Scripture reference: Acts 8:3 (NKJV); Acts 9:16 (NKJV); Acts 20:18-19 (NKJV) Acts 9:15 (NKJV); Acts 20:20 (NKJV); Romans 12:1 (TPT); Romans 12:1-2 (TPT); Philippians 4:13; Luke 5:1-3, 5 (NKJV); Luke 9:8-11 (NKJV)
We receive Your Word with joy, Lord. Hallelujah. We receive Your Word with all joy and all gladness, Father. Father, we thank You that as Pastor John comes to bring us Your message, Your message, that Pastor John received from Your mouth, words from Your lips to his lips, to his mouth. Let every heart here, we pray that every heart here Lord will be receptive, will receive from the Holy Spirit Who indwells each one. Glory. We receive it with reverence. We receive it as what truly is the Word of God, aware that it’s exercising, it continues to exercise, it’s superhuman power in us who believe; who adhere to this Word. So already Father, our hearts are ready and we’re saying, “Father, let Your Word come, let Your Word come. We’re not evaluating it, Lord, let it come, let it come, let it come. Let it come.” Hallelujah.
We fasten it to our hearts. We fasten it to our hearts and Pastor John is anointed because as You anoint him all of our yokes, we get set free. In Jesus’ name. We thank You for it and we all say, amen. Hallelujah.
Pastor John Bendixen:
Hallelujah. Glory, glory. Well, what a way to try and sit down after joy, joy, joy. I mean, this place was bouncing man. Hallelujah. Well, you may be seated if you can. Praise Jesus.
Well, you people, you look like you’re ready for the Word today. Yeah. You are a blessed people. You really are, you’re a blessed people. You have the favour of God on you. You have the light of His countenance shining through you. You are perfectly situated to experience God’s best, to experience the maximum and to go to the highest level attainable; you are perfectly positioned to step up and to step into everything that God has. Amen. Hallelujah.
Well, I’ve got some things I need to share with you today. After last Sunday morning’s message, the Lord began to deal with me during the week. You know, it’s the series that God has given me well, the individual messages started with The Invitation, and then The Abortion and then last week was Cooperation. This week, the Lord wanted me to minister on Progression to Cooperation. I trust that this will minister to you in wonderful ways and help you to understand and give you the framework that you need for all of these things that we must embark on.
Just want to make an announcement that you must please put it in your diary to be coming to church on Good Friday. I’ve got something planned for the church to do on the Good Friday morning. So we will have a service in the morning and then dot dot dot. Watch out for the announcement. Then obviously Easter Sunday morning, we will have a normal service here; on Easter Sunday morning.
Praise the Lord. Last year, if you remembered, we did a whole convention of services on the Easter weekend. I really would like to do the same, but just given some things that are on our radar and some things that we have to do. We can’t do the whole weekend of services. But we are going to do some services. Amen. Praise the Lord.
You remember last week I was talking about the Apostle Paul, that was first named Saul and I spoke a lot about the churches in Revelation. John’s revelation given to him by God, and what the Lord had to say to the churches of Ephesus. And what was the other church? (Congregation answers: Pergamos.) Pergamos, for a minute that went out of my head. But one thing that the Lord spoke to him about was that they hated the spirit of the Nicolaitans. And we spoke about that at length. I also spoke about how the apostle Paul went about praying over the church at Ephesus.
I’m going to just go back to the life of Saul, how he was, how he was labeled right before all those things happened. And Acts chapter 8 verse 3, it says, “As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.” (Acts 8:3 NKJV) Here is Saul, before God used him and before he became a convert and this was his mission. This was the thing that was going to make his career. This was going to put him on the map for much bigger things in the Jewish community, because he was the tip of the spear, for the religious people, for the Jewish Sanhedrin, and the priests, and everybody. He was the tip of the spear. And he made havoc of the church, entering every house and dragging off men and women and committing them to prison. That will tell you how much authority he had, and what scope he had to work with. This is what he was doing.
God is not, God is not intimidated by what anybody does to the church. But He does take it very personally. The way people treat the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is very personal to Jesus. This scripture will tell you and if you read that whole scripture, when Jesus appeared to Saul, He said, “Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He, it was personal. When you persecute the church, you persecute Him. Amen.
Still today, if I, if I am a messenger of the Lord Jesus Christ, and people have got something to say about me, and they persecute me, it doesn’t intimidate Jesus. It also doesn’t intimidate me. I’ve been persecuted by the best, by experts. And so everybody else that persecutes me now it’s just a spert. They are certainly not experts. [Congregation laughs]. So, but if firstly if people persecute me, if they persecute you, if they persecute you Jesus is not intimidated by that, but He does take it personally. This is the reason why, many years ago when I was part of a church that had twenty to thirty thousand people in it – certainly on any given Sunday, there would be anything from fifteen thousand to twenty thousand people that would attend church on any given Sunday.
People because of events that happened in the church, people would leave the church because they weren’t in agreement with what was happening to the pastor in the church. They would leave the church and so because of the fact that I was a leader and I had influence in the church, they always wanted to say, “Well, when are you leaving the church? When are you leaving the church?” And I would say, “I am not.” They’d say, “Can’t you see what is going on here, can’t you see the decisions that the pastor is making, can’t you see, you know, all the mistakes he’s making both personally and in public?” And I would say, “Well, that’s for God to deal with. But for me, I am not leaving the church.”
And so that would leave to further discussions and I would tell them quite clearly. I have a real revelation which I have ministered to this body of people for years and years and years. I have a real revelation that if I leave the church, I’ll split the church. Just me, if just me and my family leave the church, we split the church. And so people would say, “No, you’re not splitting the church you know, anything – like half-way down.” I said, “No, if I leave the church, and I am assigned and God has called me to that church, then I am splitting the church.”
So, you might say, well listen if you take your little finger off, and you cut your finger off, it’s not destroying the whole body. No, it is not, but it is meaningfully impacting what you can do and there is a whole adaption process that must happen. And you don’t know how many things you could have done that you now can’t do because the pinky is missing – or the little toe. It doesn’t matter what part of the church you are, if something happens, you split the church. Someone will be impacted, someone. Very often, it is a gift that is supposed to be used in the local church that is no longer available to the church.
