Okay, so that's still line nine. If you're if you're new with us
in the last three to six months, you know you're newer to the body,
we want you to come out and meet some of the staff, hang
out with us. And then you've seen the ministry menu cards here and there.
We've been handing them out. So if you're a part of the body
and you want to get involved in an area of ministry, that's normal.
You're you're a Christian, that's cool. Uh. And if you want to
get involved, then check a box or two on that ministry menu, let
us know that you are interested, and then we'll connect you with a team
and begin to get you involved and give you all the information on that.
Amen. We We've had a crazy week and Tom Martello has been leading the
charge. He's the founder, the creator, the catalyst of City Quake.
A lot of you missed out, but you're going to hear a little bit
this morning and uh and I hope that as you hear a little bit more
about Tom about City Quake, about what it's all about, that you'll want
to be a part of a city quake. City Quake has He's taken it
to twenty six cities. But before that, him and Todd White went to
one hundred and sixteen cities over many years with Power and Love conferences. City
Quake is similar, but it's got kind of a twist on the end where
we have after shocks and where we get the DNA of supernatural power evangelism into
the church and we make it a part of our DNA, and that's where
we're headed, that's who we are as a church. And so would you
just give a new horizon Welcome to Tom as he comes to share of the
word this morning. Yeah, come on, come on, come on,
leven. Yeah, I'm staying up here because I'm going to help with testimonies
and I'm guessing you're going to ask for yes, sir, yes, sir.
Yeah. So if you weren't here this week, we it's not just
a typical conference. We we came in, we learned, we were motivated,
but then we went out and so how many people had a chance to
go on one of the outreaches this week that we call them love and Action?
All right? I did? Did? Did something happen that you want
to share because you might have already shared it during the event, But we'd
love to hear. Did you have something happened that God God use you to
in a life? Come on up and share it. I'd love to hear.
Even if you're here and you shared in first service. Yeah, welcome
to come Hi. Okay, So this was my first time actually going to
City Quake, and I believe it or not, I actually was not going
to go, but I just like, after I got off work, I
just felt like, oh my gosh, I just felt like an excitement.
But I went on one of the outreaches yesterday and that was my first time
going on outreach, and there was about seven of us and there was two
younger kids, nine and seven. So we decided to go to the hospital
and when we got there, we didn't really know what to expect. We
were just kind of like in the entrance, like maybe we'll just like hang
out in the lobby because we can't really go into the patient rooms unless we're
given access, so we're kind of just like going up to people, Hey
do you need prayer? And um, there's this one young gentleman or actually
an older gentleman. He was on his phone just kind of like strolling down
and we're like, hey, would you like any prayer for anything, and
he's like, yeah, you can pray for my wife. You know,
she just had her you know, hip hip surgery and she's you know,
not doing too well. So we're like we just figured ye oh yeah,
look, let's just crowd around and pray. And he's like, no,
she's in here, and so we're just like oh okay, So we're like
okay, um, yeah, let's go. And so we're just as we're
walking, just following him. It's just like we had been waiting, you
know, like find trying to find ways to get into the patient rooms.
But all of a sudden, it's like the doors open. It was like
a Peter moment where the doors open and we're just like there's seven of us
just walking through, all these walking in and we're just like should we be
here, Like you're just kind of like yeah. So we went into the
room and there she is, you know, she's just smiling. She had
a beautiful spirit, and she's like, well hello, you know, she's
just laying in the bed, and so we just all crowded around her bed
and just just started praying over her, just prophesying. Just it was just
amazing. You could feel the power of the Holy Spirit, and you know
her, her sister was there and she was just crying and just saying thank
you all so much, you know, for coming and just being here.
Um. But that was a powerful moment just to see all of us and
two younger kids just praying over the family. So yeah, yeah, so
praise the Lord. Way to step out anybody ef anybody else that that had
something that God do through them. I know you said you're here, and
yeah, come on, good God, how you doing. Uh this was
at my home. This should happened on Friday. I was out in the
front yard. I was doing some weed spraying and stuff like that, and
just up the street I hear this boom boom boom boom, boom boom.
