Scripture reference: Ps 37:3-4 (TPT); Mark 11:24 (NLT); Galatians 3:5-9, 11, 15-16 (NKJV); Genesis 12:1-3 (NKJV); Galatians 3:26-29 (NKJV); Ephesians 1:2-10, 12-14 (NKJV); Ephesians 2:10-13 (NKJV); Ephesians 4:10-13 (NLT)
Pastor Sharon: Thank You, Father, for Your Word, You speak through Your Word, and You speak through Your prophets, and You speak through Pastor John this morning. Your holy, divine energy is active in him and is energising him to speak words of spirit and life to us this morning. And we declare before You and in Your presence, Father, that we are ready to receive. Our hearts are ready, our minds are quiet, and we receive this not as the word of mere man, but as what it truly is. It’s the words of God that you will speak today through Pastor John. And we let them in. We let your words in. They bring us light, they bring us light, they give us words. Thank you that You bring words through Pastor John today that will create our future. That’s how we journey with You, Father. That’s how your people journeyed with Joshua and Moses. This is how we journey with Pastor John as a church and as a people, Father. We receive Your words in Jesus’ name. And we all say, amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
Pastor John: Glory to God. Thank you for coming to church this morning. I’m glad you pitched up, it’s a good thing. Otherwise, I would have been preaching to chairs. Before you sit down, I’d like you to just turn to one or two people and say, let’s journey together. And then you may be seated. Praise the Lord. Before you leave the auditorium today, there will be someone standing there, and they’ll just give you a simple card like this, and it just has an image on it with a date on the back. This is an invitation for you to be here next Sunday. You need to be here next Sunday. Amen.
So this afternoon, Message Moments at 5 o’clock, Pastor Sharon is teaching, and, I’ll tell you, it’s some of the most amazing teaching. And I just got glimpses of things that she shared with me that she’ll be talking about this afternoon, and you should be here. If you can’t be here and you have to go back to Joburg or whatever the place you might go to, watch it online. But watch it, you must. Go like this [Pastor John pointing to himself], I must watch it. I must be here. Amen.
See now, you were talking to yourself. And then this afternoon, there’s a Crit happening at 2 o’clock for those of you who are cyclists. For those of you who are not cyclists, it’s just over the highway here in the suburbs. It’s a really fun event. It’s really nice to come and watch all the people sweat, sweat and breathe hard and give it their all for an hour. It’s one hour of cycling. Amen.
Alright. It’s time to teach and preach. Oh, by the way, if you see you’re sitting on a foreign plastic chair or some other kind of thing, it’s because most of the chairs are in for refurbishment. And so we have a hundred chairs that were delivered back for us before the service, and they’re all in the front section. So those who came early and the ones who sit in the front, they got the benefit of it. And so you who are sitting at the back and you don’t feel the chair yet, sorry for you. But, you should come earlier and sit nearer to the front. So all in all, we have five hundred chairs that have gone in. And, when I’ve started telling people that we’re refurbishing the chairs and putting a better padding, I don’t know how many times I’ve got, “Amen, amen, amen.” Of course, you know, that the reason we’re putting extra foam into the chairs is because that means you can sit longer. You see? Yes. Sit longer. Praise the Lord.
So if you’ll bear with me as I do a little bit of history and ask you some metaphoric questions, then you’ll understand that I’m not speaking against your knowledge. I’m just creating a framework for us to understand. If you’re God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and before I speak I must say – your doctrine might not line up with my doctrine. That’s okay. Please don’t get bent out of shape if you disagree with me. I mean, you know, the angels will reveal it to you later that you are wrong, but don’t have words to say about me. You know? Just hang tight. We’ll see how the Lord leads. Okay? Alright.
So if you’re Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and you’re making a decision in the triune Godhead, you’re making a decision to put man on the earth. And you’re about to make a decision to make, put man on the earth, and you’re living outside of time. Then you will see the beginning of the creation, and you will also see the end of the creation. And you will see everything in between because you’re no longer in time. Your connection with what’s about to happen is not linear. It is all encompassing, altogether, all at once, eternally, you’re God. You see everything before you even make it. And if you study the scriptures, you’ll know that what I’m saying is true. He talks about all of us, knowing us before the foundation of the earth was created.
So if you read the Bible, you’ll find out that what I’m saying to you is not far-fetched. But if you don’t agree with it, okay, slaap lekker. So if you’re God and you see the beginning from the end, and you are Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and you’re making the decision, and you say, “Let Us make man in Our image.” Then you already know that the one who has already risen in rebellion against you, God, when you put your glory on him – meaning the archangel, Lucifer, who became Satan, the Lucifer, because he took the glory of God, the creative power of God, and he turned it against God and rebelled against God, because he chose to exercise his will against God’s will.
You know that if you’re going to create man, the only way man can look like you is for him to have a free will. When you see yourself creating the free will, you see that he’s going to come against you with his free will. So when you make him, you recognise this is going to happen, so we need to have a plan of salvation so that we can bring man back to us. So, before the foundation of the earth was created, they already decided that Jesus would come to earth, He would die, and He would be raised again by the Father, and that all of humanity will, through Christ, be restored back to Him. So that decision was made before. Now, none of these things had yet happened, but He knew what would happen. I mean, certainly, you can understand this, that if you’re God, then you can see everything because you’re God. We can’t see stuff like that because we live in a linear world. We start at a beginning point, and we end at an endpoint, and that’s how we see life. But God has no beginning, and He has no end. He just is, and He is eternally present all the time for everything that happens in eternity. We can’t think like that because we live only in a three-dimensional, time-related world. Hey. Amen. What a God.
So, He sees all this stuff, and He decides He’s going to make man anyway. Now, if you remember last week, I talked a little bit about a mouse that was in a box, and the mouse wanted to get out of the box. And he worked hard to get out of the box, and so he got out of the box, and he found himself in this big room, and he was so excited that he was out of a little box and into a big room until he was in the room for a long time. Then he found out the room was just a bigger box. So now, all he wanted to do was get out of the box, the room, and so he worked hard to find a way, and eventually he found a way, and he got out of the room into the house. And he was so excited that the house was double-storied, and he could go up and down the stairs and kitchen and, you know, everything else, until he found out, actually, he’s still in a box. Yes, a much bigger box. Got lots more stuff in it, but it’s a bigger box. Then he realised there’s only one way for this thing to change: he’s got to get out of the box. Right? So, I don’t know about you, but I want to be free of the box. I don’t want to live my life just transitioning from one box to a bigger box.
