Joseph Prince - Fresh Supply For Today's Needs
Isn't that wonderful? All those testimonies and what the Lord is doing in the ministry. See, you're all part of this, because you belong to this church, all right? And just like every pastor, every church is unique around the world and each one has a specific purpose for which God placed them there, this church has its purpose. And I believe it is to uncover, amen, dust off, bring to the forefront the gospel of grace the way Paul preached it, amen. And we have done this for all these years now, and last year something happened. Middle of the year, I remember that, I couldn't sleep at night.
Now, sometimes when you find you cannot sleep at night, don't always blame the devil, all right? Or don't blame the nasty biryani you ate last night, okay? Sometimes if you try your best and you find you're not sleepy and all that, especially if there's a kind of, like, awakeness, you know, the enemy one comes with oppression or headache or things like that, but God one is always like you feel alive, you feel fresh, but you only slept, like, one, two hours, then you wake up, and you wonder why you couldn't go back to sleep. Maybe he wants to talk to you. All right, so ask the Lord, speak, Lord. Remember Samuel, the boy, when he learned to hear God's voice, amen, God spoke to him, but he did not know that he was hearing God, so he needed someone who... I am that someone, I am that Samuel that tells you, the next time, ask him, Lord, speak. I am listening. Amen?
And he might rebuke you then and there, he might show you a inner vision, he might give you a hazon vision, he might give you just a word, or he might just drop into your heart a desire to do something, amen. But, ask the Lord. I believe that many a times we miss, God because we do not know the ways of the Lord, especially in hearing God, okay? So, some of you had a recent experience of that, I'm sure. So, somewhere middle of last year, 2021, I couldn't sleep, and I asked the Lord, "Lord, are you saying something to me that, you know, during the day especially, like Job says, you know, God says to Job that it is in man's sleep, in deep slumberings, when man is on his pillow that God opens up the ear and instill the instruction".
I think it's because many a times we are too busy. It's not that God is not speaking to you during the daytime, it's just that we are too busy, we are running around, amen, we are looking at our phone all the time, especially today's, you know, today's world is just, it's like there's an invisible chain to our phone. And any free time we have, we don't meditate, we just look at our phone. And I think the enemy has succeeded. The phone itself is not wrong, it is amoral, all right? But what you do with it. So, the thing is that God speaks to us at night, and I'm just reminding you of that, but let me tell you what happened then. So, I asked the Lord, and the Lord began to show me something that has been brewing in my heart, something that has been growing in my heart, a desire to see the gospel go faster. And this was the words the Lord placed in my heart, that the gospel should go faster, louder, and stronger, amen? Go farther than where it has gone.
And I know that missionaries of times past and all that, they had to go physically to bring the gospel. They had to learn the language of the people there, amen? And they had to, surmount hurdles like high cliffs, mountains, and even traverse, deep valleys, gorges, and even through the seas and all that. It takes time, but I believe that God ordained technology, that's why I say the phone is not wrong, amen, for the gospel, amen. In fact, the Bible says, you know, "We ought to exhort one another daily," that's why we have WhatsApp, we have Messages, we can encourage each other daily. Use it for the glory of God, amen? So, God said to me he wants the gospel to go faster, stronger, but then I felt like, you know, I have an intellectual property, which means, the messages, all right, are sold, amen, and that's the lot of all the pastors and leaders all over the world.
Now, I don't draw a salary from this church, all right? It's something that the Lord has placed on my heart, it's a very unique thing which I don't encourage any other pastor to do. So, this has gone on for many years now, and now I felt like the Lord is telling me to give that up. So, I'm thinking to myself, how... you know what I'm saying? How am I going to do this, Lord? But still I felt in my heart the gospel must go out. And I felt also that, you know, if you sell the messages, okay, even though our price compared to, you know, some other places and all that, is competitive, okay, it's a very good price, but I felt like I want to remove the price, I want to remove, especially on my latest messages, my latest messages are the lion's share of the income.
Okay, let me stop for a while and say, are you following me so far or not? Can I share my heart? Can I... yeah. It's not often I do this, okay? It's not often I open up my heart and become vulnerable, amen. So, I wanna bring you up to speed to what is happening. So, because of that, I felt like, the latest messages are usually the lion's share of the, you know, the income from the intellectual property, okay? Of course, not the old messages. In fact, we give away a lot of the old messages, and, but the main block come from the latest messages. And I felt like the Lord is saying, "Give it up. Have no wall". God says, "Let there be no walls," and I saw the walls all being broken down. "Let it go forth stronger, further, louder. Are you willing to"?
Again, back when the Lord told me to give up my income in the church, the church was doing very well, all right, the church was already a large church, and but I said, "Lord, how"? But there was a... he was quiet. Same thing, he was quiet. He asked me, "Will you"? I know him by now. I know he loves me, amen. I know I'm not dealing with a tyrant, I'm dealing with a Father who loves me, who loves you, when the very hairs of your head are all numbered, amen. He knows number zero, so he knows. He cares for us. Every detail, he's concerned for every detail of our life, amen? There's not one thought in your mind, the Bible says, that he doesn't know, and yet he loves all of us, amen? So, there was a silence for a while. "Will you do it"? I said, "Yes". All right, so the next day I spoke to, Pastor Darren, who is the one that's running the ministry, but at the same time Pastor Darren has had his own experience with the Lord, and what he heard was this word wall, to remove the wall around the latest messages.
Now, how can that be? How can he hear, you know, around the same time that I'm hearing unless it is the same Lord? That was the time I knew that Pastor Darren was truly born again. No, I'm just teasing. He's someone with what I call Solomonic wisdom, and, so we both talk, and I shared, you know, I shared with him, some of the things at first, and then I told him that last night I couldn't sleep and all that, and then he starts sharing with me what he received from the Lord, and I start to get excited, and I start telling him, "I was about to tell you to look into this," because I'm not gonna go into the details and all that, because my job is always to prepare message, you know? And you prepare a lot of messages, because Sunday comes very fast, very fast, you know? And I'm preparing messages, then spend time with my pastors, sharing messages with them, sharing the Word with them, and, it's always, like, things to prepare, amen. That's my life, and that's what I'm called to do.
So, I'm not called to administrate or govern. So, I told him to look into it, and, what a job he has done. In a short time, you heard the testimonies just now, amen? Now, I did not do all that because I saw all that, amen? I don't even know about the YouTube hitting 1 million subscribers and all that, and it happened while I was on holiday. Remember what I told you last week? As you rest, amen, enjoy the Lord, the Lord provides for you. Here's another example. I come back to this. So, the best of all, the lives that have been impacted. These people are wanting the gospel to go out. They are, actually, the people themselves are sponsoring the gospel to other people. They are getting, like, books like "Destined to Reign" and putting it in the hands of all these people.
So, instead of one person, my messages are there. And then something else the Lord showed me that night was that, and I shared this with, Darren the next day, it's like all these years of my sermons, all these years is like Joseph's storehouse. Just so happen my name is Joseph, Joseph's storehouse. The seven years of plenty that he's to save, amen, and at the right time when the seven years of famine commenced, God says, "Open up the treasure house". I felt like the Lord is telling me, "Open up the treasure house," amen. And so it'll be given to anyone that asks, it will just bless, and the people become a blessing, so I just wanna thank everyone that has become a Gospel Partner here in this church as well as all over the world. You are truly, truly my hands reaching out, extended hands, as if my hands are not long enough, you know?
