Prevailing Church : Divine Benefits

So we continue with talking about the prevailing church,

and it's the only kind of church that Jesus wanted to build.

And he said that in Matthew 16 when he says,

"'On this rock I will build my church,

"'and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'"

Prevailing is to engage, to contend, and to overcome.

And so we continue with that series.

And today we talk about, so if you're a prevailing church,

what should be made visible in you?

There must be things made visible in you,

and so we'll call it divine benefits.

What are the divine benefits that a people

who belong to a prevailing church must exhibit?

What are the divine benefits?

Because everything must be made visible.

The reason Jesus Christ came down to the earth

was so that God may be made visible.

The reason he left his body behind

is so that God may be made visible.

So what does it look like?

What does it look like?

The queen of Sheba, when she went to Solomon and said,

I had heard of the things that people had said

about how glorious your reign was,

but she said, my breath was taken away

when I actually saw it.

Now I know that what I heard is actually true.

And so what is the visible divine benefit

of following someone like Christ?

What should the body of Christ look like?

And it's not very complicated, it's very simple.

We'll just look at Psalm 103 and pick from that, Psalm 103.

And if we can even get the first five verses right,

in terms of both receiving what God has for us,

then living it out and then giving it away freely,

you'll be surprised at how it'll be easy to portray

what it means to be a prevailing church

that has God dwelling amongst them.

This was what Israel thrived at.

I mean, here is a people,

almost a million people walking through the desert

and other nations that were far fiercer than them,

far stronger than them, far more well-equipped

in terms of weapons than them,

would look at them and say, the dread of Jacob is their God.

That's one of the names God was given by the nations around

because they wouldn't touch Israel

because they knew here was a people

in whose midst God traveled as a pillar of fire

or a pillar of cloud,

that he took care of scorpions and snakes,

that he provided them food at three feet off the ground

and morning manna, that he brought out water out of a rock.

There were divine benefits associated

with the God of Israel

and he was God over the mountains and the plains.

And so what are some of these divine benefits

that we can make visible?

So if you look at Psalm 103,

it starts with bless the Lord, oh my soul.

And strangely enough,

you would think that that's not a divine benefit.

But the whole idea of bless is to recognize

the limitless riches, strength,

and grace of God.

The first step is to recognize it too.

The moment you say bless God,

I mean, half the time when we say I bless you Lord,

we don't necessarily fathom what it means.

But the whole idea is a sense of praise-filled thankfulness

because you recognize the limitless riches,

strength and grace of God.

And this is something Paul did often

when he prayed his apostolic prayers

in Ephesians 1, 18 and Colossians 1.

He would begin with acknowledging how wide,

how limitless, how inexhaustible the riches, the wealth,

the grace, the power of God is.

Every prayer Paul prayed started with that.

So the first thing is to recognize

the limitless riches, strength and grace of God.

And then to also recognize Him

as your inexhaustible source,

to recognize Him as your inexhaustible source.

Inexhaustible source of life.

This is what Abraham does in Genesis chapter 14.

Genesis 14 · chapter mention

So the king of Sodom is coming from one end

and the king of Salem is coming from the other end.

And the king of Sodom says,

hey Abraham, keep all the money

that you've gathered in this battle and give me the souls.

And the king of Salem is just standing there

and Abraham turns to the king of Sodom

and he says to you, I won't take anything from you

because I don't want you to say that you made me rich.

And then he turns to the king of Salem and he says,

I lift my hands to El Elion,

the mighty possessor of the universe,

who alone is my source.

And so the first thing is to recognize

the limitless riches, strength and grace of God too,

to recognize Him as your inexhaustible source.

And then here comes the third part, which is critical.

Once you recognize this,

now comes the part where you express your gratitude.

You express your gratitude and your delight

in words, actions, shouts, grunts,

every possible method of expression.

Israel was good at this to the point

that there was a phrase coined,

which simply said, the shout of a king is in their midst.

It was so normal for Israel to acknowledge it

that Balaam, a false prophet said,

I can't curse them because the shout of the king

is in their midst.

What is the shout of a king in the midst of a people?

