JEREMY PEARSONS: As long as you will be somebody who
will have an open and a willing heart towards Him
and will grab hold of the Word and believe it,
He'll look back and say, "I can use you."
(Singing) I know my God has made the way for
me. I know my God has made the way for me.
ANNOUNCER: What are you magnifying in life? Is
it the Word of God, or the problem at hand? Jeremy
Pearsons, grandson of Kenneth and Gloria Copeland,
explores the potential of a fully committed
believer. Next, on today's Believer's Voice of Victory.
JEREMY: You've got to come to the place
where you're just done being weak. That's what
we've been talking about on these broadcasts, is
getting fit for the fight of faith. And I know the same thing
happens to you that happened to me when I heard that from the
Lord and He spoke to me months ago and said, "Jeremy, I want
you fit by 40." I'm 37 years old sitting here, so that gives me
this window of time to get fit. And I've got to be honest, my
first thought was, He's talking to me about my physical
condition. And I had been working out a lot at that point.
I was like, "Yeah, I want to get fit. I want to be strong. I want
to be stronger physically through the next decade of my
life than I was in this one." And that's an awesome goal, and
I fully intend on being that way. But you've got to realize
that God never speaks to you about change from the outside
in. He always talks to you about change from the inside out. So
when he was saying, "Fit by 40," what He's saying, "Jeremy,
there's something coming that I want you in a spiritual
condition where you're ready to walk in it. That's why we've
been looking at what Paul said to Timothy in II Timothy 2 about
being a vessel that he can use, "fit for the Master's use,
prepared for every good work." Those are the two conditions I
want to be found in at all time for the rest of my life: Fit for
His use, ready for the work; in shape and ready to go. How about
you? How about you? Do you want to be that way? You want Jesus
to be able to look at you, sanctify you, in other words,
pull you out of that crowd and say, "Yeah, I can use you." I
mean, imagine standing in a line there, imagine being a kid out
on the kickball field, right, and captains have been chosen,
and Jesus is one of the captains, and He's going
through, and He's picking out who He wants on His team. Now,
you experienced that, I experienced that. And who do
they always pick first? Right? They pick the big kid, the
strong kid, the fast kid. Really, what they're saying,
they're picking the one that's in shape. They're picking the
one that's fit, that can do the most good. Well, Jesus, we know
this, He's not looking at the outward condition first. God had
to tell Samuel, "I don't look on the outward appearance. I'm
looking at the heart." So He's looking for a heart that's in
shape. He's looking for a heart, a willing heart that's fit for
His use and ready for the work. So we left off yesterday looking
at the life of Abraham, because here's somebody who God could
use. This is somebody God said, "Yeah, I could use this guy."
Abraham's one of the first guys that got picked for the team,
man. I mean, He said, "I could use this guy," and that's why
we're looking in Romans 4, going back to these basics of faith,
reengaging "in the contest of faith, which contest is marked
by the beauty of its technique." That's what I Timothy 6:12 says
in the Wuest translation. And somebody who's got good
technique is somebody who's just a master of the basics at
whatever it is, be it sports or academia or in any arena--in any
arena of life, somebody who's got that good technique, who's
good at the fight is just somebody who's mastered those
basics. So that's what I want to be, that's what you want to be,
a master of the basics of faith. And you see that here in Romans
4. We read yesterday about "God, who gives life to the dead and
calls those things which be not as though they were." Basics of
faith. When you look at things, what are you calling it? Are you
calling it like it is or are you calling it like you see it, or
are you calling it like God sees it? To call it like you see it
is not faith. To call it like He sees it, that's faith. Ha-ha.
That's the basics of faith. And if you'll learn to do that
on--in small ways in small things in your life, you'll
develop in that skill, and you'll grow to a place where you
can be like Paul and say, "Thus I fight, not as one who beats
the air, not as one who doesn't have an impact, but somebody who
knows how to use their faith and have an impact, not just on
their lives but on the lives around them." This goes on.
Listen to what it says about Abraham here. Verse 18,
"contrary to hope," or in other words, there was no reason to
expect the promise of God to come to pass, and yet he
expected, "in hope he believed, so that he became the father of
many nations according to what was spoken, 'So shall your
descendants be.' And not being weak in faith, he didn't
consider his own body--" So that's what weak faith does.
