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JABULA

AGAIN I WANT TO GREET MY WIFE

Genesis 12:1–3 NKJV

1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

1

YOU GOT TO FIGHT FOR CHANGE

MY PRAYER IS THAT EVERY TIME YOU COME TO THIS CHURCH YOU GET SOMETHING YOU NEED

MY STORY HOW I CAME UP WITH THIS SUBJECT

THE LEVELS OF SACRIFICE

1. YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP YOUR LIFE

Literally - Jesus

John 12:24 KJV 1900

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Theoretically - Amos

Myself - My Testimony

2. YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP WHAT YOU LOVE

God - Jesus. ()

Abraham - Isaac

3. YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP WHAT YOU NEED

YOU HAVE TO FIGHT FOR

CHANGE

◦ To Transform

◦ To change the nature, the function, or the condition of

MOST OF US GET EXCITED ABOUT THE PROSPECT OF CHANGE

BUT NOT THE PROCESS OF CHANGE

1. CHANGE MAKES US UNCOMFORTABLE

WE HAVE TO GET COMFORTABLE TO FUNCTION

2. CHANGE CAN CAUSE ANXIETY AND FEAR

3. CHANGE CAN CAUSE YOU TO LOOSE SOME PEOPLE THAT LOVE YOU

4. CHANGE CAN CAUSE YOU TO LOOSE SOME PEOPLE THAT DON’T LIKE YOU

CHANGE

TAKE OFF SOMETHING AND PUT ON SOMETHING.

• TAKE OFF SOMETHING AND PUT ON SOMETHING.

MEANS

MEANS

◦ To Transform

◦ To change the nature, the function, or the condition of

YOU CAN’T CHANGE SOMETHING YOU DON’T HAVE CONTROL OF

GLORY TO GOD

Not the new car

Not the promotion on the job

What give God glory

is when you come to church and ..........

is when you get the house and your credit score is .........

is when you can look the very one in the eye that just lied on you and ........

CHANGE AND PROGRESS

Change is inevitable, but progress is optional

Just because you change, means you make progress

Progress is premeditated, progress is planned

YOU KNOW YOU NEED A CHANGE WHEN..........

When to identify you need a change?

Attracting the same kind of people in your life

When you find yourself dating

Getting the same job

Making the same mistake

IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE

NKJV

[1] Now the LORD had said to Abram:

• Get out of your country

• From your family

• From your father's house

LEAVE YOUR COUNTRY

WE HAVE TO GET RID OF OUR LIMITATIONS OF WHERE WE CAME FROM

‣ Leave your country

‣ Leave your territory/your geography

I WANT YOU TO LEAVE YOUR LIMITATIONS

WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS?

a. Comfort

b. Influence

c. Security

d. Container

GOD DON’T MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON YOUR PAST

THEY SAID CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME OUT OF NAZARETH

LEAVE YOUR FAMILY

◦ Abram didn’t literally leave his family

◦ Our family defines the circumstances or our birth.

◦ You gain your identity from those we grow up with

◦ It’s very difficult to shake an identity that has been established about you.

LEAVE YOUR FATHER’S HOUSE

◦ We receive our father’s identity

◦ We have our father’s covering

◦ We have our father’s socioeconomic status

To a land that I will show you.

[2] I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

[3] I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

YOU CAN’T CHANGE SOMETHING YOU DON’T HAVE CONTROL OF

C.S. LEWIS

ONE OF THE GREATEST GIFT GOD GAVE TO MANKIND IS THE ABILITY TO BE YOURSELF

TEMPORARY INSANITY

IGNORANT - IS THE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OR KNOW HOW

STUPIDITY - IS WHEN YOU KNEW BETTER AND DO IT ANYWAY

INSANITY - IS WHEN YOU KEEP DOING THE SAME THING AND EXPECT A DIFFERENT RESULT

CHANGE AND PROGRESS

Change is inevitable, but progress is optional

Just because you change, means you make progress

Progress is premeditated, progress is planned

TEMPORARY INSANITY

IGNORANT - IS THE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OR KNOW HOW

STUPIDITY - IS WHEN YOU KNEW BETTER AND DO IT ANYWAY

INSANITY - IS WHEN YOU KEEP DOING THE SAME THING AND EXPECT A DIFFERENT RESULT

THE RIGHT NOW AND THE NOT YET

Lack of understanding of the Right Now and The Not Yet!

Trick up

THE RIGHT NOW AND THE NOT YET

Lack of understanding of the Right Now and The Not Yet!

Trick up

If you could you see your not yet, you would shout about your right now!

If you could you see your not yet, you would shout about your right now!

Why you would shout, Because your right now and your not yet don’t look the same

Why you would shout, Because your right now and your not yet don’t look the same

LEAVE AND GO WHERE?

[1] Now the LORD had said to Abram:

To a land that I will show you.

• Get out of your country

• From your family

[2] I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

• From your father's house

[3] I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

To a land that I will show you.

[2] I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

[3] I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

GOD HAS CALLED US TO A GREATER RESPONSIBILITY

◦ Abram

◦ Abraham

NKJV

[12] "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

WE HAVE TO GET RID OF OUR LIMITATIONS OF WHERE WE CAME FROM

‣ Leave your country

‣ Leave your territory/your geography

I WANT YOU TO LEAVE YOUR LIMITATIONS

a. Comfort

WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS?

b. Influence

a. Comfort

Comfort

b. Influence

c. Security

b. Influence

c. Security

d. Container

c. Security

d. Container

d. Container

If we are going to tap into the wealth of Heaven we have to depend on God – NO PLAN B

A. If God don’t show up, I move to plan B

B. If you have a plan B – it kills the hunger to seek God for a breakthrough

NKJV

[31] "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

[32] For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.

