Speaker 1: as it's our custom, and wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.
Speaker 1: Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad for Wednesday night.
Speaker 1: I'm thirsty, hungry and thirsty for more.
Speaker 1: And Lord, the word says, if I hunger and thirst, I shall be filled.
Speaker 1: Fill me with your knowledge and revelation of your word, so that my faith is fed and my spirit is developed and I am equipped for victory in 2025.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen, let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews 11.
Speaker 1: And we'll start there.
Speaker 1: Jeremiah 29 and Psalm 40 are the three places we'll start there.
Speaker 1: Jeremiah 29 and Psalm 40 are the three places we'll land tonight.
Speaker 1: Hebrews 11, verse 1,.
Speaker 1: Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it, that is, by faith, the elders obtained, they obtained, a good report.
Speaker 1: Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Speaker 1: Verse 6,.
Speaker 1: For without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him.
Speaker 1: And then over in Jeremiah 29, very familiar for most of us, verse 11, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace.
Speaker 1: The word peace there is shalom, which means health, prosperity and peace.
Speaker 1: So God's thoughts of health, prosperity and peace toward us, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Speaker 1: Or, in my margin, says to give you an end and an expectation, says to give you an end and an expectation.
Speaker 1: And then, in Psalm 40, verse five, many, o Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works which you have done and thy thoughts which are toward us.
Speaker 1: They cannot be reckoned up in order, unto thee, if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Speaker 1: His thoughts toward us are more than can be numbered.
Speaker 1: And so tonight I wanted to preach the second part of a message the power of positive expectation.
Speaker 1: I preached part one two weeks ago, on a Wednesday night, and then I just didn't finish and I wanted to give you some more illustrations.
Speaker 1: Because here, early in this year of milestones 2025, it's time for us to turn up our expectations and make sure that they're positive.
Speaker 1: Make sure that they're we lift our eyes up, like the prophetic word said, and lift up our heads.
Speaker 1: Our redemption draws nigh, you know, your faith is the doorway into the supernatural.
Speaker 1: All things are possible.
Speaker 1: Jesus said to them that believe.
Speaker 1: And then, of course, he said in Mark 11, 23,.
Speaker 1: And then, of course, he said in Mark 11, 23, whosoever can have whatsoever covers a lot of territory.
Speaker 1: And and so we see here in Hebrews that faith works on that which is not seen.
Speaker 1: Faith works on the unseen.
Speaker 1: You know, if you can see something, you don't need faith for it.
Speaker 1: There it is.
Speaker 1: But if you can't see it, that's when you need faith for it, if it's something you desire.
Speaker 1: And then it says your faith is substance, it's substantive, it's, it's tangible, it's, it's solid.
Speaker 1: It's not just like a theory.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's not like a smoke or like a vapor.
Speaker 1: No, it's, it's tangible, it's substantive.
Speaker 1: And your faith is wholly dependent upon your expectation.
Speaker 1: And so two weeks ago I gave you the four kinds of expectation that anyone can have.
Speaker 1: You can have a negative expectation, you can have a neutral expectation, you can have a misguided expectation or you can have a positive expectation.
Speaker 1: And of course, that's why we need the word of God, the word of God designed to give us a positive expectation of things that we haven't yet seen.
Speaker 1: That's how the world was created and it's noted.
Speaker 1: You know, notice, there's four things and three out of the four would result in a crop failure.
Speaker 1: If you had negative or neutral or misguided expectations, that's not going to produce what God wants for you.
Speaker 1: So the only one of the four that produces is the positive expectation, which that lines up with the, the uh, so or so is the word mark.
Speaker 1: Chapter four jesus said that about.
Speaker 1: You know the, the four kinds of dirt.
Speaker 1: So you know god's thoughts here in jeremiah, that god's thoughts and plans of shalom toward us give us a positive expectation.
Speaker 1: See, he's not thinking evil.
Speaker 1: He didn't.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have evil planned for us.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have negative things.
Speaker 1: He's not neutral about us.
Speaker 1: You know he has wonderful things that he's bought and paid for and he's planned for each of us and he's thought a lot about them.
Speaker 1: In fact, in Psalm 40, if we could even number the thoughts, they're just more than we could number.
Speaker 1: When I think about that, I mean God has thought so much about each of us individually.
Speaker 1: I want you to kind of hone in on that.
