Texts: Prov. 8:1-5; Ps. 90:12; Ps. 39:4; Deut. 32:29;Prov. 6:6. Wisdom has more to do with the heart than it does to the intellect. Wisdom is a spiritual product. What is life? It is time, environment, and decisions that a person makes. We are to measure our days and to consider our lives (time). Value time and value wisdom. How do we value our time? 1) Time is a resource, which can be managed and recorded. 2) Time can be measured, so use a calendar to measure the use of your time. 3) Time is limited, so don’t get lazy and waste it. 4) Time is money and money is time. 5) Time can be stolen, so don’t let people steal your time. Most of our time is stolen by relationships and distractions. Want to have a 13th month? Get up an hour earlier every day or stay up an hour later every day. 6) Time can be determined. Write down birthdays, anniversaries, and habits (like reading through the Bible) on your calendar. 7) Time has natural groupings. Group phone calls, check e-mails infrequently in a day. Grouping work and having a routine reduce stress and promote dependability and comfort. There are three types of time from a Bible perspective: 1) rest, 2) work (productivity, preparation, and maintenance), and 3) joy.
The Wealth of Wisdom Part 3
The Wealth of Wisdom Part 2
Prov. 8:14-21. Hate the lack of wisdom and seek wisdom as a priority. Riches and honor are with wisdom, and God leads a righteous man to inherit wealth. Inheritance is a legacy of increase. Prov. 2:1-6 You have to apply yourself to the wisdom of God. You have to work on it, just as you work for increase through a job. Wisdom makes you not care what others think of you. It is a treasure. Do you cry out and seek for wisdom? You must be strong in desire and hunger for it. Prov. 1:20-23 A scorner says, “I don’t need wisdom. I know better than that.” The Spirit leads you into all truth. Let the Holy Spirit tell it to you straight. Prov. 9:8-12 Some people you can’t help. A scoffer will hate you when you speak the truth to him. Speak strongly and rebuke a wise man, and he will be wiser. Wisdom gives you riches and honor, and it also gives you the promise of long life. Job 28:12-13. You can’t buy wisdom. Wisdom is the fear of the Lord. If you don’t the price of wisdom, you won’t value it. Cry out to God for wisdom. Wisdom comes from an answer to prayer. James 1:5 Ask God for wisdom. You need it!
The Wealth of Wisdom Part 1
Texts: Prob. 8:11-36 (Wisdom, the fear of the Lord); Matt. 25:14-29 (The Parable of the Talents); John 6:5-13 (The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes); Mark 4:13-20 (The Parable of the Sower and the Seed). Wisdom comes from God and is personified in His Son, Jesus. Wisdom is a spirit. Wisdom is infinite and unlimited and existed before creation. The word “parable “ means to lay side by side and is a comparison. A talent is a measurement of gold. In the Parable of the Talents, the faithful ones doubled what they were given. Jesus said that to whom has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. God wants us to have abundance and unlimited thinking in our lives. The fear of loss is a crippling thing. Good stewardship is how you double and increase what you have by opening yourself to abundance thinking. God’s resources are unlimited. Don’t have limited thinking and don’t fear loss. Money is an exchange of time and effort. We are commanded to multiply our money. The Word that is sown in our heart is the source of all multiplication. Jesus measures by our faith when we release our money. Get the Word in your heart, and you’ll prosper. Release more faith and give in obedience. Plant the word of prosperity in your heart, and then wisdom will lead and guide you. Don’t allow time to be a limitation, either. Time makes you think you failed. Get the limits off your thinking.
Grace Not in Vain
Offering message: Debt is like bondage and slavery. This is a a debt-free zone. John 6:5. God’s blessings are tied to God’s purposes. If God can get it through you, He will get it to you. Sermon message: Texts: James 1:16-19; 2:14-18; I Cor. 15:9, 10; Eph. 2:8, 9; Rom. 2:1-7; Titus 3:5-8; Col. 1:12. Hear and act. Anything that will lead you away from acting on the Word will lead you to deception, because your being a hearer of the Word only and not acting means you are being deceived. Faith impels you to act. Act on grace and live free from sin. The works come after grace. God is good to all. It is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. We are saved by grace, and it is His grace that empowers us to live a higher life. Act on the Word. Faith’s highest level is praise. Don’t know what to do? You can always praise God and pray.