So, I can see from this scripture that the Lord Jesus takes it personally, although He is not intimidated by it – it is not going to shape what He is going to do eternally. God the Father has still got His timetable, yes? And if someone is going to be doing something wrong, He is either going to confront that person or He is going to raise someone else up. In the case of the apostle Saul to become the apostle Paul He confronted Him. He met with Him directly and said to him directly. Why are you persecuting Me? And so, that led to Paul’s conversion – Saul that became Paul.
In the conversion process, something happens to Saul and God gives him an instruction. 15 But the Lord said to him go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine. This is – He is speaking to someone that is going to go and pray over Paul or Saul. For he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:15 NKJV).
Ok, few things I want to just say about this quickly. Can you see in the scripture here, that the Bible says, “For he is a chosen vessel.” Yah. Are you a chosen vessel? Just because the apostle, because Saul had that kind of dramatic intervention it doesn’t mean to say that you are less chosen than he, right? Won’t you just do this with me [Pastor John points with his finger to his chest] say point a finger at yourself and say, I am a chosen vessel. [Congregation repeats “I am a chosen vessel”].
You are, you’re a chosen vessel. You weren’t just born for nothing on the earth. You were born a chosen vessel. So, what were you chosen for? What were you chosen for? If you don’t know what you were chosen for, that’s the whole basis of what your future looks like. Everything that you need in your future is based on – you were chosen. What were you chosen for? This is an important question every one of us must ask, what are you chosen for? So, he’s a chosen vessel. We know for sure it was to bear My name. Do you see on that Scripture, to bear My name. Whether you bear your name, the name of the Lord before kings; or whether you bear the name before the children of Israel as he was then; or whether you just bearing His name to everybody, everywhere, every day, you were chosen, at least to bear His name.
Come on now. So that means if you go into business, you’re chosen to bear His name. Saul went from having an importance of ‘my name’, to have an importance of ‘God’s name’. He wasn’t so much anymore being focused on, “This is my career choice. This is how I’m going to make my name.” It was about bearing His name. That is an important shift we all have to make, that we become fully convinced that we are born as chosen vessels to bear His name, not ours. If we focus our lives, this is more important than I’m giving time for it today. Because this is a much bigger message.
But this is very, very important that if you live your life, trying to bear your name, to make your name something, and your name is what matters. Meaning everything that I’m about is important, more important to me than bearing His name. You’ve got your priorities mixed up. This is a serious matter. Because if you’re going about your life, saying, “I’m going to bear my name, rather than His name,” what is Jesus going to do before the Heavenly Father in representing your name? If you are the one that says, “I’m representing His name,” then Jesus says, “I’m going to represent you before My Heavenly Father.” If you’re not bearing His name, then He’s got nothing to represent to you for the Father, because He’s not going to bring you to the Heavenly Father and say, “Look how well he represented his name.” He’s going to go before the Heavenly Father and say, “Look how he represented My name.” So if you’re not representing Jesus’ name, He’s got nothing to go to the Father for you with. This is a big deal. This is not a small matter.
Then he says, 16 I will show him, Saul, how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” (Acts 9:16 NKJV). Now, if you get to understand that you and I are about the business of representing His name, wherever you represent His name, you are going to suffer. You are, you are going to suffer something. And I’m going to get into some of that suffering today. I’m going to call it suffering, I’m just, but because that’s what the Scripture calls it, but I’m going to present it to you as – what choices you make. Okay.
One of the scriptures I read last week was from Acts chapter 20 and I’m reading from verse 18. 18 And when they had come to him, he said to them: “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you. Now, remember, this is the same man. Saul, who was met by God, Who said, “You must bear My name and you will suffer many things in My name,” same man. “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, 19 serving the Lord with all humility, hold on, did he say he served the Lord? In other words, you could say, bearing His name, with all humility. So now he went from something that God spoke over him to something he’s now been living among them. So if you’re going from what God says about you to what you now do for Him based on what He’s given you to do, as a chosen one. Now, you can do and say what the Apostle Paul says, “You know, what manner of life I’ve lived among you.” 19 serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews (Acts 20:18-19 NKJV).
Well, I mean, this is nothing more than a confirmation of everything the Lord spoke over his life. Yes? So I want to just for a minute, I just want to focus on this one word, plotting. So what does it mean, if someone is plotting? What it means is that they’re scheming. They’re thinking about ways that they can creatively, they can creatively have arguments against you. Would you just recognize that for a moment, creative arguments? Can I put it another way? Can I put it like this way, anything that would undermine you, that’s what they’re thinking about. Anything that would undermine you that’s what they’re thinking about. So plotting. Okay, come with me now on a small journey here. What do you think the devil did against the Heavenly Father when he was still an angel of light and he was not yet the angel that fell?
Did he not plot? Did he not creatively scheme how he could make himself equal to God? What was he doing? He was creatively scheming to undermine the glory and the authority of God and make his glory and his authority equal. Yeah. So if you’re talking about plotting and scheming, can I put it to you in a non-threatening way? Because this is what I’m going to show you. I’m going to show you this morning. I’m going to show you the two ways that you can see things and the way that you can live things. I’m going to show you that if you’re in business and you need to sell something or you need to make a business deal happen. Oftentimes, you would plot, you would scheme, you would come up with creative ways to make the deal happen for you; to do business.
So you would think if I say it like this, if I say it like that, if I do it like this, so that’s not negative, that’s positively creative. Yes? But if you’re doing the same thing against somebody else, you know, if I say this to him, he’s going to come back with an argument like that, and if I do that, so I’ve got to think like this and I’ve got to say this, and I’ve got to behave to like that, so that I can get the upper hand and so that I can do this and I can… And if I’m plotting for an outcome to bear my name, where do you think the source of that comes from? So people might just say, well, it just comes from your own intellectual thinking. Yeah, but the motivation which might be pride, that might be serving your own agenda, it might be doing whatever you can do for yourself – that spirit of plotting to bear your own name doesn’t come from God because it’s self elevating. It’s pushing your agenda before you push God’s agenda.
So, 19 … with many tears … the plotting … 20 how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house (Acts 20:20 NKJV). So I just want to show you that Paul, the apostle, was first using his intellect, his body, his influence, all the package that God gave him, he was using it against the church. Right? Encounter with God, he now bears the name of God, everywhere. So what happens? Instead of him persecuting the Church, he now becomes the Church that is persecuted. So instead of plotting against the Church, now the people are plotting against him who has become the Church. So in the same body, the same body that was the Apostle Paul, that was Saul, he had an identity change. God gave it to him. “You’re not going to be called Saul, you’re going to be called Paul. I’m changing your name, I’m changing your identity because before you were plotting against the Church. Now you’re going to be the Church, and others are going to plot against you.”
