SPEAKER_01: Well, like the brother said, we are glad that you are here today.
SPEAKER_01: I promise you, this is the best church on this side of the Mississippi River.
SPEAKER_01: And the other side, too.
SPEAKER_01: That was a congregation saying that, not me.
SPEAKER_01: So you know it's true.
SPEAKER_01: So another thing on May, I did not tell him because I didn't want it to overwhelm with all information today.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to send out a text with everything that we have mentioned today of things coming up.
SPEAKER_01: We are going to send out notifications.
SPEAKER_01: So the reason for you to put your name and number and fill that out, or if you like the analog and you got the little thing out there where you fill it out and says welcome on the front of it.
SPEAKER_01: We want to be able to get in contact with you to tell you everything that's going on.
SPEAKER_01: On May 7th at 4 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: at a church in White Oak, or the Carneleys Church, we are going to have our district meeting.
SPEAKER_01: And yours truly will be preaching.
SPEAKER_01: So if you don't show up, I know why.
SPEAKER_01: So they're going to be doing the worship.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to, when I first came over here, I met with the district overseer.
SPEAKER_01: That's the man who's in charge of all the churches in this district and area.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, What does the churches do?
SPEAKER_01: Because my vision, my heart is that churches stop being in competition and they start getting together to win the loss, like we're supposed to be doing as a church.
SPEAKER_01: That God needs to be the head of all of us, and we need to be unified before the people who don't know God because the love we have for each other is how the world will know God's love.
SPEAKER_01: And so I said, What do we do?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, we used to do this, we used to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, can we start again?
SPEAKER_01: And within a month, he started meeting with us.
SPEAKER_01: We go to breakfast every first Monday of every month, and he pays for it.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm there.
SPEAKER_01: I usually fast on Mondays, but I will prolong my fast further in the week for some free food.
SPEAKER_01: Especially free breakfast food.
SPEAKER_01: So be there.
SPEAKER_01: Get to know the other people in the churches.
SPEAKER_01: I do not fear if another church is going to take you because if you aren't growing here, God help you grow somewhere else.
SPEAKER_01: That's just my heart.
SPEAKER_01: I will never be mad at another pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, we have a relationship to where I got a call last week and said, hey, just letting you know somebody's coming that was at your church.
SPEAKER_01: He's at mine now.
SPEAKER_01: Just letting you know.
SPEAKER_01: Cool.
SPEAKER_01: That's how the churches should be.
SPEAKER_01: We should not be fighting over the churched people.
SPEAKER_01: We should be out there on the ground fighting for those who don't know God.
SPEAKER_01: We've got too much to at stake of people that do not know God to be fighting each other for people who already know God.
SPEAKER_01: I hope that sinks into your heart today.
SPEAKER_01: Growth track, baptism, membership service next Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Be here.
SPEAKER_01: If you'll stand for the reading of y'all are waiting for me to say it.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all stand for the reading of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna see how long y'all kept standing.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, all I'm saying is good thing we ain't Catholic, or y'all would have been up and down 20 times already.
SPEAKER_01: But y'all would have had some strong thighs, telling you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5 through 7.
SPEAKER_01: It says this.
SPEAKER_01: But you should keep a clear mind in every situation.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid of suffering for the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Work at telling others the good news and fully carry out the ministry God has given you.
SPEAKER_01: As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God.
SPEAKER_01: The time of my death is near.
SPEAKER_01: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you so much for your presence here today.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that your word come alive to us.
SPEAKER_01: Anount my lips as I speak the words you've given for your people today.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that I deliver it well and they receive it with a whole heart.
SPEAKER_01: In your name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_01: So, most of you that were here last Sunday, did everybody get a little thing of anointing oil?
SPEAKER_01: Last night the devil made me mad.
SPEAKER_01: And so, you may not know this or not, you may not be paying attention, you may not have kids in school anymore, you may not have teenagers, God help all of us.
SPEAKER_01: But some of us have allowed the enemy to infiltrate the camp that we should be calling sanctified in the sanctuary of God called our homes.
SPEAKER_01: And last night, I got a phone call.
SPEAKER_01: It revealed some information to me.
SPEAKER_01: And I got so mad at the devil.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was angry walking through my house last night.
SPEAKER_01: You ever do that?
SPEAKER_01: You ever mad?
SPEAKER_01: You're just like mmm mm-mm.
SPEAKER_01: You got the little sway, you got the little mmm, you're mad.
SPEAKER_01: You're angry.
SPEAKER_01: And I was mad at the devil because he's coming after our kids, and you never expect the devil to be aiming at yours until it's on your doorstep.
SPEAKER_01: And so I took my anointing oil and I began to walk through the house mad, angry.
