Scripture reference: Ephesians 1:16-18 (KJ21); Ephesians 1:15-19 (MSG); Deuteronomy 8:18 (NLT), Ephesians 1:18 (MSG), Ephesians 2:1-2 (KJV), Ephesians 2:1-2 (MSG); Romans 12:2 (KJV); Romans 12:2 (MSG); Ephesians 2:10 (KJV); Ephesians 2:10 (AMPC); Ephesians 2:10 (TPT)
Pastor John Bendixen:
Praise You, Jesus. Just raise your hands and praise the Name of the Lord. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Praise You, Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to the name of Jesus. Glory to the name of Jesus. Come on church just raise your hands, raise your voices, just praise Him, just praise Him. We give You thanks, Lord. We give You praise, we give You honour, we give You glory. We seek You first Lord, we seek You first. We seek You first above all else, we seek You first, Jesus. We praise Your Name, Lord. We praise Your Name, Jesus. Praise You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
Well, church, this is a wonderful, wonderful moment for us, I mean we are in the presence of God; He is here. Hallelujah. We have been declaring this for weeks now, that God is here, God is here, God is here. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah. Well, I want to tell you, it is my great joy to have all of the team here, and we obviously welcome Tony and Eric and Brother Joe and Brother Jerry. Welcome, all here tonight. We are here tonight to hear from the Apostle of God to us in this ministry, and we are grateful that God has brought him here safely, that he is here in strength and joy. Hallelujah. We welcome him to the pulpit. Brother Jerry, it is your pulpit. Hallelujah. Give him a hand people. Hallelujah.
Brother Jerry Savelle:
Thank you. Good evening everybody. Are you doing well tonight? Well, good. Praise God. The praise and worship have been awesome. You just keep getting more and more anointed every time I come. Hallelujah. You can pay me later, okay? And Sharon, give me a hug girl. It’s good to be home. It’s been a while. I’m glad y’all got over all the attacks of the enemy, and back in church again, Praise God. Amen. No place like being around the household of faith. Can you say amen? All right, smile real big at somebody and tell them, “You’re in the right place tonight.” And you can be seated.
Well, I’m sure you’ve been told, or at least many of you, that while flying over here, we got as far as Nairobi, and just, was making a fuel stop. We weren’t going to be there very long just to fill up with fuel. We had some issues and wind up having to leave the plane in Nairobi. But I have a gentleman back home; his name is John McCurdy, and he’s part of our team, he doesn’t work full-time for me, but he’s on contract with me. And what this man doesn’t know about Falcon Aircraft they haven’t invented yet. We were able to touch base with John, and we, the pilots just told him what was going on. And he knows what to do. You know. He ordered parts all the way… He’s talking on the phone in Fort Worth and ordering parts in Cape Town. He knows people. All over the world, he knows people.
Anyway, the Falcon is back in Nairobi, and they’re going to be working on it and get it down here just as soon as they possibly can. But my goodness, I’m telling you, it was such a joy when I left Fort Worth and flew for the first time in my own international aircraft that I believed God for, for 20 years; and it’s paid for. Hallelujah. Paid cash for it. Glory to God. And boy, did it do a job up until we got to Nairobi. We were flying 676 miles an hour. Passing other commercial airlines and waving at them as we went by them. Praise God. We’re 42,000 feet doing 676 miles an hour and arrived at our first destination an hour early. We just, I mean, we were just smoking across there. Praise God. I could hardly sit down. I mean, I just walked the cabin and praised God. I can’t sit down. It’s a dream come true. The goodness of God. Hallelujah.
I’ve been telling many of you here for years now that one day I’m going to fly my Falcon 50 over here. Well, we almost got here and we’re not done yet. Praise God. I believe God’s working behind the scenes. And He already is; we’ve already got good reports of some things that are taking place just since we flew on Kenyan Airlines to get here for the service tonight. But just since we landed, we’ve gotten good reports. I believe God has everything under control. Amen. Praise God.
Now I was thinking, as we were flying over today, Eric and I were flying over today. The story of when Jesus entered His public ministry, of course, John, the Baptist was fully aware of who Jesus was. And he talked about how there was One coming mightier than he, and He’ll baptize you with fire and Holy Ghost and so forth. And you remember, Herod had John murdered. When Jesus got the news of it, He was deeply touched by it, it impacted Him. Because like I said, he was one of the few men, John the Baptist, one of the few people on planet earth, who really knew who Jesus was and what His mission was. Not only that but they were cousins, okay.
And so that could be like you know, Joe and I are cousins, and if… Like, Joe, was in the hospital back there in COVID. There were a few moments there where we wouldn’t sure that he was going to pull through. Well, it touched me, that I couldn’t get in the hospital to see him because everything was restricted. And Joe and I, I’m about 12 days older than Joe. But we’ve been close all of our lives. Course Joe’s been working in our ministry for over 40 years now. So if I got news, like I did, about Joe being in the hospital, and we don’t know if he’s, in the natural, if he’s going to recover. Well, I was touched by that. So I can understand Jesus being touched when He heard that John, the Baptist, had been killed.
The Bible says He went to a desert place or a deserted place to pray. Obviously, it was on His mind. He wanted to be alone. And so he went to a place just to pray and visit with His Father about this incident. But the people wouldn’t let Him alone. Masses came out looking for Him. In the midst of that tragedy, He got up and walked out there where they were, and healed all their sick and cast out everyone that had a devil or devils, cast them all out. I remember years ago, the Lord telling me, “This is how you retaliate against the devil. Do something for the Kingdom.” Amen. “Do something to let the devil know, you’re not winning here.” Okay. You’re not going to get any credit for messing with my aeroplane.
