Thursday Night Thirst at Radah Church | Pastor Jeffrey Jasper | 30 April 2026

I'm gonna always remind us of that because many churches have closed. Many churches, uh, many churches, the leader who was running it when we were there is no longer still on the battlefield. They're not, they're not doing the work of the Lord, but Apostle is standing firm. And so we are all here in this place because he, he held on to what God said about the vision and the ministry. That he is to build in this place. Amen. And so let's give, let's give God a praise for him just one more time. I know somebody watching is right now is going to say, well, he's just a man. But see, when you understand that your destiny is tied because we serve a relational God, we are all connected to one another. And so had he abandoned it, we could have all been somewhere else. We would have all been somewhere else. Let's just put it that way. We would have all been somewhere else. And so because of him, uh, because of the ministry of Apostle Wee, God, we give you glory. And then his lovely wife, in her absence, Lady Felicia Woods, Pastor Felicia, Prophetess Felicia. We love you, ma'am. We love you. So full of love is she, and we are thankful for your life. We've all been touched by your love for us. And it, it is not— it doesn't have to be that way. If you've been around for a little while, you know that not every pastor's wife is kind or friendly. You know that not every man of God has your best interest at heart. And so because of the leaders that God has placed here We can truly see the scripture that says that he would give us pastors, he would give us leaders after his own heart. And so God, we acknowledge and we thank you for giving us leaders after your own heart. We thank you. We will not belabor the time tonight. Amen. Is that all right? All right. So Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, I thank you. I thank you for this time. I thank you for this space. I thank you for this opportunity, oh God, to speak to your people. And even though we've just come out of prayer, Father, I come before you to ask, oh God, for you to take my mind and my thoughts and craft them, oh God. Father, that you would give me what to say, when to say, how to say it, oh God. Father, I place myself be behind the cross so that it is none of me and all of you. Father, that our lives will be changed. Father, touch our ears that we may hear that which you are saying unto us. Let each one of us grab our portion and run with it, oh God, that your purpose in the earth may be fulfilled. Father, we lift up Apostle right now where he is, and we pray, Father, that there will be signs, miracles, and wonders in his midst, that you will be with him, oh God. And that the testimonies will come to us, oh God, of how you moved in the midst of the people, and that them people were blessed. Father, we thank you and we bless you in the precious name of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah. We pray with thanksgiving and expectation. Let us declare amen, amen, and amen. Amen. I do not intend to be before you very long. I do not intend to be before you very long. Notice I said I do not intend. Now, if you think that that's 15, 20 minutes, I can't— I'm not even going to try to apologize for that. But I do not intend to be before you very long. Amen. And I'm going to ask that you participate tonight, right? Because when I, you know, I went to school for education, and so when I have people looking back at me and they're giving me that deer in the headlight look, it makes me wonder whether or not I need to keep explaining. So I'm just gonna ask that, um, if you understand that, you say something, that you wave your hand, that you smile, so that I know I don't need to keep talking. Amen. All right, okay, all right. So we partnering in, in this. All right, all right, we're partnering to this. How many of you are ready for the word though? Are you ready for the word? Are you, are you excited? Are you ready to receive the word? Are you excited to receive the word? Because oftentimes we come into the house and we, we are— we— I don't know about you, but the word has been challenging me. And so I have to read, I have to renew my mind. And sometimes I'll be praying, Apostle, this is— you know, you can close your ears to this part. I'll be praying like, can we just get a good— can we just get a good feel-good message? But the messages he be bringing, it be like, get it together. Challenging us and pushing us. Amen. And challenging and pushing is good. So I'm not saying that that's not good, right? It's good. And because of who he is, he wants to see us because he knows us. He knows that if he play patty cake with us, we'll be playing patty cake 2 years from now. So he just done decided that he just gonna push us. In spite of. Amen. All right, now some of what I'm gonna— what some of tonight you have heard before. All right, Aaron's not gonna be much new tonight. Let me grab my phone. I got all my scriptures in my notes, but in case Holy Spirit moves and takes me in a different direction. All right, so Tonight we're going to talk about faith, and we're going to call that Operation Impossible. Say Operation Impossible. When the military— when the military has a, uh, a campaign, when they have an operation, there's usually some fancy name associated with it. Uh, when I was in the military, there was Operation Desert— well, before I joined the military, Operation Desert Storm, when we went into Kuwait, right? And to, to