Oh we got a car rumbling through with their boom box stuff going. So
I'm kind of back on my weeding and stuff like that. And then it
comes a little closer and I look up the street and here's this young man
walking down the street and he's got a boom box on his chest. It's
kind of a look like a little backpack. It was really cool. So
I go, hey, man, I really like to beat on your on
your music. You got there and he goes, oh, thank you so
much. I've been trying to get in some rap and you know, some
clean wrap stuff, you know. And in the kid was kind of a
ethic. I thought maybe Hispanic something. He actually in talking to him,
he goes, I am Hispanic, and uh, but people take me a
little more for Arabic look and stuff. Well, the kid's name is Edgar,
same as one of my boys, Edgar. My boy is Mexican.
This young man who was saying, nah, yeah, I've been kind of
really walking about because I got surgery my stomach and I said, wow,
I'm sorry about that, you know, and he says, yeah, Actually,
what happened is in Federal Way where I live. I don't know if
anybody lives in Federal Way, but they had a shooting at the fred Meyer
gas station up there. This young man was the victim of the shooting,
shot three times, hip, leg, stomach. He lives the next street
over from me, and I go, you live right there? He goes,
yeah, so they're back next street over. So I got the prey
over him like that. I said, hey, you know you go to
church and you go, well, you know, I've had a early rough
life and stuff, and a friend inviding me for a Sunday and said,
well, won't you come down to New Horizon. We got a car show.
So he said, well, I got an obligation, but I'll come
next time. So I gave my phone number and stuff like that. But
this young man took the prayer. He just was like, wow, man,
this is powerful and stuff like that. But it was just hanging out,
meeting somebody walking down the street and make it a connection, you know,
And it was just beautiful. Yeah, come on, really good,
really good, love it, love it, thanks pass. Yeah, it
was. It was great. Literally we had I mean, I don't know
one hundred two hundred of those kinds of testimonies over the period of the last
four days. And I'll tell you when you hear one after another after another
of people stepping out. There was one that comes to mind. These two
guys went to Tacoma, got some coffee, just started walking around, and
all of a sudden, one of them felt like, I need to go
into this small convenience store. They went in. There was this gal there,
very alternative lifestyle looking, and they just started talking and the gal was,
you know, I think she'd had some kind of Christian background, and
and uh, I think she's now calling herself a pagan and uh and and
John Mark got a couple of words for her, and and and basically,
and I can't remember what the words were it or something like, oh,
you've got I'll just make up a couple, but it was it was like
specific, like oh, you've got a pain in your back, and you've
got you've had a problem when um I think one of them was when she
was like fourteen, something happened on the traumatic died, somebody died in her
life when she was fourteen or whatever. But anyway, he gets these words
and it's getting her attention. It's like, how do you know this about
me? You know? And she ends up just really they end up ministering
to her, sharing the Gospel of Jesus, apologizing to her if she if
she did not if she was kind of turned off by the church, and
um oh, oh, I know what. Um, I could be confusing
a couple of testimonies here because I do that, but but now I just
remember more specifically. They they asked her, you know, how are you
doing and and she said, well, I just found out I'm oh,
I know, Okay, it's come back to me now. Okay, it's
come back to me now. John Mark says, I'm so sorry. They
all kind of blurred together in my mind, but it's coming clear. So
John Mark says her, you know, I've really felt like that God wanted
us to come in here. Like I was walking by the store, almost
by it, and I felt like Lord said come in. I think we're
here for you. And she goes, well, I don't know, says
I'm not doing too well today because I found out I was pregnant yesterday.
I found out I was pregnant. And he goes, oh congratulation, goes
no, it's not good. I don't want to be pregnant, and and
so they just they began to to love on her and to care for her.
