#2 – WORD OF THE LORD: 2018
I FIRST FRUITS 2018 OFFERING
Proverbs 3:9-10 (Passion) – Glorify God with all your wealth, honouring him with your very best (or first fruits), with every increase that comes to you. Then every dimension of your life will overflow with blessings from an uncontainable source of inner joy.
A) One of our practices here at Toronto City Church is to bring a special offering to the Lord at the beginning of the year – we call it our ‘First Fruits’ Offering. We will be taking this up on Sunday, February 4th, 2018.
1) This offering is an expression of our love for God
2) This offering is an expression of our commitment to God
3) This offering is an expression of our dependence on God
4) This offering is an expression of our faith in God
2 Cor 9:6-8 (Passion) – Here’s my point. A stingy sower will reap a meager harvest, but the one who sows from a generous spirit will reap an abundant harvest. Let giving flow from your heart, not from a sense of religious duty. Let it spring up freely from the joy of giving – all because God loves hilarious generosity! Yes God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything – every moment in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do.
B) I want to encourage and call every member of the TCC Family to seek God regarding sowing into this First Fruits Offering and to step out into radical obedience to the Lord.
II THE WORD OF THE LORD FOR 2018
A) Personal
John 15:1-4 (Passion) – “I am a true sprouting vine, and the farmer who tends the vine is my Father. 2 He cares for the branches connected to me by lifting and propping up the fruitless branches and pruning every fruitful branch to yield a greater harvest. 3 The words I have spoken over you have already cleansed you. 4 So you must remain in life-union with me, d for I remain in life-union with you. For as a branch severed from the vine will not bear fruit, so your life will be fruitless unless you live your life intimately joined to mine.
1) Dig deep in your relationship with Jesus.
2) Be open to the pruning of the Lord in your life.
3) Take daily time to pray in spirit
4) Uncommon wisdom
1 Peter 3:1-2, 7 (Passion) – And now let me speak to the wives. Be devoted to your own husbands, so that even if some of them do not obey the Word of God, your kind conduct may win them over without you saying a thing. 2 For when they observe your pure, godly life before God, it will impact them deeply… Husbands, you in turn must treat your wives with tenderness, viewing them as feminine partners who deserve to be honored, for they are co-heirs with you of the “divine grace of life,” so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
5) Focus on strengthening your marriage this year
6) If you have been believing for marriage I believe this is the year for an open door for many – but you have to listen to the Holy Spirit.
7) Discern your season – if you are still in a season of singleness embrace it because God has so much for you!
Deut 6:4-9 (NIV) – 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
8) Focus on investing spiritually in your children. Be strategic. Be intentional.
9) Remember that you impart who you are not what you know to your children.
10)We will see the early signs of a great move of God in our children this year if we will pray for it and contend for it.
1 Cor 16:9 (NIV) – because a great door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many who oppose me.
11)This is a year for unusual favour to be released and walked in.
2 Cor 7:1 (Passion) – Beloved ones, with promises like these, and because of our deepest respect and worship of God, we must remove everything from our lives a that contaminates body and spirit, and continue to complete the development of holiness within us.
12)Make sure to deal swiftly with all sin in your life. Repent. Walk in holiness.
13)Guard against the spirit of offense
Ecc 11:1-2 (NIV) – Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return. 2 Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
14)This is a year for manifestation of provision
15)You need to make sure that your house is in order
16)Streams of Income
Ecc 11:4 (NLT) – Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.
17)There are things you need to step out on this year. Don’t wait for everything to be perfect. Stop waiting for perfect weather and watching the clouds. Plant!
B) Corporate
Acts 6:1-7 (Passion) – During those days the number of Jesus’ followers kept multiplying greatly. But a complaint was brought against those who spoke Aramaic by the Greek-speaking Jews, who felt their widows were being overlooked during the daily distribution of food. 2 The twelve apostles called a meeting of all the believers and told them, “It is not advantageous for us to be pulled away from the word of God to wait on tables. 3 We want you to carefully select from among yourselves seven godly men. Make sure they are honorable, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and we will give them the responsibility of this crucial ministry of serving. 4 That will enable us to give our full attention to prayer and preaching the word of God.” 5 Everyone in the church loved this idea. So they chose seven men. One of them was Stephen, who was known as a man full of faith and overflowing with the Holy Spirit. Along with him they chose Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas from Antioch, who had converted to Judaism. 6 All seven stood before the apostles, who laid their hands on them and prayed for them, commissioning them to this ministry. 7 God’s word reigned supreme and kept spreading. The number of Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem quickly grew and increased by the day. Even a great number of Jewish priests
1) We need to prepare for growth
2) We need to be prepared for the challenges of growth
3) We need to put a high priority on covenant relationships
4) We need to practice Matt 18 Principle of conflict resolution
5) We MUST raise the prayer levels in a church
6) We MUST dig deeper in the Word of God and discipleship
7) There is a coming a multiplication of leadership
8) This is a year to release our faith for souls
9) This is a year for the prodigals to come home
1 Cor 2:4-5 (NIV) – My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power
10)We need to content for a greater moving of the Holy Spirit in our midst
Isaiah 54:2 (NIV) – “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.
11)We need to create more room for the growth that God is bringing
12)We are going to be adding a second service
13)We need to step up in a greater way to serve
14)We need to begin to really pray and release our faith for a supernatural pay down of our mortgage and Phase 3 being built
C) City & Nation
1 Timothy 2:1-4 (Passion) – Most of all, I’m writing to encourage you to pray with gratitude to God. Pray for all men with all forms of prayers and requests as you intercede with intense passion. 2 And pray for every political leader a and representative, so that we would be able to live tranquil, undisturbed lives, as we worship the awe-inspiring God with pure hearts. 3 It is pleasing to our Savior-God to pray for them. 4 He longs for everyone to embrace his life and return to the full knowledge of the truth.
1) We need to come to a greater place of awareness and prayer for our City and Nation.
2) We need to pray for our Prime Minister and our leadership – there is much that can be shifted through prayer
3) We need to pray for religious freedom – the enemy is sowing seeds of strategy to restrict religious freedom
4) We need to pray into the provincial elections this coming year… they enemy’s strategy has been to push things on a provincial level
5) We need to pray for righteous people to be established in government – there are a number of up and coming believers in our nation
6) We need to continue to and increase our prayer for our city and nation – particularly for protection
7) We need to pray for the move of God in our city and nation… there are small fires that are starting… this is a year for the fires to increase and grow.
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