Joseph Prince - God's Great Grace Is Working In Your Greatest Weakness

Praise God! Let’s dive right into the word of God. Look at Romans chapter 6, verse 1 and 2 because we are touching on the power of right believing. Believers are suffering, not because the work has not been finished by Christ, not because the provisions are not there, but because of our wrong believing. I’ve always said, the power of right believing is so important, because in the gospel, it is not about right doing. It says ‘the just shall live by faith’; that was the verse that started the Reformation, many years ago.

Martin Luther was a monk, and he was on his knees going up the steps, believing that by, cutting himself, lacerating himself, if blood is spilled, it will score points with God and that he will be justified. He went through all kinds of.. literally sufferings, believing that the more he suffers, the more God is pleased. And then one day, but one thing about him is that he, he is also a, Greek scholar, and he was reading his New Testament one day, and he came to this verse ‘the just shall live by faith’. You see, faith is nothing more than right believing, ok? It’s not a matter of saying, well if I have right believing and by the way that’s sparked off for Martin Luther; that sparked off the Great Reformation. We know that we don’t have to give our way into heaven, we don’t have to suffer our way into heaven, we don’t have to do good works to go to heaven, but we can only receive what Christ has done; amen, His finished work, and that results in good work, that results in giving, that results in a life of blessing people. Can I have a good amen?

Whenever you preach on the gospel of Jesus Christ, inevitably there is always this objection that comes up. Romans 6, verse 1 and 2. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Every time you preach on the gospel of grace, the way that Paul preached, this objection comes up. So what are you saying? Are you saying that we can sin so that grace may abound? Then might as well we continue in sin that grace may abound. Now notice that the objector, this caviller, he is not saying that grace will not abound. He agrees that grace will abound. Can you see it? He, he agrees that where there is sin, grace superabounds. So, with that, that truth, ok? he comes up with his own carnal reasoning by saying, so what you are saying is that if, since it’s true that where there is sin, grace superabounds, then might as well we continue in sin that grace may abound.

Now Paul never said that! But Paul must have preached very strongly that where sin abounds, grace superabounds, in order for him to be misunderstood by this caviller. You know? And and today, the thing is this. I remember reading many years ago, Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones, that amazing theologian, alright? who preached at Westminster in London, he’s now gone to be with the Lord. He said this, many years ago. He says that why is it that today, we preachers; we don’t have this same accusation leveled against us? If we are preaching the same gospel that Paul preached, how come people are not accusing us of saying, let us sin more that grace may abound which Paul never actually preached, alright? Then Dr. Martin says, because I submit to you, we are not preaching the same gospel Paul preached. He says if you preach the same gospel Paul preached, you will be misunderstood. Amen? Are you with me?

So, I remember years ago I preached a gospel that is safe, no one accused me of this. But today, alright? Every time I preach this, there will be someone who will come up with this same objection. I am in good company. When Paul preached this, this was about 2,000 years ago. When Paul received this from God, he had this objection. People accused him of this. And then when Martin Luther came up with ‘the righteous shall live by faith’ and preached the gospel of grace, he also received that same objection. Today when I preach on this, inevitably there is someone who will come up with this. But everyone is agreed that grace abounds, they didn’t say that shall we continue in sin? Although grace does not abound? Doesn’t say that. They all agree that grace abounds. So where, where did Paul get this, this revelation, this idea that where sin is, grace super abounds? You have to go backwards to the previous chapter, look at the context, we were at right at the bottom verse, verse 1 of Romans 6 right? What shall we say then? Shall we continue…

Now let’s look at the background, the previous chapter, that’s where it was taken from. Moreover the law entered, Romans 5:20 that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Location, where, where sin abounded, grace, much more abounded. Now in the Greek, there are two different Greek words for ‘abound’ that are used here. Alright? Although our King James Bible use both as ‘abound’. Let me show you the, the Greek. But where sin, where sin abounded, that word there in the Greek is ‘pleonazo’ which is actually increased, become plentiful. Where sin increased, grace did much more abound is the Greek word ‘huperperisseuo’ which is superabounded. Actually the word…can you see the word ‘huper’? Huperperisseuo. ‘Huper’ is a preposition. The word ‘perisseuo’ in the Greek; ‘pear-ru-see-o’ that’s how they pronounce it the word ‘perisseuo’ is already ‘overflow’. When you put a ‘huper’ the preposition, the ‘huper’ of the Greek is the ‘super’ of English. Natural - Supernatural. Overflowing - Super-overflowing. In other words, ‘huperperisseuo’ is superabounding. Where sin increased, grace superabounds. It’s a different Greek word.

And, I love the way this Greek scholar, Kenneth Wuest, he has a New Testament alright? which is not very easy to read because he literally translates them into English the way he reads the Greek, but he’s a Greek scholar, Kenneth Wuest. And he has a New Testament that goes, but I love this portion, portion of Scripture where he translated like this. From Kenneth Wuest’s New Testament, where sin existed in abundance, grace was in superabundance, and then, some more added on top of that. Haha… Don’t you love it? Already its super abounding and then some more added on top of that. Ok? You have more than enough grace to be saved, to stay saved, to enjoy your saved state. Amen? There’s more than enough grace. I love sharing this illustration. You know? When God wanted to give light and heat to the earth, God made the sun. The earth wasn’t made for the sun, but the sun was made for the earth to give light and heat because God love man. Ok?

But you know when God made the sun; scientists tell us that a lot of the light and the heat from the sun do not reach the earth. The earth only uses a fraction of the light and heat from the sun, the rest is lost in space. In other words, God created an oversize reservoir, of supply, for little beady earth. This is my God. God has an oversupply of grace for your need. And because Paul preached so strongly like this, you know people say, "Oh, so you are saying that that, er, where sin increase, er er grace superabounds; might as well we sin more that grace will…" Now this is stupid. Paul never preached that! Joseph Prince never preached our mouths, try to put words in Paul’s mouth, into my mouth which we never say; but the truth remains, where sin increase, grace superabounds, and some more on top of that.

You know, many of us, we look at the younger generation, ok? Some of the older people, we youngsters feel like sometimes, some of the older people they like to say, "You know during my generation, you know we don’t have internet, we don’t have this social media and all that, and you know and now they have…at the finger tips, you know? access to all this filth and all that…" You know now that’s true, that’s true, we don’t have all these but we have creative ways to sin also, let’s not go into that. But the thing is this: it’s true, so how do you view them? This is where the power of right believing comes. How do you view this generation? I view them as a generation where grace superabounds over them and to them. In fact they have much more grace than any other generation put together. They are the Benjamin generation. The Bible says the Benjamin generation receives five times more than all the brothers. Amen! Why do I say that? Because where sin increase, grace superabounds. Amen! I don’t despair when I see the world. You say that Europe is beyond, this country is beyond, that country is gone, I’m grateful because now they are raw material for God’s superabounding grace to come in. Believe God for that! Are you listening people?

Now we are not saying, we are not saying, sin that grace may abound. We are not saying that. But we are saying, we are saying, that life is such that just by your mere existence, you are bound to fail here and there, how do you view your failures? How do you view what you have done? Many people are still bound by the past, I wish I did not do that or when something bad happens, they will say, "You know what happened? Ya, this is because of what I did some time ago. Ya, this is happening because of this". You see that in movies, you see that even people who are not believers, Christians for example, whether its Korean movie, a Dutch movie, English movie, Hindi movie, alright? Tamil movie, whatever movie, there is always this scene whereby this has happened to our son because we have sinned! And the music starts in the background, real soft music and they cry. Then sometimes the mother will say, "God, why not You punish me instead, it was me who sinned".

