Speaker 1: Actually, we're going to show a video, but we're already transitioned, so let's just go ahead and keep going.
Speaker 1: It's about the same verse that I'm reading it from right now.
Speaker 1: So my key verse today is this Isaiah 41, verse 10.
Speaker 1: So do not fear.
Speaker 1: Say fear, fear.
Speaker 1: Do not fear, for I am with you.
Speaker 1: Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
Speaker 1: I will strengthen you and help you.
Speaker 1: I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Speaker 1: Let's pray, father.
Speaker 1: We thank you so much for your presence.
Speaker 1: That has already been here through our worship service.
Speaker 1: I pray a continuation, lord, thank you for your blood, thank you for your sacrifice, thank you for becoming the sacrificial lamb in place of what we truly deserve.
Speaker 1: But yet you took it on our behalf.
Speaker 1: Father, we are so grateful and we praise you today just for who you are.
Speaker 1: Continue on as we read the word Lord to bless this service.
Speaker 1: Move on the hardest of hearts, penetrate with the word In your name.
Speaker 1: We pray amen.
Speaker 1: I often pray this when we do a prayer before the service and the worship team.
Speaker 1: We meet in the back kitchen back there, that's through that door, and if I am praying, I pray that the hardest heart that comes in here or that is online that the word of God penetrate through the hardest of hearts, because the word of God has a way about it to penetrate like an arrow and embrace you at the same time with full love.
Speaker 1: It's so weird.
Speaker 1: It's like one of those things where your mama tells she loves you and then she gives you a spanking.
Speaker 1: My dad used to do that.
Speaker 1: All the time.
Speaker 1: He would explain to me before every whooping we were from the South, when you get spankings, we got whoopings and he would explain to me why I got in trouble.
Speaker 1: He made sure that I understood that there was something that I had done wrong, that I had sinned against my father and, being a pastor, I'm sure he sprinkled in some messages here and there and he probably has some good messages for his Sunday service to come, but God does that to us.
Speaker 1: I was talking with my wife and we were talking about fathers being involved in people's life and there's something about a leader, a manly leader, being in the home, because there's something about when you have a father or a father figure it may not be biological, but someone in your life who has that place in your heart and in your life that it shows you and displays the love of God from the father's position, when we actually the reason.
Speaker 1: The enemy is trying to dismantle and distract us from men and women defined by biology, trying to confuse us on what is what is.
Speaker 1: Because if he can get the father out of the picture, then they will never understand the love of a father.
Speaker 1: Is because if he can get the father out of the picture, then they will never understand the love of a father.
Speaker 1: And so he's attacking our children so that we have generations being raised up that do not understand what a father means, because they're trying to pull away the definition of what even a man is.
Speaker 1: That was free.
Speaker 1: That wasn't even in my sermon, so today we're going to be talking about.
Speaker 1: If you have not been following us, you can always go back to the Connect Church YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: We have every single message, every single sermon series on there.
Speaker 1: We also have a Facebook page and we've been going through a series this entire summer of detox.
Speaker 1: For the last few years, we have had a lot of pollution, whether it be media, whether it be sickness, whether it be disease, whether it be distractions or dismantling of our homes.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of pollution and the pollution that us living in fear.
Speaker 1: They can maneuver us and manipulate us into doing whatever we become scared of, whatever they have, that they keep repeating over and over again.
Speaker 1: If you have something that you once believed, it was usually because it was repeated over and over and over and over, whether it was true or not.
Speaker 1: If it it was repeated over and over, and over and over, whether it was true or not.
Speaker 1: If it's constantly repeated over and over and over, you eventually begin to believe it as if it is true.
Speaker 1: We have scare pollution all through.
Speaker 1: I hate we don't have any kind of network tv at our house.
Speaker 1: The services we have we pay for, and if i't like it I will cancel it in a heartbeat.
Speaker 1: Psalms 23, 4,.
Speaker 1: It says this Life seems this way a lot of times.
Speaker 1: It says even when I walk not if, even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid or fear, for you are close beside me, your rod and your staff.
Speaker 1: They protect and they comfort me.
Speaker 1: We love to quote this scripture and we love to repeat it over and over and over, as if it says we won't be in the valley.
Speaker 1: But that's not the assurance that it brings.
Speaker 1: It promises that you will be in the darkest valleys, but you have the blessed assurance that God is going to be beside you throughout this journey.
Speaker 1: There will be darkest valleys.
Speaker 1: It even says darkest.
Speaker 1: This is more than a PG version.
Speaker 1: Other translations say the valley of the shadow of death.
Speaker 1: I don't know what they were trying to convey here, but that does not encourage me, because I don't want to go through those valleys.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go through those dark times.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go through those valleys of loneliness and anxiety and depression.
Speaker 1: I don't want to go through those.