Speaker 1: A lot of times we just include ourselves in the group and we're in the body of Christ.
Speaker 1: You know God thinks about the body?
Speaker 1: Well, he does, but I mean, really, he thinks about you so much that you couldn't, you couldn't even count up the thoughts he's thought toward you and, besides that, all of them are positive.
Speaker 1: All of them are, are, are, uh, positive thoughts to give you a hope and an expectation of what he wants to do.
Speaker 1: So, um, sometimes you know we need to make an adjustment in our attitude to position ourselves for God's power to move.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes just a little wrong thinking, a wrong thought pattern, you know that inward thought process that has become negative, or we've begun to think a certain thing is very far-fetched and impossible.
Speaker 1: Oh, I tell you, all things are possible to him that believe, and with God, all things are possible.
Speaker 1: So, the power of positive expectation.
Speaker 1: And so tonight I wanted to add to our arsenal that we gave you last two weeks ago.
Speaker 1: And let's turn in our Bibles to Acts, chapter 10.
Speaker 1: And I want you to glean some things out of the testimony that the Bible has about Cornelius, and I want you to see some things that will help you perhaps identify some things that you need to adjust.
Speaker 1: Again, here, early in this year of milestones, let's not miss one milestone.
Speaker 1: God wants to do, and we'll start reading for homework.
Speaker 1: You really ought to read all of 10 and 11.
Speaker 1: It would help you.
Speaker 1: You're going to get some excerpts of chapter 10 and 11.
Speaker 1: So we'll start reading with the first eight verses.
Speaker 1: There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, a devout man and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people and prayed to God always.
Speaker 1: He saw in a vision, suddenly or evidently, about the ninth hour of the day, an angel of God coming into him and saying unto him, cornelius.
Speaker 1: And when he looked on him he was afraid and said what is it, lord?
Speaker 1: And he said unto him thy prayers and thine alms, or in other words your alms, is giving to the poor.
Speaker 1: Your prayers and your alms are.
Speaker 1: Come up for a memorial before God.
Speaker 1: And now send men to Joppa and call for one, simon, whose surname is Peter.
Speaker 1: He lodgeth with one Simon, a tanner whose house is by the seaside.
Speaker 1: He shall tell thee what you ought to do.
Speaker 1: And when the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him continually.
Speaker 1: And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent them to Joppa.
Speaker 1: Now let's turn and let's skip down to verse 24.
Speaker 1: And uh, in the, in the meantime, you know, god uh visited Peter on the housetop.
Speaker 1: We won't read that whole thing, but you should read it.
Speaker 1: But let's pick it up in verse 24 after Peter left to go with the three men that Cornelius sent and the morrow, after they entered into Caesarea and Cornelius waited for them, that is Peter and the people that Peter brought with him, plus the three men that he had sent and had called together his kinsmen and near friends.
Speaker 1: And as Peter was coming in, cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him.
Speaker 1: But Peter took him up saying Stand up, I myself also am a man.
Speaker 1: And as he talked with him, he went in and found many that were come together.
Speaker 1: Now let's flip down to verse 44.
Speaker 1: And we know, in between these next verses we find out that Peter preached the gospel to that gathering.
Speaker 1: This is Cornelius and his house and his near kin and his friends.
Speaker 1: So it's quite a group and his friends, so it's quite a group.
Speaker 1: In verse 44, while Peter yet spake these words, what words were they.
Speaker 1: That was the gospel to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: While he spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word, and they of the circumcision which believed, were astonished.
Speaker 1: In other words, the people that Peter brought with him.
Speaker 1: They were all Jewish and they were astonished as many as came with Peter because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost, for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God, and then answered Peter can any man forbid water?
Speaker 1: That these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we, and he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Then prayed they him to to tarry certain days.
Speaker 1: Now I want us to look at this about you know, the power of positive expectations and things that we can pick up as we begin to face 2025.
Speaker 1: You know there's a lot of good things that are happening.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of good things in store, but we cannot relax.
Speaker 1: It's going to take our faith to bring everything to pass.
Speaker 1: You know the battle's not over.
Speaker 1: You know we've still got a lot of work to do.
Speaker 1: We've got an opportunity right now in 2025.
Speaker 1: God has granted us, graciously, another chance to get our act together here in the church, in the body of Christ, to do the things that we have not been doing.
