SPEAKER_04: Well, the sun is out, the barbecue grills are going.
SPEAKER_04: It is summertime, and that means it is summer at impact.
SPEAKER_04: A collection of messages that are designed to encourage you, to stir you up, and to get your faith focused on the fact that God's got an amazing future for you.
SPEAKER_04: So today's word is gonna be tremendous because it's gonna launch you into the next phase of what God is trying to do in your life.
SPEAKER_04: But before we get into the word today, let me remind you it is open enrollment at Impact Christian Academy, our pre-K through twelfth grade school.
SPEAKER_04: It just might be the right fit for your beautiful child or your beautiful grandchild.
SPEAKER_04: For more information, go to icajacks.com and we'd love to see you be a part of this great community.
SPEAKER_04: Now let's dive into this rich word today.
SPEAKER_02: And in the CSB it says, Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance in the sin that so easily ensnares us.
SPEAKER_02: Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us.
SPEAKER_02: It says it in a different way in the amplified.
SPEAKER_02: It says, Therefore, since we are again surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses who by faith have testified to the truth of God's absolute faithfulness, stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence, the race that is set before us.
SPEAKER_02: Now the thing that jumps out at me and that I want us to focus our time on is that the author of Hebrews refers to the things placed in our path meant to slow us down in our race as weights.
SPEAKER_02: And in order for us to live in this year of fierce focus, in order for us to do what God is asking us to do, we have to give up the weights.
SPEAKER_02: And so today, if you're writing in your notes, or if you want to know what the title is, it's simply give up.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I don't know if you know me, if you've uh heard me speak before, maybe we've had a conversation.
SPEAKER_02: Something about me is that I used to run cross country.
SPEAKER_02: Now, don't ask me how I started, don't ask me how we got there, because I was just walking in the hallway one day at school in middle school.
SPEAKER_02: Uh everybody knew I wanted to run track and field.
SPEAKER_02: I wanted to be a short distance runner, 100, 200, 100 hurdles, 200 hurdles, that kind of thing, right?
SPEAKER_02: And so somebody came up to me and they said, you know, the greatest way to prepare for track and field is in the winter you want to run cross country.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the people who are laughing know that that was a lie.
SPEAKER_02: Cross country sucks, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Cross country, what you do is you wake up between 5 and 5:30 in the morning on a Saturday.
SPEAKER_02: You're in middle school or high school, so Saturday is the most important day to you.
SPEAKER_02: And you go to some field somewhere and you just run a 5K.
SPEAKER_02: And then you're wondering, like, is that it?
SPEAKER_02: Yes, that's it.
SPEAKER_02: All you do is you get up and you run, and you do that again next week and the week after.
SPEAKER_02: That is not good training for short distance running, right?
SPEAKER_02: And even worse than that is the stuff that they ended up making me wear.
SPEAKER_02: So I thought, see, some of you already know, I thought it was just gonna, you know, we wear our gym shorts and and you know, a t-shirt, maybe like, you know, a little tank top wife beater, that kind of thing.
SPEAKER_02: Tell me why.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever seen a middle school boy wearing two-inch inseam butterfly shorts?
SPEAKER_02: If you don't know what butterfly shorts are, it's where the outside of your thigh, the thing is actually higher than the inside.
SPEAKER_02: And then they had you wearing stringer tank tops.
SPEAKER_02: They're called stringers because it's a string that's holding it up on your shoulders, right?
SPEAKER_02: And so I was asking, why on earth do you have me out here in what can only be described as undergarments running these long races?
SPEAKER_02: Like, why can't we just wear our normal exercise stuff?
SPEAKER_02: And how the coach explained it is because you're running long distance, any extra weight that you add onto your race could be the difference between first and second.
SPEAKER_02: And what I want to tell you today is I believe that God is saying the same thing that any extra weight that you add on your race pulls back the level of faithfulness that you're actually able to walk through with God.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure that many of you are accustomed, you might be asking, well, I know that weight vests are a real thing.
