Scripture Reference: John 15:13-19 (NLT); Ephesians 2:1-6 (NLT); Ephesians 2:7 (AMP); Ephesians 2:7-10 (NLT); Proverbs 3:1-10 (NKJV); Luke 4:18-19 (NKJV), Mark 6:2-5 (NKJV)
Pastor Sharon Bendixen:
Hallelujah Father, we thank You now for Your word that comes forth from Pastor John, from the Spirit of God through Pastor John’s vessel, Father. We thank You Father, that it comes forth in demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit, Lord. These are not his own words, but these are the words that You have given him to speak this morning, Father. We bless him Father, thank You that he will speak this message with boldness, that You Holy Spirit are the One that gives him the utterance, Lord. And he’ll bring it forth accurately, clearly, as You have given it to him. Thank You for Your anointing, Lord, that flows through him and Your anointing that works within us, as the message comes to our hearts, that You may be glorified Father. That this word may find root in our hearts and grow fruit in our lives, Lord. In Jesus name, and we all say, “Amen.” Hallelujah. Glory. You may be seated. Thank you.
Pastor John Bendixen:
Praise the Lord. Good morning. With these Bibles in my hand, I feel like I’m Pastor Sharon. All the paper stuff that she brings to church, you know. Praise the Lord. I’ve been ministering on the Beloved and Relationships, and I’m trusting that God, in all of His grace, and all of His wonderful love that He loves us with, that every word that is spoken touches your heart and it is my desire that everything that comes out of me is by the Holy Spirit and not of myself. Amen. And it is designed to touch you and to touch your life. Glory to God.
The word beloved as I’ve been talking to you about is precious, adored, loved, much loved, favourite, cherished, treasured, prized, esteemed, worshipped almost, regarded and admired, revered and exalted. So when someone says, “You’re my beloved,” then they have some very strong words that have strong meanings. When Pastor Sharon and I, obeyed a message that came through a man vessel, about how to improve your marriage, one of the things that he told us to do was to say these words to each other. I believe he used the word beloved Sharon? I’m not sure. Can you remember? Yes, he said, “You’re precious.” He said, “You tell your partner that you’re precious and valuable to me. You’re precious and valuable to me.” And so, when we started to obey the Word, we knew that we were just saying that to each other because someone told us to. We didn’t necessarily have that in our lives, we didn’t necessarily feel that for each other. In the moment when we were saying it, of course we loved each other, of course, that was without saying, but we just obeyed words that we were told to say. And we said them to each other every day over and over again. And the more we said it, the more it got into our hearts, the more it was in our hearts, the more it became part of our lives. And so today, she is my highly valued, highly precious, highly prized. She has a place of exaltation in my life. She has a place of treasure, she’s cherished, she’s adored, she is esteemed and appreciated by me. Because she’s my beloved. We actually say that to each other just about every day. “My beloved, you are my beloved.” In fact, before we came into the service here, we were in the back room before she came to the pulpit, we just hugged each other and we just said, “My beloved, my beloved.” and looked into each other’s eyes. And we have an understanding of the love, both naturally and spiritually, and assignment and everything that is incorporated in those words.
It’s not a small thing, not a light thing. It’s a heavyweight thing, this, to be the beloved of God. It means He sees you that way, He sees us that way. And so, when I was talking to you, you can put the slide up for me, please, when I was talking to you, I showed you this slide. And I told you, I can’t really talk to you about relationships until, there it is, [Pastor John referred to slide on the screen] unless I show you this framework. And it starts with His covenant with us and then it goes to touch and I’ve been speaking on touch. And then integration of ways, strategic intentions, and then divine productivity and then covenant again.
But this time, the covenant is just not one way this covenant is a two way covenant. And so that’s, as I said to you, this is a framework that God gave to me. And every time God shows me something, or I get a revelation of something, and I just meditate on the Word, and I begin to talk about it, and think about it and pray about it. I always say, “If I can apply it to the whole Bible, and everything in the Word of God can reveal it, then I know that it’s God that’s showing it to me.”
So, I have eight eternal principles also. And I apply the eight eternal principles in the same way. And so, if I tell you what some of them are, some of them are; authority, another one is governance, another one is choice, another one is seed, another one is imaging, another one is work. Thank you. And so every one of these eight eternal principles, the reason I could call them eternal, is because they exist in God, God brought them from Himself to the earth through men, and they are continually existing now. And everything that governs our lives or everything that’s in our lives, is actually ruled by these eight eternal principles. So if you know what those eight eternal principles are, and you can apply them to your life, it will guide you and lead you in the rest of your life.
So, I want to talk to you about, just for briefly, about these two Bibles. [Pastor John holding up his two Bibles to congregation]. I thought I’d lost this one and Sharon found it in my study in the back here. But this is a Bible that goes back about twenty odd years. And it’s an old Jerry Savelle Ministries Bible. And it’s got a combination of all the Old King James and the Amplified in it. Looks pretty sorry, hey? I think I need to put a new bit of leather around it. I don’t use paper Bibles that much anymore. But I wanted to show you that this is my Bible from a long time ago. And then later on, I’ve got other Bibles; I’ve got a Bible from Rhema, Kenneth Hagin ministries, that’s very precious to me because it has a lot of his teachings in the Bible. So, I don’t use it really, other than from time to time I will take it out and I will go through the Bible using his teachings to go through the Bible.