Have you heard of this? That’s how we viewed sin. But let’s see how God views it. Alright? God hates sin. God is a holy God, but God is also love. Amen. He loves us. If God sends all of us to hell, where is the love? But God says boys will be boys, never mind, you know, sweep everything under the carpet, where is His justice? Where is His holiness? But at the cross, both God’s attributes are reconciled - righteousness and mercy kissed each other at the cross. At the cross, do you see God’s holiness? Yes. God’s spared not His own Son. When it came right down to it, God could spare us or God would spare His Son? His Son never sinned, He knew no sin, did no sin, He knew no sin, all of us sinned, we know sin, in us is sin, we are all sin. Who would God spare? When it came right down to it? Of His Son, God says, "You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased". Of us, the Bible says, "The total depravity of man".

Who would God spare? The Bible says God spared us and spared not His own Son. He loves you. God loves you. Amen. And and the the manifestation, the demonstration of that love is that He gave us His Son and now the divine reasoning is this: if God spared not His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not with Him, also FREELY give us all things. Can we ask for anything greater than His Son? His Son is the greatest thing that He gave. The thing that He loves the most, the One He loves the most He gave up! Can we ask for anything now and is greater than His Son? You ask for healing, will He reject healing? Will He not? Will He deny you the healing? Will He deny you not the Son? Of course not. God loves you, man.

Turn to your neighbour, smile and say, "God loves you". Look at your other neighbour and say, "You I don’t know but he, God loves". I’m just teasing. So, when we look at this, we see how God views sin. God punishes sin in the body of Jesus Christ. God cannot spare sin. Sin must be punished or else God is not holy, God is not just. So God punished all our sins in the body of Jesus Christ. That’s how much God loves us. Ok? But then on the other hand, is that all there is to it? No, because of the cross. When Jesus cried one word, "Finished"! alright? It seems like all the doors of heaven that were closed, every door of blessings was flung wide open. The separation of the veil between God and man was torn asunder. The same blood that tore the veil, removed our sins for all of us to come in boldly. And God looks at us with no sin on us. Amen. Amen. Not that there’s no sin in us, but He looks at us as if there is no sin on us, because His Son has removed all our sins, and then we can stand there before God boldly. This is what Jesus Christ has done. Praise God.

Now, the thing is this. What happens to our sin then? Ok? Something else happened. One door is opened, and God says wherever there is sin in your life, my superabounding grace and more on top of that will flow into that that area of your life, will flow into that area. There was a man called Peter, one of Jesus’ disciples. Jesus looked at him, and we all see him as a leader. One time, Jesus says, "Blessed are you Simon," because he said to Jesus, Peter said to Jesus, "You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God". Jesus says, "Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my Father in heaven". He was like a leader among the twelve, and yet when Jesus was captured, in the foreknowledge of God, Jesus came to die, no one could capture Him.

Remember the story when they came to capture Him? They all fell before Him. When He declared, "I am". So He submitted Himself to captivity so that all of us captives will be set free. So Peter, when they said, "Aren’t you one of His disciples"? He said, "No! I never knew the man"! Then the woman said, "No, I can tell by your accent, you are a Galilean". No! Then the Bible says with cursing and swearing. Wow, fisherman’s language. He cursed and swore he never knew Jesus, and then the third time, again he swore he cursed he never knew Jesus. And the Bible tells us at the third time, it was an open courtyard, Jesus was being tried, Jesus turned and looked at Peter. It was as if to say, "Peter, this is what I told you would happen". But there was something in His eyes that says, "Peter, I still love you," and Peter’s heart broke and Peter went into the night crying. There was another disciple, his name was Judas and he betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Before the night was over, he hung himself alright? That was a form of pride to kill yourself. It’s a form of self-righteousness. I can pay for my own sin. If Judas had only waited for a few hours; Jesus’ death, Jesus hung, he doesn’t have to hang. Amen.

Jesus was on the cross for our sins. He was hung for our sins. Amen. And Judas sin, I wouldn’t put it greater than Peter’s sin, but Peter waited, amen, for the forgiveness, to be put in place. Of course Jesus forgave him the moment he denied, like that look forgave him already but it was paid for at the cross. How many understand? You buy the the stuff or the goods you want, you pay VISA. VISA is not the real payment, ok? But it’s paid. But the foundation of the payment will come when you send in the cheque. So the cheque is the cross, the payment. Everything that Jesus did, everyone He forgave, everyone He healed, alright, is like a VISA card straight to the cross. Somebody has to pay for that leper to go home clean. Somebody has to pay for that prostitute to go back forgiven. Somebody has to pay for that little boy to be raised from the dead. And when everyone is rejoicing, God’s Son was looking and the Father was looking and they knew somebody has to pay. Amen. Are you with me so far?

This is good news. Amen. So praise God. If you look at Peter, he denied knowing Jesus three times and what happened? On the day Jesus rose from the dead? The Bible tells us that one week after that, the disciples were fishing in the Sea of Galilee, the Lake of Galilee, and Jesus walked by, alright? You all know the story. That morning Jesus made breakfast for them. They all sat around Jesus and he was there in his resurrected form. And Jesus looked at Peter and Jesus looked at Peter, and Jesus says and by the way, when Jesus rose from the dead, he told the angels this. Who failed the most? Judas was no more there, he has died, killed himself. But Peter was still around, so when Jesus rose from the dead, left an empty tomb, he gave instructions to the angel. Look at this, look at what the angels told the women that came to the empty tomb. "Go tell His disciples and Peter that is going before you". And who? Or in the British accent, Peter, Peter, and Peter. Go and tell Peter, all right, that Jesus is going before you into Galilee.

Of all the disciples, Peter’s name was singled out. Why? Let me tell you this. Where sin increase, grace superabounds. This God is amazing. He was reaching out to Peter of all of them. Who was the most ashamed? Peter. Who cried the most? Peter. Who felt he can never be the same again? Peter. And then the Bible says, back to this story again, one week after His resurrection, Jesus was there, making breakfast for them and they all ate quietly. They all knew it was the Lord. And the Lord looked at Peter and says, "Peter, do you love Me"? And Peter says, "Yes Lord". And the Lord says what? "Feed My lambs". Again Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love Me"? He says, "You know I love You Lord". Then He says, "Tend My sheep". And the third time He says, "Do you love Me"? And then Jesus says to Peter, "Feed my sheep".

Lambs are baby Christians, sheep are older Christians, in between tend My sheep; he’s actually giving the responsibility of a pastor to take care of the flock when actually this man, a few days ago, only denied knowing Jesus with cursing and swearing and colourful words. Alright? The same mouth that cursed Jesus or denied knowing Jesus, that same mouth, Jesus says alright to him, alright you are going to feed My lambs, tend My sheep, feed My sheep, three times. Of all the disciples there, and I’m sure the rest are also feeding lambs and all that; we know from church history, we know from the writings and all that. But Peter was given that special honour. Where sin increase, grace superabounds and then some more on top of that. Amen. And that same mouth, only 50 days ago denied knowing Jesus; about 50 days ago, on the day of Pentecost, he stood up and with the same mouth he preached and 3000 people were saved. HALLELUJAH! The same mouth! Where? When you buy property, you say location, location, location; right Singaporeans? Where, location, where sin increase, grace superabounds. Amen! Amen!