And then the guy that was with her, he's actually from he drove
up from Sacramento for the conference, and he he says, you know,
I want you to know something. I know it doesn't sound like you want
this space, baby, he said, but my wife and I have already
determined that if we run into somebody who is about to abort their baby,
that we want to tell them that we will adopt that baby. Don't abort
the baby. We will adopted. My wife and already decided if we run
into this situation we were doing. So we're here today to tell you that
please don't abort that baby. That we will. I'll give you my number,
we will if you want to keep the baby. We'll do our best
to try to help you to support that baby. But but please don't abort
that baby. And then and so she's like tearing up and she's like,
you don't understand. You know, I went to church and I never and
I just stopped going because I felt like I was never There was never love
in the church. There was just it was just no love. And so
they then um the guy who offers to support, you know, or to
help with a baby, or to adopt the baby. He went off.
He had two of his paychecks and he cashed them, brought it back.
They gave her six hundred dollars and and she said, listen, we want
to help, but we're serious about this. And so I mean, she's
really uh, you know, broken up at this point, and they got
to pray for her. They got to show the love of God. This
gal who had just turned away from the Lord turned away from Jesus and be
able to just gave got her number and they're going to stay in touch with
her. I mean, that's Jesus. I mean, that's just like the
hands and feet of Jesus right there, And it's just it's that that's something
that we can be every day. We we don't today. I want to.
I want to raise the standard of our life to be able to say
we can we can be amazing witnesses for Jesus. That doesn't necessarily mean that
we're out there kind of being salesman for Jesus trying to talk. You know,
evangelism has really the E word. It's become like the E word.
It's like it's like, don't talk about the word evangelism because it's just so.
I bet some of you didn't come to this conference because you heard that
we're going to do the E word at the conference, right, and you're
like, I'm not gonna do that evangelism thing. But I'll tell you it's
because of a misunderstanding of evangelism. You think that evangelism is somebody who doesn't
want to be talking about Jesus talking to somebody who doesn't want to listen.
That's basically what evangelism has become to be. And it's not that at all.
It's the overflow of your love for Jesus. Like we just worshiped Jesus
with all our heart, some amazing his presence was here, and now we
just get to worship out there. Maybe not in song, we're not meaning
to be singing out there, but we're bringing the glory of God out there
with us everywhere we go, and we're just ready for Jesus to jump on
people through us, you know. And that's really what evangelism is. And
then a part of that is when they're ready to share with them the great
news of the Kingdom. And but but it's not forcing it. We've become
this idea of we have to feel like we have to force it down people's
throats and and that's not it at all. And we're gonna learn about more
about that thing. So anyway, by the way, there's gonna be even
if you miss city quake, there's gonna be eight weeks of aftershock you're gonna
be hearing about it. There's gonna be aftershock services, which are kind of
gonna be many little outreach times where you're gonna come get a little bit,
a little bit of worship, a little bit of teaching within the half hour.
By the time you've gotten here or gotten to wherever the aftershock services that
you go, because there's several churches that are having in the area, you're
gonna then go out. You're gonna be paired up with somebody who's done this
before. I feel like you're scared and you've not done it before. You're
gonna be paired up with somebody who's done it before. Go out. Listen.
They won't even make you say a thing. You can just watch.
But I have a feeling within the first or second or third person that you
talked to, you're gonna be jumping in. You're gonna be, oh yeah,
and you know this, and this is what happened to me, and
you'll be sharing your testimony. You'll be you'll be saying, I think God
has this for you, and you'll be and you'll be jumping in because it's
natural. It's natural, because I know it's in you. Because the same
kind of worship we've we don't want to be segmented, we don't want to
have be one way in church in terms of worshiping and Jesus all our heart
and then be shutting him down the rest of the week. We want to
let it flow all week long. All right, With that, I want
you to turn to Mark chapter two. Mark chapter two. I'm going to
be talking about a passage that I know you've probably heard before, you've probably
heard preached on before, but I want to look at it with a little
bit different kind of eyes today. And this is the story of the paralytic
being carried to Jesus. So, Father, I thank you so much for
this time. I thank you for those that are here listening, those that
might be listening on video afterwards online. But Lord, we give you this
time. We say, Holy Spirit, come and teach us about faith,
and teach us about overflowing for you. Thank you, Lord, Jesus name
Amen, Mark two, verse one. When he had come back to Compirnium,
that's Jesus. He'd now come back. He was out ministering, comes
back to his kind of his home ministry base, Compernium. He was raised
in Nazareth, but he made Compernium his kind of his ministry base. He
came back to Compernium. Several days afterwards, it was heard that he was
at home, and there were many gathered together so that there was no longer
room even near the door. He was speaking the word to him. So
he comes back to his ministry base and he comes and he's at this home.