It's a people who recognize the limitless riches,

strength and grace of God,

who recognize Him as their inexhaustible source.

And then they can't keep it quiet.

So out from them comes a shout that expresses

both the delight and the gratitude for who this God is.

And it is so resounding, so normal, so habitual

that people say, oh shucks, there they go again.

That is the idea of bless.

Because we do the sanctimonious, I bless you a lot.

But it's so much more than that.

I mean, go to Deuteronomy 8.10.

Deuteronomy 8.10.

Where's my Bible?

Can someone see my, yeah.

Deuteronomy 8.10.

Deuteronomy 8.10.

And here's what it says, reading from the NIV.

When you have eaten and are satisfied,

praise the Lord your God for the good land

He has given you.

Some versions will say,

when you have eaten and are satisfied,

bless the Lord your God for the good land He has given you.

Psalm 145.10.

Psalm 145.10.

Psalm 145.10.

Other words for bless are extol, exalt.

All you have made will praise you, O Lord.

Your saints will bless you or extol your name.

All you have made will praise you, O Lord.

Your saints will extol or bless your name.

Meaning it's supposed to be a habit for us

to bless His name.

Next one.

Psalm 96.

Psalm 96, verse two and three.

Psalm 96.

Verse two and three.

Declare His glory among the nations

His marvelous deeds amongst the people.

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.

He's to be feared above all God.

Sing to the Lord, praise His name.

Proclaim His salvation day after day.

Declare His glory among the nations.

His marvelous deeds amongst all the peoples.

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.

He's to be feared above all God.

Some versions will again put blessed

instead of worthy of praise.

So I've taken it from the ESV and the NASB

where it talks about bless.

But in the NIV they use different words.

But regardless, the idea is to bless.

First Chronicles 29, 10.

First Chronicles 29, 10.

Just check different versions.

Unfortunately, I brought the NIV.

First Chronicles 29, 10.

The ESV is on my phone.

First Chronicles 29, 10.

Donate.

First Chronicles 29, 10.

Where's the other one?

First Chronicles 29, 10.

First Chronicles 29, 10.

And here's what it says.

It says, David, praise the Lord

in the presence of the whole assembly saying,

praise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel.

From everlasting to everlasting again.

The other version says, David, praise the Lord

in the presence of the whole assembly saying,

blessed are you, O Lord, God of our father Israel

from everlasting to everlasting.

One last scripture, Psalm 145, Psalm 145, 1, 2, and 21.

Psalm 145.

Wherever you see the word exalt and extol,

they use the word bless.

Psalm 145, 1, 2, and 21.

I will exalt you, my God, the King.

I will praise your name forever and ever.

Every day I will praise you

and extol your name forever and ever.

Let me use the word bless.

I will bless you, O God, my King.

I will praise your name forever and ever.

Every day I will praise you

and bless your name forever and ever.

Verse 21, my mouth will speak in praise of the Lord,

let every creature bless his holy name forever and ever.

My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord,

let every creature bless his holy name forever and ever.

Guys, why am I showing you these scriptures?

Because we need to understand that blessing God

is basically these three things,

and this must be done outside these walls

when nobody is singing.

Part of the agenda for prevailing churches

can be make God known.

And part of the, one of the ways we make God known

is by announcing the one we adore.

Announcing the one we adore.

Announcing the one we adore.

He must be made known.

You can't bring people in here to be made,

for him to be made known.

I must, in my workplace, out there,

for every little thing that happens to me,

have the boldness to now say,

ah shucks, guess what, Jesus did it.

You don't have to use words like extol, exalt, bless, praise,

because they sound so unfamiliar to the world.

So context determines the words we use,

but begin to recognize verbally, with expression, with joy,

the limitless riches of strength,

his strength, grace, and power.

Begin to recognize him as your inexhaustible source of life,

and then in public,

using jargon that is legible,

express your gratitude and your delight

in words, actions, shouts, and grunts.

Hey, one of the best birthday presents I got,

or two of the best birthday presents I got,

and I've got a top 10 list, and some of you have cracked it.

So two of the best birthday presents I got

was one when Derek took me on a chopper ride.

