Positive and Expectant: Two Road Signs and Four Keys to Win
Dr RJ Sing, 1 hr 43 min
Originally recorded as “Eight Secrets of Expectation”
Sermon outline
Cross into the new year very positive and very expectant, with a plan, a champion's mindset and God ideas, because God works through you to make things happen.
Main text
- Proverbs 25:2
- Revelation 1:6
Opening
During the offering he tells the church that the bigger the challenge, the bigger the victory, and urges everyone to be at the New Year's night service with their written plans and a seed, telling how one word at the previous year's service shaped his whole year. He then recalls Sunday's message on thankfulness and explains that, with Christmas and carols ahead, this is his chance to prepare them to enter 2008 wisely, with careful thought and planning. He announces his subject as eight secrets of expectation.
Expectation is the anticipation of something about to happen
Like a mother near the end of her pregnancy who knows her time has come, a child of God should know the time, season and purpose of what God is doing in their life. Expectation is a confident belief that something will happen, and nothing is born unless you are expecting it.
Illustration: An expectant mother: the doctors give a due date, but she knows when it is time to deliver.
“You cannot give birth to anything if you are not expecting it.”
Kings search out a matter: plan your year
God has made believers kings and priests, and it is the honour of kings to search out and discover what God has concealed. So you cannot walk into the new year blindly or in a hit and miss fashion; God works in partnership with you, and you must plan to have a successful year and take practical steps.
Illustration: He reads Proverbs 25:2 in the King James Version and the Living Bible ('the king's privilege to discover and invent').
“You cannot go blindly into 2008.”
- Proverbs 25:2
- Revelation 1:6
Word one: be very positive
Don't cry over spilt milk. Let go of disappointments, broken relationships, children who have left home and wrongs done to you at work, and stop taking responsibility for people who walked away. A child of God cannot fail: like a team that scores in the last minutes, you will win at the end.
Illustration: Soccer and rugby matches where the losing team scores in the last minutes, or in extra time, and wins.
“A child of God cannot fail.”
- Proverbs 13:12
Word two: be very expectant
Positive and expectant are the two road signs to follow through the year; every other turn-off is to be avoided. Don't stop to argue with critics, as Nehemiah would not come down from his work. Come to every service expecting one word that will make the baby in you leap, and remember that it all starts with your thinking, and that God has already planned a way of escape in every trial.
Illustration: Driving with many off-ramps and turn-offs: keep to the two signboards marked positive and expectant. If you can't climb the mountain, tunnel through it with a jackhammer.
“Doesn't matter how big the mountains are. Listen, if I can't climb the mountain, I'm going to tunnel my way through it.”
- Nehemiah 6:3
- Proverbs 23:7
- 1 Corinthians 10:13
Key 1: The right mental attitude
He gives four keys that will cause you to win in the year ahead, starting with the right mental attitude. He asks the church to write them down as pegs to build and plan the year on.
“These are four vital keys that will cause you to win.”
Key 2: Prayer and action
Not prayer alone: many Christians pray and do nothing. After you pray and are filled with the Spirit's strength, put it into action and find a solution to every challenge.
“I didn't say prayer full stop. I said prayer and action.”
Key 3: Persistence
Persevere whatever the weather and whoever does not like you. Don't say 'whatever will be, will be'; pray until you know the mind of the Spirit, then be stable and steadfast instead of changing direction every day.
“I'm not walking on confusion anymore.”
- 1 Corinthians 2:16
- 1 Corinthians 15:58
Key 4: The mindset of a champion
God did not create you to lose; since the new birth there is a champion spirit inside you, and how you view every circumstance will decide how you do. If you have lost your job, use your creativity and ask God for a plan. A wise heart discerns time and judgment, so know when to pray and when to act.
Illustration: He quotes Dr Lester Sumrall: champions are a rare breed who see beyond the dangers, the risks, the obstacles and the hardships.
“God did not create you to lose.”
- Ecclesiastes 8:5-6
A good idea is not a God idea
What God has for your friends is not your design: God has tailor-made a suit for you, and your job is to find it and wear it. Don't run another person's race or copy their good ideas; good ideas will not yield the results that God ideas will.
Illustration: He put up three flags at the church because God led him to, and someone else then put up fifty-five. He also tells how he prayed in a Johannesburg hotel about going on television, had a dream in which God said 'do it', and signed the next morning.
“There's a big difference between a good idea and a God idea.”
Don't wait like Saul: make it happen like David
1 Samuel 17:50 says David slew the Philistine, while 1 Samuel 19:5 says the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel: God works through your hands. Saul sat and watched while young David made it happen, so grow your business, your finances and your career, and leave the victim mentality behind.
Illustration: When the church combi was stolen, they let it go and bought a better one.
“Don't sit around and think, well, you know, I'm waiting on God. No, God's waiting on you.”
- 1 Samuel 17:50
- 1 Samuel 19:5
Lastly, winners are problem solvers
He admits he did not reach all eight and closes the teaching with this: in the new year you will solve problems. He sums up: be very positive, be very expectant, and use the four keys to have a winner's attitude.
“Lastly, winners are problem solvers.”
Putting it into practice
- Come to the New Year's night service with your written plans and a seed.
- Let go of last year's disappointments and refuse to cry over spilt milk.
- Keep to two road signs all year: positive and expectant.
- Pray, then act: find a solution for every challenge.
- Follow God ideas, not other people's good ideas, and make things happen.
Closing
He warns that the anointing without planning, strategy and direction leads to a road called nowhere, then gives the church one more word: they will live in an atmosphere of divine favour. He leads them in declarations, prophesies supernatural increase and debts cancelled for the new year, then gives the notices for the book launch, carol night and Christmas Day service, welcomes visitors, gives a salvation call and closes with the grace.
Declarations he led
- Lord, I'm a cheerful giver.
- I will not lose my focus. The bigger the challenge the bigger my victory.
- I'm wealthy. I'm very blessed. I'm prosperous. I'm successful.
- I'm a born again Christian, born again child of God. My way is open. I'm anointed for prosperity.
- I have ideas. I have concepts. I have divine strategies.
- My business is blessed. Home is blessed. Marriage is blessed. Children are blessed. Finances are blessed.
- 2008, my cry would be, the entire year, it is well with me.
- I'm a champion.
In his words
- “You cannot give birth to anything if you are not expecting it.”
- “A child of God cannot fail.”
- “There's a big difference between a good idea and a God idea.”
- “God did not create you to lose.”
- “The anointing without planning, the anointing without strategy, the anointing without direction is going to take you to a road called nowhere.”
Every scripture in this message
- Matthew 9:20-21
- John 15:2
- 1 Corinthians 3:9
- Ephesians 4:27
- Proverbs 25:2
- Revelation 1:6
- Proverbs 13:12
- Nehemiah 6:3
- Proverbs 23:7
- 1 Corinthians 10:13
- 1 Corinthians 2:16
- 1 Corinthians 15:58
- Ecclesiastes 8:5-6
- 1 Samuel 17:50
- 1 Samuel 19:5
- 2 Kings 4:26
- Luke 6:38
- Genesis 50:20
- Psalm 37:23