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Church pulpit series.
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Acts chapter 10, if you'll turn there please
with me, Acts chapter 10 about a man
called Cornelius.
He brought his own house to spiritual victory
and in fact he and his household were
the first Gentile converts to Jesus Christ.
You understand that from the time of Abraham
the gospel, as we know it, the message
was really just for the Jews and of
course the Jews after Calvary thought it was
still just for the Jewish nation.
But God chose a specific man and I
think that is something we need to take
note of.
There was something about this man that God
chose him to be the first man and
the first house in the New Testament that
was not Jewish upon which the Holy Spirit
was about to come and salvation in Christ
was about to visit.
Acts chapter 10 verse 30, and Cornelius said,
four days ago I was fasting until this
hour and at the ninth hour I prayed
in my house and behold a man stood
before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius
thy prayer is heard and thine alms are
had in remembrance of the sight of God.
Send therefore to Joppa and call hither Simon
whose surname is Peter.
He is lodged in the house of one
Simon a tanner by the seaside who when
he cometh he shall speak unto thee.
Immediately therefore I sent to thee and thou
hast done well that thou art come.
Now therefore are we all here present before
God to hear all things that are commanded
thee of God.
Now it can be certainly said today that
this man Cornelius stood in the gap for
his family.
Now through his life generations of spiritual alienation
from God were broken and I do believe
that's a pattern.
I don't believe that this account of Cornelius
and his household is just one rather uncommon
occurrence of grace.
I do believe that it's a type of
something which God desires to do for every
family that is here today.
Peter when he opened his mouth in Cornelius'
house the very first thing he said in
verses 34 and 35 he said of a
truth I perceive that God is no respecter
of persons but in every nation he that
fears him and works righteousness is accepted with
him.
God is no respecter of persons.
That gives such hope to my heart today.
That means he doesn't move because we're doing
everything right.
He doesn't move because all we have all
of you know it's not a formula.
It's an issue of the heart.
He says in every nation of everyone who
fears God and works righteousness is accepted with
him.
That means not only in every nation but
in every home.
You might be the least in your house
as Gideon was but God can work through
you and bring great deliverance to your family.
If we took time today to go through
the Old Testament scriptures you'll see the pattern
over and over and over again where God
reaches down and touches those with the least
amount of influence.
Those who perhaps are from a house that's
far away from God and they themselves are
the least authority in that house and yet
it delights God to reach down and to
touch those things that are nothing to bring
to naught those things that are.
That's the hope of the gospel.
That's what makes it such a wonderful thing
to know God because it's not about having
done it all right.
You might say pastor you don't understand today
my house is an absolute mess and I
have been largely responsible to some degree for
the mess that my house is in.
But God remember says to you that he's
the restorer of everything that the moth and
canker worm has eaten away.
Everything the devil has come in and devoured
God doesn't say well I'll just I'm the
bandager of what the devil has done.
No I'm the restorer.
I bring it back better than it was
in the beginning.
God Almighty is the one who can change
all things.
He can speak things into existence and he
calls things that are not as if they
are.
It's amazing when that finally gets into your
heart something begins to stir inside your life.
There's an incredible obligation given to everyone here
who's the spiritual head of your home.
Now that doesn't mean necessarily just the fathers
because if the father's not living for God
or if you happen to be a single
mother it's the one who has that touch
of heaven in their soul who has that
living relationship with God.
In some cases it can be a son
or daughter, can be a grandmother, it can
be a grandfather who's here today.
Maybe everyone else is backslidden or distant from
God but you are the one now that
is the connection to heaven for your family.
And the issue is simply that through your
life great deliverance can come to your family.
Do you believe this?
I believe it with all my heart.
I believe it I don't care how far
away from God any of my distant relatives
might be.
I believe that through my life great deliverance
can come to my family.
I've seen that in the last several years
as God has been so faithful having had
opportunity for example last November to speak at
my father's funeral where many of my aunts
and uncles and cousins and family members were
gathered and being given opportunity in a Catholic
church to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Justification by faith as the Apostle Paul said.
God can do above and beyond all things
that we can even think or ask.
You have to believe it or we end
up poverty stricken Christians who are sons and
daughters of the King.
We have to believe that God can take
our lives and He can make a difference
to us.
He can tear down strongholds.
He can bring deliverance into the most destitute
spiritually speaking of families.
He can touch the impossible and make it
possible.
This is the God we serve.
Nothing is too hard for God.
Absolutely nothing.
Absolutely nothing is too hard for the God
that we serve.
I believe that in many who are here
today you will be the key to a
spiritual awakening in your own home and it
will begin this year.
If you can lay hold of this you
will be the key.
You say like Gideon, me?
God are you sure?
Are you really speaking this to me?
I am the least in my father's house.
I am the least esteemed.
I don't have any authority.
In the field there were 12 plowers and
he was the 12th.
He was the last guy in line in
other words.
Everyone else was before him and he's kind
of the kid of the flock as it
is.
And he said, God are you sure?
And God says yes I'm sure.
I've called you and I'm going to make
you a mighty man of valor.
