How's everybody doing today? Oh, wow. I don't know what that is, but I was all part of my plan. I know some people get tired when the lights are off, so I'm gonna wake you up.
I hope you guys are excited today. Are you excited? Because I am so excited for the day. End of the year.
Now be honest with me. How many of you guys have made New Year's resolutions? One person, yep. Man.
Yeah, a bunch of liars up here. They're sorry, I'm gonna help you today. I'm just, so my wife sends me, she sends me something to my friend last night. She's like, open it up and just accept it.
I'm like, I'm not accepting what? She sends me some challenge to see who can walk the most steps. Yeah, she's claiming she won already. I was like, I'm gonna destroy you.
You're gonna be sitting there for at least an hour tomorrow morning and I'm just gonna be walking. So forgive me, if I'm pacing or I pick it up, I'm getting my steps in and I'm excited. All right? But then she hits me with the truth and she's like, I deal with kids all day long.
Back and forth, up and down. I'm doing, she's like, I'm doing a workout without working out. I was like, this is a setup for you to win the whole time. Like all my other New Year's resolutions, they last like two days and they're gone.
I'm not right, I'm not the only one. What was my one last year? I was gonna read more, right? I got 14 pages in a book and I was so excited about that.
And I didn't go to 15, y'all. I'm gonna be honest with you. I don't even have the book no more. Wasn't a good book, right?
But I really am guys, as you can see here, increase. Got laid in my heart a couple months ago about the word increase. And I was so excited because sometimes it can be challenging, it can be scary, it can be a lot of different things, right? But what was on my heart is that we serve a God, that's a God of increase.
I'm gonna say it again for you. We serve a God that is a God of increase. Like he don't touch nothing and don't increase it. Since the beginning, when he spoke, increase started and it hasn't stopped.
It won't stop. We're gonna read about that today a little bit. And I know some of you are looking up here and you're like, what's the blue, what's the logo, what's the, I'm gonna touch on that guys, but I'm gonna be super brief because I'm more excited about the word God's given our church and that we just changed clothes. That's as simple as I can put it.
Our hearts the same, the missions the same to an extent. But you know what I was thinking about today? It's a little different. It's a, and change is always different.
You know why it's different? Cause he's challenged us for increase for more. And there is nothing wrong with more, right? Who in here wants more?
No, come on, who in here wants more? I hope more than five of you want more in your life. Like we serve a God that's a good God. He's a good God, right?
More and more and increase and increase. That's all we see throughout the Bible. So yeah, we change clothes, we're excited and we're heading straight towards God and we're gonna increase. Reaching the one has always been our thing.
We're just gonna increase the reach. That's all. And if you don't wanna increase the reach, it's gonna be all right. We're gonna help you understand it.
Listen, God has a plan and we're saying yes to it. And that's it. So that's our yes to God. And we're excited about it.
We're excited about this series. And I was just talking about increase. And that's gonna be, I guess the title of my message today is that we're increasing the reach. So I'm gonna give you a couple of examples in case you don't believe me.
That God is a God of increase. And Genesis one, he says, be fruitful. And what? Multiply, increase in number.
Multiplication. Like, aren't you glad that our God's a God of multiplication, not subtraction? Right? Amen?
Hey, you all gotta get more excited. Help me out today, please. We're going into a new year with some excitement. Aren't you guys excited about that?
I know you don't like 2023 that much. So let's get excited about 2024, right? So Genesis also, Joseph's increase in authority and influence. So another example, he went from a prisoner to second in command of Egypt.
Amen, someone say, amen, please? God took him from there and placed him second in command of Egypt. Come on now, you better give our God some praise for what he does. Exodus, Israel's increase in Egypt.
Job, Job's increase after suffering. And I hope what you're gonna see today, guys, is he's an increase of all things. All things. And I don't know what it is or what you need in your life.
But what I'm hoping, and I'm hoping you follow me as we walk out these next couple of weeks, this might be like royalty, I don't know when the end is. Cause I'm so excited about this. And I hope that we start leaving here every day with the faith to ask God for more. The boldness to pray for more increase.
To trust, to make room for him to increase us all for his kingdom and his glory. Cause that's what he does. First Kings, we talked about Solomon's increase in wisdom. Second Kings, God's increase of widows oil.
Amen, somebody. I just like this, Psalms 115, May the Lord give you increase. Everyone say more and more. You and your children.
