Prepare for More Pt. IV
Tim Ross | October 4, 2020
“God is the one that started it, which means He’s going to sustain it, which means He’s going to finish it, which means He’s going to be the one that gets the glory for it.”
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Transcription
Embassy City Church, I love you, I am so grateful to be with you. As I'm looking into this camera, it might shock you, but we got some people in the building. Now I know what you're probably wondering. You're probably wondering, are we open yet? We are not open yet. This is a controlled group. I'm going to have some information in the next couple of weeks about the reopening of Embassy City Church. Until then, we selected a few people that pass some background checks. They're not criminals. They're not going to steal nothing from us, but they're here today.
Just let me say how happy I am to have at least some of our family in the building today. Are you all ready for the word of God? All right. If you have your Bibles, I want you to open them up to the book of Genesis chapter 12. We've been in a series since our fifth anniversary called Prepare for More. I believe that God is doing something new, fresh and exciting in the life of Embassy City as we turn five. As we turn five, I believe that there are some things that God wants us to know and prepare for the more that he wants to bring to us. Not only corporately, but individually.
Last week, I did prepare for more part three, and I'm continuing today with prepare for more part four, Prepare for more part four. I talked about Genesis chapter 12:2, where God gave three promises to Abraham. Now we're going to read Genesis chapter 3. That's right. I'm only preaching one verse this weekend, and it's Genesis chapter 3. How many of you all know the word of God line for line can change your life?
I just wanted to make sure you understand that. Not even verse for verse, but line for line, word for word, God's word can literally turn your life upside down.
I want you to read with me in Genesis chapter 12:3, here's what it says, "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you." So only one verse, I'm going to read it again. "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you." Bow your heads. Let's pray over the word before we get into it, shall we? Holy Spirit, keep preparing us for more, amen. I want you to think about this. God has already given Abraham three promises in verse 2 of chapter 12, God has already given Abraham three promises.
He said that I'm going to make your name great. He said that I am going to be a blessing to you. He promise him that he was going to make him famous. Wouldn't that be enough for you? Like if it was only Genesis chapter 2, would that not be enough that I'm going to make your name great, I'm a make you famous, and I, myself, God, will be a blessing to you? If it was done right there, Abraham's life is set. Right after God makes those three promises, He follows it up with three more promises before Abraham can even respond to the first three. He said, "Oh, and by the way, I will bless those who bless you, and curse those that treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you."
I just want to break down this one verse with point number one, please write this down, because I just want to just take my time laying these out for you. Three points, as you know, I shoot three pointers here. Point number one on this particular verse is prepare to be blessed. Prepare to be blessed. The first line that he says is a line that you have to receive. I will bless those who bless you. You have to prepare to be blessed. When God gives you a promise, He is faithful to fulfill that promise, but in giving that promise, He ensures that other people are going to recognize the promise that was given to you, and they are going to be a blessing to you, too. I will bless those who bless you.
Now, here's the thing that's amazing about this promise to Abraham. Abraham, by all intents and purposes, was already a blessed man. Abraham was 75 years old. He was very settled in the land that he was in. His father was wealthy, which made him wealthy. He had generational wealth. He was a part of the aristocracy of his day. He was already a prominent man. Now, I want you to think is real different-- There's a real difference between going to somebody that's homeless on the street, and saying, "I want to give you $5 million," huge blessing. Oh my goodness, I had nothing, now you're giving me something.
It's a big difference when you go to a man who already is wealthy, who already has success, who already has money in the bank, who is already financially secure by all of the secular measurements, and God comes up and says, "I'm going to be a blessing to you. I know you already have something, but what I'm going to give you is going to make what you think you already have irrelevant. I'm going to put a blessing on you that's different from the blessing that you gave yourself, that you earned yourself, that you thought you ascribed to yourself." You pulled yourself up by your own bootstraps. You can trace it back to your smart-- You can trace it back to your education. You can trace it back to your will, your way, the decisions you made.
