i'm pastor stephen brooks and welcome
today to our midweek bible study called
morning glory
i'm so happy that you're here i want to
invite you why don't you grab your bible
and just join with me today in god's
word
we're going to be in one of my favorite
chapters
in the bible which is romans chapter 14
and we're going to look at two verses
they're back to back
and they are very remarkable these
scriptures are
quite potent and we need to examine them
and
when you bring these statements of god's
word into your heart
and work them you're going to find out
it's going to make you very very happy
this is really something that's going to
put a smile on your face
straight from god's word and before we
jump into it
let's just pray heavenly father we ask
that your holy spirit who is the
illuminator
of your word that he will come right now
in the very midst of our hearts
and pour forth the anointing so that the
eyes of our understanding are
illuminated
so we can see your word take it and
apply it to our lives today
and be happy and experience all
that you have intended for us to walk in
now father we thank you we believe it in
jesus name we pray
around the world let's agree and say
amen
now romans chapter 14 paul's letter to
the church to the christians there in
rome
verse 22 do you have faith
now this faith really
is when you look at the context of the
whole chapter this
is a faith that is referring to
the way that you conduct and live your
life
as an individual when you wake up in the
morning
you may choose to wear blue jeans but
somebody else is going to put on
dress slacks and you may choose to drive
a blue vehicle to work
and somebody else may choose to take a
skateboard
and you may choose when you come home to
have lasagna for dinner
and somebody else may choose ramen
noodles
there is this element of your personal
faith your personal walk with the lord
that is something that that god allows
you to have great freedom in
and you have to understand it now in
context with romans chapter 14
a lot of it deals with the issue of food
and certain things that were affecting
young believers in the church
that mature believers understood so paul
was saying now
walk in love even if you have the
maturity and the faith to understand
that what you're doing is fine
keep that to your to yourself within
your own heart because
young believers they may not understand
all of this
but in your own personal life when you
walk these things out without
you know uh the eyes of a young person
looking at you if you have freedom to do
this in the lord and it's scriptural
it's clean it's pure
why certainly you can enjoy it because
you had these i would you could call
them like schisms
in the church you had vegetarians
basically saying that those that were
eating meat they're committing sin
do you know we have a lot of that today
because of the culture
uh permeating into the church even today
you have some people saying that
if you eat meat it's a sin and you know
that
they'll save a little bitty uh fish or
they'll go out of their way to make
these extreme efforts to
maybe save an endangered animal or a
sweet little animal and after all i
think that's nice
but at the same time when it comes to
the regard for human life or
the life of the unborn they have no
compassion so it's really
uh you see that of course in the world
but
in the church it's amazing sometimes uh
for example when a person comes into the
church
like what paul was dealing with with the
church in corinth
the believers that that were coming in
that had been converted and
turned from sin and were washed with the
blood of christ yet they still had all
these mindsets and they still had all of
these old
ideologies and ways of thinkings or
mentalities and
so they had all kinds of crazy things to
work through a lot of carnality
that was to be expected and so you know
you can have
you can have people that are genuinely
saved and born
again but they may have some very
unusual ways of thinking but for those
of you that are strong in the word
walk close to the lord you're going to
have
some different experiences with the lord
that bring
a deeper level of happiness that comes
from walking very close to him
do you have faith have it to yourself
before god
happy is he who does not condemn himself
in what he approves you also had this
thing of those with the weak conscience
who were new christians who if they saw
you eating food
that previously was being sold in the
market
but maybe had been prayed over or you
know
had been blessed by a pagan priest or
something like that
they thought oh you can't eat that if
you eat that you're defiled and on and
on it went and
you even had a lot of christians in the
first century
that were getting saved but they
actually thought it was wrong
some of them actually when they became
born again thought it was wrong to use
money
coinage that had an emblem of caesar on
it
and they thought oh no that's wrong we
can't use this money because caesar's
image is on it or
an image of some type of greek deity
because the romans loved the greek
culture so they brought a lot of that
paganism and all of that uh you know the
the plethora of multiple gods
and so they would put these images on
the coins and you had some christians
that said we're not using money because
that's evil it's got
it's got a symbol of zeus or something
on the coin so you know
uh yeah you know but if you had faith
and you knew hey it's just it's just a
piece of currency that we're using for
transaction
you could put mickey mouse on there if
you want to you could put a lizard on
there it's
it's this is you know you're getting
hung up on miners here
and so if you knew that well yeah you
can exchange in business and engage in
business but for the others who were
very weak in the faith
they were they were getting tripped up
on a lot of different things
um verse 22 again do you have faith have
it to yourself before god that's that
personal freedom that personal way of
conducting your own individual life
happy is he who now watch this because
this is going to bring happiness into
your life
happy is he who does not condemn himself
in what he approves whoo glory to god i
want to read this to you from the
weymouth translation
and mr weymouth uh he was a
greek expert actually he was an expert
in many multiple languages
but he also did a translation of the new
testament into
from greek and english and he translates
this verse as saying
as for you and your faith
keep your faith to yourself in the
presence of god
the man is to be congratulated who does
not pronounce
judgment on himself and what his actions
sanction wow praise god
very very interesting very interesting
now
this is interesting i want to dig into
this a little bit further
here here's a good example let's talk
about this one uh
this one uh can go in different
directions
maybe you could split the camp right
down on the middle with this one
uh just for a moment i want to give you
example of
your own personal faith your own
personal walk with god
and the journey that can lead you on and
it could lead somebody else who also
loves the lord
serves the same god but leads that
person in a different direction
now first kings chapter 18 let's see a
really good example of this
and it came to pass after many days that
the word of the lord came to elijah
in the third year saying go present
yourself to ahab
and i will send i will send rain on the
earth
so ahab is the wicked king
of israel who has a very infamous wife
that i'm sure you know the name of her
name would be jezebel
and she's not a nice person but she's
the queen and