Speaker 1: But oftentimes in life, how many of you know that we cannot control what happens to us?
Speaker 1: We can only control of how we respond to it.
Speaker 1: I'm not 100% sure what the valley of death is, but it scares the dickens out of me and I'm not 100% sure what the dickens are.
Speaker 1: And even though the context of the scripture pretty much guarantees extreme dark valleys, depression, anxiety and, most of all, fear, he promises that he will be right beside us in the midst of every dark place.
Speaker 1: God, throughout the scripture, is called the marvelous light to come into his marvelous light.
Speaker 1: There is no darkness that his light cannot light up.
Speaker 1: There is no valley, that his hand, that it is too steep for his hand to reach down and pull you out of.
Speaker 1: And a lot of times in my personal experience, I want God to pull me out of the valley, but instead, like the scripture says, he ends up walking it with me, that he doesn't pull me out, but he comes down on my level and comes with me through the dark times.
Speaker 1: He promises he'll be there.
Speaker 1: And then he says the same rod that comforts will also correct.
Speaker 1: Now what does that say?
Speaker 1: If you go through Scripture and study this very intently or you've ever read the Word of God, you understand that it loves to correct wrong, it stands up for righteousness, it stands for truth, it stands for justice.
Speaker 1: It is something that will correct you and comfort you at the same time.
Speaker 1: We see it in this verse right here, one verse, and it promises we will be in the dark, but yet, even in those dark valleys, he will be beside us.
Speaker 1: A man named John Wesley.
Speaker 1: He said this this I have never known more than 15 minutes of anxiety or fear.
Speaker 1: When I feel fearful emotions overtaking me, I just close my eyes and I thank God that he is still on the throne, reigning over everything.
Speaker 1: Nothing is out of his reach, nothing is out of his control.
Speaker 1: It may seem sometimes that the enemy is winning, but I've read the end of the book.
Speaker 1: There is no competition, it's already been won.
Speaker 1: So we have no reason to fear, we have no reason to fret, we have no reason to worry because our God, who sat on the throne in the Old Testament, is the same God who felt in that time and place.
Speaker 1: We needed a Savior in that moment so that today we can be saved, filled and redeemed.
Speaker 1: And then he went away and sent a comforter, so that then we could be filled and have power.
Speaker 1: Have power, and I thank God that he is still on the throne, reigning over everything, and I take comfort in his control over the affairs of my life.
Speaker 1: You see when your perspective changes and you don't focus on the problem but you focus on the master, when you focus on the Lord, when you have God always.
Speaker 1: The Bible says to think on things above, because if we get distracted from what we see around us, that is right in our faces, we will always be depressed, we will always be anxious, we will always feel defeated because we're not focusing on things above, we're not remembering who God really is, not focusing on things above.
Speaker 1: We're not remembering who God really is.
Speaker 1: And no matter what the circumstance around me, no matter what I face, no matter what obstacle, no matter what opposition, for God it is an opportunity for divine destiny in my life.
Speaker 1: And all I have to do is say his name and the atmosphere changes.
Speaker 1: And God is not a microwave.
Speaker 1: He's on oven time y'all.
Speaker 1: He's a crock pot.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 1: He's a crock pot.
Speaker 1: You put on and you just walk away and you say you got this, god.
Speaker 1: And you come back, you go about your day and you come back to the situation and you're like oh, my goodness, it's done.
Speaker 1: You mean, I didn't have to sit here and try to piddle with it the whole time to make it work.
Speaker 1: Isn't that what we do with God?
Speaker 1: We want to give God a grocery list of ingredients.
Speaker 1: We would like to be.
Speaker 1: Oh, come on.
Speaker 1: We go to the store thinking we're going to shop for it today.
Speaker 1: We get back home and we're like well, if it's me, I don't know what to do.
Speaker 1: Like I see my wife just throw it in there.
Speaker 1: I guess that's what happens.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't work that way With anything that is for good ingestion, you first have to prepare it.
Speaker 1: The Word of God is prepared and set up in such a way that all you have to do is read it.
Speaker 1: You don't have to try to go through and rewrite it, it has already been written.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is be faithful in reading it.
Speaker 1: That's why I've issued a challenge.
Speaker 1: I say it almost every Sunday.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because about the time I get tired of saying it is about the time you start saying, oh, this might work.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to say it again.
Speaker 1: We have a challenge of 17.
Speaker 1: One small act of faith every single day, even if it's just stepping out of the bed when you don't want to, even if it's looking at the spouse that you don't love anymore, and you say, god, you are going to fix this, you are going to restore this, even if it's stepping out on that leg that has been giving you issues or back pain, and you say, every step I'm going to step, my Father steps with me.
Speaker 1: Even in the darkest valleys, he is going to walk beside me.
Speaker 1: Even in my sickness, he is going to heal me.