I'm going to infuse life and resources of
heaven into you.
It's not going to be something you have
to do in your own strength.
The Lord says I'm going to infuse it
into you Gideon.
I'm going to give it to you.
It's going to come from my hand and
the might that you will possess comes simply
from the fact that I have sent you.
Not from any other reason or any other
purpose.
So look away from yourself as Paul says
and reckon yourself dead but alive through Jesus
Christ to every purpose that God has attained
for you.
Now I want to firstly look at the
things which can hinder the deliverance of your
house.
Now I believe that God is able to
deliver our homes, every one of us here
today, into spiritual life in Christ.
But there are hindrances.
There are reasons why sometimes these things don't
happen.
And if we're honest today, if we have
the true spirit of God, I believe we
will say like David, God search me, try
me, know my heart and see if there
be something wicked that I have made peace
with.
See if some way has formed in me
that has become a hindrance to your life
being manifested in my house and among my
family and my kinsfolk.
Firstly, when you are of poor reputation among
those that are closest to you, this would
probably be the greatest hindrance to the deliverance
of your house.
I'm not talking about your reputation at Times
Square Church.
You can be the best worker perhaps that
we've ever seen in the house.
You can grab a broom and sweep like
nobody else or stand up in a classroom
and teach like nobody else taught.
You can have giftings of the Holy Ghost
and many things and tremendous faith even to
move mountains.
But if you are of poor reputation among
those that are closest to you, your life
will become a hindrance to the deliverance of
your own house.
Acts chapter 10, again, the Bible says that
Cornelius, when the angel had spoken to him,
he called two of his household servants and
a devout soldier of them that waited on
him continually.
So here are three people from his own
house and he sends these people to the
Apostle Peter to get him because he's been
told that Peter's going to tell you words
and by these words you're going to know
the mouth or the voice of God.
And so when they arrived at the Simon
the Tanner's house in verse 22 and they
said, now here's their report, Cornelius the centurion,
a just man and one that fears God
and of good report among all the nation
of the Jews.
Now this is the report of his household.
They said he's a just man, an honest
man.
He's a man that fears God.
He has a wholesome fear of God, a
wholesome reverence of God.
Cornelius doesn't play games with God.
They've never seen this man play games with
God.
It's his own household that says this man
fears God.
He is exactly the same way at home
as he is in whatever place perhaps he
chose to worship.
There's no difference.
And we have to ask ourselves today, can
those of our household give us a good
report?
If our children go to school, for example,
and if the teacher asks and says, what
is your father, what is your mother like,
what is your sister, your brother, what is
your grandmother, your guardian, what is your grandfather
like, what can they reply?
This is an honest question we have to
ask ourselves, beloved.
Are we a hindrance to our own house?
Does God want to bring deliverance but is
it possible that we are of poor reputation?
We come to church and our children see
us lift our hands and praise God, but
then they see us lift our hands for
other reasons at home.
We point the finger to heaven and talk
about the promises in church, but point the
finger at home for different reasons.
We lift our voice in adoration in the
house of God and raise our voice for
other purposes in the house among those that
are closest to us.
We talk about charity and generous giving and
almsgiving in the house of God, but go
home and we strain at an ad and
we are stingy and selfish.
And I had a young lady come to
me one time from this church and her
father was in public ministry and she came
and she said, my father is such a
selfish man, I'm ashamed.
She said he buys all these luxurious clothes
for himself, there's nothing he denies himself and
I don't even have mitts to go to
school and I don't have any good clothes
and my mother has nothing nice to wear
and my father is in ministry.
I had another young man one time sit
in my office, his father was a minister,
a preacher of the gospel and this young
man almost broke my heart, 17 years of
age and he said to me, if the
God that is of heaven is the God
of my father, I don't want to serve
him.
I see my father in the pulpit, but
I tell you, he said he's another man
at home.
You see, this man was a poor reputation
among those of his own house and he
preached the gospel, became a hindrance to his
own family coming to the saving knowledge of
Jesus Christ.
God forbid, God forbid that in my life
or in your life that we should become
the very barrier that shuts our sons and
daughters, our brothers and sisters out of the
kingdom of God.
If they make a choice to reject God,
then let it be on their own heads,
but let it be with a perfect knowledge
of who God is.
Let it be with a touch of heaven
if they make that rejection.
Acts chapter 10 and verse 2 describes Cornelius.
Now, there was a certain man, it says
in verse 1, called Cornelius the centurion and
it says in verse 2, he was a
devout man.
And in the Greek New Testament, it says
he's one who showed piety towards God, towards
parents or others.
In other words, he's a man who treated
people with respect.
That's what it really means when it says
he was a devout man.
He was a man who was tempered and
kind in his words.
Oh, beloved, remember David the psalmist when he's
talking about all that God had done for
him.
He makes a statement that in my early
Christian years, I said, Oh God, I want
that to be my life.
Because David concludes all the things that God
had done for him by saying, Thy gentleness
has made me great.
God, you have been gentle with me.
You've been gracious with me, oh God.
