Texts: Ps. 15:4; Num. 23:19; Mark 9:23; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37; Acts 27:25; James 5:14, 15. Faith is of the heart, and this sermon affirms that faith is based on the integrity of God. Faith to believe for the impossible is not based on your trying to have faith, but on the integrity of God and His Word. It’s not man’s ability, but God’s integrity, dependability, and reliability. God honors and uses His Word.

Texts: John 7:37-39; Is. 28:12; Eph. 5:17-21. Choose to be hungry and to stir yourself up. Yield yourself to God and open your heart to Him. You can’t hear from God when you’re in fear and your spirit is “noisy”. Find out the will of God for you by pausing, praying the Spirit, giving thanks to God in Jesus’ name, submitting yourself to one another in the fear of God, and being filled with the Holy Spirit.

James 4:7-5:5; Is. 58:6-8. Cleansing our hands (our deeds), purifying our hearts, putting our bodies under (fasting), giving, praying, and repenting are part of our drawing near to God.

God wants to do miracles and to heal the sick by our hands. Pastor Dale teaches on the anointing: you need it to do what you are called to do. #1 You need to ask for the anointing and power. #2 It can be measured. #3 It can increase and be doubled. #4 It can be transferred from one person to another. #5 It can reside materially and has tangibility. #6 You have to qualify for it. #7 You can lose the anointing. Elisha’s anointing should not have been buried. God gets angry when we grieve His Spirit. If God tells you to do something, keep doing it until He tells you to stop.

Listen as Pastor Dale carefully develops how you receive God’s wisdom and plan for your life. I Cor. 1:30 and 2:6-13 are the main texts. The wisdom of God is to keep you out of trouble. You need to speak the wisdom of God, but you do not know what you are speaking, because it is a mystery. Why does God want His wisdom to be a mystery? One reason is so that you will search for it. You know you must search for it, because you can be sure it is there for your finding. Also, He hid it for your glory. Just as you may hide something so no one gets it, so God has hidden it for us since before the earth was created. He is not hiding it from us but for us. Furthermore, He is keeping the wisdom and the plan for your life hidden from Satan, so he cannot mess with them. God has prepared you for something from the beginning of time, and you will not get it through the eyes or the ears. Even prophesy should not lead you, but it should only confirm what the Holy Spirit has already put on the inside of you. So where has God hidden Himself? He has hidden Himself and His plan in your spirit, when you received the Holy Spirit. It is where the devil cannot get at it. How do you get it out? You get it out by speaking it out- in tongues, and then you are speaking the wisdom of God in a mystery. You can pray in the Spirit, and the revelation will come to you.

Communion: Pastor Armstrong shares on “It all comes back to the table; what happened on the cross”. Jesus knew what He was doing when He laid down His life. He was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God said….over and over that the Word became dlesh. The example walked on earth so we’d know how to walk. The Seed was sown. Everytime we remember His body being sown, we put pressure on the covenant. When His power moves through us, it’s Him. The Word cannot be stopped. What happened on the cross was death-dealing. Following the “Great Exchange” (His Righteousness for our sin), punishment was involved, And Jesus took the full punishment. Ephesions 1:7, Galatians 1:4 Special bonus: Offering messsage by Pat Murphy, and portions of a Children’s ministry presentation.

Matt. 25:14-23. Listen as Pastor Dale carefully develops an understanding of what the Parable of the Talents is really teaching us. Much of our understanding comes from the way our culture “interprets” its meaning. What is the meaning of a steward? It’s not what a steward does; a steward is entrusted with something (ex.: a calling, purpose, responsibility) and given power, authority, and blessing. Bible examples are: Abraham’s servant who found a wife for Isaac; Joseph and Daniel. The kingdom of God has a unique culture, and if we look at this parable in terms of our culture, all we will see is what we think is unfair. Accept your place- it’s for a purpose and reason. Rejoice in who you are and DO NOT BE PREOCCUPIED IN DISSATISFACTION, and DON’T COMPARE YOURSELF WITH OTHERS. In the Greek a talent was a measure of gold, whereas in American thinking we take it to mean ability. But look!- the talents were given to the servants BASED ON EACH ONE’S OWN ABILITY. God’s love is unconditional, but HIS BLESSINGS ARE CONDITIONAL! God wants you to increase your ability, so He can increase your blessing. Develop yourself. Do what you can with what you have where you are. If money becomes #1 in your life, you will go backward. Character comes first. Note in 25:19 it says, “After a long time…”. Do not be hasty to be rich. Grow up in the Lord. Learn how to handle finances. Any treasure we have is small in God’s eyes. WE MUST DEVELOP TO BE BIGGER THAN OUR PROBLEMS. Matt. 25:21 After the man in the parable blessed the servants who increased their talents, he told them to enter into the joy of the Lord. The joy of the Lord is the goal and reward. It is NOT achievements and results, but OBEDIENCE to God. When you are obedient, you will walk in the joy of the Lord.