protect Kuwait from Iraq, right? And then under the Bush administration, it was Operation Enduring Freedom, right? And that was the Afghanistan mission. And then it was Operation Iraqi Freedom. You see where I'm going with this, right? So tonight, tonight our mission is Operation Impossible. All right. If you've watched a movie and you've watched the, uh, I think it's Dragnet or Mission Impossible, and you know, they'll— and the agent will get a message and says, if you choose to accept this message, this message will self-destruct. Okay, we've been given a similar challenge tonight. Amen. Agents of Dominion, that's all of you, all of us. Agents of Dominion, we have been given a mission by the ruler of heaven and earth. This mission, shall you choose to accept it, will not self-destruct but shall serve as a beacon of hope to all those whom you encounter as an ambassador of heaven. You should know this objective is not temporary and should be considered perpetual, that is, without end, while on your deployment to the earth. Be advised, the conditions of life on the earth will challenge your success. However, successful completion of this mission will ensure God's will and purpose is manifested in the earth. That's our charge. Question: do you accept? You really don't have a choice because as a child of God, default— your default answer is yes. You've already come into the kingdom. Your default answer is yes. It's defaulted. You don't have no other option to choose. But I'm glad this makes it a lot easier, right, that you have— that you understand that you need to accept. And that way, that should make it a little bit easier tonight. Amen. All right, now as an agent of dominion, we need to understand that as part of Operation Impossible that we need to make a declaration of faith. And this scripture is gonna— and the source of this, of the declaration of faith, is gonna— is going to— is found in Revelation 4 and 11. So if you want to go there, I'll give you a minute. So that you can see it, because we don't have no slides tonight. You know, I'm gonna get with it. Y'all pray for me. Amen. And, and so that I can put the stuff on the slides. I know, but if you just go to your phone, you pull out that Bible app— I hope you got a Bible app— and find Revelation 4:11. Amen. If you got your Bible, that's even better. I love touching the word. There's something about touching the pages. Amen. All right, Revelation 4:11, King James Version, reads like this: Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure— say, for thy pleasure— they are and were created. I'm gonna read that one more time. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Now, just like I had to do in the military, I'm gonna ask that you raise your hand, or maybe raise your hand in your heart. And I want you to repeat this after me. This is our declaration of faith. Amen. I— state your name— hereby acknowledge that God, the supreme ruler of all creation, of both the seen and unseen, created all things for his pleasure. This includes me. As one created in his image and likeness, I understand it is my sole purpose to ensure my life brings glory to him who is the creator of all things. That is our declaration. Revelation 4:11 tells us that all things were created for his pleasure. It was created for his pleasure. So I got a couple of questions. Do you desire to please God? I'm seeing, I'm seeing nods, and I've heard some declarations. Okay, if yes, what do you think it takes to please him? I heard obedience. I like that. Submission. Okay, obedience, submission, loyalty. Okay, honor. Okay, Minister Sharia just going in. Faith. Okay, to do his will. Okay, all of those are good answers. I'm gonna ask you to go to Hebrews 11:6. And then we gonna jump in. Amen. All of this is just setting us up for where we going. Hebrews 11:6. All right, so I'm gonna read it. Hebrews 11:6 reads, but without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. But without— what is it— faith, it is impossible to please him. So when we ask the question When the question is asked of us, what does it take to please him? The answer is faith. Faith becomes it. Faith is the foundation upon which everything else is built. And we're going to look at faith. And I, I, you know, I, I sat and I wondered when God was giving— I said, Apostle done taught faith. I said, he done taught it. But this is what you're giving me, Lord. We're going to come back. Maybe we need to be reminded. So we're going to look at the definition of faith. The definition of faith can be found just a few verses above that in Hebrews 11:1. We were at Hebrews 11:6, and you all probably already know Hebrews 11:1 that says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. This is the definition of faith, and we gonna break down some of these words so that we can really see what faith really is. Because sometimes we, we quote Hebrews 11:1 without fully understanding the depth of what we're being called to. Amen. So, so faith— the word faith, we're going to break down Hebrews 11:1, some of the words. So pistis is faith in, in the, in the, in the Greek, and the— and pistis The definition is a persuasion in or conviction of moral truth, a firm belief in the truthfulness of God or religious truth. That's just faith by itself. Faith, the construct of faith is a persuasion in or conviction. Have you ever been convicted with about something? I mean, just, and I'm not talking about convicted for doing wrong, but just you just have a conviction where you're unmovable, you're