Participants: Paul Rayne
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000346
|
00:31 Welcome to Faith Chapel. Thank you for tuning
00:34 into 3ABN. My name is Paul Rayne from Restoration 00:38 International. And I have a message today 00:41 that I think you're gonna enjoy it. 00:42 It's called Planning to prosper. 00:44 You wanna prosper? Let's bow our heads 00:47 and speak to the Lord before we open his word. 00:49 Father in heaven, I thank you for being here today 00:54 and I pray that as we spend some time together 00:57 in our word, that we will glean some principles 01:00 that will help us to prosper in this world below, 01:04 in Jesus name we pray, Amen. You know, 01:09 God has planted in everybody's heart a desire 01:12 to prosper. A lot of people get that mixed up. 01:17 And they turn it into ambition or money making 01:20 or wanting to be famous. But, you know that desire 01:25 to prosper that God has somehow kept alive in 01:29 even the most carnal heart. That desire to prosper 01:33 is a spiritual desire. Now, like I said it gets mixed 01:38 up with all kinds of other things but if you could 01:40 take the rubbish off, underneath there 01:44 is a desire. Now how, how do we cooperate with 01:50 God's plan? Let me open with a scripture first of all 01:52 to prove to you that God's desire is for you 01:56 and I to prosper. Turn with me to 3 John chapter 02:02 1 and verse 2, well 3 John 2 as some would say. 02:05 3 John 2 says, Beloved, I wish above all things 02:12 that thou mayest prosper and be in health, 02:15 even as thy soul prospereth. 02:21 There it is right from The Word of God. 02:23 Beloved, isn't it a nice way that God talks to us? 02:26 That's you, that's you dear viewer, Beloved, 02:28 I wish above all things that thou may prosper 02:33 that you, may prosper and be healthy. Well, 02:35 are you a little skeptical. Do you find yourself 02:40 feeling a little skeptical that God could want that 02:43 for you? Turn with me to another scripture. 02:46 This is Jeremiah 29 and verse 11. I'm reading here 02:50 from the New King James. For I know the plans 02:53 that I have for you, declares the Lord, 02:55 "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, 03:00 plans to give you a hope and a future." 03:03 Isn't that amazing? God is actually planning for our 03:08 prosperity. Well, you know God can do all the 03:12 planning he likes but if we want true prosperity 03:18 there has to be some cooperation. 03:21 This human being has to cooperate with this God 03:24 so that we can prosper. The one I wanna talk 03:28 to us today about is three ways that we can prosper. 03:34 I'm gonna be sharing largely from my own experience 03:37 not that I' m very prosperous man. 03:40 I don't have a lot of money in the bank and my 03:45 clothes are just, every day clothes so, 03:47 it's not the material type of prosper I'm talking about 03:52 it's spiritual prosperity. I'm gonna break this 03:56 message down into three parts. Really, 03:59 what I wanna talk about is morning time with God. 04:03 That's what it's all gonna center on. 04:05 The first part of that morning time is, 04:07 I want to look at our prayer time. I wanna take a 04:10 serious look at our prayer time. A lot of us, 04:13 a lot of you viewers and a lot of other people in 04:16 Christian world today are playing with prayer time. 04:22 Playing with prayer time. We're not half as serious 04:25 as God intends us to be. Then, I want us to look 04:28 at prayerful planning, planning? Yes, 04:33 I'm gonna talk about planning for the day ahead. 04:36 And then also I want us to look at thoughtful 04:41 study of God's word. Are you ready for such 04:45 a study? Well, let me ask you a question before 04:47 we go any further. It may seen a little out of the blue 04:51 but I want to ask you a question. Children, 04:53 if there's any children watching 3ABN today. 04:55 You can answer out loud okay, at home or wherever 04:59 you are. I want you how many planet earths this 05:04 big world that we live in? How many planet earths 05:07 do you think you could fit inside the Sun? 05:09 You know you could take the Sun that shines in 05:12 the sky and you could take all the inside of it out, 05:15 you know kind of take the apple out and just leave 05:17 the skin. How many planet earth could you take 05:21 and put inside that Sun? Do you think you get 05:24 3 in there? Do you think you get 5 in there? 