Speaker 1: And when you begin to walk it out, his Word comes alive in your situation.
Speaker 1: Because His Word is alive and active wherever you are.
Speaker 1: If you have been filling yourself with the word, the word is there and the problem is we go to spiritual battles because the Bible tells us that over the atmosphere there are evil and spirits that are around.
Speaker 1: That's not to spook you, this isn't a horror movie, it's not Halloween yet, but I'm telling you.
Speaker 1: The word of God says it, and if you look at some people you can know you got a spirit on you, you about to find Jesus, and when you start to speak these things, when you start to see with your spiritual eyes, all of a sudden what you see physically doesn't matter anymore.
Speaker 1: And it's not always that pouring the word into you changes your situation, but it will definitely change you.
Speaker 1: Every letter that Paul wrote a majority, not every majority of letters that Paul wrote.
Speaker 1: He was in prison and he wrote some of the most encouraging letters to other Christians who were out free, Because your situation should not define how you feel about God.
Speaker 1: Your situation does not dwarf God.
Speaker 1: He is the Almighty, he is the King of Kings and no matter what you face or come against, you do not have to fear because the Lord of hosts is still on the throne.
Speaker 1: You do not have to fear or be dismayed.
Speaker 1: Now, there are two different types of fear.
Speaker 1: There's only two.
Speaker 1: There's good and healthy fear and there's bad and unhealthy.
Speaker 1: A good, healthy fear.
Speaker 1: I touched that stove one time.
Speaker 1: I don't touch it again because I ate stupid twice, so I have a healthy fear of it.
Speaker 1: I have a healthy fear for my father.
Speaker 1: Him and I are.
Speaker 1: So this is how it is.
Speaker 1: Your father or your parent, and then you're a child.
Speaker 1: Okay, you don't get like this until you start having kids and really understand what the world's like.
Speaker 1: And even when you're like this, he's still a little bit like this, because I still have reverence and respect for him, even though he talks to me like a friend, the same with God.
Speaker 1: We have that opportunity of relationship and we begin to mature in Christ and we begin to really know God and we're like God.
Speaker 1: I need your help.
Speaker 1: I need your help and he's like it's okay.
Speaker 1: It's okay, you're a grown-up now.
Speaker 1: It'll be okay.
Speaker 1: You've lasted this long.
Speaker 1: You didn't die yet You're fine.
Speaker 1: Did you die?
Speaker 1: And the bad, unhealthy fear?
Speaker 1: And this is what a whole lot of us suffer from, because if you allow this unhealthy fear to take root in seed and plants in your heart, that fruit begins to grow and it will dwarf and choke out the fruits of the spirit.
Speaker 1: It will kill and extinguish your faith.
Speaker 1: Things that you know excuse me, things that you know in your mind are true.
Speaker 1: You've read them, you've seen them with your own eyes, but you begin to doubt.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of the woman with the issue of blood.
Speaker 1: She had tried everything and she knew if I could just get to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Well, for 12 years she suffered with that and 12 years ago a little girl was born, and her daddy.
Speaker 1: On that same day they both found Jesus.
Speaker 1: And what he said was so it reigns true in my heart.
Speaker 1: Have you ever believed that God can do things for other people?
Speaker 1: You see him work, you see the work of his mighty hand, you know.
Speaker 1: You know he can do things for other people, you pray.
Speaker 1: When you pray for them, you lay hands on them, like the Bible says to do, and you have faith.
Speaker 1: But when you ask God for something for you, you kind of doubt it.
Speaker 1: And this man said God, jesus, I believe, but help my unbelief.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's not an if or it's a both and and sometimes that fear that we have and doubts that we have actually produce.
Speaker 1: It pushes us to a place that is uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: It takes us to a place to where you may seclude yourself, but sometimes God has to allow us to find a place of seclusion so that we will find him truly.
Speaker 1: He has to take us out of those bad relationships, those bad variables in our life, and get us alone to where he can really speak and we can clearly hear.
Speaker 1: I had a grandmother it was my mom's adopted mom on her side.
Speaker 1: It's funny now, but it wasn't then.
Speaker 1: She's passed on to be with Dolores, so she's probably looking down right now.
Speaker 1: She sees my notes.
Speaker 1: I got them open right there.
Speaker 1: But she, my grandfather, passed when I was a young kid, her husband and so a lot of times when someone passes and they're older, you know they begin to decline real quick.
Speaker 1: So she I don't know why she was never like this, as far as I know, being a child but she all of a sudden started living in an atmosphere of fear all the time.
Speaker 1: And we were living in Missouri, she was in Arkansas, we were kind of we could go and visit her and stuff, and she was living on her own, she was doing good.
Speaker 1: And then something along the way I don't know what the circumstance was, but something along the way gripped her heart in such a way that she thought that someone was constantly gonna break in her house.
