Transcript for:
Restoring Good Fortune Through Jesus

God has a good word for you this year. Today, I want to share with you how you can restore what you have lost in the area of your good fortune. The name Eutychus is fortunate or prosperous. There's a meaning to it. It applies to your life, how to restore the kind of success that God wants you to have. This year, live life 24 hours a day. Sunday is a special day ordained by the Lord. It's a day where He reveals the finished work. and his person. No wonder the Bible says, everything that's a curse will become a blessing. It's a picture of being under grace. A new order has come. I said a new order has come. Hi, this is Joseph Prince. I want to warmly welcome you to this week's Gospel Partner episode. If you are new here, my team and I would love to connect with you and send you weekly encouragements, pastoral insights, and exclusive content when you sign up for our Gospel Partner newsletter. I will also be sending you this special gift, so please look out for it in your email inbox. I pray that as you listen to today's sermon, you experience a fresh and personal touch from our Lord Jesus. God bless you. Praise God. Are you ready to present your three prayer requests to the Lord later today? Praise the Lord. But before that, we have some testimonies, a couple of testimonies to share with you. And one of the testimonies, in fact, has to do with the three prayer requests. In fact, the first one. And it's a sister from Singapore. And she writes that, I work in the IT or information technology industry. In June 2022, I was made redundant. Nowadays, you know, when they retrench you or they, you know, they... They let you go, they say you're redundant. Not a very nice word to use on people, you know. I was made redundant because the company wasn't doing well. By God's grace, I landed another job a month later. But before the year ended, I was let go again as my role was outsourced. Now they outsource, so you're redundant. What a double whammy to be laid off twice in such a short time. So my 2022 didn't end so well. But I saw the opportunity to put my job expectations down as one of my three prayer requests for 2023, which is to get a position where I can be a blessing. Instead of letting grudges and condemnation consume me, I turned to the Lord for His direction. Praise the Lord for that. God led me to take my job search restfully and showed me that it was a good opportunity for me to explore other areas like cyber security. My church friends also stood in faith with me and prayed for my job situation. In March 2023, I was approached by a headhunter for a position in a multinational corporation, MNC. I went for the interview and prayed for wisdom, favour and good success. So before you go for an interview, before you sit for your examination, pray for wisdom, favour and good success. I followed my dad's advice on looking up the company. That's good advice as well from the father. I also felt the Lord tell me to enjoy myself at the interview. How many of you enjoy yourselves at the interview? So how do you think you can contribute to a company? Well, with a smile on your face and look excited. Throughout the interview, I felt calm and answered the questions honestly and truthfully. At the end of it, I was shortlisted for the second interview. At the second interview, I felt a peace that surpassed all understanding and later I was informed that the company would be offering me a contract role. I believe this is a huge open door for me. Interestingly, the dance item just now about open door. My past few jobs were in small and mid-sized enterprises and I've been praying for bigger opportunities. Furthermore, this role also gives me time to learn how to fit into a big corporation. Eventually, I was given an offer which was 30% higher than what I expected and 65% more than my last drawn salary. I was also given 18 days of annual leave and a mobile allowance. Wow. What about the mobile phone? Besides that, I would also be covered by company insurance. I barely contained myself when I heard the news. I had never, capital N-E-V-E-R, I had never gotten such a big offer before. And do you know how Kairos the call was? And she said, do you know how Kairos the call was? It was during my birthday months, right before all the birthday celebrations. It was my best birthday gift ever. No words can express my gratitude and happiness on receiving this blessing. Thank you, Jesus. Praise the Lord for this beautiful testimony on God answering her prayer. Next testimony comes to us from a sister who's Korean. She says, I'm a Korean who has been attending New Creation Church since 2017. There's a friend of mine whom I have kept in touch with since high school. Though we don't send messages to each other often, we would still exchange birthday greetings and we follow each other on a social media platform. From her pictures, I could tell that she travels a lot with her mum and it's evident that she cares deeply for her. Not long ago, I messaged her complimenting her resemblance to her mum and she immediately replied, saying that her mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer's two years ago and that is why she and her family have been making efforts to spend quality time with her. I was shocked when I heard this and I asked if I could share with her about the Holy Communion since she's a Christian. I sent her the prayer that our church uses to pray during the Holy Communion and a short video of Pastor Prince's message about the Lord's Supper. Thank God for friends like that. I also encouraged her to partake of the Holy Communion with her mom as often as she could. She then replied saying that she prayed to God the night before and she believes that my message was an answer from Him. A few weeks later, she messaged me saying that a miracle had happened. That was when I remembered that she was supposed to take her mom to the hospital to see if she could be given a newly invented shot for her condition. She went on to share with me that during the examination, her mom showed no trace of Alzheimer's and eventually the doctor declared her Alzheimer's free. Hallelujah! Let's give Jesus a praise. And she goes on to add that her friend says that she kept telling me that she couldn't believe it and thanked me for sharing the Bible truth with her and asked me to share her story. And that's what she did. I'm amazed and thankful for this miracle. All glory and praise to the Lord Jesus. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, church, for these wonderful testimonies. And right now, let's welcome Pastor Prince. One of the things that you will hear us say often, if you have not heard already, is that we talk about the rhema word. In the Greek, there is logos, which is the general word. It's more of a general word, a discourse, a teaching, a body of doctrine that is delivered in the form of logos. Amen, logos. Okay? Like for example, you say eulogy. In English, you say eulogy. Eulogy is actually in the New Testament, which is taken from Greek, not English. Everywhere you see blessing. Okay, it is not everywhere. Some of them is makarios, but many of them, they are from the word eulogy. Blessed with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. Eulogia. Eulogy, where you get eulogy. But unfortunately, the world today, when they talk about eulogy, it's like going to a funeral. All right, you come up there and say a few good words. So, eu is good. In Greek, eu is the word good. Logi or from Logos, good word. You see that? So blessing means good word. So God has a good word for you this year. That's how He blesses you. You see, when I pray for you just now, I release a good word over your body. All God releases the good word through me, right? But it's His healing. But the good word produces, produces the blessing of health in that area. So, eulogy is not something for funeral. Unfortunately, the world is like, all the Bible words, right, they minimize it, they downgrade it. For example, 15 grace, 15 minutes grace in this kapak. You know what I'm saying? Right? How the riches of His grace is eternal. Right? 