And so you have to go back to last week’s message for me, for us to talk about all of that again. You know, when Brother Jerry was here he used this passage of Scripture, it’s a passage of scripture I’ve used a lot of times in my ministry life. You know, it’s because in the new modern translations, there’s probably no better scripture to actually say what I want to say, even though it’s such a well used scripture. And I read to you, Romans 12, verse one to three, 1 Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? What should be our proper response? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices (Romans 12:1 TPT). So what’s our proper response? To give ourselves to God, to surrender ourselves to God and to become a living sacrifice. So would you tell me what a sacrifice is? Is it not somebody that’s died or something that has died and the death is the representation of life; sacrifice. So even if you give money as a sacrifice, the money is a representation of time and energy. Meaning, it still represents your life.
So a living sacrifice. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. Can you see that when you make this choice, you bear His name? And then you are a living sacrifice that you experience all that his heart delights. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship. When you give yourself to bear His name, then it becomes a genuine act of worship, Romans 12:1 because you say, “I’m sacrificing the bearing of my name, so that I can bear His name. I’m no longer going to pursue my agenda so that I can pursue His agenda.” How do I do that? I give my body as a living sacrifice. Now, if I had to put it to you this way, if you take my body and you capture it, can you take my body and capture it? And leave me here? And take my body and put it in prison? No, if you take my body and put it in prison, then you take all of what I can do. Yeah. So when the Apostle Paul says, “Give your body as a living sacrifice, and give it as an expression of worship.” He’s not just saying, give your bodily function. He’s saying, “Give your body, your soul, your spirit, give all of what you are, your talents, your gifts, your callings your future, and bear His name, rather than your name.” 1h07m18s Come on, is it not the biggest thing that is in the world today, to bear your own name?
2 Stop imitating the ideals and the opinions and the culture around you. Stop imitating it, stop looking like it. But be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This is The Passion Translation. So, how do you give your body a living sacrifice? How do you keep doing it? You’ve got to reform how you think. So that if you think differently, you can give your body. Can you give your body without thinking differently? No, because we are trained by our culture to offer our bodies as a sacrifice to what’s good for our name. But the Holy Spirit is constantly working with us, to help us to bear His name, rather than our name. Come on. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes (Romans 12:2 TPT).
This gets back to the fact, do you think that when Jesus is interceding on your behalf in the heavens. Do you think that He’s all about, “Look how he’s bearing his own name? Look how he’s magnifying his own name. Look how he’s raising and glorifying his own name. Look at all the talent that I’ve given him. He’s using it to promote his own name.” Do you think Jesus is doing that before the Father? “Look how good he is at doing his own name, bringing glory to himself, representing himself so well on the earth.” You think that matters to God the Father? God the Father is looking at all of the people in the church and says, “These guys have got no clue. They all want to live like the world is living and represent their own name and bear their own name and promote their own name. Meantime, I’m only interested in what they do with the blood of Jesus, what they do with the name of Jesus and how they bear the name of Jesus on the earth.” When we bear the name of Jesus on the earth, then He will glorify us to the Father.
So this, this is, this should be a wake up call. Because we have a choice every day we can walk around in life and we can say, “Here is my body, here is my thinking. I am bearing myself.” Or I can walk around in life and I can say, “My primary focus is to bear the name of the Lord.”
So God, verse 3, 3 God has given me grace to speak a warning about pride (Romans 12:3 TPT). What is, what is the reason about pride here? What is it? Why is he warning about pride? Well, what’s the little word of the p r d e? I. You can know when something is pride when the center of your world is I. And everything you do in your life is about I. I say, I do. For me. For us. For this family. For I. Don’t worry about bearing the Name of the Lord, it’s all about I. It’s all about what I can deliver for my future.
I guess that’s what the Apostle Paul was writing here in the book of Romans. Mmm, you should take care of your own future and raise up your name and be your name and do everything that you can. Myah, he didn’t really mean sacrifice your body. I mean, even though he wrote it, he didn’t really mean that, did he? I mean, he didn’t really mean give up your whole soul and body and everything, for the worship of God to bear His Name. No, I mean, he wrote that, but he didn’t really mean that. huh?
I mean, he wrote it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but I’m sure he didn’t really mean that. I’m sure he didn’t mean that. No, it can’t be because then that would put too much pressure on me to give my body as a living sacrifice and my reasonable worship to Him. And what’s more, he says, you know how you do that as you transform your thinking, to not think about you always, but to think about Him. Isn’t that what he’s saying? Yeah but, you thinking that I’m a bit radical, you know, because of the way I preach these things. But actually, I’m not the radical one here, the apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he’s putting the radical standard. Isn’t he?
So, 3 God’s given me grace to speak a warning about pride. I would ask each of you to be emptied of self-promotion (Romans 12:3 TPT). Self-promotion, be emptied of self-promotion. The Lord gave it to me to minister to you this way, instead of bearing your name, bear His name, wherever you go. I had an experience this week. Here in Witbank, I had an experience this week where I saw a doctor. Didn’t know that the doctor is born again. I’ve known about this doctor and he’s known about me. I’ve had occasion to see him over the years for various things. Not once, well, I mean, you know, I write on my on my form there when they ask you, what’s your occupation. I write reverend or pastor, but sometimes the write reverend. Or just put Rev.
You know, because then when you fill out forms, they want to know who employs you, so I put Heritage of Faith. You know, so I had an occasion this week. And so, I mean, this doctor comes out and he says, “So is your church, still, connected to Jerry Savelle?” Never had this conversation with him in seven years, seven or eight years. He was a professional that would serve me. I didn’t even know he was born again. Now he’s asking me a question. “Are you still connected to Jerry Savelle?” I said, “Yeah, I am.” I said, “How do you know about that?” He said, “No, I know about you and your church.” I said, “So you’re a born again, Christian?” He said, “I am.” I’m sitting in his office, I didn’t even know you were saved for eight years.
Come to find that he knew about me all this time. How do I know that? Because then he started talking to me. And he said, “I was part of the church, that you gave your building to that church for three years at no cost. I was part of that church in Witbank.” Meaning all the time he’s been serving me as a doctor, he knew about me, I still didn’t even know he was born again.
