The Danger of the ‘Almost’ Christian

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]:
Amen.
[00:00:01] Amen.
[00:00:03] Amen.
[00:00:03] We're going to focus our attention to the Word of the Lord today.
[00:00:06] Genesis chapter 32.
[00:00:09] Easy to find.
[00:00:10] First book of the Bible.
[00:00:12] First five books are given credit by being written by Moses.
[00:00:16] Some other writers might have contributed, but mostly being credit given by Moses.
[00:00:23] First five books of the Bible are known as the Pentateuch.
[00:00:25] Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
[00:00:29] Genesis being the first book.
[00:00:31] We call it construction.
[00:00:33] Construction of the world and then instruction through the books of Deuteronomy.
[00:00:39] Given of the law.
[00:00:40] Amen.
[00:00:41] Genesis chapter 32.
[00:00:43] As you're finding it today, we will, along the end of the month, have some guest speakers.
[00:00:55] We'll be here with us with his wife and then in February Brother Hippolyte will be with us as well for about two weeks apiece I'm having surgery I will be in church unless the Lord smacks me down
[00:01:09] I just might not be able to stand up, praise God.
[00:01:12] But we preemptively got some folks lined up to preach for us so that there could be some recovery time so that we don't slow down in revival.
[00:01:22] Amen.
[00:01:22] I don't want you to wait on me for revival.
[00:01:25] We got to keep on moving.
[00:01:26] Genesis chapter 32 verses 24, 24 through 26.
[00:01:32] It says this, Jacob was left alone.
[00:01:38] and there wrestled with a man with him until the breaking of the day when he had saw he prevailed not against him he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was at a joint as he wrestled with him and he said let me go for the day breaketh and he said and he said i will not let thee go unless
[00:02:02] I want to preach today the battle before the breakthrough.
[00:02:07] The battle before the breakthrough.
[00:02:10] One more time, you got any prayer left in you?
[00:02:12] You got any prayer left in you today?
[00:02:14] Let's ask God to help us
[00:02:18] God, thanking you, loving you, and giving you praise today, Lord.
[00:02:22] Mighty God, trusting in your namesake and your glory, God, to bless.
[00:02:26] Move upon this message this morning, God, according to your will and your glory, Lord, in Jesus' name.
[00:02:33] Amen.
[00:02:33] You may be seated today.
[00:02:36] Praise God.
[00:02:39] While we're getting settled, we have our wonderful plastic chairs here today, and they are actually pretty comfortable.
[00:02:50] In service back in 2001 or so, they had plastic chairs as well.
[00:02:56] And those old Kmart chairs were cheap, but boy, they were comfortable.
[00:03:00] Praise God.
[00:03:01] And their whole sanctuary was basically a tent.
[00:03:05] And they had the old Kmart chairs.
[00:03:08] And I know for some of us, we don't even know what Kmart is.
[00:03:12] I want us all to kind of put our hats on to say I'm going to practice what's preached today.
[00:03:36] Today.
[00:03:37] Amen.
[00:03:37] When you go through sickness season, it's tough to have faith that God is going to move mountains.
[00:03:42] When you have seasons of profound sickness, it's hard to say, well, hey, God is having revival among the land.
[00:03:49] But you've got to look at the big picture, not just at the smallness of what we see here and right now.
[00:03:55] I've got to keep my eyes on the big picture with God.
[00:03:58] We're talking about an entire world where God is still moving and blessing.
[00:04:02] We're talking about an entire world where people are still being baptized in Jesus' wonderful name.
[00:04:09] Where people are still receiving the Holy Ghost on the side of streets because people are willing to share the gospel with them in Jesus' name.
[00:04:17] That's still happening.
[00:04:18] That's still taking place.
[00:04:19] And we look forward for it to happen once again in the city of Mooresville in the Lake Norman area.
[00:04:24] We look forward to happen in your life.