SPEAKER_01: I was upset because I have allowed the enemy in my house through the back door to where I never saw it coming.
SPEAKER_01: It sneaks up on you, and then you get mad, and like I've been preaching on, I after the fact start anointing all the stuff around my house instead of doing it before it happened.
SPEAKER_01: I know that the devil is after my son.
SPEAKER_01: The enemy is trying to trick our young people into a false truth.
SPEAKER_01: And it is time for the people of God to stop being dead in the pews and wake up and realize that we are in a battle.
SPEAKER_01: I went through my house with my Nordical and I slicked up every doorpost, every entrance, every exit, every doorpost in my house, including the ones in and out to my kitchen, including the ones in and out to every single bedroom, and I prayed for the future bedroom that's gonna be my baby girls.
SPEAKER_01: I said, devil, you ain't you ain't you ain't getting in here.
SPEAKER_01: All it takes is one time of being lazy, and the devil will infiltrate your area and your heart, your mind.
SPEAKER_01: We have got to be on guard.
SPEAKER_01: I had a dream last night and I woke up, I woke up mad again after I anointed the house.
SPEAKER_01: I woke up this morning and I was angry because I had this dream, and I it probably has something to do with what's about to happen in the district service and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm preaching, and I uh in this dream, I am preaching my guts out.
SPEAKER_01: I am I'm yelling, I'm emphasizing, I'm giving them the word, and I'm looking at a group of people.
SPEAKER_01: That place was packed from people all over from different churches, and every single one of them was stone faced and dead and looking at me.
SPEAKER_01: And then in the morning, in this this morning when I was leading worship, some of you need to be in serious adversity and serious desert, so you start worshiping right again.
SPEAKER_01: We get so lazy and lackadaisical in our worship that God has to put us in the fire for us to begin to pour out our hearts to Him again.
SPEAKER_01: God is not coming back for a dead Brian.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming back for a church that loves him and loves to worship him, and we cannot stand or sit stone faced, looking at a screen with words and expecting to get something from God.
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like I'm praying against you, but I pray that serious issues begin to plague your life until you begin to pour out to God like you need to.
SPEAKER_01: I am in with you.
SPEAKER_01: That we get so busy that we forget who we are living, supposed to be living for, who we are supposed to be praying to, who we are supposed to be worshiping.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we come to him like a grocery list of things that we need from him, and we say, God, take the wheel, but tell him where to go.
SPEAKER_01: What will God have to put you through to really make you begin to worship as if your very spiritual person depended on it?
SPEAKER_01: I hope that the words are not falling on deaf ears today, but it penetrates even the hardest of hearts.
SPEAKER_01: God wants to bring his people alive to worship him.
SPEAKER_01: Every place in the Bible where something was going wrong, worship broke those chains.
SPEAKER_00: Praise begin to make mountains move.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk to those today who maybe you've gotten stale in your walk.
SPEAKER_01: This is not condemnation, this is personal experience that I'm not saying anything ever to you that I'm not saying to myself before it ever gets brought to you.
SPEAKER_01: That we need to be a church that is alive and active.
SPEAKER_01: Every person here is in ministry, not the person just holding the microphone.
SPEAKER_01: Every person here has a purpose, every person here has a responsibility, every person here has a duty to live your life according to the scripture and the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're like me, that means we got some work to do.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone else got some work to do?
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad we're all in this together.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's a key part of my message today, is that where you are right now, even though it feels alone, even though it may feel dark, it may feel like you are in the middle of the worst season of your life, but our God is never late.
SPEAKER_01: And his arm is never too short.
SPEAKER_01: And you here today, no matter what you are going through, no matter what you are experiencing, God has people around you to lift, hold, and guide you.
SPEAKER_01: You need to reach out to people for help.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because the biggest tactic of the enemy is to get the one who says they love God by themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Because if he can get you alone, he can get you off from the herd, he can attack you, you have nobody watching your back, and down you will usually go.
SPEAKER_00: But we run from accountability because we don't want anybody to know just how messed up we are.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you saw me, if you knew me behind the veil that I put up for everybody at church, you wouldn't want anything to do with me.
SPEAKER_01: And you know the truth is, in some cases, that is probably true, but if that's what happens, they're not the one meant to help you.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you got to prune those relationships so you can find true, healthy growth.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to talk to you today.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel like you're in the middle of the valley and you are just about to give up and your fight has run out, you feel like you can't even find hope anymore.
SPEAKER_01: There is hope in the cross, there is hope in the Lord, and He comes to set the captives free.
SPEAKER_01: And once you become free, you do not have to walk out if you're in those chains.
SPEAKER_01: Because who the Son says free, the Bible says that you are free indeed.