Speaker 1: And so let's look at Cornelius.
Speaker 1: You know's Bible says he's a good man and he loved the Jews and he wanted to do good to them.
Speaker 1: He gave alms and he's an Italian centurion.
Speaker 1: You got to understand a centurion is like a navy seal, he's like a green beret.
Speaker 1: I mean, this man is a trained killer, he's over a hundred Roman soldiers and he didn't get there by being a, you know, a patsy.
Speaker 1: You know he's, you know he's.
Speaker 1: And yet God tenderized his heart and he, he became tender toward the God of Israel and he's giving and he's and he's giving and he's praying and his prayers and his giving have come up as a memorial before God, a record.
Speaker 1: In other words, god keeps a record.
Speaker 1: I mean you really need to understand that God is the one that keeps the books.
Speaker 1: If he kept the books on Cornelius, he keeps the books on you.
Speaker 1: He keeps the books on us, glorious Way, church, as a church and as a ministry.
Speaker 1: He keeps the books on you individually and me individually.
Speaker 1: He keeps the books, he keeps the record.
Speaker 1: And uh.
Speaker 1: And so because of this he got God, because of his giving and his prayers.
Speaker 1: And you know prayers and giving really go together.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get more about that here in a minute, but I mean, you know what good is praying without giving.
Speaker 1: You know praying and giving go together.
Speaker 1: And because he was one that approached God and prayed a lot and then also gave generously, it brought him up before God and God took note of the fact that he had a need that he didn't even know he had.
Speaker 1: And let's look at chapter 11, acts 11, verse 14.
Speaker 1: Now this is Paul talking about what Cornelius told him when he went to his house.
Speaker 1: Cornelius told him what all the angel had told him, and it says here in verse 13, cornelius showed us how he had seen an angel in his house which stood and said unto him Send men to Joppa and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
Speaker 1: So God knew he needed to get saved and because of his giving and because of his prayer, he was unwilling for Cornelius and his family and even his friends to go any longer without hearing the gospel.
Speaker 1: He needed to hear words whereby he and his house could be saved.
Speaker 1: And so that was the whole reason.
Speaker 1: Peter was there.
Speaker 1: And did they get saved?
Speaker 1: Sure did, in fact.
Speaker 1: They got saved, and they got filled with the Holy Ghost and spoke in other tongues.
Speaker 1: And so what I want you to see here is that his giving and his praying set in motion a historic move of God among the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: See up until this time, here you go Acts, chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Speaker 1: You get all the way to 10, and the apostles had not yet reached out the whole world.
Speaker 1: They just reached out to Jews.
Speaker 1: They just been preaching to Jews.
Speaker 1: They had not.
Speaker 1: Jesus said go into all the world.
Speaker 1: He didn't say go into all the Jewish world.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like the modern church going to all the world except politics.
Speaker 1: No, we're to go to the capitals.
Speaker 1: We're to plant the flag of heaven where, where made, we're to stand with the gospel.
Speaker 1: We're supposed to preach the gospel to every creature, not just the ones that are easy to preach to.
Speaker 1: And so his giving and his prayer set in motion, and his prayer set in motion, you could call it a revival among the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: I mean, notice it was not just Cornelius and his house, but it was Cornelius' near kin, all his cousins, I mean, and then plus his friends.
Speaker 1: So you're talking about a large group of people that gathered there to hear the word of God, to hear the gospel there, to hear the word of God, to hear the gospel, to hear the words whereby they all could be saved, and they all were saved and they all were filled with the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1: In fact they got filled with the Holy Ghost while he was preaching.
Speaker 1: Pretty amazing, so that giving set in motion that move of God.
Speaker 1: And then it also set in motion that move of God.
Speaker 1: And then it also set in motion Peter's trance and vision, peter's trance.
Speaker 1: Peter fell into a trance on the rooftop simultaneous to all this happening and the Holy Ghost spoke and gift of the Spirit, he saw into the spirit realm, he got discerning of spirits.
Speaker 1: He saw the sheet where the unclean animals come down from heaven.
Speaker 1: Rise, peter, kill and eat.
Speaker 1: I've never eaten anything unclean.
Speaker 1: Don't call what God has cleansed unclean.
Speaker 1: He did that three times and then when the three men that were sent there from Cornelius arrived, that was a soldier plus two household servants.
