This is “Whose Report Will You Believe?”. If we’re not careful of what we watch and listen to, we’ll lose our peace of mind. God knows this, so His Word asks, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” In the Bible, the “arm of the Lord” refers to God’s power to deliver and His providential care over every event in our lives. So whose report are you going to listen to, internalize, and respond to? Jentezen Franklin will encourage you in this message to listen for the voice of God, and trust in His report. To hear more inspiring messages from Jentezen Franklin, visit http://jentezenfranklin.org/watch?cid…
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♪ ♪
>> Thank you so much for joining
us today on Kingdom Connection.
You’re gonna have to make up
your mind in times like these,
whether you’re gonna plug into
a bad report or a good report.
There’s an amazing verse
in the book of Isaiah that
I’m gonna teach you from today.
It’s asks a question,
“Whose report will you believe?”
This is a critically important
message, and I believe
it’s gonna make a difference
in your home, in your life,
and in your future.
Let God’s word speak
to you today.
And I’m gonna come back
and pray for you
in just a moment.
♪ ♪
>> I’ve got a message that I
wanna share with you today
from the Book of Isaiah 53.
“Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm
of the Lord been revealed?”
“Who has believed
our report,” —
I wanna speak to you
for a few moments today
on “Whose Report
Will You Believe?”
When you understand the chapters
leading up to this
particular verse,
there were prophecies
of doom and gloom,
destruction and judgment,
and they were very real,
and they were very accurate.
And, it was telling how
the people would go into
Babylonian captivity,
and how that Jerusalem
would be just decimated
by destruction,
because of their wickedness
and their evil,
and it was very real,
and it was happening.
And then, you move
into the 52nd chapter,
and there is a total shift,
and the prophecy from the word
of the Lord was one
of restoration,
and one of where God is going
to give a promise of redemption
to His people,
that He would restore,
that He would rebuild,
that He would begin to bless.
And then, it’s so interesting.
You get the bad report,
you get the good report,
and then you open Isaiah 53,
which by the way is the chapter
that deals with the covenant
Jesus made on the Cross,
where He lays it out, and says,
“I was wounded for
your transgressions,”
that famous verse.
All of that is in Isaiah 53.
But it begins with a question,
“Whose report will you believe?”
You got a bad report, and now,
God has given you a prophecy,
and a good report.
And now, you need to make
a decision, whose report
will you believe?
How are you going
to think today?
How are you going
to believe today?
How’s your believing?
How’s your thinking?
When the doctor gives you
a bad report, usually,
the first thing we want
is a second opinion.
I need to hear a no
from somebody else.
There is another report.
You don’t just have to take
the first bad report,
but God’s word always will
give you another report.
You can get bogged down
in negative thinking.
No matter how long you nurse
a grudge, it won’t get better.
You can have a grudge
against life.
You can have a grudge
against circumstances that
you were placed in,
that are so unfair.
You can have a grudge against
all kinds of things,
and if you’re not careful,
you’ll begin
to nurse that grudge.
And you’ll begin
to develop a bad report.
This is no time,
the time that we’re living in,
this is no time to nurse it,
rehearse it, and disperse it.
This is a time to reverse it.
And I have come this morning
to reverse every one of you
moving in the wrong direction,
and tell you that there
is another report,
and you’ve gotta answer
the question, whose report
will you believe?
I know the last days,
the Bible speaks of a famine
of hearing the word of God.
But we are not going
to participate at this church
in that famine.
We’re gonna believe God’s word,
and hear God’s word,
over everything that
we’re going through.
He said, “If you sow
to the flesh,” that’s not us,
“Then you will reap the flesh.
If you sow to the Spirit,”
somebody say, “That’s us,”
“Then you will, from the Spirit,
reap the positive aspects
and promises of peace and joy.”
That’s our report.
Matthew 24 warns that
in the last days,
there would be wars and rumors
of wars, and earthquakes,
and pestilence.
That’s bad times.
Then, it says, in the same
chapter, “And this Gospel
shall be preached
into all the world.”
That’s revival.
They’re both in the same
chapter, and you don’t just
need to hear the bad report,
but you need to grab hold
of the good report.
These are not just bad times,
these are revival times,
and somebody needs to plug
in to that report.