SPEAKER_01: You are free.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe some of you have had a goal in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody ever had goals you set up?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we just came out of January 1 where everybody set some goals, and January 14 is where we forget about them and we don't care anymore because they were stupid in the first place, and it was because I saw a YouTube video or I saw a reel on Instagram, and those guys are morons and they don't know what they're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way that I can look like that, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And just so that I feel like I am doing it, I'm still up in May and April.
SPEAKER_01: I'm paying for my gym membership.
SPEAKER_01: I'm still not going, but I will one day.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Can we talk real for a minute?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've had some goals, maybe you've had a dream, maybe God has a birthday dream in you.
SPEAKER_01: Every person has some sort of dream.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe when you were a kid, who wanted to be an astronaut?
SPEAKER_01: Who wanted to be a pirate?
SPEAKER_01: Man, me, I wanted to be a rock star.
SPEAKER_01: I always was like, man, that is so cool.
SPEAKER_01: Look at their hair, especially in the 80s.
SPEAKER_01: Woo! Big hair.
SPEAKER_01: They even named it a certain genre based on their hairs.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: Steven Tyler.
SPEAKER_01: Whoa.
SPEAKER_01: Man.
SPEAKER_01: Errol Smith, baby.
SPEAKER_01: Come on now.
SPEAKER_01: Let's not get too spiritual up in here.
SPEAKER_01: Telling you, man, I love the electric guitar shredding.
SPEAKER_01: I don't listen.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all may not like heavy metal, but if you listen to them, I'm like, oh, how do you move your fingers like that?
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, bang, bang, bang, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.
SPEAKER_01: And I think I'm shredding it up.
SPEAKER_01: I used to travel around with some pretty big Texas country bands.
SPEAKER_01: I was their photographer.
SPEAKER_01: I was a road manager.
SPEAKER_01: I would travel around and meet these other famous people that were in this realm of music.
SPEAKER_01: And it got to where I was doing nothing but drinking all the time.
SPEAKER_01: There's a reason I wasn't the rock star.
SPEAKER_01: Man, maybe you've had a dream for your life.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you are right now in a season where you're looking at your life and it is not anything that you once thought it would be.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody ever worked at a job that you never dreamed of and it's not where you wanted to be at all?
SPEAKER_01: But here you are, 10, 15 years later, even one year later, sometimes you're like, this is not right for me.
SPEAKER_01: And you feel stuck.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you change jobs or you need a few months to stop to figure out something else to do, your bills don't stop with it.
SPEAKER_01: It still comes in, and you still get backed up with bills and stacks of letters saying, You owe me this and you owe me that.
SPEAKER_01: You can't just write a letter back and say, No, I don't have a job right now.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_01: You can feel stuck, or maybe you've had a vision for your life that maybe paired up with the dream that you had for you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you have a vision for you, maybe you have vision for your job, or maybe you've had a business, or you have a vision for your kids, and all this seems to be coming to a standstill, and you don't know which way to go.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you started with great anticipation and you were.
SPEAKER_01: You ever start something?
SPEAKER_01: We do this every year, so I'm gonna go back to this again.
SPEAKER_01: Why am I saying that?
SPEAKER_01: Because some of us we need to get back to that.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, that's why the Bible says to repeat your first doings again.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you start to rekindle that first, that excitement again, you start finding that first love again, you start getting that motivation back.
SPEAKER_00: We start off with great anticipation.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna change the world.
SPEAKER_00: Five years later, you're like, maybe this wasn't God.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've hit resistance, maybe you've stalled out, maybe you've had very little or no progress at all, and the frustration has set in.
SPEAKER_01: You're discouraged and you feel like giving up.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know what it might be for you today.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you've had a relationship in your life that you've poured out yourself to.
SPEAKER_01: You've tried to go back and fix because the Bible tells us to fix relationships.
SPEAKER_01: Relationships is important to God.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you've been pouring yourself out, you've been trying to do the right thing, and it seems like it's worse than when it started.
SPEAKER_01: And you try to figure them out, and you can't.
SPEAKER_01: You try to counsel, you try to do whatever, you try to seek why it's counsel, and what am I doing wrong?
SPEAKER_01: And most of the time it's what are they doing wrong?
SPEAKER_01: Because we don't do anything wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And then somebody loves us enough to tell us the actual truth that hey, it might be you, and we don't like that, or maybe you've tried to bring healing in some of your relationships, you want to restore them, and things didn't go so well, and now you're back at ground zero, or maybe maybe those here fighting and fighting, and fighting, and it seems like Job in the story where we we get the story of Job and things begin to happen wrong in his life.