I wonder if he was bearing his name, or the name of God? You know, I said to Sharon, when I shared this with her afterwards, I said, I understand that he’s a professional and I’m paying him to be a professional with me; but there is an overlap when you’re a professional that you have a moment where you can share the Lord. I mean, in contrast, when I go visit Dr. Nico and I had reason to visit him a couple of weeks ago; and, you know, when you’re going to doctor Nico’s rooms, you got to say “leave me alone”. “Stop preaching to me.” You know… “Ek moet nou huis toe gaan”. You know, you can’t stop him preaching. Same with Dr. Amanda. I mean, you know, they come from the same cloth. They just want to preach the whole time. I mean, what they do is they want to bear the name of the Lord, because that’s what they do. Even though they are professional, they bear the name of the Lord. They are unashamed about bearing the name of the Lord. And so, we should be unashamed in bearing the name of the Lord, raising high the name of the Lord, regardless of what you do.
And if you put Him first, then the rest is blessed. The rest is blessed when you put Him first. This is not a new concept that I’m talking about here.
So, 13 I would ask each of you to be emptied of self-promotion and not to create a false image of your importance.” I’m not the one that’s talking this way. Is this not in the Scripture? “I would ask each of you to be emptied of self-promotion and not create a false image of your importance”.
I’ll tell you what, what we are trying to do… what so many people even in the church today is wanting to say look at the importance of our church and what we’ve accomplished. Rather than say, look what Jesus is doing in this church. And we give Him the promotion, we give Him the glory, and we exalt Him. 3 Instead, honestly, assess your worth by using your God given faith.” Now, I’m revising a lot of what I preached for many years. For many years, I’ve said you can’t walk in faith unless you are first honest. Many people want to deny being honest and assess the situation or assess themselves, honestly; because faith requires that you know where you are now, so that you can put faith to where you are now.
So, most people don’t want to actually say this is where I am now. This is where my situation is. This is… I made this mistake; I made that mistake. People don’t want to go to that because somehow, they think it undermines your worth and your value and your self-esteem; and so you don’t want to actually confront the choices that you’ve already made to this point that’s brought you into the self-important self-promotion, self-esteem system. But you can’t live by faith until you first be honest. Because by faith, it means I’m in Him. And if you’re in Him, He will help you to be honest about yourself without condemning yourself, and without having a pity party. He will convince you of the way that you can live without condemning you of the way you have lived. If you’re honest with Him. 3 Honestly assess your worth by using your God given faith as the standard of measurement, and then you will see your true value with an appropriate self-esteem.
So, what’s the appropriate self-esteem? The appropriate self-esteem is the way you see yourself in faith. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, (Philippians 4:13) I can’t do all things through me that strengthens me. So I’m not going to go and stand in front of a mirror every morning and say, “Hey, look at you handsome you. Talented you. You are so amazing, you’re so wonderful, look at that smile of yours. It’s such a winning smile. Go and win the world.” You know, just, “You are so wonderful, John; I don’t know how the world has lived without you all these years.” You know, “My, my, my; such talent, in fact, if everybody understood how talented you are, they would just crumble before your feet. Such an exceptional person.”
I know I’m exaggerating. But let me tell you when you’re looking at yourself in the mirror, there is a part of you that is actually very close to that. It may not use those words, it may not feel like that but you [puffs out chest], “I’m okay. I’m pretty good, I’m pretty smart, I’m pretty talented. You know, the world can be happy that I was born.”
Your appropriate self-esteem is, “Thank you, Lord, that You saved me. Thank You, Lord, that actually Your Word says that the best I’ve got is as filthy rags before You, and that it’s only because of Your name that I have any value for eternity. It’s only because of Your name and the faith that You’ve given me that anything is worth anything for eternity.” That’s the bottom line.
Okay, you know; you have a body, you have a body, you have a soul, and you are a spirit. So your spirit is going to determine your eternal future. If your spirit has the life of Christ in it, you will eternally live with the life of Christ.
If you drive a motor vehicle that uses petrol or diesel, why don’t you fill the tank half with petrol or diesel and then fill the other half with water? I mean, all you need is a full tank, huh? You just need a full tank, because listen, a full tank is what will take you where you need to go. No?
A full tank. I mean, it’s so much cheaper to fill your tank with water than it is with petrol or diesel, huh? Especially in the modern day world, with the price of oil. So what happens, what happens to your car if your tank has got water in it? [Mimicking the sound of a damaged car] And then eventually it won’t even go. [Mimicking damaged car noises]
Why? Because there’s no spark; because the spark is diluted. Yes? Many Christians think they can live their lives with a diluted lifestyle of, “I can have whatever the world gives me as long as I’ve got some of what God gives me.” It’s like mixing your life with petrol and water; you can’t go anywhere.
You can’t go anywhere. It’s the same motorcar. It’s got the same wheels. It’s got the same steering wheel. It’s got the same comfortable seat. It’s got the same sound system. The only difference is that one car’s going nowhere and the other car can go somewhere. That’s the difference between a self promoting Christian versus a God promoting Christian. One of them’s going nowhere, the other one’s got something to do. Many Christians think it’s okay to sit in a comfortable car and just play the sound system in your comfortable chairs. Crank up the sound, buy yourself food to eat, drink to drink. Check out my car, I can even put the air on, the sound system, isn’t it comfortable. This car is so amazing. Well, let’s go somewhere sorry I can’t. Why not? I put water in the engine. Jy’s mal man, you crazy. Why do you do that? It’s cheaper, I don’t have to pay the same price. I don’t have to do the same things that those people that pay for petrol, it’s cheaper. It’s easier, I don’t have to go to the petrol station, I can just do it at home, hose pipe, water. That’s like the majority of Christians today. They say I don’t need petrol or water. I’ve got to pay the price for it. I got to go to the garage. I got to go and find out. I’ll just fill my tank with water, you’re going nowhere. All right, I’ll tell you what I’ll do is I’ll put my car on a truck vehicle-carrier. Well cool, sitting in your car carried by another vehicle switch on the sound system. Have your coke in your burger while this carrier is taking you. Is that the point of your car? No, the point of your car is so that you can go places and do things. Amen.