God says, "I'm going to give you a blessing that has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with me. Since I'm going to bless you," He says, "I will bless those who bless you." It's one thing to be a blessing to someone who doesn't have anything. It's a whole another thing to be a blessing to someone that already has something. Now, I got to take my time right here because I have been around a lot of wealthy people. People that have been successful, and God has blessed them, and they recognize that God has blessed them. Let me tell you what's interesting. Wealthy people are some of the hardest people to be a blessing too, because of the wealth that they have amass, they're so used to being a blessing to other people.
They're so used to being leaned on by other people. They're so used to being depended on by other people, that when someone else just genuinely wants to come along and be a blessing to them, they don't even know how to receive it. They're like, "No, no, no, I'll do it," and you're like, "No, I want to do it." They almost get in an argument with you for trying to bless them. I have a dear friend who her husband played football, and he had a lot of success, and therefore they stewarded their money correctly. After his career, they still had enough money to live comfortably.
Here was the interesting thing. We went out to dinner, and as we were at dinner, we were just having a great time. It was just me and my wife and this individual. At the end of the meal, because I get down like this, I just sneakily paid for the meal. I become a silent assassin when it comes to blessing people. I just have an anointing to do it. What I would do is, I would excuse myself from the table, and I would say I need to go to the restroom, which is the truth. On my way to the restroom, went by the little kitchen, ask for my waitress to come out, and said, "Under no circumstances are you going to take any money from this individual."
"We want to be a blessing to them tonight, and there's a huge incentive for you to do it because I'm a tip you good." Once you tell a waitress that, there is no amount of money that the other party can give. They're like, "Uh-mm, this person made me a promise." They took the card, and I went to the restroom, and I came back. Of course, because God has blessed them so much, they're so used to being a blessing, they don't know how to get blessed. So when the bill came, she reached to go pay for it, but my car was sticking out the top, and along- they cut down a whole tree to put that receipt down. It's longer than the actual folder that it came in, and they handed it, and she said, "What did you do?" I said, "Hey, we just want it to be a blessing to you." She wept. I think there's some people that have lived so long having to be a blessing, that they forgot what it feels like to be blessed.
Here's what God is saying, "You're not going to spend the rest of your life with people- what you do and stuff for everybody else, and me forget about reminding somebody to do something for you. I will bless those that bless you." I want you to imagine that Abraham already has cattle, he already has men's services. He already has women's services, he has already has amass all the things that back in that day would make him wealthy, but then as he goes places, people just giving him stuff. "You're in our land. I like you. Here's some cattle. Here's some sheets. Here's some land." Abraham's like, "I don't know what to do with all of these," but it's coming because God made a promise.
When God makes you a promise, the best posture you can put yourself in is simply to receive. Everybody do like this. Everybody do like this. Now, here's a wonderful thing about this. This is both how you receive and how you release. The best place you can put yourself in to receive something from God is the same position you put yourself in to release some things to God. Come on, keep your hands out. I want you to get this. There might be some things that God wants to take off your hands, so that He can put something in your hands. I don't know who that's for right there. There might be some things that He wants to take away from you before He brings something to you, and you won't get it like this. You'll only get it like this.
Just look up and say, "Give it to me, Lord." Say it again like you mean it. "Give it to me, Lord." All right. I will bless those that bless you. Good? All right. Point number two, please write this down. Point number one is prepare to be blessed. Point number two, I hope you can handle it. I don't know if you can or not, you're going to get it anyway. Prepare to be mistreated. Didn't I try to tell you? I tried to warn you. Prepare to be mistreated. Now, I know you want to rebuke this point. I know you want to cast this point down. I know you want to bind the devil up. I didn't say it, though. He said it.
Prepare- and make sure you write it down. Some of you all got to write, and then it was like-- Some of you, "I'll try to edit my point. Prepare to be treated good." The devil is a liar. I'm going to be treated good. No, no, no. Write it down. Just like I said it to you. Prepare to be mistreated here. Here's what it says. I will curse those who treat you with contempt. I will curse those who treat you with contempt. God just gave you a promise. Somebody's not going to like the fact that you went into a covenant with God. Somebody is not going to be pleased with the fact that you are standing on the promises of God.