Weak faith would look at the outward appearance. Weak faith
goes by what it sees. And had Abraham looked at the outward
condition, here's an old man, he said, "he considered not his own
body, already dead." Now, don't get tripped up on this word
"consider." I think sometimes people have thought, "Well, if
I'm in faith, I just--I just ignore everything, or I just
pretend that it's not real or it's not there." And that's not
what this means at all. Abraham--Abraham wasn't
pretending he wasn't old. He's old, and you can't fake it,
okay? You can't fake something else because God doesn't honor
that. He honors honesty. God will meet you where you are, but
not where you pretend to be. See, God will honor your
honesty. It's not a matter of ignoring the condition, but the
Bible says here, "He didn't consider it." I think sometimes
people have thought, "To consider something--if I'm not
going to consider it, then I just--I don't think about it, I
don't think about it." But the word "consider" means to look
intently at, to focus on. In other words, Abraham's old, and
he knows it. He's like, "Okay, I get it. I'm old. Sarah is old. I
get it. But I'm not going to focus on that. I'm not going to
look so intently at that that it's all I see." See, whatever
you're talking about came from whatever you're thinking about.
What you think on, think on, think on, think on, very soon
you will begin to talk about, talk about, talk about, talk
about. And the more you talk about something, the more you
magnify it. Now, if I were to ask you what happens when you
magnify something, you'd probably say it gets bigger. And
in a sense, that's true. But let me ask you, does it really get
bigger? If I take a magnifying glass and put it on the words of
the pages of my Bible here, do those words actually change
size? Do they actually get bigger? No. They just get bigger
to me. They just get bigger in my eyes. That's what happens
when you magnify something. You don't actually change the size
of it. It just gets bigger to you. It just gets bigger how you
see it. And the more you talk about something, the more you
magnify it, the bigger it gets, the bigger it gets, the bigger
it gets in your eyes. And maybe if the Lord enables us to in the
coming broadcasts, we can talk about this specifically in the
way it relates to your finances, because people, I think husbands
and wives especially, encounter various financial challenges in
their lives, financial hardships, tight times, tight
places. And especially if it goes on week after week after
week, month after month, year after year, the tendency is to
look so intently at it, to consider it, to consider your
current state, your current financial state, to consider it
so much that you think on it, think on it, think on it, think
on it to where you're just talking about it, talking about
it, talking about it. And the two of you, husband and wife,
wake up talking about it. You go about the day talking about it.
You go to your separate jobs or whatever, and you're thinking
about it. And because you thought about it all day, what
do you do when you come home? You talk about it and you talk
about it and you talk about it, and you go to bed talking about
it. And that financial thing, no matter how big it is to you, you
need to understand, it's small to God. It's so small. But the
more you talked about it, the bigger it got to you. Now, it
never actually changed size. It never actually went from small
to big. It just went from small to big in your eyes and in your
estimation of it. And it can get to the place where it's all you
see. So you have to make a decision, what are you going to
magnify? You could, like most people who don't walk by faith,
they walk by sight, and all they know to do is magnify what they
see. "This is how it is. I call it like I see it." Well, that is
the very opposite of calling it the way God calls it. He calls
those things that be not as though they were. It's not how I
see it. Naturally, it's how I see it in my spirit. That's
faith, the other is not. Now, don't tell me you've never heard
these things before. I know you have. If you've been around this
minister especially, for like 10 minutes, you've heard these
things before. They're not complicated. They're not
complex. They're simple. But if you'll learn to Master these
basics of faith, you'll get in the ring and you'll go from
novice to professional, and your faith fight will be
characterized by the beauty of its technique. And this is what
we're heading towards. So what are you magnifying? Are you
calling it like you see it? Or are you like David when he said,
"Come, magnify the Lord with me. Let us, me and you, exalt His
name." How? Together. That's why I said, husbands, wives, the two
of you, you've got to be doing this together. What are you
magnifying together? Are you talking about the need, or are
you talking about the one who provides for it? Because
whatever you talk about, you magnify. Now, to magnify the
Lord, He's already big. You understand that, right? He is as
big as big gets. He is definitively big. So you're not
going to change His size. But He can get bigger to you. He can
get bigger in your eyes, in your thinking, in your heart. Ah,
come on, somebody. You can come to the place where you magnify
Jesus. Husbands, you're talking about Jesus, you're talking
about God your provider. Look, you're not ignoring the need.
