The Power Of Positive Expectations

Get your Bibles out, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here.

It's Father's Day and I honor you, my Heavenly Father, and I thank you for giving me the Word of God and the Holy Ghost and a place to come.

A church is not ashamed of Holy Ghost power of casting out devils, speaking in tongues and laying hands on the sick Lord.

We're thankful for the Word of God today.

We receive it and we're strengthened by it.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Praise God, you can be seated.

Hallelujah.

Hebrews, chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Today, and I wanna share a message kind of it, kind of akin to the message last week about obedience brings blessings and I believe the church of Jesus Christ ought to be blessed beyond measure, especially now.

Especially now.

I mean you got a world filled with curses, you got a nation filled with curses and the curse causeless.

The Bible says the curse causeless shall not come.

But guess what?

The church has been redeemed from the curse.

We have no business living in the curse.

Amen, all right.

Hebrews 11, chapter 11, verse one.

And it says 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 a good report.

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed, fashioned and put in order.

The Amplified says, by the Word of God, so that things which are seen with a natural eye were not made of things which do appear.

Then verse six.

We had verse six last week.

But without faith it is impossible to please God.

For he that comeeth to God must have two elements he that comeeth to God must believe.

Number one, that he is, and number two, that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Word seek, you know, remember last week we talked about it means crave, it means to worship, it means to investigate, it means to inquire.

It's not hitting the high spots.

In other words, all right.

And then in Jeremiah 2911, and I'm gonna read it out of the Amplified if you don't mind, jeremiah 2911, and this is God speaking, for I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.

You know, god's plans are such, they're good, and they ought to engender hope in you, or another word for hope would be a positive expectation.

That's what I wanna speak about today the power of positive expectation.

You know, without hope, your faith doesn't have anything to grab ahold of Hope is a future.

Hope by itself is not gonna bring you the promise of God.

It's only by faith.

You know your faith is the doorway into the supernatural and everybody say my faith, yeah, you've got faith.

If you're born again, you have faith.

You've been dealt the measure of faith when you got faith.

Now, after that happened, well then you know our faith starts growing.

Or maybe it doesn't grow, maybe you're not anywhere.

That's preaching the Word of God, faith coming by hearing, and hearing, or the word here means understand.

You've gotta have something, you've gotta have a revelation for your faith to increase.

But your faith is the doorway into the supernatural.

I mean so many Christians.

I'm looking around and I know some of them are not saved.

I realize that they call themselves Christians mainly because they're not Jew or they're not Muslim or they're.

You know they identify.

You know that word identify.

You know they identify as Christians when they're really not born again and so.

But there are plenty of people that really are born again.

In fact, some of them are filled with a Holy Ghost and speaking tongues, but they're living a life apart from the supernatural.

They're not allowing their faith to break open the doorway into that thing, into that place where God can give them what he wants to give them.

I talked about the fullness of the blessing Wednesday night.

If you weren't, if you haven't listened and you know I'm just, I'm not fussing, I'm just reporting but I mean, not enough people are listening to Wednesday night.

You know we have quite a number of people that count themselves members of this church and a whole lot of them are not listening Wednesday night and that means that the word is just dropping out here.

Why am I here?

Why do my staff come?

There's people that have to be here every Wednesday night to put that on, and if you're not listening to it, you're missing a complete revelation of what we need right now.

What we need is people that are craving.

God, reach it.

Maybe you need to turn up your crave knob, and you know it's bad enough anyway to listen.

You know, on live stream, if you do it live, you can listen to the whole thing, but what I found is podcasts.

You know you're gonna listen to a podcast in your spare time, and nine times out of 10.

If we're really honest, we don't listen to the whole podcast, we listen to 10 minutes of it and then we get to our destination and we forget about it.

Listen, I'm not fussing, I'm just challenging you.

I'm challenging you.

If you want a little bit, you can have it, but if you want the fullness of the blessing, there's a fullness.

You know God wants to fill your tank.

He doesn't want you to run on fumes, he wants you leveled up, crammed full, because this is the time we're living in.

It's not optional.

You can look around and see the world is going to hell and who's gonna stop them?

Well, we are Need to get a harvest, amen, but we gotta be full.

Okay, I get off my horse there.

I challenge you.

Listen when you're not here Sunday night.

I'm preaching Sunday night.

It's available online, not online.

Well, yeah, online on our website it's available.

We have it.

You may not can come back Sunday night.

We understand people live all over the 10 county area.

Maybe you can't drive back here.

I think about Pete and Irma Way, that is, pete and Irma, pete and Irma.

Irma's on our staff and Pete just retired from government service.

He was the military of years and years.

He just now retired, but he's refired, not retired, but I mean they often on a Wednesday night.

Here Irma works all day Wednesday drives all the way home to Magnolia.

It's gotta be 45 minute drive In time to eat supper.

Then they'll turn around.

Come back for Wednesday night.

