Pastor Robert and TaQuaris Smith
Robert: Praise the Lord. Merry Christmas.
TaQuaris: Merry Christmas.
Robert: We celebrate on December 25th, but I think we should just say Merry Christmas every day. We are going to declare at Hope today officially starts every day of Christmas. How about that? Hallelujah. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We did in the Smith household. We are blessed to be here again this morning to share the word of God. First, he didn't know I was going to do this, but it really blessed my heart this weekend. Doing some last minute shopping in the stores, I ran into one of my old time Bible students. I taught this guy for many, many years in the word. I ran into him at Walmart and guess what? I had one of my cards and I am invited him to church. And guess what, Rudy is here today. So we want to welcome Rudy.
I'm blessed to see him. Rudy was one of those students who was always asking me questions. So I had to make sure that I was up to speed on what I was teaching. So Rudy, bless you. I'm glad you are here today. Amen. I am doubly blessed that I'm here again with my beautiful wife TaQuaris. It's such a pleasure to be able to share the word of God with you and to share our family together and what God is doing in this season. I'm glad that I'm doing it with you.
TaQuaris: Same here, honey.
Robert: Amen. Pastor Brian and Jackie and Hope, I don't have the words to adequately express what we feel. We've been here since September. I feel like I've been here 10 Septembers already. That's a good thing. I want to thank you and the staff and everyone here. You've been so very wonderful to us and our family is blessed and, and we are looking forward to what the new season has in store for us, what God has in store for us. We are excited about that.
I love a people who is excited about God, first of all, but about his heard. As you all here get to continue to know me, you will know there are a lot of things I'm passionate about and a very few things that I'm serious about, but the one thing that I'm serious about is God and his word. And so I don't mess around with that. Every opportunity that I come before you, I take it seriously. So you best believe I'm before the Lord and he is ministering to my heart and spirit. I've been rebuked one time. That was one time enough when I didn't do my due diligence. Yes, I'm telling on myself. I do that a lot.
One time I took it light-hearted, pastor. I don't know if ever any of you have ever been chastised by the Lord, but once is enough for me. I vowed that I would never do that again. My heart wasn't right, Jackie. And he said, don't do that ever again. So you know every time I'm before you, my heart is right before you. Amen.
Like Pastor Brian said last time were together, we started this series on faith. My wife and I discussed, and we didn't want to bring just any old series on faith. If you've been in church for any number of years, you've heard faith messages, faith topics a lot. And so a few years ago, the Lord had given me this revelation as I was actually studying the book of Ephesians. Most of the time studying the book of Ephesians people would focus on spiritual warfare and which I have expounding on quite a bit, but when he got to the very or 16 in chapter 6 of Ephesians, the Lord really started to talk to me about faith. And so we started this series. Last time we had the series faith, trusting in God's character, and we defined faith as having absolute confidence in God. With this absolute confidence in God, we said we were going to apply that confidence in God, in three different areas. So like I said, last time we talked about trusting in God's character. Today, we are going to talk about trusting in God's promises and his word. And then the final part of this series would be trusted in God's program and timing. And so all of those things, we are to have absolute confidence in God.
The biggest thing that the Lord placed on my heart was about applying faith. So that faith didn't seem like some intangible thing so far away, that it just seems out of reach out of out of reality, but faith is something that needs to be applied. As the scripture says, faith without works is dead. In the applications in this series, we are going to talk about faith that will cause us to be victorious when the enemy comes into our lives to throw us off course. If you were here last time or heard the last message we said the enemy is not always Satan, right, sweetheart?
TaQuaris: Right.
Robert: Sometimes we have what?
TaQuaris: Our flesh.
Robert: Our flesh, that poses a threat to us as well, and can throw us off of God's plan for our lives as well. So I'm not one, Hope, as you continue to hear me preach, I'm not one to blame the devil for most things. I think we have blamed the devil, Satan, whatever you want to call him, far too much and gets us off of course, and actually stunts our growth in the Lord. The reality is as being spiritual beings born again, we still have to contend and fight with this flesh, which I'm convinced in my walk with the Lord is a bigger threat to us than Satan. Let me say that again. I believe our flesh, which we can unpack, carnal thinking, lustful desires, ungodly behavior, ungodly thinking is more of a threat to us as born again believers than Satan.