I’ve always believed in God. My family took me to church as a youngster and even in my teen years, but I never accepted Christ, and I always knew that. I stopped going to church in my early teens. And by my later teen years, I’d say about 1986, 1987, I started using crack cocaine. I went to prison three times over this drug, for selling drugs, for stealing cars, back on a parole violation. Every time I would get out, I would try to stay off. But I’d always go back to it. I was just so trapped in this cycle of this drug. Everything was about getting the drug, and getting the money to get some more of the drug. The cycle continued, and I wanted to break free, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. And my family during this time would tell me, "Jesus loves you". And I’d say, "Yeah, I know". But I’d say to myself, "Why would He love me? Why would He love me? I don’t have any regard for Him".

I felt it was my destiny to just be like I always was, and I resigned myself to pretty much know I would die in prison or die out there in the streets or die homeless. The only way I’d feel better was to go do it all again. This went on for more than 25 years, and I tell you, I just felt so hopeless. I told my sister, "I can’t live like this anymore. I want to go to church with you on Sunday. Maybe there’s a pastor there I can talk to. And maybe he can help me in some way". That very day, I gave my life to Him—December 28, 2014. My life began to change right away. It’s overwhelming and amazing and unbelievable. He plucked out that desire for that drug that meant everything to me, above any and everything. He plucked it out and removed it, and the desire for it was gone, and it’s still gone. I could never, ever, get off that drug. No matter what I tried.

That addiction, that desire, it died the day that it met the love of Jesus. He came in. I always thought I couldn’t come to Him till I cleaned myself up. I could never clean myself up. So I never came. Finally I was literally at the end of myself. And I came in all my chaos and mess and all the things I’ve done. He took me off the streets with no hope. My whole life revolved around cocaine. He made me a new person. He changed me from the inside out, and He continues to. And while I’m here, I want to thank Pastor Prince because as I was a new believer, there was so much I wanted to know but didn’t know. His teaching has been a huge blessing to me. His sermons, they’ve shown me and continue to show me who I am in Christ. The power of right believing. The power of the holy Communion. It’s incredible because sometimes I would read passages that were a little troubling. And maybe it’s because I didn’t fully understand. Just at random, I would pull one of his sermons out. I would listen to him every day as I would drive my car. And there would be my answer or my confirmation in that sermon.

For so long, I just felt like He wouldn’t forgive me but that wasn’t true. He was there all along. I just wouldn’t let Him in. And I let Him in and everything changed. The peace I have now, I can face things, and I don’t get worried or troubled. And taking me off those drugs that meant everything to me. It’s a miracle. It’s the same miracle as Him walking on the water, as Him raising the dead. Because there was no way I could get off. No way! I should have been dead, but God had other plans. I just came to share that and to tell anybody, don’t make the same mistake I did, waiting so long, because you don’t have to clean up first, first of all, you can’t. He comes in, and He cleans up for you. He does the work. The work is done. I never thought I could be forgiven. I know I’m forgiven when I was in all this. I didn’t want anybody who didn’t know me to know, now I want to tell everybody, so He gets the glory, He gets the praise, and the honor that He’s worthy of. This is my story, but you can see, clearly this is His story. It’s not my story at all. It’s Jesus’ story. I just happened to be in the story. When I came in, He changed everything as only He can. And I give Him all the thanks and the praise and the glory.

Where sin increase, grace superabounds. Amen! Amen! David committed murder, committed adultery with the man’s wife and then murdered her husband. This was a dark episode in David, that man after God’s heart. That man’s life has this dark episode; haunted him. David lost the son with Bathsheba, the lady he committed adultery with. He committed adultery, they had a son and the son died. And for those who have lost a child, let me tell you what David said.

David says, "I cannot go to him, but one day…" Sorry, "He cannot come to me, but one day I will go to him". Every child is not lost, every child that, whether they passed on still born or they died as an infant, let me tell you this, they are growing up in heaven, and there’s a Rock Kidz ministry there as well, and they are being taught by angels, being taught by David, being taught by Peter, and they all grow, they all grow as children down there. And one day you’ll get to see them. The only thing, the difference between here and there, alright? is that they will never suffer asthma, they will never suffer diseases or sicknesses or pain ever, ever, ever again. And they are waiting for mummy to come, daddy to come. Alright? There’s no hurry, there’s work to be done. But you’ve got another family over there, waiting, they are not lost alright? So don’t think for one moment that that happened to David. No, no, David lost that baby, but let me tell you this.

Now they are officially married, the same woman. David had many wives and many porcupines, concubines. All in all, David had twenty sons and one daughter. And the Bible tells us that with the same woman, Bathsheba, after he lost the first boy, alright? with the same woman, he had another boy called Solomon. Now of all the sons of David, born of different women, Abigail, different, different ones even the concubines, the one that God chose to succeed David and whose kingdom will be called the Golden Era of Israel, the richest king that ever lived will be the boy Solomon. It’s almost like if not for Solomon, there will be no Bathsheba, and there is no sin. But the thing is that, in this dark episode, hey, God is not looking at your past. Amen. God can use whatever the dark episodes of your life and make them stepping stones for the future. You know God chose Solomon to succeed David.

I used to remember when I was a young boy; someone gave me a Bible, a black Bible, a very small Bible. And I opened up; they told me to read the book of New Testament alright? Not just Genesis but the New Testament. They say the New Testament is where we live in. But they didn’t give me any other instructions, so I went back and I read Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1, the beginning of the generations of Jesus Christ; Abraham beget Isaac, Isaac beget Jacob, Jacob beget the twelve sons and so and so beget, beget, beget. Number one I said, what in the world is beget? So I had to find out what ‘beget’ meant alright? It meant produce. Ok they brought forth. So Abraham brought forth Isaac, Isaac brought forth Jacob, Jacob brought forth the twelve sons and on and on and on until King David; and King David on and on and on all the way to Jesus.

Now I said, "Wait a minute! Where are the women"? Abraham brought forth Isaac, how? Single cell? I mean what is this? Alright? Then Isaac brought forth Jacob, apparently the mothers are not mentioned but later on in life, I realised there were five women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ and only five. And this generation from Abraham to Jesus Christ spans 2,000 years. Don’t tell me these five women brought forth everyone? No of course not. Sarah is not mentioned, Abraham’s wife. Rebekah is not mentioned. They are fine moral examples and yet they are not mentioned. What? What? The ones who are mentioned actually have something shady about them or their past or their background. We see the first one, we see Tamar. Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah. Judah had a son, married Tamar, ok? He died. And the custom of that day is that, by the way, if you were there and your older brother marries someone and you are about 18, 19 years old, you take a closer look. You know because if your brother dies, you must take over. Say goodbye to your girlfriend. That’s the culture of that day. Alright?

So the older brother died, Judah’s oldest son, and then the second brother; the Bible says he was wicked alright? and the Lord slew him. So second one also died. So he has a third son, coming up to age but then Judah is saying, "Something wrong with this woman. She is jinx. Every son I give dies". So he refused to give his third one to the daughter-in-law. Alright? And some time passed, and she wanted a son. So she knew where her father-in-law was going one day and she went over that place, alright? Put on a disguise and acted like a prostitute. Cut the long story short, Judah came to that scene. Alright? Saw the woman, slept with her but he had no money, no ready cash with him, no ready money so the woman says, "I’ll take a collateral ok? Give me your rod and a few other items. Tomorrow you come back, you pay me, and then I’ll return your things to you".

