Host Rochelle Jones discusses with her guest, Pastor James L. Funches from the Blessed Hope Tabernacle, things such as the story of Naomi and Ruth, how to finish what you've started, and how to differentiate signs of the enemy from signs of god in these confusing times.
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Never Give Up "Where Giving Up Is Not An Option"
[MUSIC] You're listening to WBCALP 102.9 FM, Boston. Boston's Community Radio Station. [MUSIC] >> Hello, hello, you listening to Never Give Up. We're giving up is not an option. I'm your host, Rochelle Jones. And I say greetings in the name of Jesus. Amen, I pray, amen, that we, that this message comes out to you. This broadcast comes to you with just great anticipation, expectation, and ready to run in your purpose. Amen, I have in the studio with me today, Pastor James L. Funches from Blessed Hope Tabernacle, ADL Street, Amen. And we're so glad to have him back. He always has a blessed perspective on what it is that God is saying in this hour. So I'm glad that you have joined us, passed the Funches and Audience. And let's see what God has. Amen, greetings, Pastor. >> Greetings, greetings. >> Amen, amen. I know you're doing great things over there at Blessed Hope. I wanted to just kind of, we had an awesome service on last Sunday. I hear that you have an anniversary coming up. Maybe you can speak into that. We would love for those who are able to join in, to do so. Tell us about how many years past have you been pastoring? >> About 23, 24, I actually started pastoring before they gave me the title. I had baptized at least 100 people before I was entitled, past I was evangelist. And I went back to where I lived, so where I grew up as a kid, I think was bring those who didn't know like I know. >> Yes, yes. So when you say actually baptized, where would they baptize that? Were they in the water, in the tub, what? >> Yeah, no, they got a pool at Holy Chat. And so the first three by baptized are baptized in that Holy Chat. >> Okay, okay. Wow, that's-- >> And now, I'm on a span. >> So do you feel that churches have kind of fallen short from the concept of baptism and as it was back in the Bible days? >> Well, I think they have. I think because it's too much perspective of looking for what we gather, not what God can get. But it's not about what we gather, it's about what God gets because it's all about the kingdom. You know, like I said, if I had to be a railroad station, no one stays at the railroad station, they all just go through it. >> Okay, amen, I like that. So, yeah, that's amazing. I know I was baptized a few times only, you know, each time was to me signified where I was and the things I wanted to release at that time. We know that it really only, you know, one time will do. But it's like, well, I had such revelation and deliverance had taken place. And I just said, man, I just want to be renewed, amen, with the Lord again. >> Then again, again, again, again. >> Yeah. >> The word, what does it word say? "One baptized in many repentance." >> Yes, yes. >> You know, so wash me again, Lord. Like I said, I feel like I got baptized 300 times when I stopped baptized in people like I died in the water room. Yes, I saw some Facebook memes a little bit where they show where the little boy was in the baptismal pool and the pastor went to reach. He flipped his own self in the water and ran out. >> He did himself. >> Yeah. >> But, you know, sometimes we have to look at what was God saying. Even though, and I have nothing against that pastor, I don't know about that church. But you don't feel like God was saying, hey, do this. I need you to do it because you need the hands of the Holy Ghost laying on you. Because when you come out of this, it's not man's hands that really should be preference. It should be that the spirit of God touched me on that day I went down, that day I came up. And that's what we should think about. >> Right. >> And I think that churches are getting away from, to me, it's too much programmish and not spiritualize. >> Yeah. >> So, I want to go to where God leads me. >> Yeah. >> And I want to hear, that's why lately, you know, you hear me, I always preach about him and Christ and crucified. We're preaching deliverance, we're preaching repentance. Because these are major things. We're not coming in here talking about coming here and spending the will and getting a million dollars. >> No. >> Come on now. >> Right, right. And one myth I think people have too is that all their problems will be erased or they won't go through difficulty. Like, you know. And I think sometimes that's, he does come to do all those things. However, he said also that many of the afflictions of the righteous, but he's going to deliver us from them all. >> Yeah. >> But you know what I say now, I say it all the time, just like I just talked to one of the new members that joined. I said, you're coming here thinking that it's going to disappear in the night and everything will be all right and you're in the wrong. >> Right, that's right. But sometimes when you give your life to the Lord, it don't get easier. It'll get harder. >> It gets harder. Yeah, yeah. Only because all the lies and the facades are the things that you