SPEAKER_02: I sometimes I go to the gym, I see people wearing weight vests.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes, you know, if you've ever been to run club or you've ever been to a race, you'll see people with vests on that that weigh 20, 40, 60 pounds.
SPEAKER_02: You're like, what the heck are you doing?
SPEAKER_02: I thought this was supposed, I thought we were supposed to be trying to win, right?
SPEAKER_02: But many of them will tell you that weight when you're training is actually helpful because when you wear weights when you're training, it makes it easier on your cardio to run without them in your actual race.
SPEAKER_02: And what I want to submit to you is while extra weight has its uses in training, every athlete knows that when it's game time, you cannot afford to have anything slowing you down.
SPEAKER_02: What's important to us is that right now you are not in practice.
SPEAKER_02: You are in your race, you are running your race.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if this is just me, but many times God has revealed something to me, something that I should give up, something I should put to the side, right?
SPEAKER_02: And and my response is, man, it's been going pretty cool without it.
SPEAKER_02: Like without without dealing with this weight, without dealing with this thing.
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes it's a lot of effort to deal with this thing in my life and all this stuff.
SPEAKER_02: But what I want to tell you is that when you're running a race, you cannot afford to have anything else on your back.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, give up the weights or give up the race.
SPEAKER_02: You can be performing, some of you are faster than you think you are.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you can handle more than you think you can.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you are destined for greater than where you are now.
SPEAKER_02: And the issue is not your capacity, the issue is that sometimes the weights hijack our capacity.
SPEAKER_02: So you may feel like you're weaker than you actually are.
SPEAKER_02: You're actually very strong with 60 pounds of weight on your back.
SPEAKER_02: I want to give us three areas in which I believe God is asking us to give up.
SPEAKER_02: And as we're saying these, I believe that some of these areas are not new for you, but some of them are reminders.
SPEAKER_02: What I want to challenge you with is it's so easy to just throw certain things on the wayside and uh, oh, I know we're supposed to do that.
SPEAKER_02: I know that that's kind of what God asks us to do.
SPEAKER_02: But no, really, let's examine our hearts today.
SPEAKER_02: Because I believe that God can do something amazing when your heart is connected to his word.
SPEAKER_02: So, first, let's say, give up.
SPEAKER_02: We are going to give up offense.
SPEAKER_02: Many of you might know the story of the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_02: But if you don't, then I want to just go over some of it really quickly.
SPEAKER_02: In Genesis chapter 11, where the story is held, it says something really key for us.
SPEAKER_02: And in the first verse, it says, And the whole earth was of one language and one accent and one mode of expression.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, all of humanity was unified.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't say that all of humanity was unified and doing great things.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't say that all of humanity was unified and their motives were really great.
SPEAKER_02: It just says that they were unified.
SPEAKER_02: And so what they chose to do with their unity was they decided we're going to build a tower that's going to be so high, it's going to reach into the heavens, and we're going to be on the same level as God.
SPEAKER_02: They were trying to exalt themselves to the level of and even above God.
SPEAKER_02: That was their motive.
SPEAKER_02: That was what they set out to do.
SPEAKER_02: It was not blessed by God, and this is how God deals with it.
SPEAKER_02: But he says some important stuff as we move on to verse 6.
SPEAKER_02: There the Lord said, If they have begun to do this as one people, all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.
SPEAKER_02: Come, let's go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's speech.
SPEAKER_02: So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth, and they stopped building the city.
SPEAKER_02: These people with terrible motives were all together, and just based off of their unity alone, God said, if they continue to do this, there's nothing that's going to be impossible for them.
SPEAKER_02: And so when God sought to derail their plans, he did not send a plague, he didn't cripple their physical capabilities.
SPEAKER_02: What he sought to do was he attacked the thing that unified them.
SPEAKER_02: He attacked their unity, he attacked the thing that brought them together.
SPEAKER_02: What I want to submit to you is that the devil does not have anything new.
SPEAKER_02: And that the same thing that God did to those who were wicked in Genesis chapter 11, the enemy's been running the same play on the body of Christ for years and years and years.
SPEAKER_02: How do I know that?
