Faith Sees The Big Picture

Just lift our bibles up.

Let's get ready to get loaded up with ammo tonight.

Amen, wave your bibles up around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

Say this together with me.

Say, heavenly Father, I've tuned in on purpose live stream.

It's my night to receive revelation from heaven that will build my faith, it will nourish my spirit and make me victorious over every circumstance.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's turn in our bibles to Hebrews, chapter 11, please, and we'll read some familiar verses.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

I don't know how many thousand times we've read these verses and how many hundreds of times I've preached.

Out of these verses, hebrews 11, one now faith is the substance of things and hope for the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good report.

Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Verse six but without faith, it is impossible to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that number one he is, and number two that he is of the water of those who diligently seek him.

Verse eight by faith, abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whether he went by faith.

He sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob.

The heirs with him made the same promise, for he looked for a city which have foundations whose builder and maker is God.

And so tonight I wanted to share a message entitled Faith Sees the Big Picture.

Faith Sees the Big Picture.

I wanted to follow up a couple of messages.

Last Sunday morning we talked about the Faith Road, and that's based on a quote from Brother Smith Wigglesworth who said confession builds a road over which faith brings its precious cargo or its mighty cargo.

So what kind of a road are you building with your confession?

What are you saying about your circumstances?

What are you saying about the promises of God?

And, according to your faith, it'll be done unto you, amen.

And then we followed up on Sunday night.

I invited people back Sunday night because I had some follow up to that message talking about the power of the tongue, and we got into.

One of our Bible examples was Abraham and we made the case, and maybe some of you thought I was a little hard on Abraham, but I pointed out some things that he didn't quite obey God.

For instance, you know, abraham obeyed God.

The Bible says he left his country, not knowing so.

By faith he left.

But yet God had commanded Abraham very specifically and it was on the smaller details that he didn't quite he missed the mark.

For instance, god told him to leave your country check he did that and leave your kin folk.

No, he didn't do that.

He brought them with him, brought Lot and his wife and family, and then leave your daddy's house.

Well, he brought daddy along with him and then that caused him to stay in Haran for 15 years until his father died.

So I began to make a point that the birth of Isaac didn't have to last until from age 60 to age 99.

And basically 40 years that he cost himself.

In time.

People say, well, god's timing.

So it was man's inability to hook up with God with his mouth, and so again.

But I wanted to come back tonight about the big picture because I believe we can give Abram credit for having the faith that sees the big picture.

I'm gonna make my point now so that I believe it'll encourage you.

You know we don't always make the right decisions, we don't always do every little thing correctly, and sometimes we let the little foxes spoil the vine, but if we'll keep our eyes on the big picture, we still got blessing.

God wants to reward you for the part of faith that you do have, amen.

So faith is what you need when you can't, when you don't know, and he didn't know, so we gotta give you know.

God gave him a big credit for leaving his country not knowing where he was gonna go.

That's pretty tough.

And then.

So Abram went out not knowing verse eight and faith is what you need when you can't see.

And he didn't see.

But later, after he obeyed, he saw a city whose builder and maker was God.

He saw a see it city that no one else saw.

He saw a city that had not yet appeared.

That's what faith does.

Faith makes you know, bills things that don't appear, and Bill's things out of things that don't appear.

So he saw that city.

And then, of course, faith is what you need when you want to please God, and he wanted to please God.

He wanted to please God, and so maybe he didn't start off right, maybe he didn't check all the boxes, but Abraham had faith.

He was simple enough to have the faith that sees, sees the big picture.

You know he's simple enough to have the faith that sees the big picture.

Let's just say that to ourselves.

I have enough faith to see the big picture.

Hey, yeah, you know, here we are in our 27th year.

You know we had our 26th anniversary.

So we're in our 27th year, halfway through it already, and I'll tell you, maybe we've We've been delayed in certain things, maybe we didn't weren't consistent in certain things.

Well, let me tell you something this church, as a church, has had faith to see the big picture.

We've never relaxed our hold on the big picture, hey, man, and I believe there's reward for obedience.

So, oh, so let's look at here.

God commanded Abram, very specifically told him leave your country, leave you.

Can folk leave your daddy's house and go to a land that I will show you, and what in turn return?

What was the old, what was the reward?

See, god went ahead and told him what the reward was going to be.