Speaker 1: And so, when she allowed this fear to take root and the seeds to be planted, all of a sudden it started to manifest in physical ways.
Speaker 1: And so what does a good daughter do, a good son-in-law do?
Speaker 1: We're about to move to Texas, taking to church down there, I guess, come on.
Speaker 1: So then she comes with us, and we were at this time we were in Missouri, about to move to Texas, and she had just moved in with us.
Speaker 1: And there's these things.
Speaker 1: They're poles and they have rubber on the end and it has a tooth thing like that, and you could prop it up against a doorknob and ain't nobody getting in?
Speaker 1: Well, she had some of those and my dad.
Speaker 1: We're all home.
Speaker 1: My dad walks out to check the mail and comes back to the door and he goes, hello, knocking on the door of his own house.
Speaker 1: But she had such a state of fear that as soon as he walked out she felt alone and she would put that up there where nobody was gonna get her.
Speaker 1: He wasn't leaving.
Speaker 1: And you know something that just came to my mind If she was in trouble and something really happened, the person she was keeping out was the one who could have helped her the entire time.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we do that with the Spirit of God.
Speaker 1: We allow Him to pass, we allow Him to go and come and do what he wants to do, because he's the owner of the house.
Speaker 1: Right, we're just there renting and he walks outside and all of a sudden fear grips a hold of us and we put that stopper on the door and ain't nobody getting in there, even God himself, because we want to shut down and don't want to be receptive to what God and the help that we need the entire time is outside the door, knocking to come in.
Speaker 1: I stand at the door and I knock.
Speaker 1: Write this scripture down 2 Timothy, chapter 1, in verse 7,.
Speaker 1: It says this very plainly For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
Speaker 1: Some versions say self-control.
Speaker 1: Have you noticed?
Speaker 1: You can see the absence of the Spirit of God, because there's no self-control in people anymore.
Speaker 1: That is not the Spirit of God.
Speaker 1: If you lack self-control, you need to check your spirit.
Speaker 1: It's not aligning with the Word.
Speaker 1: After Christ went up look, god sent the Spirit down.
Speaker 1: After Christ went up, he said don't touch me yet.
Speaker 1: I've got to go, but when I go there's going to be somebody who's going to come in my place and you are going to be endued with power.
Speaker 1: And they didn't even know what they were waiting on.
Speaker 1: I cannot find a scripture that says Jesus told them exactly what was going to happen when it came.
Speaker 1: All he said was it's going to come.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes we put our preemptive what we want God to do on top of our prayer and we pray through that filter and then God's like I wanted to do more, but you wouldn't shut up, you wouldn't stop praying for a specific thing that you didn't clearly understand.
Speaker 1: I've been there.
Speaker 1: After Christ went up, the Spirit was sent so that the people proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ would not be afraid.
Speaker 1: The Spirit of God was sent so that we would not be afraid, but to live in the truth boldly and without reserve.
Speaker 1: That when we that know the truth, do not back down from bullies, do not conform to the culture, but stand firmly on Christ, the solid rock, and boldly proclaim the truth, the one and only truth of God, that is His Word, not man-made or twisted by feelings or culture, but the unadulterated, the unaltered and undistorted truth of God's Word.
Speaker 1: Against this, nothing can stand, against his word the church.
Speaker 1: People need to come out and stop being afraid of proclaiming the truth and letting culture manipulate the church.
Speaker 1: It needs to be the other way around.
Speaker 1: We have got to stand up for what is right and to not back down to bullies or conform to the culture of what they say is right.
Speaker 1: I don't care if they call me homophobic.
Speaker 1: Homosexuality is a sin, but we all are sinners.
Speaker 1: I'm not grouping them in any kind of special group.
Speaker 1: It's adultery, it's sin and God does not like sin group.
Speaker 1: It's adultery, it's sin and God does not like sin.
Speaker 1: And the only way for them to be made clean and pure in the sight of God is through salvation of Jesus Christ, because Jesus came for the homosexuals too.
Speaker 1: May we never bend what truth is to the culture.
Speaker 1: May we only bend our wills and spirits to the will and the spirit of God, because we've all fallen short.
Speaker 1: None of us deserve to be proud like we have done something or earned our way into heaven.
Speaker 1: That's why you can't get to heaven by works, because if we could, we would start to boast about it.
Speaker 1: That's what the bible says.
Speaker 1: Because let's no one boast if I do something like me and brother howard and aaron back there put this cross up, just pointing it out.
Speaker 1: I know it ain't lit up.
Speaker 1: We had an electrical issue.
Speaker 1: Leave us alone.
Speaker 1: It's mounted.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: Next week or next month, whatever Next year, put it on your list Now, jesus Christ, and this is the one truth no matter what anybody does, no matter how they act, no matter how their attitude is, no matter how deep the hurt is, no matter how bad your marriage is, no matter how deep your sin has gone.