I have another Bible, it’s a Brother Jerry Savelle, it’s Jerry Savelle Ministries Bible, it’s a 50 year edition of, and it’s got all of the things about favour in it. And so occasionally I’ll look at that Bible and go through some of those things. But this is a Bible that I bought, when I was travelling before the days of Bibles on phones and tablets. When I would travel to the USA, and obviously weight became an issue, I bought this Bible; it’s a New Living Translation Bible. And so I bought it because it’s small, it’s light, and you can take it everywhere, and you can, you know, you can preach out of it and do all that kind of stuff. And so, I bought it for the reason of the fact that it’s skinny and got little weight.
These have been two of the Bibles that I’ve used most prominently in my life. So why would I want to come and stand here this morning and talk to you about my paper Bibles? Well, if I show you this paper Bible, and I show you the words that are on this paper Bible, then it’s a book to read. It’s just a book. It’s just a book. You know, people get bent out of shape when there’s riots going on in the world and they burn Bibles, or they burn library books, or they burn different books. And especially if they burn Bibles, you know, people get bent out of shape. You can’t burn a Bible. I mean, that’s sacrilegious. It’s just a book. It’s a book with print on a page. It’s the intent behind why they’re burning the Bible that’s important. It’s not the fact that it’s the Bible. It’s just a book.
So, what’s important about this book with words on pages? What’s important is that these words don’t stay on the pages. It’s important that these words live in my heart. If these words don’t live in my heart, then it’s just another book to me. If it’s in my heart, then this book becomes extremely valuable to me. Because everything in this Book comes from God. It comes directly from God, and it’s written to me.
So, you may not see it that way. You may see it as being written to everybody but actually, the way I see it is, it’s written to me. It’s God’s direct communication to me, this book. I don’t need another book, ever. I do not need another book ever to understand God. It helps that there have been men that have gone before that have brought revelation knowledge to me to help gifts and teachings and everything else. But if I was stranded on an island, and I only needed one, one thing in my life, I wouldn’t even choose a blanket. I would choose my Bible because my Bible will bring me a blanket.
You know, there was a movie that was made by Tom Hanks. I forgot, I don’t know. Can anybody remember the name? Stranded on the island? What? Cast Away, you know, and all he had was, well, he didn’t have it, it seemed to have kind of washed up. I think he had a Wilson-ball and he drew a face on it and then he would talk to Wilson every day. Remember? Well, if I had to get stranded on the island, I wouldn’t talk to Wilson. I would rather have my Bible than have anything else. Because you may say, “Well, what good would a Bible be on the island?” I can tell you what the Bible would do, is to teach me that I could take words and with my words I could bring resources to me and I could live purely on the Word of God. I trust the Word of God and believe the Word of God that much. Well, I’m learning to trust it more and more and you do as you travel through life, you know? Praise is the Lord.
So when people talk to me about, “Let’s do life, let’s do life and let’s play this game of life. Let’s get in the game”. Then I say to you, then I would say to them, “Okay, let’s do life. Well what is doing life mean to you?” What is it when you say, “Let’s do life?” Then I say, “Well, what is it about life that you want to do?” Now, if you say, “Let’s do life” and we do life, I want to know how much of your life is God’s writings to you? If your life that you live, that you do, doesn’t include God writing to you, then you’re in a game that is rigged against you. Doesn’t matter what your status is in life. That doesn’t matter if you’re a high ranking politician, it doesn’t matter if you’re a high wealth individual, it doesn’t matter whether you get an inheritance from family, it doesn’t matter whether you have an education, the game is rigged against you. And I’m going to show you some things about that today and I’m going to ultimately end up and be talking about honour.
So for a moment, I just want to bring to the top of your mind that everybody sitting here today, everybody watching digitally, everybody has a worldview and your worldview is how you do life. You have a worldview, you have a view of the world and you view the world and you continue to view the world and the way you view the world can change and does change from time to time. I mean, if you’re a little child, and you’re at home, your worldview is that when I’m home, my parents discipline me, but they also feed me and they protect me, and they provide for me. So your worldview is actually very narrow.
When you become a teenager the challenge that most teenagers have and why they have conflict with their parents, is that they’re trying to develop a worldview. As their body changes, and as their view of themselves changes they look at the world and they say, “What is it that I want to do in the world and what do I want to become and what do I want to be in the world?” So they are engaging in themselves with a worldview. So if you’re involved, and all of us are involved, as you get older, maybe you have children, maybe you accumulate some wealth, maybe you don’t. Whatever the situation is, your worldview changes, if you’ve got a lot of hope that you can go to University and you can get money and you can have a safety blanket of a degree in your life and that’s your worldview. Well, then, you’ve got a very narrow worldview because everything that you’re seeing is about, “Who I’m identifying as? What I’m identifying with?” Then I’m saying, “I’m going to pursue this worldview because it’s my view of the world. This is what I want to be in the world.”
So when you’re a teenager in particular, everybody’s trying to influence your worldview, your peers, your parents, your teachers, media, everybody’s trying to influence your worldview and your church. Your church, I’m talking about generally not you guys. Really, I mean not you guys. Generally, in the world, the church has an hour or maybe two hours a week to influence your worldview. The world system has the rest of the time. What chance has God got to influence your worldview significantly, with two hours a week? Compared to what the rest of the system is? So the more you get into the way God sees the world, and the more you see the world the way God sees the world, your worldview must change. If you don’t change your worldview, through the worldview of God, then you are stubbornly ignoring and resisting and rebelling against God’s worldview. Amen.