and it is what it is now verse two
so elijah went to present himself to
ahab and there was a severe famine
in samaria that's because through the
word of the lord
elijah had locked up the heavens when i
say the heavens i'm talking about the
upper atmosphere and it had not rained
for three and a half years
and thus that would produce not just a
famine but a severe famine
and ahab had called obadiah who was in
charge of his house
now it says obadiah feared the lord
greatly
[Music]
and you have to remember that obadiah is
the
right hand man of
wicked israeli king ahab
why oh yes this is ahab who murdered a
man
because he wanted his garden he wanted
his vineyard this is ahab who
married jezebel who
killed many of the true prophets of the
lord
and brought in her own version of
religion remember she was the daughter
of a
phoenician king and so she was she was
used to bail worship
so when she moved to israel to be the
wife of ahab
she brought her religious background and
her bail
worship mindset and began to implement
these priests of baal so
it was just a whole lot of sin going on
and yet here is a man it says who feared
the lord greatly
and he is in that royal palace
he is not only close to the king he is
the king's right hand man
it says he was in charge of his house
that that is the person that the king
would give the most trusted assignments
to so
obadiah is around all of this that means
he's probably crossing paths
with jezebel on a pretty regular basis
maybe even daily because he's there in
the royal palace he's in the king's
court
and he's the king's go-to man
and he has not fled the scene
he has not uh said you know this job is
just too much of a compromise i'm
getting out of here
so this is very interesting now
and ahab had called obadiah who was in
charge of his house
now obadiah feared the lord greatly for
so it was while jezebel
massacred the prophets of the lord that
obadiah
had taken 100 prophets and hidden them
50 to a cave and had fed them with bread
and water and ahab had said to obadiah
go into the land
to all the springs of water and to all
the brooks perhaps we may find grass to
keep the horses and mules alive
so that we will not have to kill any
livestock so while
obadiah is on a scouting mission trying
to find some
you know springs of water he runs into
elijah the prophet the mighty prophet of
god
now verse 10 obadiah says to
to the prophet he says as the lord your
god lives there is no nation or kingdom
where my master has not sent someone to
hunt for you
and when they said he is not here he
took an oath from the kingdom or nation
that they could not find you and now you
say go tell your master
elijah is here and it shall come to pass
as soon as i am gone from you
that the spirit of the lord will carry
you to a place i do not know
well obviously elijah had a reputation
for being
moved by the spirit not just spiritually
but physically in what we would call
literal translation or a full
translation where you're not just
translated
in the spirit where your spirit goes
somewhere but your body is
completely taken uh by the holy spirit
and so he said uh so when i go and tell
ahab and he cannot find you he will kill
me
but i your servant have feared the lord
from my youth now
obadiah wants elijah to know
hey i'm not some kind of a sellout i'm
not a traitor
it's just that god's got me here and
god's got you
there now it is true that elijah
said i'm the only prophet left of the
lord
so i don't think elijah
would agree with obadiah serving ahab
he would probably say you've compromised
and by the way i'm not here
today to say this is compromise that's
compromise
paul the apostle said work a good job
with your hands i'm not trying to give
you a ticket that says go work
anything you want to do and it doesn't
matter if it's corrupt or wrong no
that's
that's not what i'm saying but i am
saying that there are some paths
that you can walk on that others can't
why
you have faith for it you somehow have
faith and that comes from god
that faith from god to know that you can
stand in there
not flake out not melt down not sell out
uh your trust and faith in god now
others may not be able to do that
but you can't and obadiah could and he
knew he could
and he also knew that his position
allowed him to have the top intelligence
of what the king was going to do through
his army through his pursuits through
his activities
and he knew that he could send a secret
person
to get that information to the prophets
make sure you're hidden don't come out
of the caves
you know whatever the case might be and
he's feeding them with food
and water and he's putting his life on
the line
so he's not he's not a traitor by any
means
you know we had the german theologian
diedrich bonhoeffer and he was a man
that said
going into world war ii he was saying
hitler's extremely dangerous
this man is a very very dangerous man
and you know he and others that were not
compromising within the church
they saw what was going on they saw the
takeover
and they knew it was not going to end
well but what a lot of
writers or historians don't mention
about bonhoeffer is that
he never got out of the military he
stayed in
the german military oh pastor stephen
that's treasonous if he
really knew that hitler was dangerous he
would have gotten out and he would have
been in the resistance well he was in
the resistance but in a different way
he was in the resistance on the inside
where
they were endeavoring to undermine the
the you know the things that would the
instructions or orders that would be
given to them
pretend it was carried out but it's not
carried out and then tried to do things
of subterfuge and stuff like that
and eventually you know bonhoeffer was
executed for
um uh you know taking the stand that he
took
and you know you just have to you have
to
you have to go the route that god has
you
go and i don't think like i mentioned
earlier that elijah probably would have
approved of what obadiah had done how
can you stand next to that murderer
how can you be in the same house with
jezebel
i don't see how you can i don't even see
how god would accept you well
i'm not sure if elijah would have been
that rough owning but
elijah did say i'm i'm the only prophet
left
maybe he thought the other 100 prophets
were cowards for hiding in the cave i
don't know
but it does appear that obadiah
was a very very godly man
and he says to elijah but i your servant
have feared the lord from my youth
hmm was it not reported to my lord what
i did when jezebel killed the prophets
of the lord
how i hid 100 men of the lord's prophets
50 to a cave and fed them with bread and
water
well maybe some of that just
hit elijah and ran off of him like water
off of a duck's back in other words
maybe he
he thought well hey look i'm just here
to give the word to you that
i'm ready to come before the king now
but obadiah is like hey
you know you've done your part and you
nobody
can do what you're doing the way you're
doing what you're doing you're the best
at what you do
but obadiah without compromising was
doing his part
in a different position in a different
way and
as long as it doesn't cause you to
compromise your faith or
demand that you do something not only
illegal but also from god's word
something that would be a violation of
biblical principles
and biblical values and morals then
your faith can take you into some very
interesting places think about daniel
because daniel was serving in the court
of nebuchadnezzar and you could only
imagine what was going on in a
total pagan atmosphere like that where
you have the super wealthy king with all