Help us put the Wednesday night and check Facebook.

Make sure that when people are getting comments and when we have prayer requests and all that, they wouldn't have to come, but they come.

Amen.

Everybody say commitment, amen.

It takes a lot of commitment to put the word of God out there, so let's treat it like it's valuable.

Now I'm still on that horse.

I don't know who needs it, but it ain't no place of glory.

But it says here you know that faith is a substance.

It's substantive.

Everybody do the Johnny Manziel.

Do y'all know what the Johnny Manziel is?

Come on, rub your fingers together.

Remember Johnny Manziel.

I know y'all already forgot him.

I have too, but in 2012, he was the big stud.

I mean that 105,000 seat stadium they built at A&M.

That's the Johnny Manziel.

This is the house Manziel built.

Isn't it amazing how he disappeared off the scene?

But anyway, he did this and they got a lot of criticism because he was talking about the money.

But I'm doing it like this because faith is valuable.

Faith is substantive.

Come on, rub your fingers together.

Faith is substantive.

Maybe you can't feel it with these fingers, but let me tell you something it's more real than your fingers.

It's more real than everything you're facing right now, and it works in the unseen.

It works in the spirit realm, where all of our blessings begin.

Well, you mean, you just want just to go into God for the blessing?

Well, no, I'm not saying that at all.

I'm saying, though, you're gonna come to God because we love him, but at the same time, you don't have to exclude being blessed to the full, because we are called to be a blessing.

How can we be a blessing if we're not blessed?

Amen, all things are possible.

You know, I hear people quote this lately a lot.

They'll say these two things consistently.

Well, god is in control.

Well, you know, if he's in control, he sure is making a mess of things.

No, he's not in control.

When are you gonna get that through your mind?

God is not in control of the disorder and the dysfunction of this world.

The devil's lease has not run out.

The devil is in control of his people, that religious say what a divine word.

What it is is people that don't know the Bible, haven't heard it preached correctly, or they haven't heard it correctly, one of the two or both.

And then they just blame all the bad stuff on God.

God's the fault of everything and that absolved them of any responsibility to change anything.

No, we're the change agents.

How do we change things With our faith?

So when we come to God, it's not just coming for the blessing, we're coming to get intimately hooked up with him, to receive from him our marching orders.

And we are the change agents.

Amen.

And then another thing there.

Well, you know, with God, all things are possible.

Well, that's true, that's what the Bible says.

I believe that.

But why don't they quote this one?

Jesus quoted this.

He said all things are possible to him that believe it.

How about that scripture?

How is it no one is speaking about that there again, see, it puts it on us.

We're always begging God, wanting God.

Come on, god, hey, god, hey.

No, it's us.

Get our faith.

I'm preaching on faith today, power of positive expectation.

That's why the devil tries his best to ruin your hope.

He tries to remove all hope from you If he can take all hope away from you, then you won't have anything for your faith to grab hold of and bring into the present time, because faith is a substance of things.

It's a substance, but it's related to your expectation.

Without a positive expectation, your faith is not going to work, and then you will be kept out of the supernatural power of God for things to change in your life.

How many of you need some things to change?

Well, there's a whole bunch of liars here, because a bunch of you didn't raise your hand and you're telling me that everything is cool.

How many of you need some things to change in your life?

I knew that was right, all right.

So your faith is wholly dependent, completely dependent upon your expectation.

That's why I'm talking about positive expectation, because there's four kinds of expectation.

One kind of expectation is negative expectation, and that's the world that we live in.

The world that we live in right now.

All you gotta do is listen to people talk, watch the quote.

Unquote news which is not news anymore, it's narrative Lies tells a story that they're trying to get you to buy into, and it's all negative.

Brother Hagin put this into us years ago.

The world is programmed negatively.

Why?

Because the devil is negative.

People that are not saved are lost, and when they're lost, they're in the kingdom of darkness and they are under the heel of the devil.

That's why it means when you get born again, you come out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

Jesus is now Lord and now you've got the chance to be programmed positively, but your mind is still programmed.

You didn't get a brain transplant when you got saved.

You got the same old brain you had before.

So that's why we have to renew our mind, we have to reprogram our thinking.

We have to train ourselves to be positive instead of negative.

Everybody say positive expectation.

So a negative expectation is just something like this Well, you know, I'm just waiting for the shooter drop.

I know I'm next on the cut list at work.

Say you're negative.

Well, I just know taxes are going up.

I guess I don't know what's the use of me making investment.

I got to pay it all out.

Well, you're not paying it all out taxes.

It's amazing how people talk wrong.

Okay, so you've paid.

What if you paid 50%?

I don't even know anybody in a 50% tax break.

But what if you paid 50% taxes?

Well then, you still got 50%, you're not gonna work Just because you got to pay half of it out.

No, you're gonna work.

Quit saying the words you're saying.

You say negative, are you with me now?

And then there's the neutral expectations.

