Living in the Overflow

Good morning, how are you? I hope you're not in a hurry

today because I do have a lot to say and I'm no longer allowed to

say it fast. So I hope you switched the oven

off before you came to church. The Lego lamb might not be safe

today. So you know, we're going to

preach out of the book of out of John 6 today.

Just I stand in the worship and I'm so overwhelmed by God.

Just I love you, I love you, I love you.

Just see the little, little glimpses of the Holy Spirit this

morning. We we baptized the Yohana and

the Yohandi. We're preaching out of the book

of John. I mean, God is God is speaking,

he's here, the Holy Spirit is here.

And as I was praying this morning, I said, God, please,

none of my words come, Holy Spirit, come minister to your

people, come and say what you want to say today.

Raw asked Kevin to pray and give and pray God that you'll give us

life in abundance. It's actually the title of my

preach life in abundance. I'm going to talk about life in

abundance today. And you know, when, when I, when

we read the Bible, it always talks about one of two things,

talks about salvation or talks about sanctification.

Anything you read into the Bible, you can put into one of

those two categories, either talks about our salvation or our

sanctification. You know, if you've, if you've

been in three CR for any length of time, I trust that you

understand salvation. If it's your first time today,

I'll give you a quick overview. You know, we believe salvation

is Jesus plus nothing. Jesus plus nothing, not your

good works, not your behaviour, not your baptism, not your bad

works, not your sins, nothing. Jesus plus nothing.

You know, when we get saved, it's all Jesus.

It's his work, it's his work on the cross and his and his

resurrection. That's why we saved.

And one day when we blow our last breath out and we stand

before God and he says, why should I let you into heaven?

There's only one answer. Stephen preached it so

beautifully a few weeks ago. Because of the work of Jesus.

Because when God looks at us, he sees the righteousness of

Christ. But then you're on earth.

There's that, that what we call sanctification, me and Jesus.

Now you must say to me, Wendy, what's the point of that?

Like, what's the point? Why do we need sanctification?

If, if salvation is Jesus plus nothing, if one day when I stand

before God, it's going to be only the work of Jesus that

counts, What's the point of sanctification?

Why do I want to be more like Jesus?

What's the point? You know, I, I believe our

sanctification has 22 main purposes.

The first purpose of our sanctification is to glorify

God. It's just simply to glorify him.

When you understand what Jesus has done for you, you want to

live a life that looks more like him.

You want to live a life that glorify God.

Why do you want to live a life that glorify God?

Because actually there's a world out there that's dying.

They're dying. They don't know Jesus.

They don't know what he looks like.

They don't come to church on Sunday.

They don't read their Bibles. How is that world going to get

to know Jesus if our lives look exactly the same as the guy next

door who doesn't serve him? If there's nothing in our life

that looks different to our colleague who doesn't know him

or doesn't serve him, that's how they're going to get to know

him. That's how we glorify God by

living a life that looks different so that we can

actually have our coworkers say, why do you not get angry when

the boss treats you like that? Why do you actually keep serving

your boss and, and, and doing your job so well?

And we can say, actually, it's because of what Jesus has done

for me. That's the main purpose of our

sanctification. But the second purpose of our

sanctification is so that we can live a life of abundance.

You know the Bible says in John 10 verse 10 and Jesus says I've

John 10:10

come that may have that they may have life and have it to the

full or other versions say that I've come that they may have

life and have it abundantly. God's not talking about heaven.

He's about talking about life here on earth.

He wants us to have abundant life.

Is that is that how you describe your life when when you when you

talk to people, this thing too close to my mouth when you talk

to people, Is that how you describe your life?

Do you describe your life as an abundant life or, or you just

like trying to make it one day so you can go to heaven?

You know, God wants us to have life and life in abundance.

Last Sunday, Rory spoke so beautifully about get up, get

up, leave your stuff behind, leave all your past hurts and

your disappointments behind. Get up, walk into the wholeness

that God has for you. Walk into the wholeness you

know, that's life in abundance. We don't have to live our whole

life continually dragging all the sins and the pasts and the

disappointments and the stuff we have to deal with with us.

