Scripture References: Hebrews 10:38-39 (AMPC); Hebrews 10: 36-39 (MSG); Hebrews 11:1 (AMPC)
We thank You, Lord, for this wonderful day. Thank You for blessing us this day. I’m full of Your life and Your joy and Your peace, and what a wonderful time it is to celebrate the life of Jesus. And I thank You, Lord, that even in this service today we will enjoy the wonderful fullness of the life of God. Thank You, Lord, that we are touch by Your Holy Spirit and touched by the Word of God today in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen.
You may be seated.
Well, this time of the year it’s like everybody goes away, and so you guys are the ones that, you’re the smart ones. I always say that every year, you’re the smart ones. You go away when everybody is back. Yeah. Hallelujah. So, did you all get this piece of paper when you came in? So this is – the Holy Spirit spoke to Pastor Sharon and began to work in her spirit and she began to speak this out in her private time with the Lord. And so she decided to make it available first to the prayer connect group in Witbank and then, you know, if other people got to find out about it… so she gave it to the Joburg Church last week… the Witbank Church last week, and so I said to Sharon, “Well, I think we should release it to the Joburg people.” So even though a lot of them have gone away and many of them will only come back in the new year, I’m going to just read through this because it’s, it really, when she read it to me, it impacted me and I asked her if I could take this as my own declaration for my life for 2020, so then she released it to the prayer people but… So let me just read it with you.
The New Door
Yes, I will go through
Hand in hand with You
My ears will hear
My eyes will see
Everything you have for me
I’m walking through Rejoicing
Believing and Receiving
Things I’ve never seen
Places I’ve never been
People I’ve never met
Stuff I’ve never done (yet)
All glory to the Son!
Words I’ve not yet heard
My heart so stirred
And burning within
Yes, I enter in!
Thank You—that this what You have in store
A brand New Door
And as I go through it
Supernatural increase for me more and more
Thank You for this jump start
I’m doing my part
Oh yes! You can count on that
Off the bat
I’m jumping diving in
Boots and all
A free fall
In faith!
With faith, I go over the threshold
Of this new Door
Increase…supernatural it will be
It will not cease
Leaving behind the old that has gone before
Things that have long lost their use
I make no excuse
Living in the New and the Now
Your glorious Spirit showing me how
In reverence, I bow
You are Great!
Through the New Door
The Light more bright
Much of Me you will see
Things way more clear
Me so much more near
A release of Spirit Life Divine
Lay your all on the Line
Much brighter through this Door
Expect revelation on a new level
It will defeat every devil
Uninterrupted Unlimited your authority
It’s My Time in History!!!
A New Door
It’s Open
It’s New
I’m going straight through
My will surrendered to You
My Words from You
My Faith Unshakable
My Praise unstoppable
My Love walk Impeccable
My worship True
I’m going through
My Joy unlimited
My Strength in You
The New Door
It’s Open
It’s a Kingdom Door
It’s being opened by You Jesus
How do I go through?
Become
Like a little child
Come to Me like a child
Come humble
And you won’t stumble
Without humility
There’s almost a kind of futility
Because through this New Door
There will be no place for Pride to hide
Let Me Help you deal with it
Privately Personally Powerfully
Inside
Through this New Door
Everyday humility will be required
Just like a little child
Pride and Greedy are deadly Twins
No one wins
The Pride of Life
The Lust of the eyes
The Lust of the flesh
A trio Death
Breathe in the Life of My Breath
And You’ll stay free—
Of all three
Come with a heart sincere
No place for pretense either here
That’s quite exceptional. That’s the ministry of the Psalmist in its purest form operating through Pastor Sharon. Hallelujah. So, I determined before I came here, normally this time of the year I would take one or two Sundays as a break time and I would have others minister, normally. But I had other reasons to be in Joburg today, and I had it in my heart by the Holy Spirit yesterday I said to Pastor Sharon – I think she should minister in Witbank this morning and I’ll do the afternoon service here in Joburg. I want to encourage you to actually watch her ministering on the internet. Did you all watch it this morning? No? Well, I would go so far as to say that you almost can’t fully recognize what God is doing in our ministry and won’t fully appreciate what God’s doing in our ministry if you don’t listen to her message from this morning.
