A Multiplying Life: Every Promise Is a Rung on Jacob's Ladder

Sermon outline

You are not a mistake: what God has written about you in the volume of the book is as sure as what he wrote about Jesus, and you climb out of the corruption of lack and sickness one promise at a time by acknowledging, in words, what Christ has already done.

1. Jesus found the volume of the book written of him

   Psalm 40 is a prophetic word about the Messiah. Jesus did not plan his own life and ministry: he had to find out God's plan and fall into it, so in the synagogue at Nazareth he opened the scroll, found the place where it was written and said the scripture was fulfilled that day. From Genesis to the angel's word to Mary the book foretold him, and when the religious leaders accused him of blasphemy he leaned on what was written, not on his own reputation.

   Illustration: Jesus taking the scroll of Isaiah, finding the place, reading it, closing the book and sitting down while every eye was fastened on him.

   “Jesus did not plan his own ministry and his life. His life was planned by God himself.”

   • Psalm 40:7-8
   • Luke 4:16-21
   • Genesis 3:15
   • Isaiah 9:6
   • Luke 1:35
   • John 10:34-36
   • Psalm 82:6

2. What the volume of the book says about you: you are not a mistake

   God predestined your life before the foundations of the earth, and nothing that happens to you is a mistake. He walks through what is written about the believer: redeemed from the curse so that the blessing of Abraham comes on the Gentiles, blessed to be a blessing, the blessings of Deuteronomy 28, the promise to Joshua that God will not fail or forsake him, chosen and ordained to bear fruit, and God's workmanship created for good works. He calls this the believer's genealogy.

   Illustration: Joseph in the pit and in prison and Daniel in the lions' den were in the plan of God. Abraham was steeped in idolatry, yet God pulled him out of his family and made him a blessing, as he has pulled you out from wherever you were.

   “God has something written in the volume of the book just as much for you as he ever had for Jesus.”

   • Galatians 3:13-16
   • Genesis 12:1-3
   • Deuteronomy 28:2-13
   • Joshua 1:1-6
   • John 15:16
   • John 17
   • Ephesians 2:10
   • Jeremiah 29:11

3. Faith is not a feeling: your path gets brighter

   He pauses to explain why he is giving so much scripture. People who are used only to inspirational preaching have nothing to base their faith on when the storms come. Whether or not you feel God, he is always with you, and the path of the just shines more and more, so your end will be better than your beginning.

   “Faith is not a feeling.”

   • Romans 10:17
   • Proverbs 4:18-19

4. A multiplying life: grace and peace multiplied through acknowledging

   The Christian life is not static. It is growth and multiplication, not addition. The earth still operates under the curse that came with Adam's fall, but in Christ the curse on your life is reversed, and your home and family become a Garden of Eden. You are accepted in the beloved, a son or daughter of God and not a beggar. The knowledge through which grace and peace are multiplied means acknowledging what Christ has already done, and that is how you move out of the corruption that is in the world.

   “It's not just by knowing God, it's by acknowledging what God has already done for us.”

   • 2 Peter 1:2-4
   • Ephesians 1:6

5. You carry divinity, and God has already provided for the journey

   Every financial need and every sickness is corruption at work, and it is not God's plan for you. God does not live in a building or a statue: he has tabernacled himself in you, so when you show up at your business or your job the blessing shows up. He knew the day you were born and the day you will leave the earth, so he has already provided for everything in between. When you do not see it, you are failing not in knowledge but in acknowledgement. You cannot die before your time, and his grace covers your mistakes.

   Illustration: From his working years before ministry, when he headed a unit handling a case against a big hijacking syndicate: after the arrests, the ringleader and her advocate told him they had waited with two cars to ambush him on his way home. He always drove the same route, but that day he felt like going another way, and he only heard of the plan months later.

   “Promises of God is like a life jacket.”

   • 2 Peter 1:4

6. Called to glory and virtue: a renewed mind and angels going before you

   Glory is what covered Adam and Eve in the garden, and virtue is power resident in you that can be activated whenever you need it, whether you are a businessman, a dentist, a shoe repairer, a pastor or a hairdresser. You have been restored to your original form, so do not confess a bad memory. God's angels go before you and encamp around you, and he is your shield, so sometimes there will be no fight at all.

   Illustration: You can only renew a subscription that existed before and lapsed. To be told to renew your mind means there was a perfect mind before the fall, and you regained it in Christ, the second Adam.

   “Sometimes you won't have to lift a finger because the kingly anointing on you will kick in and you will get a result.”

   • 2 Peter 1:3
   • Romans 12:2
   • Exodus 23:20
   • Psalm 34:7
   • Genesis 15:1
   • Exodus 15:3
   • 2 Chronicles 20:25
   • Exodus 14:21-28

7. Jacob's ladder: every rung is a promise

   Jacob was running away with nothing and slept with a rock for a pillow, yet God was still with him because of the covenant with Abraham. He puts Genesis 28, 2 Peter 1:3-4 and 2 Corinthians 7:1 side by side: the ladder from earth to heaven is a picture of escaping the corruption in the world, whether debt, lack, sickness or poverty, and going higher. When he gives a prophetic word in church and someone grabs hold of it, he has simply helped them climb one step.

   Illustration: Jacob's dream of the ladder with the angels of God ascending and descending, and his words on waking, "Surely God is in this place."

   “Each rung of the ladder in Jacob's dream is a representation of every promise that has been written about you as a believer.”

   • Genesis 28:11-16
   • 2 Peter 1:3-4
   • 2 Corinthians 7:1

8. Present the promise, not the need: you lift yourself by words

   God knew every need before you were born, so he is not waiting to be told about it. He wants you to present a promise from his Word and claim it. He gives three examples: 2 Corinthians 9:8 for a financial need, Psalm 118:17 when thoughts of dying early come, and 1 Peter 2:24 when sickness strikes. God used words to create the universe, and you create your future, open doors and subdue things the same way.

   Illustration: He admits he has had thoughts of dying prematurely himself, and says he answers them with "I shall live and not die."

   “He doesn't want you to tell him your need, he wants you to present to him a promise out of the word of God.”

   • 2 Corinthians 9:8
   • Psalm 118:17
   • 1 Peter 2:24
   • Psalm 82:6
   • Genesis 1:26
   • Romans 8:28