God wants us to get up and walk in the wholeness that he has for

us. And I really trust that last

Sunday for you was a was a God moment was a moment that in that

moment God cut off all of that stuff you've been dragging with

you for so long and that he set you on this path to actually

walk in the wholeness and in the abundant life that he has for

you. I mean, I really trust that

today I want to talk about we, our series is called Encounters

with Jesus. And when I read the scripture, I

just thought, you know what, there's actually three different

groups or groups of people that have an encounter with Jesus in

this passage that we're going to read.

And actually they all have a very different account, same

Jesus, same event, but actually they all have a very different

encounter with Jesus. And that's what makes God so

amazing is that you and I can come to church on a Sunday, same

church, do same worship, hear the same preach.

But God will speak to me about one thing and he'll speak to you

about something else. He'll, he'll, he'll encourage

you and he'll maybe correct me a little bit.

That's how God works. He's, he's not a God that just

comes in here and just gives us one thing.

And then I'm unlucky if that wasn't what you needed today.

He actually can meet each of us where we're at.

And I want to talk about the three encounters and how

actually that God in this passage, God gives us keys that

if we apply them to our life, we can walk in that abundant life.

We can walk in the abundance that God has for us.

And so let's read in John 6. Thank you.

Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the foreshore of the

Sea of Galilee, that is, the Sea of Tiberias, and a great crowd

of people followed him because they saw the signs he had

performed by healing the sick. Jesus went up on a mountainside

and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover festival was

near when Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward

him. He said to Philip, Where shall

we buy bread for these people to eat?

He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what

he was going to do. Philip answered him it would

take more than 1/2 a year's wages to buy enough bread for

each one to have a bite. Another of his disciples,

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up.

Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small

fish. But how far will they go among

so many? Jesus said, have the people sit

down. There was plenty of grass in

that place and they sat down. About 5000 men were there.

Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks and distributed to those

who were seated as much as they wanted.

He did the same with the fish. When they all had enough to eat,

he said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are leftover,

let nothing be wasted. So they gathered them and filled

12 baskets with the pieces of the five Bali loaves leftover by

those who had eaten. After the people saw the sign

Jesus performed, they began to say, surely this is the prophet

who is to come into the world. Jesus, knowing that they

intended to come and making Kim by force, withdrew again to a

mountain by himself. This must be one of the most

amazing pictures in the Bible of abundance.

It's actually just such a picture of abundance, of the the

abundance God wants for us. Jesus takes these 5 little

loaves and these two fishes and he actually feeds, the Bible

says 5000 men. Now if you don't know that, this

auditorium seats about 2 1/2 thousand people, so double that

that was the men that was there. The Bible doesn't actually tell

us how many women or children were there.

We know there were children there because there was a little

boy who brought his bread and his fish to Jesus.

But actually God took 5 little loaves and two fish and he fed,

I don't know, thousands of people.

And then afterwards he said, actually go and pick up what was

leftover. And they filled 12 baskets.

Just imagine, just imagine 5 little pieces of bread and two

fish, 12 baskets that were leftover.

Now I want to say to you this morning, this is not the picture

of the abundance of God. This is not the God I serve.

Actually, this is what was leftover after the abundance of

God. This is not the God I serve.

This is the leftovers. This is the leftover.

This times 2 plus women plus children plus this.

That is what your life's supposed to look like.

Is that what your life looks like today?

Is that what your life looks like?

That is the abundance of God. This is not a picture of the

abundance of God. So the first encounter we hear

about in this story is the encounter of the little boy.

And I want to talk today about keys that God's given us.

You know, God's God doesn't. He doesn't say I'll give you

life in abundance. And then he's just like, well,

good luck finding it. You know, you know, I want you

to have life in abundance. I hope you just accidentally

stumble on it. No, he actually gives us keys in

his word that if we apply it, we can actually walk into that

abundance he has for us. And I believe the first key is

the little boy who came with his five loaves and his two fish.

You know, when that little boy went out that morning, his mom

packed him a little lunch, like many of you probably do.

I still pack my little boy lunch.

He's not so little anymore, but I still pack him lunch.

And people say to me, why do you do that?

Because I want to. Please don't write me any

letters. He can cook for himself.

He can make his own food. He's very good at it.

I do it because I love him. But you know what?