And you are reaching out to all the four corners of the earth, and the gospel will be preached, amen, to the four corners of the earth, and then Jesus will return, amen, and you are part of this, praise the Lord. So, that means, by the way, this is not, unique, because Paul talk about his partners, amen, time and time again. Read the Bible, Paul talk about, your fellow partner in the gospel, my fellow partner, my fellow partner. It's the same thing, we call it Gospel Partners. Amen, so whatever blessing, amen, whatever rewards even that I receive, you will receive, amen. Because it is fellow helpers and Gospel Partners. That's what partners get, amen? Praise the Lord.
So, we are seeing the gospel spread all over the world. That's why in a short time now we are seeing people wanting more. But you see, there's something that we cannot do is to make people want to hear. That's the Holy Spirit. But what we are hearing now is that people wanna hear, so that's really something good, amen. And by the grace of God, by the grace of God for the next 60 years we'll still be providing the people, amen. Amen, I wanna be around. All right, how many wanna be around with me? Amen. Stay strong, stay young, stay blessed, amen. And all the people that say amen receives it. Amen, praise God, ha, ha, praise the Lord, amen.
Are you ready for God's Word? Okay, in a way we are continuing from what, where we left off last week, but it is a brand-new sermon. But I just wanna tell all of you this, okay, that there's a principle in the Bible that that which has been is that which is, present tense. And that which is, is that which shall be. Now, this is what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes. You look up here, he says, "What has been is what will be". So, you read all the Old Testament stories, why do you read them if it happened, like, 3,000 years ago, it happened 4,000 years ago, some of them as you go far back, amen? Now, why are we reading them? Because the Bible says in Corinthians that they are written for our admonition, and the word used also is all these things that happened to them are tupos, types, they are types, there's a pattern that we can learn.
In fact, they faced the same crisis we face. Let's see what equipment God gave them. Let's see what steps they take. Let's see what was their posture that they took, amen? Because we are seeing the same trouble. Are you seeing what I'm saying? All right, you need to understand that there's nothing new under the sun. Solomon says, "What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun". So, even seven years of plenty, have we passed that? I do not know, okay. But I sense that, we are entering into some years of famine, all right? We had seven years of plenty, seven years of famine, and the fact the Lord spoke to me last year about this, opening of the storehouse, the storehouse was only opened at the beginning of the famine when the famine started and the people felt the brunt of it. And the Lord allows that to happen, because, sometimes, you know, when people are prosperous, people are doing well, they don't think about God. And God loves them.
They don't think about their souls, that they are lost. They don't like to think they are lost, amen, but the Bible uses the word sinners. "And Christ died for sinners. It was while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". You know, that's love. It wasn't God says, "Shape up or ship out," amen, "Clean yourself before you come to me". God never said that. God never said that. Man says that, amen. God says, "Come as you are," amen, "and I'll change you". Receive Jesus first, and then he gives you power to become sons of God. Amen, praise the Lord. It was while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Are you listening, people?
So, as we look at the pattern of what has happened, we see what will be. Amen, what will be. So, the same resources, the same wisdom God gave Joseph, the same wisdom gave the people in the, Old Testament, and the same resources God gave them is what God wants us to do study. "Pastor, is there a time we see all over the world right now the church are being, you know, it's like the church is being subjugated". There was a time, even in America, statistics, you know, polls taken about the church, people who don't even go to church respect the church, they speak kindly of the church. Yes, I do know that some of it is the church's fault, it's our fault. We have, we have fallen publicly, we have done things that we shouldn't have done, so the church, I'm talking about the church world as a whole. And I understand that, but, you know, falling down and all that are people who also happened in times past, you know?
Decades ago, even a century ago, last century, and even during the time of Martin Luther there were no perfect Christians in terms of moral behavior, amen. But that's why we need to be, established in the fact that we are the righteousness of God, and righteousness is a gift. If I can be my own righteousness, I can work to a place where I can have my own righteousness, I don't need Jesus's righteousness. If I have my own clothes to wear and it's very bright and shiny, why do I need somebody else's? No, we don't. All of us are sinners. But there's good news, we qualify for the Savior. We qualify for his robe of righteousness, and that's the gospel. Listen, there's no other set of belief that tells you that righteousness, right standing with God, righteousness can be given to you as a gift. Only in the gospel. No other set of belief. You can show me any set of belief, amen, you won't find where they provide righteousness as a gift. Only the gospel, amen. Only the gospel.
So, we have received this gift, and that's why I'm very excited, I'm still excited, I'm not over it yet. I'm not over John 3:16. I'm not over 2 Corinthians 5:21 where "God made Jesus to be sin for us at the cross that we might be made the righteousness of God in him". I'm not over that yet. And I'm very excited, amen. It makes my day, especially when you look at yourself, and you can be so self-absorbed, and you look at your thoughts, they can be so dark, and the more you look at the dark thoughts, the more dark your thoughts become, and the more you see your thoughts become dark, the more dark your thoughts become, and this vicious cycle is what causes this condition nowadays, they call it mental health. But God never meant for us to be self-occupied. God never meant for us to behold our goriness. He meant for us to behold his glory and be transformed from glory to glory into the same image of the Lord, amen?
We have someone to look at that is so beautiful. If you look at a diamond, right, amen, you turn it around, you will see all the sparkles, the gems, the radiance, the brilliance, amen. And it's only a created thing, the diamond. The one who created the diamond, all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made, and the Word became flesh. He came as man. If what he created is beautiful, how much more he? If your children, you find them so adorable, your grandchildren, amen, so endearing, the one who made them must be more endearing. If he made the beautiful flowers, amen, to give you this sweet fragrance that you enjoy, you look at the majestic mountains, surely the one who made them is more beautiful, more fragrant, more majestic than the lofty mountains, amen. Because, you see, the greater cannot come out from the lesser. There's never such a thing. It's always the lesser comes out of the greater.
So, if that is true, how much more he, amen? But the devil has, blinded people's minds, lest they should see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we endeavor to let people know, amen, and we'll continue to let people know. Can I have a good amen? Praise the Lord. So, as we step in, what has been is what will be, amen. If you look carefully at the first, part of the Bible, you'll find that the first man, the first woman, right, you have the Tree of Life, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, right, and you have the rivers that flow through Eden. What do you have in the last book of the Bible? You have no Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, but the Tree of Life, amen. Do you see that? You see paradise forfeited, paradise regained, restored. So, in a way it is a mirror image, except for the book of Revelation. There it is greater in its glory and grandeur, amen, compared to the time of Eden.
So, you have a mirror image. If I look at that carefully, if book of Revelation is the final part going back to the... it's in a sense we are going forward by going backwards. So, somewhere along the way, where are we now? Noah's flood? Something will happen before Noah's flood. Men become more and more evil. The Bible says, "And God saw the wickedness of man's heart, and the thoughts of his mind, of his heart was only evil continually, and it grieved God". It grieved God. And God only saw Noah righteous. What did Jesus say before he comes again? He says that "As the days of Noah, so will the", remember, "As the days of Noah".