So I want to show you a worldview that Jesus had, John chapter 15, verse 13 to 19 in the New Living Translation says, 13 There is no greater love than to lay down oneeThis is an important thing. People quote this a lot, because it’s like the ultimate level of love that you can show, that you can lay your life down for your friends. But Jesus goes on to explain what He’s about to do. You have no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends, He’s talking to His disciples, if you do what I command. Now remember what I said. This book is written to me. So Jesus is saying, “There’s no greater love that you can have for your friend than to lay your life down for him.” Now Jesus is saying, “John, you are My friend if you do what I command.” 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesne Father told me. John, you are no longer a slave. You are now My friend because I confide in you and I tell you everything that the Father wants you to know. Worldview change. I am not a slave to God. I am not a slave to what God says I should be behaving. I am God’s friend – if I do what He tells me. Why if I do what He tells me?
Because if He’s confiding in me what His worldview is, He’s saying, “I could treat you as a slave and command you to live according to this worldview. But I’m not, I’m treating you as a friend because you choose to live this worldview.” Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16 You didnmy friends, if you do what I tell you, you will produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. You no longer a slave, you’re a friend. You do what I tell you, My Father will give you whatever you need using My name. Why are you using My name? Because I’m your friend you’re not My slave. Worldview. 17 This is my command: Love each other. 18 “19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. (John 15:13-19 NLT)
That’s pretty strong statement stuff. I would go so far as to say; if you don’t have conflict with people in your life because of your walk with God, not because you’re a ‘moegoe’ you know. You can just behave badly, and people hate you for it. Well, then you’re asking for it. You know what I’m saying? I mean there’s a reason for them to not like you. But if you are choosing Jesus and you’re doing what He commands you to do, the world will hate you. There are some that will receive you but there are some that will hate you.
So, I consider this as something that’s God’s way of showing how much or I want to say, this is Jesus’ way of showing how much He honours His Father. Because He honours His Father by sharing everything that the Father gave Him to share, He shared it with them. And now He’s telling them you are My friends, and the Father will give you all that you asked for in My name, if you do what I tell you. And you will be hated for it. So, let’s not be in any illusion here. There is a worldview that individuals hold, communities hold, countries hold and, and alliances of countries hold.
This weekend, the American Congress passed a bill and the bill that they passed was to employ 80,000 new tax audit agents. 80,000 – That’s more than filled Ellis Park Stadium last night. Why are they appointing 80,000 tax agents in America more than exists currently? Well, because they’ve just spent trillions of dollars and they also put more taxes on the US citizens. And so now they want their tax money to come in, so that they can pay for their spending. It’s a worldview.
Donald Trump had a very different worldview. He said, “Lower taxes, reduce the amount of paperwork that’s involved, and release people to make their own decisions and to do business. Take away all the regulations of business and let it prosper.” And what did it do? Greatest economy probably ever in the history of America. Worldview, change President, different worldview, restrictions, restrictions, restrictions, taxes, taxes, taxes. Worldview – An administration worldview of a nation, they have a grand plan to put everybody on electric vehicles. It’s just one question that they won’t answer is, “How are you going to get enough power to put all the power in electric vehicles?” Come on, it’s a very simple logic question this. “How are you going to get enough power to put all the power in the electric vehicles?” Solar doesn’t do it. Neither do windmills.
You’re either going to need nuclear power, or you’re going to need natural gas or some such thing. But to have a different worldview. So, whatever your worldview is, is going to directly impact your actions. So, I ask you, who is influencing and what is influencing your worldview? If you want to have communion, as we did last Sunday, and you want to examine yourself, about how the death of the Lord Jesus is working in your life, you have to examine your worldview and say, “Who and what has influenced my worldview? Is it fear, is it faith?” Unfortunately, most people won’t be honest about that because it requires courage.
Now, bear with me, because I’m building, not only for the message this today, but for the message for next Sunday. So, by the way, next Sunday is a digital service Sunday. We are not having church in the building because we are going away with all of the people that run the ministry, from the full-time employees to all of the interns to everybody else, we’re all going away. And we’re all going to seek God and have fun. So, we’re doing a digital broadcast, and I’m preaching session number two, immediately after this service. So, if you want to stay and watch the second service, you’re welcome, but you can go home. I’m not telling you to; I’ll preach to an empty auditorium. But I will say what I’m preaching is going to lead on to our weekend in September, which is going to be about faith, finance, and fasting.
Okay, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1 in the New Living Translation. I want you to recognize this, 1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. So, what is dead? How can you be dead because of your disobedience of your sins? Well, death is separation from God. So, any actions that you take that are separate from the actions of God must bring death. Shocking new worldview for you. If you haven’t had this worldview before. Any action you take, that is an anti-God action, regardless of how justified it may feel, or how nice it may feel. Any action that you take, that you do that is not the way God would do it brings death, because it brings separation from God. That’s what death is, 1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the rest of the world, obeying the devil– (Ephesians 2:1-2 NLT).
What does the world do? According to the Scripture, come on? What does the world do? Obey the devil? Come let’s say it again [Congregation repeats after Pastor John] The world obeys the devil. Let’s say it again. The world obeys the devil. Doesn’t matter how moral they look, it doesn’t matter what values they have, if they don’t have God in their life and are not living for Jesus, the world obeys the devil. So, who’s impacting your worldview? If someone in the world is impacting your worldview, then those that are obeying the devil are impacting your worldview. –the commander, the devil, is the commander of the powers in the unseen world.