Speaker 1: For those of you who don't know me and you don't know my story, I used to be a meth head dealer and I was homeless, living in my car, and look where God has placed me now.
Speaker 1: Nothing that I can boast about, nothing that I can boast about.
Speaker 1: We in the church house like to get real proud and loud about what we've done in the church.
Speaker 1: Today, you ain't done squat.
Speaker 1: God has done it all and he finished it all and Jesus came so that all can be saved.
Speaker 1: That is what we need to have on the tip of our lips at all times is that look, you think you're bad, you think you can't go to church.
Speaker 1: Me too, I don't deserve to be in there either, but it's just a building, because we are the church.
Speaker 1: And the way you become the church is you come to Christ and immediately it says he washes away every sin, he wipes away every tear, he rewires your brain so that you can forget the bad that you've done.
Speaker 1: I can't even remember what it's like to get high, and it was only eight or nine years ago.
Speaker 1: But he loves me so much that he would take away old desires and he said behold, I do a new thing.
Speaker 1: If you come to me, I'm going to wash it all away.
Speaker 1: There is nothing that you have done that is so bad that God cannot forgive you.
Speaker 1: There is nothing that we can do to make him love you less, and there's nothing we can do to make him love us more.
Speaker 1: Well, that doesn't make any sense, I know, isn't it great?
Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 1: I don't deserve his love.
Speaker 1: I don't deserve his truth.
Speaker 1: I don't deserve to be able to read the word of God before other people and witness to them about what God has done in me, but for some reason, years before I was born in my mother's womb, he had set me apart, apart, and he had ordained me for a time such as this.
Speaker 1: Every person here.
Speaker 1: You have been ordained.
Speaker 1: You have been set apart, and God has a divine purpose for your life.
Speaker 1: Do not let the devil rob you of that.
Speaker 1: Shame is not the Lord's game.
Speaker 1: It's the enemy's game.
Speaker 1: Salvation, redemption and chain-breaking power is our God, because we have all fallen short, and only through his grace and mercy can we ever find Jesus.
Speaker 1: We can be made right and righteous to the Father only through his Son I'm going to have a voice after this, y'all get me started up and only by his Son, jesus Christ, the Savior of the world.
Speaker 1: Outside of this, there is no other truth.
Speaker 1: That's why people are so confused.
Speaker 1: Who are out there?
Speaker 1: They think they have their truth and if you have your truth, you're lying, because our truth does not measure up to the truth.
Speaker 1: Truth is not a feeling, it's a fact, and you can't measure up and say well, I believe this way, I don't care what you believe.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't care what I believe.
Speaker 1: You should not care what I believe or what I say if it does not line up with the word of God, kick me out today, because the word of God is the only standing truth through the test of time.
Speaker 1: It will stand until eternity because Jesus Christ is the word.
Speaker 1: When the Bible refers this healthy fear when it refers you ever heard of fear the Lord?
Speaker 1: This is the healthy kind.
Speaker 1: So it means having a deep respect or reverence, or being in awe of God's power and his authority.
Speaker 1: You see, we don't have healthy fear in our lives anymore.
Speaker 1: We're powered and fueled by unhealthy fear because we're so distracted by all the things going on over here and we forget that God's authority subsides and overrides what they're doing over here.
Speaker 1: It overrides anything in life, his authority.
Speaker 1: Rather than causing someone to be afraid of God, a proper fear of the Lord actually leads you to love Him.
Speaker 1: So why is living in fear bad?
Speaker 1: Because fear belongs to the Lord.
Speaker 1: Let me explain.
Speaker 1: This is how healthy fear works.
Speaker 1: So the word fear?
Speaker 1: In the Bible there's a Hebrew word, yare.
Speaker 1: It says to fear, to respect and to reverence.
Speaker 1: That's the verb.
Speaker 1: The noun is yireira, which sounds an awful lot like gyra Spelled a little different, but it just was cool to me Usually refers to the fear of the Lord and it is viewed in a positive quality.
Speaker 1: The fear acknowledges God's good intentions, how good he is, how merciful he is, his goodness, his mercy, his grace.
Speaker 1: This fear is produced by God's word.
Speaker 1: If you have someone who does not know God, point them to the word and they will begin to form a fear and a reverence of God and it makes a person.
Speaker 1: This is cool the rod and the staff.
Speaker 1: They protect and they comfort.
Speaker 1: They fend off things that are coming to devour you and yet they will comfort you also when they correct you.
Speaker 1: So listen to this.
Speaker 1: It makes the word of god the one truth.
Speaker 1: This is why, people, there is no other religion in the world that people try to snuff out and get rid of more than christianity.
