Hello and welcome to the House of Faith Ministries. I'm Lisa Kaine. I'm recording this message on Thursday, April 18th, 2024. Welcome. This message is called Suffer Reproach. It's going to be a good message. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for the anointing of your presence here and we thank you for the power of your word. We pray that your word penetrates deep within our souls and our mind, in our spirit, in our body. Father God, we pray that we can be Christlike in all that we do. That we stand in your word and that we use your word as we live for you, Father God, and let your word just manifest out from within. Lord, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We pray that your word does not return void. We pray that each of uh those that are listening do not mishar or not uh misled that there is no confusion but that the word is clearly expressed articulately and perfectly through your anointing. Holy Spirit, move me aside. This is your time, Lord. And we thank you. Thank you for teaching us something so powerful and deep within your word. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless each and every one of you. Welcome. This message is called suffer reproach. Let's go to our opening scripture. 1 Timothy 4:10. For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men, especially of those that believe. Now remember when I teach here when you look at the scripture here like this the bolded word is in the King James version and the words in parentheses is other translations that could have been used and some other Bible translations do use these other words. I'm trying to bring it together so we can see a bigger picture of the scripture. Now the point and purpose of this teaching, this message about suffering, reproach is dealing with the sufferings that we all see and feel in others and especially in our lives because it is so easy to see others and the issues, the wrongness that they're doing versus seeing what is within us that still has an issue. So I want to address that. I want to teach us how to look at ourselves, what the purpose of judgment is and try to apply here. Now just so you know this is applicable to little sufferings to great sufferings. Uh suffer reproach has to do with someone identifying something wrong within you and calling you out for it. At the same time, we suffer things when we call ourselves on something. And it comes to a point where we need to be able to recognize ourselves and how to handle and manage this appropriately. For the record, I had this message already put together before what happened here between uh at the Men Stronger Conference at James River. And I know that many of you are aware of that and I don't want to go into a whole lot of details of that. But we are going to look at the scripture and we're going to see what the Lord does here. But I'm hoping what to come out of this is that each of us know how to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and get ourselves out of that situation or even be prevented from entering a situation like this. It's all these little things that take place that happen that that causes us issues. Let me explain. I'm the the way I came about this message was in a very odd way and it really doesn't even go with this, but I'm going to go ahead and just share a little bit of it and then I'll I'll I'll get into the word here. The I was just thinking this was last week. I I have a towel rack behind my bathroom door here and I hang towels on there and last week a towel kept falling. You know, you have to open the door, close the door as you're going in and out of the bathroom. and it kept falling and I finally put it back up to stay. Well, you know, the next day I get in my shower, which is right behind there, and I've got to reach through the shower door to get to the towel and the towel and come off the hook. I don't know about you guys, but you know, it's nice and refreshing to take a shower and when you come out and you're drying, it's ah, it's like a a cleanliness there. It feels really good. But I was frustrated, flustered. ah and irritated. And I had a choice ahead of me. Stay that way or deal with it. Stop it. Prevent it from impacting or being fruitful or multiplying me in that irritant all day long. I didn't want that. So I just said, you know what? I was looking at the mirror. I said, Lord, thank you. And I gave him the glory. And it was interesting because as I thought through the scriptures in my head in relation to this, I said, "Wow, Lord, you are powerful and mighty." And I went about my day in him and not allowing the irritant to get at me. Now, there are a lot of things that we deal with, not just the little things. Something like a towel falling on a regular basis and then not being able to get the towel off the hook, especially when it's cold. You step in that cold atmosphere, the the bathroom where it's nice and warm in the shower. But there are things that we deal with that are of a larger magnitude. You deal with the sufferings of a loss of a loved one. you deal with the sufferings of um substance abuse. There there are just all kinds of different things. This is the one I'm going to talk about is reproach. This is being corrected. So, I want you to be able to see this and I want you to really work on yourself in your mind in your heart about how to judge yourself. And I'm going to tell you right now, if you can judge yourself correctly, you can judge others correctly as well. And the scripture gives us the ability to do this. So let's go. Let's read the scripture again. For therefore we both labor or feel fatigue. This word labor, it's like you ran a mile and at the end of the mile you're just heavy breathing. You're just standing there. That's what this word means. So this is a very strong word. Therefore we both labor, feel fatigue and suffer reproach. We are so weary. In other words, that somebody has defamed us or tried us, taunted us, reviled us, upraded us because we trust or expect and convi confide in the living God who is our deliverer of all men, especially of those that believe are trustworthy, trustful. You see, when you enter into a position like what I'm doing, I am a teacher instructor of the living word of God. I have to walk in integrity. You have a thought of where I should be. I