And isn’t it amazing how the world measures itself by the box you live in. “Hey, my box is this big, and I’ve got so many holes in my box houses, and I’ve got so many ways of getting between the boxes with cars and aeroplanes. And you know what? I’ve even got a box that I can go and relax and rest in. It’s called a vacation home. I’ve got so many boxes. Look how successful I am. I’ve got such a big box. I’ve got so many boxes.” So the whole world is measuring itself by boxes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live my life just chasing after boxes. Okay, so bear with me now. This is the truth of the Word of God.
When God made Adam and Eve in Adam, He put him in a box. The box was called earth. Why did God put Adam in a box? You know, you’ll see next week. You have to be here next week. It’s going to be powerful next week. And, you know, if you’re one of the telescopes that’s out in space there that’s heading towards Jupiter and all those places and you’re taking pictures of the earth and you’re out there in the universe. Actually, the earth is a small, small, like, dot of light that is like a pinhead. There is the earth in the whole universe. This amazing big God, He created man and He put him in this little box called earth. Why? Why would God put man in a box? Well, it’s very simple. He said, “If I’m going to make man in My image, I’ve got to give him all of My power. If he’s going to have so much power and he’s going to have all of what I can do, I can’t let him run loose in the universe. I’ve got to confine him to a small space. So, here’s Adam and Eve, and He gives them an instruction. He says, “Adam and Eve, have dominion. You must multiply, you must replenish the earth, and you must put everything that I’ve given you, manage it.”
So, when He was speaking to Adam and Eve, He wasn’t only talking to Christians. He was talking to all of humanity that would come after Adam and Eve, which is why man seeks to have domination, dominion. So man wants to have dominion. He wants to, number one, dominate the earth, dominate the environment, dominate the thing. It’s the ultimate box that you can live in, and you can dominate everything that’s in your box. So mankind is about dominating with technology, can dominate with creativity, with many different capabilities and skills, man is dominating the environment, our earth, what we live on. Man is in control. In fact, man is so in control that man is now saying, “Our control is eroding the very box that we live in, and we can’t let the earth be dissolved because of our own neglect and our own poor management. We have to manage the earth better because man is dominant on the earth.” Of all creatures, man is dominating. Would you agree? So what the power that God gave man is evident to see. I mean, we send rockets into space.
I mean, Elon Musk, you know. I don’t know if you know the story, but Boeing sent some astronauts out into space, and now they had a problem, a technical problem, and they can’t get back. So Elon Musk says, “Don’t worry. I’ll solve your problem.” Boeing, SpaceX, they’re competing. Boeing can’t bring their own astronauts back, so Elon Musk is sending, potentially, sending a spaceship up into space to go and fetch the Boeing engineers to bring… “Don’t worry, I’ll just launch a rocket, send one up, go fetch him, bring him back. Don’t worry, it’ll cost you $20 million, but don’t worry. I can do it. I’ve done it plenty of times.” I mean, if you got the money, you can actually book yourself on a spacecraft. Ask Richard Branson, ask Elon Musk, all they’ve been working on for years is leaving the planet and going into space.
In fact, man has got so much dominion on the earth that he’s trying to dominate the space around the earth. This is the power that God gave man. This kind of powerful man that God made on the earth. Do you think this kind of powerful man should worry about what he must eat and drink and wear? This powerful man. I mean, God didn’t design us to worry about what we’re going to eat or drink or wear. In fact, when he made Adam, He said, “Adam, look, I’ve given you all the seeds of the earth. I’ve given you all the fruit in the earth. I’ve given you everything that the earth will bring and heal for itself. I’ve given you everything, and it will produce by itself. Just eat it.” Because God didn’t want man to worry about what he was going to eat or drink either. I’m really teaching good already this morning.
So right from the beginning, the message of prosperity that people talk against is not a message of prosperity. It’s a message of domination. It’s a message that says, “I don’t have to worry about what I must eat or drink or wear or how many boxes I can make for myself. What I’ve got to do is I’ve got to pursue the Maker who put me here because when I pursue Him, He shows me how to live out of any box, not confined by boxes.”
So, you know, many, many people have left South Africa. In fact, there’s been words like the brain drain, the money drain, billions and billions of rands have left the earth to buy dollars, to buy pounds, to buy Swiss francs, whatever currency you can think of. Many people have gone to Australia, to New Zealand, many South Africans. Tell me why you think they left? They left because they thought South Africa is going to become like Zimbabwe, “So we better leave our box to go to another box that will be a better box for our future.” Come on. So all they did was they transitioned from one place of earth to another piece of earth that they say can be maybe better than the one we have because the future is less certain here than if we go there.
So, then your certain future is about what you make of it. It’s not what God’s got for you. It’s about how well you can manage your box. So, “I take great pride in managing my box. I’m going to move cities, I’m going to move nations, I’m going to move, and I’ve – but I’m not going to leave my box behind. I’ll keep a box here and I’ll have a box there, and I’ll have a box there, and I’ll have all of the means to fly between the boxes so that I can be where I need to be, whenever I need to be so that I can minimise the impact of bad government. I want to go and live in a place where I can have the best possible government governing me so that my future is not compromised.”
So I do this all in the name of what? My kids. Come on. Shout me down. Shout me down. Come on. Come on. Hallelujah. I do it all in the name of my kids, but here’s the most unfortunate thing that I’m teaching my kids. I’m teaching my kids to chase after boxes. Always evaluate your box, evaluate how you can get out of this box and make another box. You never lead them to the Creator of the box. You only lead them to how to manage your boxes.
What we should be doing is leading our family, our friends, our children. We should be showing them the relationship with the Creator. What is the best way to show a child how powerful your Creator is? By example. Isn’t it? Jesus came onto the earth. He said, oh, and while He was on the earth a lot of people said to Him, “Show us the Father. Show us the Father, show us the Father.” He says, “If you see Me, you see the Father.” Why? Because I don’t have to bring the Father from heaven to show you the Father. I am the living image of the Father. You don’t need to see the Father sitting on His throne. You can’t handle it anyway. You’ll die because He’s so glorious and holy.But when you see Me living, you see the Father.”
