Discipleship in Denying Yourself
Sunday, September 11, 2022 – RECAP/Study Points
8:00 am Worship Service
Dr. DeeDee asked me this morning how I was going to start my lesson. I said that I want to start by reminding you all of some things I’ve shared so you can have instant recall. I want you to be able to regurgitate the things that I already shared with you. I also think you need to make it your business to know these things and to become these things.
So why do we give? Because we love God, we trust God, and we prioritize God. There are 3 reasons that we give… LTP (love, trust and prioritize God).
Luke 6:38 (NKJV)
I have witnessed this scripture as it relates to what Luke is sharing here.
- Give, and it will be given (the strongest affirmative word in the English language)
- Whatever measure you use, that’s the measure He uses
- If I use a wheel barrel measure, that’s the measure I will receive.
Giving does not increase your faith because your faith is already as increased as it’s going to be. Giving increases your understanding of faith. Giving fortifies your faith. Giving enforces your faith. You have to believe this thing… that when I give it shall be given back to you. The reason most people don’t give is that they really don’t believe it’s going to be given back to them. If you knew with absolute certainty that when you gave, it would be given back to you…you would sow more bountifully. That’s what I have been doing for years. I have enforced my belief as it relates to this. You’ve put more money into a business than you’ve put into His business. I get it, but it doesn’t take as much money for His business as it does for your business. I’ve put some money into businesses myself. But I’ve put money in His business; for example, I currently have $103,000.00 in my seed sowing account. I always know that the amount is relative…because if you get $1,003.00 in an account, it is just as significant as my $103,000.00. This is not to boast.
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Pastors should not give to be seen, but they should be seen giving. Thank God you have a giving Pastor. You have to put this entire thing together. If I am a giver, you stand a better chance of becoming a giver. The spirit of giving will overtake you. I don’t know why it’s taking some of you so long.
There should be some corresponding return on the things that I am teaching. Most people are not taking the things that I am sharing or the things that are in the Bible and putting them to work. I am not just saying this; God said you can prosper if you give.
Joshua 1:8
- Mistake #1 most people don’t meditate
- Meditation is the linking ingredient to all your success (in your body & mind)
- Being led by the Spirit, you allocate your money to specific things
- Money does not fix your situation; it’s your soul that will fix your situation
- The overarching theme of this ministry is to Prioritize, Practice and Perfect the Plan… Some of you need to prioritize your walk, family, faith, and your finances. Others need to prioritize your friends.
SAY THIS: “I must meditate in the Word to move my life, to close the gap, to push the needle to the next level where God intended for me to be before the foundation of the world. I must meditate.”
- Should not depart from your mouth…it departs from your mouth, meaning that it goes out of your mouth but never departs from what’s in your mouth. You want to keep the Word in your mouth because it’s my mouth more than my money that has gotten me increase. Your mouth has more money in it than your pocket does.
- Even with your soul changed, you must be led by the Spirit.
- You should meditate day and night
- One of the keys to being led by the Spirit is to be led by the Spirit
Say this with revelation: “Am really bigger than am living right now. I really have a greater love walk than I am walking in right now. I really forgive better than I do right now. I don’t walk in envy like am doing right now; I really don’t.”
- That you may observe to do… once I’ve gotten the Word out of my mouth and I’ve cleared it in my mind, I am established to do it.
James 1:22-25 But be ye doers of the Word and not just hearers only. Further down, He equates this with a man looking in the mirror and forgetting what manner of man he is (what he looks like).
How do you look in the mirror and then turn around and forget what you look like? James says just as impossible as it is for a man to look in the mirror and forget what he looks like…likewise, it is that impossible for you to hear the Word and not do it. To come in here and hear the Word and not do it is like you deceiving yourself into thinking that you are going to look like something later on.
Once I get it out of my mouth, I meditate in my mind (I see it); I literally see myself loving Dr. DeeDee better or forgiving someone. What I am currently working on is my responses… I don’t like the way I respond. Sometimes I go from zero to sixty in 1.3 seconds. I don’t need to set with a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists are becoming more necessary because there are no guidelines in the home coming up. No structure. No structure will cause you to be wild in your thinking. The psychology that my Father used was that I am going to tear the tell up.