[00:04:27] Man, I want a shaking to take place upon your life.
[00:04:31] Now, I don't want it to hurt you, but you got to understand that whatever God needs to do to get your attention, He's going to do it.
[00:04:41] Whatever God needs to do for there to be a shaking, He's going to do it.
[00:04:46] And then it falls upon our shoulders to move upon that shaking.
[00:04:51] The Bible tells us that our walk with God is going to be a journey of ups and downs.
[00:04:54] Welcome to the roller coaster, folks.
[00:04:56] Hope you enjoy the ride.
[00:04:58] Hallelujah.
[00:04:59] Psalms 30 and 5 says, But His anger endureth but for a moment.
[00:05:05] His favor is life.
[00:05:07] And here's what we like to quote.
[00:05:10] Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
[00:05:17] Hey, I want joy to come on today.
[00:05:19] Hallelujah.
[00:05:20] The sun is up and joy can be right here today.
[00:05:24] Joy is going to come in the morning.
[00:05:26] Hallelujah.
[00:05:27] Weeping is going to have its night, but joy is going to have its purpose place, its perfect timing.
[00:05:34] Amen.
[00:05:35] So there's a time for weeping as the book of Ecclesiastes says.
[00:05:40] We're continually moving from strength to strength.
[00:05:49] We're moving from victory to victory, glory to glory, mountaintop to mountaintop, but sometimes, valley to valley.
[00:06:00] We understand that the Bible lets us know in Psalms 23 there is a valley
[00:06:04] of the Shadow of Death.
[00:06:07] And we all have to travail that at some point in time or another.
[00:06:12] But between the victories there are struggles.
[00:06:13] Between the breakthroughs there are battles that we have to fight.
[00:06:17] Most of the time the devil knows just how close you are to the border of the land before you even realize how close that you actually are.
[00:06:26] Some of us don't even realize how close or how far away from God that we actually are.
[00:06:30] But you got to believe that the spirit realm knows and understands just how close you are.
[00:06:35] That's why we say we got to pray so that we can get a good temperature on where we are with the spirit.
[00:06:43] The devil knows more about our strength than we do sometimes.
[00:06:49] The enemy knows more about what God wants for our life sometimes than we know about God.
[00:06:56] And before every breakthrough, there's an even harder battle to fight.
[00:07:00] Somebody said, at every new level, there's another devil.
[00:07:06] Praise God.
[00:07:07] Glad you enjoyed that.
[00:07:08] Amen.
[00:07:08] Glad you're clapping your hands to that.
[00:07:10] Praise God.
[00:07:11] Glad you enjoyed that today.
[00:07:12] At every level, there's a new devil.
[00:07:14] And right at that point of breakthrough, there's a battle to be fought.
[00:07:18] Can you say amen?
[00:07:20] It's our job to fight back against the enemy of our souls.
[00:07:26] The struggle never lets up.
[00:07:29] The struggle to be a holy roller, to roll back over on Sunday morning and to say, well, I got a few more minutes.
[00:07:37] It's the job of the enemy to keep us down so that we surrender and never experience breakthrough.
[00:07:46] And for some people it's been way too long since you've experienced breakthrough.
[00:07:51] It's been way too long since you've tapped into the real power of God.
[00:07:55] We want to see that happen in your life.
[00:07:57] We want to see it take place in your life.
[00:07:59] But you've got to understand there's going to be a battle before it takes place.
[00:08:02] Galatians 6 and 9, here are what it says.
[00:08:05] Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season you shall reap, if we faint not.
[00:08:14] Now that word faint doesn't mean necessarily to pass out.
[00:08:19] We don't want you to do that.
[00:08:21] But it means for us to basically stop to fall asleep at the process.
[00:08:28] I can't faint.
[00:08:30] I'm not going to give up.
[00:08:31] I'm not going to give in.
[00:08:32] I'm not going to retreat.