And because of it, I've had a heart
to approach you.
Because of it, oh God, I've known that
even in my failure, I can come back
to you because your gentleness, you've been tender
with me knowing my frailty.
And this man, Cornelius, was a man who
the scripture says he showed piety towards God,
his parents perhaps and others.
He was a tender speaking man, reverent.
He was careful in his words, careful in
his speech.
Also goes on to say he was one
who feared God.
And of course, the word just simply means
he had a holy respect.
He had a reverence for God.
He didn't play games with God.
His children knew where he stood, his kinsfolks.
When you saw Cornelius in the place of
worship, he was the same man that you
saw perhaps in the kitchen the next day
at home or out in the marketplace.
People were able to look at him from
his own household and say he has a
reverence for God.
He fears God.
He doesn't play games with God, this man.
There's nothing more tragic than mothers and fathers
who play games with God.
Don't think for a second there's not a
judgment on that.
First of all, in your own heart because
of the spiritual blindness, but your children see
it.
Our children are designed to follow us as
we follow God.
God put that in their hearts.
And if they see in us a game
playing with God, there's a tremendous judgment that
can come into our homes because of that.
Beloved, don't play games with God.
Be the same person at home that you
are in church.
Be the same person.
And if you're not, at least have the
courage to admit it.
And come to God because he says, let
me change that in your life.
Let me make you the same person at
home that you are in the house of
God.
Goes on to say in verse 2, he
was one which gave much alms to the
people.
Alms in the Greek New Testament means that
he was moved to acts of compassion because
of the pity that's in his heart.
He's a tempered speaking man.
He has a God consciousness.
All of his day, he's not playing games
with God.
He is moved when he sees people who
are in distress to do something about it.
Folks, I'm telling you, I know now after
the years of being a Christian that children
are not interested so much in what we
say.
It's tell us, show us now.
Show us.
Don't tell us your doctrine.
Show us your doctrine.
Show us and we will follow.
And quite often, you see the situations where
mothers and fathers are moving out with acts
of compassion to their neighbors, acts of compassion
to people around them.
It can be a cup of cold water
for a stranger, but just that compassion is
in them.
And this is the type of a man
that Cornelius was.
And then, of course, he says it lastly
in verse 2 that he prayed to God
always.
Acts chapter 10, verse 30, when he begins
to speak to Peter, he says, And four
days ago, I was fasting.
I was fasting.
I was seeking God.
And an angel came and told me to
send for you.
But I was fasting.
He was a man who prayed.
He was a man who was committing his
family, his life, his day, committing his future
into the hands of God.
And this was the man that God chose
to bring his house together and touch them
in a very profound way.
Secondly, a hindrance, a man who cannot be
corrected and admit to his wrong will often
find himself and his home out of God's
favor, a person who cannot be corrected, a
proud person.
First Peter 5.5, Peter says, Be clothed
with humility, for God resists the proud and
gives grace to the humble.
God resists the proud.
God will resist the person who cannot be
corrected.
The person who has a piety as it
is, comes to the house of God, but
goes home and cannot be corrected.
You know, the strongest evidence of that is
when those closest to you try, perhaps you
can humble yourself in Times Square Church.
And if Pastor Dave, Pastor Neil, Pastor Carter,
Pastor Patrick preaches a message, it's kind of
a safe environment.
You can slip out with the hundreds, come
to the altar and give an impression, at
least that you love correction.
But the evidence of loving correction is when
you get home and your husband or wife
or son or daughter says, I want to
talk to you about something in your life.
Then all of a sudden, this rage rises
up.
How dare you?
You see, there's a pride there.
You see, it's the people closest to us
that know us the best.
Everybody can put on a good front Sunday
morning and Sunday afternoon and Tuesday.
But beloved, it's when you get home.
And the evidence of true humility is, can
those closest to you speak to you?
Can they say there's something you're saying, there's
something you're doing, there's a way you're treating
us or interacting that we need to talk
to you about?
If they perceive you to be a person
of God and then there's a resistance or
pride and you say, well, no, you cannot
be corrected.
You find that not only do your own
house begin to resist the gospel that you're
speaking to them, but also God Almighty himself
says, I resist the proud, but give grace
to the humble.
I want to encourage you.
One of the greatest gifts I believe that
God can give to a Christian is an
open and a humble heart that says, Lord,
speak to me, speak to me, to whoever
and whatever circumstance you have to.
If I am grieving you, God, speak to
me.
When all the defenses finally fall down, we
have nothing to prove to anybody anymore, but
no reputation to uphold, no stubborn image to
try to maintain.
We just want to be like Christ and
say, God, speak to me, speak to me.
Tell me what it is you want me
to know about my life and about my
heart.
I always know when it's coming my way
at home, because my wife gets that particular
look at the breakfast table.
And she's always very gracious with me.
She says, something I need to talk to
you about.
And then I know.
Now, years ago, something would rise up in
me.
I'd say, well, there's something I need to
talk to you about, too, as well.
But I guess as you get older, you
get tamer.
Isn't that right, Pastor?