So when I get it out of my mouth, I meditate (let it get in my mind) so that I can do it. When I talk about loving Dr. DeeDee more, I see myself doing that long before she upset me. I discovered that she doesn’t upset me, but I do it to myself based on my inadequacy and my immaturity. It is my response to the Word of God. We have the ability to choose up or down, right or wrong, every day.
- Observe to do all…for then you will make your way prosperous
- Where is God in this… YOU… will make your way prosperous
- This is why some believers’ ways are prosperous, and some are not
- Because if God did it for one, He would have to do it for all. However, He did give us everything that pertains to life. He says, go to work. Walk by Faith and not by sight. You can fail… because this system is a win…win!!!!
- …And then you will have good success
10:00 am Worship Service
Pastor Dewayne: You know, it reminds me of when you come back from vacation, and you’re coming up your driveway, and you see your house, and you just stretch out on your own bed, and it’s like, man I’m so glad to be home! I looked up the word ‘maketh,’ and it also means to stretch out in the Greek. Now watch this, you’re creating an environment this week for some leaders, and that environment is going to make them stretch!
And that’s what this environment should do for you. When you come here, this environment should make you change! Say I am BETTER than I’m living right now! I’m better than this. You know you’re better than this, and God knows your better than this. So, why are you living beneath your God-given privilege? Why are you settling for less? Why are you living in Lo Debar, when He placed you above the bar?
Pastor Dewayne: And Pastor Mike, watch this, the Spirit of the living God is setting us up with those words because everyone who spoke those words, who believed in their heart, they are actually making a demand on that. Starting now and as they leave this place, hear some things from the Holy Spirit because of the demand that they have mad that will cause them to be able to lay down in what God has already created for us to have. But it takes words that we believe in our heart, we confess with our mouth, so we can see the salvation of what God has already pre-arrange.
And, what law did he just communicate? The law of faith. What does the law of faith say? I confess with my mouth and believe in my heart. What is faith? Acting on what I believe. And, what is it that I believe? I believe the word of God.
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Ladies and Gentlemen, don’t think God is going to fix your situation. As a matter of fact, stop asking Him to fix it. It’s demonstrating an element of ignorance. What I mean by that is the ignorance is what you just don’t know. Because God has already done everything, He’s going to do. When He sai,d ‘It is finished,’ everything that you needed for the good life was established. Like the hell that DeeDee and I had in our home for the first 7-8 years, to the place that we are right now. I would like to submit to you that God didn’t fix it. God is no respecter of persons. If He does something for one individual, He would have to do it across the board. So then, if He fixed mine, why isn’t your’s fixed? And, He won’t be able to fix it until you collaborate. Until you become congruent with the order of God, God’s hands are tied in your life. Some of you husbands are not setting up an environment for what He has already pre-ordained to manifest in your house.
But I’ve learned something, even out of this passage of scripture (Joshua 1:8), that has assisted me in doing something, so I rehearse my responses. And I’ve almost perfected it. And that’s what we’re after because the overarching theme of every year of this ministry is prioritizing, practicing, and perfecting the plan. The plan being the vision that God has given us in this house, and the plan being the vision that God has given to your house. And you need to prioritize that; you need to practice it and perfect it, mature in it.
Because some of the things that I noticed is that some of my responses were not congruent with the word of God, and the peace of God, and even the heart of God, even in my home, I found out that I was no longer interested in making an impression before Dr. DeeDee, but when it came to my pastors or significant others I wanted to keep an impression before them, I would curtail, I would contour, I would make the adjustments on my attitude when it came to certain individuals. But with Dr. DeeDee, I would say what I wanted to say out of my mouth to her. And then I’d ask the Lord, why is DeeDee constantly trying to piss me off? Why is she getting me upset? And, the Lord’s response to me was, it’s not DeeDee that’s getting you upset; it’s your ignorant, immature behind. No, it was my ignorance. It was my immaturity that caused me to respond the way that I responded to her. And I had to begin to rehearse my response because your responses are resourceful; your reactions are destructive. And when you rehearse your response through the word of God, it was a way that I meditated (I will show you the scripture in the word of God concerning her, where she could no longer make me mad (i.e., If you didn’t do that, then I wouldn’t act this way…) No, you act this way simply because of your immaturity and your ignorance.
