Scripture reference: Romans 1:18-32 (NLT); Romans 1:24 (KJV); Romans 1:28 (KJV); 1 Timothy 4:1-2 (NKJV); 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 12-17 (NKJV); 2 Timothy 4:2-4 (NKJV)
Praise the Lord. I feel like I’ve got to get the rest of this message out because I don’t want to have the enemy come and try and prevent us from getting this whole message out as soon as possible. So, for those that had to go home, those who couldn’t be here this afternoon, I pray for them. I pray for them that they will have sleepless nights until they listen and get it. Praise the Lord.
At the end of the church service I was reading Romans 1 verse 18 in the New Living Translation. I’m going to just read it again so that we have a jump off point. 18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities, – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuses for not knowing God. 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. 23 Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 So God abandoned them to whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.
25 They traded the truth about God for a lie, so they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the woman turned against the natural way to have sex instead of indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. 28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too (Romans 1:18-32 NLT).
This is quite a record of the kind of activities and the kind of things that people do and the kind of behaviour and the kind of attitude that people have towards God. This is a record of God saying, “They knew Me, they know Me. They have on purpose decided to not worship Me. They’ve decided to worship the creature rather than the Creator. Because they decided that, I have given them over to what they have chosen.”
So, I want to just go back to verse 24 and I’m going to read it in the King James Version. And verse 24 says, 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves (Romans 1:24 KJV). It’s interesting that the old King James uses the word dishonour, the New Living Translation and other versions use different words. The New Living Translation says; degrading things with each other’s bodies. So, I want to focus on the word; dishonour. Bearing in mind that this whole chapter is dealing with the way people choose to recognise or not recognise God. What God did was He created an entire stratosphere, biosphere, whatever you want to call it; He created for men to live in. On this entire planet, earth, sky, everything that you and I live in, we can admire the joy of living on this beautiful planet. Right? We can admire it, enjoy it, God made it for our pleasure. If people say, “We want to worship what we see with our senses rather than worship what our heart tells us we should worship,” then God says, “I’m going to give them over to the desire of their senses because they choose the desire of their senses rather than the desire of what’s in their heart.”
You will hear this from every pulpit everywhere, I guess. I wouldn’t necessarily say I can speak for every pulpit but I would say majority of pulpits around the world, Christian pulpits, you will hear people say, “We love the people who commit homosexuality, we just can’t agree to the sin of homosexuality.” Well, of course, God even loved them. They knew God, God loved them, they knew who God was, they chose not to worship God but worship their bodies. If you hear this, and this is not about homosexuality, I’m just going to touch on this for a minute but you will see that you will find out that there are homosexuals, in America anyway, they have homosexual churches where they profess to know Jesus and they’re all homosexuals that go to those churches. They have homosexual pastors that preach for homosexual people. We might say, “Well, how is that possible? How can people do that?” Well, what they’ve done is they’ve decided that God has a place in their life but their bodies have a bigger place. So, they choose to worship their bodies more than they worship God. So, obviously, God has a place in their lives but actually, their body and what they do with their bodies has a bigger place in their lives. People get all bent out of shape, “Can they be saved, can’t they be saved?” That’s not for you and me to judge. If I read the scripture of Romans, I can tell you that at least I know what the pattern of behaviour is. They always worship the creature rather than the Creator first. Whatever they do, they’re going to worship the creature. Amen.
It’s amazing that in the old King James, anyway, the King James Version, the word is ‘dishonour.’ So, if we dishonour God in our worship, then we tend to honour the creation and the creature rather than honouring God. So, if you and I talk about Kingdom economics and Ecclesia economics, then we have to say the contest of worship is in the things that provide for the creature rather than the honour of what’s in our hearts that we want to worship God from the heart with what we have in substance because if we choose to worship ourselves with our substance rather than worship God with our substance, then all of what we worship with our substance becomes what our heart wants. Now you know why I wanted to get this out today. Huh?