It's kind of hard to maintain neutral, but it's possible.

What do I mean by neutral?

I just mean you know you don't really have anything good to say or bad to say.

You just kind of don't have anything to say.

You just can't bring yourself to say something positive.

You know it's wrong to say something negative.

So you don't say anything, so you're in neutral.

Have you got a neutral in your transmission in your car?

You know you've got park and neutral and drive.

When you put it in end, what does end stand for?

Nowhere, because that's where you're going nowhere.

You put it in the end and you're going nowhere.

Fast you can I mean you can put the pedal to the metal and you're still going nowhere, haven't you?

So yeah, we've got to get.

We've got to get it in gear.

Then there's a third kind, third kind of expectation and it's called misguided expectation.

Everybody say misguided.

See another word.

You know it's kind of like a farmer.

You know you.

You're standing out in front of your field, man, look at that field, isn't that beautiful, it's a thousand acres.

I'm telling you, I'm looking forward to this.

This year I'm gonna have a bumper crop.

Yeah, what did you plant?

I didn't plant nothing.

See, that's what you call misguided expectations, because he didn't plant nothing, he ain't gonna get nothing.

I mean, there's nothing coming up, except maybe last year seed that didn't come up.

I don't know what'll come up, but not much.

I was talking to.

I was talking to a person on the phone one time.

We were having a conversation.

I thought it was a serious conversation, seemed to me like it was talking about substantive things, you know.

And then he said you know, I don't know, john, but he said, you know, when I win the lottery, I think by the doubt of the man, I just almost dropped the phone.

I'm sure if we had been eyeball to eyeball when he said that, he would have seen my total shock, because I mean, this guy's a professional, this guy, I mean I had the most respect for him.

And here he is with misguided expectations of winning the lottery, like that's what he's waiting around for to happen.

Well, he's gonna wait a long, long, long, long, long time Before he wins anything in the lottery, oh, you might get a $50 or $500 even sometime, but I mean they don't put the lottery on for you to win it.

They make all that money off of you dummy.

Yeah, I'm gonna go to Las Vegas.

I'm on a man, I'm gonna hit it big in the slot machine.

Yeah, right, you and all the other suckers.

You know you read about the guy that went in a $30,000 Mercedes and went home in a $300,000 bus.

Anyway, so continental trailways.

Now it's misguided expectation when we have talked ourselves into reaping something that we haven't sown to.

You know the laws of sowing and reaping are as strong, or even stronger than gravity or anything any other than the natural physical laws of the universe.

In Genesis eight, after the flood, god told Noah.

He said as long as the earth remaineth cold and heat, summer and winter and seed time and harvest will remain as long as the earth remaineth.

Well, let's look around.

Is the earth remain right now?

It's night and day still here.

Hot and cold still here.

There wasn't any global warming or global hot and cold.

It's just normal hot, cold, hot, cold, hot cold.

It happens all the time.

There's nothing crazy about it.

It happens all the time Been happening all the time.

All the time it's part of the physical universe.

The Democrats are trying to get you to understand.

Oh, global warming?

Oh no, it gets cold.

And then, when it gets cold, it's because of climate change.

Well, yeah, climate changes, yeah, it's the stupidest thing.

I mean.

You know they just wanna be stupid.

You know Democrats are willingly stupid I think I'm gonna put that on my Facebook page Willingly stupid.

They know better.

They have to know better.

They gotta bring yes.

So they have to know that what they're saying is stupid.

So what do they do?

Why do they say it?

Well, they say it for people that aren't paying attention.

Amen.

Well, I'm paying attention.

All right.

So then you got positive expectation.

That's simply believing what God's word said.

These are his thoughts, that he has Thoughts of shalom, peace and welfare.

He wants your welfare.

He is, after everything, working for you.

That's why the Democrats are so much trying to substitute government for God.

They want people wholly dependent on welfare from the government that somehow they're gonna make you or break you.

No man, my God is watching out after me.

Praise God, all right.

So he said, god's thoughts and plans of shalom toward us give us a positive expectation and sometimes we just need to make an adjustment in our attitude to position ourselves for God's power to move.

I mean, if we're thinking wrong and then we're gonna start moving in the wrong direction, we're gonna start making wrong decisions based on wrong information.

But if we will make an adjustment in our attitude and realize that God is in a blessing mode with his children, he wants to maximize the blessing in your life, well, that's just so.

Colonel, I had somebody on my Facebook page.

Well, we're just.

You know, I have all these religious people.

I just laugh.

They post these things, you know, trying to persuade me.

And we don't.

We just put a little short blurb and then it just explodes.

People go ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.

But that's what you want.

You want people to get engaged.

You want people.

You wanna see where they are.

I'm seeing where they are.

There's a lot of really good people across the country.

We're up to 5,800 followers now.

5,800 people, and some of them, I mean, as soon as I'm posting, man, they'll boom.

Man, it's a hundred of them.