He said well, he promised him to have a posterity.

He promised him to have a, a prominence.

He promised that he would have promotion and Protection and favor.

All those things came with his obedience and he experienced all those things at various times.

And and so Abram, before he was Abraham Abram, obeyed the big picture and so he did leave his country, not knowing, and uh, and so, yeah, he was.

He was delayed in Haran 15 years, so he left there when he was 75, the clock's ticking.

His wife's still not able to have children.

My guess is that she wasn't confessing that she was going to have children.

My guess is there's no record that she said that, no record that he said that.

In fact, the only record we have of his confession was where's my kid?

Why don't I have a kid?

One born in my house is my heir.

Is this what you were talking about?

No, that's not what I was talking about.

So he didn't have his words lined up properly, but what he did do was he did obey God by leaving, uh, his country, not knowing.

And God, that's the only thing that is mentioned in Hebrews 11.

It only mentions that which he did right.

You know what?

God doesn't remember the things we do wrong.

He remembers the things that we do right.

So quit, quit beating yourself over the head for the woulda, coulda, shoulda's of life.

We all have them.

We all have them, but know that you've got faith for the big picture, amen, and there's a reward for that.

There's a reward.

And so, uh, you know, it looks to me like that Abraham had kind of had his own plans.

You know, he did obey God, but then from there on he had his own plan a little way, and that's kind of that's kind of obvious for a very successful man.

He was a successful man when God called him.

He was very skilled at what he did.

He's a man of the earth and he knew how to run uh people, he knew how to have servants and he knew how to have uh a lot.

The Bible says that that Abram was very rich in cattle, silver and gold, uh, what we would call uh.

You know, in today's day, you know, there's commodities.

There's the Chicago board of trade in Chicago that deals with commodities that silver, gold, pork, bellies, coffee, orange juice believe it or not Uh, all kinds of of currencies, the dollar, canadian dollar, the euro, all of these different currencies of the world and uh, people get rich buying and selling commodities.

Well, he, he was very rich, not just rich, very rich in cattle, silver and gold, but he had his own plans.

Like successful people often do, they think their plan is maybe better than God's.

I think about proverb 69.

We make our plans, but God orders our steps.

You know, god didn't give up on Abram and he hasn't given up on you or me.

He has not given up on those who have faith for the big picture.

Let's say that again I have faith for the big picture.

I'm not losing my vision for the big picture.

What is it?

Well, I'll talk, talk more about it later.

I want to get through Abraham first.

But uh and so, even though Abram had his own plan, god invaded that plan little by little, over 40 years, and he wound up with the promise he round up with Isaac.

So another thing we can see about Abram is that Abram had faith as a seed.

Remember, jesus said if, if, if, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say so.

All faith.

It's not about a mustard seed or an apple seed, it's not about the size of the seed.

It's faith as a seed.

Faith as a seed is a seed that you plant with.

You plant it with your mouth and then you water it with your mouth.

That is when you praise God for the answer.

Before you ever see it, you begin to see this thing that you planted.

You begin to see this thing that you planted and you begin to praise God before it ever shows up.

And so Abram had faith as a seed when he left home not knowing where he was going Just think about that he brought his wife and he had to look like a fool in front of his family.

God told him to leave his family and his father behind, but he didn't, and so he risked looking a little bit like a fool.

Hey, successful businessman Abram, where are we going?

Well, I don't know.

Would you follow him?

They followed him.

How mean must have had something going for him.

He must have had some sort of leadership skills for people that want to go with him when he didn't even know where they thought to themselves.

You know, I think I'm going to hitch my wagon to this guy, no matter where he goes.

We're going to be successful if he's successful.

And certainly that was true of lot.

And so Abram had faith as a seed.

Everybody say I've got faith as a seed.

See, when you speak your faith, before you see anything in the natural, before you just take God's promise, you take God's word and you speak it, you plant it, you plant it.

All faith starts out the same way.

It starts out as a seed.

It starts out very small compared to the finished product.

I mean, it doesn't matter if you're talking about it.

See, people get hung up on the size of the seed mustard seed, I want to say smallest of all seeds, and Bible says that.

But that's not the point Jesus was making.

The point he was making is that faith is a seed that's planted, that's smaller in size and influence than the finished product, but it grows.

It grows.

And how does it grow?

Well, it grows when we keep watering it.