unshaken. Nobody could move you off of whatever that thing is, right? No one could come and tell you, you know who your parents are. Nobody could come up to you and say, well, I'm your mama, I'm your dad. You'd be like, uh-uh, because this I'm persuaded in this. I know who I know this. I don't care what you saying, I know this. That's the construct upon faith. Then we've got hypostasis. Hypostasis is the word for substance. Substance here is a setting or placing under— watch this— a substructure, a foundation, the steadfastness of mind, firmness. Watch this: courage, resolution, confidence, firm trust. And here's the word I like: assurance. Hupostasis is the word for substance. Amen. Then we've got elpidzo. Say elpidzo. This is hoped for, from a word that originally means to expect or confide, but elpidzo means to hope and hopefully trust in. Do you see where this is going? Okay. And then there's elinkos. Elinkos is evidence, proof, that by which a thing is proved or tested. Here's another— here's that word again— conviction. Do you see how these main words, faith, substance, hope for, and evidence all tie in together. They all have similar meanings. So when we just stop at pistis and say a persuasion or conviction of moral truth, while that is faith, the construct of faith is so much deeper and unmovable and unshaking. Only by faith can you be like a tree that's planted by the water and unmovable. That is faith. That's— that is a, a visual image of what faith looks like. It's being completely unmovable, relying and trusting and assurance in God's ability to do what he said he would do. All right, all right. Now remember, I gave you the definition of faith, right? The definition of faith is Hebrews 11:1, right? All right, now we're going to unlock Hebrews 11:1 using these definitions. Are you ready? Listen to the definition. Now, the persuasion in or conviction of moral truth, a firm belief in the truthfulness of God or religious truth, is the substructure or foundation, steadfastness of mind, firmness, courage, resolution, confidence, and assurance of things expected and hopefully trusted in, and the proof by which a thing is proved or tested of things not seen. That is Hebrews 11:1. So now when we say we want to please God, how many of us can— how many of us can be truthful with ourselves and say we have this, that we have this? Because this is faith. How many of us have that unwavering, unmoving? How many of us have that? And I would wager if we were honest with ourselves, we don't. We don't. And because we don't, it's impossible to please him. Because that's the, that's the, that's the kind of faith that pleases him. We have to have the persuasion in or conviction of moral truth. A firm belief in the truthfulness of God or religious truth is the substructure of or foundation, steadfastness of mind, firmness, courage, resolution, confidence, and assurance of things expected and hopefully trusted in, and the proof by which a thing is proved or tested of things not seen. That's what we have to have. If we don't have that, I don't know what you want to call it, but it ain't faith. We gonna call that some timiness, as my grandmother would say. You so some timey. 'Cause that's what that is. You know, it's some timey. It's not faith though, right? Hebrews 11:6 didn't say, well, you can be some timey and please God. It says, without faith, it is impossible to please him. So we have to understand that as agents of dominion, who are here on a deployment from heaven into the earth, that in order to hear, "Well done, thy good and faithful servant," this is the level of faith we have to have. Without this level of faith, we will not be successful and God will not be pleased. We oftentimes lean to, "Well, God knows my heart." God knows that the heart of man is desperately wicked. That's what he knows. He's telling us what it takes to please him. When Jesus was baptized, when Jesus was baptized, there was a voice that came from heaven that said, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.' If we want to hear well done This is the type of faith that we're gonna have to have. It doesn't do— it doesn't— it's not gonna be enough to have a quote-unquote belief. We have to be convicted. We have to be unmovable. We have to be— we have to be courageous. We have to be confident. We have to be— we have to know that God cannot lie. We have to know that. Well, maybe, maybe, you know, maybe God just— maybe God just didn't mean for me to have it. That's not God. The blessings of the Lord are yay and amen. We have to be unshakable and unmoving. We have to understand that by having faith, that doesn't mean that life is not going to come and throw some punches. Life is going to be lifing, but that doesn't mean that our faith should waver. He's the same God today, yesterday, and forevermore, and he changes not. So the same God that stepped into nothingness and said, let there be light, the same God that rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah is the same God that is calling us to a place of faith today. So now that we know what faith is, maybe we need to look at what the opposite of faith is. We're gonna still be in Hebrews. Amen. If you are taking notes or you want to run along with me, that's Hebrews 3:12 is where we're going next. This is the opposite of faith. And here in Hebrews 3:12, it says, take heed, brethren. This is a warning. Somebody say a warning. Take heed, brethren. Lest there be any— lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. You