Blessings & Promises - Week 1

Brand new series today.

Blessings and promises or promises. Blessings and promises. I don't

know which order to put those in a lot of times,

blessing and promises. This is a series that I've really

looked forward to preaching. It's one that is not what

it sounds like on the outside, But I really want

to help you understand God's promises and blessings so that

you can walk more fully in them, because I believe

that God has more for every single one of us.

Believe that God has more, But I think a lot

of times we sit back and we wait for more

when God has already told us what we need to

do in order to have it.

And that's what this series is.

It's going to be about uncovering those blessings and promises

and how we can fully walk in them in.

The covenant that we have with Jesus.

So let me go ahead and preface it by saying,

right now, it's going to be easy for you to

leave here and say, oh, that's not listen, Jesus loves me,

and that's just Jesus loves you immensely. Jesus loves you

so much that he gave his life for you. He

loves you so much that he came back to life

from the dead for you. Jesus loves you so much

that he doesn't sleep or slumber, and he's seated at

the right hand of the Father praying for you.

He's pointing you out to his father day and night,

night and day, all.

The time saying, look at look, Look that they belong

to you, Dad, Look that they belonged to you Father. Look, Look,

Look how good they look. They took up the offering

pastor didn't even know. Look how good they are.

Lord. He's constantly doing that.

But there are things in scripture that are set for us,

things in scripture that are there that we don't take

advantage of. That We look and we wonder why other

people have these things operating in their lives and we

don't have these things operating in our lives, and we

get a little jealous or we get mad at God

because we don't have things that other people have, when

all the time they're there and available for us, but

we don't walk in those blessings and promises.

Amen a man.

So if you got a Bible, go to Joshua chapter fourteen.

Joshua chapter fourteen. This is a I love Joshua. I

love the man of God.

That Joshua was. I love his life.

You know, a lot of times Joshua gets credit for

being the great warrior, that he gets credit for being

the leader and the warrior. But the reality is is

that Joshua spent more time with God God than anybody else.

During that wandering period.

That Moses would go out and tend to the needs

of the people, but Joshua would stay alone with God

in the tent of the Lord and seek his presence.

And it's that that made Joshua the warrior that he

was and the man that he was. The time he

spent with God in order to hear from God and

trust God and believe God for even greater things for

him and the people that God entrusted him to. Joshua

Chapter fourteen, starting in verse twelve, that says, now, therefore

give me this mountain of which the Lord spoke in

that day. For you heard in that day how the

Anakin were there, and that the cities were great and fortified.

It may be that the Lord will be with me

and I shall be able to drive them out, as

the Lord said, And Joshua said, and Joshua blessed him

and gave Hebron to Caleb, the son of Jeffinah as

an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb, the

son of Jeff and of the kids the Kennazite to

this day, because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel,

and the name of Hebron formerly was known as cure

jaff Arba, for Arba was the greatest man among the Anakin.

Then the land had rest from war. Let's pray, Father,

we thank you for your word. It's the only change

agent that we have on the face of the planet.

And I pray today that we're changed at the very

fabric of our being. Deep down on the inside of

us birth something new, a desire to walk in everything

you have for us in Jesus's name.

Amen.

Now, let me give you some backstory here, so for

those of you that are not familiar, let's.

Go all the way back. Let's go. Let's go.

Some forty five years earlier, the children of Israel under

Moses had come to the Jordan River.

They looked across.

They didn't know what was on the other side, so

they said, twelve spies into the land. Those twelve men

went into the land. They scouted out the land. They

saw giants, they saw walled fortified cities, they saw a

land flowing with milk and honey.

And Joshua and.

Caleb came back and they gave a true report that hey,

there's giants there, there's fortified cities there. And then, just

like men of faith do, they said, it's a great opportunity.

Let's go get it. And the other ten said, oh no, no, no, no, no,

no no.

No, we're we're grasshoppers in their eyes. They're gonna smash us.

We can't go take that land. We can't do that.

And the people.

Revolted and refused to go, and there was forty years

of wandering because of the negative report of the ten

that overrode the positive report of the two. When Caleb

came back with that report, Moses heard from God and

he said, hey, this is the area, the hill country

is the area that Caleb is supposed to have because that's.

The area that he scouted.

And God made Caleb a promise that he would receive

and live in Hebron, which was inhabited the Anakin were

the giants that were inhabited by the giants, and not

just the giants, but the city where the greatest of

them all lived. And Caleb now is ready to get

his inheritance. Joshua comes to him and the fighting is done.

