Welcome to the Life Bible Church podcast. We
want to thank you for joining us today, and we
hope you find today's sermon impacting as you
listen to it wherever you are in your daily walk.
To find service times and watch messages online,
see our website at lifebiblechurch .org. Now,
enjoy this week's message. We get ready to move
on. Jenny's gonna just play just a little bit.
Why don't you open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians
chapter eight and nine. Hopefully it opens there,
chapter eight and nine. At least it is in my
Bible where eight's on one side, nine is on another.
And so if you don't have that Bible, you might
wanna get one. No, just kidding. Eight and nine
is what we can look at it. 2 Corinthians eight
and nine. There's a few verses that we're gonna
get to there in a bit. Father, this morning,
as your word is opened. Lord, I'm reminded of
Zechariah chapter four, where there were two
olive trees that stood before him. Lord, pumping
oil into a lamp that would produce light and
fire. Father, we recognize that that presence
that stands before you always as both your living
word and your Holy Spirit. Lord, always releasing
their life into us that it might produce light.
Let the fire of God, the passion for your word,
the passion to love you and serve you with all
of our heart be our portion today. Open the scriptures
to us in Jesus' holy name. Amen. Amen. Can you
tell the band and the team, they did a great
job in worship this morning. I really appreciate
it. Awesome. All right. I got a lot to cover
this morning, so let's get right into it. I kind
of gave you the scriptures this morning. We're
going to look at a few scriptures, but I kind
of gave you the context where I hope that we
will start to land the plane on those scriptures
a little later. Last week, we had the honor and
the privilege to have Pastor Tim Karskadin with
us from Shreveport, Louisiana, good friend of
mine and love him very deeply. And the reality
was he came simply to encourage us in our journey,
obviously with this riverbank project that's
behind us, but to speak the word of the Lord
as we begin to move into what we call our first
fruits. commitment season. And the reality of
that is this is something that Jenny and I personally
have been operating in for over 30 years. It
has marked our life. From the moment we heard
it, it has become something that has changed
how we live and with an understanding of how
we grow in various aspects as God stretches our
faith. This is something that we'll be celebrating
25 years for those that are fairly new to Life
Bible. We'll be celebrating 25 years this September
and October of planting this church. And this
has become a culture for us that every year right
after, right around the season of close to Pentecost,
from Passover to Pentecost, just in the calendar,
we kind of just look at that because that was
where the children of Israel... in their calendar
brought the sheaf of first fruits that represented
something that they were to give to God as a
worship experience in honoring God with covenant.
Now we know that the scripture says that Jesus
is our first fruits. I was looking at it this
morning and I found a hundred scriptures. Now
we won't get to all hundred today, but I found
a hundred scriptures dealing with first fruits
and the first of bringing the Lord the first.
A hundred. It's amazing how deep this truth that
runs from Genesis to Revelation with Jesus being
our understanding and the principle of it. So
let me just remind us what Pastor Tim brought
to us last week. He brought really a message.
If you were able to catch. Both, you got a real
full meal deal. But he, if you were only able
to catch one of the messages of the two, he was
really trying to deal with the principle of the
giving of our first and our best. And that principle
is reinforced throughout the scripture, but it's
demonstrated best in Galatians, or sorry, not
Galatians, Genesis four, verses three through
seven, in the two persons of revealing two hearts
of, Cain and Abel. The account not only reveals
the Lord's blessings upon who gave their best,
but it also reveals the issue of the heart that
started with mankind from the very beginning.
Abel gave of his own free will, and he does not
withhold what God says is to be the first and
the best that the Lord provided him with. Abel
represents someone that does willingly and joyfully
what God asked them to do. Cain still gave an
offering. However, Cain in his offering determined
the level of his giving rather than responding
to what the Lord had actually asked of him. Let
me just kind of portion this out. You can give
to the Lord and give an offering or of your heart.