So, you know, what God has supernaturally done is He’s brought technical musicians into our ministry that are of literally of the highest, the highest calibre. Some of them are recognized in the world as being proper, proper, proper musicians. So, if you go out into the world there, and if, I don’t know if it’s like that anymore… but years ago there was Idols, I don’t know if Idols even shows anymore in America, but there was always a lot of – right in the beginning – I remember there was a lot of people that used to come on Idols show and they were all church singers, you know, or they were worship leaders and they came to idols to show and strut their stuff, you know. And so even though in their own eyes they were really great, and maybe in the church’s eyes they were very good, you know. The reality was when they came up against real talent in the world, they didn’t really make it, for the most part. Well, the guys, the people that are, that have come into the ministry that have come to help us, are doing it because it’s in their heart are the guys that would have been in the last ten of Idols, last six, whatever the case may be. They are top, top talent in the world. So Pastor Sharon had the message this morning about what God is doing in the music ministry right now and how God has been preparing us as a ministry for the sound and the music that He has brought to the Church. We have given Him our obedience and the obedience that we have given Him has caused Him to be able to bless and multiply what we give Him. Amen.
So, I want to encourage you to watch it through the website. I don’t think, I don’t know if you can get it anymore on YouTube unless if you go through the website, you can? Okay, good. So watch it it’s really important and if you know someone who hasn’t that’s in the ministry get them to watch it’s really, it’s really a powerful message. And so that’s just amazing how the Lord leads because, you know, I was not aware that God was speaking to her so powerfully about music. We’d had some conversations, but I wasn’t aware of some of the things that God has been showing her and well under the anointing it came out extremely powerfully today. Amen.
And so, I’m going to just minister a short while here on Hebrews chapter 10, I going to start by reading the Amplified Bible and verse 38 and verse 39 and it says, 38But the just shall live by faith [My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, and holy fervor born of faith and conjoined with it]; and if he draws back and shrinks in fear, My soul has no delight or pleasure in him. So the just shall live by faith. So, the Amplified Bible says, 38My righteous servant shall live by his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things. (Hebrews 10:38 AMPC).
So this morning I did the offering and I did the announcements. I haven’t done that in quite a long time, but I did it this morning so that Pastor Sharon could preach. And I just spoke very briefly about the things in our lives that we live, and I’m sure some of you have heard this before, where we live by convenience and not by conviction, you know. And if you live by convenience then you do what suits you and if you live by what suits you – then you are the sole arbiter of what is good for you. But if you live by conviction then you have to say, “What is it that I have the fervor for, what is it that I have passion for, what is it that is convincing, convicting to a point where I will just about do anything to make it happen.” And well I was using it in a context this morning not knowing what Pastor Melusi was going to say this afternoon in the way that he said it to you, but if you consider your tithe to be a convenience then when someone else comes in and gets a hold, someone else demands your money, then your tithe is no longer a conviction, it’s a convenience. So then your faith is not something that will stand the test of pressure. It will not stand the test of pressure. Faith cannot stand the test of pressure if everything is a convenience, but faith will withstand pressure if it’s a conviction. Amen. Praise the Lord.
38But the just shall live by faith and it is about his conviction respecting man’s relationship to God and divine things, it is about a holy fervor born of faith…” So if I’ve got a faith that’s building in me then my faith demands action, it demands, it demands that I do something about this, this faith, and so I’ve heard it preached and to some extent, I subscribe to it fairly strongly myself. If you have a vision for something then you will work at making that vision come to pass. If you have a dream, well, a dream is not something that you really necessarily have to work at, but a vision is something that requires work. So if you daydream and you think, “I’d like to become a top athlete.” Well, anybody can dream that. If you have a vision that you will become a top athlete and you got, obviously some talent for it, well then you’re going to have to work at it to make it come to pass and it will motivate you and inspire you and drive you. It’s not just something that’s going to, “Let me just think about it and let me dream about it and it’s nice to dream about…” You can dream about yourself being any kind of hero and any kind of power athlete that you want, but actually, if you put no kind of action to it, it will never come to pass. Well, faith is like that. Faith is like that. Faith will drive you to want to have something succeed.