So if we want to be a living example to our children and our children’s children, the best thing we can do for them is not teach them to live in boxes, but to live after the Creator. And when you live after Him, He says, “As much as you can get Me, I have got everything covered for you. Everything is covered for you. Everything is covered for you.” Hallelujah.
So what do you think? You think, what do you think about this doctrine that I’m teaching you today? [Gideon replies] Thank you, Gideon. Spot on there. Praise the Lord. You just need to go and read the Bible and study the Bible, and you will see actually that God is really determined to make sure that we don’t live in a box. He can’t change the environment that we live in because it’s predetermined that we should live here, so that all of these powerful beings that carry His Spirit, carry His anointing, carry His power, that we can’t corrupt the whole universe.
So what He wants is, He wants a group of people in this earth box that we’re living on, He wants a group of people that now have their hearts turned towards Him. He wants them to show everybody else on the earth, “Look how God wants us to live.” So that He can tell to everybody in the whole universe, all the spirit realms, all the beings and creatures on the earth, “Look at My church. Look at My people.” The ones that receive Jesus as Lord and Savior, look, if there are some, there can be all. The fact that you are not part of the all, is your choice. But there are some who made it their choice. Hallelujah. And that is essentially what we are going to stand in heaven one day, and answer to God, about what we did with His dominating power on the earth.
So I also said last week, the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. And this is what I said to you last week. The earth is not degrading because of God. God gave all the authority and dominion to man. It’s because when man makes decisions without God, everything crumbles. It’s corrupted. But Jesus came to give us life, so that we can have it more abundantly. Remember, I used the scripture, Psalm 37 verse 3 and 4 in The Passion Translation, 3 Keep trusting in the Lord and do what is right in His eyes. Fix your heart on the promises of God, and you will be secure, dwell in the land, feasting on his faithfulness. 4 Make God the utmost delight and pleasure of your life, and He will provide for you what you desire the most (Psalm 37:3-4 TPT).
Now if you are pursuing Him and you are seeking Him and all of His desire, then He will give you your desire, because your desire is now His desire. You can’t compartmentalise God’s desire in one box and say, “God, I’ll serve You and I’ll do a little bit for Your desire, but I want to chase the rest of my life for my desire.” The two can’t cohabit in the same body, because you will love the one and hate the other. God says there is no place for those two choices to live together.
So I read to you Mark 11 verse 24, “24I tell you, you can You pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24 NLT) You see, this is about a relationship that you have with God that is all powerful. Now you might be saying to me on, in this, and so bear in mind that what I’m telling you is preparing you for next Sunday. So when I get to next Sunday I’m going to be telling you practical things, and there’s going to be lots of wonderful wow factor in next Sunday. But I want to tell you, and I’m preparing you this Sunday, have been for the last two Sundays. I’m preparing for you that God’s got a plan for us, and we’ve got to be in that plan. We have got to be ready for what plan God’s got for us. And so I’m just telling you that we are preparing ourselves to be a vessel in God’s house, to be used for His purposes.
So, I’m going to just go back to my history lesson, the beginning of time. God made man, and there’s a lot to talk about this, so I don’t want to get too sidetracked, but there is evidence that there were creatures that were giants that came from the spirit realm and had intercourse with humans and giants were made on the earth. And these giants were the perversion that came from the spirit realm that was coming to intrude on the ways of men on the earth. Created a level of evil on the earth. That, when God looked on the earth He said, “I cannot let this evil continue. And I also can’t let man live for as long as he is going to live.” Because man didn’t know how to die. Because what is it that kills man? Words. Man didn’t know what words to speak that would kill him because he didn’t get words from God that would kill him. Anyway, that’s another … because sin manifests itself in words. First in thoughts, then in words. And then the desire of your thoughts and your words and your desire come together to create something that’s anti-God, simply that’s evil. It’s anti-God. So if you think that all these people that are running around the earth making bigger, more glamorous boxes for themselves, they are supposed to be the pinnacle of our desire or our evidence of something that we want to chase after, but they’re anti-God. We doing their stuff are as evil as they do, if we don’t chase God. Whether you’re Christian or not, your works are the same evil. Eina. Hold on. Come on. Hold on. I said you might not agree with me in the beginning, but by the end of this day and next week, God will sort your doctrine out. Moenie worry nie.
Like I’ve said to you before, if you don’t like what I’m saying, you owe it to yourself not to disagree with me with an opinion, but to go and find out what the Bible says and then come and disagree with me. Amen? And then I’ll debate with you based on the Bible, and then you’ll see how wrong you are. Praise the Lord. Hey. Listen. There’s none of us on this earth that can agree about everything, so we got to make sure we understand and agree about the big things and not worry about the little things. Okay.
So God makes man, says, “Got to start again.” He says, “Noah and his sons, let’s start with you.” One of the descendants of the sons of Noah eventually gives birth, and one of those sons becomes Abram and God comes to Abram and He says, “Abram, I’ve selected you as a man that you can be My ongoing legacy on the earth.” So Abram, He comes and He visits Abram, and He says, “Leave this place and go to a country that I will show you.” So Abram, he just decides, “I’m going obey God.”
Bear in mind that there were people there that were worshipping all kinds of gods, and Abram hears from the living God. He obeys the living God, and he goes to a place. He doesn’t know where this place is. He doesn’t know how long it’s going to take for him to get there. He just obeys God. When he gets there, God says to him, “Look, this is the land that I’ve given you.” So, Abram has this ongoing relationship with God that develops. It develops. It starts off with God encountering him, then he obeys, and then every step of his obedience, God draws closer and closer to Abram, changing his name to Abraham so he would be the father of many nations. Right? Are you all with me? So He started again with Noah, but the seed of Noah was Abraham, who would become the father of many nations. Okay.
