Transcript for:
Alpha and Omega: The Power of Beginnings and Endings

[Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] everybody [Music] Sakara [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] once again I want to thank your pastor and his wife for inviting me to come and spend this weekend with you it is always a great blessing to me and I told the congregation that was here on Friday evening and I want to say the same greeting to all of you that my pastor Tommy Barnett made sure for me to promise to give all of you his love and his greetings and he said for me to tell you that he looks forward to seeing you soon well how many of you love the Lord on this beautiful Sunday morning amen amen and how many of you are so glad that he is on your side amen amen amen it's a great thing to know isn't it this morning I'm going to be sharing with you a part of a revelation that came to me at a very needful time in my life Young on December the 30th of 2012. December my amazing wife of 42 years Rochelle then is Michelle passed away she passed away on a Sunday morning while I was at church she had been ill for about nine months and on that Sunday morning she went to heaven while I was driving home after the first service we have three services on Sunday morning I was in my car and I prayed a very simple prayer I'll listen carefully to what I'm going to say to you I realized that morning as I was driving to my house in those 20 minutes from my church to my home that I was going to have to walk in a place I had never walked and I knew that in order to walk someplace you have never walked you must learn something you have never learned I knew in my heart that I needed understanding from the word of God that I had never had so I prayed a very simple prayer my family and many of our friends to myself that a new life was going to begin for me my family my church and all my friends and so I prayed this prayer I said Lord please help me to not mess this up what I meant by this was my life my children's lives my grandchildren's lives my church and my friends and out of that simple prayer [Music] there were five major Revelations that came into my life four of those Revelations is found in a teaching that I did for my church several months later because they began to ask my children how is Pastor being so strong [Music] how is he going forward so powerfully I never intended to teach these Revelations because of study to teach God brought them to me so my life could keep going forward the first Revelations are in a series called when life doesn't play along so those Revelations came to me and then several months later what I'm going to share with you today and to this morning and tonight came into my life so if you have your Bible with you today would you open it with me to the Book of Revelation the first chapter [Music] what was interesting in this process in my life is that the Lord had already led me to do a teaching on the Book of Revelation with my church a year before now I hadn't taught on the book of Revelation from the standpoint of end times understanding because the tragedy to me is it the Book of Revelation is not about end times it has end times information in the Book of Revelations but chapter one verse 1 says the Book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ no other book in the Bible reveals to us the person and the character and the nature of Jesus more than the Book of Revelation and we learn who he is and how he is through the 23 different names that Jesus is called in the Book of Revelation Young so when I had taken my church through the Book of Revelation looking at those names sorry I was somewhat surprised when the Lord led me back to the first chapter of the Book of Revelation and he showed me this beginning in verse 8. Jesus appears to John Jesus and he says to him I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending and as I begin to look at that the Lord spoke to me in my heart and said I want you to read this as if you have never read it before you know there's a danger when we know when we become very familiar with scriptures that when we read it we read what we think it says and we miss what it truly says when I saw this verse I read the words I am the Alpha and the Omega the beginning and the ending but what I heard in my mind was that Jesus was saying to me I am the alpha alpha at one point in your life and then becomes the other he is both at the same time so he is in my in my beginnings and in my endings at the same time in every moment we know from life that when one thing begins it's because something else has ended when one thought begins it's because when one day begins it's because another day has ended last night at midnight Saturday ended and Sunday began now listen carefully to what I'm going to say it's going to sound like I'm changing the subject but I'm really not in Isaiah chapter 14 yes God the Father peels back the pages of history and he allows us to look back into ancient times and we see something he tells us how Lucifer became Satan and he says that this is what happened in Lucifer's heart God said to him you said in your heart I will exalt my throne above God I will sit on the sides of the north you see Satan has always wanted Jesus position the term sides of the north is actually referring to the church so what we see is that Satan has always wanted Jesus position he's always wanted to control Heaven the church your beginnings and your endings my beginnings and my Innings he loves to mess around with our alphas and our omegas Alpha and what I realized that day is our head to be very careful because I was at an Omega moment in my life [Music] listen to me now when something ends