God wants you to prosper spiritually, financially, physically and mentally. It is becoming more difficult to prosper by the world’s definition, but there has never been more opportunity to prosper under God’s law. No good thing will He withhold from those who diligently seek him. Believers can prosper in perilous times by making Christ a priority.
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if you brought your Bibles turn them to
the book of 2 Timothy the 3 chapter the
1 through the 5th verse as this morning
we begin a sermon series entitled
prospering in perilous times I think you
have to look too far in the world that
we’re living in to consider that these
might be some perilous
times today we’re going to see the world
that we live in and understand very
clearly what we can do about it so that
we can indeed prosper in perilous times
if you found 2 Timothy chapter 3 say
amen amen let’s begin with verse one but
know this that in the last days perilous
times will come for men will be lovers
of themselves lovers of money boasters
proud blasphemers disobedient to parents
unthankful Unholy unloving unforgiving
slanderers without
self-control brutal despisers of good
traitors headstrong haughty lovers of
pleasure rather than lovers of God
having a form of godliness but denying
its power and from such people turn away
whatever you do don’t vote for them
that’s paraphrase that’s not it’s
not that’s in the MV my International
Version that’s not in
yours verse 16 and 17 read with me all
scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for Doctrine for Repro
for correction for instruction in
righteousness that a man of God may be
complete thoroughly equipped for every
good work Heavenly Father help us to see
the
distinction between the men of this
earth and the men of God on this Earth
help us to understand understand the
difference between the way of this world
and the way of your
word and then
choose how we might live in your kingdom
principles and promises and see your
goodness in our lives in the land of the
living in Jesus name we pray and ask and
all of God’s children said amen amen you
may be
seated it’s important to understand the
context in which Timothy receives this
letter from
Paul Paul is not going to live much
longer he’s in prison in Rome he
realizes that the date and the time of
his execution is set and he starts to
write some final letters and one of the
letters he writes is to his successor
it’s to his son in the faith
Timothy and he tells Timothy that
there’s some things that are going to
happen between now and when Christ
returns
this is the biblical phrase but know
this in the last days say those words
with me last
days now the thing that is important to
understand is that the last days
describe the time between the Ascension
of Christ after his resurrection and the
return of Christ Paul warns Timothy he
says from these kinds of people turn
away
why because they’re living as if the
Judgment of God is not real and there
are no consequences to the choices that
they’ve
made and Paul tells Timothy in this
chapter he says God is going to judge
them and you don’t want to be with them
when they get
judged and then he tells Timothy he says
but you don’t have to do that because
you’ve been shown a better
way and the better way that you’ve been
shown has come through the principles of
the faith that you’ve received from
those that you have observed mainly
Paul but he’s saying to Timothy the time
has come for you to quit watching me and
acting like me and behaving like me and
it’s time for you to pick up the word of
God and do it for
yourself and I believe that there in
lies the message to the church in the
world today we get to see so much of the
faith we get to hear the faith on
television we get it in podcasts we get
it on the radio we get it in
motivational little videos that get
posted on your phone and sent to you and
all of this we take in and we take it in
and we take it in and sometimes we
imitate it and sometimes we regurgitate
it but what we need to understand is
that it’s not enough to look like it and
act like it sooner or later we’ve got to
do something to be like
it and this is where Paul tells Timothy
look the secret to this is not in
Behavior the secret to this is not in
any form of group that you’ve joined the
secret to this is that all scripture say
that with me all
scripture those are two simple words but
they’re hard to
swallow because I don’t know about you I
have places in scripture I like to
go and then I have places in
scripture I like for others to go for
me because those are the places where
the mirror of God’s word gets
uncomfortable for
me it’s easy for me to look at the
things that I have no problem
obeying because that’s where I feel like
I’m patting myself on the back in the
Holy
Ghost but when I see something that the
Holy Spirit reminds me you need to work
on that’s where I don’t like the
reflection that’s looking back at me in
the mirror and I have to remember that
all scripture say it with me again all
scripture it’s given by inspiration of
God and it is
profitable and Paul tells Timothy if you
will take all scripture and understand
the purpose and the power of its use in
your life you will be
complete you will be thoroughly equipped
for every good work what he’s saying is
even though perilous times are going to