[00:08:34] Somebody just close your eyes and stretch your hand toward heaven and just say that as a
[00:08:37] I'm not going to give up.
[00:08:39] I'm not going to give in today.
[00:08:40] I'm not going to faint this morning.
[00:08:43] I'm not going to stop on what God has in store for me.
[00:08:47] Hallelujah.
[00:08:48] I'll preach it to you.
[00:08:49] Believe it.
[00:08:50] I'll preach it to you.
[00:08:51] You understand it.
[00:08:52] I'll preach it to you.
[00:08:53] Respond to it.
[00:08:54] Mighty God, let us receive it today according to your will and your glory, God.
[00:08:59] Thank you, Jesus.
[00:09:01] Amen.
[00:09:01] Strength is not born in miracles.
[00:09:05] Strength is born in the battle.
[00:09:08] Nobody ever got more muscles laying on the couch.
[00:09:12] Now you might save your life from being worn out.
[00:09:15] But you ain't building any muscle laying on the couch.
[00:09:18] It's in the pressing.
[00:09:20] It's in the pushing.
[00:09:22] It's in the strength that comes from that.
[00:09:27] Being made ready to inhabit the promised land.
[00:09:31] Our greatest battle comes right before your biggest breakthrough.
[00:09:38] so somebody might say pastor fight all hell I hear you I hear you pastor I have prayed and it feels like nothing has been done in fact things have even gotten worse I hear you can I say to you can I present to you today that just like with Jacob that we read in the opening scripture there's a wrestling match going on and I don't want you to let
[00:10:05] Go until the Lord blesses you.
[00:10:08] Until there is a breakthrough in your life.
[00:10:11] Hey folks, you got to understand the value of breakthrough.
[00:10:15] You got to understand the glory of breaking through something that you haven't broke through in a long time.
[00:10:20] My God, give us the breakthrough.
[00:10:22] My God, give us personal revival.
[00:10:25] My God, give us what we need according to your will.
[00:10:27] My God, let us hold on to your righteousness.
[00:10:32] Let us press through the pain.
[00:10:32] Let us press through this struggle.
[00:10:35] You can quit all you want to, but God's going to see fit that we have a people.
[00:10:44] I read a story, and this is where the message came from.
[00:10:47] Some of you have likely never heard of Chuck Yeager.
[00:10:52] My mom's husband went to Yeager High School, West Virginia.
[00:10:56] That's where he's from.
[00:10:58] Chuck Yeager, who was that guy?
[00:10:59] Well, at one point in time,
[00:11:02] Nobody had ever traveled faster than the speed of sound.
[00:11:07] It's Mach 1.
[00:11:09] The U.S. Army wanted to do it back in the 40s and in 1947 there was an attempt to go that fast and the flyer of that airplane testified saying that the faster that it got the more that the plane just began to shake.
[00:11:31] And it got to where the point was.
[00:11:33] It shook so much and shook so hard he let up.
[00:11:39] He said, I'm not going out like this.
[00:11:43] I'm not going to go out like this.
[00:11:45] This whole plane is going to fall apart.
[00:11:49] And maybe that was true for 1947.
[00:11:52] But just a few years later, Chuck Yeager had the same thought in mind.
[00:11:57] He said, I'm gonna break the sound barrier.
[00:11:59] I'm gonna travel faster.
[00:12:01] That's pretty fast.
[00:12:03] I'm gonna travel faster than the sound barrier.
[00:12:06] And the same thing began to happen when he was flying.
[00:12:09] There was a shaking, and the faster that he went, it intensified.
[00:12:14] I mean, have you ever been in a rickety automobile?
[00:12:17] I gotta tell you, aside from the story, we used to have a church van, the first church van we had.
[00:12:22] Sister Hedrick will remember this.
[00:12:23] Man, tell you what, we got it for like a couple thousand dollars, and the faster you, if you got to 40 or 45, that thing was shaking like that.
[00:12:32] You had to ride on it.