follow that? Do you catch that? And a heart that is un— that is unbelieving, a heart that does not possess the type of faith that we talked about. God considers it an evil heart. Don't come for me, I didn't write it. And the word for unbelief here is apistia. Apistia is unbelief. Here's the— here's what apistia means. Unfaithfulness, faithless, want of faith, unbelief, weakness of faith. That's unbelief. That's the total opposite of what we read in Hebrews 11:1. Now, you and I might not want to say that You know, oh, I have an evil heart of unbelief. But Hebrews 3:12 says if we don't have faith, if we have unbelief, which is the opposite of faith, then our heart is evil. We also take from Hebrews 3:12 that, that means that there's a reason why they were warned. Says, take heed. If this had been written in the, in, in the synoptic gospels, we would see, whoa, be mindful. In the Old Testament, we would see scriptures like, be vigilant. Lest there would be found in any of us an evil heart of unbelief. If you go down to the next scripture, it tells them that they're supposed to encourage one another, that they're supposed basically be accountable one to another. So that means that our faith, our corporate faith, is not up to us individually but up to us corporately. That means that when we hear and we see our brother or sister beginning to lean a bit, we should be coming to prop them up and say no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, whatever's going on you got to be convicted. You gotta be convicted. You gotta have a conviction. You gotta have an assurance that God can't lie. How is it that we would say that God— no one here would refute Genesis 1, that in the beginning God created the heavens and earth. Nobody would refute that, right? So how is it that we would refute that God somehow in the New Testament erred with Malachi 3 that you need to bring all the tithes and offering into the storehouse, that somehow or another he didn't mean that. Jesus did not overturn that. I don't care who saying what they saying. Oh well, that was— Jesus told the— Jesus told the Pharisees, he said, you give tithe of the cumin and the herbs. This you should have done. If that had been a time for him to overturn the tithe, he would have overturned it then. He didn't. He also told them that he did not come to do away with the law, but he came to fulfill it. So where is it that we get off that somehow or another God didn't mean that part? Where is it that we would somehow again not refute that in the beginning God created, but somehow another feels like Well, God didn't really mean that I needed to have like a whole lot of faith, you know, because we love our excuses, right? Well, he said if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed— now let's talk about that real quick because we can't talk about faith without talking about that mustard seed. I have seen a mustard seed, and a mustard seed is extremely tiny, like a grain of salt. It's small. But Jesus says, if you have the faith that size, you could speak to the mountain and tell it to be cast into the sea. Again, this small, right? What type of faith? The type of faith that we had up here. The persuasion in or conviction of moral truth, a firm belief in the truthfulness of God or religious truth, that the substance or foundation, steadfastness of mind, firmness, courage, resolution, confidence, and assurance of things expected and hopefully trust in, and the proof by which a thing is proved or tested of things not seen. That's the type of mustard seed faith we have to have. If we have this kind of faith in Hebrews 11:1, just this much, we could speak to the mountain. But we see in the Bible, in the apostles, in the life of the apostles, when they're walking with Jesus, what does Jesus say often? Oh ye of little faith. So if a mustard seed is this small And you have little faith. Well, that's practically none at all. I mean, it's already, you know, tiny. It's already tiny. So you, you didn't have none. So we're being called to this. Now you're saying, well, I understand that and everything. And here's the reason why I believe that God gave us this for tonight, because it's going to require this level of faith to believe that we're going— that we are going to pay off, that we are going to build It's gonna take that kind of faith. It's gonna take that kind of faith to believe that God is going to prosper our businesses, that he's going to fill our bank account and our coffers. It's gonna take this level of— we can't do that being some time in today, out tomorrow. I got a headache today, so I'm not really believing God. I got a backache tomorrow, so I, you know, and you know what, and the next 2 weeks don't look too good either. We can't do that. And accomplish that which God is placing before us, it's going to require this level of faith. Nowhere in here did it say it was easy. You just have to be determined. We have to be determined that I will not be moved. If he said it, that settles it. Some people say, if he said it, I believe it. Whether— if he said it, it don't really require your belief. Well, if he said it, I believe it, and that settles it. It don't require that. God wouldn't be God if it required a partnership of us for him, for what he says to come to pass. He said it, it's coming to pass with or without you. In your lifetime or after it, because he said it. So it don't require us nothing that we do. The only thing that we do as agents of dominion is say, okay, God, if that's what you