Rico Sharp Live Stream

A part of your life, in your circle, did not have faith or did not use their faith or doesn't have faith in God, shall their lack of faith in God cause for your faith in God to become ineffective?

Amen.

Selah.

Amen.

The word Selah means think on what I just said. See, one level of spiritual warfare that a lot of us experience is having people in our circles, whether they are loved ones, spouses, siblings, parents, children, friends, associates, co-employees, whoever they are, that does not practice faith in God.

Amen.

And when you have people in your circle that could be good people, morally good people, But yet are lacking in the area of faith. It generates a warfare toward your faith, and it causes for you to go into an area of spiritual warfare. This verse is a very important verse.

Uh-huh.

I'm going to read it one more time. What if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect or ineffective? See, those of you who are married to people who are believers or have a circle of believers, you ought to praise God that that's your circumstance, that that's your situation, because not everyone has that.

That's right.

Some of you work for employers that are unbelievers. You know how that can be because they don't care about your values and your morals and your standards and your characters and your conduct as it relates to the Bible.

Right.

But when you have an employer that is a believer, they understand that you need to be in church on Wednesday night and Sunday. They understand that you need to practice certain things. They understand that you live by a certain code of conduct, and that is the conduct of the word of God. When your next-door neighbors are non-Christians and they like to party all night long and play music and Have cars parked all in front of your house. Oh my God. That puts you into a whirlwind of having to choose constantly what your actions are going to be, and it brings into question certain things that are important to the elements of your faith. If you're in a position to choose your circle, choose it wisely. Choose it faithfully. God forbid, verse four says. Let God be true. but every man a liar.

My God.

Here's why: that thou might be justified in thy sayings and might overcome when thou art judged. So as we prepare to take our seat, don't sit down yet, but let me, let me put this in front of you. Verse 4 says, let God be true and every man a liar.

Yes.

And so the question is, what does that mean? What is God saying? Well, here's the answer. When you are centered around people who does not necessarily believe or have faith in God, believes the Word, and in this case it could be Christians that may not necessarily believe what you believe or believe as you believe, because not all Christians have faith on the same level. Some are here, some are there, some are here, some are there.

Amen.

It's not a criticism, it's an observation. It's a reality. It's a fact. Sometimes you are around people who may not necessarily believe what you believe or have the level of faith that you have, and they may speak contrary to what you believe or contrary to the voice of your faith or contrary to the Word of God. And God says when it— when that happens, consider in your heart that as much respect as I have for you as my friend, my family member, my spouse, my child, my parent, my cousins, my church members, brother in Christ, sister in Christ, when it comes down to the Word of God, I will esteem God's word over your word. And if, if, if the, if the voices that I'm receiving in my life, either your voice and God's voice, has to be judged and one of them has to be evicted out of my life, I'm going to evict your voice out over God's voice. Amen. I'm going to choose God's word over your word.

Amen.

God's word cannot lie. We as people, we can lie. God's word can never get it wrong. We as people, we can get it wrong. God's word is without mistakes or flaws. It is infallible, without error. We as people, we make mistakes, we get it wrong, we are fallible. which means subject to errors. Let God be true, and every man who contests or opposes or challenges the Word of God, let them be considered as a liar. That's what God said. And, and, and why does God say that? Because Your outcome depends on both who you believe and what you believe.

Amen.

Bow your heads. Father, I pray today that you open our eyes of understanding that we may see the things of the Spirit more so concerning faith. I thank you that there is a wisdom that resides in this house. There's a spirit of grace. There's a spirit of revelation. I thank you because faith is going to be brought to life to us in this church today. We decree it to be so. We are still, Father, in our faith conference, and we are going to be inspired today as we have never been inspired. We're going to be challenged today to what we believe. We're going to be encouraged today in the area of our faith. And I thank you because of faith promotion, a faith revival.

Amen.

Is here today in the name of Jesus. Amen. Take your seats. Here's what our subject is today: When Faith Matters to You.

Amen.

That's our subject: When Faith Matters to You. Now, um, it's good to be back in the house of the Lord amongst my family.

Amen.

Being out preaching for 2 weeks seems like it's been a month. But I want to stir up your faith today. So you're going to need pen and paper. I'm going to put out some real points, points that deals with your reality. Amen.

Amen.