Somebody say yeah, and your children. Come on. And then Matthew, Jesus feeding the 5,000. What an increase.
I mean, what an increase. Guys, seriously, our God is such a God of increase. And it's incredible. It's incredible how much he increases our lives, the things in our lives, so we can then reach out and do more.
To bring glory to him. To get more people opportunity to see who he truly is and get people set free. Come on now. So I'm going to sweat like crazy up in here.
It's hot in here. I tried to even turn to AC on. But I know, right? I told my wife, I'm going to put myself on blast.
I got this new shirt underneath. It's like an underarmored shirt on me. Yup. She's drunk.
The dryer is like evil. It does nothing but strength my clothes. I swear. Yeah, well, maybe we're going to leave that in 2023.
I'm increasing, right? God's increasing me. Right? Yeah, you're right.
All right guys. So with the, like I said, my title today, what I want to focus on and talk about is that increase in our reach and what that looks like as believers. I'm going to start with Isaiah 9, verse 7. And I read a message translation.
I'm sorry. It's going to keep increasing in my life in the new year. I'm going to help David grapes out. Where's he at?
Love you, bro. I appreciate you. So verse 7, it says, of the increase of his government, and peace. Say, and peace.
And peace. There will be no end. Thank you. Thank you, Father.
No end. One person said no end. Does that not excite you guys? Listen.
It doesn't stop. Something's wrong with them over here. Guys, listen. No end.
It doesn't stop. Thank you, Jesus. Shoo. All right.
I'm going to help you all out. Y'all are saving your energy for tonight to try to stay up. I already tapped out. I am making it.
It says, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice, from that time forward, even forever, sorry guys, if you bear with me, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Forward, even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Thank you, God, that you're going to continue to perform. And it's never ending.
It's continuously increasing. Is that exciting for you, bro? Yes. Oh my gosh, he has so much more for us, church.
And so what we're going to, that's going to be our base, kind of our base scripture. We're going to go into talking about reaching the one. Next slide. Give it up for Phil, everybody.
Thank you, bro. So in reaching the one, we're going to go into Acts. Because Acts gives us a great picture of growth, the early church, what we are, the church, and the growth in that. And I want to point out something before we get started to try to help us.
And yeah, there's a lot of opposition and stuff that's faced early on. I'm not focusing on opposition today. Go back and read it, and you'll see everything that's did. I am so focused on the increase in what God is doing and has done in that time and what he's drawing out to show us.
And I want to point out that in that time, the early church, there's one thing that they were super, you can go back. Go back one. Thank you. I want you guys to read ahead.
I know some of you read aheaders. You'll lose attention. But what happened, there was one thing that the early church was super focused on. And I want you to remind you guys what we're focusing on is increase.
So keep that at the forefront of your mind. There was one thing that they were super, super focused on. Not converting people, making disciples. Huge difference.
Not just about getting them saved. Yeah, I'm sure they were excited like that. Not about just getting them saved, but the cycling now. So let's focus on that.
Because again, we're reaching the one. We're increasing our reach as a church. And what we're doing in 2024, that's our focus. So our focus needs to go not just to add numbers, but disciples.
Because guess what? The disciples ain't going to do. Oh, yeah, they go reach people themselves. And then guess what?
The kingdom starts growing. And come on. That's what this is about. We want kingdom growth.
Come on. So what I'll say with opposition that I think is so cool what they demonstrated. Because I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. But what the early church did was they navigated loss.
I mean, when I say they navigated loss, they navigated loss so well. And if you can navigate loss, listen, he's going to trust you with gain. Yeah, go ahead and write it down. Get your notebook out, bro.
Listen, I need you guys to hear this. When we can navigate loss, right, then he can trust us with gain. Come on. Amen.
Man, y'all are a tough crowd today. And every time, listen guys, think about this every time they were met with opposition. Every time there was a greater devotion to him. That's a tough one, isn't it?
The challenge thought, isn't it? But think about this is the early church. And we're about to read here real soon how he added to their numbers daily, y'all. I'm so excited, y'all aren't excited, it's me.
Help me out, guys, listen, daily he added to the numbers. Jen, help me out. You're the one that normally gets me going daily, right? Daily.
So something they were doing helped, right? God trusted, so he gave the increase. Listen, he's not going to increase if he don't trust it. Because you ain't going to do it right with it, right?