SPEAKER_01: And what happens in the middle of one of his people telling him what's going wrong in this certain area, in the middle of talking, another one comes up, in the middle of that one talking, another one comes up.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it feels like life just keeps coming with bad news.
SPEAKER_01: We keep hitting brick walls, and we're exhausted, we're tired, and we do not feel like going on.
SPEAKER_01: My wife yesterday, God help her, she's such a hard worker, and she's never been pregnant before.
SPEAKER_01: And she comes in, she's like, I'm tired, I hadn't done much, and it makes me angry.
SPEAKER_01: And I grabbed her little face and I said, Baby, listen to your body and go sit down.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us think just because we're fighting harder, we're gonna gain more ground.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you need to sit your little tail down and get some rest because your body's telling you to stop.
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of stop, she threatened me before I came up here, but I'm gonna say it anyways.
SPEAKER_01: Happy anniversary, baby.
SPEAKER_01: Eight years.
SPEAKER_01: She finally gave me a baby.
SPEAKER_01: She's giving me a baby, it's in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_01: But eight long years.
SPEAKER_01: You do realize I have the microphone right now.
SPEAKER_01: No, I was telling her, and I was telling her, stop telling people threats.
SPEAKER_01: I was telling her, well, I tell her all the time how much she means to me and how she is my best friend.
SPEAKER_01: And I told her we spent the day yesterday together just hanging out.
SPEAKER_01: We're always driven by calendar and scheduling and all this stuff, and yesterday we just kind of whatever we felt like doing, we'd go do it.
SPEAKER_01: And uh it was just nice, and of course, anniversary, you have to have Andy's, right?
SPEAKER_01: So we had Andy's Friday and Saturday, actually, I think.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it was last week sometime, but it was just a good time of reflection and just appreciating my woman because uh you do belong to me.
SPEAKER_01: And um I got the contract.
SPEAKER_01: I got the contract, she signed her name, got her, and uh, she, she, she, she, you don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But I told her, I said, you know, it doesn't really feel maybe to her, but to me it doesn't feel like it's been eight years.
SPEAKER_01: It feels like it's just in a blink of an eye that, man, she she didn't want to do much, and I'm like, well, it's a big deal to me.
SPEAKER_01: This is the longest I've ever been married.
SPEAKER_01: And it's just it's awesome what God does when you give him your life.
unknown: Come on, man.
SPEAKER_01: When you really give him everything and he blesses you in the ways that he does, and you just I I usually, when we go somewhere, I'm the one driving.
SPEAKER_01: She never takes me anywhere I've taken her.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, so I I always, always, she even said this like when we're laid in the bed, we always gotta touch feet.
SPEAKER_01: We I always have my hand in the car.
SPEAKER_01: And it's just to have that connection with her, even still after eight years, and still want to be around her, is amazing to me.
SPEAKER_01: Because I've been in the life where that wasn't it.
SPEAKER_01: And some of you you may have been praying for I I I have people talk to me all the time at man, y'all's relationship is amazing.
SPEAKER_01: It's because she's my best friend.
SPEAKER_00: God put me through a fire to get purified for her.
SPEAKER_00: And it's a lot of times that in the fire we hate it.
SPEAKER_01: But it also reminds me of the Hebrew children that if we just be faithful and know that Jesus will show up, you can walk through any fire and be okay on the other side.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us may have kids who have ran it and are far from God right now.
SPEAKER_01: I have a brother that has slowly over a long period of time went from hardcore mad angry atheist to now he thinks maybe there is something out there, but he's not 100% sure.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Laura, keep working on him.
SPEAKER_01: Laura, keep moving in his life.
SPEAKER_01: You see, a lot of times we give up and we get distracted, we get tired of praying for people, and we don't see the result then.
SPEAKER_01: I'm here to tell you today, I am a product of parents that prayed and did not give up, even though I was leaving a wake of bodies every step that I took.
SPEAKER_01: We have to believe that our prodigals will return home.
SPEAKER_01: We have to believe that our unsaved loved ones will find God and God will meet them where they are.
SPEAKER_01: We have to believe and have faith in this.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot give up.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're here today and you've been praying for healing.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody in the house need healing?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes God does a thing and everybody sees it, and it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes the healing only gets better over time.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we pray and we pray and we pray and we don't see the results we want to see.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: I don't have an answer.
SPEAKER_01: I am not God.
SPEAKER_01: But I do know this.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't call me to heal, he calls me to pray and believe.
SPEAKER_01: He is the healer, he is the redeemer, he is the chain breaker.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just called to pray and be faithful in what he has called me to do.
SPEAKER_01: So what God has called you to do, do not waver, do not stop, remain faithful.
SPEAKER_01: Because God will show up.
SPEAKER_01: We don't always get to receive the results.