Mark and I went with Derek up in a helicopter

to Maple Ridge over the mountains,

and that was the day that Brent Seabrook

of the Chicago Blackhawks had taken the Stanley Cup up to.

And so you could see the Stanley Cup up on the mountains.

It was a fabulous birthday gift.

I was forever thankful to Derek.

I mean, I kept thanking him for days on end.

I couldn't stop talking about it,

because it was a great thing that was done.

I mean, any favor that he still has in church

is because of what he did three years ago.

And then Mark did something else for me.

He took me to the air traffic control tower.

And so there I was,

and I half wanted to direct Cathay Pacific another way,

but I decided not to.

But the point is this.

These were two fabulous gifts I was given,

and I'm still talking about them.

If mere mortals, mere flawed, defective mortals,

is that good enough, Derek?

Yeah.

Yeah.

If mere mortals like Derek can give me a gift

and I can talk about it forever,

how much more do I need to acknowledge this publicly?

Wherefore, everything, it becomes natural

for you to say things.

Yeah, man, I don't know.

I just went and talked to Jesus,

and guess what, this morning I got a,

I don't know, man, I just was talking to God,

and look what God did.

Hey, guess what happened yesterday?

And then they'll start saying,

yeah, your God must have done something.

It becomes part of conversation.

This is how we change culture.

How is culture changed?

Culture is the, what is culture?

Culture is the battle

for the collective thinking of a people.

Culture is the battle

for the collective thinking of a people.

Culture is the battle

for the collective thinking of a people.

How do you think we have ended up thinking the way we do?

Why is it that today, right now as we speak,

in downtown, people are parading naked

and it's completely okay?

Men and women, men with men, women with women,

and it's completely okay.

How come it's okay?

Because at some point,

our collective thinking was affected,

where it became all right.

And why, how was it made all right?

It was made all right by people paying the cost,

paying the cost to say again and again and again

that it's okay for a man to be married to a man,

and they kept saying it, kept saying it.

They paid a price for it.

They were harassed, they were beaten up,

they were made fun of,

they still are being made fun of.

In some places, they were beaten up,

they were done harm to,

but these men and women, for all the wrong reasons,

kept standing up and paying the cost

so that it becomes normative.

Why then can't I make this normative?

The only reason I don't make this normative

is because I'm scared of people laughing at me

talking like this, me acknowledging the source

of what and where I get things from.

And that's a small price to pay compared to the price

others have paid for things that are not godly.

Gotta begin to think like this and talk like this, guys.

It says, bless the Lord, oh my soul,

and all that is within me, all that is within me.

And what's he trying to say?

With all that I am, nothing held back,

with a degree of abandon, unselfconscious,

willing to pay small prices and sometimes a big price.

With all that I am, with my treasure,

with my strength, with my heart, with my soul,

with my mind, with my thinking, with all that I am, oh God,

I will learn how to publicly bless you,

not bless you for two hours

within the walls that are safe.

This is the easiest thing to do, oh God.

But to be able to be unselfconscious,

to be relatively reckless,

to know how to speak with clarity,

and yet have a sense of abandon,

where my heart and my strength,

and my mind and my treasure,

and my emotions and my thoughts all go towards one end.

Oh God, I have to let them know

that you, oh God, are LLE,

you're the mighty possessor of the universe,

who is the source of my life.

And out of you come everything in my life

is derived from you, my dignity, my security,

my possessions, my companionship, my intimacy.

There is nothing, oh God, nothing, oh God,

that's left out of Christ who said it is finished.

I have to have the same passion, the same loudness,

out there as I presently do in here.

And I think it's possible.

And it becomes so much easier

when we do it as a people, guys.

Any questions?

Any questions?

Any thoughts, any disagreements?

It's hard to disagree with this stuff,

but if you have any,

it's doable, right?

It's doable, guys.

We sing songs like,

Unto You Be Glory and Honor and Wisdom and Strength

and Riches and Blessings and,

it's all from Revelation 4.11 and 5.12,

where the saints will gather before the Most High God

and they'll say, Unto Him who sits on the throne

and unto the Lamb be blessing and glory and honor

and power and wealth and riches.