When faith matters to you, building or developing it is no longer an option. When faith matters to you, building or developing your faith is no longer an option. Why did I say that? Because to many Christians, Even some in our church, building and developing faith is more or less an option. Now, there is a community of options that exist within the things to do in the faith community or in the Christian community. There are a whole bunch of things that you don't necessarily have to do, but you can still maintain your salvation. You can still go to heaven.

Amen.

There are a whole lot of things that God has put out there that you can either embrace or not embrace, and you can still be saved. For an example, joy is made available, and joy is one of those things that you don't just have automatically. There are some things you have to do. There are some changes in your life you have to make in order to have joy, but you can still go to heaven without having joy. You just have to battle with sadness and depression and being unhappy and being unjoyful or non-joyful. Peace is another one of those things. A person could go to heaven without having peace. You know that, right?

Right.

But if you receive it, if you embrace it, like joy, it makes you so much more of a vitalized Christian. Faith is not one of those things.

That's right.

Patience is one of those things that God has made available that you can embrace or you can choose not to embrace. If you embrace it, it works a certain level of perfection and spiritual maturity in your life. If you choose not to embrace it, well, you go through life without having the fruit of patience manifesting.

Amen.

All right. All right, man.

Teach. Teach.

Faith is like love, which is why the Bible says faith worketh by love. There are 2 components that God has made available and He has made essential, which means He's made it necessary. It has its place in your life. It is necessary. It is needed in your life. And He has made it imperative. which means it is extremely important.

Okay.

And so when you begin to evaluate the functionality of faith and then the productivity of faith, you have to come to a place where you recognize this is not one of those luxuries. This is not one of those things that I can choose to have or not choose to have and still make it to my destiny. Now, you can't go to heaven without faith. Did you know that?

Say it.

Because the Bible says in John 3:16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. And then Romans 10:9-10 tells us that if we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And then Ephesians 3 tells us that by faith, or through grace by faith, are we saved. So faith gets us to heaven. Faith is one of those things, one of those items on the list that you have to have. That's right.

Amen.

Not only to get to heaven, but to get the things that God has prepared for you in this world. And so one of the reasons why it's necessary that we continue to hear on faith, and it's important that I continue to teach on faith throughout the history of your Christian life, is because it is not possible to have too much of it.

Amen.

But it is possible to not have enough. But living as spiritual beings in a physical world or natural world, sometimes we focus more on the physical than we do on the spiritual. And, and one of the things that is safe to say is that sometimes we focus more on money than we do on faith. Sometimes we focus more on income than we do on faith. And here's the thing, money can't get you faith, but faith can get you money. So the question is, which one has more significance? Money can't get you faith, but faith can get you money. Money cannot produce faith, but faith can produce money.

Come on now. Amen.

If you were to have a breakdown chart that God used to help you to both evaluate and identify how much of your thought life is geared toward finances, then you would find that there would be more of your thought life focused on finances than there is that's focused on faith. And yet The truth is faith can produce money, but money cannot produce faith. So the importance of the two is that one can produce the other, the other can't produce the one. Or faith can produce money, which makes faith more relevant and more important than money.

Amen.

Are you with me?

Yes.

When faith matters to you, developing it, growing it, building it, maturing it is no longer just an option. Some of you sitting here right now, you're hearing me with your head, which means you're listening to what I'm saying.

Preacher.

But you're not connected with your heart, which means you're thinking about it as I'm talking about it versus receiving it as I talk about it. And the difference is that you'll walk out of here when it's in your head and you'll remember it for a certain portion of time, certain length of time, But then you'll forget about it and you'll resume your normal scheduled thought life.

Right.

But when it's in your heart, when you walk out of here, then you will begin to reevaluate your thought life and every other aspect of your life to make sure that faith has become the prime component of your daily existence.

That's good.

Because the thing about money versus faith is that money fluctuates too much. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't. Sometimes it comes in consistently, other times it hits and misses. It skips sometimes. It's not always flowing like you want it to flow. which is what currency means, to have a certain flow, to generate. It's not always flowing like that, but faith constantly flows. Faith constantly comes in. Faith is like time. It never ceases to operate.

Amen.

But money has a cease to it or a cessation to it. You can have a job this week and be unemployed next week. So where money runs out, faith runs on.

Yes, it does.

Thank you, Lord. So you ask yourself, which one is more of an advantage to my life? Okay, let's move on. If faith is not in your heart, then it's only because it's not your treasure. If we don't value faith, then faith will not be one of those items that lives on the inside of our heart. Are you hearing me so far?

Yes.

How many of you know That you have a value on faith? You know that you do.

