Increase Your Expectation for What God Wants to Do This Year - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

0:00 There's something about this father who loves when he sees his children put a demand on who he is as father. It's not people bossing him around. It's people confident in who he is. It may look like arrogance to everybody around them, but there's such a tenderness, such an intimacy there that the father is moved time and time and time again to go above and beyond to answer the harsh cry of that individual. Good morning, nice to see you. Happy New Year. Oops, Merry Christmas and Happy Easter and anything else we can throw in, it's just a good day. And I didn't sleep much last night, so I'm going to basically punish you for my lack of sleep. I tossed and turned I'm going to say all night long probably from 11 midnight on on the rest of the night which is I get up at 4 but it's on Sunday but it was all night just tossed and turned with one verse going through my head over and over and over and over and over again and it was he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him that phrase just kept going through my head over and over and over again. I couldn't escape it. So I don't have a message, but I do have a subject.

1:31 So I'm just going to let you figure it out. You just adjust. You do whatever you need to, all right? Go to Hebrews chapter 11, and we're going to take that verse and talk to you a bit about this subject, Hebrews chapter 11. By the way, it's very fun to have all of our guests here again. How many of you are here actually visiting relatives for the holidays? You're here just to spend time with relatives. Excellent. Oh, we're so glad. So glad that your relatives are here. We're glad that we get to have you here. Hebrews chapter 11.

2:05 You know, it hit me this morning. We don't read this chapter often enough. I don't care how often we do it. It's just not enough. It's just too good. All right. Verse one. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained a witness that he was righteous. God testifying of his gifts, and through it, he being dead still speaks. In other words, even though he's died, he still is prophesying to us how truth works. Verse 5, by faith, Enoch was taken away.

3:03 That's just one of the weirdest things in all of history. Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God. Is that amazing? Faith, faith provided a walk for him with God. I heard a little girl explain this once, a repeat story of a little girl who said that God and Enoch went for a long walk and finally God said, you know, you're closer to my house than to yours. Why don't you just come home with me? So I don't know if, you know, that works for me. I'm going with the little girl's story. So that's how she saw it. But here's this last phrase, so that he pleased God. And verse six that I quoted earlier, a part of, stems off of that statement that he pleased God. Verse 6, without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. I want to read verse 6 again.

4:15 Without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. As I already mentioned, I literally just tossed and turned all night with that phrase and then thinking of occasions in the Bible where people were rewarded for something and how God is a rewarder.

4:45 And this verse is broken up into two parts, and that it says he who believes, he with faith must believe that he is. So we believe in the existence of God. I mean, the devil even believes that, so you don't get high marks for that one. Believe that he is and that he's the rewarder. So there's a confidence in his nature or his character. So there's two aspects to this faith. One is there's gotta be a belief, a confidence that he exists. But number two, it's not just good enough that he exists. there has to be an active faith in his nature, his character. And in this case, what is highlighted here is that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. There are certain subjects that I've watched over the last number of years, especially since Benny and I have come here to Reading. Certain subjects that if I bring certain subjects up, there's always a certain amount of reaction, and I get it, I understand it. There are nerves, there are terms that trigger people because of abuses, maybe subjects that we've heard overemphasized or perhaps great errors been taught under the name of a certain theme.

6:00 And so there's a lot of reactions whenever certain subjects are brought up. And one of the things that I've seen is this concept of God being a rewarder is not a very popular subject. It may be with you, but it's not a real popular subject. Why? Because none of us want to fall into the trap where we do something to get something from God. I don't remember one time in my life. I love giving. I just love giving. I don't remember, honestly, one time in my life thinking, I'm going to write this check. I'm going to give this gift because I'm expecting something in return. Why? We give out of compassion. We give out of a vision for what is going to happen with the money, or we give out of honor. It's basically those three things. We want to celebrate what God's doing in somebody. We want to help meet a certain need, and so we move out of compassion, or we're giving honor to who a person is in God, what they've meant to us, their impact on our life. And so there's this motivation that is huge in giving. I don't remember ever writing a check going, you know, I'm putting it in the slot machine, oh God, as I pull the handle, let 10 times over come back to me honestly i i know some people think that way and that bothers me but the fact that he rewards is still a reality and i i think it comes down to the issue of the heart once again it's it's all about heart if i start well here it is seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness and all these things the things you would normally concern yourself with those things would be taken care of Right?