Somebody is going to be upset with the fact that you decided to follow his will and his way. Here's His promise. You don't have to do nothing about it. I'll curse him. You don't have to clap back at him. Somebody said, “ Do it, Jesus.” Somebody in here knows what content feels like. Listen, if this is something that you can receive, then you can understand based on what He said himself. I will curse those who treat you with contempt. That lets you off the hook. You don't have to do nothing about it. You don't have to get vengeance. You don't have to fight them. You don't have to put no ugly posts on social media. You don't have to be passive-aggressive.
It's an election year. Everybody's passive-aggressive right now. You know what I mean? I don't know what you're going to do, but I don't mess with people that is like, "I just got off the phone with you. I'm the one you're talking about." Just say, "Tim, how come you're talking in third person now?" Some people don't like the fact that I'm the only friend you got, you must be talking about me. Only 11 people following you on Instagram. Stop yourself. Prepare to be mistreated. I will curse those who treat you with contempt. God gives a promise that those people that have a problem with the promise I've just established with you, I will deal with them. That let's us off the hook.
Here's why God is going to deal with him, because God is the one that initiated the promise. Here's why you don't have to try to justify the blessings of God in your life, because you didn't start it. You did not convince God to bless you in this season. God convinced you. If He's the one that convinced you, then He's the one that will protect you. The only people that are always talking and fighting with people are people that are trying to defend their own doing, in their own strength, in their own might, their own way. When God is the one who has initiated the blessing, He is the one that sustains the blessing.
He says, "Anybody that has a problem with you, I'll deal with it." Even if they've launched an ugly attack against you, even if they said anything negative about you. I know that before you got saved, you would have acted a certain way. You probably would have gave him a piece of your mind. Notice God said, "I'm going to curse them." Not cuss them. He don't need your help. He don't need your mouth. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Even though it would feel good to your flesh to respond in a way that would make you feel better, heaven would not be pleased. So you will allow God to do it for you.
I remember I had stepped out on faith to transition from the Potter's House in Dallas, Texas. I had been there for 13 and a half years. I had so many relationships there, and so many people that I had connected with there. When I stepped out on faith, I actually had some people that were not fond of the decision. They would call me and say, "Tim, this is the dumbest move you've ever made." They actually said that the move was career suicide. I said, "I would actually agree with you and say that it was career suicide if I thought this was a career move." I'm going let that marinate for a minute. Yes, this would be career suicide if this was a career move, but I didn't come up with this idea. God came up with this idea.
Whatever God has next for me is on God, it's not on me. I don't have to figure out what's next. I don't have to try to land on my feet. I don't have to try to prove that I made the right move and things are going to work out for me. God is the one that started it, which means He's going to sustain it, which means He's going to finish it, which means He's going to be the one that gets the glory for it. I didn't make a smart move. I made a God move.
I feel that right there. I don't know who this is for, but you need to be making God moves. You need to be depending on God to be the one leading and guiding you, and not your own savvy, not your manipulation, not what you can control, not what you can get out of the deal.
Thank you, Holy Spirit. Not what you can get out of the deal. There are some people who have- you have manipulated your way to a place of influence. Now, I know manipulating sounds like a strong word, but I mean to say you've used your strength and your might. You're so used to move in strategically that it's hard for you to fathom moving theologically. What do you mean moving theologically? I mean, getting a word from God about what He wants you to do next. I'm talking about getting a word in your heart and then finding a verse in His Bible, because God wrote the same way He sounds like. He sounds like what He wrote, which means if God told you something, it should be backed up by the word. If it's not backed up by the word, God didn't tell that to you. It's just that simple.
I believe God is telling me to do this. That's a big chunky book. Your Bible, if you've got a Bible like mine-- Mine, I have a study Bible. It's four and a half pounds. There's some density to that book. Now, when I opened that book from Genesis to Revelation, if God says something to me that I think I heard in between my ears, then I should see it in between His pages, because He sounds like what He wrote. He's never going to go against anything that He wrote in his book, from Genesis to Revelation. I know there's some new covenant people that believe in grace and believed that the Old Testament is dead. The Old Testament is not dead. It is very much alive because Jesus is the Torah of the Old Testament.