Yes.

Okay, see, not every hand went up. Not every hand went up because some of you are still thinking and considering. You may feel like you have a value on faith, but then you ask yourself, prove it to yourself that you have a value on faith. How can you prove to yourself? That you have a value on faith. Your value on faith is not determined by just coming to church, people. Your value on faith is like a muscle. It's something that you exercise regularly. If you're not exercising it regularly, then it is because there's a lack of value. How many of you exercise eating regularly? That's because you have a value on eating. You value food. You value drinking water, juice, soda pops, what have you. Anything that you have a value on, you do it frequently.

That's right.

That's right. How many of you like to dress nice? You have a value on that. Therefore, it is something that you do. When you walk out of the house, you want to, you want to look represented, right?

Amen.

How many of you have a value on education? How many of you like to read? It is something that you do. It is a value in your life. Watching movies, going out to certain places where you enjoy recreation, exercising your physical health, things that you have a value on. you do regularly. If faith is one of those things that you have a value on, then you do it regularly. You exercise it regularly. You build it regularly. You practice using it regularly. If you're not using it regularly, it's because it is a luxury. It is an option.

Amen.

And it's not mandatory. Let's evaluate this a little further. Go to Matthew chapter 6. Matthew 6:19, verses 21. And let me just say this, people who don't value— people who don't value faith suffers unnecessarily.

Amen.

And generally ends up looking for man to take care of them versus God.

My God.

Matthew 6. 19 through 21. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Here it is. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Amen.

So many of us as Christians have treasures, and all of us have treasures, but many of us as Christians have treasures that are not necessarily suggested by the Bible. And for an example, your treasure could be your house.

That's right.

It's capable of someone breaking into. Your treasure could be your car. That's something someone can break into. Your treasure could be your jewelry box. That's something that someone could steal. Your treasure could be your wardrobe. That's something that someone can steal. God says wherever your treasure is, That's where your heart is going to be. So what he's saying is don't affixate your heart to something that is capable of being deprived of you or taken from you.

Amen.

Don't let your treasure be something that someone else can walk away with.

Amen.

Faith is one of those things that if you treasure it, it is in your heart.

That's right.

That means you have a value for it. If you do not have faith in your heart as a value, it is because you do not treasure it. It is not a treasure to you. And what is a treasure? Let's just break that down for a moment. What is a treasure? A treasure is something that has certain levels of importance. Something that has a certain value.

Yeah.

Something that means something to you. Something that is sentimental. You treasure certain things in life. You may treasure your job. You may treasure a diamond ring. You may treasure something that was passed on to you through inheritance that your parents or your grandparents willed to you. Whatever your treasure is, your heart connects with it.

Amen.

And when your heart connects with it, you guard it.

Yeah.

You watch over it. You protect it. If it's a car, you clean it. You take it through the regular routine maintenance. You put your time into it. You put your love into it. You put your money into it. Because it's your treasure. But see, if faith is your treasure, then you should treat it the same way as everything else is your treasure. That is your treasure. You should put your time in it. You should put your love in it. You should invest into it. You can't be saved and and just come to church and and think that your faith is going to be developed. The Bible tells us. That faith comes by hearing and hearing, which means that there is an effort required on your part. You got to continue to do what you need to do, what you have to do, what you cannot avoid in order to build your faith. Just being saved is not enough.

Amen.

All being saved is going to do is get you to heaven. But people who don't treasure faith or value faith live or suffer unnecessarily. in this world. You don't even have to. If the Bible says, and it does, that Jesus Christ has made healing available for Christians, for believers, and have the faith to believe for their healing, then they go through life with sickness and disease that they don't necessarily have to go through life with.

Amen.

And you suffer and have pain unnecessarily. That's an example.

That's a fact.

Right. Amen.

You have to consider faith to be more than just something we talk about.

Amen.

It's not one of those things that you can look at— you know how you can go to the fruit stand in the fruit store or the grocery store and let's say you're looking at Mangoes. Y'all like mangoes? I like mangoes. I love mangoes. Okay. Watermelons. Y'all like watermelons? Peaches, plums, all those nice wonderful fruits. Grapes. You know how you walk over to the fruit stand and you look at one and you kind of squeeze it a little bit and you turn it around to make sure that it looks like what you want it to look like in order for you to buy it and it feels like what you want it to feel like? And if it don't have that look and it don't have that feel, you put it down.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

And then you go on to the next one, and you won't stop until you find either that bunch of grapes, that, that fruit that you want to look like what you want to look like, and then you buy it when it matches that identity. Well, faith is not one of those things that you can, you know, pick and choose. Now, the Bible in Galatians 5:22 talks about the fruit of the Spirit. Faith is one of those. There are some fruit of the Spirit that you can pick over. And I named some: patience, peace, joy.

