I Have Determined | Ps Graeme Politanski

Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to

take hold of. So we hope this message inspires

you and build your faith that it helps you have more of a God

perspective for your day. Enjoy.

Could you declare out loud today?

My heart is open. My ears are alert to grow and

change and never be the same. Who wants to never be the same?

Yeah. That means you're open for God

to do something in your life. You know, in my life, I realize

I look like I have it all together.

And I I look like the best husband and father that the

world has ever seen. But the more I live, the more I

realize I need to change. I need to grow, and I need the

one who can do that, to do that in my life.

Amen. And learning, unlearning,

relearning, that's the way we do the Christian life.

Why don't we take a seat this morning?

It's so good. I just want to thank everyone

for their generosity with faith, love, hope, and thank you for

your vulnerability to put your praise and your prayer up on the

cross. And we'll continue to believe

for miracles in your life throughout the year.

Today, I want to just talk about David and Goliath for just a

moment. And it's a classic biblical

story about David and Goliath. And we, probably all of us have

heard of it in one way or another.

And in the Holy Bible, Goliath, the Philistine was against

Israel and the Israelite army. David, we know him as King

David, but at that point in history, he was around 12 years

old of age and he was bringing food out for his brother out on

the army front lines. And basically you have Israel

out fighting the Philistines. And they, the Philistines had

giants and, and Goliath was one of these.

And Goliath would come out and mock the Philistines and mock

the sorry, mock the Israelites and mock the God of the

Israelites. And because of the giants, the

Israelites were looking with these eyes.

But who knows that we don't live by these eyes.

We live with the eyes of faith. And and so David was a shepherd

out in the field and he really wanted to be out in the battle

with his brothers, but his dad wouldn't allow this to happen.

And after a lot of persuasion and and pestering dad and coming

in from the field looking after the sheep everyday he wanted he

just kept asking can I go out with my brothers and fight this

battle? Now there's a reason why David

wanted to do this. It wasn't just a a young punk 12

year old who knew nothing about life wanting to go out with his

Big Brothers. David was fierce for the things

of God. And David had a fire and a

hunger for his God to never be mocked or never be put to shame,

and for the world to see the might, the power, and the love,

enduring love of his God. And even as a 12 year old, David

just had such a raw, living fire inside of him that he wanted to

go out to battle against the ones that were trying to oppress

the Israelites. And so he asked his dad all the

time. And finally his dad gave in and

said, well, why don't you take lunch out to your brothers on

the battlefield? Now, I think that this is

embarrassing, not for David, but for the brothers.

I mean, who's a soldier equipped with swords and Shields, and

their little squeezely brother comes out.

Oh, here you go. Dad gave you some sandwiches,

and you got to eat the sandwiches in front of the whole

army while they're just pulling heads off deer and eating raw

meat. You know, maybe I don't think

that worked because you weren't meant to eat blood.

But anyway. So it's an interesting,

interesting moment in the Bible. And David heard while he was out

there that the king was offering a reward for whoever would take

this giant. But if you've ever seen the the

cartoons about, you know, David and Goliath, what you realize is

that David was there hearing about this reward, but he turns

around to the army, and they're acting like kids.

They're too scared to go up against the giant.

And often we can feel like this as well because we look with our

natural eyes and we forget who's fighting with us.

We forget who's in this battle for us.

We forget whose strength we walk with and what we walk with into

our battles. And so David turned around and

he saw the army whimpering at the giants.

And David was like, what's with everyone here?

And so he rose up and we're going to pick up the story in

First Samuel 1728 to 29. And it says this in your, your

Bible. It says now Ilyab, his oldest

brother, heard when he spoke to the man.

And Ilyab's anger was aroused against David because David was

talking with all the sides. Hey, hey, how you going?

Why aren't you fighting? And so they were aroused against

David. And he said, why did you come

down here? Basically, he's mocking his

little brother. And with whom have you left

those few sheep in the wilderness?

He's trying to degrade his little brother.

