05 March 2023 Cooperation Pastor John Bendixen (WTB)

 

Scripture reference: Ephesians 1:1-2 (NKJV), Revelation 1:3 (NKJV), Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV), Ephesians 3:20 (NKJV), Revelations 1:3 (NKJV)

 

Pastor Sharon Bendixen:

Everything about You is what we love about You Lord. Everything about You. Father, this morning we want to tell You all together that we love Your ways, we love the ways that You have in Your church Lord, that You send a messenger with a message which we are able then to receive and believe and conceive Lord.

 

This morning, Father we are a people that do not take this message as a message of mere man, but as the Word of God what it truly is to us, Lord, because this message has come from Your mouth, Jesus, to the mouth of Pastor John. And it comes from his mouth, undiluted, Lord, it comes in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So that our faith does not rest in the wisdom of a man, but it rests in the power of God, the power of Your Gospel, the power of Your Word, Lord.

 

Father, we receive this message to us, we live by every preceding Word that continues to proceed out of Your mouth. Hallelujah. We thank You that it’s a two-edged sword in our hearts, Father, divides between what is our soul, and what is our spirit, Lord, and it exposes the very intents of our hearts so that we can turn and we can keep turning to You and keep being transformed into Your likeness, Lord Jesus, so we thank You, Pastor John speaks this morning as the oracles of God. You give him utterance, and he is bold, Father, he is emboldened by the Holy Spirit to bring this morning what You have given him to bring us in at the end of it You find us all receivers, Lord. In Jesus’ name, we will say amen. Hallelujah.

 

Pastor John Bendixen:

Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Well, look how good you all look today. Praise the Lord. I trust that you will be ready and have full capacity to receive everything that the Lord has for you today, and what He has already prepared in sound and song will continue to minister to you in the Word of God. And that by the time you ready to leave here today, you would have experienced the richness of the Word of God, the love of God, the Spirit of God, His presence, and all that He has for you, going forward. Amen. You’re in agreement? You may be seated. Thank you.

 

How many of you like to have fun and enjoy life? And the other people, you just want to be dead half the time? You want to kind of? You don’t like to have fun? You don’t like to have joy? If I talk about fun and joy and you’re so unresponsive, I don’t know what’s going to happen when we get serious.

 

Pastor Christi and I were doing a wedding on Friday. I just wanted to give you an insight of what your pastors talk about when we’re just waiting around. She said to me, “Pastor John, do you know about this joke?” Now, to be fair, I’m sure I’ve heard the joke somewhere before from someone else, but coming from Pastor Christi that adds a whole new dimension. She says, “Have you heard about these two old men sitting on the veranda, and the one says, “Ja” and the other one says “Nee” and in between there are these long, long pauses, you know, “Ja” sê die ander man Neesê die ander man. So, then the third guy comes and stands on the veranda there and after a while, he says, “Ja, nee”. The one guy looks at the other guy, and he says, “Die ander man praat te veel.” That was the joke Pastor Christi told me while we waiting to do a wedding ceremony on Friday. 

 

Listen, we all got to find moments of joy and fun everywhere. I wanted you to know that… I believe it’s in the heart of God that we find joy and peace and happy moments throughout life. Right? I mean, if God’s a good God, then He means everything for us, for it to be good. And if He wants us to… I mean, He talks in the book of John and He says, “I wish that your joy may be full.” So, you could have full joy. Full joy. I certainly believe in this.

 

Pastor Sharon and I think part of the reason we have such good things in our marriage is because we take time to have joy. We have spiritual joy, and we have natural joy. I mean, I can tell you about some joy that she had this week. She came to show me on a website, something that she wanted to buy. When she came to show me, I said, “Wow babe, that’s really, really, nice.” “You like that?” I said, “It’s wow.” She says, “I think I want to buy this.” I said, “Well, what are you waiting for babes?” You know, don’t let grass grow under your feet. “Really?” I said, “Yeah, it’s stunning.” “Okay.” She phoned Miranda actually. “Miranda, buy this on the website for me.” If she’s a little uncertain of something, she doesn’t ask me, she phones Miranda. “Miranda, order it for me, please.” Then Miranda phones me, “If it needs an OTP dad, be ready.” You know, like, okay, you know, fortunately, we don’t always need OTPs or whatever they are. But it’s joy. Good things for us to enjoy. Amen.

 

So, some people get joy out of buying things. Pastor Sharon is the prime one amongst that. Her and brother Jerry, they walk hand in hand. Let me tell you, if Brother Jerry sees a mall anywhere, he’s going in there. And if he sees a good Italian men’s clothing shop, you can’t keep him out of it with wild horses. You know, and never mind a sunglass place. I don’t know if I’ve seen any man buy more sunglasses than Brother Jerry. He sees a new one that hits the… “I like that. Does it look good on me John?” “Yes, yes sir.” “I’ll have this one please. John, you like anything?” “I like this one.” He says, “Get it, come.” He likes to buy sunglasses. Some people like to shoot animals. (Pastor John and the congregation laugh.) You didn’t see that coming, hey? I mean, some people like to ride bicycles, they like to run. Some people, I mean, whatever, you know, tickles your fancy. You know, just laugh while you’re being tickled. Have fun, you know, enjoy life.

 

I’m telling you this because sometimes when you come here on a Sunday, and you hear a message from me on Sundays, it’s quite serious. It’s necessary for it to be serious because I don’t get that much time to talk to you. I have very little time that I or the other pastors can talk to you from the pulpit. You might feel like a lot of the time you come to church, and it’s a serious message. And it needs to be. Because with all the joy that we have in life, we’re also dealing with serious matters. Right? One of the ways you get to enjoy life is when you take care of the serious things first. So, first things first. You’ve got to take care of serious things first, and then God gives you all things to enjoy. Amen. You can’t actually have real joy if you haven’t taken care of the serious things first, because there is always this lingering thing of you haven’t taken care of the things that you need to be responsible for. Then you don’t’ get to have a full – you don’t give yourself fully over to the joy, right? Well, I mean that’s the way it works with God too – if you don’t give yourself to God, then you can’t really enjoy all of His goodness, because you are not taking care of the serious things in God first. Ja, Ja nè. Ja nee. Hallelujah.

