Joseph Prince - Supply Flows As You Look To Jesus
Well, I just want to share with you something that probably you have never heard before, something called grace. I have a brand-new title called The Grace Zone. Have you heard that before? Oh, somebody preached on it? Oh, man. Okay, I'll preach on the law zone. You know it was amazing just yesterday, the Holy Spirit has set the course of this convention from the moment we had our network of pastors and Brian brought forth the Word on wisdom and putting King Jesus first. And then Priscilla ran with it, that Jesus is central place.
I think all over the world, God is glorifying the name of his Son and how you treat Jesus is how God will treat you. If you honor him, God will honor you. You accept him, God accepts you, amen? You reject him, God rejects you. The way you deal with his Son is how God will deal with you, amen? So, we might not have enough chapters or verse to share with people or enough Greek or Hebrew, but as long you share Jesus in your testimony, people get help. You know, in the Last Days, the challenge we have are not from people who are not religious. It is people who are pro God, but Antichrist. We must not be ashamed of the name of Jesus for at the name of Jesus every knee bows of things in heaven, things on earth and things under the earth. The more you say Jesus, the more the powers of evil fall.
So, there is a evil demonic conspiracy to stop this name of Jesus from being uttered, so we say God. In Matthew's account we have Jesus saying, "One of you shall betray me in the Last Supper". And the Bible tells us every one of them said, "Lord, is it I? Lord, it is I"? When you come to Judas, Judas said, "Rabbi, is it I"? He was the only one that said, "Rabbi, is it I"? The rest all said, "Lord". Now, that reveals his heart. Jesus, wonderful, I mean a person to be emulated after, our perfect example. First and foremost, he has not come to be our example, that will bring us under condemnation. He has come to be the bread of life, for us to feed on him. He has come for us to drink and out of a belly shall flow rivers of living water to bless others. Then when you feed on him, you have the power to become like him.
So, first and foremost, Jesus is our food. Let me say this reverently, use him, amen, the way Mary used him at his feet. Mary drew from him. She drink of his fullness. He bask under his love, whereas Martha was trying to give to him, serve him as if he needed her ministry. When you come to think of it, he does not need any of us, but he has chosen without us he will not. Without him, we cannot. And you know how Mary was all stressed out, came to Jesus, "Don't you care, my sister has left me alone"? She blamed two persons at one go. And that's what happens when we ministers and pastors and leaders get burnt out, stressed out, we blame others and we inwardly blame the Lord, "Why did you allow this to happen"? Because we are not at the place of rest.
We are not at the place where we are drinking his fullness, basking under his love. In the natural it looks so lazy, isn't it, for a middle eastern woman to sit down there, not be about the house when a guest has come. But here, this is a heavenly guest. This is a unique guest. He multiplied five loaves and two fish. Food is not a problem to him. When you come to a conference, feed on him, enjoy him, talk about him, worship him, amen? Sit at his feet and one thing is needful, Jesus said, "We shall not be taken away from Mary. Only one thing is needful".
And now many of us, we don't believe one thing is needful. We believe many things are needful, but Jesus said one. The reason why Martha was troubled about many things was because she didn't do the one thing. We don't believe one thing is needful. "Lord, if I do this one thing, you'll take care of the affairs of my church, you'll take care of my ministry, you'll take care of my family, my children"? One thing is needful. He tells us, "Let not your heart be troubled". We are trying to guard our finances, our careers, you know, our families. We are guarding all these things outside when the Lord says, "Guard your inside. Let not your heart be troubled. Take care of your heart and I'll take care of everything outside". That's all makes things easy, amen? We gotta make sure that our focus is on Jesus.
Sometime ago, some years... this has happened quite a number of years, about, five, six years ago, we have a group of counselors, pastoral team on our team. They are full time because of the needs of the church and many of them, they counsel people all day long because they're employed as professional counselors. I noticed one time that a number of them looked quite depressed. It's not like some sickness come in. It's just like they look so morose and melancholic, you know? And I noticed that it's a trend among them to look like that, counselors. So, I gathered them together and I began to talk them and I couldn't put my finger on what was going on, quite a number of counselors. They came in excited, you know, all excited about serving Jesus and all of a sudden, after a few months, they look sad, and morose, and burdened down.
So, I went to the Lord and said, "Lord, what's happening"? The Lord says, "This is the result of feeding on sin, and not on the sin offering". And I didn't understand what he was saying. And you know I knew it was somewhere in the Bible. He brought me to Leviticus where the priest of old, when someone sins, he'll bring a lamb or a bullock, depending on his income level, all right? The poor will bring something small like a dove, a pair of doves. That tells us that Jesus was born into a poor family because when he was born, Mary and Joseph brought a pair of turtle doves. He came into a poor family to bring us into a wealthy one, amen? And what happened is that when they bring the sin offering to the priests, all right, the priests will lay hands on the sin offering, or rather that get the sinner to lay hands on the sin offering and he will identify the man's sin with the sin offering.