I know your pride and your insolence of your heart, for you

have come down to see the battle.

And David said, what have I done now?

Is there not a cause? In other words, David's saying

to his his older brother, You always treat me like this, but

can you not see the greatest 'cause that you are part of you?

You look at me like your little brother, but I look at you as a

a brother who should be under the lordship of our king.

Have his boldness upon your shoulders.

You know, what have I done now? Typical brothers, right?

So the the Holy Bible teaches us that David had fire in his heart

and zeal for his God. David was resolute that no one

can stand against God and his God's purposes.

David had determined in his heart beforehand that nothing

will stand between him and God, that nothing will stand between

him and God's purposes, that nothing will stand between him

and God's calling, and that nothing would stand between him

and God's great cause on planet earth.

Who's like this today in the House of God?

Nothing will stand against you, between you and the call that

God has for you. David had determined this inside

of him beforehand. Which leads me to the title.

I have determined. Can you say out loud, church, I

have determined. I wonder if you have determined

things. You know the greatest way you

overcome addictions in your life is to predetermine the the

greatest way to overcome fear in your life is to predetermine

anger in your life is to pre Why?

How do you do this? What is it?

What am I talking about? So if you're struggling with

lust, you predetermined that next time I get this thought, I

will take it captive before it becomes a feeling.

And because you predetermined, you now know what to do when the

enemy brings the thought. Because he can.

He's allowed to do that. You might say, well, I'm a

Christian, you know, isn't this method?

No, no, no, no. It's the mind is these

battlefields. That's how he tries to overcome

you and I. But because we have the wisdom

and the discernment of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we have the

power to predetermine what the outcome will be.

And we do that by predetermining what your response will be.

Anger. If you struggle with anger in

your life, you predetermine what you're going to do when that

emotion begins to rise up. It might be something like

sitting down in psychology. You have a rubber band around

you and you pull it as hard as you can and you flick it.

And it's like to remind you is to jut you back into reason.

And so to predetermine is to plan your life or to create

strategy in order to be a victor.

Is this good? Nothing to do with my message,

but I know this is helping you this morning.

And so when we predetermine things in our life, I look at

that person and say to myself, that's a person on their way to

success. That's a person who's going to

conquer the issues that they're facing that will not be in 20

years time, still looking at the same issues in their life

because they acknowledge they bring it before God in prayer

and they say, Holy Spirit, would you help me?

And he says, great, I'll give you some ideas to predetermine

so that when the enemy brings that back up, you know how to

fight. We don't fight against flesh and

blood, but against principalities and powers.

In other the words, we need the Holy Spirit proactive in our

world, which means we need to be spending time in silence with

Him, waiting upon the Lord, and so that we can hear His prompt

things and leadership so that when these things in our life

arise, we know what to do as a response.

Does that make sense in in opposition to that?

The way we often live is the thing comes up and then we try

to think about your response, but it's too late.

The bodies reacted, the feelings and the emotions of engaged and

you are now in a moment of a lack of self-control.

Does that make sense? So we predetermined David had

this down in spades in his life. You know what gave David the

confidence to even stand before a giant when all the trained

soldiers didn't have the same confidence?

What gave him the confidence was his pre training.

And as we know the story, David already fought a lion and

conquered and fought a bear and conquered.

But what didn't happen, he wasn't just walking around

worrying and whinging about being a, a shepherd and going,

you know, every single day everyone's out doing this.

You know the heck, I'm so and so's got a motorbike and so and

so owns a car and, and so and so has this hobby and and so and so

has the better house than me. And so and so's got like the

better girlfriend or the better boyfriend, or they might not

have one, but every girl and every boy wants to be their

boyfriend or girlfriend. You know, so and so seems to

always, Ebony always has new clothes when she's on the

platform. And David, David wasn't out in

the field and, and looking at life and seeing all the, the,

the detriment or seeing all the issues or what he was seeing is

God, if you've got me here, you've got me here for purpose.

