SPEAKER_01: God's desire for us is to overflow.
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of times we forget that even the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in the New Testament are not for you, although you benefit, but they are for the church.
SPEAKER_01: They are for the believers and they are for the unbelievers.
SPEAKER_01: We are meant to be poured into so that we can be overflowed out on other people.
SPEAKER_01: As you're standing, let's go to Philippians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: We read from this last week.
SPEAKER_01: We're crawling through this.
SPEAKER_01: I had somebody this morning say, I'm still in the same chapter on the same part that I was a week ago.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, That is deeper with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: When you can't get out of simple text that you fall in love with God, and now it's not so simple anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It has become alive.
SPEAKER_01: Now you begin to taste and see.
SPEAKER_01: I encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: I love the Bible app.
SPEAKER_01: We are on the Bible app.
SPEAKER_01: The church is.
SPEAKER_01: But I encourage you to get time alone with the Lord and get something that does not send out notifications to grab your attention.
SPEAKER_01: Get something that will pour into you as you pour over it.
SPEAKER_01: So I I said verse 11 or verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wait, no, that's right.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, I'm going on to 11, is what I'm doing to you today.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: If you got to say amen.
SPEAKER_01: Me need some more time.
SPEAKER_01: Say, hold up.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: All right, you had three seconds.
SPEAKER_01: That was it.
SPEAKER_01: I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody shout right there.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: He just mentioned a minute ago that we are Pentecostal.
SPEAKER_01: We like to get a little loud, we like to get a little excited.
SPEAKER_01: We like to raise our hands.
SPEAKER_01: We like to sing out loud.
SPEAKER_01: We like to pray out loud.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you might hear some tongues.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody.
SPEAKER_01: But what we forget about is the butt end of this verse where it says, I want to suffer with him.
SPEAKER_01: Sharing in his death.
SPEAKER_01: So in mine, it splits it up where it goes from 11 here, but this is in the middle of the sentence.
SPEAKER_01: I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying whether God allows me to feel this while I'm alive, or he allows me to experience him in the wholeness after I just want him.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we thank you so much for your mercy and your grace.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you, God, for your presence here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you, Lord, for all that you are.
SPEAKER_01: I pray, God, if there's anybody under the sound of my voice today that has not fully given their life over to you, by the time they leave here today, they will have made the declaration that they believe in you.
SPEAKER_01: You sent your son by faith through grace.
SPEAKER_01: Let today be the day that they become whole.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name, we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you that are new here, you walked in the door and you had no clue what was going on.
SPEAKER_01: Wait till next week.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: You never know.
SPEAKER_01: So this is week number four into our deeper series.
SPEAKER_01: And this this Sunday, we're going to talk about growth.
SPEAKER_01: Growth is good, but growth means change.
SPEAKER_01: Uh-oh.
SPEAKER_01: Growth means change.
SPEAKER_01: I I don't know what what kind of conspiracy is happening at my house, but around the time we begin to, and it may have been a little before, maybe I just wasn't ready to receive it yet.
SPEAKER_01: Around the time we started having getting pregnant and having the baby, and then we had the baby, and then and then life started being on her terms instead of ours, and and my time was no longer my time, it was her time, and it was more family time.
SPEAKER_01: And and all of a sudden, the conspiracy of my washing machine began to shrink all my shirts.
SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about that kind of growth today.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you wore stretchy pants to in preparation for your growth when we have the meal?
SPEAKER_01: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all didn't wear them in the church because you didn't want to be looked at, but you got them waiting in the car for you.
SPEAKER_01: Amen, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: But we we want to grow.
SPEAKER_01: Growth is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: There wasn't one amen.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are scared of growth?
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna work through it.
SPEAKER_01: Growth is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that because in a few.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna tell you when.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna say when.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna tell you when.
SPEAKER_01: But after school starts back, we're gonna assess the situation and we're going to see if we need to do multiple services.
SPEAKER_01: That is growth.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all just say, man, that's like hold on, hold on.
SPEAKER_01: Let's restart.
SPEAKER_01: When school starts back, some of y'all should have shouted on that one, amen.
SPEAKER_01: I'm ready for that to be started.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna assess the situation and we're gonna see if we have to go to multiple services.
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the same page, same line I'm reading out of today.
SPEAKER_01: Growth is good, but growth is also painful.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you don't get don't ever get a shot on that.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all knew it was coming, that's why you didn't cheer on the growth part.
