Takers, Part 4

was their promise. So the only way you can claim it is if God gave it to you. Now here's a classic example in the New Testament. Uh, Peter sees Jesus walking on the water. He didn't say I claim it in the name of Jesus. No, he said, Lord, if it's you, bid me come. Here's what he said. If you name it, I'll claim it. That's exactly what he did, right? And so Jesus said, come. So he

walked on water, defied nature, gravity, everything. You know, water turns into asphalt because God gave him a promise and he stepped out on that promise.

call some witnesses, pastor. Amen. Let me call my first witness. Adam and Eve. So you see, Adam and Eve had it going on. I mean, they had it nice. Listen, they lived in a perfect world, in a perfect environment. He had a perfect job and a perfect wife and a perfect everything because he had a perfect god. Yeah. I mean, I can imagine the conversation Eve saying to Adam. Adam, do you love me? And Adam looking around saying, who else? It was just a perfect environment. So there was nobody

else for him to cheat with. That's perfect. And so what happens, man? They have all of this. Then they decided to take what God didn't want them to have. So he said, all the trees you can freely eat. But that tree that's in the midst of the garden. Don't eat that. I don't want you to touch that. God always has to have something that he's given to us, that he reserves for himself, so that we know that we're stewards and not owners. So every time you look at it, that belongs to God. He gave me all

of this. And isn't it amazing that as much as God gives us to enjoy is generally the things that he tell us that we shouldn't have that we want? Anybody ever walk and see a sign that said wet paint? That was true. Shame the devil. How many of you like me? I just got to touch it to see if it's wet. Amen. Yeah. And so what happened? They took what God told them not to take. They ate of the tree. And that God said, don't eat. Don't

touch it. Don't take that. And so what's the premise when you take what God does not want you to have? God takes what he does want you to have. So he didn't want them to have it and they took it. So what did he want them to have? The Garden of Eden, that perfect place. And God took it because they took what God said, don't take. So God took back what he wanted them to have, and he shut them out of the garden. And some of you are out of your garden, your Paradise, because you always taking

something that God said, don't take. Mm. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. Cast out of the garden. Let me get my second witness. Moses. Moses. God said, I want you to speak to the rock. Now. The first time he smote smoked the rock. That's justification. You already know that it's a picture of Calvary, because First Corinthians chapter ten says the Rock was Christ. Not, not, not represent him. The Rock was that rock that followed them was Christ. So God is saying, I'm giving you a picture of

the Rock on Christ. The solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. There's something supernatural. When you strike a rock and water comes out and it's supernatural when you put a spear in the side of the Lord Jesus Christ, out comes blood, out comes water. Blood for redemption, water for cleansing. It's a so great salvation. It's like prego. Everything is in there. Yeah. And so he says, he says in essence. Then he says, listen, Moses, there's something I don't want you to take. So I

want you to speak to the Rock. Why? Because striking the rock is justification. But speaking to the rock is sanctification. I don't want you to break my type because it's a picture of Jesus. Because he only died once on Calvary once and for all. He don't need to die again. So you speak to it because the striking is justification, but the speaking is sanctification. That is, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse. You don't gotta go back to the cross

for justification. That's already happened. You just need to go back. Fall down on your knees. Father, I stretch my hands to thee. No other help I know. Forgive me. Cleanse me. I repent of this sin. And so, instead of him doing that, numbers chapter 2018 through 12 says this Moses hit the rock and said, must we wait a minute? What do you mean we? God is the deliverer. Now all of a sudden Pastor Moses thinks he built the church. Must we? And so God said, because you took something

I didn't want you to have. What did he take? He took God's glory. And that's something he does not want us to have. Isaiah 40 28I share my glory with no one. Psalm 24 nine through ten. I share my glory with no one. Don't mess with God's glory. Oh, you know what that reminds me? There are two truths. You want to hear them? Yeah, yeah. Truth number one. There is a god. Truth number two, you ain't him. And so God says, listen, listen, you. You took what I didn't want you to have. So you know what

he did? He cancelled his Holy Land trip. I wanted you to have the promised Land. But since you took my glory, I didn't want you to have that. Now I'm taking the Promised land because I wanted you to have it. But when you take what I don't want you to have, I take what I do want you to have. Let me get my third witness in here. It's Aiken, a guy named Aiken. See, God said when you go into Jericho, the first fruits belong to me. The first fruit belong to me. Isn't it amazing? Adam,

don't touch the tree that belongs to me. Aiken, don't touch the first spoils because that belongs to me. And what did he do? Aiken was walking around Round and he saw some Louboutin red bottoms and some rich denims. He saw two. Givenchy shirts and he saw a Rolex that was iced out. You know, he wanted to put his wrist on freeze. He saw some VVS diamonds. He could just see himself in them. And everybody saying, wow,

look at Akon, man. His neck is froze. And then as he was leaving he was thinking about Mrs. Akon and all the stuff he got for himself. So he saw a Birkin bag and he picked that up for her. He would have took that ghost, but he knew he couldn't hide that in his tent. Now, now some of you are saying, I don't know what you said. You know, that shows me you ain't keeping current. Amen. Red bottomed gym shoes cost $800 a pair. That's where they start.