That actually doesn't bring your whole heart.
God responded by saying. Abel's offering he accepted.
Cain's he did not. Which means what? You can
actually give an offering. And God not receive
it. What does that mean? That means you can.
Listen. Jesus taught this even by the widow with
the two mites. He said this woman gave more than
all of them. counted together. Why? She gave
from the heart of dependence of faith. They gave
out of their excess. So we see the principle
of Cain and Abel starts just like we would see
Babylon starts in Genesis 10 and 11 and carries
all the way through to revelation of this understanding
of this sin and this economy of Babylon of the
worship of self. It starts. Even earlier than
that with two representatives. Cain and Abel.
One that gives willingly and cheerfully what
God says. And does not try to negotiate with
God. But surrenders and allows God to bless it
and accept it. And one that gives and negotiates.
And gives stingily even though they give. And
doesn't seem to get breakthrough. How does that
work? It works because of the heart. Where's
my heart in this process? As we celebrate this
truth of firstfruits, of giving our first and
our best, firstfruits offering is further explained
with the children of Israel coming out of the
land of Egypt and their journey to the promised
land. We see that God actually writes on it multiple
times. I'm just gonna pick a few. He later talks
about it in Ezekiel. He talks about it in Nehemiah.
He talks about it, but he sets the page for the
children of Israel in Exodus 23 of them coming
out past the Red Sea, past Sinai, and beginning
to receive something that they would do in the
promised land. Turn to somebody and say, he's
talking about the promised land. Okay, there's
three of you that are responding to that. He's
talking about the promised land. Who is your
promised land now? Thank you, Jesus. Jesus is
your promised land. Why? Because the scripture
says all of the promises of God are what? Yes
and amen in Jesus. He becomes our promised land.
In the Old Testament, the promised land was physical
land. In the New Testament, what they experienced
natural first, we experience spiritual first.
It doesn't mean that our spiritual isn't connected
to our natural, but it's spiritual first and
then affects our natural. For them, they lived
everything in the natural trying to get an understanding
of spiritual. We get the fullness of the spiritual
now. Are you there? And so he deals with it in
Exodus 23, Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 26. He connects
it to 1 Corinthians 15, verses 20 through 23
that says what? Jesus now has become our first
fruits that we also might be the first fruits
unto God. Meaning what? What is done, this is
the principle of first fruits. What is done with
the first governs the rest. Let me say that again.
What you do with the first fruits determines
the rest. What God did with Jesus in the first
fruits determines what's going to happen to you
and I with the rest. You understand that? Because
he's changed, because he lives in resurrection
life, because he now has a new body. Guess what?
That is your assurance. What happened to the
first fruits will happen to the first fruits
that follow the rest of the harvest. Why? I mean,
it's just the principle. That's the principle.
Now, let me just give you a couple of scriptures
real quick. Exodus 23, 19. What's it say? Bring
the best of your first fruits from the ground
into the house of the Lord. Leviticus 23, 9 through
11 says this. When you come into the land that
I give you, bring a sheep of the first fruits
of your harvest to the priest that he would wave
it to the Lord. Deuteronomy 26, and I'm just
highlighting some passages here. Deuteronomy
26 says, when you come into the land that the
Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance
and have taken possession of it and live in it,
you shall take some of the first fruit of all
the ground. and that the Lord your God is giving
you and you shall put it in a basket and you
shall go to the place that the Lord your God
chooses and there where he causes his name to
dwell. Verse three. And you shall go to the priest
who's in the office and declare today that I
have come into the land that the forefathers,
that you swore to our forefathers and the priest
shall take the basket from you, set it at the
altar of the Lord. Verse 10, and then you're
to say, I have now brought the fruit of the ground
which you've given me. I set it before you, Lord,
and I worship before you. What is the essence
of first fruits? It is a covenant. That is formed
out of worship. It's not a covenant. Like the
tithe is of a surrender. And an allegiance. And
Lord it's yours. This now comes to a place. An
offering comes from a different place than the
tithe. An offering is something that I choose
of my own free will. Another word for it would
be it's votive. What does votive mean? It means
it's my choice. A tithe, of course, still is
my choice. But a tithe, I don't have a choice
in what that means. It means a tenth of all.
