This Is Only a Sample
Tim Rivers | July 2, 2023
Listen
Transcription
What's up everybody? Anybody excited to be in the house? Come on, put your hands together and give Jesus some praise. That would be good enough if it wasn't 11 o'clock. Somebody give Jesus some real praise. There we go. Has God been good? Anybody so good to be back? My goodness, we've been gone for a minute and I don't want to go any further without acknowledging the amazing people that came here in the month of June. Can we put our hands together and give Tim appreciation? My goodness had Pastor Robert White who kicked us off in the first week of June who did an absolutely awesome job and has a voice that everybody covered and then we had Chris Durso, which he just words fail but was so good and then our very own Michael Pittman land did a phenomenal job. You could tell that he devoted time, attention, prayer and preparation to delivering such an ontime word and then taking us all the way home with Katie Kazadi. Thank you so much, a true Bible teacher Sunday school teacher. Thank you so much for devoting yourself to the study of God's word so that you can deliver the word and give us greater understanding. One more time, give a big round of applause.
And then I also want to say thank you Congregation Church for affording us the opportunity to take some time off. Four weeks of not preaching and then we had one week where we just sat out in the sun, got bronzed chocolate, went from milk chocolate, the dark chocolate. You know what I'm saying? We had an absolutely great time, but thank you church for being so gracious and giving us that opportunity and time. Now I will say this, not preaching for four weeks means I came to preach. I don't think y'all ready. I just need about two or three people that are ready to help me preach. I'm, I'm sitting here looking for my Amen corner. You know what I'm saying? How many came ready to give God your best this morning?
Alright, let's get into this word before I get started. Numbers chapter 13, the book of Numbers, chapter 13, we're going to read quite a few verses is been four weeks and we're going to catch up numbers chapter 13, verse number 17 through verse number 30. Anybody bring their Bible there? Just that paperback. All right, numbers chapter 13, verse number 17. Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, go up into Nige and go up into the hill country and see what the land is and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether there are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds and whether the land is rich or poor and whether there are trees in it or not, be of good courage and bring some of the fruit of the land.
Check out this last sentence now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. Pay attention to that. Let's read on the narrative. So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zenin to Reho and near Nibo Hama. They went up into Negev and came to Heon, Ahman, shisha and Tai, the descendants of AAC were there. Hebron was built seven years before Zan and Egypt and they came to the valley of Al and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes. Somebody say a single cluster. Single cluster, a single cluster of grapes and they carried it on a pole between two of them. My guy, what kind of cluster of graves is this? They also brought some pomegranates and figs. That place was called the Valley of ish called because of the cluster that the people of Israel cut down from there.
Now the word ish called literally means cluster. So it literally is valley of cluster. At the end of 40 days, they returned from spying out the land and they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Perran at Kadesh. And they brought back word to them and to all the congregations showed them the fruit of land and they told him, we came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey and this is its fruit. However, the people who dwell in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides we saw the descendants of Adenak there, the Amalekites dwell in the land of Nige, the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the Jordan, you've never been around somebody that has literal blessings in their life and they can still find something to complain about getting out of a brand new car but complaining cause they don't like the rims. I wished I got the sport package, but everyone got some of those in their life. You know what I'm saying? Blessed to the max but still find something to fuss about.
But somebody said, but Caleb quieted the people before Moses shut y'all's mouth, be quiet and said, let us go up at once and occupy it for we are well able to overcome it regardless of all the opposition that stands in our way. I believe that what God said belongs to me, belongs to me and I don't want to wait another second, another minute, another hour. I want to go right in and get what God says belongs to me. Oh Lord. All right, so I'm going to preach from verse number 20, this last sentence. Now the time was the season of the first ripe grapes. My title for today is This is only a sample. Oh Lord, this is only a sample. What you see God doing in my life, you ain't seen nothing yet. What you see him working in my life, this is just a sample is just the beginning. We're just getting started. I'm just taking off. This is just a little bit of what God has in store for me. Somebody turn your name and say, neighbor, neighbor, what you see in my life is only a sample of what God's getting ready to do.
