Even if you're just a cop out, Christ will give you a bailout so you can break out and carry out his purposes for your life, for his glory. Jesus will supply all of our needs according to his riches in glory.
Welcome to Treasure Truth with pastor and author James Ford, junior senior pastor of the Christ Bible Church in Chicago. I'm Steve Hillard. Glad you're with us. As today we continue our message, Faith for your future. And pastor, we've been talking a little bit about how we can kind of discern what God has for us, how we, you know, can know what promises are ours to claim and what
are not. Um, I just hear you said, you know, even if you're just a cop out, Christ will give you a bailout so you can break out and carry out his purposes for his glory. It's kind of a little bit like what we were talking about yesterday. It sounds like it's all coming down to fulfilling Christ's purposes and bringing him glory.
Of course. And if you want to think of someone who was at first a cop out and then got a bailout so that they could carry out his purposes, think of Jonah. You know, God told Jonah, Jonah, go to Nineveh, which was 500 miles to the east. He chose to go to Tarshish, which is in Spain, which is a little over 2000 miles. So he went three times or four times the distance to get out of the will of God, as he did to be in the will of God. But yet what did God do?
God sent a storm. Yeah. Then we find him in chapter three. Uh, he's ready now. He. He had an Uber ride, uh, to Nineveh, and God picked up the fare for him. And what did God say? And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time. Go to Nineveh and preach against that great city. Here's what I notice. Chapter one go to Nineveh. The message didn't change. Yeah, he just had to get the messenger where he was willing to obey. What? He didn't want to obey? Yeah. For God.
Yeah, well, and very often God allows those difficult circumstances in our lives, I think, to get us to pay attention to him, to begin to recognize his voice. Because when things are going along swimmingly, it can be very easy to think, I'm just going to go about my own business. And so often it's in those tough times that God will reorient what we want and what we're doing. We're going to look at that today from Philippians chapter one. So I hope you open your Bible. Join us there
as we continue the message Faith for your future. Here's Pastor Ford.
See, you know, the nightingale is called the nightingale because it sings the sweetest song in the darkness. Other birds sing when the sun comes up. Huh? We got any robins in here that sing in the morning when the sun rises. Yeah, I'm blessed.
And highly favored of the Lord. He got me the job. I got my house. I got my car.
But the nightingale sings best.
In the.
Darkness.
Of the night.
When the night is the darkest, it sings the best. And I want to tell you I know Jesus has some nightingale. Christians up in.
Here.
Up in here. You done been through some stuff, but you were singing in the midst of it. You done been through some stuff, but you giving God the glory even in spite of it. You done been through the stuff, and people are looking at you and wondering how in the world can you go through that? And you just sing the praises of Jesus. You sing the glory of God. You sing about the power of the Holy Spirit. I can take it and I can make it. I don't have to fake it because I've got God in my life. Mm,
I I'll tell you. I'll tell you. Yeah. And then. And then you gotta apply God's word to your life. You gotta apply it. See? See, he's aware of it, but he's applying it. What's he saying? I'm in jail right now, but I'm not going to be for long. Amen. Hey. Oh, I didn't bring my phone. I was going to have everybody take your phone out. Take your phone out. Take your phone out. All right, put it on camera. Put your phone on camera. Thank you. Now take a selfie.
Take a selfie. Come on, take a selfie. Take a selfie. Okay, now, if you go on social media, here's what I want you to do. Take a selfie, put it on Facebook or whatever your social media is and then put this under it. Everybody put this under it. Look at me right now because it's the last time you're going to see me like this. I'm going somewhere. Come on, come on, take that selfie. Put it on, put it on. Look
at me right now. This is the last time you're going to see me like this because I'm going somewhere. Come on. Put it on Facebook. Put on. Let everybody know. Yeah. That's right. Do you believe? God, I don't know what you believe in God for, but do you believe him for something? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Then proclaim it. Stand on it. Come hell or high water. This is where I'm going. I don't care what kind of opposition comes my way. This is where I'm going. This is where I'm headed.