It means if I'm going to honor God with that,
a tithe is a tithe. It's not negotiated. Portion
to it. An offering is whatever God puts on my
heart to do. Radical difference. Two different
blessings associated with it. One represents
a covering and a grace that comes over all that
I have. But an offering represents what? I tap
into, and this is the other scripture, not only
do I tap into 1 Corinthians 15, that Jesus is
the first fruits. I tap into what the Holy Spirit
gave the apostle Paul revelation into what? Sowing
and reaping, which means what? It is tied to
increase. Now you have to ask yourself the question,
is this guy preaching a prosperity gospel? No
and yes. And what do I mean by that? It means
if it's a tied to abundance, and it's tied to
increase, that has some form of prosperity to
it. But the problem is, where most people go
wrong is that that's all they teach on is money.
First fruits is not about money. First fruits
is about increasing you in every dimension. It's
not allowing God to be some cosmic slot machine.
That is the furthest from the truth. The reality
is everything that God actually does, he does
to do what? To increase you at every level so
that more of him actually comes out of you. So
just think about it. If he's going to teach you
on love and forgiveness, what is he going to
do? he's going to stretch you to see if you actually
got it. Have you ever noticed the time that you
just decided that you were going to actually
just let go of some of the bitterness and the
wounds and the things that God did and you come
to the altar, oh God, I give it to you and I
forgive them of their trespass. Forgive me as
I forgive them. I let them go. I give it all
to you. And then the next two weeks, you are
tested of whether or not you really have forgiven.
Why? There's always the stretching of things
and in the faith of things to move you to a place
of what? Of increase. You have to ask yourself
the question, if I'm not increasing, what kind
of gospel and message am I listening to? That's
a good word, preacher. Come on. If Christ is
not being formed in you, An increase of the things
of God are not increasing in your life. That
means you're in a stagnant place. You can deal
with it in forgiveness. You can deal with it
in love. You can deal with it in patience. You
can deal with it in virtue. You can deal with
it with the gifts of the Spirit. Every gift of
the Spirit. Every grace that deals with the nine
gifts of the fruit of the Spirit. The nine gifts
of the quality of the character of the Spirit.
Every single one of those things is meant to
what? Grow in you. You see, every time I see
you, I had this thing in my head and I go, and
white boy Rick, right? And so I'm like, white
boy Rick is meant to grow. He's meant to not,
where he, I met him today or last year. By the
time I see him in the next two or three years,
Rick should not be the same Rick that I met three
years ago. He's been what? Deepened, widened,
lengthened. The breadth of who he is has actually
grown. You see, God doesn't think linearly like
we do. We think, equation. This is where we get
in trouble. We think God should work on an equation
of one plus one equals this. God says in Ephesians
what? He said, I pray that you would be filled
with the love of God. And God is love. And love
is the motive for everything. So what is he saying?
In that love, he wants to fill you. How does
he say he wants to fill you and enlarge you?
Height. depth, breadth, width of the love of
God, that you would know the fullness of Christ.
You understand what he's saying? He's saying
that in every area of your life, you may not
see exponential quotient on the one linear thing,
but he's also working in three other dimensions
of you, not just the output level. And so when
we deal with increase, we're dealing with the
increase of who Christ is inside of you. Can
I get an amen? All right. Now, you have to understand
that when God launched, oh, I gotta hurry, shut
up. When God launched this first fruits offering,
he gave them the offering when they couldn't
do it. Meaning, He gave them the offering as
they were coming out of the land of Egypt. The
whole goal of the wilderness wasn't supposed
to be 40 years there. The whole goal of the two
years of the wilderness was to work God's miracle
provision of keeping them safe and supplying
all that they need that it wouldn't wear out.
to get them to get to a place where they trusted
God to move to a different level of faith. That
was the whole goal, right? Because it doesn't
take much faith. Just work with me here. It doesn't
take much faith to pick up supernatural bread
that's on the ground. You don't need to go out,
oh God, give me faith to pick this up this morning.
