I'm looking for a harvest for my God, He's real. Hello everybody. Welcome to another edition of Spiritual Impact. I'm Senior Pastor Tim Parton of Abundant Life Worship Center, along with Soci Pastor Steve Rose.
And we're so happy that you could join us today. Pastor Steve is always, we'll be getting into God's Word. It's good. Yes, it is.
I always enjoy this time. We sit around and talk about God's Word. Because it's something to be put inside of us. It's engrafted.
It'll change our lives today. Oh, yeah. And we'll take a moment to tell you that all the fine congregation of Abundant Life Worship Center just wanted us to say thank you for your all your support and keep praying for us. And we wouldn't be here for one for our good fine people.
But we want to send a big shout out to Abundant Life Worship Center congregation. And about you to come be a part of a service. And we'll get into that a little bit later. But Pastor Steve, what do you got into Word today?
Well, I was reading this past week and I found a heavenly acronym. Now, if you're like me, first of all, you're asking what's an acronym. So that's probably what we need to explain first. But when I look at the acronym, I looked up the actual definition.
It says, an abbreviation formed by using the first letters of other words, and you put them together to form another word. And you say, well, we never heard of those. Well, you actually have. I'm not going to say the FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI is an acronym.
So I was looking the other day and I was in Matthew, chapter 7. But when I was looking here, I asked myself two questions about this. First of all, is this acronym a prayer formula? And the second thing I asked myself, who does the promise belong to?
And I think you'll find some good stuff here as we get into the Word of God. But this is in Matthew, chapter 7. And this isn't read. So this is what the Lord was telling us.
But he says, and you're probably going to start off. People probably going to know, hey, I've read that before. Ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you.
So you know what the acronym is? Ask. Ask. First of all, when I got you to that, and it tells you who it belongs to right here.
So only you would find that. So that's good. I like it. Ask.
Seek and knock. And it says, for everyone, that includes me right there, it includes you, it includes everybody that's watching us. For everyone that asks us, receive us. And to he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
But when I was looking at that right here, first of all, it says, ask. How do we ask God for the things that we need? And I think some things that we're guilty of is a lot of times we just go, Lord, give me guidance. Lord, give me strength.
Lord, give me direction. And those are the things, but you know what? I think, you know, when Jesus went to Lazarus team, he didn't go, Lord bless us. He says, Lazarus, come forth.
And see, that's it. And you know, when we go to the Lord to ask about things, I think we really need to be specific in the things that we're asking for. Well, he tells us to. Ask what you will.
And that doesn't mean asking for our will. He's asking what is letting him know what's on your heart, bringing your petition before him. You know, the word says a lot of times, the light thyself and the Lord, and he shall give these desires in thine heart. Now, a lot of people take that and they say, well, if you don't like yourself and Lord, then whatever your heart desires, then you can have it.
That's not what that verse says right there. What that verse is saying right there, it says, you know, when we delight ourselves in the Lord, it says the Lord will put his desires into us. Then when we pray, what are we doing? We're praying according to the will of God.
And when you think about God's prayer plan, we go to God the Father. The Holy Spirit helps us to pray according to the Word of God. And who's our mediator? Jesus sets on the right hand of the Father.
I'm going to tell you what a prayer plan that is right there. At least as you know, when we go, he says, we should ask. And again, I think we should be very specific in what we ask for. So when you ask somebody to pray for you, a lot of times people come to say, well, you pray for this and you pray.
And a lot of times what I'll do right there, I pray for them then. Because I don't want to tell somebody, you know, I'll pray for you and then forget because we get busy sometimes and that's what happens. But you know, we really need to pray for people right there and we need to be specific in the things in which we're asking for. I'm surprised that people don't meet them in a store or something and they say, once you pray, well, guess what?
I pray right there. I remember being in a grocery store one time praying for somebody like that, they come to me. And I look down the aisle and the slide he goes, and you see, that's a lot of times when we're doing these things for the Lord. You may be praying for this person right here, but you know what?
Maybe somebody else is getting this too. And that's the whole thing. That's the wonderful thing of God. But you know, he says that when he gives you a word to speak and something to do, he says he will accomplish the task wearing two.