Speaker 1: They do not attack anybody else.
Speaker 1: To everyone else we have to be receptive and singing around k kumbaya campfire, cross your legs with little fingers.
Speaker 1: There is no other religion that people try to say well, you can't do that here.
Speaker 1: I beg to differ, I will Jail me up.
Speaker 1: That's fine, because the word of God, this is what it does to the hardest of hearts.
Speaker 1: It makes a person receptive to true wisdom and knowledge and correction found in Jesus Christ we are only to fear and respect the living God.
Speaker 1: There is to be no other gods before him.
Speaker 1: So fear only belongs to God and that's why you don't need to be fearful of other things, because when you fear only him, everything else doesn't matter, because you serve a one true God who is always in control and can always, at the mention of his name, he will show up.
Speaker 1: It says if you just call on his name, I've heard stories of demonic presence being in a room and the person could not even speak the name, but they would just think the name.
Speaker 1: It shows you the power of the thought.
Speaker 1: If you just speak the name of Jesus, the demon has to flee.
Speaker 1: If you just speak, if you just think, god shows up on the scene.
Speaker 1: Whatever your situation.
Speaker 1: Nothing is to be in the place or reverenced like our God, nothing.
Speaker 1: And before we go any further, we like to say hallelujah and praise God in this church.
Speaker 1: If you are a quiet church, you're a dead church, just saying Ain't nothing going on.
Speaker 1: But when I say nothing belongs in the place of God, I want you to stop and pause for a second, because we allow things in our life constantly to be in the place of God that we look to, that we cling to, that we rely on.
Speaker 1: That is not God, and sometimes they're not even of God.
Speaker 1: They may be a blessing of God, but sometimes a blessing can become a burden.
Speaker 1: The children of Israel, out of bondage, took the gold.
Speaker 1: They were blessed.
Speaker 1: God said ask your neighbors and I will bless you.
Speaker 1: They had generational wealth and they turned that blessing into an idol, making the golden calf.
Speaker 1: Be careful that the blessings God gives you is not something you chase after and takes the place of a God you should be chasing after.
Speaker 1: Let's move on.
Speaker 1: You can chew on that one.
Speaker 1: So something interesting In the Bible it's not like he's singing like a little bird.
Speaker 1: In the Bible, 365 times there is fear not.
Speaker 1: That's one for every day of the year.
Speaker 1: I thought that was so cool.
Speaker 1: So for every day of the year you are not to live in fear, fear not.
Speaker 1: This is why it makes no difference who sits in the White House, because our future belongs to God.
Speaker 1: Nobody's going to come in that White House, no matter who you voted for or what side you're leaning to.
Speaker 1: They are not going to solve the problem.
Speaker 1: What will solve the problem is when a church begins to get on their knees before God and cries out and puts the Lord of hosts in his proper place, in charge of who we are.
Speaker 1: When people begin to pray, things begin to happen.
Speaker 1: When people begin to pray people that I've been praying this over this place, right here.
Speaker 1: First of all, on Tuesday mornings we got prayer meeting at 10 o'clock.
Speaker 1: If you work, that's great.
Speaker 1: We got one for seven for you too.
Speaker 1: That was a little spot for the church.
Speaker 1: Come and pray.
Speaker 1: We believe that things move, mountains move.
Speaker 1: They are thrown into the sea when we pray.
Speaker 1: I walk out here every single Tuesday morning and I pray that the Spirit of God draw the people driving by.
Speaker 1: I look and I point when my people out there probably think I'm nuts, but I point at every acre touching this property and I say in the name of Jesus, you're going to be ours for what God is going to do with this church.
Speaker 1: Now, why am I praying that?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 1: Because I want the wisdom and the vision of God.
Speaker 1: If I'm always trying to pray for today, I'll forget about tomorrow or something will hit me tomorrow, and I haven't checked it off the list.
Speaker 1: One small act of faith every day invite one person to church and then the other 15 is five minutes of prayer, five minutes of reading your word and five minutes of praising him.
Speaker 1: If you start your day off like that, you have already geared yourself up in preparation for what is to come.
Speaker 1: No matter what life brings, no matter what the media says, no matter what sickness comes over your house or loss that comes your way.
Speaker 1: We all have these issues.
Speaker 1: We all have these problems, but when you allow them to strike you with fear, you ever had that moment in your life where, just down to the very depths of your soul, there was fear.
Speaker 1: We've all experienced it.
Speaker 1: We've all at some point had to walk through that darkest valley.
Speaker 1: But we do not have to fear because fear belongs to God.
Speaker 1: Everything we face or encounter can be restored, healed, mended, brought back to life at the very mention of his name.
Speaker 1: We don't have to fear anything but the Lord because all authority belongs to our God.
Speaker 1: And the reason the Bible says fear not for one day I thought that was so cool every day of the year is because unhealthy fear that is not being in reverence to God.