Look at this auditorium that we’re in here today. Look at this auditorium. I mean this auditorium is blessed by the Lord. And if you see what this auditorium was like, you know, six years, seven years ago, it’s a completely different auditorium. It hasn’t changed the message we preach. It hasn’t changed the way we worship God. But the auditorium has changed. I need that first slide, please. Do you remember what we did during COVID? We chose, we used this auditorium in a different way. Come on, you remember that? We couldn’t meet with too many people. So we decided to do different things. So we turned the auditorium around, we had people sitting here and we did sound and song over there. And we preached from there. So we flipped it. Same auditorium, we just flipped its design. But it’s the same building. But we just used it differently, right? Well, it’s the same with your body. It’s the same with your soul. You can use it for self promotion, or you can flip it and say, “I’m gonna use it for God’s promotion, I’m going to bear His name.” It’s the same thing. You can say, “Look at all my talents, all my skills, all of the abilities that I’ve got, I’m going to use it for myself, to promote me to promote my future.” Or you can say, “I’m going to flip it and I’m going to use it for God.” By the way, if I use it for God, I’m completely obeying the Word of God. If I use it for myself, I’m doing what? I’m giving Jesus nothing to work with to help me become what He birthed me to be, I’m living according to my own design. Hallelujah.
Okay. I want to tell you a story now. I want to tell you a story about Bertus and Stefnie. When I, in the early years when I was in the church here, they joined the ministry. I have asked them that I could use this example this morning. They were involved with another business and during the course of time after they had been to Bible school, and they came and joined the church, they came to seek out my counsel. Why me? Well, I’m a spiritual overseer that is watching over their soul. I’m not muscling in on their business if they didn’t bring their business to me, I would have had nothing to say to them. So why are they bringing their business to me because I’m watching over their soul spiritually.
So, at that time, they were in a different business, when they spoke numbers to me and they spoke overall lifestyle, we all agreed, that’s not the business they should be in. But where they were then to where they needed to get to, there was a lot of things that needed to happen in between. It took them some years to sell that business, to get out of that business, and go and do another business. I’m cutting a long story short. All the time, we cooperated together in the spirit to find out the will of God for them. Then a time came where an opportunity arose for him to do a business. Which business he is in still today.
So Bertus is your business blessed and prosperous? It is, right Stef? I mean, you’re in a good place. Much better, by her own words much better than they were when they were doing the other business. But it took you five years, seven years, maybe. 10 Years. 10 Years for the full cycle to wash itself out for them to be in exactly the place that God wanted them to be. Okay, now I want to show you some challenges that happened to them. When they started the business there were a number of business partners that joined in on the business deal. And I’m just going to use one of them that is here right now. Grobbies was part of that deal, he invested money in it. At that time, there were two other business partners. At that time, they, there was some stickiness in the business. And so Grobbies’s approach to getting into that business at the time was I put money in, I want my money out. Why? Because he was uncertain what the future of his business would look like whether he was going to get his money back, because there was an uncertain time in the business.
So Grobbies had a particular approach, they all came to see me, there was a framework of what I said needed to happen in the business. They will tell you that they did not do what I told them to do in the business. The business went sticky. So, remember, this was before God’s encounter with Grobbies, where Grobbies was a man that didn’t tithe. He was a man that was dark in his heart, even though he was in church every Sunday. But every Sunday he came. I don’t mean to always bring this up Grobbies. But I know you’ve given me permission to do this. But every Sunday he would come to church, he would raise his hands, he would praise God. And for all intents and purposes, everybody else thought he’s a good church going person. And what’s more, he is married to Pastor Christi and their life is just fine, their life is good, we like Grobbies. He is a lot of fun, and you know, we like him.” But every Sunday, he was sitting here, dark. What was making him dark? He was a self-promoting person, rather than a God promoting person.
So, that same person was in business with Bertus. So, when the stickiness came, Grobbies said, “I’m taking my money and I’m going.” So, a whole lot of things had to work themselves out that eventually Grobbies could get his money. It took a while, but he did get it. So, in asking their permission to use this example here in church this morning, you know, they both said to me, “We recognise that that was a God ordained opportunity – but they were not ready…” meaning Grobbies, “Was not ready to take the opportunity because of the dark place he was in.”
Thank God, because of the spiritual framework that we have in this church. It just so happens that Grobbies and Bertus are sitting next to each other in church this morning and there’s no division or no animosity, no problems, because we are about relationships, we are not about the stuff that happens as a fall out of business and money being the issue. And I thank God, that even in his dark state, he took my council, Bertus took my council and here they are. Brothers in the Lord. [Pastor Sharon: Hallelujah].
But where’s Bertus’ business that he’s stuck with the program. It’s flourishing, it’s thriving, it’s making good money. Compared to where he was when they first came, now he’s in a good place. So, what’s made the difference? What’s made the difference is that they stayed steady in the Word, promoting God’s agenda, not theirs. It wasn’t about, “Look how much money I can make.” Even today, Bertus is all about, and Stefnie as well. I mean, I speak of them both. They’re all about, you know, Bertus is always like, “How much money can I give to Missions. How much money can I do with this, how much money…”
And now I know his son Stefan is with him. The both of them are like, “How much money can we give, what can we do? What can we do for God? How can we be used by God? What can we do with the business?” That’s the fruit of what happened because they stood. Same business, different business partners. This thing is going barely up, this thing is not going to work, I want my money out. The one business partner said, “This is of God. I know it’s from God. I’m sticking with the program. I’m not about self-promotion. I’m about God’s promotion. Prosperity.”
What happened in between ten years? Did they have some persecution? For sure. Did they sometimes feel like they had to quit on their faith? For sure. This wasn’t just a smooth, all la-dee-dah. They had to stand in faith. But here they are. All of that time, God had me ask Bertus many years ago to be the Missions director in the ministry. It didn’t stop me for one minute having a relationship with Bertus and him coming on missions trips with me, and helping us do the whole Missions program. In fact, everything that Bertus’ life is about, “Pastor John, I want to be full time working in Missions and other things.” So what are you still doing in business? Until the time is right.
Because he’s not about self-promotion, he’s about God’s promotion. And I’m happy to say that Grobbies is now about God’s promotion and not self-promotion. He needed to have a full repentance for him to get that self-promotion out of his life and become a God-promotor. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus.
Same body, same business, same everything. Where your focus is, is where you’re going to put your energy if it’s self-promoting. You are going to give it – I got to make this work. I’ve got to make this work. I’ve got to run this thing. I’ve got to drive this thing. I’ve got to follow – I got to do – I got to go. I got to go.