So, we are in a place where, for the most part, when God says you can’t serve God with your heart and mammon, the substance of life, the wealth, the confidence of wealth, you can’t worship the confidence of wealth and the confidence in God at the same time. You’re going to worship one or the other. You can’t have space for both. It’s because one or two of these things; you can’t say I’m going to put my body first, but I’m going to worship God second. No, if you put your body first and you worship your body first, then everything’s going to be about your body and God just has a place, but if you put God first then your body fits into the worship of God. Isn’t it why He gets to Romans chapter 12 and then He says; now do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, presenting your bodies as reasonable worship to God because when you’re transformed in the renewing of your mind and you’re worshipping God, then your body becomes a part of the worship. It’s not the whole focus of your worship. So if we have substance, if we have finances, if we have all of that stuff and that becomes the focus of our worship, then God just gets a part of what we say He can have. As opposed to someone who’s completely sold out to God, seeking Him first, then God tells us what He wants, then we say, “We trust You.” Then what we give Him is all of our heart and then He just says, “Because I have your heart, I’ll bless you, bless you, bless you, bless you, bless you, bless you, bless you. Open windows, bless you, bless you, bless you, bless you, bless you, bless you, bless you, bless you. Because I know that none of the blessings will stick to you. Because now you are not serving Me just because I bless you. You’re serving me because your heart is already given to Me. And so you showed me that because the stuff doesn’t own you.”
So people that journey this journey with God, with their finances, they want to be in a place where they want to understand Kingdom economics because why do they want to understand Kingdom economics? Because they want more. “I want to learn how to be successful God’s way. I want to have … So, I’m a tither, I’m a giver, but I want to know about Kingdom economics because there’s got to be a way that I can be more successful, God’s way.” But the whole idea of being successful God’s way is that He’s got to own your heart rather than just own your money. Because when He owns your heart, then your money will follow where your heart is. Which is why Jesus, when He was teaching His disciples and He was teaching them about money at different times, you know, He chases people out of the temple with a whip. Why? Because they were making the temple a place of commerce because their heart was in the money, not in the worship of God.
And then another time He was teaching His people about money, and He was watching a rich young man with a bag of money and He’s saying, “Look how much money I give”. And then there was a widow with just a couple of coins, and Jesus was looking at them, “You see that rich man there? He’s got all the things he’s ever going to need because he’s doing it because of the natural reason for worship that will come to him – status from men – that people will think important. But actually the one who God is seeing is the one who’s given everything. Her two mites are everything she’s got.” Hey? You mean you got all of that out of Romans chapter one? Yes, I did because it’s all about what we worship in our bodies. Are we worshipping created wealth or are we worshipping the Creator of wealth?
Why am I teaching this? Because the subject matter of people out there are people that know God and have decided not to worship God. And so, God had to give them over to their own desires. These people are the people that we call wealthy and blessed. These people, those people out there who have a way of sucking all the resources into more and more schemes and ways. And you find out things like, before COVID hit the world, Bill Gates invested into all of these pharmaceutical companies. Then COVID came and then suddenly he’s invested in and he’s given free COVID to this and free… but in the meantime he’s got shares in pharmaceutical companies that have got billions. He’s making more and more and more and more billions. And you think, “Well, how did that thing work?” I wonder, you know.
These creatures are worshipping what they create, they don’t worship the Creator. They worship what they create and they become our examples? They are not our examples. And we can bring it down to just a normal local level of business. A local level of business here where people look at someone who’s a wealthy business person, relatively wealthy in circles, you say, “Oh, look at that person, how well they live. Have you seen that person is driving around in a brand new whatever car and they bought themselves another house?” And you know what that kind of talk does? It kind of reinforces that for us to have a presentation of our wealth, we must show wealth the same way. But they are worshipping the creature, not the Creator. And so God has to say, “If you’re going to worship the creature with all of what you do and you create all of the creature comforts, then you must live with the comforts that you create for yourself as a creature. I can’t touch that because you won’t let me touch that because it’s yours.”
I’m going to read Romans 1:28 in the King James, 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient (Romans 1:28 KJV). A reprobate mind, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. So, if you don’t speak English as your first language, and even nowadays, most English people that go to school, don’t ever use a word like reprobate, right? Because it’s like an old English word. So, in the other translation, the scripture says, 28 … abandon them to their foolish thinking (Romans 1:28 NLT). But it doesn’t quite translate for what a reprobate mind is because a reprobate mind is a mind that is given over to a way of thinking. The best way that a reprobate mind can be described is; I guess if I wanted to change Pastor Sharon’s way of thinking, you know, then I would come up to Pastor Sharon, and I’d say, “Sharon, you know, your hair is turning brown. It’s brown.” And then I would have Empie come along and say to Pastor Sharon, “Tell her that her hair is brown.” “Sanmarie, tell her next time you see her, tell her that her hair is brown.” “Brynn, next time you see her, tell her that her hair is brown.” You know? And if I told you all to start telling Sharon that her hair is brown, she’s about to become a reprobated mind, because we are reprobating her mind. We are re-engineering her thinking. We are reordering her thinking. So even when she looks at herself in the mirror, and she says, “But my hair is blonde. But no, everybody’s telling me it’s brown. Oh, this is what brown must look like.” Yes?
