Obtaining the Promises of God

Praise God. Let's turn to the Word of God here tonight in our Bible study. We're on this series of the promises of God and I want to give what I believe is a very important message here tonight.

This is part three. We've dealt with three messages concerning the promises of God. I'm running out of time over the next couple of weeks.

I've got a lot to minister to you in just a couple of brief weeks and I really want to communicate the mind of God and the heart of God and the will of God and the plan of God and the purpose of God concerning promises. But this is part three and my message tonight as we turn to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 33 and verse 34.

I want to preach to you on obtaining the promises of God or more correctly how to obtain the promises of God or how do you make the promises of God work in your own personal life or how do you know the promises of God are for you or what do you do with individual promises written in the scripture. These are all vital questions and will affect your entire Christian life. Where you go, what you do, what you accomplish, how you think, how you speak.

All those things are affected in relation to promises. My message obtaining the promises of God. Read in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 33.

Who through faith and he's spoken about many great saints men and women from the old testament and then he says this. Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness. Notice this next statement.

Obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. And I'm going to stop there. Let's pray together.

Father, I pray tonight. Father, teach us, help us, encourage us, exhort us. Lord God, lay into us, O God, that knowledge that it takes to obtain the promises of God.

Father, I pray, Lord God, that every man, every woman in this meeting tonight would become an obtainer of the promises of God. That we would attain onto them. That we would inherit them, my God.

That we would own them. That we would possess them. That we would live in the blessing and the reality of them.

Father, I pray for, Lord God, all those online. Father, all those that listen to us online. Father, I pray tonight and we as a church pray unitedly right now.

Father, I pray these messages and promises and especially this one, how to obtain the promises of God. Father, stir hearts tonight. Lord God, let a real, living, burning, vibrant faith arise.

My God, challenge the faith of every individual in this room. Lord God, stir up the hearts of saints tonight. Lord God, let faith enter the heart to believe your promises.

Those things written in scripture that rely on your character, upon your veracity, your faithfulness, O God, your reliability, your trustworthiness. My God, that we would rest on your character, Lord God, as we possess the promises of God. In Jesus' name, I pray that your Holy Spirit would blow upon us.

My God, that you'd raise up those like Abraham and Sarah. Lord God, like the saints of old who are gonna arise and by faith obtain promises from God. My God, even tonight in this gathering, Lord God, do a deep work in our hearts.

Do an eternal work, a spiritual work, a work that's gonna mold and affect our entire Christian life. Lord, walk with you how we speak. Lord God, how we fellowship together, where we go, what we embark on, O God, what we will attempt for you in the future.

I pray, O God, let the faith of God stir within us that we might obtain the promises of God by faith in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

These are two powerful scriptures that I've just read here. As we embark on this message, obtaining the promises of God. One little sentence in the middle of these two verses, by faith or through faith, they obtain promises.

But let me give you the context so that you understand what we're dealing with. We've been looking at the promises of God and we're gonna look more at the promises of God. And we're dealing with very real important things here.

But I wanna teach you, encourage you, challenge you, exhort you to through faith become a obtainer, a possessor of the promises of God. I've got three points for you here. But before I embark on them, let me give you an example of the danger of not obtaining the promises of God.

The Bible is filled with promises. God has made multiplied tens of thousands of promises. He's made covenants.

He swore oaths. He'd done many things through blood sacrifice, a blood sacrifice to David, to Noah, to Abraham. All those blood sacrifices affect you.

And then ultimately Jesus Christ, that was the ultimate blood sacrifice. But God literally pours out thousands upon thousands of promises. Many thousands of promises in the Bible are specifically for you if you're in Christ.

It's not that you have to work out, are they for you? They are for you. They're actually for you. But listen, before we embark on this, I want you to see the danger.

And I've mentioned this before, but I wanna say it because it wasn't in a message I said it. So I wanna say it again because it's an important point just for those listening online. I told you during the past two years, during a period of terrible grief and agony of soul, I had a pass through.

We all know the scripture in Matthew chapter five, verse four, blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. I had people emailing, writing, speaking to me saying, God's gonna comfort you because after all you're grieving, you're mourning the loss of your wife. God is, it's a promise in the Bible.

God is gonna do that. Of course he is. Especially for you, Keith, God is gonna comfort you.

I went through a year and a half and this in my heart, in my mind, I'm going, I have no comfort. No comfort for a year and a half. I'm honest, I'm real.

But you know what? I'm wise enough not to open my big mouth and put my foot in it like so many Christians do. Or worse still, to get an attitude or resentment or to falsely accuse God. Christians speak far too quickly.

A year and a half, I've served God faithfully, so did my wife, but I have no comfort in my hour of grief. In my time of sorrow, no comfort. And so I went through a year and a half and I went, Lord, I'm not being comforted.

I know what the scripture says. I believe the scripture. I have preached on the scripture.

I have exhorted others on the scripture, but it's not working. What's gone wrong here? I know the promise. I know the word of God.

I know it's infallible, but why am I not being comforted? Why isn't this operating in me? So I was wise enough to keep my big mouth shut. And you ought to do that sometimes. Because when you speak hastily, you commit sin.

You just kept it between you and God. There's no sin in that. God will work with you and deal with you.

So I didn't say to any of you, not a one of you did I say that to until I got through it. Once I got through it, now I can share. Now I can say something about this.

But you know what? You need to be very careful when you challenge the promises of God and say they don't work. And why aren't they real? And why doesn't it happen? You need to be so, so careful. I was preaching on Sunday morning, a year and a half into this.

I was preaching another text of scripture with the same Greek word comfort in it. And as I preached, I expounded, I taught you, I preached, I went back home and that night I'm thinking on the message and suddenly it occurs to me. It's the same Greek word as Matthew five.

And you know what I've done? I've misinterpreted the word comfort. So had you. So do most Christians.

We think the word comfort means they ease your pain, make you feel better, make you happy, make you forget what has just happened to you in mourning and losing. That's what we all think, but that isn't what the Greek word means. Listen, the Greek word paralebo.