Say neighbor, what you see in my life. God's just getting started now. Somebody giving praise according to your saint in this place. Give them praise according to what you believe God's getting ready to do in your eyes. For some of us, we're not going to wait till I get 15 minutes into the message or 20 minutes into the message. I'm not waiting until the worship team comes up. I'm going to give God praise on the front end. Is there anybody in here ready to get everything that God said belongs to you? One more time, give him some praise in this place before you see that. Oh Lord, it's about to be on and popping. This is only a sample somebody tell your neighbor to tell neighbor, neighbor something good, something good. It's about to happen.
It's about
Only say it if you believe it. Amen. If you don't believe it, don't say it. But if you believe it, say it again. Say Neighbor, I believe I Believe Something good, something good is about to happen, about I got to preach, but I feel good right now.
I believe I will. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your house. Thank you for drawing us into your house. Holy Spirit fill this room headless to be changed for the inside out. Give us ears to hear, a heart to receive and a mind to understand what you would say to us. Heaven, us to walk out of here different than the way we walked in. We give your name all the praise, the glory, the honor because you are worthy of it. And if you never do another thing, you've already done enough in Jesus' name and somebody say amen.
Amen.
Amen. This is only a sample.
When I think about the topic of this message, it reminds me of when I was nine years old, 1996, we had just moved here to the United States from Germany. So some of you may know this, some of you may not, but I was born and raised in Germany. ESL German was my first language and we moved here to the United States and we had never been here before except for one time in 95. And so we had to learn a lot of things about American culture and ways. But one of the things that I loved America was how American celebrated Saturdays, especially as a kid. As a kid. Saturdays was the day where you start the weekend. It gives you a break from all the work that you did Monday through Friday as a nine year old kid. Finally the weekend is here and I was homeschooled, so I worked real hard on one particular Saturday. I remember waking up to the smell of breakfast, cooking. My dad can throw down some breakfast. So have you ever gotten up and you can smell the bacon sizzling, you can smell the pancakes, you can. You just know man, some of y'all about to leave,
But you can just smell breakfast and you wake up to the smell of breakfast and the sound of worship music playing in the background. And some of y'all woke up to Saturday morning cartoons, but we didn't have a tv so we had worship Bebe and Cece Winans, Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Kirk Franklin, Alvin Slaughter, some of y'all like Alvin Slaughter, who?
But we did what we did every Saturday. So we would get up, we ate our breakfast and then we went out and we played, rode our bikes, met up with the homies from the neighborhood, just kind of did our Saturday morning thing and then we'd always come back in time for lunch because you know couldn't be out very long as a young boy without getting hungry. So we'd come back and on one particular Saturday we came back and there was no food on the table, but my parents were dressed up like we're about to go somewhere. And we said, okay, we going to eat lunch. And they said, we are going out to eat today. Now I don't know how you grew up out to eat on a Saturday for lunch, no special occasion, no major milestones, but celebrate we just going to go out to eat. They said word. I said, okay, so we got dressed, we got in the car and as we're driving I'm thinking, where are we going to go out to? Are we going to, is it Bennigans? Are we going to, some of y'all are like, what's Bennigans? Are we going to TJI Fridays on a Saturday on the border? Crabs Shack, Ryan Steakhouse,
Golden Corral. I'm glad we actually passed by those places when we passed by all these restaurants and we pulled into the parking lot of a building that said Sam's Club. Now remember we just got here from Germany, so we knew nothing about what Sam's Club was, but the first thought I had as a kid was this has got to be the largest restaurant I have ever seen in my life. They said everything was bigger than Texas. I didn't think it was this big though. We pulled into the parking lot and as we pulled into the parking lot, there were several other families that were meeting us there from the church. And so us not knowing the game plan, we get out and they're like this, Hey listen, here's the game plan. When you go into Sam's, you are about to experience something that you have never experienced in your life. You are about to have a 2,750 course meal of bite-sized pieces and we're like this word. So we go into Sam's Club and we're like, what? We thought we done died and went to heaven Every few feet there was somebody with a silver platter. I'm talking about Jesus from Holland,