come you Timothy can prosper in perilous
times and what I’m saying to you today
is that God is no respector of persons
if you will take the truth of God’s word
and not let it be something that you
listen to but something that you
live not let it be something that you’re
a part of but something that’s a part of
you
then you too can be equipped for every
good work and you can prosper in
perilous times and the way that you
prosper in perilous times is the first
thing you have to do is consider what
the Bible says in Romans 12:2 do not be
conformed to this world but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your what
mind conformed and transformed two very
different words confirmation means that
what is there gets
molded and transformation means that
what was there no longer is there but
it’s
changed and so what Paul is writing in
the Roman Church here is he’s saying
don’t let the world shape your thinking
change your thinking by getting the word
of God into your life and in doing so
transform your
mind why because when it comes to
prosperity there’s two cultures that are
being discussed here one is the carnal
culture the corrupt culture of this
world the one that Paul is talking about
in second Timothy where men are lovers
of themselves lovers of money and all of
the other characteristics that come
along with it from such people turn
away if you have that definition of
prosperity you will never Prosper
enough because the carnal world the
corrupt world the Fallen world is always
operating off of
scarcity how many conversations do we
have in our world today that have the
word
shortage oh there’s an oil and gas
shortage no there’s
not oh there’s a water
shortage no there’s
not oh there’s a power shortage when
you’re not home turn up the
heat why so when I get home it’s 97 and
I make it 52 and then we just drain
everything in the evening you see when
you look at the world’s definition of
prosperity it runs off of scarcity when
you look at the Kingdom’s definition of
prosperity it runs off of
abundance man will never have enough our
God is a god of more than
enough which means not only can he bless
you but he can bless me and he can bless
your children and he can bless your
children’s children but how do you
receive that in this life the first
thing you do is you have to transform
your
thinking you cannot conform God into the
things of this
world God does not fit in the world’s
box his ways are higher than our
ways his resources are different than
our resources his definitions are not
the same as our definition definitions
we look at gold as something precious
God looks at gold as
asphalt once you understand the
difference between confirmation and
transformation you begin to realize that
the world’s rules do not work in
Heavenly
places this is what Jesus was proving
whenever they said is it just to pay
taxes and Jesus said give to Caesars
what’s
Caesars he was saying if you want to
live in the world’s system you have to
live by the world’s rules because if you
don’t give Caesar what he’s owed he’s
going to put you in
jail and then they said is it just for
you to pay taxes he says sure hey Peter
go catch a
fish Peter goes and catches a fish and
guess what’s in his mouth the money
that’s owed to
Caesar but it was Christ’s way of saying
I’m not in the this
system I can find all kinds of ways to
get the world’s resources into the right
place which means you have to transform
your thinking you cannot work with your
carnal mind because that mind is at war
with God second Timothy chapter 3 the
descriptions that Paul is giving of the
types of people that are going to live
in these perilous times do you know what
they
are instinct ual
man instinctual man is disobedient to
parents how many of you parents had to
teach your child to say
no I mean they got that one all on their
own why because it was in their nature
to do
so how many of you had to teach somebody
to think about
themselves what’s the first thing a
child learns after no
mine mine mine mine mine at a point in
their life when nothing is
theirs not even their
pacifier as the world around us seems to
take a very dark turn you might ask
yourself is it possible to prosper in
every area of life even in such perilous
times the answer is yes are you trusting
him to lead the way and show you what
steps to take next in him you have the
ability to prosper to help you grow in
your faith and learn how to trust the
Lord through your storms we want to send
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when you fill your mind with the word
the enemy can no longer control you
because your mind is set on things not
of this world call the number on screen
or go to jhm.org
storm Paul is saying that if you are
going to live like the world you’re
going to live like an instinctual man
and if you’re going to live like a child
of God in this world you’ve got to
transform your
mind and in order for your mind to be
transformed you have to realize that the
nature of God has to come live in you
because your instincts are never going
to allow that nature to exist outside of
his grace and outside of his power and
outside of his
Mercy you cannot be who God wants you to
be in your own
strength that’s why you need him in
order to help you do
it so how do you transform your mind you
transform your mind by reading the word
