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Living
Hope Fellowship Church
Sermons
From the Pastor
WHOSOEVER
MEANS YOU
Training
Material
by Pastor Kevin Badgley
WHOSOEVER MEANS YOU
Preface
(God’s will, overcoming)
Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
No one is
tempted more than they can handle, according to 1
Corinthians 10:13! Some of us say that we are almost to the
end of our rope when we are only half way down it! The
Bible says in Matthew 10:22, “. . . he that endureth to the
end shall be saved.”
When you are in the valley of decision, trying to make up
your mind if you are going to do it God’s way or your way,
tell Him, Lord, I want your will for my life. Do not
go out from under God’s will, or you are courting the
devil.
WHOSOEVER MEANS YOU
by Pastor Kevin Badgley
In Joel 2:32 there is an awesome promise of God. It says,
“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the
name of the LORD shall be delivered. . . .” Anybody and
everybody that will call upon the name of the Lord shall be
delivered, no “maybe” about it.
God wants us to believe for great things. We need a lot
more than just little things. If you say, Oh, Lord, if
you could just . . . you have already cut God short on
something. James 4:2 says, “. . . ye have not, because ye
ask not.”
Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved.” Now look at Acts 2:21. It
says, “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Now, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 13:1, “. . . In the
mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be
established.” Joel 2:32, Romans 10:13, and Acts 2:21 are
three witnesses, virtually, word for word.
There is a place with God that nothing is impossible. If
you can believe God’s Word, then all the promises are “Yea
and Amen” to you. Do according to the conditions that
you must meet to get them, and they shall come to pass.
God promised us this thing three times. He made sure that
it was written down that way, but the whole Bible bears out
these scriptures.
“Whosoever” is anybody. Right? “Whosoever” could be YOU.
You can say, “Whosoever” is me. I am a
“whosoever”. I am a “possibility”. I am a “could be”. I
am a “whosoever”. If you believe that you are a
“whosoever”, you shall call upon the name of the Lord and
you shall be delivered or saved from your predicament,
trouble, temptation, sin, or from whatever. You shall be
delivered from all unrighteousness.
Delivered means you are freed from something. Anybody can
be free! Anybody can be saved! Anybody can be healed!
Anybody can be delivered! Anybody! Three times
in the Word of God He said it. He started it in the Old
Testament, and finished it in the New Testament.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto
all good works.”
The Word of God is true. Is there anybody who is exempt
from being a “whosoever”? No. Some have problems and they
think God does not understand what they are going through,
but nothing escapes His eyes! Hebrews 4:13 says, “Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but
all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with
whom we have to do.”
Well, what about the hard times? Does the Lord know? The
Bible says in Hebrews 4:15, “For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin.” In other words, we have an high priest who can
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities!
Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, and if we
give our temptations to the Lord He will help us deal with
them. With every temptation the Lord will make a way to
escape. There is your deliverance, and there is your
salvation! No one is tempted more than they can handle! 1
Corinthians 10:13 says, “There hath no temptation taken you
but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it.”
God is not a liar. That lets me know that with every
temptation, trial, trouble or difficulty God has your
answer. You can escape that which you are driven to do!
You can escape that which is contrary to what you want to do
that is right, according to the Word. The Bible says in
James 1:14 though, if you wonder why you fail – “But every
man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and
enticed.”
1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour:” The devil will come up and
knock on the door of your heart, but you have a choice to
say yes or no to him.
Romans 8:6-7 says, “For to be carnally minded is death; but
to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the
carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
We have to quit thinking with our own mind, and start
thinking with the mind of Christ. His mind says no to
the devil, and He gives no place to the devil. He gives you
and me power to give no place to the devil, so that the
devil will have nothing in us.
Have you ever called on the Lord to help you? The
other day I said, Lord, You have got to do something, or
I am going to bust and splatter all over the place! It is
not a case where You should; it is not a case where
You even must, but in your mercy, You have got to
move, and quickly! Praise the Lord, He moved! It was
not as fast as I wanted Him to, but I found out that I had
more endurance about me than I thought.
Some of us say that we are almost to the end of our rope
when we are only half way down it! The Bible says in
Matthew 10:22, “. . . he that endureth to the end shall be
saved.” It doesn’t say he that endureth to the middle or he
that endureth until he gets uncomfortable! Nor did it say
he that endureth until he begins to sweat or is ready to
die! It says, “. . . he that endureth to the end shall be
saved.”
The Lord has made a way for you and me to escape. Now,
which way of escape do you want? The devil’s escape is a
deeper hole, though it seems easier and quicker! The
devil’s way generally feels better and is usually less
humiliating! God’s way is generally slower and is
humiliating! God’s way will provoke you. You may say,
How dare He let me go through this! I’m a child of God!