Now, we’re back to present day. The Apostle Paul, if you read the book of Galatians. I mean, the book of Galatians can get a little bit hectic because it makes an argument against the law. But you should read it. Read it in a new modern translation, like The Passion Translation or the Message so that you enjoy the book, then go and read it in the New King James. And then you’ll find out it’s quite, it’s about the law, and he’s making an argument about those people that have been set free from the law and their freedom in Christ should not be used for their own good, but they should use the liberty that God has given to them for His glory. Essentially, that’s the argument of Galatians.
Galatians chapter 3 verse 5, 5 therefore, He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? In other words, miracles that are happening among you, is it because you are so perfect, doing everything that God tells you to do or is it by faith? 6 Just as Abraham, “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” So when Abraham believed God, he was before the law of Moses. He was before God gave any man any law that reflected a behaviour pattern. But Abraham believed God. Because he believed God said, “Your actions from this time have rightness before Me. You will not be accused of wrongness. Your faith makes you right. So you have right standing before Me, not because of your behaviour, but because of your faith.” Hallelujah.
7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. So, even though Israel and the Jews are covenant-born people, their connection with God is still not how well they can do the law because you know they can’t. So even though they may live under law and serve God as a community under law, their walk with God still has to be faith in God. Amen. 7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, God preached the gospel to Abraham before we existed, saying, “in you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” He preached the good news to Abraham and said, “Abraham, I’m going to use you and your seed for the purpose of touching all the nations on the earth.” In other words, “It’s not just your direct descendants that are going to be saved, it’s all the nations of the earth are going to be touched by your faith.” Amen. 9Then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham (Galatians 3:5-9 NKJV).
Are you getting an understanding that our legacy goes all the way back to Abram? And if there’s no other human legacy that we choose or want to follow, we must at least follow the legacy of Abraham, who believed God, had faith in God, and because of his faith in God, God said, “You are right in My eyes because of your faith, not because you are perfect.” So when Abraham messed up and he went to a place and he was afraid that people would kill him, and he said, “Go and tell them you’re my sister.” And the king nearly married his wife until God appeared to the king and said, “You touch this woman, I kill you. I will obliterate you and everything on earth because this man and this woman, who is his wife, they are marked by Me.” That king goes to Abraham and he says, “Why didn’t you tell me? God appeared to me and warned me not to have anything to do with your wife. So here’s money. Here’s a whole lot of stuff. Get out of my presence. I don’t want to do anything with the God that comes and appears to me and tells me stuff I didn’t know. For your sake, that Power-God, I want nothing to do with Him.”
That God is the same God that is your God. “You touch My kids, I will obliterate you.” Which government do you think has got more power over you, than God? There’s no government, whether it’s a corrupt South African government, whether it’s a corrupt USA government, whether it’s a corrupt Australian government, and now a new Labour Party British government that is going to be more radical in social matters than ever before and all of the European Union who wants to just exclude God out of their whole government system. Which government do you think has got more power? Abraham said, “I’m afraid of the government, so go and tell them you’re my wife or my sister.” God appears to them and says, “You touch him, I’ll obliterate you.” Which government do you think is going to control your life? The government of heaven or the government of man? You see, if I put government of God in my life, then everything that Abraham’s got for me comes to me. If I don’t put God first place, then all the governments on the earth can’t protect me enough.
So, Galatians chapter 3 verse 11, 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” (Galatians 3:11 NKJV) You see, faith is a relationship of trust, which is why God said, “You can’t trust in money and trust in Me, God, at the same time.” You’re going to trust in one or the other. Money is a representation of all human endeavour. The people who want boxes, who want to control boxes, who want the power of the boxes, and who want to tell other people what boxes they can and can’t live in. You can only love one of these two things. You can love God or you can love the boxes. Can’t love both at the same time. Go read it for yourself in Matthew chapter 6. It will tell you. God says, “You can’t serve God and mammon.”
I quoted the scripture during the week, and I have done for some weeks now, but certainly this week a lot. I was talking to people and I said, you know what the Bible says? The love of money is the root of? All evil. All evil. Not some evil. All evil. The love of money is the root of all evil. For God to say that in the Bible, He’s making a clear statement. “You can’t love money that’s the root of all evil, and love Me at the same time.” Because the root is fundamentally contaminated. Hallelujah. Because we are the just and we must live by faith. And my faith and my trust is in Him. How can I trust Him and trust boxes at the same time?
Verse 15. 15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a man’s covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. 16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. In other words, the covenant stands, it’s proven, so no one can take away from it, and no one can add to it, because the covenant is now proven. Even though it’s a covenant that God made with a man, it’s proven. Okay? So, 16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ (Galatians 3:15-16 NKJV).
Now we’re getting down to the real meaty good stuff of the scriptures. Don’t you like it when the scripture just speaks to you? Yes. It just talks to you, and it talks to you about life and it talks to you about authority and it talks to you about the stuff that we can dream of. So, just hang tight with me when I come and talk to you next week. I’m not going to put you in a dream box to say, “Hey, how do you find your dream in this little box? Do you want to dream bigger? How about your dream? What’s your most bestest dream that you can have?” So if you say to me, “My best dream is, I would like to have a house that’s paid for. No. I would like to have a house that’s paid for, three houses paid for, whatever you want to call it. I want to have R10 million in the bank. I want to have an aeroplane. I want to have, I want to drive a Bentley SUV. That’s my box I want to dream about.”
Do you understand what you’re just doing? All you’re doing is you’re taking a self-imposed dream and saying, “I want to get out of a small box for a big box.” Why do you think God wants the desires of your heart to be about stuff? Come on. I’ve just given you the whole case. God didn’t put man on the earth and say, “I want you to dream about how you can make food, and how you can put clothes on your back, and how you can do stuff. I want you to live as a dominator. Don’t even worry about clothes. You stay in My glory, you won’t even know you need clothes. You walk around the garden I’ve provided for you, you won’t even know you need food. The food will just pop out at you. You’ll put it in your mouth. You’ll eat it, and you go about just exercising dominion.”
So that’s why when Jesus comes to the earth and He talks to the people, He says, “Don’t worry about what you’re going to eat, what you’re going to drink, what you’re going to wear.” The Lord knows every creature on the earth has need of these things. He knows what you have need of. To the numbering of your hairs on your head, He knows what you need. So don’t worry about all the stuff you’re going to eat or drink or wear, what box you need to live in. Seek ye first Him and being right with Him, and then all these things just come to you, because God already intended that in the Garden of Eden.