You got to stew it well. All right, I don't want to, I was at my barber yesterday and I was telling him about, I always like to, he cuts my hair before. I preach and I love to talk with him. He gets me excited.
And as I was getting ready to walk out, he's like, hey, take it easy, OK? It's going into a new year. Try to encourage them. I said, but this is nothing but encouragement, bro.
But let's go into this, reaching the one. So everyone turn to Acts 2. And we're going to start in verse 38. If you got your Bibles, if you don't, it's going to be super big up here.
And when you're ready, just say I'm ready. All right, anybody need a minute? And not going to tell me anyway. So verse 38, Peter said, change your life.
Turn to God and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus. So your sins are forgiven. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is targeted to you and your children.
But also to all who are far away, whomever, in fact, are master God invites. I'm going to read that one more time, that last part, and I want you guys to really hear that. But also to all who are far away, whomever, in fact, are master God invites. Who does he invite, y'all?
Can you help me? Who? OK, I just want to make sure that we're on the same page that he's not excluding certain people, right? Like he's not excluding anybody, right?
Not the life choices that people make that you don't agree with. Right? Whomever, God invites. Whomever, he invites, let me just let you know, we don't have the ability to reject the invitation, or say it's not valid when it comes to our doorstep.
We don't get to do that. Because who he invites, we welcome in if we're really following him. So verse 40 said, he went on in this vein for a long time, urging them over and over. Get out why you can.
Get out of this sick and stupid culture. 41, that day about 3,000 took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Who just said that back there?
Say it again, please. Thank you. Guys, listen, how many were added? Is that not exciting to you guys?
3,000 were added. 3,000. Oh my goodness. You want me to tell me my God doesn't increase?
He didn't just say, hey, there's 3,000 doing it. Oh my, tell me he won't do it. And listen to this though, I don't miss this, please. They committed themselves.
Can say, say, committed. Say, I'm committed. I'm committed. To the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and prayers.
Four things. Four things they committed to. And I wonder, I wasn't, I wasn't playing to talk about this, but I do wonder, what are you committed to? What commitments are you making in 2024 that aren't necessary?
That you can be making better commitments that's actually going to produce a future for you and impact your family? Maybe change the people around you because you're committing to him. Come on now. I just think that if we could learn from the early church, the ax church, and realize what was taking place in an increase that was happening, and maybe, hear me out.
It's going to be hard. But follow the things that they followed for what worked with them. And it might just happen in our life. We might just see it happen, church.
And I don't think it is, is it asking a lot? Four things, I think? They committed themselves. They made a commitment.
The life together. Fellowship. The common meal. And the prayers.
Come on now. I'm telling you, they're talking about not too long ago. There's something in them prayers. They're special to him.
He takes them things. He stores them things. Oh my goodness. They're singing about them up in heaven right now.
Let's go to verse 43. Everyone around was in awe. All those wonders and signs done through the apostles, and all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony. You guys don't want to hear that?
I'm trying not to stop. I'm really trying to get through this. But did you see when they did the four things? What happened?
They were in awe, and then they lived in harmony. Man, I don't know about y'all, but listen, the past couple years have been a little crazy. And I would love, I would love more than anything to start living in harmony. Come on, who would love to live in harmony?
Would you love it? Yeah, clap it up if you want to, but he eats town as how to. Let's get committed. Come on, let's fellowship with one another.
We'll see each other out, and we'll be like, oh, I don't want to talk to them right now. I was supposed to meet with them. I don't want to talk to them right now. Come on, eat together.
The easiest thing is to pray, and that's the one thing we don't want to do. I don't even have to be near you. I can pray for you. So all of you people are like, I don't like people, guess what?
I start praying for them. You'll learn to love them. And listen, I'm talking to my wife right now, she knows it. You'll start, I'm sorry, I love you, babe.
But you'll really listen, things will start to change. I'm telling you life will start to change. But just like we don't get to reject his invitation, God, if it's given us a blueprint to what works, let's follow him. It ain't hard, let's follow it.
Don't leave one out because you don't, you ain't ready, you don't feel like doing it. Don't do that. It didn't say that they left one out, and it multiplied and increased and added to him. This is simple, it doesn't say that.
It says do this, and this will happen. So we have a foundation, y'all. Let's look at it. Let me get back on track.