I'm saying let's practice the end right now.

I mean, if I have to wait to get to heaven

before I publicly declare who he is,

that's pretty sad, man.

I've got to practice Revelation 4.11 and 5.12 now.

Because at the end of the day, everything you have,

everything you have, the fact that you hear me,

the fact that I can speak,

the fact that my voice is being carried,

the fact that your ears hear,

everything, the fact that you unconsciously drew a breath

that you were not even aware of,

the fact that you're sweating, you're perspiring,

the fact that you have a fan in your hands,

the fact that your muscles are moving,

there is nothing that you haven't derived from him.

It's crazy, man.

There is nothing that I can do at present

that I don't derive from him.

I mean, what can you do that you don't derive from him?

Think of something.

Even the,

there's nothing, man.

It's not from him, but that you can do it,

that even the actions of sin

are because you have the capacity to act

because he gives you the free will to,

and then the ability to control your muscles

and your thinking to go ahead and do it,

and then the grace to forgive you for doing it,

because you have the capacity to act

because he gives you the free will to,

and then the ability to control your muscles

for doing it, which is nuts.

Hey, we gotta be a people who begin to speak publicly, eh?

Not just off our testimonies, but publicly.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, God provides, man.

Like, start with these simple comments, eh?

Create a culture.

Create a culture.

Every culture started because someone had the guts.

That's a crazy thing.

Every culture starts because someone had the guts.

And then he goes on to say stuff like,

forget not his benefits, forget not.

Forget not.

Hey, Derek, you know what I'm gonna ask for?

It's right where?

Oh, this is the high-tech one, yeah.

Okay.

Forget not his benefits.

Guys, to forget not is one to remember it,

to speak it,

to tell it.

That's the order.

When God says, when David says, I will bless the Lord,

I will not forget, forget not his benefits.

You forget not by one remembering it,

as in ah, shucks, yes.

And then speaking about it, as in, hey, guess what?

And then telling about it.

Telling carries a difference,

and speaking, you can speak to yourself,

you can speak to a few friends of yours.

Telling is telling everybody.

Or telling anyone you meet.

To forget not is to remember it, to speak it, to tell it.

Speak first to yourself, you need to hear it too.

We'll do that before the end of the day.

We'll speak it, and then you have to tell it.

Tell it is outside here, eh?

And what are we speaking and telling?

We are talking about past benefits,

we're talking about present grace,

we're talking about future promise.

So when I said over him that a day is coming

when he will do well as a businessman in Canada,

why did I start off with that?

I could have said so many other things about it.

But the one thing I wanted to start off

when I introduced him was to remind him, remind myself,

remind us that here is a man who will one day

have a business that is quite successful in Canada.

Talking about the promise of the future.

Promise of the future.

So these are the three things we talk about.

This covers almost your entire life, man.

Remember last week we had this happening here?

Where you guys came and talked about the miracles

that God had done in your life.

About 17 or 18 of you spoke, and we realized that,

oh shucks, this is normal for God.

And that we get put off with one or two things

that haven't happened, and we inflate it

to the point that we forget,

and therefore it's necessary to remember.

Then speak about it.

First here so that we realize,

Father, you've been doing this a lot.

And in every life.

And then you come to tell it.

Past benefits, present grace, future promise.

You realize suddenly why this is such an important part

of Psalm 103, that usually we skip these

and go to the other important things,

like he forgives all my sins.

But if nobody hears about it.

If you read Psalm 103, you'll see that David came up

with 17 reasons to bless God.

17 reasons to bless God, man.

He lists them down.

From Psalm 103, verse three to 19,

he lists 17 things down.

And then he gets so excited that in verse 20,

he invites creation and the angels

to join him in blessing God.

He can't take it anymore.

He's just listed 17, and the song has to come to an end

because the church has to sing it.

So he says, okay, all creation and the angels,

join me in now blessing God.

That's how he ends it.

That's the last verse, verse 20.

The thing with this is, guys,

there's a ripple expansiveness when you start blessing.

There's a ripple expansiveness when you start blessing.