said, then I have no choice but to believe it. I'm determined to believe it because you said it. Okay. We running right along. Let's talk about the condition of life of unbelief. And this is John— James, excuse me. The condition of life of unbelief can be found in James 1, verses 6 through 8. I'm gonna say that again, James 1:6-8, and I'm gonna go ahead and read, right? And it says But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. Didn't we just talk about that? Nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For he that wavereth I think that's a pretty interesting, uh, visual there, that it's— that the verse starts off with nothing wavering and then says, for he that wavereth, and then gives an allusion to the sea. Because the ocean, big bodies of water, are never still on their own. They're never still. But James goes further to say, driven with the wind and tossed. That's a storm on the sea. Somebody who wavers, we all know him. We all know folks in today, out tomorrow, in tomorrow and planning to be out the next day. We all know folk. We all know folk that sound real good today and later today, because life was lifin', you like, well, wait a minute, wasn't you the one praying down the walls the other day and you had a word for everybody? How is it that today— and not T-O-D-A-Y, T-A-D-A-Y, today. How is it today? How is that wavering? Let's go a little bit further. That was verse 6. Verse 7 says, for let not that man— what man? The man that wavereth. Okay, for, for let not the man that wavereth think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. Notice here, this just said wavering. And because we only have two options— you're either gonna— we're either walking in faith or we're walking in unbelief. There is no middle ground. There are no 50 shades of gray. We're either in or we are out. Then that means that in— if we choose unbelief We can expect nothing from God. You want to come and you, you, you want to come and you want to lay down at the altar and you want to snort and snot and you want to, you want to fast, you want to go on a 7-day fast. If you have unbelief in your heart, you are not going to receive anything. I ain't say it. James wrote that. Let's go a little bit further to verse 8, and it says, a double-minded man is unstable in some of them, a few of them, mostly all, all of them. So a wavering person— now watch this. Let me use your imaginations. We're on the boat. Thank you, Holy Spirit. Let's go to when Jesus had them on the boat. Jesus said, I'm gonna go across and y'all come on. And a storm hits them. These are experienced fishermen, and a storm comes. They had a couple of storms on the water, didn't they? But on this one, the boat was being tossed. Huh? This is wavering. Are we with me? This is wavering. God said, let this man not expect to get anything. In today, clock out by 3. On fire tomorrow, out by lunchtime. Let that man not think that he would receive anything. Because God needs us to be in or out. And I'm going to tell you, as agents of dominion, we need to renew our minds. We need to renew our minds because I'm going to tell you, it is a dangerous thing to connect with a ministry that God is pushing, that God is propelling, and, and, and one of us would decide to be dead weight. That is a dangerous thing. So let us not be unwavering. The man with— the man who had a demoniac son that was throwing— his son was throwing himself in the water and in the fire. The disciples tried to cast him out. It didn't work. Jesus came and said, do you believe? He asked the father, do you believe? And the man says, you know, basically gives excuses. Well, he's been doing this, but he comes to a place that I love. And he says to Jesus, he says— I'm paraphrasing— I want to believe, help my unbelief. I believe. Sometimes life has a way of showing up that challenges what you believe. Life has a way of bringing you to your knees and causing you to take stock and what it is that you're standing for, what you're doing. Life has a way of saying, is it worth it? And in those moments, Father, I believe, but I realize I don't have the— I don't have that faith that you mentioned in Hebrews 11:1. Help. My unbelief. Jesus delivered the boy, and for all we know, everything was fine after that. But we've got to be determined, convicted, unshakable, unmoving in what it is that we believe. We have to believe that if, if we get a word that says your businesses are going to prosper We have to be, because except we come like a child, we cannot inherit the kingdom. Children, if they love you and they believe you, children will ask every day, are we going today? Is today the day? Oh, today's not Friday? Okay, well, when is Friday? Okay, Friday's 4 days from now. Okay. Friday morning, now between Monday and Friday, you gonna get a question, "Is today Friday?" You gonna answer that question all the way to Friday. Then when you get to Friday, you gonna have to answer, "Well, but you said today is Friday." At 5 o'clock in the morning. "But you said today is Friday." "Well, not yet." "Well, when?" Because children trust what you say. Children just have the type of faith that if Mommy, Daddy, Aunt, Uncle say that this is what's going to— this is what's going to happen, they take that thing to the bank. And that's the type of faith that we're being called to. The type of faith that says your businesses are going to prosper. Okay, well, God, well, I need to partner with you. So what we doing today? Okay, I'm gonna go and sit in front of the computer and