So, when the scripture in another translation says, it’s given over to their foolish thinking, what it actually talks about, is somebody that’s been brainwashed into a way of thinking that is so absent God that they now don’t even know that what they’re doing is foolish. It just becomes the normal way of thinking. So God has given them over to themselves as the normal way of thinking that is not normal at all. It’s their normal. You even hear this language in the world. They will say to you, “We know you believe that what you believe is to be true. You believe what you believe. And we know you believe what you believe to be true. So you must let us believe what we believe to be true”. And so they say, “What we believe to be true is normal. You, the radical Christians are no longer normal. What we believe is normal because everybody else believes this normal.” Ja? Stick with me, I’ll make you famous today.
Because these people in their new normal thinking, their lives become full of every kind of wickedness. This is normal to them; 29 … sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. And at the end of that scripture and, 32 Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too (Romans 1:29-32 NLT). In fact, it’s now become so much a part of the woke liberal culture that if you don’t talk wokeness and you don’t talk the stuff that people talk, that you are conservative and you are verkramp (conservative) and you’re backwards in your thinking, and so they categorise you as, “You’re lost in the dark ages. We are the liberals and we are right.” That’s a reprobate mind. They have been re-engineered in their thinking. Hello.
Now these re-engineered thinking people think that they can tell us how we should live our lives. And so now, if you’ll just bear with me for a minute, there is a contest in thinking the way God wants us to think and thinking the way the world is thinking. And the more we think like God makes you think, the more we are going to be separate in our thinking from the way the world thinks. And the more we are separate, the more we are going to be isolated and classified as radical. They will probably use the same word against us and they will say they reprobate. They’re re-engineered in their thinking, and so we are. We are re-engineered in our thinking God’s way. Stick with me. We’re going to get through some stuff here.
One Timothy chapter four, verse one, New King James version. One Timothy chapter four, verse one, 4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron (1 Timothy 4:1-2 NKJV). Now the Spirit expressly says, if somebody is saying, if the Holy Spirit is expressly saying, it’s like, “I’m making a proclamation.” In fact, some versions might even say, the Spirit professes or declares. It’s an announcement. The Holy Spirit is announcing that in latter times, our days that we’re living in, some will depart from the faith. Now I want to just make a point of this. It doesn’t mean to say that they’ll have no faith but they’ll depart from the faith. If you depart from this building and you leave this building that doesn’t mean to say you are saying this building doesn’t exist and I don’t even recognise that this building isn’t a church. You may walk out of this building and you will walk out of this building and say, “I’m leaving church now. I’m leaving the building that is the church.” Yes? You’re just departing the building. It doesn’t mean to say that you don’t agree that the building is here or everything that the building represents. When the scripture says, they will depart from the faith, it doesn’t mean to say they will depart from God. What they’re saying is, we are departing from the ways that faith teaches us to live. Come on now. We are departing from the ways that faith teaches us to live because we have given heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. I wonder what kind of doctrines demons will have. I wonder, some scriptures, some translations, the King James Version will use the word seducing spirits. Maybe the Amplified says it. Anybody got one that says seducing spirits? Which version is that? Amplified – deluding and seducing spirits. So, I mean, this is what the devil is, seducing you with teachings. That word doctrine, the word doctrine means a presentation that is so excellent in its format that it makes you believe that through the presentation of information that it’s so good that you should believe it. It’s so good you should believe it. So when you are seduced, when people are seduced with the doctrines of demons and with deceiving spirits, what happens is that, “How are they going to get hold of somebody that’s in faith?” Well, they’ve got to come and try and convince somebody that is in the same circles as them to bring an altered message of truth. An altered message of truth that is so well presented and so well packaged, so as people that are in faith will believe that to be the truth. And so then they depart from faith. Can I give you an example? This has happened in faith churches, big names recently, recent years, big names started to preach this message. I hope you guys still love me after this.