And I've actually been to that place in Compirnium. It's actually very large
for the time. It's a very large home, and yet still as the
large as it was, it was crowded, so crowded that you couldn't even
get inside because of all the people. And you know the reason why,
of course, I mean it doesn't say it here, but you know the
reason why there's so many because they've been advertising in the Capernium Gazette, full
page ads revival at Jesus House, pizza, served special meetings, bring a
friend. No, No, it wasn't Tom, Don't be ridiculous. It
was the radio ads. They're having radio and TV ads every No, why
were there so many people at Jesus House. Why why did so many people
gather? You know why? Because they heard the Jesus stories. They heard
the stories about what had happened through this man, and they're like, I
need to I want to I want to get around him, I want to
hear from him. I want to maybe he'll, hey, he'll do a
miracle for me, Maybe he'll tell me something about my life. They heard
the Jesus stories. You know, I'm not a game media. I'm not
against publicity and signs and ads and you know the different things. But I'll
tell you the Church of Jesus Christ that should be minor in terms of how
the word gets out. The major should be the testimonies of Jesus churches people,
His people need to be telling the Jesus that we call him testimonies,
right, They're just stories about what Jesus did, stories about what he did
through us, what happened through us, what happened to this person. If
we're telling the Jesus stories, I'll tell you it will be a lot more
effective than any advertising you do. And because people want to hear, they
want to hear you. I was sharing two days ago on this and I
said, here's a little hint. Ninety nine point nine percent of people,
let's they're really super busy. They're like on their way something like if you
say, hey, want to hear a cool story, They're gonna say yes.
Everybody wants to hear a story. You know you don't have to say
you want to hear a testimony, Like, what are you talking about?
What's a testimony? People don't even understand what testimonies did. Don't use the
word testimony. Hey want to hear a cool story. Hey, let me
tell what Jesus did for me. Hey, this is so cool when I
was this way and then this happened and then and I mean, you can
and it couldn't be about your salvation. It could be about freedom in an
area you have testimonies to share, just say, hey, I want to
tell a cool story. Anyway, So they gathered together, they were all
crowded in this place, and verse three, and I'll get We tend to
read this so quickly because we're used to the story. You've heard these stories
before. It's very easy for you to get said, oh I know the
story. But think about what happened. Think about being there. What happened?
And they came to they and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried
by four men. And just stop there, four men are carrying a paralytic
on a palette. What happened? How? Why was it? The paralytics
ideas he's not been able to move he's not been able to walk. Um,
was it his idea saying, hey, guys, Jesus is in town.
You gotta get me to Jesus. Or was it one of the guys
saying, hey, man, our friend here. He's been all he can
do. His bag, he has can't not been able to walk. Maybe,
just maybe, man, if we got him as Jesus, maybe something
would happen. We've heard stories. Maybe let's you know, friends get their
friends to Jesus. And so I don't know. They picked him up,
they got on his palate, they were carrying him. I don't know how
fright they went. You know, it's it's not easy to carry a guy,
right, they're carrying him and they're getting him to Jesus. Now did
they go a block? Did they go three blocks? A mile? I
don't know. But they get to the door or they get to the place,
and they say, and they're unable to get to him because of the
crowd. But here's interesting, he said, being unable to get to him
because of the crowd, they remove the roof above him. Now again,
we read this so fast, it's like what happened there? They get to
the house, they're thinking they're gonna go in the door. They're gonna set
this guy down in front of Jesus and they can't get in. So what
was the conversation. I don't know. I might be reading into it,
but I think it went something like this, Oh my goodness, look at
how busy. It's so crowded. We can't even get him to Jesus.