 

I just want to clarify something for you today. The world does not have a corner on joy. And the world does not have the rights to fun and the church have all the serious stuff. I’ll tell you what, have you heard the saying that the world says a lot: “work hard and play hard”. Why do you think they say that? Because you can’t play hard unless you have worked hard first. Yes? I mean, that is not like supreme wisdom or anything. That’s just they recognise what’s got to come first. But they also recognise that you can’t live your life just with all of the serious stuff, you’ve got to have party time. So, our stuff is co-mingled. We work hard and we play hard in God all the time. That’s the beauty about being in God, is that He fills you with goodness and joy all the time as you go about the serious stuff. You have this equilibrium, this balance and steadiness in life – I can enjoy life, but I can be serious all at the same time.

 

You’ve also heard the saying that you can walk and chew gum at the same time. Yes? I mean, you can do two things at once. I know that women think that men can’t do that. Women think that men can only do one thing at a time, and you’ve got to spell it out to them nicely, otherwise they just don’t pay attention and they can’t do more than one thing at a time. I just want the women to know, you’re wrong – we can walk and chew gum at the same time. [Brynn: Yes, we can, thank you, Pastor John] But so can the women.

 

We can be about the Father’s business and be serious and have joy at the same time and have all of the good things that God has for us. The Jews in the Old Testament complained about that, because they didn’t understand what God had for them and they said, look at all these people are having fun and they party and nothing happens to them and we’re here we people we do all the mournful things like obey the Ten Commandments, we have to tithe and give our money to God and so we are like those who mourned and walk around with a long face. Where, all those people that are in the world, they don’t tithe, and they don’t have to obey the commandments, and they just have a whole lot of fun.

 

And the Lord says, “Hold on a minute, your words are against Me. What do you think? I am the God Who is trying to keep you in bondage. I am the God that wants to deliver you because those guys that you think are having all the fun, they are heading for destruction.” That’s the deception of the devil that he’ll take you to destruction and you won’t even know it is coming. Because, you will have so much fun while you’re going there and then suddenly the fun’s gone. Ja, but you don’t know me, I am very capable, I’m very talented, I’m very capable, I am very smart, and I’ve got all the angles covered. The devil won’t catch me out, besides, I am a Christian and I have enough of God in me that the devil won’t catch me out. I guarantee you, that he has already got you. Just because you think like that, he’s already got you. Ja, Ja nè.

 

Praise the Lord. One of the fun things we do, is we do a crit. Today we’re doing a crit at three o’clock, and you’re invited. Come and see how much fun we have riding a bicycle. you can get a boerewors roll or something nice there too. Listen, when you use up 1000 calories then you can eat something nice. If you don’t use 1000 calories, you shouldn’t eat something nice. Eina. Praise the Lord.

 

God is the God of goodness, isn’t He? God is a God of goodness. God is a God of blessing. God is a God who is the ultimate Father. Okay, come on, I’m going to minister the Word of God to you now, in my language, our language. Do you think a good father would just constantly do bad things to his kids? Or do you think a good father wants to create a good home, a good environment, the possibilities of a good future for his kids? A good father wants to do that. Right? If a natural human father wants to discipline his children, he will do that for a reason. And the reason is so that they can go higher and further, not to hurt them.

 

I remember the years when I used to give Brynn and Garth hidings – op die boud. On the bare bum. Bend… pain. I remember the day I gave Brynn a hiding and he didn’t cry. Well, it was Sharon first. Sharon gave Brynn a hiding and he didn’t cry, he just looked at her. Then, I came home, and she told me. I said, “Okay, I see what’s happening here.” And from that time, till the end of when they stopped getting hidings, they never did that to Pastor Sharon again. “You’re killing me, you’re killing me. You’re killing me.” They went from looking at her, to try and manipulate her, you know. So, a father doesn’t do that because you try to hurt them. You do that because you try to love them into good things. You try to focus them, sharpen them, and give them the boundaries of life that are necessary for you to grow in.

 

God being a good God, He’s not trying to make bad things come to us. He’s trying to make sure that we are in a good position to have good things. Yes? He wants to make sure that we’re in a good position to have good things. He’s going to constantly be working with you and me to make sure that we’re all set up for the good stuff.

 

Any correction that starts from a father to a child, starts with a word. And it almost always says, “I want you to do that but do it like this.” Or it might start with, “Don’t do that.” The words give boundaries. What are the boundaries for? The boundaries are not there for us to limit the scope of what a child can do. The boundaries are there, are to teach them how to maximize their potential; to maximize what they’ve got. Some of you look a little bit unsure about what I’m telling you. When young people grow up, and they become adults, they are used to understanding boundaries. Not limitations. But boundaries. Boundaries are important because if you go off on the wrong boundary into the wrong stuff, then you’re likely to get hurt. I mean, if you go to driving lessons in a motor car, they will teach you that the yellow line on the one side is a boundary and the white line in the middle of the road is another boundary. They want you to drive in the boundaries, they’re not trying to limit where you can go, they just trying to say where you are going, you need to stick within these boundaries. Why? It’s for your safety. It’s so that you can make progress, it’s that you can go from A to B, because you do it safely in the boundaries. Amen. 

 

When Jesus comes through His Word, through the Holy Spirit, through a messenger like me, and says, “Hey, guys, let’s go to the maximum, let’s go to the highest level attainable, let’s step up and step into it. But here’s your boundaries.” He’s not trying to say, “No, don’t do anything.” He’s saying, “I want you to get there so you got to get there in these boundaries.” Without those boundaries, we wouldn’t know where to go.

 

I mean, it’s part of the reason why people like to do what they call overlanding now. And those are people that put special, you know, shock absorbers on their, on their cars, and they put tents on their roof, and they go over landing. And they go on roads that have no boundaries, because they want to experience some risk, and they want to experience some of the freedoms that go with that. But anybody that drives a vehicle like that will tell you, they still have boundaries. And you know, what the boundaries are? They self-imposed boundaries because they’ve got to protect their vehicle. Without the vehicle that aren’t going anywhere. 

 

They don’t have boundaries on the road, but they have boundaries that they self-impose that’s dependent on the terrain that they go. If you have a vehicle that’s got to cross some water – people that go overlanding – they will tell you to get out the car, and they’ll roll up their pants or they’ll take their shoes off or whatever and they’ll go walk through the water because they want to see how deep it is and they want to see if there’s something hidden under the water that their car might get bumped into or get stuck with. Because once you’re in the water, you’re in an entire world of different probabilities or problems and, and things that could happen to you. There are no painted lines, but there are other boundaries. It doesn’t matter what environment you find yourself in, you’re going to have boundaries. They are either self-imposed boundaries, or they’re environmentally imposed boundaries, or they’re legally imposed boundaries. 