“Abraham, go to a country, but when you get to that country, I just want you to realise, hey. When you get there, you’re going to have to work hard, Abraham. You’re going to have to dig trenches, pull down foundations. You’re going to work hard, Abraham, because your obedience to Me is going to put you in a new place where it’s going to cost you a lot.” You know what God did? Abraham’s journeying. He’s got his goats and his sheep and his camels with him, and before he knows it, they’re all having babies. And all the, not babies – lambs, calves, not babies. Sorry. They’re just producing after their kind, and they just delivered, and there’s no hassles with them, and they have no breech births. And when the lambs are all foaling and the calves are foaling, there’s no disease in them, there’s no sickness in them, and they just keep multiplying. And he’s on his way to the land, and all of his stuff is just multiplying and multiplying and multiplying. And his servants are having kids, and the servants all want to be with Abraham. And everything is just working, and it’s working, and it’s working. He’s not working hard to make it happen. It’s just happening. In fact, when he gets to the place that he’s going to, Lot who came with him, he’s got the same blessing. Even though it was out of order, he got the same blessing. And Lot was so prosperous. And in fact, they both were so prosperous because Lot was with Abraham, because the favour was on Abraham. It wasn’t on Lot. But because Lot was with Abraham, the favour came on Abraham, ag on Lot. And he multiplied, and his goats and his sheep and his camels, and they all multiplied.
So they get to this place and suddenly, the herdsmen are fighting with each other because they don’t, the Lot herdsmen don’t have the mindset of Abraham. They’re just along for the journey. Abraham was a purposeful journey. They just came along for the journey. So when they get there, their mentality is scarcity. “We’ve got to feed all these animals.” “How did you get all these animals?” “Well, God made them. We’ve got to feed them.” So they start fighting about the best grass.
You know what Abraham says? “Lot, can’t have strife here. Choose the place you want to go to.” Lot [Pastor John pretends to look around] – looks so nice. Maybe he gets on a horse, he rides out 10 kilometers or whatever. He looks like, he says, “Look at this green land. Wow. You know, Abraham hasn’t seen this land. I think I’ll take this land. Before Abraham can choose it, I’m going to choose this land because this land is better than the one we’re living in now. There’s scarcity, but this land, look how green it is.” Goes and he says, “Abraham, I found the land. I’m going.” Abraham says, “Cheers, boy. Totsiens. Auf wiedersehen.”
So, what happened when he left? Did Abraham’s grass stop? No. I’ll tell you what happened. When Lot left, God said, “Abraham, this land that you’re in, it will never run out. I’m going to multiply your sheep and your goats and your camels and everything, and I will sustain them because you follow me. Not because of what it looks like over there, but because you follow Me.” And so, the end of Lot is what? The end of Lot is Sodom and Gomorrah. And in fact, the only reason Lot made it out of Sodom and Gomorrah is because the man that he said, “I’m going to choose a better land than you.” That man interceded for him. And so he lived.
By the way, just so that you know, Lot’s wife, she turns back, because she’s been living in the city and she likes all the stuff, the box that she lived in. She took the box mentality with her as she was leaving the city, and she couldn’t leave the box behind. So she turned back to see this great wonderful box I’ve been living in all this time, and she turns into a pillar of salt. Now Lot’s daughters say, “All of humanity is destroyed. There’s no one left except us.” Because they just witnessed the cities that they come from being totally destroyed, all of humanity, everything is totally destroyed. They don’t think there’s anybody else left alive except them. So they go get their dad drunk because, “We’ve got to continue the human race.” It’s the end of Lot. In fact, Lot .… God even redeemed some of Lot because one of his daughters has a child that were ended up – they’re calling, became the beginning of a group of people called the Moabites. And the Moabites, there was many people that came out of Moab that had a close relationship with Israel, and they came to serve King David. One of King David’s captains of his army was a – one of his courageous captains was a Moabite man who came to receive the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So even though Lot’s end was bad, God even redeemed that fact going forward. Because who interceded for him? Because of Abraham. Wow. What a God. Okay.
Remember what He said to Abram, 1 Now the Lord had said to Abram, Genesis 12. 1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV). This is the promise.
Galatians 3, verse 26, 26 For you… now he’s talking about us 26…are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Hey. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:26-29 NKJV). What promise is this? What are we inheriting from Abraham? What is the promise we are inheriting from Abraham? “Wherever you go, I am with you, and whoever blesses you will be blessed, and whoever curses you will be cursed.” Let me tell you, if someone is cursing you and you’re walking with God, the curse is coming on them. Hello.
So, the blessing of God overtakes me. Yesterday, I was riding my bicycle. I was talking to someone on the bicycle in the morning ride, and I was saying, “You know, I’ve been living in the favour of God and the blessing of God for so long now that I don’t know what it must be like to live without it.” I can’t imagine living without the favour and the blessing of God because, actually, I’m living in Him and I’m living for Him and everything that God has for us just keeps happening for us, and I don’t even try and make it happen. It just keeps happening. Blessing upon blessing. I don’t worry about what I’m going to eat. I don’t worry about what I’m going to wear. I don’t worry about where I’m going to live. “No, but Pastor John, that’s being irresponsible.” In whose eyes? Come on. Who am I being irresponsible to? The system? Or am I being responsible to God? He’s saying, “John, keep going boy. You just keep speaking.” I don’t worry about what I’m going to eat. I don’t worry about what I’m going to drink. I don’t worry about what I’m going to wear. I don’t worry about what I’m going to drive. I don’t worry about anything. I’m just going to keep trusting; everything I need, You take care of it. You take care of it. You take care of it. Amen.
Next week, you’re going to find out, you’re going to find out that we’ve got big plans. We’ve got big plans. Why? How are we going to fund these big plans? God is already bringing money into this ministry through His chosen vessels. He’s already bringing money into this ministry through His chosen ministry so that He’s saying to me, “John, I’m preparing the money that you need ahead of time so that you know I’m completely with you. As you move into the future, I’ve already taken care of you.” Hallelujah.