There are some fruit of the Spirit that you can pick over and leave there in the fruit bin, but faith is not one of those that you can pick over and leave there.

Amen.

You can't pick peace and leave faith. You can't choose joy and leave faith.

Yeah.

You can't choose patience and leave faith there. You, you can choose faith and leave patience if you want to. I wouldn't recommend it, but if you want to, you can, and still go to heaven and still be blessed. It may take you longer to receive, but faith is not one of those things that you can choose to live without. You're not a powerful Christian Unless you're operating in faith.

Amen.

The power of God can't even work in your life unless you value faith.

Amen.

You're not receiving a testimony unless you're operating in faith. No wonder some of us haven't testified in so long. You're not operating in faith. Because you don't have any value for it. Your value of coming to church is for many things, but the question is, is faith-building one of those?

Amen.

Because more important than just the fellowship of the saints, more important than just singing, more important than just working in the church, More important than just showing up so the pastor can see your face is to get what you need while you're here. And that's faith. Because if you walk out of here and you haven't been born again or filled with the Holy Spirit, which is the 2 most commendable gifts that God offers to the, to the world, The third one is faith. If you walk out of here and you haven't been born again or filled with the Spirit, and yet your faith has not been promoted, you came for nothing.

Amen.

You wasted your time. You didn't get nothing. And it's nobody's fault. It's not the praise team's fault. It's not the preacher's fault. It's not the usher's fault. It's your fault. That's just like sending your children to school, and they go to school, and they come home, and they haven't learned anything.

Yep, that's right.

And when it's time to take tests, they fail. And when it's time to get promoted, they get held back. And when it's time to graduate, they can't graduate. Because while in school, in class, they didn't get anything. Not because it wasn't available.

Right, that's right.

It's just that they didn't value learning to get an education. And when you're in church, whatever you come for when you come to the house of God, if it's not to build your faith, you have come for the wrong reason. Y'all don't like me in here. That's good preaching. The Bible talks more about faith. Jesus talked more about faith than he did about any other attribute or fruit of the Spirit. He taught more about faith than he did about love. You'll find the word faith more times in the Bible than you will love.

Amen.

Jesus says in Matthew 6 that where your heart is, or where your treasure is, that's where your heart is. So if faith is not your treasure, then it's not in your heart.

Amen.

And if it's not in your heart, it's not in your heart because you don't have a value for it.

Amen. That's right.

Look at Luke 6:45. What am I talking about today? When faith matters to you. When faith matters to you. Every time the door opens, whether it's Sunday morning or Wednesday night, You're coming to a faith institution and you're in faith class. This is faith school, and your primary subject ought to be to build your faith. Whenever I'm teaching or preaching or anybody else is teaching or preaching, the Bible says faith comes by hearing the word. It doesn't matter what the subject is.

Amen.

It doesn't matter what the subject is. It's still— the result is, is that it's still building your faith.

That's right. Amen.

Don't come into the house of God with the preconceived notion of what you think someone ought to be teaching and preaching on. Just come with an idea, I'm going to get the word. Doesn't matter what it's on. I need it all. And whatever it ends up being, the subject, whatever the subject ends up being, it is still something that I needed for my life. And then the end result of it is that it builds my faith. And that's the primary focus anyway.

Right.

You may go to the car lot to take your car for a checkup just because a light came on, and you may think it's one thing, and they tell you you got something else going on with your car.

Right. Amen. Amen.

So, Luke 6:45 says, a good man— say, that's me. Out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good. That's a powerful verse right there. So Luke's— I mean, Matthew 6 said that where your treasure is, that's where your heart is going to be. So if faith is your treasure, then your heart should be centered around your faith, right? Your heart should have a connection with faith. Faith should be in that category of things that lives within your heart. Well, if that's true, then Luke 6:45 says, then out of that good treasure where faith dwells should come forth faith.

Amen.

If faith is a treasure that's in your heart, then you, you should be able to bring it out when you need it.

Amen.

Because a good man out of the good treasures of his heart bringeth forth that which is good. The reason why Christians suffer unnecessarily is because we didn't take the time to invest faith into our heart, so when we needed faith, we couldn't bring it out. You couldn't release it. If you don't take the time to get it in, then when the time comes that you need it, you can't bring it out.