TaQuaris: Well, especially if we don't deal.
Robert: Yes. And that's why the scriptures talk to us about contending with our flesh daily. It even goes on to say— and we are just giving a little introduction here now. It goes on to say that a carnal mind, a fleshly, a lustful mind is hostile, enmity, hostile towards God. It didn't talk anything about Satan, the Satan, the adversary, because our fleshly ways can be a great adversary. Oftentimes it is our greatest adversary, especially when we come into the kingdom of God. Satan is defeated. Jesus did their work on the cross to defeat Satan. When Jesus rose from the grave Satan and all of his works was put on display and the spoils gathered by our king. And so we have to be careful not to place blame on Satan and then we neglect the things of our flesh. Sorry. That may be another message, but my wife and I have conversations like this often. This is where this series was birth in talking about faith, where the Lord led me to Ephesians 6:16. Sweetheart, do you want to read that?
TaQuaris: Yes. Above all, taking a shield of faith, where with ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Robert: Read it in the Living Bible translation
TaQuaris: In every battle, you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan.
Robert: So there is a dynamic that's going on here. In this scripture, it says that you are to take what the shield of faith to stop something, to stop these fiery darts of the wicked. Now, in this instance, you know, we can put in Satan there, but all I'm saying by principle, you can also put in flesh and fleshly attacks that come from you, your own ungodly thinking or someone else. You can put that in there as well. But what are these fiery darts or fiery arrows that we are talking about that we have to raise up this shield of faith? These are schemes and temptations and lies and deceptions and attacks aimed at God's people to get us to shift our trust to something or someone other than God. That's what fiery darts, fiery arrows are. In the last message, we talked about how the enemy and our flesh can try to deceive us as it changed to what?
TaQuaris: God's character.
Robert: God's character. And so we talked about in the scriptures, how we can have absolute confidence in God's character when those deceptive ideas, those deceptive motives and thoughts come our way. Because the enemy will always try to twist on who God is, but God's character is true as we talked about. So if you weren't in that series or didn't listen to that first part, I encourage you to listen to that first part, as we talked about God's character and trusting in that. And so we said that we can trust in God's character, and if we were to give a theme to that first message, we would say, and I want everybody to repeat this after me. God has my best in mind. Let's say that again. God has my best in mind. So we can always trust in his character.
Today we are going to see that the enemy tries to shift our trust away from God, by casting doubt on who God is and what God has said in relationship to his will for our lives. So just like we did, when deception comes, we raise the shield of faith when those attacks of doubt come as well. And so we want to talk about promises today, promises. As we approach the new year, one of the traditions in our culture is to do what have these so-called new year's resolutions. Everybody gets excited as the new year approaches and everybody, makes these resolutions. Then for the first few days are weeks of the new year. Everything goes fine. And guess what, what happens to those resolutions? The flesh takes over. We didn't do so well on those resolutions because we can't trust in them.
Many people, my wife and I talked about people having what we call so-called personal promises from God. That's when you, by way of word, word of knowledge, prophetic word or whatever that you've given an individual personal word of God. And we said if God said it, we can take it to the bank. But the caveat is if God said it. Sadly enough, I'm very cautious when people say, God said, amen. Because the sad reality is that —I believe that God speaks. I believe that God makes promises, but I believe also that the flesh gets in the way and people want to make promises from God that God really didn't say. So this is not what we are going to talk about today. When I think about the promises of God, as we talk about God's will for our lives, I'm thinking corporately, not individually.
When I think of God's promises, I'm thinking about God's promises that come by way of his word for his children, for his church. Those things aren't up to interpretation whether they are from God or not, amen. They come straight from his word and they apply not just to you and I as individuals, but to all of us, his children. So when we think about trusting in God's promises, in his words, I want you to think about this because remember the key is that God has a specific will for you and I. He has a specific purpose. He has his specific destiny. That is the same for all of God's children. I'm not talking about those individual destinies of jobs and careers in ministry and houses and children and all those things. I'm talking about you as a born again believer; you are destined, as the scripture says, to be what is of Jesus Christ.
