What will you leave at the altar today?  God gave His biggest and best.

Third Prayer

We started looking at this story a few weeks ago.  She gave a sacrificial offering.  This could have been a part of her retirement plan, I don't know.

What will you sacrifice in celebration of Jesus' death burial and resurrection?  Beginning this year we are going to have an annual Over and Above Offering.  The challenge is to give your biggest and best gift.

What is the biggest offering that you have ever given?  Not tithe.  Offering.  Every year you should challenge yourself to give bigger.  And believe for it!  Last week we found out what a ram in the bush really is.  It is God giving you what to give Him.  So believe for it and watch God bring it to past.

It is on my heart to talk to you today about An Offering vs. A Sacrifice.

The next day after this great offering is Palm Sunday.  Palm Sunday is about The King coming.  But the question for today is "Why did Jesus come here?"  We've looked at why are things the way they are.  The things we've talked about, this explains everything.  And then we answered the questions how did we/he get here?  Talking about the devil.

The Second Prayer

I want to talk to you for a few moments about our upcoming over and above offering.  We started off this year by learning what it will take in order for us to have our best year financially.  It begins with tithing, then going over and above the tithe.  We talked about managing your money better this year and establishing a 90 day reserve.

We were challenged as it relates to giving over and above to give our best offering.  Well, on resurrection Sunday we have a great opportunity to do so.

Over the past several weeks we've been talking about sacrificial offerings.  Here, we have another example and the Spirit of God brought something to my attention that I believe will bless you.  For those of you who are preparing for this offering, God will provide Himself a lamb for the offering!

So we are continuing our series today on the subject, "The King & the outlaw."  Thus far we have asked and endeavored to answer a number of questions.  Like "Why are things the way they are?" and "How did we/he get here?"  "This explains everything."  Ultimately, this series is about the authority that you and I have as believer's, in the Name of Jesus Christ.  And how, and when, and where to exercise this authority.

The King that we are going to be talking about is Jesus.  And the outlaw that we have been talking about is the devil.  We left off last time talking about the devil.

I understand right now that this may be really hard to hear given that gas prices are what they are.  Which actually makes the sacrifice of what we give to God greater because we in one since have less to work with.  But please hear me out.  He sacrificed His life for you.  The question now is what will you sacrifice for Him?  We are preparing to celebrate the death burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus and in doing so we are challenging ourselves to do so by bringing a special sacrificial offering.  An Over and Above Offering.

A Sacrificial Offering is a Significant Offering.  So we started talking about this passage of scripture last week in Matthew 26.  This week I want you to notice...

How did we/he get here?  How did we get to this place where gas in $4+ per gallon?  Where one country attacks another for seemingly no reason?  Where a virus, rumored to be man made or intentionally released, changes life as we know it?

How did we get here in our marriage where we can hardly stand each other?  Financially, where we are living from paycheck to paycheck and the struggle is real?  Physically, where we find ourselves living with pain and symptoms of disease?

At the end of all these questions ultimately the devil is responsible for any kind of heartache, pain, suffering, destruction and death.  Jesus wants us to recognize this, but not only that, He wants us to learn how to deal with him.

Tonight we are beginning a new series that is called, "How to pray for a loved one whose not living right."  All of us have someone in our lives whom we love dearly.  And without being judgmental we know in our hearts that they are not living right.  They may not be saved or they may be saved.  But for one reason or another, we know that they are not living a blessed life.  And it touches us when we see that they could be doing so much better than they are.

Well if that is you, I want to invite you to study the scriptures along with me and learn to pray for them like never before.  What we are going to learn over these next several weeks is proven to get results and will cause great change in their lives.

I first learned these prayers from Bro. Hagin when I went to Bible school as a young adult over 25 years ago.  I want to read an excerpt from his book called The Believer's Authority.

So my assignment from the Lord in this series is to teach you from the word of God how to pray Holy Spirit inspired prayers for your loved ones that work!

The First Prayer to pray for your loved one is Ephesians 1:16+