Good evening, welcome. God bless you wherever you are. At this moment in time, I hope you are well. And you can hear me at this moment. God bless you and strength for you wherever you are at this hour. May God guide you and be with you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Thank you so much for jumping online all the way through locked down and before locked down and the years that we've been live streaming, different social networks that we've been pushing these out on. So we thank you so much yet God bless you to God bless. We're just waiting for people just to jump on online across the globe this evening. It is 734 here in the UK, darkness has descended. And that is more ways than one just because the evening has dropped a son has disappeared also, I think that there is an unusual presence and unusual atmosphere across this nation. And we are looking for and we are needing strong leadership in many areas of life, whether that is the political arena, whether that is local government, whether that is local business, whether that is in the context of education, whether that is in the monarchy, whether wherever that is we are looking for as the human race, we are looking for guidance, and we are looking for strength. There seems to be so much happening at this moment in time, where we sit on where we live, and wherever you are. Tonight, I pray that you will find complete rest in the name of Jesus as the screen says as the screen is on behind me at this moment in time Peace be with you that is very relevant. I will keep that up as long as I feel in my heart that we need to keep our eyes on that at this moment in time. But please never forget Hebrews chapter 12 verse to keep your eyes on Jesus, keep your eyes on Jesus, have a look at that text, have a read of that text I thank God that God will open that text to you wherever you are this evening. That is Hebrews chapter 12 verse to keep your eyes on Jesus. God is with you in your life and your home. Whether and whoever and wherever you are, at this moment, God is with you tonight, and He will never leave you nor forsake you. But we thank you whether you're in the world of podcast, you can capture this stuff through Amazon music. You can capture it through Alexa, I Heart Radio, many other platforms that we used to press this out this evening. But I want to take us if we can to Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah 29, even though we are talking, and this morning, that word that was pressed in my heart and spirit, the word courage, courage, and within courage, you find peace. And within peace, you find courage. So the two blend together very smoothly. And we may be looking at our lives and this moment and think, Well, I can't seem to find any direction. There seems to be no real address at the forefront of my life. Everything seems to be breaking out that I spent five minutes here I spent five minutes there. I'm spending a few moments in this situation in that situation. I just want to let you know that God is in your situation God is with you in every area of your life. Maybe there is a column that is starting to churn in your innermost being maybe there is there is a time for you to move out of certain areas of life, maybe that there is a new place for the children to go to school, maybe there is a new job on Horizon. You know, there are new beginnings for every one of us there is new beginnings, but what we find ourselves is that we trap ourselves within ourselves. And within such a small, parochial stretch of life, you know that the stretch that we might have, can only maybe be a five, five mile circumference, you know that just as such a small area we live our lives in such a small patch. But there is so much there is so much out there for you. And for me there is so much there is new beginnings for many and I pray whether you're caught in cultural stretches, whether in business stretch, whether you're whatever, and whoever, even religion, religion, and whatever you are looking at this moment, do not limit yourself and that is why I feel tonight that I've been led to this scripture in Jeremiah 29 Verse 10, onwards through down to the end of roundabout. That's a rant about verse 14. And it's about plans. You know, we are living in a nation we are living in a world where everything is planned. Everything is and I know what the Bible says about predestination. The plan of God the predestination is a very interesting word, the plan of God The movement of God, the understanding of God, when Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said, Not my will, but Thy will be done. So understanding is what the will is for the father in my life, your life, our life, as our paths cross, as we meet as we do what we do together as the human race. And I keep getting this been brought to my spirit a lot lately at this moment and to my stretch, that we are speaking, we are human beings. And if you were to turn to the book of Job, I believe it's vert. It's chapter 14, roundabout, verse one, if I've got my text, right, this evening, Job, chapter 14, verse one, it speaks very clearly about we are mortals born from income from the womb, we are human beings. And I keep emphasizing, I keep reiterating, I keep saying this to each and every one of us tonight, and whoever you are, and wherever you are, we are human beings saved by grace, we are sinners, saved by grace, we are children of the living God, saved by grace, we are blood washed, sanctified, children of the living God, but we have to live in it's very human. This very real this, this and this parochial stretch. And I'm trying to speak very carefully tonight to present this, that don't limit yourself, don't limit yourself. In such a small box. The world wants to box us the world wants to put us in cultural boxes, the world wants to put us in boxes of Age of color, of race of geographical bucks. Where we come from what we do, we are boxed all the way through our life. But the kingdom of God is not a box, you cannot box the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God is within the kingdom of God is vast, the kingdom of God is across the stretch of eternity. So I just want to encourage you tonight do not box yourself in your family have tried to box you in your sisters, your brothers husbands wives trying to box you in church pastors trying to box you in trying to character rise you into certain areas of life, to think this way to walk this way to live this way. Live, as the Bible tells you to live live for Christ, there is no limit, there is no limit, there are no boxes, there