15 minutes grace. Okay, you can redeem your coupon. Redemption becomes like, instead of paying just a small coupon, right? No, the word redemption is so beautiful. It's to buy you back from the slave market. The slave market of sin and darkness, the Lord came and bought you back. The Greek word there is exogorazo, from the agora, the market. He exogoro you. He redeemed you. Isn't it beautiful? That word is used also in Galatians 3.13. Christ has brought you out from the curse of the law. Amen. And the curse of the law, we know, we can see it in Deuteronomy 28. It is basically threefold. Sickness, disease. Spiritual death is one of them. As well as not prospering. Not having enough. Amen. There's also others within this, like under sickness, there'll be depression, you know, you wish that it's day. Nighttime, you'll wish that it's day. And when day comes, you wish it will be night. Amen. Your life will hang in doubt. All that is in the curses of Deuteronomy 28. Christ redeemed us all from the curse of the law. Can I be good? Amen. Today, I want to share with you how you can restore what you have lost in the area of your good fortune. Now, those of you who want to criticize me, get your pen ready. Okay, I'm going to say some things today that I think will give you a lot of materials. So get yourself, go, go, go get your pen. All right, don't waste time. All right, I'm going to tell you right now. If you have lost your prosperity, all right, I'm going to share with you how to get it back. Amen. If you have lost the thing where people you say, this guy is very fortunate. That guy is very fortunate. You know, his company is very fortunate. You know, he's a fortunate man. Well, I tell you, I wish I'm... Nah, that guy, he's a fortunate lady. She's a fortunate lady. He's a fortunate... That boy is very fortunate to live with. You know, the kind of thing, you love being fortunate, right? Amen? It's in the Bible. Okay. Well, anyway, good things happening. When you lose your prosperity or fortune, all right, what do you do? Why? What happened? Where do you go? Now, the Christian life is not a life of just things going smoothly. There's no crooked places. There's no trial. No. There is, especially if you're a believer. The Bible promises you one suffering. What is that? You will be persecuted. People will persecute you. See that person with a pen, he's getting ready to write something against me. You see, I even welcome the persecution. Amen, right? So, I even prepare them for it. So the Bible says, all that live godly shall suffer persecution. In fact, the opposite, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, He says, woe to you if all men speak well of you. So I'm going to share with you, but basically, this is the truth about the church. But you can also narrow it down because there's, in the Word of God, there's a first interpretation and then there is a second interpretation as well. Amen. So when God shares a story, And God puts names there, there's always for a purpose of illustration. The apostle Paul said of himself that I'm a pattern. And the word pattern there is hupo, tupos, which is actually, tupos is the word type. I myself am a type, he says. For example, when you see him being lowered to escape the persecutors and those who try to kill him, his fellow believers, those who love him, lower him down in the basket. Amen. That basket was used. Look up the word basket. There are two kinds of baskets. One was used for the feeding of the five loaves and two fishes. And then there's another one that was used for a larger basket. So there are two feeding of the multitudes. And here, the basket pool left over was 12 basket pool. So you know it's Jewish, 12 tribes. This one here is Gentiles, seven nations. Seven nations in the Bible always mention about the Gentiles. And the Apostle Paul was lowered in which one? The big one. The big basket. So it's a meaning there. You hear what I'm saying? The Apostle Paul's journey, even in the book of Acts, his shipwreck when he was on that boat, the entire thing talks about the church life. Amen. You can also talk about your own life. There's a secondary application. All the way when he bought the ship and how it ended up in a shipwreck. And finally on an island called Honey, place of milk and honey. the promised land. Amen. And how things did not prosper when they didn't listen to Paul. Paul said things like, you should have listened to me on that ship. He told the captain of the ship, and he is actually a prisoner. He says, you should have listened to me. Amen. Paul's teachings. Are you with me so far? Whenever we deviate from the Pauline revelation, I'm going to share with you a bit more, and you're thinking, Pastor Prince, we follow Jesus'teachings. I understand that. Follow me now as I bring you to this story on why you lose your fortunate position. As we sail away, Paul and Luke, his partner, Luke is a doctor, by the way. As we sail away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread and in the five days, join them at Troas, where we stayed seven days. Now on the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread. You see, the first day of the week is Sunday. On the first day of the week, they came together to break bread. What is that? Communion. Do you know who is there? Who is the speaker? It's Paul. What a wonderful opportunity, right, to come together to hear Paul. If we wrote this, we'll say, Upon the first day of the week, they had a guest speaker because this place is Troas. Troas is, by the way, Troy. You know Troy? Helen of Troy? Trojan horse? Trojan is from the word Troy. This is Troas. This happened in Troas. So Paul just arrived in Troas, Troy, okay? And he was looking for believers to gather together. And notice they gathered on the first day of the week to break bread. Not even to hear Paul. Wonderful as that privilege is, they came together to break bread. The church has deviated from that. Number one. Number two, let's keep on reading. Now, on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight. See? What you all got to complain about? There were many lambs in the upper room where they were gathered together. And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus. It's pronounced as Eutychus. I know some of you say Eutychus, but actually it's Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. So all those of you up there, all right, while I'm preaching, don't sleep. Alright, you will sleep very deeply, right? Based on this story, right? Okay. Do you think for one moment God mentioned someone by name? He never, it's not always He mentioned someone by name. But when He does, there's a meaning to it, right? And surely, I will give you the name of this man, Eutychus. His name means fortunate. Do you see the EU in his name? Eutychus, alright? It's actually made up of two. You, good. Tukano, Tychus, Tukano, from Tukano. Tukano is to hit the mark. What is sin? Sin is defined in the Bible, alright? In the Greek, as well as in the Hebrew word, hatat, is to miss the mark. Amen. I'm going to take a paper, I want to throw it past the mark, I missed it, I missed the mark. All right, and pass the mark, go around, ha, ha, ha, ha, you laugh at me. All right, so I miss the mark. When you miss the mark, it's like an arrow. You miss the mark. That's sin. Sin is missing the mark. God has a higher life for you. God has a greater life for you. God has an overcoming life for you. But you are settling for less. You're missing the mark. Amen? So, the word success is to hit the mark. Guess what? Tucano is to hit the mark. It's the word success. It's the word fortune. It's the word prosperous. In some word studies, you find the name Eutychus is prosperous. So it's fortunate or prosperous. All can say successful. Now, when I say that, okay, the one with the pen, I'm always referring, okay, prosperity the way the Bible teaches it. Joseph was a prosperous man. He was a slave in the house of the Egyptian. And the Bible says he was a prosperous man. He has no bank account. Now, There's no financial statement to his name. In fact, he hardly had good clothes to wear. He was a slave. But the Bible says he was a prosperous man. A new version says he was a successful man. And all that he did, God made it to prosper. When he planted watermelons, it became bumper crop. Amen. When he was in charge of a few other slaves, they were highly motivated. That's success. Success is not about money. Mr. Penn. It's not about money, alright? You can say, but, but it also includes money. But it's not a main priority. I want the church to be prosperous in the sense of Galatians 1. You see, before God's people can take possession of their inheritance in the book of Joshua, right from the first chapter, God tells him what? I want you to what? Meditate on My Word. What's the result? What's the result? you'll make your way prosperous and you will have good success. Not bad success, good success. Amen. Good, you in Greek. Success, tukano, eutychus. Right? Good success. Bad success is that you are successful, but you lose your family. You are successful, right? People know you all over the place. You are famous, but you are struggling with something, a secret that people might find out. Amen. You feel like taking your life, even though you are famous. So all these things don't satisfy. That's not success. God wants you to have good success. Time to enjoy your loved ones. Amen. So, the Bible promises that before they embark on the promised land, God, from the start, God says, I want you to be prosperous. I want you to have good success. So, for Joshua, that means as a military man, he will prosper. When I say prosperous, I mean in the Bible sense. Amen. If you are prosperous in all that you do, it will also result in financial blessing. Am I right? But to run after money, the love of money, not money itself, the Bible doesn't have money itself. The love of money is the root of all evil. All evil in the world, the root