The Threefold Cord of Faith
by David K. Bernard
2022 · The Pentecostals of Alexandria, Alexandria, Louisiana
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 4:12, Luke 18:8, 2 Timothy 1:7, 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--the-threefold-cord-of-faith
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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hallelujah hallelujah what a presence of the lord there's the confirming power of the lord in this place tonight there will be healing there will be deliverance there will be direction there will be strength there'll be protection there's a witness of the holy ghost here tonight claim it in jesus name hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah you may be seated i want to make just a few remarks and i'll get into the scripture i'm not going to ask you to stand again because i'm just going to weave several things together in my short time tonight but first of all certainly always we thank the pentecostals of alexandria the entire pastoral team pastor bishop anthony mangan thank you so much you add value to this movement in a way that can't be duplicated and i just wanted to state that one more time and i don't have to speak in all these things but i appreciate the idea that we have a partnership and a fellowship we're working together to accomplish the mission of the kingdom of god amen i do want to say that there is a brand new conference one of a kind the five-fold ministry discovery conference

it's coming in the spring this year march 31st april the 2nd at south bay pentecostal church in chula vista san diego california pastor art hodges under the direction of brother stan gleason as well as the world network of prayer it's a unique conference if you're able to come you're going to be blessed because we believe it's time to unleash the fivefold ministry we're not talking about titles or competitions or weird and spooky stuff we're talking about just flowing in the spirit like we're doing right here tonight in an apostolic dimension i think you'll agree this world needs apostolic ministry this world needs a new testament ministry this world needs the genuine and this is one more effort to move forward there there are cards in the foyer if you'd like to pick one of those up it gives you more information so i just wanted to share that with you but i don't have to tell you what an unusual time we're in what challenging times we're in i'm not going to rehearse all that you saw a presentation and as i was praying about this and thinking about this my mind first went to

ecclesiastes 4 12 and this is in a context of conflict or battle or fighting and it talks about that two people are better than one and a threefold cord is not easily or quickly broken how we need unity how we need strength a threefold court and then my mind went to luke 18 8 where jesus was talking about prayer the power of prayer and how god would answer persistent fervent prayer and he would avenge his people when they're attacked and then but then he made a curious statement the lord said nevertheless god will answer prayer for sure nevertheless when the son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth so god's doing his part but is there going to be anybody left to receive what god wants to do now these verses may not seem to fit together but then my mind went to one more verse and i hope to bring it all together but in second timothy chapter 1 verse 7 we find this statement second timothy 1 7 for god hath not given us the spirit of fear but a power and of love and of a sound mind now

i was thinking about that a couple years ago at general conference i preached from fear to faith that was right before covet hit i had no idea how much i would need that message for myself but god has not given us a spirit of fear now i believe in taking all reasonable precautions i believe in cooperating with medical science i believe with cooperating with government officials within reason if they stay within their bounds then we'll try to cooperate with what god has ordained them to do i am thankful for a supreme court that seemed to bring some sanity into a situation and i hope they'll be bringing some more sanity when they come to talk about life of the unborn praise god praise god there is a role for government officials to do the right thing so i'm for all that but at the end of the day we cannot live in fear we cannot be totally risk averse it doesn't seem like the apostle paul was risk averse in his missionary travels he did take advantage of his protections as a roman citizen he did use wisdom but it seems like when god says

to go we're supposed to go when god says to preach we're supposed to preach when god says to pray we're supposed to pray we cannot live in fear god has not given us a spirit of fear praise god so what's the opposite of fear it's faith god hasn't given us a spirit of fear but the just or the righteous shall live by faith so as i thought about this statement of paul in ii timothy if we're not to live in fear but instead god has given us a spirit of power love and a sound mind what is that but faith that is the life and ministry of faith so i'm preaching just a few minutes tonight the threefold cord of faith the three things put together will give us the life of faith we need to overcome the fear of this world and the fear of the devil the threefold cord of faith and the answer to the question is jesus going to find faith when he comes on earth comes back to earth i say yes he's going to find an apostolic church he's going to find the united pentecostal church international but not

an organization i'm not talking about that he's going to find people who love god regardless of organization or language or nation but yes there's a group of people that will have power with god they will have the love of god they will operate with a sound mind we will have the threefold cord of faith so i'm just sharing my thoughts and my meditation here tonight power love a sound mind if we can weave those three together i believe 2022 is going to be a year of victory for us i don't know what the future holds i don't know what the devil is going to throw out at us i don't know what the u.s government or the canadian government will throw at us i don't know what schemes the devil has in mind but i will say if we'll weave the threefold cord of faith together god is going to lead us through every situation god will give us wisdom god will give us the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom the discerning of spirits the gift of faith the working of miracles gifts of healing prophecy tongues interpretation of tongues we're be

