Pastor Dwight Hicks - Living Word Church, Springwood QLD

Understanding the concept of supernatural faith and its importance in today's times.

Exploring how faith is a spiritual thing and a gift of the spirit.

Discussing the difference between faith statements and actual faith in God's promises.

Learning how to deal with situations when things don't turn out as expected, and finding faith in God's sovereignty.

Hello everybody and welcome back to Living Word Church. My name is Wayne Clarus. Thank you so much for tuning in today's broadcast. We appreciate you subscribers. We appreciate the likes and the comments. And just remember by liking and subscribing and commenting that you can give that YouTube algorithm a kick and we can preach Jesus Christ across the world. Now pastors in the house today, I know that's going to be a great anointed word of God. So stay tuned and I'm going to see you at the end of the broadcast. Praise God. Well, we've been sharing over the last couple of weeks, but last week especially, about these times and about what the Lord had spoken to Les and Les had spoken to me. And he said, I always know when people have something of the Lord and when people have something that they believe is of the Lord. And they'll always come to me and say, this is what the Lord is saying and I want you to share it with the people. well, I don't believe that it's the Lord then, even if it is the Lord, because the Lord doesn't go that way. But if someone comes and says, I do have something from the Lord, but I'm going to give it to you, and what you do with it is up to you. You're the pastor. Then I know that's of the Lord. That's what Les did. And that's what Karen does when the Lord speaks to Karen too. And I appreciate that. And that's not to frighten people or anything like that. That's just to keep everything decently in order. Amen? And that's so. Les come and said, well, the Lord spoke to him and he said, I just want to share this with you about that in these days and times that we live, which are troubled times, we understand that, that we need to understand more about supernatural faith. And I thought of it for a little while being the analytical teacher as I am, I thought, right, okay, let's just see this, supernatural faith. and then I felt the Lord speaking to my heart as I started to get into the word of God about it that well all faith to a degree is supernatural is spiritual it's it is it is a fruit of the spirit and it is also a gift of the spirit and that man not only that that Jesus said to have the God kind of faith in Mark 11 or the faith that is of God or the type of faith that God uses so seeing God as a spirit I would say that faith is a spiritual thing and we need to understand it more and more and especially so much more as the times get and the times are hard and that we need to we need to be strong in the things of God so we can stand against whatever the enemy wants to try and throw what it's out there um it also says in one of the passages and i do have it marked actually i'll go to it um it's in um it's in it's in it's in corinthians and we looked at it last week just before we get on to the rest of the message and corinthians chapter 2 in verse 5 it says so that your faith may not stand in the wisdom of men so you could you can take a you can take faith just faith as it is and it can stand what men say doctor says it's terminal looks like you're going to die well I could I answer to myself what the Bible says if a doctor was to say that to me I would say to myself well that's true because the Bible says everyone's going to die it's as simple as that so I don't have fear of death you might say you don't are you not frightened of dying no I'm not frightened of when or how or anything because I'm not even thinking about that and that's not part of my life. I don't need to think about that because Jesus said, it said when you go, if you go into a city tomorrow, it said deal with the things today because tomorrow will look after itself. The evil of tomorrow will look after itself. He said when you go into a city, do you go and you buy a place or to do this or to do that or whatever you might do and he says don't do that. Don't do that. But if you do do that, it's okay. But don't put faith in that because you'll be disappointed. and this is what happened with the disciples. The disciples made some faith statements. They said, we'll never leave you. We're going to be with you. We want to be baptized with the baptism you've got. We want everything that you've got and that and we won't go into teaching about that at this present moment. And Jesus said, well, but you don't know the future. you don't know what I'm baptised with to do but you see they believed when they made that statement they believed that they had enough faith to be able to fulfil that but the only trouble was that when Jesus said you won't Peter rebuked the Lord and said yes we will we'll follow you to the grave and that you know and Jesus said well you'll deny me three times in one day and you'll hear the cock crowing. He said, no, I won't. No, I'll never deny you. Now, I'm not saying that we will do that, but I'm just saying that when we make silly faith statements because we don't know the future, we don't know certain things, then I'm not going to put