are no markers in the sand with Christ, Christ does not box us in. What he tells us is that we are sons and daughters of the living God. And all things are possible to those who believe if you take that text alone and you and you stretch that text and you ask God to open up, My God shall supply all my needs according to their riches and glory. There is no limit to what God can do. But church and religion, certain preaching and certain teachings can limit us and religion can limit us life, culture work, you know, our travel limits us our thinking. So we put ourselves in a very tight box in a very short stretch of life, if us to really sit down and analyze the stretch that we have, what is the further stretch you do a day you know whether that that's a spiritual stretch, that is a human stretch, that is a pro quo stretch, that is a thinking stretch, we are boxed in many areas, we are living in a world a culture, through political areas through we are living in a nation that is measured, everything has to be measured through through certain criteria. You know, on the time of censuses, when when everything is measured, when we're engaging when we're looking at percentages and charts and flowcharts and, and crafts and analyzing, you know, everything is measured. But we are bigger than the measure that the world wants to measure us. But if I allow the measure of the world to measure me and if I continue to allow that measure to hold me, I will find that I will limit me not limit God because when you look at the text that we're going to go into into is about plans, and about new beginnings and about hope and future. The best is before you the best is before you. You do not limit yourself. Look at your character. Look at your calling. Look at your walk. Maybe God is calling you into a ministry. Maybe God is calling you to a different church. Maybe God is calling you to move home. Maybe God is calling you to change your job, or maybe the feelings and the stretch. And your thinking has changed through lockdown and over lockdown. Because I honestly believe all my heart God use LockDown what the enemy meant for harm. God turned for good. I believe that lockdown was a time when the body of Christ should have and hopefully looked within itself. I certainly did. And I pray that all of us did to a degree look within ourselves and say, Why Lord if law but Lord, what's next Lord, but before locked down it came into fruition and we see that and we experienced that Have we found ourselves in a position of being boxed in so many areas? Yeah, we was locked in a box in our in our we wasn't able to stretch out but but the doors are open, the barn doors are blown off, we're free now. We are free, who the sun sets free is free indeed. But I want to I want to let you know tonight, do not box yourself, you know, even temptations of the world, even things of the world, that that limits, you know, the temptations, you know, drugs, temptation, gambling, spending, addictions, they are all ways that we get boxed and we get labeled. But tonight the labels are off, the only label that you carry is that you are a son or a daughter of the living God, and you can achieve everything and anything through the will of the Father, there is no limit to what God has done in you, He who began a good work in you will bring this to completion. You know, He who began, the good work was started before creation even came into being when you look at the human race, we are mortals it says in the book of Job very clearly that we are mortals and we have come from the womb we was created by our heavenly father from the dust of the earth. There are many scriptures that we could look at about our mortality. And God willing, through Bible study through preaching and teaching through podcasts, and I pray that God will lead us lead us to looking at what does it mean what is a mortar what is a human being, you know, because church and religion has tried to put us in this such this spiritual box. And then when we find that hang on a minute, I can't live to what they're telling me that I live up to, we almost be going to put a label of failure on our lives when when Christ says you are not a failure, you are a son, and you are a daughter, and you are a child of the living God. And then we box ourselves and then we label ourselves and we measure ourselves by someone else. And I want to be like that I want to be like him, I want to be like her. I want to be able to achieve this and be able to achieve that. When we actually miss the mark of what God wants for you. What does God want for you? What what is it that God has for you now, in this moment in time in the UK at 745? What does God have for you, many of us may may go, I ain't got a Scooby Doo. I haven't got a clue. I haven't got an idea because I've been so focused on family life. Children, right and true. Don't get me wrong. I'm so focused on business so focused on finance. So focus on measures, so focused on ministry, so focused on, on what the world is operating in an offering so focused on being focused, I have lost the understanding, not lost a call in not lost the focus, not lost the salvation not lost what God has, but almost come through a dry period in life or dryness. apartness this nation in which we live is very spiritually dry. We are like that vessel that pours out on the UK has hit a sound bar and it is broken into and we are almost swimming for our lives we are we are swimming and trying to get to the dry shoreline. But be careful not to drown in the shallow water from the ship wreck to the shoreline. But there is a plan for your life there is there is hope for your life there is a there is a future for you there is a there is a meaning for living. And sometimes the human being the believer, the child or the living God loses all meaning and understanding is why am I here? What is the purpose of me? Why Lord if law bad law, but we hear so many out there so many out there in the world of church saying you should know what the Lord's will is Brother, you should know what the word of the Lord sister is, you should know this, you should know that. Well, actually, you should be quiet for a while because why you're drilling me I can't hear because all I've got is noise banging around my heroes from everybody else. So I'm trying to hear the voice of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. I'm trying to listen. But the rhetoric and the noise of religion, and the ones that are opinionated and the ones that are going, I think you should do this. Now where does Scripture reply to that? Very