What are we gonna do. Let's go up on the roof, up on
the roof. What Jesus isn't up on the roof? How do we what's
gonna happen? I don't know. We'll figure that out. At least we
be closer somehow. They were like, let's get we gotta get our friend
to Jesus. I love that attitude. We gotta get our friend of Jesus.
Friends get their friends to Jesus. They went up on the roof.
It's kind of the area in those days, it was like a patio,
patio bathing put out their wash up there, and so they went up on
the roof and they're getting their friends to Jesus. You know, you might
think today, how do we get our friends of Jesus? I wish Jesus
would like walking the door. Then I could I can invite my friends if
I knew where Jesus was, if he was walking around Tacoma or five or
Seattle, I could get my friends of Jesus. But he's not. How
do we get our friends of Jesus? How do we get our friends at
Jesus? Today? I'm gonna turn you to a passage here that does not
seem to relate to what I'm talking about. We're gonna go to Luke seven,
verse eighteen does not seem to relate, But it's going to relate.
I promise. This is a story of John the Baptist. Remember John the
Baptist, you know, right, make wave, prepare the wave of the
Lord. Right, and and I can't even untie his sandal. He's just,
and he knew that he was preparing the way for the Messiah, Jesus,
right, Jesus, not just his cousin who's from Nazareth, but Jesus
the Christ, the anointed one. Right. But something happened that John wasn't
expecting. After this happened, you know, John was in prison. He
got in trouble. He was like declaring righteousness, and that the leader there
did not like it, and he put him in prison, and he says,
you're sentenced to die. And so this wasn't what John was expecting.
This was like, this was not the plan, okay, And so John
calls his disciples Luke eighteen. John's disciples told him all these things, meaning
they told John's disciples home about what's happening with Jesus. But look at John's
perspective in prison. Calling two of them, he said to the he said,
he sent them to the Lord to ask, are you the one who's
to come? Or should we expect someone else? Meaning John is now having
second thoughts. John is doubting this was not the plan. I wasn't expecting
me in jail. I thought that Jesus was really gonna make everything right here,
and it's not. It's like, I'm in trouble. Do you ever
have your plan not go the way you want it to go? Do you
ever begin to doubt Jesus? You really? I've been praying, Lord,
and it's not going the way I thought? Are you really? Are you
really? God? Are you really love me? Do you really? That's
what That's the kind of thing that was going on with John the Baptist.
So he sent them to Jesus So when the men came to Jesus, they
said, they said, John the Baptist sent us to you to ask,
are you the one who is to come? Or should we expect someone else?
Meaning are you just Jesus of Nazareth, regular man, maybe, good
teacher, whatever, but or are you Jesus the Christ, the son of
the living God. Okay, at that verse twenty one. At that very
time, Jesus careed many who had diseases, sicknesses, and evil spirits,
gave sight to the many who were blind. So we replied to the messengers,
go back and report to John what you've seen and heard. The blind
received site, the lame walked, those are of leprosy or cleansed the death.
Here the dead rays, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
Blessed? Is anyone who does not stumble on account of me? Do
you see what Jesus did here? They came Jesus, we really need to
know. Are you Are you really the Christ? Are you really the annointing
one? You you the one that was that been prophesied for hundreds of years
and now you're really here in real life? Or are we really just looking
ahead for somebody else? You see what Jesus did. He didn't answer the
question right away. He was like sight, healed, lame, walk,
dead, raised, miracle, miracle, boom boom, boom boom. Right.