That's right.

And have you ever been challenged in your life with an issue, a situation or circumstance that required faith.

Yes, sir.

One of the first things we do when we get caught off guard by circumstances and situations is panic and react and fear and doubt. And the reason why is because we didn't take the time to build up a value for faith, to make it a treasure instead of an option. and get it in our heart so that when we got caught off guard by a storm, we would respond instead of reacting.

Amen.

And the devil is betting all his money on you reacting, panicking, doubting, getting depressed, living in fear, and just going off from the deep end when you get hit below the belt.

Teaching good, Rico. And he don't bet just by taking a gamble. He's observed Christians time and time and time and time and time and time and time and time again that when we get hit below the belt, when we get caught off guard, when the wind get knocked on— got— get knocked out of us, and when we get knocked down, we panic.

Oh God!

And then when we go to God, we go to God telling God about our problems, asking God to move our mountains, telling God about the giants in our land, telling God that we can't defeat Goliath, and then we run from things that God have said, I've already given you the victory over.

Say it.

But it encompasses the fact that if you don't know your faith, you would flee. If you don't know how much faith you have, you would run. If you haven't taken the time to build your faith, you better run, because the devil don't play for play, he play for keeps. And you will be and are being confronted with demonic forces that is after you and everything you love.

My God. Amen. That's right.

But your mind is on your job. Your mind is on your money. Your mind is on your weight. Your mind is on your house. Your mind is on your curves. Your mind is on your dressing. Your mind is on your paycheck. How much of a friend are you to yourself?

Come on now.

If you're not preparing yourself for the unexpected? How much do you really love you if you're not taking the time to build up your faith to give you a guaranteed victory? How wise are you when you let yourself down and then consider it someone else's fault that you have to suffer, when the truth is you have not Amen. Because you didn't take the time to build.

And don't say you don't have time, because God gives everybody time to do the things they need to do in this world. It's just that your priorities are confused.

Time that is allocated for your spirituality, you use it on your hair. Time that is allocated for your spirituality, you use it on watching television. Time that is allocated to build up yourself spiritually, you use it laying in the bed listening to music. And my question to you is, what are you getting out of those things?

And whatever it is that you get, is it more valuable? Is it more important? Is it more edifying? Is it more advantageous to your life than what faith could produce for you?

Preach it plain.

When faith matters to you, it's not an option. When faith matters to you, it's not a luxury. When faith matters to you, it don't sit on the back burner. It doesn't dwell in your trunk as a spare tire. When faith matters to you, it becomes your treasure.

Yes, sir.

It's one of those things that's in your treasure box. I have a jewelry box at home that I keep my jewelry in, and, and everything in that box is a treasure of mine. There's watches in that box, there's rings in that box, there's necklaces in that box, there's charms in that box. There's everything in that box that is a treasure of mine. Stuff that I don't treasure I just lay it around anywhere.

Yes, sir. You—

sometimes you take off a shirt or a dress or a suit or a pair of pants and you just lay it around.

Mm-hmm. Amen.

And you're not necessarily concerned about it to the point where you feel like you need to lock it up with safe and key, 'cause it's not really that much of a value. It's a necessity. You need clothes, but it's not that much of a value. You take something off and you put it in the washing machine, some bleach in there. If it come out with all the colors still in, in it that it had when I put it in, good. If it doesn't, good. I'm still going to wear it.

That's right. Amen.

Still going to get worn.

That's right.

Amen.

It has some significance. It's not that much of a value, but things that matters— titles to cars, titles to homes, deeds to homes, insurance, insurance policies, Life policies, things that are important to you, Social Security cards, you put them up in a safekeeping place. But in my jewelry box, there are some things that are valuable to me that I call treasures, and some of those things that are in that box you can see, and some of those things that are in that box you cannot see.

Mm-hmm.

But I know they're there. So in my treasure box, I have watches, rings, bracelets, charms, necklaces.

Faith.

Mm-hmm. Right.

It's in my treasure box.

Yes, sir.

And it's one of those things that I would never ever let the devil steal from me.

Amen.

Because I know That it's my rebounder. That when you can't find a way up through anything else, faith will rebound you back in life.

Amen.