And he realizes that even along a a young boy and so out in the

fields, he would worship, he would praise, He knew his

spiritual weapons, He would worship praise.

He would pray. He would use the time like we

would dream to have time to, to be able to pray like he did, you

know, to have that that level of time in our lives.

He would do these things, and because his heart was so set

before the Lord, the Lord had him already.

Because he was in times of waiting, he could hear the the

voice of the Holy Spirit. His world wasn't so loud.

His focus was so determined upon the Lord that the Lord was

easily able to train him in a rock and a little piece of

leather against a boring tree or a boring Bush or trying to hit.

You know, I remember when I was young, you can't do this.

So, so please don't try this at home.

But we had an air rifle. Does anyone remember having air

rifles? Yep.

And I used to sit in the back patio shooting flies.

And I think now I reflect now and I realize I'm a lot like

King David. I can see it so clear.

Yep, still there. And David was practicing on

flies. He was practicing on hitting,

you know, leaves and trees from and then practicing on how far

could he hit the same thing and distance.

And then if I was really close, what's the effects?

David, God trained him out in the wilderness for the moment in

history that would be written down of victory that would lead

a whole nation into victory towards the King of Kings and

the Lord of Lords. Isn't it amazing that your

desert season is what's called to set you up for one of the

greatest recorded moments in all of history?

What's an example? Well, in my life, it might be

the greatest recorded thing that could possibly ever happen with

my life. For all of history to know and

for it to be recorded forever and ever and ever would be to

lead someone to Jesus Christ. And if you're sitting here

today, would you allow God train you and your life?

Maybe it's through boldness, maybe through your sickness,

maybe through your poverty, maybe through your lack of this

or lack of that or comparisons or whatever it is for you the

the job you have right now. Rather than looking with their

natural eyes, why don't you say, God, you have me here.

What's the purpose? Show me Holy Spirit, because

through the that understanding, your greatest days are yet ahead

of you. Amen.

You believe that today? So David was saying to his

brother, what is wrong with you? You were worried about a few

sheep, which he knew they weren't.

They were just mocking him over the enemy, mocking our gods.

Do you feel like that in today's world?

I do, yeah. I'm not a social media person,

but I am a YouTube, a visual YouTube.

Don't create content. I'm not a content maker.

Got no idea what I'm talking about.

Just know the app YouTube. But I'll watch it and I'm seeing

too much mockery of my God and I'm not OK with it.

I'm not OK with it. But what does it do?

It doesn't drive me onto social media to tell everyone they're

wrong. It drives me to prayer and to

witness, to prayer and to witness.

Let me tell you, church, the end days aren't a long way off.

They're closer than what they've ever been, which completely

makes sense. It's always closer.

But the end days, I believe, are literally around the corner.

Let's not #1 be called off guard.

Let's read the Word of God. Read the Ezekiel, read

Revelations. OK, and let's let's know the

word of God. But more than anything else,

let's make sure we have boldness inside of us that we are

prepared to look to be embarrassed for the the sake of

the gospel. And let's make sure we are

always inviting to church because this is where hope is

found. Let's make sure that we're

always witnessing to our neighbors, our friends, our

whoever. If they're living, they're

beating their hearts, beating either practice of them on them

because they're a lizard or witness to them because they're

a human being. But if there is blood pumping in

their veins, we need to forget the gospel of Jesus Christ out

there. He literally is the only answer.

And our world needs Jesus now more than ever before.

Your neighbor, your needs to know about Jesus and if they're

your neighbor or your friends, you are the catalyst that God

wants to use to bring Jesus to them.

Amen. And so with this understanding,

we get this sense or we get this prayer of God.

God, would you instill a new level of boldness?

This is predetermining the outcome.

Would you instill a a level of boldness?

I've never walked in. And then we make partnership

with God. We don't just wait there and

say, God give me this boldness and when I my muscles pop out,

then I'll go and do it. OK.

You don't know you've got boldness until you find yourself

in that situation that you need boldness in.