of it is the love of money. And you can have no money and have love of money. It's not just wealthy people have this. Okay? Okay lah, you don't say okay so it doesn't matter, okay? It is so, amen. Right from the start of Psalms, the book of Psalms, right from the very start, God says, if you do this thing, meditate on My Word day and night, whatever you do, prosper. When I say prosperity for this church, amen, I mean prosperity the way the Bible teaches it. Whatever you do, prosper. Sometimes, God even brings good out of your mistakes. Alright? That is something that you cannot learn from books. You cannot make yourself prosper in all that you do. Well, Pastor Prince, I used to be that. I remember I was so blessed. I enjoyed the presence of the Lord. But somewhere along the way, I don't know what happened. I lost it. I lost this prosperity. I lost this flow. I lost this good fortune happening to me. Well, let's see what happened. Euthychus was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep. And as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead. Now, Luke was Paul's partner. He wrote, Luke was the one that wrote the book of Acts. He's a doctor, physician. When they say he was taken up dead, later on they say, when he was brought alive, they were not a little comforted. That's the Bible we are saying that they knew he was dead. If he was just resuscitated, no point saying they were not a little comforted. He was dead. Deader than dead. Dead. Matheo. Kaput. Alright? Dead. So you feel like your prosperity has died. Used to be alive in your life. It's dead. How to bring it back? And this is a message for pastors and leaders as well. Although I'm preaching to you, your personal life, because this can apply to your personal life, but it's more of a secondary interpretation. But the primary one is like, the primary one interpretation is actually to see the church and see why the church has lost its good fortune. It's the time, it's for our time. It's what the Lord gave to me. He says it's for our time. Why? Because it says in verse 7, He continued His message until midnight. It's a dark, dark, dark time in the world. You see? So instead of seeing this as just a story that God puts down there to amuse all of us, He has a meaning in all these stories, even in the name. Let's finish reading. So the guy fell down and was taken up dead. But Paul went down, fell on him and embracing him said, do not trouble yourselves for his life is in him. In other words, Paul raised him to life. And the word life here, his life is in him, is actually Paul is saying his soul is in him, which means his soul came back. And for the Jewish people, they understand the term. Like for example, the Jairus'daughter died. Jesus called back her soul. Amen. By one word. Talitha. Pumi. Alright, her soul came back. So at what stage the soul leaves and all that? So Paul is saying, Right? His soul is in him. That means for them, they understand he's been raised back to life. Okay? Now when he had come up and broken bread and eaten and talked a long while, again, you see, he talked a long while. You know, he talked a long while, can raise the dead, you see. and talk a long while even till daybreak. He departed. My son asked me one time. In fact, no, yesterday he asked me. I was sharing with him some of this truth because we're so full. He came near me, all right? Whenever it comes to my study, right, I got to talk to someone. He loves to be with his father. So I just put him on my lap. I hug him. I say that I'm going to share with you this story about... You take us. And he started listening. He enjoyed it. And then he says, Abba, how come Paul preached so long? Do you think he's a coffee drinker? I say, I don't know whether he's a coffee drinker. Maybe he drinks the five-hour energy drink. I say, but I tell you something, okay? Your father is the same. Sometimes I walk with the pastors, right? We go to a certain place at 10 o'clock, right? Drink coffee or whatever. I can finish preaching to them at 2 a.m. and I'm preaching, you know. Am I right? Because it's not just a job. You enjoy the revelation so much, you know, you can't, you know, you don't want to keep it to yourself. You want to share with the world. You want to share with those who are, and those who are near you will get the blessings. There's something we say that, hey, if only we have a video, you know, sort of like, but sometimes the flow come, no proper setting, like a studio setting for recording. we just share it. Amen. I think it's a problem when a pastor doesn't share the word, just joke all the time outside. Talk about other things. Talk about natural stuff, worldly stuff. Is he really called? Because if you are called, you cannot stop. Right? So Paul knew that tomorrow he's departing, he wants to share with them as much as he can. You got what I'm saying? Right? And he departed up. He preached until daybreak. He departed and they brought the young man in alive and they were not a little comforted. So it's not a matter of resuscitation, it's a matter of resurrection. He raised this guy from the dead. That's why it says they were not a little comforted. The Bible term is very, it's quite amazing. The Bible used to be like, they were not a little comforted. Right? Yesterday, Liverpool scored. I tell you, I was not a little excited. Today, it sounds like, are you excited or not? Alright, that means very excited. I wasn't a little excited. Today means, it can mean nothing. But back then, they were very comforted because they knew he was dead. There's even a doctor there to verify it. Okay, so let's look at this story and see what secrets we have before we leave, shall we? So it applies to the church. It applies to your life. Amen. How to restore good fortune in your life. How to restore the kind of success that God wants you to have in your life. Amen? So the first thing is this. Have you noticed that in verse 7, there are four time periods. The first day of the week. The next day. Ready to depart the next day. I like the Old King James. The morrow. Ready to depart on the morrow. Midnight. Three in one verse. Three time periods in one verse. The fourth is found in verse 11. Now when it come up, right? He preached till daybreak. So there are four time periods in this story. And I believe that God wants us to pay attention to them all. Number one, upon the first day of the week this year, I believe, God puts this on my heart really strong because I tell you this, I'm one of those sometimes, you know, look, we are under grace, therefore a particular day is not very important or whatever, but God is saying, we need to restore back the glory of the first day of the week. There is a difference. Do you know what's the first day of the week, people? Sunday. It is not... Sabbath. It is not Saturday. Sabbath is on Saturday. You can say, I'm taking a Sabbath day off. It's not a Sabbath day off if it's another day. The law is the law. Amen. Saturday is Sabbath for the Jewish people. For them, it's like they work and then they rest. For us, under the new order, under the new covenant, under grace, God starts us with rest. and then we can work. So one principle is do and you will live. But grace says live first, have the life and then you are able to do. Amen. So there are four time periods. So the first one is the first day of the week. Jesus rose on the first day of the week. When you think about it, some people say, you know, actually we should be resting, observe the Sabbath and all that. There are books written on Sabbath and all that to be strict about it. And the Bible says that when you, we are talking in terms of the law, and the Sabbath was before the law, yes. But don't forget that when God ordained the Sabbath, it was on a Saturday. Okay? Because God rested from what work? Creation work. And then what happened? Adam and Eve sinned. And since then, it broke God's rest. God has been working since. How do I know? When Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath day, they accused Jesus and Jesus says this, My Father has been working up till now and I work. So because the Sabbath rest was broken by the sin of man, God started working on behalf of man to restore man. And Jesus says, My Father has been working up till now and I work. Are you with me so far? Okay, so God is telling us a new order is coming, a new order of rest. And that's why the Father ordained the Feast of Firstfruits as on Sunday. Jesus was crucified on the Feast of Passover. Three days later, He was raised from the dead on Sunday, not Saturday. Saturday, He was buried in the tomb. But on Sunday, He rose from the dead. Okay, number one. God ordained based on the feast of firstfruits. He has fulfilled it. So in other words, the divine Godhead is in the choice of the first day of the week. Are you listening? Okay, show them. The first day of the week, early, very early in the morning, that's the Sunday. The women came and of course, they didn't find the body of Jesus. He has risen from the dead. Drop down to John now. The same day at evening, being the first day of the week on Sunday, morning, Jesus rose from the dead. That same day, that evening, Jesus appeared. Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be with you. What were they doing? They were assembled just like Acts 20. Paul was there. They were all gathered together. Jesus appeared in their midst. There was fear. Now, do you know fear is a sin? If you read the book of Revelation, the group of people that goes into the lake of fire, the first one is fearful. Never thought it's a sin, right? You want to point fingers at other people, extrovert sins, right? Fearful, being fearful is a sin. So instead of judging each other based on their sins, let me just tell you this. You're based on the big ones that you think is big. God doesn't grade on the curved. So Mr. Writer Pen, Whatever is not of faith is sin. Amen. So here it goes. Here it says, Jesus stood in the midst of them and He says, Shalom, peace be with you. Now, here's a pattern again of what He wants to do every Sunday. Every Sunday. So this year, listen carefully, He's going to appear in our midst, right, and perform miracles. Those miracles cannot happen, those healings cannot happen without His presence. So He tells us every time we are gathered on Sunday, He's there. He's there. That's why it's called the Lord's Day. Sunday is called the Lord's Day. A new order has come. We are not under the old order, under the law, under creation. We are under redemption. Creation, Sabbath rest is on Saturday. This one, a new order. Next day, a new beginning. It's also called the eighth day. It's called the Lord's Day also. Like the book of Revelation, John says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. It's like a pattern telling us on Sunday you will hear His voice. A voice that reveals who He is. Because when you know who He is, you know who you are because God put you in Him and you're a joint heir with Jesus Christ. One of the healings, one of the gifts rather I should say, is that the healing that you experienced just now is actually yours. You inherited it by seeing Jesus. Amen. So, go back to John and you see, here's a pattern. In the midst of our sin, in the midst of our fear, in the midst of being fearing, Jesus came and stood in the midst. Looks like their sin does not stop Him from appearing. But where did He appear? Where they were assembled together in one room. This was the upper room. He appeared in the midst. And what did He say? Peace be with you. When He had said this, why must say when He had said this? Focusing on the peace that He just said. When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His sight. What is that? The finished work. In other words, the basis for you to have peace, peace of conscience, is to know that I paid for your sins. Here is the divine receipt. Here is the divine receipt. And you know something? I bore your sins and God turned His back on me, poured out His wrath. The back parts of God is where the wrath and judgment fell on Jesus when He was carrying our sins. He never sinned. He never did any sin, but He carried our sins and God's punishment fell on Him. That was meant for you and I. Now, the fact that God can raise him from the dead, the dead means what? It's a finished work. God made him sit on His right hand. Such an honor placed on Him. Are you with me so far? Okay, so He's telling us, then when He said this, He showed them His hand. So peace comes by knowing the finished work. Alright. And then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Now they see His person. They are glad. What is this now? Joy. So peace and joy will happen when you come together on a Sunday, remembering the Lord. Now this goes against everything you hear about, oh, those people down there, they are only Sunday Christians. Aren't you glad they are still coming on Sunday? Why criticize people? You know, there are a lot of people out there who don't even attend church at all, except for Christmas, for Feliz Navidad, to sing that and then go home, right? And then you are criticizing people who attend church on Sunday. Yes, I understand. We have to be Christians Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, all the way. Yes, I agree with that. But Sunday is a special day ordained by the Lord. Don't say it's not special. It's a day where He reveals the finished work and His person. The finished work ministers peace, His person ministers joy. No wonder the Bible says that everywhere you go, you shall be a blessing. You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace. And everywhere you go, the trees of the field will clap their hands. You will be a blessing everywhere you go. All the crooked places made straight, all the tawny bushes will give forth flowers. Everything that's accursed will become a blessing. When you go out with joy and be led forth with peace. And here it tells you the pattern. I believe that going out with joy and being led forth with peace. Look at the context. It's really after the finished works. After Isaiah 53. Amen. Also on Sunday, Jesus expounded on the road of Emmaus. Sunday, He expounded to them things concerning Himself, His person. And their hearts were warm. That's joy. Their hearts were warm. They felt the love of God. How many of you, when the Word of God is unveiled, then you see, your heart is warm. You're going to see more this year. Amen. You're going to see more. I pray that you'll be looking for that warm heart. You know, not cold interlight. You can keep your cold interlight at home. But a warm heart. We want your intellect, of course, you know, but, amen. You need intellect, what? The prettiest size, all right? So bring your intellect. Don't leave your intellect at home, okay? We just have to wash your intellect this way, the blood of Jesus, and then put it back. You'll be okay. Put it back the other way, I mean. You'll be all right. Amen? Most Christians, you know, I tell you, you turn back their brain, right? They come normal. Like the kingdom of God is put on the reversal. You want to be great? Serve. Amen. You exalt yourself, you'll be pushed down. Amen. It's opposite from what the world tells you. Go for number one. Take care of number one. Forget about others. Jesus says, serve, you'll be great. Even the principle of companies that are successful and all that, they learn to serve the needs of the people. A company that does that with integrity, they will last long and they will grow. The moment they forget it's all about the people and think about profit margin only, they start to dwindle. So even in the natural, these principles apply. Okay, don't distract me. Let's finish it. All right. So even on the day of Emmaus, when he walked on the Emmaus road, it was a Sunday. What happened? He expound things concerning himself and he ended up with the Lord's Supper. on a Sunday. And that's why in this church, I don't impose this on all the pastors, all the churches. It's just a personal revelation with me. Every Sunday, we remember the Lord's Supper. Why? It's on His finished work. It focuses us back on Him. Now, Pastor Prince, it can become a ritual, right? You know something? Eating your food every day can also be a ritual, right? Right? Sometimes you eat and I ask you what you eat, you got to stop and think about what you ate just now. Right? You know, it's inconvenient we say that kind of thing. No. Friend, do it with revelation, of course. Do it with love. Amen. So, the Lord's Supper. Got it? Are you with me so far? What happens when you don't attend church one Sunday? That very Sunday, the same Sunday Jesus appeared to them in the upper room, someone was missing. His name is... Thomas! He was absent, we call him Doubting Thomas. It's a bit unfair that his name becomes Doubting Thomas, like Alzheimer, you know? Go back to his family reunion, the mother asking him, how come your name become like, you know, you discovered you should be rewarded but not punished. Forevermore your name is like, right? Thank God for that person who, you know, thank God for all the discoveries. But church, here we see that Sunday is important because Thomas wasn't there and Thomas became an unbelieving believer. It's a misnomer. Unbelieving believer. You know of unbelieving believers? Just one Sunday, don't let 10 churches become unbelieving believer. The world is stronger. So he says, unless I see the print of the nails in his hands, I will not believe. So the next Sunday, Jesus appeared. Stop! Why didn't Jesus appear to him on Tuesday? Why didn't Jesus appear to him on Thursday? Because pastor, at that time, Man U and Liverpool were playing. Why Jesus waited for another Sunday is a lesson for all of us. To tell us how valuable and how important it is that day to Him. And to tell you that even the Holy Spirit, not just the Father ordained the Feast of First Spirits on a Sunday, Jesus rose Himself, the second person of the Godhead rose on a Sunday, but the Holy Spirit... the third person of the Godhead came and baptized the church, the birthday of the church, in Acts, the book of Acts, in the upper room. He came on a Sunday. Pentecost. Pentecost is 49 days. Right? From here, 49 itself is actually Sabbath. 