Grapes, from Napa Valley Bread, from France, meats, from all from farms all over the country and all conveniently presented to us with toothpicks. I don't know if any of y'all have ever gone out and had these little bite-sized pieces from Sam's, but if you go with somebody you got to look out for them as well. So as you pass by them, yo, make sure you go by aisle nine. They got vitamins dog. Oh thank you for the heads up. Go by the meat section. They got quarter sized our dogs. So after we went around as little kids, were running around. It's the first time we've experienced this. We get to try all of these different foods and drinks and we gather back together with this family. We say, yo, why in the world would they give you all of this food for free? And they said, Hey, actually what you actually had wasn't the full meal. This is only a sample. Of course we could begin to push them. All right, so why would they spend thousands of dollars and hire thousands of people to give away samples for free? And they said, because they want you to taste the sample and based on how you react to the sample, make the decision that if the sample is this good,
I'm willing to pay whatever price I got to pay to get me a full serving of whatever the sample is. The strategy behind samples is to entice you to want the full serving. I'm already preaching. Did you know that the same is true about God? God will tell you about what he wants to do in your life before he will show you. But what he shows you, he will only show you a sample of the whole thing because he's trying to test and see how you react to the sample is indicative of whether or not you are willing to pay the price for the full thing. Too many people quit during the tasting phase. Did you know that God will test you during the tasting? He will test you with samples before he's going to give you the full thing. He will test you with a staph before he trusts you with acept. He will test you with five smooth stones before he will trust you with an army. He will test you with a job owner of a donkey before he trusts you with killing a thousand philoso stops. He will test you in the small things before he trusts you with the big things. How you react in the sample phase is indicative of what he can do with you in the full serving.
I told y'all I come ready to preach to somebody today. God will not give you the full thing. He'll only give you a sample to see how you react and too many people will quit and complain because the sample is too small. I wanted a full-time job. I didn't want this part-time job, but just a week ago you didn't have a job. God will test you with being an employee before he will trust you with being a ceo.
God will test you. Hold on, I'm I'm going to get too much into people's business. He'll test you with an apartment before he trusts you with a house. But I got to go back to numbers chapter 13 because I really want to work this text. But in order for me to lead you up to numbers chapter 13, I got to go all the way back and give you context for how we got here,
How we got here. We have to go back to Abraham and God showing up to Abraham because at some point within creation, God says, I want a particular group of people to be my people. I want them to be my people. And so he calls a man by the name of Abraham and he says, Abraham, I want to bless you and in you shall all the ends of the earth be blessed. He says, says to Abraham, Abraham, I'm going to bless you so much that the person that blesses you will be per blessed. The person that curses you will be cursed. In fact, Abraham, I'm going to make your descendants so great that if you could count the grains of sand that are in the sea around the ocean, that's how great I'm going to bless you. And if you can count the stars that are in the sky, that's how great I'm going to bless you. Can I just stop and tell you that when God begins to speak to you about things he wants to do in your life, it will not make sense
Because if it made sense and you could do it, you would get the glory.
So he says to Abraham, I'm going to bless you and it's going to be absolutely phenomenal. Then God blesses Abraham with a son by the name of Isaac and God continues his promise through this man named Isaac. And then Isaac has two sons and one of 'em is name is Jacob, the other is Esau. And God begins to work on Jacob and fulfill his promise to Jacob. Then Jacob has a wrestling match with God at Jabbar as a theophany and God changes his name from Jacob to Israel. Then Israel has 12 sons. One of them's name is Joseph. Are you following me? Yes. Joseph gets sold into slavery by 11 of his brothers. He ends up in Egypt. While he's in Egypt, he gets, goes to all types of trials and tribulations. Now he's the second in command and all of Egypt, then there's a feminine land.
11 brothers go to Egypt to get some grain. They realize, oops, the brother who we sold out is now the one feeding us. And Joseph says, don't worry about it because what you meant for evil, God turned to my gut. No matter how much the devil tries to fight you, he can't stop what God's got for you. No matter how many people sell you out, they can't stop God from doing what he wants to do in your life. So then Joseph says to his brothers, Hey, go get my dad and bring him here. So 12 of the brothers or the 12 sons of Israel come into Egypt and that's where they make their home. And the Bible says that the total number of the family of Israel is about 72. So 72 moved into Egypt and they begin to multiply and have more children and have more descendants. And all of a sudden after they started getting large in numbers, the Egyptians were worried about them creating an insurrection. And so they began to oppress the spirit of Israel to try to squash and stop what God was doing among them. Oh Lord, I could stop and preach there. Don't be surprised by opposition. Opposition is just an indication of blessings unless you sin it. Let me just put that as a caveat.