So I’m impressed of the Lord, to do what Jesus did. Just pray for the sick before we do anything else. Hallelujah. I think that’s a good way to retaliate. Just get everybody healed. Praise God, and show the devil, “You wasting your time messing with us.” That’s Texas talk ‘messing with us.’ Okay. But you know what I mean? So if you need healing in your body, if you let me put it this way, if you’ve come under attack in the last 24 hours in your body, stand up. Alright, you guys come up here first.
I’m just gonna follow Jesus’ pattern. When Satan attempts to rob you of your joy, just retaliate. Do something to affect His kingdom. Hallelujah. Well, I must have heard from the Lord, look how many are coming up here. And we’re talking about just in the last, come under attack, just the last 24 hours or so. Well, I got good news for you. You’re not going to leave here the way you came. Let’s all lift our hands, and begin to praise God; thank Him for that. [People come up for healing]
Now y’all want me to jump off of here? I can do it. I’m 76 but I haven’t lost anything. Hallelujah. All right. Thank you and stretch your hands out toward them. Let’s all say this out loud; In the name of Jesus. Satan, you will not get the upper hand. We are retaliating against you right now. We’re just following Jesus’ example. And we believe that we will have His results. So right now in the name of Jesus, I look to and trust the anointing of God that is on me right now, that as I lay hands upon these people, that anointing will leave my hands and enter into their body and cause an effect or a cure. Bring total restoration, a miracle if needed. And in the name of Jesus, God will get credit and God will get glory. Satan, we say to you, defeat again. You’re a defeated foe. Always have been always will be. And I think I’d just laugh at him right now. Praise God. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
[People come up for healing]
In the name of Jesus, receive. Glory to God. Receive. Come on, help me now; don’t just watch. Receive your healing. Now, in the name of Jesus. The anointing flowing into your body is designed by God. To destroy the yoke of bondage, sicknesses is bondage, sickness is of the devil and it doesn’t belong in your body. Your body has been healed by the stripes of Jesus.
So body, you get in line and Satan, you take your sickness somewhere else is not welcome here. In Jesus’ name. Thank You, Father, for Your anointing flowing into his body right now. From the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. We give You praise Heavenly Father, that he walks out of here tonight, totally different than the way he came in; healed, whole, and full of joy. Hallelujah. Amen.
In the name of Jesus. Glory to God. When I lay hands on you, say “I receive it.” In Jesus’ Name, the healing power of God, flows into your body right now, to make you whole. Hallelujah. And if you sense that it’s happening right now, go ahead and rejoice. You’re not going to bother me at all. In fact, we’re gonna rejoice with you. Just like this lady right here.
When I lay hands on you, say, “I receive it.” In Jesus’ name, the healing power of God flows into your body right now, to make you whole. Hallelujah. And if you sense that it’s happening right now, go ahead and rejoice. You’re not going to bother me at all. In fact, we’re going to rejoice with you. Like this lady right here. [Brother Jerry continues to lay hands on people] Ha-ha-ha on the devil.
[Brother Jerry to a gentleman] And you, sir… Just a heavy concentration of it. Glory to God. Things in your body, not only that have been affected in the last 24 hours, but some things that you’ve been battling with for quite some time, that are related to what you have been going through in the last 24 hours. He’s healing that and you’re receiving, from this moment, not only healing in your body but a new outlook on life. Sickness free – that will help you get a new outlook on life, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. [Brother Jerry continues to lay hands on people]
Brother Hagin used to say that he could feel it when people were resisting it. He’d say, “The anointing left me, but you resisted and it came back.” Now, that’s not what I’m saying to you, but sometimes people resist it even though they want to receive it, but they resist it. So, don’t resist it. Okay? Just say, “I receive it.” Say; I receive it. Well, take it.
[Brother Jerry to Josh] What’s your name? Josh? Yeah, that’s a good name. Mom and dad picked a good name for you. You’re receiving healing, but you’re also receiving anointing to bring healing to others. It may not happen right away, but it will. I see you standing in front of people, praying and laying hands on them, just like I’m doing. Has the Lord already been talking to you about that? Yeah. Well, get ready. There’s no age qualification. Amen. Thank you, Father, for healing this young man and causing the healing anointing to be in his hands that he might be a blessing to humanity, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Now, let me warn you. Don’t get prideful with it, okay? It’s nothing to show off about. It’s just a gift from God and it’s really not for you. It’s for other people. Okay? Stay humble. Amen. Praise God.
[Brother Jerry continues to lay hands on people] It’s yours because of who you are, a child of God. No other requirements. Just the fact that you’re a child of God. And Himself bore your sickness and carried your disease. Sickness does not belong in your body. You’re not the sick trying to get healed; you’re the healed protecting your health.
[Brother Jerry to Zani] Have I seen you before when I’ve been here in the past? [Pastor John: She’s the laughing girl] Yeah? That’s what I thought! You’re the laughing girl. You’ve been laughing ever since I left? You going to laugh some more? The joy of the Lord’s your strength. Hallelujah. In Jesus’ name. Lord, cause her to live in complete and total health.
[Brother Jerry to Nikao] How are you, sir? What’s your name? Alright. Jesus, may Your healing power flow into his body right now. Lord, by healing this young man, it will mark him for the rest of his life, knowing that he can always depend on You for anything he needs. And I give You praise for that, in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Amen. Look at that person right behind you. Turn around and say, “I’m a marked man.”