And as much as I want to be known as a word man, I'd rather be known as a faith man. But I understand that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Are y'all listening to me? Yes. So Luke says that if you got faith in your heart, good man out of the good treasures of his heart bringing forth that which is good. If you got faith in your heart, then you ought to be bringing it out. And you can tell if you're bringing it out by how you React when you're confronted with anything. How do you react when you get caught off guard?

What you do?

You swing first? Do you curse first? Do you panic first?

What you do?

I'm talking to y'all. I'm not talking to your neighbor, I'm talking to you. What do you do? What do you do? How do you act? We need to put one of those cameras on you like the police wear that show your every move.

Uh-oh.

What do you do? What do you do when you get caught off guard? What do you do when life hits you? What do you do when the enemy comes in like a flood? What do you do when weapons are formed? What do you do? when you get a negative report from the doctor? What do you do when somebody crosses your path that, that rubs you the wrong way?

What do you do? How do you act?

How do you behave? To yourself be true. Are you failing the test or are you passing the test? Everybody fails the test from time to time, but nobody should fail the test every time.

Amen.

Amen. Faith is one of those things that helps you pass the test. I've learned that even with faith, you may fail the test at first, but you get to take it over again and again and again until you pass it. But you can only pass it after failing it by putting forth the initiative to build it up. And you will take the test over and over and over and over again until you pass it.

That's right.

Even if it's 20 years later.

Sure will.

Amen.

An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bring forth that which is evil, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If faith is in your heart, when you get confronted with something, faith comes out of your mouth.

Thank you, Jesus.

Faith comes out of your mouth. I was talking to Chevelle. I know she don't mind me sharing this, her and Sister Fred yesterday at the picnic, and they said that the doctor gave her a bad report. In the natural, to somebody who don't have faith, first thing they would do is panic. Oh God, Lord Jesus, not again. And you just kind of start riding that wave because you're looking at things from a natural standpoint.

But when someone's life is on the line, y'all, Come on now! You can't afford to be carnal. You can't afford to be natural. You can't come down to the level that the sickness is on. You can't come down to the level that the doctor's report is on. You've got to be able to rise above that report and and speak your faith and decree what is going to be, not what they say. What do you say?

That's right. Amen.

Because if you don't say what God said, if you're not using your faith, if you're not operating on the Word, if you're not standing on the Word, if you're not engaged with your faith, then you suffer unnecessarily. But when you have faith that says, I refuse to believe the report of man, I believe the report of God, then your faith goes to work and it leaps into action. And it begins to work on the situation until the situation lines up with what the Word said it would do.

Yes!

And that's what comes out of your mouth. That's what you speak. Never agree with the adversary. Never agree with your circumstance. Never agree with your power. Never say what the devil is saying. Don't say what the enemy says. Don't agree. The devil wants to borrow your tongue because he knows that out of the belly flows the power of life and death. Out of your spirit, out of your mouth, out of your tongue flows the power of life and death. This is a test. This is a test that you must take and you must pass, and if you don't pass it, you must continue to take it until you pass. If you continue to fail, you continue to suffer until you pass the test. Ask your neighbor, when are you gonna pass the test?

Thank you, Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Go ahead.

Look at Mark 11:27. Look at that. Put that on the video screen for me. This is not in my notes, but this I hear this in my spirit. Mark 11:23. Saint Mark chapter 11 verse 23. When faith matters to you, it becomes your treasure.

And if it is your treasure, it lives in your heart. And if it is in your heart, then out of the abundance of your heart, out of the revelation of your heart, out of the strength of your heart, out of the overflow of your heart, through the release valve of your heart, your mouth speaks. And if your mouth speaks, then the Bible says in verse 23 that what's— that whosoever shall say to this mountain, be thou removed, be thou cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, shall be healed. Shall not doubt. You can never doubt.

Yeah!

You can never doubt. Even though you feel the pain, you cannot doubt. Even though there are symptoms that supports what they say, you can't— even though you have some times where you're down and you don't feel like getting up, you can never doubt. Even if the medicine is working against you, you still cannot doubt. You must still believe. Your life depends on your faith. You must still believe that by his stripes I am healed. And you got to say it because if you believe what you've said, then the Bible says, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that those things which he said shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he said.

You have to believe.

But what if people around you don't believe? God says, forget about what they say, forget about what they do. So their unbelief make your faith ineffective? God forbid!

Yes.

Let God's word be true.

Yes.

It's a warfare.

It's a battle. And sometimes the battle becomes a struggle.

But you gotta believe. You gotta protect your faith.