The next day he came back with the money, the woman was gone. And for patriarchs and all that, their rod are very important. So he was concerned. Anyway he went back, a few months passed and all of a suddenly, there was commotion in the tent. They brought Tamar out and they said that she has played the harlot; she she slept with someone, now she is pregnant. "We can see she is pregnant". And Judah was angry; Judah says, "What have you done"! And she went to him and says, "I am with child and the father is the one that owns this". She brought up the rod. These you know? bible stories are more exciting than your Korean drama, than your Hindi shows. I mean it tells it like it is you should read it. Amen.

And by the way, when the time came, she was pregnant with twins, and one of them is Peretz. By the way, from her line came Jesus Christ. What is God saying? God is not looking at your past. God can make everything work out for your superabounding favour, for a wonderful future. Amen. Your future is bright, as bright as the supernatural disproportionate grace and favour of God. Amen. Are you with me so far? After Jesus died, He rose again from the dead. Where did Jesus die? Where was He crucified? In what city? He was crucified in Jerusalem. Ok? When He rose from the dead, He commissioned His disciples to preach the good news and this is what He said in Luke 24. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. The guiltiest city, beginning at Jerusalem, beginning at the most guilty city, the city that saw him and rejected him, begin there, to tell them my love for them. Where sin increase grace super abounds.

In the genealogy, back to Matthew 1 again. Next woman we saw was Rahab. Her name was mentioned. But who was Rahab? When Joshua invaded Jericho and the walls came crushing down by the power of God, the Bible tells us there was one woman that was rescued. Her name, she was a local Jerochite and she was rescued. Her name was Rahab. And Rahab was a prostitute but she believed God, and Rahab married the captain of Judah, the army, the captain, the captain was Nahshon, his son was Salmon. Salmon and this ex-prostitute got married, and they brought forth a boy called Boaz who married Ruth, and their great grandson was David. Hallelujah. Where sin increase, grace super abounds. Amen.

The next lady mentioned was Ruth. We just spoke about Ruth. Ruth is a fine character, a moral virtuous woman, yet there’s one thing that disqualified her from the people of God and the blessings of God – her background. She was a Moabite, a non-Jew ok? Yet she got into the lineage of Jesus Christ. Why? Because she believed in the God of grace. Amen. What the law cannot do, grace did. Amen. And we go on and on all the way to Mary but Mary you all know the story alright? Mary, the problem is that she cannot have a son. She’s a virgin. She never knew a man and yet God brought forth the Dragon Slayer, the Champion, the King; through a virgin. Hallelujah.

"Pastor Prince, all that is good, Pastor. But my problem is not my sins. My problem, Pastor, is day to day living. My problem is stress at work. My problem is that we tried to have a baby last time, we lost the baby and I am scared to try again". Alright? Does God’s grace super abound in all these? Ok let’s read what the Apostle Paul has to say. All this is right believing; when you believe right, you will see right. When you believe right, you will live right. When you believe right, you will enjoy right. All right? "And lest," Paul says, "I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan".

Now Paul’s thorn in the flesh is not like what most people say a disease. It wasn’t a disease. It tells us what it is - a messenger of Satan. This messenger of Satan was following Paul around because Paul was very effective to the gospel. Paul was getting people saved, people’s lives were transformed, and Jesus was glorified. So this messenger of Satan, being assigned by Satan, was following Paul everywhere and stirring up trouble, stirring up the Judaists, the legalists against Paul, alright, stoning Paul. So Paul, Paul says, "This messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times," Paul says, "I prayed to the Lord three times that it might depart from me".

Next, and the Lord said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in your strength". Let’s try again. "My strength is made perfect in your talents". My strength is made perfect in what? Weakness! Weakness! "Therefore most gladly," Paul says. We don’t even gladly; we don’t even stop at gladly let alone most gladly. Therefore most gladly, I will rather boast in my infirmities, my weaknesses, same word used, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Now let me ask you a question. By the way the power of Christ may rest upon me; in the Greek, the power of Christ may tabernacle, pitch a tent over me, all right, over me. How many of you like to be someone, alright, when you walk down the road, when you walk into your working place, when you walk into a mall, wherever you go, God has pitched His power over you? The power of Christ is tabernacling over you.

You see, many of us, we think in this manner. When I am strong, my faith is strong, I feel it, I am feeling good, I have not sinned, as far as I know in a long, long time I feel strong, the power of Christ surely is on me. But in the economy of heaven, when God looks down at that, God says this person is in a dangerous position. You are actually very weak. But someone gets up in the morning, and says, "There it goes again, another lying symptom in my body. Oh there I go again, I have this weakness. Oh there I go again, I just kicked the dog. Oh there I go again, I just raised my voice a little bit at the kids. There I go again, you know, getting angry with my boss in my mind".

How come I am not like Pastor Lawrence - strong, handsome, well-built, loves Jesus, has a beautiful wife. I just heard him say amen on that point. A good husband. Now I heard her say amen. All right, ok, let’s just leave them alone for a while, alright? You know, we all think that is success when someone is strong, they feel good; they pray for people, I want to be like that. I think there’s a place in my Christian life where we have this idea - progress, growth is where you come to a place you have constant peace, alright? incessant joy, you have a strong ‘I feel good’ kind of feeling, there’s no pain in your body, you are not stressed out because you have peace you know? Man you have arrived. God looks down and God says you are very weak, you are in a position right now to rely on yourself and not on me.

And then God looks at this person, wakes up and says, "Oh man, yesterday I was feeling so good listening to Pastor Prince. I felt so good leaving the church. I felt strong man, I feel like, man, I’m telling you the devil come against me his head and his body will be separated. Man, I’m telling you, but this morning I get up, it’s all gone. I’m feeling these symptoms in my body. Why these symptoms again? I thought I took communion yesterday, oh man, and then exam this week, my worst subject".

So all these things are weaknesses; none of us say this is a successful day. Now this guy over here, he will say, "Man this is a successful day". If he is in this position but God says, "No, it’s a failure". But over here, he says "Man, it’s a failure, man, it’s one of those bad days". God looks down and God says, "You do not know how strong you are now". Hope you understand this. Follow me slowly. I’m going to break it down for you, ok? And then I’ll share some more. My grace is sufficient for you. In the Greek, I’ve broken down for you, My grace is sufficient, the word ‘sufficient’ there is the word ‘strength to defend or ward off’. My grace is strong to defend or ward off. Many of us, we think that when we are weak, you know, depending on our background, some of us charismatics especially, we have we have a lot of this spiritual warfare background and we are told that when you slip up, just one moment you slip up, the devil can come in and now you are demonized.

You know, we Charismatics come from this background and say that you got to be strong all the time, you got to be strong because when you are weak, Satan takes advantage of you. He comes in, he demonizes you. Alright? Number one, a Christian cannot be demonized. Sorry, I should say a Christian cannot be possessed by a demon. He can be oppressed, from outside, but not possessed. Know Who is in you, know who is in the world. Don’t be confused. Greater is He that is in you. Who is that? The Holy Spirit, than he that is in the world. Who is that? The devil. Who is in you? The Holy Spirit. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world outside. Who is inside you? The Holy Spirit. Who is outside you? The devil. The Bible never says anywhere in the New Testament a Christian can have a devil, a true believer I mean. What do you think this is? This is like sharing the lift with someone just for a while.