Alright, everybody stands again, okay? Praise God. Well, I’m glad we got that done. Hallelujah. It was worth the wait, wasn’t it? Praise God. Hallelujah. We just gave the devil a black eye. Glory to God. Come on, lift your hands, lift your voices, give the Lord your best shout. Hallelujah.
Thank You, Father. Thank You, Father. We worship You. Amen. All right, you can be seated. On the way over here on the flight, I wasn’t really sure if I would just preach Jesus’s wept and dismiss you. [Congregation laughs.] Because I was tired. You know, short sermon. Jesus wept. [Continued laughter] Come on, help me. A little humour here. Help me. And then dismiss you and come back tomorrow night. But on the flight, I received some things from the Lord that I want to share with you tonight. Lay a foundation for the rest of the week. Okay?
So, open your Bibles first of all, if you will, to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1. By the way, I got a text today from Joe. He told me that he and Tony have already eaten all the baby Kingklip. [Congregation laughs] And I will be casting lying devils out of them before the service is over. [Continued laughter] That’s a sin to eat all the baby Kingklip before I get here.
Alright. Ephesians chapter 1. And let’s begin reading in verse 16. The apostle Paul praying for believers, Body of Christ, you and I. He said, I “¹⁶cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; ¹⁷that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: ¹⁸the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,” (Ephesians 1:16-18 KJ21)
I want to read this to you from The Message translation. It says, that, your eyes focused and clear so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do and to, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers,” (Ephesians 1:15-19 MSG). I love that phrase; this glorious way of life. I live a glorious life. Does anybody else live a glorious life, a glorious way of life? A glorious way of life, keep that in mind.
Immensity means the grandness or the vastness, or the enormous …I’m trying to say it… the enormity of it. This life that He has provided for us, how vast it is, far beyond what most Christians think. You know when I first came to the Lord back in 1969, it wasn’t sinners who were keeping me from finding out the kind of life that God wanted me to live, it was Christians and they had all kinds of squirrely ideas.
You know, I grew up, my dad raised automobiles – I grew up on racetracks, I never owned anything slow, my dad saw to it. I like fast cars; I like fast motorcycles. If it was fast, I liked it. I was into speed, and I am not talking drugs. I don’t know anything about speed drugs, you’ll have to ask Jessie du Plantis about that, I don’t know anything about that. Horsepower is what I’m talking about, ok. And, I owned an automotive business, and I restored classic cars, I built hot rods, and my dad and I built race cars, and that was my life. That’s what I loved, that’s what I enjoyed, that was my life. And, I started driving Corvettes – Chevrolets Corvettes when I was sixteen years old. My first Corvette was a ‘58 model, it was America’s sports car. It was the only American sportscar at that time. They started building them in 1953. And General Motors trained my father to become a Corvette specialist. And so, when they came out in ‘53, they sent one home to my dad, with my dad and his job was to learn how to repair it, and work on it in his sleep and he became a Corvette specialist.
So, I came home from school as a young boy, and this ‘53 Corvette was in my dad’s garage, and I thought it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. And when dad came home, I said, “Dad, whose car is that?” He said, “Well, they sent it home with me and my job is” …and the thing about it was Corvettes were made up of fibreglass. Not many – we call them body men – you call them maybe panel beaters? – not many panel beaters knew how to work fibreglass in those days. So, my dad was trained on how to work fibreglass and they still are built out of fibreglass to this day.
So, if you wrecked one, it didn’t dent it, it splintered it and fibreglass pieces went everywhere. Now today, if you wreck a Corvette, you can just go and buy a front clip – a whole clip and put it on there and move on. But back then, if you wrecked the front end of a Corvette, you went and picked up all the pieces and you put it together like a jigsaw puzzle and use the fibreglass to harden it and keep it together and so forth. Well, my dad was a specialist of that. So, by the time the ‘54 Corvette came out, the sales of the ‘53 were so weak, they didn’t sell very many. So, they were going to give it one more year and if they didn’t sell more of them in ‘54 they were going to discontinue the programme, get rid of the Corvette. And so, nothing changed. Same body styles, same engine, same colours, exactly the same. And I have a 54 today and that didn’t change. And one of the reasons that the programme was saved is the man who is today referred to as the father of Corvettes, he hid one in a warehouse in Detroit, Michigan. And ‘55 was the first year the Chevrolet came out with a V8 engine and gave it more horsepower. And so, he hid a ‘54 in a warehouse and took the V8 engine and put in it and took it to the New York World’s Fair and couldn’t sell. He sold them as quickly as they could build them and he saved the Corvette programme.
Now, this is interesting to me whether it is to you or not, okay? But anyway, I fell in love with Corvettes. And so I told my dad when I saw that first one that he had, “Dad, as soon as I get big enough this is what I’m going to drive. I’m going to drive these for the rest of my life.” And I got my first one, I was 16. And it was wrecked, a ‘58 model. I bought it wrecked. But I knew somebody who could repair it. Okay. I hauled it back home. My dad said, “Son, what are you going to do with it?” I said, “You got to rebuild it. That’s what we’re going to do with that.” And he did. So, my first Corvette was a ‘58 model.
And so, when I opened my business, I had a ‘67 Corvette and it was fast. That is what they called in America, the muscle car era. Where all the dealers, all the main car builders – Ford, Chevrolet, you know, all of them were building cars that you could buy right out of the showroom, take them straight to the drag races. And the first one that came out was a ‘64 Pontiac GTO. And that began the muscle car era. Okay. By this time, my dad’s working for Pontiac, and the GTO had just started the muscle car era. Okay. So anyway, I had a ‘67 Corvette that had the biggest engine that they made in ‘67. They call it a big buck, 427/437, 435 horsepower, with three two-barrel carburettors, four-speed, close-ratio, four-speed, and I raced everything in sight. Nobody beat me to the next block.