Harmony, man, wonderful harmony. That's gonna be hard with five dogs, but I'm praying and believing. I'm having faith in 2024 to have a harmony in my household. Y'all pray for me.
Holding everything in common. I don't know if we have enough time to talk about that one. They sold whatever they owned and pulled the resources so that each person's need was met. God help our hearts, help our hearts, Father.
Listen, when we get focused on him, I'm telling you the reward, the increase that comes to our life, when our selfish desires get out of the way. And I know it's challenging, I'm not acting like I'm perfect, guys, but listen, if we would just start to really challenge ourselves in those times when we fail to know how to step out, here's why I'm learning to increase takes risk. We gotta be willing to step out and take a risk, do something than what we're used to doing. Listen, this doesn't say it's all about our comfort.
It's all about our surrender to him, and knowing that he is gonna provide. He is gonna take care, and if he's blessed me, man, I need to wanna be a blessing to somebody else. Come on, somebody. Verse 46 says, they followed a daily discipline of worship in the temple followed by meals at home, every meal of celebration.
I feel like I love food, y'all, every meal of celebration for me. Exuberant and joyful as they praise God. You ready for this? This is the biggest part, they really grabbed a hold of me this week.
People in general liked what they saw. Every day their numbers grew as God added to those who were saved. God, come on. You know what the challenge is?
We're so self-centered, and we're worried about me, and our culture is like me focused, but if we're focused on God, it says they like what they saw, and they chose him, and we're saved. Quick newsflash reminder, do we know what our purpose is as believers? Yeah, yeah, and that's what? It does increase, you're right, but it points to who?
Say it again. So John says, I might speak to you so he can increase. Right? That is what he said.
You know why he said it? Because it's all about him. The whole reason that I was doing what I was doing was preparing away for him. It's about him.
It ain't nothing about me. It's all about him. I don't save, he does. I don't save, he does.
So everything that I'm doing to be honored in him, and if my life is honored in him, guess what? It's drawing people. So check your reach. What your reach look like?
I was doing a little study on reach, and of course social media reach pops up, right? Because they only reach out there now. And I was looking at it, and obviously it's determined, I might mess this up if you guys know more than me, don't just bear with me, forgive me, I guess. But reach is figured out by, if you post a video, however many followers you have, it depends on how many people view that, right?
And it's super interesting because I think if you look at, if you look a lot of times, you have the same people watching your video, and you know it's wild. So impressions were another big thing. So you have reach, and you have impressions. So if Nate watches my video, I'm getting a reach from him.
He watches it 10 times, that's impressions. I'm not reaching another one. I'm just getting more impressions. But here's what I wonder.
I'm not trying to attract the same. And you don't hear me. The idea of reach in following Christ is that others, this said people being saved. Are you guys following me?
So if I'm following Christ, and I'm chasing after him, then my reach should be gaining new people. If I'm just getting the same ones, and the same impressions, who am I following? Oh, you don't wanna be honest. Hey, who am I following?
If I'm not gaining more, because listen, hear me out. My reach, if I'm following Christ, what should it be drawing? More, right? Why?
Because that's how good he is. It ain't about me, it's about him. But who am I following? Because then that's gonna determine who's following me.
If I'm not reaching more, then guess what? Oh, I'm following something else. And guess what? It's not drawing people closer to getting saved.
And this time, guess what they're doing. They're following him, they're preaching his word. And guess what? Daily numbers are getting added.
Come on, somebody. Who are we focused on? I'm getting harder, I'm gonna get my steps today, babe. People in general liked what they saw.
Every day. There's a consistency, you know what I mean? That's what people like. You know what I love?
Someone asked me a long time ago, and they said, what do you think about Jesus? What do you think? And maybe it's from a past, I don't know what it was, but I'm like, he's so consistent. I mean, he's consistent, right?
It's the same. I can get behind that. Guess what I can't get behind? I wasn't gonna do this, but I got to.
I can't get behind when I see nothing, but everything online. This is my Facebook, this is my Facebook rant for 2023. I'm gonna leave it alone. But when I see like scriptures, and then I see Christians arguing back and forth about scripture, and I just sit there and I'm like, why God?
Like what is, that's not reaching nobody. And I'm not gonna get on there saying that, because then I'm into the mess there. But guess what? I'm like, it's just making you look crazy.
Why would anybody wanna follow that? And I'm like, come on, God help us with our reach. Help us with the desire to want to show you more than anything. More so help us to be authentic.