You didn't do that. Once you did it a time or
two, You moved to expectation and it just became
something that became concrete. You expected
in the wilderness manna to fall. It had no faith
to it. Hello? The sign and the wonder and the
sustenance of it was to get you to believe in
God's ability to do way beyond what you asked
or thought. That's why when he brought them to
the promised land and they saw the giants and
the cities and they saw the enemy, the goal was
after two years of him doing, and the Bible records
it, 10 specific supernatural miracles to sustain
them, that the law of faith, 10 being the law,
the law of faith would have taken over from the
law of unbelief. And they would have looked at
the promised land and said, God is. is able.
Two of the 12 did, but the 10 of the 12 didn't.
The curse was that that generation had to stay
in the wilderness. And the Bible says what in
Hebrews chapter three, it says, and with that
generation, he was not well pleased and their
bodies littered the wilderness. They will not
enter my hello rest. Because, oh my goodness,
I'm going to preach this morning. Why? Because
rest is connected to faith. Let me say that again.
God's rest is connected to faith. That's what
was missing. That's why the water coming out
of the rock that followed them. That's why the...
elders standing over the ground and singing to
the ground and the well pops up and water springs
up out of the desert spring up a well where we
get that song comes right out of that example
where the elders put their staffs in the ground
and by putting a stick nobody drills a well with
a stick Okay, if you're a farm kid at all, you
don't go out there with just a walking stick
and just tap the ground a few times and a well
of water that could feed hundreds of thousands
of sheep and cattle and two million people pop
out of the ground. But supernaturally, God did
all of those things in the wilderness. Why? To
prepare them. for a different culture. Please
hear this. For a different culture, a different
system, and a different rhythm of living than
what they walked out of Egypt. Everything in
Egypt was done by hand. It was what? Egypt was
the epitome of build it by man's power, man's
strength, and man's mind. It was by the crack
of the whip, And it actually says this in the
scripture, by the pressing of the foot pedal
of the Nile River, they watered their crops.
It was all, they didn't have Elon Musk back then.
They didn't have Tesla technology. They didn't
have sump pumps to put in the river and do it
for them and just have automatic timers. You
know how Egypt grew all their crops? By slaves
pumping water. on the ground. You know what God
said to them when they came into the promised
land? He said, this ground is different. He said,
this ground will respond by heaven, and I'll
give you in covenant relationship the early and
the latter rains. It will not respond. The ground
in the promised land will not respond like the
ground did in Egypt. That's why the early and
the latter rains are associated with what? Faith
and obedience and blessing. Rains always speak
of blessing. Why? What do rains come to do? Well,
I don't have time. I could teach a whole series.
It's probably eight weeks on just the rains.
But I know I need to do it. But the reality is,
what does the early rain do? The early rain is
the rain that sets the seed that has been sown.
It's a setting rain. Meaning, when you go to
sow. All right, I'm going to keep going here,
but let me just give you a scripture. What is
the kingdom of God? Luke 13. Let's just read
it so that you understand what I'm preaching
on. Luke 13 verse 18. What is the kingdom of
God like? Jesus is trying to explain kingdom
of God to the people. And to what shall I compare
it? It is like a grain of mustard seed that a
man took and sowed in his garden. So let's get
this down. Jesus is trying to explain the laws
and the realm of the kingdom because it's different.
The laws of the kingdom are different than the
laws that are connected to sin and to the earth.
Jesus has kingdom laws. That's why it's sowing
and reaping is a kingdom law. Are you there?