SPEAKER_02: Because I have never met anybody who can outpetty a person from the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_02: Never.
SPEAKER_02: Which tells me that the enemy has been trying and attempting and has been working on getting a foothold in this area of strife, in this area of unforgiveness, in this area of offense, because he knows that when people are unified and especially unified under the banner of Jesus Christ, that there is nothing that is impossible for them.
SPEAKER_02: But if you look around, there's there's so much disunity, and I believe that that comes from interpersonal strife.
SPEAKER_02: In James 3, verse 16, it says, Where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every kind of evil.
SPEAKER_02: Every kind of evil.
SPEAKER_02: I remember when Pastor Wayne first showed me this scripture, and it was eye-opening because what it meant was that oftentimes the evil that we see in the world, the evil that we see in certain churches, the evil that we see in certain people, it can be traced back to offense.
SPEAKER_02: It can be traced back to bitterness.
SPEAKER_02: What I want to say to each and every one of us is this quote every single thing that God desires to do in your life can be derailed in your heart.
SPEAKER_02: The reason we have a responsibility to forgive is when we don't forgive, when we hold on to offense, we swing the door wide open for the enemy to wreak havoc in our churches, in our homes, in our relationships.
SPEAKER_02: And oftentimes it's a it's a trap because we feel like we deserve to feel that way.
SPEAKER_02: I remember it was some years back, I was dealing with offense with somebody, and unrelated, I was going to this church conference and um to see one of my mentors, and God moved so mightily, everybody falling out, speaking in tongues, all this stuff.
SPEAKER_02: It's crazy, right?
SPEAKER_02: I'm kneeling before the Lord, enjoying myself in the presence of God, and I'm kneeling, and I know that I'm holding on to this thing with this person, and and I'm kneeling, I'm speaking to God, and I feel his presence and all these things.
SPEAKER_02: And he says two things to me.
SPEAKER_02: Number one, he says, You're offended with this person, and you need to give up that offense.
SPEAKER_02: I thought that I had a right to be offended because look at what they did to me.
SPEAKER_02: Look at how it hurt me, look at how it affected my family.
SPEAKER_02: But I knew that I was supposed to forgive.
SPEAKER_02: And so when God said that to me, revealed it to me, I was like, okay, you got me.
SPEAKER_02: I'll forgive, right?
SPEAKER_02: I'll I'll easy enough.
SPEAKER_02: Great.
SPEAKER_02: I'll forgive.
SPEAKER_02: I'll I'll do that thing, I'll check that off.
SPEAKER_02: And but the second thing that God said to me was, and you need to go to them.
SPEAKER_02: You don't even know the second part of what I said.
SPEAKER_02: That that hurts your oh talking?
SPEAKER_02: Ah no, no, it really hurt.
SPEAKER_02: He said, You gotta go to them and you need to apologize for being offended with them because I told you to stop, and you didn't.
SPEAKER_02: I was like, that can't be right, right?
SPEAKER_02: I that can't be right because I didn't do anything, they they hurt me, and so I'm struggling with this all the way home.
SPEAKER_02: The conference was in Daytona.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I uh it takes me almost two hours to get there.
SPEAKER_02: I can usually get back from Daytona in like one hour, don't tell the police, but but I was thinking, so I was going driving slow.
SPEAKER_02: Um, so I get home and I'm kneeling before God again, and and I'm like, Lord, I know this is what you told me to do, but my heart won't let me.
SPEAKER_02: Can I tell you that's what happens when you hold on to a fence for so long?
SPEAKER_02: You hold on to it because you think you're entitled to it, and then when God asks you to stop, or when you know it's time to stop, your heart won't let you.
SPEAKER_02: That's why it's important.
SPEAKER_02: If you feel yourself beginning to get bitter, beginning to get offended, and you're in this place right now.
SPEAKER_02: What I want to tell you is it's easier now than it will be.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm in, but I'm in this place, and I say, God, my heart won't let me.
SPEAKER_02: But this is such a picture of what God will do to a surrendered life.
SPEAKER_02: I say, I can't do this.