Think positively about
the Father’s blessings
and goodness and faithfulness
in times like these.
You’ve got to get out of prison
before you can help somebody
else get out of prison,
and many are incarcerated
with negative thinking,
low living, and low talking.
The devil will wear you
out before the harvest.
God didn’t teach us to swim
to let us drown now.
This is not our famine.
We don’t have to be apart
of it, in Jesus’ name.
He didn’t put us in His house,
He didn’t put His house in you,
to move away from you.
He said your body is His house,
and His temple,
and if anybody’s moved,
it was not God, it’s you.
He said, “I’ll make
your body My temple,
and I’m not leaving you,
’cause you get in tough times.”
I want you to hear today
that I still believe,
and this is my report,
the name of the Lord
is a strong tower,
and the righteous run in it,
and they are saved.
I am under a safe
and new and better covenant.
Storms are coming, Pastor.
I know that.
But I’ve got a better
weather report.
Revival’s coming, too.
Whose report are you
going to believe?
Some of you have been listening
to the wrong reporter.
Your source cannot be CNN,
ABC, NBC, woe-is-me.
You have to get another report.
If you sow to the wind,
you will reap the whirlwind.
It becomes a boomerang,
and comes back, and hits you.
There are two reports.
One for the sinner,
and one for the saint.
Here’s the sinner’s report.
Everybody’s worn out.
Nobody’s got victory.
Nothing good is happening.
I give up.
I throw in the towel.
The church is going down.
Here’s the saint’s report.
Many are the afflictions
of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers
us out of them all.
Here’s the saint’s report.
In this world,
you will have tribulation,
but be of good cheer,
for I am with you,
and I have overcome the world.
Somebody, give the Lord
a praise.
Whose report will you believe?
That’s my report,
and I’m gonna believe it.
No wonder Jesus said,
in the last days,
the harvest would be great,
but the laborers would be few.
Why does it begin with labor,
the end-time harvest?
When you first make your
entrance into the world,
the doctor called it labor.
You can’t get here without
the mother going into labor.
This is not a normal time.
And you can either be plugged
in to a bad report,
or plugged in to a good report,
because they’re both there.
I’m plugging into the good
report, and I’m going to believe
the report of the Lord.
1 Timothy 1:18, says:
“This charge I commit unto you,
my son Timothy,
according to the prophecies
which went before you,
that you might war
a good warfare;
holding faith,
and a good conscience;
which some having put
away concerning faith
have made shipwreck.”
And he names who they are.
And he says:
“Of whom is Hymenaeus
and Alexander;
whom I have delivered
unto Satan, that they may
learn not to blaspheme.”
You know what Paul
said in this verse?
He said, “I commit to you
the prophecies that have
previously been made
concerning you.”
There have been prophecies
spoken over you.
There have been promises
that while preachers preached,
the word of God got in you,
and you know God promised you
something about your family,
about your child,
about your business,
about your future,
about your health.
You know that was
a prophecy from God,
and he said, “What you have
to do is you have to fight
with that prophecy.”
You go to warfare with
that prophecy.
One translation said,
“You keep on keeping on with
the prophecies that were
made about you.”
You are epistles,
the Scripture said, both read
and learned by all men.
We’re like a book,
some people will never read
the Bible, you’re the only
Bible they’ll ever read,
and they watch you go through
stuff, and they’re reading
your life, to see if you will
curse God and die,
or you’ll stand in the middle
of it all and say,
“Jesus is still Lord
and worthy is the Lamb.”
Worthy is the Lamb.
And, listen, he said,
“You are epistles learned
and read of all men.”
God didn’t write any bad books,
and His story for you isn’t
finished, and in the end,
you will be an overcomer,
if you won’t give up.
Hallelujah.
I believe that,
that’s the report I believe.
These prophecies, he said,
with these prophecies that
have been spoken,
these words from God,
over your life,
you are to wage a good warfare.
He was going to have faith,
and a good conscience,
the Bible said.
Timothy, don’t believe
the bad reports about you,
and about your future,
and about your calling.
But take the prophecies,
take what God has spoken,
and go forth,
and fight good warfare.
Timothy came from
a dysfunctional family.
His mother was a Christian,
his grandmother was a believer,
but his dad was a wicked sinner,
according to everything
we can find out.