A big name started preaching you don’t have to tithe. You only have to tithe by how much grace you have in your heart for the faith to give as much as you want to give – big name faith preacher. So much so that it caused such a problem in our faith circles that my spiritual father, my spiritual leader, needed to go into his church in Crowley, Texas and bring a corrective teaching to make sure that the people in that church do not follow the doctrine that was being taught by someone who altered the truth. Eish, ne? Seducing, deceiving spirit doctrine, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with hot iron (1 Timothy 4:2 NKJV).
Now we go to 2 Timothy chapter three, verse one. “Well, Pastor John, why are you talking about this?” Well, because part of the deceiving doctrines, part of the deceiving things that are going to happen in the end times is that I can promise you this, you are going to be tempted to protect your future with your money. And the more you trust in your money to protect your future, the less you’re going to be able to protect your future. Why? Because fear will get a hold of you, deceiving doctrines, all manner of things come into the whole body of Christ. Yes? Perhaps I can put it to you this way. So many people, when COVID came, so many people said, “You have to have the vaccine because the vaccine is going to protect you from future outbreaks of COVID.” Then they discovered that actually the vaccine protected you no more from any future COVID attacks and whether you were vaccinated or not, you could get COVID again. But it was first sold as, “Vaccinated, you’re okay.” And so that’s how the lie creeps in, “Have enough money, your future looks okay.” Until something happens where your money is no longer that good anymore. Now your trust has always been in money, now you want to turn your trust over to God and now you can’t because you’ve trusted in money all this time. That’s what Matthew chapter six is telling us.
2 Timothy chapter three, verse one. 1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NKJV). Let me tell you, everything that’s happening in the world system is you’ve not really made it successfully if you don’t have one home, maybe a second home and a holiday home and all of that kind of stuff. And when God came in December and He said, “I’m touching your ‘holy days’ (holidays).” Oh, you’ve decided your whole future success looks like how many ‘holy days’ (holidays) you’ve got with how many homes you’ve got to do ‘holy days’ (holidays) with. Your money is determining where you want to spend your future time rather than making sure your future time is ordered by God. So your status and your money and your future is wrapped up in your ‘holy days’ (holidays). And if I can guarantee a certain amount of ‘holy days’ (holidays) that I can have because I’ve got a home to go and have ‘holy days’ (holidays) in, even better, my future’s more guaranteed that I’ve got a ‘holy day’ (holiday) home. Hey, I’m not telling anybody to get rid of their ‘holy day’ (holiday) homes. I’m not doing that. What I’m saying to you is that if God is putting His finger on this right now, that’s because God is examining hearts. He’s saying, “Where’s your heart?” Ja.
So, are we living in these times? Does it sound like we’re living in these times? 1… perilous times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters (2 Timothy 3:1 NKJV). So these people, lovers of themselves, lovers of money and boasters, these people, these people are surrounding us all the time and they’re presenting their truth to us, “Look how we live, look how we live. We are the grand people. We are grand, look how we live.” Are you all still going to love me after this? [Congregation answers; yes] Really? All I ask for is that the Holy Spirit will just lead you and guide you into your future. Ja. [Congregation member replies; Good preaching Pastor John.] Thank you, thank you.
Second Timothy chapter three, verse 12, 12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12 NKJV). So I know that if I choose to live godly, and if this message is godly, it will be persecuted. Can I tell you what the biggest persecution will be? It will be in the households that don’t want this to be the truth. And so, justification happens. And then last week the Church spoke where everybody was justifying why they didn’t have to go on holiday or why they should go on holiday and why they must go on holiday because in Mia’s case, because it’s the last time they were going to be with their grandfather. The Church spoke, Stefnie spoke, many people spoke because everybody had a reason why they should go on leave because this is the time of the year that they can go and leave. And this is the only time of the year that they can have family time.