They have settled all around, and there was still some

occupied area there in this hill country.

And Joshua offers.

Caleb this amazing piece of land. He offers him the

choice piece of land. Because see, it was just Joshua

and Caleb. They were the only people over the age

of twenty that made it through the wandering. Everybody else

died in the forty years of wandering.

Except Joshua and Caleb.

Now Caleb is eighty five years old. Caleb, and Joshua

looks at him and says, hey, man, I want to

you have been such an asset, you have been so

faithful to the Lord.

This is your inheritance.

And this eighty five year old man looks at him

and says, no, no, no, no, no, no no no,

that's not what God promised me. God didn't promise me

some good fields. God promised me the hill country. And

I'm sure that there's probably more to that conversation than

what we have recorded here, because Joshua and Caleb. They

were buddies, and Joshua had to look at him and say, listen,

the people are done fighting. The people are finished fighting,

They're finished going to war. Listen, we're dividing the land

of We got the two and a half on the

other side. We got the nine and a half on

this side. Just take your land. We're fighting. We're not

going up there. We're not doing that.

Caleb said, Hey, you know.

I understand y'all are not doing that. But God didn't

promise you that. God promised me the hill country. God

promised me the Hill Country is still fortified. There's still

giants there. And if God told me I could have it,

then I'm gonna go get it. If God said that's

what I'm supposed to have, then that is what I'm

supposed to have.

See. God promised the land, but Caleb had to.

Take the mountain. God promised Israel the land. But Caleb

was there and he was waiting, and he had to

decide if he was willing to go and fight a

little more and wrestle a little more and push through

a little more and have just a little more struggle

at eighty five years old, to.

Get what God promised.

Caleb said, I'm just as strong right now as I

was back then.

I'm just as strong. I'm still cut out for it. Now. Listen,

we all know that that probably was not right. Amen.

I am not at.

Fifty almost fifty three years old. This is my birthday month.

We like to celebrate the whole month, So happy birthday

to me. So that my birthday month. So this is

a really cool thing. Not only is this is this

month my birthday, but and I think a couple of

weeks I'll be celebrating thirty years of ministry this year.

I'm excited about that. I never thought I could find

somebody to listen to me for thirty years. But y'all

hung in there. So I appreciate it. Most of it

right here, most of it right here, twenty years of

it in this church.

What a testament of God's grace and honor.

It's just an amazing thing to see what God is

doing in your lives, and those of you that have

been with me for so long, to see where He's

brought you from and what He's brought you to. But

I want you to know that God promised you the

hill country, and there's still more than where you are

right now, he said. God gave him the lamb, but

Caleb still had to go take the mountain. He still

had to go take the hill country because it was

what God promised. Now, he could have had an easy life.

He could have sat back, he could have relaxed, He

could have done the things that we do. He could

have had a relentless pursuit of comfort. Amen, you know

the aging getting old is the relentless pursuit of comfort.

As we get older, we look for more and more comfort.

We don't push ourselves the way we used to push ourselves.

We don't.

We don't challenge ourselves with new ideas the way we

used to challenge ourselves.

We don't. We don't reach for.

That little bit of extra because we sit back into

what God has already done and we look around and

we think, well, if God wanted me to have it,

then I would have it. I've heard most of you

say at some point in conversations, well, if.

God wanted me to have that, then I would have that.

If God wanted me to do that, then he would

tell me to do that. But the reality is is

that God has already spoken and he's already put his

promises in his word, the things that we can have,

the things that we can do, and the things that

we can be, and we sit back and we wait

for God to do those things. You know, I tell

this story all the time, but I'm gonna tell it again.

One of the most spiritual moments I had in my

life was an utter failure. I decided one day that

I was going to just be super holy and I

was gonna pray all day. Now, we pastor a little

church plant. There were like fifteen people, fifteen people.

Nobody was calling me. It wasn't busy.

I remember waking up, looking at my wife and saying, Babe,

I'm going to the basement.

I'm gonna pray all day. Hold my casts. Nobody had

called me in like three months.

I mean, it wasn't like I mean, you know, fifteen people.

I knew where they all were. They, I mean, nobody

had to call me.

I said, just just hold my call.

And I went down there and I remember getting in

the floor and mad. I sounded like a sure enough

Pentecostal preacher.

I was, Oh God, Oh God, God, God, God God.