And so, if we talk about, Pastor Sharon and I, I had a vision in me. It was more than a dream, it was a vision that I would be a preacher, a pastor, what I am doing full time now is what I dreamt of when I was a little boy. To the point where my vision was so strong inside of me to be a minister of the gospel that when I was 10 years old, nine years old, 10 years old, 11 years old, I would prepare sermons to preach on Sundays. And in my little, in my naïve universe of being a little boy, you know, I’d say, “In case dad needs me” because my dad was the pastor of the church, you know. So in case something happened to dad and they need someone to preach – then I’m ready. And so I used to do that every Sunday I’d prepare. I used to prepare on Sunday mornings because those years, our church services would start at quarter to eleven in the morning and so I would get up in the morning and I would have my Bible and I would be preparing sermons till it was time to go to church, prepare to preach, and I would sit in the church with my notes and I’d be ready, “Call on me, call on me.”
And I did that year after year after year after year until I got to the age of about 13 or 14 and then we had outreach on the streets and then I took all of my pent up energy for preaching, and I took it to the streets. I did, I took it to the streets and I would stand on the streets – as this – voice just broken teenager and I would shout the gospel of Jesus Christ to people and do altar calls, ask people if they want to raise their hands and get saved and people would raise their hands and I would pray with them and I would lead them to Jesus on the street. Then I would go with some friends sometimes and we’d play guitar and we’d play music and then afterwards I’d get a megaphone and I’d shout and preach and people would stand around, “Look at this mad bunch of young people that are coming to do this.” So it wasn’t just a daydream for me, it was a vision.
And believe me, if I tell you that, this position, when it is in the right order of God attracts a lot of heat, you know, it attracts a lot of heat. So, I mean, can you imagine what a win it will be for the devil if he could get me to cheat on Pastor Sharon at this stage of my life? The lives that it would have an impact on? Can you imagine? So, I mean he can’t target that in my life because that is too strong in me, but you know, I’m just saying that he will bring heat where he can bring heat in order to try and stop someone, to try and ruin their ability to influence people and share the message of the Gospel. He will try and do it any way he can, you know.
So, the next verse says, 39But our way is not that of those who draw back to eternal misery (perdition) and are utterly destroyed, but we are of those who believe [who cleave to and trust in and rely on God through Jesus Christ, the Messiah] and by faith preserve the soul. (Hebrews 10:39 AMPC).
So by faith, we preserve our soul. Sometimes we think our soul is the incubation of faith but we know because we’ve been teaching this that when you choose to make Jesus Lord and Savior of your life, He gives you the faith to get saved. And so when you cling to that faith it preserves your soul. So to the extent that you are convicted in your walk with God that you will constantly hold onto that faith and you will constantly hold onto Him – it preserves your soul. So if we read this now, I just for a moment want us to read and understand that when this was written, this book of Hebrews, it was unlikely to have been written with any chapters in mind or verses. So this would have just been one long letter. So if I just take the chapter out now and I say, so we are not of those who turn back or drawback but we cleave to and trust in and rely on Jesus Christ, the Messiah and by faith preserve the soul. 11Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality. (Hebrews 10:39; Hebrews 11:1 AMPC).
In other words, here’s the transition, I don’t drawback with my soul and I don’t allow my soul to get destroyed because I’m holding onto my faith and because my faith stands strong – 11Now faith is the assurance of the things [we] hope for, even though we can’t see the result of it, we hope for it and it comes to pass. So there’s a definite link between making a decision to keep hold of your faith and be living in a state of conviction, not convenience. Because people who live in convenience will just decide to let go of their faith but people that live in conviction they won’t let go of their faith and their faith will preserve their soul. That’s quite good hey.
