Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
February 22, 2015 - W1508

Today's message is going to be a little different.  In fact, it's going to be a very unique service, something that I have not done in the last 20 years.

As you know, we purchased this building last December and later we will be adding a parking structure and more rooms. But this is more than a building program. It really is more a people program because God takes a project like a building expansion, and does something in us.  He molds us together.  He forges us together.  We begin to see something as, “We can do that!” It’s way beyond what any of us individually could do, but we are greater together.  We can do this.

And something happens within the hearts of this church.  He forges us into a nation, as it were, just like He did the children of Israel when they were ruffians down in Egypt, and through the Exodus He forged these ruffian slaves into a mighty nation.  And through this project God does the same with us.

So we don't want to think of it as a building project.  It really is a people project, and through that God's going to teach us about unity and diligence and challenge us beyond what we thought we could ever do, challenge us to something greater through a project.  Through it, He'll equip us and He'll build us.

In fact, the Bible says that,

“One will chase a thousand into flight, and two will put 10,000 to flight.” (Deut. 32:30)

Well, what if God is not talking about physical enemies?  What if he's talking about spiritual warfare? 

If there are 6 billion people in this world, how many angels are there? Maybe 6 billion, maybe more. What if there are 12 angels for each person? That makes it 72 billion angels. Now when Lucifer fell, he took 1/3 with him or 24 billion demonic entities.

God might be saying there's a spiritual principle here that when you pull together, my children, you will be able to do Holy warfare and puncture the darkness of this world, but you got to do it together.  It is a spiritual principle, and if you'll do it together, then you'll be able to push the powers of darkness away.

Do you understand why Satan tries his best to keep us apart, splits churches, gets things going in different directions, gets people mad at one another, and bitterness causes a split, we amputate relationships constantly?  Because Satan knows that when we pull together, we fulfill the power that God has given to the bride of Christ.  And if he can keep us from even understanding this principle, then it's easy to cut one another off.

That's why the greatest, the most expensive price Jesus paid was the shedding of His blood on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.  Because he knew we needed to stay together as we are greater together.  It's a spiritual principle. 

And when we pull together, when we work together, the gates of hell cannot prevail against us.

Even if you think about it this way, to each person the scripture says I have given a measure of grace, but together ?? together we have grace beyond measure.  Each individual will be given a measure of power, but if we move together, we have power without measure.  Do you see?  It is a spiritual principle that the devil would love us to be blind to, and we cannot be anymore.  If we're going to do what God is asking us to do, we are greater together.

And one of the best ways for us to act together is to pray together; so would you take out this little booklet called 40 days of prayer and promise, and I want you to ?? this is going to be real important.  I want us all to pray this.  And this is not just something to put on your shelf.  I want us every day to go through this.  And I have put together every day for 40 days a scripture and something to pray about, and if we will pray about this together, do you understand the demonic powers will have to relent and they will have to recede because the gates of hell will not be able to prevail. 

And the last time we went on a 40?day prayer thing, we bought this building.  The people that would not sell for years came the week after and said, “Okay, we'll sell.” It was just amazing because we didn't know where to go.  We had checked out 24 places.  Then we went into 40 days of prayer.  The Lord said, “We'll just stay right here.” God answered our prayer. Isn't that great? After 15 years of looking! 

And then the Lord said, “I want you to start a 40?days of prayer and promise and to do it together. 

Now, the Lord said to start the 40 days of prayer on Monday. And I started putting it together, and lo and behold, I looked at this and the 40th day ends on Good Friday, right at Easter, and I thought, “Wow, man.”  I started getting chicken skin all over, and it was like this is like the New Hope version of Lent.  So this is our Lenten season up to Easter, and so I want you to make sure that you have this with you. 

And, by the way, you know, when the Lord says that we're greater together, I was thinking now I know why God sent out his disciples two by two, because one sets a thousand to flight, but two sets 10,000 to flight.  There's ten times the power when He sends them out two by two.  So on one hand, as we pray together, there's going to be a massive power generated spiritually so that we can move and advance the kingdom forward, but we got to do it together because we are greater together.  It's a spiritual principle. 

We need everybody.  Because it doesn't say, “Two only if you're really cool people will set 10,000 to flight.”  Or, “Two if you're really talented will set 10,000 to flight.”  Or “Two pastors will set ten thousand.”  It says, “One will chase a thousand.”  Two saints of God will put 10,000 to flight.  So three will set a hundred thousand to flight. And we don't know how many demonic entities would love to see this church go down, but they might be in the billions, so we need everybody here.  And when we pull together, not even the gates of hell can prevail against us.

Now, God sent them out two by two not only because there's an exponential power, but I believe this, and I firmly believe that the gospel is best expressed in the sphere of relationships.  He didn't send them out one by one trying to get an eloquent orator to go out and preach the gospel.  No, two by two.  Why?  Because the gospel is best expressed in the context of relationships.  When people watch how we relate to one another, forgive one another, hold one another up, help one another up, they begin to see, there's something powerful about healthy relationships.