faith statements in that. I'm not going to, and if it doesn't work out the way I believe that something should work out, I know that there's a better path that God has for me that is more prosperous and more victorious than the one that I had planned. I believe that. And we believe that for the last 50 years of our lives. So what happened was the disciples, we're going to look at today about faith, about when God promises us things, but they don't turn out the way we think they should turn out. But yet we have scripture, we have proof in the Bible, and God actually said it to us personally through the Bible, that this is the way it should be. We confess that we are the healed. No enemy shall come nigh our camp, no sickness our dwelling. And the next minute we've got the whatever-whatever at our heels biting us on the bum. What's going on? Oh, I must have failed my faith. but see this is what we have to this is what we have to as Christians make sure that we know how to deal with things when things don't work out the way they should because as time gets closer there's a lot of things going to turn out the way we didn't think they were going to turn out but we don't know about that so I'm not worrying and fearing what's going to happen what will happen with that well I don't really care what will happen but I do know that when something does happen that I will have the faith in God that all things work together for good because I love God and I'm called according to his purpose I have faith in his Bible that that will happen you might say yes but now don't give me any buts because you know I've seen a lot of buts and been involved in a lot of buts and seen a lot of things work out but there's a situation I want to take you to in Joshua and I want you to we'll go to Joshua 1 for the time that we've got and we will continue on over the next couple of weeks in different things too but this is a situation with Joshua, the Lord is speaking to Joshua I'm going to read from verse 1 and there it is up on the board is the King James I believe but I'm reading from the Aramaic so if it sounds a little bit different it's not really that much different it's not changing anything after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun now it'd be terrible being the son of Nun yeah Moses minister Moses my servant is dead now therefore rise cross this Jordan you and all this people into the land which now I want you to notice and I want you to notice something very specific I want you to notice in the next number of verses in the next nine verses or so or seven verses we read i want you to notice that god is promising promising joshua something and then we're going to come back now this is what he says verse three uh verse two moses the servant is dead my servant now therefore rise cross this jordan you and all those people they've been there 40 years into the land which I am giving to them, even to the children of Israel. Now remember that Joshua isn't a 21-year-old spring chicken. You know, got more energy than a wild malley bull at breeding season. It says every place, now here's the thing, every place, now this is God speaking. This is not someone else speaking and telling you what God says. This is God speaking. Now he says, every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon it shall be yours as I promised Moses so he didn't actually even need a specific personal promise he could actually see that someone was promised to someone else and he could have faith in that promise and it could come to pass you understand that so we hear testimonies of healing and we say my goodness that's a tremendous testimony of healing of Shea that well that's the same as that God did something for that so that we it energizes our faith to believe that that can happen for us and doesn't happen for us stay in context right now from the wilderness of Lebanon even to the great river the river Euphrates all the land of the Hittites as far as the great sea towards the going down of the sun shall be your boundaries now okay here we go first of all he said to him that no man will be able to stand before you now God is saying again no man shall be able to resist you all the days of your life as I was with Moses so I will be with you I will not fail you and I will and I will not forsake you that's what he said didn't he he said I will not fail you and I will not forsake you. No man shall be able to resist you. As I was with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you. Now he says, be strong and of good courage. For you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. They're promises, promises that are in the book. We have promises, we read them in the book who we are. And what we are. And he says to them, I swore to their fathers that can they only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe the do according to all the laws which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Turn not from it to the right or to the left, that you may succeed wherever you go. Now this is God speaking. This is what I need to push home. this is God speaking he says be strong be very courageous now I want you to notice this is God speaking to Joshua but it's not conditional upon the promise it's not conditional upon the promise now God says to us Dwight be strong pray do