more than a match for whatever the devil or the world or the virus throws at us in jesus name let me remind you we are an apostolic church we do have power with god now i'm thankful for doctors and medicine i'm thankful for uh professional counselors that help in specialized situations those they've all proven their value and i'm really thankful we've got apostolic doctors and apostolic counselors and apostolic healthcare international and points of refuge for our ministers and their families and the center for apostolic studies for apostolic counseling i'm glad for all of those special helps but let me remind you first and foremost the power of god is what we need don't forget to pray don't forget to call on god for healing physically emotionally spiritually we've got to take authority over depression and discouragement and thoughts of suicide we've got to believe in the power of god god has not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power yes we are the apostolic church yes we have power with god saving power sustaining power delivering power so if you come to me in the time of need i'm not going

to say oh just get over it just pray through i'm not gonna dismiss your real physical emotional or other problems and say you don't need help you don't need advice you don't need anything just pray through but i am gonna say whatever help i can give you or whatever help a professional apostolic counselor can give you or whatever help an apostolic doctor or nurse can give you first and foremost we must go to god in prayer we must believe in the miraculous we must believe in healing we must believe in the power of god that's what god has given us he has not given us a spirit of fear but he's given us power on this earth and let me just add it's power over the devil it's not power to be abusive because he's also given us love people are not our enemy although i served as a pastor for many years and i could say even more so my current position sometimes it appears that people are the enemy but they're really not they're deceived by the devil can be used by the enemy but we don't use that power against people we

use that power for people we use that power against the devil against evil against wickedness we have scriptural authority as ministers of the gospel and if you're a pastor you have scriptural authority in your congregation but it's not meant to be abusive we should serve we should exercise our authority as servants with a servant's heart the second thing love now we have power and we have authority but the only acceptable motivation for anything we do is love love for god and love for people you may be operating in all the gifts of the spirit but if are using those gifts to glorify yourself or beat down other people or an attempt to manipulate other people it may be a real spiritual gift but if it's used wrong first corinthians 13 says it's worth nothing because love must rule supreme god has not given us a spirit of fear but a power and love love in the bible is not primarily an emotion or a feeling but it's in word and indeed read the book of james read first sean the test of love is the reality of your actions you can love your enemies even

when you don't like them but you can act according to the will of god towards your enemies love now i could say so much but i think covet has helped us understand the power of unity the importance of unity the importance of reaching the person on the margins and making sure they're not neglected the importance of reaching out to a brother or sister i long for the day and i believe these times are helping us achieve that when all the united pentecostal and other apostolic pastors in the city actually are friends actually a good talking communication they're willing to have breakfast or coffee together or play racquetball or play golf together have a civil conversation i pray and hope for the time when we can treat brothers and sisters like brothers and sisters we don't have to agree on everything but we can be ethical we can be ethical we can love one another the power of unity and within the local church team ministry yes if you're the senior pastor you cast vision a committee can't really cast vision it takes a man or a woman of god to hear from god and to

cast vision but a man or wound of god needs a team we have to respect and love the people that god has entrusted to us i long for more of team ministry i long for more of shared ministry shared governance where we respect the people of god that have gifts and talents i wish that all god's people were prophets i know not everyone's going to be a preacher i know not everyone's going to be a pastor but i wish every child of god unleashed the gifts and fruit of the spirit and we as preachers would recognize that facilitate that and endorse that and build a team love includes diversity inclusion don't those are good words don't let politics and social chaos rob us of important concepts now diversity is not automatically a strength it can be a weakness if we have disunity but if we work together in unity yes having people of different backgrounds different races rural versus urban small church large church first generation pentecostals multi-generation pentecostals male female every kind of diversity you can imagine can be a strength to us if we pull our gifts and talents together in a spirit

of unity as one body that concept didn't start with secular politics that concept is in first corinthians 12 in romans 12 one body different members one body a diversity in the body that's actually in the king james version somehow we have got to love one another and i'll just throw this in there's a principle of christian liberty on things that the bible grants liberty things are not moral things the bible doesn't teach one way or the other we're wise not to pick fights over those things we have enough battling the devil we have enough battling sin in a worldly society we have enough teaching scriptural holiness of dress scriptural gender distinction i stand for scriptural holiness we don't have time to pick fights over personal opinions and preferences love has to be more powerful than my personality than my feelings god is given a spirit of love and then a sound mind i looked it up in the greek and studied it in several of these study aids that we have it's an interesting and complex word it has shades of meaning but in this context the fundamental meaning is self-discipline it's not saying you're