Ok, the Holy Spirit says, "Devil, you can stand down there, we share the same body". There’s no way that can happen! Come on please! Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Amen. Even in the Old Testament, all right, no one can come to the Holy of Holies. They will die! Let alone an unclean devil? Unclean demon? You think they can go to the Holy of Holies? No way! Today you are the temple of God. You cannot be possessed, you can be oppressed, you understand? Let me put it aside now. Ok, let me say this to you. Ok? So our idea is that when we feel down, we feel weak, we feel like we are not up to par, we are actually very weak, God says, "You are strong, you are never so strong as when you are consciously weak".

And then we think that those who are man, I’m telling you their faith is there, they are flowing and all that, they are really strong. God says, "No, they are weak". They are the brink of failure. They are self-confident. Amen. They can use God’s name but they are self-confident. So I am here to tell you that there’s something about this that our believing has been wrong. We have been believing the wrong things. Amen. Paul’s believing is that, when these things happened, "Great! Most gladly would I rather boast in my infirmities". I’m not finished yet. God says, "My grace is sufficient (strength to defend or ward off) for you," so, in other words, when you are weak, guess what? God’s power comes on you and tabernacle over you. Now, no demon can touch you. When? When you are weak. When you are weak. Are you listening people? Are you listening?

Justin is learning to walk real fast and we got to keep on running, very good exercise you know, chasing him. I just found, make sure he doesn’t fall, doesn’t knock into something, whatever, but when he is tired, when he is weak, and I carry him, I’m telling you, that’s the, that’s the easiest way to love him. But you know the, the older they, they grow, the less they want to be carried. The more you want them to be carried, the less they want you to carry them. The more you carry them, the more you’re able to shower kisses on them, you know? But we, we, we think strength is all about, about ah, ah, ah, success, and success is about strength, but God is saying in the Christian economy, alright, "In My mind," God says, "when you are weak, that’s when you are strong, because you’re in a place of no more trusting yourself, but trusting Me". Are you listening people?

Many years ago, there was a man that came to our church, and this is verified, alright? After I tell you why we can’t put the guy’s picture up here and all that, you’ll understand why, but it’s verified by the pastors who know about this. Pastor Henry knows about this, Pastor, er, our chairman, deacon Matthew knows about this, and a number of our pastors know about this. We have a number of cases of, AIDS people, patients being healed, in the church. One of them I prayed for, alright, those days we had midweek service, and they will come to the front, alright? Lawrence knows this, alright, and who we are referring to, now you understand why we cannot put their face up. Ok? AIDS patients.

And I remember, you know, I invite the pastors to come up to pray for the people, in those days, and I’ll pray for them, and my, some of my pastors are very smart people. When they see someone in a wheelchair, they will pray longer for this person over here, and from the corner of their eye, they are waiting for Pastor Prince to go. And then over here, someone is praying for this person also, very long, you know, and everyone seems not to want to go, everyone is going by sight, you know? And er, this happened for people on crutches and all that, they always pray for someone so long, you know, and not pray for that person. So, I have to go down and pray, because the guy been standing here for some time.

And I remembered this guy, he was covered with ah, sores, dried up sores, ok? And I went to him, and I asked him, you know, "What you need prayer for"? Very quietly he bend down, he says, "I have AIDS". I’m telling you the truth. My first thought is, "Where’s Pastor Henry"? "Come on, guys, I need to lead you all to another song over here and… Pastor Henry, will you please handle over here"? I felt like, so I was standing down there, and my thoughts were going like this, alright, "Do I have faith for this"? You know, I felt so weak. And I felt like no faith. Faith took wings and flew out the window. So I looked at him and I, and I didn’t know what to do, and finally, you know, no one was, everyone was busy. Some of them hear AIDS only, "Wa le ba le ba,(tongues)," you are falling over here!

So I was standing down there and I still remember, I said, it’s almost like, "Lord, it’s all yours Lord". It’s like, "Hah, it’s all yours Lord," you know? It’s really I, I, I don’t feel prayed up, you know, I’m not ready to pray for a case like this, you know. ah, you and then, a few months after that, even to verify, he is completely free from AIDS. Oh wait a minute. All the glory goes to? Jesus! It’s literally, then you say, "Wow! Lord you did it"! You know? Then the next time when you go down, you know, "Shaka raba raba (tongues), come on over here, bring your head here, put your bald head under my hand here, come on"! You know, we act like we are, someone, when actually the healer is Him. And sometimes, because of that, the shorter your prayer, the more powerful. If you read the scriptures carefully, you’ll never find Jesus, condemning short prayers. But you do find Him, rebuking, long prayers, for show. I’m talking about right believing here today. Are you with me?

So, the apostle Paul says, God said to him, the Lord said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength," strength, (strength here is dunamis, miracle working power) "is made perfect in weakness". And the word ‘make perfect’ is ‘show itself most effective, in your weakness.’ God’s power show itself most effective in your, strength? In your weakness. Are you with me?

Alright, do you remember in school? We all, took Biology or Science class, and then we all learn electricity and all that, ok? Or your Technical class, whatever. You learn positive positive, zzzzz, no power. Negative negative, also no power right? Positive negative, hoz..zzzzzz, shake, rattle and roll babe. Shake, sorry. What is that? Sorry, sorry, sorry. Spirit of Elvis come out! I’m all shook up, it’s all out in Jesus’ name amen, praise God. Some religious people are just mad about that, alright? It’s a way of casting out religious spirits, ok. Anyway, negative negative, negative. Positive positive, no result. Positive and negative, zzzzzz, power. The light comes on. God’s superabounding, disproportionate grace, is positive. God is positive. We are negative.

The problem with us is that, we are negative, God’s grace is positive, we try to be positive, when we come to God, alright, to get His positive. And then when we try to be positive, and get God’s positive, there’s no power. But when we say, "God, I don’t know how to pray for this person (negative), but I’m, it’s all yours Lord, (positive)". Pang, there’s power. God does not want you, listen carefully, I’m not saying positive thinking here, I’m talking about the, the fact of who you are. Many of us don’t realize, many of us are trying to become positive. We are trying to have strength that we don’t have, so we don’t have it, we pretend we have it. Some years ago God spoke to me, and the Lord said to me this, "I hate hypocrisy". I said, "I notice that Lord, when I read the scriptures, I noticed that of all the sins you rebuke publicly," even adultery, even prostitution, He never rebuke openly, but when it came to hypocrisy, He rebuked openly, "Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees". He rebuked openly.

I said, "Why Lord, why do You use such strong language? Because sometimes when I preached to people you know, about Your love, and they bring this point up, I, I need a good answer". He said, "Son, the reason I hate hypocrisy is because I love those hypocrites". I said, "I don’t understand Lord". And the Lord said this to me, "What is hypocrisy"? I said, "Pretending to be what you are not". You are this, you pretend to be this. You put your best foot forward. Alright? Now, if you put your best foot forward, and the Lord loves you, when you are pretending to be best, you will never really feel loved. And whenever you are normal, you come back to this again, you don’t think God loves you in your negative. Are you listening?

And that’s why the woman, of Canaan, asking Jesus for a miracle, she was a Canaanite, a non-Jews, a non-Jewish girl, yet she pretended to be a Jewish girl, and the Lord was quiet. Didn’t even answer her. Finally she fell back to her position of a gentile, "Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall," the Lord says, "Great is your faith". He wants to come into your gutter and love you there so that you really feel loved. And when you really feel loved for who you are, that’s when His power is able to take you out of the gutter, from the guttermost to the uppermost. Are you listening?