7:35 So here's the priority. It's all about heart. The priority is intact. What does he do? He rewards. He concerns himself with things so that we don't have to concern ourselves with those things. He's pruning, he's grooming, he's refining heart focus, values, what's important to us. The whole subject here on him rewarding us comes out of the subject of us wanting to please him. now I know that there are many who would as a doctrinal point would say well I'm already pleasing to the Lord yeah that's true but you don't get it there's there's more there's there's more listen everybody in this room has been given faith everyone's given a measure everyone has been given favor, a measure. Everyone has been given gifts, abilities. There are other things, authority, a resource, et cetera, but we'll take those three things. Everyone's been given a measure of faith.

8:44 That's what the Bible says. I had somebody come to me a while back and said, I don't have any faith. I'm thinking, do I believe you or do I believe the Bible? The Bible says everyone's been given a measure of faith. I don't know what you did with yours, but you maybe dropped it somewhere, but it was given to you. If I were you, I'd go find it. Everyone's been given a measure. Everyone's been given a measure of favor. Everyone's been given a measure of giftings, graces. You know, one of the problems, a little bit off subject, but oftentimes people with extraordinary natural talents don't have to work to develop their gift and so they never find out what they could be because they're always so much better than everybody around them Wow.

9:33 Wow. That just felt good to say, I feel better. I don't know if it helped anybody else. But the Lord has given us giftings. He's given us grace, His abilities. He's given us a measure of faith. He's given us favor. What would happen if by this time next year,

9:55 you'd be able to say, your favor had doubled? your faith had increased, had doubled, your resources that you live with. Again, not talking about building personal empires, talking about the impact on the course of history on affecting humanity. Increase. One of my favorite stories in this regard is in the Gospel of Matthew. It's in chapter 25, and I'll just run through the story to try to, what I should probably do sometime when I have had a good night's sleep. is try to do this in about three or four weeks. But today you're just getting whatever comes out. So just suck it up. Bring it on. There we go. All right. A landowner gave three of his servants talents. A talent is a sum of money.

10:49 It's about $1,000. And he went to one of his servants. He gave him five. Another servant gave him two. Another one gave him one. And it says he gave them resources, money, each according to their ability. So there was a recognition of what they were capable of managing and bringing increase to. the first one traded with the five talents of five thousand dollars and at the end of whatever season uh it was the master came back and he brought to him he said here i i have the five you gave me and i earned five more the one with two took the two traded invested brought increase hundred percent increase again the two which how about we believe that every business person in this room experiences annually 100% increase. The last person took the one and buried it.

11:46 And when the master returned, said, I knew that you were an exacting person. I was afraid of you, nervous. Here's your talent back. And there was extreme punishment. But the bizarre part of the story to me is he took the one talent from the one who had next to nothing and gave it to the guy who had the most. If you think the guy who has the most should be punished and what he has be given to the one with the least, Uh-oh.

12:29 Our educational system is trying to reward every student equally, which supports mediocrity. there's a certain amount that is due every person alive i'm going to get myself into trouble here i can feel it again i was going to avoid this this is this great hole and it's just sucking me into this hole last last service i fell into it just fell into it miserably and i said well i get another chance next service i won't do it Next service. Well, I've got one more service after this, so by the third one, I should have this pretty much down. Honestly, in the name of compassion, which I believe so strongly in, in the name of compassion, we often exalt mediocrity. And we actually feed into an ongoing problem. Let me, one more opinion, and then I'm just going to shut up on that subject and move on.

13:32 You know, everyone deserves to eat, to have a place to sleep, clothes to wear. If you want a cell phone, go to work. Well, you know, it almost... Let me go to the other side. I don't like what oftentimes Christians will do in not giving out of compassion to help somebody because we're afraid of how they're going to spend their money. It's not your responsibility how they spend their money.

14:25 I mean, if you're that concerned, buy them food. but do something, just move with compassion and serve people, that's the point that's the point but culturally there has to be reward for those who multiply what they've been given. I don't know how to crawl out of it. I crawled out of the whole better last service than this one. But if...