 

Perhaps, you might say socially imposed boundaries. When your kids are growing up, they’re learning all about these things. Because you teach them. When you grow up, you become a person that imposes boundaries. Am I giving you a good picture of how God the Father says, “If you as earthly fathers know how to give these kinds of things to your kids? If you ask for bread, are you going to give him a snake?” “No” If your kid needs food to eat, you’re going to give them food. If you knew as a natural father know how to give good things to your kids, how much more does the Heavenly Father know how to give good things to you? Is that in dispute? Why would that ever be in dispute in your life? Why would you think anything else other than your Heavenly Father wants to give you good things? Why would that be in dispute? I mean, it would never be. Right?

 

God wants us to walk… In particular, God has brought us as a church, as a ministry, He’s brought us to this point in time, where He says, “Hey, Church, you are well positioned. You’re well positioned because of the apostolic call that you’re called to. The messenger and the message that you are ready to receive, you’re well positioned to go to the maximum, to go to the highest level attainable. You’re well positioned to step up and step into the things that I’ve got for you. 

 

It’s clear that we have an invitation to that. It is also clear that God has spoken and said don’t abort the plan of God for your life, because if you abort the plan of God, you’ve got nothing to birth into your future. I’m not going to go there again. But that’s what He said last week. Ja, nè.

 

This week, and going into the next two more Sundays after today, the Lord has got me focused on the future. Today, I’m going to be talking to you about cooperation. First and last, cooperation. We’ve had the invitation, the abortion and cooperation. Aha. Are you all ready for this? [Congregation answers yes] Amen. 

 

Ephesians one, verse one, says, 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:1 NKJV). I’m merely wanting to say that Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God – so I stand here today by the will of God, not by my own will. I stand here by the will of God. There are many, many churches around the world where there are people that are on the pulpit today, or will be on a Sunday, who are in church, they are not necessarily there by the will of God. They are there because they have an institutionally recognised diploma or degree and that gives them the right to stand in a pulpit and talk to people. Paul, the apostle, is making it clear that he’s there by the will of God. You have a decision to make and the decision that you must make is; do you receive the fact that God has placed in this pulpit a messenger that is here by the will of God. If you receive the fact that God has placed in this pulpit, a messenger that’s here by the will of God, then you must receive the fact that God is speaking through the messenger. Because I’m here by His will, not by my own will. 

 

I’m going to be talking quite a lot over the next couple of sessions that we’re going to be together, Sundays we’re going to be together, I’m going to be talking quite a lot from the book about the church in Ephesus. 1 … To the saints, and he’s writing this book in Ephesians. To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:2 NKJV). To the saints that are in Ephesus. I could say to the saints that are in Witbank, or to the saints, more accurately the saints that are in Heritage of Faith. To the saints that are in Heritage of Faith, I speak by the will of God, Who sent me. I speak to the saints who are at Heritage of Faith, and those that are faithful in Christ Jesus. There’s a lot of things that we stand for as a ministry that are not received by people because they’re not faithful. And faithfulness is a premium requirement by God for His people. Because it means two things; you’ve got to be full of faith and you’ve got to have your faith be full. If you’re full of faith and your faith is full, then you will use the full faith to keep standing and be full of faith for those around you and in life. Amen.

 

I’m going to just take the first shot across the bows towards you today. And here it is. Is there anything more powerful in a Christians life than faith? Okay, I’ll give you a little bit more. If you have the love of God, and if you have the Spirit of Christ in you – those would obviously be the things that you need to have – The love of God – Then is there anything more powerful than the force of faith? It’s the most powerful thing you have. It’s not potential. The biggest thing that you have in life is not potential. That is a worldly view of looking at your future. To say my future is full of potential. Oh, Pastor John, now you’ve got some serious shots that you fired off here. But either, the Word of God is going to stand and speak for itself or it’s not. Okay. Let’s talk about the plan of God for every person. When God births you into the earth, do you think that He is worried about what other people think your potential is?

 

Or do you think that He’s more concerned about you fulfilling what He’s called you to be? What He birthed you to be? I mean, He’s much more concerned about you doing what He birthed you to do into the earth than what other people think about you. So here you go. God has birthed you into the earth, okay? He’s birthed you into the earth, here you are, and He’s put brain power into your brain, and He’s put DNA capabilities into your body. As you grow up, suddenly you discover, wow, I can really excel in academics. And or maybe you just have a high level of sporting capability, you just have good hand eye coordination. And so here you go. You are kind of learning about academics, and you throw a ball, or you kick a ball, or you or you are swimming or you’re doing something, and it becomes obvious to people watching you that you have some potential.

 

They are observing what you can do, and they’re measuring your potential future based on what you can do. And they have asked God about what you were born for. They don’t ask God what you’re born for. They are just looking at what you can do. The devil, he came to Adam and Eve, and he said, “I heard what God said you can do, or you can’t do, so I’m going to directly bring something to you to make you choose what you can do.” Not what you must be, but what you can do. “Give up what you must be, so that you can substitute it with what you can do.” God’s not interested in what you can do, because He’s given you, all the can do in Him, who lives in you. Now, when you do everything, that by the One that’s in you, you can do everything.

 

I found myself one day in a business meeting. And you know, I was the senior manager allocated to that form of business and so we had a problem with a business partner. And, you know, there were some serious things at risk if the meeting went sideways, and I came into the meeting, I was there early, 15 minutes early. I was in the meeting, and I was in the boardroom, and I’m standing in the boardroom and I’m just praying in the Spirit. They brought me a glass of water, there was some tea there, and I’m just waiting… no one else was in the room. Salesperson was out, you know, arranging for other people doing whatever needed to be done. And I was waiting for everybody to arrive in the boardroom. And so I’m just standing there and I just begin to pray in the Spirit. Just quietly [Pastor John prays in the Spirit]. 

 

Why am I doing that? Because I’m tapping into the can-do of what He can do. Because now I’m recognising who I am, not what other people think I can be. I know who I am in Him. So, “Lord, I need Your wisdom and I need Your help in this meeting.” In an instant, the Holy Spirit fell upon me, like a blanket, He fell on me with His anointing, His presence and I started to laugh. Out of my belly a river of laughter came out of my mouth. I laughed. I’m standing there at the window in the boardroom, and I’m laughing [Pastor John laughs]. I’m not going crazy. I’m not shouting and screaming and jumping up and down, but this belly laughter came out of my spirit [Pastor John laughs]. 