I just Oh God, feed the hungry, Oh God, clothing neked,

Oh God. I just asked, did you put a shelter

over the homeless head?

Oh God?

And I mean I was it was like, I felt

like I was just pulling down heaven to earth. And

he let that go on for a while, and then

I had this encounter with God and this is the

way God often talks to me. God spoke just as clear,

and he said shut up, and I said, whew, And

I went from Pentecostal to passive, right. I mean, I

was like, well, and he said, do not ever ask

me to do something I've already told you to do.

He said, I told.

You in my word to go do those things. Why

are you asking me to do something I told you

to do?

And I said, you have.

A point, God, maybe I should get up and go

do something. And I'm not diminishing the power of prayer

because it was in that prayer moment that God changed me.

It was in that prayer moment alone with God crying.

Out to him.

It just so happened that I was crying out for

the wrong thing that God intervened and he met me

right there at that point of need, and he changed

me and gave me a different perspective. About what God

wants us to do and how God wants us to behave.

In Matthew chapter seven, it says ask. Matthew chapter seven,

Verse seven, it says, ask and it will be given

to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it

will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives,

and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks

it will be opened. Now that sounds fantastic, So let

me just I just want to ask a question. I

want complete honesty. You're not protecting God's reputation. He doesn't

need you to protect his reputation.

He is God. Amen.

How many of you have ever asked for anything and

didn't get it?

Raise your hand? Ooh?

How mean if you feel like you've been knocking and opened?

Are you seeking and you didn't find? You? Know, there's

a There's something we miss a lot of times in

our English reading of the word because our language doesn't

do the same thing as the Greek language do. As

the Greek language do, that's not proper that the Greek

language does. So this is a This is written in

the present active imperative, which means that the way we

should have written this was ask and keep asking, knock

and keep knocking, seek and keep seeking, not for a

time period, but just continue to do it over and

over and over again. But we've been conditioned to say, oh, well,

I'm going to ask, and if God loves me, if

God wants it to happen, if God.

Wants me to have it, I'm just gonna ask.

And then the angels are gonna come down and they're

gonna sing.

Oh, Helujah, hallelujah, and the sliding doors of blessing are.

Gonna open, and Blessing just gonna pour out of the

air conditioned storehouse and just flood through our lives. But

the reality is is the only free gift Scripture ever

talks about is salvation. The only free thing in Scripture

is salvation. But we want everything to be like salvation.

But He's already done the greatest thing for us. Salvation

is the greatest miracle we could ever experience.

It is the promise.

That we will be with him for eternity, not starting

when we die, but starting the moment we repent, and

He washes our sin away and we are partakers if

you eternity from that moment on.

But we look around and.

We we still feel like God hadn't done enough. We

deserve hell, and we still wonder why God hasn't done more.

But the reality is that God has set up a

set of blessings and promises in our lives that we

can partake off if we will knock and keep knocking,

and seek and keep seeking.

You know, my grandmama, she was one of those ladies

that was filled with wisdom.

And she used to look at me and she would say, hey,

do you know why every time the Indians do an

Indian rain dance it rains? And I would say, no,

grand Now, I don't know why it always rains, And

he said, she's because they just keep dancing until it rains.

She said, they don't quit dancing until it rains. They

dance for a breakthrough. But do you know that we

don't pray for breakthrough anymore, We don't press for breakthrough anymore,

we don't work for breakthrough anymore. We're just willing to

settle for whatever happens and just get mad at God

or just act like he wasn't really involved in the

situation at all. God is involved in everything in your life.

God is involved in every single moment of your life,

and he wants more for every single moment of your life.

But it is not free.

God's promises don't expire, but they don't deliver themselves either.

God's promises are there. If God spoke something to you

in your life, if God spoke something over you, if

God has something out of his word, it will never expire.

It will hang there, and it will wait for the

conditions to be right to manifest itself in our lives. Amen,

it will hang there, and if we continue to pursue it,

if we continue to move towards it, it will hang there.

And listen, most of us don't have a journey like that.

Most of our journeys are.

Like that.

But if God said it, it will come to pass

if we continue to press towards it and get singular

focused on the thing that God has called us to,

because His blessings are real and they are there, and

they are available to every single one of us. But

they do not just simply deliver themselves.

Now, let me let me just let me let me comma.

But sometimes God does move and work outside of that.

Sometimes God blesses us just because he wants to bless us.

Sometimes God does things.

Just because he's God, and he can choose to do that.