SPEAKER_01: There are things that we have to grow through.
SPEAKER_01: There are things that we have to go through, but if we want to benefit, we must grow through it.
SPEAKER_01: But you can't have growth without the some of y'all are on the same page.
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get everybody in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: You can't have growth without the so if you want the resurrection power of Jesus, you must be willing to walk through the if you want the power of the Holy Spirit, you've got to go through some.
SPEAKER_01: If you want the power, if you want revival, if you want miracles, if you want signs and wonders, we gotta be ready to experience the because pain and growth go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_01: And if we let's let's read this one more time.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not even in my notes yet.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get there.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody told me yesterday, like, listen, we've been fasting all last week.
SPEAKER_01: Get over with it, okay?
SPEAKER_01: So we'll see what happens.
SPEAKER_01: I want to know Christ and experience the power that raised Christ from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: This is all good things, but if you want the power, you have to have the crucifixion.
SPEAKER_01: If you want what raised him, something has to be put to death.
SPEAKER_01: What are we holding on to?
SPEAKER_01: What have we been keeping?
SPEAKER_01: I've given this illustration multiple times.
SPEAKER_01: This example, I'm gonna say it again.
SPEAKER_01: If I sign over my deed to the house to Brother Jim over there, I think every time it's been him, he maybe want my house, and the Lord's trying to work it out.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if if I sign over it to him and I say, Look, it's all yours, except that back room, that belongs to me.
SPEAKER_01: Does the house fully belong to Jim?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is no.
SPEAKER_01: If we do this in our spirit, if we say, Lord, I want you, I want, I want this to be a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, but don't touch this area.
SPEAKER_01: Does our heart, does our mind, does our lives belong truly to God?
SPEAKER_01: The answer should be pretty obvious by now.
SPEAKER_01: It's no.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not here to condemn you, but I hope that the Holy Spirit convicts you.
SPEAKER_01: Because if we aren't receptive to conviction, we will never change and be closer to God than He desires for us to do.
SPEAKER_01: The healthy believer, you know, spiritual maturity is our sounding board here.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual maturity, spiritually mature believers receive correction.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, the Bible says that no correction is fun at the time, no discipline is fun in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_01: But when you see the benefits on the other side, you see the correction you receive in a different light.
SPEAKER_01: And it actually doesn't leave you here, but it matures you to a place that now you say, okay, Lord, I'm not comfortable here, but that doesn't change my calling.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not comfortable in this valley of decision or drama or whatever the case may be.
SPEAKER_01: Fill in the blank with where you are at.
SPEAKER_01: But when we receive the correction of the Holy Spirit, it benefits us, but the growth does not come without pain.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot grow deeper without walking through pain.
SPEAKER_01: Now, listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: As believers, we should view our lives differently than everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: We should view us differently than everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: You think you have a problem, or let me say it like this.
SPEAKER_01: To you, it's probably not a problem, but you're really good at picking out everybody else's sin and you don't pick out yours very well.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible, and this is you're you're not a one-off.
SPEAKER_01: This is not random because there's scripture that says fix the plank in your own eye before you try to help your brother with the splinter in his eye.
SPEAKER_01: Even the airlines caught onto this and said, Listen, if there's an emergency, put on your mask first before you help somebody else.
SPEAKER_01: Deal with what you got going on before you try to tell somebody else what they need to do in their area of correction.
SPEAKER_01: But we love to correct other people because it puts the spotlight on somebody else, except for us.
SPEAKER_01: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: It puts it on somebody else.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, they're the issue.
SPEAKER_01: They're listening if you have if you're having trouble in your marriage, look at yourself first.
SPEAKER_01: If you're having trouble in your finances, look at yourself first.
SPEAKER_01: If you're having trouble in your spiritual walk, if you're having trouble in your church, look at yourself first.
SPEAKER_01: Woo! Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not up here trying to scare you, but spiritual growth is paved with blessings.
SPEAKER_01: Read scripture.
SPEAKER_01: We are his people.
SPEAKER_01: So if my life fully, and this is where there's a caveat where you have to understand, if my life fully belongs to God, why would he not bless everything I touch?
SPEAKER_01: But here's the caveat: most of us want God's blessing without the burden of walking saved.
unknown: Woo!
SPEAKER_01: We want the blessing without the burden of sanctification, we want the blessing without the burden of holiness.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, don't get with that legalistic junk.