of this wealth and all of the riches and
everything that was around that
environment
and he served multiple kings he served
the king's son
and he went through a long prophetic
ministry but he was right there in the
thick of it he was around all the
uh what we would call the high and
mighty so to speak
and you know what somebody might say oh
that's compromise how dare he do that
but you just have to follow
the teaching of the apostle paul again
romans chapter 14 verse 22
do you have faith have it to yourself
before god there might be some others
who may not understand it maybe even
elijah
wouldn't understand it maybe he would
write an article in one of his blogs and
criticize it and say that's selling out
that's compromise
uh and maybe from his from his calling
he could that's that's how he sees it
because there is
there can be some tunnel vision at times
that that's okay you don't have to play
every role you just have to play your
role praise god
but you know what your faith can
sometimes take you uh
down a different route that maybe even
what your best friend would understand
and you have to walk with the lord now
of course again we're not talking about
compromise we're not talking about
selling out because that certainly is a
lot of that going on out there there's a
lot of people that would do anything to
save their skin
that's not what we're talking about
though but we're talking about
you living your life the way the holy
spirit is
directing you to go in the direction
that is
uniquely for you do you have faith have
it to yourself before god you have to
understand that not everybody has faith
like you they don't they don't
understand why you're doing
what you you're doing they don't operate
on what we would call a
faith frequency maybe all they can
operate on is the frequency of logic
or rationale which can lead uh to a very
boring life as if that's all that
that's the only dimension that you walk
in so when you
begin to walk with the lord you can get
into um
some very uh expanded places praise god
and you can go some places that others
can't go we'll talk more about that in
just a moment
happy is he who does not condemn himself
in what he
approves the man is to be congratulated
who does not pronounce judgment on
himself
and what his actions sanction i i did
belong to a church one time
i should say there's only one church but
this was a denomination you know
one church but many denominations so to
speak and this denomination
taught that it was it was a sin for
women
to wear pants they really did they they
they had uh rules and regulations that
uh if you were a lady you were not
allowed to wear pants
in the church and no women did they
would ask you to leave
well uh that's something that if you're
able to see past you know
man-made laws you could realize well
okay i see what they're trying to do
they're trying to keep
people from particularly in this
scenario women from wearing clothing too
tight that would
cause men to be tempted i could see what
they're trying to do but it turned into
really
more of a form of bondage so they were
uh they were only allowed to wear skirts
so now the women were wearing the skirts
so tight not all of them of course the
ones that were godly they're gonna
they're not trying to push limits but
the ones that were you know carnal
whatever
now they're gonna wear their skirt just
as tight as they can because they can't
wear their pants and so
now it creates another problem but for
the person who's free
and realizes is god really into food
that's what paul is trying to say this
is not about food it's about
righteousness and peace and joy it's not
about pants or skirts or
or all this kind of crazy stuff um and
so
when you walk with the lord you begin to
get a good understanding of that
and but at the same time you're not
going to abuse your freedom well pastor
stephen if what that what's that what
that means i'm going to walk in the
church with just a little t-shirt with a
little muscle shirt on
you know well okay that's just getting
back in the flesh we don't want to do
that we want to walk in the spirit
but in the spirit you're going to have
more freedom that you ever thought and
it
what will it do it'll make you happy it
will make you happy
happy is he who does not condemn himself
and what he
approves pastor stephen don't eat pork
pork is of the devil personally i i
don't eat pork
um i tried to stay away from
the foods that god told moses don't eat
don't eat them in the sense because
there's a lot of symbolism attached to
the various animals for various reasons
and i can see
biblical typology related in that
but i also understand that many of the
things or actually all the things god
said don't eat
there was also a scientific reason for
that because many of them
are the bottom dwellers you know don't
eat the shellfish
don't eat the thing the creepy crawly so
to speak
well pastor stephen they taste good well
they taste good but they're loaded with
toxins why they're at the bottom of the
food chain
and they're the ones gobbling up all the
goop all the yucky stuff
and so that's that's in them and if you
eat that if they're
you know absorbing all this mercury and
lead and all this other stuff where
you're gonna get that into your system
but but i you know i i had a minister
one time tell me
that it was a sin to eat shrimp because
you know that's
that's biblically not kosher and he said
it's a sin
i said so you're telling me if i eat
shrimp it's it's sinful i said i
i understand under the old testament the
rules and the regulations under the old
covenant
but in the new testament i'm saved not
by
um so much what i do although i want to
do the right thing i'm saved by faith in
christ through his shed blood
and it's not about the seafood diet so
to speak again
i'm aware of healthy food and what's
kosher and what's not and i tried to eat
healthy because
i'd like to live long on the earth but i
also know
that i read the interview of a
uh where was he from i think he was from
japan
and he passed away maybe 10 years ago
but at that time he was the oldest
living man in the world like 118 years
old or something like that he was way up
there
and they said what is your secret
for longevity and he didn't bat an
eyelash
he didn't waste a second he told them
exactly
what he believed his secret of longevity
was
pastor stephen what was it he said white
rice and good
pork now can you believe that here's a
guy
eating pork on a regular basis loves
pork
eaten pork all of his life and he lives
to be 118 years old
and i've seen health fanatics exercising
all the time
eating uh you know super strict diets
and
eating you know uh watching everything
they eat and then you know by the time
of 70 or 72
they're done they're gone
so i think there's more to it than the
food thing and i'm sure many of you
understand that
the bottom line though is it's going to
come down to your faith happy is he who
does not condemn himself
in what he approves and that
really also the context of the chapter
would even have to do with food
praise god now that doesn't mean you go
wild and say i'm going to live off you
know sodas
coca-cola and you know you know twinkies
and stuff like that because again you're
you're making a mistake and
some people with their freedom they get
into trouble thinking i'm free i'm free
well you're not free to be crazy or
stupid you know you're free to walk in
wisdom
and you're free to use your faith in the
fullness of all that
god has made available to you praise god
verse 23 but he who doubts
is condemned if he eats because he does
not eat from faith
