Living Hope Fellowship Church...Sermons From the Pastor
OVERCOME
TO ENTER IN
by Pastor Kevin Badgley
I thank God for souls saved today. I thank God for people who are running for the Lord. Some are running in place. Some run around! We must run for the Lord in the Spirit. We must overcome to enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus has given us a spark, a beginning, a touch, a move, a mist droplet of his anointing to do a mighty work in us. God wants us to take that and watch it multiply when we yield to his Spirit. Jesus will multiply it. Didn't the little boy with the five loaves and the two fishes yield all of it over to the Lord? What did God do to a small lunch when a young boy had faith enough to believe God? God multiplied it!
Hebrews 6:14, "Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee." You may say, The world couldn't stand more than one of me! No! He is talking to you about an anointing, a blessing, and a ministry that Jesus has ordained. He died on the cross, and shed his precious blood, and sent back his Spirit that we might obtain it. I want every one of us to be exhorted to believe God, knowing we have to overcome to get there. Nobody twisted God's arm that he would make a promise to do something. God freely gave and he wants us to freely receive.
Look at Revelation 21:7, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." This is a broad based promise! There aren't even any particular stipulations in there. All it says you gotta do is overcome! If God said it you can bank on it. Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" God cannot lie. He cannot and will not fail. The only time we fail to receive these mighty promises of God is when we limit the Holy One of Israel. It is high time we take the limit off of God!
God said he will back up what HE says yesterday, today, and forever! The promises are good for whosoever will. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. What do you want to inherit? We need to get our focus on a higher plane. We have prayed for door knobs and we ought to be praying for mansions! We're praying for just making it through tomorrow when we ought to be praying, God, bring me a devil possessed person so I can cast the devil out! We've been praying entirely too low. We've been believing entirely too limited.
We have limited God by what we thought God would give us if we wouldn't stick our necks out too far. It is high time we climbed up in the sycamore tree, because the Lord is fixing to pass by! Oh, yes he is! I believe he is walking the aisles right now. Don't you feel him? I believe he is passing by you and me to see what we will do. I think we need to climb up in that sycamore tree of faith and get what we need from Jesus. It doesn't matter if you are short or tall or weak. If you will just believe God and climb up in that tree and get a hold of that faith and say yes, I'm gonna wait until Jesus comes and I'm gonna get what I want from God. Shout Yes!!!
We've got to start believing God! Hallelujah. The father seeketh such to worship him. God is pleased when we have an act of faith and say, Oh, God, I believe you for thus and so. I believe you for miracles. He that overcometh shall inherit all things! What do you want? Write down the list. You've got to believe God. If God said it you can believe it. We've got to overcome. All things are possible to them that believe! He said ALL things. I talked to a lady the other day and asked how she was doing. She said, "Good enough." I thought, no. If this is it, man, I'm dead. I ain't getting into this thing just so I can sweat and talk to you! I'm getting into this thing so I can translate, so I can see God move, so I can see arms and legs grow out, so I can see blinded eyes opened, so I can see ears unstopped, so I can see angels, and administer the word of God and send it forth through all the earth. I am not in this thing just to get me a little bitty mist droplet! I am gonna take a bath! I'm gonna drink it all and if I can get it in my belly, I'm gonna get it in there. I'm not gonna inherit a doorknob when a mansion is waiting on a hilltop. It is high time you started doing the same thing!
Many times we pray that we find a doctor with a cure. God said pray and you will get the cure. Don't need the doctor. Just get the cure. Jesus is the cure. He said he sent forth his word and healed them. Oh, this is good. God said if you would overcome he will give you whatever you shall ask. Matthew 21:22, "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Shall is the most powerful affirmative in the English language. There are no maybes in shall. There are no maybes in God's word. You will find a maybe but you won't find a maybe!
He said, "He that overcometh shall inherit all things. I'm going after it! How many are going with me? Let's believe God for mighty things. I'm gonna believe God for little things and I'm gonna believe God for big things. I'm gonna believe God to move upon this earth one more time before Jesus comes. The Bible declares that without a vision the people perish. I'm believing God for visions. Why? so we won't perish. I'm believing God for knowledge. Why? because it says that my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge! I'm believing God for miracles.