50th day, Pentecost is 50 from firstfruits, the feast of firstfruit. It came on a Sunday. So the triune God is the one. You know this idea about worshipping on Sunday and all that, it's man's tradition. Now you hear it. The triune God is involved. John says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and I heard a voice. I think God is telling us. He will speak to us in a clearer way. You know, Christians are always very super spiritual. You know, you tell them that, all right, we're coming for these three requests. Every day I can make requests to God. Right? They don't see God's ways. There are occasions of seasons and special anointing. Even in the Old Testament, the people outside were praying. At the hour of prayer, Zechariah, John's father, was at the altar of incense. And they were waiting for him to come up because the altar of incense is a picture of prayer. And they were praying outside because they know that at the hour of prayer, when you pray, God hears their prayers. So back then, they have an hour of prayer. For us, we can pray at all times. Yes, but there are special occasions. You find, for example, when they came together as a church, with one accord, one voice, they prayed and the place was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. There are different ways of prayer. If one way doesn't seem to work, you come to another way. Amen. Are you with me so far? So there's an anointing that God released. Many years ago, God said to me, make every year a year to tell the people to focus on three requests. And I believe there's a special anointing. I believe that. There are seasons. Yes, you can pray anytime. Amen? But let me advise you. If you are praying on your own, things are not happening. Maybe God wants you to seek someone out. All For example, the one that's writing against me. If you find that your prayer is not working in any area, whatever it is, maybe God wants you to come to me to pray for you. In that way, you have to humble yourself. Sometimes that happens. For example, the Samaria. When Samaria received the Word of God, they didn't receive the Holy Spirit. Right? So what happened? The church had to send Peter and John over to pray for them to receive. Now, the Samaritans and the Jews, they have no fellowship. It's a way of humbling them for them to realize, although they are saved, they need Peter and John, Jewish people, the Jewish church people to come over. So sometimes, you know, we say, no, no, God, answer my prayer. I'm sick here, but I don't want to ask anyone. It's pride. And God loves you so much that God wants to break that pride. That pride is hindering you. from saying sorry to your wife, sorry to your kids even. This year, let's destroy all these things, amen. In the name of Jesus. So, let's go to the story itself because time is flowing and I need to finish it off, okay? Wow, time just flies. Should I preach till midnight? Okay. So, I told you just now, right, four time periods. So, we have first day of the week. By the way, also, first day of the week, 1 Corinthians 16, it says, on the first day of the week, let each one of you, Paul is writing, lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper. Okay? First day of the week. Collection. Offering. It's in the Bible. Can I give another day? Of course, you can. But God's ordained way, it shows how much God honours the day. So Sunday is not man's idea. It's a picture of being under grace. A new order has come. I said a new order has come. So even for Thomas, the next Sunday Jesus appeared. After eight days, that's on a Sunday, His disciples were again inside and Thomas, when Jesus came. It didn't happen on a Monday, it didn't happen on a Tuesday, it didn't happen on a Wednesday, it happened on the next Sunday. And Jesus told Thomas, reach out your finger here, look at my hands. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. See, well, Thomas had a privilege of touching Jesus after he rose from the dead. Hey, yours is better because he goes on to say, you believe because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. You got a blessed that Thomas didn't have. Amen. Okay, back to Acts 20. All right. Paul was long preaching. There are many lambs. Okay, so there are four time periods. I mentioned the first one already. Henry, we are stuck already. Stuck because of revelation and the sweetness that's dropping from the honeycomb. It drops slowly, is it? Honeycomb don't drop. It drop slowly. All right, in the Song of Songs, the bridegroom looks at the bride. Jesus looks at the church, at the believer and say, your lips drop as a honeycomb. Right? Slowly with sweetness. Amen. But you're in a hurry. So I got to give you some honey. Just spread them all out. All right. There were many lambs. Okay, so Paul was ready to depart the next day. Ready to depart. What does that tell you? You all got this ready. The Holy Spirit in you bears witness. Ready to depart. What time period is that? The rapture. The rapture. Any time can happen. Okay? So that is forgotten. The Holy Spirit is showing us why the church of Jesus Christ today is not as successful, as prosperous as it was in the book of Acts at that time period. You know, there was a time in the Middle Ages when the church was no more prosperous. They lost their eutychus. Right? And what happened? God raised Martin Luther. And Martin Luther preached something that was preached already. What was it? Pauline revelation. Now here's where I come to come to this. Ready to depart the next day, who was the one that gave up, that gave us for the first time the revelation of the rapture? The apostle Paul. I want to tell you something about the apostle Paul. A lot of people say, Pastor Prince, you know, you preach a lot from Paul's letters and all that. Listen, the whole Bible is for us. I say the whole Bible is for us. Every scripture is God breathed and it's profitable. Okay, for correction, reproof, and instruction for the man of God. They'll be thoroughly furnished. Okay, you'll be perfect, complete, equipped. Now, listen carefully. Having said that, the Old Testament, when you read, if you get stuck in the Old Testament all the time, you can be very legalistic after that. You can be very heavy-minded. You can be very judgment conscious. My wife got stuck on Ezekiel one time and she was telling me, wow, I'm trying my best to persevere. She has a daily reading, right? But she was reading Ezekiel, Jeremiah and all that. Oh, a lot of crying, poor Jeremiah. Then came to Ezekiel, poor Ezekiel. They all rejected him, you know. So I look at her and say, make sure you read the New Testament. Ah, yeah, yeah, I read the New Testament also. You got to make sure that you interpret everything in the light of the new. You shall bring forth, the Bible says, the treasures of the old because of the new. So in other words, you got to be established in the Pauline revelation. Why do you say Pauline revelation? Because God chose Paul. That is not to say we are not disparaging Peter and John. Their ministry is equally important. Alright? Indeed, indispensable. Alright? What they share. But God has given a special honour to Paul to write three-fourths of the New Testament. And it's through Paul's revelation that we know justification by faith. Which Martin Luther, when he preached... the church was restored back to its prosperous state. And people began to prosper in their lives. People began to be blessed. It was the restoration of justification by faith. It's a well-known fact that it was Paul. You know, John was there at the cross. He saw the cross, didn't fully understand what happened. He was there physically with Jesus'mother Mary. And then Peter was far away looking at the cross, right? He knew something happened. He knew Jesus died. In the general way, later on, he preached in the book of Acts. He knew generally Jesus died for sin and all that, but not justification by faith. There's something that Jesus, the ascended Christ, gave to Paul. Paul says, I took believers and I threw them into jail. I persecuted them when they were stoning Stephen, the first martyr of the church. I was holding the clothing of the people that stoned him and he was one of the highest authority there, giving his approval. Go ahead, kill him. Well, on the way to Damascus, Jesus appeared to him. And he fell from his high horse, literally. And Jesus says, why do you, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Paul says, I was a blasphemer. I'm the chief of sinners, but I received this mercy. You know what he says in Ephesians 3? Assuming by the way that you know God gave me, Paul is talking the special responsibility of extending His grace to you Gentiles. As I briefly wrote earlier, God Himself revealed His mysterious plan to me. As you read what I've written, you will understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ. God did not reveal it to previous generations. You read the Old Testament and it's