05:27 Do you thing you get a 100 planet earths inside 05:31 the Sun? Well, course you could never do that, 05:35 but the mathematicians, that's the people who work 05:37 with all those figures they have worked out 05:39 that we could get 1 million planet earth inside the Sun. 05:46 Isn't that an amazing thought? Here is another 05:48 fact about the Sun. The Sun emits more energy 05:53 in one second. There goes another one and another 05:57 one, and another one, we just got 3 seconds. 06:01 The sun emits more energy in one second than planet 06:05 earth has consumed in it's entire history. 06:09 Doesn't that blow your mind? That is an enormous 06:12 planet, if we can call the Sun a planet that is an 06:15 enormous mass out there in the heavens, 06:18 how did it get there? Do you know how the Sun 06:21 got there? Psalm 33 in verse 9, "For He spoke, 06:26 and it was done; He commanded, 06:29 and it stood fast." That's how that planet got there. 06:35 Wow what a thought, that is The God we pray to. 06:40 He speaks words into existence. 06:44 You know follow me with another scripture. 06:47 This is Psalm 95 and verse 6 it says, "Oh come, 06:53 let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel 06:57 before the Lord our Maker." When we go before 07:02 God in personal private prayer we are praying 07:08 to the very God, the very Creator God who speaks 07:12 words into existence, isn't that amazing? 07:17 As a sign of reverence to God we should in our knees. 07:22 No, I'm not telling you that you have to be on knees 07:25 every time you pray. You can pray as you drive 07:27 your car, you can pray as you walk in the street, 07:31 you can pray anytime. I'm in habit in the ministry 07:35 world that I'm in, of praying while I'm on phone talking 07:39 to somebody else, but you know when I come to God 07:42 in my personal morning private time with him, 07:47 I kneel before God, for I kneel before God because 07:51 he is my maker. I'm the sinner in need of salvation, 07:56 and wisdom and help from the God of the universe. 07:59 And, as a sign of respect I kneel before the Lord. 08:04 You know do we need his help? Oh, we need his help. 08:08 Then recognize that He is all powerful and we are the 08:14 weak ones. You know what do we need to pray about? 08:19 When we are on our knees before God, 08:21 there in our morning time. We're talking about 08:23 spiritual prosperity. Friends you will never prosper. 08:29 Not in a spiritual sense, maybe in a materialistic 08:32 or a wordily sense you will prosper without prayer 08:36 possibly, but in the spiritual world, prayer is 08:39 indispensable. Prayer in the opening of the heart 08:42 to God, talking to him like he is a friend. 08:47 He is also the Creator. Never forget that. 08:49 So, what should we pray? You know there is a little 08:52 book, it's called "Steps to Christ." 08:54 You can write into 3ABN anytime I'm quite sure 08:58 and get a copy of Steps to Christ. This is what it says 09:01 on page 100. It says, Keep your wants, now that, 09:07 this is an old book, so that word wants it's an old 09:10 fashion word for needs. Keep your wants, 09:12 your joys, your sorrows, your cares, 09:15 and your fears before God. You cannot burden Him; 09:19 you cannot weary Him. Isn't that a good news? 09:23 That no matter what your troubles are in your prayer 09:28 time, once you are on your knees you cannot wear 09:30 out God patience, you cannot bring too many things 09:34 to him. Now, I'm not encouraging you to have 09:36 self centered prayers. But, here I'm asking you when 09:41 you're on your knees pour out your needs 09:44 and your wants, your joys to God. 09:46 He loves to hear you talk about those things 09:48 and he is there to help. Another scripture, 09:50 another scripture is Philippians 4 and verse 6. 