of God
what does reading the word of God do for
you well in many places in the word you
find the benefits of it to be things
like Health to your Naval and Marrow to
your bones how many of you are
interested in strength read the word of
God in other places when you read the
word of God you find that it is a lamp
unto your feet and a light unto your
path how many of you are concerned about
Direction read the word of God in other
places you read things like his word
word will be a shield and his word will
be a sword how many of you are concerned
about things like protection read the
word of God no weapon formed against you
shall
prosper you see the thing about reading
the word of God is that the word you
ingest becomes the word you
possess and when you possess the word
then you can declare the word and when
you declare the word then you begin to
see the
word one of the problems that we have in
the American church today is that we
hear the word but we don’t ever ingest
the word which means we can’t possess
the word so when you begin to read the
word and then you begin to speak the
word guess what’s going to happen you’re
going to start to see the
word and when you want to prosper in
perilous times you need to possess a
word that gives you a promise that you
want to see in your life
you need to know that the quality of
your life is determined by the quality
of your
God in the first five verses of 2
Timothy chapter 3 Paul is telling
Timothy that there are a group of people
who are determining their life by the
quality of their
God if you are a lover of self and you
have a form of godliness but deny the
power thereof who is your
god
you
men will be lovers of
self if you love yourself more than you
love anything else who’s sitting on the
throne in your life you
are and as Paul begins to describe the
things that happen to these types of
individuals he’s reminding us of this
biblical principle that we see from the
Old Testament all the way through to the
end of the New Testament and that is
that the quality of your life is Det
determined by the quality of your
God perilous times
come because the way that men are
choosing to behave are making things
worse and worse and worse on the
earth because they have made themselves
God what I want is most important what I
think is what I’m going to
believe this is why we have people
running around saying my truth
there is no more selfish statement on
the face of the Earth than that because
you do not possess truth Thy word is
truth and whatever you say has to be
balanced against
this so we have a situation where men
have chosen for themselves what kind of
God they’re going to serve and what you
need to know is that the quality of your
life is determined by the quality of
your God low quality God low quality
life in the world that we live in there
will always be systems and things that
imitate the power of
God our God has promised us that he
would care for us that we would Prosper
beloved I wish above all things that you
prosper and be in good health even as
your soul prospers and there will be
systems in the world that promise the
same thing except the definitions of
God’s prosperity and the definitions of
the world’s Prosperity are very
different from one another God’s
Prosperity is all-encompassing
physically spiritually emotionally
financially man’s Prosperity says give
us this much money and in this much time
we’ll give you this much return that’s
just a math equation that’s not
prosperity and the thing is is if you
choose to put your faith in man’s
promise you are going to abandon God’s
promise but if you stay faith to God’s
promise God’s promise is always going to
be more powerful than man’s promise and
it may take a little bit of time but
sooner or later his promise is going to
consume the system of man and you’re
going to find out that the god that we
serve is a way making deliverer who can
pull you through any and every
circumstance we see this in Elijah’s day
Jezebel comes to to
Israel she becomes the wife of King
Ahab she decides that baale is
God Jezebel she’s actually named after
the false
god she’s a priestess in his
Temple and she says if it rains baale
makes it rain if it grows baale makes it
grow if you have it Bale’s the one who
gave it to you does that sound like an
Ator
absolutely now in the time of Ahab and
Jezebel there was a righteous remnant of
priests who stood up and opposed
this they said that’s wrong Thou shalt
have no other gods before
me they stood up and they spoke up for
truth do you know what happened they got
killed they didn’t get cancelled they
got
killed they didn’t get disliked and
banned from social media platforms
they
got those are real consequences life and
death kind of stuff so whenever Jezebel
kills a Remnant group of priests that
are standing up for Jehovah God the rest
of Israel does exactly what Paul
describes to Timothy they have a form of
godliness but they deny the power
thereof what do I
mean I mean that the form of godliness
was when they went home into the privacy
of their house they fell on their face
and they said oh God I’m sorry I don’t
really believe in baale but if I don’t
pray to baale she’s going to kill
me and then they would walk out of their
house and they’d see Jezebel and go oh
is the great day that Bale has given us
this is the day that baale has