And there’s nothing more that satan loves than an ignorant Christian because he can’t defeat you otherwise. My people, God says, are destroyed for lack of information. Where there is a lack of information, there’s a lack of revelation, and when there’s a lack of revelation, there is a lack of manifestation. So, what you have to realize and understand if in fa,ct we’re not going to cooperate or run congruent, if we keep applying these oxymorons and these conundrums, as such. if we keep adding all of these differences and variables as it relates to complying with the word of God, even God can’t help your house. If you are set and bent on doing it the way you want to do it, God can’t help you. Then you have the audacity to say, ‘God, please help.’ He’s given you all the help you need, and the helper has come in the form of Holy Spirit, the parakletos, who is your helper, and He’s come to help you, but every time He tries to help you, you’ve got your way of doing things. So, every time the opportunity to be pissed off was placed before me and the opportunity to respond in peace at the same time, and I could respond negatively, or I could respond peacefully, instead of grabbing the negative, I said ‘No! Despite how I feel….’
Pastor Dewayne: Yeah, your life always moves towards what you value. And what’s happening is, even in marriages, before they say I do, the value system is high, and then all of a sudden, they say I do, and then they start depreciating the spouse, and when it does, they don’t move towards them like they used to.
They don’t care about the different outcomes. But when you start valuing a different outcome, it has nothing to do with what the other one is doing; it has everything to do with what you prioritize and set your mind on.
And, who do you think you are, ma’am because he’s blown it, who do you think you are to reduce his value? Okay, he blew. And, especially you men, who do you think you are when your wife blows it? Who do you think you are when you reduce her value when God didn’t bring her down when Jesus looks at her the same? When Jesus looks at him the same? You reduce him. And, He without sin…
‘But I can’t trust him anymore. What’s trust got to do, got to do with it? (Singing) I mean, that’s not the song. That’s what it should say because you’ve let trust trump love, and you’ve never been commanded to trust, but you’ve been commanded to love, and love covers a multitude of sins. Let Dr. DeeDee lose her mind and go have sex with somebody else. Guess where Mike Freeman’s going to be? Right there with that girl. She’s going to need me more than ever. But look at my dumb stuff? How do you do that?
You can’t even comprehend it because you haven’t tapped into the measure of God’s love. How does he still love you, is what you should ask? That girl’s value will always remain high to me because she’s God’s daughter.
Pastor Dewayne: Even in the body of Christ, we have to master this principle.
Sometimes you have to look wrong when you know you are right to fix something. And some people, they haven’t mastered that because when they are right, and the other one is wrong, they’ll stay in that battle not knowing that they are messing up something because nobody is giving in. You have to master this, to look wrong even when you are right. That’s what Jesus did. When He died on that cross, in the natural, it looked like he was wrong because that type of death was only for people who were on the top ten most wanted list. He looked like He was wrong, but we know He was right. But He did it so He could fix something. And if some marriages started checking this and they wouldn’t being going to divorce court so easily because they would now give their marriage a chance to live.
I don’t know whose marriage is struggling in here today, but God changed my entire lesson just for you. This was not what I came in here to talk about, not even at 8 o’clock. But it is because we’re moving into being led by the Spirit. I came and demonstrated the lesson. I had one thing I had decided that I was going to do, and bang, the Spirit of God said. ‘Go here. And one of my points in being led by the Spirit as a benefit is, He’ll help you to make great choices. Does anybody need to make better decisions and choices in life? Holy Spirit will help you do that. So, I was led by the Spirit, which got us here. And God loves you so much; He loves your household so much; he loves your relationship so much that He is cheering for you. He’s rooting for you. Imagine God being committed to your success, and you are not!