And we keep watering it.

Well, how do we water it?

With praise?

With praise, we just praise God for the answer before we see it.

Amen.

And so he left his country and he's not knowing, and therefore God blessed him.

And the best thing I can tell you is that obedience brings blessings.

When you obey God, when he tells you, gives you an assignment, he tells you something that he wants you to do, and it comes in your spirit that God is warning you to do a certain thing, then don't put it off.

Begin to make steps to do that thing.

Well, I'm not able to do that?

Well, then begin to sow your faith as a seed begin to speak it forth.

I mean, I remember when we started speaking about paying off our debt, we had a $5.7 million mortgage to pay off and it seemed like our efforts were pitiful.

We had very little power, we were doing good to make the $31,900 a month payment, much less pay the entire thing off.

And I look back over the history of those years, little by little, by little by little, and then, suddenly, one day, it was done, praise God.

We followed God, not knowing, not knowing how, but knowing, yes, the big picture is, one day this debt will be retired, one day this church will be out of debt, praise God.

And we are.

We are, praise God.

And it didn't happen overnight.

It happened as if a faith was a seed.

It happened because we, because we had faith to see the big picture, praise God, and we still do.

And so, as I mentioned, you know, obedience brings blessing.

So he was very rich.

Abram was in cattle, silver and gold.

It doesn't bankrupt heaven for you to be very rich.

I mean, why?

Why is it better?

Is it okay for Abram to be very rich and not have Brother Copeland be very rich?

God, he's got all these jets, he's got this, why not?

He flies all of them.

He needs all of them, praise God.

I'm glad he's got 200 and some odd acres.

I'm glad he's got his own airport, I'm glad.

I'm glad he's got a mansion he lives in on the lake.

I always wanted Brother Osteen to be rich and very rich, amen.

I always wanted him not to ever even have to think about money for his personal needs.

Why is that wrong?

It's not wrong.

What's wrong is for riches to have you, and obviously the riches that Abram had did not have him.

Those riches didn't have him at all.

He was a giver, he was willing to do whatever it took.

So and in Hebrews I mean Genesis 12, 3, he said I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.

So how can we be a blessing if we're not blessed ourselves?

It's impossible.

It's impossible for us to be a blessing when we are not first blessed.

And so that's the whole covenant that we have.

We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse.

We are blessed.

I mean.

I praise God, my Lord, that daily loaded me with benefits, even the God of my salvation.

Every day is a new day.

Every day is another opportunity for God to bless me.

And I tell you, I don't let the blessings own me.

I let the blessings make me a blessing.

I let the blessings make me a blessing.

I'm a bigger blessing now than I used to be.

Praise God because I've been blessed.

And so you know, we talked about this Sunday night.

But he had enough wisdom Abram did to keep strife out of his herdsmen.

He heard about strife between Lot's herdsmen and his herdsmen.

They were fighting over the water and fighting over the land and he solved that situation.

He said this ought not be Lot.

He said you go this way and I'll go that way, or, if you'd rather, you go that way and I'll go this way.

Whichever way you choose, does that sound like a guy that's hung up on his riches?

He knew who made him rich.

He knew God was the one.

That was his supply.

He didn't care.

He knew whatever happened, he had to preserve peace around him.

He could not have strife.

He could not have strife and he got rid of the strife.

And of course, we know what happened to.

You know, we know what happened to Lot.

He chose Sodom.

And then, when he chose Sodom.

When those five evil kings came marauding through the town and took everything that everybody had, can you imagine how much wealth that was?

The entire Sodom and Gomorrah lost all their wealth to these five evil kings and they took it all, including Lot's.

All of his riches, all of his stuff was taken.

Well, you know what it didn't give Abram Paul's.

He went after.

He said ah, I can't let that happen.

That's my kin folk.

I'm gonna go after this man for my nephew Lot's sake.

And he recovered every bit of that wealth.

And so when he recovered it and it was all his, it belonged to him.

And it's proven because he took the tithe of all those riches and gave it to Melchizedek.

And then the king of Sodom comes by and says well, you know Abram, I'm glad you tithe.

He said you know what, if you'll just look, just give us back our women and children.

You know you can keep all this goods.

You know he didn't really mean it.

I think he knew Abram and he said no, I'm not keeping any of your stuff.

I tithe it because it's mine, but I don't want it.