Well, kick the devil in the mouth, and quit courting him!
James 4:7 says, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you.” The devil will run
like a scalded cat! When something is fleeing, it is
because of great fear, or great torment, or both! There is
generally a reason for that kind of speed.
Your trials and your troubles are for a reason!
Sometimes it is you that got you there! Some think they
are being mistreated by God. We think that the devil has
singled us out, and God has pulled all the armor off. Some
Christians think they must be going to save the whole world
because of all the trouble that they are getting from the
devil!
Some people’s tolerance of pain, temptation, and trials is
pretty low! Oh, Lord, I’m at the end of my rope! The
Lord has a hundred foot rope, and you are on at the ten foot
mark! When God gets you all the way down to the end where
you are worn out, and you finally say, God, you have to
do something, then God will move. That is when you are
totally sold out to God. He will move greater than you
could ever possibly believe Him for at the beginning. He
has got to get you to the place where you feel helpless.
People have a tremendous fear of death. You threaten
somebody with death, and they will do almost anything.
Threatening somebody with the loss of their own will is
about the same as the loss of their life. That is why
people don’t like to be tried, because it is not our will to
be tried, and this is a type of death to self. What you
decide to do through your trial, your temptation, your need,
or whatever, is a determination of your position with God.
Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose.” You may wonder what kind of good
can come out of a trial. Hang on to God, and you will find
out! Don’t leave God; don’t go against the Word; don’t give
up; don’t shake loose; just say, God, I am not going to
move until you tell me what you want out of this situation!
Then He will show you.
This self death that I’m talking about is not a physical
death. I’m talking about death to our own will. When you
are not living according to your own will, you are as good
as dead. Abraham is a good example of faith. The Bible
said that he was as good as dead. That isn’t a “saying”, or
a “tongue in cheek” remark made by the Holy Ghost. He said
that he was as good as dead. You can’t get any better than
that, because when you are dead you cease from sin and
murmuring. When you are dead you are not temptable. I’m
talking about being dead to your self will. When you are in
obedience to God, totally yielded to Him, there is only one
that can live in you, and that is Christ Jesus, the Lord.
Jesus said He was straitened by His ministry. How is
He straitened? Luke 12:50 says, “But I have a baptism to be
baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be
accomplished!” In other words, He was troubled until
His ministry, this great work that God had called Him to do,
was accomplished. He did not sin, yet He had all the
temptations and troubles that we have. Like us, He had a
choice to sin or not to sin. He had the choice to relieve
Himself, or to let God vindicate Him.
A crucifixion goes on when you don’t get what you want and
also when you are not in control of a situation. You have
got to bend the knee and say, God, you have got to do
something, because I am totally helpless, and all my options
are wrong. If you do some things, you aren’t going to
stay in the will of the Lord, or His presence, or the
blessings of God, and you may not remain saved!
You do not have to fail! I am sorry if someone told you
that everybody has to sin. That is wrong. They are either
making excuses for their own sin, or they are misinformed.
Acts 10:38 says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good,
and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God
was with him.” Acts 1:8 says, “But ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth.”
You are the “ye” He was talking to. You will not
replace Jesus, but you will stand in His stead wherever God
sends you. God transferred His holiness in Jesus to
humanity. When you receive Him, and call upon His name, God
saves you. However, God puts us through a continuing
process of consecration and sanctification. We don’t say
that we are tempted of the Lord as we are tried by fire, but
God, with every temptation, makes a way for us to escape
that we will come out stronger and stronger.
Jesus worked as a man filled with Holy Ghost power, and God
gave a promise to you and me that we would receive power
after that the Holy Ghost comes upon us. God wants to give
all of His people power to be like Jesus.
Matthew 17:20 tells us that nothing shall be impossible unto
us. Getting no results will be impossible. We see that
with God nothing is impossible when the angel spoke to
Mary. Luke 1:37 says, “For with God nothing shall be
impossible.” God, through Christ Jesus, wanted us to know
that it can get to the place where He transfers it to us
where things aren’t impossible to us anymore either.
God desires to transfer His supernatural holiness first, and
then His power to all who believe. The devil knows the
potential of a man or woman of God, and he knows they have
power to cast him out. Therefore he will resist you at
every hand, but Jesus says in Luke 10:19, “Behold, I give
unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over
all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means
hurt you.” That is a guarantee!
Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved.” God opened it for anybody.
All we have to do is whip our flesh, and He will help us
whip the devil! God makes us partaker of the same
nature and power that Jesus had. As for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord!
If you cannot be faithful in little things how can you be
ruler over big things? Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Wherefore
seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the
race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author
and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is
set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Verse 4
says, “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against
sin.”