I’ve got a suggestion. I made this to the young people the other day. I’m making a suggestion to you people. If you’re going to watch this Message Moments on the internet, I want to make this suggestion to the Church; why don’t we be proactive with God and do a Biblical principle and give this year of ‘holy days’ (holidays) as a first fruit to the truth that God has given us. Let us give this year as a first fruit of ‘holy days’ (holidays) to God. And we decide on purpose that whatever ‘holy days’ holidays, we have chosen that we will go on, we give it to God and say, “God, we are giving this year’s holidays as first fruit to You – on purpose.” Because you don’t give first fruits to God because He demands you to give it. You give it because you want the rest to be, [Congregation answers; blessed] Don’t you want all of your ‘holy days’ (holidays) to be, [Congregation answers; blessed] Don’t you want all of your rest and peace days to be, [Congregation answers; blessed] So then isn’t the principle that if you give the first of the new revelation of the new message to God, then the rest is, [Congregation answers; blessed] So why don’t we just follow that principle and do this thing this year and call the rest of all of our ‘holy days’ (holidays) blessed? And then we can say, “God, here is our first fruits. Here’s our gift. Here’s our offerings.” And then whatever He chooses to do with the rest for the years to come, that’s His business. But then we show that we give Him our heart.
Hey, listen, I’m not making any decisions in front of you today. I’m asking you to think, if anybody’s got suggestions, you know, send them to Miranda, don’t send them to me. And then she’ll present them to me. No, she will. I’m just being practical about it. If you’ve got a suggestion, send them to Miranda on an email, on a letter, whatever, and then let me have it. You know, maybe it’s not every formal holiday. Maybe it’s a part of every holiday. Maybe there’s some practical considerations we have to take into mind. I’m open to suggestions. I’m making a spiritual suggestion to you. Come back and help me make a practical decision that is also spiritual, that’s not totally swamped with logic and reality. Because if you want to have a logic about this whole thing, then we might as well not even have this conversation because logic will override everything that we just talked about. ne. So, what are we going to do on those ‘holy days’ (holidays)? Well, why don’t we make them really holy days? And then why don’t we make them times where we can all have fellowship together, and we’ll have our own camp meetings, and we’ll have braaivleis together, we’ll have church together, we’ll have parties together, the kids can play together, we’ll do stuff and see what God … I’m just making a suggestion. This is not a Holy Ghost command. It’s really not. If it was a Holy Ghost command, I would be speaking a different way. But I know how God works with seed, don’t you? So, then seed is the thing that we can use to our future.
So, 12 … all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:12-13 NKJV). Evil men and imposters. What is an imposter? An imposter is someone that imposes themselves into a company of people, making themselves look like the real deal, but they’re not. So, they look like the real thing, they talk like the real thing, they behave like the real thing, but they’re not. I know, I’ve suffered persecution on this matter before because when people looked at our marriage and they said, “It’s impossible for your marriage to be this good,” because they were imposters. They were presenting their marriages to be something in public that it wasn’t in private. So, they thought what we were presenting our marriage to be in public was like them. So, they called us imposters because they were. We’ve been persecuted like that before. Hallelujah.
14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. Watch this now, this is so big. This is so big. 15 And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:14-15 NKJV). From what? Childhood, that means that our children must be raised this way. And if we as a Church don’t make the stand right now for these things, our children are going to grow up compromising all of their ‘holy days’ (holidays) as the thing that everybody does in the world. And they will never give God days of holiness. I wonder if this is not God actually, really doing a generational thing. Wonder what would have happened if Pastor Sharon and I, when we got the word of God, I will take the Children, we said – as she did initially think – “Maybe I’ve got to go to the children’s church and go and minister just to the small children.” When she came to me with a message, I will take the Children, and I heard it with my ears, my spiritual ears, I said, “No, Sharon, this is for the Church. This is a marking moment. This is a prophetic word we’ve got to live by. We are going to do this together.” Remember? And then God had me stand up in the church and I started to call for repentance. Right? How many years ago was that? Four, five years ago, and now look at what God did with that message. He said, “I will take the children,” and He’s taken the children and He’s delivered our children from the systems of the world, from the logic of the world, from all the paranoia of the world, all of the social media identification issues of the world, all of the stuff that the world wants to steal their future. God said, “I will take the children.” And He said, “John and Sharon, will you please be a church that My children can grow up knowing about Me rather than following the systems that will consume them,” and then they will become like the rest of the people deceived, living in deception, thinking that they’re giving their all to God. Meanwhile, they’re giving their all to themselves, worshipping the creation, not the Creator. ne? Hallelujah.