It means one called alongside you. It means one is called right beside you to speak to you, to urge you, to encourage you, to make you to go forward in your journey. The word para means to be alongside, join, parachute, many paras.

And so the word here used for comfort, God will comfort you means he will come alongside you and he's going to be speaking to you, urging you to go forward. And when this dawned on me, I went, how stupid are you, Malcolmson? You took a promise from God. In fact, your entire life, you thought the comfort meant God's going to make you feel better.

It doesn't mean that. Do you see how misunderstanding a Greek word can mislead you concerning the character of God, the promise of God and why it isn't working in your life? Do you see how careful you have to be with a promise? This is a promise. Everybody knows this promise.

Everybody can quote this promise. Everybody may be at some stage ministers that to someone who needs it. And yet we don't even know what the word means.

I had to wait to 51 years old to really understand what the scripture actually meant. And all my years, I've never heard a preacher correctly minister what that first means to a mourning person. Never in my entire life.

Because they use it to mean to ease your pain. It's a big difference between having your pain eased momentarily and having God come alongside you so close to you and begin urging you to go forward, keep walking, keep standing, keep doing the will of God. And you know what? When that dawned on me, I went for one and a half years.

I've stayed in this pulpit. I've preached the word of God. I've exhorted you.

I've prayed for you. I've prayed for many that watch us online. And so I went, you know what? The promise of God was working all the time, every week, every single day.

And here I am looking for going, where is it? Where is it? Where is it? I hope that helps you understand the importance of this message tonight. I'm going to look at this first 33 where it says, through faith they obtained promises. Because I believe you need to hear this, or in your Christian life over decades, over an entire lifetime, you will make mistakes, misunderstand or not understand how to make this work.

In your trial, your trouble, your battle that you're facing, you won't understand why it's not operating. And you could be in danger of misunderstanding God, resenting the life of righteousness or the character of God. I've got three points.

My first point here, through faith. I want that blazing on your brain tonight. If you are to obtain the promises of God, how do you do that? Through faith.

So simple. It's biblical. How do you obtain the promises of God and make them your own? Through faith.

If you get that wrong, you're going to make a lot of mistakes. You could go for years not obtaining because you're trying to do it by some other means. Look at the context in these two verses.

I want to do the surrounding things so the weight of this hits you and the power of this. Look what it says beginning here in verse 33. Through faith they subdued kingdoms.

Through faith they subdued kingdoms. It's talking about the Old Testament. There were various men, stories, incidents in the history of God's people where individuals subdued kingdoms.

The word subdue, it means to struggle, to fight against, to overcome, to subdue. It's saying that by faith they subdued, conquered, triumphed over entire kingdoms. What is a kingdom? It's got to have a king.

It's got to have a system of authority. It has an army. It has a structure of culture.

Often a kingdom has obviously a region. It has cities. It has bands of men and women.

When you go into the Old Testament, you see a man like Joshua who preeminently was a man of faith who knew how to subdue entire kingdoms. Few men in the entire Old Testament knew how to subdue kingdoms like Joshua. He was a trained soldier.

He was a gifted, wise man. He was a man with the Spirit of God, but he didn't do this by any other means than faith. How did he do it? Faith.

He actually done it by faith. He accomplished it. When you go into Deuteronomy 7, you find out that in the land of Canaan there were seven distinct nations, seven distinct entire nations or peoples, and he was to go in and conquer all seven nations that were in the land.

But listen, in Joshua chapter 12, we read something else. We read a list of 31 kings that he conquered, triumphed over, got the victory over. Kings over kingdoms.

How did he do it? By faith. He conquered their cities. He took their lands, defeated their armies.

He done all of this, and then he killed the kings. How did he do it? By faith. Not the power of the sword, not the greatness of his army, not the amount of soldiers.

It was an act of faith. Joshua was a great soldier by faith. It was this operation of faith, a trust in God, a confidence in God, a belief in God, an actual acceptance of the Word of God and the will of God.

And through that faith, see, if you find the will of God for your life, you can move forward in faith. You can't do anything by faith until you know God's will for your life. You'll go in circles going, I don't know, I don't know what I'm doing.

You'll be like a man walking the wilderness. But when you find the will of God, now you've got a choice. Are you going to believe God, His will for your life? Are you going to go and do something else? Are you going to say that's too hard, too impossible? See, if you can find God's will for your life, you can begin to believe God and have faith in God.

It's not you that does this thing. I don't understand Christians. God calls them to something.

They go, that's impossible. Of course it's impossible. Of course it is.

You can't go and defeat all these kingdoms. But if God calls you to it, have faith in God. Joshua wasn't there saying, I can do this.

I'm going to do this. He was going, I believe you, God. You've called me to this.

You've commanded me to do it. Now I put faith in you and we're going to see you do it. See how it happens by faith.

Or David in 2 Samuel chapter 8 verse 1. David smote the Philistines and subdued them. How did he do that? By faith. David was a great defeater of the Philistines.

He was an enemy. How did he do that? How do you run against Goliath on the battlefield? By faith. Do you ever read the story? Fearless.

Fearless. He runs at Goliath. The great giant.

The great giant laughs at him. Why are you sending me this little boy for with his little staff? You know what conquered Goliath? Faith. Don't think it was skill.

Don't think it was training. It was faith and faith alone. What about Gideon with his 300 men? His army was too big.

So it had to go down to 300. Now God can use you. It's going to be by faith.

How are you going to defeat the Midianites? By some special skill. By faith. See I want you to see by faith you obtain promises.

But I want to give you the context. I want you to see everything in the Christian life is by faith. You will not possess the promises of God.

They will not operate in you. You will not function in them. You will not enjoy them unless you have faith that it's going to happen.

Don't tell me you can sit here and be apathetic, unbelieving, casual and they're going to operate in your life. No they will not. You've got to do something.

And so you see here what you do is through faith. The second thing to mention is wrought righteousness. Through faith they wrought righteousness.

Now this wrought righteousness it means judgment. It means weighing out what is right. Doing what is right.