In 1 Corinthians 12:28 God said he set miracles in the church. If you don't believe for miracles, then you aren't gonna get any miracles! Some people don't want to see any miracles. Some people like to see miracles and healings, but you go to casting out devils and that is a different thing. Most of Jesus' ministry was casting out devils. You know where he did it? in church and anywhere! I'm believing God for a deliverance ministry. I'm believing God for everything. He said that he that overcometh shall inherit ALL things!!! Whatsoever Jesus has got, I'm believing him to give the same to me, if I trust him and pay the price to get it. How many are gonna believe God with me? Let's believe God!
The key is pressing in and overcoming! He that overcometh . . . There is something pressing against us and wrapped around us. There is something vexing us sore and the fiery darts of the wicked are coming with all the fleshly pulls. There are things that come against our mind, body, soul, and spirit that try to keep us from this promise. Satan is at the head of it, but some of us are at the head of that because our flesh is pulling us around! We are listening to it.
I heard one time that according to medical science the human body is only worth about $2.50 in fertilizer, but you will spend all your money, time, and attention feeding, stroking, and lovin' the thing! God said cast it down and put it under subjection. Put it down and overcome it and you shall inherit spiritual things. He that walks in the flesh cannot obey the Spirit of the Lord. If you walk in the Spirit, anything is possible. You can inherit all things.
That is an awesome thing and I am praising the Lord for that. We need examples. We need to know that somebody has done it before. In days gone by many have pressed through and got the victory of faith and power that was needed in the ministry.
The Bible is filled of accounts of people who were sore vexed, tried, tested, pulled, hammered by family, friends, loved ones, and even their own flesh and yet they overcame! Why? It was because they loved God more than they loved those pulls, and draws, and pushes. There was a woman with an issue of blood for 12 years. Can you imagine bleeding to death for 12 years? Talk about a low iron content! Let me tell you something, there ain't enough Geritol in Pulaski County to heal that woman. We're talking about iron poor tired blood. She hardly had any blood. The Bible declares this woman had an issue of blood 12 years, not days, not weeks, not months . . . years. This woman was in terrible shape. She was weak and downtrodden and people wouldn't mess with her because she was unclean with an issue.
One day Jesus came to town. Jesus passed by her way. He was over there with a crowd of good church folks just packed in around him, doing their best to keep anybody else out. After all, isn't that what he's for? Get him in your church, our four and no more, and bless God we'll hold on till God comes? Is that the truth? Say ouch, amen, or oh, me. God wants us to know we are gonna have to get out and start moving, and walking, and running for God. This little woman could barely move. There was a press around Jesus. They were thronging him. There was Jesus with a big crowd around him. There was no way to get to Jesus, but that little woman found a way. She knew if she could get to Jesus her problems would be solved. She would be healed and delivered.
If you can get to Jesus, get to him now. If you can get a touch from God, get it. Jesus doesn't always pass by this way. He doesn't always move around just any time. God said his Spirit will not always strive with man. This woman knew she needed to get a hold of Jesus. She knew he was there and determined to get a hold of him no matter what it took. If she had to die, she was gonna believe God! That little woman headed through the crowd. Can you see her? They were bumping, squishing, and pushing her around. They wanted to know what she was doing there. She didn't have any more sense than to believe God and keep pressing on. She pushed, she shoved, she dragged and pulled. She did all these things and pretty soon she got to Jesus.
When she finally got there she had to reach up to touch the hem of his garment. That is getting pretty low down, isn't it, when you've got to reach up to touch the bottom of something. The hem of his garment was low. He had on a long robe, woven throughout, which I have seen. The Bible declares that as soon as she touched the hem of his garment, the blood flow stanched. She was healed. Virtue went out of Jesus and God healed her without a prayer being made or saying anything else. She got a hold of Jesus. If Jesus walks by your way, say, Oh, God, in Jesus' name deliver me and set me free. Move on my life now. God will meet you where you are, no matter how low down, high up, or anything else. If you overcome you shall inherit Jesus. He is all things.