They start. Givenchy shirts cost about $300 a shirt. That's where they start. Iced out means diamonds. Neck froze. Means you got diamonds around your neck and wrist froze. A Rolex is iced out. It's a Rolex with everybody. With me. And a ghost is a Rolls-Royce. Anyway, I was trying to relate to the young people, but. And a Birkin bag. The cheapest one you can get is four grand. So you know what that means. Sister four. They ain't gonna never have one. Yeah. Hey, man. So what did he do?

Aiken took what God didn't want him to have. So God took what he wanted him to have. He took the same thing from him that he took from Moses, the promised Land. But God got serious with that thing, and he took his life and his wife's life and his family's life. Everybody died because one man took what God didn't want him to have. So God took what he did want him to have. And I tell you that you got to read this for yourself. Joshua chapter eight,

verse two. Guess what it says? He told them, go back in the I after they recover from the sin of Achan, because one person's sin stopped everybody's progress. Let me say that again. One person's sin stopped everybody's progress. And so now they they repented as a congregation. They repented as a congregation. They repented as a congregation. And then and then here's what God said. God said, now go in there. Take I and everything in it belong to y'all. Did you miss that right over your head?

Pastor Betts, you know it. If he would have waited two chapters, everything he took that God didn't want him to have became what God wanted him to have. Maybe that is your boo, but maybe he ain't ready for you yet. Maybe you ain't ready for him yet. Maybe God's getting you ready for who he's got ready for you. And so what happens? Let me just say this. Aiken is long gone, but he got some cousins in the 21st century. He got some cousins. Yeah. At Christ Bible

Church he got some cousins. Because there are a lot of people in here who take what God said don't take. That's his tithe. And in Malachi he said you're cursed with a curse. Now the second word curse is the Hebrew word exaggerate. Now what does that mean, pastor? I'm glad you asked. You ask intelligent questions. Extra great is the opposite of consecrate. What is something? Consecrated is dedicated to God. What is extra great? Here's what it literally means.

God says, when you rob me and some of you know it already, you came to church and you came. You rode in a stolen car because you're paying your car. Note With God's tithe money you got on stolen suit, stolen clothes, stolen gym shoes, stolen sandals. You want to know why? Because you bought it with God's tithe. You watching a stolen TV? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that iPhone six. Mhm. You robbed God. And so here's what God said. Here's what he said. I'm just going to take my hands off.

That's what extra great means. It means God's going to take his hand off. Here's what he's telling them and telling us in Malachi. He said, you don't give me what I asked you for, then I'm going to take what I was going to give you. I just take

my hands off of it. In other words, God says there are people like like Sister Tiffany and myself and dozens of others in this room that understand that you can do more with the 90% God blesses than the 100% that God doesn't bless, that you keep the 100% and God takes his hand off of it. You give God his and he blesses the 90, and the 90 goes way beyond what it ever would do because God is blessing it.

And so if you're benefiting from Pastor Ford's teaching, I want to ask you to consider giving a financial gift so we can pay for airtime, production costs and everything else it takes to keep this program running. You can give online by coming to Treasure Truth Radio org and click on the donate button. Again, that's a treasure Truth radio.org. Back to the message. Here is Pastor Ford.

remember last week here was the supposition. There's good takers. Not just bad takers. There's good takers. And that's what this chapter is all about. God says, Joshua, I want you to take the land, you and the people of God. I gave it to you as a promise. Now take it. See, the problem is, we take what we shouldn't be taking, and we don't take what we should be taking. Have you all heard that story about the three guys that Jesus met on 79th Street? And they were walking down

79th Street, and Jesus met them. And the first guy, uh, you know, he had these thick bottle glasses and he could hardly see. And he said, Jesus, you, Jesus. He said, yeah. He said, Will you heal my eyes? And Jesus touched him and he was healed instantly. And then there was another guy. He said, man, I got shrapnel in my back. That's why I'm bent over. I got it in Vietnam. I've been bent over ever since. I can't straighten up. It's very painful. Jesus touched him and the shrapnel came

on his back. He stood up. He said, oh, praise the Lord! They shouting. Jesus looked at the third man, and he saw that he was infirm and that he was lame in the leg. And, uh, he was a union worker. And Jesus, Jesus went to touch him. He said, don't touch me, don't touch me. I'm on long term disability. Don't touch me. What's my point? He offers, and we don't take. Come on back, come on back, he offers. But I want to remind you. Listen, listen, listen to this.

If he tells you to be a taker, you need to take. Now, we talked about this before, so I'm gonna drop it. I'm not going to push them. Remember in the King James Version, Luke chapter five, Peter let Jesus use his boat. And I don't tell you, you ain't going to outgive God. You give him a spoonful, he'll give you a shovelful. And so what happened, Peter let him use his boat. And remember, we talked about it.