This mom packed this little boy this little lunch and you know

what? Unless he was 16 or 21 years

old, that was probably more than enough for him. 5 loaves and two

fish was probably enough for him to eat and eat his full and

probably still have a little bit leftover for the Road home and

maybe even a little bit to eat tomorrow morning with more than

enough food. But you know, this little boy

actually chose to take his own ones and his own needs and

actually submit them to the will of Jesus, take his own wants and

his own needs at the risk of staying hungry for the rest of

the day, saying actually, I'm OK to go hungry for the rest of the

day. I'm going to take what I have

and give it to Jesus. I want to take my own wants, my

own needs, and submit it to the will of Jesus.

And you know, he he actually, if we want to live a life of

abundance, we have to learn how to submit our own will to the

will of the Father. Because actually, if you want to

walk in abundance, you can either hold on to you a little

bit you have, or your wants or your own needs, or you can

actually say, I'm actually going to take my own will and I'm

going to submit it to the will of the Father.

And I believe that's a key that God's given us that we can

actually walk in an abundant life.

Now, let me just make one thing very clear.

A life of abundance has nothing to do with money.

Let's just understand that very clearly this morning.

Do you know that money is an earthly thing?

Nice to have, we need it, we need it.

Money is an earthly thing. If your main goal in life is to

make money so that you can have a better car and buy a nicer

house and go on nicer holidays and get your kids a better

education and eat from Woolworths and not checkers

anymore, then actually you don't understand abundance because you

know when you blow out your last breath you can't take it with

you. It's all going to be left behind

and your kids are going to waste it.

Money is an earthly thing. Money is an earthly thing.

Easy come, easy go. Money has no eternal value.

The only time your money has any eternal value is when you're

using it to build a Kingdom, when you're actually saying,

God, let me take my resources and let's actually go and bless

someone to go go minister in a country where they don't know

Jesus. That's the only time your money

has any eternal value. Other than that, it's it's an

earthly thing. So when we talk about a life of

abundance, this is not a quick rich scheme.

This is not, you know, you know, we're preaching prosperity and

three CI, Everybody that comes here is going to get rich.

No life and abundance is about so much more than money.

It's got nothing to do with money.

This little boy gave up his his five loaves and his 32 fish, but

you know he still had enough to eat because that Bob the verse

in that Bible actually says they all had enough to eat.

So in spite of the fact that he gave up his lunch, he still had

enough to eat. He still had his full, but not

only did he enough have enough to eat, he saw Jesus take his

lunch and multiply it and feed thousands of people.

Actually, how much more is that worse than having eaten his own

lunch? But he didn't go hungry and see

God doing something else. He still had enough to eat and

he saw God do this incredible miracle.

And so when we, when we submit our will to the will of the

Father, he will take care of our needs.

He will, you know, but we actually get to take part in

what he's doing. You know, we have no better

example of this than Jesus himself in that same chapter in

John 6 a little bit further on in verse 38 and Jesus says, for

I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the

will of Him who sent me. I mean, if Jesus who is God, if

He chose to submit His own will to the will of the Father, I

mean how would we not actually believe that that would

actually, if we choose to do that, that we would have a life

of abundance. If Jesus, who is God chose to

submit His will to the will of the Father, how would that not

lead you into a life of abundance if you choose to do

that as well? Imagine imagine how it would

impact our lives if we lived like this.

Imagine imagine what the life of three CI really believe in.

I'm not just this is not hype. We can turn Pretoria upside down

if the people that are sitting here today say from today, I'm

going to submit my will to the will of the father and I'm going

to walk with him. Not making our decisions about

our careers or our marriage or our our, what we're going to do

with our resources out of our own will, but submitting it to

the will of the father and actually allowing him to lead us

into what he has for us. Imagine, imagine if we live our

lives submitted to the will of the father.

The second encounter is actually the encounter of the disciples.

And they had a very different encounter and their encounter

was one of serving. And the main encounter for the,

for the disciples in this, in this passage we read was

serving. They had to work, they had to

take the bread and the fish and hand it out to everybody.

And you know, you'd think like after everybody ate and they'd

be done, they'd be like, you know, like exhausted now and

then Jesus was no, no, no, not done yet.

Take the baskets and go pick up what was leftover.

Just a just a little bit more, just a little bit more serving.

But I really believe serving is a key that God's given us to

actually understanding what a life of abundance is.

You know, have you ever thought about it that the the disciples

were probably other than Jesus, the only people there that day

who really understood how big the miracle was that Jesus did?