Then 20 minutes like it, then we'll have a few that argue you know, all right.

So the power of positive expectations.

Let's turn in our Bibles.

I'm probably not gonna read all of this.

I'll give you homework on Father's Day.

I know you won't do it probably, but you should.

Acts, chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

And I'm gonna talk about a father.

This is not a Father's Day message, but it could be.

It kinda is.

Acts, chapter 10 is about Cornelius, and so let's read, and then I'll fill it in a little bit.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

There was a certain man, verse one.

There was a certain man in Caesarea.

So it's not a parable, this has actually happened.

A certain man named Cornelius, a centurion.

Everybody say a train killer.

Say that's a centurion, it's a train killer.

Okay, you gotta understand.

He knows probably about three dozen ways to kill you with his bare hands, nevermind a dagger or anything else, I mean just with his bare hands.

And a centurion has 100 other like him underneath him.

So he is a mean motor scooter.

You just don't mess with Cornelius, okay.

But yet somehow, some way, he heard about the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob and, being stationed there in Israel, came around Jewish people and began to pick up from them.

It says he was a devout man and he feared God.

Boy, wouldn't it be wonderful if we saw more fear of God in America.

One thing lacking in the church is the fear of God.

I'm not talking about being afraid of God.

I'm talking about respect and reverence for God.

You can't fear God and disobey Him at the same time.

So part of the fear of God is lining yourself up with his word.

Are you with me now?

And this man was devout and he was one that feared God with all his house.

So not only was he personally, he's a pretty good dad and a pretty good husband because he's got his household lined up with the fear of God.

They had some conversations.

That's a different conversation than his military training gave him Are you with me now?

And he gave much alms to the people.

Alms is helping the poor, so there's plenty of poor Jewish people and he's helping them.

Now let me tell you something.

He's a tither.

Well, it doesn't say that pastor, it just says he gave alms.

You can't give alms without first tithing, because tithing is number one.

You can't fear God and ignore the tithe.

More of that went over like a rock.

You really have no right to say you fear God and not tithe.

I'm gonna preach that over here.

You have no right to say you fear God and then you don't tithe and you can't use your tithing because tithing is Bible.

Well, let's Old Testament.

No, it's Bible.

And tithing is not giving God 10%, it's giving him the first 10th First.

So tithing is all about honoring God.

You can praise God, you can even worship God, but you cannot and you can do that with your lips, with your song and your dance cannot honor him any other way except by giving.

You have to give your money.

Jesus said here men receive tithes, there he receives them.

So you know, you just argue with the Bible, don't argue with me, because I'm not.

It's not even open for discussion.

Tithing works and he could not have given alms because it wouldn't have been counted.

God would not have even listen.

His giving alms would make.

There's a lot of people tip God, they tip, they'll give in a heart drive, the you know, march at dimes.

They do, but it doesn't count for nothing.

Why?

Because they don't even tithe, they haven't even given God back.

The first tenth belongs to him.

The tithe is the Lord's, it belongs to him.

Actually, everything belongs to him.

The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.

So when we give a tithe, it's God just says I tell you what I don't require everything I know you need.

You know I'm gonna let you keep, but give me the first tenth and that way I'll know your subject to me.

I know that you believe me, I know that you fear me and respect me and reverence me and honor me.

So you can't give anything until you tithe.

Once you tithe, then you give.

Then what you give is returned to you 30, 60 and 100 fold.

Jesus said giving, it shall be given unto you, not the tithe.

The tithe is off off the table.

The tithe is is automatic Jesus, they knew tithing.

This guy tithe.

Well, I don't.

It doesn't say it.

Well, you've got to read between the lines, read the Griner translation.

I'm just making my point.

He is a tither or he wouldn't fear God, he wouldn't be devout, he wouldn't even be noticed.

Let's be frank.

But notice what happened, he says he.

He gave much alms to the people and he prayed to God continually.

And he saw in a vision, evidently about the ninth hour of the day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, an angel of God coming into him and saying on him Cornelius.

And when he looked on him.

He was afraid and said what is it, lord?

And he said unto him thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.

In other words, there's a record of your giving and praying and it's reached heaven.

Are y'all with me now?

His giving and his praying did something in heaven to open up a gift of the spirit.

You can't see an angel unless the gift of the spirit, of discerning of spirits.

Here's an angel appeared, called him hey, cornelius.

But then he gave him some directions.

He said send to Joppa to the seaside for Simon and Peter.

And he's staying with another Simon Boy.

How confusing is that.

Simon and Simon, simon and Shuster?

I don't know Simon and Simon.

I got two simons, a house by the seaside and Joppa sent to him and have him come and he will tell thee what you ought to do Now.

Hold your place there, flip over to chapter 11.

And it says here in verse where is it?

I know it's in here somewhere.

14.

Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all by house shall be saved?

He will tell you words Now.

I want you to, I want you to, all right.