And nobody and nothing can stop me. You want to know how I know? Because God done already told me where I'm going. Amen. Amen. Yeah. That's it, that's it, that's it. Okay, now you ain't put it on there by now. You slow. Paul had a word from God that his work was not done. Now, you know, we talk about all the time. Uh, James was beheaded. Peter was not. Two reasons. I'm going to give you both of them today. Here's the first reason. John 2118 Jesus told him, I'm going to read it to you. I'm
going to read it to you. John 2118. He's talking to Peter. He said to him, Peter, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. Verse 18, verily, verily, I say unto you, when you were young, you gird yourself, you clothe yourself, you walk wherever you would. But when you are old, you will stretch forth your hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee where you would not go. This he spake, signifying the death he would die. Do you see that in there? When Peter's in prison,
he's somewhere between 33 and 36 years old. And guess what? Jesus told him he wasn't going to die until he became an old man. So when he was in prison, one of the reasons why he knew that he was going to get out was because God had already told him he was going to live to be an old man. So he knew even though Herod had beheaded James, he couldn't behead him because he had a word from God. Amen. Do you got a word? Do you got a word from God. You need to get a word from God.
Job said in job 2312 I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food. Matthew chapter four. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Psalm one. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he doth meditate day and night. So the question on the floor is not, do you own a Bible?
But does the Bible own you? Let me say that again. It's not whether you own a Bible, but does the Bible own you? So we are to listen to it eagerly. We're to look to it expectantly. We are to learn from it enthusiastically. We're to languish in it entirely. We're to let it work in us effectively, and we're to love it eternally. Amen. Hmm. See, what we need to be is Bible holics. You know that? What do you mean? God's word is what we need. See if you got
a headache. You take a Tylenol pill. If you have acid indigestion, you take a Rolaids pill. If you have a heartache, you take a pill. Yeah. Secondly, secondly, secondly, let me hasten. Secondly, second thing you. Well, how do you get faith for the future? Uh, you have to be enlightened, uh, by Christ's purpose for your life. Secondly, you have to be emboldened by Christ's people's prayer to your life. Listen to what he says. He says, listen
through your prayers. And here's what we need to understand why I try to get you to come to prayer meeting. Because prayer is boring. Prayer. No. Prayer is power. Listen, listen. If you're taking notes, I'm just going to say em. Second Corinthians one five verses eight through 11 God incorporated human prayer in the heavenly plan Romans 1530, first Thessalonians 525, and second Thessalonians three one James 516. Be it says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman
availeth much. Abraham prayed for lot. Genesis 19. Lot was delivered. If he hadn't prayed for him, he wouldn't have been delivered with his backslidden self. You know, I remember I used to be a sanitation engineer at Pittsburgh National Airport. Uh, for those of you who who are challenged, I used to be a janitor. So I was sanitation engineer. I had the night shift. So one night and every morning, it was, like, rough because I wasn't a night shift person.
Some of you who work night shift know, man. It's like, man, you know it. It's rough shift. So I'm on my way home, and every night I, you know, I have to keep my windows down so I don't fall asleep. But this night, I had worked real hard, and I'm nodding. I got the windows down. It's 530 in the morning. I'm coming from the expressway on my way home. 35 miles one way. And I'm nodding and I got the windows down. Next thing I know, I done fell asleep at the wheel. And I hear, wake up. I woke
up and I had crossed the median. And Pittsburgh is hilly. Y'all don't know what hills are here. And I'm on my way over in the other lane and over across an embankment. I hit the brakes and the car spins and it turns. And after a little while, you just boom. About a quarter of a mile maybe, I don't know. It stops. I'm looking around. I'm thanking God that nobody was on the road but me. I'm thanking God that whatever it was that woke me up, woke me up.
