Last week in reading the Scripture, the passages that Greg has read
literally jumped out at me. The statement, thy faith has
saved thee. Also, this statement that the
blind man asked in verse 41 of Luke 18, Jesus said to the blind man,
what do you want me to do for you? Perhaps he's asking that to us
today. What I should do for you. I have come to learn that all
God's blessings for us are stored up. And in our lifetime, those
blessings are received. That God is a God of plan and
purpose. That there's no such thing as
accidents with God. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love the Lord. To them who are
called according to His purpose. I've been quoting that verse
for many, many years. I've only been believing it and
excited about it for a few. That all things, no matter what
happens in life, as a child of God, it's all going to work out
for my good and God's glory. And the Lord, I think, asks His
kids, what do you want me to do for you? He's that kind of
God. All my life I've lived in religion. The bigger part of my life being
raised in religion. Not living by faith, but actually
by works, by laws, by regulations. But in my heart, even as a young
child having been converted, I longed to experience God on
a daily basis. I knew something was wrong in
the church. I knew it was wrong. I longed for revival, for awakening. I longed for miracles and wonders. And many times even spake out
against those who were experiencing wonders. That those days had
passed. that they were over and spent
many, many, many, many times talking about the day of wonders
being over. And then I read a passage of
Scripture in the book of Joshua. Joshua 3 and verse 5, where the
Lord said to Israel, sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow I will
do wonders among you. I began to live with an attitude
of faith. Believing that without faith
it's impossible to please God. Secretly I lived that way. Believing that extraordinary
things were going to happen. Not telling too many people at
first, lest I should be mocked. I know today That God's favor
as long as I'm alive is going to show up. I know that. That His grace is sufficient.
No matter the darkness of the hour. Divine favor is coming. And that without faith, it's
impossible to please God. So there is this element. Faith. Believe in God no matter what.
When we're on the mountaintop or when we're in the valley.
Knowing that God is an ever-present God. Last night I began to contemplate
some things that I ask God for. And please don't be bored with
this. And please don't think that I
am giving to myself any glory because I am not. You see, when
you live by faith and not by sight, you can't take any glory. You're trusting in someone outside
of yourself. And you have no confidence in
the flesh. Fourteen years ago, I asked the Lord to give us Seneca
Street. The first house was 53 Seneca. It should have been bulldozed.
According to the experts, it needed to be totally remodeled. Many, many told me, don't buy
that house. It was a pitiful looking place.
Unbeknownst to me, God had raised up a man and his family who totally
remodeled that house. We did buy it for thirty-some
thousand dollars. At the time, we didn't have thirty
thousand dollars. We lived by faith. I later found
out that The man who totally remodeled that house owned a
company called MCM. It was the Mardigian family who
had been an unmeasurable blessing to us here. Taking down drug
houses for us. Buying the city parking lots
for us. Taking down the old warehouse
that was beside the church here a year or so ago. Giving us 1,700,000
square feet of everything imaginable at the
old GM plant at Updike and Square Lake. We were $500,000 behind
budget that year, and we sold nearly a half a million dollars
out of that warehouse. We sold the things that were
in that plant all over the world and met budget and went over.
What is it that you would have me do for you? The blind man
asks. Fifteen years ago, I asked God
to give me this building. Watch how God works. Thirteen
years ago, a young couple came with their three daughters and
started volunteering over in the kitchen and at our daycare
at Grace Centers of Hope. Thirteen years later, the Luther
family bought this building and gave it to us. That's how God
works. See, when you live by faith,
you don't have all the details. It's the scariest, most wonderful
thing in the world. If your life is boring, live
by faith. I promise you, it'll get exciting
really quick. Ten years ago, we were struggling
to meet budget, and a little brownie troop came to Grace Centers
of Hope. Amber toured the little girls
and their leader through the building over there. December
came and someone in security came very excitedly seeking me
and said, you're not going to believe what just happened. That
little brownie troop had a little girl in it. Her last name was
Nerda. The month after visiting the
mission with the Brownie troop, she brought mom and dad with
a check for $35,000. We live by faith and not by sight.
20 years ago, I was doing my best
to get the board to approve. We were trying to get women and
children's program going because When I first came here, it was
all men, primarily. Pam had volunteered for over
four years, starting the Women and Children's Program. The board
refused to hire her because of our nepotism policy. In the providence
of God, Frank Reich, who I had met when I was doing Buffalo
Bill's Chapel in Buffalo, was hired by the Detroit Lions
to be their quarterback. Frank, I had come to know, and
he and I had become great friends. He came to this area and actually
attended our church for a period of time. He knew about our Women
and Children's program, he and Linda, and Frank wrote a letter
to the board urging them to consider their policy and hire Pam as
the Women's Director. They did, and she came as our
first and only Director of Women and Children. Oh, yes. And along with that letter, Frank
sent a check for $20,000 for her first year's salary. I'm talking about living by faith.