So, it's like he's telling us about our future. When he spoke that, amen, he's talking about our times, but our times are like before his time, Noah. Are we seeing the days of Noah? Amen, people think there are some brand new, sins now being invented, no. They are as old as Noah's time. It's just brought back to in style and in vogue where everyone accepts it. So, man will become more and more evil and more and more rebellious against God, refuse to acknowledge God. You can say anything you want to say, amen, but you talk about God, all right, that becomes, like, taboo. Now, friend, we are coming to those times, and it's important for our children to grow up in a family.
See, what Noah did is this, I love this verse. "By faith, Noah prepared an ark for the saving of his house". By faith, Noah prepared an ark to the saving of his house. If others wanna perish, okay, and they refuse to hear the gospel, listen, you prepare your house. Every day by your words to your children and by your behavior, amen, by what you portray, you are actually putting another plank on your ark. You are preparing your ark, every day you're preparing your ark, amen, to the saving of your house. I pray that be a word for some of you, amen. And start reading to your children if they are younger, start reading, if they are teenagers and all of that, encourage them, but start saying something about Jesus. Start somewhere, amen. Have a deal with them, even if it's, like, Saturday night. "Every Saturday night you are mine, okay? Can I share you some things from the Bible"?
Start with once a week, then maybe slowly, all right? If they are younger, you can influence them even more. If they are older, not so easy, amen. And many of you feel uncomfortable, "I'm not a pastor, Pastor Prince," and all that. Everyone reads the Bible. Everyone ought to spend time in God's Word, not just pastors, amen? So, that's the reason we are opening up the storehouse. We have so many teachings. And then we have to start this Grace Academy, amen. And we will tell you what to study, what you need, because the Grace Academy covers every kind of teaching. I even have a teaching that is still so relevant today that God gave a series called, "How to Find Your Life Partner". Amen, and it was a search in my own life, and I found verses that tell you that, there is an appointed one.
So, I used the Bible phrase, "An appointed one". Some people, during their time they teach on God's perfect choice, and I had it from the God's perfect choice, because I always thought to myself, if there's a perfect choice and one and only choice, amen, instead of the appointed one like Rebekah for Isaac... Can I just talk about this for a while? Okay, never mind. For the next five hours, I'll just share with you, lah, whatever comes so, make three sermons into one, amen? Ha, ha, ha. And then, so, the Lord showed me there's an appointed one, like the servant was asking, "God, show me", the women are coming to the well, "Show me who is your appointed one, appointed one". Not God's perfect choice. Those who say that there's one and only and all that, okay, what happens when your one and only dies? That means everyone, everyone in, every Christian, all right, is meant for someone, right?
So, if your one and only dies, can you remarry? Whoever you remarry, you are robbing the person who is supposed to marry this person. Because this person is the perfect choice for the other person. But if you remarry this person, your perfect choice has died, you remarry this person, this person is being robbed of her or his perfect choice. You see, so it doesn't make sense, amen. But there is something called God's appointed one, amen. And if a person loses, you know, for some reason, amen, which we all, understand that these things happen, amen. For some reason they lose the, appointed one, or the person wants to leave, it doesn't mean the person has no one else out there, or the person that, the next person's gonna be second best, amen. You know, this is worth its weight in gold, this teaching. "Preach it, Pastor Prince, praise the Lord, 'cause people have all kinds of ideas," amen. Are you with me so far?
I'm still with the appointed one, and I intend to go on forever with my appointed one, amen? Yup. Praise the Lord. So, as we see, like what we said in Hosea 6, look at that again. "What has been is what will be". "After two days He will revive us," we saw that last week, "And on the third day He will raise us up". So, on the third day he will raise us up, something will happen on the third day. It did not say it would happen on the first day or the second day. By the way, these days, in God's estimation, the days are like, in 2 Peter real fast, the principle, "But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day". See the principle? Amen. So, you tell God, "God, give", you know, you're praying for a life partner. "Give me the most beautiful", or a woman is praying, "Give me the wealthiest man, or give", and then God says, "Wait a minute," okay?
Then you calculate. A thousand years with him is like one day, all right, how many minutes are there in one day, you calculate, then you'll come to it. No, I'm just kidding, okay? In fact, last week we talk about God says, "Before they pray, I will answer". As they are speaking, all right, God hears, all right, amen. How many of you had that experience? Even before you pray, God answers. Now, that's not to encourage prayerlessness. I'm just telling you that that's that verse, and it's happening on the third day. So, after two days something gonna happen, "He will revive" after, not during the two days. So, the first 2,000 years, the Christians then, even during the time of Martin Luther and all that, they cannot claim what we can claim. We are the generation. And I think, perhaps, January the 1st, 2001 we stepped into the very early morning of the third day, amen, because we are 2,000 years from Jesus, amen.
So, two days has passed. As far as God is concerned, only two days has passed. God doesn't live in the time zone. God is outside time inasmuch as he created time. So, two days has passed, we are now on the third day. "On the third day He will raise us up, That we may live in His sight". Something will happen. "After two days He will revive us". And by the way, the word revive is chayah, say chayah. And chayah in Hebrew means give life, also to heal and to restore. It'll be a time of restoration on the third day. So, when we study what has been, it's what will be, amen, and what is, is what shall be in the future. The principle, "There's nothing new under the sun". We learn that this principle is to assist us, amen, to see what is happening, amen, and to gain wisdom, to draw wisdom from God to handle it, praise God.
So, we see that there's another principle in 2 Kings 20, I believe it is. It says, talking about Hezekiah, Hezekiah was told by God that he's gonna die. Imagine, what a word. God sent Isaiah to tell Hezekiah, "Set your house in order, you're gonna die". Imagine you receive that kind of word from a prophet. So, he was crying, he turned to the wall and he cried. He cried, and he cried, and he cried, and he wept, and then he called upon God, and God says, "Return". God told Isaiah. Isaiah was walking out of the palace, and God says, "Return," and he made an about change. So, you saw that? I'll try that again, amen. He was walking, and then he, "Return". Yo. You can tell by the way I use my walk, I'm a man of God, no time to talk. Yeah. All right. Ha, ha, ha. Okay, I'm sorry, that was free.
All right, so "Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: 'I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears.'" It's one thing to hear the prayer. God sees your tears. Every teardrop you cry, he sees it. You might think no one sees it. Even one tiny drop, he sees it. Even the one you hold back, he sees it, amen? And he says, "I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you". Not maybe, surely I will heal you. So, who says that even though God ordained for him to die at a time, okay, for some reason, don't ask, this is, with God. It's one of those things with God. But God told him, right, but you can still talk to God. You can still negotiate with God. Isn't a lot of prayers negotiation as well? Amen, not that you have anything to give God. That's the only difference. But you can actually talk to God in a way.
All right, one of these days I'll probably teach on that. There are some prayers you can actually in a way not argue, but present to God your case, amen. And you tell God. When you see things happening to people, you can tell God. "Don't let these things catch me by surprise, Lord. I'm particular about these kind of things for me and my family," or whatever, you can talk to God. You have not because you ask not. So, he asked God for life, amen. He was supposed to die. Not the devil told him, God told him he's supposed to die, but he talked to God, the same God who said that, and he asked God for life. So, God sent the prophet back, amen, God says, "Surely I will heal you," when? "On the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD".