Or performing biblical judgment. How did they do this? How did certain men in the Old Testament bring forth righteousness in their hour? When everything was corrupt they were righteous. When everything was they brought forth just balances.

How did they do it? Through faith. They wrought righteousness. The word wrought there means to labor, to sweat, to use effort, or to toil like you would dig in a ditch.

So there's men in the Old Testament. They wrought righteousness in their generation, in their situation, in their nation. They worked hard to bring forth godly righteousness again.

When everything was wicked they brought forth this righteousness again. They brought forth confidence in God's word again. How did they do it? Was it their hard work? No.

Faith. They did it because of faith. They never would have done this without faith.

And so it says in Acts chapter 10 verse 35, But in every nation he that feareth him, or feareth God, and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. In other words, all over the world there's men who work righteousness, bring forth righteousness. The Bible says of those they did it by faith.

The third thing obtained promises. This is our statement for tonight. I want you to understand.

Don't you dare think that you obtain the promises merely by hanging around here, or intellectually understanding the text, or merely praying a token prayer on a Friday night, or merely being here and going well God has sovereignly obliged to do this in my life. What does it say? Through faith they obtained the promises. In other words, in the Old Testament there are many in the Old Testament they obtain promises through faith.

You can't obtain without faith. Don't tell me that it doesn't matter if you have faith you obtain the promises anyway. Rubbish.

Utter rubbish. If you don't have faith to believe God, faith, operating in faith to actually obtain them, you won't obtain them. Faith is essential.

Don't tell me things happen whether you believe or whether you don't believe. That isn't what the Word of God says. And it says if you look back into the Old Testament you'll see story after story after story of men and women who obtained promises, specific written promises, and there had to be faith.

If you didn't have faith you would not obtain them. You would not gain them. And so promises may not be obtained.

Listen. Promises that God has made in the Word of God may not be obtained. They may be for you and you don't obtain them.

They may hold provision for you and you don't obtain them. You don't receive any benefit. Those promises do not impact your life because you're not coming in faith.

You're not believing God. You're not trusting Him to bring the promise into reality in your life. Look what it says.

To obtain. The word obtain here actually shows us there's difficulties. There's opposition.

If you have to obtain the promise this isn't merely coasting along. There's going to be resistance. There's going to be walls.

There's going to be giants. There's going to be impossibilities. There's going to be things that go wrong.

You have to obtain the promises. God says I'm going to give you this. But to obtain it you need to be of faith.

And so it's a specific thing. These promises were specifically personally promised to individuals in specific situations. But they had to have faith.

Now I'm coming back to this and we're going to expand on it. But let me go a bit further on the faith. See everything is by faith.

Salvation is by faith. The baptism in the Holy Ghost is by faith. Your walk in the Spirit is by faith.

Everything is by faith. And when you begin to realize faith is essential nothing happens in your Christian life without faith. You can't be in apathy, rebellion, disobedience, unbelief and yet this operate.

You have to be of the spirit of faith. There is a spirit of faith that even makes you speak and affects your words. Listen to someone strong enough you can tell are they in unbelief or are they in faith.

I'll tell you if you are or not. I'll tell you just if I can be around you. Your words to others.

Your words on subjects. And I'll tell you whether you're in faith or not. People mess themselves up.

It's not having a negative confession or a positive confession. It's just when I believe a certain way. I'm telling you my words will line up with that.

Don't tell me your words are different than what's in your heart. It's not out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. It's a reflection.

It reveals something about who you are and what you are and what you are like. Your words actually reveal that. Look what else it says here.

Through faith they stop the mouse of lions. Who comes to mind when you think stop in the mouth of lions? Daniel in the den of lions of course. Listen to what it says in Daniel 6 23.

So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no manner of hurt was found upon him. They obviously looked. If you pull them up out of there you're going to go up and down.

Nothing. Nothing. Not a scratch.

So they actually inspected him and looked at him and found upon him no hurt because he believed in his God. Why did the lions not touch him? Because he believed his God. Through faith stopped the mouse of lions.

Those mice were stopped like that. The lion couldn't even open its mouth. A lion uses its mouth.

Go look at a YouTube video at a lion attacking someone. Lions don't leave you alone. Lions devour.

The mouth of a lion is a dangerous thing. A deadly thing. You don't want to be in the same room as a lion I want to tell you.

So what did Daniel do? Through faith. It was an act of faith. The mouth of the lions were closed.

Now God sent an angel to close it. An angel. But it was through faith.

It wasn't the angel. The angel's just a part of this. Because faith is in operation an angel comes.

That's why an angel came. That's why the lion's mouth was shut because of faith. Faith is essential.

Then it goes further in verse 34. Quench the violence of fire. Who do you think? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

They get thrown in the fire because they will not bend. Because they will not compromise. You know what they said? I don't care what happens to me.

Burn me. Do whatever. But I'm not going to bend and worship that false idol.

I'm not submitting. I'm not compromising. I don't care what happens to me.

I don't care. You know what? You can do with me whatsoever you're going to do. Throw me in the fire.

And what did they say? They said we don't even know if God will deliver us. Not like the good news Bible. Throw the good news Bible out if you have it.

And if you're online and you have the good news, throw it out. It's useless. You know what it says? If God is able to deliver us.

That's heresy. What? If God is able. He is able.

You know what they actually said? We don't know if he will or not. They didn't doubt he could. They knew he could.

But how did they go into that fire? In faith. They didn't even know are we going to get saved? Are we going to get burned up? I haven't got a clue. Do you know a lot of people say if you don't believe you're going to be preserved in the fire, you don't have faith.

Rubbish. Utter rubbish. Do you know what the faith was? I won't compromise.

I won't bow. I don't know if I'm going to survive the fire. I haven't got a clue.

But I know God is able. He wants to save me. He can save me.

If he doesn't want to, he won't. But I know my faith makes me to stand. And I know my God is able.

See that is real faith. And you know what? When they got thrown in the fire, listen to what happened. Through faith they quenched.

Did God do it? Was it God's faith? It was their faith. Through faith they quenched the violence of fire. Not the fire.