Once it becomes my heart condition,

it yearns to say things about him.

And once I begin to yearn to say things about him,

it draws others in.

I mean, this couple here, he was presenting a paper

two days ago on the meaning of life or something like that.

Something heavy.

And so one of the guys who was listening to him

came up to him and said,

even though you're an academician

and you are talking about stuff like this,

you are not ashamed to hide your faith.

You make your faith obvious

even though you're presenting an academic paper.

That's what he said.

That's what some of the heroes said to him.

The point is that it doesn't matter where I am,

what circle I'm in.

Once you make it your heart condition

to acknowledge, recognize, and give expression

to the delight of the experience you have in God,

you begin to yearn for it every time.

And when you begin to yearn for it every time,

it begins to draw people in.

I've had people come up to me

in many different situations and say,

so what happened next?

What happened next?

Because they want to hear the rest of the story.

It's like that CBC program, the rest of the story.

What's the rest of it?

How did this work out?

It draws people in mad.

Guys, we've got to practice this.

Initially it'll be difficult

because to bring up God in any public forum

is so not Canadian.

But who sets the culture?

It'll draw people in.

They'll desire, if nothing else, to experience the same.

And this is what man was made for.

Doesn't matter whether you are in the church today

or whether you're parading downtown.

All of us were made in the image of God.

Every one of them was made in the image of God.

Every one of them was supposed to deputize on his behalf.

Everyone of them was created for his glory as we are.

Every one of them was chosen for his namesake.

Every one of them has their sins paid for in blood.

Every one of them was marked to be saved

for his everlasting praise.

Every one of them.

The only difference is you know it and they don't.

That's the only difference.

Gotta begin speaking, huh?

Any questions, guys?

Anything you want to add before I go on?

Any questions?

No?

That's good.

Okay, so now let's look at what else

the divine benefit package includes

based on what David is saying.

The first one is he says he forgives all my sins.

Forgives all my sins.

There are different words David uses for sins.

In Psalm 32, I think he uses the word sin,

which means missing the mark or falling short.

He uses the word iniquity, which means wickedness.

He uses the word transgression,

which means breaking boundaries.

And he uses the word,

yeah, maybe that's all he uses.

So at the end of the day,

every one of my sins,

transgressions, iniquities, guilt, he forgives them.

So here's what I'm saying.

As we go through these divine benefits,

one, I must receive them.

I must receive them.

I must receive them.

And you can only receive these things

by faith and by grace.

Father, I really trust that despite how I'm harassed

by the same reckoning sin or thought or guilt from the past,

I receive by faith the grace that you wanna give me,

saying I am forgiven and there is not one sin.

And now that I know it, oh God,

can I begin to sing that song that Gloria Gayter wrote,

which says, it says what?

I then shall live as one who's been forgiven.

I'll walk with joy as one whose sins are paid,

whose debts are paid.

I know my name is clear before the Father.

I am His child and I am not afraid.

I love the last line, I am not afraid.

It's the fearlessness that comes

because of the purity you have

before a fiery consuming God

who strangely has the ability to love too.

So He forgives all my sins and then goes on to say,

He heals all my diseases, every one of them.

Work towards this being your experience.

Work towards this being your experience.

Anything less ain't good enough.

Work towards this being your experience.

If today I'm not there, tomorrow I'll work towards it.

That He heals all my diseases, every one of them.

Do not settle for anything less.

Do not settle for anything less.

The world must see people who have these divine benefits

working in their lives.

If today it ain't there, tomorrow we'll push towards it.

And one by one by one, an entire body,

maybe 10 years from now, maybe two years from now,

maybe 12 months from now, maybe 20 years from now,

an entire body will learn how to show the world

what a people in whose midst God dwells can live like.

Hey, your children don't know any different.

This is all they've heard since they were born.

We are the ones fighting battles in our minds.

Your kids haven't heard different.

Ryan has not heard different.

He came here 13, 14 years ago.

It's the only thing that he's been told

again and again and again.

God heals, God heals, God heals, God heals.

He does not know how to think different.

He forgives all my sins.

He heals all my diseases, every one of them.