I ask you this question. The gifts, and I’ll talk tomorrow, on Sunday for a short while about gifts. But the gifts that God has placed in this ministry, if they are, because Romans 12 will tell you that there’s a gift of leadership, there’s a gift of finance. Come on. The gifts that God has raised up. Let’s say someone is been raised up in the gift of finance that he’s brought into this ministry so that their financial gift and their money making can be a blessing to us. Come on now.
What’s our inheritance? What’s their inheritance? Those who bless you will be blessed. You don’t have to keep working harder to recover money that you put into the ministry. God is going to make the money come to you because you’ve blessed what He’s doing, therefore, you will be a blessed one. You undo the curse as you function in your gift. If your gift is exhortation, you better bring that exhortation. You know, come on. We can get it done. Let’s do this. Let’s do this. And I can encourage you and motivate you and support you. If you’ve got a gift like that, you better be using it in the church. If you’re using it against the church, you will be cursed. “Harsh language, Pastor John.” All the curse is, is that the blessing is not on you, so you’re walking in the place where the curse functions. Hallelujah.
So, I’m going to ask you this question. The Father and Jesus, outside of time, beginning before the beginning, all things, now make a decision. “We’re going to create the earth, and We’re going to take Ourselves and put Ourselves into a clay being that will be the body, the house, the carrier of the Being. Our Being is going to be put into a clay house. When Our Being goes into the clay house, everything that comes from clay or sand will start to be alive because it’s alive because Our life gets in it. When that happens, we know what the end of that is going to be because of fallen angels.”
So, when Jesus was walking on the earth, what was His whole thing? I want you to see what the Father’s desire is. Come on. I want you to see what the Father’s desire is. “If you see Me, you see the Father.” What did Jesus show us while He was walking on the earth? He showed us what the Father’s desire is. Healing, giving, compassion, kindness, restoration, renewal. Yes? When Jesus was walking on the earth, He was demonstrating the desire of the Father. He never chased His own desire to say, “Can I build a bigger box?” And when He said, “The Son of Man has no place to lay His head and has no place to call His home, or like foxes have dens, but the Son of Man has no place that He can call His own.” He wasn’t saying, “I don’t have money to call it my own. ”He was saying, “My task, My job, My assignment is so much grander than where I can live and what I can eat or I can’t.” Remember what He told His disciples when the woman at the well was waiting there and they came to give Him food and they said, “Have You eaten?” He said, “I eat food that you know not of.” He was so unworried about what to eat or drink or wear that He knew His Father was already taking care of Him. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus.
So, nearly done. Ephesians 1 verse 2, 2 Grace to you and peace. This is a messenger speaking. 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us, He has blessed us, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Now that scripture is used by everybody that talks against the prosperity gospel because they say, “You see, the blessing is not about stuff, the blessing is about spiritual life.” Well, if you then believe that you come from Abraham, which you have to if you believe in Jesus, then the blessing that’s a spiritual blessing that was on Abraham brought all of the natural stuff. You can’t separate the two. The spirit life brings about order of God in your natural world.
4 Just as He chose us in Him, Christ, before the foundation of the world. Where did I start this morning? Before the foundation of the world. Maybe I knew what I was going to say today. 4 Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Remember what I said what holiness is. Holiness is Jesus thinking, speaking, and behaving like God Himself and when He says that we should be holy and blameless, then it means we should think, talk, and live like God Himself. And we can because Christ lives in us. 5 Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to, come on, come on, come on, according to the good pleasure of His will. Here’s God’s desire put in plain sight. This was the God desire from the beginning, until the end. This is God’s desire that Christ would be in us. And all of Christ in us can be revealed in us. 6 To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved, that is Jesus. This is a pretty good Bible study here this morning.
If you didn’t know it, this is like going to Bible school. In fact, most Bible Schools don’t preach this kind of stuff. But anyway, welcome to Bible School this morning. 7 In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, 8 which He made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself. You know, here we are talking, God is talking about His will, His pleasure, His desire. And it’s all about us. It’s all about us doing what? Being like Christ, being in Christ, living as Christ.
You know, most people have trouble saying, you know, “I live as Christ.” And they’ll have trouble thinking, “Well, that makes me like God.” But you know what? Are you not a Christian? Every time you say someone says to you, “Are you Muslim? Are you Jewish? What are you?” “I’m a Christian.” You know what you’re declaring? I’m like Christ. Whether you believe it or not, you’re actually saying, “I’m like Christ.” Anyway, 9 … according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him (Ephesians 1:2-10 NKJV). So the time will come where everything will be gathered in Him. It’s already happening.
The reason we are on the earth and we are talking about this stuff, it’s because He’s already doing the gathering of those that want to be in Him. He’s drawing them to Him to be in Him. 12 That we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. Let me ask you something, church? Do you think we bring praise and glory to God when we work so hard for everything we’ve got, that our marriages are falling apart, our this and this and this and this, everything is happening, and it’s all because of how well I can think, how creative I can be, how disciplined I am, how marvellous I am. “Man, I’m great. Look what I’ve achieved. See how many boxes I’ve got? See how grand my boxes are?” You think that makes God give glory?
I’ve said this before in business training, we as Christians can’t compete with the glory of the boxes that are in the world because their whole life is functioning around boxes. They want bigger aeroplanes. They want bigger houses. They want more money. They want to own more of the stock exchange. Their boxes are big. And we, as Christians, must show our salvation by competing with boxes? And so that’s how we show how great our God is? That’s not what God wants us to do, is to compete for boxes. I hope I’m making my point here. So if you don’t like what I’m saying, you might think, “Hey, Pastor John, you’re not a prosperity minded gospel preacher.” I am too. In fact, if you actually see what I’m doing, I’m saying, “God’s going to bring all this stuff to you. You don’t have to work for it.”
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:12-14 NKJV). Who’s the purchased possession? Us. We are the purchased possession. He paid for us with His blood, and we must now live our lives for boxes because His blood bought us, so now we can use His Word to get more boxes?
Now let me just be clear. I don’t mind how many boxes you’ve got, how many cars you drive, how many houses you have, how many anything. The more you have, be at it. Hey. I believe in wealth. I believe in blessing. Everything I read about all of God’s people that followed, that obeyed God, they were wealthy beyond measure. They were completely, completely saturated with goods from the earth, from the world. So, I’m not speaking against wealth. I’m just saying our focus shouldn’t be wealth because it’s just a focus on boxes. Our focus should be to please Him, to live in Him, to find our live and move and have our being in Him. Then you won’t have any trouble.