15:02 Jesus thinks different than you think he thinks. That's not worth twittering, but you get my point. He thinks, he does, he thinks different. He is so motivated by compassion, by love, by caring for people. And he pulls out this story where he takes from the guy who has one, and he gives it not to the guy with two that doubled to four, but he gives it to the one who has shown his ability to manage what he's been given. And this is a lesson about stewardship, not money. It's about faith. It's about favor. It's about resource money. It's about all these things that make up our lives. What has God given us? He has given us the capacity to increase in any single area of our life that we want to increase in. But how do we bring increase? Through use. Through use. it's it's it's this law of use it's using what god has put at my disposal it may be favor may you know i i watch some people they just they can walk into a room everybody instantly likes them i mean it's it's crazy it's this strange favor thing gabe has this favor thing on him he just got raptured i think but he i i we laugh about it as a family we'll go into a restaurant if anybody in the entire restaurant is going to be given free food, it will be Gabe.

16:25 I'm serious. They'll walk by the table. They'll go, you know, somebody just ordered fries. They don't want them now. And they'll look at Gabe and say, would you like some fries? I mean, he'll come home and tell us, I was just given free food again. It just happened. Some people, you know, they just attract stuff, you know? I remember Eric as just a young kid. He was, he joined a race, a bicycle race here in Redding. Down at the Civic Auto Tournament. We lived in Weaverville. We had been there for a number of years and he was maybe 12 years old or so, I suppose. And so he got in the race. He did not win the race. There's like, you know, 500 people racing their bikes. He didn't win. He came like in, you know, 120th or something crazy. But he got the big prize. He's the guy who got the brand new bike. How do you not come in? Some people just have that favor. It just jumps on. They walk in, they win the bike. What place did you come in? 28. It just so happens 28 was their favorite number today. So they chose. Some people just have that kind of favor. How do you increase in favor? You use what you've been given for his honor. You use, if it's to build a personal empire, then you've chosen where to level off. That's the whole point. As God adds to our life, It's called biblically, called prosperity.

17:48 If the term offends you, you can invent another one, but it still comes back to what the Bible says. It's prosperity. There's going to be increase. There's going to be more than you need to live. Why? So that others can feed off of the resource, the favor, the increase that God has given you. This is about the increase specifically of faith and that God is the rewarder of those who please him. There's an interesting lesson in scripture about our lives, where Paul talks about our lives being represented. If you could picture this pile and the pile has in it wood, hay, and stubble and silver gold precious stones. It's like things that will burn up quickly and things that will still be there after the match is lit. And Paul uses this as an illustration of what it will be like to stand before the Lord and to receive reward. You are rewarded for what endures the fire. The reward is not heaven or hell.

18:48 This is already for those who are born again. They are in Christ. They are in the kingdom. It is a system of reward. It may mean nothing to you now. It will mean everything to you then. Yeah, good. I'm hoping just to annoy you enough to make you consider the subject of reward. Because it is central to our operation, our function in the kingdom. It's a half of the subject of faith. Is that what we do, we do because we believe he responds and there's a reward. In Galatians 6, he says something really good. He says, Do you understand what it's saying there? The Lord is not mocked.

19:46 Why? What a person sows, that will he also reap. It is mockery to think I could do something in faith before the Lord and not receive a reward. reward. It's a mockery. What is a mockery of? It's a mockery of his nature in his covenant to us as people. That's why it's a father who rewards. I remember my kids, when they were young, you know, they'd be wrestling on the floor playing, do what all of our kids do. And I remember right in the middle of something, one of them would do something, you know, unusually kind for the other one, you You know, and I remember just, I said, hey guys, look. And they'd look at me like they were in trouble. I said, do you know what that was? And they looked at me like, I can't think of anything I just did wrong. But he's way too excitable, you know. And I'd say, son, that was a fruit of the Spirit.