 

And as I laughed, the anointing got stronger. And I said, “No, Lord, not now. Not now.” I can’t afford for all of these, you know, people to come into the boardroom here and I’m laughing. I said, “Please, Lord.” And the Holy Spirit said, “I got this covered, John.” I said, “Okay.” Then I laughed some more. And like, in an instant, the Holy Spirit just lifted off me. And I thought, “Oh,” and they walked into the room. Like the Holy Spirit and doesn’t know when they’re coming down the passage. You know, like, the Holy Spirit doesn’t know everything that’s going on all the time and He’s going to leave me hanging there like, laughing and laughing and laughing and laughing, and I can’t control it and you know, all that stuff. You know, no, He knows what’s going on. 

 

But they came and they sat around the table. I mean, just five minutes, over. We recommitted our commitment to each other. The so-called complicated problem wasn’t so complicated, after all. It was like they knew what the problem was, they knew that they… and they committed to solving their part and we committed to solving our part and dush there we go. I don’t think we were in the boardroom there 15 minutes and that was all the pleasantries involved, too. Problem solved, off we go, relationship intact.

 

What happened? I tapped into what He can do, not what I can do. So if I go back to the office now, and you go and talk to the other directors of the company, senior people in the company, they hear about this difficult problem that could have derailed a very serious partnership and they expected there to be lots of stuff that would have come out of a meeting like that. You know, the drill. Maybe you don’t. You know, but… so it’s like that, you know, yeah, “We’ll work on that.” “You work on that.” And you have feedback meetings, and then, you know, all these kinds of things got to happen. And it’s like everybody expected lots of resources to be spent on fixing the problem. Nothing, just maklik

 

So then, what do you think they say about me? Their worldview, the way they see me? “Gee, that Bendixen, he’s talented, hey. He’s got potential, hey. He’s got it here. [Pastor John points to his head] If you got a problem, go talk to him. He can make things happen.” In fact, when I was in the corporate world, my managing director kind of made a soft decision; he says, “Before we employ anybody that’s at a certain seniority level and upwards. John’s got to make his recommendation and give a nod to that person because whoever John says the right person, that’s the right person.” It was like an unspoken thing. See, they see me as talented, potential. They see me as someone that’s got skill. I check their boxes. I didn’t see it their way at all. I tapped into Him. His wisdom flowing in me was at work. And so, they’ve got one view of it, but I’m following His plan for my life, not theirs. I’m cooperating with Him. I’m not operating by me. You see, when I operate in my stuff, I can’t cooperate with His stuff. That’s what the Lord says, “You can’t be of two minds”. Either you’re going to follow what God’s saying or you got to follow what you say. “Well, Pastor John, I happen to think that you can do both.” Good luck to you. That’s what the Word says. “A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways.”

 

All of his ways. If you’re double-minded. What about my skill and my talent, and what I know about life and all of that? Well, here’s what I can tell you, whatever success you’ve achieved up till now, whatever you thought you’ve done well at. Why don’t you just look at it and say, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do all of this in Him from now. I’m going to take all of what I can do and do it in Him and let’s see how far we can go. I don’t want you to go backwards and say, “What could I have done in the past?” There is no point in that. What can we fix about what’s gone past? We can’t do that. What we can do is to say, “I don’t want to operate in Him, I want to cooperate with Him.” I mean, “I don’t want to operate in me, or what’s what I can do, I want to cooperate with Him.” The more I cooperate with Him, the more I’m likely to fulfill His plan for me, His calling for me, the reason He birthed me. See, the whole world system is designed to make you think that you were just a mistake, or you were just a function of, of the biological thing that happened. It’s the development of the species because you weren’t born from a plan of God, this was just an explosion of some kind of light mass that came together and so now we all here.

 

I had opportunity to go and speak with Dr. Nico for a professional reason recently. He was just talking to me and showing me all of the stuff that had just happens in the ear, and how the ear connects with the brain and all that kind of stuff. He was just saying to me, “The more you actually study science, and you study medicine, the more you actually have to believe that God is.” There’s no way that this stuff will happen just because some amoeba forms came together. And then by the way, we all, of us, have the ability to choose our future and what we can believe or not believe we have this ability, and that came from just a mass of cells just suddenly happening because of a big explosion. You need more faith to believe that and to believe in God. And then they say, “No we don’t have faith.” Yes. Then you don’t believe in anything? No, then you believe what you believe. So, you still believe in something. In you. And those people want to tell us we’ve got to evaluate our future with potential. Those people tell us everything we have to measure is based on talent and skill, and all of that. Those people are all about measuring the human stuff because they have no power available to them, other than human measurement – performance.

 

God says I am not interested in performance, I want you to cooperate with My power. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph 2:10 NKJV). We are His workmanship. Do you see that? Is this the Bible here? You and me we are His workmanship. We are His workmanship. We are created in Christ Jesus for, good works.

 

Okay, let me let me talk to you for a little bit. Here is a young sportsman who has got lots of potential. Got potential, potential, he has got potential, get him into a program, work him, got to build him, got to get him going. He is on the field, on a court, he is in a pool, he is running, he is on a bicycle, whatever your discipline, whatever. Suddenly, something happens. And he tears a ligament in his ankle, or he severely damages his knee. And now? All of the stuff that you think is so valuable to you, you are now limited to this one little ligament. And now we will operate, and we will put an artificial one in, and then you got to go…

 

Ask Chris Froome. So that’s my sport. Ask Chris Froome. He has won four Tour de France. He wants to be in the record books as one of only two people I think, that have won the Tour de France five times. He is cycling and cycling. He is pushing the limits as he always does, because how do you win a Tour de France if you’re not pushing the limits. He is on the bike, he is pushing limits, he comes off his bike, over the handlebars, over the side of the road, into a ditch. Break, break, break. Break his femur, break his ribs, break his collarbone, break things, break, break, break. Two years he has been rehabilitating, in the hope that he can come back for one more shot at one more Tour de France, so he can be called a legend. That is his purpose? Because he has got talent?

 

I wonder if God didn’t actually purpose to take the drive that He put in him, like He put in Apostle Paul, that personality that’s got drive for His kingdom, to go and get new territories and drive and push and push for things and become a messenger of a mission or something that might seem impossible to others, but to him, it would be possible. Exactly right. Because of the way just that he sees things. I wonder if that’s not what God would have had for him in the first place?