SPEAKER_02: But I will with your help.
SPEAKER_02: I can't do this on my own.
SPEAKER_02: There's there's no way that I can do this, but Lord, if you help me, I'm willing.
SPEAKER_02: And you know what happened?
SPEAKER_02: That second, I can only describe it as God supernaturally softening my heart.
SPEAKER_02: At that moment, my heart became soft towards that person, and I was able to carry out what God had for me.
SPEAKER_02: And can I tell you that there was so much blessing surrounded with that, so much reconciliation.
SPEAKER_02: If you can, and this is where the enemy gets us it's always better to walk with someone if you can.
SPEAKER_02: There are some people I can't walk with, but if I can walk with somebody, that's always gonna be better than just letting them walk by themselves and balking by yourself.
SPEAKER_02: And so there was blessing surrounded with it.
SPEAKER_02: But what do I want to say?
SPEAKER_02: I want to say that some of us feel like it is impossible to forgive, it's impossible to let that thing roll off our back, it's impossible to let quote unquote let stuff slide.
SPEAKER_02: But if we are willing, then God will meet us right there.
SPEAKER_02: And it's important because, like we've said before, if you are struggling with offense, then the door is open.
SPEAKER_02: Let's close that door.
SPEAKER_02: Say, give up offense.
SPEAKER_02: Second, we have to give up secrets.
SPEAKER_02: We have to give up secrets.
SPEAKER_02: Everybody's throat is really not clear over here.
SPEAKER_02: That's crazy.
SPEAKER_02: Go on ahead, Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: In Matthew 12, Jesus has cast out a demon, and the Pharisees are saying, well, he was only able to do that because he's the prince of demons.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus had to get them right real quick.
SPEAKER_02: And in verse 25 of Matthew 12, it says, And knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and any city or house divided against itself will not stand.
SPEAKER_02: If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself.
SPEAKER_02: How then will his kingdom stand?
SPEAKER_02: What Jesus was referring to is that the Pharisees accused him of living something outwardly that was not his inward reality.
SPEAKER_02: He was not the Prince of Dons.
SPEAKER_02: But what they were saying was, oh, he must be this, even though what his hands are doing is the opposite.
SPEAKER_02: And what Jesus said is whenever the work of your hands and what you do behind closed doors doesn't match up with the truth that you know and you believe, eventually you won't stand.
SPEAKER_02: So what does that have to do with secrets?
SPEAKER_02: What we do, even behind closed doors, what we do with people we're not supposed to be with, what we do in situations that we're not supposed to be in.
SPEAKER_02: Especially for those of us who know Jesus and know his word and know what he's asked us to do.
SPEAKER_02: When we live in that tension between doing something we know we're not supposed to do, we are actually living in a way that is incompatible.
SPEAKER_02: Your actions not only don't match up with your inside, but your actions cannot allow you to walk in full health and healing if they don't match up with what you believe.
SPEAKER_02: It's an incompatible life.
SPEAKER_02: It reminds me of Genesis chapter 3, where amen, where Adam and Eve have sinned against God.
SPEAKER_02: They have eaten of the tree, they wanted to be like God, knowing good and evil, and they did the thing that God commanded them not to do.
SPEAKER_02: And it says it in verse 8, it says, Then the man and the and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
SPEAKER_02: The first instinct that they had when they sinned, when they went against what they knew to be true, was that they isolated themselves and they hid.
SPEAKER_02: Can I tell you, when we take actions and choices that are incompatible with the truth, it does a few things first.
SPEAKER_02: Our shame reframes our identity.
SPEAKER_02: We begin to label ourselves whatever we've done instead of the label that God's given us.
SPEAKER_02: Shame will make you think that you are only what you've done.
SPEAKER_02: And when that's hidden from other people, when and that can't be corrected, the longer that you live with that hello, my name is sign hidden from people, the more it actually begins to seep into who you believe yourself to be.
SPEAKER_02: Next, we believe ourselves to be isolated from other people.
SPEAKER_02: What happens when we live with secrets is it becomes us versus everyone else.