He is the written word of God. I wish I could stay there, but I'm going to move on. Can I just hit that? Let me hit that just for a second, because there's so many people that think that the Old Testament is the old covenant with old promises, and the New Testament, New Testament is with new promises. We don't need to go back to the Old Testament for nothing. Some of you all might be tripping, and I'm even preaching from Genesis. You're like, "Go to the New Testament." Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, I get to the gospels. That's the New Testament. That's not even the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is actually not the New Testament, because the testator is alive.
Just let that sit for a minute. In a will, the promises are not enacted, and so the writer of the will dies. Jesus who is the fulfillment of all the prophecy in the law is quoting the Old Testament to back it up. Go back and look at Matthew chapter 4, and what you'll find is for every temptation that Satan brought to Jesus, he quoted his own word in Deuteronomy. Now the Old Testament is dead, but Jesus used it. He's our chief apostle, what are you doing? What are you doing? Cutting off 39 books of the Old Testament that reveal Christ in his fullness. Jesus goes to the cross. He dies.
Once he dies, the promises enact for the covenant that is fulfilled through his broken body on the cross. What makes it so spectacular is that he just decided not to stay dead. That way, if anybody ever wanted to argue with you through the rest of time that this is not what he meant by what he wrote, he actually came back himself to say, "This is me. I wrote this, and I included her in it. I included him in it." You don't have to fight to defend yourself when God is the one that's given you a promise. God said, "I will handle anybody that has a disagreement or a disappointment in the fact that you decided to follow me."
I remember one of my friends, I just feel like talking today, real transparent. I have a dear friend, and I'm not going to mention his name, but he knows who he is. After I left the Potter's House, I had no idea that the Lord was going lead me to Gateway. No clue. If you don't know the Potter's House and Gateway are antithesis of each other in of their expression. They both love God. They both believe and stand on the word of God, but their expressions are completely different. Potter's House is predominantly African American, south side of Dallas, a wildly Pentecostal. If anybody remembers me from that season, I used to do laps around the church. I was the runner, I would run. I would get my high step on.
You get to Gateway. Gateway is South Lake is predominantly Caucasian, because South Lake is 90% white, but the other campuses are more diverse. South Lake is where God was leading us to. I had a friend actually tell me once I came on staff at Gateway, that they don't love you, and you're a token there, and they're never going to be a blessing to you. Now, I could've got defensive. I could have gotten my feelings and be like, "God told me to come here, and I'm standing on his word," but I didn't. I prayed. Then I said, "Lord, what would you like me to do?" He said, "Invite him up," because he doesn't live in the city. He said, "Invite him up. Invite him to town." At the time that we were having this back and forth, the Gateway conferences was about to start.
The Gateway conference was happening, and I invited him. I said, "I just want you to come up to the conference. If you get up here, if you drive up here, I will pay for your hotel. I'll pay for your lodging. I will pay for everything, because I'm already blessed." When God puts you in a position to be a blessing, He doesn't just want you to bless those that agree with you. I said, "Hey, man, just get up here, and I'll make sure that everything's covered." I put him in a nice hotel. He came up with his father. I only saw him one time during the Gateway conference. If you ever been to the Gateway conference, Gateway conference, it's two days, and they pack it in.
It's two days, like 12 hours, and you are brain dead by the time it's over, because it's like you're drinking from a water hose. I only saw him one time. He was sitting on the floor with his dad, eating some chips and a sandwich in between sessions. I said, "Hey, man." He was like, "Oh, man, I'm taking a lot in." A day later, he decided to stay one more day. I paid for that one more day, because I meant what I said. He was driving back to where he's from, him and his father. He said, "I have two things to tell you." He said, "Number one, I need to repent to you." He said, "God did something in my heart, and I see why God brought you here." He said, "Number two, there's been a rift between me and my father for years. During one of the sessions taught by Pastor Robert, God healed my heart."