Think about it. If you take double the amount of

people here, plus women and children, spread them out over a

mountain and you say sit down, you're going to eat and you

start sending people around. You probably have the murmurs

going like they they did. You know that this is like they

had five loaves and two fishes and Jesus prayed and we all

eating. So the murmurs would have gone

through and people would have probably known that, but after

they heard Jesus speak and they ate, they're full.

They would have got up and left and gone home.

And the disciples were the ones who then walked and picked up 12

more baskets that was leftover. So actually, in that serving,

they were the only ones who really saw the fullness of the

miracle that Jesus did. That guy that sat over there on

the hill and ate his little piece of bread and fish and then

went home didn't understand that.

He didn't see that. If you want to see the fullness

of the goodness of God, start serving.

I'm telling you now, if you want to see the fullness of the

goodness of God in your own life, start serving.

You want to see the fullness of the goodness of God in other

people's lives, start serving. You can come here on a Sunday

morning and come to church and go home and you'll only see the

goodness of God in your life. But you start serving, you get

into a life group. You, you start chatting to this

guy and you hear what God's done in his life and you, and you

start praying with that guy for a job and God gives him a job

and you, and you see what God's doing in his life.

And then you go on a mission trip and you see how much you

have compared to other people and you actually start seeing

the full goodness of God. You start seeing the bigger

picture. You know, we live in a, we live

in a town where we're so self focused.

It's all about me and I and my things.

And actually serving is a key that God's given us to take us

into the abundance of what he has for us.

Do you know that we had about 250 volunteers serving here this

morning? Sure.

Wow. Do you know that for some of

you, you might come here every Sunday and you come here and you

have your cup of coffee and you come to church and you worship

and you listen to the word and you get in your car and you go

home. But you know that someone made

that cup of coffee. You know that someone made sure

there was loot paper in the loose for you so you don't have

to sit here that wasn't comfortable.

Do you know that someone cleans up the spool where you spilled

your coffee afterwards once you've gone home so that it can

be clean for the people who are coming here tonight?

Do you like these guys who lead worship here all have jobs and

they come here on a Thursday night to practice so that we can

sit here under the most incredible worship serving, you

know, in, in this church, if you're in a life group, you'll

probably get to serve every every six weeks or so because we

use our life groups are part of our teams that serve here.

There's maybe 8 * a year you'll get to serve.

But you know, there's a whole group of people that serve every

week that come Sunday in, Sunday out.

And this is not a marketing ploy.

We don't need, we don't need volunteers.

So don't be worried. We're not trying to hype you

guys up. We don't need volunteers.

You need to be serving. We actually, sometimes on Sunday

mornings, we'd actually don't have enough jobs for all the

volunteers who come. We like just go stand at the

front door and greet people. So when you feel a bit awkward

when 100 people say morning to you, it's because we have too

many volunteers. We don't actually have a job for

them. So it's a fact, it's a fact.

I'm not making it up. Is it the truth?

It's the truth. I'm not making it up.

We don't need you to serve. So relax, we're not trying to to

hype you up to come and serve. You need to serve because it's

good for you. Because when you come here to

serve, you're going to be chatting to the guy that's

making coffee next to you and you're going to hear what God's

been doing in his life. And then you're going to stand

at the front door and you're going to meet someone who's

who's broken and comes in. And then you're going to see him

coming next week. And the week after, in a month

or two late, you're going to see him coming in here.

And you can see God's busy in his life.

And then and then six months from now, he's going to tell

you, you know, that Sunday that I met you, I was broken, but

actually God's restored me. That's why you need to serve.

That's why you need to serve. Because serving is a key that

will unlock the abundance of God in your life.

If you want to, if you want to talk to any of the guys who

volunteer or serve here regularly, they'll tell you they

thought they came here to serve. But they've been far more

blessed by it. Far more blessed by it.

How do guys that have incredibly pressurized jobs come serve here

week after week after week? How do they not get burnt out?

Because they love it. It doesn't burn them out.

It refreshes them. They actually see the goodness

of God when they come here to serve.

If you ever speak to anybody who's on a trip, been on one of

our trips to Mozambique or Zimbabwe, they'll tell you, I

thought I went there to serve the people of Mozambique or

serve the people of Zimbabwe, but I actually came back so

blessed. We've seen marriages completely

restored just by going on a trip to Mozambique, going to go build

a church in Mozambique, and God turns a marriage completely

around just by going to serve. Serving is a key that God's

given us to walk in the fullness and abundance that He has for

us. So ask yourself today, who am I

serving? Who am I serving?