You just get tamer and you say, what
do you, what do you, what is it?
I don't want to be ungodly.
I don't want any area of ungodliness in
my thinking or speech or conversation or action.
And I'm grateful today for those closest who,
if they see something developing, will speak to
me about it.
I want to know.
And I do believe that's the evidence of
a godly heart, that we're not backing away
and defending ourselves.
Even if some, you know, quite often keep
in mind that family members will quite often
speak to you with a heated spirit.
The thing is, it's stewed in them.
They might come to you with the wrong
spirit, but they still might be speaking truth
to you.
Just about something in your life that has
finally driven them to distraction.
And when it finally comes out, it comes
out with all of the frustration that is
built around it.
You and I have got to have the
grace to hear.
The grace to hear.
And I do believe that Cornelius was such
a man.
For in Acts chapter 10, verse 25, it
says, As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met
him and fell down at his feet and
worshipped him.
But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up.
I myself am also a man.
So his first encounter with Peter is a
correction, as it is.
And Cornelius, of course, at that point said,
Well, I'm really not a man.
Please, I'm not a man worshipper.
I'm just doing it.
This is our custom.
I was reverencing you as you came into
my house.
No, I believe that he truly took the
correction.
When Peter said, Stand up.
In other words, Cornelius, don't do this.
You're not to worship men.
You're to worship only God.
And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you and
I can be a hindrance to our own
house coming to God when there is no
sense of fresh expectancy in us.
You see, our life in Christ must produce
that expectancy.
Faith is trust in a specific promise.
Now, I want to define the difference between
faith and expectancy, as I see it.
Anyway, faith is trust in a specific promise
when God has spoken something and you've laid
hold of it and you believe it.
But expectancy is just something in the human
heart of those who know God that say,
Well, he hasn't spoken anything to me yet,
but when he does, I know it's going
to be good.
I don't know where I'm going tomorrow, but
I know that God is in tomorrow and
I know it's going to be good.
It's another word really for a trusting heart
that believes God for tomorrow.
Certainly, we can say today that Cornelius didn't
have the word of God.
He knew nothing about God.
He didn't know anything about the way of
salvation.
There's not a single promise in the scripture
that he was claiming as his own, but
he was a seeker of God.
And when he heard that God's word was
coming to him, he was able to gather
his whole house because there was an expectancy
in this man.
We have to have that expectancy, beloved.
We have to get up every day believing
that as God is leading us, something good
is going to come from his presence in
our lives.
Some new gift is going to be given
to us.
Some new dimension will be added to our
thinking or ability to talk about or live
or act out the life of Jesus Christ
that he is now birthed within us.
There has to be that expectancy or we
end up just religious people with a pile
of theology that we're throwing at people.
I'd rather live in the presence of somebody
who has that expectancy in their heart.
Morning by morning, the psalmist says, new mercies
I see.
Morning by morning, every day I get up
and oh God, I so expect you to
do something.
I expect you, oh God, to do what
is necessary in my life that your calling
may be fulfilled through me.
Acts 10, 24, the scripture says, and Cornelius
called together his kinsmen and all his dear
friends.
So this man had an expectancy.
An angel had come and said, a man's
coming.
He's going to tell you about God.
He had an expectancy that something good was
about to happen.
And this expectancy in Cornelius enabled him to
call together all his family and his close
friends.
They were all together.
Verse 27 tells us, as Peter talked with
him, he went in and found many that
were come together.
I can see Cornelius at this time saying
to his friends and family, listen, I heard
something from God.
I heard something.
It's not just exuberance that arises out of
presumption, but this is hearing something.
Beloved, I want to tell you something.
When you're shut in with God and living
with God, when you're not a religious fraud
and God is able to get a hold
of your heart, when you're not playing games
and you're walking with God, there is an
expectancy.
There's something about you that God begins to
do.
There's a light in your eye.
There's something in your voice.
There's something in your character.
The whole place around you can be in
a tailspin and you can be sitting there
with a calm confidence because you know, God
is sitting in absolute control and you expect
that he's going to speak something that is
life.
You expect it to come.
There's a deep abiding trust in your heart.
And I want to tell you that is
attractive.
That's why new Christians oftentimes win more people
to Christ than those that have known him
for years, because new Christians don't know enough
about the word to have lost their faith
yet.
New Christians just have an expectancy in God.
They have an expectancy.
I'm changing.
I'm not the person I was yesterday.
I remember when I first started sharing Christ,
when I got sick, I didn't even know
there was a man called Zachariah or Zephaniah
or Malachi.
I didn't even know they were in the
Bible.
I didn't have a clue, but I knew
one thing.
I'm not what I was yesterday and I'm
not going to be the same again tomorrow.
An expectancy was in my heart.
An expectancy is attractive.
It's that that fruit of that first love
relationship.
This is Jesus.
I'm not willing to take communion with you.
I'm not willing to take your promises in
your very life within me and trade it
off for some form of dead religion.
I'm going to live in that expectancy that
you're about to do something in my life.
We look at the scriptural illustrations, for example,
Joshua.
Please don't turn there.
