Starting Points

New Hope Farrington
Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
09.26.09

He began the message with, "Did you notice how the bible is full of opposites?"

To receive, you must give.
To win, you must surrender.
When you are weak, He is s t r o n g .

He explained how he was was coming down with a sickness, but he wanted to keep on going and try to be strong through it... telling God, don't worry I'm going to get through it, and do everything that still must be done. It was revealed to him why God didn't seem strong in his life. If we want God to be strong in our lives, then we must understand that sometimes we are weak. We don't notice His strength when we think we are strong enough on our own.

He then began to talk about his grand-daughter and how he asked her to put her toys away over and over. She continued to play with her toys as if she hadn't heard him. Finally he told her that if she put away her toys, she would get ice cream! She suddenly jumped up at the sound of ice cream and said that she'd put her toys away. He then said to her, "Aha! I lied! You don't get ice cream because now I know that you can hear me!"

p o i n t : The reason I don't hear, is because I don't want to obey. WHY did God c h o o s e Abraham to be the founding father of our faith? Abraham fashioned his behavior to fit HIS voice. Many times, we fashion His voice to fit our behavior.

GENESIS 22:3
"So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him."

p o i n t : Abraham rose e a r l y to obey the voice of God. He did not wait.

LEARNING HOW TO HEAR GOD EARLY DETERMINES

THE ABILITY TO SEE THE DIRECTION OF GOD.

"Faith is living in advance what you'll only understand one day in reverse."

PSALM 119:18
"Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Thy law."

INCREASES YOUR CAPACITY FOR TRUTH.

PROVERBS 21:28
"A false witness will perish, but the man who listens to the truth will speak forever."

PSALM 15:1-2
"Oh Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may abide on Your holy hill? He who walks with intergrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart."

p o i n t : STOP postponing truth. If you don't recognize it early on, you don't see it. It doesn't matter if you're religious or a Christian... if you don't see truth early on, you don't see it at all.

Pastor Wayne explained how him and his wife always flip the bed mattress every once in awhile to balance the springs. One day the mattress rubbed against the ceiling and all the popcorn coating fell from that one spot. He kept on saying that it looked really ugly, and soon he would fix it. He kept postponing the job one day at a time, then it became weeks, then months. Finally he stop noticing the bald spot on the ceiling. When they sold their home is when he noticed it again, and knew he should have fixed it early on instead of wait until the truth had gone unnoticed.

IT DETERMINES THE STRENGTH OF YOUR MIND.

COLOSSIANS 3:2 & 1 CORINTHIANS 2:16
"Set your mind on things above and not on the things that are on earth."

HEBREWS 11:15
"And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return."

JEREMIAH 2:18
"But now what are you doing on the road to Egypt? To drink the waters of the Nile?"

p o i n t : The enemy can make you imagine sin as acceptable. Like in Genesis chapter 3, where Eve is tempted by the apple because the serpent tells her she can be like God and be in control of what is right and wrong. The enemy knows how much we are worth to God. If we start considering things, there will be a price, and the enemy will match it.

THE SHELF LIFE OF YOUR INFLUENCE.

JOHN 15:16
"You have not chosen Me but I have chosen you, and appointed you, that you should bear fruit and that your fruit should remain."

GENESIS 22:6
"And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked together."

r e c a p : God speaks to Abraham and tells him that he must sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham obediently listens and begins to prepare the altar. When he is about to kill Isaac, God stops him and Abraham's heart is suddenly changed. God sees that Abraham was going to give up his son, to let go of what he cherished most in his life... what he was most attached to, to listen to the voice of God.

p o i n t : God didn't want Abraham's son Isaac, He wanted Abraham's heart. Sometimes we are attached to things in this life more than we are to God. God wants us to stop and give everything up to him, our possessions and everything we have. To be able to let it go when He asks for it.

This point speaks to me a lot because I know the sacrifices I've had to make in my life, many times not wanting to risk everything I love and had. I realized that he prepared me for the big things, when I gave up the simplest pleasures like eating meat, or getting rid of all my magazines that I collected, or when I threw away a journal that I kept in high school worth sentimental value. When the big sacrifices needed to be made, I already knew that God would bless me. If He blessed me in the little things, then He would surely bless me in the greater things that I would give up to Him. My God always gives more back, than what I give up. I've gained a thousand friends, when I lost the only friend I ever wanted to keep.

Shalom !
Love, jenavie.