The commander of the powers in the unseen world. How do the people in the world obey the devil? Because the commander of the unseen powers of that world are commanded by him to go and make the people do. Persuade them, intimidate them, do whatever you can, influence them to obey the world system. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. Huh. Will you say this to me again [Congregation repeats after Pastor John] My spirit man is the real me. Your spirit man always wants to obey God. If you do not obey God, you are making a conscious choice to say, “I want to obey the devil, the unseen commander of the world system, and all of the forces he’s unleashing to influence me, I want to obey him. I don’t want to do what God says.” “Pastor John, you are preaching a little bit heavy today.” No, I’m preaching the truth. This kind of truth will set you free, because you need to understand that your worldview is being influenced every day by a whole bunch of factors.
So, all of us used to live that way. So, most of the issues that I have to deal with in the church is because people that used to live that way still live that way, they haven’t let the real man, the real spirit man dominate their choices. So, they’re still thinking like they used to think and behave like they used to be, but they want the will of God. Because their spirit man’s calling for it. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. So, as a born again, Christian, if you behave like those in the world, you get the same results as they do. The wrath of God is poured out to them. Because they don’t accept Jesus. You get the same results as they get. Because you’re behaving like them. But you don’t have to because the spirit man is in you, the real man.
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!). 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, this is a very important point, he raised us from the dead, he raised us from the dead along with Christ, but you weren’t even born yet. But He knew you were coming. And so, before you were even born, He raised you from the dead in Christ Jesus, if you choose Jesus. Raised you from the dead and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-6 NLT).
Remember the first scripture I said, “I call you friends” because I share everything that is mine with you. Now Jesus died for us so that the answer that Jesus gave His disciples, that becomes our answer. We are seated together with Jesus in heavenly places. I ask you, what becomes your worldview now? If you’re seated there, if you’re seated there, what do you think about this world? What do you think about money, if you’re seated there? What do you think about healing, if you’re seated there? What do you think about relationships, if you’re seated there? Come on. He’s raised us up so we can sit with Jesus in heavenly places.
But I can behave just like people in the earth. I can behave like children of disobedience. I can. Because if I let my flesh dominate me, then I can behave like that. If I let my real men loose in my life, then I’m seated with Christ in heavenly places, my worldview changes. If you like, the entire thing that I need to do, is part of my ministry is to help you change your worldview and keep teaching you and keep being there so that you can change your worldview. So that you can look at the world the way that Jesus looks at the world because you’re seated with Him.
I’m going to read verse 7, from the New Living Translation, then I’m going to read it to you from the Amplified, 7 So God can point to us. So why did He do all of this? Why did God do all of this? 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as example of the incredible wealth of His grace and kindness towards us, as shown in all He has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:7 NLT). You need to be united with Christ. You need to be united with Him. You mean to say God did all this so that He can point to us in all future ages? Ages, that’s ages upon ages.
Many years ago, I preached a series of messages on ancient paths, how God has called each of us to walk on an ancient path, and how we walk on that ancient path by, speak in an ancient language. Where do you think I got that word, the ancient paths? Because the Bible refers to Him as the Ancient One. But He also refers to us as those that He will point to, in ages to come, ages and ages and ages, eternal ages, He will point to us and say, “This is My mercy and My grace. This is who I am as God.” We are the object of that grace. We are the object of that devotion. His love devoted to us.
The Amplified says that this way. 7 He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:7 AMP). So, I mean, I just want you to make the point; He did as clearly so that he could demonstrate through the ages to come. Now, the Apostle Paul didn’t know exactly, perhaps he doesn’t know how many ages that would be. And I can’t tell you that if a thousand years is like a day and the days as thousand years in the Bible to God, I don’t know what exactly those ages mean. But I can tell you it means more than a couple of generations on the earth. It means eternally, God can point to this.
So, 8 God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it’s a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for good things we have done. Because if it was, then why would you have to send Jesus. So none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago (Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT). He’s got things that He planned for you long ago and He wants to do those things in your life. If they don’t get done in your life, why not? Come let’s talk turkey now for a minute. I mean not the country Turkey, or the gobbledygook turkeys; let’s talk straight.
If God has planned something for you, He’s got plans for you and He wants those plans to come to pass. Why? Why would it not come to pass? Who stands in the way? Your choice? Okay, so we read now, clearly we read that there is a commander of dark forces, who releases his powers to continue to make sure that people are blind to God, and they serve the passions of their lives, their sensual sensory passions. So he wants you to live like everybody else lives – without God. That’s how he wants you to live. He wants you to live like everybody else without God. That’s the evil commander, using today’s scripture. So, how does Jesus want you to live? He wants you to live as seated with Him in heavenly places. If you are seated with Him in heavenly places, then you are always being aware of what God’s plan is for you. And that’s good. And everything He has planned for you is good.
So, honour is to hold in high esteem, to have a high regard for, to respect, to look up to, to think highly of, to appreciate, to value, to cherish, to venerate, to worship. These are words of honour. If you are seated with Jesus in heavenly places, tell me what your lifestyle is like when you look at Jesus and you see what he’s done for you? Don’t you? Don’t you have high esteem? Don’t you prize and value everything that Jesus did for you?
So, I know that even as I’m talking to you, you’re busy evaluating the message that God has put in my heart to give to you today. You are evaluating it, you are weighing it up in your mind and your emotions, you’re evaluating and weighing it up through your worldview. To a measure, what I’m saying to you is already affected, tainted, it is already watered down to some extent because your worldview in your head and your soul is evaluating it. But if you’re hearing this in your spirit, then your spirit man will make choices to say, “I’m gonna listen to this message over and over and over so that I can get rid of my old evil thought process and I can get a worldview that’s seated with Christ in heavenly places.” So, that in itself begins to honour.