Joshua 1:8
Pastor Dewayne: You know it’s amazing because when it said this book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, years ago I was taught (and I’m not speaking against it) don’t ever get caught without speaking the word of God out of your mouth. And then the Spirit of God, one day I was challenged with something, and I was quoting the word, and He said, ‘What are you doing? And He said, no, you’re not. You’re just talking. He said look at this verse again; this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth.
He said you’re so busy talking to what you want to be removed, and that is not the problem. The problem is what’s going on in your heart. I want you to stop talking to the mountain and start talking to yourself, and that’s where meditation comes in.
Meditation is my thing. I travel the world, and it doesn’t cost me a dime. I go into some of the most exquisite places, some of the most exclusive, luxurious places, in my mind long before I walk in. Your feet will never go where your mind has not been first. You’ve got to think yourself there. So, He says, this book of the law, the Bible, shall not depart from your mouth. Now, it should be released inward and outward. Pastor Dewayne says specifically about this particular scripture because He tells us to speak to things, and we saw Him do it. But, the first person who needs to hear the word from you is you. But, if you’re a liar, you aren’t going to believe you. You don’t have confidence in what you say anyway. So, when I know, I am speaking the word of God because meditating is to mutter, to go over and over, to say it, to sing it.
I like reading or listening to a book of the Bible each day. Now, the book of James is one of the books I read this week, and it talks about us being doers of the word and not hearers only. It goes on to say; it is the equivalent of a man looking into a mirror, walking away from it, and forgetting how he looks.
Pastor Dewayne: When he says he’s looking into this mirror, the word God is a like a mirror, but you have to continue to look into it. He just doesn’t want you to look into it and leave because you’ll forget. He wants you to continue to look into this perfect law of liberty, and that’s what meditation does.
Meditation will allow you to continue to look into this because the more you look at it, the more you become it.
I like to use the ladies for this example. They said that a man looks into the perfect law of liberty, and then they forget. Women don’t do that. I want to use a woman for this illustration because when Lisa gets up, she goes to the mirror, and then she’ll move closer to the mirror to see. Then she’ll move to this other little mirror with some kind of light around it that kinda magnifies stuff. Then, ten minutes later, when we are in the car, she’ll pull that one down, and she’s getting her self together. And then, sometimes we’re eating at table, she’ll pull that little one out. It seems like all of the mirrors have different sizes. And then, they’ll go to the bathroom and not even have to use it.
They just look in the mirror and fix themselves up because they continue in it.
They don’t want to forget what they saw the last time. And that’s what we all need to do. That’s why I’m loving the way the Spirit of God has used you to from denying yourself because it’s impossible to be led by the Spirit of God if you don’t master that denying yourself principle. And I’m telling you, this particular lesson is designed to lead lottie, dottie, and everybody to a place of success because the Holy Spirit is the only one that knows all truth. Nobody else knows all truth. Nobody else knows the things that others don’t know. The Holy Spirit is the only one, and He says that He will lead you and guide you into all truth, and truth is designed to make us free in every area of our lives.
Why are you looking? Why are you imitating? Why are you meditating? So, you can do it. There’s money in your meditation than is in your pocket. There’s more love in your meditation than is in your heart. And you can manifest that which you meditate day and night.
For then, you will make your way prosperous. It doesn’t say God. For then YOU… But what have we done? We’ve taken the word, we’ve spoken it to ourselves, we’ve quoted the word, we’ve spoken the things in our lives, and we have not allowed it to leave out of our mouths. It’s a part of your developmental process. Say, ‘My good life is in my mouth. I have what I say.’ If you keep saying stuff like I’m on a fixed income, it’s fixed. I can barely get ends to meet; ends will never meet because that’s what you say. You’re going to have to say what God tells you to say.
Then shall you make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. How? Because I’ve placed myself in His word, and I observe the Word to do what I have read and meditated upon. And it’s something about your meditation. It gives you a head start for whatever victory you desire to wrought in your life.
Assignment:
- Study this lesson (get familiar with it) and listen to this over and over until you can teach it.