See, a curse doesn't have to look like what you think it looks like. Curse from God, and you think- they're supposed to wind up paralyzed from the neck down. Yes, I bet you won't say none about me no more. That's not what that is. That's not what that is. This was God going, "I know how to get this guy. The only curse this guy needs is about a half of a humble pie, and I'll make him eat it in two days and burp up the apology." Point number three. Bless and honor the Jewish people. Point number one is prepared to be blessed. Point number two is prepare to be mistreated. Point number three, and if you call yourself a resident of Embassy City, you have to get this deep into your soul. Bless and honor the Jewish people.
Here's what he says. This is the promise that God gives, "All families on earth will be blessed through you." Let me say something about Abraham. Abraham is the first Jewish person. Judaism, as a practice, and Jewish people, as a people, are not an ethnicity. They are who they are because God made a promise to Abraham, blew on his name, called him Abraham, gave him a son named Isaac, and then multiplied those people through Jacob, and they became a people. Abraham is the first Jewish person. It is because of the promise to a Jewish person that we, as Gentiles, get to receive the promise that was given, not to us, but to Jewish people. Now, this is very, very important, because there is so much replacement theology that is spoken from pulpits in America, where all replacement theology means is that promises that were given to Jewish people are- people actually replace themselves with the promise that was given to somebody else. I want you to imagine you being maybe 15, 16 years old, and your father and mother says, "I promise that when you turn 16 and get your driver's license, I'm going to give you a car."
Your friend from across the street decides too- he overhears the promise that was given to you. On their 16th birthday, they show up to your doorstep, and ask your dad to give them a car. They're standing on not a promise that was given to them, but a promise that was given to you. What they're trying to do is replace them with you. Instead of saying, can I have a ride in that car? I heard your daddy promised you something, can I just get a ride in the passenger seat? You then try to replace yourself with them. This is what a lot of people in America have done with the prophecies that were given to Jewish people. One off the top of my head, Jeremiah 29:11. Anybody heard Jeremiah 29:11? What does it say?
You all did a good job. For that to be a pop quiz, you all did actually a really good job. Now, listen, we can identify with that verse and say amen to that verse, and even stand on the promise of that verse, but not because that verse was written to us. That verse was written to the Israelites that were coming back into a covenant relationship with God after being in bondage for many, many years. Now, we hear it, and we can say amen to it, but let's never mistake the fact that there is a group of people that God went into a covenant with, and because of the blessing that is on them, we got blessed as well. Jesus is Jewish. Not was. He was a Jewish man, and then came up another kind of man from the grave, he's still a Jewish guy.
What makes Jews Jews is the promise that God gave to Abraham. What makes us as the church recipients of that promise is that Jesus invited us. Actually, according to Paul, engrafted us into that promise, because we've placed our faith in the same God that Abraham did. Not outside of that, but in that, we have that promise and we can stand on this thing. Here's the thing. All families on earth will be blessed through you. Can I just tell you from Abraham, Isaac, to Jacob, to Moses, to David, all the major and minor prophets, through a Virgin named Mary, to Jesus, that promise was fulfilled. All the families on earth, no matter what your ethnicity, no matter what your background, no matter what your culture is, we are all blessed because a Jewish man went to the cross to die for our sins.
Now, let me tell you something. We bless God for Jewish people. If you don't know this, Jewish people are really blessed because of the same promise that was given thousands of years ago. Around 1939, the Jewish population in the world was about 16 and a half million people. This is before the Holocaust. The Holocaust took away 6 million people in that horrific tragedy of human depravity. To this day, the Jewish population hasn't recovered to what it was in 1939. So the Jewish population worldwide is about maybe 15 and a half million people, worldwide. The biggest Jewish population outside of Israel is in the United States, 5.7 million people.
I just want you to think about that, of the 15 million Jews that are worldwide, 5.7 million are in the United States. Now, just as a factoid of how God's promise doesn't wear off and his covenant doesn't wear off, the Jewish people make up three-tenths of 1% of the world population, but they have about 35% of the most intellectual innovations that planet earth has ever seen. They make up about 25% of all Nobel Peace prizes. That tiny group of people, worldwide. Do you know the state of Texas has more people than all the Jewish people that are on the earth that can trace their DNA back to Jacob?