He was absent from his life
for the most part.
One minute, he thinks,
I’m a world shaker,
’cause granny laid hands on me,
and momma put oil on me,
and I’m telling you,
I’m a world shaker,
I’m a history maker.
And the next minute,
he thinks, I’m a flunky
and a failure, and I don’t even
have a father, and now,
you’ve gotta choose,
which report, boy,
will you believe?
Do you believe that what you
didn’t have can stop
what God put in you?
It’s up to you to believe
the bad report,
or the good report.
But you got both, and now,
if you’ll go with God,
He’ll take you to a good
warfare, where you win,
win, win.
Paul was encouraging him,
keep on keeping on,
with the prophecies.
Because persistence
breaks resistance.
When you just won’t give up,
and you just won’t quit,
and you just won’t stop,
you break through.
There’s a difference between
a good idea, and a God idea.
A good idea might come to pass,
but a God idea will
come to pass.
When Simon Peter said to Jesus,
“We’ll never see You crucified,
we won’t let that happen, Lord.”
Jesus said, “Get behind me,
Satan.”
Because it sounded like a good
idea, what Peter said,
but it wasn’t a God idea.
And sometimes, you have
to be able to discern between
the two, whose report
will you believe?
I can’t even believe
all the good ideas.
I need the God ideas
in times like these.
He didn’t bring you this far
so you could be a could’ve-been,
should’ve-been,
and want-to-have-been story.
He brought you this far
to take you to the other
side with victory.
God never gives good ideas,
He gives God ideas,
and God ideas always
are going to work.
Don’t let anybody
steal your dreams.
Joseph lost two coats,
but he never lost his dream.
God never would’ve put into
the heart of a bird to fly
south if there was not
a south to fly to.
And whatever God has
put in your heart,
and you know it’s scripturally
backed up by His word,
it means it exists.
So go fight with that prophecy.
He said, “You’re the head,
and not the tail.”
He said, “You are above only,
and not beneath.”
And I’m telling you today,
you are a world shaker,
and you are a devil disturber,
and so are your children,
and your children’s children.
Whose report will you believe?
I don’t hear anybody taking
this message serious, really.
But I’m gonna tell you,
this is where we are.
You’re either gonna believe
this book, or you’re gonna
go into a shipwreck,
the scripture said.
I’m not going into a shipwreck.
I’m going to the other side.
I can’t help but win,
because God is on my boat,
and on my side.
Jesus said, “I will build
My church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail.”
Whose report will you believe,
the devil is a liar.
Wake up the giant inside of you,
and stand up, and say,
“Timothy, you’ve been
given a prophecy,”
and now, in the famine,
when everything is short,
we sure don’t need
dreamers to be short.
We need people to dream
like never before,
that have inspired dreams
from God, and won’t let go.
There are dream thieves.
Paul said,
“Look at the two back sliders,
Hymenaeus and Alexander.”
They were blasphemers.
They must’ve been saying
a lot of bad talk about Paul,
and about the work of God.
When God tells you something,
you have to protect it,
or someone will steal it.
When God tells you,
you’re gonna be married,
when God tells you,
you’re gonna have a family,
when God tells you that He’s
gonna bless you with a blessed
path and a career,
when God tells you,
“I’ll supply your needs,”
you have to protect
what God tells you,
or the enemy will steal it.
You’ve gotta understand
that there are different
growth levels.
Jesus develops levels
of partnership with people.
He had the 70,
that was a big group.
Then, He had the 12,
that was the smaller group
that drew closer.
And then, there were the three,
Peter, James, and John,
that went only certain places
and certain prayer
meetings with Him.
And then, there was John,
who was at the Cross.
John, who could hear
the heartbeat of the Master,
at the table of the Lord’s
last supper,
when he leaned on Jesus’ chest.
That’s intimacy,
that’s closeness with God.
And what I’m asking you today
is what level of partnership
are you on with Jesus?
Are you just one of the crowd,
or are you near the cross?
To the 70, He spoke in parables.
Not every one
of them understood.
You have to guard your prophecy.
You have to protect from dream
thieves what God has
specifically spoken
to you, personally.
There comes a moment where I
can’t rely on my momma’s faith,
I can’t rely on my wife’s faith,
or my children,
or somebody else.