14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned… 15 … from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures. So, verse 16, 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:14-17 NKJV). I’ve got about 10/15 minutes left. Are you all still with me this early afternoon? Because it’s about to get really good here. It’s about to get really good here. So, that scripture, that word, if you take that scripture that says, 16… is given by inspiration of God, the Greek definition of that word is; it’s breathed by God. It’s breathed by God. It’s a divine breath. So when God says, “All Scripture is given as inspiration,” it means He breathed His breath, His life, all of Who He is, He breathed it into Scripture. When He breathes His life into Scripture, He’s not giving us words that mean nothing. He’s giving us life that we can live by. It assumes that in the breath of God is the power to live the life the way that He says we must live. Without breath, it’s just nothing. So all Scripture must be inspired by God. So if I’m teaching you Scripture today, it’s the inspiration, it’s the breath of God, it’s the stuff that’s been written so that we can understand the difference between those who love creation and those who want to worship the Creator. Ja. I don’t want to be the one that worships creation, I want to worship the Creator. Inspired by God. That word profitable means; it’s helpful, it’s advantageous, it’s helpful. So if something is helpful for me, it means it will help me, it’s breathed by God, it’s got the life of God in it, it’s got this power to live by the Word of God, so it helps me to change my course of action. That word doctrine, it means; learning, it’s teaching, it’s instruction. So this is not just like the way that I’m teaching you today, it’s part of that, it means it’s teaching. But if you take the word doctrine, it also has the implication even in it, there’s following of the teaching. Otherwise it’s just words. So when it’s advantageous and helpful and it has the breath of God, the power of God in it, it enables us, it empowers us to follow the teaching. Amen.
So, I want to go to the Word to that scripture, the old King James Version says, thoroughly furnished. The other translations say, thoroughly equipped for every good work. The Greek says thoroughly furnished. I want to put it to you this way; I started to enjoy, I really started to enjoy, it all started with the young people. I blame them for it all. But I really started to enjoy overlanding. Good old-fashioned kampeer (camping). If you had said to me a couple of years ago you would be camping, I’d say, “Not a chance. Where there is no lodge, there is no John.” Because I was one who camped in lodges. I am moving from one very comfortable place where I can shower, to a very comfortable place that I can shower, right? That was me and Pastor Sharon. But I began to enjoy overlanding.
I began to, because I was obedient to God, to work with the young people and become something to the younger generation that I wouldn’t have become in myself, but that God gave me the grace to become it. To the point where I was ready to go and camp with them because we went and did a whole, what did we call that? Footsteps to Destiny tour. Footsteps to Destiny, which was a camping trip, essentially. And I made all these plans to go by myself and then lo and behold, God got hold of Pastor Sharon’s heart, and then she ended up camping for a couple of weeks too. Beyond my wildest imagination that happened. Just bear with me. So, I could have gone on a camping trip with a Prado that had no extra changes made to it, then it would have just been a normal vehicle. It would have done a good job but there are things that happened when I bought the vehicle, that were already with the vehicle that caused it to be a good deal. I only found out more about it later, and certainly Paul could probably tell you more about it than I could, but at the time I was clueless and Paul was very clued up. So, he came and told me all these things and he said, “Pastor John, this thing has got a special exhaust in it, that has been put in there. It’s got this air filter thing on the front there, or the snorkel. It’s got, I think it’s tough dock suspension in it, that’s extra in it. It’s got dual battery systems in it. It’s got all of the things in it that you…” So, what happened was that the car – I bought the car like that. It had all these things in it.
Can I say, when I bought it, it was fully furnished for the job? As opposed to other cars that were not fully furnished for the job. So, at the time we made a decision because I thought I was going to go camping for myself. I want to have a RTT – rooftop tent. So, then we further fully furnished the vehicle to put a roof top tent on top, so that it would have a 360 batwing awning and a roof top tent, and a whole bunch of things where I could put my fridge in there, and it became a fully, fully equipped vehicle to do the job. I can say it was thoroughly furnished, fully equipped. Amen.
So, when the Bible says to us, when the Bible says to us that all Scripture is given by the inspiration, it’s breathed by God for our advantage to give us the power to help us, for reproof and correction, for instruction so that we can be thoroughly equipped for every good work. What it means is that God has empowered us that whatever journey we’re going to walk in life, we are fully ready, prepared, and equipped for the journey that we must take through the Word that is given to us, that He breathes.