And so everything that happens in your life is pointing towards that destiny. Everything that Christ has done for you in this lifetime is pointing towards that destiny for all of us. When those fiery darts of doubts, and we are going to go through individuals, when those doubts come, especially speak, speaking to your destiny and God. You can push those doubts aside and say, God— everybody, repeat after me. God will accomplish what concerns me. God will accomplish what concerns me. So you can rest assured about that. We don't have to strive and work God's will.
TaQuaris: It just reminds me of the scripture, "The work that he started, he will complete." So that's a promise of God.
Robert: Say that again.
TaQuaris: The work that God started, he will complete.
Robert: And that speaks to God's character. We can trust in the character of the one who promises. We got Numbers 23 verse 19.
TaQuaris: New Living Translation: God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act?
Robert: No, we know the character of God. So if God has spoken it through his word, we know it will come to pass for us. Amen.
TaQuaris: Second Peter chapter 1 versus 3 through 4, the New Living Translation: by his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called a us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence, and because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires.
Robert: That's our God. That's the nature of God and that's the nature of God's promises. When you grasp these things, especially when it's the verse we read in Numbers, remembering that God is not bound by human flesh. He is not a human that he can lie, that he changes his mind and that by his divine power, the family of God that he has called us into. It’s for this purpose that he has what great and precious promises. Because we have come into his kingdom, this causes our faith, should cause our faith to grow because of these promises. How easy we can lose sight of these promises of what we are destined to because of life's battles and trials?
But we need to have a constant reminder. I think we don't do this enough in the body of Christ: talk about our destiny and what God done through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. What does it mean to be saved? Brother Rudy asked this question in classes a few years ago. What does it mean to be saved? It goes beyond just joining a church building and a group of people. It goes beyond just having a clique of people that you can talk all the same language. If we would yet grasp the magnitude of what it means, what salvation means— when I hear things like "we shall be like him," it brings chill to me. I think it was a great Sandy Patty, a song "we shall behold him face to face in all of his glory." You talk about a devotion. You talk about a meditation. You talk about a realization that we shall behold and we shall be face to face in all of his glory. That's what we are destined to. When you leave this earth, that's what you are destined to.
The great apostle Paul says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's who we are. That's what we are destined to. And so when I about that, when I have times of trial and being down, yes, I get down, I can have trials and times of being down, I force myself to remember who I am and who's I am and why I'm here on this earth. The scripture says we are here to bring glory to him. See, it's not about you and I, and all these things like the scripture says, human desires. It's not about that at all. It's about the glory of God. You and I were created to bring glory to him. And so that's why people like Paul can say, when I go through diverse trials and tribulations, I can count it all joy, not joy at the situation, not joy at the attacks that come, but joy in the fact that no matter what happens to me in this lifetime, it doesn't take me off of my destiny and being with the creator of the universe, no matter what.
My time on this earth is passing by. This is not the end for me. This is not the end for you. But through of the testing, through the trials, my faith in him, the one who promises grows, and I develop endurance and patience because I know that something, no matter what it is, is going to come glorious out of it. In a carnal mind, that's hard to grasp. That's hard to understand and most people reject it. That's why people get depressed. That's why people say things like they are angry with God because they don't realize what's going on.
TaQuaris: I was going to say especially when you are going through stuff people tend to operate through their emotion and not the spirit. And your emotion is part of your soulish realm that you have to put under.
Robert: Yeah. We have to move beyond emotional experiences, which we all have emotional experiences. Let me tell you a secret. God doesn't move off emotions because he knows they are fleeting. Your emotions change from day to day, moment to moment, but though your outward man perishes, your inner man is strengthened. That gets close to God, that moans and groans for, to be in the presence of God, that knows that these things are but temporary and we are heading towards the eternal. So when those seeds of doubt come about who you are and where you are heading and other things in life, you can turn to promises in God's word that you can trust that you can have absolute trust in God, like how about this promise: God will forgive all my sins.