Please say this with me again. My spirit is the real me. Because if you know this and I’m gonna keep saying this to you because if you know that my spirit is the real me, then if that real you is seated with Christ in heavenly places, my body can’t go there. Come on. Neither can my brain go there. But my spirit is directly connected to Jesus and because there is no distance in spirit, I’m seated with Christ in heavenly places. So your spirit man has all the answers to all of your problems. If you’re seated with Christ in heavenly places and you do what He says, your spirit man has all the answers to all the problems in your life. Praise the Lord.
So, I want to just see how much time I’ve got left here. I mean, I would recommend that you go and read Proverbs 3 verses 1 to 10. 1 My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands; 2 For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you (Proverbs 3:1-3 NKJV). Verse five says, 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding; the challenges that people have in their life come from their own understanding, not from leaning on the ways of the Lord, from their own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; why not? Fear the Lord and depart from evil (Proverbs 3:5-7 NKJV). This is the same thing, Jesus that I’ve been reading to you in the New Testament, there is this worldview contest; fear the Lord and depart from the evil that you can have a worldview of. If you have a worldview, that’s based on separation from God, then you’re leaning on your own ways, your own wisdom.
And I’ll tell it to you again. We sang the song today, it might look like the world is prospering and it might look like people get away with things because they are, they’ve got it all under control and they’ve got it all sorted and they are that smart. But let me tell you, God is God. And His ways are the Way, the Truth and the Life and there is no other system on the earth that can do and will, I should rather say it this way, all the other systems on the earth will be judged by the ways of God. All the systems of the world and the ways of the world will be judged by the ways of God; and if you are operating according to the systems of the world, your ways will be judged by the ways of God.
Thank God for His grace and His mercy. It’s, it’s everlasting, and it’s enduring, and it’s steadfast; and thank God that He doesn’t hold all of our transgressions against us. Thank God for that. Thank God for that, that He gives us chances like services today, He gives us a chance to change our minds. He gives us a chance to make a conscious decision to have a worldview that says, “I’m seated with Christ in heavenly places.” It’s a worldview of honour, it’s not a worldview of dishonour. So, ⁹ Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase; ¹⁰ So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine. (Proverbs 3:9-10 NKJV)
I can tell you this, I’ve witnessed this myself, and I’ve watched it in my sons’ lives; when they honour God with their increase, with their possessions, and they put God first place, this is what happens, “their barns are filled with plenty. And their vats overflow with new wine.” (Proverbs 3:9 NKJV) So what happens if it looks like things are not quite going the way that they were going? If you’ve lived that way before, that way is coming back. God is not a debtor to you if you’ve put Him first, but if you’ve gone against the ways of God, and you lean to your own understanding, you can’t hold to this promise.
I live a blessed life. I can say this along with Brother Jerry. I’ve been listening to some of Brother Jerry’s messages this week; over and over and over and over again, I’ve been listening to him, because he’s my spiritual leader and what’s happening in his life, I want in my life. And he honoured all of us publicly and we became… God in His greatness chose to elevate our church. He chose to make our church an example for ages to come, by showing what honour looks like, because Brother Jerry chose to get up in a conference that has a global footprint of people that watch via internet, that conference; and in that public forum, he talked about us; about our honour seed.
I mean, I’ll tell you what, there are moments this week, I’ve had this week; there have been moments where it’s completely overwhelmed me that we were just, I was just obedient, I heard Brother Jerry say, I heard him say, “John, I want you to come, come. Come on this trip, come on this trip, come”, and he wasn’t putting pressure on me, he was expressing a strong desire. And, you know, I told you the story, driving in the car, he spoke to one minister, he said, “I’m trying to get this guy to come and ride with me.” I heard and then I understood, “Okay, if I’m going, there’s something, there’s an opportunity here, God wants us to do something, He wants us to take an honour seed.” And then when I was there, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and you heard his side of the story, because he doesn’t know our side of the story. I didn’t tell him that. He doesn’t need to know our side of the story, so, but the Lord spoke to me and said, “Be awake, John. It’s an opportunity for a gift.” Not the cash, it’s an opportunity for a gift. So when you heard him talk, he said, so He came with a mandate, “If there’s something that Brother Jerry likes, then buy it for him.”
Because that’s what the Lord spoke to me, He said, “Be aware John, be ready for it. Open your eyes, be watchful.” What’s happening to me? I’m seated with Christ in heavenly places, so I have a worldview that is not limited to rand-dollar exchange rates. It’s not limited to what this or what that it’s, it’s about honour seed, it’s in our hearts to give an honour seed, and so the honour seed impacted his life, and in fact it impacted his life so much that he chose to make it public. Let me tell you, Brother Jerry gets given lots of things, but they don’t all come attached with honour. Most of them come attached with, “I’ll sow a seed, so I can get a harvest.” We made up our minds with the first irrational honour seed that we sowed, that we are not looking for a harvest of money, we are sowing an honour seed; and we did it the second time too, we said, “This is not money for a harvest, this is an honour seed.