this do that yes Lord but it's not conditional according to the promise of healing to me or prosperity to me or what God promises because all of the gifts of God, all of the gifts of God are through the righteousness of God, not through my righteousness. So while I am obedient with my giving, it's not my giving that causes me to be blessed. It's not my obedience that causes me to be blessed. if it is, is according to my works. Now, it's right for me to give. He gives me the option to give. He says, if you sow, I'll bless you. If you don't sow, I'll still bless you, but it won be to the comparison that you can be blessed Because God gifts and God promises cannot be conditional upon your good works because your good works even if they spiritual are still not good enough. Paul said that. Paul not only said in Corinthians, though I give my body to be burned, a good work, and offer all of my parts to science or whatever, that's Geraldine and I have done, you know, there'll be no crematory, there'll be no body to, because there won't be any, because it's going to be cut up and used for someone else. You might say, oh really? Yes, because we want our body to keep healing people even after we're gone. And if I can give sight to someone, then I am continuing to fulfil the promises of God of sight to someone even after I've died. That's okay. That's just us. Okay? I don't know what you do. That's between you and God. So he says here, the promises that God gives me is because of his righteousness, not because of any righteousness that I can do. And it's my faith, it's not my faith in my faith of my giving, it's my faith in his righteousness. And then as Paul said, if I give my body to be burned, or spiritually now, if I know all prophecy and I have all faith to be able to move mighty mountains and if I have all wisdom, it doesn't profit me anything. I can have faith, I can have hope, but love is the greatest thing. You might say, oh yes, let's do what the world's saying. Oh, we've just got to love everyone. i love people i just don't love what they're doing and there's a big difference you mean if someone does something evil then you you don't love them no i love them i just don't love what they're doing and i don't have to accept what they're doing and i can be vocal about what they're doing that it's wrong and people could say oh you don't love them no you've forgotten and all about this because my love is not according well my life has to be not according to their works it has to be according to God's love for them and God's love for me amen has to be otherwise you get caught up in this sloppiness you know well you know Jesus loved everyone don't you love everyone you know straight away most Christians are stumbling there with a mouth wide open with flies flying in and out excuse me it's the Cuban cigar now he says here only be strong verse 7 that you may observe to do according to the laws of Moses my servant commanded you turn not to the right or to the left that you may succeed in whether you go now this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth but you shall meditate and we can take separate things here and look at them. And meditation is really important for strong faith. We meditate on God's word. We confess God's word. Because faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God. So when I confess faith, the faith that is in the Bible, more faith is being added to my faith because faith comes by hearing. Not what other people say, yes it does come, not by what I read, but what I confess, what I meditate. So the more I meditate, which is confessing God's word over my life, my family's life, the church's life and everyone's life, more faith is being added to me because faith comes. you might say do you ever feel that you don't have enough faith faith isn't a feeling it's not a visual perception I don't walk by what I can see but I walk by faith well what is faith faith is a confession in God's word faith is not a confession in my face faith is a confession of God's word of who I am in him through the righteousness of God and if I just read it faith doesn't come by reading faith comes by speaking the word of God that's the reason why the Jews especially the Old Testament they would never ever they would never ever read the Bible or read the scriptures without writing it down and and speaking it as they're writing it you man what a waste of time no they were just smart that because god told them to do that so he's saying here in this book of the law should not depart over your mouth but you shall meditate there and don't oh don't well we just got to confess god's word all the time well you're confessing everything else all the time i can't do this i can't do that this is getting bad this is happening the cats pooed on the carpet the goldfish had died the do you know the things are at work, the church is going downhill, you know, and this is happening and that's happening, and God, what are you going to do about it? And God says, what are you going to do about it? Well, this is a bit crappy, God, as far as I'm concerned. Now you want me to do something about it? Yes! That would be a change, wouldn't it? But it's so hard. You'd be in a Christian. It's not. It's hard striving. It's not hard being a Christian. you don't have to be smart you