would trust in all get erased. You know, so we have to start with the new mindset. Amen, because the Bible tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. So we've got to renew it to the way of God's thinking and not man and flesh and things. And there's a lot of people out here talking about a lot of things, you know, self help, you know, just a little dab of this. >> You do the mind power. >> Yeah, yeah. >> New age things. >> Right, there's a lot of things with what I think the key is that they're trying to eliminate the go-to to crash. I am the door and the gatekeeper. No man coming to the father by me. And I think that's what all that does is eliminates the source you need to go through. You don't, what they're actually saying is you don't need a one way party. You don't need to, you know, so you don't need to go through. But in this thing, you have to have a go-through. >> Yeah. >> Christ, go through. >> Yeah, yeah. >> We're worthy enough to go before God. >> Right. >> You know, like watching a movie and nothing can get through, but a certain thing that it's gotten to get through. >> Right, right. The Bible declares that he is the author and the finisher of our faith. And so when we think about it from that perspective, we have to realize that, you know, we shouldn't start things and not finish them. I know I'm being convicted in that season that, hey, God has put some things on your hearts and he wants you to get them done, amen. And so, you know, and I mean, it's not a condemning feeling. It's a feeling of anticipation, hopefulness. One of the words, Pastor, that came to mind, you know, when praying that today, this morning, was stickability, you know, that ability to stick, to things, to finish things, to complete things, you know. And one of the things that, you know, I kind of, I admire about you as well is, I mean, when you say this is what you're going to do, you definitely do it. And normally, before the phone hangs up, like, you know, definitely before the time that it's been set, I know we had weekly meetings. And, you know, we, and we would all have a task to do or something that we wanted to fulfill in our journey. And I mean, by that afternoon, you were texting. I did it, and me and some other people who are on the line like, "Oh, we didn't, we didn't even start it," you know. So, but that's definitely a gift and ability. And we want you to speak into others who may not have that stickability, who may not know how to continue to move forward in adversity, or when pressures against them, or they've gotten a bad report. How do people stick? Come on now, you're talking deep, because even when you said, "How do they even stick in bad reports?" Because you know, I'm somebody who, the enemy gave a bad report. Well, he thought it, but what the enemy thought for my bad, God's going to work for my good. Yeah, yeah. Even in me battling with cancer, in the end, God's got the end of this. And me going through this is going to be God's plan of success, meaning everything that we do, we do for Christ. And the reason people sometimes don't get me is because when I hear God, I'm running, you know, when I was in the world, you know, we ran for everything and anything. We played all those games, but when it comes to God, I don't want to lack doing what I need to do. Because when I first got saved, I used to always think like this, to God started turning my mentality around. Even if I don't go to heaven, I want to make sure others go. And that meant for me to be on course, you know, like you're saying, sometimes not being fully right, but being on course, you know, because people would say, you know, yeah, you were a little tough. God sent me to a project where people were drugging, drinking, doing their own thing, starting, packing. And, you know, here I come in here with this gospel that God loves you, but God does not want you doing that. God does not accept that. It accepts you when you don't accept your bag. You just like leave your baggage outside of the door. Right, right. And I think it's the hardest place for some people to leave out the door with what they've been carrying or what they've been accumulating. Yes. Come on now. So, so for me, I'm like, let's shed it and run. And let's hold on, you know, I'm like this. I'll hold on to somebody who's holding on. Yes. Thing, I got this thing about not connecting myself, even though giving myself to everybody, but not connecting myself to everybody. Because everybody don't want to make the run. Everybody, it sounds good when you're saying, oh, God can do so good for you. And they're listening to it. But what happens on a sad day? Yes. What happens if you lose people, how did you hate the plea? It's like, when my son died, my son, I certainly got murdered at the age of 18. When my son got murdered, we went to choir rehearsal. They were shocked to see us. Me and my wife was at choir rehearsal. And they might think, because my wife, you know, to my wife, that was her son as well. You know what I'm saying? My son came back in my life when he was older. But when I came into my life, I told him where my life stood. I'm like, I look, you know, we haven't been around each other. I'm kind of just finding this out. I