SPEAKER_01: But I believe things change when we begin to declare over ourselves what we want to see.
SPEAKER_01: That's speaking in faith.
SPEAKER_01: That I walked through my house last night and anointed everything, and I rebuked the devil, and I hope he felt it, and I hope it punched him right in the face.
SPEAKER_01: Because I don't play patty cake with the devil.
SPEAKER_01: But we get relaxed and we end up allowing him to come and infiltrate.
SPEAKER_01: But what have we been saying?
SPEAKER_01: Our proclamation over ourselves the last six weeks is I am ready, I am content, I am devoted, I am generous, I am faithful, and today I am a finisher.
SPEAKER_01: Today I want to talk to those who feel like you can't go on and you are going to give up.
SPEAKER_01: Today's message is when you want to give up.
SPEAKER_01: Look in the history of man.
SPEAKER_01: Read throughout the history in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: God did not design people to give up, He made us to fight, He made us to be warriors and to step out and do something.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, he says, usually in his instruction to us is for us to do something and then he will do something.
SPEAKER_01: If you lay hands on the sick, they will recover.
SPEAKER_01: If you draw near to me, I will draw near to you.
SPEAKER_01: If we step out in faith, if we speak to the mountain, the mountain will move.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to turn to your neighbor and say, do not give up.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, say it like immediate.
SPEAKER_01: Don't give up.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you give up.
SPEAKER_01: I think sometimes in the church we're guilty of watching people from afar, from a distance, a safe distance, where none of their issues can get on us, and we watch them slowly give up, and we do nothing but talk about the things they're doing wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And we watch them slowly burn and crumble to the ground.
SPEAKER_01: And we never reach out, we never take a moment to say, Hey, I see something in your eyes.
SPEAKER_01: What is going on?
SPEAKER_01: Can I pray for you?
SPEAKER_01: Should we not in the church be willing and proactive in this area?
SPEAKER_00: How can I help?
SPEAKER_00: When I was when I was in high school, I was in cross-country.
SPEAKER_00: And I got little chicken legs.
SPEAKER_01: Wasn't as tall as the other kids, so I didn't have that stride.
SPEAKER_01: But man, I had fun.
SPEAKER_01: I loved it.
SPEAKER_01: Some of y'all are like, you're dumb.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it was my preference.
SPEAKER_01: I would run my little heart out.
SPEAKER_01: And then I got to this place, it was kind of weird about halfway through that my body would start tingling.
SPEAKER_01: It was weird.
SPEAKER_01: It was like, oh, I could do this all day.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard it's like a runner's high or something like that.
SPEAKER_01: And all of a sudden, when I would be running about the three and a half to four, maybe usually be about a four mile, they would say kilometers.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that is in English terms, but I know it's about four miles around there.
SPEAKER_01: And so we would get to about the three and a half to four mile mark.
SPEAKER_01: And you'd see markers, and it had these streamers on wood states that would kind of do the path.
SPEAKER_01: You'd go out through the woods.
SPEAKER_01: They would normally at a school, you'd run around the track a couple times, go back out there, come back, you know, small schools.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what the big schools have, but we ran in the country.
SPEAKER_01: So you had to watch your step because you were running over routes and everything else.
SPEAKER_01: You were in the country.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I loved it.
SPEAKER_01: It was so cool.
SPEAKER_01: I would go out in the woods with my friends on in the weekends, and we'd go out and paint ball, and we'd be in the woods running around, anyways, like a bunch of idiots.
SPEAKER_01: And I would get closer to the end, and you begin to see peppered through the people that are watching the race.
SPEAKER_01: They were usually the ones that were at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: And when you pow, you take off running, you hear them cheering.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, everybody at the beginning of a race.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody goes, okay, let's do it, guys.
SPEAKER_01: Every person, when you hear that gun fire off, you take off.
SPEAKER_01: And you're running good and you're running hard because people or that girl's watching.
SPEAKER_01: I said I was in high school, y'all.
SPEAKER_01: You think I just ran for me?
SPEAKER_01: I look good in them little shorts.
SPEAKER_01: Just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: You don't want to say nothing of that.
SPEAKER_01: And so when the gun would pop, man, I was popping.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: Woo! My energy was up, you know, right before they popped that gun off.
SPEAKER_01: Your heart's racing fast.
SPEAKER_01: You're about to run.
SPEAKER_01: And I knew I was gonna get close to last.
SPEAKER_01: I knew it.
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a question.
SPEAKER_01: I knew I wasn't the fastest, I wasn't the most, uh, the person had the longest endurance.
SPEAKER_01: I just ran because I liked running.
SPEAKER_01: And I got on varsity because somebody got sick and they needed another person.