now see i would not have taken that
minister and said look
i understand what you're saying about
shrimp it's not kosher
it's a bottom dweller and these are the
this is one of the creatures that crawls
along at the bottom of the sea along
with the lobsters
and eats up all the stuff that has died
and has
sunk to the bottom that's what it is
right you know then you have catfish and
all that other stuff so
so i said i understand what you're
saying i i knew god said don't eat it
because
there's a sense it's not good for you
from the aspect of
that's a creepy crawly thing
and there's also a lot of symbolism
because even
paul referring to what god said about
oxen paul's like come on is god really
concerned about oxen can't you see that
he meant that for the ministers
you know don't don't muzzle the ox while
it's treading out the grain
is god really that concerned with all
these food laws and all of these
other rules and regulations there there
has a lot of spiritual meaning to that
and paul brought a ton of that out
through his writings to the church the
various epistles even the thing with the
ox
no the ox is a symbolism of the
particularly the apostolic ministry that
when the man of god is working or
the apostolic person is working don't
don't muzzle them you know
look if they're ministering to you
spiritually minister to them naturally
be a blessing to them so you see so much
of that
uh through the light of the new
testament because the new testament
is unveiling or revealing the fullness
of everything that was in the old
old covenant so much of the old covenant
was concealed and you can't understand
it until you get the light of what
christ has done
for us praise god but he who doubts is
condemned if he eats
so i wouldn't have said to that minister
look i know that shrimp is okay it's not
good for you but it's okay come here
come eat a plate with a shrimp with me
look i'm going to go out and buy us
right now two shrimp cocktails
a shrimp uh dish for you and for me and
we could dip it in the ring cocktail
sauce and we can both rejoice together
he he never would have gone for that
first of all he was jewish
and he had a lot of that um judaism in
his background so
he wasn't going to eat shrimp uh no
matter how
free it was so to speak or in the sense
that you're free in christ you know
he wasn't going to do that i could tell
him stories of people living the 400.
i don't know any stories like that but i
could if i found some hey so-and-so ate
shrimp lived to be 400. he wasn't he's
still
not going to eat it so and and that's
okay
that's okay but for those who have faith
those who have faith
you can you can enjoy yourself praise
the lord
but he who doubts is condemned if he
eats because he does not eat from faith
so you're going to have to have faith
faith is based upon not just a belief
it's not a belief in like just you know
like some kind of ethereal belief in
something no it's a
faith is belief in god's word and what
god said
so it says because he does not eat from
faith for whatever
is not from faith is sin
now to open this up a little bit i want
to show you a scripture
that to me has always meant a lot to me
uh in regards to this and you can see it
in hebrews chapter 11
hebrews chapter 11
wow praise god i'm still thinking about
obadiah
and elijah two different routes
two different paths both men greatly
fearing god
greatly loving god but yeah they're in
very different
places in life so you have to walk
your journey out in faith praise the
lord
now oh one more example
i um i knew an old minister
he's in heaven now i'll go and tell you
his name uh dr wade taylor
and i was in a meeting one time with
wade taylor
and there were uh there was a drum set
up
and there were uh you know all kinds of
musicians and
we're in a a meeting so the praise and
worship was real loud
and for whatever reason the drummer was
just having a really good time
and wade said to me he said stephen
he said he said you could not have
pulled john fullett into this meeting
with bulldozers you couldn't have gotten
him into this meeting with those drums
up there
you couldn't have gotten him into a
meeting like this to have saved his life
now john phillip
was one of wade's mentors
and john flett passed his mantle on to
uh wade taylor but john fullett was a
mystic saint
and he was like a hermit he never
married he was a bible teacher
and he just prayed all the time and uh
everything was real
uh how can i say almost like tunnel
vision from the perspective of he's a
holy man
would hardly go ever outside wade told
me that he'd that
john fullett did not even know how to
use a screwdriver
[Music]
so do you see what i'm saying he's in a
ver he's in his lane now in his lane
oh he's really good uh and his writings
are still circulating today although
he's been gone a long time
yet his writings and his books are still
you know floating around out there you
can download them on the internet or
some of his teachings and it's deep
stuff and it's really good stuff
but wade said he said stephen you
couldn't have pulled john flett into
this meeting for anything
those drums he would have thought no god
will never move in a meeting like this
well actually god did move in that
meeting we had a good service
you know the drums were a little loud
for me that didn't really
bother me because you know everybody's
having fun we're having a good time
so um and uh you know uh
by the way the holy spirit is not as
fragile as you think yes yes you can
do things that can hinder the anointing
you can do things that would even
break the anointing and then the holy
spirit would lift but at the same time
uh you know it's not like he's real
fragile you know he's just going to
leave
not everything's perfect because i've
i've had to push through
baby screaming and kids acting up and uh
all kinds of weird commotions over on
the side and uh
outside noises and all kinds of weird
things going on and
but i would just keep pushing and
pushing and the holy spirit's right
there and
good ministry is taking place so you
don't just learn these things so
whether you're obadiah standing at the
right hand of a crazy ahab
or whether you're elijah calling fire
down from heaven
you just have to you have to be in your
element or whether you're uh john
phillip
who's just going to be so devoted to
prayer he's praying about 10 hours a day
and uh he's having deep experiences with
god
but yet he you couldn't get him into a
modern church
it just so you know you have to have you
faith for
um yourself and be happy be happy that
if you know some things that others
don't
just you know don't be boastful about it
just keep it to yourself and say praise
god
i'm glad god likes drums now you might
not be able to tell that to somebody
else although i'm sure
john flett has figured that out now in
heaven but you know what
you can be happy knowing that you know
and you're free
praise god you can go maybe after this
service today and
listen to some good praise music with
some real strong drums yes pastor
stephen i'm free
yes you are praise the lord now hebrews
chapter 11
verse 29 by faith they that would be the
israelites led by moses
by faith they passed through the red sea
as by dried land isn't that amazing
uh one of the epic miracles of all times
recorded in scripture
and highlighted here in the hall of
faith uh a hall of fame
of hebrews chapter 11. and it's a
beautiful thing
it was miraculous and it was something
that as they did it they had a
corporate faith or collective faith
through the entire
uh body of god's believers god's people
going through it a whole lot of
symbolism there that they didn't