Okay, so that’s what I was driving when I came to the Lord in ‘69. So immediately, Christians, now well-meaning Christians told me, “You can’t be a Christian and drive a car like that. Christians don’t drive cars like that and especially preachers. You’re a poor, humble preacher now. You can’t have a car like that.” Well, I wanted to please God and they’ve been in this longer than I have. I mean, I’ve been in it a month now, born again a month and they’re telling me all the ‘thou shall not’s.’
Anybody ever heard the ‘thou shalt not’s? It seemed like it took forever for them to give me a ‘thou shall do’. Everything I heard was, thou shall not, you can’t have it. God will not like you if you have it. So I sold my Corvette and then at the same time, I had a 236 Ford Coupes. One I had restored to original condition, the other I’d made a street rod out of it, I put a big V8 in it, and so forth. Then I had a ‘39 Chevrolet pickup that I’d restored to original and they told me I couldn’t have that. So I got rid of all that. Wind up driving a dog car, that you had to believe God for to start and believe God for it to stop. The engine was shot and so were the brakes, you know, but I’m being a poor, humble preacher just like they told me.
Nobody told me anything about this glorious way of life. I had to find that out for myself but then, about the time I’m learning this, Kenneth Copeland came into my life and he preached on the Covenant and what that covenant entitles us to and then I was introduced to the ministry of Kenneth Hagin through Brother Copeland, and Brother Hagin talked about what we’re redeemed from and what we’re redeemed into and it was good. You know, I thought, where have these preachers been? And thank God I heard them when I was only about six months old in the Lord and it totally demolished all of that religious tradition that people were putting on me. I thought I can have a nice car and be a Christian. I can even have a nice car and be a preacher. In fact, I can have one paid for and I didn’t know any preacher that had paid for cars, back then.
You know, I remember Joe and I had an uncle. He was very religious. Now we loved him. I mean, I loved Uncle Jack. He was one of my heroes as a kid you know, I just loved the guy. And when, I had already been in the ministry, and the Lord blessed me with a ‘76 Corvette, a brand new ‘76 Corvette. Brother Hagin asked me to come and teach at Rhema and I just bought that Corvette. So I decided, well, I’m going to drive it to Rhema and then after I got finished at Tulsa, at Rhema – Joe wasn’t working for me then – but he’s living in Henryetta, Oklahoma, a town not too far from Tulsa. So, I decided I was going to go by and see Joe. Okay? Then I left there and I went by to see my Uncle Jack. Uncle Jack, he was a deacon in his religious church. He did all the, you know, I think he prayed like this, [Brother Jerry imitates a formal posture when praying]. He couldn’t say, “God is good.” [Brother Jerry imitates a very formal pronunciation] Real religious. I hadn’t seen him in a long time and his wife, my Aunt Blanche, she was a sweetheart. Everybody loved Aunt Blanche. When I pulled up in front of their house, and I had not been there in a long time, and they had never heard me preach – they had heard I had gone into the ministry – when I pulled up in front of their house, Aunt Blanche came outside.
She came running to me and she called me, Junior. “Oh, Junior, so good to see you. I’m so proud of you. I’m so proud of what you’re doing. You’re serving God.” Uncle Jack came out and he looked at that Corvette and went back in the house. Wouldn’t even talk to me. Wouldn’t even come outside and talk to me. I said, “Aunt Blanche, what’s the matter with Uncle Jack?” She said, “Oh, honey, you know him. He doesn’t like the car you’re driving. He doesn’t think a preacher ought to drive a car like that.” Now he had a brand new Lincoln Town Car. It’s okay for the deacon to have a nice car but not the preacher. And the man wouldn’t even talk to me, wouldn’t even come out and shake hands with me. Amen.
Now there are a lot of Christians like that. I remember a few years later, I got a ‘77 Corvette. Here’s the scripture I stood on for my cars. You want to hear it? Come back tomorrow night. No. I read in the Bible where Jesus wanted a donkey to ride into Jerusalem and He specifically said, “One that no man rode.” Remember that? I was in Miami, Florida, preaching and I’m reading that story and it just came out of me, “Jesus had a donkey that no man rode and Jerry has a Corvette no man drove.” That’s how I got my new Corvette, paid for. Praise God.
Every year when I got ready, every two or three years when I got ready to get a new one I’d say, “Jesus had a donkey no man ever rode and Jerry’s got a new Corvette no man ever drove.” I’ve been doing that all these years. Amen. But I remember, I got a ‘77 Corvette and I drove it up to Arkansas to a little church in the woods. I mean, this little tiny church. I pulled up in front of that church, all the young people were outside. And I said, “Can you tell me where I can find Pastor so and so?” They said, “Yeah.” They said, “Who are you?” I said, “Well, I’m speaking here tonight.” “You’re the preacher? Wow. You’re the coolest preacher we’ve ever seen. Can we come and look inside your Corvette?” I said, “Sure.” I said, “Anybody in here old enough to drive one? “Yeah, I am.” “You got a licence?” “Yeah.” I said, “Drive it around, drive around.” Oh, they thought I was the coolest thing in the world. The preacher is driving a Corvette. When the Pastor came out, he wouldn’t let me in his church. He wouldn’t let me in his church, because he didn’t like what I was driving. Now if I’d have pulled up in a ‘49, Ford, smoking, burning oil, transmission slipping, doors falling off, and the windshield broke. “Come on in, brother, we’ve been waiting on you.” Amen.