You're not pretending it doesn't exist. It's not a matter of
faking it. No, it's there, all right? You're coming short. I
get it. I've been there. You've been there, we all have. But
what are we going to do now? Are we going to magnify that, or are
we going to magnify Jesus? Are we going to call it like we see
it, or are we going to call it like He sees it? Because one's
living by faith and one is living by sight. And you've got
to decide which one you're going to do. So when--when a husband
decides, "Okay, we've got a financial need, we've got a need
of any kind in our lives, but here's what I'm going to do,
instead of talking about the need, talking the need, talking
about the need, I'm going to wake up tomorrow, and I'm going
to breathe life into the heart of this precious woman laying
next to me, and I'll encourage her and tell her, 'Baby, we are
going to make it. We are going to get all the way through this
thing. God is going to sustain us. He's done it before. He'll
do it again.'" And you let her know, "I'm not worried. You
don't need to be either." And together, grab hands and, out
loud, cast all the care of that thing over onto the Lord and
then just begin to magnify not the need, the provider of the
need, the one who makes provision for it. And you
magnify Him and magnify Him and magnify Him, and you can get fat
and happy just doing that to the point where Jesus is all you see
and everything else just fades away into nothingness. And very
soon, He'll give you His vision of it. He'll tell you how He
sees it, and then you'll start to see that thing as so small,
you'll start laughing at it. You just start laughing at it and
you think, "That thing had me depressed? Are you kidding me?
That's nothing. That is so nothing compared to my God." Now
listen, folks, I'm sitting here preaching this to you, and I
know, "Yeah, amen. This is so good, Brother Jeremy. Doing it
is something else. Doing it is another thing entirely." I'm
going to be honest with you, just a matter of weeks ago, I
just let--I let some of this tightness just get in me and get
on me, and I was having a conversation with Sarah about
it, and I was doing my best to be in faith, kinda, sorta. But
kept--I kept coming back to the fact, we don't have what we
need. We don't have what we need. What do we do? We don't
have what we need. And Sarah, bless her heart, she almost got
to the point--I know she got there. She was frustrated. She's
like, "Look, God's going to provide!" And if you're not
willing to hear that, if something in you pushes up
against that, and how dare you--how dare you ruin my pity
party, you better be watchful over that because that little
conversation Sarah and I had turned into an argument that
turned into me having to come back and get on my knees and
say, "I was being stupid. Please forgive me." I let strife in,
and I let it in through that pressure. I let it in through
that total and complete lack of faith. And I know better. Man, I
know better. And can I tell you something? It wasn't but a
matter of days after that that the Lord came through and in a
day completely took away all that pressure. We had everything
we needed, a giant financial breakthrough came and set us in
a new--on a new place. And, man, I have to look back, and I just
look at that and go, "I was being stupid. I was just being
stupid, calling things like I see it, not like He sees it."
Going back to the backs of faith. Abraham, who, contrary to
hope, no reason to believe it was going to be any--according
to the natural, that it would turn out the way God said it
would, and still, he expected. "--he became the father of many
nations, according to what was spoken, 'So shall your
descendants be.' Not being weak in faith--" Again, what are we
doing? Making a decision, "We are done being weak." "--not
being weak in faith, he didn't consider his own body, already
dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the
deadness of Sarah's womb." He didn't look intently at these
facts. He didn't study these things and say, "It can't be, it
can't be, it can't be." You've got to watch how much you're
looking at this. You--your life will follow whatever you're
looking at. So you've got a need, you've got a problem, it's
not a matter of faking it and pretending it doesn't exist.