Listen, church, as we see the day approaching, Jesus coming back for us, more and more we should gather in the house of the Lord. Amen, come together in the house of the Lord, and, worship the Lord. "Don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together," the Bible says, so much the more as you see the day approaching. And that which was is that which shall be. Who are the ones that actually knew, were the first ones to be told that... I'm not talking about the prophecies and all that, I'm talking about the actual event when Jesus was born, who are the first group that was told that Jesus would be born in Israel? Outside Israel, probably in Iraq, it would be the Magis, amen, but in Israel, who were the first ones? Shepherds, very good, who said shepherds? Brilliant, amen. You are from New Creation Church, I know, amen. So, the shepherds.
In the second coming of Jesus, that which has been is that which will be. Amen. Who will be the group of people? Shepherds. This shepherd is telling you, so much the more that, as you see the day approaching. You must have people who will see the day approaching, or else how can you see? You see the day approaching, right? So, we see the day approaching more than any other generation. So, we see the day approaching, and I'm telling you I see it. So much the more we must not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, so much the more as we see the day approaching. Okay? So, gather more and more. When we are sad, we gather together. In fact, when we were persecuted in the book of Acts, they got together and prayed to God with one accord, and God shook the place, man. I'm telling you, the place where they prayed was shaken. It's time to shake this performing arts center, I'm telling you, amen. Gather together, pray, amen. Amen.
Every time they are in trouble, they got together, and they were powerful, because why? How good and how pleasant when brethren grow together in unity, for there God commands life, there the dew of Hermon falls, amen, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and then good things happen, amen. When God's people get together, great things happen. The miracles, a lot of the miracles that happened, the greater part of miracles happen when they are together. Praise the Lord. So, don't forsake the assembling. Another thing, another thing you see that happened, there was a man that came when baby Jesus was about to be dedicated. So, that's the first coming of Jesus. Second coming of Jesus, he will come back not as a baby, amen, he will split the clouds for us. And we know he's gonna come back. But there was a man who lived a long, good old age. What's his name? Simeon. There'll be those who are alive and remain until they see Jesus face to face. There'll be a generation of Christians that'll be living long. I said they'll be living long.
Say amen at this point, and you might get it. They live long. They are alive, not just alive because they're young, some people are alive just because they're young, but they're alive and remain alive. They have some secrets from God revealed from them to know how to be alive and remain alive, amen. They don't grow old too early. In fact, they have this promise, "As thy days," that means as your days increase, "So shall your strength be". They live in that promise. Natural knowledge tells you, as your days increase, as your days increase, the lesser shall your strength be. Increasing days, decreasing strength. God's Word is, "As your days, so shall your strength". This is not natural. It belongs to an extraordinary God, amen, praise the Lord, and that's the promise that God has for his people.
So, there's a lot of parallels we can see, and now I think from this passage of Hezekiah we know that on the third day there's gonna be healing. Gonna be healing, even the times past there are people who are supposed to die at a certain time and all that, but in this generation, the third day generation, which all of us are, there'll be healing. Not only healing, provision. Remember the story of, Abraham? God told Abraham to, bring his son to a mountain. He didn't tell what mountain, "A mountain that I will show you of," all right? Later on. So, God's way is always he doesn't show us everything. "Thy Word is a lamp," where? "Across my path, all the way to the end," No, no, I can see the end from here because it's so bright. No, no, God's way is never like that. God's way is, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet," so the more I walk, the clearer it becomes, the path, amen. Every step is a step of faith. You trust the Lord. "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, then a light unto my path," because as you are walking it becomes brighter and brighter, your path, amen?
Amen, so some things you don't understand now, don't worry. It will get clearer. Some provisions you don't have right now, don't worry, it will come. But God doesn't let it happen, the obstacle is not removed, the gate is not opened, the supply is not given until we come up to the closed gate. Until we come up to the obstacle. Have you noticed that about God? Like last week saw the priest of Israel carrying the ark of the covenant, a picture of Jesus Christ, amen. All right, they were carrying the ark, and they were the first one to step into the river Jordan, but God's Word says the river Jordan was overflowing at that time, probably in the month of March, April, springtime. It was overflowing because the mountain, the ice and all that, the snow during the wintertime is now melting, and it's melting a lot, and it's just like, a tsunami of water, just going through, through the river Jordan.
It's wider than usual, and at this time God says, "Step into the river Jordan," and the Bible says it didn't happen the night before. They were all in their camps. They came out at night with their torches and lanterns to look, no, it's the same. They can't even come near. It is overflowing. They can hear it. Even as they come near the next day, it wasn't open until the one bearing the glory of Jesus, the one who has a heart for the glory of Jesus, the one who, lifts Jesus high, all right? That's a priestly ministry, the priests, they step, they step in an overflowing river. An overflowing river that flows from the highest mountain in Israel, Mount Hermon, at the foot of Mount Hermon, that's where the river Yarden, Jorden, begins. Jordan means in Hebrew descender. And do you know that it's the only river in the world, all right, for so many miles descends to the lowest place of planet Earth, the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on planet Earth.
So, it's a picture of down, down, down, down, down, and God says, "Ever since Adam fell," and along the way there's a city called Adam. And God says, "Ever since Adam fell, man have been going down, down, down," down where? To the Dead Sea. Sulphur, amen, brimstone, the place of hell, finally, and then Jesus, the ark of the covenant, came in between and stopped the whole thing, and God slapped back the river all the way. "And it stood like a heap," the Bible says, all the way where? It mentioned the city of Adam, which means God will slap back the curse all the way, all that came because of man's fall will all be reversed, will all be restored because of Jesus Christ, amen. So, Jesus went in, the ark of the covenant, and it's born by priests, people who have priestly ministry in these last days, amen. They're gonna step into the river. But notice the as they come close, as they come close, they can hear the roaring, floodtide, the torrential river, but they still walk in faith.
They are bearing the glory of Jesus, so whatever needs you may have, whatever obstacles you are faced with right now, God does not give you the faith or God does not show you the miracle before you step right up to it. That's God's way. It was only when the priests stepped, "As soon," the Bible says, "as the sole of their feet touched the river," bang, the river was slapped back. So, that's how God supplies. God wants us dependent on him all the time. He wants us dependent on him all the time. Like, he doesn't put strength in me, you know, I remember the first time I was called to preach many years ago. I was a teenager, and I was so nervous, I was so scared that I memorized my entire sermon. I memorized my joke, I memorized everything word for word. That's how nervous I was. To the point that if I forget something, I don't know how to get back because when you memorize verses or memorize your sermon, you cannot go back to where you left off, you know, because, "Was it this line or this line"?
I memorized because I was so nervous. I had to speak to a lot of people, and my nature, as it is, even in secondary school I told I was a stam...a st...I was a st...st...I was a stam... I was a stammerer. See, that's a demonstration of it. Amen. So, I was a stammerer, I couldn't speak well, amen, and that which has been was Moses who was also stammering, right? That is, is also stammering. God uses people who stammer to speak for him. God manifests his strength in our weakness. The world says, "Hide your weakness, it's shameful to look at. Don't display your weakness". We tell our children, "Don't display your weakness". God manifests his strength only in weakness. A donkey came along, the donkey died, heart attack or sunstroke. Then the vultures came, ate up all the flesh. The wolves came, jackals ate up all the flesh, left the bones. And all the ants came and the little creatures and finish off all the bones. Now left only bone. The poor donkey is dead. Along came a man, a skinny man, all right? And he was surrounded by a thousand men. They're surrounding him.