There's more people in Texas. Texas has about 25, 27 million people. There's only 15 million Jews. That's probably DFW, Austin, and Houston. By itself, we already outranked all of the Jewish people. Here's the thing. God's promise hasn't worn off. So you have Jewish people that don't even believe that Jesus Christ is their Messiah. They still have a blessing because God can't go back on his word. One more little fun fact. Stan Lee, he's Jewish. Even though he never proclaimed Jesus as Lord, he spent his whole life giving people Messiahs. All your Marvel heroes, all they do is redeem and save the earth. Even if they don't want him, it's in their DNA to want a savior.
We are a blessing to Jewish people. They are not a blessing to us. Hear me. There's a lot of people that think that by blessing Israel, they're doing them a favor, or you're doing yourself a favor, because remember what point one was, I will bless those who bless you. When you bless people that are Jewish, there's a blessing that comes to you. There's a messianic Jewish congregation in Seattle, Washington, called Restoration, that my good friend, Matthew Rosenberg, is the pastor of. He's the rabbi there. We financially support them. God laid it on our heart to support them as a church once a month for the next 12 months. Do you know who's getting blessed by that? We are.
I'm sure the check we're cutting is a blessing to them, but you know who's more blessed? We are. He said, "I will bless those who bless you." The blessing's already on you and your descendants. I'm blessing people that recognize that there's a blessing on you. I want you to understand that this church believes in the Jew first, and then the Gentile, because salvation was to the Jew first, and then the Gentile. I'm going to give you one more thing, and I promise, I'm going to shut up. Acts chapter 2, Pentecost. I'm a Pentecostal kid, so I can talk about this. I can't tell you how many Holy Ghost songs I've heard about the fire coming down in Acts chapter 2, and [singing] send it on down, send it on down. Lord, let your Holy Ghost come on down. Send it on down, send it on down. Lord, let the Holy Ghost follow--
Now, that's great. That's all good. We're all like, "Yey." Acts chapter 2, that's when we got it. That's when we got it. No, it's not. That's when they got it. There were no Gentiles present in Acts chapter 2. If you would've saw her face just now, she just got a revelation. She was not expecting. She was like, "What?" There were no Gentiles present in Acts chapter 2. Why? Salvation was to the Jew first. Then the Gentile. When Peter preached his first sermon in Acts chapter 2, 3000 Jewish people got saved. There were no Gentiles present. The first Gentile to be filled with the Holy Spirit is in Acts chapter 10. It's over 10 years later.
Can we just politely give back the promises to who they belong to? Jewish people, we so sorry. We have literally hijack your whole book, and acted like He was talking to us, when He was really talking to you. Please forgive us. We are so happy that we get to be connected to the promise, because we believe in the same savior that was promised to the Jews. Listen, if you all get these three points-- You all get these three points, you will be prepared for the more that God has in store for you. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message? I just want you to take a moment to investigate and be sensitive enough to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you about what you've heard today. If you are already a believer in Jesus Christ, I hope that it's brought you even closer to your relationship with God.
If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, if you've never even known that you were supposed to surrender your life to Him as Savior and Lord, then I want to invite you today to make a decision to allow Jesus to come into your heart and take over your life. I know that sounds strong, but it's the best takeover you will ever have in your life. The only thing you need to do to make that happen is to believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that God raised Him from the dead.
If you believe that, and you repent, which our repent means to do is to change your mind about the way that you've been living your life. If you change your mind about how you thought you should be living, you're repenting. If you would do that, heaven is throwing a party for you right now. Holy Spirit, I thank you for every single person that has drawn near to you, that has drawn closer to you, that has made a decision for you. As you prepare us for more, I pray that you would do something supernatural in our hearts, in our minds and our souls that turns our world upside down with the message love and hope of Jesus Christ. In the matchless name of Jesus, we pray. Everybody say, "Amen." All right, you all, get used to these voices, because they're going to be here for a while, and I will see you next week.