Because if you had pre boldness, pre muscle, so to speak, then

it's in your own strengths. But God doesn't want us to

operate in our strength. He wants us to operate in His

strength. And why is that?

Because He has the strength to overcome darkness and

principalities and powers, and we do not Amen.

And so when we lean into God more, what happens is He

empowers you with His Spirit, the understanding of His Spirit,

and then the outworking of the power and the wonder of His

Spirit. And then you see boldness

manifested. You see gladness and joy

manifested, and you see the gospel manifested, and you will

reap a harvest. Amen.

The Bible says we don't pray for the harvest, we pray for the

labourers. Why?

Because the harvest is ready, man.

If this is true, if this is true, our job is so easy and

there literally is no reason for this church to not be

overflowing with people next Sunday.

If we could just, I just want to pause on a moment because this

is truth. This is reality.

If the harvest truly is plentiful, they just need to

hear. They need a witness.

What this means is if you and I all went out this week and said

God. I'm not trying to win my whole

community, I'm trying to win one person.

And if the harvest is ripe, I don't have to look far.

One person this week, this building overflows next Sunday.

One person the following week. We are into multiple services.

The following Sunday, one person for everyone, then the week

after that. In three weeks, I don't know

what's going to happen. I just think it'll be like, I

don't have leadership yet for that.

Let's work it out when the problem comes.

But I think it's a Monday night service.

I think it's, I think we're looking at revival where people

just want God more than anything else.

Let me tell you, if we all did that, if actually, you know

what, if just this church did it, every church will get filled

by the Christmas time, if just we did it.

But I know we're in a great community of churches who think

the same, who have the same mind as this.

You know how revival's going to happen.

You know, I believe that the Holy Spirit will move and just

do His thing. But I have this real just sense

through the Word of God that He always wants to do things in

unity with you and I. I think what really happens out

of all of this, if the Holy Spirit moves our hearts and we

go out and do the book of Matthew, the Great Commission,

go into all the world and share the gospel, share the good news.

And when that happens, the income, the increase just goes

crazy. But then when that happens, the

miracles go to another level because those in need have an

open heart to receive. Amen.

Does that make sense? So we must do something.

Our future is at stake. Is there no determination inside

of us? I know today that there is in

this church. These words are just as true

today. If we don't declare holy values,

if we don't get involved in the mission, if we don't do

something as the church, what we believe in and what we stand for

won't be reinstated through society.

Let me say that again. What you and I believe in and

what we stand for won't be reinstated through society if we

don't give a voice and then the action to it.

A truth is, evil prevails when good people do nothing.

However, when we have determined to never stop pushing forward,

to see revival in the physical and in the spiritual, to grow

our capacity to be used by God more than ever before, to pray

until there is an outcome. And we don't stop praying until

we see the outcome. We are no longer pushed around

by the giants of this world, the gossip, the pressures, the false

teachings, the self doubt, the insecurities, the deniers of the

Christian faith. Because I have determines,

Church, would you say out loud this morning I have determines.

Could we say out loud with a bit of fire in our belly?

Is that all right? I have determined.

You know what? I love you guys.

You're great. Feel like I should be in youth

right now. Can you believe 133 were here at

you on Friday night? And what's greater than that?

We had 7 salvations on Friday night.

You know what our youth have determined, haven't they?

They're unashamed right now. They're just like going crazy.

And you know what I believe I'm just saying it out.

This Graham theology is Graham theology.

All right, I'll talk to the youth because they accept Graham

theology really easy. Graham theology is this the

revival that user allowed the predetermination to just, it's

not going to stop this time. It's just going to continue and

continue and roll and roll and roll until our Messiah comes

back. We cannot afford to not be

involved. We can't afford this.

Life is too precious. In fact, your life is so

precious, it's too precious to not be involved in the greatest

mission that humanity has ever known.

This generation and the generation to come are counting

on us to make a stand and to have a resolve.