I was so touched when the Lord said to me, "I don’t want people to pretend to be what they are not, but to come to Me as they are. Even to tell Me, 'Lord, I don’t love You as much as I should Lord.' I will love to hear that, and I’ll say, 'No problem, I’ll be your love.'" "Lord, You know that I still got a bad temper problem Lord". The Lord says, "No problem, I’ll be your strength". But we pretend to be what we are not. And then when we are pretending, we think that God is loving us, we don’t feel loved.

Unfortunately a lot of young people, if I can say this delicately, sometimes parents contribute to this, they think they have to be someone they are not, when they know they are this, and they think that, "If my parents really know who I am, they will not love me". Wrong. Your parents know about you more than you think they know and they still love you. You don’t have to pretend, you know, and you got to feel loved where you are, to have power to become what God wants you to become. But God doesn’t say, "Become plus and then I will love you". God never says. God says, "In your negative I love you. Now if you believe that, you have power to plus". Are you with me church? Do you understand so far?

What’s going on here, alright, what Paul is saying? "Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may tabernacle over me". In other words, Paul knew when he was weak, let me show you other examples of weakness, the next verse, "Therefore," Paul says, "I take pleasure," hey, this guy is radical, "I take pleasure in infirmities (in weaknesses), in reproaches (insults)," how many of you when people insult you, "Oooooh, thank you, now the power of Christ is all over me, thank you! Got anymore insults or not"? None of us think that way. Jesus taught us that, "When man speak evil of you, leap for joy". Read that before? Sermon of the Mount. Leap for joy. The Sermon of the Mount in the account of the gospel of Luke says, "Leap for joy, for great is your reward in heaven".

He might have a beautiful house for you, alright? Not in heaven, down here, reward in heaven doesn’t mean, alright, you have to wait to die to go to heaven, alright? It means it originate from there, but you experience it down here, many a times. Great is your reward. When someone insults you, that’s the time you are in a position of weakness. That’s when God’s grace defend you. All these becomes avenues for God’s grace to manifest. So God’s grace is positive and when you are positive, you trying to be positive, and positive and positive repel. So you can say God’s grace is attracted to good, ah, to weakness, man’s weakness. Now how can we bring this into our thinking? The DARE age group many of them, they themselves are facing exam season, what is your worst paper? Rejoice in there.

If you want God’s favour to come on it, just say, "Father, I thank You for this paper. I thank You I receive your superabounding grace for this paper. Amen". If you think you’re good in this paper, most likely you won’t pray for that. If I tell you, "Ok next Sunday I want you to say a few words down here," and you’re not the talking type, you’re not the sharing, you know, er, er, er, a communicator, you will pray, say, "Father, give me grace, I make no mistake Lord". Correct? Am I right? But somebody who can talk all the time, and they hear me talk down here, they stand down there, "Pastor Prince, sit down. Let me talk," you know? Most likely they won’t, they won’t even pray. They think they’ve arrived.

Same thing for worship leaders, same thing for musicians, same thing for whatever you’re doing. If there’s no prayer, it’s because there’s no dependence on God. You think you have the gift, alright, but you do not know how dry your gift is. Amen. And there’s no effect. Are you listening? So thank God for your weakest paper. That’s why I’m saying, listen, Paul is not saying, "Infirmities, insults," then he says, "reproaches, needs," needs are necessities, like PSLE exam is a necessity. It’s a necessity to pass Chinese, alright? There’s a lot of necessities in life that you don’t like, and all these are minuses, that manifest God’s grace. "In persecutions, in distresses," literally the word ‘distresses’ is ‘stress.’ The Greek word is ‘narrow place,’ being pressured into a narrow place for Christ’s sake. "For when I am weak, then I am strong". Are you listening people?

So, if you thank, it’s not saying, "Well, you know what, Pastor Prince said ah this morning in church, you know, insults will be there, weakness will be there, ya lah, it’s part of life lor". It’s not like that. Doesn’t mean the power will come, the power will manifest, because all of us have weaknesses. If weaknesses alone will make us strong, obviously there are people who are not strong. It is not that. Notice Paul? He rejoices in it. He praises God for it. He thanks God for it. In other words, when people insult you, at that moment, say, "Lord, I re, I’m a candidate for Your superabounding, disproportionate grace. I receive that right now. In Jesus’ name, thank You Lord, hallelujah, amen". "Orh, this week, this paper, my worst difficult paper, I have superabounding grace for that. Lord, I receive your grace Lord for this paper. Thank You Lord, I praise You in Jesus’ name. Hallelujah, amen". Amen.

What is your weakness? "Ah, my temper Pastor Prince". Whenever you feel temper rising up, you say, "Lord, I thank You right now," even after it manifest, say that, "Lord right now, I receive your superabounding grace". Grace is God’s favour to those who are underserving, and you are no more undeserving than when you just lost your temper, alright, and then now you expect God to do something for you, you just lost your temper in the car on the way, and then you expect God to, ah, you, you expect God to give you a good parking lot. Most people don’t pray after they lose their temper there, alright? But I tell you this, if you’ll do this, lost your temper, whatever, you say, "Father," on the way there alright, "Father, I thank You Lord that, that, ah, because of my temper Lord, your super abounding grace is there, and I receive it, and now I ask you for a good parking lot".

Many a times, the grace of God will be there. Not because of your temper, but because you receive the supernatural favour of God. See, you see how the mentality can be like, "Oh, let’s go and find some negatives, to get God’s positive". So of course not. But can you see how people can reason that way in a carnal way? Right? You don’t have to look out for negatives. Just wake up in the morning, your breath will tell you how negative it is already, straightaway. I mean, imagine, if you can rejoice in all your negatives, grace is superabounding in this negative, you have your, you say, "I got a weak heart Pastor Prince," so now supernatural favour for, healing, for a strong heart is there.

And then you say, "Pastor Prince, I think, er, my kidney is not so good now," so superabounding grace for a strong kidney is there if you will only RECEIVE! Not complain about it, not talk about it, having negatives is just living, but if you learn, that in your negatives, alright, but we all still believe this, "When I’m positive, I’m impressing God. I can expect good things to happen, I can expect God’s blessing". No. Some of you had a very bad, and it’s no laughing matter. Some really bad experience. Maybe you lost a child, some years ago? And now the idea of having another child, you are captured, your mind has been captured by fear, because you’re looking back at what happened, what happened.

Do you know that what happened is not God’s will. But let me tell you this. Because it happened, now you are a candidate for a disproportionate grace for a baby like no other person has. But instead of that, instead of looking at the grace, you’re looking at what happened. The devil is pointing to you what happened, so you are afraid of your future, but actually the next baby is gonna have such favour, it’s going to be an easy baby, it’s gonna be a, a champion, it’s gonna be an anointed baby, it’s gonna bring such joy to you, you’ll look back and say, "Thank God I believe right". I have seen many a times, someone who has a tragedy, the next baby is a champion.

You see all the heroes of faith in the Bible, many of them were borne of parents, either both of them or one of them being barren. You look at the world, they look at the Ammonites, you look at the Philistines and poop poop poop poop poop, so many babies. I’m sorry for the sound effect. It sounds real coarse I know. I’m just trying to demonstrate. Just like they don’t believe in God and they’re just producing, like rabbits. Here we are, we are believing God, and, no baby. So Abraham looked at Sarah and Sarah looked at Abraham, "How long"? Then finally, you know the story right? They believed God but this area doesn’t seem to have any results. Did Abraham believe in God? Oh yes, and how? He believe in a mighty God.