The sin is sin in the sacrifice. Just like Jesus took our sins at the cross, he's our sin offering. Now, we can be engrossed in our sins, instead of the offering. So, in other words, every time someone came with their lamb, the priest can either look at the sinner or the lamb, but we know that Israel of old, the priest does not look at the sinner. There's no point looking at the sinner. We all know why he's there, he has sinned. What the priest examined is, how good is your lamb? It's not how good you are. Obviously, you are there because you sinned. So, he looks at the lamb. He examines the lamb. If there is no spot, no blemish in the lamb, the sinner is accepted in the spotlessness of the lamb. So, when you come to God in praise and worship, God is not examining you. He's examining your sin offering. His name is? And he is perfect, hallelujah. As he is, so are we in this world.
Now, I didn't say we are perfect in our actions. I didn't say we are perfect in the eyes of our spouse, or your critics, but you are perfect, blameless, righteous in the eyes of God because God looks at the sin offering. So, I began to tell them, "Look guys, when you hear all kinds of dirt being shared, because as a counselor, you will hear all kinds". I mean you know you are called when you counsel someone and then when you hear all kinds of junk, now if you end up saying, "You pervert"! You are not called, for sure, all right? But these are people that are called. They are patient. They are pastoral. They are listening, but all day long, they're listening to junk and they're feeding on sin, and it shows.
You know, they are melancholic. They are depressed. And I began to teach them, every time someone comes, I want you to be strong in looking at Jesus. Look at him as the reason why this person is there now, all right, because he's gonna find his help, his salvation, his righteousness, his grace in Jesus, amen. And every time someone comes, it's an opportunity for you to be Jesus's conscious. Let me put us this way, without sin from Israel, the priests will be out of job. Pastors and leaders, I'm against sin.
Let me just say this, all right, out from the start, Joseph Prince is 100% vehemently against sin. All right, I believe in holiness. It's how to arrive there that I differ from some people, okay? I believe you arrive there by grace, but I'm against sin. But let me tell you this, without sin, we'll be all out of jobs. And we are using the pulpit to pound sin, you know, to condemn the sinner, and we have forgotten what the gospel is all about. We have a mixture and Jesus says you can't put a patch of grace on an old wineskin, amen? You will lose both. There is no place for compromise. There was a time that the church, the early church, was full of grace.
Acts 4, let's look up here. It tells us in Acts 4, "With great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all". Great power, great grace. Great power and great grace go together and look at the next line. "Not a single one of them lacked". Great power, great healing, great health. I've noticed when people come under grace, they look much younger than they really are. I've met people, you know now the gospel revolution is all over the world and I've met people that I've met them some years ago and they were preaching mixture and, you know, stress here and a mixture of law and Christ. You know? But when they come under pure grace, you look at them some years later we have not met and they look young. They look good. There's something about the law that condemns, that bears you down.
Look at this. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ". You touch grace, you touch truth. You know when Jesus stood before the Pharisees of his day, the Jewish people of the day, I mean they knew the Bible. They knew the Torah. Every young Jewish person by the age of five has memorized the five books of Moses, the Torah and the Tanakh, the Old Testament. And Jesus stood before them and said, "And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free".
Now, it's obvious he's not talking about the law. They had the law already. He's talking about the truth that he brought. Grace will set them free, amen? The law never revealed the heart of God. The law reveals the claims of God, but grace reveals the goodness and the grace of God, amen? The essence of the law is demand. The essence of grace is supply. Now, sometimes we are not under mosaic law or the Ten Commandments in our hearts and minds. In other words, we are not sensing any legalism, but we are putting upon ourself a sense of burden like "There's all these demands on me. There's all these demands in the ministry. There's all these demands in the church. There's all these demands from my children. Demands, you know, demands, demands, demands". In essence, you are under law because you are placing yourself under a demand mentality, instead of a supply mentality. Grace is supply.
So, even as I stand down here, I don't feel the demand because I'm seeing the supply, and sometimes the supply flows in such a way I get so good, I want to take notes on myself. And I know the teacher has taken over because I'm not that smart, but I'm constantly conscious of supply. When I think of next month I'm supposed to be here, or next year I'm supposed to be here, or this coming week, I have to accomplish this, I don't think of demand because the essence of law is demand. The essence of grace is supply. I'm supply conscious. God will supply me what I don't have amen. God has supplied. He is supplying and he will supply, amen?
The first miracle of Moses was turning water into blood resulting in death. The first miracle of grace was turning water into wine resulting in life and celebration. The law demands righteousness from bankrupt men. Grace provides righteousness for men. If you look up here, pastors and leaders, at 2 Corinthians 3, the Bible tells us God has made us able ministers. In the New King James, sufficient of ourselves, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything is coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God". God has made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant.
I want to say this, the sufficiency of God, the supply of God is for us pastors and leaders to become ministers of the new covenant, not the old. How many ministers of the new covenant under the sound of my voice? All right, ten you, good. Ministers of the new covenant and not the old. All right, "Not of the letter, but of the Spirit. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life".