SPEAKER_01: And so that person ended up actually getting injured, and I stayed on varsity until I graduated.
SPEAKER_01: Not because I was good, but because I needed somebody in the race with them.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: The same fire and the same motivation I had at the beginning of the race, when I started getting closer to the end and seeing people cheering me on, that fire came back.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of times in the church, we watch the fire dwindle in someone's eyes.
SPEAKER_01: We watch their spiritual walk begin to fade and we see something's going on, but we don't want to be intrusive.
SPEAKER_01: It's time we get involved in each other's lives.
SPEAKER_01: Because you could have somebody on the cusp of ending everything, walking away from everything, and we think it's okay just to say, oh, well, that stinks.
SPEAKER_01: But if you're at the end of the race they are running and they see someone is cheering for them, and they see that someone is on their side, all of a sudden the fire that was there when they began now comes back and it is rebirthed in their spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't good, but I loved it.
SPEAKER_00: Just because you're in the middle of a race right now does not mean you're gonna be amazing at it.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you're just the alternate.
SPEAKER_01: But all of a sudden, when I felt people cheering for me, being at the end of four miles, it didn't seem like the four miles didn't even matter anymore.
SPEAKER_01: It was getting to the finish line.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't that I just ran four miles, it was now I could see people with my eyes cheering for me.
SPEAKER_01: I one time at this race, and I remember it, and I've talked to him about it since.
SPEAKER_01: It was so embarrassing.
SPEAKER_01: I was fighting for last place.
SPEAKER_01: Or fighting to not have last place.
SPEAKER_01: It was more like it.
SPEAKER_01: And this poor little kid, I don't know what was wrong with him.
SPEAKER_01: But thank God he was there, or I would have got last place.
SPEAKER_01: Apparently, somebody just needed one on their team, too.
SPEAKER_01: And so I saw him and I said, Oh, good, there's a chance.
SPEAKER_01: And so I didn't get last place.
SPEAKER_01: We must be encouragers at the end of someone else's race.
SPEAKER_01: We have to be willing to look and say, Oh, they may be struggling.
SPEAKER_01: Why can't I cheer them on?
SPEAKER_01: Even though I was running the race for myself to get a position, I was still on a team.
SPEAKER_01: Because, see, here in the church, in the church body, I mentioned at the very beginning of the sermon, my heart for Longview, Texas, is for churches to not be competition, but they be unified under God.
SPEAKER_01: And we are all connected by God.
SPEAKER_01: We are all in this race together.
SPEAKER_01: Do not quit.
SPEAKER_01: You must continue to run, and you must finish the race that is at hand.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to say this over yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You can say it out loud or not.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: I will finish.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, like David did, he had to lift himself up from some bad places and say, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: My enemies are surrounding me on every side, but God has never failed, God has never left me, I will finish.
SPEAKER_01: Now on the screen, we're gonna have something.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to say it with me.
SPEAKER_01: When I commit, I don't quit.
SPEAKER_01: I will choose first that what I have begun, I will finish, and I will finish strong.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever met somebody and you met them firsthand?
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, man, you got some grit.
SPEAKER_01: You know what grit is?
SPEAKER_01: You ever said that about somebody?
SPEAKER_01: It's more of an old school term, but here's what it in some kind of means strength of character that refuses to quit.
SPEAKER_01: Strength of character that refuses to quit.
SPEAKER_01: If you got to say it over yourself, I've got grit.
SPEAKER_01: Because it doesn't matter what everybody else around you believes, but if you begin to say it over yourself, you'll start to believe it.
SPEAKER_01: And when you start to believe it, you start to live your life different, you start to move in a direction that you once forgot about.
SPEAKER_01: That something that was placed in your heart as a child or a dream or a vision for your life that has been in your life, been in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: God is still calling you to do and fulfill a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: How do I know this?
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not dead, you're not done.
SPEAKER_01: Just because you are tired does not mean that your race is over.
SPEAKER_01: Just because you are exhausted and you may feel undone and lost and confused, and the very spirit inside of you is feeling deluded.
SPEAKER_01: You are not done.
SPEAKER_01: Now, how do we do this as disciples of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: How do we strengthen our perseverance when the devil wants you to quit?
SPEAKER_01: The devil wants you to give up.
SPEAKER_01: Then he don't have to worry about you no more.
SPEAKER_01: How do we strengthen our character?
SPEAKER_01: Our refusal to quit.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at that key text again in 2 Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you're running the race, the key thing to remember is your why.
SPEAKER_01: If you can remember why you are where you are, that you understand that God has given you a purpose, that you have been designed for a time such as this where you are, that where you are is not by accident.
SPEAKER_01: Everything is shaped by decisions, but God has a plan in spite of us.