not gonna be crazy although i think that will be included but he says a sound mind he means something far more profound self-discipline self-control god can give you all the power in the world but in the day you have a certain responsibility to discipline yourself to get a hold of yourself sometimes you have to encourage yourself in the lord sometimes you need a brother or sister to encourage you but sometimes you have to encourage yourself sometimes you're gonna have to get a hold of yourself sometimes you have to sit yourself down yes we need leaders in our lives it can help us but sometimes we have to get a hold of ourselves self-control discretion moderation and what helps us is accountability having brothers and sisters having leaders that we listen to nobody has absolute authority except jesus christ so i'm not talking about some crazy thing where you can just tell people do whatever and they have to do it or somebody's going to tell you whatever and you have to do it but i'm talking about a scriptural accountability where we partner with one another we submit to one another we respect one another

we listen to one another and if trusted people our lives are saying something and we don't see it maybe we better slow down take a second look take a third look go to god in prayer and accountability submission is not just picking the leaders you want but it's submitted to those god is a place in your life i get a little concerned when the only accountability a preacher has is people he's picked out across the country that can have some value but he already knows what they think there's something about those that god has placed in your life that you didn't necessarily tru choose but you grew up under or the brethren selected them and while they don't have absolute authority there's something to be said for listening to people that you didn't pick a sound mind self-discipline now why did god allow covet i can't say i know i can't say all the ins and outs but could it be that god has a purpose in fact i'm quite confident that whatever role the devil had god has a bigger purpose that the devil doesn't know about whatever role a virus randomly had i

believe god has a purpose that's bigger than some virus somewhere could it be that god is trying to get us out of our comfort zone nobody likes change nobody likes disruption nobody likes uncertainty and we've been thrown into it and i don't want to trivialize that people especially pastors they're war weary they're weary of crisis decision-making they're weary of being strong for everybody else they're weary of knowing what to do society is giving conflicting stories politics medicine everybody has conflicting information what's right what's a pastor supposed to do what's my responsibility it's unending but it does force us out of our comfort zone could it be that god is forcing us to rely on him we all have things we rely on and that's good to a point but could it be that god is saying more than your plans more than your structure more than your finances more than your preaching ability more than your counseling ability more than this that the other i want to show you you have if you want to break through the dimension that i want to give you you have to rely on me and is he saying

rely on one another you should be your brother's keeper you should be checking on your neighboring pastor to see how he's doing you should be praying for one another you should be coming alongside to provide that fellowship that the world can't provide could it be that god is trying to get us to be fully apostolic and i would just say this very briefly but not long after i became general superintendent a man called me a minister that was once with us fairly prominent he gone another direction we would probably say the charismatic movement he made an appointment he came to st louis sat in my office and he said i'm no one to tell you anything so i'm not here to tell you anything but if there's one thing i could say he says we still look at the upci those of us have gone all these different directions we still observe everything you're doing if he said if i was gonna say anything the only thing i would say to you is stay the course stay the course that was from an unlikely witness in recent months i've had unusual contacts that i don't

want to disclose at this point but some are people who left us and gone far what we would call a liberal or direction others we might say the opposite directions far stricter than we are others who are trinitarian pentecostals and there's an unusual report of we're looking at what the upci is doing and we want what you have they've actually told me those things some have said if i had to do it all over again i would make different decisions others have said we used to have what you have but we don't have it anymore i don't want to make of ourselves more than we should but i do believe these challenging times are showing who has the power of god who's going to stand for righteousness and morality and i think it's probably going to get a lot tougher than it is now we're going to be among the few they're still preaching biblical morality biblical gender distinction biblical respect for human life we're going to be among the few that preach male and female holiness of life and yet the power of god at the same time speaking in tongues miracles signs and

wonders other groups are fading fast other groups are losing everything will the lord find faith when he comes back it will hold on to the threefold court of faith the power of god the love of god and a disciplined mind i believe we are well able to take the land let's stand right now one of our intercessors told me right before this meeting she said i see in the book of job where we are what it is we're being tested but notice the end of the test it was a double portion if you're weary if you're frustrated if you're discouraged if you look at declining attendance or you don't know where people are you you look at all your plans and nothing's going to work out you don't know when it's going to work out but i believe the lord is saying this is a test this is simply a test but if you can learn to rely on me if you can learn to have power with god if you can learn to love one another as never before if you can learn to discipline your mind and get a hold of yourself then

there is a double portion why don't we pray right now that this year we'll see a breakthrough revival a double portion they're sincere and hungry people who love god but don't have the fullness of truth or who've fallen by the wayside or have drifted but god is going to give us a harvest of souls and god's going to give us a harvest of new souls and god's going to give a harvest of backsliders let's pray for a double portion it's time to hold on to the threefold cord of faith and