understand what was happening
but now we understand looking back upon
it that that was a baptism it was
representing baptism
going down into a watery grave coming up
on the other side into newness of life
leaving
egypt uh the sinful world the
the world of sin and sin nature
and rule by pharaoh a type of satan and
going down
into the watery grave coming up and on
the other side into newness of life or
what we would know as
life in christ the salvation experience
so that whole red sea crossing was a
type and shadow of water baptism
by faith they passed through so it was a
faith journey faith experience
they passed through the red sea as by
dry land
whereas get ready for the next part
whereas the egyptians
attempting to do so attempting
attempting they tried it well they did
it let's try it it'll work for us too
uh it doesn't work like that not it not
in the kingdom of god
whereas the egyptians attempting to do
so were
drowned why why did they
why did they drown how come the how come
the israelites did it
and it worked for them and the egyptians
they
they tried it and they were going
through the motions and they drowned
no faith that's why remember chapter 11
is all about those who had
faith and believed god and because of
their
active faith they received miracles they
received deliverance and many other
things
but the egyptians they didn't have faith
and because of unbelief it didn't work
for them
and they all drowned praise the lord
now let me say this this will help some
of you this is very very important
any attempt to do something whether it's
something big
or you know something that that's
important
something that means something to you
any attempt
without faith is sinful
and can even be dangerous
anytime there's sin there's danger
involved
pastor stephen why are you saying that
because of verse 23 of romans let's go
back romans chapter 14 verse 23
but he who doubts is condemned if he
eats because he does not eat from faith
don't try to pull somebody up to your
level of faith if they're not
there yet and just say come on with me
it'll work it'll work for you
but if they can't join their faith with
you or if it's too much of a gap
don't try to pull them into something
they're not ready for they'll
uh it's not going to work for them
i know that you want it to work for them
i know that you see it you get it you
understand it i know it's a revelation
for you
but if it's not for them it's not going
to work so don't try to bring them in on
something that they're
not in faith to do praise the lord
that can be just as simple as wanting to
pray
for somebody for their healing but they
just don't believe god's going to do it
well why waste your time and why go
through all of that when nothing's going
to happen
what you have to do is you have to meet
them at a at a place where their faith
is comfortable and just say hey
look if you don't really believe that
god can heal you
you know through the prayer of faith
which of course is all in scripture but
you know that that's good maybe they
don't know that
just ask them what where you know where
can we meet at
let's find a place of mutual faith that
we can both come into agreement on and
then i'll pray for you
and then we can finally be in faith and
then god will move at your level of
faith
well maybe for them maybe they can't
really believe for a miracle but they
can
believe that god will work through the
doctors oh good okay well let's pray
that let's pray that god will really
anoint the doctors
whether they're saved or not doesn't
matter let's pray that god will anoint
them and he'll work through them and
give them wisdom
and they'll just do a great job on you
and you'll come to the surgery
uh fighting smooth okay pastor stephen i
can agree
with you in that my faith is there for
that okay good well let's pray for that
so don't try to take them somewhere if
their faith is not there because they
you can't go there no more than the
egyptians can go through the red sea
they just flat out didn't believe and if
there's no faith it's not going to work
and i'll tell you something else if
there's no faith and you do it
it's a sin
for whatever now this is verse 23 part b
for whatever
is not from faith is sin and that word
whatever is
very inclusive it covers a lot of stuff
for whatever is not from faith
is sin you know what
if somebody would have told that
egyptian army look i know that you're
going to
go chasing after them and you're going
to run down to that red sea and you
think you're going to catch the egypt
excuse me the israelites you're going to
slaughter them all but what you're about
to do is sin
oh they probably would have laughed and
said get out of the way and would have
cut you with their sword
but you know it was sin it was sinful
for the egyptians to do that why they
didn't have any faith
so it's sinful for anybody to do
something even
especially the believer to do something
if you don't have faith for it
i've done a lot of things and it worked
for me because
i had faith i would never recommend
a believer do some of the things that
i've done on my trips on my journeys
because when i did it i did it in faith
and because i did it in faith
and the lord was with me it worked for
me but if somebody would have been in
there
with me with unbelievable
who pastor steve i'd be like you just
need to stay here don't
you don't need to go any further well
i'm going to get you a ticket back
i'll send you back because this is this
is too much for you
praise god because some things are on
the fly you have to adjust on the fly
and things are that they don't always go
according to plan so there are things
sometimes when you know
you've got to be there then you're going
to um
you know you're not going to do anything
illegal and you're not going to do
anything
wrong but you're going to do what you
need to do to get it accomplished praise
the lord
[Music]
glory to god and that that when you have
faith for it makes you happy
praise the lord makes you happy to know
that god's with you and when you have
faith like that
you can go into places and do things
that others
could just say well i wish i could do
that well you bump your faith up there
and you can
i do think that for many believers
they put too much responsibility on god
and they don't take their own
responsibility to use their own faith
and that's why so many times in
scripture especially like matthew
chapter 9 verse 29
and over and over and over again in his
teachings jesus would say
according to your faith be it done unto
you he said to the blind man
according to your faith uh
jesus didn't say not my faith he said
your faith according to your faith
be it done unto you
so he'll he'll meet you wherever your
faith level is at
that's where he's going to meet you at
it's very important
for whatever is not from faith to sin
you can go a lot of places and do a lot
of things in life
in the lord if you go in faith if you
don't go
if you do not go in faith i would say
don't go at all
because if you're going and it's not in
faith first of all
it's sin and second of all because
there's no faith involved this could end
really bad it ended really bad for the
egyptian army
going rushing into the red sea and it
told you why it
went bad for them they didn't have any
faith well not we know it's a setup from
god
so that the enemies of israel would be
cut off
but uh there there was a reason why it
didn't work for them there's always a
reason why something
doesn't work but my friends when you
walk in faith
and i'm not talking about tempting god
or trying to
you know corner god to get god to do