Then goes on to say he ransoms my soul from hell

or he ransoms me, redeems me from hell.

If you go to the book of Ruth, it's very interesting.

Boaz is a smart guy.

So Boaz wants to marry Ruth, but there's a problem.

If he marries, there's someone else who is,

there's a relative in town who is married to Ruth.

He's married to Ruth.

He's married to Ruth.

He's married to Ruth.

There's a relative in town who is closer to Ruth

than he is.

And that closer relative gets first dibs

at Naomi's property before Boaz does.

So Boaz goes early morning, he sits at the city gates.

Early morning before anyone turns up

and slowly people start turning up and he's sitting there.

And the close relative of Naomi walks by and he says,

hey, by the way, did you know that Naomi

wants to sell her land?

Smart guy, eh?

He goes about it in a roundabout way.

Do you know that she wants to sell the land?

Do you want to buy it?

Because if you don't want to buy it, I'm willing to buy it.

And the guy says, nope, I want to buy it.

And so he says, sure, you can buy it, but just so you know,

if you buy the land, you also have to marry Ruth.

And your inheritance will go to her children.

And immediately the guy backs off saying,

no, no, no, no, no, not me.

Now that he's frightened the guy enough

and he's in love with Ruth, he now says,

all right, now since you've given up,

I'm the next closest kinsman

and I am going to buy the land and I'm going to marry her.

And then he buys the land, marries her.

And he is blessed by the city elders and they say,

may you have children like Rachel and Leah had

and may they prosper like Jacob's children.

And he goes away happy and out of his line

comes the Messiah eventually.

The point being, the moment we say he redeems us from hell,

what Jesus is saying is, hey, can I be kinsman redeemer?

Can I be your closest relative?

Because if I can be your closest relative,

I can buy your land, I can buy you, I can marry you,

I can have everything provided for you.

I'll take on your inheritance, you become mine.

Everything that my name has becomes yours.

And that's what he goes and does.

Why talk about the story behind it?

Because once we receive this,

we have to freely give it away.

The whole idea of Psalm 103 is,

receive it with faith, live it with faith,

keep it away with faith.

He ransoms my soul from hell.

He surrounds me or crowns me.

He surrounds me or crowns me with loving kindness,

with compassion.

He crowns me with mercy.

The message puts it this way.

He wraps me in goodness.

He wraps me in goodness.

Guys, regardless of a bank balance,

if your God is God, then a life,

regardless of how much money you have,

must show that you are wrapped in his goodness.

You must show it, guys.

Because your father is different.

Your father is different.

You're not an orphan.

It is not determined by how much I have.

It is not determined by how much I have, guys.

If we say that he's a good, good father,

we must also say that the Lord is my shepherd.

I have no want.

You do not decide want by how much you have.

You decide want by how much he has.

There is no lack if he is my father.

Just listen to me on this, guys.

There is no lack if he is my father.

My pocket, my health does not determine who he is.

He determines what happens to me.

He determines what happens to me.

My joblessness, my lack of health,

my lack of money, my fear, my present mental makeup,

my emotional condition, my spiritual decline

may all be true, but I don't,

that doesn't determine who my father is.

My father determines how these things work out.

And he begins to have an easy path in my life

when I acknowledge two things.

One, you are a good, good father,

and nothing changes that.

It is inviolable.

It is inviolable.

It is non-negotiable.

You are a good, good father.

It doesn't change.

It cannot change because it is you.

If you change, then you ain't God.

So that is unchangeable.

And on the other hand,

he is my manager or shepherd.

I have no want in any of these areas,

though presently I lack,

because he owns the candy store.

And if he owns the candy store,

then his children have no lack of candy.

They may not have it in their pockets,

but he owns the store.

Therefore, it is possible through grace and by faith

to appropriate what the father has for each of his children.

This is how Jesus went about it.

Was Jesus the richest guy?

No.

Was he the poorest guy?

Sometimes.

Was he master?

Rarely.

Was he slave?

Often.

Did he have plenty?

No.

Was he always supplied?

Yes.

He lived like this.

His confidence came from one simple thing.

But I know you, father.