The fire didn't go out. They didn't get delivered from the fire. The fire didn't go out.

Their faith didn't stop the fire burning. The fire just burned the exact same. They had to go into the same fire and walk through the same fire.

And the fire was raging. But listen, it says through faith they quenched the violence of the fire. In other words, the harmful effect on their body.

Didn't stop the fire. It stopped the effect of the fire upon them. And remember, when they come out, they don't even smell a smoke.

I mean, that's some faith, isn't it? Not a faith that stopped you going into the fire. Or put the fire out. It was a faith that stopped any ill effect.

And then it says again in verse 34, escape the edge of the sword. Now look at this for a second. This is important.

Through faith there are those in the Bible who escape the edge of the sword. The word escape means to run away. By faith they ran away from the edge of the sword.

Some people think you always have to run into the den's land. That lion's den. Or into the fire.

No you don't. There's some times in the Bible that if you're operating in faith, you run away from the sword. Let me give you an example.

We read when we go to the Bible, David fled from Saul. He didn't run and say, do kill me if you can. That's not faith.

Faith actually made him run away and hide in caves for years. That's faith. He's running from the sword.

That is faith operating. I just want to get you thinking here. It's important what we're going to deal with.

Elijah hid from Ahab and fled from Jezebel. That's not faith. Yes it is.

He went and hid by a brick. That's faith. He went and got fed by a little widow woman.

That's faith. See that would be below some people. You don't have any faith.

That's why. Some people wouldn't run from Jezebel. That's because you do not have faith.

But do you see, faith is a very, very real thing. Remarkable thing. Paul twice ran from the sword.

In Damascus they put him over the wall in a basket. In Jerusalem they put him over the wall in a basket to escape. Twice from Damascus, from Jerusalem he ran from soldiers, from the authorities.

What made his little legs go running? Faith. That's faith. He wasn't a coward.

He's not scared. He's not a coward. Faith says, I'm getting out of here.

I'll live to fight another day. That is faith operating. Do you see how you have to know concerning these things? It also says just lastly there about that they waxed valiant in the fight.

So there's stories about men and women who waxed valiant in fight. We have David of course. Eleazar who fought until his sword cleaved to his hand and became one that glued to his hand.

See I was faithed on that. How do you stand fighting all day? Or Shamgar when he fought the enemies of God. Or Samson with the jaw of an ass slaying a thousand Philistines.

How do you do that? Or what about Moses when he lifted up the rod and the entire Red Sea opens up? How do they do all of these things? When the enemy is bearing down upon you it's by faith. They waxed valiant in the fight. We have story after story of those who in a fight, a hot fight with the enemy.

People are dying. You know how they become great soldiers? By faith. And then it says there were those who turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

In other words the aliens is invading armies coming into Israel. Attacking hordes of darkness of other heathen nations coming into their nation. How did they turn them back? How did they drive them out of their country? By faith.

By faith. Listen to me. This is the first point.

Through faith men obtained promises. You can only gain the promises. Make them your own.

Experience them. Enjoy them. Have them fulfilled in your life by faith.

It's all through the whole Old Testament. All through here is story after story after story. Man after man.

Woman after woman. Thing after thing they do. You know how they made the promises of God work in their life? Do you know how when you read this story and go, wow look at what God done in their life.

Wow look what they operated in. How did they make the promises operate? Through faith. That's how it actually operated.

The Old Testament is filled with true stories of men and women. Story after story after story. Of men and women who obtained the promises.

They secured them. They possessed them. They owned them.

They made them their own. It says in Hebrews 11 verse 1, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. In other words it's future.

You don't have it now. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. When you have real faith you're hoping for things you don't even have yet.

Or it also says it's the evidence or the proof. This faith in you is so real. It's evidence.

It's concrete. It's evidence of things you don't even see with your eye. So look at it.

Man after man. Woman after woman. Through faith they said that's mine.

It's going to happen in my life. I'm not letting go of this. Year after year after year.

They didn't see it. It's way in the future but they made it their own. How? Through faith.

By faith. Faith brought it to them. Not their hard work.

Not their effort. Not their intelligence. Not their understanding.

Not their experience. Not their personality. Faith done it.

That's my first point. Through faith. Second of all obtaining the promises.

We're getting into the meat of this and I'm going to give you a warning in point three before we finish. Obtaining the promises. So we say obtaining the promises through faith.

Through faith we obtain the promises. It's got to be through faith that we obtain individual promises from God. God's made them.

God spoke them. God reveals them. God holds them out to you.

How do you get there? Through faith. But let me go a bit further. Obtaining the promises.

How do you obtain the promises? The word obtain there means secure. Secure. How do you secure the promise? The word means to possess them or to make them your own.

To live in the present reality of them in your own life. Not just made but made to you. Not just for someone else but made to you.

It says they obtained the promises through faith. They had many trials. Don't tell me you've got it hard.

You don't have it hard. They ran through a troop. They jumped over walls.

They faced giants. They went down into valleys where there was iron chariots. They believe God.

All through the ages men and women have walked with God. Look at Scotland in the 17th century. Women losing their husbands.

Watching them get martyred. Shot in front of them and yet they still walk with God. Raising their children with no money, no food, no house but getting put out of their home.

They walked with God. What is that? That is faith. That's a suffering faith.

That's a whole subject in itself. But what you begin to see here is certain things. How they obtained the promises of God.

I want to give you one, two, three, four, five. How to count them. Five things.

Very important things on how you obtain the promises of God. How all the saints have always operated in this to obtain the promise of God. It's not a casual thing.

It's not just they're saying let God do it if he's going to do it and if he doesn't he doesn't. That's dangerous. That's unbiblical.

That's anti-faith and anti-faithful God. God doesn't operate with anyone. See that isn't faith and God will not operate with that.

He won't work with you when that is your attitude. You're nullifying the promises. You're against their fulfillment if you let that spirit within your heart.

But let me give you these five things. Number one, pursue them. Do you want to obtain promises from God? Pursue after them.

