SPEAKER_00: Well, what's up, Multiply?
SPEAKER_00: How you guys doing?
SPEAKER_00: You guys doing good?
SPEAKER_00: Good, man.
SPEAKER_00: David said that when they told him to go to the house of the Lord, he said, I was glad that they told me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm glad that you are here in the house of the Lord at Multiply Church.
SPEAKER_00: This is, I think, my fifth time here.
SPEAKER_00: So if you've uh if you don't know me, that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to know me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like fourth string.
SPEAKER_00: So uh what's cool about that is that if this is not good, well, fourth string, man, what do you expect?
SPEAKER_00: So you just come back next week and you'll get first string with Pastor Forrest.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh if this is your first time though, seriously, this is a great church.
SPEAKER_00: If I lived in Frankfurt, this is the church that I would be plugged into.
SPEAKER_00: Um I have I met Pastor Forrest and Emily uh late last year, and they just have become real close friends to Jess and I.
SPEAKER_00: We love this church, we love your pastors.
SPEAKER_00: Um, they're the real deal.
SPEAKER_00: Uh when I think of multiply, I really think of a church that's woven into the fabric of the community.
SPEAKER_00: Uh seriously, Frankfurt is better because of this church.
SPEAKER_00: And so you this is a good church to get plugged into, is all I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: From the outside looking in.
SPEAKER_00: If you're first time here, you know, come back for first string next week.
SPEAKER_00: But more importantly, get plugged in.
SPEAKER_00: Turn your neighbors and say, get plugged in.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, well, it just like the team had said, uh, this is a great team here, too, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: I keep bragging on everybody, but it's just what I do.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I like bragging on people.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my wife and I, we moved uh our precious family to Lexington uh earlier this year in March.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my beautiful wife and I, we've been married for uh 14 years in 10 days.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we'll celebrate our 14-year anniversary.
SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, she is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: I've known her since uh sixth grade, so since we were 12.
SPEAKER_00: Uh now she would not talk to me when we were 12.
SPEAKER_00: Uh she was always the good girl, and I was the opposite of that.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh she didn't start talking to me until I got saved.
SPEAKER_00: So just take note.
SPEAKER_00: If you're single, you're trying to figure stuff out, you know, and you got a guy that's looking cute, but he doesn't have his life together, just ignore him.
SPEAKER_00: Let him get his stuff together and then hit him up when he gets his life right.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but she's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: We moved our family, uh, Willow, our nine-year-old, and Roman, our seven-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, we we we love to, we're planting New Circle Church, and so it's a great church uh already.
SPEAKER_00: We've been kind of gathering over the summer, and uh God's already moving in a significant way.
SPEAKER_00: But y'all have been multiplying a big support, actually, to uh New Circle.
SPEAKER_00: And so y'all already feel like a sister church, and so we're glad to be here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you didn't come to hear about my family, you came to hear a uh word from God, and so uh I've been wrestling with this message all week.
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited about it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you're taking notes, write this down.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you're not taking notes, write this down.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, how to win the fight, how to win uh the fight.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is Paul talking to Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Paul tells Timothy to quote, fight the good fight of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Fight the good fight of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: So faith is a fight.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you knew that, but sometimes, like sometimes I think we think faith is supposed to be like smooth sailing, just like it's easy, it's snow.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is a fight.
SPEAKER_00: Say, say it's a fight.
SPEAKER_00: But it's a good fight.
unknown: It's a good fight.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good fight.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul told Timothy.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, faith is a fight, but it's a good fight, and there is a way to fight.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna equip you today.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna show you the three different types of opposition that we all face.
SPEAKER_00: And hopefully the goal is at the end.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you the key at the end because now you're gonna have to pay attention.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, at the end, I'm gonna give you the key to fighting the good fight of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so when you're in a fight, that means that there's opposition, right?
SPEAKER_00: So, so what what is opposition?
SPEAKER_00: Great question, I'm glad you asked.
SPEAKER_00: Another word for opposition is resistance.
SPEAKER_00: See, some of us feel resistance or another great word is struggle.
SPEAKER_00: You feel struggle uh or tension is another good word.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's it's to have to have an to have opposition, it's to have some sort of obstacle or mountain in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: How many of y'all feel that?