I'll just share it with you.
Joshua chapter six.
He said to the people as they were
going into Jericho, he said, pass on and
compass the city.
And in verse 10, he says, the day
I bid you shout, then you should shout.
Oh, there had to be an expectancy as
the people just simply obeyed.
This man had a word from God.
They walked around the city.
We don't know how it's going to happen,
but it is going to happen.
There was an expectancy in their hearts, even
though they were not the ones directly given
the word.
It was given to Joshua.
In Judges, we see Gideon, as I spoke
of earlier, taking 10 men of his servants
and doing as the Lord had said to
him, God had called him to bring deliverance
to his house and said, first, you've got
to tear down that altar of Baal that's
in your father's backyard.
You've got to tear down that old altar.
And so Gideon took 10 of his servants.
Oh, a risky venture for sure, knowing that
the full wrath of this village perhaps was
going to come upon them.
But there was an expectancy in Gideon that
God was going to do something.
It wasn't given to the 10 servants.
It was given to Gideon and Gideon, because
that expectancy was being birthed in his heart,
was able to gather these 10 servants from
his own house around him to do something
that was extremely risky to do.
Beloved, when your children or those close to
you begin to see you and I casting
down old altars, something begins to stir in
their hearts.
Not when it's what we say, it's when
we begin to change old ways of speaking,
begin to be cast down old things that
we used to.
All of a sudden they come home and
say, hey, how come dad's not a couch
potato on Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon any
longer sitting and looking at some useless football
game?
But dad's going to church now and praising
God.
What's bringing about this change that I want
to tell you today?
It's time to tear down the old altar.
It's time to get rid of it and
throw it out of your house.
For the sake of God, for the sake
of your families, I appeal to every spiritual
head of every house.
Tear down the old altars.
I don't care how long it's been that
way.
Tear down those old altars.
God is calling you to bring your family
out of darkness and into the love and
light of Jesus Christ.
I think of the book of Ruth when
Naomi told Ruth to go and humble herself
at the feet of Boaz and to do
something that was personally and culturally very difficult
to do.
I believe that Ruth obeyed Naomi because, in
part, there was a sense of divine expectancy
in Naomi's voice.
Ruth had no word from God for herself.
Naomi had the word.
And there was an expectancy in Naomi.
Chapter three, verse one, Naomi tells Ruth, I
have been seeking rest for you that it
may be well with you.
I've been seeking God for you.
And this is what God is telling me
to tell you.
Beloved, we have to have an expectancy for
our children.
We have to have it.
You and I both.
Do we have God's word yet for them?
We have to have something from heaven as
we begin to intercede for the good of
those around who may not yet know the
presence and power of God.
God will begin to speak to our hearts
and we will begin to speak into their
lives.
So important for those who are in positions
of spiritual authority to begin to speak into
the lives of your family around you.
Begin to tell them what God will do
for them.
Begin to tell them if you would just
obey God speaking to my heart.
And there are some simple things.
If you will obey, God's blessing will come
on your life.
And of course, because of Ruth's obedience, she
ended up grafted into the lineage of Jesus
Christ.
Can we say, as the Lord spoke through
Jeremiah in chapter 29, 11?
I know the thoughts that I think towards
you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil to give you an expected
end.
Can we say these words to our children?
Beloved, it's time.
It's time that we get on the offensive,
spiritually speaking, and begin to get hold of
God and ask God, what is your mind
for my son?
What is your mind for my daughters?
What is your mind, O God, for my
brother, my sister, my mother, my father?
And as we get that mind, begin to
speak that into their lives.
I remember sitting beside my father just a
short time before he passed away.
And for many, many years, he seemed to
be very close to the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
But I remember saying to him that I
have a promise in my heart.
I've been praying for you for 22 years
and I have a promise in my heart
from God that I will see you saved
before you die.
Now, he was a month away from eternity
at this time.
And for the first time, I suppose, ever,
he listened to me.
I said, in three minutes, I'm going to
tell you one more time what salvation is.
And I told him and just left it
at that.
He listened.
The next time I saw him in the
last, perhaps conscious hour of his life, I
led him to the Lord.
And it was an amazing thing to see
God do the miraculous, the best Christmas I've
ever had in my entire life, to see
my father and to know my father today
is in heaven, not an ambiguous conversion, a
conversion.
I led him in a prayer from Genesis
to Revelation.
I wanted to be sure right through the
Bible.
It was an amazing thing to see my
father finally bend his knee to God.
Cornelius said to his family, a word from
God is coming.
And by it, we will all know what
to do.
A word is coming.
I've been seeking God and God told me
he's sending his word.
And for Samuel one, 18, Hannah was praying.
And as the scripture says, as the promise
began to be made real in her heart,
she got up, went her way and began
to eat.
She was no longer fasting and her countenance
was no more sad.
She had a deep abiding expectancy in her
heart that God was about to fulfill something
far beyond her own natural ability.
And of course, we know the story that
the prophet Samuel was born to her and
not only became the fulfillment of her personal
desire, but fulfilled the desire of God to
bring the nation of Israel for that season
back again to righteousness.