How do you secure them? You pursue after them. It says in Hebrews chapter 11, the chapter we're looking at here, verse 6. Just look a bit earlier, verse 6. But without faith it is impossible to please God. You need to believe God.

And I believe all our lives are different. The trials are different. The promises that I believe God very personally opens up to you are all different.

We all have different, there's certain scriptures that are very precious to me. Why amidst all the thousands are there certain ones shine like bright stars and keep coming to me year after year? I don't believe that's accident. See I've got to pursue that.

Without faith it is impossible to please God. You have to be in faith. You have to operate in a trust, a confidence in God, a belief in God.

In fact let me tell you something. I believe God uses promises. Why does he give thousands of promises? I believe it's to stir up your faith, to make your faith operate.

I believe he's given all these promises and it's to make you a man or woman of faith. A real Christian is a man or woman of faith. That's what we are.

Oh yes all of us have disbelieved. Was Abraham ever in unbelief? Yes he was. He acted in the flesh.

He went and brought forth an Ishmael. Was Sarah ever in unbelief? She laughed at God. You're going to have a child.

You laughed. No I didn't. Yes you did.

I heard you. Since this is very real what we're operating in. The Bible's filled with all these things.

Why do you think we've got the story of the father of the faith disbelieving God? Why do you think it's even in the Bible? It's to help you, to stir you, to encourage you. Why do we have the preeminent apostle Peter denying Jesus three times and yet God uses him? Don't tell me you're just out on one strike. Get up again tonight.

Pursue after God. You see this is one of the things that makes the promises of God operate is to pursue after them. Listen.

Verse six. It's impossible to please God without faith. For he that cometh to God.

You need to pursue God. You need to come to God. This is faith operating.

How do I know you've got faith? You're coming to God. You're pursuing after God himself. It's not just a promise.

You're pursuing God. He that cometh to God must believe that he is. And listen.

That he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. You must. See you can't believe God if you're not like this.

You don't have an option over this. You can't be here and think God doesn't reward you. If you come to God he doesn't reward you.

That's a lie from hell. That'll destroy you if it gets in your mind. Oh there's no reward for seeking God.

There's no reward for praying. Who lied to you? You've been lied to. You believed a lie from the mouth of the devil.

It's absolute. It'll destroy you. Oh I could seek God.

I prayed. I followed him. Nothing comes of it.

That is a lie. It's very dangerous. Do you see how it's impossible to please God unless you believe that he's a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.

So notice to operate in faith you have to believe God will reward you if you seek after him. Search diligently. Diligently means putting effort in.

That's my point here. Pursuing God. Do you want to obtain the promises? Pursue.

Pursue them. Pursue the promises. You know what if I pursue God will reward me.

He'll make this operate in Who do you think you are? No one. I just love Jesus. I'm a Christian.

So I'm going to pursue. I actually believe when I when I pursue after God. When I pursue the will of God and the way of God and the promises of God.

God's going to reward me. He's going to say Malcolmson I'm going to bless you. I'm going to reward you.

I'm going to honor you. Those who honor God. God honors.

Do you believe that? So that's the first thing. Pursue the promises of God. Or what about in Galatians 6 verse 8. Remember the scripture it says in verse 8. For he that soweth to the flesh of the flesh shall reap corruption.

He that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. But listen to the context. Listen what it's talking about.

And let us not be weary in well-doing. For in due season we shall reap if we faint not. If you think you don't get it.

You can sow and sow and sow. You can pursue and pursue. Then you get tired.

It's dangerous. You ever got tired? I have. Ever felt like giving up? Yeah.

Ever felt like stopping? Of course. But you've got to keep pursuing. Don't keep sowing for years and then stop.

And go there's a waste of time. Nothing's happening. That's not true.

You will reap if you don't faint. You'll reap at the right time. Maybe today's not the right time.

You've been sowing, sowing, sowing, sowing. Nothing's happened. And this is faith.

Do you hear me? You've got to keep pursuing after God. But I'm tired. And we have therefore opportunity.

Let us do good unto all men especially unto them who are of the household of faith. I thought we're talking about sowing and reaping to the flesh and spirit. Yeah.

And it works out by doing good things to the people of God in the house of God. I'm not gonna be nice. Then you'll reap of your own flesh.

It says in Judges 8 verse 4, And Gideon came to Jordan and passed over he and the three hundred men that were with him. Gideon's three hundred men. Listen what I'm gonna say next.

They crossed over Jordan. The Bible says they that were with him, the three hundred were faint yet pursuing. What's my point? If you wanna obtain the promises, pursue them.

Pursue them. But I'm tired. I feel like I'm gonna faint.

Pursue. Never ever stop pursuing after the promises of God that reveal the will of God for your life. Second of all, wait for them.

That's different than pursuing. Oh, that's a contradiction. No, it's not.

You do both. I'm pursuing after the promises, but I'm waiting for the promises. It's two different things, but you need both.

You pursue them, but you wait. You wait for them. Abraham waited 25 years for the promise to come to pass.

25 years. Why hasn't God answered yet? I've been here. I had someone come up to me and say, we've been praying for three months now for a revival.

Why hasn't revival come? So I've been praying since five years old. I'm not tired. See me.

Have you once heard me tired concerning revival? Have you once ever heard a glimmer of me saying, well, doubting it, maybe it's not gonna happen. Not one single time. Saints of God, the promises of God are worth waiting for.

Jews have waited 13 years. A whole portion of that was in a prison. He had a promise.

He had a revelation from God. Where is it? You're gonna have to wait. Waiting means going through lies, being sold into slavery by your brothers, thrown into a pit, left without water, lied on, accused of adultery, and then left to rot in a prison.

Do you know what you're gonna have to do? You're gonna have to wait. Wait on the promise. Here's a good one.

Caleb, guess how long he waited? Does anyone here know how long Caleb waited? 45 years. When he went into the land, he saw the Mount Hebron. He said, I want that mountain.

That's mine. See something about that mountain. When he walked on it, his feet touched it.

He went, this is my mountain. This is my bit of land. He's not gonna be back there for 45 years.