So here's a good man.

He fears God, he's a giver.

He's a prayer, he helps the poor, he's a friend of Israel, he's got all of these things in his favor, but he's not saved.

Send for my messenger.

Why couldn't the angel just told him the good news?

Because angels, that doesn't belong to angels, it belongs to men.

The gospel is in the hands and mouths of men.

So this is three o'clock one afternoon, so he gathers his people together, a couple of sons and his guy that was kind of his chief of security.

He's an important man, he's got a chief of security and he sent them on this mission.

So if you keep reading, then at noon the next day Peter goes up on the house top to pray fast and he's very hungry.

That's what happens when I start fasting I get very hungry, I start having visions of pizza, visions of pizza, you know, fajitas, fried shrimp, start having all kinds of visions.

But anyway, here it is noon the next day, three o'clock to noon the next day, and suddenly he sees this vision of a sheep, a gigantic sheep, with all these unclinging animals that are forbidden to eat according to the Jewish dietary law.

Rise, peter, kill and eat, not.

So, lord, I've never eaten anything common.

Call not what I have cleansed common, and this happened three times.

Don't don't we callin' these animals that I cleaned up common.

Well, that shook his Jewish little roots all the way down.

He's a good Christian, but he's a good Jew too.

I mean, that was the early part of the church, the Jewish, all the apostles were Jewish, and they were real Jewish.

They were keeping the law, they're keeping the feast, they're keeping all these things.

They didn't ever.

They did not have a revelation.

You can't know what you don't know.

They needed a revelation and God began to show them this revelation hey, they are not unclean to you.

You can eat anything.

Haven't you ever thought it was kind of funny that Elijah you know, elijah was a good Jewish prophet, and you know.

And God, after he pronounced judgment and said it's not gonna rain till I say so to Ahab, he had to go to the Brook Chariot.

He said go to the Brook Chariot.

I have commanded the ravens, unclean birds, to feed thee there.

So, anyway.

And so at the end of that he's sitting there thinking what in the world does this mean?

What are you trying to tell me?

They're not common, they're not unclean, what eat those?

What in the world?

I've never done such a thing, oh.

And then he says you know, three men seek thee, a voice.

See that same voice.

Three men seek thee.

Get up, go down and go.

Nothing's down in, for I have sent them Glory to God.

And about that time, here, come on, you look at the.

I mean, god arranged this in split second timing as a result of what One man, one father's giving and praying, set into motion a revelation of salvation by faith, through grace for the Gentiles, and they were not aware of it, even though God said go into all the world.

And he didn't say preach the gospel to just Jewish people, to every creature, and they hadn't done it.

Are y'all with me now?

Amen, amen.

One Gentile, right, living, yet unsaved person moved heaven and earth and brought a revelation that we're all enjoying right now.

Amen, are y'all with me now?

Amen.

So you know, cornelius is giving.

He had angels, he had visions, he had gifts of the Spirit, he had overcoming religious tradition.

I mean, they didn't even eat with.

I can't eat with them, my goodness.

He had to defend him.

When Peter went back to giving a crown, oh, they were really critical of it.

You ate with a Gentile, see, it's hard for us to understand the religious hold that was around the early church Right that God moved and broke it off.

Amen, come on, let's lift our hands right now.

Thank God for the Holy Ghost.

So Cornelius is giving open the door for him and his household, his near kin and his close friends.

Let me show it to you, verse 24, and the more after they entered into Caesarea and Cornelius waited for them and had called together his kinsmen and near friends.

His kinsmen and near friends, not just his household, but I mean his cousins, his in-laws and then the whole group that counted to him a friend.

I mean, it was a whole mob of people that were there when Peter started preaching the gospel.

And then it says verse 44, he started preaching and then, while Peter yet spoke the words, right in the middle of his message, the Holy Ghost didn't even wait for him to come to his conclusion, he didn't even wait for him to start spitting cotton and right in the middle of his message, the Holy Ghost fell and they all began to speak in other tongues.

They didn't even have an altar call, they didn't even say, oh, you need to get a, say no, they just, they just all started speaking in other tongues.

Glory to God.

We have our little ideas of how things have to be.

Well, we've got to have 14 stanzas of just as I am.

We've got to.

You know, we've got to have.

You know, calm.

You know, like Billy Graham, calm, we'll wait on you, calm.

Well, we don't have to.

I never came down an aisle.

I got saved at home by myself, and many of you doubt that I'm saved.

Don't answer that question.

And I'm not.

I'm not.

It changed their lives forever, don't?

I mean you talk about a father day?

I mean you, I imagine every father's day after they didn't have father's day, but if they did, I mean he would have a lot of people that would thank him because he stood up and gave and he stood up and prayed and he stood up and was a leader and he and he led his family and it changed their lives and their in-laws lives and everybody else's life, and they were all around him.

Glory to God, the power of positive expectation.

He was exposed, but he did not know everything he needed to know.