20:41 That was kindness. That was amazing what you just did for your brother. the point is that the Lord is attracted as a father to the things that are done to please him. Not to earn in some perverted sense, but to honor him, to please him with who we are, with what we think, with what we plan, with what motivates us to give, what motivates us to do anything, to serve, to minister. What's the motivation? What's the heart? Where do we come from when we decide to be bold? Are we trying to get another notch on our list of spiritual characteristics we're trying to develop? Or do we actually have that kind of a passion for people? Do we actually have that kind of a passion for the Lord? Do we like the music or are we actually that excited about Jesus himself? And he's looking for that heart that gets refined by seeking first the kingdom so that he can trust us with everything else we need. In fact, it's like he says, I'll worry about this, you worry about this. You worry about the number one thing, I'll take of everything else. So we've got this story. David to me exemplifies this concept of reward, maybe better than anyone in scripture. At least he's the one I wrestled with all night, so you're going to hear about it. I want you to go to 1 Samuel 17. Honestly, I kept thinking about David throughout the night. He's a reward of those who seek him. And there's a couple of real strange good stories, fun stories, but unusual.

22:17 And we'll read one, and I'll just make reference to the second one. All right, 1 Samuel 17. this is the chapter with David and Goliath verse 24 says all the men of Israel when they saw the man Goliath they fled from him were dreadfully afraid so the men of Israel said have you seen this man who has come up surely he has come up to defy Israel and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will enrich with great riches will give him his daughter and give his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel. So David hears the reward for the guy who kills Goliath. Now remember, the entire Israeli army ran when they saw Goliath. All right. Then David said, David spoke to the man, verse 26, by him. And he said, what shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine? I love this so much. What does the guy get who kills Goliath, this uncircumcised Philistine who defies the army of the living God and the people around him? Answered him and said, in the same manner, so shall it be done for the man who kills this Goliath. Eliab, his older brother, oldest brother, comes down and he said his anger was aroused against David. And he said, why do you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and your insolence. Listen, the moment you start talking about reward, you will have some of the brethren, some of the brethren who will come to you and say, I know of your pride and your insolence. You self-centered. That's just to encourage you. It's just God's gift to us. I know of your pride, the insolence of your heart.

24:27 You have come down to see the battle. David said, what have I done now? In other words, we've had this discussion before. Is there not a cause? And he turned from him, from his brother, toward another. And he said the same thing. And these people answered him in the same way. All right. Here's the story. David brings cheese and crackers to his brothers, a little early, grains and stuff, to his brothers to help on the front lines of battle. So he gets there and he sees this giant. He sees Israel scared to death running from the army. And then somebody says, you know, whoever kills that guy gets a whole bunch of money, gets the king's daughter, which apparently was a real prize. And your father's house will be free from taxes forever. and David goes, hmm, this uncircumcised Philistine, and then he turns and he says, run that by me again, what does the guy get who kills that giant right there, and the guy tells him the same story, and his brother comes along and does his number, you know, you prideful, arrogant little thing, you. I couldn't have any good words come to my mind, so little thing. And he turns to the third person, and he says, what does the guy get?

25:52 And as soon as he hears the reward for the third time, his own courage and faith kicked in. Now this is awkward because for most of us, the concept of doing things, oh, I don't have a good way to say this. I really don't. Yeah, but I'll mess it up. You know, the concept of doing things with the pure motives means that we dismiss the concept of reward and it's not biblical. biblical. It's not biblical. It sounds nice, makes you really appear spiritual, but it's just not smart. There's something about this father who loves when he sees his children, this is again the wrong terminology, maybe by third service I'll have this one down,

26:43 loves to see his children put a demand on who he is as father. It's not people bossing him around, It's people confident in who he is. There's a confidence in who he is. There's something about people that have a confidence in who God is to them. It may look like arrogance to everybody around them, but there's such a tenderness, such an intimacy there that the Father is moved time and time and time again to go above and beyond to answer the heart's cry of that individual that shows the confidence in who he is. I was thinking earlier about this passage out of Proverbs 25, verse 2. it says, it's the glory of God to conceal a matter, but it's the glory of kings to search out a matter. The glory of God to conceal a matter. God hides things, but he hides them for us, not from us. So God is glorified by hiding truth in mystery, in riddles, in parables, that sort of thing. But then he goes on. The second part says, and it's the glory of kings to search out a matter. What's the point? You and I, as royalty, royal blood in our veins, never display our royalty as profoundly as when we know we have legal access to hidden things.