And then he goes back and he says, look at it. Look
at what I just did. Look at did you see that? You know
what he was doing. He could have told them, oh, yeah,
I'm the Christ, but he didn't do that. You know why, same
thing what Paul said. It's the same concept to what Paul said. He
says he didn't want John's faith to rest in the wisdom of men, but
in the power of God. He could have said, yes, he said,
he said, yeah, believe in me, believe in me. But
he said, no, you will see the power of God flow through me,
and you just saw it. Now, believe in me. You see
that. Why is that so significant? Because Jesus of Nazareth was filled with
the Holy Spirit and he became Jesus the Christ. He was Jesus the anointed
One. That's how his last name was not Christ, it was in Jesus
Christ. It was. It was Jesus the Christ who was anointed with power
by the Holy Spirit. You know, it's no accident that when Jesus left,
he sent another. He sent the Holy Spirit, the same holy spirit
he was filled with. And he now says, oh, by the way,
you're the body of Christ. There's not Jesus of Nazareth walking around.
They're his body who is now also has the same name, the Christ.
You're the anointed one. Let's rise up church, Let's fulfill the name that
we've been given. And so you may run into people who are like,
oh, yeah, that's nice for you. Yeah, I grew up.
Yeah, there's going to church. I heard about that stuff. That's good
for you. I'm I'm now Buddhists. I'm now a new Age, I'm
now pagan, I'm in witchcraft. I'm I'm an atheist. I don't believe
that stuff. If you want that crutch, you can have it. You've
heard that those kinds of things. You're like, no, you don't understand.
I don't want you just to believe me because the words. I don't
want you to just because because I'm teaching some good things. I want you
to know that I'm part of the body of Christ. You don't have to
say this part, but you're thinking it, and you're like, no,
they need to see some boom boom, boom boom. They need to see
they need to have their faith rest on the power of God. That's what
we're doing this week. We're going out believing that God can do healing through
us. He can give words through us. He can get prophetic words,
he can get words of knowledge. He can he can bless people in a
way. There can be signs, wonders, miracles out there, and that
people all of a sudden, their hearts will be softened and they realize,
oh my goodness, you're it's not You're just not another religion. You are
the Christ. You're the one who the one true religion that this is backed
up with power. A friend of mine named Gary, I'm gonna tell you
another story. I know I'm going I go in directions and it doesn't seem
like it relates, but then it's gonna relate. This is the same thing
with this. Let me tell you a story about my friend Gary Oates in
Brazil. He was he was about to preach at this large church. One
two thousand people were coming that night and they're filling the place, and the
ushers came before the meeting and said Pastor Gary, Pastor Gary um we've got
a little bit of a problem here. Uh, the place is filling up,
but there's a bunch of folks from the mccumba Center Witchcraft center down the
street, all dressed in their witchcraft garb, and they're up there in the
balcony and they're they're casting spells and we should we remove them? Should we
make them leave? And Gary's like, oh no, no, no,
don't do that. I'll handle this. So he wasn't. The worship was
just about to start, but he decided he's gonna, he's gonna get up
before the worship and he's gonna and so he gets up and he welcomes everybody.
Welcome. It's so good to be in the city, and thank you
so much for being here. Um, and I specially want to welcome those
from the mccumba Center down the street. So glad you're here. Just two
things I need to share with you specifically. First is that we've prayed and
we're protected here by the power of God, and we want you to we
encourage you to not cast spells because we don't know Him to come back on
you. Just just just some advice just to to so that you don't get
hurt um. But the other thing is more important. I need to apologize
to you on behalf of the body of Christ, because I believe that probably
this is something that happened to you. You grew up knowing, as every
one of us should. You grew up knowing that you were somehow created by
God for supernatural power to flow through us, because that's how we're all created.
But when you looked around, especially when you saw in the Church of
Jesus Christ, that it was not exhibiting the power of God, you went
for the next best thing in the mukamba. And there's real power of the
makamba. The only problem is it's power of the enemy of Satan. And
we tonight I just apologize that the Church of Jesus Christ is not putting on
display the power of God like it should. And I believe that tonight you're
going to see the power of God in this meeting and you're gonna want to
give your lives to Jesus Christ. Is that good? That's good? You
can borrow that. I'm serious because out there all around today at the carsh
or other places, they're gonna be people that are saying, oh yeah,
no, you know I'm I'm this lifestyle, I'm doing this, I'm I'm
psychic, I I do this, I do that. And they're going to
talk about what they've turned to because they've not been demonstrated the power of God
through the Church, the body of Jesus Christ. And you need to step
up and say, I am so sorry that you had a bad example,
but right now I want to be a good example for you. Give me
your hand. How can I pray for you? You have a problem,
you get headaches, you get migraines, Oh, you have a pain in
your knee. Come on, give me your hand. You're going to see
the power of God right now. See, that's where every Christian needs to
be to have that kind of confidence that Jesus, that the power of the
same Holy Spirit that flew that flowed through Jesus when he was on earth,
it's going to flow through me today. That's where we need to get there.
