally speaking when most people think about a man or woman to praising God answers their prayer. Generally speaking do most people look at that person saying Oh a man or woman of God. Because God answers their prayers.   [00:29:25] All right.   [00:29:25] Well I guess generally speaking though generally speaking they think that way or generally speaking they don't think that way.   [00:29:33] They don't. They wouldn't think that. I guess I would think generally people would just think that might be normal. I don't know. Okay so books have been written about George Miller   [00:29:48] On how his prayers are consistently answered.   [00:29:52] Because it's been so unusual that someone can pray in their prayers answered. Does that make sense. Have you ever prayed and prayed and your prayers were not answered at least not answered the way you asked God to answer them.   [00:30:08] I think the Lord always when you release the control of what you believe or thought was supposed to be there was something that you're praying specifically into. You can usually go and we'll take you into a place where you can see his way. And so I don't know I don't I don't know that I feel like defeated thinking Oh I know because I trust the words ways are better.   [00:30:36] I guess I'm not saying you feel defeated. Have you ever asked Lord please do a and he doesn't do a. Have you ever had that happen. Yes. Have you ever asked the Lord please do be. And he does.   [00:30:52] Yes. Which one of those instances are you more enthused and delighted about.   [00:31:00] Well you're definitely worth doing what you pray for is answered. Okay. Okay.   [00:31:05] So that's where I'm going. Most people believe that when you pray and ask the Lord for something and he does what you've asked him to. There is an elation and there's a specialness to it because frequently we ask and we don't see the answer to the prayer that we've asked. I'm not making sense of that.   [00:31:25] You are. You are.   [00:31:26] Okay. So here we have Peter. He prays to the Lord and the Lord answers him exactly how he prays. It says Peter cried out to the Lord which is prayer. Lord save me. And it says Jesus reached out his hand and saved him.   [00:31:47] God answered Peter's prayer but here's the question is that good or bad. Let me go. Let me go where I'm going. Okay so often we're related because God answers our prayer. But answering our prayer is not necessarily God's highest and best of what he wanted for us. What was God's highest and best for Peter at that time. At that moment.   [00:32:24] To believe that he could walk into walk on the water and he lost the highest and best because of what now because of doubt and then he prayed in crisis and the Lord answered his prayer.   [00:32:45] And how many times do we pray for something far less than God's highest and best. He answers our prayer. We're elated but we have no real clue how much we've really lost out on what he wants us to have done something that does make sense.   [00:33:05] That's a great way to put it into perspective.   [00:33:09] But what happens then is Peter. So let's look at the sequence of events. Peter is given a word. A Rama from the Lord in some circles. We call it a revelation in some circles we'll call it a promise in whatever word you want to use. It's very clear to Peter that the Lord has given him a special direction.   [00:33:38] And so by absolute faith the assurance of things he could not see. He claimed the title deed.   [00:33:48] I can step out and he boldly steps out of the boat and starts to walk on the water and he's all excited and then his carnal mind gets in the way and starts to look at the circumstances and says oh my gosh this can't be happening. And instantly he goes from faith to doubt doubt is the opposite of faith. He immediately goes from operating from God's perspective   [00:34:25] To operating from man's perspective. He goes from operating from truth to operating from reality. And as soon as he goes from truth to reality what happens to his reality.   [00:34:43] It changes does it change.   [00:34:46] Here is the most amazing thing I've learned about faith. The most amazing but kind of the first of the many amazing things is you have truth which is God's word. Jesus says to his father and the High Priest I think they called the high priestly prayer. I think it's John 17. He's talking to the father praying all kinds of you know he's about to be turned over and then crucified. So this is the last stuff that he said. This is real important and one of the state statements he made his father die. Word is truth.   [00:35:26] Truth trumps reality. Truth modifies reality and look at what happened with Peter as long as Peter operated by truth. From the perspective of truth God's word by faith any claim that title deed then truth overcame natural laws and what should not have occurred did occur.   [00:35:56] Peter walks on the water as soon as Peter doubts in his heart instantly in a twinkling of an eye. If we want to use that term he transformed from operating by faith. To operating in the natural instantly just like that and instantly it says immediately he begins to sink. He loses the impact of truth and reality of his circumstances instantly changed. He goes from acting boldly upon God's word to sending up a prayer crisis.   [00:36:36] Lord help me and the Lord answers his prayer but the Lord would have preferred not to have to have intervened to answer that prayer. PAUL Peter lost the Lord's highest and best because he got his eyes off of Jesus and onto his circumstances and where you place your eyes is what you get is this kind of making some sense it is I think that's a really great way to put it and I think it's kind of a challenge for us to really think about like what we're asking the Lord for and to make sure that that is God and not settling racist.   [00:37:27] And he'll answer that.   [00:37:29] And it's not only based on what we're asking the Lord but what are we doing with what the Lord has directed us. Because often when the Lord directs us he directs us. Makes no sense in the natural. Do you think it made any sense to step out of the boat. Now keep in mind let me let me give you where this situation is. It says that they were rowing against the wind and had made very little progress to get to where they were going. By the time Jesus walked up to them. So that means you got all these strong men. They've lived on the on the on the sea for years. That was their livelihood being fishermen in a boat. They're rowing against the wind and they made very little headway. This is not calm water. This is a water that is very turbulent is very turbulent. They got a lot of things against them and it was in that situation that Jesus says stepped out of the boat and come walk with me. It's not going to be in an easy situation it's going to be one of those situations that is turbulent. Does that make sense. It does and it makes no sense in reality this is where the idea of faith really comes in stepping out. Let me look at my arm. I also make someone make a little point because I think it all kind of ties in a real simple point. Look at your phone for a moment and for those who are listening to this if you're driving you look at your steering wheel for a moment.   [00:39:24] Do you have faith that that telephone or that steering wheel exists.   [00:39:30] What about you. You have faith that it exists. Yes it's right here.   [00:39:36] Very good. So go back. And now I want you to read Hebrew see love in one for me.   [00:39:47] Ok.   [00:39:56] So now faces confidence and what we hope for an assurance about what we do not see.   [00:40:02] Stop. Do you see your phone. Yes. Can you have faith that it exists. I can't. I'm sorry. Something to speak to on me. I just said I can. Okay. Ready. Hebrew see love in one again.   [00:40:23] Now faces confidence and what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.   [00:40:29] Assurance of things we do not see. But you can see your phone. Yes. You cannot have faith that your phone exists because you see it. Are you okay. Right. If you can see it. You do not have faith because faith by definition is the assurance of things not seen.   [00:40:57] And that's why it's so hard in the natural. We have to operate with our will use a very broad non-technical term. We have to operate with our spirit mind and our spirit eyes rather than our physical mind and our physical lives. And what happens is we're always pulled back our natural self wants to keep using our natural senses and our natural logic to tell us what reality is. That's what happened with Peter as soon as his naturalize left Jesus and went to the wind then at that point. Everything. Fell apart. And this is what happens in our lives too. Let me tell you a story is real interesting. This was 2003. To set the stage 2002 we we brought on this large account. We were making a lot of money. This one account was producing 2002 seventy five thousand dollars a month in profit a large account. And at that time we were giving a high percentage of what the Lord brought us back into the kingdom. And this account was scheduled to leave on I think it was June 1. We were holding nothing in reserves. By the way it was a lot of profit but it was all of the profit the company made. Without that account we would immediately be losing money because of our fixed expenses. So they were scheduled to leave on I think it was June 1 and we knew it. But we were saving nothing up in reserves and then they left and we immediately went from making a lot of profit to going upside down and we had no reserves to lean on because we'd given all the reserves away. And so that's where I found myself. And for the first month or two I was gung ho Lord's going to take care of us. Right. And operating what I thought was my faith but it kept going and we were borrowing money to survive.   [00:43:25] And all of a sudden I get scared and I shift and I start to batten down the hatches tell my business manager cut every expense put everyone down on reduced payroll. Now these are not bad things but they were things that I enacted out of fear.   [00:43:47] And so we batten everything down. Everyone took pay cuts. I took the biggest of all the pay cuts obviously since I owned the company and I was going to lead by example. And we're going to quote unquote weather the storm. And it kept going bad and bad and bad. And it was January. It was about January 25 2003. So we've been like this for six months seven months. And I was out on a what I call a day of prayer with the Lord just seeking Him going Lord of what's going on. And I was in a panic mode just like Peter Lord save me. And I remember asking the Lord Lord Quinn are you going to let up. And the Lord spoke to me in my heart this conversation we have in our spirit with the Lord so to speak. And he said Well do you really believe my word to take care of you. I said yes.   [00:44:50] And guess what the next question he asked me was any idea he believes that he'll take care of you and then can you see it make you pay for it almost.   [00:45:06] Pretty close he said. If you truly believed how would you act differently than you're acting right now.   [00:45:16] That's a great question to even ask ourselves. We say we're trusting the Lord we say we have faith that he's going to handle whatever we're going through. The question is if you really believed how would you operate different. And so I said well if I really believed I would put myself at full pay and I put all my people back at full pay.   [00:45:43] So you know what the Lord said to me what do I do. So I did. I called my office manager that moment I said my business manager I said put everyone back to full pay retroactive for January 1.   [00:46:03] So to put this in perspective we got paid twice a month on the 15th and on the 30th first and so on the 15th everyone was at the reduced pay amount. So what I told Walter was put everyone back to full pay for the month meaning let's say that month the full pay for selling was five thousand dollars but it reduced pay to thirty five hundred. So that means that that mid-month pay there were only going to get it paid about seventeen hundred instead of the normal twenty five hundred. Does that make sense. Because 17 is half of 35 right. So for the end of the month pay we're going to make up whatever is remaining to get them back to 5000. So that end of the month was a much bigger paycheck than it would have been if I just said start now. So we start at the first went back to the 1st of January to catch everyone up for that month. Well now that was only five days later. We lost that at that moment. We lost ten thousand dollars. We were ten thousand dollars in the hole by doing that but then the end of February. We had made ten thousand dollars profit.   [00:47:28] So there was a 20 thousand dollars swing in revenues not to get you lost with numbers. Twenty thousand dollar swing in revenues. And even to this day as I look at my profit and loss I cannot find where that money comes from. It wasn't that we had a lot more. Excuse me. Twenty thousand dollars swing in profit. It wasn't that we had more money that came in. It wasn't that we had fewer expenses. Literally I cannot find it. But here's the cool part. From that moment on for an extended period time we were making profit every month. The only thing that changed was operated by faith on God's promise to me rather than by sight with what I saw. And this is the whole idea of stepping out of the boat not being afraid to step off the boat because the word of God cannot fail God's promises can never fail. In fact it says I think in Luke 1 37 and 43 or something like that in the living Bible it says you believe God would do what he said. That is why he is giving you this wonderful blessing right. I think that says that God's promises cannot fail or something like that.   [00:48:59] And so when we at in that direction and when we act on God's word then what's happening is we're acting by truth not by reality and in some mysterious way God. God's truth alters reality because reality is variable. It changes all the time but God's truth is fixed and it is absolute is this kind of making sense.   [00:49:29] It is absolutely.   [00:49:30] So let's go back to the Mueller situation. He says Lord thank you for what you are about to give us to eat my question to you was if Mueller had doubted would the Baker and Hamilton have shown up.   [00:49:54] I understand.   [00:49:56] I love your question. Your answer was actually a little bit better than mine. Black and white.   [00:50:01] God's grace will still come into play at times even in the absence of us having faith. But if we look at the strictly strictly from a faith perspective. If Mueller had doubted then I think it's not near as likely. Except by only by God's grace and nothing more. Not near as likely that the food would have shown up because there's something about when you operate from a perspective of God's truth it changes reality. And when you operate from a perspective of the natural you don't get the truth reality. You get the natural reality and they are two different things.   [00:50:50] Kind of cool it it is something to feel like I'm going to do over some of this for a while because it is challenging in the best way for us to kind of even evaluate what we hear and how we act on it and just knowing what a vital role we get to play and be a part of it. It is I think a lot of this is going to stay on for a few days and I'm applying Yeah.   [00:51:22] So then let's talk about applying it because this is now at an academic level to a degree. We start to understand just a very shallow level of the truth about faith. ROMANS 10 17. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. This is what we talked about last time. That word is the Greek word Rama and it means something very clear a very clear direction a promise a truth a quote unquote revelation something that's specific to you a rama. A lot of times is when you're reading God's word and something pops out of the page directly at you and you go oh this is God's word to me. Sometimes God speaks to you. Like that example where we're losing money and God said well if you really believed how would you act differently.   [00:52:14] You're right. Okay so you have that faith is rooted in God's word rooted by hearing God's word. It's rooted by hearing God's Word which is truth. And then Faith Hebrews love and one is the assurance of hope for the conviction of things not seen. Okay we start to understand that truth change is reality. Reality doesn't change truth. Truth change is reality and based on truth. Reality changes and based on the absence of truth I doubt you'd get the absence of truth. You get reality. This is what happened with Peter walking on the water soon as he doubted. Same situation two different outcomes right. One outcome God shows up another outcome. The natural consequence shows up. If we went back to Mueller one outcome by faith Lord thank you for what you're about to give us. God shows up he had already coordinated things to occur at that moment but in the absence of faith. Oh Lord please help us we have no food. I don't know how we're going to feed all these children. Help Lord God might have shown up but my guess is God would not and they would've gotten the natural consequence. Then you have.   [00:53:44] Let's see where was I going. God showing up.   [00:53:49] Then you have things like healing look at healing in the Bible. Jesus represents truth Jesus. In the beginning was the Word the Word was with God the Word was God thy word is truth. Jesus operates from the perspective of truth from the perspective of God. He walks up to someone and they're instantly healed demons are instantly cast out. He gives authority to his disciples to do the same thing. And a lot of the people who heal the demons are cast out but not all. There is an element the further away you get from truth. The further away you get from truthful modification of reality and you get to just natural consequence to tell you just one story is really interesting. So you're talking about West sometimes putting God under the bus and I know you don't put it on the bus but he commits God right. Also there's a story. One of the guys is out at a McDonald's. This guy's name is Judah by the way. And dude is at McDonald's and he sees there's a bunch of high school football players students on crutches with a broken leg and it hurts.   [00:55:08] And the guy walks up and says hey what's matter with your leg is is broken does it hurt you. Oh it hurts a lot. So would you like to heal it. I would love for him to. Great. And then Judah says he puts God under the bus so to speak. He yells out to the entire McDonald's restaurant. Hey guys come over here. You're going to see a miracle right now. God's going to heal this leg right now. And the guy says Well I don't believe it. I'm an atheist and you come up front and watch this. And he prays and God instantly heals that leg. For two reasons. Judah is operating from a position of faith.   [00:55:59] Absolute confidence in the unseen that God is about to heal that leg. And then because he operates from truth the leg gets healed. Have you ever known anyone that prays that they're sick and they've been praying and praying and praying and they're not healed ever had no people like that. Yeah. So for those who are listening so I actually go out with Caroline's husband yes once a month what we call straight ministry and literally just go out to Wal-Mart and say hey we're just praying for people anything I can pray for you. And frequently there are illnesses elements usually in the area of pain degenerative discs in the back.   [00:56:49] Major knee pain arthritis and blood clots and all kinds of things and they have their believers and they've been praying for healing and they've had this situation for years and nothing happens. I come up or w comes up or some of the folks with us will pray for that person and instantly they're healed. What happened. What's different is that it was simply God's timing now for them to be healed. Or do you think by God's grace a providential put the two of us together so that I could pray with a level of faith that hasn't been prayed for before for that person and because of my faith and what God's going to do. God heals or is it something different. There's something there.   [00:57:44] It's where I'm going. And when you operate from that perspective then truth overcomes reality. But here's the here's where I was kind of going. I was making a long circle around to get to this one point faces a choice think about it when Peter stepped out of the boat.   [00:58:08] He had a choice do I act on God's direction or do I not even once he got out of the boat.   [00:58:19] He had a choice. Do I look at Jesus and confidence in him or do I look at the wind and the waves and then he changed the choice.   [00:58:34] He chose the same thing happened with me with my business.   [00:58:40] I started into that unprofitable season when we lost that account by choice to trust the Lord and then because I couldn't see I could not see how is happening. Faith is the conviction of things not seen because I couldn't see what was going on or how God was going to take care of us. I became afraid and doubted James. I think it's James five says I'm not the man who doubts expect to receive anything from the Lord. That's kind of a paraphrased version of 2 3 versus all together. Actually I think it's James 1. It says For anyone who lacks wisdom let him ask of God but let him not down in his heart for the one who doubts ought not to expect to receive anything from the Lord. So I started it out. I started by fear. I started to go down and as soon as I changed and chose to act by faith everything changed. And this is the cool thing about faith. You choose to act by it. You don't act by it naturally. You choose to act on that word that the Lord has given you. You choose to believe it to be true. And then by believing it to be true you acting on it.   [01:00:05] That's when God starts to move. And I could tell you some more stories but I think that's probably got enough right now. We'll talk about some other stories later but it's kind of cool.   [01:00:21] I love it. And inspiring too. Food for thought.   [01:00:26] It is. So hopefully you take this and go look at these passages and ask the Lord What does this mean to me. The most important thing to be asking yourself is Lord if I really believe the promises you've given me. Faith is rooted in truth so it's not what you want to happen is what God has told you is going to happen. Lord if I really believed these promises you give me or really believed this direction. There is command that you told me how you want me to operate how would I act differently than I am acting right now.   [01:01:05] And if the way you would act differently is different then you're acting right now.   [01:01:11] Then that means you're acting in a natural not in the spiritual. You're acting by sight not by faith. You're acting by doubt not by faith and ultimately lead into this. If faith is the perspective of God would you agree that that's basically a decent definition of faith based on what the Bible says what faith is the perspective of God right.   [01:01:45] Right.   [01:01:45] Or how he sees things.   [01:01:49] I think it's operating by truth. If you operate in a way contrary to God what is that called.   [01:02:04] I guess that would be called doubt or disobedient.   [01:02:09] Right.   [01:02:10] And what is disobedience called sin.   [01:02:15] Huh. Okay. So now we're getting down to a deeper root. Faith is obeying God because faith comes from God's direction his truth.   [01:02:27] And it's believing God to be true believing his word to be true. Acting on that when you cannot see it that is complete obedience when you don't act in that direction you're doubting God's word to be true.   [01:02:44] Does that please God. No.   [01:02:48] That's right. Later in Hebrews it says Let not the one who doubts. Let's say what does it say. But act in faith for God has no pleasure in someone who doubts or something like that forget these phraseology. So when we do not act by faith if we do not act in a way that we would be acting if we absolutely believe God's word to be true then that ultimately means that how we're acting is in sin. When Peter took his eyes off of the Lord and put them on the waves. At that moment he disobeyed. He doubted God's word. He doubted Jesus and for him that is sin and he starts to get the consequence. He still praise the Lord saves him but he doesn't have God's highest and best God's highest and best is when we operate in total obedience with the Lord in total congruency with his direction for us in total faith in his word.   [01:03:55] Anything less than that is sin.   [01:04:00] And then we get into lots of degrees of sin. If we finish then. But surely there is a degree but that's where we're kind of moving. So just to throw that out that's a bonus. I like it.   [01:04:15] I'm thinking one of the one quote I love is obedience is actually obedience. That's right. That kind of reminded me of that. It's just like when we feel that prompting what you're saying from the Lord. Immediate obedience. That's what faith is. That's where that plays in. And what's holding us back from just jumping in. Because if there is anything holding us back that either out of fear or sin or ultimately that's just obedience. Even if it's just a slow obedience it's still disobedience. That's always been a convicting quote. It is here now to kind of just   [01:04:58] Speak philosophically or philosophically maybe fill out theology philosophically we sin because we feel it's better for us than following the Lord. Ultimately I mean it's a choice we send by choice and therefore we make a choice because we always make choices that we think are the right choices or make the choices that satisfy our desires. Imagine for a moment. Let me ask you you have said before is that correct.   [01:05:36] Yes. Okay right.   [01:05:39] Yep yep. So do you remember any time when you send when you kind of knew it was wrong but you did it anyway.   [01:05:49] Yeah I mean I feel like those kind of moments are few and far between.   [01:05:55] We're talking about any time. Do you recall any. Yeah.   [01:06:00] So let me ask you a simple question if at that moment you had a choice to send or not if you knew that if you resisted that said you you would be given a million dollars and have everything your heart's desired would occur if at that moment you knew what was going to occur. Would you have still chosen to send or do you think you would have had the will to say no.   [01:06:31] Yeah I would say that's some pretty powerful incentive. I'd probably have the will.   [01:06:37] I think we all would. So here's the issue. When we do not follow the Lord we know what he's telling us to do but we choose to go a different direction because we get afraid.   [01:06:50] Ultimately it's because we really don't understand how good the Lord is and what's in store for us. That's why we always sin when we sin is because we choose to satisfy our own desire based on what we think is maybe not best for us both what we really want but if we really understood what God has in store for us and any and every situation we would never sin. It's the lack of root truly understanding it. I think this is probably possibly where Paul talks about the renewing of your mind where he talks about in Romans 7. I do the things that I don't want to do but the sin in me that does it. And in Romans he talks about your mind the mindset on the spirit is life and peace in the mindset on the flesh of sin and death. The more we live by the spirit the more we live by the renewing of our mind the less we actually sin because the more we're conformed to Christ is therefore that obedience that conformity but also the more we realize how much the Lord has in store for us and we're willing to step out on his direction without really knowing the ultimate end of it. But we know who's leading us. Abraham stepped out went toward the promised land but he had no idea why he just followed the Lord. And so this kind of this great big cauldron of all of these spiritual truths kind of wrapping together but all pointing in the same direction. Anyway that's a freebie.   [01:08:27] I like the freebie so let's wrap up the call.   [01:08:31] I think we're about out of time on this one. I don't know if we have an official wrap up but here's the official wrap up if you like. Be sure to subscribe. We'll go get more radical faith love to share more if you have any questions on this you can email our support support at Master grabber dot com direct them to me if you have any questions on spiritual stuff and we'll either try to get there and try to answer them personally or maybe as a topic for another radical faith call as questions and answers from the field that might be a topic to try. Okay well you'll be blessed. Caroline thanks for being the sounding board on this one.   [01:09:16] Thank you for having me I really enjoyed it.   [01:09:18] All right have a great day.   P005

Caroline: Hi, I’m Caroline Springer and welcome to our next session of Radical Faith. We have a Radical Faith podcast as part of our Get Sellers Calling You podcast with Beatty Carmichael. Professionally, Beatty is the CEO of MasterGrabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and a top marketing expert in the real estate field for many years. And personally, for many years, he has been a Christian and loves to talk about the Lord and that’s where the vision of this podcast came from. So I’m just going to pass it over to him to give a little disclaimer about the Radical Faith podcast and kind of what his idea is behind it. Beatty: I’m not sure I would call it a disclaimer, but maybe it is. The whole idea about Radical Faith is this has nothing to do specifically and directly with real estate business. It has everything to do with living your life as a passionate Christian. So this is all going to be about my Christian philosophy or theosophy if you call it that. So if you don’t want to hear it, you can delete this podcast out and just listen to the podcasts focused on how to build a real estate business, but we are going to talk about Christ today. That’s my disclaimer. Back to you. Caroline: We always chat a little at the beginning about the world we live in and how we have to give a disclaimer, but I think it is good. It excites me so I’m like, “All right, let’s jump in.” This is going to be about the Lord and nothing else. So I’m okay with that. Beatty: Part of that chat we were having is normal Christianity. So I definitely kind of want to bring that onto this call a little bit. The focus of these calls is what I call “normal Christianity.” If I were to ask you, Caroline, what do you think the typical Christian’s view of “normal Christianity” is? Is it healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, doing miracles or is it being a good person, not saying curse words, going to church on Sunday and reading your Bible? What is normal Christianity? Caroline: Yes, I would think sadly in the “normal” or maybe average Christian’s viewpoint, for those who claim to be Christian that’s what they would claim: being a good person, attending church, like you said, not saying curse words, living a chaste life, reading your Bible, praying before meals. The more Radical type of lifestyle is something that a lot of people may think is just preserved for certain people or that’s not really a thing anymore. I think that seems too far-fetched for them to believe that it’s something we’ve been invited into now. Beatty: True. So let me ask you. Who is our model for how to live as a Christian? Caroline: Jesus. He is our model. Beatty: Did he consider what he modeled to be normal or to be radical? What do you think his perspective on it was? Caroline: That’s a good question. Beatty: Let me ask that question another way. He is modeling for us how we should live, right? Caroline: Right. Beatty: Does He expect us to live anything but what He considers normal? Caroline: No. I think He was saying He only did the things He saw His Father do and he models for us a life like that so we can follow that. So I think His expectation was for Him to be paving a way for us to walk the way He walks. So I guess that would be normal for Him and normal for us. Beatty: Okay, so then how did He walk? It says, I think in John 14:22, don’t quote me exactly, but somewhere in John 14. It says, “Truly, truly whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and greater works will he do because I go to the Father.” Jesus is living out the works that we should do. If I were to ask, “What were the works that Jesus did,” what would you tell me? Not saying curse words? Read the Bible? Or something different? Caroline: I think something more. Like you said earlier, healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons, parting the way, making a way for Heaven to invade Earth. That was His life. Beatty: Therein lies the topic of Radical faith. Most people think it’s radical. Jesus thinks it’s normal. Now we are not going to talk about today how to raise the dead or heal the sick. We might get into the sophics, but I think more than anything else it’s really understanding what we are called to do as a Christian. How are we called to live and those things that we consider in our 21st century nature to be radical, I think Jesus considered normal. How do we go back to what is normal and not what is myopically considered radical. That is where I want to kind of lean us into this call. Can I take the lead real quick and just kind of get this thing started? Caroline: Absolutely. Beatty: For those of you who have been listening in on our podcasts, you’ll kind of see this pattern. Caroline takes the lead in the interview process on the marketing stuff. I end up taking the lead on the radical faith stuff because she becomes my guinea pig just to use as a sounding board. On all the marketing calls, she has an outline of the direction we are going on the calls. But on the radical faith calls, she is totally blind, so she doesn’t know what I am going to bring up or what I am going to ask her. So we are going to put you on the spots a few times and see what your thoughts are. Okay? Caroline: Oh, good. Beatty: Oh, good. It’s just like normal. We are going to be normal on this call. The last call that we did on radical faith, we are been going through this series of what I call what is faith. We are trying to lay this foundation of what faith really means. On the previous call we started to talk about that faith comes hearing and hearing from the word of Christ. And then we started to look into that faith emanates from Christ. It emanates from His word. We then dissected the two most common Greek words that are translated into our English word: word. Those are… Caroline, do you remember those two Greek words by chance? Caroline: Logos and rhema. Beatty: Do you remember what the difference between logos and rhema are? Caroline: Oh goodness. Wasn’t logos more like a word and rhema was more like something you received and heard? Beatty: Exactly. So logos is simply a word that embodies an idea. In other words, Jesus goes out and preaches the Word to people. He is generally telling them truths. Rhema is when Jesus tells Peter: “Walk on the water.” Okay? Or tells Peter: “You will deny me three times before the cock crows.” Peter remember the word that Jesus told him. Or the angel that comes to Mary and says, “You are going to have a child.” And she says, “Be it done to me according to your word,” according to your rhema. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word or the rhema of Christ. So in our real loose definitions. This is not a scholarly definition, this is more what I would call a, “how do you live” definition. A loose definition of rhema is something that God points directly at you. A real simple kind of understanding, Caroline, have you ever (I know you have) been reading your scriptures, reading the Bible and a passage stands out like God is talking directly to you. Have you had that happened to you before? Caroline: Absolutely. I have a lot of times where I will be in kind of conversation with the Holy Spirit. Later on, I will hear or read something in the Bible and it’s like the confirmation of what the Holy Spirit was just saying. There are a lot of times when things were highlighted. I feel like the Lord does that a lot for reassurance or confirmation. Beatty: Well, He does that a lot with me too and when that happens that, in general, what we call rhema. That is when the Holy Spirit is speaking directly to you. That is where we were when we wrapped up our Radical faith call. What I want to do is pick up from there and kind of try to wrap up this section before we run out of time. One of the things that we find about faith and this what I will call Radical faith is the idea or the truth that faith cannot exist by itself, that it is always accompanied by works. There is a passage in James, James 2:17 that says: “Even so faith if it has no works is dead being by itself.” So you kind of get this picture that faith cannot exist by itself. It’s sort of like the body without oxygen. It just dies. That body and oxygen have to go together. Faith and works have to go together. It says a couple of verses later. It’s talking about Abraham and it says, “Faith was working with Abraham’s works and as a result of the works faith was perfected.” So here is the question for you, Caroline. What does it mean that faith is perfected by works because, growing up in church, you always hear that we are saved by faith, not by works. Then we read this thing in James, you say you have faith but I have works and I’ll show you my faith by my works. So what is all this mean? What is the separation between faith and works? How would you describe that? Caroline: To me, whenever I’ve had conversation with people about that with grace and works and how they all go together. To me, works comes as a natural outcome of your faith and what you believe. Your faith also partners with that to also give you the strength and belief to be the foundation of your works. So it’s not like your works are an outcome of striving but your works are an outcome of beliefs and trust and pursuing the Kingdom. It’s a completely trajectory comparatively with those that, maybe some people struggle with feeling like they have to prove and work their way to the Lord or earn their salvation, which we know, scripturally, is not true. But I think that is just the natural question to struggle with for a lot of people. I think God’s intention in James is that it doesn’t have to be something that is conflicting, it can be something that can actually partner a lot easier and your faith is going to naturally push the works and your works are naturally going to cause you to increase your faith. Beatty: So let me see if I can make a real simple illustration to kind of tie this together. I want to invite you to a party. In fact, I am going to give this party in your honor. It’s going to be over at my house. It’s going to be Thursday night at 7:00. Can you come? Caroline: Sure, yes, I’d love to. Beatty: Is that a commitment? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: So now you have just given me your rhema. “I will be there.” So now, Thursday at 7:00 comes up and you are all excited because I’ve told you that we are going to get a caterer. We are going to invite all the people from church, all the people from the neighborhood and all the people from everywhere. And it’s going to be a great big party. And we are going to have child care so you don’t have to worry about Jethro and it’s going to be a wonderful time with your favorite foods and you are all excited. “This is my party.” Now you come over to the house. You come over at 7:00. You drive up to my house and you notice something strange. There are no cars out there. “Okay, well, I’m not sure what’s going on.” You have this question mark. You come up to the house and it’s kind of dark outside. There are no lights on. There are a couple of lights in the room but it’s not like it’s lite up. You look inside; there is no one there. You right the doorbell, ding dong. No one. You ring it again, ding dong. You are just about to walk away from my door and you hear these steps, boom boom boom, and it sounds like someone is coming up some steps and you see me running around the corner. I’m in my exercise clothes and I’m all hot and sweaty. I come to the door and open it. As soon as I catch your eyes, you see my expression go, “Oh my gosh!” You know that expression I’m talking about? Caroline: Yes. I imagine that you are trying to say that you forgot. Beatty: I didn’t forget. I say, “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t think you would be here. I never made any plans for the party.” Now what happens to you at that point? Are you happy or are you sad? Caroline: I imagine you would be sad and disappointed and questioning why you didn’t think I would attend. Beatty: Yes, you would have all these questions. Did I just sin against you? Caroline: That sounds so intense. I guess for the purpose of the illustration, yes? Beatty: So here is what happens. Let’s now analyze this a little bit more. You gave me a rhema and I did not act in works upon that rhema. Do you follow me so far? Caroline: Okay. Beatty: Faith is perfected through works. Faith is what we believe in. Faith comes by hearing the rhema of Christ. So if we hear Christ’s rhema and don’t believe it then we never act on it and therefore faith is never perfected because our works did not carry it out. Make sense? Caroline: Yes, that makes sense. Beatty: So in this illustration, how can your faith be perfected by works? Because if I had faith that you would have shown up then my works would have demonstrated that faith. I would have called the caterer. I would have called all the people. We would be having a great party. We would have a special parking space right up front to protect a special parking area just for you just o you could come right to the front door. All of this. But the fact that I did none of it means that my faith was never perfected because I never believed it. It’s not that I work for my faith; it’s that my works emanate from my faith. So here are a couple of truths that we can learn about this. Number one, our works are a demonstration of our faith. We do not produce works to have faith. We generate works because it emanates from our faith. Faith comes first and faith naturally births the works in our lives because we become as we believe. As a man believes, so he is. In fact, I heard a preacher this past Sunday hit on that comment quite a few times. Do you remember anything like that? Caroline: Yes, I do. Beatty: So it all kind of ties together. And here are a couple of other things we can take out of this. So you come to the door and I go, “Oh my gosh. I didn’t believe you. I thought you were lying to me. Therefore, I didn’t make any plans at all.” Now you are feeling dejected and rejected. You are frustrated. “How dare you? I planned my whole week around this. It has taken two hours to prepare for this. I’ve been making myself look beautiful. I’ve been telling all of my friends.” Now you are really upset at my aren’t you? Caroline: Yes, it sounds like I would be. Beatty: Yes, you would be. What happens then is that you turn away. You hop back in your car and you drive home. And now I have lost the blessing of your presence and fellowship with you because I did not believe. Now, this is what the images between us and God are. When the Lord gives us rhema and I’m not talking about something huge like step off a mountain and I’m going to hold you up, okay? I’m talking about just anything where we fail to trust the Lord and we know that we don’t trust him because our actions prove that we don’t believe just like in that example. Then what happens is that all of God’s amazing blessings that he had in store for us fall through our fingertips and we don’t even receive them because they are only received by faith, not by works, but it’s our works that demonstrate our faith and therefore, that’s how our faith is perfected with works. Is all of this kind of making sense? Caroline: Absolutely. I think that was a good step-by-step explanation with that scenario about the definition and how that works. It’s a funny scenario. I think it’s a great example and explanation. Beatty: Okay, cool. So now let’s talk a little further on this, if we can. A simple takeaway. Your faith is always displayed by acting on God’s word. If you don’t act on it, you don’t really believe it. This is the essence of what I call “radical” faith. It should be normal. By the way, was there ever a time in Jesus’ life where He did not act in works based on His faith in what God had directed or told Him to do? Any time?  Caroline:  No. A time when He did not act based on what the Father told Him to do? No, He didn’t.  Beatty: So when He raised someone from the dead, was that Him acting by faith? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Okay. If we use this definition of faith. When He healed someone, was that acting by faith? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: And did He raise them from the dead? Did He heal them or was it the Holy Spirit doing that work? Caroline: It was Him. The Holy Spirit came later. Beatty: Matthew and Acts both say that it was the Holy Spirit working through Jesus that performed the miracles. Acts says that it was God’s power working through Jesus of Nazareth that did all of these miracles. In other words, that Jesus was modeling for us; this doesn’t take any of His Deity away, I’m just saying that the scripture says that the Holy Spirit is what raised someone from the dead. Healed somebody. We even see this in scripture that God commands, but it’s the Holy Spirit. You have God the Father as the ultimate authority and all power. He designates His authority to Jesus and then Jesus delegates authority to the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will open your mind to all of these things and He will not speak anything to you that I have not commanded him already to speak. Are you with me or did I just lose you? Caroline: No, I’m here. Beatty: Maybe I’m going too deep in this. Let me pull back out before I get too deep. So faith is displayed by acting on God’s word. Jesus displays living by faith and, when you live by that faith, you act on His word then amazing things happen. I want to tell a personal story. We all kind of get caught into this because we get our eyes on the natural rather than our eyes on God. Jesus always kept His eyes on the Lord. He said, “Everything I do is what I see my Father doing.” He’s always looking at the Father first. Go back quite a few years, this is 2002. We are running and making a lot of money the first part of 2002. We’ve got a large corporate account that is scheduled to leave on June 1 and as soon they leave, we are going to be upside down. We are going to lose huge amounts of money, more money a month than most people will earn in a year. We hit June, we start to go upside down. The first month or two, I’m okay. By the third or fourth month, somewhere in there, I start to panic. Oh my gosh, I’m scared. Because I look in the natural. Just like Peter walking on the water, he looks at the wind and the waves and he gets scared. I’m looking in the natural; I get scared. We start to batten down all the hatches. Everyone is put on forced payroll reduction. I take the biggest cut of everyone. My number two man takes the second biggest cut and everyone else takes a bit cut as well. We are trying to weather the storm and we are losing money month after month. Now, it’s January 2003. Now, we’ve been unprofitable, losing money for about six months. Do you get the picture so far? It’s desperate, dire circumstances. Right? Caroline: Right. Beatty: So I’m out there on my day of prayer. I take a day off and say, “Lord, I am going to meet with you.” I’m out there. It’s now the end of January, just a couple of days before the end of the month and I’m on the golf course which is where I take my day of prayer. I don’t play, I just walk and pray and talk. I’m asking the Lord, “Lord, when are you going to let up? Do you know what the Lord told me? He asked me a question. “Do you really believe I can take care of you?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “If you really believe, how would you act differently than you are acting right now?” So what I said is, “Well, if I really believed it then I would put myself at full pay and I would put all my other people at full pay.” He said, “Then why don’t you do it and trust me?” Okay? This is what I’m talking about with radical faith. It makes no sense, but it is trusting the Lord. It is doing what Jesus said. Jesus trusted the Lord and He never feared. Why do we fear? Because we live in the natural. So I did. I put my eyes on Him instead of on the circumstances and I called my number two guy at the time, his name was Walter and I said, “Walter, put me and everyone else back at full pay, retroactive for the full month” because everyone had gotten a short paycheck midmonth. And so he did. Two days later, payroll hit. We lost a lot of money because that was a lot of money that we didn’t have. But here’s the cool thing. The very next month, we made a profit and this is a small business, we had a $20,000 swing on our bottom line, $20,000 more on our bottom line than we had the month before. And I looked at the P and L and I couldn’t find it even to this day, I’ve go back to that P and L multiple times and there is nothing there where we had a lot more revenue, less expenses. I don’t know how it happened, but it happened. And, for the next string of months, we were profitable. What changed? What changed in all that? Do you know? Caroline: Your faith. Beatty: Yes. I acted on my faith. Faith is perfected by works. That’s what this is meaning. So for those of you guys listening out there, what are you afraid of that you know God has said, “Trust me.” If you really believe God’s word to be true, how would you act differently than you are acting right now? And whatever that is, do it, because that is what James is talking about. Faith is perfected by works. Faith without works is dead. Therefore, you cannot believe unless you are going to show that belief through your works. Pretty fascinating isn’t it? Caroline: It is. That was a really inspiring story too. I think it also makes a better definition of that verse and that challenge explaining how faith and works go hand and hand. They are not in opposition of one another. Beatty: No, they definitely are not. We are going to go just a little bit over on this call but I have some points I want to wrap up with. So what faith really is, Caroline, it is seeing from God’s perspective. See, when Peter was walking on the water he was looking at Jesus seeing Jesus’ perspective and he was walking then he looked from His perspective into the waves and he gets scared. And in the very same situation he has two completely outcomes. One outcome by perfecting his faith through works. The other outcome by getting afraid and stop working by faith. Okay? The same thing happened with me, just reversed with the money. So when we see what God sees then we believe as God believes (if you want to use the term “God believes”). When we see as God sees then we get to believe as God believes and then when we act on that belief that is when our faith is perfected. And the challenge that we run into, and this is why it is so tough. Let me ask you a question instead of making a statement. Are we more spirit being or physical being? As a Christian? Caroline: Spirit being. Beatty: Okay. Where do we spend all of our time, focus and our sensory senses? Physical or spiritual? Caroline: I guess physical Beatty: Yes. So here is our problem. We are more spirit beings living in the spirit or should be, but where we actually live most of our time is in the physical because we have physical bodies. We have our sight, sound, hearing, everything, taste, touch is all physical. It’s easy to lose sight of spiritual truths because we get to see everything in the physical. This is where the challenge comes from. But if we can overcome and look in the spirit realm, both figuratively and literally. We look in the spirit realm figuratively and spiritually by looking at God’s truth and his truth trumps the physical. Okay? It