Does that sound like a glorious way of living to you? No, it doesn’t. And you’d be surprised at the number of Christians who still have that kind of thinking. Amen. I don’t I really very seldom rarely have any criticism from sinners, my criticism comes from Christians. Amen. Where we’ve lived John and Sharon had been there. We’ve lived in the country, okay. I’m a country boy. I was born on a farm in Mississippi and I like my space. And so we lived out in the country on the south side of Fort Worth. Nobody out there but us, our closest neighbours when we first built out there they were five miles away. So I’m in my element and I got horses, I’m raising cattle, I’m doing the way I was raised on a farm in Mississippi.
And then all of a sudden Fort Worth starts growing that way. And we got houses everywhere out there now. They built 3000 houses in the area where I used to be all by myself, 3000 new houses. And now I got neighbours. Okay, and now they see me drive my Corvette out of my gate. Okay, now there’s one old boy, he’s got this old beat-up truck. And he might see me out there cleaning my Corvette, or waxing it or something. Because I still like to do those kinds of things. And I’ll be out there in the front doing something to my Corvette and he comes by and he rolls his window down. “Hey, preacher, did you steal the offerings to get that?” Then he rolls his window up, drives off real fast so I can’t respond. See I had been waiting on him.
And so he drives by one day, and I had the Corvette out there, but he didn’t see me, so he could say that. And I was hiding behind a tree, I saw him coming. And when he pulled up in front of my gate, and he rolled his window down and shout at me. I said, “No, sir. It’s called hard work and faith. Try it. You’ll like it.” I’ve never seen him again.
I’m all for glorious living. I said, “I’m all for glorious living” [Congregation praises] anybody in for glorious living [Congregation praises]? I’ve won more people with my lifestyle. because they want to know, how are you doing this? Where are you getting all this? And I tell them it’s the God I serve. It’s His blessing on my life. It’s His favour on my life. And when I tell him that nobody has ever turned me down, when I said, “Would you like to know Him?” Well, yeah. That’s one of the ways that God attracts people, is by blessing your life. Now we’re not to show out with it. We’re not to be, you know, high-minded with it. You ask these guys that know me well. I’ve given away more cars. I’ve given away more motorcycles. I’ve given away aeroplanes. I made this rule in my life, that anything God blesses me with and He tells me to give it, it’s gone before dark. I will not allow anything to possess me. I possess things, things don’t possess me. Okay.
I’ve gone into my shop, I have a museum of classic cars, I’ve gone into my shop, and said, “Lord, none of this means anything to me, other than the fact that You blessed me with it. It’s a testimony to Your faithfulness, and a testimony to my commitment to serve You with all my heart.” I said, “If you want me to give this away, You just tell me who to give it to and the place will be cleaned out before dark.” And I’ve done it. I’ve given everything away. My wife said, “Jerry Savelle” and when she’s serious, it’s not Jerry, “Jerry Savelle.” I mean, she’s about to get onto me. You see this dimple on my chin? I was born with it. But it wasn’t that deep until I married Carolyn. She grabs me right here, [Brother Jerry squeezes his chin] “You listening to me Jerry Savelle?” [Congregation laughs].
So, she said, “Jerry Savelle, why did you give all those cars and motorcycles away?” I said, “I just want to show God that He’s still number one in my life.” She said, “He knows that you don’t have to give them away. Because every time you give them when they come back to you in fleets.” And they do, I have to build a bigger garage. Amen.
But, you know, if you ask people that know me well, hey, I’m all for having the best to represent God, first class but I’m not high-minded with it. One man told me, a very wealthy businessman, he says, it was his phrase, “You wear your prosperity well.” He said, “You could eat at McDonald’s one night, and you can eat it at the finest steakhouse in Fort Worth, Texas the next night.” I said, “Yeah, don’t bother me.” I like McDonald’s french fries, but I don’t want to eat them every night, I want to go to the steakhouse sometime, you know?
So God has already pre-arranged what He refers to, what the Apostle Paul refers to as this glorious way of living. Say with me, “This glorious way of living,” [Congregation saying with dr Jerry “This glorious way of living”] and He is in favour of you learning how to live that way. Amen. Don’t ever let anybody convince you that God’s mad at you, or God doesn’t love you, God’s offended at you because you’re blessed, or you’re prosperous.
No, the Bible says in Deuteronomy, chapter 8, remember this, this is all He asks, remember this: It’s God, who giveth thee the power to get wealth. He doesn’t care if it takes every bank in South Africa to hold all your money, just as long as you say to other people, “I’m blessed with this, because of the God I serve.” ¹⁸Remember the Lord, thy God. (Deuteronomy 8:18 NLT)
So, glorious way of living, I love that phrase, glorious way of living. So the Message translation went on to say this, ¹⁸to grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life. (Ephesians 1:18 MSG) Once again, immensity means the grandness of it, the vastness of it, the enormity of it, you could say, the bigness of it. Amen. The bigness of this life that God has provided for us is far greater than what most Christians think and far greater than perhaps most of us in this room think, it’s, if you can think it, it’s bigger than that.
Because Paul said, “If you can think it, God’s able to do it.” And the more you hang around with God, the bigger you think, Amen. Now, Ephesians chapter 2, go there with me. Ephesians chapter 2, let’s begin in verse one, ¹And you, us, hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, ²wherein in times past, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of air, the spirit that now worketh within the children of disobedience. (Ephesians 2:1-2 KJV) Now, the Message Translation says it this way, ²You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. (Ephesians 2:1-2 MSG). Isn’t that something?