Lord, I’m going to put You first. I’m going to worship You. I’m going to give my body as a living sacrifice to You. I’m going to praise You in the mornings, I’m going to speak Your Word, I’m going to give my money that You need me to give. I’m going to obey, tell me what I must do, I’m going to go. I’m going to do this. Whatever You say, I’m going to do it. God-promotion. Everything is blessed. So why does it take that long, Pastor John? I don’t know. But sometimes I know it is got to do with this – You need to allow the patience of faith to have it full work. That is what the Bible says. Patience. It’s got to have its full work. You can’t just say I am living by faith and now I’ve got to have the result in six months. Because even six months, because my circumstances are so bad you don’t know, six months I am dead. And then sometimes it feels like about your finances, it could feel about relationships. It could feel like a lot of things. Six months! I can’t wait six months. I’m dead. But if you just stick with God for six months, you will see it is not that bad. It might be tough, but He will see you through. Hallelujah.
Can I have the next slide please. This is Brother Jerry where I was with him in Italy. Next slide please. This is us having a meal in Italy. Well, Pastor John, what, what is this all about? Well, Brother Jerry goes around the world preaching. Doesn’t matter whether he is here in South Africa, or whether he is in Italy, and I am with him, it is his body. It is his world to do whatever he wants to, or he could worship God. It doesn’t matter to Brother Jerry whether he is in Italy or whether he is in Witbank, his thing is to do the will of God. So yes, we can enjoy a nice meal in the streets of Italy. Hello! I want to show you that my commitment to Brother Jerry to have him as the spiritual leader in my life has dragged me around the world to be in places and do things with him at my cost. Not his cost, not his invitation to pay the cost. Next one please.
This is something – no that is not what – nobody drinks wine. Just, no, no, that is Olive Oil. It is Olive Oil. My babes, these oukes’ are okay, they know. They know, don’t worry. They know, but thank you anyway babes. This is me on Brother Jerry’s plane, and I just put this thing here, because we were flying from Atlanta, ag, from Dallas, Fort Worth area, we were flying to California. Next slide please. This is me taking a picture out of his plane as we were flying to California. Next one please. What was I doing with him flying to California? I was going on a Chariots of Light tour. Now I want to just to show you the difference between Brother Jerry in a suit and Brother Jerry with his Chariots of Light vest on. Same man, same calling, same anointing. He’s dressed differently for the occasion. In Italy you must wear a suit, in Chariots you must wear a leather.
Does it change who he is? Because he has committed his whole life to God. It is all about bearing the name of God, not even bearing the name of Jerry Savelle. So, but Pastor John, Brother Jerry’s name is so well known around the world, and he is such a wonderful speaker, and he has got such a… He didn’t get there because he was promoting himself. He got there because he was promoting the name of Jesus. He got there because he was totally committed to the name of Jesus.
So, what happened to me? The Lord speaks to me and He says, “John, this legacy” this was when they were celebrating 20 years. “This legacy is your legacy.” “So all right, Lord, what must I do about it?” “You can have it if you want it.” That is how He said it to me. “You can have it if you want it.” I said, “So Lord, do You mean it is my decision?” He said, “Yes. It is your decision. You can have it if you want it.” Hello? You can have it if you want it, John. So what did I do? I said, “I want it.”
I didn’t like motorbikes. I liked bicycles. I like to use my energy. I like to get really moeg. Some people would say, “That is really strange for you to go and spend those many hours on a bicycle and get yourself that tired.” I like it. I prefer to do that than sit on my backside with an engine doing all the work. I am also not a petrolhead. Paul’s a petrolhead. I am not a petrolhead. I don’t, up to now anyway, I haven’t wanted to change spark plugs and service motorbikes, or service cars, or change breaks. There are many of us around here that do that. It is like, “Can somebody do that for me, please?” I don’t even like my fingers to get greasy. I see Nico is agreeing with me. He doesn’t like it either. I am sure there are many like that. You know, got to scrub and get this grease off your fingers. Nee man.
But the Lord said, “You can have it if you want it.” I said, “Okay, Lord, I am going to do this.” And I immediately started setting about getting my license, doing this, doing that. I went and, Paul and Grobbies helped me get a bike. And the next minute I am on that aeroplane. That photograph that I took was the very first time I went to America as a Chariots of Light member to do my very first tour in California. It was weeks after I got my driver’s license. And I am now flying to California on that particular photograph to do my very first California tour, on my motorbike. On some motorbike that somebody lend me, that was a full-blown ultra glide Big Harley Davidson, 950 pounds of motorbike.
So, because I have obeyed God, the next minute I found myself in California, somebody lending me a bike, flying in Brother Jerry’s jet, going to be in a place, I was received with honour, I was received with privilege, I was received with favour. What happened? All I said was, “Okay, Lord, I am taking this legacy.” I want it for me. I want it for us. If it is available, I will take it.
This body wanted nothing to do; this soul wanted nothing to do with motorbikes, just plain bikes, not motorbikes. But now the Lord has shown me a way that I can have both, the motor and the bike. Because I was about to do His will, not my will. And He said, “If you want…” and hasn’t it been amazing how Chariots of Light has blessed our ministry, blessed our time of fellowship on motorbikes, blessed the way that we lead people to the Lord? We use it as a tool to save souls and have a whole focus of touching communities. Isn’t it been something amazing that we can promote the name of God? Bear the name of Jesus higher than try and do our own thing the whole time? It’s a choice. Hallelujah.
I think that’s all my pictures I sent you. Did I send you another one? [Pictures finished.] Yeah, thank you. I need to see, I’m out of time.
I’ve still got a few things to share. Not much. Not much. I’m on my last Scripture. I want to just, I want to just show you this quickly, you know, from the Book of Luke, it’s also in the Book of Matthew and Mark. But I’m going to just refer to Luke, chapter 5, verse 1 to 11.
1 And Jesus is at the Lake of Gennesaret, and He’s preaching there. 2 and He saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. 3 Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat (Luke 5:1-3, NKJV). Come on, I’ve ministered this before, but the Lord has me focusing on it here today. Boat, use of the boat please, catching fish, or trying to catch fish all night long. It’s got people in it, it’s got nets in it. And its purpose was to help them catch fish. Yes?