You can't get depressed and discouraged and just start saying anything because you're frustrated. You gotta know that you know that you know that my words are powerful. My words are as seeds that when I sow them, it's going to produce a fruit.

Yes.

You got to speak faith.

That's right.

Pastor, you don't understand. I don't have to.

You need to.

You need to understand that your outcome is not dictated Amen.

By what you're going through.

Your outcome is not dictated by the diagnosis. Your outcome is not dictated by how things look. The outcome is dictated by your faith and by the words that you speak. See, everything ain't supposed to start out good.

Everything's not supposed to start out looking the way you want it to look in order for you to believe. You don't need faith if you're not dealing with anything.

You don't need faith if you're never challenged with anything. You don't need faith if you never get reports from the doctor. You don't need faith if your bills are never unpaid. You don't need faith if you never have a sickness that comes against you or comes against your child or comes against your grandchild. You don't need faith if everybody in your family is saved. You don't need faith if everything is perfect in your life. You don't need faith if you don't have devils trying to claim your mind. You don't need faith if you're not living in the real world.

Come on!

Go ahead.

But if you— thank you, sir. If you live in a real world, you need faith. If you have challenges in your life, you need—

I need everybody who live in a real world stand to your feet.

If you live in a real world.

You know, there are some, there are some worlds out there that's not real.

It's called denial.

It's, it's when you live in a world and you're denying everything that's going on in your life as if it's not really happening. Faith is not denial. Faith is more powerful than the power of denial. Faith doesn't mean you're void of reality. Faith means that you choose to believe what God says about your life. Who am I preaching to in here today?

Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down. I'll give you some more word. When faith matters to you, Oh, Jesus, thank you, Lord.

Hallelujah.

Glory to God.

It's more than a church thing. It's not a church thing. It's not a church thing. It's not a church thing. If you were alienated or isolated to the rainforest for the rest of your life and there was no church, That you can go to, and no Bible that you can get your hands on, and no phone that you can use to call people, and no computer that you can use to surf the internet, and no way to download scriptures so that you can read it, you can still have faith.

Amen.

Because faith is as a seed. That the moment it is planted, it begins to grow. Are you with me?

Amen.

You build and exercise your faith regularly, you don't get caught off guard. You may get caught Unexpectedly, but it doesn't catch you off your guard.

Amen.

The thief may not come when you think he's gonna come, but you have a security system on your house, which means he came in an hour you weren't looking for him, but you had a security system, which means you didn't get caught off guard. Are you understanding? I don't have to know when life is going to throw a punch at me. I just need to be prepared when it happens. I ought to give myself $5 for that. Say amen to that.

Amen.

What prepares me? My faith does.

Amen.

Not, not my money, not my education. My faith prepares me. Nothing else, nothing else that I possess prepares me for what life throws at me. Faith is the 3rd greatest gift that God has given to the body of Christ.

3rd.

Number 1 is salvation, the fact that you get to go to heaven. Number two is the gift of the Holy Spirit, being baptized and filled with Him. Number three is faith. I was when I was in Virginia last Sunday, preaching to very, very large crowds of people. I talked about faith. You ought to have seen how those folks were acting in that church. Running all around the place, jumping up and down. Shouting, crying, high-fiving one another. Patting one another on the knees.

Geez.

They have a good preacher. But when I started talking to them about faith, it was as if they heard it for the first time.

Come on now.

Sometimes when you hear certain things, it comes across as revelation. And they were coming up to me after the services talking about how blessed they were to get that right there, how much that meant to them. It's as if you're going over to certain parts of Ethiopia, third world country, and giving them— thank you— water.

Uh-huh. Amen.

And building wells in their fields.

Yes.

And they look at you and say, thank you. Because you just brought a life-saving, life-changing component to a place that is scarce for this particular item. So faith is something that when you hear about it, it's supposed to mean more to you than just a sermon. You dare not walk out of here and say, Pastor preached a good message today, and that's all you got.

Thank you.

What is that going to do for you? Come on now. I'm not even in it for that. I'm not in it for that. When I'm talking about faith, man, I'm trying to put something in you that's going to— listen, I know the day is coming where one day our lives are going to part and we're going to go in different directions, whether it be through death, whether it be through relocation, whether it be through you going to another church, whether it be through whatever it could be through. The time is going to come where our path is going to separate. I want to put something in you, in faith, that when that time comes, I never have to worry about you.

Come on, come on, say amen.