SPEAKER_00: It's something that is preventing you from doing something or maybe becoming something.
SPEAKER_00: It's an obstacle, it's attention, it's an opposition.
SPEAKER_00: There, there are all different uh examples of this in scripture, by the way, which should encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: There are all kinds of men and women in scripture that faced significant opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Why should that encourage you?
SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes we think that when we're doing a good thing, that for some reason it's like discouraging to us that we face opposition.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, surely this should be so much easier.
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's why the Bible tells us to not grow weary in well-doing.
SPEAKER_00: Like when you're doing a good thing, that's when weariness comes.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're like, surely I shouldn't be feeling so much resistance, so much of a struggle, of a tension.
SPEAKER_00: And so we should be encouraged by the men and women in Scripture that faced significant opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna uh highlight one person in particular, just for sake of time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we're gonna look at King David's life, and we're gonna see uh the three different types of opposition that David faced, and then the key to winning the good fight of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all ready?
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's do this.
SPEAKER_00: Uh point number one: every sermon has three points.
SPEAKER_00: Every great sermon has three points, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: That's nowhere in the Bible, but I like three points.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: There's just something about that.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, got it.
SPEAKER_00: Point one, point two, point three.
SPEAKER_00: What's the call to action?
SPEAKER_00: I feel great.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's just a personality thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh point number one: the first type of opposition that we all face is opposition from you, from you, from us, from me.
SPEAKER_00: How many y'all know sometimes, man, we're our own worst enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the Bible says in Psalm chapter 42, verse 5, this is David saying talking.
SPEAKER_00: He says to himself, why am I so discouraged?
SPEAKER_00: Why is my heart so sad?
SPEAKER_00: Like here's a man that's after God's heart, and yet he's wrestling with this opposition, this internal struggle, saying, Man, I'm not feeling it.
SPEAKER_00: Why is my heart so sad?
SPEAKER_00: Some of the biggest opposition that we face is with ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: The the internal struggle, the the internal dialogue, right?
SPEAKER_00: Joyce Meyer calls it the battlefield of the mind.
SPEAKER_00: I love that language.
SPEAKER_00: Here we read that David, a man after God's heart, who says, Why am I so discouraged?
SPEAKER_00: Why, why is my heart so sad?
SPEAKER_00: Uh, David felt significant opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Just go read the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: Man, you're just, he's all over the place, but you're like, I get it, man.
SPEAKER_00: I really do.
SPEAKER_00: He he's always talking to his soul.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Be still, my soul.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to himself.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, be still.
SPEAKER_00: You feel so restless on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: He tells his soul to bless the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He tells his soul to wait patiently.
SPEAKER_00: He tells his soul to be quiet and to calm.
SPEAKER_00: Are you picking up on the self-talk?
SPEAKER_00: He tells his soul, be satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're just never satisfied.
SPEAKER_00: We just have this uh this hunger, this always to arrive, always to be striving for something.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling his soul, man, be calm.
SPEAKER_00: Like this internal struggle that we all have.
SPEAKER_00: The key here is to recognize the self-talk.
SPEAKER_00: We have to tune into the mental chatter, the internal videos, you know what I'm talking about, that we create, the the narratives that we create on the inside, these uh dramatic storylines, you know what I'm talking about, that we create in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are actually so good at it that we should probably consider a career in screenwriting.
SPEAKER_00: We're just master storytellers, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: But but the problem is that sometimes the things that we say to ourselves aren't true.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would say probably most things, these stories that we're creating on the inside, aren't true.
SPEAKER_00: Uh earlier this year, I read a beautiful book on prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's it's uh probably it probably is my favorite book I've read all year.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I love to read.
SPEAKER_00: I loved this book.
SPEAKER_00: A book on I love reading books on prayer, but this book highlighted three particular stories.
SPEAKER_00: And one of the stories that it highlighted was of a guy who came out of uh an addiction to meth.
SPEAKER_00: And uh he ended up breaking the addiction, and prayer was a huge part of his recovery.
SPEAKER_00: But he perfectly articulates this kind of battlefield of the mind.