I'm talking about dreaming dreams. Who is our God? He is a God that
is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
Many of you in here have quit living. You have no dreams. You don't expect anything to
happen except maybe death. You ought to be having a little
heaven on the way to heaven. Stop singing in the sweet by
and by. How about the sweet now and now? Dream your dreams. Live your
dreams. And know that God is able. You can share them with
me. I'm another crazy person like
you that dreams big dreams. Seventeen years ago, I wanted
to start our first thrift store. With the help of five or six
volunteers, I borrowed $5,000. And we opened the Sterling Heights
store. And the third year, that store
brought in over $300,000 profit. And we began to buy houses on
Seneca Street. Our four thrift stores bring
in 51% of our $5.7 million budget over at Grace Centers of Hope.
And yesterday, Those four stores brought in over $22,000. This
happened just recently. Thirteen years ago, a group of
high school girls came to Grace Centers of Hope at Christmastime.
They brought gifts to wrap for everyone at the center. Coming
along with them was one of the girls' fathers. Two months ago,
That little girl's mother and father gave $300,000 toward the
Women and Children's Shelter. You see, God had it all planned
out. I love these stories because
I see God. You know, Thursday, I got a call
from the manager of Home Goods saying that they had a $5,000
check for the new Women and Children's Shelter. And that a gentleman would be
doing a site visit on Friday and would like for me to be there.
No one seemed to have heard of where this $5,000 was coming
from or even who this gentleman was. I remember the time because
I looked at my watch. At 3.20 on Friday afternoon,
we began the tour at the center. At the end of the tour, and I
won't call his name, I asked how he had heard of Grace Centers
of Hope. He said, well, Pastor, I met
you five years ago in our Bloomfield Hills store. Your wife was shopping
and you seemed bored. You asked me about where our
donations went and told me about your thrift stores. You gave
me your card. And five years later, he brought
a check for $5,000. Those aren't accidents. I could go on and on and on. What do you want from the Lord?
You say, well, I just don't think that's right. Why isn't it? Why would He want His kids? You
ever ask your kids that question? What would you like? I know all
about the greediness. I understand all of that. But I'm talking about I have
lived most of my ministry in depression, condemnation, not
looking for anything too big to happen. And I was just thinking
this week How big is my God? Do you ever ask God for big things? Don't ask God for little things.
He's not a little God. I thought, what if this guy had
said, I want to receive my sight and I'd like a million dollars.
I mean, the Lord opened the door, right? What do you want? And by the way, When God saved
you, He worked on your waner. He gave you a spiritual waner.
What you ask for is not greediness. The Lord will put a burden on
you. He will put a burden on you. He'll give you desires and
then give you the desires of your heart. Do you believe God
is able? God is able. So, when you're
ridiculed and put down, I was told that I can't tell you how
many ministry people told me, you'll never have a church with
black and white drug addicts and presidents of banks. And
you'll never mix those two together. Well, look at us. I hope that today, as a child
of God, You are sitting there excited. And you're thinking
this way. God is big enough to take me. And I don't care where you've
been or what you've done. If you read through the Bible, David
was king. He committed adultery and murder. So don't talk to me about you
can't because of your past. In fact, if God saved you, He
doesn't even remember your past. Your sins and your iniquities
will I remember no more. The devil likes to defeat you.
That your dreams will never come true. You know, I believe this. I will be 70 this week. Amen. I'm glad to be 70. And I've asked God for some big
things. And they haven't happened yet.
That's how I know I'm going to live to be at least 75. Because
they haven't happened yet. But I know they're going to happen.
I feel twinges of having our own school here in Pontiac. Twinges. You know what that means? I get
excited when God gives me something. and begins to burden me with
that. And I know it will happen because
God doesn't give us burdens to mock us. And what God demands,
God provides. And His grace is sufficient.
What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? Thy faith has saved
thee. Faith is a grain of a mustard
seed Every one of you in here, if God borns you again, you will
defeat crack cocaine. You will defeat heroin. You will
be an overcomer. I pray for this young lady that
lays over in Mount Clemens Hospital on a ventilator. Two months ago, where she worked,
I had breakfast in that restaurant and we talked and talked and
talked. You say, well, can someone like that be saved, be a child
of God? Of course. Think about what you've
done before you say no. Think about what you've thought.