I've seen it. And I tell you, that's something so wonderful about them. But let me ask the people, I mean, when we're talking here with our friends and partners, when we've been asking them, we've been asking them. We've been asking them, we've really been asking specifically for those things that we need.
You know, we're looking for a permanent church site. You know, we don't just pray Lord. Just got it. I pray Lord, we need.
We want that promise land that you've got for us. What you consider your land of Canaan for us? You know, I've, we used to pray like this. God show us, but I begin to pray God lead us.
Lead us where you want us to be. Because if he shows me, I may take some shortcuts trying to get there. But if I'm praying Father, lead me. Guide me.
Direct me. I am following him. And when I'm following him, then that's when all those promises become, yeah, you know, men. But when I'm trying to go every which direction, that's why the children of Israel ended up going around the mountain for 40 years.
It was about 11 day journey. And in my mind, I try to find them. How could that even be possible that 11 day journey took 40 years? It's because their focus was in the wrong place.
And again, that unbelief right there. See, when you send the spies in, they come back. Most of them bring in a bad report. Only two of them bring in a good report, but they believe the bad report.
And the bad thing is, is you had some people that like Caleb and Joshua and of course Moses, but because of all the other people's believe, it caused problems for everybody. But those got, well, Moses didn't get to go because he smoked the wrong. But Caleb and Joshua, they got to see the promised land. And seeing when you look at church history, Caleb was the only one that fully took his land.
And Caleb, when he came back, he says, you know, he says, I'm as strong today as I was in. And you know what he asked for? He asked for the mountains where the giants were. Now to take something that's higher than the higher ground, it's hard to do.
And then they're taken against the giants. But you know what? He said, they're bread. He knew that the promise he had was coming from God and he knew that he already possessed it.
So see, and that's the thing. We know that God's promises or he cannot lie. So they're there for us. The only condition is that we believe upon him and then receive what he's already promised that we could have.
We make prayer so difficult. And we get to the point sometimes it's almost like we're down begging God to do things. What all he simply wants us to do is bring our petition before him, faith believing. And when we believe, then we return, receive.
Now the answer may come a little different than we expect, but it's always for our benefit. And I found out it's normally always better to be. I know we had it. Jesus has a whole lot better idea of what I need than I do.
That's true. But again, he says, ask and I like his ask. And it shall be given. See, that's a promise right there.
But again, being very specific in what we ask. And you know, when you're talking about faith right there and they're unbelieving while they had this, they'll go around in the wilderness for 40 years because of that unbelieving. They didn't believe what God told them. But you know, a lot of times we do that in churches today.
I mean, we spend more time figuring out why God wants answer a prayer and believing that he will. And see, we have the promises, but we still have to believe by faith. It's still done by faith today. You know, sometimes we settle simply because in order to get what God really has for us, there's a little bit more than what God wants us to do.
Sometimes we settle simply because in order to get what God really has for us, there's a little thing that we really don't like in the flesh and it's called the weight process. Those that wait upon him shall renew their strength. Sometimes we have to wait and the flesh does not want to wait and the flesh will be willing to compromise something less than what God really has in store for us. How many times we solve that in life?
How many times have we been given ourselves? Because we simply, we're not patient and waiting upon God because the flesh saw an opportunity and let's be honest, when we compromise, that means that we have a little doubt that God, suddenly what we're wanting is too big. We're asking too big. So you know, we'll say, God, okay, I know you can, but I'll take this.
When what Caleb was saying is, I know over here, I can live over here, but God, you said I can have that and that's what I want. I don't care what's in my way because if you be for me, who can be against me? I'm well able to defeat them, John's. They don't know what's coming.
See, they didn't know I was in store. That's a good thing. That's a very good point. I'm asking, you know, later on, we talk about waiting.
That's that knocking part that we'll get through your minute. The next thing he says, I ask and he should be giving me, but he says, seek and you shall find. Now, I start thinking about that. We talked about that in the previous show.
You know, we talked about seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things should be added unto him. How does it line up? And when we look at that, seek. What are we seeking?