But if you are working in righteousness, the devil is not going to let you just get everything that God got for you. So they begin to oppress the Israelites. But the Bible says the more that they oppress them Israelites, the more they multiplied. Oh, I don't have the time to preach, but I could just stop and preach on that part right there. They multiplied, they multiplied, they multiplied. And the scripture says that after about 430 years of being oppressed by the Egyptians, God said, I've had enough. So God calls a man by the name of Moses through a burning bush and he says, Moses, first of all, we got to questions. Moses sanity talking to a bush that's not burning. He's having a full blown conversation. God's like, Hey Moses. Moses like, yeah, what's up? He says, I need you to go tell Pharaoh. Let my people go. Moses, I've been out here with these sheep for a long time. I can't get it out. And God says, don't worry, you open your mouth, I'll feel it. And he says, how do I know that you're going to be with me? God says, throw your staff down. He throws his staff down, turns into a snake. He said, pick it up by the tail and picks it up by the tail turns back into a staff. He said, what does this mean? God said, this is only a sample
Standing. Moses says, all right, what do I do next? He said, I told you, go into the throne room or Pharaoh and tell him to let my people go. So Moses walks into the throne room of Pharaoh. Hey, what's up grandpa? By adoption? Pharaoh's like, what you doing here? You ready to say you're sorry? Moses? Like, nah, I came to tell you that God told me to let my people go. He said, who's this God? He said, I am. He said, you are. He said, no. He said, I am. He said, how do I know that your God is going to come through for you? He said, watch this through the honor staff to turn to a snake. Pharaoh says, I got magicians that could do that. Come here magicians. Magicians didn't. Moses said, oh, you got to remember Moses already had a problem stuttering. He's like, oh Lord, now I really ain't got no words. What's about to happen? Now you ever been in a tight spot where you're like, I thought I was blessed, but they living in sin and they look blessed. I know none of y'all ever thought that. But then Moses's serpent eats the other serpents and Moses like Word.
God says, pick it up. He picks it up, turns back into his staff. Farrell said, what is this? Moses said, this is only a sample. You better let him go. Farrell said, nah, I ain't convinced. He said, all right doc. He walks out and the plague happens. He said, you believe me Now Pharaoh said, nah. He said, all right. It was only a sample, 10 plagues came. Finally, Pharaoh was like, get all your people. We even going to give y'all gold and silver. That's what the Bible says. They got the spoils of Egypt. I can preach right there. When God delivers you, he going to give you something to go with the deliverance. They walk out of Egypt with the spoils of Egypt
And God says, I'm going to take you to a land flowing milk and honey, I'm going to give you Avengers. You didn't plant. I'm going to let you drink from wells you didn't dig. I'm going to live let you live in houses that you didn't build. And here's the thing, I'm going to lead you right to it. So the children of Israel come out of Egypt and as they're coming out of Egypt, by this time it's hundreds of thousands of people that are coming out. And the Bible says that none of them were halt or lame. In other words, as they were leaving Egypt, anyone who had sickness was being healed in the deliverance process. Ooh, I'm preaching so many different messages right now because when God sets you free, he will also heal you. He will also restore you. He'll also bring some things back to you.
Whatever you thought was left in Egypt, God will bring it back to you. So they come out of Egypt and they're on their way to the promised land, right? And they're praising God. And God says, look, I'm going to lead you with a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night. So now they are being led by God out of Egypt to get to the Red Sea. And they're like, now what? And you brought us out here to die. And Moses is like, what am I supposed to do? And God says, stretch out your rod. He stretches out Rod and the sea begins to part and he's like, word God said, this is only a sample. He said, but there's mud. He said, no, I'll dry it up. I got you. So then Israel walks through the Red Sea with the waters parted dry ground to get to the other side. Now, now God says, okay, tell the people of Israel to look back behind him at the enemy. The enemy is coming after them. The people of Israel are scared. And God said, watch this clap. And then God says, tell the people to look back at what God's doing with their past and remind them that the enemy that they now see, they shall see again. No more on this day.