So, what is God doing in this season? Why is He talking about Crossover, holy days, and about Kingdom economics? Because He is wanting to fully furnish us and prepare us for not just this year, but for many years of journeys that we still have to follow God in, with times ahead of us that are perilous. For things that we can’t see that He can see, but He is saying, “Get ready for it now. Teach it now, John.” Because if you look at that word for correction, that word correction for reproof for correction and for instruction, that word correction, it has this Greek implication to it. It means this; if you are not corrected, it has the same thing as you are lying horizontal. If you’re lying horizontal as in a bed or on a floor, how fast can you move and how far can you go and what can you do when you’re horizontal? What’s your worldview? It’s very limited. If you’re just lying flat like this, you’ve got this that you can see [Pastor John refers to the ceiling] There’s very little movement that you can make, there’s very little that you can do. What does correction do? Correction comes in and takes a horizontal person and pulls them vertical so they are now ready to move forward. That’s what correction does. It takes you from a horizontal position to a vertical position – now I can see, now I can walk, now I can move. That’s what correction does. We always see correction as a negative thing but actually correction is, “Hey, don’t be horizontal, stuck to your old way of thinking, let’s get vertical and see the whole new scope of what God’s got for us.” For what? For every good work.
Can I read verse 17? 17 That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped, thoroughly furnished, thoroughly put together for the journey, for every good work that you might have to face in your life (2 Timothy 3:17 NKJV). So now, when you begin to see Scripture like this, you begin to realise what’s going on.
I’m going to just read one more scripture to you and then I’m done. 2 Timothy 4, verse 2. This is what the scripture says, 2 Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort. This is my job. This is what God tells me to do. Be in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort. Correct. Get people from horizontal, get them standing up. If they need to be sorted out, John, you’re the vessel, you’re the vehicle, I’m going to get them sorted out. Bring the correction, bring it, bring it. Breathe the breath of God. Breathe the life. Let the power be in the Word. Let the power be in the teaching. Let the following begin so that they can follow by being upright. So do it with, 2 … long suffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, that they will heap for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables (2 Timothy 4:2-4 NKJV). You know what God’s doing here with us, with me, Pastor Sharon, what God’s doing with us? And when the Church is speaking, He’s saying, “Hey, I’m raising the standard of correction so that when you hear a fable, you will know it. When you hear a deceiving doctrine, you will know it.” Hey? And so, when it comes to money and when it comes to the way of God with money, I know the Church is all about prosperity. We need more money. We need to be more successful. The answer is yes, but the more money you get, you’re going to use it on what? More ‘holy days’ (holidays), more ‘holy day’ (holiday) homes, more of what you want for yourselves? So, God’s saying, “Hey, I don’t mind you having that stuff. I want you to have that stuff. I want to bless you with that stuff but put Me first. Let Me see how much of that owns you.” Hey?
I’m happy to say that God moved on me and He said to me that I should give my mountain bike to Luke. Luke didn’t ask for it. Luke was believing God for it. How long ago was that? A year ago, two years ago maybe, Luke? 2021. The Lord moved on me to give my mountain bike to Luke. Watch me now. Wasn’t but two months later maybe, someone blessed me with a new mountain bike. The next year, the Lord says to me, “John, I know I have got your heart. I want to do you a favour. What do you want?” “Lord, I’d like to do the Cape Epic.” “Okay. You don’t even know what it means, but I’m going to arrange it for you so that,” He didn’t tell me this upfront, “I’m going to arrange it so it gets paid for. You’re going to get a new bike thrown in on the deal. You’re going to have everything you’re ever going to need to do the Cape Epic.”
When I gave him my bike, I had no backup plan for another bike. I didn’t know that a new bike was going to come two months later. When I gave him my bike, I stopped riding a mountain bike because I gave him the only one I had. There are others here that have given their bikes away, not knowing what the future is going to hold. But God knows that their heart is totally captivated. They’ve shown God with their heart that they’re prepared to give everything. The biggest asset they had in their life, they were prepared to give it away because God said. Hallelujah.