clearly, the Scripture makes it very clear in the Old Testament, where Saul and David were having a conversation and a dialogue. And as as the battlefield of David was being rolled out before his eyes, so said to him, this is best for you. I believe that we have many people in our lives saying this is best for you. Because I did it. This is the way to go. Because our culture have done it. This is the way we're going because mom and dad done it. This is a way for you because your brother achieved it. You need to achieve it. You know there is so much pressure on children, on students at school at this moment to get such high measures. The bar is too high and what's happening through education the children are being crushed. The children are being flooded and swamped. With so much they can't breathe, they can't think. So suddenly their young lives have been turned into this mishmash of they are so driven by education, parents are getting frustrated, situations are happening. Children are turning to this into that because they can't deliver what is expected. What the world is expecting for us to deliver cannot be delivered, because that might not be from God. So I've got to understand, I've got to make sure that I'm in the Garden of Gethsemane for a while, because the Garden of Gethsemane is a place of finding out what the Father's Will is. It's a place of stretching. It's a place of understanding. It's a place of surrender. So there is a there are three stages to the Garden of Gethsemane. There's the approach to the garden, is where we are walking with the disciples and our church buddies, and everything's wonderful, and we're singing and praising Jesus. But there's a moment in our lives where we leave the three at the gate of the Garden of Gethsemane. So that's stage one, you're walking with people, and you don't even realize the journey or where you're actually going to you're, you're almost lost on the journey, but you're with a crowd. But suddenly, you find that the crowd has been dispersed, and you are literally on your own, and you are in the Garden of Gethsemane, and you are at the place of almost sweating droplets of blood, the second stage of the Garden of Gethsemane, and within that second stage, and the context of Scripture, it says that Christ was asking for, for the cup to be removed, but that cup couldn't be removed because the destiny was on Christ. It's a Christ knew that you had to go through, but isn't the interest in the Christ did not and did not have that cut, remove, he was strengthened in the Garden of Gethsemane. So there are three stages, stage one, walking up to the gate of the garden, going into the gate, and going beyond and staying in the garden, and being alone seeking the Father's will. But also there is a time of coming out of the Garden of Gethsemane, and being strengthened for what lies ahead. What lies ahead for Christ was persecution was beaten. So what lies ahead for each and every one of us, we will only find these plans out when I submit myself and I rest myself in the will of the Father and then then then we say, well, what is the will of God? What is the purpose of me breathing? What is the purpose of this, this functionality of this human being? Why do I function the way I function? You know, I honestly believe there are a lot of people in marriages that shouldn't be in a marriages are in I believe there are people in businesses shouldn't be in the businesses that are in I believe that people are in ministry that shouldn't be in the ministries they're in, I believe that people are in relationships that they shouldn't be in. Because there is a rush in there is almost a wholesale experience or resource experience, wanting to run, run life and run and gather everything, the Bible says do not conform to the pattern of the world. What is the pattern of the world? What is this pattern? Am I conform to the pattern of the world? Or am I? Or am I literally falling and walking in a stretch what God has for me? So when we look at this very powerful text, Jeremiah 29, we may be able to quote this scripture, we may be able to recite this we may be able to repeat this, we may know this, you may have gone ahead and read this. You may go Yes, Brother, I know that scripture. I know what the plan I know what the purpose of God's will is. Well, what actually is that for you? What actually is it for me? Am I in the place of work that he wants me to be? Am I in ministry where he wants to meet a BMI and the relationships he wants me to be in? Am I living where he wants me to live? Am I trapped in the culture? Should I broken out of the culture I'm in am I am I just living, breathing? Or am I function in the areas of life many, many areas the world traps us the world traps us by many means financially mortgage, jobs careers, the the the Ashleigh pole, the greasy pole of career, the ivory tower, you know, the Tower of Babel, all that sort of stuff, but what actually is the plan of God for you? What actually is the plan of God for me? What is the purpose? What is the purpose of this? What is this will God Why do I live where I live? Why do I walk the way I walk? Why do I think the way I think why do I speak the way that I speak? Why do I do what I do? Can I say this very respectfully. We are all birthed into culture. We are all birthed into a geographical number. We are all in a certain coding are stretching of life. We are all labeled with postcode we are all labeled with tax numbers we are all labeled with we're many labels, we are boxed in so many ways. But until you realize that, actually I'm not quite sure if this is where God wants me to be. Until we come to almost untie ourselves and get ourselves to move on, we don't realize that the the snares that are around our ankles, the Bible says, Be careful for the snare layers. Watch out for the snare, the snare is a very dangerous trap, excuse me, and when the snare is laid, the animal has no chance of retrieving its life from the snare. But the Bible tells us this For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Now, the Scripture that we're going to go in is what I'm quoting. So I would ask you, very politely and very reverently, to grab yourself a Bible, and to turn into Jeremiah 29. And as we look at this text, what is the purpose? What is the direction? What is the functionality of me as a human being, because let's just remind ourselves, God created the human being, he created the human, he created mortality, he created life, and he created death, he created birth, he created life, death, He is everything, everything that is