But I know you, father.

But I know you, father.

But I know you, father.

Everything that is, here he is walking.

He doesn't have much on him.

He's supplied by women.

Luke chapter eight says women supplied out of their plenty

or lack for him and his disciples.

Foxes have holes, but Jesus has no place to lay his head.

And so he's walking around,

but look at his conversation in Matthew chapter 11.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

Father, and this is a private conversation

he's having with his dad.

Father, everything that's yours is mine

and everything that is mine is yours.

And I shared your glory before I came.

And one day I'll share it again.

But I just thought I'll have this conversation with you.

And when is he having this conversation?

After Capernaum and Chorazin have chased Jesus out saying,

you ain't the son of God.

And instead of moping over it,

he's having a conversation with the father

because he gets his dignity from his father.

And as he's having this conversation with the father,

he suddenly turns to his disciples and he says,

oh, by the way, if you're tired and weary,

like I could have been if I focused on what happened

in Chorazin and Capernaum,

if you're tired and weary, then come to me.

For I will give you what?

I will give you the kind of rest that you don't even know of.

Because there is a yoke I have worn

since the foundation of the earth.

And this is the yoke that I've worn

since the foundation of the earth.

Trust in my father, intimacy with my father,

affection for my father.

That's the yoke Jesus has been wearing

since the beginning of time.

And he's saying, hey, come and share my yoke.

Trust in the father, intimacy with the father,

affection for the father.

This is the yoke he's been wearing.

There is no other yoke that the son of God

has worn since the beginning of time.

It is a yoke he's worn from eternity

and it is a yoke he'll wear to eternity.

And he's saying, hey, come, come, Jacob, share this yoke.

Step into trusting the father like I do, I'll teach you.

And here's the great thing in the message, it says,

I'll go over it line by line so that you understand it.

Line by line he's willing to go over it

so that you understand what it is.

Jacob, to trust the father,

to have the same intimacy that I had with the father

and to have the affection that I have with the father.

Come.

What a God, eh?

Hey, how difficult it'll be for people to say no to this.

This is the part people don't realize.

It's very hard to resist these things

and it'll have to happen in a relationship, eh?

You build a relationship and then you talk about this.

This doesn't happen in a crusade.

It happens through relationship.

But how can you resist this?

And relationship takes time.

And relationship takes time.

But one life at a time we take and make disciples of nations.

He wraps me in goodness.

Some versions say he fills my mouth with good things.

Some versions says he fills my years with good days.

As I get older, I find this to be truer.

He fills my mouth with good things.

He fills my years with good days.

What does it require of me?

Opening my mouth.

It actually says that, eh?

Old Testament actually says,

if only you had opened my mouth, I would have filled it.

Fills my years with good days.

Let me conclude.

He renews me like the eagle.

Renews me like the eagle.

The strange thing is when you take Psalm 103

and it says he renews me like the eagle,

and then you go to Isaiah 40 verse 30,

Isaiah 40:30

it tells you how you can be renewed like the eagle.

Renewing like the eagle comes through

waiting with eager anticipation,

with craned neck, with expectancy on God.

That's how you get renewed.

Because Isaiah 40 verse 30 says that day that wait,

Isaiah 40:30

as in when you're waiting at a railway station

or an airport and your wife is coming back

and Mike's got his little neck craned out looking for Karen.

The little neck was a stab, just so you know.

And so he's waiting, looking for her.

It's the same kind of waiting that God is talking about.

With great expectancy, where's Karen, where's Karen?

It's that kind of expectancy.

And God is saying, hey Jacob,

you wanna be renewed like the eagle?

Seek me out every morning.

Come with expectancy.

I'll tell you what you can eat at my table

and then I'll tell you what to distribute off my table.

Psalm 92 goes into effect.

Even though they get old,

they shall be like palm trees that flourish.

In the church that they go to in South Africa,

when the church was built, Eddie's wife, Yvonne,

decided that she would take palm trees

and plant it right at the gate.

Two palm trees.

To represent Psalm 92.

That the people of God shall flourish

as young ones before him.

It's in Psalm 92.

How does it happen?

Through the single father.