Heb. 11:1-3 Faith gives substance to your hope. Faith is present, but hope is future. You will act and move on your hope when it is faith. Faith is based on what you do not see. Rom. 4:17 tells us that God made a promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations, when he was not a father at all, and he and Sarah were barren and old. What is important is how you act on what God has said. God calls those things that do not exist as though they did. John 14:1 tells us to believe in Jesus, not only in God. What do you believe? What is the object of your faith? Note in Mark 11:22-23 that in the Greek, it says to have the faith of God, or have the faith that God has. Faith is a tool. So what are you to have faith in? Mark 11:23 says to have faith in the words that you say and those things will come to pass. Recognize when you are in faith and when you are not. In Matt. 14:28-30 Peter walked on Jesus’ word, “Come”. A person does not “begin to sink” in the natural, but Peter did and cried out for help, and Jesus caught him. Remember: faith puts action to hope.

Grace(Offering message)You had nothing to do with becoming righteous (II Cor. 5:21); you just have to respond to God’s grace. You receive, not achieve the Lord. After you are saved, then you do the works. Eph. 2:8-10- anything that leads you to boast is not grace. Titus 2:11 tells you that the grace of God teaches that you should deny ungodly and worldly lusts and live soberly and godly. Titus 3:5-8- salvation brings you to works. You are righteous, and you can do righteous works. I Peter 2:24- You are saved, even when you do not feel saved. You are healed, even when you do not feel healed. Your foundation is grace, and faith carries salvation on. Sometimes all you need to do is to receive. II Cor. 8:9 tells us that through grace, Jesus became poor, so that we might become rich. There is grace for you to be saved, healed, and made rich. You give, not out of dead works of sowing and reaping, but because you know all your needs are met. Authority (Learn to Say NO!)In Mark 1:22 the scribes were astonished at Jesus’ teaching, at what He taught. He taught and demonstrated His authority. Use your authority against thoughts, demonic spirits, compromise, sickness and disease, even the weather (Jesus rebuked the wind.). Reject those thoughts and speak in the authority of Jesus’ name. Say NO! to thoughts of depression and don’t want to be depressed. Speak the Word into whatever you need. Matt. 21:21-22,43- You do not ask the mountain to move. You SPEAK to it. If you do not use your authority, it will be taken from you. Pray in faith, not in fear or it’s like trying to get to Philadelphia on the turnpike from here by going west. It is not going to happen. Speak what you desire.

Heb. 11:1, 6. The faith that pleases God is the life of faith. Pastor Dale tells about trying to please his grandfather in keeping his large garden weed-free. After about three years, he found that it is easier to please his grandfather and do a good job if he respected a weed-free garden. You must get a hold of respect of faith. Your life depends on faith. It does what nothing else can do. It is a substance; it’s real; it’s evidence of what you cannot see, and you can know when you do and do not have it; it’s a force, like gas in a car’s gas tank. We are designed to live by faith. How do you step out in faith? Step out on the Word. Choose the way of faith. Share what God is doing and spread faith. God is pleased when we move in faith. People need the ministry of faith more than they need money. We need an environment of respecting faith. When it’s a challenge of faith, you don’t need wisdom; you need to act in faith. Know when you need wisdom and when you should step out in faith. God’s power is conducted with faith.