in existence as only in existence, because he spoke it into existence. You know, he said, at the very beginning of time, he made this clear to Adam, if you take off that tree, if you touch that, if you deal with that, if you take from that, you will die. Death was in the conversation in the garden, in that beautiful garden before the fall of humanity. Only humanity can fall, flesh can fall, flesh can sin, flesh can foul, you know, but the word of the Lord stands forever. He says, His love endures forever. I just want to try and encourage you tonight and forever long this will be let's just be really honest. That we have to just trust in Him. So much like never before. God's plans God's purpose, what is the purpose? What is the functionality as me as a human being? Yes, I am saved. Yes, I'm a child of the living God. Yes, he is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. I pray that wherever you are tonight that you will feel the love of the Father, the power of the Holy Spirit, and you will feel the very presence of God. So if you are with me, give me a thumbs up tonight. So I know that there are people online, it's very difficult to see who's there. So I'm speaking to the camera. I believe that there might be one there. There one or two there, but let's get straight in. So let's get straight in. Let's turn to Jeremiah. We're in the book of Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29. God is with you. Thank you so much. Yeah, I can see that coming up. God bless you. Jeremiah 29. Plans? What is the purpose of God's will for you? What is the purpose? Are you to stay in the culture you are in? Are you to stay in the workplace? Are you to stay as this robotic machine that your family wants that your parents want that your husband wife wants? Are you really being you? Are your family allowing you to be you are your work colleagues allowing you to be you? Because God created you? God knows everything about you? Am I thinking as I want to think or am I thinking as others want me to think now I didn't finish this text off earlier. I spoke about King Saul and young David, the shepherd boy, the shepherd boy goes up to King Saul and he basically says a bit of a bit of a stretch in the word here without the reference. Now very clear. Saul said to David, look, if you're going to face Goliath, you got to go down there and in the armor, you got to go down and I want you to wear this. I want David, wear my suit, wear my battle garments, wear my shield, carry this sword. Put this helmet upon your head, dress as I want you to be dressed. Have you got people in your life, trying to dress you and direct you in the battle that you've got to face. Because the battle that we all face, I have to make sure that I'm dressed in the book of Ephesians chapter six. I need to be dressed in the full armor of God. Now, what God requires me to wear is very different to what that human being wants me to look like and where the person adaption of human human to human is very different between God and you. How does God want me to live? Where does God want me to live? What part of the world does God want me to live? Does God want me in ministry, out of ministry? Does God want me to be in business or out of business? God, what do you want for me? I believe that there are many surrounded by souls. Saul was a very jealous and a very angry man. And he tried to dictate to David of how to fight the fight. But actually that fight was the Israelites fight that was King Saul's fight. But David was thrown into the arena. And David, it wasn't David's fight. When you when you look at this text when you look at this, because David comes up now. The plans, the plans that we thought that we had, and we have roadmap to our lives out and to this day, we have you ever you ever got to a position in your life and fault. Actually, that hasn't turned out as I thought it was gonna turn out because what was the direction that I should have gone in? Should I have gone to that job? Should I have gone to that church should have gone to that ministry? Should I have been here should I have been there should I have been with them Should I have been with him her them if spots maybes so we are living in a culture that is very wishy washy, very loose, very slippery, very, very, very jawed at this moment. There is a lot of grit in the wills of living, you know the mechanism of life he jammin and we are finding that where we have lived very culturally, very robotically, and have been expected to live by the souls that are around us. Try and address us every day trying to dictate every day. You can almost lose the character and lose the person that you are. You can lose you in someone else's battle. Lose yourself in someone else's ministry. Lose yourself in someone else's relationship. Lose yourself because culturally, this is this is the way that you are going to live because our grandparents our culture, God is breaking cultural boxes. God is breaking business boxes. God is tearing down walls. We are in a Jericho time. We are on the plains of Jericho and I need you need to be obedient to the Word of God. To find out that these wolves have got to come down. You know what side of Jericho? Am I on? Am I on the outside? Where the Israelites was? Or I'm on the inside? Where I shouldn't be? What What side? Where am I? Am I in Jericho? Or am I on the outside of Jericho? I am I in the promise of God? Or am I still in the promise of God but I am I in the wrong position of where God wants me to be. He says I will never leave you nor forsake you. So this scripture that I'm about to read that I've said about 1000 times already tonight is a very important scripture for you and for me as a human being. Not for everyone around you. But for you, just for you. We understand that this is speaking to a nation. This is speaking to the chosen nation is talking about when I was in Babylon when I was living around that in and on the Babylonian line and everything that goes along with that. It says and this is what God says to them. First 10 of Jeremiah 29 This is what the Lord says 70 years when 70 years are complete from Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. Verse 11 of Jeremiah now, the text I'm going to read, we have probably heard this, it has been summarized it is preached it has almost been rinsed to a degree by the prophetic ministry and it has all my aid has been stretched out of context in many other ministries because it always will try to put the cash sign on the end of it that God wants you wealthy God wants this God wants that. Always the cash