If he wants to do that, he can just randomly

stop by the store and pick up flowers, not because

it's Valentine's Day or not because of any other reason

that he just wants to say, I love you. God

can do those things, and he does those things, and

I hear those things in your life, and God can

do those things. But those things are not the rule.

Those things are the exception to the rule. The rule

is that God has a system kingdom principles that when

we walk in those principles there are rewards and blessings

that are associated and tied to those blessings, and if

we want them, we find them and we walk in them.

And I know you don't want to hear that. Oh

you don't want to hear that. There's more that you

have to do. I know that that doesn't even sound right,

because after all, God is love. God is love, and

God just wants everybody to be rich.

And happy.

And God wants everybody on the face of the planet

to be saved.

Let me say that again.

God wants everybody on the planet to be saved. He

is not as concerned about whether you're happy or not.

He's not as concerned about whether you're driving an zero

four or a twenty six car. He's not as involved

about the commas in your He's not as he's not

as he doesn't care as much about those things as

he does your soul. He doesn't care as much about

those things as he does the testimony that you're presenting

to the entire world. That's what God is doing, and

that's who God is. Because God is building a plan

of eternity for you and for me and for all believers,

where the blessing is absolutely astronomical and we can't even

think about how great it's going to be. He paves

his streets with the things we go and work eighty

hours a week to get. But we want more right now,

and I'll be honest with you, I do. But at

the same time, I don't expect God just to send

it in an envelope that.

I don't even have to tear open.

You know, he doesn't even lick the you know, we

don't even want him to lick the envelope, right, We

just wanted to tuck it in so we don't have

to tear the envelope, just get it turned upside down

and the money falls out on the table. We prefer

check so we can just take a picture of it

and at alto deposits in our bank account. Do you

know that just two generations ago, they didn't pray like

we pray that. The prayers of two generations ago, they

weren't Oh God, bless me, Oh God, prosper me, Oh God,

give me money. They were Lord, let my crops produce.

They were like, God, just send me one more house

to build. God, just just give me enough, give me enough,

enough work that I can feed my family. It wasn't

God do this without any without me being involved. That

has come since. I don't want to offend anybody.

That's just that.

That's a recent that's a recent formation of prayer. But

we used to pray differently because we understood God differently.

People that came through the depression had a different understanding

of God.

People that came through the.

World Wars had a different understanding of God. People that

came through the pioneer days had a different understanding of God.

But we have an understanding of God that's based on

the American monetary system and the way cheap energy and

cheap labor has produced things very readily and given us things,

and has set the bar way above anything that any

of us need. So our prayers changed because the world changed,

and as things get tighter, we don't understand anymore, because

we're saying, Oh God, why is this happening. I used

to be able to go go by four bags of

groceries for one hundred dollars.

And now all I leave with is enough to hold

in my hand.

And you know what God does, say, well, straight of horror, moos,

I mean, you know, I mean there's bombs and pootin

and rocket man, and you know that's all that. Because

says I saved you. I said I saved you. I

saved you, and if you die tomorrow you get an upgrade.

I saved you.

I cared enough about your soul, I care enough about

eternity that.

I'm calling you above all of those things.

I'm calling you above all of those cares and all

of those worries. But we still wrestle through it. In

James Chapter two, verse one of verse eighteen, it says,

but someone will say, you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith without your works, and I'll show

you my faith by my works.

You believe that there is one God. You do well.

Even the demons believe and tremble. Let me break this

down for you, he says. Listen, you think you deserve

everything because you believe God is God. But even the

demons believe that God is God. You don't get a

star for showing up on Sunday, he says.

If you really.

Want to display your faith.

Work, If you really want.

To display your faith, pray like everything is up to God,

and work like everything is up to you. And at

the intersection of those two things is a miracle. God

is calling us to more. If there is a promise

that God has spoken over you, stop waiting for it

to happen.

And start pursuing it.

If God has he promised you something, stop just thinking

it will materialize, and start getting a plan. Work backwards

from the blessing, and begin to put a plan in

place that helps you climb towards that blessing. And God

will on board himself into your efforts. You don't have

to invite him. He will onboard himself because that's anointing.

That's God's plan for your life.

And the spirit of the Lord is attracted to your

anointing and he will get involved, and he'll collapse time frames,

and he'll open doors that don't seem like they can

be open, and he'll give you peace in the midst

of controversy, and he will bless you, and it'll pour

himself out on you. And one day you'll wake up

and look back and realize that you are in the

promise because you pursued the promise. Clay, you guys can

come and get ready. The enemies of your faith.