David, the king, stood before God.
Second, Samuel chapter seven.
And he said, Who am I, O Lord
God?
And what is my house that you brought
me to this place?
There was that sense of awe.
And then you'll see in the next verse,
19 expectancy.
And he said, And this was yet a
small thing in thy sight, O Lord God.
But thou has spoken also of thy servant's
house for a great while to come.
And David said, As if it's not enough,
O God, that you took me from following
sheep and you made me king of Israel.
But now you've spoken about my house for
a great while to come.
Now, of course, it was a it could
have been a physical possibility had Solomon walked
with the Lord, but it was definitely a
spiritual promise that was fulfilled through the lineage
of David, of course, was born Jesus Christ.
And then from that is born the church
here today.
So God's promise to David was absolutely true.
But he had an expectancy.
Do you have that in your heart today?
Do you have an expectancy for your house
for the days ahead?
If we know God, if we understand his
power and don't have that, we're of all
people to be most pitied in Luke chapter
one.
Go there with me very quickly so we
can conclude Luke chapter one.
Mary had an expectancy.
She had a promise from God that she
was going to bear a child and this
child was going to be the son of
God.
And in Luke chapter one, verse forty six,
Mary said, My soul that magnify the Lord
and my spirit is rejoiced in God, my
savior, for he has regarded the lowest state
of his handmaiden for behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed for he that
is mighty has done to me great things
and holy is his name and his mercy
is on them that fear him from generation
to generation.
He has showed strength with his arm.
He has scattered the proud in the imagination
of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their
seats and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and the rich is set empty away.
He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance
of his mercy as he spoke to our
fathers, to Abraham and to his seed.
We are the seed now of Abraham and
Christ forever.
Mary says, my soul magnifies God.
He has given me a promise.
It's so far beyond anything that anybody could
ever ask for.
And this promise is now alive in me.
And here comes Mary to visit her cousin
Elizabeth and this expectancy that's now in her,
that God is going to be faithful to
her.
God's going to be faithful to her house,
even in spite of the fact that she
knew the social consequences of perhaps being perceived
as having been in adultery by those who
no understanding of spiritual things before marriage.
She knew that there were dangers to be
faced, but she had a trust in almighty
God and an expectancy that out of the
situation she couldn't fully comprehend that a marvelous
deliverance was going to come.
A marvelous deliverance for her own house, a
marvelous deliverance beyond anything you could even think
or begin to ask for.
She came to visit Elizabeth, who's also experiencing
a miracle of God.
And in verse 41, the scripture says it
came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the
salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her
womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Ghost.
I want to tell you expectancy is contagious.
Something happens when you walk into a room
and there's a person who by all intents
and purposes, you look at them.
They don't seem to be any different.
They seem to be in a difficult situation,
but they're able to lift their voices and
say, God has birthed something in me.
God has given me a promise.
God appeared to me in the word.
God is speaking to me.
My soul magnifies the Lord.
I see my house and another generation living
for God.
I see children not yet born serving him.
I see something in the future that only
God can do.
And I rejoice in it.
I rejoice in it because God touches those
that are nothing.
He touches those that are nobody.
He touches those that have no strength, no
might, no power.
And he raises them up to sit among
kings and princes.
My soul magnifies the Lord.
And Elizabeth heard Mary's voice and the baby
in her womb leaped and Elizabeth was filled
with the Holy Ghost.
The scripture says expectancy is contagious.
You see, when you have faith in your
heart, when you believe that God is good
and his mercy endures forever, when you believe
that all things work together for good to
those that love God, when you believe that
God's plan is the best, even if you
don't understand it, when you're getting up every
day saying, Lord, lead me, guide me, use
me, glorify your life through me.
It's contagious.
Everyone in your house will be touched by
the grace of God.
Your sons, your daughters, your mothers, your fathers,
they will be touched by God's grace.
And God will use your life to bring
your family out of spiritual darkness and poverty.
Hallelujah.
Acts 10 again, 33.
Now it says immediately, therefore, he said, I
sent Cornelius said to you and you've well
done that you're come, he said.
Now, therefore, we're all here present before God.
Cornelius knew it's not before man, it's before
God to hear all the things that are
commanded of thee.
Now, keep in mind, this man Cornelius is
a is a righteous man, a God seeker.
He's a man of praise and fasts and
gives to people.
He's a man of good report in his
own house.
He has an expectancy.
It's not been given to the rest of
the house yet.
He has it.
And because of his expectancy, the house are
gathered to hear the word of God.
It's because of your life that mothers and
fathers and sons and daughters will come to
Christ this coming year.
Cornelius is able now to gather and his
expectancy now has gathered a crowd who now
have that same chance that God is about
to do something.
I remember when I first came to Christ.
I remember the man who led me to
the Lord, who was the most influential as
it isn't me coming to Christ.
There was an expectancy in this man.
He told me, said, when you come to
Christ, you're going to be a new creature,
a new creation.
The old things are going to pass.
And he believed.
I didn't believe it, but he believed it.