injector on this one. For I know the plans I have for you declares the LORD plans to prosper you are God wants me to prosper. God's going to drop 5k in my bank I'm gonna have some moolah in my bank, I'll have some wage I'm gonna have some cash or Rooney I'm gonna have some dosh God wants to prosper me no wrong acceptance of that text, for I know, the plans to prosper you and not to harm you to give you good life to give you what I will give you so that I can sustain you and get me where God Get me out of exile. Get me out of the parched nests. Get me out of this dry land. and get me to a position a posture of realizing that I don't need money. This is the subject of money in religion and church, as has been a mass driver, I know what it's like as a pastor, as a leader, to know what, what the need of money is to keep the building to keep the movement going. But if I look at the focus on the word prosper, prosperity, the prosperity gospel, if I fix my eyes on the cash, if I fix my eyes on God, I need, we need this amount of money this month, because we ain't gonna make it I am limited in what I've got to do as a leader and as individual. If I keep looking at the bills, if I keep looking at the fuel pump of life, and keep limiting myself by the pound, I'm not limiting God, I'm limiting my thoughts. I'm bringing fear onto me. If I look at what the gas prices are going to go to, if I listened to government, if I listened, listened to about the Universal Credit issue, if I listened to the finance markets that are crashing, that are about to slide, if I, if I listen to that and allow that to absorb in me if I live like that, I'm going to live by fear because I'm, I'm worried of what I haven't got. I've got to remember what what I've got. So what have I got, I've got salvation. I've got eternal life. I've got a God that says, I shall supply all your needs according to Thy riches in glory. I've got a God that is speaking through the Scripture, I will get you to your destination because your destination is where I want you to be. I will get you through the A and the B and the C. I'm going to take you through that River Jordan, I'm going to get you to walk around Jericho, I will drop them wolves. You can't do this without me. God, I've got you in me on me and around me. So I don't need the pound sign. I don't need the prosperity gospel to tell me, brother, if you sow into this ministry, I pray you know all all that out there. If I keep looking at the pound sign, I'm making the pound sign my God. If I look at the materialism behind the pound sign, I am becoming an a worshipper of an idol. I become a worshipper of money I worship because I'm looking at the money I'm looking at the pound, I'm looking at the dollar. I'm looking at the Euro I'm looking at the finance markets, you know, analysts the way they analyze you know, a financial analysts the way they they break things down the money markets, the stock exchange, everything, everything is looking at the strength of the pound. If I look at the strength for the pound, now, I will fall through the floor if I keep looking at that, I'm gonna bring fear. My God is bigger than the pound My God created everything your God, the God of Israel, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah shalom, your God will supply all your needs. The power in that is, is the word needs. My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches and glory. But then there is a worldly me that I could bring this scripture, My God shall supply all my wants. And all I looking at now known My God shall supply all my needs. God knows what I need what you need, that is within the human side, the spiritual side, the financial side, the food side, the family side that the needs, God knows everything. But what is the plan for me through him. So you might be approaching the Garden of Gethsemane, you might have a crowd around you, you might have these people around you speaking to you, you might be on this journey, and you might be approaching the gate of the garden, you may have gone into the gate of the Garden of Gethsemane you may be in this place, the Garden of Gethsemane. This particular two part of this garden was a very lonely, a very stretch in a very drawer in a very seeking a very look in a very directional position, a very posture, that is a direction of seeking the outside of the garden we all have experienced that we all experience three places around the garden we experience the outside of the garden, we experience with the outside comes the approach to the gate of the garden, we go into that, that that secluded that holy place, that place of looking of seeking that place of crying, that place of sweating, droplets of blood of fear, of stress, of agonizing, of agony of calling out of worshiping through pain and fear, crying, God what is your purpose for me? Then we all have an experience of coming out of the Garden of Gethsemane and walking out being filled and being set free but also coming out as still the human being But understanding that I'm in the will of the Father, so the will of the Father was not to extract Jesus from the other side of the garden. So if you look at the three measures of the garden, you have the approach, the center of the garden is the position, you could fence that off, where Christ was, when he was in that place, that position of prayer of seeking of looking, so you could ring fence that, so the so the out, so we all reach a position of going to the gate of the garden. So the garden that the central point is the agonizing, the seeking the looking the calling out, take this cut from me, Christ, God, experience so much there. Christ experience the seeking experience the sweat in the trauma, the stress of finding out what the purpose is, he left that garden. And as he left that garden, he still left the garden as the man Christ Jesus. But he left the gardening after a strengthening after the angels came and ministered to him. And and you can find the Gospels, the synoptic gospel and the Gospel of John of how Christ was minister, and what happened from the mystery at that point, but he was he was strengthened for the next stage of his journey. God did not extract the cross, he had to go to the cross. Paul, when he was on the boat, and the book of Acts, he was not extracted from the storm that he was in, he was strengthened in the storm that he was in. Because the angel said to him, the angel that delivered the message is that Paul, you've got to stand trial, you've got to go before the judge. And you've got to lay your case before that judge, and you