profitable. Okay, you can learn a lot from there. But remember, they're not written to you. Don't accept the judgments there as for you. You can learn from their lives. Just like if I read something from a celebrity that we all admire, football star, whatever, you know, Cristiano Ronaldo wrote to someone who is a fan and then I say, can I read it? He says, sure. And I read it. But some things are personal. He might say, hey, I find that vitamin D helps me a lot if he says that. All right, maybe you can use that also. And they are kind of friends, you know. But I read that and I said, maybe that will help me also. But not everything there is written for me. You follow what I'm saying? So be aware of that, that's all. But when it comes to the epistles, it's all written to you. It's written to the church. It's written to those under grace. All right? So Paul says that God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by His Spirit, He has revealed it to His holy apostles and prophets. And this is God's plan. Both Gentiles, Jews who believe the good news share equally in the riches. All right? Now look at verse 7. By God's grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving Him by spreading the good news. Drop down. Though I am the least deserving of all God's people because He persecuted the church before He knew Christ, God graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles, the non-Jews, about the endless treasures. I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan. I was chosen to explain. Everyone. This plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning. That God would send His Son so that you will not just be forgiven, but justified by faith. That's a Pauline revelation. Amen. Are you listening? Amen. The rapture is a Pauline revelation. The Lord's Supper, for example, Paul in 1 Corinthians 11, he could have gone to Matthew, Mark, Luke and say, hey, tell me about Matthew, at least Matthew and Mark. He can go to them and say, hey, tell me about the Lord's Supper. But no, Jesus Himself revealed to Paul. He says, I receive of the Lord Jesus the same night. that he was betrayed, he took bread. He received the revelation. That's why he touches more on what happened. What is all this about? Discerning the lost body. You won't die before your time. You'll be healed. You'll be strong. It's because people don't discern the lost body. So Paul has a revelation. He sees the cross. Others see the cross, they see a martyr dying for them. Others look and say, oh, poor man, you know, he's a good man. Why did he die? But... Paul, when you look at that, the Holy Spirit gives him the revelation. You see, the old creation is finished there. He will arise from the dead and you will arise a new creation in him. The mystery of the body of Christ was given to Paul. The high calling of the church and its inheritance was given to Paul. Amen. Are you with me so far? The rapture. A rapture is not man's idea, you know. Oh, someone in the 1800s, you know, came up with this idea of the rapture. You know, these people anyhow just, no, my friend. Paul himself says in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 13, he says, I say to you by the word of the Lord. I say to you by the word of the Lord. Then he talked about the rapture. Not all of us will die. He's coming for us. Alright? The dead in Christ will rise first. Woo! My mother will be young again. Not like a spirit flying, you know. She'll be clothed. She'll have a body, a body that's forever. Forever young, strong, healthy, can never die. We're looking forward for that. So, Paul preached till ready to depart the next day. Or the King James says, morrow, the morrow. So, what does that tell us? Just imagine this year, live life. This is what he told me to tell you. Live life, 24 hours. A day, just think of 24 hours a day. You can make plans and all that, but the problem with making plans sometimes, if you worry about it, then stop making plans. Leave now. Tell the person that you love, you love them now. Leave in the 24 hours. It's amazing what that does to worry, panic, attacks and all that. It's always based on what's going to happen tomorrow, what's going to happen next week, what's going to happen next month. Stop that. Live within the 24 hours. Because tomorrow, you are departing. He may come tonight, He may come afterwards, we do not know. But we live our life ready to depart. I'm not saying die, you know. I'm saying He's coming for us. We are going up, not down. That's the Christian posture, to wait for His Son from heaven, the Bible says. Every generation has that privilege, but I believe we are very, very, very close. Amen? And then what happened? Paul continued his message until midnight. It's dark. It's dark all around. It's very, very dark. Am I right? Hello? Around us, morality and all that, there's moral corruption. There's like, oh my goodness, you cannot even believe that 10 or 20 years ago, people allowed these things to happen. It's getting very dark all around. Where are our children going to find the compass, the moral compass? The godly character that builds a successful life. Well, it's darkness all around. So you see, it says, Paul preached until midnight. What happened is that we need to be listening to Paul's revelation. all the way even until midnight. If someone did not write, let's follow. There were many lambs. Paul continued his message until midnight. There were many lambs in the upper room where they were gathered together. Many, many. Lights, many lamps. That was a beautiful picture. It reminds me when I read this of the time when there's darkness all around in Egypt. In Exodus 10, there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel, God's people, had light in their dwellings. Now, if you think for one moment, right? Oh, that means they were able to have more fuel, lamps. Hey, all the Egyptians also, in fact, the Israelites were slaves. The Egyptians are not. The Egyptians had a lot of fuel, candles and lamps. They have access to all these things, but they could not produce the light those nights. It was a supernatural darkness. They cannot get rid of it. But in the house, therefore, in the house of Israel, the light there must also be supernatural. So I'm telling you, this year, this year, your house, dwellings, all the individual families, dwellings there is plural, right? Your house will have supernatural light. And I'm praying that for my children, my family, my son will be 12 years old this year. I'm praying that he will see more and more light. Because when you see the light, you cannot unsee it. Or else he'll be influenced by the media, social media, influenced by his friends, influenced by what's on TV, you know, influenced by all the... It's darkness all around. We got to pray that that light be in our families. And then somehow when they are depressed in that darkness, you know, they are lost in that self-occupation and obsessive thoughts and all that. At least they know where to come back home to where there's light. And when there's, you know, you don't have to even press the darkness or click the darkness out. When there's light, darkness is gone. See, many times you sit down here, you don't understand everything I preach. Yeah, but light came on. The light come in. You say, I see, I cannot explain it, but I see it. Amen? Because that happened to me many years ago as a young man in a church. The light just came on. I said, wow, this is real. This is not just playing church, you know. This is real. God's presence is real. The Bible is real. Okay, let's go back to the story. Hey, y'all don't hold me back. Quick, let's finish off. Come on. There were many lamps in the upper room where they were gathered together. It's a picture of— there was midnight all around that upper room, that area, right, in the third floor where they were all gathered. But there were many lamps! That means what? It was bright! Paul was there and I think all these lamps can be down through church history. There have been many lamps in the church. Martin Luther is one of them. Amen. D.L. Moody and all the heroes of faith that down through the years, we have seen them, many lamps in the upper room. The upper room is like a picture of the house of God, the church of Jesus Christ. And here, you can also apply in a secondary way, the lamps in your house. Make sure there's a lot of things in your house that minister light. Good books all around. Amen. Surround your family to make sure that they see verses on, you know, don't fill up with worldly stuff. Then you wonder, I wonder where he learned that from? You know, from you. You surround them and they feed on these things. The Bible says, put the verses around. Amen. In fact, in the book of Deuteronomy, literally it says, put it on your doorposts, put it on your gates. Yeah, make sure that they have access. Make sure they have a time to themselves. I hope you told them yesterday. Have you thought about your three requests? Amen. Take time to pray. Get excited about Sunday. Start getting excited and your