He's gonna walk in the wilderness, watch an entire generation die. Then he's gonna walk up out of the wilderness, go back into the land, fight through cities, and five years into this of fighting his way in, he goes on back to Hebron. Joshua, I want Hebron.

That's mine. 45 years. Do you see how waiting says in Hebrews chapter 613? For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear.

Do you know what? Point three is going to an entire message by itself. It's so important. I'm gonna stick on this.

I'm just, I don't want to lose this. Because point three is a warning in connection with this. Because you can't afford to get this wrong.

See like with me, with that promise of comfort, I misunderstood for a year and a half. I don't want you to do that. I don't want you to go through battles.

I want to help you tonight. I really want to help you. I want you to pursue the promises of God.

I want you to wait for the promises of God. Now listen to this, Hebrews 613. For where God made promise to Abraham, do you see what God has done? He's made a promise to Abraham.

Because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself saying, surely, surely, surely blessing, I will bless you. Do you see that every promise is a blessing? The promises are blessings. So God makes a promise to him, I'm going to bless you.

God is saying, I'm going to bless you. This promise reveals my blessing for your life, my plan for your life. It's a very, very real thing.

I will bless thee and multiply thee. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Do you see this waiting is patiently enduring.

The word to endure means to stay where you are, to stay in the trial. See, we're in trials, we're in troubles and we go, I'm running. I've stayed here a year, two years, three years.

I'm moving. Do you know God has put you there? Is it the place of faith? Is it the place of patiently enduring? And it says, after he patiently endured, he obtained the promise. How do you obtain the promise? Patience, waiting on it.

You might have to wait 25 years. I don't want to wait that long. Then you won't get an Isaac.

I'm not going to wait 13 years of rejection, of being hurt, of being lied on. Then you won't sit second to Pharaoh in Egypt. That won't happen to you.

You could strive your entire life to get to that position, but unless you patiently wait, you won't obtain that promise. See that dream you had about sitting and all your brethren bowing down, it won't happen. God gives it, but you're going to have to wait.

You're going to have to endure through some very hard things. Caleb, you're going to have to watch millions die every day in the wilderness, watching their unbelief all around you, but it doesn't get in you because you're a faith. You're going to wait 45 years and see, as soon as you get there, you're going to be as strong as you were 45 years ago.

Caleb was. He was stronger at that point than he was as a younger man, and he said, give me that mountain. Okay, go fight for it.

You bet I will. That is my mountain. I walked on it, and I'm going to make it mine.

Saints of God, this is such an important thing, this patient waiting, enduring year by year by year. Don't say God has forgotten you. Don't say the promises don't work.

Don't say this isn't being worked out in the plan of God. It says in Hebrews 6 and 12 that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise. We ought to follow the example of others who have patiently endured through many years.

I hate this quick fix religion we have today. Christianity is, it works now. It's big now.

It's dramatic now. You'll get deceived with that. It will lead you down many false paths.

Third of all, pray for them. Pursue them. Wait for them.

Pray for them. Don't think that you can just be there with the promise, leaving it like an egg incubating. You're going to have to watch over it.

You're going to have to pray into it. You want your future to come forth with the promises of God. You want them to bless your future.

You want them to bless your path. You want them to guide you. Then ask them to guide you.

You're just saying, well, I'm waiting for guidance. Nothing's going to come. You better pray.

See, God has created this prayer life that through prayer, he answers you. Why do you think prayer is there in the Bible? All through the Bible of prayer doesn't matter. If you think God's going to do things, whether you pray or not, you could be playing a very risky game.

Pray. Listen again. These are strange scriptures I'm dealing with and bringing out.

James chapter four, verse one. And you could easily misread the whole context of these verses. James chapter four, verse one.

I'm talking about prayer, praying for the promises. From whence come wars and fightings among you? Talking about the church. Come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members? So, he's not talking about sexual lust.

He's talking about desires. In the local church, where's all this fighting coming from? Because in individual's hearts, there's things they desire, strong desires, things they want for their life, things they want in the church, things they want to be doing. Do you see the context? So, where are all these fightings in the church? It comes out of the lusts in your own hearts.

Ye lust and ye have not. Ye desire. You're passionate going, I want that.

But actually, you don't have it because that's not the way to get things. You're going, I want that. And you're fighting other people in the church for things.

Never ever do that. Never do that. Do the opposite.

And listen, ye lust and ye have not. We're talking about obtaining. But he says, you do not have because you're lusting.

You're desiring. Desiring's not enough. Desiring the promise isn't enough.

Wanting the promise isn't enough. You're going to have to pray. Ye kill.

Not talking about physically. It's all about murder in the heart, being angry with your brother in the church, fighting. And you desire to have.

See the context. You're desiring certain things. You desire to have and you cannot obtain.

See how in the church, you're on a whole human level. You think this church operates by you desiring, you manipulating words, you conniving, you sidestepping, you being noticed, you being seen. But you do all that and you don't have.

You don't have it. I don't want to be there. Ye fight and ye war and ye have not because ye ask not.

You see what it's talking about, prayer. In the church, you're fighting, manipulating, maneuvering, speaking, attitudes of heart. But you don't have because you're not asking, you're not praying.

You're a prayerless Christian. And I want to tell you, a prayerless Christian, it's not whether they say nice prayers on a Friday night or Sunday morning. Oh Lord, we love you.

We worship you. We're asking you great things. Ah, I want to see if you're fighting in the church.

If you're fighting in this church, you're a prayerless Christian. Oh no, brother Keith, I pray a lot. No, you don't.

Don't, don't give me that. Because someone who's really praying doesn't carry on like this. In fact, you do not have, you won't have your prayers answered because all of that destroys, it closes the ears of God because ye ask not.

Ye ask, oh yes, you're saying your little prayer. You do ask, you do say prayers, but you don't receive because ye ask amiss or ask wrongly. Your praying is actually wrong praying.

That's why it doesn't get answered. So I want to know this because I'd hate to pray for 30 years and I'm going to get nothing from that praying. I want to be sure my prayers get something at the end of it.