Jesus comes onto the shore and He’s preaching to the people, and the people are pressing Him and pressing Him and He’s got nowhere to go. So He turns and He sees, “The pressing of the people, is pushing Me into the water, let Me just use these boats.” So He calls the fishermen who were not at the boats, they were away from the boats. And they come and they push the boat a little bit away from the water. And Jesus is standing in the boat and He now is preaching to the people. Same boat, purpose one, catch fish; purpose two, use by Jesus. When Jesus takes your boat, He immediately transforms it from self-promotion to God-promotion. Immediately.
Your business, for your use, self-promotion. You give it to God, He immediately transforms it to God’s promotion. That’s not where it stays though. Because when He’s done preaching, He calls the fishermen back to the boat, and He says, “I know what your original purpose for this boat was. So now I’m going to show you under the promotion of God-blessing banner, I’m going to show you what can happen. Take your boats and push them out to the water and cast your nets on the other side.” And so the story goes, 5 …“Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your Word, I will let down the net.” (Luke 5:5, NKJV). You see, the minute Jesus is in the right priority in your life, the minute you can say, “I don’t understand this with my mind, but I’m going to give You what You ask for.” And so we know the story, they go, and they put their nets in and they catch so many fish so quickly, that they got to call friends to come and help them catch more fish. And they both nearly sink their boats, because they got so much wealth in a few minutes. And so what is the end result of this big catch?
8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken. So verse 11, he says, verse 10, 10” Do not be afraid from now on you will catch men.” 11 So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him (Luke 9:8-11 NKJV).
Watch this. And I’m, this is the end of my ministry this morning. For a long time the Lord has had me minister about, you got to burn your false idol altars in your life. And you got to be in a place where you give God everything. Look what happens when you do. He says, “Just give Me your platform. Just give Me this thing that you had reserved this for your future. Give it to Me. Let me use it for My message. Let Me use it for glorifying and promoting the will of God My Heavenly Father and when you give it to Me, I’ll show you what I can do with it. Not only does it bless the people, but it will bless you.” And when God pours out His blessing upon you, your immediate reaction will be to fall at His knees and repent of all your natural man stuff and He will redefine your future when you do that.
Here’s the problem. Pride was the middle word of “i”. If you live your whole life with I as the center of your world, it becomes very difficult to say we, meaning me and Jesus. Because a lot of people are afraid to do that because they pay such value on their name and all they’ve achieved till now that to walk away from it is to say, “My future with God on the boat is uncertain.” Your future has never been more certain. It’s just no longer in your control. “Yeah, but I don’t like that.” That’s where your pride is. “I gotta be in control, control, control, control, I’ve got to control it and if I can’t control it with my, the force of my intellect, the force of my will, I’ll control it through manipulation or control it through the subtle application of my will and I’ll have everybody think one thing about me meantime, I’m pursuing my own agenda.”
You think that’s hidden from Jesus? You think the Holy Spirit can’t see that? That’s what happened to Peter. Because Peter said, “You know what? I’ve been fishing all night and I know all this stuff. I’ve been living my whole life on the water. I’ve been living my whole life getting this boat fishing with this boat. It sustained me and my family till now. Jesus, You just talking about one night I didn’t catch anything. I know this stuff, don’t come with Your story about giving me Your boat.” Jesus says, “Hold on a minute.” So he’s pretty smart. He says, “Listen, I know everything about fishing and You’re a preacher and I know You’re a carpenter too, what do You know about fishing?”
Nevertheless, at Your word. Nevertheless, at Your word – same boat. Under the command of Jesus, same water, same nets, same skill, same talent, same everything. Nevertheless, at Your word – different everything. At Your word, they catch the biggest whole they’ve ever caught – ever. Not only that, but the minute God’s blessing comes upon your life and you come with a repentant heart, He immediately reframes your future.
But you got to have the repentance before you can get the reframing because the repentance is something that happens in your heart. And when it happens in your heart, you can’t help but have a physical reaction to it and that is – mercy to me. I’m a sinner and Jesus when you have that in your heart, He can see it immediately. He says, “It’s time to reframe your world. From this moment onward. Take this wealth that God blessed you with, give it to your family, but come follow Me. From now onwards, we’re going to catch men together.” He reframes your world. Notice what I said, “He refrains your world He doesn’t redesign it.” Because Simon Peter, John and James and all those guys they were designed before the beginning of the earth to be disciples for God. He just reframed them but it required their repentance to not be self-promoting, but ready to promote Jesus. How did it display itself? Take my boat, I repent – I have a new purpose.
So here’s what the Holy Spirit wanted me to put into context for you and to give you the foundation. Over the weeks and months that I’ve been preaching, I’ve been speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, saying, “You know the institution of finances is a god, the institution of education, the institution of sport, the institution of entertainment, the institution of all of these things that we have such put so much store by it. And you say to me, “But Pastor John, I live in this world, I have to go to the bank, I have to use the bank, I have an education, I need to use my education.” “Yes, I understand that.” You also have a boat.
So you can’t change what is past but you can change what is future. So if you live as the institution being your highest priority, the way you did in the past, then you will never fall on your knees and repent so that God can reframe your future. So when you repent, He can reframe your future and He will do things for you, beyond your wildest imagination, He will give you wealth, He will give you blessing, He will give you purpose, He will give you satisfying life in Him. You will have joy, you will have an understanding of what the will of God is for your life, you will never have to be in a place of distress, and you will be in a place of peace. You will never have to live in anxiety as to whether the system is going to work for you.
Do you know how the system is crumbling from last Sunday to this Sunday? That I preached last Sunday – this was not yet happening in America but now it’s all over the world, Silicon Valley Bank liquidated then First Republic bank liquidated. Now Credit Suisse bank is… been in trouble a long time but this is the tipping point for Credit Suisse, the banking system in the world is in trouble. No, but this is what I put my trust in. Sorry for you.
Like this. [Pastor John snaps fingers] You think those institutions are what you must put your trust in? I will tell you, there are many, many, many people that have got degrees. I watched this happen in my own life. I watched this. I didn’t have a degree. I had a degree in faith. I had a degree of faith. It’s the degree of faith that God gave me. And I took my degree of faith, my measure of faith, and I went into the corporate world, and I used my faith to get deals to declare that God would promote me, not man. That all these things would happen because I served God.