We said it's a good thing it was empty, because if it was full, he would never let Jesus use his boat. But because it was empty. Y'all not getting this, y'all. Not because it was empty. Because he's going through and didn't catch anything because he doesn't have anything. Now he has the opportunity to let Jesus fill his boat. Maybe that's why you're empty today. Uh huh. Yeah, because if you were full, you wouldn't be in church. Uh, but but your emptiness pushed you back. Lord, if you get

me out of this. And so what happens? Jesus said, you let me use your boat. I'm gonna reward you. You didn't catch any fish. So here's what I want you to do. Cast your nets over to the other side. Now. Come on. You remember it. What did he do? Cast his net. Singular. And what happened? It broke. Why did it break? Because God wanted him to take more than Peter wanted to take. When God says take it, take it all, take it all. I don't know about you.

I want everything that God has for me. Everything. Whatever it is, I want it. I want it because he said I can have it. See, somebody's child will remain anonymous. But it was in the old when we had the old sanctuary. I had a candy dish. I told you stories about my candy dish. I didn't tell you the same story. There's a different one. He came into my office. I ain't gonna tell you his name. And he said, Pastor Ford, can I have some candy? I said, help yourself.

You know what he did? He took the candy dish and emptied it in his pocket and put it back on my desk. I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm helping myself. I said, I didn't tell you to take it off. He said, you didn't tell me not to take it off. You said, help myself. Then check it out. Check it out. I ain't going to tell his name. Guess what happened? So he's standing there. I said, you got the candy. Go ahead. He said, I want some. That's in the bottom drawer. I said, he said, I

listened to your sermon. You got candy in the bottom drawer. You said, help myself. I got one pocket full. I want to fill my other pocket. I said, move my chair. Go ahead. And he did. And I said, I said to him on the way out, I was thinking about I said, you know, something? And I connected to the promises of God. I said, you taught me a lesson today. He said, what'd I teach you? When God says you can have it, then just take it. Don't put a limit on God. God is more generous than we would

ever believe that he is. Oh, I tell you, I tell you I learned something. And here's what he says. He says, I want you and the children of Israel to possess your God given possession. And remember last week, that's all I'm going to talk about this and and the theme, and then we're moving on to new material. So he says, here's the outline for the chapter Take My People in chapters one through five. Take those people out. Chapter six through 12. Take that place over chapters 13

through 22. Let me say it again. Take my people in one through five. Take those people out six through 12 and take that place over 13 through 22. So here's the thing. The theme is Yahweh will give you the manifestation of his revelation when we meet his qualifications. There it is. There are six requirements, six qualifications required by us to possess our God given possessions. Here they are. There are six of them. Let me give them to you. We must respond to God's plan. We must rest in

God's promises. We must rely upon God's protection. We must readily obey God's precepts. We must realize God's presence, and we must recruit God's people. Now I have time for one just one point, because I'm here all the time. Lord willing, I ain't going anywhere. I said I might as well take my time. And so I am. I got one point today and we can get up on out of here. Let me drop em and I'm gonna push em. Respond to God's plan. That's verses one and two.

Let me read it now. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of nun. Moses minister, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou and all this people unto a land which I do give to them, even the children of Israel. The emphasis in the Hebrew is on the word. Now it's the first word in verse one. It's the first word

in verse two. Now, now, now, now, now, now. My question is, why now, Lord, why are you using now, now, now? Because God wants them to understand the time for procrastination is over. See, this is the second generation. The first generation. This first generation, they died in the wilderness. Over 2 million of them. This is the second generation. And in Deuteronomy chapter one, somebody hollered out, what does Deuteronomy mean, second law? Due to two. Nomos law. Deuteronomy. Second law.

What's he doing? He's giving the plan to the second generation that he gave to the first generation that the first generation did not implement because they were afraid of the giants in the land. So now he's coming. He's saying, don't make the same mistake your parents made. Why do you think we're so hard on our kids about, you know, don't have sex before you get married? Not just because the Bible says so. Because we know the mistake that we made and we say, don't do this. It cripples you.

It does stuff. And so he's saying, look, look, you've got to understand. Here's what they did. Write it down. Deuteronomy chapter one. Here's what God told him. He said, listen, I want you to go now. Take the land. They went over there. The spies come back with a big report. Majority report. I don't even I don't even want to deal with that. And so they came back. Their giants and the grasshopper. The land is like God said. Two of us had to carry one cluster of grapes. But

don't ever put a but where God has put a comma. Yeah, don't ever put a period where God has put a comma. So I said, but they're giants and we're grasshoppers. Well, we know there are giants and we know your grasshoppers, but the battle is the Lord's. He never said you had to beat them. And so the whole generation died out.

you need right there. Speaking of other things that you may need, Pastor Ford has written a number of books and he's really passionate about marriage and relationships. A number of different titles related to that. You can check those out when you come to Treasure Truth radio.org and look for the link that says Books by Pastor Ford. And if you ever have a question about something you hear on the broadcast, you can ask your question by coming

to Treasure Truth radio.org and clicking on the contact link. There. You can give us your feedback or ask a question. And who knows, we might just answer that question on a future broadcast. You're going to find those links and a lot more at Treasure Truth radio.org. Well, thanks for listening today. Thanks also to our producer, Amy Rios for Pastor Ford, I'm Steve Hiller. Treasure truth is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of the Moody Bible Institute.