SPEAKER_00: He says, quote, from the book, the problem with my head and this kind of battlefield of the mind is that it's not content with peace of mind.
SPEAKER_00: I can be having a wonderful day, and then out of the blue, something in me begins the pre-use ritual.
SPEAKER_00: I'll start checking to see if I want to use.
SPEAKER_00: If I don't want to use, my mind often won't be content with that.
SPEAKER_00: My mind will try to search or try to scratch the itch.
SPEAKER_00: Think about this this even this uh uh illustration, the way he uses it to try, my mind will try to scratch the itch to make it itch so that I can then scratch it.
SPEAKER_00: My heart begins to pound and my stomach tightens and shudders.
SPEAKER_00: This fragmented craving will be moving in several different directions at once.
SPEAKER_00: This the memory of the thrilling rush, he says, there's that memory in the past of that thrilling rush.
SPEAKER_00: He said, but then there's my present awareness that since I've stopped using the so-called rush, never was so thrilling, but more of a muzzle over my pain and anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's the seductive voice of the future that says, Yeah, but this time it'll work.
SPEAKER_00: This time it will be wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: You can control it, and no one will know.
SPEAKER_00: He said, All of these things are colliding in my head.
SPEAKER_00: It's the battlefield of the mind.
SPEAKER_00: All these inner videos and these our obsessive commentary on the videos we create, they end up working against us.
SPEAKER_00: This is important because the stories that we tell ourselves give the thing, whatever the thing is, its power.
SPEAKER_00: Stories fuel addiction.
SPEAKER_00: Stories fuel unforgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Stories fuel insecurity.
SPEAKER_00: See, some of us struggle to fight the good fight of faith because of the crazy stories that we just keep telling ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, without the story, you need to know that the problem, whatever the problem is, it starts to disarm its power.
SPEAKER_00: That's why uh Mark Twain put it this way.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm an old man now and have had a great many problems.
SPEAKER_00: Most of them never happened.
SPEAKER_00: Most of the crazy things that we make up never actually happened or will happen, but they cause us all these problems and anxiety, and they create in us all this opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes it feels like you're fighting you.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you feel opposition from you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm gonna show you the key to fighting back at the end.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so let's keep going.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, number two.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, uh, sometimes we feel opposition from others.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we feel opposition from us.
SPEAKER_00: We're own, we're sending people sometimes, man, we feel opposition from other people.
SPEAKER_00: David faced significant opposition from people, many of which, by the way, were close to him.
SPEAKER_00: They were friends and family.
SPEAKER_00: Uh David's own father, Jesse, overlooked him.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel comes to anoint the next king, and Jesse decides to not even bring David in the mix.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, nah, you don't, we don't David's out in the fields, just let him keep doing his own thing out there.
SPEAKER_00: There's he can't be king.
SPEAKER_00: Jesse's overlooking David.
SPEAKER_00: Uh David's father-in-law, Saul, right, who was king, opposed him, right?
SPEAKER_00: Rejected him.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, tried to kill him over 10 times.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and you thought you had a bad father-in-law.
SPEAKER_00: David's own mighty men rejected him, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And these mighty men, by the way, weren't just always mighty.
SPEAKER_00: David played a big part in their success.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, let me give you this.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Samuel chapter 22, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you what the mighty men were like before they became mighty men.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in 1 Samuel chapter 22, verse 2, and every one, these mighty men, this is the state of them when they come to David.
SPEAKER_00: They're all in distress.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of them was in debt.
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone was bitter in soul.
SPEAKER_00: Sound like a bunch of winners.
SPEAKER_00: They all gathered to David, and David became commander over them, and there were with him about 400 men.
SPEAKER_00: David ended up investing 10 years or so training these 400 men that were in distress, in debt, and bitter, and they became David's mighty men.
SPEAKER_00: He would go off and do great and amazing things for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But they started as outcasts.
SPEAKER_00: And these outcasts that David saw value in, believed in, trained them up to become his mighty men.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 6, David was greatly distressed.
SPEAKER_00: For the people, his mighty men spoke of stoning him.
SPEAKER_00: So here's a guy that's invested a decade.
SPEAKER_00: These mighty men owe David their life.