The Spirit of Man: Who Is Hindering You
In Rom. 1:9-13, Rom. 15:22, and I Thess. 2:17, 18 Paul writes that often he was hindered from coming to be with the church by circumstances he couldn’t control. Even with amazing things happening, Paul was hindered by Satan. Things don’t always go the way we planned because of adversaries. You have to be determined to fight for the will of God, and don’t just take what life gives you. In I Cor. 16:9 Paul wrote that a great and effectual door was opened to him, and there were many adversaries. Then in Acts 16:5-13 Paul was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go to preach the Word in Asia. There are some places God does not want you to go. So, you have to determine if it is Satan hindering you or God forbidding you by the Holy Spirit. Regardless, keep moving. God clarified His will to Paul through a vision in Troas. Years later, in II Cor. 2:11-13 Paul came to Troas again, and this time a door was opened for him by the Lord, and he went to Macedonia. The door that was opened to him was a prison door. Your experiences get shaken by Satan. Come back to your spirit. Check your heart. Acts 16:25 In the midnight hour, what is your heart telling you? When you don’t know what to do, praise and pray. In II Cor. 2:12-15 the earthquake opened all the prison doors, and the jailer and his household were saved. There is always victory in your problem. Don’t be quick to run away from problems and victories. You don’t know the impact on others of even one of your victories.
Building on a Firm Foundation: Obedience
Offering message: John 4:35; John 6:5-11. Order before increase. Jesus told Philip to do what would test him, for Jesus knew what He would do. Live by the supernatural. The will of God comes before every financial decision. God gives wealth to fulfill the vision. The issue is souls. Be thankful for what you have and stop operating on limits. The only limits are on what God wants to do. Sermon message: Matt. 7:24-27 Build your life on the Word- hearing and doing it. Jesus learned obedience by the things He suffered (Heb. 5:8), such as loneliness, rejection, abandonment, and death. Through the tough times you can learn obedience. In a problem, stop looking for an answer and simply obey God. Deut. 28:1, 2 Success is measured by obedience. Harken to the voice of the Lord; He still speaks today! I Kings 19:9-12 tells us that God spoke in a still small voice to Elijah. Obedience is suffering. Fast and pray over big decisions. What is God saying to you? Be diligent to obey the Lord. I Tim. 1:18 War a good warfare and don’t let Satan take what God told you to do. Obedience, not results and money, is your measuring stick of success.
Give Him Your All
Offering message: Pastor Pat shares his testimony of God’s faithfulness. Luke 6:38 You give, and God gives to you. Joseph got what the Father promised, even though he went through bad times. We give because we are like our Father. Sermon message: Col. 3:23 Whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly as to the Lord and not to man. Give God you all. We are working as unto God. We represent God, so do it well. Impact peoples’ lives wherever you go. Cooperate with God. Col.3:17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of Jesus, as if Jesus did it, giving thanks to God. Others will give thanks, too, because of what we do and say. Prov. 22:29 Be diligent in business, and you will stand before kings. The reward is God’s blessing.
Building on a Firm Foundation: God’s Blessings
Offering message: Deut. 28:1, 2 The condition of God’s blessing is conditional: if you harken and obey His voice. God cannot reward disobedience. Sermon message: Text: Matt. 7:24-27. Hear the Word, act on it and do it. God is not your problem, and your problems are smaller than God. James 1:16-19 God is good. If Satan gets you thinking that the problem you’re experiencing is from God, you can’t resist. Why do bad things happen? There is a devil and there is sin in the world. Be a doer of the Word. Hearing but not doing the Word brings deception. Grace empowers you to act on the Word, but mercy is the“free pass”. I John 4:19-5:3 The commandment is to love God and to love our brother. We are to keep this commandment. We forgive, not by feeling, but by commandment. Josh. 1:2, 5-8 The past is dead. Get up and don’t quit. Be courageous. Observe to do. ACT. Meditate on the Word to know what to do, then you’ll make your way prosperous, and then you’ll have good success. Deut. 29:9 Keeping the Word and doing it allows you to prosper in all you do. I Kings 17:2-4 If you obey God, you’ll be in the right place for blessing. John 14:21 If you keep His commandments, He will manifest Himself to you. John 10:17-18 Jesus received the power to lay down His life by obeying God’s commandment. Do you want to walk in God’s blessings? You must keep and do His commandment.