Let me tell you, more than standing, we need to have a

resolve. A resolve means unwavering.

A resolve means an assurance that our God is for us.

So who can be against us? A resolve means that when you

speak, it will come to place. Why?

Because you're not speaking idle words.

You're speaking the word of God. The words of hope, the words of

faith, the words of breakthrough are overflowing in who you are.

And so because of this, gossip has no way in your life any

longer. When you feel yourself, when you

feel your temple, the temple of the Holy Spirit we are when you

feel this person up with the promises and the sense of

revival and the hunger for God and the the desire to see

people, human beings, individuals come to know Jesus.

What you will come to realise is gossip loses its place.

Words of of of damnation lose their place.

Words that are that form curses, you lose their place.

Words over people that brings people down.

Like the Aussie culture loses its place because it's all about

seeing breakthrough for people. It's all about seeing Jesus for

people. So we can't afford to not be

involved. This is what faith, love, hope

is about for us as a church. It's about for for us as a

church, uniting as the Church of God.

And we, we unite through our prayers.

We unite through our praising the things that God has done,

but we also unite through our finances.

Why? Because my life has one purpose.

It's to see the Church of God grow with new souls, with new

Christians, with new believers. Listen, listen, I don't care too

much about the sound desk and the screen.

That seems to just do its thing. We've tried everything, but it

just doesn't seem to work. But we do spend finance on that.

Let me tell you why. This is the House of the Lord.

You will not come into the House of God and see it neglected,

uncared for, unloved. When people come to the House of

God, they see a difference. They should see a difference.

And right now our shopping centers look better than our

houses. But that's going to change.

It's changing, I should say, not because we want glamour and

performance and lighting and all of that.

It's not about that. It's literally about this is the

House of the Lord. This is God's representation on

planet earth. Not the building, but the people

who come to it. And, and I don't know about you,

where do we all go on the hottest day in summer shopping

centres? Why?

Because they're icons. Where should we all go on the

hottest day of the church? Into the House of God to thank

Him for the air con. You know what I mean?

My point is, is some of these natural things are natural

things, but you are human and spiritual, OK?

And so we do this, but it's not our primary thing.

Our primary thing is seeing people come to Jesus and

whatever that takes. And I've come to realize

everything that takes almost requires finance.

And we can go, Well, sharing the gospel doesn't require finance,

No, But you can't walk the streets because you've got to go

to work. So someone needs to be on staff

to do that. Does that make sense?

You, you can't drive somewhere if you don't have a car.

Well, either can the church. So we need a car.

We can't deliver food if we don't have trucks.

So we need trucks to deliver food.

Does that make sense? They're not cheap.

They're very expensive. Then there's insurances, this

and that and everything else. And so just like you running

your house, the House of God also has to run.

But we can't afford as the Saints to not be part of this

great mission. Why?

This is the greatest mission earth has ever known.

Amen. So the goal of the Christian,

the believer, the church, is not just to get to heaven, but to

help bring heaven to earth. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

The more of heaven we bring to earth, we know this from past

the mark, the more of earth we will see go to heaven.

Let me say it again. The more of heaven we bring to

earth, not the more of your strategy, not the more money,

not the better buildings, not the perfect circumstance.

Not when my husband sorts this out because you'll be waiting a

long time. It's not when my school's school

fees are finally paid off, then I'll be part of it.

It's when I get a heart and a revelation that this is true.

What do I mean by that? Because I know everyone here

today believes in the Bible. When you give, the windows of

heaven will open. You'll be blessed, pressed down,

shaking together, and running over.

When we believe that, we have no problem giving into what we

believe is the best mission planet Earth has ever known.

When we believe that, and I know that those words right there are

very strong, because the opposite would be me suggesting

people don't believe that. But one of the greatest things

that ever got said to me, it was I won't say the situation, but

the words that were said to me is because Gray, you don't

believe. And I was pretty offended.

I was a 30 year old Christian. Tell me I don't believe.

Who are you? You know my dad.