So I get home and my wife is up and I said, what are you doing up this early in the morning? Cause she don't get up until her in the morning. And she said, God woke me up about 530 and told me to pray for you. I said, no. She said, yeah. And so I just started praying. I didn't know what was anything wrong with her, you know. I didn't know, I just said, God told me to
pray for my husband. I'm praying for my husband. I said, girlfriend, you better be glad you prayed for your husband, because I heard about 530 when I had fallen asleep behind the wheel. Somebody say wake up! So God took your prayer, translated it into something I would understand you screaming at me. And saved my life. Yes. Yes. Peter. James. Yeah. Because of the precept that God gave him. But remember the other thing. Why was Peter saved? Because the church prayed
for him. We just said it Wednesday night. The angel fetched Peter out of prison. But it was prayer that fetched the angel. Listen, if we're going to take this community and we are, we're not going to do it without prayer. Amen. Corporate prayer. Listen, 1 in 2 marriages end in divorce. That's 50%. Now, if you Google it, it'll say 44%. But that's because millennials aren't getting married as, as,
as often as the previous generations. You want to know why they said they look at our marriages and say, uh uh uh uh, I ain't doing this. I ain't doing this. Uh, but it's still one and two. But if you add prayer, it goes from one and 2 to 1 in 1500.
If you're married, I hope that's given you something to think about. And encouragement, motivation to be in prayer with your spouse. You're listening to Treasure Truth with Pastor Ford, a message called Faith for Your Future. And if you're ever on the go and you want to make sure that you don't miss this broadcast, I hope you'll go get the Moody Radio app. You'll find it at your favorite app store, like iTunes or Google Play, or link you to it when you come to treasure Truth Radio.
Let's get back to the message once again. Here is Pastor Ford.
You see what prayer does because it's so hard to pray for somebody and be arguing with them at the same time. Pray for somebody. Can you imagine? You know, you both down there praying. If you prayed every night, like my wife and I try to do every night. Lord, would you do something to her? Would you tell your servant you know to get right?
And, Lord, would you tell your servant to get right? And he's supposed to be a preacher?
No, it don't work that way. Let me tell you how it works. When we first started doing it, I didn't know what I was doing because I would be mad at her and I'd get down to pray and in my mind would be racing. And finally, the Holy Spirit would convict me and tears would come down my eyes. And even though I knew I was right, I found myself saying, please forgive me. Yes, because whatever we're arguing about, it ain't worth our relationship. Baby forget. Then she start crying,
you know, and then. And it's like. It's like we can't go to bed angry now. Like I told you, we done been up 2 or 3 weeks, but we don't let the sun go down upon our wrath. And so here it is. Here it is. Jesus prayed. Uh, is recorded 15 times in the Gospels. 11 are in the Gospel of Luke. Luke tells us about the prayer life. Now wait a minute. Jesus is God in the flesh. If he had to have a prayer life. Preaching, huh? Here it is a private prayer. Life is the secret
of a powerful public life. Yeah. Huh. Prayer is paramount, not peripheral. It's essential. Not an option. Here it is. Here's the last one. You've been so gracious. He said, you gotta be empowered by the provision of Christ. Notice what he says. This is so powerful. It's rich. It's a rich verse, isn't it? For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. He's saying, you gotta be
empowered by the provision of Jesus Christ. See, I don't know how, but I do know who. I don't know when, but I do know who I know. It's Jesus Christ in chapter four. Here's what he does. Let me just run it down for you real quick, because it talks about the sufficiency of Christ in chapter four. Here's what he says. Here's how sufficient he is in chapter four
one through three. He has the power to unify, and four through seven fortify and eight and nine purify in ten through 16, satisfy in seven, two, 19 supply and in 20 and 21 glorify. He says, here it is that we need to understand. He provides for us. He supplies it. The word is carajo. How many were here at the Bible study on Wednesday morning when we studied the word carajo? Remember that we studied the word carajo. It's the word from which we get chorus or choir.