Forgiveness and love actually unlocks more forgiveness
and love. That's a kingdom law. Give and it shall
be given to you. Press down, shaken together,
run to it. As one gives whatever measure they
give, it shall be measured back to you. That
is kingdom. If you sow love and kindness in the
midst of life, guess what's gonna happen? To
the degree that you're willing to do that, God
says that will come back in your life. You sow
hardship and be in a hard rear end your whole
life, guess what's gonna come to you when you
need it? Not grace and mercy. But the rear end,
that stiffness of a hard A of a man will come
back. I've watched it. I've watched it for, as
I've been a Christian now for over 40, almost
45 years. I've watched it. Those who measure
and operate in kingdom principles when it's hard
and they do what Jesus asked them to do when
they needed it comes back to them. But when they
refuse to do what the Lord says, exacting everything
from every person without love and forgiveness
and grace, when they end up in that place, then
they wonder why that's not happening. It's a
kingdom law, sowing and reaping. Now, Jesus ties
it to the kingdom of God is like a man who sowed
mustard seed. Well, Jesus taught a lot on mustard
seed, but what we do know, it's the smallest
seed of the field. But the Bible tells us in
other places that that mustard seed becomes,
even though it's the smallest seed in the field,
it becomes the largest plant in the garden. Now,
let me ask you a question. What constitutes a
garden? How do you determine a garden? Cohen,
right? Cohen, would you say this is a garden?
No. And why is it not a garden? Right. It's not.
You were close. So I'm going to give you the
answer. And you did well. It's because there's
nothing cultivated or turned over to prepare
for seed. Notice what Jesus says. The kingdom
of God is like an individual that took a mustard
seed and sowed it in his garden. Do you understand
that, first of all, you actually have to have
a garden? You can't become just a concrete wall
to the things of God and expect growth. You can't
just be pavement. Remember, we spent a whole
year on the parable of Mark 4. I have 37 lessons
we taught. On 37 Sundays out of 52, I taught
on this what? The seed that falls on the hardened
path gets plucked up, right? The other seed that
falls on what? Stony and rocky ground shrivels
and dies. The other seed that falls on shallow
ground never produces fruit. You plant a mustard
seed, if it's going to grow to become the biggest
thing, even though it's the smallest seed, it
has to be what? A cultivated, tilled garden ready
to receive the word. So what is he saying to
us? He's saying, listen, if you're going to operate
and want something, you want to grow in God,
you have to begin to cultivate your garden. Who's
the garden? You are. Prove it to me. 1 Corinthians
3, 9. You are God's field. Guess who's responsible
for tilling that field? You are. Where's that?
Genesis chapter 2. And God put man in the garden
to till it and to cultivate it. The very first
commission of our lives as Christians, even what
he started original with mankind is to what?
In order to get the garden to expand, you have
to do what? Go cultivate it. Do you understand
that the scripture actually says in Genesis that
God forbid the rain to come. On the ground. Now
listen to this. Early latter rain. We're connecting
it to blessing. And we're connecting it to faith.
God did not send rain on the earth. Tell what?
There was a man to cultivate the ground. Do you
understand? That rain. Which represents blessings.
Can only come. When you move past the territory
of what you are now and you begin to cultivate
your heart to plant seed in borders beyond where
you're at now. That is the essence of first fruits.
The whole point of first fruits that we do yearly
is what? Cultivate your heart to do what? Move
you to a place of increase. Does that mean, does
that, equate to money? No. Not directly. It equates
to growth in Christ which comes to what? Your
success. Are you there? That's the real prosperity
preaching. Real prosperity preaching is you get
more of Jesus. Who wouldn't want to be that kind
of preacher? I'm a preacher of doubt and unbelief.