will get to this destination. So we will get to our destination it might look stormy, it might look like a garden of Gethsemane experience. But what they are, they are plans from the father. But what religion and what the prosperity gospel has done. It has sung this song, it is shouting hallelujah, I know what God's will is, I'm a friend of God, and suddenly is almost put us in a euphoric euphoric expression of worship. And suddenly when we are worshiping and we are being preached at, by a prosperous gospel preachers that are not preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, but their own version of the gospel of give me cash gospel, peddling the gospel for finance, as the scripture tells us, and then we have the hyper Grace teaching, then we have the switching of the Gospel for something else, we have a trends, a trends, neutral pressing of the switch of the gospel, a gospel where we would say, you can do everything, you can achieve everything. God loves everybody, blah, blah, blah, all that sort of stuff. But then we have a replacement theology that has been around for many generations as well. And we also so we have much at this moment going on, we have the gospel of you are, you are a God, and you can achieve everything in the name of Jesus, we have the gospel out there being preached that has and we'll have this forever, of this Babylonian gospel of you can have everything, live it now live your best life. Now, you are rich in the name of Jesus. And then when the cash doesn't come through, who gets the who gets the cry, it's God, not the preacher, because the preacher is out spending the cash that we have given them, or on the golf course of life, you know, having the the an elite lifestyle, when actually, I find that Christ was a servant. He didn't play golf, he didn't live a life of luxurious living. He lived in a year he had a Bora tomb and he went to the cross. When you look at the disciples, they were servants. So when you look at Paul, he was he was shipwrecked for a lot of his life. He was beaten for a lot of his life. He he knew what it was to be stripped back to be hungry to be well fed. He knew what it was like to go through endurance. But what is for sure, for one thing in these disciples lives is that God strengthened them in the storm in a trial in a situation, but they knew what the plan was. So this is what this text is about. I still haven't read it. Have I? Come on, get a grip, come on, get a grip. It says For I know the plans I have for you declares the LORD plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future, then you will call upon me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you. You will seek me interest and you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all of your heart. Your innermost being, it's no good me just having lip service. Even though I am saved, I am blood washed, I am sanctified and he saved me because he is my Redeemer. Once we realize that we are saved and we've had the altar call experience and this this great opening of the heart experience of receiving Christ. Then as a believer, I start to seek him. No one that is a sinner and staying in that sinful way. He seeks our holy God. God rescues us why we are sinners, saved by grace in that sin posture. And when I have been saved in sin, then I have an altar call experience, not because I say I want to follow Jesus, but because God is alerting my human me. And my human being is realizing that I am a sinner saved by grace, and it is God that saved me and my heart belongs to him. Then this scripture says, When I seek Him with all my heart, I can only seek Him with all my heart, once I have been saved. And I realize I am saved by grace, I am been saved. I am blood washed and sanctified as a child of the living God. It is by grace I had been saved, not by work so that no one can boast. But by the power of the blood of Jesus, we were saved before we even could spell our speak the word saved, before the fabric of time came into existence, before the universe was stretched out by us by the power of his hands. And as the book of isI says, as God stretches out, like a scroll, just remind ourselves what the book of Job says, I believe is in chapter 14, we are mortal, we are mortal. We are human beings, as the New Testament says, and it says, then you will call upon me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you, you will seek Me and find Me when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you declares the Lord, and bring you back from captivity. You know, there are many of us still captured, there are many of us, caught there are many of us still trapped, not because God wants us trapped, but because decisions and situations that have arisen, because we may have listened to the souls, we may have listened to the culture, we may have listened to the business lead, we have may have listened to the educational and the academic wording, rather than the just shall live by faith. living by faith is almost going, not quite sure of what is next expected. And what is going to be shown of God, living by faith, we only understand that to live by faith is that I'm living by the word of God, I am trusting that He will supply all my needs according to their riches and glory. But when I set myself from an early age up, I'm going to go into this job, I'm going to go into this area of town, I'm going to live this way, I'm going to live that way, I'm going to live here, I'm going to have this size house, I'm going to live like this, I'm going to live as my family expect, I'm going to live in this area because I went to that university, I'm going to live over there because my family is over there. When when I really analyze and when we analyze our lives, we have been herded to ace a big percentage of life to live, how others expect us to live and not live, how He wants us to live. The promises he has for you, the best is before you. So even if I say Lord, I made a decision and the decision I made as trapped me right now for years and hours. There is always a way forward with God, there is always a move, there is always an escape route, there is always a way out. So seeking the will of the Father, how do I find what the will of the Father is the only way that someone can find the will of the Father is enduring through hardships and troubles, and learning through the experience of life through the word of God. And seeing that, ah, that that decision I made back then, really wasn't the decision that I should have made. Now I see where I'm positioned them and I am in a situation but I