The Fear of the Lord
Acts 9:31 says that the church walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and they were multiplied. Fear of the Lord is different from the world’s concept of fear. Matt. 10:28 tells us to fear God, which means that we are to reverence Him. Phil. 2:12 tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. The fear of God removes the desire to sin. Sin causes a distance from God. Caution: God is a loving God and does forgive, but if we continue to sin, there are warnings. Heb. 10:26-31 says that if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Other verses about the fear of the Lord: Prob. 1:7; Prov. 8:13; Prov. 10:27; Prov. 14:26, 27; Prov. 16:6; Prov. 19:23; Prov. 22:4. Is. 66:1, 2; Heb. 12:28, 29. Serve God with reverence and godly fear. We cannot please Him without the fear of the Lord. How do we purpose to develop the fear of God? Don’t adapt to the world’s fear. Develop the fear of the Lord by the Word of God. Meditate in it. Pursue God daily. Rom. 2:4-11 The goodness of God leads you to repentance, but His His wrath and righteous judgment will be revealed. There is a balance between love and justice. Heb. 4:11 Labor to enter into His rest. Ps. 25:14; I Cor. 7:1. Develop a holy fear of God and go into His presence and lay at His feet.
Building on a Firm Foundation: The Fear of God
Prob. 8:1-5; Prov. 3:5-6; Is. 11:1-2; 1 Cor. 1:19-31; James 4:7-8. You cannot trust your mind, and if your heart is wrong, everything is wrong. Your heart should echo the Word. Talking yourself out of doing what God told you to do is leaning on your own understanding. Suicide is a spirit caused by opening a door to a spirit. You can trust the Word. When you don’t know what to do, praise, pray, give, love, stand, and do what you know to do. Jesus is the source of our wisdom. God made foolish the wisdom of this world. Christ is the power and the wisdom on God. When you cry out for wisdom, you are crying out for Jesus. God uses the foolish things of the world. Reputation is pride in disguise. Jesus is your wisdom. Obey Him. Purify your heart and get rid of the double-mindedness. If you’re facing something, put your heart into going through it, and learn from it. Wisdom is for you. Don’t lean on your own understanding.
The Holy Spirit
Who is the Holy Spirit? He is the part of the Godhead who dwells here. He is our access to the promises of God, and He is our communicator with the Father. What does the Holy Spirit do? He is our teacher; and He brings what Jesus said to our remembrance; He guides us in truth; He gives us revelation of what is God’s will and His Word. He gives us power. What is the importance of the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives? He empowers us to be His witnesses; we need Him to be able to minister. What does it look like to have the Holy Spirit in our lives? We should be getting revelation from the Word, walking in the fruits of the Spirit, and coveting the gifts of the Spirit. How much are we moving and desiring to move in the Holy Spirit? Start walking in the Spirit and in love. Ask Him and God will break your heart for others.
Building a Firm Foundation: Tithing, First Fruits First
Offering message: Heb. 5:5-11, Heb. 6:20, and Heb. 7:1-2. What do you give to your High Priest? First, you give the tithe, secondly your sacrifice of praise and worship (which reveals your heart), and thirdly your confession of sin (which cleanses you). Sermon message: Matt. 7:24-29 Build on the firm foundation. Matt. 6:33 Seek first the kingdom of God, then the rest will come. The tithe on your money is not yours, and Mal. 3:8-11 says that you have robbed God if you aren’t giving your tithes and offerings. Deut. 8:16-18 tells us that God gives us the power to get wealth. God’s covenant establishing power is subject to your wealth-gathering power. Prosperity is a spiritual tool to subject this world’s rulers to God. Finances in your hands are a tool.