Do I only serve people that can serve me back?

Do I only ever serve someone who can do something back to for me?

Do I actually understand? To understand that Jesus came as

the ultimate example to come and serve us, to die for us so that

we can have an eternal relationship with His Father.

Ask yourself today, who am I serving?

The third encounter is the crowd.

The crowd had an encounter with Jesus.

Now you might say to me, Wendy, what did they do?

They did absolutely nothing. They arrived, they sat, they got

fed. What did they do?

Do you know that I believe that probably one of the biggest keys

that God gives us in His Word to have an abundant life is

learning how to wait on God. They had to wait on God.

That's literally what they had to do.

The 10,000 got over there, probably had to wait quite a

while before he got his little bit of the five breads and the

two fishes. They had to wait on God.

You know, when, when I heard we were going to be preaching

through the book of John, probably somewhere in November

last year, I started reading the book of John.

I started seeing how many times in the book of John Jesus made

people wait. You know, just a little bit

further in this, in this same passage, it says that Jesus's

disciples were waiting for him by the boat to cross the sea of

Kaparinaim, and it was already dark and Jesus didn't come.

So eventually they got in the boat and they and they crossed

and, and the storm came. We know the story.

And Jesus came walking to them on the water.

Jesus made them white a little bit further.

We actually read in John 11 that about Lazarus's death, that that

Lazarus sister sent a message to Jesus to say, you know what?

Our brother's busy dying, he's sick.

And you know what Jesus did? He stayed in the village where

he was for two more days. How would he do that?

You know, is it just like that one friend we all have?

Don't worry, I won't name your name, but that one friend we all

have who's always late, is it just like that one friend or is

he just, I can see you smiling, you know, I'm talking about you.

But if you or is he actually just, is he, does he just not

care? Could he just not actually be

bothered? He's like, oh, you know what?

I know I can raise him from the dead.

I'll get there when I get there. No, actually, Jesus knows how

good it is for us to learn how to wait.

That's why he made people wait because it's good for us to

wait. It's actually a key.

That's God's what God's given us to actually live in life in

abundance. And in John 11 verse 4, Jesus

John 11:4

says about the story of Lazarus, about Lazarus, he says no

talking about Lazarus's death, he says, no.

It is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified

through it. You see, if we learn how to wait

on God, He can take out dead situations and bring them back

to life. He can He can take your dead

marriage and bring it back to life.

He can take your dead business and and resurrect it again and

take your dead relationship with your son or your daughter or

your dead sexuality or your dead finances and you can bring her

back to life if you can learn how to wait on him, if you learn

how to wait on him. But you see, God says that

Lazarus died so that God may be glorified.

But you know that a little bit further in John, in John 21

John 21:19

verse 19, and where Jesus predicts Peter's death, he says

Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by Pete by which

Peter would glorify God. You see, Lazarus was raised from

the dead, so God may be glorified.

Peter died so God may be glorified.

So you see, the life and abundance is not in the end

result. It's not in the end result

because actually we can have life and abundance when God

resurrects from the dead. We can also have life and

abundance where God uses the death to glorify God.

The key is actually the life and abundance is not in the end

result. It's actually in the waiting for

God. That's where the life and

abundance lies. You've got to understand the the

power of the learning to wait on God is that we'll start to

understand that it's actually not what we're waiting for that

brings us into that life of abundance.

It's in that process. The waiting is the gift.

Spending time in God's presence is life in abundance.

That is actually what life in abundance is like.

And if you start to understand this, you can have a life in

abundance even if you don't see what you're waiting for, even if

you don't see the result. While I'm praying for my sibling

who's not saved yet, I can have life in abundance.

While I'm waiting for God to bring a breakthrough in a

situation, I can have life in abundance.

I don't get life in abundance. When I'm when I get what I'm

praying for, I can have it while I'm waiting because the

abundance is in the waiting. You know, we sang this morning

in that one song. It just struck me.

We say we sang about that. We can enjoy that in in every

season we keep dancing. Why can we keep dancing in every

season in the good seasons and the bad seasons?