SPEAKER_02: As evidenced by as we go forth in Genesis 3 in 12 and 13, when God is pressing them as to why they ate of the tree, what Adam says is the woman that you gave to be with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.
SPEAKER_02: It's now I have to cover my back.
SPEAKER_02: It's me versus her.
SPEAKER_02: How often do we lash out of people thinking that we need to cover our back when really they're just asking if they can help us?
SPEAKER_02: Because if you notice, he says that woman that you gave me, he's blaming God for asking what happened to him.
SPEAKER_02: The next thing that happens when we live incompatibly is that God's presence seems far away.
SPEAKER_02: God's presence seems far away.
SPEAKER_02: Adam and Eve knew God personally better than almost anybody that we read in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_02: So if God is omnipresent, they walked with him in the cool of the day, all these things.
SPEAKER_02: Why on earth did they think they could hide from?
SPEAKER_02: You see him every day.
SPEAKER_02: They thought that their sin drove a wedge in their relationship.
SPEAKER_02: Because the thing about God is that he could have popped up right in front of them.
SPEAKER_02: And another thing about God is he knew what they did wrong.
SPEAKER_02: So why is he asking questions?
SPEAKER_02: What happened?
SPEAKER_02: Why did you eat it?
SPEAKER_02: Why is he asking questions?
SPEAKER_02: Because at the end of the day, God was looking for them because he was concerned for them.
SPEAKER_02: But they believed that their relationship had been driven away because of the sin that they were trying to keep secret.
SPEAKER_02: And the last thing that happens when we live incompatibly is we begin to believe the lies that we tell other people.
SPEAKER_02: You ever told somebody you're good and you're not good?
SPEAKER_02: For sure.
SPEAKER_02: But but so often when we when we answer these questions without engaging with them for real and really thinking about what we are, I've noticed sometimes I know I'm feeling down, and somebody will ask me how I am, and I'll just default to I'm great.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not sharing with them what's going on, I'm not sharing with them what's happening.
SPEAKER_02: What's going on is while the inside of me may be hurting, I know that this is the answer that quote unquote people want from me.
SPEAKER_02: People need from me.
SPEAKER_02: What would happen if we asked people truly how they were?
SPEAKER_02: And people, knowing that we really wanted to know, we answered them.
SPEAKER_02: We begin to believe the lies we tell other people.
SPEAKER_02: The thing about secrets is they don't separate us from God.
SPEAKER_02: We separate ourselves from God because we believe that these secrets have some type of power to remove us from his presence.
SPEAKER_02: In James 5, 15 and 16, it gives us the blueprint on how to get healing from these secrets, from the things that are hidden.
SPEAKER_02: A lot of us know verse 16, therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.
SPEAKER_02: The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.
SPEAKER_02: That's a verse that we often know.
SPEAKER_02: But if you go back to 15, it tells you the importance of this scripture.
SPEAKER_02: In 15, it says the prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up.
SPEAKER_02: And then it goes to say, if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: The healing that James is referring to in the scripture is not just the kind of physical healing, but it's also a it's a it's a reworking, it's a restructuring, it's a reminder of your identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: God has already forgiven you.
SPEAKER_02: But do you remember when our pastor was talking about the journey of Peter?
SPEAKER_02: And when he said that Jesus called for his disciples and Peter.
SPEAKER_02: Because Peter needed a reminder that he was still a disciple.
SPEAKER_02: In the presence of accountability and people who are real who will pray for you, sometimes you need a reminder that you're forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: And what secrets will try to tell you can separate you from the love of God, you will get a reminder that nothing can separate you from the love of God.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing can stand between you and the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: There is nothing that's big enough, there is nothing that's bad enough to unforgive you.
SPEAKER_02: They would need to put Jesus on the cross a second time if that was true.
SPEAKER_02: But he went once and for all.
SPEAKER_02: Now, it does not say that any person you're supposed to be real with.
SPEAKER_02: It speaks about a biblical community, it speaks about people who are righteous, it speaks about people who are walking with God, and just really quickly, the four things that I look for in biblical community is number one, they desire God's will for your life.
