In this sermon, the preacher shares personal experiences and biblical examples to emphasize the importance of holding onto personal words from God. He highlights that God often speaks to individuals in a unique and personal way, giving them specific promises and instructions. The preacher also acknowledges that serving the Lord may involve challenges and sacrifices, but assures that the rewards and blessings from God far outweigh any difficulties. He concludes by emphasizing the distinction between the written word of God and personal words from God, encouraging listeners to trust in both as their foundation of faith.

This is an amazing truth from the Bible. God does almost nothing unless he speaks about it first. Before there was a flood and an ark to save a certain family, God spoke about it to Noah. Before Abraham and Sarah ever had their first child, named Isaac, the one that would be the child of promise, God spoke about it to Abraham. Before David ever became king, God sent the prophet Samuel, who anointed him and said, you're gonna be king. Was he king? No, but God does almost nothing unless he speaks about it first. And on and on through the Bible, the Bible tells us that in a sense of warning, God sent prophets to go to the children of Israel and say, if you don't turn, you're gonna go into captivity. To the northern kingdom, the Assyrians are gonna come in and wipe you out. It'll be my way of chastening you because you're not listening. You've turned away from me. And before it happened, God spoke about it and it surely came to pass. Same thing with the southern kingdom of Israel. The Babylonians are gonna come in and see this temple that you're boasting in. It's gonna be knocked down just about and destroyed and you're gonna be put into captivity. God spoke about it, it came to pass. But he did it before it came to pass. Before they went into captivity, God spoke through Jeremiah and said that for 70 years, they would be in captivity. It happened exactly as God had said. In fact, Daniel wrote about it and men of God studied it and said, wow, this is what God said he would do. Let's hold onto it and pray and believe it. Before Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem, it was spoken about. Micah said the town Bethlehem. Isaiah tells us that a virgin would give birth, which is impossible. Before they ran into Egypt to save themselves from King Herod who was trying to kill the baby, a prophet spoke and said, out of Egypt have I called my son. Before Jesus went ever on the cross, he told his disciples about it. Before God does almost anything, he speaks about it. Before he was wounded and bruised and slashed on the cross, hundreds of years before, Isaiah spoke of it and says, he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. Before he was ever beaten by any Roman soldier, Isaiah said that the shape of the Messiah's face was almost that you couldn't recognize he was human because before God does almost anything, he speaks about it. Jesus foretold that he would be raised from the dead, but that was found way back in the Psalms. David with the Holy Spirit inspiring him began to prophesy and said, you won't leave your Holy One to be corrupted in a grave. I will not see decay. He wasn't speaking about himself, he was speaking about the seed, the son that would come out of his loins, Jesus, the son of David. And God raised him from the dead because before God does almost anything, he speaks about it first. There are more prophecies about Jesus coming back a second time than there are that he came the first time. And just like God spoke it would happen the first time and it came to pass, Jesus is coming back again. I wanna declare to everyone here, Jesus Christ, the son of God is gonna come back to planet Earth. Can we say amen to that? Before the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, hundreds of years before, Joel said, thus sayeth the Lord in the last days, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. So that when they were filled with the Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them, Peter said, don't laugh at them, don't mock them, don't think they're drunk. This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. In the last days, God says, I'll pour out my Spirit on all flesh because before God does almost anything, he speaks about it first. Why does he do that? Well, he does it so that he'll get all the glory when it happens. Nobody will be able to say, isn't that funny how the people came back to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple? No, they'll say, God said it would happen. When David became the king of Israel and sat on the throne, people say, isn't that funny? The shepherd boy became a king. Oh no, Samuel prophesied, I will raise up and put you on the throne and replace King Saul. So God does all these things so that he'll get all the praise and honor and glory. But there's a second reason why he does it, ladies and gentlemen. He does it because it's the only way to build faith in us. And without faith, it's impossible to please God. God speaks a word and says something, and then he dares us, will you believe it? Will you believe what I say I will do? Do you believe? For there's something about trusting God that pleases him more than anything. In fact, without faith, it is impossible to please God. The Bible also lays down a first principle, according to your faith, so be it unto you. So when Jesus went to his own hometown, and even though there was a promise over him that he would heal because of their unbelief, he was limited. Because the thing that God wants, he wants to get us to believe him today. Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. That's odd. You have to remind God? Would God forget? Remember your word to your servant, like God would forget. David, the psalmist here in Psalm 119, is he's praying now. Listen to what he's saying. He's not stating something, he's praying something. Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. You spoke a word, and you gave me hope. Are you gonna disappoint me? Are you gonna frustrate me? So God, and God doesn't mind when we remind him like this, remember your word to your servant. It's like when you promised your child something. Isn't it amazing about raising children? If you give them chores to do, they forget it in 10 seconds. But if you ever make a promise. One of my granddaughters walked in my office today because I had told her on the phone this week, you come in, Angelina, because I have a lollipop for you. Boy, she strutted in my office, seven years old, and yeah, she hugged me and kissed me, but the first thing she was, where's my lollipop, you promised. Remember your word to your granddaughter, Papa, for you have given me hope. So God wants to try to get us to believe. So here we have the psalmist praying. Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. He's reminding God about some word that he got. And he said, it hasn't happened yet. Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. Now, hope in the Bible always speaks about future. You don't have hope for anything that already happened. Once you eat the good meal, you don't hope you'll have a good meal, you're eating the good meal. Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. Hope. So it hasn't happened yet. So here's the challenge in life. God has spoken a word to the psalmist, but it hasn't come to pass. And instead of being discouraged, he's reminding God in prayer. Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. Well, what is the word? Well, the word usually means, this is God's word. And there are promises in this word. Whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's a promise from God. If you believe it, it'll happen to you. He's rich in mercy to everyone who calls upon him. That's a promise. Call on him and he'll be rich in mercy to you. Trust in the Lord. Don't lean on your own understanding. And he will direct your path. That's a promise. Now, do you believe it? And the condition is you do what God says. So all of our doctrine and all of our understanding about the things of God is based on his word. If anyone comes with a new revelation and they preach it or sing something that's not in the Bible, then we don't believe it because God will never add to his word. How many say amen? The Bible says, try the spirits, test everything. So when some preacher comes or somebody with some new streamlined idea, the first thing you train your mind is, is it in the word of God? If it's in the word of God, I can depend on it. But if somebody's just making up something that sounds good, no, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4, verse six, it is not wise to go beyond what is written. So the word of God is our foundation of faith. For faith comes by hearing. And hearing by? Word. But now let me finish this by making a quick U-turn. Remember your word to your servant for you have given me hope. He's not talking about a Bible verse. See, there's the word of God, which is that word. And then there's personal words that God gives you along life's journey. It's not a word for everyone. It's a word for you. What do you mean by that? Well, the Bible talks about when God made a promise to Abraham that he would have a child even though his wife was barren and he was old. He didn't say everybody that age would have a baby. He just said Abraham would have a baby. When he told Abraham, leave where you are and go out to a land that I'll show you. He didn't tell everybody to leave where they are and go out. He just told Abraham. He didn't tell everyone in the world to build an ark. He just told Noah to build an ark. Let's go into the New Testament. Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, end of the first chapter. Timothy, now I say all these things to you in keeping with the prophecies that were spoken over you when you were ordained, I'm paraphrasing. So in holding onto those, you will fight the good fight. In holding onto what? The prophecies that were made over you when you were ordained into the ministry. What were those prophecies? We don't know. But God says through Paul, remember, when I spoke to you at the beginning, that personal word I gave to you, it wasn't for everyone, it was for you. You remember and hang onto those because by holding onto those promises I gave you, you're gonna fight the good fight of faith. I don't know the exact circumstances of it and forgive the reference to my family, but when my wife was a little girl, very, very shy, painfully shy, very painfully shy, and one day she was making a bed in the house where she lived with her family and her mother left the room and as she was putting a sheet out on the bed or something like that, the Lord gave her a vision, a shy little girl, and she saw herself, only could see her back, and she saw herself directing hundreds of people singing of all different races from all over the world and here she is directing them, this shy girl who wouldn't speak in public and who hands sweat and she was just nervous around people. She saw herself leading all those people, never trained musically, never doesn't know how to read and write music in theory, never sat under anyone to teach her, but here God gave her a word, this is what I'm gonna do with you one day and that's come to pass. With that choir just at the inauguration, wait, just think, she and that choir sang in front of one billion people, but before God does it, He speaks about it and without embarrassing her because I believe she's in the auditorium, when