Why? Because we've learned how to

wait on God. We don't need Him to answer our

praise to have life in abundance.

We can have it while we're waiting.

We were created to be in a relationship with God.

That's what we were actually made for.

That is where the abundance is in.

So we all have. That's one of the reasons why we

actually don't have a counselling center at this

church. Do you know that?

Because we don't want you to run to the church every time you

have a problem and then we tell you what to do.

We believe that every person sitting here has direct access

to the Father, the same father that Rory has access to.

He doesn't have to pray for your business.

He doesn't have a special line that goes straight to God.

And we have to go through the secretary to get to God.

We all have straight access to God, straight access to God.

That's why we didn't I'm that's, it's the truth.

And that's why you're not living in life in abundance because you

think you're not living in life in abundance because you send an

e-mail to the church and they reply to you who, which life

group are you in? And now you can't, you know, God

can't save your business because you know, no, we want it.

We don't want you guys to rely on us.

We want to teach you how to wait on God.

We're going to teach you how to wait on God for your own

situations. Yes, there's room for praying

with each other. I'm not saying there's not room

for that. Yes, there's room for, for

sitting with a brother or a sister sometimes and actually

talking and, and encouraging one another.

I'm not saying there's not there is room for that.

But that shouldn't be your first go to.

You need to learn how to wait on God for yourself.

He's given us his word. He's given his, he's given you

his word. He wants to speak to you

directly. You're so passionate.

You know, yesterday I just thought about you talking about

waiting on God. And you know that the the Hebrew

word for waiting is kavar, and it actually says, it implies an

active, expectant and hopeful anticipation rather than passive

inaction. What says that that waiting on

God is like when you take strings and you weave them

together, you're like, like they're interwoven to make a

rope. That's what we do.

We weave ourselves with God, with his Holy Spirit.

We're waiting in anticipation. We're talking to him, we're

listening, we're reading his word.

It's not a like a while. OK, my business is in trouble.

I'll just wait and see what God does.

It doesn't look like that. You know, I'm going to interrupt

myself for a moment, but we were driving here this morning and

I'm talking to my husband about this.

You know, if you're not married yet, just wait on God.

Don't, don't compromise, don't just settle because you're

scared you're going to be alone. Do you know what, what, what an

abundant life you have when you're married to a God, a man

who serves God? Do you know what an abundant

life you have when you, when you, we have someone who's

equally yoked with you, who can walk with you?

And, and we're driving to church and I say to him, I read and he

said, you know what he said to me?

And I'm like, wow, God, you're so amazing.

He said, you know, that waiting is not like when we're in the

doctor's waiting room waiting for him.

It's not like that. It's actually the waiting where

you're already in the room with the doctor and the doctor's

listening to your heartbeat and he's asking you a question and

he says, what symptoms do you have?

And you're answering him. And, and then he he does a blood

test and he it's that waiting. It's not us sitting there in the

waiting room. How late is the doctor this

time? You know, what time am I going

to get in there? This time you're in the room

with him. You're busy, he's speaking,

you're listening, you're answering.

That's that waiting. That's what that waiting looks

like. So don't say so Wait, wait, wait

on the man that God has for you. It's better to be alone than to

be married to someone who's not equally yoked with you.

But anyway, that was for free. It wasn't part of my notes.

But you know, the Bible is full of verses that talk about

waiting on God. And Isaiah 40, verse 31, it

Isaiah 40:31

says, But those who waits on the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.

Are you constantly feeling weary?

You always feel like you have no strings.

Wait on God. In Psalm 27 verse 14, it says,

Psalms 27:14

wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen

your heart. Do you need courage today?

You need courage for the situation you're facing at work.

You need courage for your studies.

You need courage for whatever you're facing.

Wait on the Lord. Psalm 62 verse 5 says, for God

Psalms 62:5

alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from

Him. You need hope.

Feel like we're living in a hopeless time in a hopeless

country, maybe a hopeless government.

You need hope. Wait on the Lord, He'll give you

hope. Isaiah 62 verse 4 says from of

Isaiah 62:4

all old no one has heard or perceived by ear.

Now I have seen a God besides you acts on behalf of those who

wait for him. Are you in an impossible

situation? Impossible.

You need God to act on your behalf.

There's no man on earth that can help you in this situation.

Only God can act on your behalf waits on God.