SPEAKER_02: Not just their own, but God's will for your life.
SPEAKER_02: Number two, they're with you in mourning and in celebration.
SPEAKER_02: I know people who won't talk to me unless I'm doing something big on Instagram.
SPEAKER_02: Those aren't your community.
SPEAKER_02: They're your fans.
SPEAKER_02: And the thing about fans is very rarely will a fan call you out.
SPEAKER_02: But you need people who are with you in your good times and your bad times, in your morning and your celebration, when you're on and when you're off.
SPEAKER_02: Third, they point you back to the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: A lot of people got podcasts, and they have some really good opinions, but at the end of the day, the opinion that you need when you are walking through something is the opinion of the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_02: And last is they believe in the power of prayer.
SPEAKER_02: Conversation is great, but it does not say that the conversation with a righteous person is very effective.
SPEAKER_02: It says that the prayers of the righteous are important.
SPEAKER_02: And at the end of the day, we need God's power in these problems.
SPEAKER_02: There's a quote that our pastors say that Pastor Blue Win says, that Pastor Chris from Church of the Highlands says, and it sticks with me every time I hear it, it says, we are always as sick as our secrets.
SPEAKER_02: But when we're sick, there is good news is that when we confess our sins to one another, we're actually healed.
SPEAKER_02: And the last thing that we need to give up is we need to give up worry.
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure many of us know in Matthew 6 where it says, so don't worry, saying, What will we eat, or what will we drink, or what will we wear?
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's so important that we actually jump in on this because worry and faith can't cohabitate.
SPEAKER_02: Anything that you're worried about, you're not in faith for.
SPEAKER_02: Which means that if our mind is fighting this fight of faith and worry, that's double-minded.
SPEAKER_02: And so if the enemy knows that, if the enemy knows that nothing can stop someone who's in faith for the promises of God and walking upright with him, then what he's going to attack is your faith.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna attack you with worry, he's gonna attack you with trying to figure it all out on your own.
SPEAKER_02: But God is a provider, but God has many names in the Bible that you did not decide to call him, but he called himself, he's your healer, he's your provider, he's your banner of victory, he's the Lord of heaven's armies.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to say this quote if you're struggling to figure out this worry thing, oftentimes the area in which we worry is an area in which we have not surrendered.
SPEAKER_02: If you're worrying and and you can't seem to slow your mind, if there's something that keeping that's keeping you up at night, then good news, you have the path out.
SPEAKER_02: You need to lay that thing down on the altar.
SPEAKER_02: It's a lot like owning a home versus buying a home.
SPEAKER_02: I've owned my home for several years now, and in the winter my AC went out.
SPEAKER_02: It's not a problem in the winter, it's the summer.
SPEAKER_02: And I had to drop five figures on an AC.
SPEAKER_02: It hurt.
SPEAKER_02: It it legitimately my heart hurt.
SPEAKER_02: I but I've been in other living situations too.
SPEAKER_02: I've lived with roommates, I've lived in other situations with renting and and subletting and all those things.
SPEAKER_02: But in those places, if if the AC went out, I would not call the AC manufacturer, I would call the landlord.
SPEAKER_02: And I would say, sir, your AC is out.
SPEAKER_02: And what I would do if there was any more struggle is I would show them the contract at the what I signed at the bottom line that said that they would supply any of the things that needed to happen in the house.
SPEAKER_02: And what I want to tell you is too many of us are trying to live with a landlord property manager mentality when our lives belong to God.
SPEAKER_02: And if my life belongs to God, that means that this sibling who doesn't do right, hey, this person that you created is not doing right.
SPEAKER_02: And you know, based on the covenant I have with you, that you turn this around.
SPEAKER_02: When I don't have provision for my family, I say, Hey, this family that you gave me is struggling, and we need a move from God.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to worry about all this stuff myself because I have a provider who makes sure that every need that I have is covered according to the riches in glory.
SPEAKER_02: There's a king in 2 Chronicles, his name is Jehoshaphat, and he's fighting in a war, he's fighting armies, many armies have have have come together just to take down Judah.