My dad can speak into my life, but not you.

But I pondered on those words for a couple of years and

searched my heart took me a long time and I searched and I went.

You know what? Deep down I don't.

And when I got that revelation, it wasn't like, oh, you're a bad

boy. It was Jesus expanding my

capacity of understanding and faith, expanding my faith.

This is good stuff. I love it, I welcome it.

And so while he was doing this in my life and I could identify,

I actually don't. How do you know if you don't?

You know, if you don't, if you've heard the truth and you

don't do, the only reason why we don't do is because we don't.

If you if you go to Townsville, and I know no one's probably

going to do that. So let me just tell you the

story. When you go to Townsville.

No, no. OK, Let me just, if a person was

to ever go to Townsville and endure the steam, I mean the

weather, you just drive about 40 minutes north and there's a

place called Frosty Mango. All right now they're they're

actually mounted mangoes. They're not frosted.

Nothing frost in Townsville. And you only go to Frosty Mango

for a 40 minute drive in the middle of nowhere, a random shop

on a highway, because when you get there you know the ice cream

is worth the drive. And somehow this equals faith.

I don't know where I'm going with this, but I do because I

know I do that. I put the family in that I

don't, but I would if I lived in towns, which I won't.

OK, you go to Dreamworld and you empty your bank account to do

that for fuel, lunch tickets, so on so forth.

It just goes on and on, right? Photos.

And so you empty your bank account because you know 100%,

you know that this is a good day.

It will form memories that your children will have forever.

It'll it'll do something for you.

I don't know what that something is, but it will do something for

you and your family that is good.

You know when you get there, that ride is worth it because

it's going to be so much fun. Now that's simple.

But when it comes to the things of God, we do because we know

when we do, it happens. We don't do because we don't

believe when we do, it will happen.

But if the Bible is the word of God, which it is today church,

which means it's living, it never returns void, which means

it never returns unanswered. Let me let me say it like this.

I'm starting to run out of time and I've only done my first

paragraph but we'll move on. But let me say it like this,

just because Jesus doesn't heal you when I pray for you or or I

lead a praise for you, it doesn't mean Jesus isn't a

healer. He is the healer and you can

place your 100% faith in that 100%.

And if you have 100% faith in that, you'll have no problems

praying for someone for healing. And it's the same when it comes

to say, finances. For instance, you might say

pastor, great, I've tried the tithing thing.

No, you haven't. You've given 10%, but you

haven't tried the tithing thing, because the tithing thing is a

faith step, not an aimless action.

We can all give money. Rich people give a lot, a lot of

money. I give a lot, a lot of money.

You see what I just did? I give.

I give money, but it's not my tithe.

Sometimes I give more than 10% of my wage to something, but

it's not my tithe. Although the word tide means

10%, it's not about 10%. It's about faith.

And when you have faith in what you give, you will reap the

rewards. The windows.

This is why we say faith is the currency of heaven.

It's because when you exercise faith in your giving, God goes,

whoa, did you see that? And he opens up the window to

have a look. And when he does that, guess

what happens? He flows out blessing, favour,

abundance, because it's all who he is.

Does this make sense? So our Christian walk, whether

it's prayer, you can pray and you may as well just go to

McDonald's with your friends. Honest on the is this OK?

Is this real? The real Christianity?

Is this alright in this church? It's not OK.

So I'll just move on. So when you pray, you pray with

faith, otherwise don't expect a result.

That's called religion. This is the difference between

Christianity and religion. Is religions about principles,

laws and outcomes. Christianity is about faith.

Abraham, the forefather of our faith.

Everything in the Bible is about faith and you will never have

faith until you know Jesus, never have this sort of faith.

I should say Christian biblical faith without Jesus, and then to

the depth of your revelation of who he is will be the depth of

the level of your faith. That was good, what I just said.

The depth of the revelation you have of Jesus will be the depth

of the revelation of your faith. Let me say that once more.