 

Aah but he has got talent, and he has got to push the talent. Yes, because men say: “Give me your talent, and I’ll give you money. You give me your talent and I will reward you with fame and with money.” So that is what life is all about? You might say: “Well Pastor, John, it’s got a lot to do with it.”

 

I’ve got something, I’ve got some good news for you. Whatever they can do with talent, whatever they can do with skill and potential, you got faith. And your faith can do more than any of their talent put together. Any of them so called potential in the way they measure life, your faith. Why? Because you are created in Christ Jesus, for His workmanship. For you to do good works for Him which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We should walk in the good works that He has prepared for us. What is he asking for? Cooperation. He is asking for us to cooperate. If you cooperate, I’ve got good works for you to walk in.

 

Who’s the rewarder of you walking in those good works? Come on, somebody answer me, please. God. Is He not the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him? He is the rewarder. In the world, if you are performance-based, you’re going to be rewarded. By whom? People that can take the reward away from you very quickly. Like that, they can change the rules. I’m busy reworking stuff in the Laban syndrome. But the Laban syndrome is a very real force that’s here, that the devil put into the earth so you can control the future of people. Because that scripture … just put it up on the screen again please, that Scripture… 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10 NKJV). He’s created us to walk in stuff that He’s got prepared for us. What the enemy wants to do is create a syndrome of performance to measure you, so you’re always saying, “Do I measure up, am I good enough? Do I have what it takes, look at that person’s doing better than me.” 

 

By default, you must compare in order to measure. And God says, I don’t care for comparison; I want to show you, My power. I do not care for comparison, because you can’t compare faith because He gave us all faith. When we have faith, we don’t have to compare. And we don’t have to compete because we all got faith. Do you know why the world wants to compete? Because they want to give an impossible dream to the majority of people so that the world can control what’s going on through a few elite powerful, rich people. 

 

And that stems all the way to the devil who said, “I can compete with Jesus, I can compete with God the Father, I’m comparing myself to Him and I can compete with Him and my performance is as good as God’s. So, I’m going to take the elite of the angels with me so that I can show God that we are the elite.” And to this day, he still trying to prove that he is more or equal to what God is, he’s trying to compare. How does he do that to us? He makes us compare, compete, and perform because that’s the only thing he knows. I’m preaching really good today. I’m teaching really good today. 

 

God wants us to cooperate with Him, not for us to operate on our own. Ephesians three, verse 20, says, 20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV) He’s able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think, He can, He can, He can. Let me tell you something, I am not Lionel Messi. Do you know who he is? Everybody knows who Lionel Messi is here. That shows you have big a name he is if the majority of you know who he is. Probably the greatest footballer ever born. I mean, some people may say Pelé was that. Maybe. But certainly, the way the world measures things. You have to say that Messi, who’s won the Footballer of the Year World Award, he has won it six times. No other man has ever won it. He has won the World Cup. He’s won the Champions League, Spanish leagues, French leagues. Everything there is to win in football, he’s won. 

 

Do I have to stand in awe of this man? I’ll tell you what, this has been my saving grace if you like. It was also perhaps what some people might have considered to be a problem for me. Because I have never been starstruck by people. Never. I’ve never been starstruck by sports people, or by famous people, or by wealthy people. I’ve never been starstruck by them. I’ve always been starstruck by Jesus. It’s a real thing in my heart. I’ve never ever wanted to be like any other sportsman. I’ve always wanted to be like Jesus.

 

I mean, as a kid when I was growing up, I had fanciful ideas. I thought I was going to be the next Kevin Keegan soccer player. If you don’t know who he is, then you’re too young, and you also weren’t a Liverpool supporter. I mean, you know, when you’re a kid, you’ve got dreams and passions that your kind of live in that world a little bit. But when you become more of a grown-up person, you realize there’s some things you got to do in life that God wants you to do, and so, you don’t have like a boyhood passion, drive you for the rest of your life. You grow up into becoming a mature man and recognizing who you are in Christ and what God’s created you to become. I just preached a whole good sermon, in a few words there. I really did.

 

And so, if I’m living by fait… Brother Jerry told us a story – I’ve heard it many times so, I can’t remember if he said it this last time or a previous time. But he told the story about where he was… Was it Brother Joe now? He was in a bank and this guy collapsed. It was Brother Joe, right. And this man collapsed in the bank. And they called the Emergency Response Team. Brother Joe immediately knew this guy is dying. He prayed in the spirit, spoke life to him, commanded him to live and not die, and that guy’s life was saved.

 

Let me tell you, that it doesn’t matter how much potential you’ve got, how much skill you’ve got, how much talent you’ve got, I don’t care how educated you are. There is a time when only God can intervene, and faith is the only thing that can work for you. It’s the only time that the only thing that you’ve got is faith. You know what this does is, that tells every person who is willing to give God everything, should tell every person that God will not manage your future by your human potential. He’s not going to limit your future, based on your human potential. You have a limitless future based on your cooperation with him. This should be really good news for you. This should be really good news for you. You have limitless possibilities if you cooperate with God.

 

I’m going to not be able to finish my message today. But I’ve got a few more things to share with you. Are you ready to hear them?

 

Revelations chapter 1 verse 3 says, 3Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3, NKJV).

 

3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3, NKJV). This is directly referring to the Book of Revelation. So blessed is the person who reads the Book of Revelation. Blessed is the person who hears someone speaking about the prophecies that are contained in the Book of Revelation. But this also is a bigger principle of: Blessed is he who reads and hears the words of the messenger that is sent by God with a message. Who will hear, and who will read and who will do it. Blessed is he.

 

What is God requiring? He’s requiring cooperation. Cooperation. Are you ready to cooperate with God? Hey? [Congregation: Yes]. Are you ready to cooperate with God? There is nothing you can’t do if you cooperate with God. Faith can do anything, but in the human world we are limited. We have a locomotive train hurtling at the human race, at the rate of knots, and we have no idea yet the implications of what this charging train is going to bring into our world. It’s called ‘artificial intelligence.’

 

If we could reverse ourselves…, is it okay if I just talk to you for a few minutes here? [Congregation: Yes]. If we could reverse ourselves as a human race. Let’s just say that we could take ourselves out of this time that we are in right now, and we could go backwards twenty years before social media. Just talking about one advancement; social media. Facebook, Instagram, all of the social media things that has developed.