09:55 Turn with me there. It says, be anxious for nothing, 09:58 but in everything by prayer and supplication with 10:02 thanksgiving, let your requests, 10:05 Now here we have something else now, 10:07 let your requests be made known to God; 10:11 we can make requests to God. 10:16 So, often we ask small things from God and we get 10:19 small answers. I encourage you dear viewers, 10:22 ask big things of God. You know, you're watching 10:25 a TV station here because the founder asked big things 10:30 of God and that is the only reason you're watching 10:33 this station today. You can ask big things of God 10:36 and He has big answers to give you, 10:38 but when you ask for little things, you only get little 10:41 things. You know so often we carry what I called 10:45 background burdens. We're carrying around a bag 10:48 of troubles and if we prayed about those things. 10:51 I'll tell you how intimate I wanna get at this point. 10:56 Often time these background burdens are almost 10:58 unrecognized to ourselves and we carry them around 11:01 a bit like a weight on our shoulder, 11:03 but oh if we could get that weight off, 11:06 life would be so much more joyful. You know, 11:09 one day, I was working at my desk, working away 11:11 on the computer and I recognize that part 11:16 of my tooth had come off. How? That was a burden, 11:21 instant burden for me? But, I tried to put it away, 11:23 put it away. You know, that was no worries. 11:26 You know I haven't been to the dentist for a while. 11:28 It will probably be okay and you know sorry dentist, 11:31 if there was any dentist that's watching, 11:32 you're probably cringing but that's fine I want to share 11:35 with you what happens in real life. 11:37 We have a burden. Now, I've got a burden, 11:39 it's about my bad tooth. But, I don't want to think 11:41 about it. I don't wanna go to the dentist. 11:44 So, I push it behind me and I push it behind me. 11:47 But, you know what happened, this tooth got worse 11:49 and worse. This background burden became a 11:52 foreground burden. And I realized I needed to get 11:55 it taken care of. You know, God can take care of all 11:59 our burdens. So, I prayed to God. 12:01 I prayed to God about my tooth. Lord, 12:06 I have to admit to you God that I'm little scared about 12:09 calling the dentist. You scared to go to the dentist? 12:13 That's the burden that you've being carrying. 12:15 So, it was a burden that I was carrying so I said Lord, 12:18 give me deliverance from this. I just had the gentle 12:22 impression, Paul you need to call the dentist, 12:24 you need to go and get it taken care off. So, I went, 12:27 I went down to the dentist. Now is God able to take care 12:31 of us? It was friend of mine, who's a dentist who lives 12:34 about an hour of our home and I was driving down there. 12:37 What you think my heart was doing on the way down? 12:40 Do you think it was pounding? It wasn't. 12:44 It was perfectly at rest. Because I prayed about 12:46 this and God was giving me the strength to go to 12:50 the dentist. It might not be the dentist in your situation 12:52 but what I'm trying to say is God can take care 12:56 of your background burdens if you'll be earnest in your 12:59 prayers. I got there, I sat in his chair and then 13:02 he's coming at me with a drill. It didn't bother me. 13:07 I can honestly say, and I can say this is no exaggeration, 13:11 I can say and I said this to the dentist: 13:13 I enjoyed it. You can enjoy going to the dentist. 13:17 You can enjoy anything if you're in communication 13:19 and connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. 13:22 Don't carry those background burdens around, 13:25 take your wants, take your joys, take your sorrows 13:28 to Jesus Christ. Steps to Christ, 13:32 that little book again, page 100 this time it says: 13:35 Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind. 13:39 Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too 13:44 small for Him to notice. In prayer also, 13:49 I like to have a prayer list. I go through, 13:53 I have different people on my prayer list, 13:54 I have different topics on my prayer list. 13:57 You know we get organized with everything else. 13:59 We make shopping lists. Why can't we make a 14:01 prayer list? What's more important prayer 14:02 or shopping? Well you make a shopping list because 14:06 you don't forget anything. But, in prayer 14:09 let's get serious in our prayer brothers and sisters; 14:13 let's make our prayer life come alive. 14:15 Prayer about your concerns, pray about your worries. 