He promises he's a God who acts on behalf of those who waits on

him. Proverbs 20 verse 22 says do not

Proverbs 20:22

say I'll pay you back for this wrong wait for the Lord and he

will avenge you. Has someone treated you

unfairly? It's your business partner done

you in almost said something not good done you in and cheated

you. That's a better word.

Have have you have have have you been hijacked?

You been maybe held up at gunpoint and you wanted to be

avenged. Actually wait on God.

He says I will avenge you. Don't take things in your own

hands. Wait on me.

Wait on me. I will avenge you.

But most importantly, why do we wait on God?

Because in Acts one verse 4, Jesus said this to his

disciples. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait

for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak

about for John baptized with water.

But in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

The biggest key we have to living a life of abundance is to

be filled with the Holy Spirit. When we live Spirit LED lives,

how can we not live a life of abundance?

If you are living your life every day saying Holy Spirit,

show me, show me, lead me today, lead me in this business

decision. Show me how to how to do my

marriage, show me how to treat my adult children, how to walk

with them, Show me how to How will you not live a life of

abundance? How can you lead by the Holy

Spirit to His God and not live a life of abundance?

You know, I recently saw a picture which I thought was the

perfect picture to describe a life not lived in the Spirit.

And you see that this is what it looks like to lean on your own

strength and understanding. That's what your life looks like

when you don't live in the Spirit.

Literally, you're going like, there's no power in my life.

Feels like I'm going around and round in circles.

Nothing's happening. You're plugged into yourself,

plugged into yourself. So as long as you have a little

bit of power, you're going to be going somewhere.

But when your power runs out, you're in trouble.

You're in trouble. Is that what your life looks

like? Is that what your life looks

like? That's what your life looks like

when you're not living in the spirit.

And the book Come Create a Spirit by Raniero Cantla Mesa.

He describes so beautiful what it looks like when we live a

life in the spirit. He talks about the spirit offing

often being described as wind in the Bible.

And, you know, you know, I was woken up by the wind this

morning. We we, we literally live the

house we've been living in. We've lived there now for just

over a year. And the same furniture has been

on the stoop since we've moved in there.

And I would woken up because the wind was moving the chairs on

the stoop. She's never happened.

Talking about the wind of God today.

And I got woken up by this wind this morning that was literally

moving the chairs on my stoop. I mean, I'm just like, God, you

are busy with something. Yeah, he says this about that

is, but he says what effort it takes to walk or to row against

the wind. What a joy to do the same thing

with the wind in your favour. Have you ever seen those people

in the Cape when the wind's blowing and they try and walk

against the wind, you know, hold on to the pole and they're like,

you know, and then you turn around and you go, that's what

it looks like when you walk on your own and when you walk with

the Spirit, that's what it looks like.

Try to go about doing what you do without the Holy Spirit.

How heavy that is, work with the Spirit, how very much lighter

everything becomes. Fruitfulness is the wind's gift.

It carries pollen from flower to flower and seeds ripen.

It carries seeds to the earth and they germinate.

This is what the Holy Spirit does for the seed.

That is the word of God. Years ago I spent some time in a

retreat house in Ireland, right by the seacoast.

The place is the Kingdom of gulls, seagulls.

What impressed me the most was the way the gulls exiled in the

art of making the wind work for them.

They fly on the wings of the wind.

They let the wind carry them. That is why they are able to

remain in the air for long hours, hovering still or moving

faster than the eye can follow and yet not grow tired.

Does that not tell us something? What does your life look like?

Are you like this? Oh, are you going?

Does your life look like that bird flying?

Have you seen them flying against the wind and they're

like flap, flap flapping but they're literally not moving?

Or you? Or does your life look like an

eagle soaring on the wind? That's life in abundance.

That's life in abundance. So let's go read.

Let's go read John 6 again this week.

Let's learn from these encounters that these people had

with Jesus. Let's actually learn from the

little boy how to submit our will to the will of the Father.

Let's learn from the disciples how to serve, how to serve

others, and actually use that as a key to walking in abundance.

Let's actually learn how to wait on God, how to intertwine

ourselves with him. And I really believe that if we

apply these keys to our life, we will live in a life of

abundance, but not only live a life of abundance, we'll live a

life that will glorify God and draw others unto Him.

Amen.