see that there is a door opening, I walk out of this box and suddenly I'm in the Promised Land. I honestly believe the best is before every one of you. The best is before every one of you in the name of Jesus. And I pray that as you turn to this Scripture and look at what it says God is about to bring you out of exile. There are many people being extracted out of exile, out of captivity, out of positions that we have put ourselves in into treads into Pathways into settings, into understandings into movements, into churches into life, into relationships, into business, into culture, into education, into political thinking. I need to pause we need to pause we are human beings. And as we mentioned earlier, as I spoke very clearly about locked down I think what lockdown has done to many believers in the human race is to look at where we sit in life and to analyze and almost to be A very critical of what I've done where I've gone what I've said, how I've looked at and what on my approach to life is, but as the scripture says, and other preachers over generations and over generations have said, I know the plans I have for you how many times have we been under sermons? And almost this this atmospheric this environment is broken out of Yeah, I know God's got great things for me but what actually as he got for me what has actually come into promise what has actually bear fruit? What has actually revealed was actually come into fruitfulness through that preaching and teaching. Did I get that money that that preacher said I was gonna get did I get that job that that preacher told me I was gonna get did I get that healing that that that healer said I was gonna get did I get that postcode that they said I was gonna get a bought their book, I sewed into their life, I sewed into their ministry. But did they really sew into me? Or was they just a great salesman? Selling a dream? Or a lost cause? Was it really what God's purpose was? Money is a very dangerous commodity. Is it needed? Not really, because God shall supply all my needs according to the riches in glory. I know the measures and the strain, and the pain that we need money to buy and trade. The Bible says Cast your bread upon the waters and what is returned the money the Bible says, The love of money is the root of all evil. We also see Simon the sorcerer, asking the disciples, can I buy the gift of prayer from you? That disciple turned around and said, May your money die with you, you cannot buy the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift of God, the gift of salvation, the gift the gifts, cannot be bought with commodity will have liquidity with finance. God cannot be bought. I was bought a new was bought. Not with cash. But with blood. We was bought. And the price was Jesus. Romans eight, Romans eight Romans eight verse one four, there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus, For what the law was powerless to do God dead by sending His one and only Son, and through the shedding of the blood of Christ Jesus, through sanctification through justification through the hand in back of 30 pieces of silver, we see a very marketplace scenario of the church, between religion and Judas Iscariot. How much have we got to give you Judas? What is the price? There is always cash involved. There are always under the table deals. We see very clearly that religion, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the law givers, the leaders the whatever way you want to look at who gave him the money. When you look at who gave him the money. They said, what's it going to cost us Judas scratch his head and four year I'll have someone at cash. I could do some of that. Cash is always in but it's it there was an under the table deal. But the money was given back. We understand what happened to Judas. What happened with that money that it was given back to the ones that gave him the money and said how they said out there you give us that that's blood money. That's nothing to do with us. So religion and the church switched it around. It was okay to use it when they wanted to use it. It was okay when they wanted to use it for their gain. But when he was coming back to them, they they rejected it and said, Judas, this is you mate. You're the one in trouble their son. You're the one that took the cash or you're the one that offered the cash. So there is a deal always under the table, even in ministry even on the golf course. Even in this handshakes, you know, but the deal is not on the table with Christ because the deal, cat is not a table deal. It is across deal on the cross of salvation the cross. He took our transgressions, he carried our infirmities, he took our sickness, he took our pain. He took that there was no cash there was no transaction or finance. But through him going to the cross. I can find out what a plan is the color the plan isn't to be cash rich. The plan isn't to be prospering in houses and come Got a T and material gain? Where your treasure is? where your heart is, you'll find your treasure sorry. Where's my heart? Is my heart longing for God? Or is it longing for the pound sign? Is it longing for business? Or is it longing for Jesus? That scripture that we read out that I've been very, very flippant? A very quick into read? is what is the purpose of me walking this earth? What is the reason that God has placed me here? Why am I in this situation? Why am I in business? Why am I administrator? Why am I why am I why am I? The question is why? But you're here many in the world of churchianity, you'll hear many people shouting down the lens of you, you should know where you are, you should know this, you should know that well, actually, again, I'll say I can't actually hear who I am. And why I'm here and what I am because you souls are so barking at me all day long. I can't hear. I can't hear what I should be hearing. Sometimes we need to extract ourselves from the humdrum of life and just go and sit in the field. sit on the bench, sit in a position and go, Lord, I need to hear from you. The crowd is so loud. The crowd is so noisy. I've got souls around me. I've got everything around me. People are trying to direct me and fight this battle. The way they want me to fight it. But how do you want me? Well, actually, it's like this the battle belongs to the Lord. So the Lord just wants me to show up because the battle we see is not mine. So was trying to get David to fight souls way. So was trying to get David to go souls plans. Soul was trying to get David to walk as soul wanted him. Souls plans were different to how God wanted him to step