27:57 It's the glory of kings to search out a matter. Your royalty never becomes more profoundly pronounced, illustrated, than when we show confidence that God has given us legal access to hidden things. It's not us trying to manipulate God. It's us trying to cooperate with what he has created and putting a demand, a draw upon what he has said. It's the same concept with reward. So David here goes three times. He says, what does the guy get again?

28:30 All right. This uncircumcised Philistine, you know the story, is a tremendous victory. But there's a second time, this is before he was king, the second time, if you could picture this pulpit just representing the Ark of the Covenant, which was, it was a place, it wasn't just symbolic, it was actually where the presence of God rested for the nation of Israel. Lots of lessons there, but we'll just leave that as it is. Saul, who was the king before David, didn't have a lot of value for the presence. And the Philistines made a real stupid choice one day. They stole the ark from Israel.

29:07 Well, they put it in the house of their god, Dagon. And they got up the next morning and Dagon, this big idol, was on his face before the ark, before the presence. And they thought, well, that's weird. So they lifted him back up. When you make a god, you have to help him. You put him there, you'll have to keep him there. that's that's better than you think all right so they lift they lift him up he falls again next day they get up i think it was three times if i remember right the next the third time he falls his head fell off and his hands fell off i'm i'm sure a prophet can figure out what that means i just think it's funny i just think it's awesome he he lost his head in worship before the almighty god so they realized and plus all the men in the city got hemorrhoids so that kind of They started thinking, all right, Dagon fell.

30:03 We got issues. It could be this ark. So they sent it to another city. When it got there, all the men in that city broke out in hemorrhoids. So they thought, either this is a weird set of coincidences, or we got a problem that we got to take care of. So they sent it to a third city, and the men in that city stood in front of the city and said, hell no. No, you're not. You're not sending that here. So the five lords of the Philistines get this great idea. They say, you know, let's make five golden mice and five, I'll let you figure this out, five golden hemorrhoids. let's put it on this ox cart put the ark on it and we got a brand new young ox in there never never pulled a cart before and we'll put everything set it all up and if this was judgment from their god we'll know because this brand new oxen will just go right back to israel but if he wanders around our land we'll just know this is a real strange set of coincidences, you know. And so sure enough, they hook everything up. That oxen goes right back to Israel. And they realize, man, you know, what is a blessing to you and me wasn't a blessing to the Philistines, the presence. So it has to be heart change for the presence to be a benefit. It's not a tool that you use for self-promotion. So anyway, all right. So here's this strange story. So So David welcomes the presence.

31:30 He finds the ark, brings it back to Israel, and he wants to put it in a tent that he put in Jerusalem on this little hill called Mount Zion. And he's got the entire nation showed up along the streets. Instruments are ready. The choirs are ready. Everybody is there to have an absolute party of celebration because the presence of God is coming back to the city. Great story, great lesson there. the cart starts the oxen stumbles Uzzah reaches out to grab to stabilize the Ark of the Covenant and God strikes him dead it's amazing how much the Lord does not want us to try to control him So David's upset. He's angry. He's hurt. He's offended. He wants to get the ark back, but he can't. So he just looks over. There's a house over here, a house, a guy named Obed-Edom.

32:28 And he says, just put it there. There's a threshing floor there. Just put it in his house. And he goes back and he's just kind of bummed because he didn't get to bring the ark back to his city. But he notices over the next several months, everything that Obed-Edom touches turns to gold. I mean, the guy starts prospering out of his ears. It's like everything about him just began to flourish. And David from a distance, if I remember right, forgive me, but I think there's something like 11 mile distance between these two places. David from his distance noticed, this guy is absolutely blessed in everything he does. What does he do? He sees the reward of presence. And he says, all right, let's go back to the owner's manual. And he goes back and he reads, ah, the Ark of the Covenant is not supposed to be on carts. The presence doesn't rest on ministries. It rests on ministers.