I have to go only on what
God has promised me,
and I have to stand and fight my
own warfare over that promise.
The Bible said, “Stir up
the gift that is within you.”
Anyone who’s ever cooked
anything knows if you
don’t stir it,
it will stick to the bottom.
And that’s the problem.
Many of you have not stirred
up the promises.
Many of you have not stirred
up the prophecies.
Many of you have not stirred
up the word of God,
and it’s there,
but it’s sticking
to the bottom,
and you’re on the bottom,
and you can’t get up,
and you’re not gonna get up
until you start stirring
the promises up,
and suddenly, you’ll feel
God lifting you up.
Have you lost your fight?
Some of us are just
tired of being tired.
You’ve got to feast to fight.
I love the story in the Book
of Kings of the four lepers
at the gate of Samaria.
There was a famine going on,
and they were sitting there,
dying, and starving to death,
but they could smell the food
of the enemy’s camp
down the road.
And one of them turned
to the other three and said,
“Why do we sit here
until we die?
If we sit here,
we’re going to die.
If we get up and move toward
that smell of food,
we’ll probably die, too,
but at least we’ll be moving
in the direction of a miracle.”
And, God is stirring me,
one of those lepers said,
“to get up and go
in that direction,”
and they were afraid,
but he said, “I’m going.”
You can stay here and die,
it’s 100%.
I’ll take the 99%
of probably dying,
but at least I got a little bit
of hope, and I’ll start
walking by faith.
And when he started walking,
God started working,
and God took
the heavenly microphone,
put it on the feet
of those four lepers,
as they were shuffling along,
and He turned the volume all
the way up to ten,
and the ear-piercing sound
sounded like millions
of soldiers marching in.
And the army that had
the food cooking on the fire
took off running,
ran for their lives,
and four lepers,
who were starving to death,
walked into a feast.
And the Bible said
there was gold,
and there was royal raiment,
that’s clothing.
They put on Versace and Gucci,
and had on Gucci slippers,
and rings on their leprous
hands, and crowns,
and the Bible said they
were drinking wine.
I don’t recommend that,
but they were drinking wine,
and they were eating the food,
had turkey legs and chicken,
there’s crowns,
and Versace and Gucci robes,
and came back to the city.
And they said, “We’ve been
feasting, and we’ve got faith.”
It’s not time to die
and sit there and die,
it’s time to get up and fight.
And the Bible said that there
was a man on whom
the king leaned,
meaning he advised the king.
And he spoke up and said,
“There’s not enough food to feed
all these hungry people.
If God were to open
up the windows of heaven
and empty heaven of all
the bread, it wouldn’t be enough
to take care of the tremendous
hunger that we’re
going through.”
And I love this story,
I don’t know why I enjoy
it so much, but the Bible
said when they saw —
now, this is the Franklin
translation, when they saw
that big turkey leg,
and they saw them ripping
into that food,
and I can see that crown half —
you understand, you know,
kinda like somebody a little
bit lit, and they’re just
laughing and having a good time
in those nice clothes,
and all that.
And all this sadness over here,
in this city,
and here’s that one guy
that’s standing here,
he’s the scorekeeper, you know,
he’s telling ’em all the reasons
why they don’t need to believe
for nothing, and the Bible
said when they heard —
when they encountered four
people who feasted,
and went from feasting
to faith to fighting,
all of a sudden,
a stampede took place,
and they started running toward
the enemy’s camp to get that
food, and that scorekeeper
got trampled to death.
The bad report got trampled
to death, because the good news
was better than the bad news,
and they said, “Victory
is coming, if you’ll feast
and you’ll faith
and you’ll fight.”
That’s all I got today,
but I wanna ask you a question.
Whose report will you believe?
Hallelujah, I believe
what I’m preaching.
I believe this report.
I believe that the sun
is gonna shine again.
I believe that He has good
things coming for His people.
I believe if I feast
and I faith and I fight, I win,
because Jesus is my Conqueror.
Hallelujah.
Give Him a mighty praise.
Everybody, get up on your feet,
give the Lord a mighty praise
this morning.
♪ ♪
>> I’m so glad you watched
Kingdom Connection today.
There is so much going
on in our world right now
and so many competing voices
in our lives.