she was discouraged and she wanted to quit the choir and when she would never take the microphone and speak publicly ever, years would go by, she would never say a word, she only would express herself through her music and when we rented Radio City Music Hall and I told her when the first song is sung and you come up in that place with the smoke and the lights, you've gotta take the microphone and greet the people, she went through seizures of nerves that you can't believe to the point of crying, not being able to eat. That's how shy she was and she would say to me, I don't wanna do that, I just wanna express myself through music, I wanna direct the choir and I said but Carol, God will help you because why would He have shown you what He showed you if He wouldn't help you to do it all the way through because the Lord does nothing almost unless He speaks about it first. So these are personal things. Paul says, just comes to me now in Acts, I'll close. Paul's in Corinth and he's just taken some bad beatings in some other cities, he's been in jail in Philippi, he took some really savage beatings. So that's why serving the Lord isn't always peaches and cream and what victory means and having the blessing of God is not what some preachers make it out to be. Sometimes you have to give up your life for Jesus but in the end, you're gonna receive more than you could ever even imagine. But that's the difference between the American gospel and the true gospel as found in the word of God. So that one night, he must have been suffering from a case of nerves and one day the Lord appears to him and says, Paul, what Lord? Don't stop, keep speaking, don't be afraid because nobody here will touch you. I have many people in this city. Listen again. The Lord appears to him and says, don't be afraid, keep speaking, don't stop. No one will touch you here. Did anyone touch him in other cities? Yeah, they beat the living daylights out of him. He was stoned in Lystra, they left him for dead. He was put in jail in Philippi, they opened up his back. But God said to him, here in Corinth, don't you be afraid, no one's gonna touch you. Don't be afraid, don't run, stand in, hang in. And that's why Paul spent 18 months there because the word came to him just for him, wasn't for anyone else. It was just for him. Stay there, no one will touch you in this city for this period of time. Other places, God didn't say because if we suffer with him, we will also what? Reign with him. I believe there's some people here who the Lord gave you a word. He's given you a promise and you haven't seen it fulfilled yet. And now the devil's trying to rob it from you. He doesn't want your wallet, he doesn't want your credit card, he doesn't want those things, he doesn't need those things. Satan doesn't, what he wants to rob from you is that promise that God gave you. That promise for your son or your daughter. Listen, when my oldest girl was away from the Lord, God at one time, I can tell you where it happened if I could show you in that house at about one o'clock in the morning on a Saturday night into Sunday morning, God spoke to me as real as I'm standing here and said, I'm gonna bring her back, do you believe it? I'm bringing her back. And I said, I believe, tears running out of my eyes. Then he said, stand up from your chair and start praising me. But I haven't seen her back. She was still out there. No, you don't praise God just when you see it, you gotta praise God as a way of holding onto that word. Can we say amen to that? No, God told me that, it's gonna happen. Maybe it's for your son or your daughter. Maybe it's something about your own life, some ministry, some place you're supposed to go, something you're supposed to do, but it has not happened yet. It has not happened yet. Maybe it's some promise, I will deliver you out of this thing that you're in right now, but it has not happened and now the battle is on. This is what spiritual warfare is about. The Lord speaks a word because before he does anything, he speaks about it. And then the devil comes to rob that and say, give up, quit. I wanna declare to you today, don't quit. You hang onto that word. You say, no, God, I believe. Let's close our eyes. If you're here today and you say, pastor, I am believing God that what you said was specially meant for me. I am hanging on to that which God has shown me. God showed, maybe he showed it to you 10 years ago. Maybe he showed it when you were a teenager, but he spoke a word into your heart. You know, it's for you. It's godly, it'll glorify Christ. It's not about a bigger car or bigger house and that nonsense. It's something that will really glorify Christ. If you're here today and say, pastor, I totally identify with that verse you gave. Remember your word to your servant for you have given me hope. I wanna say that to God today for that word that he spoke over my life, my family or whatever, but I know it wasn't my mind. It was God, the Holy Spirit speaking that word to me. I want you to stand right where you are. Stand right where you're sitting. I want you to lift your hands. Those of you that are standing. I want you to open your mouth and begin to praise God right now. Those of you that are standing, come on. Open your mouth and praise God. Has he given you the word? Did he give you a promise? Are you gonna wait till you see it or are you just gonna praise him now? We praise you, God. We magnify you. We glorify you. We bless your name today, God. We're not gonna wait till we see it. We're gonna praise you now, God. We glorify your name. She's coming back. He's coming back, Lord. You're gonna do the thing you spoke to us about, Lord. We give you praise. We give you honor. We give you glory. Open your mouth and praise him out loud. We bless you, Lord.