33:27 There's favor on ministries, but the presence only rests on ministers. and so when David saw that he realized the error there was repentance brought the ark they took six steps they gave an offering as I've heard people say every six steps all the way into into Jerusalem regardless the whole point is they get there there's this incredible celebration but what was David after he was after the reward for treating God the way he should be treated and when he saw someone else doing what he was assigned to do it provoked him to a righteous jealousy. Does that make sense? A righteous jealousy to contend for what God had actually given to him.

34:15 If you don't want what God's assigned to you there is someone else that will take it. I'd like to see... I'd like to see open reward given to you. I love the testimony this morning, the video testimony, this video of this single mom who puts everything on the line and has 13 offers on the house, full offers that she says no to. I don't know about you. I don't remember ever thinking that question before, whether I should accept an offer on a house that I'm selling. It's never crossed my mind that that could not be God. That just opened up a whole new set of problems for me right there.

35:10 Now I have more stuff to be convicted about, you know, that whole story. But here's this single mom puts everything on the line, and what does the Lord do? He honors her, rewards her, kids fully funded going into the school. What is that? It's an open reward. I don't know how this can happen, but I would like to see people honored and rewarded by God without ever having to feel the need to apologize for it. There's such a pressure to try to explain, I know I don't deserve it. You know, I just was the hundred thousandth customer and I won this car. Don't know how it happened. Just happened.

36:01 You know. there's something about the favor of God that brings reward. And I think according to Psalm 67, that reward is supposed to be, at least in part, of that which attracts people to Christ, is that there's a favor on your life and mine. What do you struggle with to believe God for in this season? What's kind of the edge, the outer limits of your faith? What would it be like if you doubled your reach on what seems to be so challenging today? How many of you can say that what you concerned yourself with 10 years ago is nothing at all today for your faith. Today you know.

36:56 You just know what God has promised, what he's able to do, capable of doing, desiring to do. I'm just thinking that we owe it to him to find out what it means to have a father that likes to reward the way he does. does it make sense to you that everybody gets something, but there's something to be added to people's lives that comes out of the concept of reward? Does that make sense? I mean, every dad wants to take care of his kids completely. Completely. But the one who works extra hard, serves extra hard, works to develop this gift or that gift, what do we do? We absolutely want to celebrate and honor that. that child extra effort. It's the way you develop the value for excellence in a community.

37:50 It's the way you develop this concept of pleasing the Lord with our full effort. I'd like to challenge you, find out what it looks like to have the favor of the Lord on your life, my life, in an increasing way, us as a family, to where he just seems to go out of his way.

38:17 I mean, there are silly things that happen. just silly things that happen, silly things. I was at a friend's house. This is embarrassing, but I was at a friend's house, standing there, and he's the kind of friend, he's just the kind of friend that would basically say, you know, anything in the house you can have. That's the kind of friendship that we have. You find a steak in the freezer, thaw it out, cook it, it's yours. You know, it's just one of those guys. Just anything's yours. So we're standing there talking. It just happened to eye this big old container of chocolate-covered almonds in the pantry. I figure that's the will of God right there.

39:05 Almonds? That's healthy. Chocolate? It was milk chocolate, but it was dark at one time. So it has some antioxidants in there somewhere. Yeah, be quiet. I just looked in there, and this is actually what I thought to myself. I thought, he would let me have the entire container if I wanted him. But I feel so stupid in asking. So I actually, I just did, I turned away. And we're just talking, and he didn't see me look in because he was doing something else. So we're talking, and he stops, and he goes, my wife has hidden something in here. She doesn't know that I know where it is. She reaches by, he pulls out this thing of almonds, chocolate-covered almonds.

39:59 And I thought, it's ridiculous that you would recognize that. I mean, it is. It's wonderfully ridiculous. It's, why, why, why, why? I mean, you know, it's not an impressive miracle-working story. It's just what favor looks like. Sometimes you just go, oh, you amaze me that you would read my thoughts about chocolate-covered almonds. You'd move on my friend's heart because he knew I would be too bashful to ask for them. He brings them out, and I can have all I want. It was heaven on earth for those moments as I grabbed handfuls.