This is not Chinese Wei Yan, this is for real. This is not some superhero, Marvel, you know, those are fictitious, okay, this is real, in the Bible. And I know he's skinny because I know that Samson wasn't strong, why? I know because when the Holy Spirit comes on him, that's when he can unhinge that bronze gate, amen. If not, he's just an any mere man. So, God's way is what? His strength is made perfect in a skinny person. So, you see the skinny guy, you know? And all the Philistines are surrounding him, a thousand, He turn around, there's nothing in his hands but something dead, something there are flies buzzing around. You look at the jawbone of a donkey, he took it, and with the jawbone of a donkey he killed 1,000 Philistines. No one would think to pick the jawbone of something that's dead and deader than dead. You know deader than dead? All right, but God uses that.
When you say you are dead, God says, "I can resurrect you". All of us are testimonies of that. We're all dead in our sins, but you has he quickened, make you alive, amen. If God can raise the dead, come on, people. We are all raised from the dead already, you know. We're not gonna die. We're gonna fall asleep if Jesus tarries, amen, if Jesus tarries, we're gonna fall asleep, amen, but we're not gonna die. Death is behind you already. Remember that death and judgement are behind you for the believer. That's why the Bible use for the believer, "Fall asleep," amen. Just take off to be with Jesus. So, God's strength is made perfect in his weakness, amen. But the supply comes as you go. There were ten lepers, and they needed what? Healing, right? So, they came to Jesus and says, "We need healing," and Jesus says, "Go show yourself to the priest".
Now, under the law, the law says, "Go show yourself to the priest after you are well". There's no law, check out the book of Leviticus where it's given. You never find that the priest, all right, examines someone who has been healed. He examines to see if the person is sick, to determine he has a sickness, all right? Now, this is when Jesus says, "Go show yourself to the priest," which means, act like you are healed, trust my word. The Bible says, "As they went, they were cleansed," "As they went, they were cleansed". Are you listening, people? Amen. So, again, it's like right at the very last moment the provision comes. Let's say you have presentation tomorrow, amen. Like I said just now, my first time I had to memorize everything. I had to learn the principle, because I felt no courage in my heart, I felt no inspiration in my spirit. I was thinking, how am I gonna prepare. I just memorize something, you know, I think, just, I've learned then that you don't have to worry about all that. Just do what you need to do, pray, ask God, prepare your message, and then when you are there, many a times even the last moment, he'll give you the inspiration, he'll give you the strength, he'll give you the words, amen, I've learned that.
You know, a soldier during the time of Joshua and all that, he needs to learn that God will not put strength in his muscle as he's, looking at his, polishing his sword the night before the battle of the Phillistines. No, it doesn't happen that way. The courage comes when God says, "Fear not," that means they are fearing. In spite of your fear, do it. And you find the strength will flow. The provision will flow. The supply will flow. Can I have a good amen? Jesus says, "Fill the water pots with water," but they need wine. "Fill the six water pots with water," but they need wine. See, one of the things about the Royal, it's the Royal Academy of Grace. I just called it royal, right? Royal Academy of Grace is that we're gonna fill you up.
The six earthen pots are actually a picture, stone pots, actually, not earthen, stone pots are actually pictures of men. Number six is number of men. Men might be full of the water of the Word, then God can turn it into wine. That's the supernatural, amen. So, when you fill yourself with God's Word, God will turn it into wine, into wine, intoxicating wine, praise God, hallelujah. But when did the transformation happen? When Jesus says, "Fill the water pots with water," they were all in the back parts of the wedding feast in the kitchen somewhere, and Mary was there, and the servants were there. They looking at it, it changed? No, he said something else. "Bear it to the governor of the feast".
Now, who dares to bear it to the governor of the feast? It's just water. "You're making fun of me or what"? Let me do it Israeli style. "You're making fun of me"? Right? But the Bible says, "As they went," amen. The jars passed by Jesus and blushed before its maker and became wine, hallelujah. Are you listening, people? Amen. So, as you obey, "Whatever he says to you," Mary says, "Do it". As you obey. "We caught no fish. We toil all night, all day, you carpenter, we fishermen, experienced fishermen". "Throw your net on the right side". "Right side, left side, we try every side. We know this lake. But because you say so," Peter say that "I'll throw the net". And this time, all right, he threw the net, he could not catch. I mean, he could not pull, sorry, he could not pull because what? There's such a great catch, draught of fishes. Until finally he pull it, the nets begin to break. He never prepared the net that tight because he never could imagine a harvest that much.
And finally when he got it into the boat, and other boats came to help, the boat began to sink at the weight of it. So, that tells us how the Lord provides. I don't know how people who are against prosperity, that God does prosper, preach that. God gave you one fish. God supplies what you need, not what you want. They'll rewrite the Bible. The Bible doesn't say the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not need. "I shall not want". Which means lack. Whatever lack there is in your life, amen. Yes, God doesn't want us materialistic. You see, you cannot serve God and money, and what I see nowadays is people serving money. It's one thing, listen, to work, amen, to look for profitability because you owe it to the Lord.
You know, when God made man, God made men, and this was God's command: Be fruitful and multiply. It's not just to have children and all that, it's to be fruitful. What are you... be productive. Wherever you are put in, be productive, amen. Serve the company, serve the boss, whoever God has put above you, amen. Serve the government. Amen, and by the way, the position in Romans is very clear, the Bible says, "Honor the authorities". In the book of Peter, "Submit to the king," and if you know Peter, who wrote Peter in saying that, and Paul who wrote Romans in saying, "Be subject to the government" and all that, they were under the Roman rule. And the Roman rule, your government cannot be more worse than the rule, all right? They were the Romans, they were very harsh. Their governance was a harsh governance. They rule with an iron rod. They worship Caesar, and Israel was under them, and yet Paul wrote that, obey the government, unless they tell you to worship something else.
What I see in the body of Christ now is a breakdown in all this to the point it's so breakdown, you're just despised. It's like, "No more seeing the good, but seeing the bad". It's not a matter of, like, you know, the honor is gone, "But you don't know why", God didn't tell you to obey because they are perfect. Jesus was 12 years old when his parents came to look for him. He was in the Temple, and he went back with them. The Bible says he was subject to them. At that time, 12 years old, he was more smart than all the rabbis that was questioning him, the doctors of the law, who were the who's who, you know, the top people, the VIPs of Jerusalem. The very top of Israel, in fact, were there, and they were asking him, they were amazed at his understanding, 12 years old. But it was not proper for him to teach.
The fact that they were amazed at his answers, at his understanding and answers, which means what? He waited until they asked him question, then he answers. It was not his place to preach the Sermon on the Mount. There's something beautiful about the Lord's moral beauty. He is altogether lovely. At the age of 12 he knew how to be a boy. He knew more than them, he knew more than his parents, and yet the Bible says when the parents came, he went with them, and he was subject unto them. And the next verse says, "He increased in wisdom and stature and favor," in favor with God and men. God'll take care of you. No one can abuse you. When you work for your boss, you're drawing a salary from the company, honor the boss. "He doesn't deserve my respect". You do it for the Lord's sake. the verse in Peter I quoted just now, "Submit to every ordinance of men for the Lord's sake". "Preach it Pastor Prince, hallelujah, thank you, Lord, hallelujah".