So the enemy is destroyed at this point. Israel's on the other side, and then God says, I'm not going to take you directly to Canaan because there's some things I got to get out of you and some things I got to put in you. So God takes some time by leading them to Mount Sinai and at Mount Sinai he gives them the 10 commandments and he says, this is how I want you to behave as a called out people out of Egypt. Now you are my people. This is how you ought to behave yourself. And then God gives them the instructions for different feasts. This is how I want you to celebrate. And then God says, I also want to give you instructions about the tabernacle. This is how I want you to build a tabernacle where I will dwell. By this point, it has been 430 days and they finally are at the edge of Canaan.
And they see the promised land. Can I just tell you that God will take his time with you to make sure you're ready to occupy?
Amen. Some people get frustrated with the journey it takes out out of Egypt to Canaan, but God says, I got to get some Egypt out of you and I got to put some canan in you before I will actually let you get into Canaan. So the scripture says, 430 days out of Egypt to the edge of the land. Now, now for all you Bible scholars, you, you know that there's always these parallels within the Bible right? Now think about this. It took 430 years of oppression and it took God 430 days to set 'em free. It don't take God long to reverse the curse. God said, whatever the enemy did in your life, I will exponentially erase whatever the enemy tried to do in your life for the last 30 years. Can I tell you that God will set you free in three minutes? Whatever the enemy had planned for your life for the last 50 years, God will take away in the next five minutes. I just need somebody to believe that God is able to do exceedingly a bodily above all that we're able to ask. God, thanks. So again, God brings him to the edge of Canan. I'm about to preach now. God brings him to the edge of came. He goes, look over there. I'm telling you, this is the land that I'm promising you. I'm promising you this land that flows with nook and honey. I'm talking about houses. You didn't build vineyards, you didn't plant wells, you didn't. Doug, dig, I'm going to give you victory over all of your enemies and you're going to go occupy it. Will it come without a fight? No way, Jose,
Because samples are free, but the full meal's going to cost you something.
So Moses says, okay, I got instructions. So Moses says, I'm going to take 12 spies and I'm going to send 'em into the promised land because I want y'all to spy it out and I want you to see whether it be good or bad, whether it be what God said it was or it's not. And so they go into the promised land, and this is called a chiasm or chiasm and it's, it's a literary structure where you're repenting one thing against the next. It's is this good or bad? Are there trees or not they, are there camps or are they strong or are they strong or are they not? He wants them to go in and get a full evaluation of what God promised them. And he said, but by the way, while you are there, make sure you get a piece of fruit and bring it back. So they go into the Canaan, into the promised land and the scripture says that they begin to spy out the land and within 40 days they come back and they say, Moses is exactly as you described it, it's flowing with milk and honey, but they're adversaries in the land.
10 of the 12 spies came back and the Bible says they brought a evil report. Now the word evil means false. And the word false means to falsify evidence.
They didn't just say, Hey, it's hard to get in there. They came back and said, it's not all cracked up to be. It's not all that God said it was. It ain't. It ain't everything that we thought it was going to be. They came back and they said, whatever God said it was, we actually don't believe it. And God's like, wait a minute. You could have just come back and said there's some enemies over there, but you came back and brought a false report. You got to be careful of people that will try to convince you that what God's doing in your life ain't all that it ain't all that special. 12 people ate the same fruit but had a different taste.
12 spas came. 10 spas came back and said, you know what? I know that it folds with milk and honey, but we want to bring you an evil report. We want to tell you that it's not worth all of the pain and suffering and the fighting, even though we know that God has brought us from a mind long way. We don't know if he can take us all the way. But there were two dudes in the 12, one by the name of Caleb that said, shut your mouth. And I believe that Caleb went back in his memory bank and thought about all the things that God brought through the ministry of Moses. He thought back at, wait a minute, once we were oppressed for 430 years, but God spoke to Moses out of a burning bush and that was just a sample. And then he told Moses to throw down a staff and a staff became a snake and that was just a sample. And then God sent 10 plagues to Egypt and that was just a sample. And then God let us through a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and that was just a sample. Then he made water come out of a rock and that was just a sample. And then he made quail and manna come out of nowhere, and that was just a sample. And then he divinely gave us 10 commandments, and that was just a sample. And if that was a sample,
Now he's brought us to the edge of the cane land. Now we go in and we got these fruits and he said, the fruits taste so sweet, and I know that the alo kites are there. I know the JE sites are there. I know that the sons of Anac are there. But if that was a sample of what God's getting ready to do, I don't want to hold back one single minute, one single hour. I want to go all the way in and get everything that God said belonged to me, and I will fight every enemy that I got to fight and I will die trying to get everything that God said belonged to me. Too many people quit during the sampling phase and God said, this is just the sample of what I want to do in your life.