I did tell you I’m nearly finished, and there it’s telling me I must finish. So Ephesians 2 verse 10, 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Not our chosen good works, the good works He wants us to do. Verse 11 to 13. 11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:10-13 NKJV).
This is the answer to Jesus. This is the answer to Abraham when God said, “In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed through Jesus.” So now you have been purchased, you are His prized possession, and He wants you to reveal His will on the earth because His will is directly connected to the will of the Father. So when He laid down His life, He was saying, “Father, I’m doing everything I can for Your will to be on the earth.”
So, what happened to Jesus? I’m finishing with this, and I’ll pick this up next week. I’m reading this out of the New Living Translation. Ephesians 4 verse 10. 10 And the same one who descended, to the earth and below the earth, is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility, these gifts, their responsibility, is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:10-12 NLT).
So He said, God the Father said… Jesus. Before time. Remember, before this all began, they decided Jesus would come and die, that He would descend, and that He would ascend. And so when He said, “I’m going to ascend, I’m going to give gifts to men. Why do I need to leave gifts with men? Because the prized possession of the Father is the Church.” That’s us – the Church. Hallelujah. 12 …to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Ephesians 4:12-13 NLT). This is what we are called to do. Hallelujah.
“So Pastor John, why are you preparing us for this next Sunday? Why are you preparing us like this?” Because next Sunday, when you come here, I’m going to share some things with you. And when I share these things with you, you might be tempted to say, “But Pastor John, you are talking to us about boxes.” Hello? When I was a teenager and I grew up in poverty, I was determined that I would not be poor. I didn’t know how my desire would turn out to be different than my circumstances. But I’ll tell you what, any child that is born into difficult circumstances, they don’t want to continue in those circumstances. They want to change their circumstances to have better ones.
Do you agree? So bear in mind, I grew up in God. I knew I was always going to serve God. I knew I was called to the ministry. “How am I going to live and change my circumstances?” Because at that time, there were no rich preachers. They were all poor. So God allowed me, I should say, I found out it was okay with Him if I went to a church that started that would preach faith. You know what happened when I went to that church that preached faith? They showed me that actually Christians don’t have to be poor anymore. They also showed me that Christians don’t have to be sick anymore. They showed me that Christians actually can have all of God’s great life. They can have it now. How many of you know I needed to hear that? So when I received that revelation, I said, “I can see what’s happening…” If I speak words like God speaks, and I anoint my hands with my words, and I anoint my feet with my words and my prayers and my life in Him, that all of the work that these hands do, the feet that go, all of that’s blessed. I also know that I’ve got to be in the church and bring my gift to the church so that I can be blessed.”
So guess what happened? Wherever I went, I was blessed. And when I was in business, business came to me. God promoted me. All of the stuff of life that I was wanting to have and be free of came to me. And I realised there’s a lot of people that want this. Amen. But as I pursued Him more and more, I began to realise that actually, the walk that we all need to have is not to pursue the stuff with our faith, but to pursue Him and then the stuff that our faith gets just comes by the way.
So, I’m not focused on calling money in anymore. The money just comes because I’m in Him. So you will find that how I preached in the beginning of my walk with God and my prayers and the way I talked and the way I lived, it changed. The underlying foundation of it never changed. I still believe in blessing. I still believe in the favour of God because those things I can’t live without. Because it’s God on me. But I’m not pursuing those things with my faith anymore. I’m pursuing Him with my faith. And because I pursue Him, those things just overtake me. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus.
So, I want you to know, I have no saak with you if you say, “I’m trusting God for this and I’m believing for that and I’m believe …” You know, for me, it’s like I recognise God is putting a desire in my heart here or in Pastor Sharon’s heart, He’s putting a desire. He’s putting a desire. I hear it. We’re partners. We’re in agreement. There’s something happening. Why has she got this desire? She’s a praying woman. She’s a woman of the Word. She’s my partner in ministry. Why has she got this desire? I just hear there’s a desire. Next minute, it can take a year, it can take two years, I will hear stuff coming out of her. Then one day, out of my spirit, I’m getting into agreement with that. I’m getting into agreement with that desire. “I agree with you, Sharon. It’s coming to pass. It’s coming to pass. It’s happening now. It’s coming. It’s happening.” And our agreement just brings things out of the spirit realm, and it just comes into the natural realm because the desire that God put in her heart and put in my heart, when we get into agreement with that desire, it just happens. Because we’re in tune with Him. We are serving Him. We’re not trying to do stuff.
So, I’m going to just use the example of – the Lord put it in my heart, in my desire, and I’m going to use Nico and Amanda’s, Nico’s father’s situation. God put it in my heart that I must have a new car. I was riding a S500 Mercedes, loving it. What’s not to love about an S500 Mercedes? By the way, it was a secondhand car, but it was one that Grobbies found a deal. There was an old lady that had been driving that car for years, low mileage, S500. She wanted to sell it. I heard about it, and so I said, “Alright. I’m gonna buy that car.” Bought it for cash. Not bad hey? S500 Mercedes Benz. It’s not bad.
But you know, that car was never it was never something that owned me. Why? Because I had a desire from when I was a little boy. One day, I’ll drive an S500, so I did. God saw to it. Come on. Because my whole life, I’ve been serving Him. So one day, I’m driving my S500, this thing started building in me. God wants me to have a new car and so Sharon and I went to BMW and we went to Mercedes, because those are the cars we’ve been driving. I looked at those cars and it – just not any of them kind of stood out for me and said, “This is what God wants for me.”
So, okay. We just left it. I just said, “Lord, whatever You’ve got for me, I receive it.” So then, I mean, God didn’t, I mean, God didn’t want Nico’s dad to go to heaven to get me the car. But God knew Nico’s dad was going to heaven. So I hear that Nico actually, I heard it through Grobbies, because he was going to try and sell Nico’s dad’s car. And I heard, his car’s going to come out of the estate, whatever, whatever, and I phoned Nico. I said, “Nico, is that car for sale?” He says, “Yes.” I said, “I want it.” He said, “Pastor John, do you know how much this car costs?” I said, “I have an idea, Nico.” I said, “And I’ll buy it cash.” When I said I’ll buy it cash, I didn’t have all the cash. Because immediately, I recognised that’s the car God’s got for me.