made and they go back to their house and
they say oh God I’m so sorry you know
exactly how I feel and I you I mean HR
is breathing down my throat right now
I’ve got to go to bail training
and then when they got outside the house
they just tow the line and live
according to whatever the culture was
because they didn’t want to go against
the culture they had to be accepted by
the culture because they could get
canceled and one man
Elijah the Bible says that he walks into
ahab’s throne room and he tells Ahab he
says it’s not going to rain unless I say
so and when you’re in an agrarian
society where you have to have rain in
order for grain and grass and things to
grow so that your economy can prosper
what he just said is the economy is
going to crash unless I say it turns
around and for three and a half years it
didn’t
rain for three and 1/2 years no crops
grew for three and A2 years the Israeli
economy was cratered why because this
imitator baale was being shown up by
Jehovah God that he was in control of
nothing and Jehovah was was in control
of
everything now the people who had a form
of godliness in their home but denied
the power thereof out in the street do
you know what they went through a
famine they went through a
drought they didn’t have any good water
to drink they didn’t have any good food
to eat their belly button rubbed a
blister on their backbone as the country
folk used to
say but El
what did he
do you see he had a transformed mind he
didn’t conform to Jezebel’s way and then
say to God he was sorry on
Sunday Elijah took a
stand and he said this isn’t going to
fly because baale doesn’t make it rain
God does and bail doesn’t make it grow
God does and bail doesn’t take care of
me God does
and Jezebel said I want his head and
Elijah went and hid and the Bible says
he hid by the Brook kadron now everybody
down in the big city who’s got a form of
godliness but denies the power they need
a drink but God’s man is hiding up here
in a Hill Country
retreat with running
water the brook didn’t run dry and even
before there were Uber Eats and door
Dash
the Bible says Ravens brought him
food he didn’t even have an app and he
was getting it
delivered and then one day the brook
dries up and the Ravens don’t show up
and Elijah says God what do you want me
to do he says I want you to go to a
widow woman’s house he goes to a widow
woman’s house and what happens at the
widow woman’s house she’s got enough
Masa for one more
tortilla
and God says Elijah I want you to ask
her for
it and with a transformed
mind with a conformed mind with a
natural mind he would have said that’s
the
cruestv of food with a transformed mind
he says the greatest thing this woman
could ever do is give what she has to
God and in giving it to
God she never never ran out of oil she
never ran out of flour she never ran out
of what she needed she was fed her child
was fed the man of God was fed why
because our God is
able our God is
able child of God if you will allow his
word to transform you if you will allow
his truth to direct you if you will
allow his power to come through you
there isn’t anything that you face in
this life that God cannot overcome I
know we live in perilous times I know
we’re in places that we’ve never been
before in our lifetime but what I’m
telling you is our God is able there
isn’t anything that catches him by
surprise if the mountains be turned into
the midst of the sea nothing is too
difficult for him he can make a way
where there seems to be no way he can
open up the windows of heaven and pour
out upon you blessings that you cannot
contain the things in your life in your
past that the locusts have eaten and the
famine has caused God has a promise that
he can restore those years he can
restore that loss he can restore what
the enemy has stolen why I can’t tell
you why other than the fact he said so I
can’t tell you how other than I know he
can do it I can’t tell you when because
his time is not our time but what I can
tell you is if you put your faith in him
all things are possible to them that
believe Give the Lord a hand clap of
Praise Jesus died to give you eternal
life and victory over whatever obstacle
you are facing today we’re celebrating
his Sacrifice by giving thanks for a
savior who is alive and sits at the
right hand of God the Father this
message message of Truth is broadcast
around the world thanks to your faithful
support of this ministry we celebrate
that the stone has been rolled away the
tomb is empty and we can put our trust
in this fact Jesus Christ is risen on
Saturday October 7th while Israeli
citizens celebrated the end of sukat
over 1500 Iran backed Hamas terrorist
wage a coordinated and vicious attack
against the nation of Israel this is our
time to show love and generosity for a
nation suffering one of its Darkest
Hours October 7th was the deadliest day
in Jewish history since the Holocaust
but make no mistake Israel is shaken but
it is not defeated proceeds raised will
address the humanitarian crisis
resulting from this massacre First
Responders and medical facilities are
overwhelmed and we need your help go to
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or/and withth Israel to donate today and
show your solidarity for the state of
Israel and the Jewish people let it be
known that Israel You are not
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