Of course they can. The devil's ploy... Listen, we
are more than conquerors. The devil's ploy is this. Well,
it hasn't happened. Well, it's not going to happen.
You've gone too far. You've done too much. You're
too messed up. That's the devil's ploy. All of that negativity. Not only
are we more than conquerors, but we can do all things through
Christ who strengthened us. That's the message of the Bible. Thy faith has saved thee. Nowhere
else in the Bible will you find this phrase except here in the
Gospel of Luke. Yes, in other Gospels and in
Luke, you will find a similar expression, thy faith has made
thee whole. But here in these two instances
that our brother has read in our hearing, Jesus said, thy
faith has saved thee. If the truth were known, I have
stayed away from that. Because it kind of indicates
that faith is the Savior. In fact, many times I have said,
I was thinking this week, faith doesn't save us. I've said that
many times. But Jesus said it did. So we've
got a problem. I have often said things... I
thought this was a good quote. I wrote this. This is original
with me. I have often said things that I myself have disagreed
with later when I said what it really meant.
We're not saved by our own act of faith. Jesus saved us. We do not contradict the direct
word of our Lord, but we qualify it by saying Jesus alone saves. In other words, Note it is not
this blind man's love that has saved. It wasn't his repentance
that saved him. It wasn't reverence that saved
him. It wasn't humility that saved
him. But thy faith has saved thee.
Go in peace. In case of the blind man, it
was not his earnest, his prayer, his desire. Again, it was thy
faith has saved thee. You see, faith is the great instrument. It's the great instrument of
salvation. And God has a right, because
He's sovereign, to choose what way of salvation He pleases.
And He has chosen that men should be saved, not by their works,
but by their faith in His Son. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. That's what Jesus said. This
is Jehovah's rule and this rule shall stand. This is His method
of grace. Don't kick against it. If He
determines that faith shall save, let it be. Only this we pray. And this is my prayer. Continually. Good Master, create and increase
my faith. We live by faith and not by sight.
And in the Colossian letter, it says this, as you have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Let me tell you, if
you got saved in the baptismal pool, you better stay there.
Because that verse says, as you have received Christ Jesus the
Lord, So walk ye in Him. I'm living by faith. That's the
way we live. You'll constantly be defeated
unless you live by faith. You see, God has made it by faith
that it might be by grace. You have to trust outside of
yourself. I've often said this, if it's
so easy, why don't you do it? Well, that's too easy. That's
too easy. Well, why don't you do it? For
by grace are you saved through faith. And that faith is not
of yourself. The very faith is the gift of
God. And I do praise God for faith.
I beg God. Many of you have heard me say
this. If I could ask any one thing of God, it would be, give
me more faith. I want to walk through the Red
Sea on dry ground. Amen. You see, dear ones, faith works
by love. Faith works by love. I trust
Christ. I'm in love with Christ. And
herein is love, not that we first loved Him, but that He first
loved us. This whole thing is not rules
and regulations and laws and dull and boring. Living by faith
is exciting and wonderful. It's a love story. That's why old man John said,
Behold, what manner of love is this? that the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God, and it doth
not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He
shall appear, we shall see Him as He is. And every man that
has this hope in him purifies himself even as he's pure." You
say, well, you know, that whole faith thing, you act like the
way you preach is just all by grace unmerited favor and it's
still by grace after you get saved and you can just live,
you know, you're not going to fall from grace and you're going
to heaven for sure and there's no condemnation and you just
give people a license to live like they want to. Let me tell
you, I live like I want to. I want to serve Him. I want to
read my Bible. I want to trust Him. I want to
know Him. I hate sin. I'm talking about my own. Faith works by love. And it purifies
us. What do you want, blind man?
I want my sight. Faith in salvation is not the
notorious cause. In any sense, it is not. Faith
saves us just as the mouth saves us from hunger. Just as the mouth
saves us from hunger. If we're hungry, bread or food
is the real cure for hunger. So it would still be right to
say that eating removes hunger. Did that make any sense to you? Seeing
that bread itself could not benefit us unless we had a mouth. Okay. Thy faith hath made thee
whole. Thy faith. Faith has saved thee. You see, faith is the soul's
mouth. You're going to go to hell if
you don't trust Christ. You've got to trust Christ. And I know
you're sitting there with all of the excuses, all kinds of
things. The truth is, one of the reasons
we don't have altar calls here every Sunday and that sort of
thing is because I don't want you thinking coming up here does
anything. I want you to upchuck it right where you are. I trust
Christ, preacher. I've trusted Christ. He's my
Savior. He's my Lord. That's the work
of the Holy Spirit as we proclaim the Gospel. Listen, the invitation
right now is the Gospel. I'm giving the invitation. What's
stopping you? Right where you are! I'm trusting
Christ. You know, the brazen serpent
lifted up didn't save anybody in the Old Testament, the story
of the brazen serpent. It was look and live. That's
my message today. Not a cross around your neck,
but Christ on the cross dying in your stead, room and place.