Are fear.

I'm afraid to get started, afraid to step out. I'm

afraid that I'm afraid that when I step out of

the boat, I'll think.

I'm afraid that if.

I tell people God has given me an idea, they'll

laugh at me. Let them laugh while you go to

the bank. Oh I'm fear is the enemy of your faith.

You know another enemy of your faith. Good good is

an enemy of your faith. Oh well, things are good.

Things are good. We're getting by. Things are good. But

God wants more for you.

God wants you.

To live a life that sets you as a city

on a hill, so that people see you and they

navigate towards that bright light that's shining.

Out of your life.

But the biggest killer of our faith is time time.

Because we want everything now. We want God to do it.

We want him to do it in a hurry, don't.

We don't want fine dining with God. We won't find

dining with our vices. We want McDonald's with God. We

want to go through the drive through, and we want

it right now, and we settle for a big mac

destiny rather than a Ruth's Chris promise. God wants more

for you, but you've got to get involved. You got

to grab hold of it. You got to chase after it.

Forty five years of waiting didn't shrink the giants. For

forty five years, Caleb marched with Israel, knowing that was

his promise, and he knew there were giants there, and

when he got there forty five years later, there were

still giants there. And in forty five years it didn't

shrink the giants. It grew the man's understanding of promise

that getting what God says I can have is worth it,

even if it's effort, even if it looks like something

that I might not even want when I get there,

because there is fulfillment in it, and there is peace

in it, and there is prosperity in it, and there

is testimony in it, and there is all of those

things that we want in our life that are hell there.

And the only thing between us and that.

Is effort.

It's knocking and still knocking that when your knuckles hurt,

you keep knocking, that you seek, and when your eyes

start getting tired, you continue to seek.

And you ask.

And when your throat gets hoarse and you feel like

you can't say another word, you cry out and you

ask one more time. Because God's blessings and promises are

worth it. God's promises and blessings position you in a

place that you.

Don't deserve to be, but they are not just delivered

to you. They're work for.

Now.

I want to go ahead and tell you right now,

you can sit right where you are and go to heaven.

You don't have to achieve one of God's promises and

blessings to go to heaven.

You don't have to do that.

You don't have to push back the status quo, live

in the status quo and make it to heaven.

But I believe that God wants more for you than that.

I believe God.

Wants you to live a life that other people see

that they're overwhelmed by. And when they asked, how did

you do it? You said it was God. God did

it every step of the way. And they say, well, Bruce,

I saw you get up early every morning. I saw

you get in that truck and go to work and

catch squirrels and spray bugs, shoot rats.

I saw you do those things.

And Bruce says, yeah, I could have done those things.

But when God got involved. When God got involved, it

was a whole different story. See.

When God got involved and he started blessing the efforts,

and he started blessing the labor of my hand, things

began to compound. God began to open doors that I

didn't think would open. God began to put me in

places that I didn't think I would ever be able

to go and see everything is God.

Yeah. All I did was just follow along. But God

did the blessing. God did the opening, God did all

of the rest. All I did was my part, and

my part is possible. And then God shows up and

does the impossible.

You know, maybe you're here today and you're like, this

sounds like nonsense. This is just fairy tale story book junk.

I thought I was gonna hear something maybe you've never

really come to know Jesus. Maybe you've never really surrendered

your life to.

Him, ask him to wash you of your sins, be

the Lord of your life.

But today something stir your heart somehow.

Today you've thought that, Hey, you know what I.

I want love to serve a God who can get

behind the works of my hands that will bless my efforts.

And he will.

If you're a part of the Kingdom. So right now,

in this moment, God's teguing on your heart. If you

want to turn your life over to Jesus, he makes

it as simple as coming to him. Every head bowed

and every eye closed. If you're here today, say pastor,

pray for me. I want to give my life to.

The Lord today.

I want them to wash me of myself, make me new,

open these possibilities before me. If that's you, slipped your

hand up, Say that's my pastor, I want to give

my life to Jesus today.

Put your hand up, put it right back down.

If that's you, amen, Amen, every I open, every head,

look at everybody standing your feet with me.

Next week we're.

Going to start looking at some of those specific promises

what God's calling us to do I believe God will

change your life over the next few weeks. You'll press

in and listen to the Holy Spirit. Let's worship together.

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