is what it is. I want to give you some examples. I want to give you some passages and some scriptures and show you how this plays itself out in the scriptures. The first one comes from 2 Kings, Chapter 6. This is Elisha and his servant. This is actually where we get the term “chariots of fire.” There is a battle with King Aram. King Aram is the enemy king and any time he makes a move against the Israel king then Elisha is telling the Israel king what is going on. So the Israel king gets to adjust. It may have been Judah, but I think it’s Israel. And now, that is where we pick up. “This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?” “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.” “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” (Just like me. On my goodness, we are losing money, what do I do?) the servant asked. And then Elisha, who sees from God’s perspectives says, “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Here is the point on this, once the servant saw from God’s perspective, which is in the spiritual realm, he was no longer afraid. Does that make sense? Caroline: Yes, that does. Beatty: Let me give you another example. Say it’s the 27th of the month, and this is personal for you and Wes, it’s the 27th of the month and you guys have $2,000 of bills needing to be paid and you don’t have the money. You don’t know where it is going to come from. You’ve run out of money for the month and you still have $2,000 left to pay. And this is critical. Maybe this is your mortgage. Okay? You are at risk of losing the house if you don’t pay it. So you are going to pray and ask the Lord to help you out, is that right? Caroline: Right. Beatty: Okay. So when you pray and ask God to send it, how solid is your faith that He is going to send you that money in the next two or three days? Caroline: Pretty solid because we just seen Him be faithful time and time again. He’ll be faithful again. Beatty: Let me ask you, would you put Jethro’s life on it? Do you believe it that much? Caroline: That such an intense question. I don’t know that the Lord would ask me that. Beatty: I know He wouldn’t but the question isn’t, how much do you really believe? Do we believe in essence, trusting that He is going to do something or do we have an absolute, unequivocal, absolutely $2,000 is going to show up in the mailbox or someone is going to bring it to me within the next two or three days. Caroline: That’s a good challenge to ask yourself. Beatty: I’m leading somewhere. I’m always leading somewhere with these questions. So the question is, we pray and we ask, but do we really believe. We trust, but do we really believe that $2,000 is going to how up in the mail in the next two days? Okay. So now, let’s look at it from God’s perspective for just a moment. One month ago, your mortgage company paid your taxes your taxes and insurance out of money from escrow. And they realized that they collected $2,000 more from you over the last year than was needed. So they processed a $2,000 check. It was mailed two days ago and you are about to get it today. Okay? That is God’s perspective. You know that that check is coming. You know all these details. Now when you pray and ask God for $2,000 do you have a different level of confidence that he is going to provide it. Caroline: Absolutely. You would have the whole scope. Beatty: So what changed? Caroline: You were placing yourself in Heaven’s perspective to see where the Lord is coming through. When you have the whole scope, your prayers change. You have faith and confidence. You can see that He will be faithful and He’s coming through. Beatty: In God’s perspective, everything changes. I think we talked about this a few times back that it’s all about seeing from God’s perspective. That’s what I am talking about here. This radical faith is seeing from God’s perspective. Elisha’s faith was not scared at all because he could see from God’s perspective. Once God opened the servant’s eyes to see from his perspective as well, he was no longer afraid. When we get our eyes focused on the natural, we become afraid. When we keep our eyes focused on the Lord and his truth, which is His perspective, then if we believe it, we are no longer afraid ourselves. The only way that we can demonstrate our belief is to act on it. That’s kind of how all that works. So that’s what faith is. Next time we will start on the topic I call, “Getting out of the boat.” We are laying the foundation now and now the next set of calls we going to start to get where the rubber meets the road and it’s going to be a lot of fun. You want to close us out real quick? Caroline: Sure. Well Beatty, thank you so much for your time and sharing all the revelation and wisdom that you received from the Lord. I think this really was a great and challenging call. I’m excited to hear next time about getting out of the boat and just continuing on in our conversation. I think we are going to wrap up. I don’t think we are doing a question and answer for this call. With that being said, Beatty, if you don’t have anything else, I think we are wrapped up. That’s all we have for today. Beatty: Great. Thanks a lot. Y’all have a great day.   If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please tell others about. Also, be sure to get our step-by-step training on how to double sales and referrals from past clients and sphere of influence. It’s absolutely the easiest way to grow your business fast and it’s completely free. You’ll find it on our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com. Thanks for listening.   P004

Caroline: Hi everyone.  I’m Caroline Springer.  Welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael.  This is one of our special calls, our Radical Faith calls.  I’m going to pass over the call to Beatty for just a moment.  If you maybe want to explain what your vision is and idea is behind the Radical Faith series. Beatty: Sure.  Most of these podcast calls are all focused on how do you grow a real estate business from a marketing perspective, but really we’re not only real estate agents.  For those of us who are Christians, we’re also children of God and we have a responsibility there.  We do these calls called Radical Faith and I just want to be right up front real quick.  If you’re not interested in Christianity, if you don’t want to hear my views or perspectives from a religious standpoint, then you can go on and delete out of this podcast because that’s all we’re going to talk about on this call is how to server the Lord and how to live by faith.  So that’s my little plug before we get started.  Caroline: Perfect.  Well, thank you, Beatty.  I like it.  It’s their free pass if they don’t want to listen.  Beatty: That’s right.  Free pass to leave before you get offended, right? Caroline: Yes, there you go.  That’s a little claim labor kind of thing.  Just a quick reminder about who Beatty is.  Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber.  He’s the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field.  Also, like Beatty just mentioned, he is a Christian and has been for much of his life and has been a Christian businessman for much of his life as well.  I know just from dialoging with him back and forth on these and then watching Beatty work as a Christian businessman, he has so many testimonies of really actively seeing the word at work in his business and in his business partnerships, it’s really inspiring and refreshing in the world that we live in because so many people want you to keep your faith out of the business world.  Whatever industry that you work in and for most of our listeners, that’s the real estate industry.  Today, I really don’t have a topic because Beatty wanted to surprise me with what we’re talking about.  We’ll just have a free, open dialogue and then just a reminder for those of you that are on our live call, we do have the lines muted, but we will open up at the end for questions and answers.  So, Beatty, I’m very interested and curious what we’re going to be talking about since I don’t have any outline or idea. Beatty: We are actually going to be doing a continuation of the last 2 Radical Faith calls.  We’ve been on the focus of trying to understand what faith is.  Where this goes, as a Christian, is we want to first understand one of the core concepts of Christianity, of our relationship with the Lord and that is really understanding what faith is.  Until you understand what faith is, it’s impossible to live as Christ lived because everything Jesus did was by faith.  The only thing he really ever rebuked his disciples for, I think that probably out of 10 different rebukes I’ve seen 8 of them if not 9 are all focused on ‘Oh, ye of little faith’.  Now, there may be more than 10, there may be less than 10 but the bottom line is, except with 1 or 2 exceptions is the only thing that Jesus rebuked his disciples about is their lack of faith.  The question is, what is this thing that we call faith?  Why is it so important?  How do we apply it in our lives?  If we can really understand it, then we can really start to follow it.  Does that make sense? Caroline: Absolutely.  Even going through some of these podcast calls in this series have been challenging and good for me too.  They’ve brought me to more of an understanding and like you said, and even shedding more light on some of those things that you were saying where Jesus rebuked them for a lack of faith.  Depending on the church that you go to, sometimes that gets watered down and some of that is overlooked.  I think this is a good challenge but a refreshing, good challenge because when we’re invited into it, that’s what we are created to walk in.  It’s a lot easier than it may feel at times because we don’t just have our strength, we have the Lords.  Yeah, that makes total sense.  I’m with you. Beatty: Great.  If we look at the ultimate goal of our Christian life, it’s to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and become more into the image of Christ.  That’s the process of what’s typically called sanctification.  The question is, how do we get there?  The first step is the concept of faith and that’s why I want to dig into it a little bit more.  When we start talking about faith, Jesus talks about faith and belief as 2 separate things.  The Bible starts to make clarity that faith and belief are actually different.  However, for simplicity sake, as we go into this right now, I’m going to combine them together.  Sometimes Jesus may say, believe.  Sometimes he may say, have faith, but for real basic understanding, we’re going to assume that they’re both the same and maybe on a later discussion we’ll separate them out and define what they are separately.  With that, let’s talk about what faith really is.  I want to go back to just a few foundational passages that start to give us a framework and some simple truths.  One of the truths that apart from faith, we can receive nothing from the Lord.  James I, 6 and 7, let’s test your scripture memory.  Do you know what James I, 6 and 7 says? Caroline: Oh, gosh.  You always put me on the spot like that. Beatty: I’ll bet you’re looking it up in your Bible right now.  No, I’m teasing. Caroline: Well, I know it’s about faith and then when you’re asking the Lord and you don’t doubt. Beatty: Yes, that’s it.  That’s exactly it. Caroline: Is it something along those lines?  The reason is because we just talked about that recently so I promise it really was because of that. Beatty: I love it.  Well, it was a special circumstance.  Here’s what this says.  It says, ‘but he must ask in faith without any doubting for the one who doubts ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord’.  Here, we can find one of these pivotal truths that without faith, it’s impossible to receive anything from the Lord.  This is also where Jesus says in Mark 11:24, which is the next foundational truth, and that is ‘when we pray by faith, we receive what we ask for’.  We know it to be true because it’s a spiritual truth, but sometimes the question is if we pray and we don’t receive, it doesn’t invalidate the truth, it just means that we did not fully apply it.  But here’s what Jesus says.  Mark 11:24, ‘Therefore I tell you whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours’.  A real simple question, is that an emphatic statement or do you think there’s a lot of wiggle room in that statement? Caroline: No.  I don’t think there’s a lot of wiggle room in the Bible at all. Beatty: Yeah, right, okay. Caroline: I think that’s a truthful statement. Beatty: It’s a truthful statement because Jesus said it and therefore if we pray, say, well, I prayed in faith and I didn’t receive it, all I can tell you  just because you didn’t receive it doesn’t mean that you prayed in faith.  We have truth and then we have experience.  We’re going to get a little bit into today, but more in subsequent sessions what happens when we think we’re acting by faith, but we’re really not and how does that impact what we get.  We have this second foundational statement that when we pray by faith, we receive what we ask for.  The third foundational statement that I want to kick off this call with is at the heart of all sin is unbelief or a lack of faith.  As you read through Old Testament to New Testament, especially going through the Israelites coming through the desert and in the wilderness and for 40 years.  What the Lord’s word keeps saying is they did not believe, they did not trust and because of that, God’s wrath burned against them.  What we find is that the lack of faith or an unbelief is really the root of all sin in our life.  This is where one of Jesus’ primary rebukes, ‘oh ye of little faith’.  That’s the only thing he really rebuked his disciples for consistently.  Why that and what is is it?  That’s the preamble.  Let’s start talking about this.  The Bible tells us specifically, let’s test your scripture memory location on this one.  There’s a verse in the Bible that says, ‘faith is’, so you remember where that might be? Caroline:  That’s in Hebrews 11. Beatty: Yay.  Good job. Caroline: The reason I remember that is because we did talk about that in one of our recent calls, but that is a verse that I will go to a lot at ones time in life. Beatty: Hebrews 11:1, ‘now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.  The conviction of things not seen’.  The Bible tells us what that is.  I want to read 2 other versions of that same verse to show you how these translations start to explain it further.  In The Living Bible, it says, ‘What is faith?  Faith is the confident assurance that something we want is going to happen.  It’s the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us even though we cannot see it up ahead’.  Now, let me define the word ‘hope’ in the Bible is not used the same way as we use it here in America.  I hope it doesn’t rain.  That’s the way we use it here in America.  In the Bible when the word hope is used, it’s an absolute assurance of a promise.  The hope of salvation.  It’s not like, well, we hope I’m believing this thing right.  No, the hope of salvation is the absolute assurance of it.  When it says that it is the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us even though we cannot see it up ahead, this is talking about it’s this absolutely certainty of what’s going on.  The Amplified Bible gives my favorite definition this one.  It says this, ‘Now, faith is the assurance or the title deed of things we hope for.  Being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of reality.  And then it puts in brackets [faith is perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].  What we have, Caroline, is we have the concept of faith which is a title deed.  We talked last time about a title deed being, you know if you have title to your car that means you own it, is that right?  Do you remember that? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Okay. So you own the car, which means you have claim to it and no one can take it from you because it is yours. And that is what we are talking about with faith. It is title deed of the things that we hope for. This is now starting to move into where faith really starts to come in because faith is not in the physical world; it is not in the Earthly realm. It is of the spiritual world or the Heavenly realm. And faith is perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses. In other words, it’s perceiving as reality what in the physical realm we have nothing to tell us it’s there. This is why faith is sometimes so difficult for people. It’s because we are trying to apply our physical senses and our physical being into it. And it’s a supernatural type of element. Okay? That is why it is kind of tough at times. Let me ask you a question. Can you truly believe in and have faith in something that is not true? What do you think? Caroline: That is not true? I would think, no. Beatty: No, you can’t. There is no way to truly believe and have faith in something that is false. That would merely be a deception but you can’t have faith based on this definition. By definition, it the title deed. It is the absolute actual ownership of it, which means that it must be true. And so what I want suggests is that there is a difference between truth and what is true. Okay? Let me see if I can make sense with this. We are children of God, sons of the Kingdom. Does that make sense so far? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Does our Father have and possess all possessions? Does he have all provisions and have enough to meet all of our needs? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: Okay. So it may be true that I am broke, but truth is my Father owns it all and can take care of all my needs. It may be true that I sick, but truth is, He can take away my sickness and disease because that is the heart of the Father. It may be true that I am broken and downhearted, but truth is, I have all joy and peace in Christ. Do you see the difference between true and truth? Caroline: Right. I think that is a great depiction of it. Beatty: So truth, is God’s word. True is what I perceive in mind’s eye, my natural eye, as what is my reality right now. What we are going to find, especially in the later things that we talk about, is that there is a difference between what is true and what truth is. And truth trumps reality because reality will change. If we go back to Jesus’ statement back in Mark, it says, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.” So we have this thing that says believe which is the root word for faith. Have faith that you’ve received it and then it will be yours. But the converse is true. If you don’t have faith and you receive it, then it is not going to be yours. So we have the difference between truth and true. Truth is you believe by faith and it is yours. What’s true is that you may not believe by faith and it’s not yours. So true, or reality, is not fixed but truth is. And you can only faith in what is truth because you can only have faith in what is fixed by the Lord. I may be kind of confusing you, but are you following where I’m going on that? Caroline: I am. I think that is a great reminder. I think you are such a great teacher the way you explain the differences between things. I am completely following you. I think that was a great explanation between those and what that means for us. I am following. Beatty: So the next step is, where does this faith come from? And so, Romans tells us, in Romans 10:17: “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” So now we have the scriptural reference that faith is based off of truth, which is the word of Christ. But I want to dissect this passage in Romans a little more. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. I remember when this passage was explained to me. Go back quite a few years ago; this is now 1997. Okay? I’m an unemployed, stay-at-home dad. My wife is a stay-at-home mom. We have a baby in diapers. Another baby came that year. I was trying to make ends meet. I did 13 different things that year. We had a mortgage on the car and a mortgage on the house and everything else. I did 13 things to try to make money. My entire income set this year was $11,882. That was my adjusted gross income. You can tell that I didn’t do a really good job, but the Lord blessed us. I’ll share more about that later. But we came through a period of time when we had nothing. During that period of time, we continued to give 20% of whatever we earned directly into the Lord’s work before we spent any of it. So even in our lack, what happened was, we realized we could trust the Lord and he would take care of us. Kind of the net of what happened there was, we were never late on any of our payments. In fact, we never missed a payment. We never went hungry. We had plenty of everything we needed. The Lord completely took care of us. It was an amazing experience. When I started our business and the business started to grow, I was meeting with a Christian business man, a mentor of mine named Tom. We were looking at our PnL.  For those of you who don’t know what a PnL is, it’s basically like a scorecard that basically tells you if your business is making money or not. Every month we are growing my $20,000 profit. $20,000, $40,000, $80,000, like that. And I’m over here tickled pink. I’m all excited. I’m meeting with my friend Tom and saying, “Tom, how can I have faith when I can see the money on the PnL?” Because, in my mind, faith was, you have no knowledge of what is going on and therefore you merely have to trust the Lord to take care of you. That was my definition of faith. Does that make sense? Does that kind of ring true that most people’s definition of faith is, “I’m just trusting the Lord because I have no knowledge of anything else”? Are you following where I’m going on that? Caroline: I am and that is exactly what I was thinking. I think that is probably true for a lot of people from what they have experienced and from what they know. I’m sure that would resonate with a lot of people. Beatty: So faith is not trusting God; I hate to say it that way. Trust comes out of faith but trust is not faith. If we come back to Romans 10:17, it says, “Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” And so I asked Tom, “How can I have faith when I can see the money and it is growing every single month.” That is when he said, “Faith doesn’t come from seeing. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.” Where is that? Romans 10:17. And it totally rocked my world in starting to understand what faith really meant. So I wanted to take this moment to start to dissect this and talk about this. So there are two key words in this passage. “Hearing” and “word.” “Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ.” So if you look at the Greek word—and I’m not a Greek scholar, I just happen to have a concordance that happens to have the Greek in there. The word hearing means audible. It is not reading. Faith doesn’t come by merely reading the word; it comes by hearing it. Now, there are different ways to hear it. Sometimes the Lord highlights it off of the page. Other times he impresses it in some significant way. Other times, it may be audible. I mean, I’ve heard the word of God audibly once in my life. It was really clear and it surprised the heck out of me. I looked around, “Where did that come from? No one is here.” But faith comes from hearing the word of God. It is that audible side of things. The main thing I want to focus in on is “word.” Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. And there are actually two primary Greek words used in the New Testament that translate into the English word called “word.” Let’s test your Greek knowledge. Do you have an idea of what those words are? Caroline: That I do not know. Beatty: Okay, so the two Greek words are: logos and rhema. I knew you knew it. What happens is, sometimes we hear these things but maybe they don’t come out quit so quickly. I am not trying to embarrass you; I’m just trying to create dialogue. Caroline: I did know both of those words as soon as you said them. Beatty: Here is what they are. Here is a simple definition of logos: A statement that embodies an idea. Let me give you three verses and I’ll show you how this comes out. Mathew 5:32 states, “Jesus says, ‘But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except for the reason of unchastity makes her commit adultery.’” That word reason, “except for the reason of unchastity” – that is logos – except for the idea of unchastity. Then you have Mark 2:2. It says, “And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door and he [talking about Jesus] was speaking the word to them.” That word is logos. He was speaking a statement that embodies an idea. He was talking to them. Then we have another example that is in Luke 1:2. It says, “Just as they were handed down to us by those who, from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word.” The word is the Gospel. “Eyewitness and servants of the word” is logos—a statement that embodies an idea. So we see this word throughout scripture and it is important but it doesn’t have a whole lot of power behind it. It’s just talking about a concept of an idea. Are you following along with me? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: So then we look at the word rhema, which is the other primary Greek word. Now, if there are any Greek scholars out there, I understand there are lots of meanings and lots of ways to interpret the word. I’m just focusing on what I call the framework of what goes on here. I’m not trying to become a Greek scholar. I’m just trying to share generally. This is just generally framework of what these are. So a simple definition of rhema means: By implication of matter, especially of an operation, command or dispute. So it is a little more specific, but when I start to show you how rhema is used in scripture, or at least in sample scripture, we start to see that it is different from the word logos. This concept of faith comes from hearing the word of Christ, hearing the rhema of Christ. I think this is significant because now it starts to give us an idea of what we can actually have faith in. Okay? So let’s look a couple passages. The first one is in Mark. It’s Mark 14:72. This is at the time when Jesus has been taken before the high priest. It says, “And immediately the cock crowed a second time. And Peter remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him, ‘Before the cock crows twice, you will deny Me three times.’” “He remembered how Jesus had made the remark to him.” “Made the [rhema] to him.” So Jesus made a very specific comment, very specifically to Peter that had a very specific outcome. That’s a rhema. Okay? So we look at Luke 1:38. This is Mary talking to the angel. “And Mary said, ‘Behold the bondslave of the Lord; may it be it done to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.” “Let it be done to me according to your word,” according to your rhema, according to that statement, that direction, that command, that promise, that forth telling of what is going to happen. Okay? Here is another one in Luke 5:5. “And Simon answered and said, ‘Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as you say and let down the nets.” “I will do as you [rhema] and let down the nets.” Do you see the difference between logos and rhema? Logos is kind of a general idea, but rhema tends to carry with it very specific instructions, very specific promises of what is about to happen. Do you see this played out in scripture? Caroline: Absolutely. I think too with rhema it almost feels like there is more of an action with it, even though it is still a word, it kind of feels like there is more of a speaking action. I don’t know if that is right, but it feels that way. Beatty: You are right; it is more of a speaking action. It is something that you can sink your teeth into. And so when we talk about faith and living our life by faith and acting by faith, it is not simply acting by ideas, it is acting on truth. And so if we go back to truth versus true, you can only have faith in truth because only truth is solid and in each of these examples of rhema, there was a truth given and that truth occurred and, therefore, when that truth was given as a rhema, then the recipient of that truth could have faith in it that it was going to happen. It’s confident assurance of something to occur that we cannot see right now. Does this kind of wrap it together a little bit? Caroline: I think it does. I think that was a great explanation too and even gave people a picture of it. That’s great explanation of that. Beatty: So if we go back to the amplified version: Faith is the title deed, okay? When Jesus told Peter before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times. That is a title deed. You can take that to the bank because Jesus made a comment that is the absolute truth and then it occurred. An angel told Mary, “You are going to have a child and you are not going to have relationships with a man to have that child. You are going to be a virgin.” She said, “Be it done according to your word.” That was her title deed because the Lord had delivered that message to her. Or when Jesus told Peter, “Drop down the nets.” “We worked late all night, but by your command we will do it.” That’s what rhema is. This is where faith comes from. It comes from this concept of rhema. What’s interesting is the Holy Spirit is just an amazing helper. So you have the Holy Spirit that is sent to us, as believers, to guide us through the scripture, to interpret the scripture, and to highlight things to us. It’s basically guiding us through the entire path in life to ensure that we hear God’s instructions to us. So basically it’s our choice if we want to follow it or not. It’s not really our choice, but He gives us some choice in the matter. And so what happens is, we can be reading God’s word and we might read something that would normally be logos, such as Jesus giving the parable of the servant with the ten minas. The master says, “Well done faithful servant. Because you were faithful with a little, take charge of ten cities.” So if you just read that you are going to say, “That’s a nice story.” But then something may be going on in your life and the Holy Spirit causes that passage to stand out and you read over it and it’s like your eyes just latch onto it. Almost like a pair of magnets and something is really unique. Have you ever had that happen as you read the scripture, something just kind of stands out and you go, “The Lord is telling me something here”? Have you ever had that happen? Caroline: Oh, absolutely. Things or highlighted or things jump out or something happens and I start thinking about it. That has happened to me. Something will happen and I’ll be reading about it and then I’m look, “Oh, that was you.” So absolutely. Beatty: Perfect. So here is what is going on. The Holy Spirit will take that passage and highlight it. And when that happens, in this kind of loose terminology of logos versus rhema that becomes your rhema. That now becomes something that you can have faith in because not it has spoken to you by the Holy Spirit. Now obviously we want to make sure that it’s the spirit that his highlighting it not just our own desires. But as you mature as a believer than you can discern the difference between when the Holy Spirit is telling you to take notice because this is for you versus when we are trying to say, “Oh, I want this for me.” Okay? But when the Holy Spirit highlights it, then what happens is he takes the general word of God, the logos, and he turns it into a rhema for you that now you have the title deed to it. And now when you pray for that, believing that you received that you received, believing by faith, then that is when you receive it. This is when you ask for something, let not a man doubt, otherwise you should expect nothing from the Lord. So when we have the title deed, then we have no way to doubt it. Is this starting to open up these concepts?  Caroline: Absolutely. I was just thinking about how that is coming full circle and connecting. I think that was great explanations that makes connections between all of that. I think that for a lot of people these are concepts or thoughts that maybe they’ve heard a lot but this is bringing new or deeper truth or revelation to the depth of what we are being invited into. I’m thankful that I get to be on the receiving end of this. Beatty: I love it. Well, do me a favor because I know we are out of time for this segment. I would love for you to sum up what you got out of this, anything that stands out and we will kind of start to wrap up the call. Caroline: Okay. You put me on the spot here. I think like you said in the beginning, one of the concepts that I think that I’m continually trying to renew my mind about is about hope and assurance and like in that verse where the title deed example you were using about salvation. This is like our deed. Because I think that sometimes the world that we live in—or like you said, the American culture—we look at things through a certain lens. We look at faith; we look at hope. We look at what we can ask for through a certain lens. Maybe even what we’ve experienced or seen other Christians say is available. I think this has been really good as an invitation. “Hey this is real. This is what we have access to. It’s not like an “I have to try.” It’s not an “as hard as I can pray and ask the Lord for something.” It’s like a complete washing of your mind, of saying, “Okay, this is true. This is what we have access to. This is what is real. This is the Kingdom and the reality that I choose to be more aware of than what my surroundings are. Even like you said, if it’s something that we pray for and haven’t seen what we’ve asked the Lord for, it’s just saying, “Hey Lord, this is what your promise is.”  I’m going to stand in this. I’m going to stand in this truth and in this promise and continue praying and continue believing. I feel like this is a good and an exciting challenge what we are invited to as sons and daughters, what we have access to, to not question it and not doubt and not ever stand back from what we know to be available in truth. When you are talking, my mind is going a million different places of different things and different examples and to my own relationship with the Lord. So those are the things that I was getting out of it. I don’t know if that is a perfect summation. Beatty: I think it’s a great summation. Absolutely. Caroline: Okay, good. I think there is a lot we can learn from this. I’m going to share the recording myself. Beatty: Well good. I think we are probably about out of time for this session. Is that correct. Caroline: Yes, we are. I didn’t want to interrupt you because it was so good. But yes, we are out of time and we need to wrap it up. Beatty, thank you so much for your time and for your willingness to share a revelation that you received from the Lord and what you’ve walked with in the Lord and for giving us all of this great challenge of who we are and what we are called to do and what is available. So, if you are on the live call with us, what we are going to do is wrap up and if you have any questions that you would like to ask Beatty, just hang on and we’ll go into a short Q&A session. So I think that is all for today. But thank you again, so much, Beatty, for sharing. Beatty: Well, thank you. I’ve enjoyed it. Y’all have a great day. Beatty: This has been the Get Sellers Calling you marketing podcast for real estate agents and I’m Beatty Carmichael.  For simple to do, proven marketing strategies focused exclusively on finding sellers and getting more listings, visit our website at GetSellersCallingYou.com.      Poo3