I believe we're seeking the Word of God. We're seeking what God says about that situation. He says, you should know the truth and truth will set you free, but only the truth you know set you free. So if you never get into the Word and find out what the Word has to say about those situations and the circumstances, you're still by them because you don't know how to be free.
You know, I've heard people make the statement and I understand what they're trying to say. God said it. I believe it. So that settles it.
I'm going to tell you, God said it. It's already said whether you believe it or not. And people, that's why you have so many different thinking and theologies and that people, they want to put their interpretation and everything. But God said, my word is so simple that a child can understand this.
If we're looking through the eyes of faith and seeking him in the way that he wants us to, we're knocking and asking with an anticipation of receiving because I like the fact that he said, ask, shall be given you, seek and you shall find knocking, shall be opened for everyone that asks us, receiveth. That's a promise. And a promise to who? Everyone.
See, that's what I love about it. He tells you right there who's forward. But I think that's a formula for prayer. So I think we have to ask.
So you'll think we have to seek. We have to seek the will of God. First of all, in a prayer life, because it has to be according to the will of God. We have to seek the Word of God.
What does the Word of God say about what promise do I have? And then it says, and that last part is the knock. And I'll talk about this. You know, if I stand your door, I'll go like this.
And if you don't want to answer the door, you'll just wait until I leave. If I stand there and go, and I'm just keeping off that door, eventually you're going to get to know what you want. It's not knocking on the door. But you see, I think that's what it's talking about here.
You know, as we're waiting, it says we're continually praying. We're continually seeking. We're continually asking. We're still, it's perseverance and prayer.
You know, I have been outside or maybe inside somewhere. And I know this has probably happened to you and happened to love you. And even though there's no one physically that you can see and you know somebody is there, suddenly you'll hear, and it's almost like a breath that speaks your name. You know where that's coming from.
You'll even look around, it's so in your spirit that I actually will turn around and see if somebody's in. But then I said, yes, Lord. That happened to Samuel. And Eli told him, said, next time it happens, speak, Lord, for the servant here.
And that's where we need, when we hear his voice, we need to instantly acknowledge, yes, Lord. And it says, as we the children, we know his voice. I know he isn't speaking. But like Jesus in here it is, ask, the A in that was asked.
The S is seek, the K is knock. For everyone that asks, gets received, and he that seek is findeth. And to him that knocketh shall be open. He says in verse 9, he says, what man is there if his son asked, bread, will he give him a stone, or if he asked a fish, will he give him a serpent.
And he said, if you then even know how to give good gifts under your children, how much more sure your father wishes in heaven give good thanks to them that I ask him. That's not about the faithfulness of God to answer prayer. And I started looking about this, talking about praying without ceasing. It reminded me of the story in Luke chapter 18, and we'll share with you right here.
And then we'll share with you the story in verse 1, and he spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and faint not. He says, saying, there wasn't a city of judge which feared not God and neither regarded man. He says, and there was a widow in that city, and she came into him saying, of ench me of my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterwards he said within himself, though I fear not God nor regard man.
Again, this judge, he says, I don't fear God. He said, I don't fear man. But he said, because this woman won't leave me alone, I'm going to give her what she wants. He says, yet because this widow troubles with me, I will invent her, at least by her continual coming she weary me.
And see, this right here, and this is in the Lord says, here what the unjust judge says. He says, get the point of what this parable is about right here. He says, this man didn't fear God, and while he didn't fear man, because she kept coming to him and asking him and saying, avenge me, finally he said, okay, I'm going to give you what you want. He says, and he says, here what the unjust judge says, and shall not God avenge his own elect which cried day and night into him, though he bear along with him.
That's what he's talking about that waiting right there. He says, you know, sometimes we pray, and you know that prayer answer don't come quickly. You know, it may take years for some time for a prayer to be answered. He says, don't worry.
He says, even though he bears along with you, he says, I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. He says, never the less when the son of man comeeth shall he find faith on the earth. Talking about real faith, real heaven moving faith. He said, will I find it when I return?