SPEAKER_00: And now they're talking about killing him.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about opposition.
SPEAKER_00: David's wife opposed him.
SPEAKER_00: Bible says she was embarrassed of him.
SPEAKER_00: David's own son opposed him.
SPEAKER_00: Absalom tried to kill him and take the throne.
SPEAKER_00: So David was rejected and overlooked by his dad, his father-in-law, his mighty men, his wife, and his very own son.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps I hope this encourages you because sometimes, man, when we feel opposition, especially from people that we love, we think, man, am I doing a bad thing here?
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't feel this heaviness.
SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't feel this tension, this struggle that I'm having.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm doing a good thing, right?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that why this isn't in my notes?
SPEAKER_00: But in Nehemiah, when they were rebuilding the walls in Jerusalem, uh, I think it was Sandbalot was trying to talk Nehemiah from getting down off the wall.
SPEAKER_00: And I love Nehemiah's response.
SPEAKER_00: He looks down at Sandballot and he says, he says, I'm doing a good work.
SPEAKER_00: I will not get off the wall.
SPEAKER_00: And so some of us, even though we feel like the sandballots of the world are trying to talk us down from doing a good thing, we need to look down and say, I'm not gonna get off the wall.
SPEAKER_00: I'm building a good thing, I'm doing a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: And to not be discouraged just because you have people that maybe don't understand the decisions that you've made, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Love them, pray for them, invite them to church, but you're gonna feel opposition at times, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let that discourage you from doing a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And then the third type of opposition that we face is opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, write this down opposition from God.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, sometimes it feels like we're wrestling with God.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Samuel chapter 6, David gets this is crazy.
SPEAKER_00: You can almost like when you read through David's life, you can almost just jump over this part, but this is mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Samuel chapter 6, David gets so offended with the Lord, the Bible says that he keeps God out of his city for three months.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: David, a man after God's heart, gets so offended with the way that God does something that he stiff arms God.
SPEAKER_00: He he so he he feels like God didn't do something the way that he wanted him to do it, and because of it God pushes, or David pushes God out.
SPEAKER_00: Says, uh, uh how many of y'all have ever felt that way?
SPEAKER_00: Where you feel like, man, God's not he seems silent, he seems not interested in the things that I'm working through, he's not responding the way that I want him to respond.
SPEAKER_00: You start to really wrestle with all these things, and you think, man, and and and you start to harbor a little bit of offense towards God.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, God knew that this would kind of happen, right?
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's why the Bible says Jesus actually said in Matthew chapter 11, verse 6, he said, Blessed is he who is not offended because of me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knew that there would be times in our good fight of the faith that we would sometimes struggle with this.
SPEAKER_00: And we would feel like we're wrestling with God.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Man, blessed is the one who doesn't get offended because of me, because you thought I should have done things the way that is not happening.
SPEAKER_00: I uh came across this story, I think this is a beautiful story, uh, of uh a guy, he wrote a memoir, his name is Nico, uh Nikos Kazanzakis, and uh Nikos wanted to become a monk and a Christian monk, and so he goes to an elderly monk uh to kind of learn from him, ask questions.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Father Makario.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh Nico goes to Father Makarios and uh he asks him, he says, Father Makarios, you're getting old.
SPEAKER_00: Do you still wrestle with the devil?
SPEAKER_00: Father Macarios said, No, son, I have grown old, and the devil has grown old with me.
SPEAKER_00: We're both too tired.
SPEAKER_00: Then he then he continued, I no longer wrestle with the devil, I wrestle with God.
SPEAKER_00: Nikos was kind of confused.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You wrestle with God and you hope to win.
SPEAKER_00: And Father Makarios said, No, my son, I hope to lose.
SPEAKER_00: See, the older you get in your walk with the Lord, the more it may feel like you're wrestling with God.
SPEAKER_00: But the goal is to lose, and to lose quickly.
SPEAKER_00: You're actually gonna save probably a lot more heartache and pain if you just stop wrestling.
SPEAKER_00: Opposition from us.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we feel this opposition from us.