Radical Faith – What is Faith – Part 2   Caroline: Hi everyone. I’m Caroline Springer. Welcome to this next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael. This is actually one of our Radical Faith calls and these are little bit different. A quick little intro about Beatty and I will let him explain our Radical Faith calls are. Beatty is the CEO of MasterGrabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and he’s one of the top marketing experts in the real estate field. He also is a Christian and loves the Lord and really has walked out his faith in an inspiring way in the business world. Beatty, I’m going to pass it over to you if you’d like to share just a little bit about what these Radical Faith calls are and how they are different than our typical marketing calls. Beatty:  Sure, well, you know in California they have a law that’s passed that says anything that’s sold in California that has any ingredients or chemicals that could cause cancer, you have to put a warning label on it. What’s really funny is my children and I were at Bass Pro Shops or Cabela’s years back and one of my sons bought one of these really sharp military grade knifes.  These were meant to hurt people and to hurt animals or cut wood or whatever, and there’s this warning label on it: Warning. This knife contains chemicals that are known to cause cancer and I’m thinking here we have a weapon and they’re putting this warning sign on it. I want to give my little warning for those out there that this may be your first time with a Radical Faith call.  This has nothing to do with marketing a real estate business, this particular call. The Radical Faith call has everything to do with how do you live your life for Christ? So, if you’re not interested in my Christianity, if you’re not interested in Christianity at all, you are fairly warned and you can press delete on your podcast or you can hang up on the call. Otherwise, I’m not trying to push my belief onto you, but I’m trying to share my beliefs with those who want to hear them. That’s our little disclaimer up front. So, I’ll turn it back over to you now. Caroline: I love it. It’s a little less scary than cancer-causing…. Beatty:  But this is cancer free. This will be cancer free. Caroline: This will be cancer free. This is a cancer free zone. Only things that will benefit you, benefit your health. Beatty:  Can I share a quick story?  I’ve got to share this story. So, I get out and I pray for people. That’s just part of what I do. I remember I was over at Walmart and I had seen this 50 something year old lady, and she caught my eye as I was talking to someone at the entrance to Walmart, but I didn’t do anything about it. About 30 minutes later, I see her again in an isle on the other side of the store and I just felt the Holy Spirit saying, I need to go pray for her. So, literally, I walked over to her and said, excuse me ma’am. The Holy Spirit just kind of highlighted you and I think there’s something I need to pray for you about. “Is there anything I can pray for you?” She looks at me with this blank stare, almost with the expression like, who are you. She then kind of broke a little bit and said, “Yes.” I said, “How can I pray for you?” She says, “I have really bad back pain. I have degenerative discs in my back and I have neuropathy in my legs.” I was asking about the neuropathy and if there was a real tight constriction on her legs.  The feeling was a real tight constriction and a lot of pain up in the thigh area on both of her legs.  So, I said, “Let me pray for you.”  So, I prayed for her healing and I said, “Do you feel anything?”  I literally prayed 10 seconds or less and she goes, “Yeah, all the pain in my back is gone.” I said, “Great, but how about your legs?” She said, “I feel release. I feel release. They don’t feel quite as tight.” I said, “Well, good.”  Let’s pray again. And so we prayed again and five or ten seconds later after praying, I said, “Do you feel anything?” She said, “Yes, I feel heat in my back.” I said, “That’s great. That’s the Holy Spirit healing your back and let’s just give it time. Tell me what you feel now.” She says, “Well, that heat is now in my legs. All through my legs.” I said, “That’s great. The Holy Spirit is healing you there.” I said, “Now tell me what’s going on.” She said, “The heat is now up in my stomach area.” “Okay, let’s just keep giving it some time.” Now, all this is over maybe like two minutes, maybe three at most. Then I said, “Now tell me what you feel.” She said, “The heat is going away.” I said, “That’s perfect.” I said, “Tell me about your back.” “No pain.” I said, “Do something that you could not have done without a lot of pain.” She bends all the way over and touches her toes. Degenerative discs could never have done that. Then, I said, “What about your legs and she said, all of the pain is gone. I said, “Fantastic.” I said, “Now, is there anything going on in your stomach area?”  She said, “Yes, I’ve had an ovarian cyst for about a year and I don’t feel that either.” Caroline: Wow. Beatty:  Yeah and it’s really cool talking about these warning labels that can cause cancer, but the reality is Warning: This stuff with the Lord can cause the healing of cancer. It can cause healing of all kinds of things and restoring of our lives. As Jesus said that He came that we might have life and have life to the fullest. To the fullest is not to be bound by sickness and disease. Some of us are and sometimes God doesn’t heal, but I’ve seen such a consistency in that, that I’ve got to believe that the heart of the Father is truly what Jesus said. That we would have life in its fullness in all areas. So, I’m excited to share a little bit more about what we’ve started on the last Radical Faith call and continue that process in understanding this thing called faith and kind of what it all is. So, can we kind of jump on in now that we’ve spent about five minutes here. Caroline: Yes, I love it.  Let’s go. Beatty:  Let me give a real quick review of where we were last time. We’re going through a step-by-step process in understanding what faith really is, understanding it from a Biblical perspective. What does the scripture say that faith is and what do the scriptures show how the faith is lived out and manifests itself in everyday life? What we’ve found is that faith is, from Jesus’ perspective, one of the most important things. Not only is it one of the very few things, as a matter of fact, there’s only three things I know that Jesus ever rebuked his disciples for. One was when the disciples wanted to call fire down from Heaven and consume the people like Elijah did. One when he rebuked Peter and said, get behind me Satan. Every other rebuke that Jesus gave his disciples, which was over and over again, was oh you of little faith. Why did you doubt?  So, he makes a big deal out of faith. The other thing Jesus did is He prays and says, when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the Earth. It’s such a big deal that He’s asking will He find faith. We find that faith. We’ve talked about Hebrews 1. That faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. It is a title deed, meaning it’s the evidence of things being real that you cannot see. It’s the same evidence of things being real as when you’re on your cell phone. We have complete faith that there are radio waves out there and that we can talk on that cell phone. We have no idea how it works, but we have evidence that it’s real. Therefore, that’s what the Bible is talking about. The faith that we do not see, but we have the evidence that it is real. What we started to do is we started to talk about how faith manifests itself. We talked about Moses parting the Red Sea. God told him to basically stop whining. Tell the people to move forward. Forward was directly into the Red Sea and we find that Moses acted by God’s direction before he saw and God performed.  Then we talked about Elijah and the widow during the drought during the reign of Kind Ahab and how that happened. Now I want to pick up on a couple of more stories as we continue to talk about how faith gets manifested into our lives. I want to talk about Biblical stories and some current day stories, sort of like the healing. That’s actually an expression of faith that I was sharing. If we go back to the Bible, there’s a passage. I’m not going to ask you where that passage is and put you on the spot, Caroline. But there’s a passage where Peter is walking on the water and it’s in Matthew 14 and I just want to read you part of this passage and then ask you a couple of questions. Let me set the stage. They have, just the day before, fed the 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish and that was 5,000 men, so we know there’s probably ten or fifteen thousand people by the time you add women and children. Then, Jesus goes up to the top of the mountain to pray, and as he goes up to pray, he sends the apostles and disciples back across the lake in the boat. So, they’re out there and it says that they’re straining at the oars all night because there’s a headwind against them and then Jesus, during the early dawn hours of the morning, He now walks across the lake and they see him dimly and they think He’s a ghost and everyone gets afraid. Are you familiar with this passage? Caroline: Yes, absolutely. Beatty:  Okay, good.  So, He says, don’t be afraid, it’s just me. What does Peter blurt out at that point, do you remember? Caroline: Lord if it’s you, tell me to come to you. Beatty:  That’s right. Lord if that’s you, tell me to come walk on the water too. So, now we pick up Matthew 14 verse 22 and it says, and He, meaning Jesus, “And He said, come and Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But, when seeing the wind, he became frightened and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord save me. Immediately, Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and said, you of little faith.” Here’s one of his rebukes. You of little faith, why did you doubt? So, here’s my question to you. Who acted in this story? Caroline: Peter acted. He had the faith and the risk to step out of the boat. Beatty:  There you go. Did he see before he acted? Caroline: No. Like you mean see himself successfully walking? No. That was definitely a leap of faith, if you will, just to step out onto that water. Beatty: Correct. So, why did he act? Caroline: To me, I love that Peter, to his reply to the fear of them all thinking that it’s a ghost, that he says, tell me. Like, tell me to come and your question is why? I feel like just that trust in knowing the Lord’s voice. If you tell me, I’m willing to go, I’m willing to take that step even if I can’t see. Beatty:  That’s right. He acted because God told him to act. Make sense? Caroline: Absolutely, yes. Beatty: Okay, so let’s review. Peter acted before he could see, but he acted because he’s stepping out on the command or the word of the Lord, and then who performed? Caroline: Well, I guess, Peter was acting, and so it was his act, but really it was the Lord. I mean, but we, in our own flesh cannot walk on water. But with the Lord providing, I guess, he’s the one that performed in response to Peter’s faith. Beatty:  And so we see this pattern. Go throughout scripture and you’ll see this all the time.  Man acts before he can see, but he acts by the clearly delineated will of God, trusting that truth and God then comes in and performs. So, this is how faith is manifested all the time. Think about me healing that lady. Who acted? I did. Why did I act? Because God said, go do what I do. It says, truly, truly whoever believes in me will do the works that I do and I actually just believe Him that we’ll actually do the works that He does and so we go out. When I went out and I prayed for that lady, I couldn’t see it. I had no idea how it happens, but I expected to happen and who performed? The Holy Spirit came and performed a healing work on her body. Why? Because He loves her and He wanted to demonstrate His love to her. We see this process. Let me read a couple more stories that are more modern day. Modern day, this is back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, but there’s a guy named, George Mueller. If you’re not familiar with him, he ran an orphanage of twenty thousand children over in England back in the turn of the early 19th century and this is a story of one thing going on. I’m just going to read it to you just to make sure all the data is there. One morning, all the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. He was in the breakfast room and they were about to have breakfast. The plates and the cups and the bowls are empty. There is no food in the pantry and no money to buy food. The children were standing waiting for their morning meal when Mueller said, “Children, you know we must be in time for school.” Then lifting up his hands he prayed, “Dear Father, we thank you for what you are going to give us to eat.” Pretty bold, don’t you think? Nothing there. No food in the pantry and he prays and says, “Thank you for what you are going to give us to eat.” I love these stories. There is a knock at the door. The baker stood there and said, “Mr. Mueller, I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn’t have bread for breakfast and I felt that the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2:00 in the morning and baked some fresh bread and brought it.” Mr. Mueller thanked the baker and, no sooner had he left there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the orphanage and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he can empty his cart and repair it. Isn’t that cool? So here’s a question. Who acted? Caroline: George. Beatty: That’s right. He acted by praying and thanking the Lord for the food that they were about to eat. Did he see or have any knowledge of that food before he acted? Before he prayed? Caroline: No. I love that. I love that the thankfulness is the act in this too. Beatty:  Yes. So why did he act? Caroline: Just trusting the Lord and His goodness and His promise to be a Father who takes care of His kids. Beatty:  That’s right. He is acting on God’s promises that can never fail. And then, who performed? Caroline: The Lord, through the obedience of that baker. The Lord prompted them to provide. I think that’s the Lord acting on George’s behalf. Beatty:  I think so too. Here is kind of a question we don’t fully know that answer to, but I think we can piece it together by understanding scripture. If Mueller did not pray and thank the Lord and fully expect that the Lord would provide provision for them, would God have delivered the food? Caroline: Most of me wants to say yes because God’s goodness is not contingent upon us. That’s what His grace is. But there is part of me too that has seen the Lord perform, if you will, or act in response to our faith, in response to our thankfulness. Thankfulness can open the door for something that maybe would not have happened otherwise. I don’t know if that is a direct answer because I’ve seen it both ways. I’d love to hear your examples and scripture. Beatty:  I’m going to show you another example then I’m going to come back to that question. But let me ask you, based on this scriptural example. If Peter had not seen Jesus walking on the water. If Jesus has not told him to come. But if Peter just got this crazy idea to just step out of the boat and try walking on the water on his own, what do you think would have happened? Caroline: He would have drowned maybe. Beatty:  Exactly. So there is something here that says, it’s not just the act of doing it but the Lord has to be involved. There has to be, what I’ll call, a level of belief. Let’s look at one more story of George Mueller. This one is cool. Let me set up the environment. In Mueller’s later life—in the 1860s and 70s—he started to speak. He lived in Bristol, England. He was invited to go speak in Quebec, Canada, I believe it was. So he gets on a steamer and comes across the Atlantic. The scheduled date is on a Saturday coming up. As they get closer to the North American continent, the steamer runs into a really thick fog. It’s so thick that they literally turn the engines off. They put them in complete idle because—and this still happens today—you can’t see through it and therefore it’s extremely dangerous to try to power through the fog in case you run into something. You are totally blind. So they can only do it when they can see. That then brings me to this story. This is a first-hand account. There is a guy named Mr. Ingles writing his interactions with the captain of that ocean liner that Mueller was on. So here’s the story. This is the captain speaking:   "Mr. Inglis, the last time I crossed here, five weeks ago, one of the most extraordinary things happened which, has completely revolutionized the whole of my Christian life. Up to that time I was one of your ordinary Christians. We had a man of God on board, George Müller, of Bristol. I had been on that bridge for twenty-two hours and never left it. I was startled by someone tapping me on the shoulder. It was George Müller: "'Captain, he said, 'I have come to tell you that I must be In Quebec on Saturday afternoon.' This was Wednesday. "'It is impossible,' I said.   [And watch this confidence George Mueller has.]   "'Very well, if your ship can't take me, God will find some other means of locomotion to take me. I have never broken an engagement in fifty seven years.' "’I would willingly help you. How can I? I am helpless.' "'Let us go down to the chart-room and pray.' "I looked at that man of God, and I thought to myself, what lunatic asylum could that man have come from? I never heard of such a thing. "'Mr. Müller,' I said, 'do you know how dense the fog is?' "'No,' he replied, 'my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God who controls every circumstance of my life.' "He got down on his knees and prayed one of the simplest prayers. I muttered to myself: 'That would suit a children's class where the children were not more than eight or nine years old.' The burden of his prayer was something like this: 'O Lord, if it is consistent with Thy will, please remove this fog in five minutes. You know the engagement you made for me in Quebec Saturday. I believe it is your will.' "When he finished. I was going to pray, but he put his hand on my shoulder and told me not to pray. "First, you do not believe He will; and second. I believe He has. And there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.' I looked at him, and George Müller said. "'Captain. I have known my Lord for forty-seven years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.' I got up, and the fog was gone!”   This is just another story of faith manifesting itself. So here is a question. Who acted in this story?   Caroline: Definitely George. That kind of faith changes the world.   Beatty:  Right. Did he act before he saw?   Caroline: No.   Beatty:  Why did he act?   Caroline: Even at the end just there you said that he’s known the Lord for 47 years. He has seen him act before and he knows the character of the Lord. He knows that is something you can trust. That is why. That is something worthy of putting your faith in.   Beatty:  It is. He acted because he was confident in the truth and validity of the word and the word to him was God was going to get him there because God has done it all before.   There is one other element and we’ll talk about this later but it is the level of belief. Who performed?   Caroline: The Lord. It’s like that story of Jesus calming the storm. A little fog? A storm? That’s nothing.   Beatty: Absolutely. Now let me put one other thing in perspective because we didn’t cover this. The captain had been on the bridge for 22 hours. These fogs last for usually ten days to two weeks before they dissipate. So this was an absolutely miracle from that perspective.   So here is what we find. We also find this in scripture. Jesus says, “Pray believing that you have received and it shall be granted you.” That’s just what Mueller did.   So let me go back to the question I asked you on the previous one. If Mueller did not pray for provision of the food you say, “I think God would have still provided it.” If Mueller did not pray for the lifting of the fog, would the fog have still lifted?   Caroline: No, it would not have.   Beatty:  No, it would not, and, therefore, I believe—back to the provision of the food—had Mueller not have prayed, the food would not have arrived.   I did a study on prayer throughout all the Old Testament and New Testament. God acts upon prayer, not in the absence of prayer.   So let’s look at a few more things about this story on Mueller. If it be Your will. Have you heard people pray, “Well Lord if it’s Your will, please do this.” Then it doesn’t happen and someone says, “Oh, it must not be God’s will.” Have you ever heard people pray like that?   Caroline: Yes, many times.   Beatty:  I see it a lot in healing. “Oh, thank you for your prayer but, you know, I’ve had a lot of people pray for me and God hasn’t healed me. It’s just not His will.” I say, “Well let me pray” and they get healed. This doesn’t happen all the time, but about two-thirds of the time. What is it about, “if it be Your will”? Here is what Mueller said, “If it is consistent with Your will, lift this fog in five minutes so I may make my appointment. I believe it is Your will.” So the question is, how did Mueller pray differently than most of us pray?   Here is what I would to suggest. When people pray, “If it’s Your will,” for the most part, it’s a copout. “I don’t really believe you are going to do it God, but I know You are sovereign. I know You can do it. Therefore, if it is Your will, I’m going to trust You to do it.” But what they lose sight of are the other passages in the Bible. “Pray believing you have received and it will be yours.” “Say to this mountain be taken up and cast into the sea and if you believe in your heart and do not doubt, it will happen.” Command this mulberry tree to be taken up and cast into the sea and if you will do it without doubting, it will happen.” James says, “Let not a man receive anything from the Lord if he doubts.”   So we have all of these passages focused on this concept of believing it to be true. I would submit to you that Mueller absolutely believed it was true. That’s why he says, “I believe it is your will.” So let me ask you one other question as we are talking about prayer. Had Mueller not prayed, but the captain did pray, would that fog have been lifted?   Caroline: I would think not because he didn’t believe. It’s like what you are saying, he’s not coming before the Father with faith. He is coming begrudgingly. It’s a different heart.   Beatty: Yes, with a different heart. So here we have one final element on how faith gets manifested. You have to have faith if you want God to work in your life. That faith, we are going to find in our next session, is rooted in the word of God and specifically in His promises and commands. It’s not just rooted in that, it’s rooted in those and when we believe on those. Mueller did not simply believe on his own willpower. That is not what Jesus talks about. When we believe, the only thing we can believe in is what is truth. Jesus says, “They word is truth.” The only truth that exists is His word. So the only thing we can believe in being truthful is His word. So simply trying to have the willpower of our own, “I believe, I believe”—the harder you try to believe, the less you really believe because you are trying to fool yourself.   So we will talk about all of these. Is this pretty interesting?   Caroline: Oh, I love this. This is definitely inspiring and kind of solidifying too, even challenging belief systems that I think are easy to float around. Even what I was saying earlier, it’s easy to think, “Well, even if I don’t pray, God is good.” But the Lord invites us to partner with him and to believe and to pray. He wants us to experience that. I think it’s a really good challenge to remember our positions as children, that He invites us to be risk takers and to have radical faith. I love this.   Beatty:  Cool. I know we are out of time, so let’s close out.   Caroline: I love these calls, I’m sorry. Sometimes I tend to get so enthralled I’m not even looking at the clock. But yes, we are about out of time.   Beatty, thank you for your time and sharing your wisdom and experience and stories and scripture. I think it’s a really great call and I hope all of our listeners really enjoyed it also and were inspired. That’s all we have for today. Thank you again Beatty for sharing. I look forward to continuing on next time.   Beatty:  Me too. Y’all be blessed. P002

Radical Faith – What is Faith – Part 1      Caroline: Hi Everyone. This is Caroline Springer and welcome to the next session of Get Sellers Calling You with Beatty Carmichael. This is one of our Radical Faith calls and Beatty, would you like to share what your vision is and what that means. Beatty: Yeah, I appreciate that. I’d love to. As you know, we do these marketing calls on real estate marketing all the time, but I’m also a Christian businessman, so I’d like to periodically do some calls we call Radical Faith which is from a Christian perspective. We announce these calls up front. This is a Radical Faith call so if you don’t have any interest in Christianity, if you don’t want to hear my views on living for the Lord, then we let you know up front so you can press delete on this podcast audio and not listen to it. Now, you are forewarned. Today, what I want to talk about is kind of digging deep into what it means to live by faith and how does the Lord start to providentially or miraculously work at times in your life when you do.  That’s the direction I want to take today’s call. Caroline: Oh, well great. I’m excited to explore that. I know that’s something that my husband and I have received a lot from the Lord as well, just in our marriage. So, I’m excited to hear your thoughts and experiences and just receive your wisdom. Beatty: Well, I appreciate that. Hopefully, it’s wisdom. We’ll see. Oh, no, I’m teasing on that. What is it, to share the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. There is some wisdom in here because I’m sharing the Lord. I want to kind of get started and I just kind of set the stage for those of you listening in. Normally, I provide an outline of the call to Caroline so she can follow. On today’s call, I provided nothing. So, she is absolutely clueless as to what direction this is going. None of this is premeditated or pre-rehearsed for Caroline. We’re going to put Caroline on the hot seat some of these times and see where she is. I want to start off with three boxes. I want you to visualize three boxes. One box is going to be about the size of a jewelry box, a small box maybe like what you’d put a ring in. Box number two is a little bit larger box. It’s probably like an Amazon box when you order something and here it comes, that Amazon box stuck on your front door. For the third box, I want you to think of a great big box, like a moving box, but I want you to imagine taking a knife and slicing down the edges of the box so that all of the sides of the box lay flat. In other words, there’s not structure to the box. It’s just a flat piece of paper. I’ve just got to ask you, Caroline, what do those three boxes represent? Caroline: Oh, my goodness. Let’s see where you’re going. Maybe just the amount of faith that you have in the Lord. What can you place in each of those? Beatty:  Bingo! Caroline: That’s what they represent. Beatty:  You’re dead on. I’m impressed. This is how most of us as Christians live our lives. We place God in a box. The size of the box is the size of our faith if we just want to use that as a very simple term. What that means is if I’m the jewelry box size person, I’m going to trust the Lord when I have to travel from one city to another. I’m going to trust that the Lord is going to take care of me. But, when times get tough, I start to get afraid because, oh my gosh, we’ve got all these bills and we’re not making any sales right now. It’s a down time in the real estate market and you start to get afraid because your God isn’t big enough to take care of your needs. Then you have the Amazon box size person. That person isn’t going to be as rattled as the jewelry box person. You go through down turns economically and you hold strong by faith.  Then, something else happens. Maybe you have no money coming in and you got maybe six months of savings left and that’s it and you feel in your spirit the Lord telling you to give all of your savings away to this ministry. Now, you start to panic. You’re happy, you’re okay trusting the Lord, but you know you got that safety net or that savings account. So, now, you start to question. Well, did I really hear the Lord?  Is that really what he wants me to do? I’m not sure I can do that. That’s the Amazon box size thinking person. Then you look at the moving box where you slice the edges out and you lay it flat and there are no limits to your God in that case. That’s the type of person that when you get that command, you know, give all your money away. You’ll go, okay, and you have no fear. The question is which of those three boxes represents your God and your faith. What I want to do is I want to walk us through what faith really is at a very simplistic approach and walk us through kind of how do you go from being that jewelry box person to that moving box without any sides. How do you take that leap of faith, if we want to use that terminology and actually start to trust the Lord?  First, I’ve got a question and since Caroline, you’re my guinea pig on this one, let’s see where you are. Is faith active or passive? Caroline: Active, absolutely. I mean, I think the world might even try to argue that it’s passive but faith is an invitation to trust. Faith is an action of letting go of our natural human concern and choosing to trust the Lord. Beatty:  That’s exactly right. I think what James says, so, you say you have faith, but I will show you my faith by my works. In other words, I’m going to act it out and show it to you. So, you’re right. Faith displays itself through our actions. I want to challenge you guys on the call to experience the Lord in a new way, to seek him in a new way and to see him really work in an amazing way in your life that maybe you haven’t seen before. I will probably tell a lot of stories as we go along. What we’re going to do is actually a whole series that we will end up completing over time, step-by-step, taking it one step at a time. I want to talk first, real quickly, about why we should live by faith. What does the Bible say? Here are four statements that I’d like to suggest about faith because these are maybe some misnomers. You can live a nice, clean, moral life without any faith. Living by faith is not living a clean life. It’s not living a moral life because Jesus even rebuked the Pharisees of the day who lived a clean, moral life and he rebuked them for their lack of faith. Faith has nothing to do with living a moral life. It is part of it, but it has nothing to do with it. James says, that apart from faith, we can receive nothing from God. This is James 1: 6-7 and it says, “But we must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord.” Here’s a question, why should we not to expect to receive anything from the Lord if we doubt? Has it something to do with faith? Question for you, Caroline. Jesus primarily rebuked his disciples and his apostles for one thing, do you remember what that one thing is? Caroline: Their lack of faith. Beatty:  Yeah, their lack of faith. It wasn’t their short comings. It wasn’t their mistakes. It wasn’t all these other things with the exception of one exception that I know of. Every rebuke Jesus gave his disciples and his apostles was, oh, ye of little faith. If it’s so big primarily that Jesus ever rebuked his disciples about, then we ought to take notice and kind of understand what this is. The last statement I want to make is faith is essentially the act of believing God’s words.  Praying in faith is the act of submitting that faith of action before the Lord. It’s when we act by faith and we pray by faith, that’s when we start to receive God’s promises, God’s provisions, in a mighty way. As James says, without faith we shouldn’t expect to receive anything. I wanted to turn real quick. I know you’re probably driving down the road so you can turn in your Bible, but let me give you the reference. It’s Mark 11:22 and this is Jesus talking, and he says, “Therefore I say to you, all things which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them and they shall be granted you.” Here’s my question. Why is that? Why are we to believe that we’ve received them, which is past tense, believe that we’ve already received, and then he says, “then they shall be granted you” future tense?  So, we’re to believe in the past tense that we’ve already got what we’ve asked for and then in the future tense it’s actually going to come to us. Have you ever pondered that, Caroline? Caroline:  I actually haven’t from that past versus future tense. I’m familiar with that verse and I like to look at it as an invitation for our mind to be renewed and for us to think like the Kingdom, or the way that the Kingdom thinks, because the way that Jesus invites us. He says, the only way we can enter the Kingdom is if we have faith like a child. So, just in that kind of mindset, I look at my son and he doesn’t ever question whether he’s going to be fed or things like that. It’s just that he knows. It’s just in the fiber of his being. In the command in Mark, I think with what you’re saying about the past versus future, I think just having that foundational trust of never questioning or doubting. Just knowing. Believe that it’s already happened. I don’t have to think about it. That’s the invitation. I love what you’re pulling out of that, the past versus present or future. That’s my interpretation of just having such a trust; you don’t even think about it.  