something for you but i'm just talking
about walking in pure faith where you're
believing god
and this is the next step that's needed
well if that's the next step and that's
what you have to do
then you're going to need to do it in
faith don't do it in
unbelief and fear do it in faith praise
god
now you may have feelings of fear
you may have the sensation of fear
but do it in faith even if those
feelings would be out there praise god
sometimes you just have to push through
it keep on going praise the lord yeah
you can sense
you can sense the the element of
a fear but that don't let it come into
you see it's like the fish
swimming around out there in the ocean
he's swimming in salt water
but that salt doesn't get into him
so you're out there in that world of
difficulties and challenges
and very negative circumstances but
you're just swimming all around
that stuff doesn't have to get into you
you're in it
but you're not of it and it's not
getting on the inside of you either
so you can be obadiah in the crazy court
of ahab
as long as you don't let that stuff get
into you you can navigate through that
is that for everybody uh definitely not
i believe he had a calling for that and
i'm sure he was a very polished man
a very smart man good with numbers good
with money
good with relationships international
relationships and able to conduct
himself very well
uh so that was the path that god had for
him elijah
very different this is a guy running
around uh
you know with these hairy garments and
he's rough he's
rugged you know able to lay down uh next
to a stream
uh bed and just you know drink creek
water
and eat food flown in by some ravens he
he was rough so everybody's got their
their area of specialty but whatever it
is that
that that walk can be a faith walking
don't don't let it throw you if others
don't understand how you do what you do
or why it works for you
but yet maybe they can't come and
emulate it
well it's because god has given you
faith in that area and you need to
realize that
and keep moving forward in it praise the
lord glory to god
and since you do have to move forward
because if you're stagnant
i really believe stagnation is the same
as going backwards
you have to have that forward motion and
since you need to be doing that
you're going to have to do it in faith
so it's very important to keep your
faith built up
and i'm talking about the promises of
god you're meditating on them
you're praying over them and you'll find
that you can do some things that others
can't do they could do it too if they'll
get their faith built up
but i i would also encourage you don't
wait on others because
they may never take it seriously
like you do so you have to keep on going
and be an inspiration to them and maybe
maybe the light will turn on for them
and then they'll see hey he's really
working god's word it's working for him
i think i'll do the same thing but it's
very important that you keep going
forward
do you have faith i know you do
have it to yourself before god
happy is he who does not condemn himself
in what he approves but he who doubts
is condemned if he eats because he does
not eat from faith
for whatever is not from faith is
sin this chapter of romans 14
also it speaks a lot about tolerance
in love not tolerating sin we're not
talking about sin
but we're talking about just these
differences that we all have in
calling in anointing in assignment in
what we do and
where we go and uh the impact we make
and on and on it goes
so recognize your specialty rejoice in
that
and then don't criticize
perhaps if you're an elijah don't
criticize obadiah
just because he's not like you because
he could be doing what god wants
him to do and he was a very godly man
praise the lord i've heard many
theologians say he is the one
that ended up writing the book of
obadiah this is
he ends up being obadiah the prophet
very very interested you never know
what might become of some people i've
seen some people that
you know you just would think well i
don't know if they're ever going to
get it together in a sense where it
clicks for them and then you know two
years later
five years later oh did it ever click
did the light ever come on and they got
it together and their faith
ignite it and the next thing you you
know they're they're up and running and
they're doing wonderful and it's a
beautiful thing
it's a beautiful thing so always try to
pull people up pull people forward in
love and if some are real slow about it
that you just let them be at their place
but you keep moving forward
keep moving forward praise the lord
praise the lord and as i close let me
say this if you're going to do something
do it in faith
go do it in faith well i i don't know
pastor
don't do it don't do it until you're
ready to do it in faith
praise god hallelujah and when you do it
in faith
you can do you could you could step in
to the miraculous
you really can and here's the amazing
thing about it
if if you learn how to do this it's like
riding a bike
you can you can do it again even if you
don't ride the bike for a week you get
back on it you still know how to
write it it's the same thing in this
faith walk you get stronger
and stronger and stronger and see
greater manifestations of the glory of
god
in your life praise the lord
hallelujah let me let me i feel led to
share just a little bit more
prophet kenneth hagin years back he's in
heaven now but years back he told the
story
of when jesus came to him in a vision
and brother hagin had said that he was
he was frustrated in the area of
finances because
other areas of his life were strong but
in the area of finances he was really
struggling
now this was when he was young in
ministry so this is decades ago
well he said the lord came and talked to
him but the lord corrected him
and the lord said you use your faith
you've you used it for healing excuse me
for salvation
and you've used your faith for healing
for your own personal healing and in
praying for
divine healing for others but the lord
said you don't use your faith
at all for finances and that's why
you're having these struggles
and brother hagin said the lord
explained to him
that faith works the same way regardless
of what category
it is in your faith could work for
salvation you receive christ
through faith well you can also use your
faith to receive the baptism in the holy
spirit
and you exercise your faith and you take
it by faith you receive
the baptism in the holy spirit and then
you can also use your faith
for healing for yourself if you're sick
exercise your faith it's in the covenant
and so you believe god for healing and
it can come
so brother hagin said that was a great
revelation
of how you can use your faith on purpose
specifically for
financial increase and for blessing
and i think that something that some of
you need to do right now
is to use your faith specifically for
the lord to help you with your finances
and to use your faith for your harvest
and use your faith for increase
and you'll see that compartment of your
life
get activated and start to bear
beautiful fruit
and those are those are things i learned
as well and then i'll never
forget in the early 2000s uh it really
started in the late 90s
i really began to get a
heart a desire for the supernatural and
so i started developing faith for
uh supernatural encounters uh
divine visitations and visions and
things like that i would read as much as
i could about in the scriptures and i
would read stories of others and
testimonies of others
that it had happened to and i just kept
building my faith and building my faith
and it's something that i stepped into