SPEAKER_01: He has a purpose in spite of dumb decisions we make.
SPEAKER_01: I am living proof.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't believe it in yourself, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: I've made a plethora of stupid, dumb decisions that led me down a path in a road that I never should have been on.
SPEAKER_01: But God redeems and he restores and he brings back the unrighteous and lost to make us righteous again in the sight of God.
SPEAKER_01: You have a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that when running, when you get tired, when you get distracted, when it feels like your very spirit is being dismantled in front of you and you can't do anything about it.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that you have a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: That God has not designed you to come sit and warm a spot in the seat.
SPEAKER_01: That you have a purpose to live out.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you're just an encourager, encourage with all that you got.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a teacher, teach with every bit of knowledge that God has given you.
SPEAKER_01: God has given you a gift, a desire, a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: Do not stop running.
SPEAKER_01: The apostle Paul, he was writing this letter to somebody who was very dear and close to him, Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: And if you put yourself in his position, you probably can guess that him writing this letter to one of his people that he had mentored and brought up in the spirit, that he was probably very seriously emotional.
SPEAKER_01: Because this was his farewell to Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: Now, to give you some context, it this appears the Roman Emperor Nero, he had sentenced Paul to be beheaded.
SPEAKER_01: So if you can get this in your mind, he's writing this as a dear brother, a dear confidant in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: They have no doubtingly served alongside in the ministry with each other.
SPEAKER_01: They got close.
SPEAKER_01: When you serve with people, you get close.
SPEAKER_01: You get to know each other outside of the church.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's one of our biggest hangups in the congregation today, is we only see each other in church.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have closeness, we don't have confidence, we don't have relationship.
SPEAKER_01: We have a Sunday morning, how you doing?
SPEAKER_01: God bless you, good, highly favored, amen.
SPEAKER_01: And that's it.
SPEAKER_01: And then we wonder why the devil can get in the cracks of the congregation so easily, is because we don't have well, we don't have any closeness.
SPEAKER_01: If we're close, the closer we are, the less room he has to wiggle in.
SPEAKER_01: So get your mind around this that he's about to be executed, and he is a scholars say he was most likely in a dungeon, also known as a sewer.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you read this chapter, you can see that Paul is giving a nice, pretty farewell in a nasty situation.
SPEAKER_01: Paul even writes on other books about being content in any season.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how content I can be when sewer is running and getting on me.
SPEAKER_01: There's actually, if you study this, in these types of situations, some prisoners that were down there because they were going to be beheaded or murdered, they wouldn't actually make it out because they were in such nastiness and they would die in there.
SPEAKER_01: Some scholars say that they would run a rope underneath their arms.
SPEAKER_01: And in a certain day when the sewer was higher, they would lift them up so they wouldn't drown.
SPEAKER_01: They would just lift them up where they would be, their head would be out of it.
SPEAKER_01: You imagine what that paper smelt like?
SPEAKER_00: You ever been in the hospital and you can smell death?
SPEAKER_01: I can just put myself in Timothy's shoes for a second, and I he's getting this letter from a mentor of his that brought him up and taught him the ways of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And as I've been in the ministry myself and being mentored, if I were to have what I call my pastor, my spiritual father, that raised me up and gave me room to grow and gave me a platform and gave me a place to speak and gave me a place to flourish spiritually, and he was riding me from his deathbed, it would break my heart.
SPEAKER_01: But here he says this.
SPEAKER_01: And this is so, if you think about it in these in this context, it's so beautiful in what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Timothy as his spiritual son, these words of encouragement.
SPEAKER_01: In his situation, some of us think we got it bad, and we get so caught up in our own mess that all we can do is spew out negativity and tear other people down.
SPEAKER_01: But in Paul's situation, what where he was at, he had every right to be bitter, angry, say, hey, why has nobody got me out of here?
SPEAKER_01: Why is nobody pleading my case?
SPEAKER_01: But instead, he says, This is what I have for you.
SPEAKER_01: Look at this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: In the middle of his suffering, don't be afraid for the suffering of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, if you're gonna finish, if you're gonna finish the race, if you're gonna run a race, chances are there's gonna be some cramps, there's gonna be some bumps in the road, there's going to be issues.
SPEAKER_01: There is going to be suffering in every race.
SPEAKER_01: Being a Christian does not mean that you don't have hard times.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, if you read Jesus' words, we are promised hard times.
SPEAKER_01: It is a guarantee.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Don't be afraid for the suffering of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And then watch what Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Work at telling others the good news.
SPEAKER_01: If you think about this in the context of what he is saying, he is telling him, what sent me here in this position, do not stop doing.
SPEAKER_01: What got me here in this bad circumstance where my head is literally about to be detached from my body, it was because I was preaching the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: But do not stop doing it.