They, that, sorry, um, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. You're actually praying for your own lusts, your own desires. Since you are to pray, we're commanded time after time, pray, pray, pray.

What to pray for, to ask for. We've got many testimonies in the Bible of what people pray for, what they ask God for. And God answered those prayers.

Here's one I just missed from before. It's a very, very interesting one. Out of weakness, they were made strong.

One of the things that happen by faith out of weakness, they're made strong through faith. So when you go to the Bible, you're going to find people who are naturally weak. The word means extreme weakness, feebleness or sickness that affects your body.

Something's wrong. And so you can have that. But listen, through faith, people who are weak in body, something's wrong in their body.

Something isn't functioning in their body or made strong. The word strong is the word dunamis for the power of God to come on you. The dunamis, the supernatural power.

How do you go from being weak in your body, unable to do the will of God, unable to bring forth the promise of God? Let me give you an example here. In Hebrews 11 verse 11, we have the story of Sarah. Through faith, also Sarah herself, how through faith received strength.

The word strength there is the same word dunamis for supernatural power, holy ghost power. Sarah through faith received holy ghost power to do what? To conceive seed. You haven't heard of conception like that before, have you? Through faith and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful who had promised.

See the promise, she had a promise. You're going to have a child. Abraham, Sarah, you're going to have a child.

It's impossible. You can have all the effort you want, all the perfume you want. You can put up on all the makeup you want.

You can have a romantic dinner if you like. You're not going to have a child. You need faith, only faith, nothing else.

You can go to the health experts. You can do Google searches. You can watch YouTube videos.

You can see doctors. You need faith. Faith made her conceive and bring forth a child.

And you know what it was? It was holy ghost power. As soon as she believed God, holy ghost power, dunamis came upon her. What is she? Out of weakness, she was made strong.

Saints of God, this is remarkable. So we pray in line with the will of God. But you need to know God's will to pray for it and then embark on it.

And then also, fourth of all, you possess the promises. How do you possess? How do you obtain the promises? You pursue the promises. You wait on the promises.

You pray for the promises. You possess the promises. Are you satisfied they're not working in your life? Go get them.

Possess them. When I mean possess, make it your own. Don't just have it.

Oh, there's a scripture out there. Maybe it's for me. Maybe it's not.

Maybe it'll happen. Maybe it won't. Why don't you go and possess it? Make it yours.

Oh, but it may not be for me. Saints of God, I'm not being stupid. I know there's certain promises are for certain people at certain times.

All promises are not for everyone all at the same time. We'll look at some of these in the weeks ahead. But I want you to understand the promises of God.

Someone that's going to lie there, not yours until you say, I'm going to obtain that. I'm going to go possess it. It's going to be mine.

The person, the Christian who sits there and say, well, maybe it's not for me. You're going to sit here in 20 years and it's not yours. You won't possess it.

Let me give you an example. Joshua chapter 1 verse 3. God's speaking to Joshua. Every place that the sole of your feet shall tread upon, that have I given on to you, as I said unto Moses.

Look at the promise. Everywhere you put your foot, it's yours. I, God, am going to give it to you.

Joshua couldn't stand there in the edge of the land saying, God, supernaturally give it to me. I'm just going to wait around here. I'm going to patiently, I'm just going to wait around.

If God is sovereign, he'll do it. If God wants me to have it, I'll have it. You need to go possess it.

Oh, I don't want to do anything myself. I mean, after all, one of the promises might become mine when it's not for me and God doesn't want it. Don't get into mind battles.

Live out your Christian life. I'm telling you, there's hundreds of promises you've got to go make work in your life. The joy of God.

I don't know where God wants me to be happy or not. Oh, come on. Come on.

God wants me to be one of those miserable, sour, doer Christians. That's not true. You know what? You need to go possess.

The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. At some point, you're going to stop and say, joy is for me. Oh, I might pursue.

I may not have it today. I might walk and walk and walk and go, where is that joy of the Lord? Don't give up. Say, this is God's will for me.

How do you know? Oh yeah, for everyone else, not for you. You're a doer, sad soul, and you're going to be like that to the day you die. If you believe that lie, you'll never possess it.

You know what Joshua said? That mountain's mine. That valley's mine. That nation's mine.

That area's mine. This province is mine. God has given me a promise, and you know what? I'm going to prove it by putting my foot there.

Until you put your foot in the promise, you don't believe anything. You can wonder about it. You could even pray, but until you go possess it, that's mine.

That's mine. Do you know what? Married couples, God wants you to have a happy marriage in the will of God. Don't stop fighting.

If it means praying through for your husband, God, I'm looking for a man of God. Set him on fire. Disturb him.

Give him no peace, and he's just sleeping there, snoring away, and you're awake. Just faith. This is faith.

God, I am not going to let go of you until I have a man of God. I'm going to pray that he's held over hell. Pray for your marriage.

Well, ours is just a bad marriage. We don't get on. What are you going to yield to that? Are you simply going to say, oh, surah, surah.

Some get it good. Some don't. Why not pursue? Fifth and lastly, enjoy them.

Not only pursue after the promises, not only wait on them, not only pray for them, not only possess them. Let me just give you one scripture with that possess just before I finish. Hebrews 11, 13.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises of the resurrection, but having seen them afar off, persuaded of them, they embraced them and confessed them that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that wait, say such things, declare plainly that they seek for a country, not having received the promise. But you know what? They embraced it and said, it's mine.

The promise of resurrection is mine. The new Jerusalem is mine. Since we need to get a bit of grit in our soul again, a bit of fight back in.

I know you're tired. I know you're weary. Who isn't? But don't hold through up your sword.

This is our hour to fight, to run, to pursue, to stand. This is our hour. You're going to rest for all eternity.

You're going to be there coasting through the millennium, then eternity in the new Jerusalem. Now you fight, now you pursue, now you walk by faith. But enjoy them.

And I'm going to close with this. Enjoy the promises of God. Not everyone enjoys the promise of God.

The promise of God can be working in your life. God's plan is working out. God's going to do certain things.