knew kind of knew about you, but I didn't. But I'm willing to, we're willing to walk this road with you. But I got a walk with Christ. I can't, I can't say to you, come in here and you're going to do anything. No, it's not going to be that way. It's going to be going to walk with Christ together. Right. Right. My son cared about me enough to say that. If that means me loving you, I want to walk with Christ too. Amen, amen. That's what he said until he died, you know, you still have friends on the other side. That's what got him in problems. But he went to church. He looked, he came to Bible study. I didn't tell him to come to Bible center and come church. He had a dog. He would bring his dog ties dog up outside the church. My Bible study was going up. He's stung in the choir. Amen. Cause his desire was I want to be next to my father and my father wants to be next to his heavenly father. And if that means me getting to know my dad, I'm going to get to know my father. Yeah. Yeah. That kind of sounds like Ruth in Naomi. It was like, wherever you go, I'm going to go. Your people will be my people. It's like, you're not shaking me and making me go back to Moab, you know? And that sounds just like that is like, look, I listen, I had a taste of that life. And I kind of want to be where you are. I want to know the God that you know, the God who brought you out. And that was in, and she said that while in the midst of Naomi's sorrow. So she must have had to see something prior to that that made her say, look, even in your down moment, I'd rather be with you down, then back over there. She said, I'm out. Yeah, she didn't go back. Come on. I'm going up. Yeah, because there was nothing for her to stick to. Yeah, she didn't get it. Like, um, Ruth did. She was like, Oh, no, where you go, I go. Your people, my people, your God, my God. That's right. Oh, God, that's right. Come on. Yeah. And that's the thing. I mean, God wants us to number one stick to him, right? Regardless of what we're going through, regardless of what things look like. And, and I'm telling you, in these days, we're living in now, they can look really low and look, you know, like it's not worth it. Like why bother? But, you know, we've got to bother. We've got another generation coming up behind us. And until God returns or the world ends, we've got to continue to fight for that. And pray for them and believe God for the best for them. Amen. Yeah, you're going to say that because you got to realize that the enemy has a flock that is motivating so much. If you look at social media, even that's not on the divine measure that you're on or tearing down what God is building up. Amen. Yes. And then some, some of these people are told down because so many people were not called, you know, Bible, you know, give me, you say, I believe that some people just went and I think that some people made it so, um, look, look, the look of made it look good. Come on now. Yeah. That people have initiated the job status as a look, look good. 20 years ago, over 20 years ago, I started, I didn't look for nothing. I didn't, I didn't have a page. I didn't have, I just looked to give people salvation. I didn't even look for them to pay tags. I just wanted people to get saved. I just was on a mission to keep as many as I could from going to hell. That's just the answer for God to prevent us. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I enticed the word. I enjoyed the word. I loved the word, but I thank God for the man of God who scooped me up under, which was Bishop Joel Smith, who kind of inspired me, you know, they wanted to hear the word. I wanted to be around that man. That is, I had to be around because I wanted to hear his word. He owned the gas station. I went there every day so much. I got into the word of angels. That wasn't enough for me. Like these people, it's enough for them. No, that wasn't enough for me. You know what I'm saying? I went around the church, found out he wasn't at the church. He, my, I was, I was a spiritual stocker. For the word. That's right. That's right. He gave me this. That's why we get along is because I know when I first got saved, I had to find somewhere where they was magnifying the Lord, serving the Lord. I had to drive 60 miles. I'd jump on ferry boats. I did whatever I could do to be able to get into the presence of God. And that season of my life, you know, and that's what we need to do. Now that what you just said, and that with what I'm saying is what we're trying to open up and bless it. Hope to have a number of major ministry. Yeah. Um, yeah, that was a pretty powerful, uh, message about, uh, God, Jesus, um, you know, really preparation. You know, Jesus is coming when we really be ready. You know, he's coming for church without a spot or a wrinkle, you know, without a blemish. Amen. You know, something like you just did, you just did right there. You just took it, you know, like I said, I'll say something and you'll biblicalize it and that's good. You know, to me, the staying remover was a good thing. And some of us are so getting so hyped in the height. We miss the message. Yeah. I want people that come to bless them to know that one, we are the church that loves God. So we can love everybody. Yeah. No, people get mixed up with the church that loves everybody. Everybody don't love everybody. But we love the one that does love everybody. And that's God. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. He helps us to love everybody. Come on now. Yeah. We're loving kindness. Have our draw. It is not through me. But it's through the Holy Spirit that leads me and God's me. Yes. Come on. Now somebody need to know that today. He's a God who's making ways out of no way. Yes, but he is that he loves us more than we can ever love ourselves. Can we can we start giving back a little bit of love that God has given us? Yes. Yes. And and and and and and and and let's pray for people who have this the spirit of takeover and the spirit of deception that go into churches like the goat. A goat always comes the bump. That's why he's on the left and his sheep on the right. That's right. Yep. Yep. You know, it's funny too, because now they're glorifying the term go because I never saw go to be a positive thing. But now, yeah, now they made it into a positive thing. It was never a positive thing and it's never going to be a positive thing. They could do what they want to do. The problem is we can't we cannot be like everybody else just because we're in the world, we should not be of the world. That means just because you like Calvin Klein don't mean I can't win no name. Gene, just because you wear a con versus don't mean I won't if I get lucky. I get some Nike's, but I don't buy that stuff. My kids will buy it for us, but I'll get me a plane. Jane, and I'm good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like comfortable. Like you said, long as it was. Yeah, there's a there's a new shoe in town. You can even climb mountains in them. And but they're they're very comfortable for the feet and they're normally comfortable shoes or shoes good for your arches are not cute. Come on now. So, you know, even when you got neck, that got a word to me. Listen, I'll tell you what, sometimes and I think about people, I had a um, um, a mask on my foot. Some people don't know. And it was on my foot for about least three years. Oh, I remember that. You remember that? Yeah. Up on my foot and the thing was so big that I would have to buy a big, um, big shoe and a little shoe for it to be comfortable because I couldn't wear regular shoes on on on the mask until it got to the place where one, I got tired of buying different shoes or getting different shoes and two because the mask didn't hurt and just identified that I had something wrong. Mm hmm. And I think that's what's wrong with some of us sometimes. We're too easy to operate in a, in a place where we should and fix what we should. And the stay remover is to fix what we should, even though we shouldn't like tonight's lesson when I'm going to be teaching. I'm going to be cause I'm coming from you, but I'm talking about my first scripture tonight is Psalms 57 and one purifying me from my sins and I will be clean, wash me and I will be wider than snow. Yes. Yes. Come on now. That, that's the ability to stay there to be washed. Come on. You know, um, I know that, uh, you know, uh, uh, you know, my, one of my, uh, daughter's pets dog was, was muddy, dirty, but didn't want to get in the water. Didn't want to be washed, but yet wanted to track mud and jump on beds, not being clean. You know what I'm saying? But God wants us to stay still long enough so that he can go through the process of cleaning and, um, you said it one, but one washing, good enough. That's right. Well, that, that was the message, uh, about this, you know, the stain is that, uh, by applying the application, you know, the peroxide, the dawn in the baking soda. Um, it lifted and it lightened up, but still wasn't gone. They had to do another application. I had to do three applications, you know, on one spot to the other side, the, you know, the circle. So one half of the circle was completely gone after two. And the other one, I said, well, it's you can barely see it, but you can still see it. I did it again and completely gone. Undetectable. Open that up because you're, you're the one who's always biblical on me. I'm a biblical on you now. How would you open up the in the biblical status of the three applications? What would be the three applications that you apply? Well, it one stands for the father, one stands for the son. Amen. But it took that Holy ghost, amen, to get it completely washed and cleaned. Amen. I'm just, I'm just asking the question, because only it might say, well, by the me, because everybody wants to know on what. So she said that on natural status, what does it mean on the spiritual status? And then I would say, like you said, one for the father, one for the son, one for the Holy ghost. And I would say two, like you just said, two, and then I brought it back down. One, I'd say the first application is to really give you a light to the law. You have to give it to know the, the know that you got saved. That's right. Yeah. And as a second application, I would say, to continue staying in your word, to get into Bible study, to get in something to know that the first application is taking application. That's stickability. You got to stick. Some people