Encouragement for New Believers

Greetings, my brothers and sisters in the Lord. My name is Charles Carter, they call me Coach Carter. I'm here today to encourage each and every one of you that have made the decision to give your life to Jesus, to invite Him into your hearts, that He may have His way and show you the right way, lead and guide you down the right path. The decision you've made to invite Christ into your heart is the best decision you could ever have, you could have ever made. God is really moving in this hour. He's drawing you closer to Him and that decision that you made to receive what He did on Calvary, what He did on the cross, the blood He shed, and the price He paid, that you may be saved by faith. And I just want to encourage you that that decision was a powerful decision. Now you might be saying, what does it mean now that I've made that decision? Well, the Bible emphasizes on the decision that you made, you made it by faith and you have to trust God. Through it all, you've got to learn to trust God from this day forward and you've got to walk by faith from this day forward. The just shall live by faith and you need to understand something, without that faith, it's impossible to please God. So right now, everything you do has got to be by faith, trusting and believing in God. The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, so you've done that, you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, because like my brothers always say, it's a hard condition, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. You will be saved. So if you did that, you confessed it, you believe it in your heart, by faith, you will be saved. You are saved today. Now as you know that when you've already done that, that your next step is to start seeking God with your whole heart, mind, body, and soul. You start praying, talking to God, let it be a personal conversation between you and

Him. That way your relationship with Him will grow. Reading His Word, the truth is in His Word. That Word is going to water you and you're going to produce fruit. It's going to water you because now you have the imperishable seed inside of you and that seed, if you know if you plant a seed, you're not going to see the growth immediately. It's going to take time. You've got to water it. You've got to nurture it. Well that Word is what's going to happen to you. It's going to water that seed in you that God has placed there. Then you will start producing fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, joy, love, peace, happiness, patience, long-suffering. Those things, those good things, the good works are what you're going to start producing. The Holy Spirit is going to help that Word to start sprouting up, the fruits to start sprouting out of you because you're going to be led by the Spirit. As you read that Word, the Spirit is going to give you revelation of the will of the Father. Now, when you receive Christ in your heart, now you are the heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven. You are the sons and daughters of the Most High God. Now you can say, Abba, Father. You can throw your hands up and call Him Father, call Him Daddy. If you are a parent, you know that you're going to take care of your child. How much more will your Heavenly Father take care of you now that you've confessed and you believe and you're walking by faith? That's where you got to keep on, continue to do that, and prayer is just simply talking to God, having a relationship. Just like I'm talking to you, you can talk to Him the same way all day long. So you just got to know that you're saved by faith, and over time, that faith is going to transform you.

It will produce those fruitful things that God is looking for because you got to look like Him now. You got to walk like Him, talk like Him, act like Him. Old things pass away. Behold, everything about you is becoming brand new. So you got to understand that you're not that old man no more. You're not that same old person. You're not doing the same old things. Everything you do this day forward, you got to bring glory and honor to your Heavenly Father. In John 15 and 5, on the night that Jesus was arrested, He told His disciples that everyone who abides in Him will bear fruit. When our faith bears the fruit of God, it glorifies Him. It gives Him glory. God wants glory from your life story. This point, this day forward, He want to get the glory out of your life story. So if He delivered you from anything, now you got a testimony. You can tell somebody, look what the Lord has done for me. So He want to use you now from where He brought you out of. If you look back over your life, you know He brought you out of a lot. And now you got to testify about it. Tell somebody, this is what the Lord has done for me. That's going to bring glory to His name. That's going to elevate you. The more you praise God, the more you lift up your hands to God, the more you talk about God from this day forward, the more God is going to elevate you. All right? So that's what it means to be saved and for you receiving Jesus in your heart. So Jesus done everything necessary to save us from our sins. And most importantly, from ourselves. He's done it all to save us from ourselves. Because if you know, you're your worst enemy. You've been your worst enemy all your life. So whatever, what Jesus did, it was to save you from the enemy. The enemy. You are the enemy. You are the enemy. So He saved you from that. Hallelujah. And He brought you out. He brought you out. See? And now you're going to go through tests and trials, which is going to make you stronger. It's going to build you up in your most holy faith this day forward. He suffered the penalty that we deserve for our sins by dying on that cross. He conquered death