TaQuaris: First John chapter 1, verse 9, New Living Translation. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from our wickedness.
Robert: So how do we apply our faith to this when the enemy tells you that there is no need to repent or there is no need to ask God to forgive you, what you have done. And what about this? You've really messed up this time and your sin is too great for, for God you are done with, he will never forgive you. No, the scripture says what God, that word faithful means that he is consistent, he is constant, and he is trustworthy. He will forgive you of how many sins? How many sins? All your sins. One of the things I cannot stand is to see the saints of God beating themselves up because of their behavior.
TaQuaris: Condemning themselves.
Robert: Condemning.
TaQuaris: There is a difference between condemnation and conviction.
Robert: Your flesh, your pride, whatever enemy you want to in there, can steer you off the course of repenting and asking for forgiveness and shame and guilt and rejection and condemnation, all those things that are against God. God said, if we confess to him and seek his forgiveness, he will forgive us of all our sins. What about this promise? God will supply all my needs,
TaQuaris: Philippians 4:19, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
Robert: So when the enemy tells you that there is no hope of providing for your needs and that God doesn't care if you have enough to live a full life or even that, sometimes people think other people in the body don't care. When there is not a care there is— you know, because you are going through and the cupboards are a little slack and the pockets are empty, does God care about supplying for my needs? And he says in his word, he shows supply all his needs. Not according to what your bank account says, not according to your tax refund, because mine, you know that's all whole different thing. I'm not banking on that at all. Not according to the stock market, not according to winning the lottery. It says according to what all of his riches and glory.
I used to be what the old timers used to say, a worry wart about money. I mean, I used to stress myself out beyond stressing out. I've had different stages in life. I've had stages of making very little. I've had stages of making a lot. I've had stages of making okay. It goes up and down. It has gone up and down. But I tell you, I used to worry so much and guess what all that worrying did. Nothing but give me a headache. It sure didn't add any zeroes. But you know what I've learned to do? Bring my need to him. And people are like, oh, you know, people want to push down or, or belittle that. That is a life principle of mine. God knows what you need. Ask him.
When my son is hungry, do you know what he says? Daddy, I'm hungry. And guess what I do. I provide food for him. Why can't we do that to our heavenly father who promises to take care of our needs? Daddy, I'm hungry. I don't have any food in the house. Do you talk to God like that? If not, start today. It works. Well, I don't know. You are a pastor. What does that mean? You are a child of God just like me. You are filled with the same spirit. It's no different. Well you got special favor. No, I don't. You are a child of God just like me. You can come to the father just like me. And the scripture says boldly.
You can come boldly. That means not ashamed, not with having your head down. That means coming with confidence and saying, God, I need your help right now. This is what I need. Be specific. Praise God. I would not have gotten through this season if I did not petition the Lord for some things that I need. Oh brother, you got a Cashapp? For what? Because I need to send you a blessing. Why? Because I need to be obedient. The father said I needed to do this. I didn't ask any question. Oh man, that's timely. I need this. Do you have those experiences? God is true. The one who promises his character is true. If he says it in his word, he would do it. He supply all your knee. He did not say he supplies all your wants and desires, but God can and he does make sure you have more than enough. Have you ever felt tempted by things? You don't have to raise your hand, but here is good news. God promises that he won't let us be tempted beyond what we can bear.
TaQuaris: First Corinthians 10:13, the temptations in your life are no different from what others experience and God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
Robert: So within the enemy, whether it's your flesh or anybody else tells you that there is no escape from your present temptation. That means this is before you give in and the enemy says, I have you backed in the corner and you don't have what it takes to endure this test, this trial, this temptation, the scripture tells us that God promises. He doesn't say he won't let us be tempted. But it says he won't allow it to be more than we could bear, that we can endure it because he will always make a way of escape. Most of the time when we give in is because we are not looking for the escape. I often tell people that temptation doesn't come from outside. You can't be tempted from something that is not in you. Did you get that?