not accidentally
i stepped into it because i kept
building my faith up and that's an area
that i continue to
not only maintain but continue to build
and expand on
because i want to enjoy all that the
lord
has for me as an individual and i want
to
teach that to others so they can walk in
what god has made available
to them as well i like what the great
prayer intercessor
rhys howells said about using your faith
and he used his a lot now look i know he
was known for
his great intercessory prayer especially
all the praying that he did
for world war ii and the overthrow of
hitler
but a lot of people don't know that this
great man of prayer
this great intercessor he had a
tremendous financial
anointing and he was able to purchase
some of the most beautiful properties in
wales
because he would just pray and he would
use his faith he would flat out
use his faith to believe god to do money
miracles so that he could buy these
incredible properties
for the ministry and so these were
properties where he was
usually up against heavyweight bidders
that had a lot of money
and here he was you know just a prayer
intercessor
but he would he would pray and he would
use his faith and he would trust god for
provision
and he purchased some of the most
exquisite
beautiful uh properties that could be
purchased on the market
all for the glory of god all for the the
use of god's kingdom and it's just
amazing but he called
he called the use of his faith for money
he called it caring liability and he
would talk about
how some christians didn't understand
what it is to actually
carry like liability and what he meant
by that is
he called believing god for these
properties
carrying liability and then you purchase
them
through god's great blessing and
provision and now
now you have to continue to believe god
for the money to
uh you know have the workers to run the
operation and it was just constant
growth all the time
but it worked and it will work for
anybody
that will trust the lord step out in
faith
and again don't expect everybody to
understand or to even understand the
path that you're taking
but you keep moving forward praise the
lord keep moving forward
glory glory to god if you have faith
it'll work for you
father bless your people we thank you
we thank you father god we're going to
be like the israelites they went all the
way through the red sea
they did it by faith the egyptians
endeavoring to do the same thing
it they they all died lord we praise you
we are people of faith right now father
regardless of what is going on in the
economy
the nation in the realm of politics
regardless of what is going on with the
various
negative circumstances around us we stay
in faith
we refuse fear we refuse to
look at circumstances that would say we
cannot
be blessed but we know that we can
follow your covenant keeping god
and you're blessing us right now we give
you praise thank you father
for strengthening your people today to
do great things
and to use their faith to move forward
to the next level in jesus name
amen and amen praise the lord
if you're watching today's program and
you don't know
christ as your lord and savior why don't
you receive him right now
he can give you his eternal life
he can fix your sin situation
wash all your sins away and he can move
you out of the kingdom of darkness
into the kingdom of light right now you
can have your
as we would say red sea crossing moment
right now out of the kingdom of egypt
the kingdom of sin and darkness ruled
over by cruel pharaoh
a symbol of satan and he can take you
out of that kingdom
into his kingdom of freedom and liberty
through christ
pray this after me lord jesus
i am a sinner but jesus you died for
sinners
so jesus right now i give my life to you
and i ask you to wash all of my sins
away jesus give me
your eternal life write my name
in your book of life thank you jesus
from this day forward step into my life
lord lead me and guide me
in all that i do thank you jesus
in your name i pray
amen and amen my friends the lord has
heard that prayer
and he has answered that prayer and he
has saved you and you now belong to him
live for him and watch how good he's
going to be to you
he's going to help you take care of you
but walk close with the lord every
single day
[Music]
praise god let's take holy communion
together
i want to encourage you to grab some
unleavened bread
if you don't have one of these little
wafers you can grab a saltine cracker
or something similar that way we can
take communion together
and grab some grape juice
and let's pray heavenly father we thank
you for the bread and the juice
and we consecrate it that is we set it
apart as holy through this prayer
ask that you would bless it and we thank
you father that this is now the body
and the blood of christ and as we
receive it
we are receiving his body and blood
father thank you for the body of jesus
that as we partake of this bread his
body
we thank you oh god that we received the
living word
father thank you we thank you that our
faith in you will put us over
every single time we choose to stay
in faith hallelujah father
if there would be any doubt help us to
stop and get back in faith and get that
right
lest we try to undertake something with
unbelief
and then end in a place of frustration
or disappointment
father we praise you glory glory glory
thank you father the just shall live by
faith this
is our method of operation the way in
which we live
and we thank you that it's sanctioned by
you thank you father for the body of
jesus we receive his body now with great
thanksgiving
in jesus name amen let's receive
father we thank you that you said in
your word
is he who does not condemn himself
and what he approves father we thank you
for your word to guide us
we thank you for your holy spirit and
the inner witness of guidance as he
lives on the inside of us
father we give you praise meyer may our
lives
be lives that represent love that when
people look at
us they see our love through our
conduct the way we live our lives thank
you father god
may we never ever do anything father god
that would cause another
person to stumble particularly another
brother or sister in the lord
father may we be mindful of that in the
choices that we make and
and in the way that we use this liberty
that we have in christ and the faith
that we have
father we thank you that when we use our
faith it opens the doors
to so many things even the realm of
miracles the realm of blessing
so father help us to use wisdom in the
choices that we make
we thank you father god and father we
thank you that the bottom choice
the bottom line is what it will come
down to an individual
choice because all of our lives have
different
different routes we're all going to
heaven we're all on the straight narrow
path
but you have many different careers many
different paths
as we go along this journey of faith
father we thank you we thank you for a
life that is pleasing to you thank you
for the blood of jesus
hallelujah thank you father god for the
lives of
elijah as well as the contrasting life
of obadiah
the contrasting life of daniel the
contrasting life of john the baptist
father in king's palaces some in places
that maybe
would be considered not the best place
to be for a holy man
maybe they think father a holy man
should be out in the in the judean
wilderness
but father you had them also in royal
courts and even prophets like daniel
in high places oh god we give you praise
may our lives wherever we're at whatever
we're doing may they glorify you
and may we always strengthen our
brethren
our brothers and sisters father we bless