We seem to allow the world to determine for us how we should live as Christians. And they don’t know the first thing about living. Not real life, not the kind of life that God wants us to live. But He said, “In times past”, but times haven’t passed for some Christians, they still think the same way they did before they got born again. He said, “In times past you let the world which doesn’t know anything about living tell you how to live.” (Ephesians 2:2 MSG paraphrased) I don’t allow people to do that. If they don’t like the way I live; I’m not changing. Amen.
I mean, sometimes you know Christians can be cruel. We’ve had people. Carolyn and I are givers; we live to give. We love giving. We don’t have debt. Our homes are paid, for our cars are paid for, everything we have is paid for. I don’t have debt. Okay, my ministry is debt free. So our biggest outgo from our salaries is our giving. Amen. That’s what we do. That’s what we do. Amen.
And then people accuse you of being… What’s the word I’m looking for? Worldly or material-minded, that’s it. Your material-minded and we may have just given somebody, well like my wife I never know what, I never know what she’s going to give away when I’m gone. Seriously, I come back home one time, I wanted to go to bed we had no furniture in our bedroom, I said, “Carolyn, where’s our furniture?” “Well, I saw somebody that was in need, and I told them to come get it and I gave it all to them.” Okay. What are we believing for next, you know? And we, Carolyn, had just that same week when this person said, “All you people are in this church is your materialistic, material-minded, and Carolyn had just furnished a house and paid one year’s rent for people that didn’t have the money, and had six kids. And she rented a house, and furnished it totally furnished it – and we’re material-minded. People don’t understand.
If I was material-minded, I wouldn’t give anything away, amen. I am not material-minded but I do like material things. I am not gonna wear some ragged clothes just because some preacher or some Christians thinks I shouldn’t have a nice suit. They don’t dictate my life, this dictates my life. [Bro Jerry holding the bible] Amen. Does it dictate your life? The Bible says, “I wish you above all things that you may prosper and be in health even as your souls prosper.” The Psalmist said, “We are to give God a shout because it brings pleasure to Him in the prosperity of His servants.”
First time I read that shortly after I learned that those Christians were lying to me about how am I supposed to live. I’ve read that scripture in Psalms, it said, “He gets pleasure in the prosperity of His servants,” I lifted my hand and said, “I promise You I never rob You of any pleasure anymore,” amen. Now, when you allow the world to tell you how to live, then you certainly not going to live a glorious lifestyle. You come down to their level, that’s why Paul said it’s necessary as Christians that we renew our minds with the word of God. That’s how you renew your minds. Most people are not born with all this great insight and revelation that we have today. I certainly wasn’t and you weren’t either. I had to reprogramme my thinking, reprogramme my mind, and reprogramme my heart with the word of God. Okay.
So, Paul says that we are to renew our mind don’t be trans, 2… don’t be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2 KJV). The Message translation says it this way, 2 Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. (Romans 12:2 MSG). So don’t let the world around you control and dictate the way you think, the way you talk and the way you live. That’s what renewing the mind is for. That’s what that process of renewing the mind is for. Is to give you a different outlook than the outlook you had when you were in times past. Okay. I don’t live today like that Jerry Savelle lived pre-1969.
That man is dead and gone, and that lifestyle went with him. I am living a glorious life. Hallelujah. I give God all the praise for it. I’m living a glorious life. Amen. Paul says in the King James Version, that when you begin this process called the renewing of your mind, eventually you will know the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Can you say amen? So, what would be the perfect will of God? Well, we read in Ephesians chapter one, that He’s already pre-arranged this glorious life. That’s the perfect will of God for you. Is to live a glorious life. If you can’t say your life is glorious tonight, then you need to get busy.
You know, I can’t stay here with you, go home with you, jump out of the closet, and help renew your mind every night. You’re going to have to do some things on your own. Take the initiative. You know, I didn’t have somebody teaching me every day. But I got desperate for a better way of living. And I realized that, that better way of living is in this book. [Dr Jerry holding his Bible up] And if I stay in this book, I’m going to discover what it is and how to do it. And I’m going to live it. Praise God. Amen. We didn’t have social media back in those days. We didn’t have all this Christian television we have today, back in those days. When I came to Lord 1969, there were two preachers on television, Rick Sambar, and Oral Roberts. They were pioneers of Christian television. And they only came on once a week. Now, you can get Christian teaching, day in day out 24 hours a day on your telephone, and it will fit in your shirt pocket. We didn’t have that back then.
Don’t tell me, “Well I just don’t know what to do”. Now, what you need to tell me is, “I’m lazy!” Thank you for your enthusiasm over that. “I want somebody to do it for me.” “No, it’s not going to work that way.” You got to take the initiative. If you’re desperate for a better life, desperate people do desperate things. Amen. They take charge. So, in Ephesians chapter two Paul says in verse 10, listen to this. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained in us that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10 KJV) Amen. Now, the Amplified Version says it this way 10… [taking paths, which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them, listen to this, [living the good life, which He pre-arranged and made ready for us to live]. (Ephesians 2:10 AMPC)
Now, if you want to know how God wants you to live, God’s perfect will for you? You can describe it in these words, glorious living and the good life. Glorious living and the good life. Anybody in here living the good life? Hallelujah. Has anybody else noticed? You’re blessed to be a blessing. Amen. 10…Taking paths which, he prearranged ahead of time, that we should walk in them, living the good life. Amen.
The passion translation says, 10…that we might fulfil the destiny He has given to each of us” (Ephesians 2:10 TPT). That’s my destiny. That’s your destiny – is to live a glorious life so that other people will be attracted by it, and want to know the God who made it happen for you. Amen. I have won a lot of people to the Lord over the years, that I haven’t preached one word to, that they just watch the way I live and want to know how are you doing it. Then that’s when the preaching began. Amen.