 

If we could take a look at the human involvement. The way people interact, the way people behave, the way people are living with each other, and we could take a snapshot of a whole group of people. Let’s take a number of these young people here [Pastor John pointing out the MiXchanger’s] and we put them in a restaurant, having milkshake together, 20 years ago versus these young people in a restaurant, together now, 20 years later. And we evaluate what has become of them as people; Social skills, the view of life, their attitude, the moods that they have, the way they see authority. The way that they respond to values rather than entertainment. And we could evaluate what they were 20 years ago and just bring it forward 20 years and just compare what has become of our society [Pastor John pointing to MiXchanger’s: Not these guys, these guys are amazing]. But what has become of our society, as far as the younger people are concerned. I wonder if the collective mindset of the world would say, “Hey, if that’s the price that we have to pay in society, let’s not develop this technology.”

 

Let’s not do it, because look what has become of our people. They can’t talk anymore. They can’t share ideas with articulation anymore. They are unwilling to have conversations and to develop conversations out of their own creative imagination, they’ve got to always refer to something on a screen. They don’t have respect for authority anymore, or older generations, they think old people don’t have it, because they don’t know what to – how to quickly type with their thumbs on a screen, so they don’t have it. If you’re older than 30, you’re too old. That’s what young people that are 17, 18 think now. I wonder if we could take everybody and go back 20 years and look 20 years ahead and see what’s become of the society and all of the murders and all of the society breakdown that has happened because of social media. I wonder if we wouldn’t make a different decision and say, “whatever it takes – stop it”.

 

Let’s hang the guy who started Facebook. Let’s fry his brain for a bit, make him squirrely. Because if we could go back 20 years and see how much value-based living was happening there – values, how much principle-based living was in our world, then, and I’m only going back 20 years, to what is now. What has become of our world? Oh, now we have to go to our schools, our high schools, and we’ve got to refer to everybody as an IT. You can’t even talk about him or her anymore. You got to refer to whoever their gender preference is. In high school. Now it’s even going to the primary school. They want children that are as young as 8 or 9 years old, they want to teach them that you can be growing up as gender fluid. Where do you think all of this started? It didn’t start with our current day social media. It started 20 years ago with Facebook. Probably before that when they took God out of the schools, but you know, I can’t keep going backwards. But I wonder if we wouldn’t make a different decision.

 

Now, the reason I’m telling you that is because we think we can operate comfortably with our own values and our own principles in that system. Let’s take it further and say, “No, we know we can operate in that system, because I’ve got what it takes. You know, wherever I go, I rectify, I make people look me in the eye. I make people talk to me.” Excuse me for spitting. That doesn’t happen if you’re on social media. It’s a necessary discomfort of being in my company. Anyway, you know, you can say, “I am an influencer, and I will do this and this.” Okay, how many people are you touching? Face to face, person to person? Well, maybe a 1000 people and you’re making a difference? You can have the starfish principle, and maybe making a big difference, but to the people I am making a difference to, I am making a difference. Well, I’m happy about that. But I want to just show you that the system that you want to operate in, is hurtling towards you faster than you can manoeuvre. There are more things developing to undermine your values, your principles, the way you live and the way you think you can operate in the system. There are more things happening in it to undermine you even as you adapt. So, I’m adapting, I’m adapting, I’m adapting, you can’t adapt fast enough. But I can operate in the system. Well, you are a single generation mindset person. Because as long as it’s okay for me, and my kids, or me and my family or the people I’m connected to the rest, we will take care of another time. Well, that shows you that you’re only a single generation mindset person. Because if you’re a multi-generational person, then you begin to think like God, who thinks from the beginning to the end. And he’s saying, “Whatever generation comes into the earth, your best chance is to cooperate with Him, not to operate by yourself.” It doesn’t matter what generation you’re born into.

 

If you were born into the generation that Jesus was born into, you know, He was born into a generation where masculinity or the human body was idolized. I mean, that’s the reason the Apostle Paul could write about people that give so much attention to their body. And he wrote in he said, “Physical exercise profits little,” it doesn’t say profits, nothing. Because people were so overboard with physical exercise, they were shaping their bodies, and they were sculpturing themselves to look like gods. The body was such an important thing. And the capability of the body to compete, wrestling matches, running, sports like activities. The Greeks were famous. That’s where the Olympic Games started. They were famous for the development of the human body and its competing capabilities.

 

Jesus was born into a time when there was a dominant force on the earth called the Roman Empire, who dictated what must happen on the earth. And all of that, the apostle Paul writes, we were created for Him, we were created, to be like Him, to do what He wants us to do. To do those good works. Not so that we could compete with those guys in the Olympic Games and say, “Look how good I can make my body.” I’ve said this before and I know that I could caught some flak for it, but that’s okay. I’ll take the heat. Those guys they’re in the prime of their life, check how good I am. Let’s say they get born again. They get saved. Now they go into competing their games, and they say, “I just want to tell you that I serve Jesus Christ. He’s the most High God.” And so, all those people, they stand around, they say, “Oh, yes, but He’s just one of the gods that we serve. Serve Him. I don’t care, serve Him, because He’s just another god.”

 

Oh, well, what are the other gods? Well, Aphrodite’s is a god, and we’ve got all these other gods that are the god of, you know, sex and the god of love and the god of prosperity, and the god of rain, and the god of the sun, and the god of moon. You stand up and say, “Look at how I’ve achieved, and I serve Jesus Christ.” Okay, but we serve other gods. I’m happy for you to serve that God, that’s the God you choose to serve, we let you, be my guest. We let you because we want to serve our gods. That was the day that Jesus was born into and died in.

 

Now, we, in our modern day society, we place such a great value on sportsmen that will go onto a field and they will kiss a cross on their thing like this, and they will stand after winning a game and they will, you know, kneel and pray and do something and say, “Look at that testimony and God wouldn’t be able to use somebody if they weren’t in that place.” So therefore, it makes it all okay to do all of that stuff so that you can have one moment in front of the world and say, “Jesus is Lord.” They don’t care about you doing that. They say, “Okay, you serve that God, we’ll serve ours.” They don’t care that you serve Jesus, you’re just serving that God, that’s the God you choose to serve. You’re not going to change their mind by doing that. On the contrary, you are just serving your God in the same system that we have all created to worship our gods in. So, you just keep operating, as long as you don’t cooperate with the living God, we just don’t care how you operate. I’m preaching really good today.