Speaker 1: The Holy Ghost spoke to Peter, says go with them.
Speaker 1: There are three men seeking they go with them.
Speaker 1: Nothing doubting, there's no way Peter would have gone with them.
Speaker 1: They're Gentiles, but the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1: So see what all of that came about as a result of Cornelius' prayers and his giving.
Speaker 1: I just want you to see that incredible result and notice what the Holy Ghost told Peter.
Speaker 1: He said I have sent them.
Speaker 1: Well, actually it was the angel that sent him.
Speaker 1: So that tells me that the angel that appeared to Cornelius, the Holy Ghost, was in charge of that angel.
Speaker 1: See, the Holy Ghost is in charge of angels.
Speaker 1: The Holy Ghost, he's the orchestrator here on the earth.
Speaker 1: He can orchestrate so many things as a result of our faithful giving and our faithful praying.
Speaker 1: I can hardly wait to see some of the things he's got in store for Glorious Way Church, both corporately and individually, as a result of our giving and our praying that we've had for 30 years.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've been we're getting ready to celebrate our 30th anniversary on sunday and I've been thinking back about all the things that god has used this church to do all the prayer meetings we've held, all of the, the proclamations we've made over many, many years, all the visitations and, uh, you know God is moving, I'm telling you he's moving at great speed.
Speaker 1: And so the Holy Ghost told Peter I have sent them, don't go with them.
Speaker 1: Nothing doubting, I have sent them.
Speaker 1: And so Cornelius is giving.
Speaker 1: In his prayers I mean it motivated angels, it motivated visions and gifts of the spirit it over it.
Speaker 1: It motivated overcoming religious traditions.
Speaker 1: I mean just his.
Speaker 1: How long would it have taken Peter to realize that he was stuck in religious thinking?
Speaker 1: You know, at that stage of the church's development they were still kind of keeping the law.
Speaker 1: You know they didn't even have the, they didn't even have the good sense to leave the law behind.
Speaker 1: They were still trying to keep the dietary laws of the, you know laws of Moses and all of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: No, christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
Speaker 1: But they didn't know it.
Speaker 1: Just think of what all happened just as a result of Cornelius giving and praying.
Speaker 1: So, and then Cornelius is giving and his praying opened the door for him and his household and his near kin and close friends all to get saved and filled with the Holy Ghost, change their lives forever.
Speaker 1: Just think about, just think about that that man.
Speaker 1: It changed his life and his family's life and his near kin, his cousins, his aunts, his uncles, his friends changed their lives forever.
Speaker 1: I mean, just think about him how immense just the results of his giving and his praying.
Speaker 1: So I have four things to kind of leave with you tonight about the power of positive expectation.
Speaker 1: You know, we know enough to leave behind negative expectation and neutral expectation and misguided expectation.
Speaker 1: Let's stick with positive expectation and that's everything that God's word says we can have.
Speaker 1: You're always on good ground when you've got the word of God standing behind your hope or your expectation.
Speaker 1: All right, so one thing, number one let's remember God has recorded your tithes, your offerings, your thank offerings, every kind of good that you've ever done when you've helped somebody personally.
Speaker 1: You know it could be that you've done some things.
Speaker 1: You know we try our best to keep up your giving record when you tithe and give to Glorious Way Church, when you give in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1: We're preparing giving letters right now.
Speaker 1: We do the best we can to keep up with every bit of it.
Speaker 1: But let's just suppose we missed one, you know.
Speaker 1: You know computers are not perfect.
Speaker 1: People aren't perfect.
Speaker 1: What if we missed one of the times you gave and it didn't get in the system.
Speaker 1: Well, guess what?
Speaker 1: God didn't miss it.
Speaker 1: God recorded it.
Speaker 1: God knows every dime you gave and besides that, we don't know what you've done personally.
Speaker 1: You might've, you might've written somebody a check that you knew they needed help, and you might have given in secret and nobody knew.
Speaker 1: But guess what God recorded it.
Speaker 1: You're giving to people when you're helping someone that's in need.
Speaker 1: I mean, god records everything you do.
Speaker 1: He records every prayer that you make in faith.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you God's the, he's the.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you God's the, he's the, he's the bookkeeper, he never misses it.
Speaker 1: You know talking about giving and praying and I wanted to make this point.