in your life you have to be very careful because if you're not Satan will come and try to sit in your endings and if I allowed him to sit in my ending then my ending would be filled with sorrow hopelessness pain suck it abandonment and ultimately bitterness he wants to sit in your endings so I had to be very careful and what enabled me to change that ending was realizing that Jesus is in all of my endings as a new beginning when one thing ends something new is beginning in that very moment he is both things at the same time in the next few moments I want to create in you a sensitivity to your alphas and your omegas your beginnings and your endings so let's begin to build this I'm going to quote several scriptures to to you for the sake of time as I begin to look at this my mind began to connect other scriptures where these words appearance the first thing the first verse that came to my mind was Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10. the Lord is speaking to us and listen to what he says he said I am the Lord the word Lord there's a declaring the end from the beginning [Applause] so how can he do that how can God declare the end from the beginning he can do that because he is Alpha and Omega at the same time because he is the beginning and the ending at the same moment then he declares the end from the beginning and he goes on to say that he does that so that his purpose may be fulfilled now Romans the 8th chapter verse 28 says that all of us that are children of God having have been called according to his purpose and the dictionary defines purpose as meaning then God's plan God's Will and God's design in my life in your life God declares the end from the beginning his will is designed for your life shall be accomplished in your life the end from the beginning so I began to think and another verse came to my mind a verse that my wife and I had had used and stood on and believed for many many years in our life is Zechariah 4 10. well the Lord says to us listen carefully do not despise the day Harry of Small Beginnings now my family please if you don't get anything out of what I say today get this I'm going to tell you something about your heavenly father I cannot tell you why he is this way but he is this way our father loves Small Beginnings he loves Small Beginnings [Music] he loves to start things small it's not the way I would tell him to do something I mean it would seem to me if I was running Heaven that I would wait for the next World Cup and when all the people in the earth were watching the World Cup finals World Cup I would just have Jesus descend from heaven into the middle of the fields and tell everybody I'm the Lord and the Savior receive me and we could wrap this whole thing up in about 30 seconds but that's not how the Lord likes to do things he loves Small Beginnings even the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth Jesus said yes that he started it like one grain of wheat uh sorry he says in the book or in the book in The Gospel of Markus that the kingdom of God as if as is like one grain of mustard seeds so he loves Small Beginnings but he warns us because he understands us that we must not despise the day of Small Beginnings that we do not walk right past these Small Beginnings in our relationships in our walk with him in our careers in our relationship with our children we have to be so care careful and we don't miss these Small Beginnings why am I emphasizing this so much now think with me since Jesus is Alpha and Omega at the same time he is beginning and ending at the same time because he is Alpha and Omega at the same time listen because of that he knows what beginning you need that will take you to the ending he has planned did you get that amen listen to it again he knows the beginning you need that will take you to the ending he has planned I will miss the new beginning that is standing right there next to the ending listen to it again he declares the end from the beginning so if he already knows the end then he knows the beginning that you need that will take you to the ending he has plans what an amazing truth I began to look at that and I became very sensitive to these new beginnings in my life because you see when Rochelle passed away that was an that was an Omega moment in my life but I don't just have omegas I have Alpha and Omega Siam Omega he is both at the same time so when that ending came a beginning also came foreign so I had to watch and look for that beginning are you learning anything this morning amen amen amen good right now sometime later while I was meditating on all this the Lord led me to go back to a very familiar story in the scripture you can go home today and read it it's in first Samuel chapter 17. and it deals with David and Goliath so again the Lord told me to read these verses as if I had never read them before now Watch What Happens so I went back and I began to look at it and the first thing that jumped out at me was how disrespectful Jesse and his brother's word to David Samuel had come to Jesse's house and told him to bring all of his sons before him because one of them was the next king of Israel and what was amazing he said Jesse brought all of them except David now my family we living in the New Testament Church we don't understand the authority that the Old Testament prophets had okay you did not willfully disobey them then if they told you to bring all your sons terrible things happen to people that disobeyed the prophets [Music] and yet Jesse disobeys they leave David in the field with the Sheep why would they do that finally they bring him in [Music] Samuel anoints him king of Israel and you know what Jesse does his son has just been anointed king