If you're not there, it's okay, just get there. And the
way you get there, one way is going out and trying it. Get
together with people. There's people in this church that have done this before,
who have practiced this before, and you're gonna learn not just knowledge wise what
the gifts of the spirit are. You're going to learn how to practice them
through your life, and you're gonna see how you can bless people and change
their lives and change their eternities. It's why you're still here. He could
have just jettisoned out to heaven with the minute you prayed to receive Jesus,
but he kept you here because you get the partner. This isn't something we
have to do. People like, oh, I have to do evangelism.
No, you don't have to do evangelism. You get to you get to
we get to partner with God. When you see that person's knee getting healed,
a person who was anti God, you see them getting healed, and
then they're like, what just happened to me? And oftentimes they don't just
say what that happened to me? They say what the blank just happened to
me. They're expressing praise in a different way. They have to just be
taught more about the real way to praise. And you just ignore that and
you're like, let me tell you what has happened to me. Jesus just
loved you, healed you as a sign that he wants a relationship with you.
Can I tell you about how to have a relationship with him? See,
that's what we get to do. This is not hard. This is
an overflow. It's already in you. It's already in you. And at
times you've come close, they're like, oh, I pray for people in
church and whatever, and I've seen this and that. No, it's time
to go to a whole new level in this. Okay, back to Mark
verse four and five, and being unable to get to him because of the
crowd, they remove the roof above him, and they had when they had
dug an opening, they let down the paler on which the paralytic was lying,
and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic paralytic, my
son, your sins are forgiven. Again, we read through this because we're
used to the story and we don't understand the dynamic. These guys couldn't get
to Jesus. They go up on the roof, they start digging down.
Do you know the size of the hole you have to dig in order to
get a man and a palette through the roof? I mean it's not it's
not like that. It's something. They're pretty big. So they're digging through.
You know, when you dig down, you don't just get everything right.
And I don't know whether it's through a mud roof or through a through
a thatched roof or whatever, but somehow, when they're digging down, stuff
is falling. But you know what, it doesn't say. It doesn't say
Jesus looked up and saw this, all this material falling from the roof.
It doesn't say Jesus looked up and saw this strange sight of these four men
lowering down another. You know what it does say Jesus looks up and sees
their faith. Do you know that Jesus is looking through all the stuff that's
crashing down in your life? Say, I wonder if they're gonna have faith.
I wonder if they're gonna have faith today. And he's not just talking
about faith for salvation. In this passage. It wasn't saving faith. It
was faith to see a miracle. Faith that it was drawing on the Son
of God to say, will he show up right now? Because either he
shows up Jesus does something and they look pretty durn foolish. Jesus looked up
and saw his faith. He is looking for faith in our life today.
He's like, Okay, how are they express faith? They got this?
I think believing that what I love to read. I love to define terms
sometimes so they make really practical sense to me. And here's how we define.
If this makes sense to you, you use it, If not,
throw it out. I define faith is this. God loves me and he
wants to be good to me and through me. Right now. Faith is
always a right now thing, and God loves me, he wants to be
good. I'm believing on the character of God that he is so good that
he's gonna be good to me and through me right now? Who's he gonna
be good too? Oh? I'm looking around, I'm at the GROSSI I'm
in line at the Who does he wants to be good? That one does
that? Or that one? Right now? Who? Who's he going to
be good too? Through me? And you're expecting God to show up.