Speaker 1: It's damaging, but fear is a liar.
Speaker 1: Fear will distort your view of yourself, your self-worth.
Speaker 1: Fear will make you see through a filter that no matter what God chooses to do, it's just going to be bad.
Speaker 1: No matter what situation, I pray all I want, god's not going to do anything.
Speaker 1: He's not going to show up and there's been times where, in the middle of the situation, it feels like God is not showing up.
Speaker 1: Can we be real?
Speaker 1: Have you ever prayed for something so intently and God didn't give you the answer you wanted?
Speaker 1: Jesus did.
Speaker 1: He was praying so intently that it said his sweat was like drops of blood.
Speaker 1: Some scholars say that he was praying so hard that capillaries burst on his head.
Speaker 1: There's no lack of fear or pain in the church house just because we come to church.
Speaker 1: We all have struggles, we all have issues, we all have pain, we all have hurt.
Speaker 1: But when you allow that unhealthy fear to take root and the seed be implanted in your life, it will rob you of what God's really trying to do through you.
Speaker 1: We see this in the children of Israel again.
Speaker 1: They're good examples for a lot of stuff not to do.
Speaker 1: They had to stay in the wilderness 40 years because they would not truly rely on God and believe the way they were supposed to believe.
Speaker 1: They were so stubborn in their ways they were provided for.
Speaker 1: The Bible says their clothes and sandals did not even wear.
Speaker 1: They crossed through a sea and still they were led by fire, and then they were led by a cloud.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we overlook the miracles God does in our life because it doesn't look and not paint it up the way that we want it to be, and so we allow fear to grip us even in the middle of our blessing.
Speaker 1: If you ever talk to Brother Vernon the bearded man, his mantra, his scripture that he says all the time because he believes it with all of his heart, is that all things, all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter what has went wrong or if it's been a whole lot of right.
Speaker 1: God is working it together for your good.
Speaker 1: If you love him and you're following him and you give everything to him and he has the proper placement in your life as Lord of your life, fear belongs to him.
Speaker 1: You do not have to fear the darkest valleys that we are promised.
Speaker 1: The Bible even promises you will have trouble.
Speaker 1: All right, this is not another encouraging verse.
Speaker 1: All right, this is not another encouraging verse, we will have trouble.
Speaker 1: It rains on the just and the unjust.
Speaker 1: No good.
Speaker 1: If you ever think in your situation that no good comes from this, rest in the promise that all things, if I love the Lord and I give it to him, it doesn't matter how it comes out.
Speaker 1: God is going to bless it, he is going to work it for my good.
Speaker 1: That is not you making a promise.
Speaker 1: That is you standing on his.
Speaker 1: There's a big difference, and unhealthy fear only manipulates.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing about fear it acts a lot bigger than it actually is.
Speaker 1: It puffs up, it acts like it's all big and bad, walks up to the door hey, we're going out, and a lot of us say, okay, all right, okay, what have you said?
Speaker 1: You just don't hurt me.
Speaker 1: I pray that the boldness of God rises up in you, that when fear comes knocking at your door, you don't just put a stopper on it, you open it and punch it square in the face.
Speaker 1: Or my favorite saying is throat, punch that bad boy.
Speaker 1: He'll be gasping for air.
Speaker 1: That's right, because God has given us the authority, through Christ Jesus, to be made right and the power of his Holy Spirit to speak.
Speaker 1: And it must happen.
Speaker 1: That's not me promising you that, that's just him.
Speaker 1: That's how good he is.
Speaker 1: If you allow fear to manipulate how you see things and it tries to puff up and seem like it's a lot bigger than it actually is, throat punch that bad boy and send him on its way, because fear will rob you of your faith in God.
Speaker 1: When you start to see fear all of a sudden, when you get your perspective shifted, it feels like fear is this big and God's down here.
Speaker 1: When we start to believe the lies of fear, it dwarfs our God and that's why it must only belong to God.
Speaker 1: He'll set that boy straight.
Speaker 1: And fear is pollution to the soul.
Speaker 1: It is toxic to your mind and to your heart and it is a thief of your faith.
Speaker 1: But, like we read, god has not given us a spirit of fear.
Speaker 1: The spirit that he sent us is not one of fear.
Speaker 1: We do not have to worry about consequences in speaking truth of his word, the person who healed them the most and showed love to all of them.
Speaker 1: They hung up on the cross.
Speaker 1: Why do we expect any different?
Speaker 1: He really loved him.
Speaker 1: I was listening to a radio show and the minister was talking about like in the church house.
Speaker 1: Now listen, if you can't handle certain situations, don't put yourself there.
Speaker 1: But Jesus was a friend to sinners.
Speaker 1: The ones that he got onto the most and despised was the Pharisees, the church folk.