This is the honour seed, the same honour seed that the lady that created a room for the prophets chamber, that she said, “I have need of nothing, but I know who you are, so come and stay in my house because you need something. It’s just easy for you.” You remember that? Honour. Honour. We have no need. I was, I told you all of that because I’m just reflecting on how blessed we are. This church has paid for all the upgrades we’ve made, everything that we do is paid for cash. So when COVID came we didn’t have a challenge. Our biggest expense in the ministry is – money to people. I invest in people. Praise the Lord.
So Jesus gets up in the synagogue; Luke 4:18, ¹⁸ The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, now, He was reading it from the book of Isaiah, but He was speaking it because He was it. ¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; ¹⁹ To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19 NKJV) He has anointed me to do these things.
I ask you this question, did God ever take the anointing away from Jesus? He only did it one time, and that is when He was judged for the sin of the world, but while He was walking on the earth, He never withdrew that anointing, not one time. And the only reason He had to withdraw His anointing from Jesus is because judgement had to come; but when He raised Him from the dead, because he was illegally killed, what did He do? He doesn’t just re-anoint Him, He seated Him on His right hand, and He handed all judgments of everything that was to come into His hands.
So you and I sit, seated at the right hand of Jesus. If we are seated there, and we do what He says, our lives are part of His Word that judges all things; and if you have a financial thing, if you have a financial thing where your finances are not cooperating with your life; judge it as a worldly thing, and command the money to come, and worship God and praise God and say, “Because I do what You tell me to do, I’m seeking You first. Thank you, Lord, that You add these things to my life.” Hallelujah.
Now, this is Jesus in the synagogue. I’m reading, that’s Luke chapter 4, I’m reading to you from Mark chapter 6, and I’m nearly done with my message today. Mark Chapter 6 says, ¹ Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. ² And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, so Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, and many are astonished.
They’re astonished at His teaching. You know, for people that grow up in a synagogue, that grow up hearing the, I mean, they, it’s like, they’re able to verbally quote the Torah, by the age of seven. I mean, they grew up with the Word of God in their mouths, and they grew up in church, synagogue. So, I mean, they’ve heard a lot of different ways that the Bible has been talked about, from Pharisees and Sadducees, and rabbi’s and all kinds of people, right?
So to get astonished by somebody, that’s quite something for these people. So,² they were astonished, saying, “Where did this Man get these things? Where did this man, ² “Where did this man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to him…” They’re acknowledging, they’re acknowledging there’s a difference, “I’m astounded at His teaching, who gave Him this wisdom, ² that such mighty works are performed by his hands! (Mark 6:2 NKJV). This is miracle stuff. 3 Is this not So, now they … just watch this now. They come from a worldview of synagogue, whole system of synagogues. How do you get to be a teacher in a synagogue? You have to follow in the footsteps of another teacher. And so, Paul followed in the footsteps of a teacher, a very famed teacher. And because he was the most prominent and famed teacher, if you just become one of his disciples you’ve already made it.
And so that’s their worldview. Who gave Him this insight, this wisdom. Who gave him this? How to talk like this, and to perform miracles like this? Who is this man? Okay, worldview. Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us, living in our town? (Mark 6:3 NKJV) So? They were offended at Him. Worldview, they recognize this guy is doing stuff that are beyond our comprehension. But how can He be? Because He lived here, His brothers are with us, His sister is here. So how can He be doing these things? Just the wrong question, got them into trouble.
How can He be doing these things? So they became offended. But Jesus said to them, 4 “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” So now He is answering them, “why are you offended? Because I’m a prophet, at least to you. And you can not recognize that I’m a prophet, because I grew up with you.” It was, and it has been in my past life. It has been people that knew me, and they knew what manner of man that I was and lived with my wife, with success in business, with things, that they came to our church. But when they heard the words that I preached, which I’m preaching to you today, these words, to hold them accountable for their worldview, and what they believe and what actions they’re taking, that’s not just things that I speak is my worldview, it’s what I believe that becomes my worldview.
When I held them accountable for what they believed, they were offended at me, because is this not John, who was in the same church with us? Is this not John, who was doing the same learning as us? Was this not John, who was the usher, and who was this and who was that? So how can he hold us accountable to these things? How can he be a prophet to us in his life? Do you want to know why God had me change my physical address from Jo’burg to Witbank, and come and live here? It’s for that reason. Because God told me, He said, “John, by moving your physical address and moving here to Witbank, you are effectively doing what I told My disciples to do, you’re dusting your feet off of that city, because they do not accept you as a prophet, certainly to those people. And you take your peace and you take your blessing with you.”
So then I asked Him, I said, “Well, what about the people that You’ve given me that are with me? He said, “You do not take your peace and your blessing with them, to them, you remain …whatever they have with you, they remain that. They are your Philippian church. It’s my timer. That tells me I must stop soon. [Congregation laughing]
So He said, “They are your Philippian church, they are partners with you in ministry, and you’ve got to continue to work with them, because they have called you to them.” But He told me to change my physical address and come and live in Witbank here. Because what I represent to God could not stay in Johannesburg. And then He said to me, “And when you get there, take nothing with you. Don’t go and buy a house. Don’t go and do everything. Don’t go and do the things that people normally do. Wait. I’ll bring it to you. Everything you need, I’ll bring it to you. Just obey Me, wait.” I did exactly what He told His disciples to do. I took no garments with me, I took no money with me. I didn’t come here for that. I came here because God said, “I need you to change your address. Because I need you to have a different anointing and be honoured and respected and valued. And I’m calling you to a people who will see you that way.” Now you’re getting the skinny, the whole download of it.