SPEAKER_01: It ain't legalism, it's scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all ain't amen.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Where'd it go next?
SPEAKER_01: But Paul says here, let's go back to Paul.
SPEAKER_01: Let's get off of you for a second.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back to Paul.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I want to know Christ, and I want to know him so intimately that I suffer with him.
SPEAKER_01: When we only this here here's the facts.
SPEAKER_01: When we only want the benefits of Christ, and we want the power, and we want the screaming and the yelling and the Pentecostal label and all this other stuff, but we don't want the suffering.
SPEAKER_01: We are serving Christ at arm's length.
SPEAKER_01: There is no intimacy until there is pain of the cross.
SPEAKER_01: There is no intimacy between us and Christ if we will not pick up our cross.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, Jesus, if you don't listen to anything else the scripture says, and you want to listen to Jesus, here you go.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't pick up your cross, you ain't getting into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: There must be death to receive life.
SPEAKER_01: It's the way it is.
SPEAKER_01: There is no growth without pain.
SPEAKER_01: You can't go deeper into the heart of God and avoid the valley.
SPEAKER_01: You can't experience resurrection power without the crucifixion pain.
SPEAKER_01: You can't become spiritually mature by running from uncomfortable conversations, from uncomfortable seasons.
SPEAKER_01: So today, I'm not telling you to ask for the pain, but embrace it.
SPEAKER_01: If your life fully belongs to God, then your prayer should be just as Jesus in the garden, when He didn't enjoy the trip, he was about to be beat almost to death.
SPEAKER_01: The Roman soldiers had a a skill about them that they knew how to beat somebody to the inch of their life so that they could still crucify them and kill them eventually.
SPEAKER_01: They did not want them to die on the whipping post, they wanted them to die on the tree.
SPEAKER_01: So if we want to be intimate with Christ, we have to learn to sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: We're not asking for pain, but we need to understand that as mature believers, what do you need to learn from this season of pain?
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, God has in a place right now that is so still and quiet, and you've been in the same spot for a while, it is about to drive you insane.
SPEAKER_01: But whatever it is has not been buffed out that the Lord wants to remove.
SPEAKER_01: Point number one pain precedes power.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, read it again.
SPEAKER_01: Philippians chapter 3, verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: I want to know Christ and experience his mighty power that raised him from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death.
SPEAKER_01: The pathway to power is through the pain.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, the same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to us, but only if we're willing to share in his sufferings.
SPEAKER_01: Too many believers are asking for resurrection power while running from crucifixion obedience.
SPEAKER_01: But God doesn't put power out like he hands out a pizza, he forges it in the fire.
SPEAKER_01: Look at Romans.
SPEAKER_01: Flip over to Romans chapter five, verses three.
SPEAKER_01: I had three and four, but we're gonna go ahead and do five.
SPEAKER_01: Romans chapter five, verses three and five, three through five.
SPEAKER_01: It says, We can rejoice too when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.
SPEAKER_01: And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5 says, And this hope, here's hope.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the hope that comes from the trials.
SPEAKER_01: This hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
SPEAKER_01: Point number two.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody's car alarm's going off.
SPEAKER_01: You parked over there.
SPEAKER_01: Pain reveals what comfort covers up.
SPEAKER_01: Endurance, character, hope.
SPEAKER_01: These are the marks of spiritual growth.
SPEAKER_01: But they are formed in suffering, not in easy seasons.
SPEAKER_01: Go over to James chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: James chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: James chapter 1, 2 and 4.
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me, 2 through 4.
SPEAKER_01: James chapter 1, 2 through 4 says, Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't know about you, I don't know what season you've ever been in, but I've been in some seasons where I wasn't too happy.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, I've been in some seasons where I wanted to punch everybody in the face I saw.
SPEAKER_01: Can we get real in the church house today?
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to throw punch anybody that came around me and said words to me because of the suffering that I was going through.
SPEAKER_01: But if for anything else, I learned how not to throat punch people.
SPEAKER_01: You can't name one person I punched in the face.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe I didn't learn the other lessons, but I learned how not to punch somebody.
SPEAKER_01: I call that a win.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we overlook, sometimes we overlook the small little blessings that God's trying to teach us, and we're like, well, Lord, I ain't learning anything.
SPEAKER_01: How many people have you killed today?
SPEAKER_01: Well, nobody, you won.
SPEAKER_01: Because some days be like that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.