It's just a matter of not spending every waking moment
looking at it. Set your eyes on Jesus. "He did not waver at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith,
giving glory to God--" Verse 21, "--being fully persuaded that
what He had promised He was also able to perform." Let me read
this to you. I'm not sure how much time we've got left in this
today, but I want to read this to you in--this is some of these
same verses in Romans 4, but I want to read it from The Message
translation. He says in Verse 19 of Romans 4, "Abraham didn't
focus--" Remember, there's that word again, that word
"consider." He "didn't focus on his own impotence and say, 'It's
hopeless.'" That's what so many people are doing, focusing on
the problem. And what they look at, they respond to. What they
look at, they respond to. People are looking at the natural
condition and talking based on what they see. But Abraham, our
faith he wrote. The guy God used to show us how it's done, this
master of the basics of faith, he didn't focus on his own
impotence and say it's hopeless. "'This hundred-year-old body
could never father a child.' Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of
infertility and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's
promise asking cautiously skeptical questions." Man, that
is verbatim what I was doing that day with Sarah. I was
faking faith while trying to say, "We don't have what we
need. We don't have what we need. We don't have what we
need." And I tried to dress it up in churchy tones. But the
simple truth was, I was--I was tiptoeing around the promises of
God, asking these questions: "How is it going to be? How can
it work out?" But my example here, he set the tone for us. He
didn't go back. He didn't even look back at the decades. He had
decade after decade after decade stacked up against him. And,
man, maybe you do too. Well, so what? I don't care how long it's
been one way. God can change it in a second. God can change it
in a day. Abraham didn't look back across all those decades of
having no children and say, "It's hopeless." He just
continued to believe. "He didn't tiptoe around God's promise,
asking cautiously skeptical questions. He--" I love this.
"He plunged into the promise and came up strong--" He came up fit
for the fight of faith. "He plunged in the promise, came up
strong--" watch this now "--ready for God--" Man, I don't
know if we can put these words on the bottom of this screen for
you or not, but if you can't see them right now, you need to go
get out The Message Bible of this verse and look at what it
says. "He plunged in the promise, came up strong." That's
fitness ready. Man, what are the two things we've been talking
about for days? Fit for His use, ready for the work. "He plunged
into the promise, came up strong, ready for God, sure that
God would make good on what he said." Watch this: "That's why
it is said, 'Abraham was declared fit before God by
trusting God to set him right.'" Man, I had been studying some of
this stuff, all this about being fit and looking at it, and the
Lord directed me over here to Romans 4. I'm thinking, "Yeah,
I've seen this before, and it's good," and it just came up in my
heart to look in The Message Bible of this. I had no idea
that as I was reading this, I was going to find out that God
declared this man fit. That word "fit" means useful. Because
Abraham believed God, God said, "I can use you. You're useful to
Me. You are fit for My use." Oh, I love it so much. Thank You,
Lord, thank You, Lord. He "was declared fit before God by
trusting God to set him right." Watch this. "It's not just
Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets said about us when we
embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life when the
conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrifice Jesus
made us fit for God, and set us right with God." When you
believe--come on, this is--this is that spiritual conditioning
right here. This is--this is lifting spiritual heavy weights
right here. This is taking you from weak in faith to strong in
faith. It's just believing God. If He called you healed, you're
healed. If He called you well, you're well. And every time you
say that out loud, man, it's like lifting those weights above
your head, it's like resisting that, resisting that, resisting
that. And in that resistance, strength is building. As you
believe, God's saying, "Yeah, I can use this guy. I could use
this girl. This is somebody I could do something with. You're
ready for Me now. You're ready to give Me this next phase of
your life, this next phase of your ministry. You are getting
into shape." He was declared fit. I love it. Useful. Useful.
God's saying about him, "He's useful for me." Why did He
choose Abram? Why did He choose this guy called Abraham? Because
he was useful. "I can use somebody who will take Me at my
word and just believe what I say." And He'll say the same
thing to you and about you. And it's not because of some--some
way you look outwardly, it's not because of some major
accomplishment you've had this, that, or the other; nothing in
the natural. As long as you will be somebody who will have an
open and a willing heart towards Him and will grab hold of the
Word and believe it, He'll look back at you and say, "I could
use you. You're fit for My use and ready for My work."
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