There’s A Miracle Under Your Seat
Text: Eph. 2:4-8. God loved us when we were dead in sins, even when we were His enemies; He is rich in mercy. You may slip and fall, but God still loves you. Don’t ever waver from God’s love for you. God made us alive together, raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. His grace and kindness in providing salvation, resurrection, and our place in authority are eternal. He wants to show His kindness for eternity; His goodness stretches backward as well as forward. God extends His grace, but we have to receive it. We can’t boast about our faith or our salvation. Our fasting and confession on faith can become works. Recognize that all comes from God, and that He has something for you. God created you to do good works, but they are the results of your having received Him. In Gen. 2:1 God rested on the seventh day from all that He had created. He made man and female on the sixth day. (“Man” contained both male and female.) God’s last day of creation was man’s first day. Man started on God’s rest day. Salvation is like that. You start with and you rest in what God has finished, and then you work out the plans that God has invested in you. What God has finished, He’s not going to do anymore. He’s already answered your prayers and provided for what you need. God is the Creator. He is eternal. He is immutable. Our finite minds can’t comprehend an infinite God, but understand that your life is intricately planned. Look at creation. Look at how intricate your body is. Imagine how much design and planning God put into your days. II Tim. 1:9 It’s according to His purpose and grace which was given us before time began. Your salvation was before the world began. He knew all of your problems since time began and had an answer already prepared. He had a whole eternity to work out your problem. Pastor Dale tells about an experience of God’s prepared answer for him when he was in Washington, D. C. His purpose for you is being worked out in your life. Receive the grace of God. God is not caught by surprise at our sin. If we fail to see God’s plans, He has many back-up plans. His nature is unchangeable, and it’s love. Don’t fail to receive God’s grace! Pastor Dale tells about God’s working things out for his friend, Gene Olon, who was ministering in Romania. He also relates about God’s connection in Andorra and about another experience with Gene Olon, when Gene was beaten up in Romania and was missing. Your life and your days are not chance. You can miss the grace of God, but He knew you would sin. God designed you for victory. I Cor. 15:57 and II Cor. 2:14 tell us that God gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. God knows, prepares, and provides for us.
Second Chances
Offering message: Heb. 7:8-10 The tithes belong to God. When we give, we are giving to the living God. Sermon message: John 21:1-6 After Jesus was crucified, Peter had left the ministry and had gone back to fishing, his pre-disciple work. Peter loved Jesus, but he didn’t really listen to what Jesus was saying about His imminent death and resurrection, nor did he understand it. Jesus had to rebuke him. He told Peter that Satan wanted to sift him like wheat. He warned him that he would deny Him three times. Peter bragged that he would die for Jesus. Peter looked at his role as one of protecting Jesus instead of doing what Jesus needed him to do in His final days and hours. Three times Peter made a public denial of Jesus, and after His resurrection He allowed him to give public expression of his love three times. Jesus knew Peter loved Him. Jesus is love, compassion, forgiveness, and restoration, and just as He took a broken man, Peter, and restored him to become a humble leader, so He can take you, even if you failed Him, and He will forgive and restore you. Jesus is greater! Matt. 16:21,22; Matt. 26:31-35; Luke 22:32-38; Matt. 26:41-54; Luke 22:56-62; John 21:7-17; Ps. 103:20 (Angels listen to the Word when you speak it.)
Prayer
Prayer is communion with God, a relationship with Him, and being mindful of His presence. In Eph. 6:10- tells us about the whole armor of God and that we are to pray always with all kinds of prayer and supplication. James 5:13-18 reveals how to pray effectively and how to pray for healing. Prayer can be unfruitful: praying according to your lusts, praying against God’s will, praying religious, mindless, repetitive prayers. Prayer is not rebuking the devil, because that’s taking authority over the enemy. Don’t disconnect from communion with God. We know we are to pray to God, the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ (John 16:23). You can talk to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit, but prayer is to God. How do you know if your prayer is effective? When you are in good communion with God. Adam and Eve had good communion with God before the Fall, and Enoch’s communion was so good, he was taken up. Luke 18:10-14 mentions the prayer of humility (knowing who you are with God and knowing who you are without Him) compared to the one who speaks the “prayer” of self-justification. Is. 56:7 tells about God’s saying that His house should be a house of prayer. The congregation spent time praying in the Spirit.