SPEAKER_01: For you know that when your faith is tested.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: You mean I gotta go through test.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a bad tester.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I can memorize, I can quote, but if you put me to a test, my my brain just shuts down and I go stupid.
SPEAKER_01: Don't test me.
SPEAKER_01: But he's saying, when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.
SPEAKER_01: A chance to grow.
SPEAKER_01: So let it grow.
SPEAKER_01: For when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needed nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't that end part sound amazing?
SPEAKER_01: But that first part was kind of mm-mm.
SPEAKER_01: Like, Lord, I want I want to be, I want my life to be good, I want my life to feel complete, but we run from the test that the Lord puts in front of us.
SPEAKER_01: Pain has a way of stripping us down so we can see what really matters.
SPEAKER_01: It exposes our idols, it reveals our pride, it surfaces our fears, it breaks through our false identities.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us never realize how weak our trust in God is until we suffer.
SPEAKER_01: Let's talk a little bit Old Testament for a second.
SPEAKER_01: I I mention these people a lot because they are the epitome of stupid.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how else to phrase it up.
SPEAKER_01: But the children of Israel that were pulled out of Egypt, not only were they rescued from slavery, but God told them to ask all neighbors and surrounding people, and they gave them gold and jewelry, and they were wealthy people.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you think money makes you happy?
SPEAKER_01: How many of you think coming out of a relationship will make you happier?
SPEAKER_01: If you don't get the past off of you and you don't learn how to be free, then your freedom will constantly feel like bondage.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us never realize how weak our faith really is until we're put in the middle of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe, just maybe, a good loving God is allowing you to suffer until you truly trust him.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't set easy on the ears.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a shouting moment.
SPEAKER_01: But if you read scripture, if you go through the word cover to cover, this is how God operates.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because this stubborn boy doesn't get it until it hurts.
SPEAKER_01: I don't change until I feel the pain of what I did wrong.
SPEAKER_01: My dad was very skilled at helping me feel that pain.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody got any parents that they were that way as well?
SPEAKER_01: When you were in the wrong, we had, we got a board.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't get no belt.
SPEAKER_01: Hand, you know, Etsy, they make hand stuff on there.
SPEAKER_01: My dad should have sold paddles on Etsy.
SPEAKER_01: He would have made a killing.
SPEAKER_01: These things were handmade, crooked, it didn't matter.
SPEAKER_01: My mom broke one on me one time.
SPEAKER_01: It's probably because there's no padding and it was straight bone, but I still tell that story as I was a man.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't change until we feel the pain.
SPEAKER_01: If we aren't allowed to feel the pain of our sin, we will not turn away from it.
SPEAKER_01: God uses trials not to destroy us, even though it may feel like we're being destroyed, but he uses it to develop us.
SPEAKER_01: Think about Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: He was thrown into a pit.
SPEAKER_01: Let's go back.
SPEAKER_01: None of his brothers loved him.
SPEAKER_01: Only one stood up for him before they were going to kill him.
SPEAKER_01: Then the group of brothers lied and said that a wild animal got him.
SPEAKER_01: In reality, he was sold into slavery after he was thrown into the pit.
SPEAKER_01: He was locked in prison.
SPEAKER_01: He was even said that he was trying to sleep with his boss's wife.
SPEAKER_01: Which was a false accusation.
SPEAKER_01: And he ended up doing prison time for something that he didn't do.
SPEAKER_01: The pain prepared him for the palace and it matured him to be able to receive the promise.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_01: If I saw my brothers again and I was in power and they're the ones that sold me out and tried to do all those things to me, and I see them face to face again, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I would be like, Lord, turn away for a second.
SPEAKER_01: My flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Because if I would have gone through the same path he had to go through, but God knew that the stuff he was going through, Joseph could be trusted.
SPEAKER_01: Can God trust you with pain?
SPEAKER_01: Think about it.
SPEAKER_01: We want to say we're in church now.
SPEAKER_01: Oh yes, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do it, but I'm gonna raise my hand if everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: Do we trust him in the pain?
SPEAKER_01: This is a a lifelong of figuring this out.
SPEAKER_01: Because the only way you're gonna find out is when you feel it.
SPEAKER_01: Who was the biggest mouthpiece in the 12 disciples that always said, Oh Jesus, I would never betray you.
SPEAKER_01: I would never in a million, oh no, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Oh no, not me.
SPEAKER_01: And he denied him three times.
SPEAKER_01: Not once.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a slip-up.