It’s just going to happen. Beatty:  It’s actually more than that. Let’s talk about it for a moment and this one session may turn into two sessions as typically happens with me. Let’s lay a foundation. Who modeled the perfect Christian life for us? Caroline:  Jesus, absolutely. Beatty:  Did Jesus do anything that was not already done in Heaven? In other words, when Jesus says, I only do the thing I what? Can you complete that sentence? Caroline:  I’ve seen my Father do. Beatty:  That’s right. I’ve only do the things I’ve seen my Father do. Were those things done in the past or in the future that his Father did? Caroline:  I guess in the past if he’s saying he’s seen his Father do them. Beatty:  Okay, so watch this. Jesus only did what He saw his Father do which means His Father did them first and we know it happened in the Heavenly realm and so now, Jesus does them second in the Earthly realm. Jesus knew they had already been done and then he did them. If we convert this into prayer, we believe that we’ve already received them, past tense, Heavenly realm, and then they shall be granted us, future tense, Earthly realm that Jesus did. Does that make sense? Caroline:  Absolutely.  I love that.  Pulling out that explanation, I think that’s huge.  Thank you. Beatty:  We see this again twice in Matthew. Jesus said, whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven, but the better translation, the more accurate, whatever you bind on Earth shall have been bound in Heaven.  Whatever you lose on Earth shall have been lost in Heaven.  In other words, what we do on Earth is a mirror of what’s already been done in Heaven. So, when we pray, believing that we’ve received, what we’re doing is that we’re praying, in Jesus’ name, by His authority, which means that it has to be by His will and we’re praying that we receive what’s already ours. Pray that we’ve received it and it shall be granted you. Anyway, we’re digressing again, but does that make sense? We’ll probably get into that a little bit later in another one of these calls. Caroline:  No, that does. I like it. I love the tangent stuff. Beatty:  So, we’re going to probably hit a lot of tangents as we go through this because it’s just so much fun. Now we’ve got these, what I call the four simple statements of faith. It’s not about living a moral life, but it is about acting on God’s word and praying in faith on God’s word, praying that He’s going to do it because we pray by His authority. The simple prayer that Jesus taught us in terms of the process of how we pray. Pray like this: Father, that your will be done on Earth as it is or as it is already done in Heaven. So, we see all this understanding that it’s already done in the Heavenly realm. What we’re praying and what we’re doing is manifesting it in the Earthly realm. That’s why you see all this stuff that Jesus says, believe that you’ve already received it and it shall be yours. Then, the question comes up, why do we live by faith? Well, Romans 1 tell us that the righteous man shall live by faith. It’s not that he shall be by faith which is passive. It’s that he shall live by faith, so we have an active statement. Luke 18 says, this is Jesus talking, and he says, “However, when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the Earth?” Why do you think Jesus said, will He find faith on the Earth rather than will He find people loving the Lord on the Earth? Will He find goodness and love overcoming evil? Why do you think, Caroline, that He said, when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the Earth? That’s all He’s looking for. Caroline:  I think, like you said at the very beginning of the call, you can live a good and moral life outside of faith. You can live a, quote, good and moral life even apart from Jesus. So, the invitation for faith is not just to live a good life, it’s to live the life He envisioned for us. It’s to live the life of faith and the life of trust and receiving our position as sons and daughters. I think it’s an invitation beyond that, like those examples you were just saying. Beatty: Yeah, it’s a big invitation far beyond that. That’s what we’re hopefully going to uncover as we go forth. Luke 22, Jesus shows another thing. What I want you to understand is this is super important to the Lord. When I return, am I going to find faith on Earth? Luke 22 says, “But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” It’s so important that He’s looking for it when He returns. So important that He prays that it will not fail. There is something so significant here that this is the one thing that Jesus is focused on. Yet, most of us never think of it in those terms, as being that one thing that Jesus is really focused on. This is why I think we need to focus on it ourselves because it’s just such a big deal. Jesus keeps making it a big deal all throughout scriptures and yet, so frequently, we kind of gloss over it and I think we gloss over it because we don’t really understand it. Now, I want to. So let’s test your scripture memory, Caroline. What does the Bible say that faith is? Do you remember? Caroline:  Oh, gosh. Faith is, oh, something about not being seen or unseen. Why is this so much better, the scripture is just escaping me? Beatty:  Oh, I’m catching you off guard. I apologize. I don’t want to embarrass you. I’ve got it obviously because I’ve got my Bible in front of me and my notes that I’m working off of. This is Hebrews 11:1. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen, but I want to read it in a slightly different translation. This comes from The Amplified Bible, and I want you to try to grasp what this really is all about. It says faith is the assurance or the title deed of things we hope for.  Now, by the way, hope, in the Bible is different than the word hope in the secular realm. When you and I say hope in our vernacular, we’re saying like, oh, I hope it doesn’t rain today. Meaning, I really desire that it not rain today. That’s not the way the Bible uses the word hope. In the Bible, when the word hope is used, it is an absolute certainty of what is coming in the future. So, we can’t say that this is something we hope for, meaning that we desire but we’re not really sure about it. In Bible terms, hope is an absolutely certainty. That’s what this is saying. Faith is the title deed or the absolute certainty of things we hope for. Title deed. Let’s talk about that real quick. I’ve got the title deed to my automobile. What does that mean? Caroline:  It’s your proof of ownership. Beatty: That’s it. It’s my proof of ownership. Faith is the title deed of those things that have been promised. It is the proof of ownership. It means it is yours. That’s what this is talking about.  Faith is the title deed, the proof of ownership of things that are yours. It’s the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of the reality. Faith is perceiving as real fact of what is not revealed to the senses. This concept of faith is perceiving of real fact what is not perceived by the senses.  Do you have faith, Caroline, that radio waves exist? Caroline:  Yes. Beatty:  If we were to use that terminology, faith in this, do you have faith, are you acting by faith right now on this phone call? Caroline:  Yes, I would assume so just because I know that when I dial in that those waves are going to transmit. Beatty: You’re on your cell phone, right? Caroline: Yes. Beatty: You’re acting by faith because your cell phone is using radio waves you cannot see but you know for an absolute certainty that they exist. And this is faith in the Bible. We cannot see it, but we know for an absolute certainty that they exist. The reason we can’t see it is because it’s the promise of God. It’s the truth of God. It’s the things that are already done in the Heavenly realm and we’re praying for them to be done in the Earthly realm. I digress a little bit from my notes, so let me go back. The question, then, is, how does this manifest itself in the scriptures? I can tell, right now, we will not make it through on today’s call keeping it at 30 minutes. How much time do we have?  What’s our clock right now? Caroline:  It is 12:25 right now, so we’ve got about five minutes. Beatty: Did we start right at 12 our time or do you recall how much time we have on this podcast? Caroline: We started maybe five after. Beatty:  Okay, so we’ve got probably 8 or 10 minutes, so let’s see where we can go. Let’s look at faith in the Bible and kind of understand what faith is doing within Biblical times and we can start to understand, maybe, as we move in this direction, how it starts to impact in our lives. I want to talk first about Moses parting the Red Sea; this is in Exodus Chapter 13. I’m going to just kind of skip around a little bit, but just read this one second. It says, “And the Lord said to Moses, why are you crying out to me?” So here’s the background. God has just led Moses and the children of Israel to a dead end, right against the Red Sea. Then, here comes the Egyptians with Pharaoh and all the people get afraid and they start to cry out to God. This, I would say, is either the jewelry box God or possibly, for some of them, the Amazon box God, but not at all the moving box with the sides cut out. And so they’re crying because all they see in the natural is oh, my gosh, total destruction. Moses comes to the Lord and we ascertain from this that Moses is also concerned. He’s not concerned to the same degree as the rest of the people, but he’s pleading with the Lord. Here’s the Lord’s response. “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.” Which direction is forward, Caroline? Caroline:  That seems kind of like a trick question. I mean, forward? Beatty: Straight into the Red Sea, right? Caroline:  Right. Beatty: So, God is telling them, “Hey, stop crying out to me, move forward, and straight into the Red Sea.” Now that makes no sense. This is where faith comes in, okay. And then God says, “As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hands over the sea and divide it and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. Then, Moses stretched out his hands over the sea and the Lord swept back the sea by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land so the waters were divided.” So, here’s a question. Who acted in this story? Caroline:  Moses did. Beatty: Yep.  Moses acted and did he see before he acted? Caroline:  No, he let his faith be his eyes. Beatty:  Yeah and right. Moses acted before he could see, but why did he act? Caroline: Because of his faith and his trust in the word that the Lord had given him. Beatty: That’s right. He acted by faith in the Lord’s truth or in the Lord’s command and then who performed? Caroline: Oh, you mean like for the outcome? Beatty:  Uh huh. Caroline:  The Lord. Beatty:  Okay, so now we see this pattern throughout. Man acts before he can see, but he acts on the clearly defined will of God and then God performs. That’s the pattern of God moving in one’s life providentially and miraculously. Let’s look at another story. This is Elijah and the widow. So, the backstory on this is this is during the reign of King Ahab. King Ahab is a wicked king. Elijah has gone to him and said, “You’re so wicked and until you change, I’m going to call for a drought on the land.” So, he calls for a drought on the land.  There’s no rain.  Everything’s drying up and then God takes care of Elijah with some ravens who bring him food and he’s by a brook and the brook dries up and now we pick up in I Kings 7. This is God now speaking to Elijah. “Arise. Go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon. This is outside of the Israeli territory, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” Now, let me ask you a quick question. I love this part of the story. Now, you’re familiar with this story that we’re going into, is that right Caroline? Caroline:  Yes, I am. Beatty:    Okay, so he said, behold I have commanded a widow there to take care of you. Do you think that widow knew anything of that command? Caroline:  No, I would assume not. Beatty: Okay, so here we have the spiritual world intersecting with the Earthly world. God has commanded, past tense, and she knows nothing about it. This is where when we pray and act, we pray believing that we’ve already received it, because it’s already been done, and then it starts to happen. So, God has commanded a widow, but the widow knows nothing about the command.  So that command had to have occurred in the spiritual realm, in the Heavenly realm, where she does not have the sensory to recognize it. Elijah arose and went to Zarephath and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks and he called to her and he said, please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink. As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, please bring me a piece of bread in your hand. But she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread. I only have a handful of flour in a bowl and a little oil in a jar and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go and prepare for me and my son that we may eat it and die.” Then Elijah said to her, now here is the word of the Lord, Elijah said to her, “Do not fear, go do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel.  The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted and the jar of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the Earth. So she went and did according to the word of Elijah and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty according to the word of the Lord which he spoke through Elijah.” Okay, so now we have this story, we have this backdrop. Question. Who acted in this story? Caroline:  The widow acted. Beatty:  Right. We actually have two people that acted. We have the widow who acted and then we also have Elijah who acted. Did they see before they acted? Caroline:  No. They allowed their faith to be their eyes. Beatty: That’s right. So, Elijah went to Zarephath without knowing anything other than by God’s command. The widow trusted the word of the Lord and did what was said. So, why did they act? They acted without seeing, so why did they act? Caroline:  Again, just letting their faith, putting their trust in the word of God and putting their trust in that and letting that be their eyes and be what overtook some of their fleshly concern and not seeing it. So, putting their faith and their trust in that and not physical trust. Beatty: They acted because of the word of the Lord and they trusted that Word and then who performed? Caroline:  The Lord. Beatty: There you go. So, we’ve got the same pattern. Man acts before he can see but he acts because of the clearly defined will, or word, or command of the Lord, whatever you want to use it and then it’s the Lord who produces the results. Here’s something interesting that we also get out of this. Notice that the widow was to honor the Lord first. Elijah is the Lord’s representative and Elijah said, make me a bread cake from it first and then go back and make one for you and your son. So, we have this other truth that is weaved into this story and that truth is that the Lord wants us to always honor him first with all that we have. This is where we have the tithe, the first fruits, all these truisms of the Lord and how he sets us up because the Lord wants us to, not only honor Him, but trust Him first. What do you think would’ve happened if the widow made a bread cake for her and her son and then used whatever was left over for the Lord. What do you think would’ve happened then? Caroline: Well, I mean, I’d like to think that the Lord, I guess we don’t really know. I guess they wouldn’t have seen the abundance that they saw. Beatty:    Okay, so let me ask it this way. Was it an act of faith to give the little bit of food she had first to the Lord or would it have been an act of faith to feed herself first and then give away anything left over to the Lord? Caroline:  Right. I mean it would’ve been an act of faith to give to the Lord first. Beatty:  Yep, yep. My guess is if she violated God’s word and tried to take care of her needs first, what that shows is a lack of faith in the Lord and I’m not sure the Lord would’ve produced. So, I know we’re about over time, but let me make one final comment on this. We’ll cover this in a later session, but how many of you on the call give financially to the Lord through tithes and offering but you give only what is left over because if that’s what happening, I’m willing to bet you never have much left over and you’re always paycheck to paycheck and sometimes less than that because you don’t trust the Lord. We’re going to talk about that on another topic. But we see that pattern happening here. We’ll have to continue another time. I think we’ve got to wrap up this call now, don’t we? Caroline:  Okay, well, I was loving it. I think you have such an ability to bring out the patterns and showing the Bible is really our guide for how the Lord operates. It’s not something that we’re just reading old stories, it is things we can apply and can experience in our life with the Lord today. I love hearing your analytical showing like here’s how, here’s what the Lord is trying to communicate through these patterns. I love it, but yes, we are about out of time and need to wrap up. Beatty, thank you so much in opening yourself up and being willing to share your wisdom and just what you’ve perceived and learned from the Lord. I think it was a really great call. So, what we’re going to do is to wrap up and then for those of you that are on the live call, if you have any questions you’d like ask Beatty, if you will just hang on until we’ve wrapped up, we’ll go into a short question and answer period. I think that’s all I have unless there’s anything else you’d like to share, Beatty? Beatty:  No, I guess that’s all for me as well. Caroline:  Okay, well, thank you and thank you Beatty for sharing. Beatty:  Okay, well, y’all have a great day. Thank you, Caroline. P001