There was an expectancy in him that there
was going to be a change and God
was going to use my life.
And it was contagious.
I began to believe it, not because I
read it in the Bible, because he told
me God was going to do it.
He expected it to happen to him.
It was a done deal.
It was signed.
It was part of the bargain.
He said, if you come to Christ, you're
going to change.
You're going to be a new person, a
brand new man.
That expectancy is contagious, absolutely contagious.
He gathered together and Peter opened his mouth
and said of a truth, I perceive God's
no respecter of persons, but in every nation,
he that fears him and works righteousness is
accepted with him.
And then Peter begins to preach the gospel.
And he talks about in verse 38, God
anointing Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost
and power went about doing good and healing
all that are oppressed of the devil.
And God was with him.
Peter goes on to say, we are witnesses
of these things, which he did.
Verse 40 says, God raised him up the
third day and showed him openly, not to
all the people, but unto witnesses before chosen
of God, even to us who did eat
and drink with him after he rose from
the dead.
And he commanded us to preach unto the
people.
And I want you to picture the scenario.
Peter is preaching the gospel.
The word is coming.
Cornelius is there.
His household is there.
His neighbors are there.
The expectancy in him is contagious.
It is.
It has gripped the hearts because of this
man's testimony in life.
His family now are believing that God is
about to do something.
And he commanded us, Peter says in verse
42, to preach unto all the people and
to testify that it's he which was ordained
of God to be the judge of the
quick and the dead or the living and
the dead.
To him, give all the prophets witness that
through his name, whosoever believes in him shall
receive remission.
Or that means the forgiveness of their sins.
A very key statement.
You've got to picture this house.
You've got to picture these people.
They don't have a Bible.
They've never had a promise.
All they have is Cornelius.
You have to understand they have nothing in
their midst but a God seeking man, an
honest man, a man with good reputation and
report, a man with deep expectancy that God's
about to do something for his home and
his heart.
That's all they have.
They don't have a Bible.
This is the first words they're ever hearing
from God.
And they hear a verse and it says
Peter is just preaching the gospel.
He's just sharing with this house that whoever
believes in Jesus Christ, who was crucified and
rose again from the dead, will be forgiven
of their sins.
And while, verse 44, Peter yet spake these
words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them
which heard the word.
The Holy Ghost came.
You see, the work was done.
The expectancy was in the heart.
And the Holy Ghost comes and does what
only God can do.
The Holy Spirit comes and touches your children.
The Holy Spirit comes and touches your mother
and father.
The Holy Spirit touches your sister and brother,
because through your life, God has produced that
expectancy so that when the word comes, that
hunger is there, that sense this is good
and God is about to touch my life,
begins to touch them.
In verse 46 says, when they heard them
speak with tongues and magnify God.
Amazing.
They heard them speak with tongues and magnify
God.
Amazing.
All these people in that room, family, neighbors,
began to magnify God, began to glorify Him,
began to praise Him.
And the apostles, I think there were six
that came with Peter, they were dumbfounded when
they saw the gift of the Holy Ghost
poured out on a Gentile family and community
through the life of a man who was
a God seeker.
I believe that you are called and I
am called to be the Cornelius of our
households in 2004.
But if God is going to use us
in the way He used Cornelius, there are
some questions that we have to be able
to answer.
Questions of our reputation to those that are
closest to us.
And I believe there are people here today
that you are of poor report in your
own house.
But the good news to you today is
God can change that today.
God can change that.
He can change it.
Even if the poor report has followed you
for 10 years, 15 years, God can change
it in a moment.
The moment your heart opens and says, Jesus,
I'm sick of this.
I'm tired of it.
I'm sick of the selfishness, the raising my
voice.
I'm sick of the hypocrisy.
I'm tired of pretending to be a zealous
for God and a couch potato the rest
of the week.
I'm tired of it.
I'm tired of not reading my Bible.
I'm tired of being angry with my family.
God, my reputation is poor.
And because of it, there's been a hindrance.
Now, that doesn't apply to everybody, but it
does apply to some who are here today.
In other cases, we need to look and
say, God, are there altars that need to
be torn down?
Are there places that my heart is given
to?
Am I proud?
Is it an altar of pride, perhaps, that
I can't be corrected by members even of
my own house?
What's my attitude towards those over me in
the workplace?
Can they talk to me about my work
habits without me getting all in the knot
about it?
Am I genuinely humble?
Am I leading them to Christ, or am
I a hindrance?
Is there something in my life that is
making me a poor reputation in the workplace
and in my community?
When I walk down the street, when I
go to the store, people know I'm a
person who attends church, at least.
But what is my real reputation among those
who are closest to me?
Do I fear God?
Am I playing games with God?
Do I genuinely fear him?
Do I show piety towards others?
In other words, am I a person who
speaks temperedly to people around me?
Especially those closest to me.
Do my family see me doing good deeds?
Am I moved with compassion to do something
about the plight of people who are without
God or with God and in difficult circumstances?
Do they see it in me?
Do they see something?
Am I moved to do these things?
Do I pray?
Do I fast?