you just show me where I need to go and what I need to do. God is not going to just come down and all of a sudden you're gonna wake up. I wish. I wish I would be one of those folks where the bank made an error. I wish I was one of the folk that the bank made an error. Oh my Lord, won't he do it? That would be me. But that's not going to happen. And so therefore, we have to be ready to do the work to bring it to pass. He said it, so now we gotta partner with it. Now we gotta be convicted of it before— during prayer. So I'm speaking to everybody that's got businesses, and then in the, in, in the physical, in the natural, it would be said that it's impossible You can't, you can't start a business today and have millions today or tomorrow. That's what the natural says. But Holy Spirit, during prayer today, reminded me about the widow woman. And Apostle just talked about her not too long ago. The widow woman who the creditors were coming for her sons, she went to the prophet Elisha and said, they coming for my sons and you know my, my husband served you. And he said to her, what do you have? And she said, I got some oil. If we just Dug a little underneath the surface. She was saying, all I got is the anointing. Some of us don't have a whole lot of money, but we're anointed, we're anointed. The oil rests on us, the oil rests on the Apostle and it's flowing down. So maybe all you have is oil. He told her, go borrow some containers. And just pour until all your containers are full. Sell the oil and pay off your debts and live off the rest. Now, the Bible don't say how long it took her to sell all them vessels. We don't know how many vessels she had. We have no idea what that was, but we could say that in a moment, in a twinkling, She had a million-dollar business because he told her to sell it and live off the rest. The business was going to do so good that she was going to be able to live off the rest of it. So is it possible? It's possible. So be encouraged, for those of you here in the room, in the sanctuary, and those of you who are watching online, if God said it You know, when we were children, you know, we didn't want to be dared. I double dog dare you, triple dog dare you. Nobody wanted to be dared, but I dare you to trust him that that which he said is coming to pass. That report that you received that is unfavorable keeping you awake at night. Believe that the miracle-working, way-making God is going to change it. Believe it despite what comes. Believe it. Amen. All right, so all of that talking, I'm running to a close. Hebrews 11:6: But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Adonatos, which is impossible, means without strength, impotent, powerless, weakly, disabled, unable to be done. So for everybody who says that, well, I can, I can probably please him just a little bit. This says it's, it's that when it says impossible, it's unable to be done. It's without strength. And to please is euresto, and it's from a word that means to gratify entirely. Imagine you ever had a taste for something And maybe it's in the house, maybe it's not. But let's say it's not in the house. And you, I mean, you could taste it. And maybe you are like me and say, "I don't really want to go out." So I find something in the house to eat instead. And then I'm like, "But that just didn't do it." So then I go out and go get the thing. And then come back and it's like, yeah, this was it, this was it. That's to be gratified. So when Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it's impossible to please him, that's the type of pleasure. He who has everything, he who has created everything, requires our faith to be pleased. And aresto— euresto means to be acceptable, fully agreeable, or well-pleasing. Here we go. Here's some non-negotiable truths, and I'm running to a close. Faith is a non-negotiable aspect of our relationship with him. You and I have to settle that in our minds. Faith is non-negotiable. Not the sun-timey faith, not the fair-weather faith, not the faith when everything is going good. We gotta have the type of faith that we, that we broke down in Hebrews 11:1. We gotta have that kind of faith, and that kind of faith is non-negotiable. We have to settle that. Faith must be the default setting. Amen. It must be. It can't be sometimes, can't be when I feel good, can't be when everything is going good. It's got to be the default setting. When you and I wake up in the morning, faith has to be in action. All day, every day. Faith is the vehicle by which, by which we receive from the Lord. James 1:7. Jesus even says that when you, when you pray, believe that ye have received already. James said when you ask of God Nothing wavering. Let, let's ask in faith with nothing wavering. Faith requires difficult situations and uncertain outcomes that God may be glorified. John 11:4. John 11:4 is where Lazarus— Jesus receives the word that Lazarus is sick. And the disciples like, oh, we should go, we should go, we should go. And Jesus is like, yeah, well, this is not unto death. This is that the Father may be glorified. Some of the things that you and I and that we go through, we go through them that God may be glorified. It's impossible to tell somebody that God is a healer if you or no one that you know has never been sick. It's impossible to tell somebody that Jesus or that God is, is a provider if you've never been in a period of lack. It's impossible to tell somebody that God will keep your mind stayed on perfect peace if you trust in him, if you've never had chaotic