So this business, I just told someone that the devil made me do it, your flesh was in agreement with it because it's what your flesh desires or wants, craves. That's what lusting means, a craving, a desire for it. So just like temptation doesn't come from God because God doesn't have evil inside of him. He doesn't have wickedness inside of him. So God can't give you something. He is not all. Temptation comes; you can blame the devil if you want, but the temptation has to do with your flesh.
That's why the Bible talks about that war between the spirit and the flesh. The more you give into the flesh, the more during those times of tempting, you are going to give into the flesh. But the more that you are able to yield to the spirit of God, the spirit that's inside of you that's godly, when those times come, you have something that's built up. It's like working out, exercising. You have stamina built up. You have resistance built up. Muscles come from resistance. Same thing in what I call your spiritual exercise that we all have to go through. The more time you yield to the spirit, the more you are going to the things of the spirit. The more time that you yield to your flesh, the more times you are going to produce the things of the flesh.
So when those times of temptation and trials come from, look to that door of escape, because God has it for you. This next one is very special to me like it has never been more special in my life because sometimes, when you go through things, you can sit there and ask the question, why me? You ever ask that? Why me? or the follow up question, can anything good come out of this? The fact that my wife and family are here now, my answer is yes. So I have had to endure great many trials to get me here today. So that's why this promise means a lot to me. And this promise is that God would have all things work together for my good
TaQuaris: Romans 8:28: And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Robert: And so we can apply our faith by this when the enemy says that I am defeated, that you are the defeated and things won't go your way or all the negativity surrounding your situation will be your destruction will be your ruin. God doesn't cause those things, but he says he will take those things to work to together for your good. For whose good? Those who love him. Do I have anybody that loves him this morning? Do you think you are called of God? Do you think you love him? Do you think you are called according to his purpose? So the promise is to you that no matter what's going on— I know how serious some of your situations are, but God promised in his word that he will take all those things and work them together for your good.
The carnal mind won't grasp that. The emotional mind won't grasp that. Even the grieving mind won't grasp that at that moment. But God promises that he will take those things to work them for your good. I believe that has two contexts. I believe that has the context of the situations that you go through in your life right now, that he will work them together for your good to bring him glory. But I also think it has an eternal context that no matter what— what does a scripture say? I am convinced that nothing can separate me from the love of God. No devil, no temptation, no sin, nothing. Nothing will separate you from God's love.
So he has you sealed; you have been born again. He has you sealed. He has you in the palm of his hand. So it doesn't matter what happens to you in his life. Nothing can come and pluck you out of God's hands, nothing, because he loves you. He promises you that. He promises you that nothing can pluck you out of God's hand. When I preach this in some places, then the religious want to come up with all kind of buts, what I call but clauses. What are the but clauses they come up with? The big one is sin your behavior. But then the spirit that's in me, which is, God says, this taps me on the shoulder, and it said it wasn't your behavior that saved you in the first place. So if it wasn't your behavior that saved you in the first place, how could it be your behavior that negates you? It's not true. It's a lie.
No, as the apostle Paul would say, does that give us a license to sin? No. And you are not hearing me say that today. I'm not giving you a license to sin. What I'm saying to you is that if you are in Christ, you are in Christ and God has given us a mechanism in our relationship with him that when we have bad behavior, our bad behavior, doesn't disqualify us from being with him, not saying there aren't costs consequences. There are consequences for bad behavior, but it doesn't pluck you out of God's hands.
The only thing that can get you away from God is you if you deny him, not your behavior. As you are in Christ, the Lord will deal with your behavior. Trust me, that's the beauty of your relationship him. He will deal with your behavior, but there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. You are a new creation. You are born again. Jesus hung on the cross. He said it is finished. He paid price for you and I, for your sins, for your bad behavior. I walk a straight and narrow life as much as I can, not to please God, but in gratitude to God, for the great sacrifice that he did for me. I don't lie, steal, cheat, murder, all those things not to win a place in the kingdom of God, but to show my gratefulness, my gratitude.