Do I take a day a week or
a month and fast and seek God?
Am I really seeking God in his mind
for my house and for those who are
closest to me?
Am I burdened or selfish?
Really, there's only two options.
We're either burdened or selfish.
And we either care or we're indifferent.
Do I have a fresh expectancy?
And that's what I want to close with
today.
And I know that Pastor Neal is going
to continue it Tuesday night.
But do I have a fresh expectancy in
my heart?
That I don't know what tomorrow holds, but
I know God is good.
I don't have a promise for next month,
but I know God does.
And I expect him to give it to
me.
I don't know the future of my children,
but God knows it.
And I know he's going to tell me
what it is.
And I'll be able to speak it into
their lives.
Fresh expectancy.
Do I have it?
Do I have this freshness of God in
my heart?
This inward, you know, the Bible says the
secret of the Lord is revealed to those
that fear him.
This inward secret.
Like you're walking down Broadway and you know
something that nobody else knows in New York.
You've got this secret.
I've got the life of God in me.
And what a day this is going to
be.
And it could be the worst day of
your life beginning.
But you just know that by the end,
there's going to be a change because God
is in it.
I've got this expectancy that God is going
to speak to me.
God is going to bless my home.
God is going to use my life.
You see, Gideon had a choice when God
called him.
He either got up or he stayed where
he was.
And it's that way with you and me.
We have the choice to get up and
move to what God is speaking or we
draw back.
And we say, no, it can't be.
I've made too many mistakes.
My family is too far away from God.
Or perhaps I have too little influence.
Oh, Pastor, you don't understand how religious my
family is.
Oh, God does.
He had a very religious family.
He knows.
He understands.
But he'll give you the strength and the
grace.
2004 is going to be a phenomenal year
for many here today.
It'll be a phenomenal year.
There are going to be people stand on
this platform and give testimony exactly as Cornelius
must have.
You're going to give a testimony of what
God did.
It's going to be miraculous.
I can make that promise to you today.
And I hope that your heart has that
expectancy.
If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you
today, Education Annex.
I think you can feel free today to
perhaps join us if some of you want
to come.
Main Sanctuary Balcony.
If you want to come to this altar
and make that dedication of your life.
If there's altars that shouldn't be there, issues
that the Holy Spirit needs to touch.
You want to be that person that brings
your house out of darkness and into spiritual
victory.
You say, God, I'm the Gideon.
I'm the least.
I'm the weakest.
But here I am.
And I believe, God, you're going to do
something through my life this coming year.
Let's stand together.
Balcony.
You can make your way to either aisle.
Main Sanctuary.
Slip out where you are.
Make your way down to this altar.
Let's pray together.
And as I say quite often, let's believe
God for a miracle.
You're going to be the miracle of God
this year.
Let's believe God for the miracle that he
will make of your life.
Lord Jesus, forgive me for everything in my
life.
That makes me a poor reputation in my
own house and among my friends.
I ask you, Jesus, to take these things
out of my life and change me.
Give me a heart of faith.
Give me eyes of faith.
A deep confidence in that you're going to
do something.
Supernatural and victorious in me and then through
me to my house and among my friends.
Lord, I ask you where I'm deficient in
character.
That you change me.
I yield my life to this purpose.
I don't want to play religious games with
a holy God.
This is foolish.
I will only defeat myself and my own
house.
I yield my life and I ask you,
Jesus, to take the fear of full surrender
out of my heart.
And help me to give myself completely to
your purposes.
Help me to walk humbly before my own
house and my friends.
Help me to seek you, to be kind,
to pray and to fast.
Open my eyes that I may see wondrous
things in your word.
Open my heart.
Give me a deep expectancy that you're going
to use my life for your glory in
this year coming.
And deliver my family and deliver my friends
out of the grip of darkness.
Oh God, I believe that my mouth will
be raised to you at the end of
this coming year.
With absolute praise and absolute glory, my soul
will magnify the Lord.
Oh God, I believe that you will touch
my house, my children, my family, my brothers,
my sisters, my friends, and you will fill
them with the Holy Ghost and they will
magnify God.
I believe it, I believe it, I believe
it.
In Jesus' name.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
I believe in God.
I believe it with all my heart.
I believe in God.
God, I thank you.
I praise you.
I glorify you!
I glorify you, God!
Hallelujah!
I glorify you!
I glorify you, Jesus!
I glorify you, mighty God!
Thank you, Jesus!
Thank you!
Thank you, God!
Hallelujah!
I praise you!
I bless you, God!
I bless you for the souls that are
going to be saved.
I bless you God for the transforming power
of the Holy Spirit I bless you God.
I bless you Lord for what you're doing
at this all I bless you Jesus Testimonies
of grace are here Testimonies of the miraculous
are here.
Oh God Thank you for what you're doing.
Thank you God.
We have a deep expectancy in our hearts
Lord my God We praise you.
We bless you.
We bless you Jesus.
We bless you.
We bless you Hallelujah, hallelujah Not one of
our family going to hell not one Not
one Hallelujah This is
the conclusion of the message