So, 4 A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house. So, 5 Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid hands His hands on a few sick people and healed them. 6 And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching. (Mark 6:3-5 NKJV) And so, I say this to you. He couldn’t, He couldn’t do anything. He could do a very small, small portion of what God had anointed Him to do. Same village, same synagogue, same people. He has anointed me to do these things. He comes back to the same people, the same village, and now He is doing those things. But He could not do those things, just a small portion, because they never received Him even though He declared Himself to what God called Him to do in their company. He first declared that to His village. Praise the Lord.
And so honour, honour brings things into your life that nothing else can. Because I can touch God and I can be touched by God. And I will integrate and I have integrated, and you can integrate your ways with God. And in the next message, I’m going to talk about Abraham, and how Abraham became very rich. But honour is something that, if you walk in honour, you draw things to you. If you walk in dishonour you push things away from you. So, if you disregard what I said today, if you walk out of here, and you disregard everything that I said today. What are you doing? You’re dishonouring the Word, the fact that God had me prepare. I want to show you something, my, my brain, I had to call Sharon, to help her, to get her to help me. I want to just show you something quickly. It’s, it’s, it’s on another slide here. And I’m …it’s just it’s, it’s, I just want to show it to you. I don’t want to preach it to you, I just want to show it to you.
I must edit it so that it comes up in one page. So, see when I’m preparing, no pictures allowed now. This is copyright material. See, when I’m preparing, and I’m with God, this is what I, this is what I was doing about this honour message, and I was going to do for you like a whole teaching of. This is how my brain thinks. [Pastor John showing his tablet to the congregation]. Standard. Command. Choice. Response. Intimate relationships.
At the bottom I’ve got: Touch. Integration of ways. Strategic intention. Divine productivity. Covenant. And over here I’ve got words under the Standard – that’s the God’s standard. Holiness, Righteousness, Sanctification, Reverence, Devotion, Judgement, Vows or Pledges. I wanted to teach you about “Honour.” [Big screen showing what is “copyrighted”] But then I realised if I get into this, It would be like you’re being in Bible school. And I don’t have time to do all of that in a meeting like this. So we’ll have another time or another session, or God will let me give it to you in another way.
Besides, when I spoke to Sharon, I said, “Sharon, let me show you how I’m going to…, she said, “John, you’re doing Bible school stuff here.” I said “So what? She said, “This is Sunday’s church, it is not a Bible school.” I said, “Your right babe.” And so I said, “All right, Lord, I’m going to put this aside, and I’m going to focus on what I need to focus on for today and for the second service.” And then I’ll teach this at another time. Maybe the interns will get it this week, and you guys won’t, but who knows? No, God will not dishonour you like that. He will make sure that you get everything that you need.
I just wanted to show you how God, when I’m before God, and I’m wanting to show you things, I go to the Scriptures, and I put it into a way that, for me, that is, I can tell them all the stuff I know on one page. Except that doesn’t quite work like that, you know. But I want to say this, when Jesus stood up in the synagogue and He said, He has anointed me. This is what He said, His Holiness is with me. His righteousness is the way I live. My sanctification is because I am pure before Him. I have all of the things that I have in God, everything. It is who I am now bringing to you. And all of this has come so that I can preach good news to those that are poor.
How does holiness and righteousness and sanctification, and all of the integration of ways with God, how does that come and not be yours? Only one way. If you say, “Who’s this delivering this message? How can this message just be a message? It’s just another church service. Just another, just another.” You’ve disregarded what God has said. Because you disregard the messenger. You disregard that, “We can go to church next Sunday, because Sunday, next Sunday is just another Sunday. And it doesn’t matter if I skip some Sundays, because it’s just church.” You can shout me down because I’m preaching real good.
In that case, what you’re saying is, that’s just another component in my life, but my worldview is, “I want to live the way everybody else lives.” But if my worldview is the way God is, I’m seated with Christ in heavenly places, then He has anointed me to go and preach the Good News to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted. I know that God is going to do some things, I’m believing that there are some things God is going to do between now and the time that Brother Jerry comes, and He’s already doing it. And when Brother Jerry comes, He is going to bring some things to us, and I’m trusting, because God revealed it to me.
I never knew this until last year, I did not know what a broken heart looked like. Because people can tell you what the symptoms are of a broken heart, but they don’t think that it’s a broken heart. You know, people say, “She broke my heart.” That’s not a broken heart. That’s just, I’m feeling rejected. I’m feeling my pride is hurt. He or she doesn’t value me the way I thought I would be. That’s not a broken heart. I don’t want to say more than that. Because it gets really personal when I start talking about broken heart.
That means there’s an event that happened in your life that was so traumatic, that it broke your heart, and that broken heart becomes the way you view the world through everything. You judge God because of a broken heart. You judge people because of a broken heart. In fact, judgement and criticism and your own rejection of people and things, is because of a broken heart. A broken heart is not just an emotion, it’s a big deal. When Jesus said I come to bring good news to the poor, He came to deliver you and me from poverty. It’s a big deal. He came to deliver people from that broken heart. It’s a big deal. He came to set captives free. What captives? From the whole world system, He came to set people free from it. It’s a big deal. And that same anointing comes back amongst the people, and they say, “Who is this guy? Where does he get this instruction? It doesn’t follow the rules of our society. And because it doesn’t follow the rules, we can’t have you say this stuff.”