situations. You can never say that God is a good shepherd that will cause you to be— to, to be, uh, he will take you into green pastures and lead you beside still waters if you've never been in dry places. We gotta have those situations in order to be able to tell people God can do it, but it's gonna require the type of unmovable, unshaking, assuring faith in order to do it. We often complain because we're like, well, I don't know why I had to go through this. You're going through it that the glory of God may be revealed. That's why you're going through it. The devil will come to you, and as he will come to any of us, and say, well, if you're really saved, you shouldn't be going through this. We're going through it that the glory of God may be revealed. We're going through it because faith— remember, that thing that requires— it's, it's, it's a requirement for God to be pleased. That requires difficult situations. It requires uncertain outcomes. It requires it. We— none of us were there when God created the heavens and earth. We were not there. We were not among the angelic hosts presently, right now. In the spirit, we were, but presently, we were not there. To witness it with our own two eyes. And yet we look around and we see the earth, we see the sun rise and set, we see this— the moon rise and set. So we just assume that, well, okay, well, the fact that I exist and the fact that the earth is here, then God did something. We see the animals that God created. Okay, well Everything else has to be seen with that same level of determination and conviction. I'm going through what I'm going through that the glory of God may be revealed. If we never go through anything, we will never exercise our faith, because why? Faith requires difficult situations and uncertain outcomes. Here's our major takeaway, and I'm closing. If the situation or condition does not require confidence in God, it's not faith. If you can see your way out of the situation, you— we not operating in faith. If you know that a check is coming in the mail on the 1st and the 15th every month Well, I'm just believing God that my money gonna come. It comes on the 1st and 15th of every month. That ain't faith. You, you can depend on that. You can see that. That's not faith. But when you can't find your way out of it, when you can't see it, when you don't know what you're going to do, when you don't have a solution, when everything you've tried and it didn't work when you've called the people that you can depend on and they're like, I can't, I don't know, I don't have it. Now you and I have entered into a place of faith. Now we have entered into a place where now we can exercise the type of faith that we outlined in Hebrews 11:1. And sometimes God will take us through situations And he will let us have what we used to say in the military, a cush position. When we had cush positions in the military, these were easy positions. These positions didn't keep you up late at night. You didn't have to worry about being woken up in the middle of the night. You weren't going to get called out in the middle of the night. These were office jobs. I mean, these were— these, these positions, people wanted them. And sometimes God will allow us to enter into that kind of season where everything is fine. You can say, okay, yeah, I'm gonna do that right there. And you say, okay, because I, you know, I know my situation and I can pull a little from over here and put it over here and I can put that back and I can do this and I can do that. Yeah, I got you. And we get used to that. And then the situation will show up where God says, okay, now let's see what you've learned. Now let's see what you've learned. And that's our time to shine. Anybody can serve God and say they got faith when everything is good, when the cabinets are full and the refrigerator is full and you can eat whatever you want to eat and the bills are paid. Anybody can serve God then. Will you serve him when you don't know how you're gonna pay your light bill? Can you serve him when you're like, I got only a handful of dollars and I need to go to the church and I barely got enough gas? Can you serve him then? Can you trust and believe that he is going to get you to where you need to be and back home? That's where we're being called to, because again, the only way that we're going to move and build, it's going to require— it is going to require— I'm going to read this definition into your hearing one more time. Hebrews 11:1, the definition— excuse me, the definition of faith unlocked. Now, the persuasion in, or conviction of moral truth, a firm belief in the truthfulness of God or religious truth, is the substructure or foundation, steadfastness of mind, firmness, courage, resolution, confidence, and assurance of things expected and hopefully trusted. And the proof By which a thing is proved or tested of things not seen. That is where we're being pulled to. That is what Apostle is pulling us to. That's the type of faith, that type of faith. This type of faith doesn't say I can't. This type of faith doesn't say I'm weak. This type of faith doesn't say I'm unable. This type of faith goes on the word of God that cannot return unto him void, but must accomplish that which he set it out to do, and say I can do all things through Christ. Who strengthens me. This type of faith says, okay, let me find a scripture. When life is lifin', when life is lifin', instead of wavering, I stand firm on Romans 8:28. For we know all things work together for the good of them who