of Israel he sends him back to take care of the Sheep job then in that time in history was not done by sons it was done by servants and slaves because it was a boring job hours and hours and weeks and weeks and months and months of boring work interrupted by moments of sheer panic when a lion or a bear came to eat the sheep and it didn't take the bear long to figure out that the shepherd was just as easy to eat as the Sheep was being treated by his father and his brothers as if he was not a son was given the job of a slave or a servant and even after he was anointed king they sent him back now sometime later David Goes to see his brothers at the valley at the valley of eloff and it's in that Valley that the nation of Israel is going to fight the Philistines his brothers are there when David Walks Into The Villa into the valley the first thing he sees is the nation of Israel have dug holes and they're living in them like foxes the Bible says they were all terrified because of the Giant Goliath a professional mercenary professional who had been hired by the Philistines to fight against the Jews and you may know the story three times a day Goliath would come into the valley and curse the Israelites curse and curse the god of the Israelites and challenge any man to come and fight him Saul became so afraid that he moved his tent to the back of the army David walked in and heard Goliath and said why doesn't somebody kill this uncircumcised Philistines his brothers told him to be quiet but David said I'll kill him yeah and this statement shocked me he said I will kill him just like I killed The Lion and the Bears I knew that in my head but I never saw what what was being revealed what does killing a lion and a bear have to do with killing a giant of a man so we all know today how David killed Goliath he killed him with a rock and a sling so I knew that there was truth there I think for the first time in David's life he connected the dots he understood for the first time why he had learned how to use the sling you see David was given a job that was beneath him he wasn't supposed to take care of the sheets you cannot despise your day of Small Beginnings see I believe that what happened was that he had that job and the Lord put it in his mind to learn how to use the sling to become accurate with a swing requires hours and hours of practice which David had because he was sending the Sheep listen carefully the Book of Judges tells us to within the distance of a hair's breath we have paintings from ancient times of men knocking birds out of the air young man with their sling I did some research I discovered then an accurate when they are twirling that rock it makes six to seven revolutions per second to those days in the sheep field thought that David would lose because Goliath had size and experience and for sure size and experience brings power but listen to me my family there is another source of power available to all of us this is the power of preparation that you become prepared in your day of Small Beginnings what would have happened [Music] that if David had reacted that way we would have never heard of David he would have never become the most famous King in history a man that lived thousands of years ago and we continue to name our children after him the most famous King in history he connected it he realized that in that day of Small Beginnings he was being prepared for this great moment in his life now listen carefully just a few more minutes but here's what we need to understand when David was in the field and God put it in his heart to become a to become good with the sling then Allah he did not tell David okay David listen foreign need you to become really good with the sling you need to practice for hours and hours and when you get really good I'm going to bring a lion and you're going to kill the lion then I'm going to bring a bear and you're going to kill the Bears because shortly after that I'm going to take you to the valley of elos and there Goliath yeah the mercenary you've heard about all your life he's going to be waiting and you're going to kill him with the sling in the Rock and guess what David you're going to become the most famous King in history man wouldn't that be great that's not how God works he gives you your small beginning he knows the ending but he doesn't tell you of course David would have been excited about that my goodness wow 40 years ago 39 years ago when I went in the ministry no one told me and all these years later I would be here on Sunday morning speaking to thousands of people in this great church was a home Bible study with a handful of people was an invitation to go to a high school during the lunch break and teach four high school boys for 45 minutes I did not know that out of those four boys and myself and all of us would become pastors of what we call the United States Omega churches when I received an invitation to speak at a little town in New Mexico I went there they told me they had a building and the building that they had me preaching was a business where people take their French poodle dogs to be clipped and their little toenails painted with toenail polish and little ribbons put behind their ears and while I'm speaking the dogs are barking all the time I'm speaking when I checked into the hotel they gave me a flyswatter flesh and I thought why until I open the door and there had to have been 150 to 200 flies in my room and the reason why was directly behind the hotel was what we call in the states a feed lot [Music] there had to have been 2 000 cows happy can you imagine the smell so there is it wasn't what I thought I was going to do when God asked me to go in the ministry when we started our