So I’m going to read this to you out of the message translation now. I’m going to read from verse 36, 36But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion. It won’t be long now, he’s on the way; he’ll show up most any minute. Well I mean, uh, this can be something that is momentary and it can be something that is eternal. But anyone who is right with me thrives on loyal trust; if he cuts and runs, I won’t be very happy. But we’re not quitters who lose out. Oh, no! We’ll stay with it and survive, trusting all the way (Hebrews 10:36-39 MSG).
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God this faith is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. So this is what makes life worth living is our faith that we can hold onto this faith. Amen.
So I want to, I want to share with you, this afternoon we are going to keep it short and I am going to close. But, I want to just share this with you that I’m in big time celebration mode, I am. I’m in big time celebration mode. And I’ll tell you why I’m in big time celebration mode because everything that God has promised He will do He has done, and He’s continuing to do it for us. And there is just a sense in my spirit that as we go into 2020 and we go into the year of the new door that God opens and we will experience supernatural increase – what’s there not to be celebrating about? You know, what’s there not to be celebrating?
So, I’m concluding by pulling this all together in this way – that because I live by conviction and not by convenience, my conviction has kept me steadfast and steady all this time. And when things weren’t going exactly the way that I thought they would go I was steady. I stayed strong with my confession, I stayed strong with the Lord, and the Word of God in my mouth and I stayed strong and true to what He had shown me, right? And so as I began, He began to lead me, “Now do this John, now do this John, now do this and speak to this person, go here, do that.” And as He began to lead me God’s plan began to unfold more and more, hallelujah.
And so we have got to a place in the ministry where I was meditating on what it is that God has done in 2019 for us and I read you the list of things that God has done for us in 2019. What a list it is. But if I have to say, you know, what is something that I could pick out of that list that really means something to me? I would say, well, it’s the fulfilment of everything we’ve believing God for that it happened just like God promised – that He will do in one year that should have taken 10 years. It’s literally been so awesome – that God has done in one year what should have taken 10 years. Now, if that be the case, He also said what will take 20 years will be done in two years.
So, I wonder what next year’s going to look like. No wonder this Word has come to us – there’s a new door and as we go through the new door it’s going to attract supernatural increase. Well sure, if you build for 10 years and then you put another 10 years on top of the first 10, by the end of 20 years, you know, you’ve got quite a lot of stuff you’ve built, right? It’s almost no coincidence to me if I have to say this, that in the natural, if you go to the bank and you get a bond for your home in the natural and you’re 30 years old, 35 years old, and you go and say, “I would like to buy a house and I would like to have a bond or a mortgage on my house.” They will sign you up – the first point of call would be 20 years, so you keep the payments – monthly payments – as low as possible. It also means that for 20 years, you have the… in the bank’s view anyway, the right balance between the asset meaning something and the amount of interest that you pay. So if you’re the bank – so just hear me out now for a minute – if you’re the bank and you lend somebody money to buy a house – let’s just say it’s R100 000 that you lend somebody to buy a house. Over 20 years, you end up paying, depending on the interest rate, but you will end up paying R500 000 to R600 000 for that R100 000 house over 20 years, because of the amount of interest you pay the bank.
So, the bank wants to lend you the money as long as you can pay it for 20 years, right? Because they’re turning their R100 000 cash now to R600 000 return over 20 years. So they made a calculation and they have said that almost always, your asset will be worth the R600 000 unless some circumstance comes up. It will be worth R500 000 or R600 000 by the time the 20 years is up, maybe a little less, maybe a little more depending on the circumstance, right? So everybody says you should buy a house because it’s like having a savings account, except, not really because you’re not really saving anything. You’re actually just paying the bank the money to live, really. So the fact that you have something that’s worth R600 000 at the end of 20 years, well that also means everything else that was R600 000 20 years ago, is now R2 000 000. So if you try to make the jump from R600 000 to R2 000 000 you can’t without borrowing money again. Why? Because you’ve spent all that money on interest. Okay.