should not be living my life going in and out of bars. I should not be smoking, drinking. You have an expectation of me. And if I meet that expectation, I'm become trustworthy or trustful. And what we do is we put our pastors up on a stage. We trust them. We expect them to walk in integrity. We expect them to stand on the word of God. The issue is that we all have fallen short of the glory of God. And we all fall short all of the time. Unfortunately, the difference is between like me, a believer in Christ, and someone else or a non-believer is that at least I have Christ to fall back on. And I hope that I can it convey that to you. Don't look at me and put me up here on this pedestal. put yourself in the presence of God and let God sit on the pedestal because he will never fail. Amen. That's how we want to look at this. So, as you can see, first Timothy is um this first Timothy is an instruction manual, if you will, to how Timothy should be a pastor over this church. It's written by Paul. And you're going to see this instruction is going to prevail. We are going to get back to First Timothy. Let's go to Matthew 7 1-5. We're going to talk about judgment here because again, a re a reproach is you're being judged. You're suffering the judgment of what somebody else is doing to you. Whether it's a person in Christ or whether it's an accuser, follower of the devil, doesn't matter. You are in the suffering of that reproach. They have identified something you on you. They called you out on it. You are suffering. All right. Let's It's a judgment. It's what they're doing. They're condemning you. Now, let's look at this. So, Matthew 7, let's start in verse one. Judge not, they even be not judged. Now, the word judge there means to distinguish, decide, condemn, punish, avenge, damn. So, we have to be very careful when you're going to judge someone because if you're judging them in your mind, uh, you've already most likely condemned them. So, let's go to verse two. I want you to see this in context and put the whole thing together. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. In other words, if you're going to judge someone, expect 10 fingers to be pointing right back at you. Why? Because what you judge comes back to you to be judged. Uh if you take a look at this James River, you've got uh believers that are taking sides. But many, especially in the comments of the videos that you that you watch on social media, are saying we need to forgive both sides. There's faults on both sides. And and as a believer in Christ, I see that. But I'm not here to judge and condemn. And I'm not going to put my 10 two cents worth into this. You know why? Because I'm gonna follow what Jesus. Jesus said, "I don't come to condemn the world. I didn't come to do that. The law already does that. I come that it might be saved." And that's what I'm going to stand in. Which means I need to forgive because if you're going to judge, you got judgment coming back at you. But if I forgive, I got forgiveness coming back to me. That's my choice. Now, let's continue on because I want you to see this all in the the context of the message today, which is suffering reproach. Verse three, and why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own. Now, basically, he's saying, look at that. You're judging that little twig in your brother's eye, little tiny thing, and you're trying to help him get it out, but you got this big log sticking out of your own eye. you got a problem and everyone sees it. So when you're suffering reproach, the first thing you do feel is anger. Somebody called you out on something. You're hurt and you want to lash out. It is normal and natural to feel like that. That is the human response. So what I'm calling on you to do in this teaching is to go supernatural to do the super the not natural but to go beyond in the spirit and have a spiritual response so that you are that judgment is coming on you there is a when you take let's say no action and I'll talk about the action here in just a minute but when you stop it. Let's say you go and pray about it. Let's say you take that action and nobody knows you did that, but you did that. It all stops. It doesn't magnify. It doesn't get bigger. But the moment you decide to defend yourself, the moment you decide to respond, whether you're forgiving or anything, it's going to keep it multiplying until you take it to God in the secret place. We're going to talk about that here in just a bit, a moment. Let's look at verse four. Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, let me pull out the moat out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Let's go on to verse five. Thou hypocrite. This is Jesus. You're an actor or a character is what a hypocrite is. First, you need to cast, eject, expel, or pluck out the beam out of your own eye. Then shalt thou see clearly to look through recover full vision to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye. That means you need to start with you first so you can see the rest clearly. If you're going to judge, it's going to come back on you. It's going to splatter and it's going to hurt. I I don't I can't say it any other way than that. So this is where if you can take your life before it reaches a point like that and see your own self, judge your own self with the things you have internally and deal with it internally for yourself, then you are in a readedmade position for God to possibly use you in a situation where you need to deal with a brother or sister in Christ that needs a calling out and then you will follow the instructions of what Matthew 18 has and it would be done appropriately and tactfully because the Holy Spirit will be with you. So let's go here to uh Matthew 6:12. And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. The Lord's prayer is part of this process. I love this. He says, "Now another translation is to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." The word forgive means to send forth, lay aside, leave, let go. So, first, before you're going to go judge and reproach others, suffer reproach even for yourself and and do it to others, you need to forgive yourself first and get your life right with God. Now, does that mean you've got to live a holier than thou life? You don't watch TV. You only read the Bible. You