SPEAKER_00: By the way, I'm going somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: You already know I am, and I can't wait to get there.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we feel opposition from us, sometimes we feel opposition from others, from friends, from family, and sometimes we feel real opposition from God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think it's really important to note before I land the plane that all three of these types of opposition, you, people, and God, none of them are the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: It's really important to note that people are not your enemy.
SPEAKER_00: You are not the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: God is most certainly not your enemy, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's why the Bible tells us that the battle is not against flesh and blood, it's against principalities and powers of the air.
SPEAKER_00: This is a faith fight.
SPEAKER_00: This is a spiritual fight.
SPEAKER_00: This this tension, this struggle that we feel, we the enemy wants us to make it about people.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the battle.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we are to know no man after the flesh, right?
SPEAKER_00: We are to look at everything that we do.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul said that I fix my eyes not on what's seen, but what's unseen.
SPEAKER_00: Because what's unseen is eternal.
SPEAKER_00: What's seen is temporary.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So this is this is a spiritual battle.
SPEAKER_00: So the the the the when you talk about the good fight of faith and there being opposition, we immediately think there's an enemy, and either I'm the enemy, people enemy, God's enemy, and that's not true.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So now let's look at how do we win this fight, this fight of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: What what do we do when we face opposition?
SPEAKER_00: Well, David gives us the key.
SPEAKER_00: Man after God's heart gives us the key to how do we win the good fight of the faith?
SPEAKER_00: We've already seen that David has faced all three types of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: He felt significant opposition within himself.
SPEAKER_00: He felt significant opposition from people.
SPEAKER_00: And David even at times felt significant opposition from God because he was not being cooperative.
SPEAKER_00: In this context, the Bible tells us what David did to win the good fight of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the key.
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
SPEAKER_00: It's a simple verse, but it's powerful.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: This is what David did.
SPEAKER_00: David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't look to himself for strength.
SPEAKER_00: David didn't even draw strength from people.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't draw strength from opportunity.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't draw strength from circumstances changing.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't draw strength from even removing.
SPEAKER_00: We think, well, I just need to remove the opposition, whatever the opposition is, and that's how I'm going to get my strength.
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't draw strength from going on vacation.
SPEAKER_00: All these things are good things, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: I would highly recommend that you find the right group of people, go on vacation if you need to go on vacation.
SPEAKER_00: If you need to change up some circumstances, do all these things.
SPEAKER_00: But David decided to draw strength from God.
SPEAKER_00: All of these things are good.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I on a side note would actually encourage you to find a community, a group of people that will help you draw strength from God.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, uh in fact, some of you need to know, let me put it this way: don't fight alone.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody needs to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fight alone.
SPEAKER_00: You've been trying to do this by yourself for too long.
SPEAKER_00: And I just encourage you, don't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do the the best community is a community, a group of people.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this church will do this, is to point you to the Lord and help you draw strength from Him.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you don't have a team or a group that you're a part of at Multiply, just go ahead and make up your mind right now that before you leave, you're going to hit that booth out in the lobby and you're going to say, give me a team or a group to be on.
SPEAKER_00: You need that.
SPEAKER_00: You need people in your life when you're going through, don't fight for the marriage alone.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fight for the life that God's calling you to.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do that alone.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fight for your family alone.
SPEAKER_00: You need people in your corner.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That one was for free.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says in the face of all of this opposition, that David strengthened himself in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 46 and verse 1 says that God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: Even when you feel like you're in opposition with him, God is your strength.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10, God says, do not fear, for I am with you.
SPEAKER_00: I know you think that I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: I know that you think that I'm distant, that I'm not attentive to what's going on in your life personally.
SPEAKER_00: God says, no, no, no, I am with you.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
SPEAKER_00: I will what?
SPEAKER_00: Strengthen you and help you.
SPEAKER_00: I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians chapter 4, verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: You know this verse.
SPEAKER_00: I can do all things through Christ who what?
SPEAKER_00: Strengthens me, right?
SPEAKER_00: David got a revelation that his strength comes from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But I've met so many people, man, that are struggling the faith fight because they're trying to draw strength from things that are not God.
SPEAKER_00: The strength that you need to fight, the good fight of faith, comes from God and God alone.
SPEAKER_00: So you may be asking, wow, how do you how do you draw strength from the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: How do you how do you strengthen yourself in the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: It's really simple.