So, I was saying something very good just now, but never mind. There was, I don't believe even my rabbit trail is for no purpose, there's a reason for it, amen? So, as we look at all this, we realize that God is teaching us the supply comes as we obey him, as we flow with him. And sometimes it means we call it a bit late, but for God it's nothing late. Why is God doing this? Why? Why, as soon as the sole of their foot touch river Jordan, he open? Why does God wait? Because want a dependent people. You see, for us, "God, give me all the courage right now, God. I don't wanna pray, just give me a supply of courage for one month. Why I pray, 'Give us this day our daily bread,' then tomorrow I must pray some more"? Yes. That makes you talk to him, that makes you reliant on him, amen. Just like one parent I know who tell their kids, okay, "You need to call back and talk to me," all right, and then every time you come and talk back to me, this amount of money will come flowing to you, amen?
So, he doesn't give the kids, okay, "One lump sum, here, 1,000, 200, 5,000, here 10,000," and the kid will never talk to you, never call you. When they call you overseas and all that, usually, money. So, it's a smart parent who knows how to dispense in portions. It makes you come back. Isn't it so? One more time. "Preach it, Pastor Prince". So, why that is so, "Give us this day our daily bread," God says to Israel, "Okay, listen, you don't save your manna. Your manna will come, trust me". All right, God says, "Trust me, I will supply you everything, amen. Your manna will come. Don't eat yesterday's manna. Don't horde it, don't save it, don't keep it," amen, but some of them did. You know the story, right? They kept the manna, and what happened? It bred worms and stank. That's what happens when you don't listen to God, all right? There'll be worms, and it will stink. Amen.
So, God gives manna every day. They had to trust God. So what if the cost of living goes up? God is more than able to oversupply. His name is El Shaddai, the God who is more than enough, but how will the supply come? and this is a thing. You know, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, he says this, all right. I, I remember what I was saying. "You cannot serve God and money". You see, one thing to serve profitability and honor your company and honor, you know, where you are set and all that and be productive, but to aim for wealth and to live for wealth, I'll tell you this, you'll never be satisfied. Even when you're lying on a silk, mattress, all right, how much will you enjoy that? One month, two months, new car, how long do you enjoy that? Half a year before you start looking for... what is it? What is it that you, you know, I'm not against all these things. Money's to be used. Don't let it use you, amen.
Jesus said, "You cannot serve God and money". You see, Jesus said it like this, okay, look at the verse in Sermon on the Mount. He said, "Therefore I say to you this boy, this lovely boy is now grown". He's about 30 years old now. Now as a man he preaches. As a boy it's not right to preach to the elders, but you can answer. That's how they were, you got that just now, okay. Now he's preaching, Sermon on the Mount, okay, Matthew 6, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life". Do not worry about your life. Okay, I need to finish what I said just now. The third day, Abraham did not know which mountain, but the Bible says, show them the first verse, "On the third day Abraham lifted his eyes". He saw the mountain, saw the place.
Where's the place? Mount Moriah. Later on in the same chapter he will call Mount Moriah Jehovah-Jireh. In that mountain, all right, is a place of supply. So, we see that on the third day there will be healing not like the previous, you know, the church history. You cannot look at church history and say, "Oh, there wasn't much healing then, you know, they didn't do this, they". You cannot look at that. Even then there were a lot of healings going on. It's just many people don't want to record that part, right? But there'll be healing on the third day, and there'll be provision, why? Because Mount Moriah is called Jehovah-Jireh, he called the altar Jehovah-Jireh, because in the mountain of Moriah it shall be seen, he shall be seen.
The same Mount Moriah where Abraham offered his son, didn't offer his son, God stopped him from offering his son, so that God can give up his Son. That's another story and another mystery that I've shared before. God was referring to his Son all the time. Okay, on the range of Mount Moriah, the highest peak of Mount Moriah, I believe that Abraham had a vision. He turned around and saw not just the ram caught by the horns, he saw Jesus on the cross. That he will come 2,000 years later from Abraham's time and down that... The highest ridge of Mount Moriah is Calvary. Are you with me so far? It's Calvary. That's where all the supply comes, amen. Forgiveness of sins, being, the gift of righteousness, not only that, healing for our bodies, peace for our minds, amen, aggressive peace that garrisons our hearts and minds from worries, cares, anxieties, depression, amen. Even prosperity in the sense of not materialism, not greed, but more than enough supply to be a blessing to others the way God ordained it.
God did not bring Israel to a land that has milk and honey. the word God used time and time and time again is the word flow, tsuph. The word flow in the Hebrew is very clear, it's a flow. It's not the land has milk and honey, I bring you to a land flowing with milk and honey, flowing with milk and honey. Deal with that. I didn't write it. God wrote it. So, back to this, you cannot serve God and money. Listen, some people say, "Well, you know, you serve God, that means you become poor, all right? Don't talk about money. You cannot serve God and mammon," all right. But, no, it's not that. You can't even say, "You serve him, you'll be poor". You can't, look at all the of the Bible that served God. They never lack. David says, "The Lord is my shepherd. I got a lot of lack, though". Ah, yo. No. "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not lack," I shall not lack. Amen?
Now, it says to you, "Don't serve God, you cannot, you cannot", not don't serve, "You cannot". There's no such thing, it's impossible, "You cannot serve God and materialism". Now, be productive, but does that mean that you will not be provided for? He never say that. In fact, Jesus said something that I don't know why preachers don't preach it the way Jesus said it. One time, the one disciple, and we thank God for Peter. You know, we laugh at Peter and all that, he ask all the kind of question, but you know, thank God he asked. We also wanna ask, or we dare not to ask, you know that kind of thing? We're always grateful, right? Amen, we are grateful in the group and all that, somebody wanna ask me a question, then somebody go and egg Pastor Mark to say something, Pastor Mark says it.
You know, everyone is happy, even though we all laugh at the question, but actually it's somebody egg him on, and I know who is that somebody. We're all grateful for Peter, amen? Peter asked this question, okay, look at the question first. Peter began to say to Jesus, "See, we have left all and followed You". What does that mean? "We have left all and followed You". It means that, "What shall we have? We left all and followed You". And Jesus said this... so his idea is what? Poverty, you won't have enough, all right? He left everything. What did Jesus answer him? Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house", house, say house Singaporeans. Yeah, I think some other countries as well, you can say house. "There is no one who has left house," this has come to an amen, okay?
Assuredly there is amen, which means it is an affirmation, all right? A true statement, or truly, truly, I say to you, "There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel's," this does not say abandon them. He didn't say abandon, he said leave, because there are times, all right, because of the Lord, we sacrifice time, time with them, we are not with them, we are serving the Lord. Today it's another thing altogether. Today you ask you someone to serve, they'll say, "Let me ask my wife". Usually it's ask the wife, not ask the husband, "Ask my wife".
I thought, you know, you can decide, "Yeah, I have the final word". I always tell my wife after she say... I give her that, I just say, "Yes dear," that's my final word. Like in heaven, right, there was a queue, you know? There's a queue, and one queue says, "Man," all right, "Man dominated by their wife," as far as your eye can say, the queue went far away, you know? And then there was one person standing on the other side, no queue, only one person, and the queue says, "Man not dominated by their wife". It's just a joke, ladies, just a joke, okay. "Man not dominated by their wife," and there's only one person. So, this guy just came to heaven, right? He's very curious, how come only one person? So, he went to Pastor Mark, and he said, he said, "How do you do it? How do you do it"? He says, "I don't know, my wife asked me to stand here". Okay, so, ha, ha, so, it's not a matter of abandon, it's a matter of sacrifice, for who's sake?