And so, what did He do? He promoted me based on His will, not man. I watched as my boss invited me to be a shareholder and be a significant participant in a very wonderful, tax efficient scheme. At that time, it was all legal, that they all figured out where you would get shares in one company and swap it for a listed company. Then you could sell the listed shares. And you didn’t have to pay tax on the profit that’s being closed now. But that was available to us then. I watched as this non degreed person got options, where other people that had sciences degrees, MBAs degrees, many degrees, and they didn’t get the options that I got. Because in the end, the business world and the world out there doesn’t care how many degrees you got, it depends on how much value you can add.
You mean, this Christian added more value than somebody that had a whole string of degrees? Yes. Well, why? Because I was following Him. I was promoting Him. How did that work in the corporate world? Well, I would go into the boardroom, and they would use the name of the Lord in vain and they would swear, and they would do all manner of horrible things in the boardroom.
Talk about debauched lifestyle activities. I would go into the boardroom, and I wouldn’t swear, and I wouldn’t do all of the stuff that they would do. Just the absence of those things in my life was enough for them to be convicted about my life. To eventually they stopped swearing in the boardroom. Because my lifestyle spoke and when I use the anointing of God to help me deal with relationships and business problems, and I’ve got more problems solved than anyone else did.
How come? I didn’t get them solved because I had the knowledge of the world’s degrees to solve them. I got them solved because I use the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to solve them. And so, they’ve turned around and said, “Ah, this guy’s adding so much value, we can’t lose him. Because this is too much. I mean, you know, he’s too good.” Just using their language. He’s too good for the business. He’s too good for us. We can’t lose him to a competitor. Because imagine if he took all this stuff to a competitor how they would put us in the hurt locker. So best we look after this dude. Give him extra money, give him extra commission, give him extra shares. Give him, give him, give him, give him.
Does that sound like something in the Old Testament? Before you leave Egypt go to them and say, “Give me.” Give me all your gold. Give me all your stuff. Give me all your wealth. And they were so upset they said, “Take it all, we don’t need it.” We just wanted our kids to live. Oh, it’s about the children. Yes, it’s about the children! Hallelujah. Won’t you stand with me, please?
So, you understand that after I’m finished here today, you and I, we have an option. We can either go to Spur’s and eat a burger and chips and have a milkshake or you can go home and you can eat carrots and peas and broccoli, lettuce, tomato, avo… Which one do you want? Hmm-hmm. Oh, I know you want the peas and the carrots and the lettuce and the tomato and the avo. Huh? “Oh no, Pastor John, please. Just let me have my burger and chips and my milkshake.” I’m really trying to say; same body, two different ways you can feed it, two different results that you get. Same body, same mind, same skills, same talent, there’s two ways you can go with it. The one way is you can go God’s way or you can go your way. Either way, you will live on this earth. One way, you get eternal benefits, the other way, you get your benefit. It’s as simple as that. It’s as simple as that.
Won’t you put your hand on your chest like this and just pray this with me and say; Lord, I choose You. Where I’m weak, I thank You that You strengthen me. Because I choose You, I can ask You to help me so that I can live completely dedicated in all of my ways to raising You up, to glorifying You, to raise up high the name of Jesus. And I thank you for Your help, Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen. Hallelujah.
You see, it’s all about the choice. If you choose to give Jesus your boats, He turns it around completely. If you say, “No, Jesus, what do You want to use my boat for? It’s not worth much, it’s not really significant.” Well, let Him decide how significant it can be. Why do you want to make the choice for Jesus? Let Him choose. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
I just want to pray over you right now and I declare that, in the name of Jesus, no weapon formed against you will prosper. I declare; that, in the name of Jesus, your future is covered by the Word of God, that whatever you put your hands to will prosper, wherever you go in your feet as you obey Him, He will give you the territory that you must occupy. I pray that all wisdom and insight and all manner of Holy Ghost knowledge comes to you so that you can make the difference. As you raise Him up and you obey Him and you glorify His name, He will raise you up and He will promote you and glorify you. It is scriptural what I have prayed right now, Lord. It is scriptural, it is in the Bible in John chapter 15, 16 and 17, that You will glorify us as we glorify You. And as we glorify You, I thank you that You glorify us and You bless us and You increase us and You give us the Holy Spirit to help us and strengthen us and be our Teacher and be our Advocate. We trust in You, Lord. We receive You as the final authority in our lives. We make ourselves accountable and we give You honour, for all that You are. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen.
Thank you for coming. Thank you for being such an attentive, wonderful audience. I want to say again to you, like I said, last week, I am most grateful that we have travelled all this journey together, that we can get to preach these kinds of messages, and that we can follow God and flow with God the way we do. I thank you, and I bless you. And I am just so full of gratitude to the Lord. Be wonderful, you wonderful people. Okay. Oh, yes, see, I nearly forgot. I really need to, I really need to do this. Please sit down for a minute.
You know, I haven’t done this for a while. But it is important, we are going to take up an offering, please. So I want to declare that this seed that you are sowing today, this seed is a seed towards these messages that I have been preaching, that this doesn’t matter how small it is, R10, R20, R15, it doesn’t matter what seed you sow, that this will be your seed, that you receive this word, it will be rooted in your heart. I know that the majority of you give your tithes and offerings by electronic funds transfer. I know that. But I want to, I want to do this offering with you today. Amen. Let’s take up an offering. Please, people. Thank you. It will just be a minute. And then I will release you. If you don’t do EFT, you need to, it is the safest way to transfer money. Amen.
Let me just say this to you while you are busy giving your seed. I just want to say this to you, that God is creating momentum in this ministry. And in the weeks to come, I will be able to share with you some of the things that God has been doing in this ministry that we are truly going for the maximum. We are truly going for the highest level attainable. And I can tell you that when you hear it, it is going to blow your mind. Because you are going to think, “How could we get there?” He is the Master. He is the One, we just give Him the boat. He says, “Catch the fish boy. Just be there to catch the fish.” That is all. All Glory to Him. All glory to Him. All Glory to Him. Hallelujah. All Glory to Him.
So I just declare that the seeds that you have sown today, that it truly ministers to your heart into your life that you will keep in your heart and in your mind all of these things. And God reveals to you the truth that you still have to learn about this matter, that you still have to learn and that you have the strength to go with it. In Jesus’ name, you have the courage, you have the boldness, and you have the ability to say, “Yes Lord, I will go for it.” Amen. Okay, now you can go. Bye julle.
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