And literally what it means is back in the day, whenever they would put on a big thing and have choirs and entertainers, the person who would pay for it was the leader of that carajo. And that person was usually rich because nobody would pay them and they wouldn't be able to perform. So he supplied everything that they needed lavishly. Say, what are you talking about? Pastor 40 saying, listen, it's all in God's plan, you know, let me tell
you something. I've been here 35 years and the first 30 years of ministry, we never had one page of red ink. Not one. And I used to brag about it. We ain't never had no red ink. Then in year 31, you know what happened? Red ink. I went ballistic. I was like, Lord, am I'm faithful. What have I done that I don't know about? Been there. God said, oh, no. This is by divine design. You need to understand. I'm getting ready to take you places where you don't have
the money. And so I don't want you waiting until you do have the money. I want you to step out by faith. And trust me that if I called you to the responsibility, I'll give you the resources. So I. And I just did it. I just did it. I just did it, didn't I just did it. Just did it again. I should say again. Because I do it all the time. Just did it again. Yeah. Got an opportunity to go on television. Three broadcasts for the price of one. Yeah, I stepped out. I said, I'm going
to do this. I already did the commercial. undo the commercial? I don't even think about it. I should have put it on right now.
Had you play it?
Yeah, I had a commercial. Yeah. I'm going to believe God. Amen. Why? Because he said it is God that worketh in you both of his will to goodwill and good pleasure. Get this. He said It's God's person. It is God that worketh is God's power in you. It's God's parameters. Both is God's purposes of his is God's priority, his will, God's plan,
good pleasure. It's God's pleasure. It's a comprehensive supply where God promises that he is going to do everything that's necessary for us to accomplish what he wants us to accomplish. Is anybody in here like their pastor geek to take this community over? Is there anybody in here that feels called to do what nobody else has yet done?
Yes. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Mm. Well, let me close. But I tell you, Romans five eight says this. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. See, God became one of us, that he might say, all of us. Christ was nailed to the cross to bridge the gap that take us from sinner to saint, that takes us from hell to heaven. He died that we might live. He suffered for our sins. That we could be forgiven and saved from our sins. Jesus is the
answer to our agony. He is the balm for our bruises. He's the cure for our crisis. He's the deliverance for our depravity. Eraser for our heirs. Yes. Guess what? You're never too low to be lifted by him. You're never too dirty that he can't cleanse you. You're never too broken. That he can't fix you. You're never too damaged. That he can't redeem you. You're never too sinful that he can't save you. You're never too lost that he can't find you. You're never too empty. That he can't feel you.
You're never defective. That he can't restore you. See, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you've been left out, shut out, dropped out, put out, dranked out, cracked out, whacked out, smoked out, stepped out, turned out. Locked out. Even if you're just a cop out, Christ will give you a bailout. So you can break out and stand out and carry out his purposes for your life, for his glory. Jesus will supply all of our needs
according to his riches in glory. I wonder today, is there anybody who came, who understands what God wants to do, why he brought you here this day to hear this message? Because he got something for you to do and he tired of all the excuses. Jesus died for our sins, not for our excuses. Excuses are like noses. Everybody got one. But you've got to be able to stand up and say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Now, I don't know what it is, but I know that
it's something that God sent you here for today. And if that's you, I don't want to know that you came in and you were a little discouraged, but you said, you know what? I'm going to take this word that God has given me, and I'm going to stand out for Jesus Christ and stand up for Jesus. I just want to see who you are. Just stand up. That's all you gotta do. Just stand up. God ministered to me. I'm going to go out. I don't know what it is, pastor. You don't know what it is. But I'm going to
do this. I'm going to. It may be education, it may be a job. It may be a business. I don't know what it is. It may be reconciliation. I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, you're standing and saying, I'm going to go out here and I am going to have enlightenment by Christ's purpose. I'm going to be emboldened by Christ's people's prayer, and I'm going to be empowered by Christ's provision.
Does Pastor James Ford Jr. And a message called Faith for Your Future. You're listening to Treasure Truth and you can find us online at Treasure Truth Radio. Well, this program exists to encourage you in your walk with Christ and to equip you to live out your faith at home, at work, or wherever you may be. We do that through Pastor Ford's teaching, but also through the resources that
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