I'm a preacher of stagnation. God forbid the
whole point of preaching is to move people into
a place of increase for God's glory. And if it
affects your love, if it affects your forgiveness,
if it affects your character of Christ, if it
affects your speech, if it affects the way you
steward, if it affects your integrity, that is
increase. And guess who gets the glory? God.
And guess what happens to you? You actually succeed
in the things that God puts you on earth to do.
And you increase. Now that brings me... in the
last five minutes to the verse that I said we
were going to get to. See, I should have really
gone to law school. I was going to go to law
school because the argument of most of the time
how I preach is bring everything around to my
closing argument. And here it is. 2 Corinthians
8, 7. But as you excel in everything, talking
to the Corinthian church, as you excel in faith,
in speech, in knowledge, in earnestness, and
in love, see that you excel in this act of gracious
giving. You understand, God is asking you to
what? To excel. Excel is not a spreadsheet here
in the Gospels here. It's not the computer program
Excel. This word Excel means what? It is increase
and abundance. It is growing from one place of
where you were to growing in a new place of where
God wants you to be. That's why Paul could write
in Romans chapter one, Verse 17, for the justified
shall live by faith. And we're to grow from faith
to faith. What was he saying to the Corinthian
church? I want you to now grow and increase in
what? Your speech. He didn't mean I want you
to talk more. That wasn't what he was saying.
I want you to talk more. I would say no. Jesse
Joe, that is not your gift. You don't need to
talk more. What do we need to talk? I know I'm
using you as an example. What do we need to do?
When she talks, if she grows in God, her talk
is going to have more substance, more character,
more depth, and it's going to reflect her relationship
with Jesus. It's not about the abundance of words.
It's about the depth and the breadth of Christ
formed in her. That's the excelling. It's supposed
to happen in speech. What else is supposed to
happen? It's supposed to happen in deeds. Your
deeds that are generated by what? By what you
hear the voice of God speak to you. As you hear
God, you what? Respond and do deeds that are
sponsored by faith. Faith without works or deeds
is what? Dead. If you have a live faith, I don't
show my faith by deeds, but deeds certainly validate
the fact that there's a living faith. What else
does it say here? In love, right? In earnestness.
Earnestness is what? In genuine, heartfelt faith,
but in compassion and care. What's he saying?
Bring increase to that inside of your life. In
knowledge. What's he saying? Knowledge. Not just
anything. I don't just crack open a book and
study biology for the sake of growing. Now, if
you're a scientist, you probably ought to know
some things. But if you're a Christian, you ought
to know Jesus. And listen, I'm not trying to...
Cohen, I picked on you here. Let's just keep
going. Okay? Let's just keep going. You had it
once. Let's give you the second barrel. If you're
going to grow in the knowledge of Jesus, it isn't
going to be by reading 30 years worth of somebody
else's devotionals. That is not growing in knowledge.
Growing in knowledge means you're actually going
to get a book. that's gonna dive into the language
of Hebrew and of Greek and is gonna teach you
the living word, Jesus, in the fullness of who
he is. And you're gonna pull it out. Why? Because
the more you know about him, who is the living
word, the more Christ is gonna be formed in you.
Now, I don't say this often. I'm not a huge fan
of technology. But there's one thing I like about
technology, Diane. And that is, I'm not the greatest
Greek scholar and I'm not the greatest Hebrew
scholar and I don't know any Aramaic or Latin.
But what I do love is the computer does know
it. And I can hover over a word and say, say
for me this word. And it goes, and it repeats
it out. I now can speak Hebrew with the help
of AI. I can speak Greek with the help of AI.
I can understand. Now, Trent says I still don't
do it right. But the point is, at least, at least
I can go deeper in the meaning of the word and
pronounce it. Why? I'm getting more of why God
used that word to convey a message in the language.