This is a this is gold. I didn't know where this come

from, but this, this, Yeah. Holy Spirit, let's just go with

that. The depth of the revelation you

have of your Savior is the depth of the revelation of your faith.

If you need more faith, you can ask God for it.

Did you know that this morning you can actually ask God for

faith? He won't give you a rock.

He will give you faith. He will give you faith.

Why will He give you faith? Because it's the currency on

heaven. Let it be done on earth.

As to your faith, let it be done on earth as it is in heaven.

What's the connector? Anyone got an idea?

Faith. Let it be done on earth.

What's the connector when you're praying for someone?

Faith. It doesn't mean they didn't get

healed because of a lack of faith that it doesn't work like

that. It means we pray for them to get

healed because of an abundance of faith.

What our Savior does with our Savior is up to our Savior.

But what we do in relationship with our Savior requires faith.

Amen. I've got a real cool story, so I

want to say it, and then we'll finish up.

When I was young, my brother had a predetermined thing plan for a

great outcome. This is my brother Stephen, by

the way. I just want everyone to know who

it was. You can put it on social media.

You got permission. My brother Stephen had a

predetermined outcome of a good time.

And so we jumped on our skateboard.

Do you remember those plastic, real skinny skateboards from the

80s? Nineties?

Yeah. Lexi boards and flexi boards.

Is that it? Flexi boards.

And so we're on our flexi boards and I'm going up and down our

driveway. And because he was

predetermined, he had something that I didn't have.

It was a rubber band, and it was those timber skewers that Mom

uses for cooking. You know what I'm talking about.

The sharp ones, they're pretty sharp, aren't they?

You need to know how sharp they are.

They're really sharp. So he was predetermined that

this is going to be the greatest day of his life.

And so here we are on skateboards.

I don't know, this sounds so boring, but it was fun back then

when you had kids, right? He's at that end of the driveway

about this end, and we're skating.

That's what you do on a straight driveway.

And so that was the extent of our excitement.

Anyway, he's down there, I'm down here, and we're just

skating past each other like we've done for 10 times.

He pulls out a rubber band in the skewer because he had it all

planned, and he fires it at me, and guess where it's stuck out

of my head. Yeah, predetermined.

You know what God is after such commitment.

And then I was in my notes. I've got like David anyway, I've

just got to skip down to the end.

I told you I've got a lot like I'm still going.

Didn't even get my opening. Oh, there we go.

All right. I wonder if we are real willing

to bring this into our lives such a predetermined this is

what the rest of my life is going to look like now.

You might not be able to, to fulfil that bill right yet.

OK, But it's the journey of life when you have a predetermined,

you know what? I am going to be that person.

Oh, man, I'm so far away from that.

It's it's, but that's the person I want to be for the rest of I

want to be a witness, Sir. I want to be unashamed of the

gospel. But the reality is, is I am

embarrassed. That's the that's OK.

But let's predetermine who we're going to be.

Let me tell you, you're already doing it, but I'm just trying to

put purpose to it today. The person you are today is

because of all the decisions you've made in your past, and

most of them were probably not predetermined.

How do we change where we will be tomorrow and in five years

and in 10 years, we predetermined that, and then we

bring it to prayer and submission before God.

Mel and I knew that one day we wanted to be in ministry in one

format or another. So I remember years and years

ago, like probably 20 something years ago, 27 years ago, we

always found ourselves not only in church, in every service.

Why? Because that's where ministers

are. Why?

Because that's where the presence of God is.

Why? Because that's where I get

trained and equipped, not just by people, but by God himself in

His presence. And then we always found

ourselves submitted to leadership.

Listen, keywords submitted to leadership not trying to tell

them how they should leave for our generation or how old they

are, you know how out of date they are or or you know the

latest craze we were submitted to.

In other words, whatever they asked, we just did it.

And we always found ourselves in these situations.

Because of this, we always found ourselves in conversations with

people we should never have been part of.