Steps in the Supernatural
Deut. 1:2-3 tells us that it took the Israelites 40 years to take an 11 year journey. Is the fulfillment of what God has told you stretched out? Genesis reveals how God operates: He spoke and His words created (Gen. 1). In Gen. 2:7, 19 God formed man and animals. It was a two-step process: 1- creating by the spoken Word and 2- forming the final product. What God has spoken to you has already been created. Then we wait for the formation. Ps. 139:16; Eph. 1:4; Ps. 139:13; Jer. 1:5 tells us that God knew, saw, formed, and chose us before the foundation of the world and before our birth. How does faith work? It works the same way: God spoke and created, and God formed what He told us He would do and what He provided for. Faith has those two steps: God speaks and when we line up with Him, we see the fulfillment of what He said. So what hinders and delays that fulfillment? As we see in Abram’s life, there is required integrity and obedience. It took 24 years for the manifestation of the word of God to Abram and Sarai to come. In Gen. 17:1 God told Abram to walk before Him blameless. But Abram didn’t. In what ways? 1) Incomplete obedience (Gen. 12:1-2). 2) Lack of truth and integrity (in the way he gave his wife into other men’s harems. 3) His trying by the works of the flesh to form the promises of God (Gen. 16; he created an Ishmael. Ishmaels are created whenever we do things by the flesh instead of by the Holy Spirit. 4) Abram operated in unbelief (Gen. 17:4-18; he laughed when he was told that he would be the father of many nations- his name changed to Abraham). It wasn’t until God had Abraham circumcised in flesh and in his heart that the fulfillment of Isaac could come. Col. 2:11, 12; James 3:2-4; Rom. 4:19-21. It was during the 3 months after the circumcision and name change that Abraham was a man of unwavering faith. Allow God to deal with the issues in your life. What has God destined for you? Be obedient (immediately), be truthful and full of integrity, allow God to cut off the fleshly things, and operate in faith, not unbelief.
A Man on the Wall
Ezek. 22:30 God sought for a man who would make a wall and stand in the gap, but He found no one. In Gen. 18:17 God asked, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” He didn’t ask if He should show him what He was doing, but whether He should hide it from him. The Lord did tell him, and Abraham stayed before the Lord (verse 22), and then he went near and asked God if He would spare the righteous (verse 23). He had intimacy with the Lord and fervency of heart as he negotiated for Lot’s family. Abraham was bold in front of God. We are righteous, and God is righteous. Just as Abraham had authority on earth because God gave it to men, so do we. Even with the righteous people, God called on His angels. Is. 59:15 In society he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. Doing the right thing costs you. It takes intercession. Is. 59:16 God wondered that there was no intercessor. Prayer opens the door for His authority to move. Is. 59:17 He (Jesus) was clad with zeal. Jesus is our intercessor. When God couldn’t find a man as intercessor, He sent Jesus as our intercessor. Rom. 8:26-28 tells us that the Holy Spirit also is our intercessor. God tells us that we don’t know what to pray for as we ought, and we don’t know how to pray. Sometimes words aren’t enough. Verse 28 (all things work together for good) only works because of verse 27. If you just believe 28, you’ll have to believe that it’s God’s will for people to go to hell. When you pray, a lot of times it’s not intercession; it’s just you praying your own prayer concerns. When you intercede, you’ll be praying for countries, etc. Rom. 8:31-34 tells us that God is for us, and He freely gives us all things. Jesus Christ is our intercessor. Pray in the Holy Spirit. (Pastor Dale shares how praying in the Holy Spirit changed his plans for a month-long ministry trip in Europe and Russia.) Sometimes it hurts to pray in the Spirit, because it brings up emotions and things in your past that caused a lot of pain. Praying in the Spirit can allow God to sort it out and help you to be delivered from the hurt and the scars, so you can experience inner healing. Rom. 8:37-39 We are more than conquerors. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. What can separate you from God? Your past. If you don’t deal with your past, it will keep you out of the love of God. Let go of it. To be intimate with God is a one-on-one experience. Draw near to God and get alone with Him.