Now, it's not just sacrifice. Don't spend time with their children and all that to do what they like, to play golf, all right? Now, I'm not against, golf. I'm not against golf, okay? But I'm just saying that if you wanna qualify for this, look at what Jesus says, "For my sake and the gospel's". There is a sacrifice involved, but you know what? You cannot out-give God. He says whoever is left, whatever you leave, whoever leaves all that, "There's no one who has left all this who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers," and say, now, you know why it's now in this time? Because a lot of people like to put it in the sweet, "In the sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore". He didn't say, "You will receive a hundredfold," all right, everybody will have a hundredfold and more in heaven.
But this, "Now in this time," why do we preach that? Why don't we preach that? He's talking about tangible things or spiritual things? Houses, fathers, mothers. My father is real, eh? My wife is real. My sister is real. My bro is real, amen? I mean, there's... you receive what? A hundredfold. However you wanna, he didn't say, "Hundred more," he says hundredfold, whatever you want to interpret that as, hundred more or hundredfold or whatever it is, listen, it is a lot more. Right, it's a lot more. "Who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands," Singaporeans, "lands". Singapore, "Lands". If God has to make land for you, he'll make land. I claimed this promise many years ago when, there were people telling me, Christian leaders telling me, right, "Nowadays, Singapore, there's no more land. You cannot build anything". I said, "God, I trust you can. I don't know how. Your word is a lamp unto my feet. I just trust you, provide for us". You are sitting in a miracle, okay? You are sitting in a miracle.
And by the way, you can come and sit in this miracle, don't sit at home. Come, join us. The dew and the presence is different from being alone at home. At home you can be distracted. Ah, see, see, see, see, see where you go? All right, you can get distracted at home, amen. So, notice, it says you will receive when? "Now in this life," amen? Houses, brothers, notice, "with persecution". Okay, when you start to prosper... notice that persecution come, he promised persecution when you receive a hundredfold. You receive a lot of persecution. Trust me, when you prosper, you received persecution. And you know, persecuting don't come from a dog, doesn't from, from a cat. It come from a being with two legs and a mouth, you know? They will persecute you. But you know something? Jesus promised you that, so you cannot escape.
And by the way, in case you are thinking, wah, "Whoever has left house, brothers, even wife, I wanna leave my wife. I'll get a hundred wife". Wife's not mentioned here in the hundredfold, you see. "Houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, lands, with persecution". Your wife, wife is not mentioned there. You receive many more brothers, yes. I, you know, something for the gospel's sake, ever since I preached the gospel, I've had so many brothers and sisters all over the world, and they're all watching right now, praise God, amen. "And in the age to come," ah, now he says in the age to come. What do they have? They have, "Eternal life". Not because of giving up, but because of Jesus, amen.
So, this is not a promise when you go to heaven. "Now in this time". Everyone say now in this time. Say it again, now in this time. Believe God for it. Don't listen to people that are trying to stop you from prospering and all that. Yet, I wanna close with this, remember, you cannot serve materialism. See, go back to Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus says, "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life". Notice it starts with therefore. You all know I preach on this a lot. In my "Let Go Life" the whole sermon is based on this, amen? "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life. What you shall eat, what you shall drink, or what you shall wear, for all the Gentiles, the unbelievers, seek for these things. Your heavenly Father knoweth". I love that. "Your heavenly Father knoweth what you need". But notice it start with therefore. You cannot start something therefore.
Therefore means what? There's a previous verse. Find out why therefore is there for, okay? The previous verse says this, "No one can serve two masters," same Jesus talking, amen. "For either he'll hate the one and love the other, or else he'll be loyal to the one and despise the other". You cannot serve God and money. And yet that doesn't mean you have lack. When you serve God... You see, it's one thing to prosper with, you know, prosper materially only. There are many poor rich people. And there are many Christians who are prosperous, prosperous. In, out. I mean, are you with me so far? So, he's telling you, you cannot serve God, and all you're thinking of, like, it all depends, the bottom line is yeah, I'll go to church on Sunday, as long, you know, I have nothing on, on Sunday, to build my wealth, build my assets, build my, you know, it's all about money, money, money, money. It's something beyond.
The people who will sacrifice time with their family because of money, it's the opposite of what Jesus says. "For my sake and the gospel's," it's for money. What's the big deal, you're driving a big car? It will last only a while, you can just impress people... Then my wife says, "Something to compensate". He's got something to prove. Again, I'm not against these things, I'm not against nice watches. You all have your preference, some people like nice watches. Nice watches are really beautiful. A few weeks ago I saw a shop that had all the, how they did the watches, it's intricate, it's beautiful. But you know something, to live just for that watch, you spend it, you rock, your kids are growing up, you never had this chance and all that just for this watch, for that car, for this watch. And there's no peace. You're making money than you ever made before, but you are restless, you are stressed, you cannot sleep well, lost a lot of precious friends all because of your pursuit of mammon. You cannot serve God and mammon.
By the way, mammon is a transliteration from the Aramaic. Jesus spoke Aramaic. A lot of Hebrew in Aramaic, but Aramaic's like a slang. You say, like, Hokkien, Mandarin. You say Mandarin is Hokkien? No, we explain to people it's not. It's a slang. I mean, it's not a slang, it is a dialect. So, Aramaic is a dialect, and they personify, when someone personify, materialism or wealth, they call it mammon, mamonas in Aramaic. Mammon is, like you say a woman. Wisdom is like a woman, embrace her, and she'll embrace you, right? That's personification, so personified wealth is mammon. You cannot serve God and mammon. He's referring to wealth. Does that mean that God wants you to have little? No, he says don't worry about all these things. Look at that, right at the end of the portion. And I'm bringing this to a close. "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble". That means what? Every day got its own trouble, don't worry about tomorrow.
Jesus is saying, "The grace I give you is only for today". He wants you to live today. A lot of people live tomorrow today, or they live in the past today. You know, the past is like, if only, you know. If only. If only I was born in the richer family, wealthy family. If only I had succeeded doing that. If only I had gone to university. If only, if only, if only, if only, if only. Then the future, they live in the future, it's like what? What if? What if this happens? What if? What if? What if? If only. You are here today. Every day is precious, 'cause time pass so fast. When I see my Justin grow up, and I'm thinking to myself, he tells me the other day, "I think my molar is coming out". And then he says, "The dentist told me that molar comes out at 12 years old". I say, "Boy, you are ten". You know what I'm saying? "You are ten years old, you are not twelve years". I mean, my mom. My wife. My wife said, "He eats a lot of cheese. He loves cheese, and that's what's causing the whole thing, you know"?