You know how one time, somebody kidnapped his nephew Lot. Four kings, these kings had huge armies. One of them was a Iranian king, king of Elam, from the area of Iran, and they, they kidnapped his er, nephew, he had home trained servants, only a few hundreds, and he chased down these thousands of er, armies and defeated them all by the Hand of God. Abraham and his home grown servants, he knew God was a mighty God, yet his wife was barren. And then his wife says, "Why don’t you go to my servant, alright, maybe you can have a child with her"? So Abraham had Ishmael through the servant girl. That wasn’t God’s will. He tried to help God. It means his body still can produce. It was not his body, it was Sarah’s body that was barren, even when she was young.

So Abraham could produce in the natural, he could sire a child. He slept with the servant, the servant girl had a baby. But God says, "This is not the promised one". In fact, when he took Hagar in, the picture of the law, for those of you who are Bible scholars, you know that, in typology, Hagar was the law. God never gave Hagar to Abraham. Abraham took Hagar from Egypt. Always remember that. God never gave the law. Man wanted the law. And then God will use the law to humble man. Men are trying to use the law to justify themselves, the opposite of what God is trying to do. By the law is the knowledge of sin. Anyway, that’s Hagar. Watch this now. The moment Hagar was pregnant, God never spoke to Abraham for 13 years. For 13 years, God never spoke to Abraham, ever since Ishmael came. Finally, Abraham was 99, he had Ishmael 86 years old, 13 years, 99.

When he was 99 years old, he no longer can function. He, he no longer can sire a child. Watch. Genesis 17, "When Abraham was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, 'I am Almighty God. Walk before Me and be blameless.'" All these years, Abraham knew God as? Mighty God. Finally, when Abraham, in his own body, cannot produce a child anymore, God says, "I am Almighty God". It’s one thing to know God as a mighty God, but not All…mighty. Some part, "This part I cannot, I trust God. This part I can man, I’m telling you, my father was a great businessman, I’m a good businessman, I know the strategy, I know how to psycho people, I know how to do this". This area there’s no grace, this area you trust God, there’s grace.

That’s why I’m very concerned about people who say things like, "Pastor Prince, there’s God’s part, and there is man’s part, our part". Listen, God’s part is all mighty. Your part is all weakness. Cool? Cool? Many a time when they say, "God has His part, man must do his part". End up, man does a lot of His part. "Where is Your part God? You’re not doing Your part". Then they got angry with God’s part. You know the reason they’re angry is because, wrong believing. God is trying to bring you to a place where He is all mighty in all areas. But you are trying to say, "I need God in some areas, I, I, actually, I don’t need God in this area". You don’t say it but you’re acting like it.

So all the things that is negative in life is bringing you to a place when you say, "I don’t like it, I used to be strong in this, but now I, I, I cannot do this anymore. Is it age? Is it this? Is it that"? God says, "No, no, I’m just bringing you to a place where I’ll become everything in your life". And I’m telling you, your health, your strength will be greater than you were younger, because even the youth shall fall and utterly faint, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Even the youths shall faint but those who wait on the Lord shall not faint. Are you with me?

And by the way, this is the first time, first time, God’s name, El Shaddai is used. "I am Almighty God". In the Hebrew, ‘El Shaddai.’ Almighty God. All supplying One. Ok? "So Pastor Prince, what do I do now? Do I, pray for more weaknesses"? No, you don’t have to pray for more weaknesses, you all know why? Every morning you wake up, it is there waiting for you. Before you step out of bed, you already have weaknesses in the bed. Alright? All kinds of bad thoughts, "What’s going to happen? What if I can’t pay up"? All kinds of "Le le le le," you know? At that moment, rejoice. "Father, I really, really have a lot of negatives in my life. What a wonderful way for you to display your superabounding grace. Lord, just take over Lord. Take over this, take over that Lord. I’m all weak. You are Almighty". And guess what? The champion came. Amen? Isaac came.

Manoah, the man Manoah, and his wife, you know, for years didn’t have a baby. The Philistines can have babies, the enemies of God can have babies, they didn’t have baby. Finally they just believe God, they trust God, and that God gave them a baby, because it was borne of faith, in their weakness. The baby was Samson. Deliverer, God’s champion for Israel. There was a couple, very elderly, very old couple, alright, the husband was tending as a priest in the temple, the wife was advanced in years, alright? The angel Gabriel appeared, and said, "God has heard your prayer". So even though they’re barren, when they believed God, they brought forth the greatest prophet, in the mouth of Jesus, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, John the Baptist.

So I’m telling you, yes, your friend can have all sorts of babies and all that, but listen, the one that receive God’s supernatural grace, because you have a challenge in that area, will produce a baby that has this extraordinary quality, the X-factor, the charisma, the favour of God, like no other babies put together. Amen? And I know some of you are saying, "Well Pastor Prince, you are going to share your testimony again". I was a stammerer and a stutterer, not in kindergarten. In kindergarten, everyone is a stammerer, alright? Kindergarten age, everyone say, "Gee…jus". Alright, in Sunday school. Alright? You know? I’m talking about Secondary school, I’m talking about Pre-U, alright? I was a stammerer and a stutterer, and it’s very bad. And the more I worry about it, the more I try to be positive, the more I speak slower, the more I try to annunciate, the worse it became. It seems the more strength I put, the more positive I put, the worse it is. And my friends will laugh at me. The girls in the class will laugh at me.

I remember one day I told God, and God told me to go fulltime, and I told God, I didn’t tell God this but, I had this attitude, I pity God. Of all the people, He asked me. He should ask someone who is a successful businessman or, you know, and I was successful in my, in my so-called business at that time, what I was doing, in my secular world, but, I don’t think I can preach, I don’t think I can talk. I was a stammerer. So I pitied God, and God says, "I want you to preach for me, and I want to impact the world through you". I say, "Lord," I don’t want to say this, but in my heart, "I pity You". And I say, "Lord, whatever You can do Lord. I surrender my mouth to You". Cos my biggest problem is my mouth. That’s where weakness abounded. Some of you, your, your, your weakness is other areas. My is the mouth. And guess what? This same big mouth here, has been blessed. Superabounding grace here, to bless so many people, literally millions around the world, for the glory of Jesus. Where weakness abounded, His grace superabounded, and more on top of that.

So don’t be discouraged. You don’t have to look far for weaknesses. They are always present with you, but how are you looking at them? How are you viewing them? Are you viewing them as avenues that God’s power shows itself best in my weakness? Amen. God’s power is looking somewhere to happen. God’s grace is looking somewhere to manifest. Alright? But all He find, "This guy is trying to be strong. This guy is trying to be strong even though he’s not strong. This guy is trying to be this, trying to be that, trying to be positive, very hard". Here God find someone, "God, this is what I have, and I give You what I have. Lord, I give You my negative Lord". Amen?