He knew God, but he didn't know Jesus.

There's a lot of people.

I was watching a little bit of the Olympic trials.

I saw this little five foot one.

I mean you know that doesn't look like a sprinter, but she's five foot one ran a hundred meter dash.

She won her heat.

She had fingernails about two inches long.

She must have spent $3,000 on her hair and her fingernails but while she's getting in the blocks she's getting in the blocks.

She looked up and went like that and I just kind of I've been preparing for this mission I thought did she ever give God 25 cents?

It's a question.

I don't know if she did or not.

My guess is probably not Been a lot of money on herself, loved the attention.

She got lots of attention.

She was, I mean, amazing.

I mean how could those little old legs here's a girl right next to her, five foot, 10, six foot tall and she outran her.

She made her, she was, she was behind at 30 yards or 30 meters, I still thinking yards Third of the race.

She was behind about third or fourth place.

But after that she just turned on the afterburners.

Whoa, she's faster than Grease Lightning.

Do y'all miss Grease Lightning?

Astro World?

No, anyway.

So, but you know, people are only 2%.

The last I heard 2% of Christians, tithe, 98%.

Is there any question why we have the mess we have in this country?

Because there's no fear of God, there's no honoring God, even in his own church.

Oh look, we're cheating your brother, roberts told me.

He said they're cheating.

God told him.

Jesus told me they're cheating themselves.

Yeah, they're cheating themselves and they're cheating the harvest.

That's what makes it worse.

Look at the harvest.

Look at the harvest that was opened up because of his giving.

Look at the harvest that was opened up Not just in his family and kinfolk, but all of the Gentiles.

Come on now.

All right, power, positive expectation, four things.

Number one let's remember these things.

God has recorded your tithes, your offerings, your prayers.

He remembers everything.

He has a record of it.

Let's think about that a moment.

He has a record, he keeps a record, he keeps the books.

We keep the books too.

We have to, so we can give you a giving letter At the end of the year.

You'll get a giving letter and we go to great pains to make sure it's accurate.

Sometimes, just things happen and things get moved in a different file or something and we depend on you hey, this doesn't line up with me and then we'll find out what it is.

We'll make sure it's right.

But he keeps the records and he never makes mistakes.

You might think well, nobody knows.

He knows everything you do, he knows every decision you make.

When you step out in faith and say you know, I'm gonna do this, sometimes we wait on God to tell us certain things to do, especially in the area of giving.

But sometimes we can initiate God's power by just taking a step of faith and saying you know what, I'm gonna kick this up a notch.

I had a couple come to me recently and said you know what?

We just were praying.

And you know, we've been so blessed recently that we decided we're gonna give.

And I'm not gonna tell you the amount, I'm just gonna tell you that it was four figures.

I'm not gonna tell you whether it was $1,000 or $999, it was between those two, just so you'll know it wasn't two cents.

We decided to give that every month, over and above what we've been giving.

Well, who told them to do it?

Well, I sure didn't tell them.

Did the Holy Ghost tell them?

No, they just made up their mind.

They're gonna do this.

How many of you believe God is gonna honor that?

Because the Bible says giving, it'll be giving unto you.

Good measure, press down, shake it together, running over, they made a decision.

Glory to God.

What I said was kick up your receiver.

I mean, get your receiver kicked up to the level of your giving now, because your giving is way up.

You took a big step.

Now let's start by expecting more.

Get your positive expectation running higher now.

Last year, gladys and I I'm not bragging, I'm reporting, gladys and I we gave more than we've ever given in our entire lives.

And guess what?

I'm expecting this year to be the greatest receiving year I've ever had.

And so far it just seems like it's coming in all in every direction.

Praise the Lord.

It works.

I said it works, all right.

Number two he has sent angels behind the scenes.

There's favor.

Mind you're changing.

There's repositioning.

I mean people.

You were on a certain track and a certain way.

People were looking at you and because of your giving and tithing and faithfulness and all of that and you're praying it's changed things and now God is able to move you into a greater place, more influential, more capacity for blessing.

It might mean that you have to move where you're working and might be sensitive.

Let the Holy Ghost move you.

You might have leveled, you might have maxed out at the place where you are.

God's got another place for you.

I said God's got another place for you.

I don't have permission to share his name, but we had one of our members had been preparing to for a higher certification.

He had taken a lot of classes to get a higher certification and his aim was to get in this particular department of his profession and it was gonna mean an increase.

But he had to qualify for that, had to be chosen for it, and he was.

He got his certification, he was chosen and right before he was moving into the department where he'd been working at a higher level, another department called him and said would you be we?

We heard about you, we looked at your, your scores and everything.

We like it to come work with us and our in our department.

And he felt a real witness.

And so he, right at the last minute I mean he just moved right over to the other department and the department he was headed had a huge shake-up and a bunch of people got egg on their faces.

If he had gone to that department, he would.