don't have to be strong you don't have to be an intellect you don't have to have a university student because those things come because you believe Bible believing so he says here this book of the law read that and it says here therein for then you shall succeed and prosper but I have commanded you be strong of good courage fear not neither be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go now if God's personally spoke that to me I could think that I could do anything I could do anything anytime because that's what the book said and this was okay in the first battle or let me give you the meaning of the word courage the ordinary meaning of the word courage not the Bible meaning but the ordinary it means the quality of one's mind and spirit that enables a person to face danger or a difficult situation the bible meaning the hebrew meaning it means trusting in the lord as our true source and strength because you know if you're going to fight a spiritual enemy and we do fight a spiritual enemy we don't fight a natural or carnal enemy then we need god's strength because my strength can't do it because it's that which is flesh is flesh and that which is spirit is spirit. It's as simple as that. So what happens here is that we see this word here, observe, in verse 7. And this is what observe means. It means to hedge about with thorns. Man alive. Can I put thorns in my undies? the hedge about with thorns it means to guard generally to protect and attend to now if you were to check we won't go there but in Genesis when the Lord God took the man Adam and he put him in the garden it says to garden to keep it or to tend it and the actual Hebrew meaning of the context of it means to hedge it with thorns so hang on here well the devil the devil is not even in the picture and we do know that if you read on that the serpent is more subtle than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made not in the garden he was to hedge the way of the tree of life he was to hedge the garden he was to hedge also the knowledge of tree of good and evil but he didn't or he failed in that and the serpent got in and the serpent spoke not by we don't the serpent didn't stand on the tail and go oh hi Adam how you going today things all right you don't look too well you know no it wasn't the devil with his hand in a sock or the devil with his hand up the snake's bum and using it as a puppet and we and remember the temptation was a temptation not of natural sight but to believe that there was wisdom and knowledge outside what God would give you that they could use. And he was to hedge it. Well somewhere along the line he must have fell down on the hedging to allow the serpent to get in to attack Eve and he stood right alongside of Eve and we don't have time to go into all of that. but we do know that he must have failed for the serpent to get in and it's the same thing here he says he says I want you that you may observe to do according to all so I want you to hedge the word of God around your family I want you to hedge the word of God around your husband around your wife around your mother and your father around your children does that mean that nothing will happen? No, it just means that you've hedged around it. It's better than not having a hedge. So what happens is that, to keep the story going, the Lord speaks to Joshua, sends some spies in, spy out Jericho. Now remember that Jericho, if you read the context of the whole story of Jericho, 40 years ago, they sent spies in. and we know 10 came back they're bad spies two came back they're good spies and they brought a good report the others were an evil report they choose to listen to the evil report instead of the good report but but what happened was that if you read it in the bible it says there that the people in jericho and the people in the promised land feared feared the children of israel because of the great things that God had done to Egypt because of them. They didn't want them to cross over. And for the next 40 years, Jericho built a city that was protected. Excuse me. Built a city that was protected. Put a big monstrous wall around it. The chariots could go around and protect it. They were fearful. Now, they came back and they said, yes, everything you said is true, but there's giants in the land. Not only is there giants in the land, we're just grasshoppers in their sight. Now, I want you to notice something in the Bible. I don't know what's wrong with my ear. so the children of Israel feared but not only did the children of Israel fear the inhabitants of Canaan feared the children of Israel thought they were grasshoppers in the sight and the Canaanites thought they were grasshoppers in the sight so they prepared to protect themselves we know Jericho forget about what happened to Jericho They came in, did what God said, completely destroyed, never to be rebuilt again, had a tremendous victory. The harlot was protected in a household because of the thin red ribbon that was put outside, which is the blood of Jesus. We assume that what it represents. Everything's good. They had a really good time. First promise, God said to Joshua, man, this is fun. I tell you what, we're going to have the time of our lives here. Now there's a little city called Ai and it's actually in two different directions depending on which