14:22 Once you've prayed, the last part of my prayer 14:26 is I get up, I say: Lord, I want You to interrupt me 14:30 today as I go about my day Lord, I give you 14:34 permission now, not that he really needs the position, 14:38 the permission, but I say Lord, please, interrupt me 14:41 today as I'm going about my business I want you 14:43 to call my attention and it's happened I'll be behalf 14:47 through the day, in situation that come up I say Lord, 14:51 I hear you, what you want me to do? 14:54 That's taking prayer time out of the closet and out 14:57 it into the day. I wanna carry on today message 15:01 talking about prayer for planning. Know I wanna switch 15:06 gear slightly, planning, what am I talking with planning? 15:09 So, often, we're not thinking about the actual day ahead. 15:15 As part of my prayer time, I will pull out 15:18 my PDA or for you it might be a pen and paper 15:21 whatever it is, a laptop, however you keep notes, 15:24 personal notes and I write on my PDA the things 15:28 that have to be done that day. 15:30 And I go through this with the Lord. This isn't just me, 15:33 so I'm saying Lord, what do you want me to do today? 15:36 Well I remember, you said you would write such 15:38 and such, you should do that, okay I'll done that today 15:41 and then what else? Write it on the list. Oh, 15:46 boy I nearly forgot that. I'd better get done that today. 15:49 You want me to do that? Put it on the list. 15:52 I make a list with the Lord. This is important part 15:56 I make a list of what needs to be done that day 15:58 with the Lord and then when I leave my prayer 16:03 time I go out into the day with some direction, 16:07 not my direction but the Lord's direction. 16:10 What is this message titled? Planning to prosper. 16:15 If you go to the Lord every single day. 16:18 And you spend some prayer time with him. 16:20 And then you make a plan for the day ahead with him. 16:23 You are planning to prosper just one day at the time 16:26 and if you do it the next day and the next day, 16:29 then that whole week would be under God's control. 16:32 And if you do it for a month that whole month 16:35 would've been under God's control. What a joy to think 16:39 that we can be in cooperation with God movement 16:43 by movement and day by day. Plan your work with God 16:50 and then work your plan with God. Don't make your 16:55 own plans and don't do your own thing. 16:57 It's all about Jesus Christ and it's all about earths 17:01 cooperating with him in the things that we have to do. 17:05 You know I made a list of things that needed to be 17:07 done one day. And I've got that into my office little 17:09 flashing light tells me I've got voice mail. 17:12 I pick up the phone, check the voice mail, 17:14 I've got two calls to turn before I get into my day 17:17 first call took an hour and a half. 17:21 As a said we work with Restoration International up 17:23 there in Montana and we've a lot of people calling 17:25 to the ministry office. I finish with that call just 17:29 as I hung up, the phone rung. 17:30 I was there for another half an hour. 17:33 A big chunk in my morning had gone. 17:36 Then a lady called up, called my wife and said, 17:39 we are in a terrible situation in our marriage, 17:41 is there any chance we can come down your place 17:43 and talk things over? They came around. 17:46 It's now afternoon and I've got nothing done 17:49 that was on my list but it didn't bother me at all. 17:53 Should I tell you why? Because of this, 17:55 it says in Steps to Christ that little book, 17:58 you've got to write in or call in, just ask for Steps 18:02 to Christ, it's only about 100 pages. 18:04 Here's page 70: "Each morning consecrate yourself 18:08 to God for the day. Surrender all your plans to Him, 18:14 to be carried out or given up as His providence 18:17 shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving 18:21 your life into the hands of God, 18:24 and thus your life will be molded more and more after 18:28 the life of Christ." That is spiritual prosperity. 18:33 But, let me ask a question. It said that you have 18:35 to surrender all your plans to Jesus. 18:37 That's what I did. That's why it didn't worried me 18:39 when I had phone calls and people who's speak 18:41 to me because I surrender all my earthly plans 18:45 even thought I made them with the Lord. 18:47 I surrender them all to the Lord to be carried out 18:50 or giving them up as his providence shall indicate. 