Like please help us to do that. And that's the bigger issue now is because online we can do whatever we want. We can make things look a certain way. That's why our kids are deceived, y'all.
They're buying, listen, they're buying dreams that aren't real. And guess what? You know what we're mad at? We're mad at the people that are selling them.
And we should be mad at ourselves, because guess what? My reach is every day in their life. My reach is in their face. I am there.
My reach is there every day. And then we see people out. And it's holier than thou. And then every time I see them they're defeated.
And I'm like, man, this is wild. And my heart aches for that. It aches super bad, but the reality of it is there's no consistency. And I'm thankful for people that have been consistent in my life.
Because that really showed me Christ. I'm thankful for the people that really love. I need you to hear me, really love. What that looks like is when I didn't love them they still love me back.
Come on, they showed me consistency. And I said, I want that. I want to follow that. And guys, I'm telling you, we got to increase our reach.
We got to increase our desire to want him to be seen. More than anything. His name lifted up. Nothing else, not my agenda.
That's not going to work. His name lifted up. And I bet if my, and listen, let's just be real too. Social media is a great opportunity.
But we got to line up, y'all. Our consistency has to be that when they see us on there doing that, they see us in person and we're living that. That's what's going to make it be like, oh, this is something different. Something more here I need to look into.
All right, I'm sorry, my rant's over. Thank y'all for listening to me. I had to get that out of the way because I need some good rest tonight. My wife fell asleep early so I couldn't let it out on her.
All right, my second point, what time do I get? Oh, I'm making good time. I threw this up here. Well, this ain't my, this is the end of, no, no, no, go back.
Sorry about that, bro. This is the end of my first point. And I know this can be uncomfortable sometimes. But we talk about all the minutes about numbers.
It's a scary, that's a challenge, right? For a lot of people. But can I be honest with you as your pastor? It is about numbers because my guy, like we talked about early, he said, for everybody, oh, listen, oh, all requires no time out.
You hear me? When I'm at work, when I'm at the market, wherever I'm at, that's how serious I take this. All have a chance. And guess what?
I want all to be standing there and receive what I've received because they love that he gave to me. That does something to me. Like it does something to me and I'm sorry, but yeah, I want everybody to experience that. I don't wanna see hurt.
I don't wanna feel hurt. I wanna move with compassion like he moved with compassion. And I don't know about y'all, but he just showed us in here that, listen, if more can get saved, then more can be discipled and then the kingdom can grow. That is the key here, y'all.
So if you wanna know, I'm a numbers guy. I wanna make that clear, go into 2024. I want everyone to be saved. I don't want the enemy destroyed, not one more family.
I don't want one more child taken away. Come on, I wanna stand over healing. I wanna increase in all areas. And I want others to increase in all areas of their life.
And speak this, create room for this. Start talking about having faith for it because guess what? If I don't have faith for it, it can't happen. Come on, we gotta create the space, right?
I gotta have faith for it. Man, I'm so excited about this series. Second point, you guessed it. First we are reaching the one.
Like the early church, now the one is reaching. The site point is taking place. See, this is the key. This is what this is all about.
It ain't for nothing. We're not stopping at the door, y'all. Listen, we're not letting people walk out the door anymore. Hey, you're locked in here for 2024, congratulations.
No, no, but what I'm saying is that I'm done just stopping at hell, hey, they're saved or converted. Cause the early church was more concerned about the site point. So if I'm concerned about the site point, then listen, if that adds numbers, you know what else I think it is? I know how much my father cares about me.
And if I know how much he cares about me, I know how much he cares about you. So it's important to me to do this. And it's important for us as believers, if we're saved, we're gonna follow this, then we give ourselves to it. Listen, we gotta get this guys, we gotta get this into us.
We're gonna go to Act 6. We're jumping ahead a little bit. Starting in verse one, when you're there, say, I'm ready. All right, during this time, as the disciples were increasing in numbers, by leaps and bounds.
Help me out, somebody, by leaps and bounds. So wait, they first were increased in what? Those who were saved. Now disciples are increasing.
No, no, no, no, leaps and bounds, y'all. Listen, not one and we're excited about it every once in a while. Leaps and bounds. I mean, this has to be so incredible to be a part of.