you in jesus name thank you for the
blood of christ
in jesus name amen let's receive
praise the lord hallelujah
one time while in israel my wife and i
realized
we had a half day free and we thought
you know what
if we time this right because i was in
the middle of a conference
this was an off day we we thought well
if we time this right we can probably
get down to bethlehem
and get back and uh you know
we can probably pull this off so we
happened to just grab a taxi
it was a nice taxi and the the driver uh
you know he's he's fluent in hebrew and
arabic so
off we went he was the perfect man for
the job
and as we were driving along and
[Music]
we started talking to him about jesus he
seemed interested not just because you
know
we're paying him you know to drive us
around but he actually seemed interested
and he was an arab man and he said you
know
he said can we pick up my wife so that
she can come with us
he said now remember he's a muslim and
his wife is a muslim
he said all of her life
she has always wanted to see
where the christ was born at i said
absolutely i
i said uh call or whatever you need to
do and we'll swing by
and pick her up he called her while she
was at work
[Laughter]
and said hey we're going to bethlehem
and just get in the car with us the you
know the the
the american couple says they they would
like you to come along
and she immediately told her superiors
uh hey i need i need some time off for
work something wonderful has happened
and i i need to be able to go right now
they said well by all means go do
whatever you need to do
and we picked her up and off we went
uh to bethlehem and that lady was so
excited
she i mean you would you would have
thought we were taking her to the moon
and back or something like that
it was incredible we went went there
and saw the place where our savior was
born
uh what a humbling thing what a
beautiful thing
it so touched that lady we were able to
pray for them
to receive christ and pray blessing over
their life
what a day oh but along the way
as we got to the checkpoint because you
leave not now
let me say like this you're still in
israel but you're leaving the territory
of israel going into palestinian
territory
and you have to have your passport with
you
oh i didn't have my passport well kelly
had hers
they had theirs and god's moving in the
situation
what do i do i said we need to keep
going
and the driver said don't worry it'll be
okay and so we got
to the checkpoint where you're going
into palestinian territory
and uh the guard you know wanted four
passports and he's given three and the
driver says
he doesn't have his but we're just going
to see uh
the site of bethlehem where christ was
born and we're coming right back
and the the guard this he was a senior
official
there you know you have lower guards you
have higher ranking guards he was a
higher ranking guy
he didn't like it he didn't like it that
i didn't have my passport
uh but he said okay go ahead and go and
so the driver said now you will be here
when we come back right because we'll be
back pretty soon he goes yes
i'll be here so we go and i just felt go
for it
and i wouldn't recommend anybody ever do
that so i'm going in there with no
passport
and so we see the place where christ was
born
and uh do a few things while we're there
and we come back and we get back to the
guard station and you've got to have
your passport to get
now you're in like in a sense another
country you've got to have your passport
to get out
and so we pull up and the guard's
not there and so we ask around where is
he well he you know he left or whatever
but we all felt peace like we felt like
the lord's presence so thick and he
popped out he was over at another
place i think he'd gone get some lunch
or something like that he's back
checks everything he says okay you're
good to go because the others didn't
want to let us out they were like hey we
need an explanation what
what's this guy doing here with no
passport how did this happen you know
but before it could kind of get like
kind of you know like really starting to
you know go in a direction that didn't
seem good
he pops back up and he showed up and uh
hey everything's okay i told him he
could do it and all this and so
off we went and we did it and it was
something that was on the spur of the
moment
i've done i've done things like that
when the spirit was moving and the faith
is there i've done all kinds of things
so that a lot of stuff i wouldn't even
talk about it was all
it's all good nothing not breaking any
laws not
doing anything wrong but it's stuff that
no normally you wouldn't do it
but because god was in it i would just
go for it praise god
and it will always work out it reminds
me of the
the jailer that let
paul and silas out of jail uh
and he not only you know because there
was the earthquake and stuff like that
and he thought they all got loose and
he's
he's about ready when he pulled the
sword he's ready to kill himself and
commit suicide because that's
that was the rule if you're the if
you're the jailer and they get loose
uh it's your life for theirs so he
thought they all got out and paul said
oh no we're all here
and he basically put his sword away and
said what do i need to do
to get saved and so paul letting the
christ
and he takes paul and silas out of
prison and
you know attends to their wounds and
he's treating them and everything takes
him to his house
wow i mean and you think well how did he
get away with that i mean
hey they're still prisoners how do you
how we're going to explain all this oh
you just go with it
if the holy spirit's in it you just go
with it and that faith is writing
just go with it that's all i can say now
if it's not there don't do it
but the jailer did it and uh sure enough
next thing you know uh they're all
getting off the hook everything was just
washed out perfectly and everything
ended up but you know
good and no explanation needed
praise the lord praise god these are
learning things this stuff when you
learn this walk of faith you can you can
move in this
and i i feel compassion for the
intellectuals in the body of christ
who everything has to be analyzed
calculated
dissected to to the point now you're
spiritually
uh like you can't move because
everything's got to be run through all
this red tape
and there is a place for that yeah
there's there's a place to have
everything in order
but there's another place where you've
got to go for it because it says in
proverbs
uh where there are no oxen the stall is
clean
well i would rather have some oxen and
let's make a little bit of a mess
because we can clean that up later
now the oxen representing ministers the
oxen
uh you know to be technically correct
the oxen representing the apostolic
ministry
why they pull the heavier load but hey
let's get some apostolic action going on
around in here
and uh you know what uh god will make it
all work out and he does
he does praise the lord but that's part
of the faith journey
and you only know it when you get on
that path
so i would highly encourage you to use
your faith
for more than just salvation
because obviously for most of you that
are watching me you
already have that so you're still here
on the earth
use it for other things that you need as
well
praise the lord and when you go in faith
it'll work praise god father bless your
people
we thank you we give you all of the
praise and the glory
we thank you father that this is the way
your kingdom operates
we give you praise we thank you in jesus
name
amen walk in faith keep that faith
within your heart
and you will be a very happy person