children will also get excited. Time is the best day of the week. Amen. I can't begin to tell you, God is my witness. I've heard so many testimonies. I know myself, before I became, you know, full-time pastor, when I was working out there, that I would preach in church. I wasn't full-time yet. I would preach, and I hear so many other testimonies of people saying the same thing. I would preach, I put in a lot, right? But Monday, I have to go to work. Somehow, right? Monday? I got so much blessings on Monday. Business people tell us that they got some of their best deals on Monday. Amen. We need the help of the Lord. We need the grace of God. One guy came to me and said, you know, in our church many years ago, you know, Pastor Prince, I do not know, you talk about favor and all that. All that is good, God favor, God helping me. But actually, I work very hard now. It was very hard to get all these sales coming in. So he was the top salesperson that month, you see. So he was saying, oh, you know, I did a lot. So I said, what's your problem? He said, my problem is that I do not know which part is God blessing me, God giving me all this, and which part is my effort. So I put my hand on his shoulder. I said, very simple, very simple. I said, okay, you want to be clear, right? What is God's part? What's your part, right? I'm going to pray for you right now. Okay? I'll pray for you right now. I'm going to ask God to remove all his involvement. All right, revoke all his favour, all the places where he made your crooked places straight, even before you came on the scene. Where he worked on that client's heart, even before you met him. Where he gave you favour with the boss, even when you're not in the room. The boss all of a sudden thinks about favourable thoughts about you. It's from God. Okay, all that, I tell God to. Lord, not one inch. Okay, just for one month. I said, then at the end of the month, you come back and tell me. He put his hand on my hand. I said, Pastor, I'm just asking only. Just saying. Just saying. Just. Amen. Anyone want me to pray? If you doubt God's involvement, just. You shall remember the Lord your God. It is He who gives you power to get wealth. Amen. Not any welfare state. Not the government. Not the world. Not your boss. They are not your source. God is. Amen. Quick lah, I'm gonna finish it or not? Quick, alright. So, let's drop down. What happened? How did Mr. Fortunate fell off from his high place? He was sitting at the window. Okay, one thing. Let me tell you this. Don't sit at the window. Okay? You forget anything I preach today, just remember, don't sit at the window. What does that mean? Okay, when you sit at the window, okay, in a way, right, you are actually, you are sitting at the window. It's what we call sitting on the fence. You can see darkness all around. In fact, you see more darkness because it's white outside there. You look in front, it's all bright. There are many lamps. But you are in between. That is the problem that we have today. Especially among the young generation. This one here is a young man. God is going to tell us how to reach to this next generation. And one of the things that God told me very clearly, is this year, reach out to the young people on purpose. All the euthychus. And bring them to the house of God. And by the way, yes, I cannot let you go. Sitting on the window, right? Window is usually square, right? Square, right? You're watching everything that's happening, you know? All the lights, alright? You're not involved, you're not in it. You're sitting on the fence and you're here and there, something's very exciting. I thought I heard an owl crow. You look outside, you're looking at the darkness, you're looking at the light. And the Bible says very clearly, he felt as Paul continued speaking. And not only that, the church has switched off her ears to Paul's preaching, justification by faith, Pauline revelation. They say that, I read my Bible, Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, I just read the ritz. The words in red, listen, Jesus'words. These are Jesus'words. But these are Jesus'words where He's speaking to the Jews most of the time, as well as also, many of them are applicable to us today, for sure. But the places where He says, go not to the way of Gentiles, go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, doesn't apply today. All right, take a sword with you. There's one part he says. It doesn't apply today. Are you listening? But at the end, in the upper room, Jesus said to them, I have many things to say unto you. That means all the rest of his ministry, three and a half years, it's not, it's just milk. milk and it's not the meat that comes through Paul in Revelation. But pastor, I'd rather believe Jesus than Paul. There's no competition. Listen, Paul's words are not Paul's words. Paul's words, 1 Thessalonians 2, for this reason we thank God, Paul is saying, without ceasing, because when you receive the Word of God, which you heard from us, you welcome it not as the Word of man, but as it is in truth. the Word of God, which also effectually works in you who believe. Paul is saying, I received my teaching about justification by faith, the rapture, the Lord's Supper, the mystery of the body of Christ. All that I received from the Lord. So in other words, you are saying, I read only the gospels and the teachings of Jesus in the gospels, all right? If that's all, then you are finding the teachings of Jesus where He said at the end of His earthly life, I have many things to say, but you're not able to bear them now. But when the Holy Spirit has come, so in other words, Paul's ministry was alluded there as well because he wrote three-fourths of the New Testament. And Paul's words are not Paul's words as you see here. It's the words of the ascended Christ. Not Christ when he was on earth, but the words of the ascended Christ. Therefore, all of Paul's letters, you can read freely. It's all for you. Amen. Find a church where you feel that the Pauline revelation is being expounded. New creation realities are unfolded. This young man fell at Paul's preaching. You would have thought it would be so exciting to hear all this revelation. Right? Why? He was looking at two worlds. And Paul was preaching. You know, there can be death to your mind, which means what? You cannot remember things anymore. Right? Death can be depression in your mind. Death in your relationship means what? You lose someone you loved. You are no more together. Once you were so in love, now you are at odds, finding fault with each other. Death has come in. So God is showing us why No more fortunate, no more prosperous in that area. Why death has come in? What's the answer? Do we just say, fall down dead? Yeah, serve Him right. Notice from where he fell. Fell from the third story. That's the place we are seated with Christ. You know, there are three heavens. The Bible talks about it. All right? Atmospheric heaven, the universe heaven, and the third heaven, which you cannot see with your eyes. That's where God dwells. So beautiful, perfect. And we are all seated with Christ there. How do I know this? Pauline revelation. Paul's letters. Paul says we are seated with Christ. And when you forget the truths, you fall from your high place. Listen carefully. In the New Testament, it doesn't say backslide. Backslide is like this, you know. Watch, huh. Backslide means on the same level. Is this backslide? Okay. Oh, see, stumbling block. There's a difference. There's a difference. There's a backslide. This is a stumbling block. Make sure you don't lay a stumbling block in front of your brother or behind your brother, right? You know what's falling? Fall up there, you fall down. Old Testament says, God says, I will heal your backsliding Israel. Because they are all on the level, low level. But the fall from grace, in the New Testament, it's falling from grace. That means what? Grace is higher. The mercy seat is here. In the Ark of the Covenant, the law is here. When you go back to the law, you fall from grace. You fall from grace by trying to keep the law. Okay, so he fell in deep sleep. What's the answer? Let's come to the answer, the conclusion, and you all can go home. All right, the answer is Paul went down. Church, this new generation of people, we cannot just whack them. We cannot just scold them. We got to go down to their level. Paul went down, fell on him, and embracing him said, do not trouble yourself for his life is in him. The embrace, Paul's, Bible says Paul's handkerchiefs can even drive out evil spirits. And those handkerchiefs are sweat handkerchiefs, you know. Imagine that. I'm waiting for the day, man. Woo! Hallelujah. Amen. The resurrection power of Jesus is such that you can just take a hanky, put on someone, and evil spirits will leave that person. Amen. Their bodies are healed. Amen. So Paul was like that. He was so anointed, he just grabbed the person. I'm sure he prayed in the name of Jesus, and the boy was raised from the dead. What does he do? Okay, since this happened, y'all break