And Christ is now being formed in me. I'm not
just listening to somebody's opinion. I'm now.
finding him to be real inside of me. Are you
doing all right? What am I doing? Well, in first
fruits, and Jenny's gonna just play a little
first fruits closing music here. In first fruits,
as we get ready to hear the Lord and we start
this process, and today you see some cards on
there. If you are ready to begin to fill that
out, we can do that in a little bit. We'll take
time for that. But over the next few weeks, we're
going to be praying for people as what they heard
God. What does God asking us to do? We begin
to ask the Lord of the harvest. Remember how
he said, pray and ask the Lord of the harvest
to send workers. The Lord of the harvest is over
every form of harvesting, every form of sowing
and reaping. You're talking to the one who is
the Lord of the harvest. He can't be Lord of
the harvest unless he's also Lord of your sowing.
Let me say that again. He can't be Lord of the
harvest unless he's Lord over your sowing. And
he asks us to what? Sow in accordance to the
measure of our faith. That's why the next scripture
I told you to look at is right on the next page.
Second Corinthians chapter nine, verse six that
says, if you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly.
If you sow generously, you reap generously. And
then he adds this amazing statement. He says,
for he who sows must do it cheerfully for God,
not under compulsion or grudge, for God loves
a cheerful giver. Do you know where that verse
is actually connecting you? To the very thing
that Pastor Tim brought you back last week to
Cain and Abel. a sowing with Abel and Abel responded
generously and cheerfully and he accepted it.
You know what Cain did? He begrudgingly gave
of his own works. He still gave. God didn't accept
it. That's why the Holy Spirit puts in this verse.
He said, you have to do it because your heart
is stirred and you have to do it willingly because
you want to hear God and you want him to grow
in you. Now on those cards, you'll see, it says,
I'm believing for a harvest for. You can't sow
seed in God's economy without believing for a
harvest. I filled out my card yesterday because
I knew I was going to preach this and I asked
the Lord, I said, Lord, I want to have my seed
ready to give this weekend. What you've spoken
to Jenny and I, and I'm gonna put on my card.
You know the first three things that I put on
my card have nothing to do with me or Jenny.
Has everything to do with this church. And the
number one response is not the riverbank. That's
number three. I put about seven or eight things
that I, because I'm sowing what I believe the
Lord asked me to do. It's sacrificial. It's difficult,
but it's large, but I have joy in doing it. But
in the response, okay, what am I sowing to? I'm
sowing into this church. I'm sowing into the
people. I'm sowing into breakthrough and into
his presence. I'm sowing for breakthrough on
the riverbank. Those become my top three, and
then there's some things for my family and my
future. But the principle is I have to be willing
to cultivate the ground of my heart, take what
God has given me as a steward, and now come to
the Lord of the harvest who's in charge of all
of the fields of my heart. And I say, Lord, speak
to me. You know what's inside of me. You know
what I have. How do I partner with you by faith
and that you would stretch the increase and enlarge
me? What is it going to take this year? What
do you want to do through me? And that's how
I wait on the Lord. And that's how I'm hoping
you wait on the Lord. I know we're just a little
over time here, but I'm going to give us a few
moments and then I'm going to ask the elders
and pastors to come. And if you're ready, we'll
pray for you. We'll be praying for people after
the next few services. So you can, if you're
not ready today, you can take that card home
and pray over it. If you are, we want to pray
for you as Pastor Trent comes in a bit. Let's
just wait on the Lord. Father. Right now, Lord,
we're asking you to speak to us. Lord, we're
prepared our heart this morning. We know that
this is our first fruit season. This is a time
of growth for us. It's a time of stretch. It's
a time of being enlarged in every area. Would
you now speak to each family? Husbands and wives
together in faith. Those that are single coming
to you, Lord of the harvest, our God of salvation,
our God who provides, as it says, he gives seed
to the sower and bread to the eater. Lord, that
he may abundantly supply, having sufficiency
for all things. God, speak to us. What do you
want to do? What do you want me to do? What do
you want us to do? If you are in need of prayer,
send us a text message at 541 -625 -1365. We
would love to pray with you.