His, his career would have been harmed and he was not guilty of anything wrong.

The higher-ups in that department were guilty.

Are you all with me now?

I mean God knows how to shift you around.

He knows how to maximize and make your blessing the maximum.

Oh, come on.

Let's come on now.

Praise God.

We're blessed to be a blessing.

Let's have some positive expectations.

Let's kick this thing out of neutral.

I mean, let we are on even talk about negatives.

Let's kick it out of neutral and let's kick it out of misguided and get it into positive.

They've been.

Number three your giving is affecting a wide circle.

You're giving in prayers.

It might not look like it and God works behind the scenes.

He's moving behind the scenes.

He's changing.

He's changing attitudes.

He's changing people.

There.

They're having a little seed of a thought and they've been so programmed in this world's way of thinking they're so negative expectation in their lives, many of them, and it takes a while for that seed to grow.

So don't give up.

You're praying and you're giving.

You're giving.

Look at what.

Why does you?

Can't buy salvation, brother.

Yeah, you're saying guys, right?

No, I'm not saying you buy salvation, I'm saying you, you bless God with your giving, you honor him and he then honors you back.

He keeps a record.

Family, friends, co-workers, anybody you care about, are affected by these things.

And finally, the last one is so important because this is commitment Sunday.

We're gonna receive some new members this morning and that have gone to our new members class, but we are members one of another verse Corinthians 1226 and Ephesians 425 both say the same thing we are members of the body of Christ, but we are members one of another.

So when you come and you commit into this church and you count yourself a member of this church, you just not, you're just not coming to church.

You're, you're one with everybody in here.

Maybe you're going through something that's kind of tough and maybe they're sailing by and they're blessed, blessed, blessed.

Well, and don't be.

Hey, root for praise.

God with them, because they're giving is affecting your world.

The giving that the church does is affecting your world.

Behind the scenes, when we sow a seed, sometimes we, we fail to tell you everything we do.

I mean we try to keep up, but I mean we're so in seed, so much all the time.

We try to give you reports.

I here recently, we, we, we told you about supporting teachers and madam bougie, a little terrible little village, and Haiti.

I mean you know, that's the place where the people were baking mud in the sun and putting salt on it and eating it.

They were starving to death.

After the earthquake there back in 2008, they had Ike and then they had the earthquake one and one too, and we started going there.

We started, we, we were connected to people, but by the max, manning and others were helping in that village and we Royce and James went there, made a trip hard to get to that place, hours and hours over terrible roads, no electricity, no road, just mud.

They got out there and they helped put a roof on the building that doubles as a school and a church.

And so we, we, we started paying for teachers.

We pay $300 a month for three teachers.

I mean, what a bargain is that?

And they teach the children all during the week and then on weekends they have church there.

And now that village has got electricity, that village has got a paved road to it.

I mean, it's taking off.

It's changed the lives of that whole thing.

I mean this church.

So we know, here we are, we're putting that money in.

No, I mean, well, that's just 300.

Well, that's 3600 a year times 10, that's $36,000.

That we put that we did by ourselves, without telling you.

So God started rebuking me.

Why don't you tell people what you're doing so they can, so that I can touch them and get them to to join in with you and help be a supply.

They help us with it and so we're doing the best we can.

Amen, and more and more we're gonna do more and more.

We're members one of another, so if one of us is suffering, we all suffer.

We all run to that aid and things start to happen.

I can't even I hear about things like this all the time that some of our members find out about somebody's going through a tough time and they'll go and help them.

They don't call the church and say, well, you know so, until it's really having a hard time.

I think you all ought to know you, they help them.

We do have a benevolence fund, but we can't operate like that.

We can't operate on hearsay.

We can't have you call about sister so-and-so and say, oh, she really needs your help, you need to help.

Why don't you help her?

Why don't you pay her bill one time?

Why don't you give her a little money out of your pocket?

And people do in this church, people, and that's either when you do that.

They're such an anointing, they're such a glory that comes in the building.

Whoo glory to God, right in the middle of all this mess that we're seeing unfold before us.

Is it enjoyable to watch?

No, but you know what.

I just focus on what the church is doing.

We're just doing good.

We're over and coming over coming evil with good praise in first Chronicles 29, talking about being connected with one another.

They were finishing up the, the, the temple, and it was time for offerings to be made to finish it.

And David gave of his own store, his own personal wealth.

Some say it's two billion, others say eight billion.

I don't have any billion, but it was billions.

All the gold, the silver, all his personal wealth.

He said the affection of my, of the house of God say giving as a reflection of your affection.

When you're, you know, I have people say well, do I tithe on the gross or on the net?

See what?

Do you want a discount?

All the money is yours, it doesn't belong to the government.

Or your tax money is yours, you earned every dollar.

Whatever they siphon off and send to the IRS is just politicians that voted themselves money out of your pocket and we let it happen.

It should never have been this way.

It should never been this much money.