Building on a Firm Foundation
Offering message: Luke 6:47-49 tells us to come to Jesus, hear Him, and do what He says, and then our house will be built on the foundation of the rock. In Phil 4:15-19 Paul relates the relationship between sowing a gift to God’s work and submitting to do the Word of God with receiving the promise of God’s supply to the givers. Second Corinthians 9:6-11 again reinforces sowing and reaping and abundance. Sermon message: Matt. 7:24-27 Doing what Jesus says (saying in the Sermon on the Mount) is being like a wise man. Mark 4:24 Take heed what you hear; be careful what you listen to. Grow in God and endure sound doctrine. Bad things happen to everyone. Why do some fall? They are not established on the firm foundation. The Sermon on the Mount can be summarized as: walk in love and be a love-initiator. Luke 8:18 tells us to take heed to how we hear. Some people listen, but don’t hear. How we hear affects whether we get the right understanding. Hear how things are said. Pastor Dale shared two incidents in which people took what he said in different ways, and depending how the person took it, one was set free and one stayed in bondage. Heb. 4:2 says that the word preached to them and that they heard didn’t profit them. Why? They didn’t mix faith with the Word. In I Cor.3:1-3 Paul says that he couldn’t speak to the people as spiritual, because they couldn’t handle it. The people were too carnal. Carnality is envy (trying to be someone else, because the person doesn’t know who he/she is). Carnality is strife (having it your own way). So how do you get out of carnality? Repent! Carnal sins are the kinds of storms that will break you. How are you going to respond? Matt. 5:10-12 says that those who are persecuted for Jesus’ sake are blessed and should rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is their reward in heaven. Repent and rejoice!
Repentance Couples Moving in the Prophetic
Keith and Mary gave a word to the congregation (hurricane). Pastor Dale told about what Keith had said earlier about a church that was preaching that there is no hell, and in that congregation of 5,000 people, only three people had a Bible. Don’t leave the Word of God. The Word records His nature, His character, and His will for our lives. His Rhema Word is where He takes the Word and breathes life in it and applies it to your situation. It’s what you read in the Word (Logos) and what you experience (Rhema). Get into the Word and the Spirit of God. God saves the best for last. Mary gave a word to Pastor Dale and Teri and the church here. We are called to a missionary work in which whole groups will go. Get up and take what you get here. Keith shared about the hunger to know God, even when he was attending a famous Jewish designer’s party. The anointing in you is always reaching out to others. There’s always someone wanting Jesus in a crowd. The anointing is so powerful because God loves people. We’re living in the days of manifestation, and God has saved the best for last. God wants to hear your heart. The key is repentance (Acts 3:19 and 20), and it’s not a negative word, but it is healthy and clean. We must be able to say, “I’m sorry. Forgive me.” Repentance is a huge part of salvation. Repentance causes change and removes sin. Learn to adapt. Repentance always brings time of refreshing, and it sends Jesus. Saying you’re sorry helps you become more tender. Keith and Mary prayed for and spoke over couples wanting to minister together prophetically. Keith encouraged the congregation that others are watching us, regardless of their outward attitude towards us. Seasoned people need to support today’s generation.
Enlarging and Strengthening in a Time of Shaking
Even in times of shaking, whether earthquakes and hurricanes in the natural or things in the spiritual realm, God’s grace protects us, and even then He expects us to keep our vision. God’s kingdom is drawing near. There may be a time when the government won’t have the money to help all those people on welfare. What the government can’t do, the church can do, and it needs to do so much more. Is. 54:1-2 says it is time to enlarge the place of your tent. Make is bigger, and don’t spare or slack off. Strengthen what you have. Pray and God will show you what to do. To people in the dark, too much light blinds them. Stand in the gap for the lost and for your family. Praise God; it stops the devil. Everything is in the process of change. We have the power of God in us. Draw the lost in by the love of God. There are “King Cyruses” for your project, and where God guides, He provides. Praise God. Throughout the service, Mary spoke prophetically to various people. Keith and Mary ministered in prayer to people in ministry and business.