SPEAKER_01: And watch this.
SPEAKER_01: And carry out the ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He says, fully carry out the ministry that God has given you.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, finish what God has called you to start.
SPEAKER_01: Fully carry out the ministry God has given you.
SPEAKER_01: And then Paul says, as for my life has already been poured out like an offering to God.
SPEAKER_01: The time of death is near.
SPEAKER_00: Now look what Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I fought the good fight.
SPEAKER_00: And then what did he say?
SPEAKER_00: I have finished the race.
SPEAKER_01: So in the context here, Paul was saying this.
SPEAKER_01: That every person's life, he was framing it up as being a race.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you get that burst of energy and you feel good about your life, and you're running the race with gumption and you got grit.
SPEAKER_01: And then at other times it feels like you got slapped in the face and you're just crawling.
SPEAKER_01: But he was at the end of his life, but he was telling Timothy, do not stop.
SPEAKER_01: Your race is not done.
SPEAKER_01: And it's obvious that he is saying, You are still in the race, my son.
SPEAKER_01: You do not quit, do not stop what God has called you to do.
SPEAKER_01: The thing that God has put inside of you, the vision, the burden God has put inside of you, do not quit, do not waver, even if it drives you and takes you to a place to where I am.
SPEAKER_01: Because you are on the outside, you are still alive, your job is not done.
SPEAKER_01: No person here today has finished your race.
SPEAKER_01: You are still alive, you still have a mission, you still have a place and a purpose in what God is doing in today.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot do it without you.
SPEAKER_01: This church is not based on a man or a worship team.
SPEAKER_01: It takes all of us to work together and to understand that you are not alone.
SPEAKER_01: Do not quit, do not seclude yourself from the body.
SPEAKER_01: Anything that is cut off from the body is literally cutting off from the life.
SPEAKER_01: And when you seclude yourself, you are going to wither spiritually, and you will end up spiritually dying.
SPEAKER_00: Your race is not done.
SPEAKER_00: God Has more for you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Do you understand what I'm telling you today?
SPEAKER_00: That God has more for you to do.
SPEAKER_01: He has more things for you to do, more places to serve.
SPEAKER_01: Because we are declaring over ourselves here at Connect Church that I am a finisher.
SPEAKER_01: What God has put in me and started in my life.
SPEAKER_00: What I have begun, He is faithful to complete.
SPEAKER_00: That I will not quit.
SPEAKER_00: I have more to do.
SPEAKER_01: You have more to do.
SPEAKER_01: There is more love for you to give.
SPEAKER_01: There is more people for you to help.
SPEAKER_01: There's a ministry for you to start.
SPEAKER_01: There's a business for you to launch.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, if you're on social media, there's gospel content for you to create.
SPEAKER_01: There is hope for you to share.
SPEAKER_01: And there is friendships for you to make.
SPEAKER_01: And there is addictions to break.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're still here, you have a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And I promise you that your purpose is not to come and just sit in a church.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean it'll be on a stage.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't mean it'll be in a booth or over a program.
SPEAKER_01: But every person has a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not me telling you that to make you feel better.
SPEAKER_01: That is God's word over your life.
SPEAKER_01: That you have a purpose.
SPEAKER_01: You are not dead, you are not done.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us have made it a lifelong, a lifelong habit to run the race as if we've already finished.
SPEAKER_01: That we sit on the sidelines and we just cheer for everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: God has called you into the season you are in right now.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you, it may be a bad season.
SPEAKER_01: You say, God has called me, and the spirit came down on Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted.
SPEAKER_01: We give the devil too much power and credit for things that he has nothing to do with.
SPEAKER_01: To understand the value of sobriety.
SPEAKER_01: To understand the value of an unborn child.
SPEAKER_01: The value of a wife by my side serving in ministry.
SPEAKER_01: The value of making it eight years and she hadn't killed me yet.
SPEAKER_01: Do a praise dance on that one.
SPEAKER_01: What have you been looking over in your life that God has blessed you with?
SPEAKER_01: We just give up in praying, we give up in seeking.
SPEAKER_01: And we live these Christian lives that is just enough to get us into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Because we accepted Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: God has more for every single person in here.
SPEAKER_01: He has more for every single person in here.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that is for your life, but I do know this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be the one standing there and God's blessing me with things in my life, and I hold on to them and they wither up and die.
SPEAKER_01: I want to pass on the blessing that God has given me onto my children, onto my wife, onto my church, onto my friends and family.
SPEAKER_01: I want to pass on what God has given me because I have to understand and realize that everyone that I can see or come in contact with is running the race too.
SPEAKER_01: God has more for you today.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to understand that.