18:57 If we haven't got any plans, we can't surrender them. 19:00 Make a plan for your day after you've had prayer 19:03 time with God. I do, I sit at home I pull the leaver 19:07 on my lazy boy chair, I sit there and I say: 19:10 Lord, we've got to make a plan for today. 19:13 Nothing I enjoy more. I wanna move on now. 19:17 Oh, just a quick point, quick point here I don't wanna 19:20 miss this, just a bit of advice. If you're making 19:23 a list of things to do, put the things you enjoy 19:27 the most at the end of the list. Why would I say that? 19:31 Can you figure it out? If you put the things you enjoy 19:34 the most at the beginning of the list, 19:37 you're going to spend a lot of time doing those 19:39 'cause you enjoy it. I've made it a habit of putting 19:42 the things that are most agreeable to my nature. 19:44 Putting them of the end of the list. 19:46 Then, I'm more motivated to work through those 19:49 things and getting to things that naturally are more 19:52 pleasing. Just a little bit of humored advice 19:54 for you there. Let's move on, Thoughtful Study, 19:57 the third part of our morning time with the Lord. 20:00 We've talk about prayer time, being serious in our 20:02 prayers, getting down on our knees and then we 20:06 looked at the need for planning. 20:10 And now I wanna take a look at Thoughtful Study. 20:13 You could not, you should not and you must not go 20:17 into a day if you're planning to prosper on this earth, 20:21 you must not go into the day without having spent 20:24 a little time or even better, a lot of time in the 20:29 Holy word of God. You know many of us, 20:32 when we study scripture, we just surface read. 20:38 We sit there and we read and we say I've read 20:41 it before. Trying to find something new to read. 20:46 We have lost our focus. You know how, 20:48 the most effective way for studying I have found 20:51 is the verse by verse method. 20:54 You take one verse just one verse and you read 20:59 it and you read it again and you might wanna read it 21:02 in several versions but you keep read it and then 21:05 you mediated upon it. You just sit there and say: 21:07 Lord, what is this saying to me? 21:09 You know I was doing that not a long ago 21:11 with Luke 22:42, you don't need to look at it but 21:14 it says that: Father, if thou be willing, 21:18 remove this cup from me. Jesus said that in the Garden 21:21 of Gethsemane remember? If thou be willing 21:23 remove this cup from me. 21:24 I've read that many times before but this one morning 21:27 I was sitting there reading it and I was thinking: 21:31 Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. 21:36 What was that telling me? That was telling me 21:39 that Jesus, the perfect one, in this situation 21:45 was struggling to do the will of God. 21:49 He said if it's possible God, remove this cup from me. 21:54 But, what's the rest of the verse? You know the rest 21:56 of the verse? Nevertheless not my will, 22:04 but Thine be done. Oh! That is the secret, dear friends, 22:07 that is the secret to spiritual prosperity. 22:11 Not my will, but thy will be done. Every moment in 22:14 every day in every decision that you have to make 22:18 whether it be small or whether it be large, 22:22 whether you have a whole corporate organization 22:24 to organize or whether you just have a future which 22:28 would have to take care of. Every single decision, 22:33 your motto and my motto should be nevertheless, 22:36 not my will but Thine be done. And I went through 22:41 that day after I studied that one verse for one hour 22:44 in the morning. I could memorize the verse from 22:47 several translations. I have much more of an 22:50 understanding what it was saying to me and most 22:53 blessed I was able to take that verse with me that day. 22:58 What a day I had with the Lord, Not my will but 23:02 Thine be done, in every situation. 23:04 That's the verse by verse method. 23:07 We're talking a little about Jesus there in Gethsemane. 23:14 I just want us to take a quick look at Jesus life. 23:17 Did Jesus do any of this stuff that we've been 23:20 talking about? Praying to his Father, planning his day, 23:25 spending time in the Old Testament scriptures? 