you go but it's around about 10 miles or so or 20 miles in this perimeter. No not the triangle the Devil Triangle the Bermuda Triangle anything like that but it a little place Now it was fortified and had a lot of people there that were But the children of Israel they were tens of thousands So Joshua says this, Joshua says... They send spies and the spies come back and say, Oh, don't waste your time, just send a few in. So they send in 3,000. So off they go. Remember that God's promised to Joshua. He said, No man will ever stand before you. don't fear all of these things and that and he said don't you ever worry he said my promises my personal promises to you he said I will never fall you I'll never disappoint you second battle it sends in three now God always said just send the whole army in and wipe them out didn't he sends in 3,000 they get in there while the rest of the children of Israel are back here now enjoying the party you know they're sort of partying on because they've defeated Jericho and everything like that and we'll just send 3,000 out. Now this is the trouble with we as Christians. We better make sure that we're not partying when we should be fighting. Amen? And you can interpret that however you like. So anyhow, they stayed back. They thought, yeah, 3,000 trained soldiers are going in there. They go in. They go in. Whoa! Pull the chair there. Off they go in the opposite direction. Well, the Aonites, the men of A, they come out and they kill 36. 3,000 and they kill 36. 36. And the children of Israel, the soldiers, were fearful, frightened. 36. You take 36 off of 3,000. That's not a lot. So they come back to Joshua. Oh, I tell you what, we've got our bums whipped. you know so Joshua he goes to the Lord this is not a good day for Joshua because what happens is he says here no I won't go there he says here that the elders of the children of Israel and the priests and Joshua they do the old ashes thing you know they put sackcloth on the head throw ashes on themselves or that and you know like now if it gets that desperate with you don't call me um so the only ashes i like are the cricket ones so so anyhow so so joshua the lord says well you've sinned hello jesus i didn't sin no but someone in your camp has now i'm not being disrespectful to any of us as families or anything like that but as men and wives I will say also we do need to be the priests of our home and we do need to make sure we know what happens in our home that and we do need to make sure that we do not entertain things that we should not entertain in what we do and what we watch what we see where we go and who we go and do it with because they're called the accursed things or accuse things now God loves us and and God loves us with an eternal love that is that is no longer conditional on us he just loves us he loves us so much is that he wants us to understand something and I'll talk on this at a later's minute later on but I said to the Lord I said why would you pick 12 if you know so much that they're just crummy that they're just they're going to bail out they're going to do this why would you pick 120 and they they run away why would you pick 90 and they run away and at the end of the day you've got your mum you got mary and you've got john the youngest disciple you know it's not a good turnout at a world event uh and that and this is and i know the lord said this to me because this is he's and i said to the lord why didn't you pull him aside and give him a kick in the bum and try to straighten him out he says because it wouldn't have made any difference either i says and i said well why wouldn't he says has it made any difference with you? I said, you mean Darren, don't you? You don't mean me, Jesus, don't you? You mean Darren. You mean the other people in the church. You don't mean me, do you, Jesus? Well, yes, I actually do mean you because I need you to turn the mirror around and have a look. And I said, and I said, but let's just get back to the 12 disciples and stop being so picky on me. So he said, well, the 12 disciples, why would you pick them? Why would you anoint them? Why would you do that? He says, because it is the same with every Christian. He says, I give them a choice. They didn't have to do the things they did. It was a choice. And as pastors, we found the best way to pastor is to give you a choice. As leaders, as church people, to give you a choice. Do you want to come to church or not? Do you want to be committed or not? do you want to give or not it's your choice it's not mine and that allows you to be the best you that you can be and it allows there is only one mediator between god and man and i read in the bible that it's not me thank god for that because i would kill everyone and then at the end of that when there's no one left after i've killed geraldine and the kids at everything i'd find a sword and throw myself on it and i don't mean the bible because it because it's not my responsibility the holy spirit is to teach you i give you the information god's information and you make a choice you can be as committed as you like do i love you any more or less i just love you because god loves you and it's not conditional now the moment we we slip over into condition we have to pull ourselves up as your pastors and how we know that is that we want to