What Jesus said to pay the tax.

Yeah, he said pay taxes.

He didn't say rearrange your entire wealth.

The other evil thing is inheritance taxes of Democrats trying to bring back the inheritance tax.

Now that's evil.

Inheritance should be tax free.

That's, that's your estate, that's what you earned.

You've already paid taxes on all that wealth and you should not have to.

Your children shouldn't have to pay anything out of the hour ago, untouched into their, into their control, whoever you will it to, but anyway.

So he challenged his leaders, all the high ones, all the ones that were captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, and all the mighty men.

He said, okay, I've given this.

What are you gonna give?

And they gave a whole bunch, more than David by the time.

They added, of course, individually they didn't, but they collect.

Now I mean, you know, he, they, they, they were spurred to give into the temple the wealth that they had.

Praise God, so there's such power in church membership, where members one of another, so that when one is suffering we all rally to the aid and God can start.

And maybe you haven't done.

You know, I've heard about people that were having a real tough time.

I've told people this we, we, we not interested in hurting people.

We help people.

But tithing, you must tie.

You can't not tie.

Well, I can't afford.

You can't afford not to tie.

Because why?

Because tithe is the first tenth of your increase.

Well, I don't have any increase?

Well then you're still a tither.

Don't say you're not a tither.

If you get an increase, you're gonna bring the first tenth, because that's the decision.

That's not about affording anything.

You do that before you do the figuring.

Get it.

The tithe is the first tenth.

You're right off the top, before taxes, before insurance, before house and car and payments and whatever.

Are y'all with me now?

The first 10.

This church is where it's at because we have such a high percentage of tithers.

Well, how much percent?

I don't, I don't keep track of that, god keeps track of that.

I just know by looking that we're blessed, we're able to do things that churches our size wouldn't normally be able to do.

Support what we support.

It's just it's getting better all the time.

It's getting greater and greater all the time.

And so when you give God the first, you I've had to tell people when they're really struggling.

I've had people that's been laid off and they didn't have anything.

There's no money coming in.

Well, obviously, if you don't have any money coming in, there's no time to.

There's no time because there's no income.

But then I've said, ask God for seed to sell, and when God gives you seed to, so then you can tithe on the seed that he gave you and give an offering above the tide.

I remember one time I was out of work I didn't have any money completely broke, living with my sister I did.

It was homeless really, other than the fact my sister gave us a place to live.

I know what it's like.

It was not fun and and one of the worst things was that I was used to giving a lot.

I love to give, glad it's not both.

We love to give and now we can't give, we don't have anything to give.

So we gave our time, we gave our love, but after a while you just want to be able to give.

I said God, just give seed to the sower.

I'm a sower.

So early one morning we had two services at Lakewood those days.

The 830 service had a prayer partner come up to me in the prayer time.

We had prayer beforehand and I'm sitting on the aisle kind of halfway back about 150 people in there.

You know we're praying in tongues for the service and this gentleman comes back.

I knew him from full gospel, I knew him from Lakewood too and he said he said John.

He said trying to whisper to me and everybody's praying, so I had a hard time hearing him.

He said John, do you need a hundred dollars?

And I looked at him like what, do you need a hundred dollars?

I said what are you asking me?

If God is telling you do something, just obey God and what any of his business?

Whether I needed a hundred dollars, I was it.

I was kind of aggravated that he was asking me what I needed.

I'm not in the habit of telling people what I need.

I tell him and he already knows what I need.

So when I said, when I said that, I said, if God's talking to you, just obey God, oh, it's just like I hit him in the face.

You know.

He reached in his wallet and pulled me out a hundred dollar bill, gave me a hundred dollar bill and I said, well, thank you, praise God.

And I see I didn't have my hand down, I didn't go up and down.

Hey, yeah, no.

And so I had that hundred dollar bill.

I had it exactly an hour till the offering in the second service when the Holy Ghost said okay, now you got seed to, so put that hundred dollars in the.

You realize now, with no time I had zero money for tithing when I gave that hundred dollars.

It's like a million dollars.

The God's not.

God's not looking at the amount, he's looking at the willingness he's looking.

He's looking at how what you had available and what you we got gave the whole.

I said this hundred dollars is not gonna make me or break me.

I tell you if I'm gonna, so it all, praise God.

It felt so good to put that in the offering that hundred dollars were worth all the other offerings that I ever gave before.

It was more than that.

It just felt so good to be able to give.

I don't know who needs all of this, but I'll tell you what we need to kick our expectations up.

Let's get our positive expectation going.

Let's believe God for more, not just to consume it upon ourselves, but for the harvest sake.

Power of positive expectation.

Lift your hands and receive today.

Glory to God.

Thank you, lord.

Thank you that when we give and pray, all of heaven moves.

Glory to God.

People's lives are changed.

In the name of Jesus, amen.

Did you get anything out of this?

Hallelujah, glory to God.