SPEAKER_01: By the third time, we call that a pattern.
SPEAKER_01: He had a pattern of denying Jesus, and he had to flee because he probably would have made it a fourth.
SPEAKER_01: He also too claimed, oh, if the pressure's put on me, I won't bend to the world.
SPEAKER_01: And he walked with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You grow in what you press through.
SPEAKER_01: Point number three, you grow in what you press through.
SPEAKER_01: Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 4, we're gonna read 17, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, I lied.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do 16 through 18.
SPEAKER_01: Don't tell nobody.
SPEAKER_01: That is why we never give up, though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
SPEAKER_01: For our present troubles are small and won't last very long, yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_01: So we don't look at the troubles we can see, so don't look in front of you, or you will get distracted, your faith will be diminished because you're focused on the issue at hand.
SPEAKER_01: It says, rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.
SPEAKER_01: What is it called?
SPEAKER_01: What is it what is it talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Spiritual matters, being aware of what's going on around you besides the physical.
SPEAKER_01: For these things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
SPEAKER_01: This is why.
SPEAKER_01: Who's wearing the t-shirt?
SPEAKER_01: Five, five, and five, baby.
SPEAKER_01: This is why you need to know what the word says.
SPEAKER_01: This is why you need to have a prayer life, this is why you need to have a worship life so that you can be aware of spiritual things that are going on around you.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been in a house that has been hasn't had demon activity there for a while, and you think it's a cat underneath there.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying everything's a demon, but if read the New Testament, there's not a lacking of spiritual things going on.
SPEAKER_01: So why do we think it's any less today?
SPEAKER_01: It's not that it's any less, it's just we become more lazy, lazadaisical, and we don't want to realize that it's actually there.
SPEAKER_01: So if I ignore it, I don't have to deal with it.
SPEAKER_01: If I ignore it, if I don't think there's anything demonic going on or anything spiritual going on, I don't actually have to do anything.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, come on, it's all right, it'll sink in when you get home.
SPEAKER_01: Growth doesn't come from quitting, it comes from pressing through.
SPEAKER_01: You don't get spiritual muscles from listening to sermons.
SPEAKER_01: You ever heard of the sons of Skeva?
SPEAKER_01: You should look it up.
SPEAKER_01: They went in there and they tried to cast out a demon.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't prayed up, they weren't fasted up, they had no clue what was going on.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Paul, I know and Jesus I know, but who are you?
SPEAKER_01: The demon whooped them so bad they left naked.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you get whooped out of your clothes, you get whooped bad.
SPEAKER_01: If you walked in fully clothed and you get whooped up on and you can't find your clothes and just have to run, you're in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: You got you didn't get you didn't get beat up, you got whooped.
SPEAKER_01: And the sons of Skeva got whooped because they did not have what was necessary to handle spiritual matters.
SPEAKER_01: You can't bring your flesh, you can know the name of Jesus, but not understand the power thereof.
SPEAKER_01: You can know about the Holy Spirit, but never be filled.
SPEAKER_01: You could know about demons, but not step up to one.
SPEAKER_01: All right, that's all right.
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's something that I know.
SPEAKER_01: The closer a church gets to Jesus, the closer the church gets to God, things begin to manifest because sin can no longer make camp.
SPEAKER_01: So if that scares you, you might want to try somewhere else.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not kidding.
SPEAKER_01: You think I've been setting you up for spiritual failure?
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason I tell you to read your word, there's a reason I tell you to pray, there's a reason I tell you to worship God every day, because you don't know when something's gonna come out and try to grab you or get your people, your house, your church.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to fear the spiritual world because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.
SPEAKER_01: So we don't have to run from what the devil's trying to do because we serve the we are intimate with the one who holds the world in his hands.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I got them hit me up here.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know where it's we don't get spiritual muscles from listening to sermons, you get them by living through hardship with faith still intact, persevering to the end.
SPEAKER_01: This this verse doesn't minimize the pain, but it repositions it, it changes your perspective of how you see your pain.
SPEAKER_01: If you understand that it could be a lesson or it could be a blessing, how many of you got a flat tire before and it made you mad, or you hit every road light, or you got sick and you couldn't go out that night, but then you hear about a disaster that happened, you hear about a wreck on the same road you were traveling down.
SPEAKER_01: There's reason sometimes that we have issues or things stopping us so that we can not feel the damage in the end.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 12 11.
