Joseph Prince - Start Hearing and Strength Will Come
This is an excerpt from: Hear Your Way Out Of Every Weakness
How many of you heard this? "There are people who come to church on Sunday, only on Sunday, and sit down there, and then they hear, and hear, and hear. New Creation Church especially, all you do is hear, hear, hear, hear, hear. They never go out and do". Now, in the first place, do they interview you? They don't know. They judge you based on their own prejudice, let's say, all right? "Who are you speaking of, Pastor Prince"? I don't know. I'm just speaking. I'm just speaking. I'm just speaking. They will say, "They sit down here and," sometimes they will say things like, "they warm the pews, and keep on hearing, and hearing, and hearing, and hearing, and hearing, and they never go out and do anything".
So in other words, deep down, what they believe is this. The works of the law is more important than hearing of faith. I believe if you come and you receive the feeding, even the good shepherd knows, feed the sheep that's weak before you try to say, "Do this"! and the weak, and the poor, you know, the guy is doing... The poor, wobbly lamb. "I'm trying my best". Shake, rattle, and roll. Shake, rattle. Okay, all right. Now you're awake. I got your attention. Okay, good, all right. You feed the sheep. You don't beat the sheep. But the sheep doesn't even walk properly. Bad testimony, whack him. Feed the sheep, for goodness' sake. Feed, feed. But I want the behavior. No, keep on feeding. One day, he'll be strong. One day, he'll be able to walk the way you want him to walk, amen.
So hearing of faith is more important. Keep on hearing. "Now, Pastor, I don't feel I'm doing..." You are doing more than you realize, and the best part of it is it's unconscious. You're shining more than you know, and that cannot come by doing. It comes by hearing. You can tell different people from, you know, New Creation Church people, you can find them anywhere. You find them in the mall or whatever, they always have this... this big, amazing Pastor Lawrence grin, or Pastor Mark. Pastor Mark is more extreme. All right, they always shine, honestly. You know, Wendy and I always remark this, okay? We are prejudice, of course. It's our church, right, and our church people, right, so we are proud of them. But we always say this, and I believe we are objective when we say you can tell our church people. There's a joy. There's a glow, amen. There's a joy. There's a glow.
Remember this. This is a very simple truth here today, but can you see what they gave up? They gave up the golden earring, and the type there we have established with Scripture. Half a shekel weight is the hearing of redemption. It's hearing about Christ. It's not just hearing a part of the Bible, but it's not translated into the Word of Christ, amen. Like remember my last sermon here before I left for Israel was on Leviticus 27. In the natural, you'll be assessed by your natural strength, all right, and the payment is according to. As you grow older, the payment is lesser. That's a fact. It's a fact, right? But we are not under the law. We are not under what's natural. We are under, "They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint". Why? Because we wait upon the Lord, amen?
So we are not under law, we are under grace. We are not under, "You shall not, you shall not, you shall not," demand. The essence of the law is demand. The essence of grace is supply, amen? "I shall do this for you. I will do that for you. I will forgive your sins. I will be your God," amen. It's so wonderful to be under grace, but don't step back so the devil tends always to pull you back, give up the hearing of faith. And I grieve for pastors who made their sermons shorter, and shorter, and shorter, and shorter, thinking that they will please the world today because TikTok is short, right? It's a season of TikTok. Talk about TikTok.
So then we have everything that's short, bite-sized. People can only take bite-sized, because if you train them to take bite-sized, they will always take bite-sized. Put something into a child's mouth early, keep on putting it, I don't care if it's as bland as something else that, you know, a soya bean or whatever, and I tell you this, even if they grow old it will not depart from the taste. He will always wanna go back to that taste. You decide what you put in their mouth. Don't keep on saying, "Don't surrender them to the world". You put it. Once they taste the Word of Christ, ooh, they want more, amen. Am I right, church?