So I wanna renew my strength and I'll come and wait on you.

I'll wait not as in a resigned waiting,

but an eager, anticipatory, expectant waiting,

saying, oh God, what's gonna happen?

What's gonna happen?

Use this, guys.

Ever since I started thinking about this,

I've been three, four times a day going through it

so that I get used to it in my head and my heart

so that I can speak of little things and big things

as God generated, God initiated, God sustained.

Begin to do it.

Show them what this divine benefit looks like.

The divine benefits you walk in.

Any questions?

Any questions?

Anything you wanna add?

Anybody wants to add?

Go ahead.

I don't know, I think it's such a,

also with this, you're thinking more of a

you forget his benefits, you focus on problems

versus the problem.

Yeah.

And the strange thing is when you begin to focus

on the divine benefits,

you know that the problems can be solved.

Because there's nothing that he cannot fix, nothing.

Hey, guys who are dying have been brought back to life.

Where there was death, you brought life, Lord.

Where there was fear, you brought courage.

When I was afraid, you were with me.

And you lifted me up, you lifted me up.

God with us, God for us.

Nothing can come against, no one can stand between us.

My God, what a God man.

We should get so used to it that as soon as a problem comes

or as soon as something happens,

the divine benefit kicks in.

As in, oh shucks, this is my present situation

but this is the final word that comes from him.

And then you push towards it.

What if you die halfway through?

We'll give you a decent burial.

How's that?

Amen.

Yes.

Amen.

Amen.

Yeah.

But we don't, guys, at the end of the day, everyone dies.

Everyone dies.

Yes.

Oops, Don, you didn't know about that?

Everyone dies.

But it's not the death part of it, it's how you live, man.

Yes.

Displaying who he is.

Let me end with this.

As he is, so are we.

First John 417, as he is, so are we.

As he is, so are we.

I'm taking the scripture out of context

but I'm placing it in perfect context.

As he is, so are we.

As he is, so are we.

That's in first John 417.

In John 14, nine, here's what Jesus is saying.

Hey, you wanna see the father?

Look at me.

If you have seen me, you have seen the father.

And now it's our turn to say that.

Hey, you wanna see the father?

You wanna see what my God looks like?

Look at me.

Look at me.

Look at my life, look at the way I drive,

look at my home, look at my marriage,

look at my children, look at the way I spend money.

Look at me, look at me.

And if you see me, you have seen the father.

Come on, guys, we gotta get here.

Look at me and you have seen the father.

What a thing to say.

And then the last one is,

imitate me as I.

Imitate Christ.

Imitate me as I imitate Christ.

Like I always say, guys, every year,

may you have the courage to come up here

at the end of the year or the beginning of the year

at Acts 29 and say, hey, I wanna stand here and say,

in this area, if you imitate me,

you will be imitating Jesus Christ.

Will that put you under scrutiny?

Yes.

But will that demand do you good?

Absolutely.

Will we watch and learn?

Totally.

Think of today at the end of this year.

I pray, God, that I remember to ask you

last week of this year,

is there anybody who wants to come

and talk about an area in your life

where you're imitating Christ to the point

that if we imitated you, we would be imitating Christ?

That would be so cool, man.

No, no, real, serious.

I'm not imitating you.

I'm imitating you.

Serious.

You wanna come up right now?

Okay.

Well, we'll do one in October then and then one in December

so that Sue doesn't have to wait for six months.

So you've got two months to get your act together.

But this is where we're going, guys.

So here's what we wanna do in response.

Right now, write down 17 things

that you find you can bless God for.

17 things you can bless God for.

You may not get past seven, but what if you get to 17?

So let's just write down 17 things

that you can bless God for.

But do it with a degree of sincerity.

As in, don't say flowers and stuff like that, or cats.

Cats are okay, okay.

So are flowers, man.

But just write it down.

I'll begin with my list.

So.

Use flowers and cats at the end when you can't get to 17.

Start with elephants.

My God.

My God.

Include him, too.

I think we'll go over 17.

Abel, you're writing?

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay, one more minute.

40.

40.

40.

One of the ways we forget not is by.