I don't want you to go around telling anybody that you made me rich.

I've lifted up my hand to God.

He's the one, he's my supply, he's the one that has blessed me, and so he gave it all back, and it was his to give back.

Does that sound like a man that's hung up on his riches?

No, that sounds like.

That sounds like the kind of man I wanted in my church, somebody that just is so generous and knows how to get other people blessed along with him, hallelujah.

So I know you're wondering well, what was the big picture you're talking about?

And?

And so let's look at Hebrews 11 again, and it says here in verse let's look at the verse 13.

Well, let me look.

Let's go back to verse nine.

By faith, abram sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country.

So, in other words, he went to the future.

You know, this is, this is where the.

This was Canaan land.

So he lived there, but he didn't act like it was his, even though he had a word that your descendants were going to have this land.

He just sojourned there, he just was passing through.

He sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for he looked for a city whose builder and maker, which have foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

So he sojourned in the land of promise as a temporary resident and then, in first 13, it talks about him and all the others, how they looked at things.

And listen to this very carefully, because this is the big picture.

These all died in faith, including Abraham.

He died in faith and, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers in pilgrims on the earth Wow.

So notice, he saw it afar off.

What was this thing?

He saw?

See, his faith got a glimpse.

See, he kept looking for the play.

I'm gonna send you to a place that you're not gonna know.

I'll show you later.

At some point, god showed him a glimpse of heavenly Jerusalem.

He saw, he saw the city that had foundations, whose builder and maker was God.

He looked for it and then he saw it.

Did it exist at the time?

Was it something he could touch?

No, not yet, but he saw it afar off.

He saw it afar off.

Then it says the Bible says he was persuaded by it.

Yeah, that is mine, I belong there.

I belong there.

I see it is a long way off, but I belong there, I'm approaching it.

Then it says he embraced it.

So, instead of being afar off, his faith brought it right close enough to him where he wrapped his arms around it and said yeah, it's mine, I'm possessing that city, that's where I'll dwell forever.

And he confessed it Now when he died.

Did he get to go there?

No, he didn't.

He went down to the bosom of Abraham.

He went down in that place next to hell and had to wait all those years until Jesus came and spoke to the spirits in prison the spirits in prison, and he was released during the resurrection process.

And then they went to that place.

Then they went to the New Jerusalem and notice what it says, for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to return, so he could have gone back to where he belonged or where he started out.

He didn't want to go there.

But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly, wherefore God's not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

And so when you go on down in verse 39,.

All of these, including Abram, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise.

He didn't get to go there.

He died without going there.

I said he died without going there.

God having provided some better thing for us that they, without us, should not be made perfect, they had to wait.

All those Old Testament saints had to wait for you and I.

They had to wait for the church of Jesus Christ.

They had to wait for the born again ones.

Hallelujah, come on, lift your hands right now.

See, that's the big picture, and we keep in mind the big picture.

We haven't gone there yet either.

We're here preparing the way for many, many, many sons unto glory.

I tell you right now, the big picture is the final end time, harvest, and everything that we've done for 26 years and a half is pointing to that time.

We have never lost sight of the big picture.

Our faith is in the big picture, praise God.

We're going to all receive it together, and now those Old Testament saints have received it because Jesus led them out of prison.

They went right up there and they're waiting for us, and it's going to be a tremendous rapture when we experience that I believe we're the generations going to experience it.

What if it didn't?

Well then I'll just be wrong.

I'll be wow, could have had a V8.

I'm willing to be wrong if that's what it takes.

Hallelujah so kind of a theme the last few weeks is us all being part of something bigger than ourselves, and that's the big picture.

We're involved in kingdom business.

It's not about individual blessings.

It's not a yes, we are individually blessed.

Yes, god cares about you individually, but the big thing we need to never lose sight of is the big picture.

Let's not ever get so wrapped up in our personal things that we let our faith in the big picture wane.

And our faith sees the big picture.

We're blessed to be a blessing, and in Christ shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Come on, let's lift our hands.

Father, we thank you for the big picture.

We thank you that it's imprinted in our hearts forever.

And, lord, we know that as we proceed, day by day, lord, we're growing in strength.

We're going from one level of strength to the next, from faith to faith, strength to strength and glory to glory.

In Jesus' name, amen, praise God, hallelujah.