Amen. It's not a Bible in your hand,
but trusting Jesus Christ alone. Faith looks to Christ. Unmixed
faith. Listen, don't try to add anything
to faith. There are churches that are proclaiming
Of course you must trust Christ, but you also must be baptized
and you also must be a member of this church. And we name our
churches like we had holy churches. Look at the mess in this building. We're Grace Gospel Fellowship,
but just look at the mess. And you don't have to look far.
Look within. Listen, think about how people
name their church of God. Church of God in Christ. First
church of God in Christ. We go through all of that rigmarole
when we're nothing but sinners saved by the grace of God. A
church is just a group of believers who are in love with Christ. Don't mix anything with faith.
It's faith alone. Nothing in My hands I bring.
Simply to Thy cross I cling. Just as I am without one plea,
but that Thy blood was shed for Me. O Lamb of God, I come. I come." You see, faith and boasting
are opposites. They can't be together. God has
fixed it that way. See, this whole salvation thing
is to God be the glory. That's why He saves sinners. God is concerned about His glory.
In fact, God has said in His Word, I will not give My glory
to anybody else. Don't try to steal it. You'll
perish. I think Brother Sasser told Deer
in the conference about John Jasper. They asked the old slave
preacher When you get to heaven, John, and they ask you what rights
you have to be there, what are you going to say? No, Brother
Jasper said, I ain't got no rights. I'm here on the merits of another.
That's the right answer. That's the right answer. I love
the two stories that we've heard today read from the Word of God.
Can you imagine The faith, it's amazing faith, of that woman
who was a prostitute, who went into the house of the Pharisees.
First of all, she wasn't invited. Secondly, she must have known
what they were going to say. In fact, Simon said, if he knew,
I mean, he thought it. He didn't say it out loud. If
he knew what kind of woman this was, he would rebuke her. But the truth is Christ receiveth
sinners. Even me with all my sin. What
bold faith it was when she walked into that house. And what love
there was for Christ in her heart. You see, this whole thing that
happens to you in the new birth causes you to love to be in God's
house. To love to hear the Gospel. To
love to be with His people. to be excited. Somebody said
to me not long ago, you don't believe in signs and wonders.
I said, are you crazy? Of course I do. There's no doubt
in my mind that God has given us all kinds of signs that He
approves of what's going on here. And by the way, as you grow in
this Gospel, that's why it's so important that you be taught
and you grow in this Gospel, Your faith increases. In fact,
the Bible says, Faith cometh by hearing. In fact, somebody
ought to leave here today going like this. You know what that
pastor said today? I haven't been doing, but I'm
going to do it. I'm going to live by faith. I know God has
given me some stuff, and He has more stuff in store for me, and
I'm going to trust Him. I know God wants me to have my
own business. You might say that. Then do it. Trust God. He has all these blessings
stored up. We're His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. And the good works are coming.
There's going to be a flow of blessings. Listen, this church
cannot survive without your gift. I'm not talking necessarily about
money. I'm talking about all kinds of things. All kinds of
volunteer things. Or your business. If God's put
it on your heart to start a business, start it. If everybody thinks
you're crazy, come talk to me. We'll talk about it. People often
say to me, I'm going to tell you something that's really crazy.
I say, you can't get any crazier than me. Tell me. Listen, we
saw God turn and multiply pennies into hundreds of thousands. I
had 12 million pennies in my garage at one point. The pennies
came in so fast we didn't know what to do with them. And then
the miracle of miracles, we sold pennies to banks. I mean, just
think about it. It doesn't make sense. That little
penny. I was telling somebody this week
about the birth pennies. We sold $35,000 of birth pennies. If you were born in 1944, we
slicked up your birth penny, stuck it on a card, and you gave
us five bucks. $35,000 worth of pennies. You think about that. And think
about how God did that. Would you like to buy a birthday?