When she got a hold of him, all she had to do was touch him. I believe she eased on back out of the crowd, didn't make a to do about it, but I believe she was praising the Lord. But what happened? God is mindful of those present. So is the devil. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. God is well able to redeem and set you free and set your feet on the Rock! Jesus turned around and said, "Who touched me?" There may have been hundreds or maybe thousands of people thronging around Jesus. ". . . they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?" A lot of people were touching him but not everybody was getting something from him.
A lot of people bump into Jesus. Sometimes Jesus bumps into you, some times harder than others, to get your attention. She didn't just bump into him. She didn't just reach over and touch him and say, Well, I know him, we're pals. No. She touched him, overcoming. She reached up there and was gonna get something if it killed her. To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much. She reached up and got a hold of him and he knew it. She only touched his clothes, but he perceived that virtue had gone out of him. Somebody drew out of that well. Jesus has a big well. Jesus said, ". . .All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
There is power through faith in the name of Jesus. The man from the gate Beautiful rejoices as he runs around heaven right now with two whole feet that were whole in the world as well. Peter and John told him to look on them. There was something on them. He looked on them and God did a mighty miracle of faith in him. John reached down and said, ". . . Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." Then he grabbed him. Immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. He came into contact with Jesus through an old rough handed fisherman.
God can use whosoever will that comes. He can use Peter, or you, or me. Peter's shadow healed the sick. Aprons were taken from Paul and they cast out devils even many days journey away. The power of God was still upon that garment. Was it the garment? No. It was the anointed virtue from God through Jesus. It was in the devotion and that overcoming. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. We have been given a promise. He is walking these aisles. Jesus said he'd send the promise of the Father. Here is a promise right here. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. He that doesn't overcome, won't inherit squat!
2 Corinthians 1:19 says, "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us." If you get a hold of Christ and overcome, putting your flesh under, and start reaching for God even when it's not convenient (that is usually when it is), that is when God works. That's when God moves! You say, Somebody is pulling on me. Don't think he won't dish out more if you keep that line open! I believe God.
Daniel in the Old Testament, was down praying one day among many days. He prayed and confessed that he and all of the nation of Israel was backslid. He knew that was why they were in bondage. He went on and on. He didn't eat or take a bath. I figure after 21 days he was probably pretty ripe. Can you say amen? My wife claims that after one service on Sunday I'm pretty ripe. This old boy was down 21 days. That's three weeks he was praying. This is in the tenth chapter of Daniel.
Daniel 10:2, "(2) In those days, I Daniel was mourning three full weeks. (3) I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled." This man was deadly serious. He was going to get a hold of God or die. Those are the kind of people that God talks to and deals with, the weepers and the mourners, those that seek God's face without reservation. God will touch, heal, deliver, and move on them and give them virtue to touch others.
Three full weeks he wrestled and wrestled and wrestled. Suddenly an angel appeared to this man. How many believe that angels still walk and talk and move for God as God sends them to his people? Psalm 104:4 says, "Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:" That is what he is going to do again today.
In verse 11 we find the angel was not sent to all of Israel or to the whole wide world; he was sent to one man. Heaven heard the prayer of one man on his knees who was sold out to God. Heaven heard that prayer. So many times the devil tells you that when you pray it is lost in the gobbly gook. If you are real, God will hear it. If Jesus felt the woman touch his garment in the crowd, then God heard Daniel praying and he will hear you praying. Daniel 10:11, "And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling."
How many of you have ever trembled under the power of God? What a privilege. Twenty-one days later the angel said that the first day his words were heard. God heard him the first time. Daniel 10:12, "Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words." God heard you the first time you cried out, but he is looking to see if you mean it.