Like, this is him, this is who we serve, that he has the capabilities of increasing something to the point, I'm not just a little bit to what you've maybe seen. But he says, if you'll have faith and you'll trust me, I'm gonna increase it to the point that only a guy can increase it to. Leaps and bounds. Man, that excites me.
So it goes on to say, heart feelings develop among the grief-speaking believers. Hellenesis, I know I'm gonna mess that up. Towards the Hebrew-speaking believers because their widows were being discriminated against in the daily food lines. So the 12 call a meeting of the disciples, they said, it would be right for us to abandon our responsibilities for preaching and teaching the word of God to help with the care of the poor.
So friends, choose seven men from among you in whom everybody trusts. Men full of the Holy Spirit in good sense. And we'll assign them this task. Meanwhile, we'll stick to our assigned tasks of prayer and speaking God's word.
Do you see what's taking place here? So now, listen, now when more disciples are being added, now we can start delegating, if you will. Hey, we have numbers now. We start sending the one.
They start reaching. Do you see, are you guys seeing a bigger picture with me? Like, are you seeing it? They're able, where they trust and they send them.
Did y'all hear me, well, me and Pastor Fred, and see you here, did y'all hear me a couple months ago? I was talking about, hey, we're praying for men. Y'all, we need some men to step up in our church. Like, come on, send them.
Stand up, bro, I appreciate you. Because we need some Godly men that we can send. Come on, guys, if we don't disciple and we don't grow, we can't send. And without enough people, guess what?
We can't make the impact that God wants to make. He needs numbers, he needs people. He's showing it to us. Don't be mad at me, I'm just reading this word.
Okay, and he's the boss. Thank you, God. The congregation thought this was a great idea. They went ahead and chose Stephen, a man full of faith in the Holy Spirit, Philip, and a God loving, God loved Philip up there in the sound booth.
I was listening to these names, y'all. I struggled with pronouncing these. We're not even on it, so next slide, bro. He actually helped me out.
Prokraness, I'm sitting there, he's like, hey, you're one of the ones I said, you showed up right now. I'm not one of here, you're a pair of potatoes, whatever. You're gonna try to get me to say, because I'm gonna say it up there. So, I told him, I said, you know what?
I'm just gonna pick people out in the crowd that I'm looking at, and I'm gonna place their name in here. So, the Holy Spirit, Philip, Fred, Curtis, Bob. I'm just kidding. And a convert from Antioch.
Oh, no. Sorry, just deleted something. Then they presented them to the apostles, praying the apostle laid on hands and commissioned them out for their task. The word of God prospered.
I gotta say that with me, the word of God prospered. Are we seeing patterns of him, of what he does, of obedience? When he adds, he tells us what to do as we're doing it. He continues to give the increase.
His word prospers, we're just following directions. We're making it happen, right? And he's doing the work. He's making it grow.
His word prospered. Say this with me. The numbers of disciple and Jerusalem increased dramatically. Not least a great many priests admitted themselves to the faith.
Father, thank you for your increase. Without this guys, I don't know if we realize this, but without this happening, I don't know if we have what we have today. You can, listen, you can think of whatever you want, but it had to start somewhere. And I'm thankful that there was some willing forefathers before us that were willing to step out in faith and preach the gospel, to raise up his name, so then more withdrawal and be saved and be baptized and then discipled and sent, so then we could have an opportunity to have what we have today.
And I don't know, maybe we need to be grateful. Father, help our hearts to be grateful for what we have and what you've done. Third point, so that's a growth in disciples. That's what I put.
So the third point and final point, is everyone say the church increasing. So when the church is increasing, that means the kingdom's increasing. See, see, we all play a part in this. Like we all play a crucial part in this guys.
And we've read these things, but I hope that we start to understand that that we should want his kingdom to increase. We should want, listen, I want us to get so ahead of the game and start trusting and believing for increase, asking for it. I don't care what it's in. Listen, he's that good.
I don't care what it's in. I'm gonna say it and I know people are like, oh my God, increasing my finances, Father. Listen, increasing my finances, Father. Because if I have more, guess what?
You have more. And listen, I don't know why it's become a thing that we get into this, oh, the prosperity gospel. Are we reading the same book? Because if not, I'll let you borrow mine.
I'm telling you, this one's really good. And I hope yours is the same as mine, but he wants to increase that. He wants to increase you all together. He's a good Father and he gives good gifts, right?