I remember coming back from Austin, San Antonio Texas one time, and I’m driving a new Corvette, and I stopped at a service station. And there were two young men, they were black gentlemen, and they were standing there by the door of the service station, and when I pulled up, they walked out and they looked at that car. They said, “Mister, how much did a car like this cost?” I said, “Well, it is pretty expensive”. “Boy, I bet it’s fast”. I said, “Yes, it’s fast”. And the other man said to the guy who is asking all the questions, he said, “That car is fast just standing still”. He said, “How are you able to get a car like that”? I said, “I’m a Christian”. “What?” I said, “I’m a Christian”. I didn’t tell them I was a preacher. I said, “I’m a Christian.” Christians ought to be living a glorious life. Amen. You see, I attracted two teenage boys just by the car that God blessed me with. I don’t think they’d have spoken to me if I’d have pulled up in that ‘49 Ford – blowing oil, transmission leaking, windshield knocked out, and the doors falling off. They wouldn’t have said a word to me, probably laughed. We thought we poor, that boy’s poor.
Glorious living is not just so your life will be better, it’s God’s way of using your life as an attraction, a billboard. Amen, a billboard. Write it down. Say this with me, “I am destined to live the good life. I am destined to live the glorious life. I am destined to live life even better than what I’m living right now.”
I don’t care how good your life is right now, God’s always got another level. Amen.
Years ago, and I’m just a young preacher and I was asked to come to California and took Carolyn and my daughters with me, they were very young at the time. We had a Ford station wagon. We were driving all over the country and carried just about everything we owned in that station wagon. Got to Torrance, California, preached there and there was a man in the meeting that came up to me after the service. And he said, “How long are you going to be in town?” I said, “Well, we’ll be here in this area another day and then we’re leaving to go into another city in California to preach all in Southern California the day after that.” He said, “Could you and your family have lunch with my family and myself?” I said, “Yeah, we’d be happy to.” He said, “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at the hotel.” Asked me where I’m staying. “And he said, “My wife will come and pick up your wife and your daughters. And I’ll come and pick you up just shortly after.”
So we’re standing out in front of the hotel and here comes this beautiful, big Mercedes and I recognized his wife. I said, “Carolyn l think that’s his wife.” And she stopped, got out of the car and said, “Carolyn, would you and the girls get in the car with me?” And she said, “Brother Jerry, my husband will be right behind me.” So they got in the car with her and they drove off. They’re taking her to the restaurant. So I’m standing there. All of a sudden, this 1927 Silver Ghost Rolls Royce pulls up and he’s driving. “Are you ready to go Brother Jerry?” Now I’ve heard about cars like that but I’ve never seen one. That car was worth a quarter of a million dollars and this is 1972. That’s what it was worth then. He pulls up in it. “Are you ready Brother Jerry?” I said, “Yes, sir.” Tried to be just as sophisticated as I could, you know.
I got in the car and we were driving down the freeway. And all the way down that freeway before we got to Newport Beach, where he lived. I own this building over here, I just bought that piece of property. I just finished building that 20-storey building, and I bought this property right next to it. Looked like he owned everything on that freeway and I’m believing God for money to get back home. And I’m riding around with this wealthy multi-millionaire. Okay. So we get to the restaurant, and it’s out on the ocean. I’m in a fancy place. Carolyn and I’ve never been in a place like this before.
I couldn’t even pronounce the menu. They had stuff on the menu I never even heard of before. And his wife said, “Would you like for us to order… we eat here often, would you like for us to order for you?” “Oh, yes, that would be fine, thank you.” I couldn’t even pronounce the words. And I mean, I’d never eaten food like that before in my life, and my daughters didn’t like it – it was too rich for them, you know? And so they would’ve rather had McDonald’s. So, we get in the car, and he says, “Can I take you to my office?” I said, “Sure, we’ve got all day.” So he took me to his office. Great big, I mean, it had to be 18, 19 storeys high – his office was on the main level, and his office took up a whole floor. And when we walked up to his office, everything in his office had been imported from Italy.
When he opened the doors to those offices and said, “Come on in.” I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. I mean, I’d never been around that kind of wealth and that fluent kind of living. And he sat there and talked to us. He said, “You know some things about prosperity that I don’t know.” I turned around to see who came in. Nobody was in there, I said, “You’re talking to me?” He said, “Yeah, you live by God’s system. You know some things I don’t know, teach me.” I couldn’t even remember my name when he said that, much less teach him. And so he said, “No, I’m serious.” He said, “I’m a Christian. I’m a believer. And I support Oral Robert’s ministry. I support Kenneth Hagin’s ministry.” And he said, “But I don’t know the things that you guys preach about God’s system of finance.” So we spent the day just talking about the Word, and then we left.
And when I got back home, I said, “Lord, what was that all about? Why did You have me meet that man?” Now he didn’t ask me, “Do you need anything?” And I didn’t tell him, because I don’t do things like that. You know, I’m in the wealthiest place I’ve ever been in my life, and if I’d been like some religious preachers, “Is the Lord speaking to you about me?” No, I don’t do that kind of thing. I didn’t ask him for anything. But I asked the Lord, I said, “Why did You have me meet that man? Why did that take place that day?” He said, “Son, I wanted to show you, no matter how well you live with what you found in my Word, there’s always another level. There’s always another level.” He said, “You just saw a level that day that you didn’t know existed, but there’s always another level.” Amen. How many of you are ready to go to another level? [Congregation, “Yes, amen”]. Look to your neighbour and say, “That’s me he’s talking about.” Amen.