 

We think in our society that we live in, that we’ve got what it takes to maneuver ourselves in what’s coming. Let me tell you, we are already, but by the grace of God, we are already so far behind the curve. As the global church of the Lord Jesus, we are so far behind the curve, that we don’t even know what condition the church is in, because the church has looked at the world system and says, “We just have to make sure that we are flowing within the culture of the world system and make ourselves relevant. As long as we are relevant to the world, we are doing our job.” And so, the church is nothing more than another relevant organisation. Like Nike is, like Spur. What do they say? Spur… taste for life? What’s their slogan? They’re relevant. What’s their relevance? They give a good product for a good price – that’s what they sell their product on. They’re relevant.

 

Therefore, the church says, “We’ve got a good service, we’ve got a good message, you can connect well with people. As long as we are relevant to the world out there, then we are necessary.” Huh, and that’s what God wants us to be? Relevant? No, God wants us to be spiritual. He wants us to be cooperating with Him. He wants us to operate in Revelation, so that we can reveal the redemption of God. When we are operating in Revelation and redemption, we are the ones that create the revolution. We do it by nature, by default. I’ve been preaching this for years and years. Now we got a whole bunch of people, young people that are the revolution. [Pastor John referring to the MiXchangers…] Meet the revolution. Meet the revolution. You didn’t think I was that radical? Huh? Are you all part of the revolution? Meet the revolution.

 

“But Pastor John, what are they going to do? What’s their future look like? What they’re going to do?” Well, how about we go with a revolution, and we choose to cooperate with what He says, rather than keep measuring our future by what everybody else says is the thing to do. “But Pastor John, you’re too radical.” Someone’s got to be. Someone’s got to be – that’s how Jesus changed everything. Someone’s got to be radical first. If someone doesn’t change the future, no one’s going to change the future. “But don’t make it… don’t stand up there and put me on the spot that I must make a choice.” If you don’t make the choice, someone’s going to make it for you. And before you know it, that steam train is heading your way, and it’s going to knock you over and it’s going to knock your future. And when you get there, you’re going to say what happened? What happened? How did we get here? And you know who they’re going to turn to? Where’s that radical Christian that was speaking that stuff we didn’t agree with? Who was saying things that we just thought were nonsense? And as long as he doesn’t touch my comfort zone, I don’t need to listen to him. 

 

Where’s that radical Christian? He had it right from the beginning. Why? Because we are cooperating with God. I’m not trying to do something just to make you uncomfortable. I am sent by God to bring these messages. Just by the way, Pastor Sharon and I’ve always been this radical. Always. Our churches’ have always been this radical. Do you know what’s happened? The world system has just caught up with our message right now. 

 

Our time has finally come. We’ve been preaching this radical message for 25 years. We’ve been living this radical message for 40 years. We’ve been living it. We’ve been living it. We’ve been living it. We’ve been living it. We’ve been living it. We’ve been telling you for 40 years how to live a marriage successfully in Him where we cooperate with Him. Not do it the way the world says we should do marriage. When Jesus said, “I want you to give this much money, I want you to tithe I want you to give this I want you to do this. Trust Me with your money. Don’t go and let the world tell you what to do with your money. Trust Me.” I said, “Yes, Sir.” I’ve got nothing to lose. I got nothing to lose. Okay, so you earn this much money and those years I’m going to give this much away and this much away and this much away. Yes. Let me give it.

 

And the more I give, the more kept coming back to me. And the more I gave, the more kept coming back to me. And God promoted me. And God increased me, and God has put me in the rest of my life where God has blessed me. And the blessing can’t stop because the more I get the more I give, the more I get the more I give. The more I give, the more I get, and the more I give. And I can’t stop the blessing. It just keeps coming, it just keeps coming. It just keeps coming and coming and coming. You can’t tell me God’s system doesn’t work. I’m living proof of it that it works. “Yeah, but Pastor, you are just the Pastor.” “No,” I was living this before I was a Pastor long before that. I loved my wife long before I was in the ministry. I loved her the way the Word said I most love her not the way that other pastors were loving their wives. 

 

The Pastor that God called me to for a while, I tried to save his marriage. God used me to try and save his marriage because he’s got divorced. If I had done things, the way that he was the mentor to make me do it, I would have been in trouble. I didn’t follow his mentorship, I followed what the Word of God said. And I’ve told you that many times if you can’t find what I’m saying in the Word of God, don’t listen to me. You got to do what the Word of God says. You got to do what the Word of God says. You got to do what the Word of God says. You got to do what the Word of God says. You got to do what the Word of God says you got to cooperate with Him, cooperate with Him, cooperate with Him. You can look at my life and you can say, “Okay, Pastor John, I see you got some stuff going on in your life that’s worthwhile. I can see how the Word of God changed it.” When you see the word of God changed us – do that. Whatever is my stuff, don’t do that. If you see how the Word of God has worked for us financially, you can follow that example. I’ll say like the Apostle Paul, “Wherever you see Christ working in my life, follow that example.”

 

But if you see in me my humanity, don’t follow that. Because that’s not going to win you anything or benefit you anything. But I can tell you that next week, I’m going to continue with this message because the apostle John, the apostle John was on an island, and he was held captive on this island. Come on. We’re having so much fun in church today. I know you don’t even want me to quit. Even though my alarm clock rang. Come on. We’re having a lot of fun. This is fun, man. I’m telling you we kick the devil in the teeth. Yes. Yes. It’s fun. It’s fun. We are creating a revolution. It’s fun. This is fun. Hallelujah. 

 

The Apostle John. You know, they put him on an island. And he’s there on an island. He’s actually a prisoner on the island. He can’t leave the island and God appears to him. He says, “John, write down this vision that I am going to show you. Write it down.” God speaks to him about seven churches. Seven Churches. I’m just going to give you some background today and we’re going to pick it up next week. Are you okay with this?

 

Church, I just want to show you this. I will give you more details about this next week. Church Ephesus. I’m going to show you what happens in the church of Ephesus. Because God wants us to go to the maximum, the highest level attainable, and there’s things that happen in the spirit when you cooperate with God, both what God wants and what the enemy will try and stop. You need to be aware of both things. Because things will happen to you, but you have to manage it by faith. Not try and manage the natural world around you. You got to manage it with your faith. 

 

If you don’t know this, I’m about to tell you, and you can thank me later. The Apostle Paul is called, is separated by God, by the apostles, and the disciples, the first apostles, him, and Barnabas to go and preach the good news of the gospel to the Gentiles. And so, he goes to Asia to preach the gospel. One of the cities that he goes to, is a city called Ephesus. Ephesus was such a powerful, vibrant city full of trade and academia and all of the things, which was a very powerful, vibrant city. It was also a city that was given to elevating religious beliefs or the worship of gods. There was lots of idols and temples that were built in the city of Ephesus, because it was such a free society, that it would it gave freedom to all manner of sexual practices, it gave freedom to all manner of religious beliefs, it gave freedom to all manner of academia, thought and philosophies. It gave freedom to all manner of trade and, and commerce and many things. It was what in our modern-day world would call a vibrant, dynamic city, maybe it would be equivalent to a London or a New York, or a Paris or one of those where anything goes. If you could make it in that city, you could make it anywhere. 