I want to ask you the question
that I preached.
Whose report will you believe?
Do you believe the report
of the scorekeeper,
or the champion?
Think about it.
I’m gonna believe the report
of the champion, Jesus Christ.
I want his insight
and his experience
to lead my life.
What he did for me at Calvary
has provided victory.
I never want to leave this
broadcast without giving you
the opportunity to make
Jesus Lord of your life.
Today, he invites you to enter
in to all that he has provided
through the cross,
through his death and his life
and his resurrection.
Pray this prayer.
Just say, “Lord, Jesus,
I give you my life.
Cleanse me and forgive me.
I ask you to heal me.
I ask you to help me.
You never turn away people
in their need.
You never turn away people
in their crisis.
But, Lord, I praise you
that I believe your report
that you said if I confess
and believe with my heart
I would be saved.
You said you were my deliverer.
You said you’re my healer.
You said you’re my miracle
worker, my mountain mover,
and today I receive the victory
of the blood and the cross.
In Jesus’ name.”
And in our closing moments,
I want to share
a great need with you.
Over a decade ago,
we began feeding the poorest
people in Haiti.
I’ve traveled down to Haiti
with my family several times
and I’ll never forget
the extreme poverty
and malnutrition we saw.
It’s a game-changer if you’ve
ever held a baby whose stomach
is swollen and it’s obvious
that without a miracle
that child’s going to die
because of lack of food.
I remember seeing several
children with the reddish hair,
with the bloated bellies,
the hunger.
And it’s our goal to reverse
this curse and feed the hungry.
But not only do we feed them
with the nutrients that they
need, but we feed them
with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We do three things with
the resources that come
into this ministry.
Number one,
we preach the Gospel.
That’s the number one thing.
That’s our main course.
We preach the Gospel to 200
nations in the world
through this broadcast.
Every penny that comes in,
we produce
inspirational resources.
We preach the Gospel
to the nations and we go above
and beyond and support
life-giving projects
just like this one in Haiti.
I need your help
to continue to do it.
Pure and undefiled religion,
the Bible said,
is to take care of the widows
and the orphans.
Do your best today
and I know God will bless you.
Thank you so much.
We’ll see you next time.
♪ ♪
>> Too often we forget
about children like Jolene.
She is just one of the hundreds
of thousands of children
suffering chronic
poverty in Haiti.
Many people don’t have easy
access to electricity, water,
sanitation, or even health care.
While it took months for Jolene
to recover from malnutrition,
she is growing stronger every
day thanks to the nutrient-rich
food Jentezen Franklin
Media Ministry partners have
been sending for over a decade.
Each month our missionaries
are able to provide 272,000
meals to Haitians throughout
the nation of Haiti,
as well as introduce
the life-saving message
of Jesus Christ.
We know despite the extreme
poverty these precious people
live in, they have immense
worth in God’s eyes.
That’s why we’ve hand-picked
some very special resources
to express our thanks for your
generosity this month,
among them is Jentezen
Franklin’s brand-new
teaching “Worth.”
Plus the companion 30-day
devotional for your gift
of $50 or more this month.
With your gift to the ministry
of $500 or more this month,
you may request the “Worth”
gift set, including the
Jentezen Franklin Legacy Bible
and a Haiti canvas art print.
To show our gratitude for your
gift of $1,000 or more
this month, you may request
the “Worth” collection,
including a set of kitsch
communion cups and the special
edition Legacy Bible.
Just like Jolene, 1 in 3 people
in Haiti need urgent food
assistance today.
You can be a part
of the miracle.
Call now, or go online today.
>> At Kingdom Connection,
our desire is to open the door
for you to have a deeper
encounter with God.
Each month, we are distributing
meals to the poor and needy,
providing shelter
for the homeless,
and giving second chances
to those willing to change.
>> The life that you’re living
right now is not common.
It’s an uncommon life.
>> Join Jentezen Franklin
on Kingdom Connection,
connecting you to God,
the church, and the world.
Check your local listings,
or visit jentezenfranklin.tv
for air times.
♪ ♪
>> We hope you’ve enjoyed this
teaching by Jentezen Franklin.
And thank you for your continued
support of this ministry.
Your prayers and financial
support make these
programs possible.
♪ ♪