And we know that the day of the Lord is approaching quicker and quicker, and we see it coming. And you know, that's what tells us a lot of times too. What are we supposed to be doing, assembling ourselves together, being in the house of God, because it's very important in these last days that we're there, encouraging one another, lifting one another up. Amen.
You know, in our prayers, there's a thing called timing. And sometimes we have to wait upon God's timing because there's things that maybe he's having to move around. And he has to work on this end and maybe he has to work over here as well. And he has to orchestrate these things to get them in line in order to answer your prayer the way that he knows you need answered.
We look and we want it answered right now, but if we will trust him. I've got a little thing here that says, but knowing God takes faith, focus, and follow through, and Jesus assures us that our efforts will be rewarded. Faith, focus, and follow through, perseverance. That's a lot right there.
It's hard to do sometimes, but you know, what God tells us that that's what we're supposed to do. You know, that's what we're supposed to do. But you know, the name of this program is Spiritually Impact. And that's one thing in our life we have to realize that there, we have a heavenly Father that loves us and is wanting to do all good things for us.
But there's also an enemy that is trying everything he knows to do to hinder or to stop that or to really to kill us. But you know what? It takes that determination. You may fail.
You may want to run a marathon and you go out to try to build up your endurance. And maybe the first time you think you're there, you get a third of the way. Some people get discouraged and stopped so you know what? They never get to fulfill their dream.
They never get to run that marathon. Then some may go and then get the word and do it halfway. But they get discouraged because they stop. But the one that keeps trying, that keeps knocking, that keeps seeking, that keeps focusing, that keeps pushing, Paul said we press, that's right, press toward the prize of the mark of the high calling.
But it's going to take some effort on our part more than just saying a little quick prayer God will you do this for me? Yes, he will. But he may ask something in return. Not that we are trying to earn that.
We can never earn anything like that. But sometimes we have to learn how to be obedient because in disobedience God's not going to bless that. You know, but you know, a lot of times they do think you know disobedience lived disobedience is not God. And they expect the blessings of God to flow forth.
And you know why he still loves you? He does love you. But the thing is he says obedience is better than sacrifice. So we need to be obedient to the word of God.
We have the word and it teaches us and we even talk about the law. It's not a way we can Christ. But again, the law does still teach us what's right and wrong, but it doesn't justify us. It's the blood of the land that justifies us.
It's the blood of Jesus Christ. That's the only way that you're fit for the kingdom of heaven today. If you're trying to go any other way, it says you are a thief and a robber. That's what the word of God says.
There's only one way and Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. You know, he is a merciful God and he has to be. As pastors we hear a lot of excuses on why people don't come to church. And you know, some of life happens.
We understand that. Life happens. And sometimes there are things that you have to take care of in life. But just on average, you know what?
If we consciously make a decision to stay up way later than we should and then our excuse Sunday mornings, I stayed up and I was just too tired or some other excuse we give to God. And can you imagine how God's looking at that? But his mercy still reaches out and forgives us and he still continually tries to draw us to him. But you know, sometimes we just need to get ourselves out of the way.
We need to die to self. And you know, that's the part people can never get through a lot of times is dying to self and self will and self desires. Because in all this asking and knocking and seeking, if we don't have the heart for God, then we're asking for wrong things. We're not asking for the things that will make us stronger Christians, that will encourage us.
We get too wrapped up sometimes on materialistic things. And when God's talking about blessings, that's part of it. But that's not his priority. His priority is blessing your spiritual life, spiritually impacting you each and every day for when he impacts my life spiritually and your life spiritually and someone else.
And we come in contact. We encourage one another. And when we go outside then, I posted the other day, church basically, we come to church to worship God. It's a recharging station for us to go out into the world to do the work.
We don't come to church to do the work he calls us to do. We come to church to honor him with our worship and to seek him and things like that. But when we do, we get re-filled and we get re-generated. And I hear your testimony and I become encouraged.
And I go outside. It's like, man, we could attack anything in the name of Jesus. Paul says, I can do all things with Christ who strengthens me. And if God before us who could be against us.