correct you oh that won't go down too well because when god corrects me i i end i i pull the old i pull the old life out of the cupboard well i tell you what jesus you know just by the way you know did this do you remember what happened to me before i was saved when i was a kid and happened after i was saved and when that when i was pastoring and you know the mob of crumbs and they all left and remember all that and and and jesus said this to me one day i need to get back to the scriptures jesus said this to me this was a bummer you know because i thought i had him because i said i didn't ask to be born to my mum and dad wasn't my fault you know man i didn't i didn't even know i was the quickest tadpole in the pool you know it would have been better that the blue heron got me and that. But so I popped out, you know. And he said, I know this was the Lord. He said, would you forgive me for what happened to you? I'm going to turn around and say, no, ain't I? Not even in the fog. He had me, again, he had me pushed into the beeping corner with no way out except to say, I'm sorry. He says, I will fix all of the bad choices that have come against you. But I didn't cause them. I didn't allow them. They happened. So stop bringing them up all the time. And I don't do it anymore. Don't bring them up all the time. the reasons why you think that and they're good reasons by the way that you think i should bless you because it has to be on my love not on your love or me feeling sorry for you that's the reason why he always says what are you going to do about it i don't even do that anymore because i know what to do about it to use god's word to speak god's word does your mind ever get into a weak state yes yes 24 hours a day you know it's it's wild you know but you know um i'm not i'm not to walk by what's in my mind to walk by what the bible says and i confess what the bible says and then i have faith in what the bible says because my confession is reminding me the truth of the bible it's actually telling me who i am not what i was so we find out here that this um just as well we don't do it like this today something's happening in our church let's find out the family that's sitting this is where you all look now and and if you're really spiritual you'll go or yamaha yamaha yamaha yamaha and if you don't speak in tongues say anything that doesn't sound sensible like I do every Sunday. So what happens is that they got in there, he saw some shekels of gold, talents of silver or whichever it was and a little idol and he put them in his pocket, he ran back to his tent, dug a hole in the sand, put all his clothes over it and he didn't think God would know. And poor old Josh, he did everything right by the way. so when something goes wrong in the church i always blame other people i never blame me i'm not silly everyone else has got something in their tent don't they you know well that really goes really well as pastoring no it doesn't doesn't work either so even though this is an old testament thing we i could use a lot of new testament scriptures to show it too because what we sow is what we reap you know it's pretty easy you know and if i don't like what's happening well then i stop sowing certain seeds and if i don't know what's happening from whatever seed i'm sowing i ask god and the thing about god is real quick to answer the moment you open the book but if i go to prayer and say god show me what's wrong in my life no answer i must be okay beauty i love it when god does it this is the time i don't want god to answer if he did answer he'd go on forever um and that but if i do go to the book because the book has the answer and and and i don't know about you i can just do this i don't like that scripture there's another one now for two or three witnesses okay jesus the first two are mistake I'll give you a third chance I'm not going to read it anymore because all it ever ever does it tells me what I'm doing wrong because that's my perception of God the book doesn't tell me what I'm doing is wrong the book tells me how to change what I'm doing it doesn't condemn so what happened is that so they got all the children together the children of Israel, before the elders and all that, and by the... So what happens is that they find out who it is, cut the story short. He says, I'm really, really sorry. It's too late to be sorry in the Old Testament. I mean, sorry in the New Testament, in the Old Testament, it's too late to be sorry. Because God says before, when you find them, burn them. not just him all his cattle his wives his kids the kittens the only safe thing is a goldfish it's in the water so anyhow they find them they take them over to the valley they all stone them and how many times can you throw a stone at someone they all throw stones they kill them then they burn their body and they put more stones over them you know talk about crematorium first crematorium in the bible so anyhow they go out they go out and they go into ai again and god gives the plan okay this is what i want you to do i want you to send some guys behind the city i want you to have a bundle go into the city then turn around and run away as though you're frightened like you did last time remember that time i do actually don't send three thousand and send all in so they're running away and and the