[00:12:34] We had kids packed in that thing.
[00:12:36] We had them strapped to the top, bungee corded to the back.
[00:12:40] People in the aisles of that thing.
[00:12:42] Totally not safe.
[00:12:45] When I was writing this story, I thought about that old van.
[00:12:48] We sold it for what we had in it.
[00:12:50] Amazingly, it was held together by rust.
[00:12:56] Rust and duct tape.
[00:12:58] I can't believe we traveled with that thing.
[00:13:00] It was a moving sheet of metal.
[00:13:03] But you gotta figure it was much of the same way with Chuck Yeager when he was trying to break the sound barrier.
[00:13:10] The faster he went, the more it would begin to shake and shake and things begin to fall and fall apart and so he could have let up
[00:13:20] But he chose to say, not this time, I'm going to keep pushing forward.
[00:13:25] And lo and behold, ultimately, when he got past a certain point, the shaking stopped and there was a boom.
[00:13:31] They call it the sonic boom.
[00:13:32] If any of you ever read about this.
[00:13:34] And there was a boom and everything just kind of got peaceful as he broke the sound barrier.
[00:13:41] Stopped once he got past a certain point.
[00:13:47] But the shaking was at its greatest intensity right before he broke the sound barrier.
[00:13:55] Folks, I gotta testify to you today.
[00:13:58] that the battle could be the most intense right before the Lord's trying to pour out the blessing that you need in your life hey it might before I might throw in the towel could it be the case that the Lord wants you to get the biggest blessing that you've ever received in your life hey I'm gonna push the pedal a little harder I'm gonna push just a little bit harder today and I'm not gonna stop somebody say in Jesus name
[00:14:24] Chuck Yeager said they've been this close before but no matter what happens today I'm gonna do it and with that he shut the controls forward and the sonic boom took place I'm telling somebody today everything feels like it's shaking and rattling and tossing but don't turn around now you're on the verge of a new experience that'll bring you higher and even greater than you've experienced before
[00:14:51] It may not be fun.
[00:14:53] It may not be a bed of roses, but it's the point of what you need to be with God.
[00:14:58] It may seem that all the forces have come together to destroy you, but I can't turn back now.
[00:15:04] Amen.
[00:15:05] Jacob said, and he presents to us in this opening scripture, that I will not let you go.
[00:15:11] I will not stop fighting until you bless me.
[00:15:18] It's a canny thing that I've got a hip problem myself.
[00:15:20] Praise God.
[00:15:21] My name just happens to be Jacob too.
[00:15:24] So this resonates well with me.
[00:15:29] It resonates well.
[00:15:31] Some of us have said, I've never been in this position in my life.
[00:15:39] Here's what Paul said.
[00:15:40] Now Paul said a lot, and I like when he says this in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 8-9.
[00:15:46] He says this, We're troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
[00:15:53] We are perplexed, but not in despair.
[00:15:57] Persecuted, but not forsaken.
[00:16:02] Cast down, but not destroyed.
[00:16:09] It flips the page on that.
[00:16:11] Yeah, we're experiencing this, but...
[00:16:14] Yes, we're going through this, but...
[00:16:16] Yes, we're facing this, but...
[00:16:21] I want you to receive that today.
[00:16:23] I'm not destroyed.
[00:16:24] I'm not in despair.
[00:16:25] I'm not forsaken.
[00:16:26] I'm not distressed.
[00:16:28] Somebody close your eyes and thank the Lord today.
[00:16:30] God, I thank you this morning.
[00:16:32] I believe in you today, God.
[00:16:34] You have been holy, high and lifted up today, God.
[00:16:38] I'm not frightened by the shaking.
[00:16:39] I'm pressing forward.
[00:16:41] Amen.
[00:16:42] In these last days, as I have said, there is a shaking and there is a sifting.
[00:16:49] Everything that can be shaken will be shaken.
[00:16:52] We're experiencing that right now.