SPEAKER_01: I lied.
SPEAKER_01: Start at verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: This is why you need to bring your Bible start at verse 10, Hebrews chapter.
SPEAKER_01: 12 10 through 13.
SPEAKER_01: You can see where I was going to highlight it, so I try to make it easier for me to find it, and then I just I couldn't stop.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Lord, they need this, they need this.
SPEAKER_01: So verse 10, it says, For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how.
SPEAKER_01: My dad, he did the best, he knew how, and the best every neighbor knew how.
SPEAKER_01: He was good at disciplined me.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, just for a week, I want to discipline my child, my teenager, how my dad disciplined me, he'd be crying, uncle.
SPEAKER_01: But God's discipline is always good for us so that we might share in his holiness.
SPEAKER_01: So wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: If God disciplines me, that's the way to his holiness.
SPEAKER_01: If you dive into scripture and you read the things of scripture usually seem backwards to our fleshly minds, like pray a blessing over your enemies.
SPEAKER_01: Huh?
SPEAKER_01: That's a big one.
SPEAKER_01: That means we have to forgive them.
SPEAKER_01: You can't pray good, healthy prayers over somebody you don't like.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all's faces told the story.
SPEAKER_01: But God's discipline is always good for us so that we might share in his holiness.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening.
SPEAKER_01: It's painful, but afterward, somebody say afterward.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: There will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.
SPEAKER_01: So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees.
SPEAKER_01: I mean the house, like, yes, Lord, for the weak knees.
SPEAKER_01: Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.
SPEAKER_01: Let the pain drain you in the place where you are.
SPEAKER_01: Let the hardship shape you.
SPEAKER_01: Let the pressure deepen you.
SPEAKER_01: And as we close, you may be in a season of pain right now, emotional, spiritual, even relational.
SPEAKER_01: But don't waste it.
SPEAKER_01: God is not absent in your pain.
SPEAKER_01: Just we sing a song around here, even when I don't feel it.
SPEAKER_01: You're moving.
SPEAKER_01: Even when I don't hear you, you're still going off your feelings and go off of what you know is true.
SPEAKER_01: Don't go off of the feelings, but place your confidence in the facts that our God is constantly faithful.
SPEAKER_01: He is so aware of you, He's not only aware of you in the moment, He's aware of what you need for your future.
SPEAKER_01: So take delight in where you are, whether it is suffering, whether it is painful, whether it's taking your grip off of things when you really won't control.
SPEAKER_01: I'll raise my hand for that one twice.
SPEAKER_01: I enjoy control.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm only saying that because she's not in here, is she?
SPEAKER_01: No, don't go get her.
SPEAKER_01: So, y'all ever use those things that you cover your food in the microwave?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: We have two of them.
SPEAKER_01: One of them is for a regular plate, and the other one's for a bowl.
SPEAKER_01: So it's smaller.
SPEAKER_01: And it seems like every time I come back in the kitchen, they're back out on the counter.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, surely, she's not doing this just to get me.
SPEAKER_01: So I put both of them back up, and then a few times they're not even close to each other.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what's happening.
SPEAKER_01: And so I put them back together, I put it, because you can put them on top of each other, put them, put them up in there.
SPEAKER_01: And this last Thursday, Friday, whatever it was, I walked back in there and I walked past and I was like, is this witchcraft?
SPEAKER_01: Like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_01: It's one of those disappearing moving around things.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, baby.
SPEAKER_01: She came in there.
SPEAKER_01: You always gotta start with baby.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, can I ask you a question?
SPEAKER_01: She's like, sure.
SPEAKER_01: I said, why are these things always out?
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Immediately.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, we're going with that tongue.
SPEAKER_01: And I would love to tell you that I was just like, oh, baby, I just want to help you.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even sway like that.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't even have a soft voice.
SPEAKER_01: For some reason, both of us were on.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll tell you why we were on A as we've been fasting.
SPEAKER_01: Don't have hard conversations or trying to hash things out or figure things out in the middle of a fast because you will want to fast each other.
SPEAKER_01: So that was something so dumb.
SPEAKER_01: And listen, I'm not dumb.
SPEAKER_01: I don't cook.
SPEAKER_01: I know the kitchen is her area.
SPEAKER_01: And I know that I have the same problem.
SPEAKER_01: When I'm walking in my office, I will stack things, and finally, when I start feeling like this in my head, I realize I gotta put things away.