He don't give bad ones. He's never given a bad gift. Come on, y'all, help him out today. Acts 9, 31, and I use the NIV version.
Says, then the church through Judea, Galilee, and Samaria and join a time of, say peace with me. Stay right there with me. Don't you go nowhere Phil? Isaiah 9, seven, said of the increase of his government and peace.
So let's go back down. Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Remember our pastors were the other week, living in the fear of the Lord, and encouraged by the Holy Spirit. And it helped me read that for me, and it increased the numbers.
Wow, I think everything that we just read just showed nothing but increase. Nothing but increase. Because this is our God that we read about. Nothing but increase.
And guess what? Remember how at first there was four things? Y'all forget already? Because as I'll say, we go watch it again.
I'm not going all the way back. They'll get mad at me. Y'all are ready to get out of here. There was four things.
Remember? Check this out for me. How many is there here? Two, living in the fear of the Lord, and encouraged by the Holy Spirit.
It increased the numbers. Man. So as we close out, begin to close out here in just a minute, just give me a minute with increasing the reach. Everyone say that with me, increasing the reach.
Would y'all make a commitment with me? That we would commit to increasing our reach in 2024. That we would trust that he is the one that doesn't. I want to put this up here.
Just so you made it, I made it super clear that you understood. First Corinthians three, five to nine, it says, who do you think Paul is anyway? Or Paul is? For that matter, servants, both of us, servants, who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual master.
We each carried out our servant assignment. Say we carried it out. I planted the seed, a polished water, the plants. But who made it grow?
God made it increase. It's not the one who plants or the one who waters, who waters, who is at the center of the process but God. Who makes things grow? Planning and watering are minimal servant jobs at minimum wage.
What makes them work doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God's field in which we are working. God made you grow. God made the increase.
Listen, we plant and we water but he increases. It's him. Listen, everybody in here has a reach. We talked about it.
You can figure yours out but you have a reach. Okay? You are impacting people's lives, whether you realize it or not. You're immediate family, those you're working with, whatever it is, you are impacting that.
You have a reach and it's important. And I hope that you are trusting him and you're following him in this because his reach is, that's the most important thing y'all. The most important thing, lunch is ready. God made it grow.
Let's not ever get it confused. And you know what I love about this as I was dealing with my rant? I was just reading over this. And how much all that other stuff doesn't matter.
Listen, you wanna be a theologian, great. All the power in the world to you. I love that. You should study your word.
I agree with 1000%. But more than anything, I hope that you want God. I hope you're just planting and preaching a gospel like them. And if we're doing those couple things, listen, he's gonna make it grow.
It's gonna be all about him and his kingdom's gonna advance. And you know what? I bet you, if you just tried it his way, it would probably advance a lot faster than you're trying to make it. Because if you read what I did, we don't have that option in there.
It says we plant water, he makes it grow. You know what else I love about that? It didn't say when he makes it grow. So guess what that means?
We gotta trust. But we gotta continue to be planting and watering. Until that day. So, I'm gonna read this last thing and then I'm gonna do something.
This is what I want you to take. When we know where increase comes from and the purpose of it, God trusts us with it. And you can write that down. And I wish that was mine, but it's not.
It just goes along with the message. That's a good friend of mine, Bill Johnson's. But as we close it, I don't wanna close a little different. I think testimonies are great.
I want to send some encouragement, you know, with our body that God's doing this stuff amongst us. And I hope we start to have faith to realize that, hey, this isn't something that's happening in California. It can happen right here in Cumberland, Maryland. And it is happening and it'll start to happen more often if you'll have faith for it.
So I'm gonna ask if Crystal and Ray will come up real quick. My man's nervous as all y'all. He's like, listen, he tried to send me a text beforehand. He's like, hey, just in case you wanna read this.
You're reading this, bro, not me. But I just wanna, before we close to our quick testimony of God increasing something in their life. Can you hear me now? All right, okay.
I don't know if you all felt the Holy Spirit this morning during worship. I could really feel it. Ray come up and said, I can't wait to hear your testimony. And I'm like, yeah, I know.
I'm like, because it was so heavy on my heart that I think some of you all need a boost of encouragement, faith and hope, and yourself, the Lord, and your family, and not giving up. We struggle with finances, we struggle with marriage, struggle with my family. And when I come to church, it was very hard for me to accept any love from anybody, or even the Lord. Like I would not really truly open up to the Lord at all.