And friend, when you feel weak, smile, because you are strong. You are strong. And sometimes we forget, we say verses like, "Let the weak say I’m strong". You know we forget, "You know, the Bible says, 'Let the weak say I’m strong.'" We forget, it is "Let the weak," not "Let the strong say I’m strong". Let the weak say. And Paul didn’t say, "Be strong in yourself". "Be strong in the Lord". In other words, when you say, "I am weak," the Lord says, "I’ll be your strength". That is being strong in the Lord. When you say, "I cannot," God says, "I can". You look at, someone says, "Pray for me Pastor Prince, I have this third stage," or whatever and all that, or someone tells you, "Brother so and so, pray for me". What do you think of? Do I have it? Do I have enough faith? No friend, sometimes the simplest prayer in a situation will be the most powerful, because it’s not you, you’re not the healer, He is. Amen?

And I’ll close with this. The apostle Paul says in Romans 8, it’s almost like he came to a climax, of all that he has been sharing about grace, in Romans 8. And he shouted to the highest heaven, and to the lowest hell, he says, "Who is he that can bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God Who justifies. Who is he who can condemn God’s people? Christ Who died for them, Who rose again for them? Who makes intercession for them, will He condemn us? No way! Who will separate us from the love of Christ"? And then he goes on to mention a few. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? "Shall nakedness, shall peril, sword," all these are negatives in life, then he says, then he quotes Psalm 44, "For thy sake, we are killed all the day long. We are like sheep for the slaughter". Then Paul answers, "No, we are not where they were," in Psalms 44, "we are not there". "No! In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him Who loves us".

Now many of us, we quote it out of context. We say, "We are more than conquerors through Christ". But actually it says like this, "No, we’re not like sheep for the slaughter. We might appear weak, we might sound weak, might appear weak, might look weak, but in all these things, in all these negatives, we are more, IN all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him Who loves us". Come on church, hallelujah! Hallelujah! So right now, if there is an area in your life that you’re struggling with, you’re discouraged with, maybe you have a frequent symptom that is coming on your body all the time, and you say, "Pastor Prince, I got a weak heart, I got a weak digestive system, I got a weak eye, I got a," whatever it is, why don’t you put your hand there and say, "Lord, I receive Your super abounding grace of health for this organ, for this condition. Lord, I receive".

Because you know what? It is in those minuses that God’s pluses are manifest, that shows itself best. Amen. What else? "Pastor Prince, I have a rebellious child". Watch out! Watch out! God’s superabounding, disproportionate grace is coming on that child, alright, and that child will be a champion for God. Amen? If you will but receive it. Don’t complain about your weakness, don’t start comparing with others and say, "I wish I was like sister so and so," "I wish I was like brother so and so," "I wish I was married to that husband of hers," "I wish I was married to that," whatever it is, stop that. You do not know what goes on behind the scene. You do not know what the struggles, they look good, they look successful, you do not know what struggles they have. Envy yourself. You know Jesus. Amen.

In all your minuses, you rejoice. For the world, a minus is a minus. For God’s people, a minus is a plus. Amen. Weakness is strength. And thank the Lord for it right now amen. Thank the Lord and receive. Right now say, "Lord, I receive Your supernatural abounding grace. I receive Your disproportionate grace for this area of my life". Those in the youth Ministry that is watching right now, receive grace right now for your weakest subject "Lord, I receive Your supernatural grace". And even in the subject you think you are strong, be careful, that’s where you are weak. Receive grace for that area as well. Amen? Put yourself in a position, even in your strong subject, say, "Lord, I receive Your grace, Your wisdom for this subject Lord. Amen, amen, amen".

And for those of you who may had a bad experience, starting a business or even, you’ve lost a child, and you are not confident of the future to have another one, let me tell you this, I say this by the word of the Lord, the next one will not be like the previous. The first Adam fell. The second Adam was our Lord from heaven. That baby will have a touch of heaven, on him or her. Friend you will say, "Father, I reach out," especially when you lost a child, something bad has happened. Reach out right now and say, "Father, I receive your supernatural grace, and I praise You Lord, I praise You for Your grace Lord. I praise You for Your favour in this area. I thank You. Thank You Lord, I believe again. I believe again. You’re a good God. You don’t just give enough, You give more than enough". It won’t just be a baby, it’ll be an anointed, Christ-filled baby, that will bring great joy to you. "In Jesus’ wonderful name, thank you Lord".

"Oh hallelujah Lord El Shaddai, El Shaddai El-elyon na Adonai. Age to age You’re still the same, By the power of Your name. El Shaddai, El Shaddai Erkamka na Adonai, Lord, we will praise and lift You high, El Shaddai El Shaddai, El Shaddai". And God said to Moses, "Lift up that rod". "But God, it’s a simple rod. It’s cut off from its tree, it’s not even a living rod". "Lift up the rod Moses," and God made a way when there was no way, even a path through the seas. Peter cried, Jesus looked and Peter said, "I give You, my weakness. I give You, my sins," and Peter stood up and preach, and 3000 people were saved. Year after year, after year, after year, Sarah wept. Year after year, after year after year, month after month, Abraham wept. Until finally, he was all weak, and God says, "I am El Shaddai". El, All...Mighty God, and within that year, the promised champion was conceived.

"El Shaddai, El-elyon na Adonai, We will praise and lift. You high El Shaddai". Look at the cross my friend, there Jesus Christ, became the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world. There the cross is a plus for all our minuses. Look at the cross, it’s shaped, like a plus across, and from then on, if you allow Jesus to be your Saviour, where the cross becomes a place for all your minuses, I’m telling you my friend, you will live a life of power, poise, peace, joy and victory. And after the cross, when they brought the cross down, it looked like a, multiplication, a times. Your life will be 10 times better, hundred times better, because the work is finished.

And friend, if that is you, wherever you are right now, say, "Pastor Prince, pray for me. I want Jesus Christ, to be my Saviour, my Lord. I’m a sinner pastor, I don’t mind admitting that, because I know when I say I’m a sinner, I confess my sins". Jesus says, "I am Your Saviour and I give you My righteousness". So wherever you are, if that is you, you pray this prayer with me right now, from your heart. We all say this together. Say to the Father:

Heavenly Father, I thank You. You are Almighty God, but You are my Father. Thank You for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Saviour. On that cross, He took all my sins. All my curse, and all my judgment, died in my place, and rose again, without them. All my sins, have all been put away, and I’m in Christ risen. I’m in Christ risen, accepted, righteous, blessed, forevermore. In Jesus’ name, amen, amen, amen, amen.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, hallelujah. Lift your hands all across this place and everywhere that’s watching this. This coming week, those of you taking your exams, God’s supernatural, disproportionate favour and grace is all over you. Especially on your weak subjects, receive it. Say:

Lord, I receive it right now, for this subject, for this subject, I receive it right now Lord. Thank You Lord and I rejoice, rejoice, it’s exam week". Rejoice! Thank God for it, it’ll be some of the best days of your school life. Amen.

The rest of you, this coming week, the same hand that was crucified on Calvary’s cross for our sins, now holds the key of life and death, holds the key of David.

Lord Jesus, open doors Lord, of favour, grace, victory, opportunities Lord. Promotion, health to your people this week Lord. For the people under the sound of my voice, open doors of gladness, doors of celebration Lord, and Lord, shut down, every door Lord, that is evil, every door Lord, that is a temptation, a solicitation to sin, shut down every door Lord, of adversity and evil, and harm. Multiply Your favour upon Your people Lord I pray, increase it even more. Father God, from this day forth Lord, we give You our spirits, souls and bodies. We acknowledge Lord, that You are Almighty God. You are our Father, Jesus Christ our Saviour and Lord, and none of self, but all of Christ, from this day forth. In Jesus’ name, and all the people say? All the people say? Amen, amen, amen.