So when I step out into that world, because when you step outside the doors of the walls of the church, you're automatically stepping on the devil's territory. And it's going to take some power to overcome him and that power comes through seeking God. That's right. And if one could put a thousand, two, but a ten thousand.
Come on. Come on. There it is. That's the word of God right there when we're talking about it.
But again, this is a prayer, a formula for prayer right here. Remember that word? And it means ask, seek, and knock. Again, when we ask, be specific in what you're asking for.
When you're seeking, seek the promises of God, stand upon those promises. And quote those promises. I believe we need to hear our mouths speak the word of God. And what promises are we standing on?
You know, when somebody rises up against us, says something bad about us, says no weapon formed against us shall prosper. Every tongue that rises and judges against us shall condemn. You know what? This is our heritage.
This is our heritage. Right there in God. Our righteousness is of him. And if he blesses, who can curse?
You know, if we're going to ask, that means we have to start a conversation. And if we're going to seek, we're going to have to begin to look. And if we're going to knock, we're going to have to get up. So we're going to have to move, Church, if we're going to get anywhere with God.
We're going to go with Lord and prayer. And you know what? We just all need to be encouraged today. So Pastor Steve.
Father, as we come to you Lord, we thank you Lord, that you say that in the word of God, nothing is impossible, those that believe. And that's a promise from the Word of God. And then we Father, maybe people out there right now face in what they call it in a possible situation. The Father has seen too many times.
You turn those situations around. For you are the God who is able. You are the God that we have the Spirit of God that is in our hearts and in those vessels. And He says that the Spirit of God would lead us in God.
And all truth. And the truth that we have is the truth of the word of God, that all the promise is in Christ or yes and amen. And then when Father, we stand upon the word of God by faith, He says we shall receive. We thank You for the promise that today when we ask, we can ask specifically for what we need.
When we seek, we seek the promises of God. We seek the Lord's will in our lives. And Father, we keep knocking. We continue until we receive those answers that we ask and receive those things that we need.
And Father, we praise You. We thank You. Thank you for this opportunity to come together. Thank You for everyone's listening to the Word today.
and then we Father, I praise you and thank you Lord for your blessings and your wonderful works for the children of me. Father, these things I give thanks for in Jesus name. Amen. I tell you what, I have enjoyed this lesson and I tell you what, ask, that's a t-shirt material right there.
So there you go, you need to take that and run with it. And I might be a way to help me along the church, I might be. But you know what, we should be able to enjoy our salvation. And in all things that we do, look unto Jesus, for He is our author.
He is our finisher of our faith. And you know, when you got Jesus, you got everything. You know, I sing an old song, now I have everything. And you know, there's time in my life, I didn't.
But you know, now that I have Jesus, do I have problems daily? Life happens to us all. Just because we love Jesus, don't mean we don't live in this world and we don't live in a fleshly body. But because we have Him as Savior, then we have help.
We have that assurance. Pastor Steve, we'd like to buy people to church. Yeah, come see us at the Bunnellife worship center. We're located at 932-Dwellie Parkway.
Also visit us at our website, AOWCsevereVille.com. But we would like you to come and see us in person because I'd like to shake your hand out your neck. Find out all the exciting things that God's doing in your life. And I tell you, I know He's doing exciting things in our lives.
And I know He's doing exciting things in yours. That's the time we come together and we just share the love of God with each other. And I want you to know that we're here at spiritual impact. We love you.
But I want you to know this. Jesus love you. He loves you so much that He gave His life on the cross of Calvary for you and He gave His precious blood that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. And I'm telling you, when we know that, then you know that you've been spiritually impacted.
Until we see you next time, God bless. Hello everybody. This is Pastor Tim Parton of the Bunnellife worship center. For those of you that live in the Subramal area, or maybe you just visit from time to time, we'd like to take a moment and invite you to come visit us at the church.
We're located at 923, Dolly Parton Parkway right here in Subramal. Our service time is our Sunday morning at 11 a.m. Wednesday evening at 630. We just love sharing the Word of God.
We're just the family church. So we invite you to come, grow with us. God bless. We're just a little faith.
We are never alone. So this battle I won't fear, because I can hear the sound.