Isn't that what a parent wants to do for, for the children? Because the parent knows that they won't be around the children forever. So they try to impart into the children something that they know is going to take them the rest of their way, that will stand in their stead and operate on their behalf and continue to build up. Because when a person dies, they want to die in peace knowing that my children are going to be well taken care of. That's what the Apostle Paul talked about in Romans 1:11. He says, I desired to come unto you that to this end I might impart some spiritual gift unto you that you would be established. I want you to be established in your faith.

Amen.

That's why this is not a whooping church.

Right.

That's why this is not a church where you just come and get a good feeling. We're a word church.

Amen.

Because nothing else is going to matter when you have to deal with situations that a man can't give you the victory over. Faith is going to matter. And you need to get all you can and can all you get.

Amen.

Even if you feel like you don't need it right now. Okay, let's go a little further. Give me 10 more minutes and I'll be— I'll be done. You have to deal— you have to develop or build positive voices of faith in your life. If you build positive voices of faith, that means that you choose who you let mentor you and advise you. Everybody can't be your mentor. It doesn't matter if they are family members. Do you understand what I'm saying? I know that there are some people. that I can talk to about certain things, and then there are certain people that I have to talk to about other things.

That's right.

I can't talk to a family member that's unsaved about spiritual things and spiritual decisions in my life because they cannot understand them, even if they are a parent.

That's right.

Even if they are a spouse, they just can't understand it. It's just the way God designed it. Do you understand what I'm saying?

Amen.

So you have to put positive voices of faith in your life. Who you talk to when you're confronted with a decision? Who you talk to? When you have ultimatums before you, sometimes people who have your best interests at heart doesn't understand things of the spirit. May not understand faith. Who you consult with when you have a business decision to make?

My Lord Jesus, thank you, God. Thank you.

Living by faith is not a life void of reality. It's not a risk-taking life. Some people consider that if I'm using faith or living by faith, then I'm taking chances with my life. Well, where did you get that information from? Who told you that?

Satan.

That thought didn't come from you. That thought came from Maybe it was Satan. Maybe it was somebody that have given you some information over the years and it was just stored in the cellar of your soul and then it just gurgitated during that particular time. Who told you that living by faith is a risk? Faith is not a risk. Well, what if? That's where your doubt is. Your doubt is within your if.

That's right.

And your if is in your head. And if you are doubting, you are not in faith because you can't have ifs and trust at the same time. You can't have ifs and belief No, sir. Because to believe means to be convicted or persuaded. If means you're not convicted, you're not persuaded. The 2 diabolically oppose one another. They're like gas and fire. How well do they get along? Having an ace in the hole. Y'all know what I mean when I say that? Or a backup plan. It's not faith. When God told Abraham to go up to the mountaintop and sacrifice his only son, he didn't have a backup son. No, he didn't. He didn't have a backup son. During this time, Jacob wasn't born. He only had Isaac. He couldn't say, if Isaac don't come down, at least I still got Jacob. Jacob wasn't around. He looked to God and then he said to Isaac, God will provide. When you have a backup plan, you're saying to yourself, in case God doesn't provide.

That's right.

You're right.

Hmm.

In case God doesn't come through. Oh, here it is. In case this thing don't work. In case faith don't work. You're not in faith, you're in doubt. When Peter stepped out of the boat to walk to Jesus, he didn't have a set of oars or, or life raft or life jacket. Ain't just in case.

Yes, sir.

And can I say to you, Peter couldn't swim. He didn't know how to swim. If he knew how to swim, when he started sinking, he wouldn't have said, Jesus, save me. He'd just start treading water on toward the shore or swim back to the boat. Peter didn't know how to swim, but yet he stepped out the boat because he knew that if you love me enough, you ain't gonna let me die anyway.

That's right.

And he was confident in the love that Jesus had for him. That's where his faith was. He challenged Jesus. He challenged Jesus. He said, if it be you, then bid me to come, because I know if I'm gonna walk on the water, I'm gonna do it by your power that I have faith in. So I'm challenging you. Get me out this boat on the water. And Jesus said, come. And when he stepped out the boat, he was walking on things that are known for people to sink in. And when you step out your boat, your comfort zone, your doubting zone, your unbelief zone, you will walk on things that would normally sink you.

That's right.

And your testimony be— to go through life suffering That's it.

Amen.

What if some did not believe? Does their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect? God forbid. Let every man who thinks they know, every woman who thinks they know, how you're supposed to live your life, be a liar and let God's Word be your personal truth.