into the arena with Goliath. David ran into the battle. David ran down with no armory with no shield of protection, as in how, as saw expected him to where he went down with five stones and the sling. But he went down in a greater walk, he went down in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, he went down into the arena, as a shepherd boy, as a warrior, as a man, as a boy, as a child of the living God in the strength of the Word of God. He said, Goliath, you come at me with Javelin sword and everything you got. But I come in the name. I approach you in the name, which is above every other name. Because David said to Saul, what you want for me is not what God wants for me, I'm going to do this the way that I understand that this is the way to go. So I respect you. Keep your armor, keep your understanding. Keep your thinking, keep your words, keep everything you are giving me. Because I'm going in the name. When I understand what the name is, and how powerful the name is. All things are possible to those who believe. So very interestingly, when I understand and I find and I seek God in the Garden of Gethsemane, I come out in peace, but I don't come out with armed in the way of even look, look how Marcus his ear was cut off. The disciple whipped out that dagger and he struck him and he cut the ear off and Jesus said, What are you up to? Why did you do that? Christ did not go into his next stage of his life. Arm that told up, ramped up fired up, he went in the will of the Father. And He was victorious because he went in the will of the Father. He did not draw sword. He did not punch he did not kick. He did not he did not throw any fists. He went down in the Will he went through he went in the will of the Father He went in the strength of the ministering of the angels that ministered to him in the place of anguish. You will find strength in anguish positions. You will find strength in times of stress. You will find strength in the last hour you will find strength in the moment when you think you are going to lose the plot and lose this complete. You've lost that you will find that the losing point is a place To have gained in God's glory, it's when I get to the place of losing it when I am weak than he is strong. It's when I get to the Goliath situation, David went down there with five stones and a sling. He was victorious not because of the stones, not because of the swing. But because God guided the stone. He went down in faith he went through in faith he went to in faith, he went down, unarmed, but fully loaded with word, he was fully loaded with understanding that he knew what there was, and how much power there was. In the name, I come in the law in the name of the Lord of the hosts, I come in the name of the God of Israel, I come and stand before you Goliath in a name, that you are going to die, you're going to die at the name. Now, what's powerful about this David and Goliath battle, is that one stone, one, one shot, one hit, what the enemy is coming to you with what the enemy is waving at you. Don't engage in that battle, go in the name because whoever they are, whoever you depict, and look and categorize as your enemy, whoever you look at and is bringing it at you. What they are bringing at you will destroy them. Because what killed and what took the laughs life was his own sword. When you look at what David done, he had to finish that work. David, remove saws head we get that got to be careful how we present that online. But what the enemy brought to him, David, return back to the enemy. What the enemy is bringing to you what the enemy meant for harm, God will turn for good. There is so much in the David and Goliath text dialogue. There is so much in the scriptures. So we briefly I sorry, I rephrase that I've very briefly read Jeremiah 29. Very briefly read that to you. Plans, prosper. No harm before you. God's gonna prosper you no harm will before you. But you might go I might go to the wire of the situation, I might see the enemy. I might engage to a degree verbally but I will not die in the enemies arena. I will live where the enemy dies. Gotta be careful a present all this. I will prosper in the enemy's camp. I will survive in the enemy's territory. Every place that the soul of your foot shall tread upon is yours, Joshua chapter one. Be strong and courageous, be strong, very courageous, be strong, a very courageous and at the end of that chapter one he says Be strong and courageous. Be courageous, and be bold. But seek God and ask Him and seek and press into them say what is your will for me? What is your purpose for me walking this earth? What is this moment at this moment in time? Where am I God? Who am I God? What is the purpose of me breathing, walking, live in? Where do you want me to be? We're going to close this now. God is with you. And there is power in the name of Jesus. You are not on your own. You are a child of the living God and we're out. We're out of time. 58 minutes, 53 seconds and the time is eight to the 32. God bless you, God strength for you, God guide you, God lead you. The plans are there. But am I in that plan at this moment? I'm in that plan? Because he will keep me in that plan spiritually. But am I feeling the stress of life because I'm in a different position of where he wants me to be? There's so much there's so much in seeking in looking in searching in calling in prospering in hope. So I pray tonight that wherever you are across this, may God bless you and strengthen you. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ. You can find us on all the socials, all the social platforms you can go back and find all these these podcasts you know free under the podcast. It's beginning lockdown, but we've been doing and I pray that they will edify you that they will guide you because God is guiding you and strengthening you through his word. I will fail you If I as a human being, will let you down, that God won't. God won't. I will because I'm a human. I will because I'm a human being. But by the grace and by the mercy and the power of the Holy Spirit, you will get to your destination, you will get to your position. But let's just leave this tonight. What is the purpose? What is the word? Who am I? Where am I? And where am I going? And what does God want for me? God bless you in a mercenary Jesus Christ. We'll catch you soon. Jesus name, Amen.
Close:Thank you for listening to Elim church Swanleys latest podcast. You can find us on Buzzsprout Spotify, Apple Music iHeartRadio Google Play, Alexa Mixcloud, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.