Oh, yeah. We had a we had an old 1980 van
that we would take buckets like this. Pennies were coming in
so fast. Anyway, when we sold them to
the bank, we had a bank by seven thousand. A guy gave us five
thousand from two different banks and Michigan National Bank. We
would take that old van and the buckets would come in. We put
them in the back of that van. That van would set up like this. There were so many pennies that
the bank bought us themselves the thing to take the pennies
out and put it on a roller and We broke it. So many times we
broke it. But at any rate, they counted
all 33 million pennies. 33 million. $330,000. You believe that when God is
in it, it can be big? Absolutely. Because He's a big
God. We raised 1,040,000 quarters
in 13 months and paid cash for the old building. Do you believe
much is in it? I'll tell you this story real
quick. I was in the funeral home standing
at a guy's casket. This guy comes up and taps me
on the shoulders. And we raised that money in quarters. I became the quarter man. I was
once the penny man. I moved it up to a quarter. The
guy tapped me on the shoulder and he goes, We're standing at
the castle and he goes, I just want to shake your hand. You're
the quarter man, right? And he gave me two quarters. Just like God. Or little Susie
that brought in 15 quarters that started the campaign, who heard
me on radio. And God put it on that little
girl's heart to give her piggy bank, which had 15 quarters in
it. I was asking for a million. Quarters
on radio. And she heard me. She was the
first one to bring those 15 quarters. The next morning, I told a story
on radio. Susie came with her mother and
brought 15 quarters. We need 999,885. And quarters
just began to pour in. Frank Wright asked me at that
time, could I just give you a check or do I have to get quarters?
I know a check will do. The banks started telling me,
Pastor, we can't handle all the quarters that are coming in.
Could you just ask for checks? So I started writing for checks.
I'm talking about what God does. You see, you can't turn me away
anymore. I've had too many experiences
with God. I've seen too much. I've gone too far. Now as you grow in grace, that's
why it's so important to grow in grace. I mean, get happy about
God choosing you. You didn't deserve to be chosen.
And then Christ redeeming you, dying in your sin, paying your
sin debt. And then as all of those things
begin to bear on your mind and soul, you get happy. And you
say, I can trust God for anything. I'm telling you, the experience
I've just had with him, and I know that eventually you're going
to get tired of me telling it, but I was there. I saw her die
and I see her alive on the front seat. And I cried out to God, don't
let this happen. See, I know there's a God. And
it is an absolute miracle she's alive. It is an absolute positive
God intervention. You want to see miracles? Say,
well, Pastor, you know, we're not a charismatic church. Oh,
a little bit. We believe in the grace of God.
We get happy around here a little bit. We pat our foot to the music
a little bit. Because our God is a great God.
He's a God of wonders. And you've got to... Let me tell
you this. Just start asking God for faith. And then, those of you who have
not experienced Him in conversion experience, follow on His mercy. You're going to hell anyway.
Trust Him. What have you got to lose? What
have you got to lose? Trust Jesus Christ. Amen. Come unto Me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Are you tired? I think about
those two little girls that went out. Oh, they're not girls. They're
adult women. But to me, when you get this
age, they're little girls. When those girls went out, They
had to be downhearted. When you turn back to what you
already know is going to kill you, something has to be going
on. And I say to myself when something
like that's happened, did you preach in the power of
the Spirit enough? How come we didn't stop them?
How come the presence and power of God wasn't in this place enough?
I don't want to see anybody else die. I've seen so many die. So many die. And I'm not just
talking about an addict who ODs because they're addicted to drugs.
I'm talking about a Christian who's addicted to drugs that
ODs. Maybe because they're going through this slew called life.
You have some slews in life. I don't care if you've never
used drugs. This world will beat you down. Unless you can see a land that
is fairer than day. I was thinking this morning,
you know He's coming back soon. He's going to return. What a
day that will be. What a happy day. You know nobody
cries in heaven. The only thing you're addicted
to in heaven is Jesus Christ. You're not even co-dependent
in heaven. You're dependent on Jesus Christ. It's all going to be over for
us one day. But right now, I want to live life to the fullest. As a child of God. I know they're
all stored up. There shall be showers of blessings.
I want you to start looking at life that way as a child of God.
It just gets better for us. As though you live by faith and
not by sight. You know, you've got to be criticized. People are going to laugh at
you, especially, you know, if you're already low. Nobody jumps
on that bandwagon. They always just step on you.
If you're already low, the only way to get up is to look up.
Right? And I say to you, you can't fall
out of bed when you're sleeping on the floor. You're already
at your lowest. Look up. Look up and trust Him. Greater is He that's in you than
He that's in the world. We are conquerors. We are overcomers. We are perseverers. We are going
to make it. We are. We are. Let's stand and
sing.