church in El Paso I started with 12 young men in a home Bible study I had no idea that's out of that small beginning would grow the church that I Pastor today with thirty thousand members you never know what's going to happen those Small Beginnings prepare you for the big endings that God has you cannot miss those those Small Beginnings The Lion and the Bear David connected him in his life doubt every day in every moment it is a potential Alpha and Omega for your life let me tell you a story when I was studying this and looking at it and I have become very sensitive to this in my life I was at a restaurant one night and across the room for me was a husband and a wife and I was watching them because to be very honest with you I'm very envious of those of you that are married and it bothers me when I see people not taking care of their marriages because you have what I wish I still had yeah I was looking and I was watching this couple and as they were sitting there the husband was doing everything he could to get his wife to respond to him she was sitting at the table with her phone just scrolling through the phone scrolling California and he was talking to her leaning forward on the table smiling at her trying to get her to respond to him and she would never look up from her phone at one point he reached over and touched her hand and she simply looked up for a momentum California and say to her [Music] what are you doing now I don't know what was going on he may have been an ugly guy all day long but all I could think of was all the women that I speak to every week that would give anything if their husbands would pay attention to India here was their small moment their small beginning and yet she was despising don't let that happen don't despise your Small Beginnings in your walk with God on your job this week you may go to work someone may ask you to do something that's not really your job you're a small beginning it's going to take you yeah can I hear a good amen today amen amen it's true with your children when I'm at home I go to the same Starbucks every morning and when I was learning this I was there one morning and there was a man and his son and I was standing between them the father was here and the young boy it was maybe 10 years old was right here and the father was on his phone again and he was texting something and the young boy was trying to get his father's attention and he kept saying look at this look at this sir you don't know me a Jesus Alpha moment in your life that was going to take you to some great place for your life and you're missing it because the boy eventually just put the cup down I was watching him he looked at his dad and he went like this and walked off what was on that text that was more important than that boy I don't care if it was a president of your country nothing was more important than what that boy was wanting to have with his father are you listening to me this morning pay attention to your Small Beginnings because it may be a Jesus Alpha moment in your life because he gives you the beginning you need yes to take you to the ending that he has planned amen amen lift your hands towards heaven today let me pray for you father I thank you today for the revelation of your word I thank you for speaking to us and giving us understanding Lord make us sensitive to these Alpha Omega moments in our life [Music] amen amen amen before Pastor comes I want to show something to you last year my family put together this USB and I'm very excited to bring to you now I don't know much about computers but they tell me you just pop this out and plug it into your computer and also have these messages become yours it is the live recordings of nine of the greatest teachings that I have ever done 60 three separate messages this contains the teaching called Kings and Priests the one that I'm probably most well known for around the world it has the series called when life doesn't play along and I'm mentioned to you earlier and it has the entire Revelation called Alpha and Omega then in the complete series there are six teachings this morning and tonight I will share with you two of those six teachings so if you want the entire Revelation you might want to consider getting this it also has another series called endings and beginnings which my son thinks is the greatest thing I've ever taught there's a complete teaching on the Lord's Prayer the life of King David a teaching I did call this is the victory for the first time in my life I taught everything I ever wanted to teach on the subject of Faith about believing and speaking the law of faith faith and patience everything I ever wanted to say then there's a teaching on the book of Psalms and in verse by verse chapter by chapter study of the Book of Proverbs I'll if you were to order these CDs individually individual they would cost you 600 US dollars [Music] I sell this USB in my church in El Paso crisis for 50 US dollars but while I'm here for only 25 US dollars I don't know how that converts into your money but please do me a favor don't ever tell my church I sold it to you for only twenty five dollars they are going to want a refund but I wanted to be a blessing to you so I hope you'll look at this and I hope you'll think about getting it I believe it will be a great blessing in your life thank you and I hope to see you tonight um [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] hello [Music] everyone [Music] and leave your presence [Music] [Music] I love God [Applause] we will praise [Music] [Applause] welcome back [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] understand [Music] [Applause] somebody else foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music]