and the few thousand that are hiding in the hills behind the city, they come down and plunder the city. So AI's crew are all out over there, you know, running, running, running, running, running, running, and then someone says, someone sending smoke signals Oh no it our city burning So they turn around to go back they go back everything destroyed everything burnt out That's all the kids, everything's burnt out. Israel comes in, kills everyone, all the soldiers, kills everyone, gets the king, hangs him upside down on a tree, stone him, hang him upside down on a tree until the afternoon. He goes in the afternoon and says, cut him down. you know as I cut him down and give him a decent burial I mean you're dead who cares anyway but um and and Joshua learned a truth he learned a truth that even though you can be doing the right thing sometimes things don't work out because of other people um and I'm going to close with this because it's important to close now and this is for me this is not for you this is how I learnt things. I went to when my kids were teenagers and they were, our kids were always angels, death angels, dark angels, they were good kids, we never had trouble with drugs or drinking or anything or sex or anything like that or anything and I said to the kids if you get involved with them don't tell me, I do not want you to come home feel sorry and tell me do not tell god don't tell me and these are my teenage kids so they never did but they didn't anyway you know um we were very close as a family and that and they but this there was a certain time in another months man they were being little pigs you know now i'm pretty i'm pretty straightforward the kids okay i'll tell you what i can kill you and make more At that time I hadn't had the snip Hadn't been to the shearers And we just said we'll kill you and make some more And that was a joke Because they knew we wouldn't kill them anyway Because we're pastoring And it doesn't look good that the next funeral you're doing Is your three kids So what happened was that We sat them around the table I mean I was I was, you know, I'm a very volatile man because I still have, I don't have a lot of anger, but I can defend myself because of the old life. You know, even though I'm a man that would not start a fight or anything like today, but I'm very, I can protect myself extremely. And I don't fight fair, never did, because you don't win fighting fair, you know. so anyhow so um and i'm trying to be smart i'm just trying to say i said to my kids i said okay this is it we're pulling you out of out of um christian school because i'm sick and tired of wasting my good money sending you to christian school and you're just behaving like little pigs and i gave them all a piece of my mind that means i didn't have anything left geraldine's standing there as an obedient wife just saying nothing i'm sure she was just shaking her head but but she knew that they're being little pigs too you know and they're teenage pigs so anyhow i go into my office walk into my office close my door and jesus said how did that go serious i can still hear how did that go and i said well i'll tell you what i i'm not going to get used i hate being used you know especially in those i'm not going to be used if anyone doesn't like what i do you know it's as simple as that i'll just cut them off and i'll start again you He says, that's good. That's very good what you've done there, Dwight. He said, you're pulling them out of a Christian school where they're going to learn Christian things. Open the door, walk back to the kids. They're still sitting at the table. I said, we're going to rephrase everything now. I'm going to punish you by making you stay at the Christian school. Now, I belted our kids. We belted our kids, you know. And I don't care what you think of. It was cruel or whatever. But they're good kids. and they did what they were told. You know, they don't have to do what I tell them now because they're adults. I mean, I can't take Dwight. He's 6'7", he's 45. I can't put him over my knee. It'll wreck my knee. I mean, he's up. And at the age, Dwight was 12 and he was 6' something and I said, we need to make... And I was still belting him with the belt, trust me. And I said, we need... It's not working. I say, get on the bed, and I belch with a belt, and it's like I've pulled a man off the street. And I said, at any time you can take that belt and shove it down my throat and kill me. And I said, we need to make a deal. And I made it with him when he was about 12, or he could have been 13 or 14, he was definitely in high school. And I said, I tell you what, we'll make a deal. If you start to act like a man, I'll stop belting you. Tell you what, he was acting like a man instantly And I learnt something too In life there are stages As a father I've got to finish As a father I had to learn that when they were children, they were children And then there was a certain time when they became teenagers That I had to leave them be teenagers And I had to do a lot of praying and it worked but I still had to do a lot of praying and then when my son got older when Dwight got out of his teenage and he started to he was always very close to me all the time I had to let him be a man outside of me and I would write letters to him because at any time we