He said that He is going to make us partakers of His
sufferings. What is God saying? Whenever you don’t get
your way, you are a partaker of the same death Jesus went
through. I’m not talking about death on the cross, I’m
talking about death to self. Jesus said that He always
did those things that please the Father. He said in John
5:30, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I
judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own
will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”
Jesus did God’s will, yet He was not a robot. He had the
right to do what He wanted to do, but He chose not to
do His own will. It was not Jesus’ personal will to go to
the cross, because Matthew 26:39 says, “And he went a little
further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my
Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:
nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” That shows
me that He worked in humanity, yet in the power of the Holy
Ghost.
He said, “. . . nevertheless not as I will, but as thou
wilt.” That must be in the forefront of our minds, no
matter what we are going through, so that we will not do our
will, but His.
Romans 6:3 says, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?”
When you receive Christ, you first receive a baptism of His
death. Then you receive resurrection life like Jesus. Self
has to die. John 3:30 says, “He must increase, but I must
decrease.” Christ cannot increase in you unless you
decrease.
James 1:8 says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his
ways.” You have to have the mind of Christ operating in you
to overcome and be stable in Christ. It is not impossible.
It is available to us; it is a process for whosoever will.
Would you like to have the miracle working power of God in
your life? The quicker you get it, the better it will be.
However, you will be tried, tempted, and troubled!
Have you ever poured gasoline on a fire? When you are being
tested, you holler out to God and say, O, God, give me
the power to get out of this quick! You get the power
of God in your life by getting your mind replaced with the
mind of Christ, because we don’t have power in ourselves.
God said in Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might, nor by power, but
by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.” The only way to get
power from God is to decrease! How do you decrease? You
come into subjection unto God! Don’t run when you are being
tried!
Look at Romans 6:5 that says, “For if we have been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in
the likeness of his resurrection:” You cannot have a
resurrection without first having a death! We cannot have
revival like we believe God for until we learn to die to
self! One of the best ways I know to die is to come to
prayer meeting when you don’t feel like it! Revival
is not a condition of convenience! Revival is not
brought by the lazy or by those who will not be tried by
God! Revival does not come by wimps or by the uncommitted!
You have to kick the devil in the mouth if you want God to
move! God did it 2000 years ago, and he whipped the devil
soundly! Jesus said that it was finished. He sent the same
Spirit that was in Him, and the same victory to whosoever
will serve God. When you call upon His name, even in the
hardest of times, He will be there to save, and deliver, and
to fill with the Holy Ghost!
Read again what John 3:30 says: “He must increase, but I
must decrease.” He didn’t say can, possibly, or should; He
said must! We have to step out of the natural. If
we as Christians continue to live a spiritually “normal”
life, just forget revival. We have to live on a higher
plane. It may look like we are having just as many problems
as the sinners! That is because many Christians don’t
have any more consecration than sinners! To be
consecrated means to be sold out. How do we know how to
follow God? Get a Bible, read it, and believe it for what
it says. Don’t make excuses for it, or ask if He really
meant it.
Joel 3:14 says, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of
decision. . . .” Some people choose to go to hell! We have
a choice, and God doesn’t make it for us. Some Christians
believe when they fall, that God made that choice for them!
That takes all of the blame right off of them and puts it on
God. It used to be that sinners said that the devil made
them do it. Now some Christians say, God made me do it.
What religion teaches that man is not responsible for his
own actions?!!
Joel 3:14 says, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of
decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of
decision.” God is near to you when He sees that you are
making up your mind to do right. He is near to give you
counsel, advice, wisdom, and knowledge. The valley of
decision is a valley, because it is a low spot in your
life. You would rather not have to make a decision. The
general attitude of our nature is, I want my cake, and I
want to eat it too!
Revelation 21:7 says, “He that overcometh shall inherit
all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my
son.” That is good! That is the case where you do get
everything, but it is on His terms! What is wrong
with meeting God’s conditions to get everything we want? If
we go God’s way He said that He would give us the desires of
our heart. Are you completely satisfied? Very few have all
the desires of their heart.
Multitudes are in the valley of decision. When you are in
the valley of decision, trying to make up your mind if you
are going to do it God’s way or your way, tell Him, Lord,
I want your will for my life. If you go out from under
God’s will, you are courting the devil. Remember what the
Bible says in James 4:7: “Submit yourselves therefore to
God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
CONTACT INFORMATION:
PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY
LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O.
BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL 62941
CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541
E-mail
livinghopefellowship@lazernetwireless.net
These condensed Bible
studies have been published to help new Christians in their
new walk with the Lord. Kevin Badgley, the author, is the
pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.
This is a Living Hope
Fellowship publication.
©
Living Hope Fellowship, Inc.
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