[00:16:56] Right before you land on the shore that God has promised, there's not going to be a hammock, but there might be a plow.
[00:17:05] Right before you get to the promised land, there's not going to be a cup of water, but a shovel.
[00:17:12] So I don't want to give up now.
[00:17:14] I got to keep pressing this a little bit further.
[00:17:17] Amen.
[00:17:18] Somebody said, and our pastor used to say, the darker the night, the greater the light.
[00:17:26] He also used to say that the darkest part of the night is just before dawn.
[00:17:33] Maybe some of you have stayed up all night.
[00:17:35] Maybe some of you have gotten up real early in the morning.
[00:17:38] And just before the light comes up, it is pitch black dark.
[00:17:43] Can't see the stars, can't see the moon.
[00:17:46] But it's dark such as it is right before the Lord wants to bless you.
[00:17:53] There's an inheritance to be given among the people.
[00:17:56] There's an inheritance to be given among you if you care enough to receive it.
[00:18:00] Amen.
[00:18:01] Those that are passive will stop.
[00:18:05] Those that are passive will turn back.
[00:18:08] Those that are passive in their walk will not continue to press forward.
[00:18:13] Let me bring to you the story of King Agrippa.
[00:18:17] Paul preached to King Agrippa.
[00:18:19] Paul preached a great message to him.
[00:18:22] And King Agrippa said something very interesting in Acts 26 and 28.
[00:18:26] He said, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.
[00:18:33] Man, wouldn't it be a terrible testimony to say God almost blessed me, but I pulled back.
[00:18:42] God almost poured out the breakthrough, but I pulled back.
[00:18:47] God almost did something miraculous in my life, but I just went a different direction.
[00:18:53] And that's what King Agrippa did.
[00:18:55] He has the testimony of the almost.
[00:19:00] Paul stood before a great man, and King Agrippa said, with knuckles gripping his throne, probably fighting conviction, he said, you almost convinced me.
[00:19:13] I don't want that to be my testimony that I almost got there that we almost did something for God almost inherited the greatest gift ever known to mankind almost saw peace like I've never known almost was saved by the grace of God but looking back I found an opportunity I have been to that point you have been to that point many times
[00:19:41] I got to a point with God that I could either stop, move back, or continue to press forward.
[00:19:49] There's a difference in almost and moving forward.
[00:19:53] Folks, I'm telling you today, there's a battle.
[00:19:57] And before we get what we need to get from God, you're going to fight every demon.
[00:20:02] You're going to fight every devil in hell.
[00:20:04] You're going to fight every spirit that can come against your flesh.
[00:20:07] Why?
[00:20:08] Because the enemy knows how good that breakthrough really is in your life.
[00:20:13] Let's all stand today.
[00:20:22] Folks, you just got to ask yourself, do you want better?
[00:20:26] Do you want better?
[00:20:30] Would you rather be satisfying the filth of the flesh?
[00:20:35] Do you want better?
[00:20:37] Or do you want to fall into the laziness of the flesh?
[00:20:42] Do you want better?
[00:20:43] Because God, He has it right in front of you.
[00:20:46] And it's up to you to decide whether you want that or not.
[00:20:51] I receive them today.
[00:20:54] I receive what He has for me today.
[00:20:56] Hallelujah, what a wonderful time to come to the front today and just begin to talk to God.
[00:21:01] I'm going to be one of those ones that presses through.
[00:21:04] I'm going to be one of those ones that pushes through.
[00:21:08] Oh God, press me, lead me, guide me today, Lord.
[00:21:13] You alone are worthy, O God.
[00:21:17] Hallelujah, gracious King Jesus.
[00:21:20] Thank you, God.
[00:21:21] Thank you, God.
[00:21:22] Thank you, gracious King.
[00:21:24] I believe in you today, Lord.
[00:21:26] That's it.

[00:21:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]:
Let's hear what you've done