come a few times, they feel better. And, you know, it's like medicine. They tell you, when you take in penicillin, take all seven days, even though on the third day, you start to feel better, continue to take it. Yeah. And, and they understand the mindset of man is to take it the three days. I start feeling good. They don't take it anymore. And then normally they have a reoccurrence. And so finish, finish the meds, stick to it. Whatever you start, stick to it, we're made in God's image. And if God said he's alpha and omega, he's the beginning and the end. There's an ending when he said he's the author and the finisher. That means he completes where he started. The Bible says, amen, that, um, that I'm in completing you, right? And so that we're completing him, amen. That means it all is complete. Come on now. Yeah. And so, uh, once Jesus died on that cross, it was done. It was finished. It was completed. And then he said, I'm going to leave another comforter, amen. And so we now have the paraclete was, was the same spirit. Amen, because remember when he was baptized, he said, uh, the spirit came down as the form of a dove. And he said, this is my son, who I'm well pleased. And so if, um, Jesus, amen, had that same spirit. We see that when those saints were in the upper room, amen. Uh, we see the activation, the power of the Holy Spirit that came down with tongues of cloven fire, amen. But the evidence was that they were no longer themselves. That when they left that room, they had been empowered and dude on high. And so we want that we'd need to stick with the things that God has placed before us. So he too can empower us because we don't want to operate in our own strength, but we want to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. I don't want to just speak out of Rochelle in my experiences, but I'm like, God, we want to be effective enough to be able to speak what says you got in this moment and in this hour to whoever's listening that they would be transformed, not stay the same, not feel good for three days, amen, gone and stick to it. Stay with it. Keep hearing the word, keep running. And one of the things you keep here that we, you should hear amen throughout this segment is the fact that, uh, pass the functions that I'm both have attested to what made our success in the things of God to this day was the fact that we, we were hungry for it. We stuck to it. We kept going back for more. We didn't get discouraged. We didn't let the people who talked about us that said, oh, you, you, uh, doesn't take all that. It takes all that. And then some, amen. I'm sorry for the pieces. I let go. Amen. Hallelujah. Come on now. It's a fight to even get that back. Amen. Come on now. Listen, but that's one of the things too that you have to worry about. In order to stick to it, it has to be something for you. Not for someone else. And I'm saying it two ways because for parents, it has to be something they do for their children as well. Because your children are identifying you and you are their first minister. You are their first teacher. Yeah. Come on now. Actually, you're their first love because you're teaching them how to love. No, these things start with us as parents. When the Bibles bring up a child in the way they should go. And when they get older, without department, I think about Ruth. When you start my Ruth and Naomi, if you had to stick two out of two, two. But remember is because even in her low, she remembered Ruth in her house. Yes, when she had this son, she was still in that same plane. She was still in that same direction. So when she got in a low, she was still in that same direction. Even though she was in a low place. And what we got to teach people is, like you said, too, about which we, the Bible said, we suffered just as Christ himself. But if we look at it like, oh, what was me? But no, what was Christ? That is me. We would become better and we want people to get a job. I want people to stick to it because of the word, not because the hype. And we got church now where people go because it's the hype. But I remember back in my days, I was in the world and it was a song. Don't believe the hype. Amen, we got people who do tricks, they do flips, they jump on canopies. They fly from roofs, amen, and they kick. They kick Bibles and people still sit there among them. You can't, but you know, and in the bad point is that every man stands accountable for himself on a day that he stands before God. So if we realized that this is my life that someone's playing with, we would either take it serious and stand in a place that people don't understand. And that's why I rang. See, I got the word from just like when you preach, what do I say? I use your word, right? I listen to you. 102.9 FM Boston, Boston's community radio station. Amen. You've been listening to never give up. We're giving up as not an option. I'm your host for Shel Jones. And once again, we want to thank passive functions for, for joining us. Amen. Powerful subject about stickability. Amen. Whatever you begin and the things of God stick to it, you will see it come to pass. Amen. Remember the joy the Lord is your strength and greatness is on the inside of you. We'll see you next week. Blessings.