Speaker 1: I mentioned it a little bit earlier, but you know, paul said that in 2 Corinthians, chapter eight, he called an offering the proof of your love.
Speaker 1: He said now, bring the proof of your love, your offering is the proof of your love.
Speaker 1: And so when we pray and we don't and I'm not saying every time you pray little prayers that you have to lay up an offering, but I mean, you know, I've had this habit for a long time and I just want to share it with you.
Speaker 1: Uh, I went to Galveston, uh, on, uh, the 2nd of January.
Speaker 1: It's my custom to go three or four times a year but this past year, because of circumstances in my life and Gladys's uh issues that she's had and challenges that she's had, I hadn't been able to go as often.
Speaker 1: But I did get away on the 2nd of January and I always make it a point when I'm going to pray and ask the Lord about this church and get caught up with him.
Speaker 1: I always receive communion.
Speaker 1: I always lay up an offering for him and I tell him how much I'm going to give for him and I tell him how much I'm going to give.
Speaker 1: I call it laying up an offering and then I do my praying.
Speaker 1: And so I did that on the January.
Speaker 1: The second, I laid up an offering and I did.
Speaker 1: I received communion and on that Sunday morning and the fifth I gave that offering in the.
Speaker 1: In the offering I had it ready to give in the app and God knew I was going to give because I'd already told him I was going to give and I had it in my heart.
Speaker 1: I hadn't done it yet.
Speaker 1: I had it ready to give in the app and God knew I was going to give because I'd already told him I was going to give, and I had it in my heart.
Speaker 1: I hadn't done it yet.
Speaker 1: I hadn't actually pushed the button on the app to say submit or give whatever it says on there.
Speaker 1: I hadn't done that yet.
Speaker 1: But God knew I was going to.
Speaker 1: And what did he do?
Speaker 1: He gave me this word, me, this word.
Speaker 1: 2025 is a year of, is the year of milestones.
Speaker 1: So amen, I mean god.
Speaker 1: So you know he keeps the books.
Speaker 1: I think it's right to honor him and bring the proof of our love.
Speaker 1: When we're asking him for something, I think we ought to bring him a corban or an offering.
Speaker 1: All the old-timers used to do that.
Speaker 1: The great intercessors that have prayed in revivals, little grandmas, they would fold their little.
Speaker 1: They didn't have a lot to give.
Speaker 1: It was not about the amount, it's about the love.
Speaker 1: How much do they love God?
Speaker 1: They're not praying out of obligation.
Speaker 1: They're praying out of what Love?
Speaker 1: They don't intercede on their face for the church out of obligation.
Speaker 1: They do it out of love.
Speaker 1: You know, god is love.
Speaker 1: God so loved the world that he gave.
Speaker 1: So the proof of our love is our giving Really is, and so when we're asking for something from God, we ought to at least give him something you can't buy it.
Speaker 1: We're not buying anything, but what we are doing is we're bringing the proof of our love to God.
Speaker 1: I think we need to think about that in 2025 and make some adjustments.
Speaker 1: Make some adjustments.
Speaker 1: I mean I just make it a habit.
Speaker 1: When I've got something really serious, you know, I mean I pray a lot, so I don't just have an offering every time, I don't do that every moment, but when I've got something specific that's serious, that I really need God's help on, I will lay up an offering and sometimes I'll take communion at the same time.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because it's covenant business.
Speaker 1: And then you know God, I get his attention.
Speaker 1: My offerings and my prayers come up and God takes note of it.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's lift our hands.
Speaker 1: You know God's taking note of our giving, he's taking note of our prayers.
Speaker 1: He did it for Cornelius and he's no respecter of persons.
Speaker 1: If he gave Cornelius the true riches, which is salvation and the baptism, he could give you what you need easily.
Speaker 1: So all right.
Speaker 1: Number one God's recorded your tithes and your offerings, your thank offerings, all your prayers.
Speaker 1: He's recorded it.
Speaker 1: Number two he has sent angels behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: He sent angels behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: You know, when you give, you start a whole, and when you pray you start a whole chain of events that you can't see with your eyes.
Speaker 1: Angels go to work.
Speaker 1: They start changing people's minds.
Speaker 1: Look what that you know.
Speaker 1: Look what that.
Speaker 1: Look what that?