Speaker 1: Last week, my cousin.
Speaker 1: He talked about Zacchaeus.
Speaker 1: He was a thief.
Speaker 1: That's not something, that's an accident.
Speaker 1: You steal people's money on purpose, overcharging and pocketing the profits.
Speaker 1: That's something he planned out whether it was a tough time he went through and it made him go there.
Speaker 1: The same, with what's his name, the dude that got Jesus, judas, could not remember his name, judas.
Speaker 1: The same way, judas was actually one that was pocketing the money from the purse as well.
Speaker 1: But God still went to Zacchaeus.
Speaker 1: Jesus still went to Zacchaeus and said hey, let's go to your house.
Speaker 1: He didn't just stay at the tree where he was at, he said let me go where you are.
Speaker 1: How many times did we pass up in the church house?
Speaker 1: How many times did we pass up someone who is not churched and we either don't want the trouble or the struggle.
Speaker 1: They're not desirable because they need to get all their stuff together.
Speaker 1: That is the opposite of the heart of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Do not pass up a sinner, because that's not what Jesus would do and you, as a believer here today, you do not have to live in fear.
Speaker 1: You don't See?
Speaker 1: One of the biggest things growing up was I lived in fear because I heard all the time that I was going to hell.
Speaker 1: Anybody else Like that old school Pentecost.
Speaker 1: Hell's still real.
Speaker 1: Y'all your sinful life will send you there.
Speaker 1: It still exists.
Speaker 1: It didn't just magically go away because everybody's all flashing rainbows everywhere and we're in harmony.
Speaker 1: Hell is still real, but the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus immediately nullifies any of that, immediately.
Speaker 1: Immediately, if I say Jesus, I'm sorry and I repent.
Speaker 1: Repent means I turn from my wicked ways.
Speaker 1: That means that lifestyle is no longer your lifestyle and you want to walk in the freedom of the word of God.
Speaker 1: Repent and turn.
Speaker 1: Today have you been living in fear?
Speaker 1: Maybe you're like my grandmother and you really have a deep-seated fear and you may not even know where it comes from.
Speaker 1: God wants to deliver you out of you that today.
Speaker 1: He wants to take that and pull that out by the roots so that you can leave today free of fear with every hip out.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do two altar calls.
Speaker 1: The first one is if you need to come down today.
Speaker 1: People will meet you here and we will pray for you.
Speaker 1: We will pray with you.
Speaker 1: We do not judge at this church.
Speaker 1: Nobody's going to be staring at you.
Speaker 1: They will be lifting you up and singing the praises of God delivering you.
Speaker 1: If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you have not experienced that freedom, that washing and cleansing of your sins.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make you perfect Nobody in here is perfect.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make you perfect Nobody in here is perfect but it does make you pure before the sight of God.
Speaker 1: If you need Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today and you want to take that step of faith, come down to the altar today and I will meet you here and we will pray.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you.
Speaker 1: I want to pray with you.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you Because I want to pray with you.
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you because every person that is sitting in here today has made that step at some point in their life.
Speaker 1: If you need Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I'll make it a little easier for you.
Speaker 1: If you're too worried about coming down and people seeing you, every head is bowed, no one moving around and you want to slip your hand up and say I need Jesus.
Speaker 1: I need to make that choice in my life.
Speaker 1: I want God to wash me and cleanse me and to release me of my sin.
Speaker 1: If you need that in your life today, slip your hand up and slip it right back down.
Speaker 1: I need to be cleansed.
Speaker 1: I need to be restored.
Speaker 1: I need to be renewed.
Speaker 1: I need Jesus to wash me and make me right before the sight of God.
Speaker 1: If you need Jesus today, just slip your hand up, slip it right back down.
Speaker 1: I wanna pray with you.
Speaker 1: We're all gonna pray a prayer together, so you don't stand out.
Speaker 1: This is not a time to embarrass you.
Speaker 1: This is a time to lift, encourage you that God knows exactly where you are and he cares enough about you to order your steps to be here today If everyone will pray with me.
Speaker 1: Dear Jesus, forgive me, cleanse me, wash me.
Speaker 1: You are the son of God.
Speaker 1: I believe in you.
Speaker 1: I receive you.
Speaker 1: Wash me clean, help me to turn from my ways.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: If you made that prayer today, we are celebrating with you.
Speaker 1: We believe, if you prayed that prayer there's not some magical prayer that all of a sudden you walk out and all your stuff is good and everything's right and the world is all humdrum and rainbows and butterflies.
Speaker 1: It's not.
Speaker 1: Your real life is going to hit you as soon as you walk out that door, just like it was when you came in here, but now you have Jesus in your heart to walk with you.
Speaker 1: Whatever dark valley you've been walking through, carry Jesus with you in every season.