Talk is cheap. You may say, I will follow wherever you lead me. He may tell you to go somewhere and do something . . . No, no, wait a minute, I've got relatives down there and I don't want them to see me. God will shake his head and back off the blessing a little bit. He will try to give you a secondary blessing. No, I can't do that, wrong denomination, not that church. OK, third blessing will go down a few more notches. GIVE YOUR OFFERING. Offering? Pretty soon there is no blessing. Why? because he hasn't found anything that pleases you. You haven't pleased God in obedience.
The Bible declares he that overcometh shall inherit all things. We are gonna have to write out a blank check, sign our name to it, and say God, you fill in the number. I'm not talking about money, I'm talking about obligation and the giving over of ourselves to God. That is a hard thing to do. It makes me nervous giving a blank check to somebody. What about your mind, body, soul, and spirit when you hand it over to God? The Bible declares that you are bought with a price and ye are not your own. If you are saved you are bought with a price and the price is the blood of Jesus.
God is wanting somebody he can use and he is having a terrible time trying to find somebody. He wants somebody to yield. If you can yield in church aisles then you can yield out on the street. Some want to know why they aren't blessed in the church, but they didn't yield outside the church. The blessing in church can remain out there. You may say, If I do out there tomorrow what I did in church today, I'm in trouble! God will rectify it and bring you out. Do you think the Lord will put a holy dance on you and you may get sent home from work?
God is doing a work and putting you in a place where he can cause you to have an unction to overcome. When you do, you will begin to inherit something. You will get some, and a little more, and pretty soon it will open up to you. God said he will open up the windows of heaven again! God told me this evening that if we will believe He will open the windows again like he did in 1991 here. Whosoever will may come. If you come with faith believing, God will set you free, heal, deliver, and save you. He will make you every whit free and fill you with the Holy Ghost. I'm gonna believe God.
A woman came up for prayer and said she'd had a headache for three days. She came forward and believed God. God met her and she got a hold of God. I asked her if she believed God. She said, Yes, I believe God. She started laughing and that was it. We didn't offer any prayer, but at a distance. When the power of God gets on you, you can run backwards as fast as you do forwards. I'm not talking about backing up on God, I'm talking about running back over the devil that is behind you.
If you go in and they tell you that you have cancer, you can say, "Ha, ha, ha, no big deal, God will cure that before I get home." Go ahead devil and do your works because God said he'd supply all my needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. By his stripes I was healed. If a devil jumps on you, he's jumping on a healed person. The devil tells you how tired you are. Yeah, I'm tired of him! I ain't giving up, I've seen too much now. God has done too much for me. When God starts moving on me, I'm not going to forget it. God is not going to forget what you do as you press in and believe God. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. With God nothing shall be impossible. Any thing will be possible.
He told Daniel that the first day his prayer was heard and warriors were sent to get the answer back to him. Beloved, if it takes a while to get an answer from God, don't worry because God heard the first day. You just keep pounding and keep pounding till the devil has to move! He waits to see how long you last. In Psalm 105:19 it says, "Until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him." But then after a while, he got to where he was able to cast out devils and teach senators wisdom. It was talking about Joseph. He was a man of God who was in prison for two years because he served the Lord. He didn't go to the pen because he shot or killed somebody, stole something, or took drugs. He went to prison because he served the Lord. When he came out, he was second to the king. Hallelujah. How many want to be right next to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?
Father, move on this people and give them faith by this message and by your word because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. God, you have said to your servant that if they will believe you'd open the windows of heaven. We petition you that you will open the windows of heaven that the people will receive a blessing that they will not be able to contain it. Gird up the feeble hands that hang down and the weak knees that are knocking. God, make the lame run, the deaf hear, the eyes to see again, and hearts to have faith like they've never had before to see God move. Give us power to overcome and to walk as Jesus walked, and inherit all things, in the name of Jesus.
Hebrews 6:14, Revelation 21:7, Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2, John 4:23, Mark 9:23, Proverbs 29:18, Hosea 4:6, 1 Corinthians 12:28, Genesis 6:3, Luke 8, 1 John 4:4, Luke 7:47, Psalm 104:4, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Romans 10:17.
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