Speaker 1: Uh, you know that giving that that that cornelius did, it changed peter's mind.
Speaker 1: God released a gift of the spirit that changed peter's whole belief system.
Speaker 1: He had to get over that judaism.
Speaker 1: He had to get over the idea that that that salvation was just for the jews.
Speaker 1: He had to get over that.
Speaker 1: And just in a moment of time God granted a discerning of spirits, a gift of the spirit, and changed his whole ministry, changed his whole attitude about the Gentiles.
Speaker 1: Praise God.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's able to change minds.
Speaker 1: He's able to reposition people.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, you know, people are not in position to bless you and when you give and when you pray, god shuffles things around and moves people in your orbit that can bless your life and open a door for you that couldn't be opened before.
Speaker 1: I've had him do it over and over and over.
Speaker 1: He's doing that right now.
Speaker 1: He's doing that all across the country.
Speaker 1: He's opening doors for us to go in and open up capital worship in all kinds of states, and I'm convinced we're going to go to every one of them, all 50 of them.
Speaker 1: We're going to go to all 50 of them, not going to leave one of them out.
Speaker 1: God's got a plan and as we go, one at a time, one at a time, just keep going, keep going, keep going.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah, getting anything out of this?
Speaker 1: I hope you are All right.
Speaker 1: So God's recorded your tithes and offerings, your prayers.
Speaker 1: He sent angels behind the scenes to bring favor, to change minds, to reposition people.
Speaker 1: Number three your giving and your praying is affecting a wide circle.
Speaker 1: It's not just you, it's your family, it's your near kinfolk, I mean even your aunts and uncles and cousins.
Speaker 1: I mean it affects everybody.
Speaker 1: That's your kin, and then your friends, and I really believe it means your neighbors and your coworkers, anybody that even touches you in the slightest bit.
Speaker 1: I mean you're giving and praying.
Speaker 1: I touched them.
Speaker 1: Why is that?
Speaker 1: Well, because you're blessed.
Speaker 1: That's why God is moving on your behalf and you, you, you become a person, that that you become the go-to person.
Speaker 1: You get your prayers answered, you get breakthroughs.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, yeah, some people might get jealous, some people might, you know, mock you, but I'm telling you, there are people watching you and they are getting encouraged.
Speaker 1: They're, they're getting encouraged at your victory and you're, you've got a testimony now.
Speaker 1: Oh, I tell you, it affects a wider circle than just you.
Speaker 1: And then, finally, the last one that I want you to keep in mind is that we are members one of another Ephesians four 25.
Speaker 1: We're the body of Christ, we're members one of another, we're one with each other.
Speaker 1: And so, as we give especially like when you bring your tithes and offerings here to the church and we pray over them up front, you know we pray over the offerings and we'll pray something like you know, here men receive tithes, but there you receive them and then we bless the tithe.
Speaker 1: You know, when we do that, we're members one of another and we're bringing the glory.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is what happened in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: It was a type and shadow of what happens when we all get together and support and all bring our tithes and offerings to glorify God in our worship service.
Speaker 1: We're literally worshiping God with our substance.
Speaker 1: That substance represents our life, it represents our blood.
Speaker 1: It represents blood.
Speaker 1: I asked the Lord how is it that money cries?
Speaker 1: In James, chapter 5, the defrauded wages cry.
Speaker 1: It cries out to God.
Speaker 1: How is that Lord?
Speaker 1: How can?
Speaker 1: How can wages?
Speaker 1: That's money.
Speaker 1: How can money cry?
Speaker 1: He said it represents blood.
Speaker 1: It's just like the blood of a of Cain, blood of Abel, cried out vengeance from Cain.
Speaker 1: And so First Corinthians 12, 26 talks about that.
Speaker 1: When one of us is blessed, we're all blessed.
Speaker 1: When one rejoices, we all rejoice.
Speaker 1: When one is under attack, we're all under attack.
Speaker 1: We're members one of another.
Speaker 1: We're connected and it's in that connection that, even when maybe you're in a tight spot and it's affecting the amount that you can give, I've been there.
Speaker 1: I've been where my tithe was zero because my income was zero.
Speaker 1: I've been in places where my giving was very small, but you know what?