In Eccl. 4:10 it says,

“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor for if either of them falls, the other will lift up his companion.”

I want us to---as Paul the apostle said---run in such a way that we win; but at the same time, I want us to run in such a way that we care for one another.  Because if we care for one another as we do life together, that's when we win.  The gospel is best expressed in relationships.  It's not without relationships because we're greater together.  And that's the whole gospel.  And when one falls, the other lifts him up.  Every person is so crucial to God's plan.

God is saying that every single person is crucial and gifted and much loved in His book, every single one of us.  You're gifted.

Some people say, but I'm only one, and I don't sing or dance. On the contrary it's like a jigsaw puzzle.  Let's say you have 3,000 pieces in the jigsaw puzzle.  You open the box top; there you have all the pieces there.  Do you ever notice that there's no plastic bag that says extra pieces?  There aren't any.  Why?  Because every piece fits somewhere.  You don't have extra pieces. 

Paul writes in 1 Cor.12:21,

“The eye can never say to the hand, ‘I don't need you.’  And the head can't say to the feet, ‘I don't need you.’”

In fact, some parts of the body that seems weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. Therefore everyone is absolutely crucial to the Lord's plan.

1 Cor. 12:12 says,

“For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.”   

Especially in the next two or three years, we're going to need every single person.  Because I believe in our lifetime God wants to see His promise for this church come to pass, but we need every single person and God's going to use this building to build His children.  It's more than a building.  It's a people project, and what God's going to do is just amazing.

Indeed Psalm 27:13 says,

“I remain confident of this that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

God is saying this, “While you're yet alive, I want you to see the beginnings of what I'm going to do in Hawaii.”  And God's going to use our new home church as an object lesson to the people of this land of the scriptural principle to the world that when we work together, we are greater, to do something that others would see as impossible.  But we can't afford one person to be missing. 

In John 17:21 Jesus said,

“I pray that they may be all one, even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us. So that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

I want people to see that when we put our hands together, God does something great, and this will be a place where many will come to Christ.  But we need everyone involved.

As for the building project, this is where the five levels will be.  Four levels of parking, and then underneath will be an advanced auditorium.  This is the hallway that comes in right through here, and to the right will be an overflow auditorium, offices here to the left.  And this will be the sanctuary or this main auditorium.  You'll see the mezzanine above, and you'll see our ?? we call it an ohana lanai.

See that middle part?  That's called a walk of faith.  And that has tiles on it.  So you put your name here and a scripture or your life verse.  These go together, and this is where everyone can be involved. 

For a hundred dollars a month for our two?year program, two years, one of these tiles will be lasered with your name or your family name and your life scripture.  We're going to put this in a walk of faith that will go throughout that whole thing out there. 

Now, this is called a legacy tile.  Now, the cool thing is this.  It's not just about you having your name on it because it's called a legacy tile.  You know why I call it that? It is so your future generations will see and be reminded that you followed Christ and then your future generation will follow also. And God will use that connection to speak to that young person, that young lady for generations yet to come.  You will be speaking to your lineage to follow Christ, and I will leave you bread crumbs as it were.  “Follow me as I followed Christ.”  A legacy tile. 

If 3,000 of us would do that, and some people will say, well, I'd like to get two or three.  I'd like to do something for my grandmother that was a part of New Hope or my mom that was a part of New Hope and she passed away, there will be someplace that you can just put your mom's name in there.  But everyone who is a part of New Hope will get one of these.  You put that in that walk of faith, and for a hundred years they will be calling people, come, and follow us as we follow Christ.  And so that's the basic one. 

I want you to take 40 days to ask God to help you to give the most generous gift that you can.  Some of you might say I want to give a foundation tile, which will be about the size of three of those, and there will be a larger one for 10,000.  And we will have tiles, legacy tiles and foundation stones in this whole walk.  To some of you, God's given a greater capacity to give and so will get a foundation stone $10,000.  And then there are other gifts.  God may say I want you to give 50 or a hundred thousand.  We're hoping that a couple will give a million each.  If two of you would stand up and give that, we'd be pretty much done!

So I want you to take 40 days of prayer and promise and ask God.  Now, we're also going to have six times where we can gather together and ask questions in this whole prayer of promise. 

At these meetings, I'm going to meet with you, and you can ask any question about the building campaign or program because in 40 days we're going to talk about this at Easter.  Of course it will be a wonderful Easter service at the NBC, Neal Blaisdell, but we'll take our pledges at that time because we have spent 40 days of prayer asking God how we get to be involved.

So there you have it.  We're going to pray, and we're going to ask God to give us His blessing.  And then you'll see a short video and then the song Greater Together.  Let's bow our heads.

Questions

1.       Why are we greater together?
2.       Why did Jesus send out His disciples in pairs?
3.       Why is the body of Christ like one big jigsaw puzzle?
4.       What is the importance of having a legacy in Christ?
5.       What is the significance of having a 40 days of prayer?