Oh man, so fast, that little boy. I'm sure you felt that when your son grew up, right? Your daughter grew up. You thought they'd be small forever. I knew it, of course, with Jessica, I already have experience, but you still wanna live in this, you know? Friend, every day there's enough grace. Enjoy every day, don't live in the future. You see your mind going to the future... By the way, the exponents of mental health says that people who can live in the present are mentally healthy. Jesus knew that a long time ago. Save your money on research, he knows. Go to him. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He says what? "Enough trouble, there's enough trouble". There's no grace, "I gave you the grace, right, the manna, the supply for today. I give you the peace and all that. It's not to be used for tomorrow". Worrying about tomorrow, when tomorrow come, the grace will be there, just like the manna comes every day, okay? Are you with me so far?
"So, how do I get this supply, Pastor Prince, how do I get this supply"? Okay, I'll close with this. For many years I thought that when Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes, I thought that he actually, broke it, he looked to heaven, what was his five things he did? Number of grace, amen. He received the five loaves and two fish, he received or took, one. He looked up to heaven, two. In all our needs, supply is there. Supply is, we are in the kingdom of God, there's no lack. It's only invisible, and invisible does not mean non-tangible, does not mean it's not real. In fact, the things that are invisible are eternal. Now, lest we go into the next service, I'll stop here. Just enough for you to know that. Amen, like the radio waves, TV waves around us, they are all eternal. The waves, the waves are there all the time. The air around us, amen, it's eternal. But you cannot see it, amen. Whatever you can see, in fact, the Bible says, "Whatever you can see is temporal. It grows old and then perishes," okay?
So, watch this. I always thought that, okay, number one, he took the five loves, two fish. He looked to heaven, that's where the supply comes from. He's the pattern man, he's showing us how all provisions come into our life, look up to heaven, number two. He thanked God, he blessed God, blessed God, that's the third thing he did, number three, he blessed God. Number four, he broke the loaves. Number five, he gave it to his disciples, right? Where did he multiply? Where did he multiply? For years I thought it multiplied as the disciples gave, all right? Five thousand men, not counting women, probably around ten to fifteen thousand, children included. And as they gave, wow, some more, as they gave, some more, right? The multiplication. But let's look at this verse here in Luke's account.
By the way, all the synoptic gospels... by the way, all the gospels, rather, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Synoptic, Matthew, Mark, Luke, plus John, has all this account. "Then", it must be very important for it to appear in all the four gospels. Now, this is Luke's account, "He took the five loaves and the two fish". All right, took, one; looking up to heaven, two; he blessed, three; he broke them, four; and gave, five. All right, number five, "He gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. And so they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them". So, would you say that's more than enough? Would you say that's more than enough?
In fact, Phillip says, "Can 200 denarii... where can we go and buy"? So, their solution's go and buy food for these hungry people, go and buy. People think the solution to this is just go and buy, but Jesus had a higher solution. Even after you buy with 200 denarii, which is half year's wage, he says only... everyone, everyone can only take a little, right? Show them a little, can only take a little. "'Where shall we buy bread?' This He said to test him. 'Two hundred,'" yeah, "'that every one of them may have a little.'" So, even after you buy, the scarcity mentality is in man, the flesh. Everyone takes a little, right? Now, what did Jesus do? He look up to heaven, all the supply is there. You know where it multiplied? Go back to Luke. "He blessed and broke them," the loaves and fishes, 'cause he took the five loves and two fish. So, he broke the five loaves. He also broke the fish.
The Bible says small fish, there were two fishes. Watch this. Which part did the miracle happen? As he looked up, the miracle multiplied in his... where? Where did it happen? As they gave? So, for years I thought the disciples, and I've preached that, as they gave it multiplied in their hands, but the answer is here. If you look at, taking, it is aorist tense, once and for all. All right? "Look up to heaven," once and for all, it's in the past tense in the Greek. And your New Testament's in Greek. "He blessed" is past tense, but when it comes to "Gave" to the disciples, imperfect tense. He kept on giving to them. From whose hands? Jesus's hands, he kept on giving. The NLT says it like this. NLT got it right. "He kept giving the bread and fish to the disciples". Notice kept giving, he kept giving, kept giving. It multiplied in his hands. The NASB, "He gave them to the disciples," say it, "again and again".
Again and again, the fish, the loaves, the fish, the loaves. Here comes Bartholomew, here. Here comes Thomas, here, amen, which means what? They had to go to the people, give, all right, probably their cloak, put a lot here, they go, but sooner or later you run out of it, they have to go back to him. They have to go back to him again and again, and that, my friend, is the key. It's go back to him again and again. Because he keeps on giving, amen? How many days has it been, you didn't talk to the Lord, you didn't come to him? Don't you know that he keeps on giving and giving and giving, and you were not there to receive. The answer is keep on coming to him, and I'll close with this. He kept on giving, which means what? Every time we come to him, we gotta see the supply coming, but we must be in position, we must be there before him to receive.
I wish I have time to take you through the scriptures to show you every time someone come to Jesus's presence because they are weak or whatever, they are strengthened. If they are sick, they are healed. If they are blind, they see. Something is imparted, something is given, something is released when they are in the presence of Jesus. Not that they give to Jesus. We talk as if we are the great giver, he is the great giver, and grace is giving. Grace is supply. He keeps on giving, which means, people, we have to keep on going back, keep on going back, keep on going back to him, amen. Because he keeps on giving, he keeps on giving. We keep on going back, how often? Again and again and again.
Your last week's going to him won't suffice for today, amen. Why not God just give me a month's supply? He knows you will forget him, so you go back to him and say, "Cost of electricity's going up, cost of living as a whole is rising, but here you are, Lord". Nothing takes you by surprise. And just being in his presence, something is imparted, amen? He keeps on giving. Are you there to receive? I always see my time with the Lord as he's giving me, even before I kneel down or even before I pray and talk to him, he keeps giving. Those moments, those days that are gone when you didn't spend time with him, you cannot get them back, but let's start today. And you are here. You came to him today. Something has been supplied. Something has been imparted, amen?
Every head bowed, every eye closed all across this place, wherever you are. Friend, if you have never received, now, again, he is giving what now? Salvation, forgiveness of sins, a new birth. You can be born again, amen. You don't like your life, yourself, the way you are? All this time you can be born again, born a child of God, born righteous, born in the royal family, the priestly family, born again. Friend, if that is you, wherever you are, pray this prayer from your heart. I'll lead you. Say:
Heavenly Father, I confess with my mouth Jesus Christ is my Lord. And I believe in my heart that because Christ died for my sins, he died in my place, and on the third day you raised him from the dead, that was the time I was justified. It was because you justified me from all my sins, acquitted me from them all that Jesus was raised from the dead. Thank you, Father. I am now a child of God. All my sins are forgiven. Fill me now with your Holy Spirit. Teach me to follow you all the days of my life. In Jesus's name. And all the people said amen.
Stand to your feet, people, stand to your feet. Hallelujah. Lift your hands all over the place, wherever you're watching this, online as well.
The Lord bless you this coming week, you and your loved ones. The Lord bless you with the blessings of father Abraham, the blessings of Deuteronomy 28, the blessings of Psalms 23. The Lord bless you with the land flowing with milk and honey, and let it manifest in the days to come. The Lord bless you, and the Lord keep you, preserve you and your families throughout this week from every infection, from every harm and danger from evil people, and from all the powers of darkness. The Lord lift up his countenance, smile on you, and grant to you, impart into your heart and into the hearts of your families his wonderful shalom peace to guard your heart and mind from worry, fear, and care throughout this week. In Jesus's name. And all the people said amen. God bless you, we'll see you again.