would speak there would be two heads two very strong people so I'd write letters to him and I'd explain to him about that when he gets older there will be times when he will have to stop being a father that instructs or chastises to a father that instructs then eventually being a father that will stand alongside of him and every one of us have to do that with our children but we as pastors do that with you because it's not my faith that you stand on it's your faith and that's why you are good people because we let you stand on your faith do we think you should do things i think my kids should be doing things different you know i think i tell you what we tell us we i'm sorry we don't go and tell them you should be doing this you should be doing that it'll work out a lot better we pray so we don't say oh god make them do this and make it we just say lord we believe that the eyes of their understanding and their heart is being opened and being led by the spirit of god and sometimes they come back after just a couple of days and say something i go jesus don't answer it so quick you know i'm astonished what happens when you pray a prayer of faith and you trust god i'd like you to stand up with me heavenly father we love you and lord every one of us are at all different stages of growth. Some of us were further along, we've slipped back. But some of us have also corrected the slipping back and are moving on. Some of us are just keep moving on, Father, from faith to faith and from grace to grace. It doesn't make any of us any better or any stronger or anything than anyone else. Because, Father, we're a body. We're not a body of separate individuals. we're a family we are the family of God and we will treat each other as family while we don't have to accept our attitudes or our rudeness or anything but we want people to be like that with us too but Father one thing we will do we will stand before you we'll stand before you one day not as a husband not as a wife not as an individual person but we will stand before you as a son or as a daughter and you won't remind us of our failures they'll be so distant what you'll do is you'll open your arms and you'll say well done you may not have been as well done as you could have been well done people you never will be but he still will open his arms and say well done some of us will just say my God we made it and you know if I got to heaven and just said that I'd still be happy but I want to influence as many people as I can Julian and I do we want to try and be an example an example if you're going to have anyone's faith to follow we want you to follow our faith because it's proven church, to us it's proven we have proven that what you sow when it comes to finance and good things, that we have proven that God honours abundantly and I stand before you today Geraldine and I stand before you today not because we're smart or intelligent or educated we stand before you because we know what God says he does he just doesn't do it straight away he just doesn't do it when you ask it now I never believed that I could be so happy in a marriage for all of the failed marriages that my family and my brothers and sisters have had all of the abuse and drunks and crime and that there was we stand that at least all of them got born again in heaven now but we stand because of you Jesus not because of anything else and we want you to know if and I'm not saying that you're not if you will do what's right against all odds if you will do what's right and if you will pray and pray a lot God will do a lot if you'll do the word the word will work for you but if you don't do the word as much as you could when you can do it God will still love you and still bless you and keep you but it just won't be the best while you're living on this earth it just won't be the best and I want the best for you I want the best for my kids and the best for my grandchildren we shake our heads sometimes with the grandchildren and think my God they should be doing it different but do you know they're not our kids but I can pray I don't pray God make them do this or make them do that let your will let them love you let them find you in everything they do let them see you let them be amazed at you and in time they will they still will never ever do what you think they should do even when they're 45 or 42 or 39 but we love our kids we love them and we respect every decision that they make in life even if we think it's wrong we respect it and we let them know because at the end of the day we're not closing doors we're opening doors amen and we do that with you church people too as long as you will trust us and be your your pastor here and if you go somewhere else God still loves you he probably won't love you as much he will love you just as much and he will guide you and he will help you because God is a father and he loves you isn't that cool it's really cool it's great thank you so much for tuning in today just remember that we love you here at Living Word if you find yourself going past Paxton Street at 10am on a Sunday morning we are here at Living Word Church Springwood remember that you can like you can subscribe and you can comment on these videos my name is Wayne Clarice I'll see you next week be blessed Bye.

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