only do this? No. But what it does mean is you put Christ first. Matthew 6:33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all these things will be added unto you. What you're doing is when you seek first the kingdom of God, you're laying hands on the sick. You're being there for someone who needs help with groceries. You're being someone if they're if they're sitting there just with their head down in their hands, you can lay hands on them and say, "Here, I'm going to pray over your head. I'm going to pray over your heart. Pray with me." They need your prayer. That is the kingdom of God. You're praying for them. And by the way, it's not just praying there with them. But imagine taking it in the secret place where the Lord shows in secret. He He reveals out in the open. Now, if you're praying for your loved ones, your family, your friends, your church, your body of Christ in secret, God puts you in a position so that you're in a place so that you can minister in the kingdom of God where you're needed to be ministered to. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. This is very interesting. Now, look at the rest of what this word. So, trespasses, debtors, it's something ow owed or morally fault. A debtor is an ower or morally a transgressor. So you owed God your life because Jesus went to the cross for you. But he redeemed you. And he says, and I just taught in my last message, my father, your father. He tells Martha, listen here, take my hand. I'm going to go see my father. Who is your father? My God who is your God. And this is when you partner with God in the relationship aspect. You're in the secret place. You are debtree. There are no transgressors that can charge you or go against you. Or if they do, because they are not listening to the Holy Spirit, they're listening to Satan. Then you have God's covering and protection on you. And it keeps you from what the enemy is doing. No weapon formed against me shall prosper. Why? Because God is my strength. God is my holiness. God is my everything. I humble myself before him. I seek his word. I want to know more about him. I'm not here to judge. He didn't come. You know what? God gave Jesus permission to judge. And Jesus says, "Okay, well, I choose not to. I'm not here to judge or condemn anyone. I'm going to forgive you." That's what Jesus is all about. He's in the business of forgiveness and we ought to walk in that business. Go to Matthew 6:14 and 15. For if you forgive, there's that word again to send forth, lay aside, leave, let go, men their trespasses. Here the word trespasses and debtors and debts, it's a sid slip or an offense. Your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Now notice, he's not talking about eternity there. He's talking about your trespasses. You see, if you want to move forward in Christ, you need to forgive and be forgiven. It is challenging and I understand that. But it is something that we need to let go, leave aside, forgive ourselves, forgive those that have hurt us in our past, forgive all the offenses that we felt, even if we're right, we need to forgive. Why? Because to progress further in Christ, we need him to forgive us. And what happens is all done in the spiritual realm. You march forward in the kingdom of God under that forgiveness. And the devil can't accuse you of anything because according to the books that God has in his courtroom, no, she's forgiven. Lisa's forgiven. I've forgiven her. She's asked me every day, all the time to forgive her. I keep doing it. Jesus says to forgive 70* 7. Matthew 18. Peter asked, "Oh, what do I do? I got to just forgive seven." And by the way, that's this the chapter that teaches you how to reproach, upgrade a brother who has slipped or fallen and and you're dealing with the the offense that they're bringing into the Christ or the kingdom of God. That's how you deal. Well, it gets down to forgiveness. In fact, talks about the little ones in that chapter. He says, "Don't offend my little ones." How many are baby Christians that are How many baby Christians are out there that are walking in the anointing that that are walking trying to walk in the anointing of the Lord, but they're looking at man, they haven't figured out how to look to God yet in their secret place. And if you go and you're acting like this, they're going to be like, I don't know what's going on. What do I do? Or they're going to take sides when scripture clearly tells us not to take sides. But we have to deal with what's in us first to be able to be in a place to call out a reproach to a brother or a sister. And by the way, when you deal with yourself first, you're you're also doing something remarkable or the Holy Spirit and you are partnering partnering together within you. You are learning a Christlike character trait that is causing you to realize how forgiven you are and how content and satisfied you are in the Lord. So you realize automatically that the accuser is the devil. It's a character trait that you learn so that when you tactfully deal with a brother or a sister who is offending, you are recognizing, you know what, that's the devil behind you. And in the secret place, if you're praying, you already know that the devil is bound. If you bind the devil, I do all the time in my life and those around me. So, I know he's bound. So, if I have to deal with him, I can gently and recognize and show them the love that Christ has given me because that love is manifesting out of me because I am so grateful for him forgiving me and not judging me and not condemning me. Hallelujah. Oh, I hope that each of you get this. Now, watch this. Let's go to Matthew 6 verse 6. Now, remember, so what I've been reading, all of this is in that same context of all scripture. This is all part of the context. I encourage you to go read all of Matthew 6 all the way to Matthew 18. Look at the message that Jesus is teaching here. Yes, he goes about, he's delivering, he's casting out demons, but he is teaching and he's teaching on love through here. and he's teaching on forgiveness and mercy. That is the context of all of this. Now watch. But now when thou prayest and remember I just showed you the Lord's prayer, one part of it where he says, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive th our debtors or we forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." In prayer. This is Matthew 6. It's all about praying. So notice before Matthew 18, you have Matthew 6. It's about prayer where we ought to be in our prayer place in the secret place with the Lord going to the Lord first. This is so primary and precious. We have to get this. Got to go to him in prayer first. Prayer is absolutely powerful. It works. But thou when thou prayest and by the way praying is a supplication. It's a worship of God. You're worshiping God. You're taking the time. Yes, he knows everything that takes place and what's going on, but you're taking the time to say, "Listen, I know you know what's going on, Lord, but I'm going to go ahead and bring it up to your attention because I'm worshiping you." That's what prayer is about. when you put worship to God. Why do you think uh Joshua put the trumpeteers in the front of the army marching around uh Jericho? Worship comes first. Prayer comes first. That is where the victory starts because you're putting God first there. And he is worshiped. To God be the glory. He is the king of glory. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy father which is in secret, I just talked about this a little bit ago, concealed or private. And thy father which seeth, he sees this, he looks at, he perceives it in secret, shall reward thee openly. He's going to give away, deliver, pay openly. You're going to be shown openly what you've been doing in secret because it's going to be exposed. You can tell a person's beliefs and their behaviors and their actions simply by watching them. And if they are, let's pray first. Uh instead of anything else, I'll tell you right now, that's a man or a woman of God who is spending secrets at time in the secret place with the Lord because the Lord is exposing that. Hallelujah. But this is where it comes. This is where we need to be is praying. So I want to give you a little tool here. I got a few more minutes here that I want to show you and we're going to get to first Peter here at the end. I want you to look at Romans 10 or excuse me, Romans, yeah, Romans 10:9 that if thou shalt confess, by the way, the word confess is ascent, covenant, acknowledge with thy mouth. Let's pause. I want to give you a tool that's going to help you deal with the sufferings of a reproach, the little things sufferings in life where things are irritating you or even a suffering of a great magnitude of a loss of a loved one in your family. All of this is applicable. This same verse applies to it all. It is very simple, very short, but it will keep you on track, keep your emotions in check. It will help you walk in um the self-control, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So here it says that if you confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. So when you acknowledge with your mouth, everything done in the spirit is done with your mouth. So you have to say out loud Jesus. And he's saying with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. Okay Jesus, I'm acknowledging you. You are Lord. Now watch this. And shalt believe. The word believe is to have faith in thine heart, your thoughts and feelings that God has raised him from the dead. How do you do something like that? Oh, it's actually so much easier. Jesus. Jesus, I know you're alive. I know in my thoughts, in my feelings that you're real. And so I'm calling and acknowledging the name of Jesus. And I'm doing it with belief. And I'm doing it with faith. Now watch that. God raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. And that word saved there means delivered, protected, healed, preserved to do well, make whole. So when someone reproaches you and you are suffering the reproach, they are calling you out, they're accusing you, Jesus, you are my God and my savior. I give this to you. The moment you do that, you are saved and the spirit realm moves to change around because you're walking in faith with God because you called on the name of Jesus. You do Jesus, you are Jesus over my grief. Jesus, you are over these little things that are irritating me. Jesus, you are over uh whatever I'm suffering. I got a Let's say you got a bad doctor's report that day. Lord Jesus, I declare you, Lord Jesus, over this doctor's report. I do not believe this doctor's report because I believe in you that you got me and I'm healed and I'm not filled with cancer. I'm not sick. I am healed because you said I am saved. And that word, by the way, saved there means healed. He So, it's applicable to grief, applicable to accusations, applicable to whatever you're suffering in that moment, even a falling towel off the rack. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. And let's finally because remember Timothy is trying or Paul is trying to teach Timothy the pastor, a leader, any kind of leadership. Look at 1 Timothy 4:12. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. So when you are allowing the Lord to work on you in secret, he's going to show you out in the open as an example of a a believer who is a trustworthy and trustful person. Hallelujah. Can't ask for anything better than that. So I urge you, brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ, those that are listening, start with prayer and come into the secret place and call on the name of Jesus. And that way when these things come at you, you say Jesus and you will know in your mind he's got your back. Amen. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you for your word and we thank you for the blessing and the anointing of your word. We thank you and I pray, Father God, that your word does not return void, but that we apply your word to our hearts and minds that we actually take the initiative. Lord, don't let the accuser or the devil take this word out of our hearts and minds. Do not let us forget your word. Let us remember your word. Let us remember how to manage your word, how to work with you, how to walk with you, how to live with you. Thank you, Father God, for building us up individually first and places placing us in the right place at the right time to do what we need to do when you call us that we are ready to work and march in the kingdom of God. Thank you, Father God. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. God bless you. I will see you in the next message. Bye-bye.