So what do you think their future looks like? Do you think that their future looks like God can trust them with stuff? Listen, I didn’t give my mountain bike to God because I was looking for a reward. I didn’t think that any of these things that have come into my life would have come into my life. If you had told me that when I did it, I would have said, “You’re crazy. I’m going to get two new bikes and I’m going to prepare them to do the Absa Cape Epic and I’m going to do all of that?” I would have said, “From where? For why? For what?” So, Pastor John, but you’re the pastor of the church so these things happen to you because you’re the pastor of the church. That’s not the why reason. That happens because of my faith. When I gave Luke my bike, I knew that God was doing something. That I knew. I knew He was wanting to get something to me. But more than that, He wanted to establish something in Luke’s life. He gave me a little insight to it. He said, “John, I want to give something to Luke that he knows that God did it, that it wasn’t any other human being, that it was God that used this vessel to do it.” His trust in God grew because I was obedient. Ja, ne. Isn’t that the way it works? Who knows what your future is going to look like when you obey God with money? Who knows what your future looks like?
I’ll tell you what; Sharon and I have been sold out with money from the day we got a revelation that the just shall live by faith. Because if you live by faith, then actually money can’t control you because you serve one master. And that master is God, it’s not money. So when people want to try and control you with money, they can’t. Hallelujah.
Come on, that’s a free place to be. It’s a free place to be when your trust is in God. Wow, wow. And I’ll tell you what the great thing is, is that I know amongst these young people, there’s a giving spirit, there’s a generous spirit, there’s a sharing spirit, there’s a great thing amongst these young people and you know what? They are learning it from each other, they’re learning it from the Word, they’re becoming disciples of the way that God works. It’s a God of generosity; it’s not a god of, ‘I’ve got to protect what’s mine and I’ve got to hold onto what’s mine because I don’t know if I can get another one at that price that’s such a good deal that I could have got.’” Let me tell you, that all applies to me on the bike that I bought that I gave to Luke. I got a sweet deal, it was a sweet bike, it has everything in it that I thought I would ever need in a bike and where am I ever going to get a sweet deal like that again? And, what was really appealing to me was, listen I’m the pastor, people you know, they watch me, they see what I do. Right? And so the one thing I liked about it was probably a bike that no one else would buy. Partly because it was a big price, partly because of the brand and the way it’s designed, I just liked it. Ne. But God said, “Give it away.”
If I had not done that then all of the blessings that came would not have come to me. Tell me why? Because I would have had ownership of that bicycle. I would have owned it for all the reasons I’ve said. My identity is wrapped up in it, my money is wrapped up in it, my uniqueness is wrapped up in it, my deal, the deal that I made was wrapped up in it and I’ll never get another deal like that and there’s value in it and there’s all of these things and whara whara and I would have all the reasons why I shouldn’t give it away. But God said, “Give it.” Pastor Sharon will tell you I didn’t blink for one moment, she knows and I know her too. If God tells us to give stuff away, we give stuff away like that. There’s nothing that owns us, nothing owns us. There is nothing that is of that much value that we will not be obedient to God when He says, “You let it go.” Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus.
So, God is bringing correction. He’s bringing instruction. He’s bringing reproof. We are not going to be ones that follow and are caught up and wrapped up in our identity in creation. Whether that creation is a bicycle or it’s a car or it’s a house – the creation of things. Our identity is going to be wrapped up in the Creator, in Him who makes all things possible, Him that has put breath in your life, Him that has given you the gifts and talents and callings that you can actually be on this earth doing what you do, Him that gave you intelligence, Him that gave you breath, Him that gave you opportunities, Him that has given you all things freely to enjoy, Him is the One who owns us. Not the creation of anything.
Therefore, the desires for those creation things don’t own us and we don’t worship them. Just in the same way that people that worship their bodies, have sex with their own bodies and the same type of bodies because they love their bodies and they’re wrapped up in the love of themselves and their bodies, in the same way, we don’t love the creation of things and we don’t have to worry about what we will worship because we worship the Creator. Herein endeth the correction and herein endeth the message. Herein endeth the way that God wants us to walk. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
Thank you for allowing me to minister part two to you today. I trust everybody that watches this on the internet, in whatever form, that they won’t just take this message as one message and say, “Ah, that pastor…,” because we’ve come a long way as a Church, together. This kind of message and this kind of preaching is years in the making. This is not a message that you can just go into any church on a given Sunday morning and come and preach this message. We’ve had to walk a long time together to get to this place where I could teach this. Amen.
May your heart be at peace. May your mind be blessed. May everything that God has brought forth by the Holy Spirit through this vessel, may it do what it needs to be doing in your heart, in your life, with you, in Jesus’ name. Do you all say amen? Amen. Thank you for being here. Bye.
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TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