SPEAKER_01: So I know that's what happens to her.
SPEAKER_01: But it was my control that was manipulating how I treated someone I loved dearly.
SPEAKER_01: Did you catch that?
SPEAKER_01: Somebody go unplug your car or something.
SPEAKER_01: My goodness.
SPEAKER_01: Well, answer your phone because that's annoying.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so sorry.
SPEAKER_01: So you don't you don't get the benefits of the resurrection power without the death.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna circle back around.
SPEAKER_01: You don't get the benefits of the promised land without first going into the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: Do you understand?
SPEAKER_01: You don't get the benefits that we say we desire, the benefits of healing, the benefits of miracles, the benefits of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit if we don't sacrifice our own ambitions, our own desires, our own wants for what God wants to do, not what we want to do.
SPEAKER_01: If we want to go deeper, this is the path.
SPEAKER_01: If we want to get closer and intimate with God, we can't go around the pain, we have to go through it.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot get to a mountain without first going to the valley.
SPEAKER_01: And let me, I told somebody this before service today.
SPEAKER_01: Reading the scripture, and there's very, very few accounts where there is a God encounter on top of the mountain where there was more than just one person by themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: It may be the reason you ain't getting to the mountaintops because you have too much baggage called people.
SPEAKER_01: There may be a reason why you're not getting where you desire to go, is because you won't let go of the things that are actually pulling you back down the mountain.
SPEAKER_01: God desires for us to encounter him daily.
SPEAKER_01: This is it, this encounter, his presence is not based on a feeling.
SPEAKER_01: You understand?
SPEAKER_01: But you go to the mountaintop to encounter him.
SPEAKER_01: You can't avoid the fire because it is refining fire.
SPEAKER_01: You can't escape the suffering, but surrendering to what God will grow you into because of it.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a message that fills stadiums, but it is a message that builds disciples.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a message that will make you shout, I'm about to go out that door.
SPEAKER_01: No, mine.
SPEAKER_01: But everybody will stand here now.
SPEAKER_01: Just keep moving your chairs around, but we'll hear it.
SPEAKER_01: If you will, bow your heads just for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: With every head bad, if there's somebody here today, maybe you're visiting, maybe you've been coming for a while.
SPEAKER_01: And you ever fully dedicated your life over to God.
SPEAKER_01: I want to present a great opportunity for you to just lift your hand up and say, Lord, I need to give everything over to you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I'm tired.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray for somebody here today.
SPEAKER_01: They've not given their life over to you.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that by grace through faith, we are safe.
SPEAKER_01: If there's somebody here today and you need healing in your body, or you just want prayer, just want right where you're at.
SPEAKER_01: Just lift your hand up and say, I need prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter what they need, thank you for that hand.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that hand.
SPEAKER_01: Just keep it up, keep it up.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna find you in just a second.
SPEAKER_01: People around you are gonna gather up and thank you for that hand.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone else?
SPEAKER_01: You need you need freedom in your mind, you need freedom in your heart, you need healing in your body, you need healing in your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe there's a relationship in your life that needs fixed, or maybe you need the strength to walk away.
SPEAKER_01: Just lift your hand up.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, those that raise your hand, lift them high, lift them high, lift them high.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody look up and look around you.
SPEAKER_01: If their hands lifted, begin to lay hands, as James tells us to do.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I pray right now over every person that has their hand lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray if there is sickness in their body, that they be healed in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I pray, God, that if there's depression in their mind, if there's anxiety on their heart, Lord, I pray that today the chains fall off and they begin to live in the freedom that you had designed for them long ago.
SPEAKER_01: As the hands are lifted high, Lord, I pray for sickness to leave every disease, every ailment, every issue in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let there be a supernatural thing that happens here today in the powerful name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Let the chains of sickness break today.
SPEAKER_01: Let the bondage of anxiety break today.
SPEAKER_01: Let the bondage of every disease, mental, physical, emotional, relational, let the chains begin to fall off in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We praise you for the good reports that we're going to be hearing in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, give some praise up for the Lord today.
SPEAKER_00: I truly hope today's message has encouraged you, empowered you, and challenged you to go deeper in your walk with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like to find out more about us, I invite you to visit connectchurch.life.
SPEAKER_00: There you can find ways to give what we believe, our values, as well as different ways to reach out to us so that we can reach out to you.
SPEAKER_00: We love you.
SPEAKER_00: We're praying for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I hope you have an amazing week.