SPEAKER_00: Relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Strength comes through your personal relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: For some, maybe you don't have a relationship.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've never thought of having a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps today you need to commit to a personal relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, maybe you've been around the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've grown up in church.
SPEAKER_00: You maybe had like a praying grandma, or you were dedicated as a child.
SPEAKER_00: You you've kind of been around the church stuff, but today you maybe need to recommit to your relationship.
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes the busyness of life has a way of just pulling you away.
SPEAKER_00: For both groups, I just want to encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: If you if you were to pick up your feet and allow the current of life just to take you, it's not going to take you where you want to go.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to actually take you further from God and from the life that He's calling you to.
SPEAKER_00: And God will bring you, hear me, He'll bring you into settings like this to get your attention.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives you an opportunity to respond by putting your feet down and not allowing the current of life just to take you where you don't ultimately want to go.
SPEAKER_00: Strengthening yourself is a call to relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And just like any relationship, sometimes you need a little encouragement to be intentional.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we get a little comfortable, right?
SPEAKER_00: Even in our relationship with our spouse, our relationship with our kids, we just get a little comfortable.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you just gotta recommit, re-up.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's that's it, it's your vows, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's why even after people get married, they go and renew their vows, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's like just kind of like a recommitment.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that they get remarried, but sometimes you need to be brought into settings like this just to be like, you know, Lord, you're right.
SPEAKER_00: I I I I feel your call to come home.
SPEAKER_00: To come home.
SPEAKER_00: I want to close with this story.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is where I've been waiting to get to, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you can go ahead and stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna we're gonna go back into worship here in just a minute, but as you stand to your feet, I I've heard I read this story.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you maybe have read her book, The Hiding Place, um, Corey Tamboom.
SPEAKER_00: She uh she is somebody who faced significant opposition, uh, real opposition within herself, from people, even at times, you know, her relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so I found her story really encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: I I hope it really blesses you.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Cori Ten Boom wrote the book The Hiding Place.
SPEAKER_00: She lived during the Holocaust, where Jews were being thrown into concentration camps, uh, and and she they were being tortured, of course, by uh Nazi Germany.
SPEAKER_00: So Cori Ten Boom, who wasn't a Jew, wanted to protect these Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: So this Christian woman and her sister would hide innocent Jews in their home for their protection.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they actually estimate that she saved about 800 Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: So Germans eventually caught wind of what Corey was doing.
SPEAKER_00: And so they arrested her and threw her into a German concentration camp.
SPEAKER_00: Corey smuggled a Bible into the concentration camp and would have secret Bible studies.
SPEAKER_00: Because of this, a lot of the prisoners that were there with her ended up converting to Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the cruel and heartless German guards uh would uh mistreat a lot of these prisoners.
SPEAKER_00: One German guard in particular seemed to focus on Corey, just kind of had him in his crosshairs.
SPEAKER_00: Uh he would strip Corey of her clothes and throw her into the shower and just watch her and yell inappropriate things at her.
SPEAKER_00: This German guard uh in particular loved to taunt Corey.
SPEAKER_00: He would make all kinds of obscene remarks, and one article said that it felt like he was undressing her with his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Corey ended up getting out of the concentration camp, which by the way, just think of that kind of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: Here she's doing a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: She's personally helped save 800 Jews and to go through that.
SPEAKER_00: Corey ends up getting out of the concentration camp, and years later, Corey Timboom would travel the world as a public speaker to tell her story.
SPEAKER_00: One night in particular, she was speaking at a church in Germany.
SPEAKER_00: She was talking about forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: After her message, a man approached her at the altar.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as she locked eyes with him, she knew exactly who it was.
SPEAKER_00: It was that German guard who abused her and tormented her and undressed her with his eyes.
SPEAKER_00: She said, quote, this is from the book.
SPEAKER_00: In that moment, she said, I stood there.
SPEAKER_00: I, whose sins had again and again been forgiven and could not forgive.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't hear her.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have the strength to do it.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't muster up whatever that is, the willpower, the desire to forgive this man who did so much wrong.