Hello? Nico can be a testament to this that we started talking, and it was in the estate, and the estate had to wrap up. So him and his mom came to an agreement, and his brothers and everybody that I could get the car. And so they gave me a nice deal. And part of it was that I could just – so they gave me the the executor’s bank account, and so I had R150,000 here, and then God gave R200,000 there and R200,000 here, and the record will stand that as the money came into my hands, I deposited into that executor’s estate.
On the week that the executor released it from his dad’s estate, I put the last R19 000 in, car paid for, cash. Now I’m driving that nice Prado. [Dr. Nico wants to share something and Pastor John calls him to the front.] Come come here, Nico. I know the story, but keep it short, hey.
Nico: Yeah, just short. So we went to the garage. It was on a Saturday morning, and Niklaas said he wants to go and check the new Prada, the 3 litre one that’s that just came off the market. I walked into the guy, I said, “I know you’re closing, but you don’t have a Prada here. But the new 3 litre.” He said, “Yes we do.” I said, “So but you obviously don’t have a silver one.” He said, “Yes. I do.” I said, “Sjoe.” You walked in. It’s still got its, I mean, all the plastic on. It just came up from a truck. I phoned my dad and said, “Dad,” my dad. I said, “I’ve got your car.” He said, “No. No. New car and stuff. I’ll pray about it.” Two days later he’s got the car. So it was just my natural dad and then my spiritual dad was blessed to take it over.
Pastor John: That’s exactly right. Nico, that’s exactly right. Nico, I was going to get to that, but I’m glad you said it. I’m glad you said it.
Nico: We’re a good team.
Pastor John: We’re a good team. I mean, that’s a fact. God was preparing that car for me because my desire was already there, and I was looking for cars, and I didn’t have a thing about it. None of these cars. But his dad used to drive Land Rovers. And so for him to go and buy a Toyota from a Land Rover, that was a big shift, and he bought it in two days. And he, all the bells and whistles are on that car. Everything I need to go on mission strips. Wharra, Wharra, wharra. It’s all in that car. From the tow bar to the extra battery, with all the extra fittings that you can run a fridge in it, that you can do this, that car had it all. It’s got it all. So when the Lord put a desire in my heart, I didn’t go chase it. It just came like that. Hallelujah.
So, you know, that’s why I say, when we have His interest at heart before anything else, when we are walking with Him, we are serving Him, I don’t have to pray and believe the car in. I might have a journey of my faith where I need to, my faith needs to work that way. That’s fine. But that’s not where you’re going to end up. You’re going to end up with a much greater walk with God that’s not about the stuff. But if you want your faith to journey by getting stuff, I’ll agree with you because it’s a sweet journey. But that’s not where God wants us to live. He wants us to live so much better than that. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. Praise Jesus.
That’s why every time I’m driving that car, I thank God for it. I say, “Thank You, Lord. Look at Your blessings. They just overtake me. They just come and consume me. They’re just there when I need it. There’s a desire in my heart. Lord, You know, it’s here. I’ll leave it with You. Make it happen. I believe You. Thank You, Lord. It’s there.” Hallelujah.
Next week, you’re going to see there’s a lot of stuff I’m going to talk about. There’s a lot of things we’re going to do. But I want you to know that I’m not pursuing things so that we can call our ministry anything special. Those things are going to come because they’re going to bring glory to God. So we can be the church and we can be and do the ministry of the gospel of Jesus. Hallelujah.
While I was preparing for this, I saw a photograph, I saw a photograph of this auditorium from many years ago. We were doing a Bible School graduation, and this thing had a screen that was a projector screen, and it had curtains. My, how far we’ve come? Praise the Lord. And by next week, all of you will sit on refurbished chairs. Those of you sitting in the front areas, don’t they feel good? I mean, you guys can sit here… I’m going to send everybody else home, and you guys can just sit and we’ll have church all day long because they sit nice and comfortably, don’t they? Hallelujah. Won’t you all stand with me, please? Oh, wait. Sit. Please sit.
Let’s take an offering. Thank You, Jesus. They didn’t even have to remind me this morning. I’m getting there. I’m getting there. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. I’m going to just pray while the offering’s being taken. I thank You, Lord, that You provide for everybody that’s here today as they sow their seed, as they tithe every month, as they are givers, and they are generous people, I thank You, Lord, that Your generosity will overwhelm them, and You will show them how great You are towards them. And You are the God of more than enough. Not just enough, but more than enough. And there’s great abundance and great blessing for those that love You and are called according to Your purpose. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Glory to Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
I’ll tell you what? I’ve been doing… I’ve got to do this now. It’s summertime now, you see. [Pastor John wipes the sweat off his head]. I don’t have much hair left, so I’ve got to make sure this perspiration doesn’t run into my eyes. I’m going to feel like one of those American preachers any day now. I’m going to walk up with a towel in my hand. “And Jesus” [Pastor John pretending to be another preacher wiping the sweat with a towel] “And glory to God.” [Pastor John laughing] Hallelujah. Come on. Let’s stand together.
Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus, that we were people, aliens without a God, without any hope, and you sent Jesus to us. And now we can say we are children of the Most High God. Thank You, Lord. Thank You for blessing us with salvation. Thank You for blessing us with Jesus. Thank You for showing us the way of salvation and that we are predestined and foreordained to walk in it as sons of the Most High God. Thank You, Lord. Father, I pray for all of those who are here today that you will bless them as they leave and bless them when they come back. Bless them going into their houses and bless them as they leave their houses. Bless them in their motor vehicles. No weapon formed against them will prosper in Jesus’ name. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. We thank You that the offering is blessed in Jesus’ name. We thank You for it. Thank You, Father. And we pray in the name of Jesus that you give your angels charge over us this week. No weapon formed against us will prosper. Nothing. We are protected by the Word and the blood of Jesus. His angels have charged over us, watching over us, and making sure that we are the ones that He can use for His glory. Do you all agree with that? Say amen. Amen. Thank you for coming to church. Be blessed y’all.
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