His promises are being fulfilled, but you don't enjoy it because of your attitude of faith. God's will right now could be fully outworking perfectly to the very second, and yet you're not enjoying it. Let me give you an example.

Jacob in the Old Testament, Genesis 42, 36. And Jacob, their father said unto them, ye have you bereaved of my children. Joseph is not.

This is a man of God, in covenant with God, one of God's special vessels, who God made covenants to and promises to. I mean, unbelievable promises. But he is saying with his own lips, he is saying, Joseph is not.

Actually, you're wrong. Joseph's dead. He says, you're, you're bereaving me of all my children, and you have taken Benjamin away, and all these things are against me.

Everything's against me. The famine's against me, the loss of them, the journey, Egypt, everything. It's against me.

No, it's not. Jacob was stressed. He felt life was long.

It was bad to him. My days are few and hard upon the earth. Do you know there's some Christians don't enjoy their Christianity? They really don't.

They have all the same promises as I do. I want to tell you, I enjoy life. The past two years, I've enjoyed life.

My heart could be broken on me wanting to die, and I enjoy my dog. I play with my dog. It's an attitude of heart.

It's a biblical way of thinking, and breathing, and being. I enjoy life. Life isn't easy.

Life can feel hellish, but I enjoy my Christianity. I enjoy eating. I enjoy walking.

I enjoy looking at birds. I enjoy the flowers. I enjoy the weather, whether it rains, or hails, or whether the sun shines.

There's an enjoyment of the Christian life, but some Christians do not enjoy God. They don't enjoy the Christian life. They draw no enjoyment from the promises of God.

Saints of God, you've got to fix that, because like Jacob, you could go through years when everything is perfectly working together for good, and you miss out on it. You're not enjoying it. You're not benefiting it.

You're not possessing all of these things, and so as we close here tonight, some promises are sovereign in the Bible. God's going to do them whether you believe or not. They are sovereign.

They're unconditional, but we're not talking about those here tonight. We're talking about the promises that fill the Psalms, the normal Christian life. If you meditate in the Word of God, you'll become a fruitful Christian.

That's a promise. If you meditate in this book, I promise you you'll be blessed every day. Oh, I neglect it.

I don't meditate in it. I don't spend time. Then you're missing out.

You are missing out. It's a promise. It's a promise that cannot fail.

Blessing after blessing, fruitful, blossoming, leaves, flowers, branches, roots, everything, just from abiding. It's a promise. Oh, don't do that.

I forget. I can't be bothered. I grew lazy.

I'm discouraged. I'm weary. I don't have time, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You've just been talked out of all the blessings of God. One simple thing, just spend time in this every day, every day, morning and night. Meditate on my words.

Joshua, do you want to go in and possess all that land? Do you want to put your foot in every step? How are you going to do that? Because enemies discourage battles year after year after year. You go, I don't want to do this anymore. I want to remove myself from the battlefield.

I don't want to face another enemy. Let's just lock ourself in here. Pretend the world isn't there.

Do you know what? You've got to operate by faith. You've got to go possess the promises. You've got to do that saints of God.

And you know what? All these promises are for you very specifically. There are specific promises in this Bible for every person here, for promises about your children, promises about healing. Look at the stories in the Old Testament of Sarai, Hannah, Samson's mother concerning their children.

What about Hezekiah, our Naaman with his leprosy? He was a pagan captain. What does God say? Go dip in the dirty Jordan river, seven times you'll be healed. I'm not doing that.

And he goes riding off. One of his servants talks him back into it. Master, what if he'd asked you to do some great thing, would you do it? Yes.

But see to go down and do simple things, daily things, casual things. That's not anything great. If he'd asked me to go to the top of a mountain, but he wants me to go in a dirty river and his leprosy gets healed, his skin becomes like a baby's.

I wonder how many things you're missing out in your life because you're treating basic things in the word of God, the conditions like the Jordan river. I'm not going to do that. I don't need to do that.

That's too hard. Are you kidding? Most of the commands of scripture are very easy. They're very basic, very easy to accomplish, but you're not going to do them.

All the promises in Christ Jesus are yours. But saints of God, what's our message? Obtaining the promises of God. How to obtain them.

And I've given you five very simple things that all the saints of the ages have walked in. And if you try to sidestep this, the promises of God won't work in your life. But I want to tell you, they're all for you tonight.

Let's pray together. Lord Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus.

Father, I pray tonight that you raise up that spirit of faith that we read of in the book of Romans. Lord God, I believe therefore I speak. Father, that our very words would be molded by the faith that we have in these hearts, an inclination of heart, an attitude and condition of our inner man, a belief in you, a faith in your written scriptures.

Lord God, that causes us to speak in line with that, that out of the abundance of the heart, that we are going to speak, that we're going to believe, that we're going to make our stand, that we're going to pursue, that we're going to wait patiently, that we're going to pray, we're going to lay hold of the promises of God, that we're going to go and possess those things that are rightfully ours, that we're going to enjoy the blessings of God. Lord God, it's your will that we enjoy the Christian life. Yes, it's hard.

Yes, we have sorrow and loss and troubles and heartache, but oh God, we can enjoy the Christian life. We can enjoy the normal things of life, even when our heart is broken. My God, I pray, make us a people who possess the promises of God, who learn how to obtain those promises written in the Word of God, that we're not casual about them, but oh God, we'll follow the example of men and women of old in the Old Testament, who obtained promises through faith.

They obtained the promises of God, waiting 25 years, waiting 13 years, waiting 45 years, obtaining them in one day, in one hour, in one moment. Lord God, because they continued steadfastly and endured a seeing Him that was invisible. We love you tonight, and Father, I pray, as a church, stir us, oh God, to fight in our individual lives for our marriages, for our children, to lay hands on our children, to plead the promises of God over our households, to believe you.

Lord God, those things that we are assured of in our hearts, that is your will for our lives, that we're not going to let go until you perform those things. We're going to pray. We're going to believe.

We're going to rest, oh God. We're going to meditate on the promises of God. We're going to allow your Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us and keep us in the way.

In Jesus' mighty name. Amen.