James 5:1-8 We are in end-times. Why does Jesus delay? He is waiting for the harvest of the people of the earth and for the early and latter rains. Matt. 9:36-38 tells us that we need to pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. I Tim. 2:1-4 God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. There’s a harvest all around us. As things get worse, it is the best time to preach and share the Gospel. A pastor in financial crisis needs to use faith for a people miracle. Satan will try to get a pastor to focus on financial needs, rather than on the need to win the lost. Do we meet God’s needs? God needs a person to stand in the gap and pray. Mark 11:17 lets us know that we are to be a house of prayer for all nations. Is. 56:1-7 We must overcome the cultural differences and pray for and reach out to all nations. Start with prayer. The “pray” comes before the “go” and “pay”. Commit to pray for the nations.

Heb. 11:1 and 6; Mark 11:23 and 24; Romans 10:17; and Romans 4:20. Faith can be seen. It is evidence of what you cannot see. It’s impossible to please God without faith. You must believe that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Faith changes things (pragma, which means a done-deal). Your faith will work. There is a reward for your faith. There is nothing more valuable than faith. Hope is the future, but faith is now, as soon as you pray in belief. You have to have faith to release your belief. If you do not act on what you say you believe, you will not receive. If there is no present tense action, there is no faith. How do you get faith? You get it by knowing God’s Word and by hearing it. Battles are worth fighting if the victory is important. Believe and act and speak boldly in faith and give glory to God. Release faith by praising and thanking God and turn your circumstances around. The offering message and teaching to the parents during baby dedication is after the message.

In Luke 11:1 and 2 the disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” They did not say, “Teach us how to pray.” You can read all about prayer, but you need to do it! Pray! In John 5:17 and 18 the Jewish people got angry with Jesus partly because He called God His Father, making Him (Jesus) equal with God. In Gal. 4:1-7 we learn that a physical son went through an adoption process to receive an inheritance. We can cry out to God through the sealing of the Holy Spirit, our adoption and God’s presence in us, to our Father God. We are God’s heirs giving us sonship rights and His inheritance. In Luke 11:5-8 Jesus tells us to ask, seek, and knock and keep on asking, seeking, and knocking. If you do not have the Holy Spirit, the problem is in the asking. Do not accept anything less than what God has given to you as His heir. Be persistent and insist until the blessing comes. DON’T GIVE UP! God tells us to keep “bugging” Him (Isaiah 62:6, 7). Do not tolerate anything from Satan- symptoms, sleeplessness, headaches…, because whatever you tolerate, you will keep. Put your foot down and insist on your rights.

Text: Heb. 11:1, 6. Faith that pleases God requires discipline. Mark 4:14 tells us that the sower sows the seed, and the seed is the Word of God. Faith operates in an environment of resistance, conflict, and confrontation from Satan. He will use anything to steal from you. Everything the devil gives or brings is meant to be a stumbling block, but you can make it a stepping stone. Satan’s goal is to get as close to God as he can. II Cor. 10:3-5 lets us know that our warfare is not against flesh (people), but against Satan. “Plant” the seed of the Word, not what the devil tries to get you to plant. How do you plant the Word? Meditate and think about it. (Ps. 1:1-3) What comes to your thoughts at night and first thing in the morning? Delight yourself in the Word. The planting process never stops; it will either be planting the Word or emotions. Your thought-life is separate from who you are. Plant truth thoughts, and do not allow others’ opinions to influence your thinking. Who you are is who you are in Christ. What seeds are being planted in your thinking?

Mark 4 (The Parable of the Sower and the Seed). After the seed (the Word of God) is planted in good ground (a person’s heart), Satan comes immediately to steal the seed (the Word). He uses external influences of offenses and affliction and persecution. There’s always a contest against the Word. Then, if the Word gets past the external pressures, it comes in contact with the person’s internal forces of: 1- the cares of the world, 2- the deceitfulness of riches, 3- the desires for other things. Satan is afraid of the Word in your heart. Governments are afraid of the planted Word in the hearts of missionaries. We need to take heed to what we hear (Mark 4:24) and how we hear (Luke 8:18). You can learn from people you don’t agree with. In Mark 4:35 Jesus demonstrated how faith works: the person speaks faith with purpose (“Let’s go to the other side.”), the storm comes (the conflict, test) but the person is at rest, causing the person to reach his destination. The disciples demonstrated how the cares choke the Word (Don’t You care…?”). You will have problems because of the Word when you try to serve the Lord. What kind of people should we be? James 1:22 tells us to be doers of the Word. Wherever there’s deception entering into your life, there’s inactivity. Satan tries to talk you out of obedience through delay, reasoning, rationalization. You forget who you are when you stop acting on the Word. The Word is a mirror that shows your natural face, the way God created you. Satan is not interested in you but in the Word in you. Do what God tells you to do.