All right? But I got to work the text a little more because I got to go back to verse number 20 where it says, now was the season of the first ripe grapes. Now I have to, I wonder like when I read that scripture, why in the world would the writer of numbers put that in there because it seemingly doesn't fit in the narrative, narrative form of this passage. Why would he stop and say, now was the time of the season of the first right grapes? And the Lord began to give me a revelation through this word that the sampling that you have in your life is only meant to be a season is only meant to test you about it. What you want God to do fully in your life and how you react in the sample season is indicative of whether you cross over into the fullness of God's promise. Are you going to be thankful and give God praise for where you are now getting ready for where God wants to take you?
Can you give God worship now over to things that he's done in your life up until this point so that you can cross over into the fullness of the promised land? And woo, Caleb looked around. He said, listen, I know that y'all want to stick around and just eat manna and quell for the next 40 years, but I don't want nothing to do with that. I want to go get my pomegranates. I want to go get my figs. I want to go get my grapes. I want to live in the house that God designed for me. I want to drink from the well that God said belonged to me. I want to eat from the vineyard that I didn't plant. I want to get everything that God said belong to me. I'm preaching to somebody and telling you that you have no idea the things that God has in store for you where you're at right now. It's only a sample of what God wants to do in your life, but God is looking for a Caleb or a Joshua that says, I'm ready to go. Whatever it takes, I'm ready to go. Whatever it takes, whatever demons I got to fight, whatever enemy I got to come against, I'm ready to go get everything that God says belongs to me. I wish somebody would give God praise in this place right now.
I don't need a whole lot. I just need about two people in this place that can look back over your life and think about where God brought you from, how you used to be lost, but now you are foul how you used to be down, but God picked you up how you used to have no way, but God made a way how people used to talk about you, but now they're talking about you in a good way. Somebody give God praise for what God's done in your life. When I look back over my life and I think things over, I can truly say that I've been Blessed.
I'm moving to a close. But before I do, I got to tell you what happened to the 10 spies that brought an evil report. And God said, Hey, listen, I don't like, I don't mind you being having some questions, but I don't like you bringing a false report about what I'm doing in your life. I don't mind you wondering how we going to defeat them. But what I don't like is the fact that you don't recognize what I'm already doing in your life.
And too many people will work in reverse. Think about how life was like in Egypt and they forget about the fact that yeah, you had garlic and onions, but your backs got stripes on it. Yeah, you had a little bit of fish, but guess what? You had to work yourself to the bone from sun up to sundown. When you think back about what your life was like before you met Jesus and what it looks like now, you can honestly say that it is better today than it was yesterday. And in the economy of God, the Bible says that the latter rain shall be greater than the former ran. The best things in your life have not been behind you. They are in front of you. And I wish somebody would give God praise according to what you believe God's going to do In your life.
I'm thankful for where I am, but I'm giving God praise for where I'm going. I thank God for where I used to be, but I'm praising them according to where I'm heading to. So God says, I'm not just going to let them walk around in 40 years with their negative report. God puts a plague on them. And the Bible says that they died with the plague except for two of them. He says, you two, I'm going to let you survive, but I got to get rid of those that don't believe me. So for 40 years, God's like white, white, white, white. Could you imagine the conflict that these people, the Israelites were in having to bury their grandparents, but also being like there's one less.
It gets us one step closer. And finally God brings them all the way back round 40 years. And now Joshua's in command, and Joshua looks at the people and he says, listen, we've been wandering around for 40 years when God gave us a sample and because we didn't react well to the sample, we had to waste 40 years. But now God's brought us back. But can I tell you Embassy City Church, we don't have to wait for 40 years to see everything that God has for us. Is there anybody that's going to be a Caleb and a Joshua that says, I am ready to go right now. I don't want to waste another second. I don't want to waste another minute. I don't want to waste another Sunday. I'm ready to go get what? Give me everything that God says belong to me. Is there anybody with a promise in your life? Yes. I just need two of y'all. I just need two people. I'm looking for two people that say I'm ready to go all the way in to see what God has in store. Now I'm about to close, but the reason I'm preaching this message, because for the last four weeks I've been thinking back about what God has done over the last six months in the life of our church. And I'm going, all right, God, give me some evidence about what you've done. And did you know in the last six months we have baptized 222 people.
