Sunday January 9th, 2005
Sermon: Expect things to change in your favor
Scripture: Jeremiah 29:11
Just in case anyone thinks anything differently, God’s thoughts, plans and actions toward you are good, not evil. Have we forgotten that it is a spiritual war and we are in the war zone wherever we go—even here the enemy sneaks in to bring chaos and confusion, evil, manipulative, jealous thoughts. It’s no wonder the Word of God says to guard our hearts, renew our minds daily and put on the mind of Christ.
I’ve been away for a little bit, but never lost thought or prayers for you, my friends and family. And now, I have got some good and great news—the future is yours for the taking!
Okay, you might be thinking, great promise but that doesn’t always happen for me. Why is that? What makes the difference? Simple. Happy, successful, fulfilled individuals have learned how to live their best lives now. They learned to make the most of the present moments of their lives and in so doing, enhance their future.
Then you have the others, and I am not going to be dwelling on the negatives very much this year. There were the ten and there were the two. God is going to be giving us the good, the faithful reports.
Others put off their happiness until some future date with these kind of thoughts:
Someday, things will be better in my life
Someday, I will be caught up with my work long enough to enjoy making some memories with my family
Someday, I’ll earn enough money, and I won’t have to worry about how to pay the bills
Someday, I’m going to get in better physical condition
Someday, I’ll have a better relationship with God and enjoy more of His goodness
Unfortunately, “someday” never comes for some excuse or other.
Family, here is a news flash, today is the only day we have. We can’t change the past and we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. So what are we left with? To live at our full potential right now!
Luke 8:14
"And the seed that fell in the weeds—well, these are the ones who hear, but then the seed is crowded out and nothing comes of it as they go about their lives worrying about tomorrow, making money and having fun.
Luke 12:6-7
"What’s the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one. [7] And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.
Give no thought for tomorrow. It has enough worries already.
Philip. 4:6
Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.
This year we are going to become the most fantastic church you have ever been to. We are going to enlarge our vision, develop healthier self-images, discover the power of our thoughts and words, let go of the past, get strong through adversities, live to give and most important—be the happiest people on earth because we are going to make that choice!
God is going to challenge us to break out of our ‘barely-get-by mentality, become the best we can be, not merely average or ordinary and in order to rise up to the standard of Jesus Christ, we are going to have to make some changes by getting rid of the negative, stinkin thinking that is holding us back and we are going to have to start enlarging our territory and take back what the devil stole!
We are going to enlarge our vision. To see ourselves doing more, enjoying more and being more than we have dreamed. We are going to move into God’s reality with Christ’s frame of mind and the vision of the Holy Spirit!
And that my friends, is what it means to live our best lives now!
Vision. Let’s start there. How do we enlarge our vision?
If you start out by thinking you can never have something a little voice from hell will tell you—that’s right, don’t worry you won’t have it.
It’s called mind set. The bad ones have to go. Get rid of them.
Start to conceive on the inside your desire, if you don’t start there, you will not receive it on the outside.
Proverbs 10:24
The nightmares of the wicked come true; what the good people desire, they get.
Psalm 37:4
Keep company with God, get in on the best.
If you don’t think you can have something good, you never will. The barrier is in the mind. Another heavenly news flash: it’s not God’s lack of resources or your lack of talent that prevents you from prospering—it’s your wrong thinking that keeps you from God’s best.. Our God is able, He is more than able.
Here is a key: Capture every thought then start Asking— opens the door for God to give and God is not mediocre He always gives more.
2 Cor. 10:5
We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.
Your own wrong thinking can keep you from God’s best for you.
Don’t say, I’ll never achieve significance, do something meaningful, or enjoy the good life other do or that will remain true. You must be willing to change your thinking this is our first step. Start looking at life through the eyes of faith. To conceive it, the image must be in you in order to live it on the outside.
Create an environment of faith and success. What you keep in
front of your eyes will effect you.
Col. 1:10
We pray that you’ll live well for the Master, making him proud of you as you work hard in his orchard. As you learn more and more how God works, you will learn how to do your work.
Acts 2:47
as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.
God wants to give you his far and beyond favor. Look for Him in everything. Seek Him. Trust Him. In every circumstance there is favor to be found.
Giving: Halfway to Success
A man in New England had been unemployed so long that he was down to his last dollar. He laid fifty cents of it on the offering plate on Sunday. The next morning he heard of a possible job in a neighboring town, but the railroad fare was a dollar.
He began to wonder if perhaps he should have kept the fifty cents he laid on the offering plate; but with the fifty cents that he had, he bought a ticket and rode halfway to his desired destination. He stepped from the train and started to walk to the town. But God had something better for him. Before he had walked a block he learned of a factory near at hand that needed help. He got a job at five dollars a week more than he would have received had he gone on to the other town.
The man was W.L. Douglas, who became the famed shoe manufacturer.
If you are going to receive His favor, you have to enlarge your vision. God is a big God. You can’t go around thinking negative, defeated, limiting thoughts. Well, I’ve gone as far as I can go. It’s been this way all these years. Try doing it with God this time.
Get rid of small-minded thinking and start expecting God’s blessings, start anticipating promotion and supernatural increase. We don’t serve a living mortal of a god, we serve the living, immortal, King of Kings, Almighty I am, the creator and owner of it all supernatural God!
News flash: God will not pour fresh, creative ideas and blessings into old attitudes!
It’s time for new wineskins and shake off those whiney skins. Stop allowing the goads to pin you down.
Jesus is telling us that you cannot have a larger life with restricted ideas and attitudes.
Unless we are willing to change, willing to expand and enlarge our vision, we’ll miss His opportunities waiting for us.
Get it inside. Feel it deep inside. Know it deep within your heart and you’ll be on the right track. Get rid of limited thinking and agree with God’s thoughts toward you—get His vision. Keep believing it, seeing it and speaking it!