TaQuaris: Because you love him.
Robert: Because I love him, not because I fear him because I love him. I have a love relationship with him, and because I have a love relationship with him, my heart is spurred towards those things to show my appreciation for his love. That's why we do it.
TaQuaris: That's right. So not out of obligation.
Robert: Not out of obligation, not because I'm bound, not by keeping the law, but because of his grace. I show my appreciation in the things that I do and the things that I say. When I mess up, I can come to him, not as a judge, but as a loving father and ask him to forgive me and the promise is that he is faithful and he will forgive me of all my sins. This next one is I think something that people need today and that's peace of mind. So the promise is that God will keep me in perfect peace,
TaQuaris: Isaiah, 26, 3, you will keep imperfect peace, all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you.
Robert: Read that again.
TaQuaris: You will keep in perfect peace, all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you.
Robert: All whose what?
TaQuaris: Thoughts are fixed on you.
Robert: And it will give peace to whom?
TaQuaris: All who trust in you.
Robert: There is that trust again, all who have faith in you, absolute confidence in you. So when the enemy says that you will have no peace of mind, that you are going to go crazy, you can say, no, I'm going to turn my thoughts to him because his promise says that as I turn my thoughts towards him, that he will give me perfect peace. That's a whole peace. That's a complete peace. It's not an emotional piece. It's a piece that says no matter what, I'm confident that God will keep me and will calm my spirit and allow me to go through wherever I'm going through.
TaQuaris: You can start by telling yourself you have the mind of Christ and putting in all those thoughts under the subjection, any thoughts that's not like God. And the Bible says to think of those things that are pure, good, lovely things that are of a good report. Sometimes that takes effort to lay down thoughts that are not like God. You've just got to start quoting a word and get it in in your spirit, so it starts manifesting.
Robert: When I think of the promises of God, my heart is secure, my emotions are calm and I have confidence to face the day. I hope that as you believe in the promises of God, that your heart can be settled, that your spirits can be at ease, and that you will have confidence to face today. You have something?
TaQuaris: And that you know that God thoughts for you are good to give you a future and a hope. He is not going to put more in you than you can bear. And sometimes on it seems like it's hard to bear when you going through things. I've been through a lot of things in my life and God he has always been faithful. He has always been faithful
Robert: Because he is a good God and he has equipped us with everything we need to walk in this life. That's why it's so important, church, for us to be the church and not just go to church. That's why it's important for us to not forget what I call our spiritual disciplines. Fellowship is great, but we need to be in our word. Thank God for this church that has a sound word that we can grow, we can learn, we can wrestle with the scriptures to convict us in our hearts to encourage one another. I like how the pastors that preach, we sit there and I know we do, we sit there and we are thinking. It challenges us and it helps us grow. We get into our word and meditate and, and we are able to respond what the spirit is saying to us. And then we share to help you grow. That's how it should be. We don't just come here just to hear three points and go home. Thank God we don't have a fashion show here. You come as you are. I feel out of place. I'm used to being dapped to the finest, but you've allowed me to come in and say, hey brother, you can relax a little bit.
TaQuaris: Put some jeans on.
Robert: I remember the first time Pastor AJ, when I first heard him speak here, he pulled me to the side when I picked him up from the airport and he said, "Listen, don't you dress better than me tomorrow, okay? He said, "They don't do that at Hope." I said, "Okay, I can at least not wear a tie. How about that?" But no, seriously. I love you. God loves you. God want you to have absolute trust in who he is. He wants you to have trust in his character. So those lies that come, you can hold up that shield of faith. When doubt tries to bombard you, you can hold up that shield of faith and lean upon those promises that come in God's word. And then next time we'll talk about how all of that comes together to trust God in his timing and in this program. Amen. I'm going to have my wife lead you in this prayer,
TaQuaris: Heavenly father, thank you that you have given us the shield of faith to quench every fiery dart of the wicked. Lord, we thank you that as we trust in your promises and your words, as we trust that you will come everything that concerns us, we will not succumb to the enemy's seed of doubt. We will not seek alternative paths and methods that are contrary to your will for our lives. Instead, we will walk in righteousness and obedience to your word, in Jesus name. Amen.