Speaker 1: I kept going to church with my head held up because I'm part of this body and everything that they're doing I'm part of, regardless whether I can individually participate or not, god knows, because I'm part and we're all part and alike, and I wouldn't let myself get beat down, I wouldn't let myself get under condemnation.
Speaker 1: So here in second, our first Chronicles.
Speaker 1: Let's turn back there.
Speaker 1: I was reading this recently.
Speaker 1: I was reading this recently, and David was talking about preparing an offering for the building of the temple, and that's powerful.
Speaker 1: He was a very rich man and it said here 1 Chronicles 29, verse 1.
Speaker 1: Furthermore, David the king said unto all the congregation Solomon, my son, whom alone God has chosen, is yet young and tender, and the work is great, for the palace is not for man, but for the Lord God.
Speaker 1: Now I have prepared, prepared with all my might for the house of my God.
Speaker 1: And then he talked about all the gold and the silver and the iron and the wood and the onyx stones and all manner of precious stones.
Speaker 1: And in verse 3, moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine, own proper good of gold and silver which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house.
Speaker 1: See, it was his affection for the house of God.
Speaker 1: It was his affection.
Speaker 1: Well, we don't have affection for a church building.
Speaker 1: He's talking about the house of God.
Speaker 1: See, in our case, in the New Testament, our affection is for the body of Christ, our affection is for God himself, because our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost and the church itself is the collective temple of the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1: We have an affection, so giving is a reflection of our affection.
Speaker 1: I like what Brother Mark says Giving is a reflection of our affection.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you don't give much, it means you're not really much in love.
Speaker 1: You don't love much.
Speaker 1: You know, he that is forgiven much loves much.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've all been forgiven so many times.
Speaker 1: He's forgiven me, oh my goodness, and it's at least I can do to give him all that I can give him and keep believing for more.
Speaker 1: I'm just believing that and I want to stir you up in the beginning.
Speaker 1: I'm not doing this to receive an offering, but I'm wanting to give you the big picture of what's ahead of us in 2025.
Speaker 1: And let's stir our affections up for the body of Christ and for the work of God, the kingdom of God, and let's reorder our affections and let's maybe pull some resources away from certain things that we spend money on.
Speaker 1: Let's honor God with it, let's increase.
Speaker 1: I think back in those days when my tithe was almost zero and I had very little to give, somebody had given us a car and it was sitting in the driveway and I hadn't bought the insurance on it yet.
Speaker 1: We weren't even really needing to drive it and I and I thought you know we ought to give this an offering.
Speaker 1: And I did a had a family meeting.
Speaker 1: I said does anybody, would anybody be offended if we just sell this car?
Speaker 1: Somebody gave us this car but we don't really need it.
Speaker 1: And now I've got to buy insurance on it, I've got to start taking care of it, I've got to put tires on it, I've got to put oil and change the oil.
Speaker 1: I've got to do all this stuff, spend money on something we don't really need.
Speaker 1: Why don't we just give it in the offering?
Speaker 1: Why don't we sell the car and give the money?
Speaker 1: And so we voted, all four of us voted to do it, and we put an ad in the paper and just like that it sold for eighteen hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: And you can't imagine.
Speaker 1: I mean it write that check for eighteen hundred dollars, put that in the offering all at one time and you know what?
Speaker 1: God recorded it.
Speaker 1: God took note of it.
Speaker 1: I mean our affection toward the, toward uh, and and it happened to be in a missions offering seven years of harvest.
Speaker 1: It was Brother Osteen collecting missions money for the harvest and we gave into that fund and it just made us feel so good, it's more blessed to give than it is to receive.
Speaker 1: And you know, less than a year later I wound up with a permanent job that paid more than what I was making at the time.
Speaker 1: God came through.
Speaker 1: Now you can't buy God's blessing, but you can sow seed to show God you love him and he'll record it in heaven.
Speaker 1: And you release a chain of events that happen supernaturally and your expectations are going to turn positive.
Speaker 1: You're going to start believing for more and more opportunities to bless the Lord.
Speaker 1: Come on, lift your hands.
Speaker 1: The power of positive are going to turn positive.
Speaker 1: You're going to start believing for more and more opportunities to bless the Lord.
Speaker 1: Come on, lift your hands.
Speaker 1: The power of positive expectation.
Speaker 1: Praise God.
Speaker 1: I hope you got something out of this tonight.
Speaker 1: Glory to God, amen, amen.