by rising on the third day. He ascended to the right hand of the Father and He's seated in His, and He sent us His Holy Spirit to dwell in His, inside of us. He, we experience all this by faith. Everything that Jesus have done, we're going to experience it by faith. So all those things, all those promises, the Word of God is listed with nothing but promises from God. The Bible says, when you receive your salvation, don't forget the benefits of it. The Word of God is the benefits of your salvation. So you can stand on the promises. You can stand on His Word and decree His Word and say, this is what you said, Lord. So I'm trusting and believing that this Word is true. You don't have to listen to what the devil's been telling you. You don't have to listen to that, because now you are a child of the Most High God. You're no longer a goat, now you're a sheep. Amen? And you have the Good Shepherd, which is Jesus, leading and guiding and protecting you. Amen? So now you got to understand that Jesus is your Good Shepherd. You're going to follow Him. And the Bible says, my sheep know my voice, and a strange voice they will not follow. So long as you're following Jesus, you'll know that strange voice when the devil is talking to you. And you're not going to listen, you're not going to follow Him. But you're going to continue to follow the Righteous One. If you go with me to Psalms 23, it says, the Lord is my shepherd. See, this is another promise. David wrote this. He said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He made me to lie down in green pastures. See, these are promises that God has given you in His Word. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. And that's what He's doing in you right now. He's restoring your soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for His name's sake. So not doing all those things you used to do, you're doing the right thing now. And it's for the glory of God. And then David says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. At this point in time, in this season, death is all around us, and it's increasing. But you can walk through it with a yea, with victory, saying that, I will not fear, for He's with me. That's a promise. God said, I'm with you. I'll never leave you.

I'll never forsake you. I'll never forsake you. And he goes further to give you a promise. He said, I'll prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemy. And then he says, surely. No, he said, I'll anoint your head with oil and your cup runneth over. You're walking in the overflow now that you're in the presence of God. You're walking in everything you need. Now, since you've received Christ, he'll supply all of your needs. Whatever you need, he's got it. Now you can go to him and petition him for whatever the need is that you want. He said, ask you shall receive, seek you shall find, knock and the door is gonna open for you. So now you can stand on his word by faith. Trust him, trust what he's saying. So he said, your cup is running over, you're in overflow. Then he says, surely, you gotta understand that word surely. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life. And you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. See, that's what it means to be saved. That's what it means to receive Christ because he's gone to prepare a place for you. Now, you can dwell there all through eternity. So you gotta understand, now is the time

to seek the Lord like never before. Now is the time to cry out to God. And he said, he will answer and he will deliver you out of it all. He didn't say some things, he said out of all of it. He's a God that will not let you down. He's a God that will not fail. He never failed. And every promise and every word that he's spoken is true. You can take it to the bank. You can count on it. You can count on it. Be encouraged in this hour. You made the best decision you could ever make. God is God. He's in control. He's in control. So, tomorrow is not promised. Today is your day. Today is your day. Your life has made a complete turnaround because of the decision you made. It's a complete turnaround. Jesus loves you so much. The Bible said, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. As Jesus loved us so much, he gave his life. So it's a giving, it's a giving, it's a giving. Now you've given your life to him and that's what he's been waiting on.

See, he knew you before he formed you in your mother's womb and he knew that was a set time you were gonna make this decision. So you need to praise God like never before because you came to yourself and you came back to the one who loves you the most. Amen? To God be the glory. So now, what do you need to do? You need to pray on, talking to God all the time, constantly praying, constantly talking to God. Whatever's going on in your life, continue to talk to God. You don't have to open your mouth and talk to anybody else. Talk to God. He's listening. In the midnight hour, talk to God. Talk to God. Then he said, now get in his word. Read and meditate upon his word. These are the promises. This is where the water is gonna wash that seed that had been planted so it can start growing. You grow in Christ. You grow in Christ. You're gonna start growing in Christ the more you read his word, the more you meditate on it and let the Holy Spirit reveal to you what God wants to give you in that word because he's gonna give you bits and pieces, nuggets that's gonna strengthen you.

You'll be able to stand. You'll be nourished by the word of God. Then you need to follow and obey him. Whatever God is saying to you, you need to say yes, God. It may sound foolish sometimes, but if you say yes, God said he takes the foolish things to confine the wise. So all you gotta do is say yes, Father. Not my will any longer. Let your will be done in my life. I'm encouraging you today to press on. Press to the mark of the higher calling. God is calling you deeper. He's calling you higher. He's calling you closer to him. Now that you've made that decision, you've got a made up mind today to receive him. Now you gotta have a made up mind to follow him, to obey him, to trust him. to allow God to lead you. Cause he go before you and he making the crooked way straight. You went down that crooked path most of all of your life. Now you decided to follow him, the path shall be straight. There's not, I'm not saying there's going to be no bumpy roads in there. No lumps and bumps, but he's going to smoothen it out for you to walk right through it. You're going to walk through, hallelujah, on dry ground.

You're going to walk through, hallelujah, the path that he's called you to. He's placed blessings in front of you. As you go down the path that he called you to, the blessings are going to overtake you. The blessings of the Lord make it rich and add no sorrow. So you got to stand with God, start hungering and thirsting for his righteousness and allow God to lead the way. I'm here to encourage you today. That decision you made is the best decision of your life. You're not going to even know who you are in the near future, because God is going to transform you, change you, take the taste of this world away from you, open the eyes of your understanding so you can see what he's doing in your life. He's going to start revealing to you the enemy when he comes upon you. The Bible said, I see the enemy coming, but he has no place in me. Why is he not going to have a place in you? Because you feel with the Holy Spirit. He can't dwell in there with the Holy Spirit. And that's what's going to keep you. I just want to encourage you today. God loves you. I love you. I'm praying for you. And I know you're walking in victory in this hour.

Amen.