Somebody ought to give God praise for that.
Can I tell you this? This is only a sample. Can I tell you, within the last six months we've had, we had 23 kids get dedicated to the Lord. In the last six months, we've had 184 people go through our membership class. In the last six months, we have get away thousands of dollars in benevolence. In the last six months, we've reached thousands of people around the world. And what God is telling us today is this is just a sample of what I'm getting ready to do in the next six months. Somebody ought to give God praise for what he's done in your life in the first six months and give him praise for what he's going to do in the next six months. Somebody ought turn me up in this mic. I don't think the people are hearing me. I said, somebody give him praise according to what you believe God's going to do in your life in the next six months. No, no, no, no. I may just be preaching in myself, but in my mind, I can see what God's getting ready to do. I can see that God's getting ready to bring more people from out of the world into his house. I can see us baptizing more people. I can see us praying people through the deliverance.
I can see us continue to see people come to know God, grow in faith, and go change the world, come to know God, grow in faith, and go change the world. I just need somebody to elevate your faith and see, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to worship team. Y'all better come out here. I'm looking for some elevated faith in the house. I'm looking for somebody that says, if I got to do it all by myself, I all by myself. If I got to worship God all by myself, I'll worship him all by myself. If I got to give them praise all, but nobody knows what God's done in your life likes you do, and you ought to give God praise for what he's done in your life.
Some of y'all, are you trying to hyper present? Yes. Why? Because if you could see what God has planned for your life, what you've experienced thus far in your life is only a sample of what God's getting ready to do. And if this is only a sample, if this is oh sample, you mean God has brought me all the way here and this was just a taste. And see, okay, I got to give you one more thing. I got to give you one more thing. Now, this was the time, the season of the first right grapes. Now for you Bible scholars, this is the principle of first fruits. Now, oftentimes we think of first fruits and us giving to God a tithe or the first fruit of all of our increase, which represents the sanctifying of the whole, right? But have you ever thought that the opposite is also true, that God will give you the first fruits? That's what the Holy Ghost is. The Holy Ghost is the first fruits of all that God has for us. So when you get the Holy Ghost, you get a sampling of what God wants to do in your life. So whatever I've experienced up at this point is just one portion, just one little sample, just one fruit of everything that God has for me. Oh, this is one.
Oh my God,
Somebody ought take 30 seconds to give right now.
Woo.
I'm telling you, I'm preaching to myself now because if what I'm experiencing to this point, it's just the first fruit sampling. It's just a season. I'm not going to stop in a season. I'm not going to quit in a season. I'm not going to quit on the sample, take my money. I want a full portion of whatever this is. I've already tasted and seed that the Lord is good. And if the taste is this good, give me a table spread before me in the presence of my enemy. Somebody give God Praise.
When I think about Jesus, what is God for me? Somebody out like, yeah, but it's hard out there for the enemies out there. Lemme tell you something. God will empower you to get through. Can I tell you that anytime there's an open door, the devil can't shut it, but he's sure enough we'll try to crowd it.
But God says to somebody here today that what you've experienced thus far is just the sampling. And if you can give God praise for a sample that he'll open up doors that you never thought were possible. If you can give God praise for what he's done right now, he'll open up doors that you never thought were possible in the future. So when I think about Jesus and all, he is done for me. I refuse to hold back my praise and my worship if I not do it all by myself. If I got to believe all by myself,
Jesus. Praise some of y'all. Like, this is wild. I'm not sure what's going on. Could you imagine seeing the 12 spies and Caleb saying, listen, I saw what you saw, but I also know what you know that with God, anything as possible. So I know that there are going to be adversaries, and I know that I'm going to have to go through some stuff and I know that I'm going to face some opposition, but I refuse to go back to where life used to be and what life used to be like I've already tasted and see what God is able to do. And I'm going to give God praise for this sample in believing that God's getting ready to bring more of what he just gave me a taste for. So one more time, give God some praise.