It was way beyond our abilities or even understanding, but we

seem to find ourselves there. We'd hop in the car and go, what

on earth was that? Whoa, this world's so much

bigger, you know what I mean? And then we always just because

of this submission and, and saying, God, we, we want this

world that you have for us. We found ourselves playing as

the head team at international conferences and I remember band

directing the team, the music team and going.

But when I go home, I'm just a assistant in a a church.

But we found ourselves because God was going well, you partner

with me. I am going to partner back with

you. And sometimes all he wants is

for us to predetermine in our lives.

God, I'm not yet. God, my finances aren't yet at

that level that you're placing on my heart to give.

In fact, this will always be the case in Christianity.

If you want more for your life, I need to say that again, and

then we're going to close. It's always the case, always

that you feel not you are, that you feel less equipped, less

financial, less whatever for what God's calling you into.

It's always the case. I've never seen or been heard a

testimony where it's otherwise. I've never experienced it

otherwise. Always feel less equipped.

Finances are always less equipped.

My knowledge is always less equipped to where I know God's

taking. My leadership ability is always

less equipped to where I know we're already going.

My faith is always less to where I know that what God has shown

me in my spirit. Sometimes I go, God, I don't

have the faith, but you do. So I pray for it.

I ask for it. Let me tell you if God placed on

your heart and amount for faith, love, hope this year and you

said no to that, I would urge you, urge you, Oh man, I wish I

got to the rest of my message. I need to do a point B of

Timothy and he urged his church. He didn't suggest he didn't.

He didn't say this is a good idea for your soul.

He didn't say good Christianity acts like that.

He urged his church to give money.

He urged them to. You urge someone to when you

understand there is a breakthrough for that person on

the other side. That's why you urge.

I've lived it. I've experienced it.

I might not be a millionaire, but that's not what you, that's

not what you see as the goal. I don't view money as my goal.

I view faith as my goal and go. God has grown my faith through

money. He's growing my faith through

family lack. He's growing my faith when I

lost my houses. He's growing my faith through

the the trials. When I had $1.00 to buy a

chicken wing from Woolworths for for lunch, he was stretching my

faith. Imagine being a pastor in a

church and you preach every week about giving and faith and you

have $1.00 yourself for lunch. That was me.

But success wasn't what I had. Success was the level of faith I

had. Because with faith as a mustard

seed, you can move. Come on church, faith as a

mustard seed you can move mountains.

You can do anything with faith, but you can't with money.

Because what man gives, man takes away.

What God gives, God sustains. Does that make sense?

And so this morning, Church, I know we're talking heavily about

money and faith of hope and all that, but money is the currency

of earth. And if you're bound by the

currency, you're bound by Earth. Told you about our soundness.

That's good, good timing. And so faith is the currency of

let it be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Faith. Would you predetermine that if

you got doubts, fears, if your family's hungry, maybe your

family's a bit torn in directions, not following Jesus,

You don't win these battles by anything but faith in your Lord

and Savior. And today maybe you've been

living this life and life itself is all consuming.

Maybe you've been living without Jesus.

There's a key to faith I didn't mention but I reverted on a bit

earlier in my message is that faith is a moral faith.

It is not actually a Christian term.

Faith is faith, and reason why I say it like that is people.

I'm just going to give you one example for time.

If you sow negative words all the time, you'll be saturated

with negative people and you find yourself in a loop you can

never get rid of. Why?

Because you let your faith come out and you sowed seeds and you

reap the harvest. Does that make sense?

Into the Kingdom of God, faith is the same, and you might be

living a life here today where you look at your life without

Jesus part of it. And the reality is, as much as

its circumstances, sometimes history, what's happened to your

life? That's one part, but the other

part is the acceptance of that. But in Jesus we have a new way.

You know, in Christianity we call it being born again.

In other words, it's taking your faith from darkness, the enemy's

camp, living for self and placement in Jesus and being

born again, becoming a new creation, being filled with

life, with light, with hope, with purpose.

No longer just trying to live life, but trying to now live the

best you can towards this life.