SPEAKER_00: I could have been, it could have been many seconds that he stood there and handheld out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Quote, I stood there with coldness clutching my heart, but forgiveness is not an emotion.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiveness is an act of the will.
SPEAKER_00: And the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: She says, Jesus, help me.
SPEAKER_00: She prays it silently.
SPEAKER_00: She says, Jesus, help me.
SPEAKER_00: Notice where she's drawing strength from.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have the strength to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, help me.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I need your strength.
SPEAKER_00: Help me.
SPEAKER_00: She said, I can lift my hand.
SPEAKER_00: I can do that much.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus help me.
SPEAKER_00: She lifts up her hand.
SPEAKER_00: She says, and so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust out my hand into the one stretched out to me.
SPEAKER_00: And as I did, an incredible thing took place.
SPEAKER_00: This current in electricity started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands, and then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I forgive you, she cried with all my heart.
SPEAKER_00: For a long moment, we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner.
SPEAKER_00: The man who had abused her, assaulted her, mistreated her.
SPEAKER_00: Here they stood shaking hands.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, in that moment, hear this, this is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Quote, I had never known God's love so intensely as I did in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: But even then I realized it was not my love.
SPEAKER_00: I had tried and I did not have the power.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have the strength.
SPEAKER_00: It was the strength of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It was the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like you to bow your head, close your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go back into worship here in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Corey's story is such a beautiful example of what strengthening yourself in the Lord looks like.
SPEAKER_00: She said that the love that she felt so intensely in that moment was not her love.
SPEAKER_00: It was God's love working through her.
SPEAKER_00: She was just a conduit of God's power flowing through her.
SPEAKER_00: Corey Timboom strengthened herself in the Lord her God.
SPEAKER_00: She recognized that she didn't have the strength to do what she did.
SPEAKER_00: What she experienced that day was the power of God, the strength that comes from God and God alone.
SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you, you need to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: Only God can take a heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh.
SPEAKER_00: Only God can soften you on the inside and give you the strength to love your enemies, to do good to those who hate you, to bless those who curse you, to pray for those who abuse you.
SPEAKER_00: Only God can strengthen you to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And when God becomes your strength and your source, you will win the good fight of faith.
SPEAKER_00: You'll see things differently, you'll feel things differently.
SPEAKER_00: You'll hear things differently.
SPEAKER_00: You know, this I'm gonna pray for you in a second.
SPEAKER_00: This this message when I wrote it was was not supposed to be a message on forgiveness, but I but I really feel that there are people in here that are really struggling to forgive somebody.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's you, but you you just the internal dialogues and the stories that you've been telling yourself, the narratives that you just keep fueling and fueling, it's the way you're talking to yourself, you gotta stop.
SPEAKER_00: Stop, stop.
SPEAKER_00: If you were to talk to somebody else the way that you talk to yourself, man, think about that.
SPEAKER_00: You would never do that.
SPEAKER_00: But here you keep feeding yourself all this garbage.
SPEAKER_00: You need to release yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Or for some, there's somebody that did something to you, they wronged you in some way.
SPEAKER_00: And my prayer for you is that through this message, through even Corey's story, that you'd begin to get a vision of what forgiveness looks like.
SPEAKER_00: And you you just need to release that person, not for their sake, for your sake.
SPEAKER_00: When you release that person in forgiveness, it's not to say that what they did was right.
SPEAKER_00: It's because you want healing.
SPEAKER_00: Do it for your sake.
SPEAKER_00: Father, in Jesus' name, Lord, I pray for every person under the sound of my voice.
SPEAKER_00: God, my prayer was that you would speak to each person personally.
SPEAKER_00: God, you would reveal to them what we are to do with a message like this.
SPEAKER_00: God, we don't want to just carry on as business is normal.
SPEAKER_00: We want to do business with you.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, here we are.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna worship for the next few moments.
SPEAKER_00: And God, we just open up our hearts to you.
SPEAKER_00: I believe that you're calling people to come to you if you're burdened, if you're heavy laden.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says that Jesus will give you rest for your soul.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna give you the strength that you need to release that person, to release yourself, to forgive yourself, whatever it is that you're working up against.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you'd get a revelation over these next few moments of what strength from God looks like in Jesus' name.