up. We'll meet again tomorrow. No, they went back up. When he had come up, had broken bread and eaten and talked a long while, still preach. Say, okay, in conclusion, in conclusion, in conclusion. And you'll say, wow, this guy, really not like the Apostle Paul. Yay, now you see for yourself. That's why I preach this. Wow, the guy is writing down a lot. Wow, this one. Now when He had come up and broken bread, He talked a long while, even till daybreak. Daybreak is what? When a new day arrives, where there's no more night. The Bible says there's a day coming that there's no more night during Jesus'return. Now, not the rapture now. At the end, Jesus'return. See, the church is waiting for the bright and morning star. Israel is waiting for the sun of righteousness. What's the difference? Morning star appears very early. You see about 4 plus, 5am, you look out, you see a bright star. Usually it's Venus, the planet. Alright, it's known as the morning star. Okay, early in the morning. Jesus rose from the dead early in the morning. We are going to get raptured first. Israel will still be here, except for those among them who are saved. Many of them are still and unbelieved. Therefore, they are waiting for sun of righteousness. Sun later on comes after the morning, after the daybreak. So Paul preached until daybreak. And they brought the young men in alive and they were not a little comforted. It's very, very interesting. But in the days to come, I'm going to share with you also about this way of raising the dead that's very interesting. Elijah embraced the child that was dead. His successor, Elisha, embraced another dead child. Both were raised from the dead. Here you have Paul embracing this young man. We do not know how old he is, probably a teenager. He embraced him. It was raised from the dead. God spoke to me about all these embraces. I asked the Lord, because in this coming year, there's something about this. I must wait until next week. So I'm going to tell you, not just the next generation for the church, but also your own children, how to bring them back. How to bring them back to life. How to bring them into the things of God. Bring them back to the high place in Christ. Amen? Amen? It's not for no reason, Eutychus is called prosperous and he's a young man. God is telling the church that your prosperity, your blessing, lies in the next generation. for this year, our eyes must be focused on helping them, giving them the tools they need, and reaching out to them as well. Amen? In the days to come, I'll be sharing. In the weeks to come, I'll be sharing on what God showed me about this embrace. Because in all three instances, they embrace. a dead body. Amen. Praise the Lord. Are you all blessed? Amen. Give Jesus the praise, man. So, we've learned to value the first day of the week and yet live life like tomorrow is coming. All right. This could be the last day. And psychologically, it's good also to live one day at a time. You may plan, but please plan with no worries, no strife. But live today. Live just for today. Don't let your mind drift to tomorrow. Jesus said this in Sermon on the Mount. Don't worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will have its own worry. Live one day at a time. Sufficient is the day. Okay? Number two. It's midnight all around. Have you realized that? It's midnight. It's one of the darkest times. You can't afford to be sitting on the fence. I come to church once in a while. I still love the world. I still love this. Because death will come into your life. And I don't mean physical death. I'm talking about death. In some cases, there are physical deaths. I know about cases like that as well. People lose their life because they left church and then no more in the teaching. They got into all kinds of bad habits or whatever and then they died because of drugs or whatever. Died. I can trace it back all the time to where the parents might just say, don't have to go to church. Okay, never mind. It's okay. Oh, you're too tired today. Never mind. Every Sunday is important. Thomas became an unbelieving believer. Jesus appeared from Sunday to Sunday in His resurrected form. Amen. Have you lost your good fortune? Have you stopped listening to Pauline Revelation, New Testament preaching? Have you stopped listening to the things that... Now, in this church, we endeavor to preach a lot on the Pauline Revelation. Have you? Let's make a roundabout face right now. Let's call it repentance. Let's change our mind and say, we're going to prioritize. the Lord's Day, prioritize the Lord's Supper. Now, I just gave some mention about the Lord's Supper, but it's there. Crucial. Crucial, I believe, for our health and longevity. and then also the younger generation. Amen? Praise the Lord. So before we pray for the three requests, if you have never received Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, the Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved and your house. Pray this prayer with me right now. Say, Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your great love for me. And I confess, Jesus Christ is my Lord and my Savior. Father, thank you that Christ died for my sins and you raised him from the dead when all my sins were cleared. at that cross. Thank you, Father. I'm seated with Christ in heavenly places. In Jesus'name. Amen. Congratulations. You are now a child of God. Amen. Your sins forgiven. Welcome to the family of God. Stand to your feet, church. You got your three prayer requests? Ready? All right. It's just like Zechariah. You know, the people are waiting for him, right? Outside, you know, for the hour of prayer. So there's a special anointing. Right? Though you can pray at all times. But these three requests, I've seen so many amazing answers to it. Now, do you have it? In one form or another? Okay, your phone or whatever it is, just leave it up before the Lord. It was so sad that Zechariah came up and he was dumb. We cannot have a dumb priest. Amen? And it's because he didn't believe the word of the angel. But we who believe in Jesus Christ, we open our mouth and preach grace in the revelation of Paul that God gave him, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's by His grace we receive these three requests. God says, Kind of funny, I just heard this. Some of you, you have number one, A, B, C, D. Number two, A, B, C, D. And it's like the Lord just showed me, you know, just God showed me. And in case you are wondering whether God will answer, He just assured me He will answer. Okay? Yeah. One of your requests, wisdom has been given you already. Lift up your hands. Father, we thank you, Lord, for your word today. We thank you, Father God, and you have hidden secrets in your word, Lord, to be revealed to your people. And these truths that we have seen, these are truths, Lord, that will chart our course, make straight our pathway for this year 2024. Father in heaven, we thank you. And we ask in Jesus'name that as all these requests are lifted before you, Father, you told me, Lord, a number of years ago, to do this every year. So I know, Father, that you are ready to answer all these requests far exceeding and abundantly, more than they can ever even ask or think. And in the name of Jesus, Father, answer these requests as we bring before you, Lord. As an act of faith right now, we lift up before you, Father. And all my three requests as well, Father. We lift up before you, Father, here, and send your answers. Send your healings. Send your deliverances. Send your breakthroughs. And let them all manifest this year. This year, Lord. in the name of the Lord Jesus, we ask. And all the people said, Amen. God bless you. I've kept you long enough. Be blessed and have you take us back in your life. Amen. Introducing the new Joseph Prince app. We've designed the new app with one thought in mind to make connecting with the Lord daily simple and easy for you. Through the guided daily experience, spend time in His presence and build a habit of starting your day right with the Word of God. Let's pray this short prayer together. Heavenly Father, thank you for your deep love and detailed care for me. I am grateful that you value me so much. and that you know even before I ask what I really need. Help me to remember that no problem or need is too small for you to handle. I bring all my cares to you, knowing that you are attentive to every little detail of my life. In Jesus'name, Amen. Today, everyone is looking to amuse themselves. They are engaged in social media because there's a constant craving to be amused. Musing is opposite from amusement. Amuse means you are silently contemplating, meditating, so shut down everything else that will distract you. Spend time. Bring up that word of scripture. Meditate on it. And the word of God will release health, life, prosperity into your life. I hope you enjoyed today's episode, but don't go just yet. If you'd like to receive prayer, share your testimony, or find out more about Gospel Partner, just click the link on this screen. If not, I'll see you in the next episode.