But it’s no coincidence to me that when the Lord says, “What could have got done in 10 years, I’ll do in one year and what could have been, should have been taken care of in 20 years, I’ll do it in two.” Hallo. In other words, what the world system wants you to do to acquire over 20 years, God’s going to do it in two. Is it any coincidence then that it’s one-tenth of the tithe? No coincidence that God would use that example. One year in 10, one-tenth. Two years in twenty, one-tenth. What does God ask us to give? One-tenth. What is the thing that the devil tries to justify you out of all of the time? One-tenth. Because if you can stop with one-tenth, then everything that God wants to release to you in ten can’t come to you because of one-tenth. Because your conviction, your conviction is not strong enough to stick with one-tenth. So, everything in your life is more convenient than one-tenth. So then God can’t bring you the full ten, God can’t bring you the full hundredfold, the full tenfold, because you conveniently don’t do one-tenth.
So, if you’re like me, and I can say that the last number of years that I have… Pastor Sharon and I have lived – I don’t want to say this exactly, we’ve probably lived on 10% and given away 90%, almost, it’s not quite but it’s almost. Huh, Praise the Lord. But if you’re like, if you’re in that space with me and Pastor Sharon, what’s there not to be celebratory about? Because my faith is not in what man, in what man can give me, my faith is in what God gives, in what God does. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. And so, it’s time to celebrate and I, I’m celebrating whatever God has got for us. In fact, it’s so strong in me that I, that, and its, it’s building so strong in me this last week that I’m about to, to write to Brother Jerry, I say about, I’m not necessarily saying it will be this week it might be early in the New Year when he comes to us, but in the next couple of weeks, I’ll definitely be writing to Brother Jerry, I’ll be telling him that we are expecting him with, with great celebration.
And we want him to come and have a party with us, and he must come and bring the party with him. Because he’s coming and he will be arriving at those who are having a party. Don’t you think? Don’t you want to be in party, party mode when Brother Jerry comes? Well, I’m already there, I’m sorry for you if you are not in party mode, and it’s not because it’s Christmas time, it’s really, it’s in my spirit. It’s like God has uncorked a bottle of Champagne, wrong analogy perhaps, but you know it’s like, it’s like when a bottle of Champagne gets like you see the Formula One racers and people when win races and they pop a bottle of Champagne, and it goes pop. You know and it shoots, that cork, that cork shoots because of the pressure that’s building underneath it to let it go. You know. And then all the foam runs out. Well, that’s what’s happening in my spirit, is it’s like God just popped a cork in me, and said, “It’s happy time.”
And I think it was two weeks ago I even did the Happy Feet dance. Someone sent me a Happy Feet video in the Witbank Church, Happy Feet. It’s time, it’s time for joy, it’s time for peace. Well, why? Because I am not one of those that turn back. I have never turned back; I’ve stayed sturdy and now my faith is. And now I see the end result of what my faith is. And I am assured that He would do and be everything that He said He would do. Amen. Praise the Lord. Glory to God.
Well I mean listen; we had a good time in the Word today. Just because its been a short service, it doesn’t mean to say it hasn’t been a powerful service. Its been a good service hey? Praise the Lord. Even this mornings the service in Witbank was shorter than normal, so I guess it’s because Pastor Garth is on leave, and so because Pastor Garth’s on leave, we don’t have all the band there. And so I’m going to blame it all on Pastor Garth. Hallelujah. He came and said to me, “Dad I don’t get any Sundays off, because I’m the worship leader.” I said well take a Sunday off. “Don’t mind if I do.” Praise the Lord. So, let’s stand and let’s close the service.
Praise You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord, thank You for this time that we’ve had in Your Word today and we thank You for the supernatural increase that’s coming our way, even right now we’ve got a head start and we are just going to be declaring that in You we have everything that we need. And so, I thank You Lord for those that have stayed behind and have been here this afternoon and we’ve been able to fellowship together and I thank you for those that are away on leave, that are resting and having family time. I pray that you protect their homes here where they stay and also that You would protect them as they travel there and travel back and in all that they do. No weapon formed against them prosper, You give Your angels charge over them Father. Thank You, Lord, that You bring them back to us safely, in Jesus’ Name. Everybody said Amen. Amen.
Thank you for coming, bye-bye God bless you. So, just remember hey, you’ve got to get into live streaming Christmas morning, Wednesday morning at 8 o’clock. Amen. Alright bye.
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