40:48 What does it look like in the area that you ache for the most? I was walking through here early this morning just praying, and I was remembering right back over here a man with prostate cancer that was healed on a Sunday night. Literally, when a word of knowledge was released, he was instantly healed. right back over here, esophageal cancer was healed. I remember right about here, colon cancer was healed. I walk around this room, and I remember the history. The woman who couldn't walk for 38 years because of a stroke who got out of a wheelchair right over there. And a woman in her 40s, never heard in her life, had both ears open up right over here. right in the back of the room, a lady who actually, dancing before the Lord, actually broke her foot.

41:43 The bone was not through the skin, but she was an emergency room worker, and she knew what she had done. And one of our guys went and prayed, and they watched the bone just move right back into place. I've seen, the stories were unending. But I also have seen them go out the door the way they came in. Thank you. and for me, the reward of my faith, I'm thankful he takes care of my provision, and I'm glad for all of that. I'm glad for the friendships and the favor, but for me, the reward of faith is going to be to see greater things happen for his honor, to see every cancer case, not one out of three healed, every wheelchair empty, not the exception. Do you understand what I'm saying?

42:38 He's the rewarder. Does he care about your house and your car? Yeah, yeah, because they illustrate stuff to us. You know, he spoke to, he spoke in Isaiah 45 about that he was going to do this natural thing to illustrate the spiritual truth. And there are times where the Lord does a natural thing. He provides that car ridiculously, just how he made it possible, but it's a sign that's to draw you to the one that wants to release your impact into miracles in a greater way. It's like these natural things all prophesy to seeking first the kingdom. What does it look like to see the God whose kingdom is perfect demonstrated and manifest in broken people's lives? This is what we were born for. And it all comes from a father who just goes overboard.

43:34 He's excessive, but he's not wasteful. He always made too much food. Guys always had to pick up extra baskets full because he's just excessive. It's like my grandma. My grandma always just made too much. Has nothing to do with it, but I'd go to her house or her apartment, and she'd say, Billy, you want some pie? And I would just have eaten. I said, no, Grandma, I don't want any. And she said, well, do you want ice cream on it? because no pie was not really an option. The only option was the size and whether or not it had ice cream or not on it. That's the way he is. He's that kind of a father.

44:27 And there's a bunch of people out there that have no clue that he's the rewarder of those who diligently seek him. All right, let's stand and we'll pray. Always a good chance when we have this many people in a room that there are some who have just never, never said yes to being a follower of Jesus. It's the most amazing thing. that still boggles my mind that he would take on himself the punishment I deserved so that I could take on myself what he deserved. And that really is what salvation is. And before we dismiss, we're going to just pray for everyone in the room. But I want to do one other thing first. And I just want to give opportunity for anyone who does not know the Lord. Please, please, please don't leave here until you've made that confession of faith in Christ and watch what Jesus does in your life.

45:48 I really want us to have the privilege of introducing you to a father who is the rewarder. if you don't know him and you would like to make that that commitment to him today just put a hand up where you are and I just I'll just take maybe 30 seconds just look around the room if that's you put a hand up and we'll just believe for you alright anyone at all alright alright I'm going to assume then that you're all in the kingdom if not we'll still have a banner up here you can come on up and have some folks pray for you. I want to pray for this year for increase. Now, you know, if you're in business, I want your business to prosper. You're wanting to have a child, I want you to have a child. It's whatever the cry of your heart is. But here's what my cry is for you. I want you to be able to say at the end of next year that your favor has increased so dramatically that it scares you.

46:50 I don't know about you, I pray better when I'm scared. I'm a powerful prayer when I'm nervous. Oh, God. I really, seriously, I want to pray that your whole expression of faith in your life, what is challenging today would be small in a year's time. That this would be a year of increase in all these things, a resource and giftings, the authority that we live in, the anointing that we walk in, all these things. I pray that it would be one of you that would help to bring the breakthrough where every cancer case that comes in a room gets healed it's fine with me, I just want to see the breakthrough because I know if Jesus were here in the flesh that's what would happen so Father I pray for everyone here that you'd help as a family, help us as individuals to come into that place where we see you the rewarder of those who seek you and see the profound effect on our community, even upon our nation, as a people that just get rewarded.

47:56 And we like sharing the rewards. We like sharing the bounty, the blessing, the increase with people. So I pray for that in Jesus' name. Increase the measure of faith, the breakthrough anointing on us as a family. I pray this.