So, in the context of the law, when God gave the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, 3,000 people died and the Jewish people tell us that was the first Pentecost. In the New Testament, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, God gave the Spirit and 3,000 people were saved. The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Where is your ministry, on which mountain are you preaching from? Are you preaching from Mount Sinai or Mount Zion? It's time for us to move our pulpits from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion. What say you? Come on, because the letter kills but the Spirit gives life, amen.
The next verse says, "The ministry of death, written and engraved on stones", written and engraved on stones. Now, the argument that we are not under law, in terms of ceremonial law, circumcision, the Jewish feast and the killing of animals, that's what it, "Pastor Prince, that's what I believe it meant". Does not hold water because it's very clear the part of the law that is the ministry of death is written and engraved on stones. And the only part of the law that's engraved on stones written with the finger of God is the Ten Commandments.
I tell you why the Holy Spirit doesn't help you, doesn't help anyone memorize the Ten Commandments. I found it is so true everywhere I go in the world, I ask the pastor who believes in fighting for the Ten Commandments, fighting for the right to have the Ten Commandments. Now, don't misunderstand me. When you follow grace, you will more than don't commit adultery. You will so love your wife, you don't even think of committing adultery. But you know something? You can don't commit adultery for all the wrong reasons. You don't have the money. It takes money, I reckon nowadays.
The second reason, the second reason, no one looks your way twice, and there you are keeping the law. That's not the kind of holiness God wants. The Bible says love is a fulfillment of the law, amen. You love, you love because he first loved us. So, don't you think for one moment that I'm trying to say I am not for holiness. I am for holiness, but I'm not saying to you loud and clear, I'm declaring, I'm proclaiming to you, it does not come by the law. True holiness, unaffected humility where Jesus gets all the glory comes under grace, amen.
So, the law demands righteousness. Grace gives it to you as a gift, all right? I submit to you a great number of people are sick in the body of Christ today, are depressed, not because they are sinful. Jesus took care of sin 2,000 years ago. They are depressed, they are sick because they are feeling guilty. They are under condemnation.
Now science, medical science have proven that our bodies, our DNA, our genetic makeup is so intelligent that the moment you want to punish yourself for something that you have done, your body goes like this, the DNA goes like this, "All right, boys, let's help him produce or develop depression or sickness or some disease". And that's why when you sin, when you fail, you must always revert back to the cross. "There is my judgment. There is my condemnation. By his blood, I am washed clean, amen".
Look up here. Ephesians 1:7 the Bible tells us in whom, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace". Say, "According". According to the riches of his grace. The day you can measure the grace of God from one end to the other, the riches of his grace, we are forgiven according, that means in the same measure of the riches of his grace not out of, but according to the measure, according to the riches of his grace. That's how forgiven we are.
Now, if I'm forgiven based on my being cognizant of the sin of the moment, if I'm forgiven based on the sins I confess alone, if I am forgiven based on what I'm aware of, then there's never real assurance in my heart because there are some sins I fail to confess. There are some sins I fail to acknowledge, but blessed be to God, I mean there's a passage in Scripture in the Book of Leviticus where it talks about sin offering. It tells us you can even be forgiven for sins of ignorance when you bring the sin offering.
In other words, we aren't forgiven based on our knowledge of our sins. We are forgiven based on his full measure and estimate of our sins. When he placed all our sins in the body of Jesus Christ, it was based on his perfect knowledge of every sin of our lives and God placed it on Jesus Christ and now we rest in the fact it is God's estimate of our sins that we are forgiven by. That gives us assurance. That gives us stability. That gives us a solid Christianity, amen? None of us can measure our sins. None of us can be cognizant of our sins, but God, having the full estimate, full measure of our sins laid them all on Jesus and all I know is that I am forgiven based on God's estimates, not my estimate. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Let me bring this to a close. And now, we forgive because we are forgiven. Forgiven people forgive. Loved people love. Those who feel that God is hard with them, they're hard on others. Those who feel like God is gracious towards them, they are gracious towards others. So, in other words, the pulpit is responsible for people that are unforgiving, people who are hard, people who are ungracious. You cannot blame the people. They are the product of the pulpit ministry. The pulpit either pulls you in the pit or pull you out of the pit. And I speak for myself as well. I'm the pulpit ministry, amen?
When you give a sense of God's love in that sense, we love. When people know they are forgiven, they forgive. When they have a sense of grace, they become gracious 'cause 2,000 years ago, everything changed at the cross. Before that, do good get good, do bad get bad was the norm. But today, many of us we look at our lives, we look at our ministries and we say to one another, even Brian would say to it me and I would look at Brian, look at Gary and I'll say, we get to do this and people come all over the world and listen and it's all grace. It's all the grace of God. Today we can receive good we don't deserve because somebody took all the bad he did not deserve.