[33] But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

[34] Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

◦ Abram didn’t literally leave his family

◦ Our family defines the circumstances or our birth.

◦ You gain your identity from those we grow up with

◦ It’s very difficult to shake an identity that has been established about you.

LEAVE YOUR FATHER’S HOUSE

◦ We receive our father’s identity

◦ We have our father’s covering

◦ We have our father’s socioeconomic status

TEMPORARY INSANITY

IGNORANT - IS THE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE OR KNOW HOW

STUPIDITY - IS WHEN YOU KNEW BETTER AND DO IT ANYWAY

INSANITY - IS WHEN YOU KEEP DOING THE SAME THING AND EXPECT A DIFFERENT RESULT

Lack of understanding of the Right Now and The Not Yet!

Trick up

If you could you see your not yet, you would shout about your right now!

Why you would shout, Because your right now and your not yet don’t look the same

WE WANT TO BRING LOT WITH YOU

IT’S THE YEAR KING UZZIAH DIED ISIAH SAW THE LORD

GLORY TO GOD

Not the new car

Not the promotion on the job

What give God glory

is when you come to church and ..........

is when you get the house and your credit score is .........

is when you can look the very one in the eye that just lied on you and ........

UNDER TENSION

I am in a strait betwixt two.

—

Philippians 1:23 NKJV

23 For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

In medieval times there was a particularly horrible form of torture, an elaboration of the notorious “strappado,” which consisted in laying the victim on the broad of his back upon the ground, his arms and legs spread-eagled, and then attaching each limb by means of a strong cord to a highly mettled horse. Whipped to furious speed the animals raced off in different directions, and the hapless victim was literally torn asunder.

The illustration is perhaps rather melodramatic, but it does serve to call attention to the tensions of the Christian life suggested by this autobiographic sentence from the pen of Saint Paul: “I am in a strait betwixt two.” The follower of Jesus lives, as P. T. Forsyth put it, “at the crisis of two worlds.”

1. There is the tension between the world behind and the world before.

Sings Shelley:

We look before and after;

We pine for what is not;

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught.

Says Burns, in his “To a Mouse”;

Still art thou blest compare wi’ me,

The present only toucheth thee,

But, och, I backward cast ma’ ee

On prospects drear,

An’ forward, though I canna see,

I guess an’ fear.

2. There is the tension between the world below and the world above.

“Do you know why man is the most suffering of creatures?” asked Lammenais once, and he answered thus his own question: “It is because he stands with one foot in the finite, and one foot in the infinite, and is torn asunder, not by four horses, as Plato put it, but by two worlds.”

“Every wave feels the tug of the upper world. How much does it take to grow a daisy? Why, six inches of earth will be enough. There it will get its nourishment; there its roots will bed themselves and find moisture, and it will blossom like a star upon the lawn. But six inches of earth are not enough to grow a daisy. It takes a whole sun and a whole moon and all the stars; it takes atmosphere and rain and untold ages and a great God to grow a daisy! If a daisy cannot live and grow without another world, you may be sure that no man can” (Charles Goodell).

3. There is the tension between the world within and the world without.

John Wesley contended that a true Methodist ought to be as inward as a Quaker and as outward as a Pharisee.

Robertson of Irvine, Scotland, visiting a mother who was gravely ill, remarked: “Paul says, ‘To depart and to be with Christ is far better.’ ” “But Paul had nae bairns,” was the sad reply. “O, yes,” said Robertson, “had he not the care of all the churches?”

 MacPherson, I. (1976). Usable Outlines and Illustrations (pp. 18–19). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Mark5

Mark 5:25–34 NKJV

25 Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, 26 and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. 27 When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. 28 For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” 29 Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. 30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” 31 But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ” 32 And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. 33 But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. 34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

MANAGING YOUR NIGHT SEASON

FIRSTLY

Job 30:17 NKJV

17 My bones are pierced in me at night, And my gnawing pains take no rest.

Job

Bones

My Bones

Means Structure

During the night season, the devil attack structures.

You spent all year building structure and you don’t know how to handle your night season

You can get stuck in a build up, tear down, build up cycle

You seem to be working hard, but this working hard is during the day season.

John 9:4 NKJV

4 I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.

John 10:10 NKJV

10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Steal

You

Kill

Destroy

Render useless

To kill

To put out of the way entirely

SECONDLY

Psalm 16:7 NKJV

7 I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.

Psalm 16:7 KJV 1900

7 I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: My reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

REI

Reins

Rely on the things you usually use to restrain you

The instinct that tells you no

THIRDLY

Psalm

Psalm 22:2 KJV 1900

2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; And in the night season, and am not silent.

Cry out to God louder than you ever cry

Jesus says, My God My God Why hath thou forsaken me! In the night season

THE LEVELS OF SACRIFICE

1. YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP YOUR LIFE

Literally - Jesus

John 12:24 KJV 1900

24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Theoretically - Amos

Myself - My Testimony

2. YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP WHAT YOU LOVE

God - Jesus. ()

God - Jesus

Abraham - Isaac

3. YOU HAVE TO GIVE UP WHAT YOU NEED