Robert: So father, we thank you that when the enemy comes in our lives to throw us off, course, you have given us the weapons to quench all of those fiery arrows. We thank you that we are a child of God that we can hide under your wings and protection. We thank you that we have been given a faith that doesn't waiver in trial that doesn't cower in defeat, but a faith that grows as we see you show up in all of those situations. And so we pray for patience to wait on you, to trust in you and to apply the principles of your word so that we will be victorious through every test and through every trial. We are thank you that we are confident in this prayer and in this declaration because of the gift of salvation, for we are able to hold up the shield of faith because we have relationship with your son, Jesus Christ.
I pray that if there is anyone here, if you are watching by livestream, that you will say, I would love to have the protection of God in my life. I would love that divine help when I go through my battles, but I don't know him, or I would like to know him more. It's just as simple as saying, starting with the words, Lord, forgive me. I need you and I accept you as Lord and savior and that I want to be counted in your household of faith. And I want my sins to be washed away and I want to live a life that brings glory to God. So I'm asking you Lord to receive me now and to walk with me as I walk with you all the days of my life, in Jesus name. Amen.
Brian: If you prayed that prayer with Pastor Robert and TaQuaris, especially those of you who are watching by livestream, we just invite you to contact us, let us know what you have just prayed. We also want to help walk with you in your growth and in your spiritual development. We have some plans for doing a mentoring class here after the first of the year, and we can do it online as well as in person here. Recently, I heard somebody say some to the effect that there is just way too much grace in that sermon. And I thought to myself as I was sitting there just meditating on the grace of the Lord, that's like saying there is too much of God in a sermon. We can't ever have too much of God and we can't ever have too much of his grace because it's his grace that changes us.
It's the goodness of God that transforms our lives. It's not the fear of judgment. It's not the dangling over hell, fire and brimstone that actually changes our hearts. It's the love and mercy and grace of God. So I thank you again, Pastor Robert and TaQuaris for wonderful message today about the promises of God and how they are for us. It's just something that allows us to come to another place of faith in God. I'm so thankful that during the course of my life my relationship with God has not been a bipolar relationship. The reason it hasn't been a bipolar relationship is because I knew in my heart that my salvation wasn't based, as Pastor Roberts said today, on the good things I did. So therefore my salvation wasn't going to be forfeited by the bad things I did, but it was really truly his grace and his mercy that has sustained me.
Even in difficult times, even in setback, even in moments and seasons of great loss, which the enemy uses to bring accusations against us, we can have a faith that's tenacious that says God is good all the time and he will work his purposes in my life through this circumstance that I'm in. So father, I thank you that you are good all the time. Your goodness doesn't come and go. There is no shadow of turning within you Lord. And today we thank you that we have walked with you for many years can again today, just get of ourselves completely and who to you. I thank you, Lord, for the people who have watched this program today, or maybe will watch it again in the future who will pray this prayer to receive you, to receive your promises, to be one who is the recipient of your grace. I thank you that your grace is on and on and on.
It's very much like the song that says "Grace upon grace, like the waves on the shore, always enough yet, always more." There is always another wave of grace that will come in. And Lord, when we look at the ocean and when we sit by a Lakeside and we see the waves just continually come in and it doesn't matter what part of the earth you are on, the waves are always coming. You could be on an island and the waves are coming in on all four sides of that island. You could be, Lord, on opposite side of a lake, and the waves will go on that opposite side as well as the near side. And that's what your grace is like. It's always coming towards us wherever we are at. And I thank you for that today. So may we walk in that grace today. May we be recipients of that grace and mercy. Hallelujah. Let's raise our hands together and let me bless you.
And now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you and may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you and may the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. And may you be a recipient of his continual grace? This, we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. Just meditate on this sermon; go back and listen, and once again, to not only today's sermon, but the last one that Pastor Robert gave, and I know you'll be blessed. God bless you. Have a wonderful day. We'll see you soon.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 12-26-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.