SPEAKER_02: And Jehoshaphat, he does three things.
SPEAKER_02: The first thing that he does is he prayed.
SPEAKER_02: That's right.
SPEAKER_02: I thought that was my son for a second.
SPEAKER_02: Thought he was giving me my strength.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in 2 Chronicles chapter 20 and verse 6, he said, Lord God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven?
SPEAKER_02: And do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations?
SPEAKER_02: Power and might are in your hand, and no one can stand against you.
SPEAKER_02: What is he doing?
SPEAKER_02: He's reading the contract, he's reading what God said he would.
SPEAKER_02: He said, You called yourself a friend of Israel.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't call you that.
SPEAKER_02: You called yourself the Lord of heaven's armies, I didn't call you that.
SPEAKER_02: He goes on to say, Are you not our God who drove out the inhabitants of this land before, and your people Israel who gave it forever to the descendants of Abraham, your friend?
SPEAKER_02: The first thing that he did is he prayed, and he did not pray from a place of lacking confidence, but he prayed from a place of knowing who his God was.
SPEAKER_02: The second thing that happened was that God himself answered him.
SPEAKER_02: There was a prophet who came up to Jehoshaphat after he prayed, and he said, Listen carefully, all Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat.
SPEAKER_02: This is what the Lord said do not be afraid or discouraged because of the vast number, for the battle is not yours, but God's.
SPEAKER_02: What happened is that the landlord came in and he said, You're right, I'll take care of this one.
SPEAKER_02: And the third thing that happened was Jehosaphat praised.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 21, he said, Then he consulted with the people and appointed some to sing for the Lord and some to praise the splendor of his holiness.
SPEAKER_02: When they went out in front of the armed forces, they kept singing, Give thanks to the Lord for his faithful love endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 22, it turns around.
SPEAKER_02: The moment they began their shouts and praises, the Lord sent an ambush against the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the inhabitants of Mount Ser who came to fight against Judah, and they were defeated.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have children who have not who have not submitted themselves to God, and instead of worrying on their behalf, you need to worship on their behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have job needs that you don't know how they're gonna get taken care of.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of worshiping, worrying to try and figure out this job, you need to worship to figure out this job.
SPEAKER_01: They weren't praising just because they knew they were gonna get them out, they were praising because they knew who God is.
SPEAKER_01: Great is his faithfulness, great is his ability to provide, great is his power to heal, great is his ability to deliver, he is Jehovah Rapha, our healer, he is Jehovah Jira, the provider, he is the Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_01: If you haven't been sleeping, then you ought not to worry about it, you ought to stand up and worship about it.
SPEAKER_01: Because he is the God who makes the way out of nowhere, he is the lion of Judah, he is the lamb who is swayed, he is the sacrifice of Sister Road, He is the one who saves, He is the one who heals, He is the flood on your doorpost, He is the angel that delivers you, you wanna give him a shout Give him a shout out, so we're gonna go see the four years.
SPEAKER_00: Just the voices, it's shocking We are crazy Come on all over the building, can you lift your hands?
SPEAKER_02: There is a God who loves you, there is a God who cares for you, there is a God who wants to meet you in the middle of your need, but it doesn't come when we worry about it, it doesn't come when we make our own way through it, but it actually comes the less you think about it, the more God does.
SPEAKER_02: Because when you worship God, you give him all of your attention, you give him all of your devotion, you give him all of your praise.
SPEAKER_02: Did you notice?
SPEAKER_02: We did not ask him to provide for us in that song.
SPEAKER_02: What we said is great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
SPEAKER_02: So when a need shows up in your life, you say, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.
SPEAKER_02: There is a God who loves you and He needs you to lock in with Him.
SPEAKER_02: This year of Fierce Focus, we are worshiping the King of Kings.
SPEAKER_02: You can take your seats.
SPEAKER_02: And as we take our seats, go on and bow those heads and close those eyes.
SPEAKER_02: I believe that for many of us, this was a reminder, but for some of us, this is the first time you've heard something like God loves you.