Well, you have said it. I can’t do it. If He told His disciples to do that, then what is He going to do? Through grace and mercy He didn’t dust His feet off and walk out of it. He said, “Okay, there’s a few people sick.” I don’t know exactly how that worked but I’ll tell you how I think it worked. I think He would walk into a house of people that He knew, and someone was sick, then He just touched them, and they just would be healed. He didn’t draw attention to it. He would be probably sitting in His house with His parents and His family, and having a meal, and people would come in there because He is famous now, He is well known now. And they would come in there, and He just touched them and they were healed, because the healing power of God was all in Him. And He didn’t have to say, “You heard Me before Father, You know everything.” He just touched them and they were healed. He couldn’t make a big deal out of it because they rejected Him. A few small miracles, “I got a headache, I’ve got woman’s problems on a monthly basis that is really bad for me.” She wouldn’t even know that He knew. He just touched her and it stopped. Praise the Lord.
You see dishonour, that’s what happened there. He was without honour in His own town. So dishonour pushes things away from you. If you have honour it draws things to you. So we have drawn through our honour, we have drawn Brother Jerry to us. Through our words before God, we said, “Lord, we have given an honour seed, I want us to be the first destination outside of America that he comes with his jet. His new international continental jet that he has been believing You for, for 20 years, and now it’s manifest. I want us to be the first place he comes to.” I didn’t sow an honour seed for that, but now I have a place before God out of honour. So I said, “Lord can it be so?”
On the phone, “John, we are coming in January, we are coming to you.” I spoke to Joe on the phone on Thursday, I think Thursday or Wednesday night, I spoke to brother Joe on the phone. And we were going through the itinerary and some of the suggested items of what we’re going to do. And the Lord just spoke to my heart, and He said, When Brother Jerry comes, I want you to do this, I want you to do this, I want you to do that. I want you to be like this to him, I want you to let this be this place for him.” I said, “Okay, Lord.” We will do that, we will do that.
And I want to tell you, there are many people, Brother Jerry has had to deal with the situation right now, where there are people that have put themselves in a position where they didn’t say directly they reject him as their Apostle in their life, but he has had more than 20 years of input into their lives, church, ministry. And they’ve just walked away from him. Just like that. Wrote him a letter. We want the church to do this, we want the church to do that – they wrote him a letter.
I said, “Lord, these people don’t know what they’re doing.” Because what they said to him and what they said to – because they shared it with me – what they are doing is they don’t recognize that they are dishonouring him. And they are pushing away all of the favour, all of the blessing, all of the stuff that his ministry represents, and his connection to Kenneth Copeland and to Oral Roberts, and that whole legacy is now closed to them. Because they just decided we want to do our own thing in our church because our worldview is the same as other churches, not your ministry.
Let me tell you people do that all the time. What you dishonour you push away from you. What you honour you draw to you, hallelujah. And you get to experience all of the blessings that are in his life. All of the gifts and callings that have been there for years and years and years, you get to experience that and have that in your life. Honour is a big thing. It’s a big deal. And my next session, which is for the digital service next Sunday, is about 45 minutes away. I’m going to go and have a cup of tea. Have a rest, just a little, and then I’m coming back to preach. You can join here if you want, but you can go. If you go, you’re dishonouring me. [Congregation laughing] You know I’m joking. Really, really go home and enjoy your lunch. The message is coming next Sunday. You can watch it on TV, no problem. Have fun, enjoy. Pray with us and bless us.
Please stand with me. I just want to make a correction. Because all of us are away, we are going to ask the people in Joburg to pray in your own homes. There won’t be a digital live stream, because we don’t have the resources here. Mathew and I talked about it this weekend. We were going to try and make it happen anyway that it was a digital live stream, but we just don’t have the resources here. If you were watching in Joburg and things were going to go wrong, you’d be a bit miffed with us. So we’re suggesting you rather go and pray in your own home or with friends who get together and pray together for the next two Tuesday nights. But Witbank people, live prayer still here with Pastor Sharon. Amen.
Tomorrow morning, quarter past six we are inviting you – if you are a parent or not a parent – if you just want to come, quarter past six tomorrow morning, we’re inviting you to come and pray with us right before we leave, to go and have what I think is going to be one of the most significant things that has happened to our young people, ever. My faith is there with God. I am with God about what He is going to say and how He is going to release His anointing, how He is going to do things while we are away. We are having fun, but we are getting into the presence of God. Hallelujah. Would you agree with me that this will be our portion while we go? Hallelujah, glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus.
And it is my prayer for you that you are blessed. It is my prayer for you that you receive the anointing of Jesus that sets people free. He loves His people. I pray that all of the goodness of God comes upon you. I want to just speak healing over your bodies right now. I just want to speak healing. And I thank You, Lord, that this message, I want to pray that the healing power of God just comes upon them right now, wherever they are, for anything, as minor as a headache, to as major as if there’s cancer, people don’t even know about it, major issues, diseases. I speak in the name of Jesus, the healing power of God, to touch your body right now, and be healed, and be healed in the Name of Jesus. Be healed in the Name of Jesus. Hallelujah. And I thank You, Lord, that as they go about their business this week, and they go about their lives, that they will consciously make worldview decisions. Where they are seated with You in heavenly places, and they’re not engaged in the affairs of this normal life only. I thank You, Lord, that You are not taking them out of the world, but You preserve them from the evil one this week. And You preserve their worldview of Jesus, and they are seated in heavenly places. You preserve that worldview in the Name of Jesus. I thank you that great peace comes upon Your people this week. Great, great peace, great peace. A tangible peace comes upon Your people this week, and the week to come, in Jesus name. Do you agree with us? Amen. Thank you for coming. Goodbye
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