23:29 Yes, he did. Turn with me. We can see it very clearly 23:32 in Mark 1:35. It says there, and in the morning, 23:36 rising up a great while before day, 23:40 He went out and departed into a solitary place, 23:44 and there he prayed. Jesus got out of his bed 23:51 and he went out into a quiet place so he could 23:53 commune with his Father and there he prayed. 23:57 And there he studied. And there, 23:59 I believe Jesus thought about the day ahead. 24:03 Father, do you want me to move from this area 24:05 now and move on? No, my son, you can stay here 24:10 a few more days. It wasn't the Son doing the work 24:14 it was the Father. And Jesus was in communication 24:17 with his Father. And oh that is my desire, 24:21 that is the desire of this ministry 3ABN in conjunction 24:25 with Restoration International, our desire 24:27 for you is to be connected to Jesus Christ 100% of 24:33 the time, is that possible? Well this man hasn't 24:37 experience that, but I tell you I've gone through 24:40 days, I've gone through afternoons where every 24:41 thought was in subjection to Jesus Christ. 24:45 Oh, there's nothing like it. I'm gonna seek for that 24:48 experience with all my heart, with all my soul 24:52 that it may be mine. Another scripture: 24:55 John 8 verse 2 it says now. And early in the morning 24:59 he came into the temple, and all the people came 25:02 to him; and he sat down, and he taught them. 25:06 You know that word early has something to do 25:09 with very early. If you look it up in your margin 25:14 or if you look up into concordance that word 25:16 that's translated now early in the morning 25:19 that is sunrise. Let me ask you a question. 25:23 If Jesus was walking the earth today, 25:26 living his ministry the way he lived it. 25:29 He would've been up early, preaching at the church 25:32 just like he was back then? Would you be there? 25:36 Or you would be snoozing? Would you be like 25:38 the disciples in Gethsemane, slumbering? You know, 25:44 Jesus was up early. Jesus followers were up early. 25:48 And I'm gonna challenge you, get up early. 25:52 How? But you don't understand you might say. 25:56 It's impossible for me to get up early because; 25:58 I'm just not a morning person. 26:01 I'm not a morning person and I get up early 26:02 because God has change me and God can change you. 26:06 Amen? The reason that you cannot get up early, 26:09 and it took me 30 years to figure out the reason 26:13 I couldn't get up early, is because I didn't go to 26:15 bed early. I challenge you the evening and 26:18 morning of the first day you go to bed early 26:21 and you will be able to get up early. 26:22 Maybe not in the first couple of days but once 26:24 your body gets the backlog out, 26:26 you'll be able to get up early and have some 26:28 time with the Lord. The devil has a game plan 26:31 though. I wouldn't dare leave you without letting 26:34 you know the devil's got a game plan. 26:35 He wants you late nights and he gives you lots to do. 26:41 You know, try to crumb too much work into one day, 26:43 you may get to bed in time but your whole body 26:45 is shot. Don't push and rush every last second 26:49 of your day, stay connected with Jesus Christ, 26:52 work out your plan, don't put too much into 26:55 the day and then you'll be able to get to bed on time, 26:58 then you're be able to get some rest, 26:59 then you'll be able to get up and then you'll be 27:01 able to have a morning time that will make 27:04 you prosper spiritually. You know, don't make it 27:08 a habit of staying up late. Let's close with a word 27:12 of prayer. Father in heaven, Oh, I'm so grateful 27:15 that you plan for us to prosper. 27:18 We've read it from your word. And Father, 27:20 I pledge myself and I pray that the viewers today 27:23 will pledge themselves to cooperate with you 27:26 in planning to prosper. It's in Jesus name we pray, 27:31 Amen. It's been good talking with you today. 27:36 My only desire is that this message doesn't fall 27:39 on empty ears but that you will take it to heart 27:43 and then you will say Lord, I give my whole life to 27:47 you and I want to prosper and I'm willing 27:49 to do anything. God will richly bless you. 27:52 Be sure you let us know how it goes. God bless. |
Revised 2014-12-17