SPEAKER_02: That there is a God who cares for you.
SPEAKER_02: This might be the first time you've heard some things like he's the lion of Judah and the lamb that was slain.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I want to tell you right now, He loves you, He died for you, so that you could spend eternity, not in hell, but eternity forever with Him.
SPEAKER_02: And not just that, He wants to take the weight you've been carrying.
SPEAKER_02: And so if you've never made that decision, if you've never prayed that prayer, I want to um put your attention to the seat back pocket in front of you.
SPEAKER_02: There is a card that says say yes to Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: It's a white card.
SPEAKER_02: And on the count of three, I'm gonna ask you to hold that card up.
SPEAKER_02: And all that does is just let me know who I'm praying for.
SPEAKER_02: There's nobody looking around, trying to see whose hand is up.
SPEAKER_02: This is a moment between you and God.
SPEAKER_02: So on the count of three, lift those cards up for me.
SPEAKER_02: Three, two, one.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, lift it up.
SPEAKER_02: Lift it up.
SPEAKER_02: I see that hand.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, in the left section, I see those hands.
SPEAKER_02: I see that hand.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, this is amazing.
SPEAKER_02: God wants to do something great in this family.
SPEAKER_02: I see that hand.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, God.
SPEAKER_02: I see that hand.
SPEAKER_02: Well, we're all going to pray together, and I'm gonna ask everybody to repeat after me say, Dear Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.
SPEAKER_02: I know I've messed up, but I know you sent your son to die for those mistakes.
SPEAKER_02: Dear Lord Jesus, come into my heart now.
SPEAKER_02: Come into my life.
SPEAKER_02: Save me now.
SPEAKER_02: I commit to following you for the rest of my days, and I know that right now I am born again.
SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen, amen, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Can we give it up to everybody who made that decision for the first time?
SPEAKER_03: Did you just make a decision for Jesus?
SPEAKER_03: Welcome to the family.
SPEAKER_03: We're so excited.
SPEAKER_03: Trust me, we're clapping for you.
SPEAKER_03: And we believe that you've made an important decision today.
SPEAKER_03: We'd like to help you on your journey.
SPEAKER_03: So if you'll follow the directions that are on screen, there is a free book you can download.
SPEAKER_03: It's going to take you five to ten minutes of your day for the next seven days.
SPEAKER_03: But our pastors have put together some amazing resources that we believe will help you on the journey ahead.
SPEAKER_03: If you don't want it, nobody's going to email you, text you, bother you, anything like that.
SPEAKER_03: We just want to make sure you are successful in your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: Now, let me tell you, one of the things you should consider is baptism.
SPEAKER_03: And if you're in the Jacksonville area, we do baptism after our first weekend service every month.
SPEAKER_03: And you can just scan the QR code that's on the screen, sign up for that.
SPEAKER_03: I'd love to be a part of that journey with you, or any of our ministers would.
SPEAKER_03: If you don't live in town, we do believe you should find a Bible-teaching church and at least go get baptized, even if you're still going to watch our service.
SPEAKER_03: But download that book, it's free.
SPEAKER_03: We're excited for your journey ahead, and we can't wait to be a part of that.
SPEAKER_03: Now, this is a part of the service where we also demonstrate our generosity.
SPEAKER_03: If you're just checking us out today, you don't feel any pressure to give.
SPEAKER_03: But for those of you, this is your church, you know that we are generous is one of our core values.
SPEAKER_03: And so you can give online or you can give through our app, which I really like.
SPEAKER_03: You have the Apple Pay option right on our app.
SPEAKER_03: Just go to your Google store or your Apple store, download the We Are Impact app.
SPEAKER_03: It's also a great way to study notes that um come from the sermons that you watch on here.
SPEAKER_03: And there's a lot of events on there as well.
SPEAKER_03: But you can give through that app.
SPEAKER_03: It's super easy, and we're just grateful that you partner with us week after week.
SPEAKER_03: Well, we're so excited you joined us today.
SPEAKER_03: Hope you have an amazing weekend, and we'll see you next time.