Pastor Dale is calling for a fast in January 2011. In Matt. 6:1-16 Jesus talks about giving to the poor, praying, and fasting as producing a reward (manifestation). All three are to be done in the secret place of your heart. “Openly”, used in this passage is the Greek word which is translated “manifestation” in other places. God wants to reward you in your giving, praying, and fasting. In Acts 10:1-4, 30-31 Cornelius gave alms, prayed, and fasted and an angel appeared to him. The secret to breakthrough and manifestation is a lifestyle of giving, praying, and fasting. It’s easier to go to a higher level of each of these if you have been doing them as a lifestyle. Fast often, as often as you give and pray (II Cor. 11:27). When you fast, you are saying “no” to the flesh and ruling over your body. You are responsible for your body, and when you rule over it in the physical, you can move out in victory in the spiritual. Fasting reveals what is in the heart. One fast is the Esther fast: no food or water for 3 days. Another is the Daniel fast: no meat or sweet bread for 21 days. Fasting works! Say “no” to the lusts of the flesh. If Jesus needed to fast for victory over the devil, you need to do so, too.

In Isaiah 55:8-11 we learn that God’s thoughts and ways are on a higher level than ours. In order to apply what we know, we must drop our old way of thinking and grab hold of God’s thinking, like taking out the old tape recording (or CD) and putting in a new one. You will reap what you sow (Gal. 6), so sow positive-Word thoughts. Your thought-life is not faith, but it can bring you to faith. God tells us that His Word will accomplish what He pleases, and it will prosper in the thing for which He sent it. Spend time with the Lord to know His voice. It’s only the planted Word that changes people. Hold onto the rhema word and verses that God drops into your spirit. Satan is afraid of the seed being planted, but God watches over His Word to perform it (Jer. 1:12). Release and hear God’s Word, and then do what He has told you to do. Identify with the Word He’s spoken to you. Don’t fight what you need and who you are in Christ Jesus.

Pastor Dale continues to expound on the “Parable of the Sower and the Seed” from Mark 4. The seed that is planted is the only seed that will grow. The Word’s (the seed’s) roots need to grow so that the Word will continue to grow. Your heart’s condition (the soil) determines what you hear, so take heed to what you hear and how you are hearing. Receive the Word, and it will grow, even what you don’t understand. Watch out because Satan will tamper with your heart. Prov. 4 tells you to guard (keep) your heart. In John 15 Jesus explains that God is the gardener, and if you are born-again, you are producing fruit. He will prune and purge you WITH THE WORD (not calamity, etc.!). John 15:5- Jesus tells you that you can do nothing without Him. In Mark 4 the disciples couldn’t cast out the demon, but Jesus could, and ironically, Jesus tells you that He couldn’t do anything of Himself, but could only do what He saw Father God do (John 5:19). The father of faith is the Word of God. The mother of faith is fellowship with Him. You can hear from God for yourself. Don’t let a prophetic word be a substitute for hearing from God for yourself. Also listen to the story of Mr. Reese of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Chester Petersheim’s testimony of God’s provision.

Text: Prov. 6:6-11. Ants cooperate and communicate and do what would appear to be impossible. Be like the ant. If you do not reach your potential, you have been robbed. How do you fulfill what God has for you? 1. Know where your time goes. Use your calendar. How much time do you waste? 2. Focus on results. Get things finished. Not getting things done shows your view on time. 3. Build on your strengths. Know what is fitted for you and do what you are good at doing. Connect with people who are strong in what you are weak. 4. Know your priorities, or someone else will give you theirs. Setting a goal and priority gives you motivation. 5. Make the right decisions. If you set priorities, decisions will make themselves. Successful people master their time.