 

The apostle Paul goes as an apostle into the city of Ephesus and God has him preach the gospel in Ephesus. Now do you remember when Jesus was dying, He was on the cross, He looks down at the disciple, the apostle John. And He says to John, He says, “John, behold your mother, Mary.” Do you remember that if you don’t remember, go read it. He says, “John, behold your mother, Mary.” And from that moment onwards, John accepted the responsibility of looking after Jesus’s mother, Mary. John finds himself living in Ephesus, with most likely, Mary. There is enough credibility in manuscripts to say that Mary lived with John, on the outskirts of the city of Ephesus. Are you with me?

 

John is now on the island of Patmos. And the Lord says to him, “I’ve got a revelation for you, write a letter to seven churches.” What’s the first church he writes about? Ephesus. Then there are six more churches. Why did he first write to Ephesus because the other six churches were birthed out of the first church of Ephesus. When he talks about Thyatira, Laodicea, Philadelphia, Pergamum, all of those, the church at Sardis – all of those cities came out of Ephesus. When God gives John the vision to write to the seven churches, he hits Ephesus first because it was the founding church. Now Ephesus was a very, very powerful city, and there was lots of spiritual activity happening there.

 

I’m going to read to you in the book of Acts next week, when Paul the Apostle is about to go to Jerusalem under the prophetic word of God. He is about to go to Jerusalem where he knows he is going to be captured and he is going to end up in Rome. The Word of God has already spoken that to him – prophecies. He is about to see the church of Ephesus for the last time, having been there for a number of years and teaching them. And as he is about to leave, he calls, he is in a different city, but he calls the elders of Ephesus to the city that he is in, because he had to flee Ephesus. And he calls the elders, and he charges the elders, and he tells them: “I’m leaving. I won’t see your faces again. The Lord has told me that when I go, there are going to be people that come into the church, ravenous wolves, false teachers, false prophets, false apostles, who are going to want to draw the people of God after themselves.” Why? Because the climate in Ephesus was ripe to follow charismatic philosophers. People that said we represent gods, so we recognize that there is this God Jesus, and we will speak for Jesus so long as we can draw people after ourselves. What for? So, we can look important, and we can draw money. We will get on this bandwagon.

 

Paul, the Apostle says, there is people coming, that are going to be like wolves, they are going to come into the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are going to try and devour it. There are those that are going to try and divide it, draw people after themselves. And he says: “But now I’m leaving in your care, the church.” He is talking to the elders.

 

Fast forward. The Apostle John, he is writing to the church at Ephesus. Here is what Jesus says about the church in Ephesus. He says to them: “This thing, I commend you for it, that you are strong in your ability to examine everybody that comes into the church and check them out as if they are true or false. And you have developed this capability to make sure that false people don’t come into the church. But I have got something against you Ephesus, you have lost your first love.” We become so important. We’ve become so focused on our mission, that our mission and our assignment is to protect the church from false teaching, false people, that we become so fixated on that. Jesus says, “You’ve lost your first love.”

 

I’m going to take you back in time, next Sunday, to some key moments that the Apostle Paul and the city of Ephesus faced with disciples, first of all, the Apostle Paul, and then with the disciples, we’re going to talk about this, because if we are going to fully cooperate with God, we’ve got to understand that God is wanting to do something significant with us.

 

What we have to be sure of doing is that as we cooperate with God that we don’t become so fixated on the revolution, that the reason for the revolution is lost. We’ve got to say we accept the revolution, but we’ve got to not forget about our first love which is Jesus. Jesus is always our first love. We’ve always got to say, “We love Jesus.” We love Jesus. We love His Word, we love what He’s got for us and all those good things… we don’t want to serve God for the good things, we want to serve Jesus for who He is then the good things come. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

 

It is my desire, by the Holy Spirit, that we learn to cooperate fully, that we learn to cooperate fully with Jesus, that we learn to cooperate with the body of Christ, with each other and that we will find ourselves in a place with such recognition of the times that we live in, such recognition of the power that we walk in, such wonder of how much we’ve got in faith, that we don’t have to depend on the world system to get anything done. We have to depend on our walk with Him. Are you ready for cooperation? And not self-operation? Hallelujah. Won’t you all stand with me, please? Amen. Did you get something out of this today? Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

 

God is our Teacher. The Holy Spirit will guide us and lead us into all truth. I am a vessel. I stand and I speak in the best possible way that God would have me speak and I’ve got to depend and count on the Holy Spirit to make alive to you the things that you need to have, the things that you need to hear. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

 

I want you to put your hand on your heart like this, on your chest, and say, I trust Jesus. I serve Jesus. He’s my Lord and Saviour. I put Him first in my life. I will cooperate with Him fully, in Jesus’ name. Wherever I’m weak, I trust He makes me strong, in Jesus’ name. I will not self-operate. I will cooperate, In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

I pray that the Word of God fills you with all joy, that the Holy Spirit rests upon you, that He just fully overwhelms you and that you wake up every day full of the joy of the Lord and you are strengthened with mighty power in the inner man, fully aware of all the good things that He has for you in every day and in every moment of every day as you follow Him and cooperate with Him. I pray that you are blessed in everything you put your hands to. You will prosper in it. Wherever your feet go, whatever directions God takes you in life, that you will be blessed by that. And I pray that no weapon formed against you, against your health, against your income, against all of your family, all of the things, no weapon formed against you will prosper. You are protected by the Word, the blood of Jesus and all the angels that God gives His angels charge over you to protect you.

 

And I declare the blessing of God upon you this week. I declare that He gives you visions and dreams and insights into mysteries. And I declare, in the name of Jesus, that you will follow and cooperate with Him into the magnificence and the wonder of all of the mighty power that so majestically works in you, that you will be able to respond to it and cooperate with it for all the good works that He’s called us to do. 

 

Do you receive that? In Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you for coming to church. We’ll see you at the crit, we’ll see you at Message Moments at 5 o’clock. 5 bells. 5 o’clock. Amen. Bye, everybody.