Well, with that in mind, it leads me to my closing and what the Lord said to me about 2023. Now I’m sure most of you already know, because I’m sure Pastor John’s already talked about it, maybe showed some of the teachings on it. But every year as most of you know that’s familiar with my ministry, the Lord gives me a prophetic word that I am to take everywhere I go and preach on that for the whole year. Regardless of what nation I’m in and I preach it in every church I am in, every convention I am in, and the more I preach it, God just keeps adding revelation to it.
And so, coming into 2023, the Lord said to me, “Tell the people wherever you go in 2023, that it is time to go to the maximum, to the highest level attainable.” It’s time to go to the maximum, the highest level attainable. Amen. So, to me, that sounds like a glorious way of living, the good life. In other words, don’t get satisfied with where you are. Always be grateful for where God has brought you. Amen. Never seize to tell people that might ask that the reason I live this way is because of the God I serve. But don’t get satisfied with that being the ultimate, there is always another level; there is always another level. Hallelujah.
Now I began to preach this back home, I always receive that Word in October because I set that time aside to specifically receive what I’m to emphasize and focus on in that coming new year. So I began preaching in our church back home and up until October of last year right up to this present time, I’ve taught it everywhere I’ve been, and as I said, I keep getting more and more insight and seeing more principles that will take me there, okay. That’s what we want to focus on this week because we are going, I said, “We are going, we are going to the maximum, we are going to the highest level attainable” [Congregation: Yes! Hallelujah!] and the reason being folks, Jesus is coming soon. And we can’t get done what this generation of believers has been called to do, staying at the same level we are. No matter how good it is.
You may be living right now the most blessed life you’ve ever lived. Wonderful. Praise God for it. But there’s another level and God wants you to go there. In fact, He’ll take you there. Can you say, amen? Lift your hand and say “Heavenly Father, I receive that, and I’m ready to do whatever is required of me to reach the place called the maximum and the highest level attainable and I’ll do it for Your glory. I’ll do it for souls because somebody’s going to see the change in my life. And they’re going to want to know how I’m doing it. Amen.” That’s what it’s all about. It’s, yes God wants you to live a better life. But by living a better life, you become His billboard, His flashing light to the world. Amen. Can you say Amen?
So that’s what we’re going to be dealing with the rest of this week and these services. Hallelujah. It’s a great study. It’s a great study. In fact, I can’t get enough of it. Hallelujah. Stand with me, if you will, please. You receive that tonight? Are you ready to be led a good foundation? All right, praise God, we’re going to build on that foundation. Look at somebody and say, “I’m ready for a glorious living, the good life, the maximum and the highest level attainable.” Now tell somebody, “Won’t you go there with me?” Let’s give the Lord a good shout of praise tonight. Amen. Hallelujah.
Thank You, Father, thank You, Father. Join hands with somebody real quick before I turn the service back to Pastor. Father, in the name of Jesus, Your Word declares, if any two of us agree as touching anything here on the earth, it shall be done with our Father, which is in heaven. So we are setting ourselves in agreement with one another in this auditorium tonight. And Your Word says once again, that You are in our midst to carry out that agreement. So right now we know that You are present in this auditorium. You’re here to confirm Your Word with signs following. And You’re here to see to it that our agreement is fulfilled. So what we’re agreeing on is that we’re all going this year to the maximum. And we’re all going this year to the highest level attainable in Jesus’ name. And we believe You’re going to see to it that that’s carried out in its form. Give the Lord another shout of praise. Hallelujah.
Pastor John:
Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Praise Jesus. I want to release Brother Jerry and everybody, for him to just go to the back in the meantime, and then I’ll just release you. I want to just say that while Brother Jerry was ministering, I felt this in my Spirit that God is shattering the ceiling. These messages this weekend is going to shatter the ceiling. He is just shattering the ceiling. He is just demolishing the ceiling. I kind of got a sense about this, that many of us can see with the eyes of the Word where we are supposed to go, but it is like as you are going there, you bump into like shatterproof glass. It is like you bump into it and you can see, but you keep bumping into something that keeps holding you back. And I just sense in my heart that brother Jerry’s word that he is bringing us, is shattering that glass. It is supposed to be shatterproof by the world system, but the Word is shattering it and it is creating a free space for us to walk into. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Glory to God, Glory to God, Glory to God. Hallelujah.
I want to say that I have seen Brother Jerry do this a couple of times. When the enemy has come against him and tried to bring something against his life, he has taken the fight to the enemy like he did tonight. And he made a determined purpose that He would lay hands on the sick and healing would come. And I want to tell you that if he laid hands on you tonight, and the symptoms come back, you tell those symptoms they were put away from your body tonight, tonight. And when the symptoms feel like “oh you’re still sick”, you say “no, no, no, you stay away from me, I was healed. I was healed in Jesus’ name, I was healed.” Glory to God.
I just know this week that God is going to do something amazing through this weekend. Come on. Today we already started to talk about the glory. When Brother Jerry was in the air, we were talking about the glory. He has just been talking about a glorious life. Hallelujah. He is already orchestrating the weekend. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
So I pray that you are safe and protected as you leave and you go home, and you are blessed as you go out and you are blessed coming in. And you have peace and joy by the Holy Spirit. And the health and the blessing of God restore everything in your life. And when you come back tomorrow morning, you are ready, fresh, and strong to receive the Word of God, in Jesus’ name. Do you agree with that? You say amen.
Thank you for coming and God bless you.
© 2023 – Heritage of Faith Ministries International
TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
