2. Context
• This promise was to people who had been in
captivity
• Their capital city had been left a ruin
• Desolate and declining not growing
• We hear bad news on church growth all the
time
• After a time of holding the fort
• We claim this promise for us at this time
3.
4. Enlargement
• Growth is our target
• Numbers do matter
• Not to boast
• Every seat filled represents a person pulled from
the hell
• Every seat represents another soldier going into
battle
• The churches were strengthened in the faith and
grew daily in numbers Acts 16:5
5.
6. Remove the Barriers
• No man who has any defect may come near: no
man who is blind or lame, disfigured or
deformed; no man with a crippled foot or
hand, or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who
has any eye defect, or who has festering or
running sores or damaged testicles. No
descendant of Aaron the priest who has any
defect is to come near to present the food
offerings to the LORD. Leviticus 21
• The blind and the lame came to him at the
temple, and he healed them. Matthew 21
7. Stretch The Curtains
• Gentiles couldn’t enter
• The Gospel removes the barriers
• The money barrier smashed
• The Good news is for all people
• Who are those who feel excluded today?
• Throw open the curtains and let them in
• All are welcome
8.
9. Claim the Promises
• Lengthen the support
• Get a greater knowledge of God’s word
• Get to recognise God’s character
• Get to see His heart
• Believe the promises
• Wrestle with the principles
10.
11. Go Deeper
• For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole
family in heaven and earth is named, that He
would grant you, according to the riches of His
glory, to be strengthened with might through His
Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to
comprehend with all the saints what is the width
and length and depth and height—to know the
love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you
may be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3
12. Go Deeper
• Not dead tradition
• Not simply singing about God
• Nor merely hearing about Him
• Not even just making our needs and requests
known
• But experiencing the presence of the Lord
• In our meetings
• In our quiet times