I'll tell you if you were in the second row that day, you had
gotten there early and you were looking what is that? Let what's this they're
digging through the roof? What they're cutting? In line? I know you
would have thought that what are they doing? These fools? Who's gonna pay
for that? Roof. You know that's going through the thoughts they're mine.
You know what, sometimes when you step out in faith, you look like
you're being foolish. I don't know about you, but I was trained all
my life to do things so I wouldn't feel foolish. I was taught to
talk a certain way so I wouldn't sound foolish, to dress a certain way
so I would look foolish. Our whole life, we're really doing our best
to not look like fools out there. And here's this guy speaking on Sunday
morning saying, Hey, if you're gonna have faith, you might look like
a fool. Now. I'm not saying that every foolish thing you do is
faith. Sometimes you just do foolish things. Okay, take credit where credit
is due, But there's times where you know, I'm stepping out right now,
I'm gonna pray for this person right here in this walmart, and there's
other people watching, and I don't know if anything's gonna happen, but I'm
gonna be a fool for Jesus. I love what John Wimber used to say,
I'm a fool for Christ. Who's fool are you? Let's be a
fool for him. If we're gonna be a fool, let's be a fool
for him. Let's step out, let's believe, let's live on the edge
of faith. Is this going to happen or not? Let's do it for
the sake of their eternity. Maybe, just maybe God might show up in
this time, right now. He might give me a word. He might
I love. A friend of mine used to say, Oh, I'm a
Christian, and when I look at people, God speaks to me about him.
And when I look at you, and he had no idea what he
was gonna say when he got to when I look at you. But he's
putting himself on the line. He's like saying, God, I'm drawing on
you in faith that you're gonna show up right now. Let's just take a
second, right now before the Lord. The Lord's looking for faith. Just
close your eyes, just right now, say just tell the Lord. Are
you going to be a vessel of faith? Are you gonna be a vessel
that brings this amazing good news to others? Or you're gonna wear a basket
on your head? Are you gonna be one of those lights that just gets
covered up? Father, I bless every single person here the decisions that are
being made, but more than just decisions, Lord, I pray they'd make
a decision to see this process change. They make a decision that would lead
to another thousand decisions, a thousand decisions of reaching out, a thousand decisions
of becoming more bold, a thousand decisions of acting on who they really are
in Jesus. And so I bless them right now. Lord, I can't
wait to hear the testimonies from this group of what you've done through them over
these coming weeks and months, and I commit them to you in Jesus name.
Amen. Lord. Yeah, so many cool things. I wish you
had time for all the testimonies. Oh my word, it would inspire you.
Thank you Tom for sharing, and thank you for bringing some of those
testimonies. Part of what we've been learning, and Tom has been at the
forefront of helping us learn this, is that in most of these settings,
shorter prayers are more powerful than long prayers, that the Holy Spirit doesn't need
us to wax eloquent with a long prayer. These short commanding prayers nee be
restored, ears be open. Just short commanding prayers release the Holy Spirit to
do supernatural things and then people get these crazy breakthroughs and it's just as simple
as check yourself, can you do what you couldn't do before? And so
many people are instantly touched. And I think that's also part of what makes
power evangelism so powerful, is that it's non religious. It doesn't it doesn't
need you don't need to bring this long religious prayer, just a simple commanding
prayer in faith, and then their hearts are opened up. The people's hearts
are opened up to receive the word of the Lord, or to receive a
prophetic word, or to receive the love of the Lord, or to receive
salvation. And so just so thankful for you, Tom and what you've done
and leading the charge with City Quake. Can we give him in their hand?
I want you to I want you to do something. I want you
to go to Cityquake dot org. So, you know, so many of
us missed out on this, but this is life giving and if we're gonna
you know, we're believing for a billion soul harvest. And I know a
lot of you are on board with us to believe for a billion soul harvest.
But we're part of the strategy to bring it the past. We're we're
part of that strategy. And as the world is really in chaos and just
kind of a mess, it's gonna be It's gonna be the harvesting technique of
the Spirit. And what's happened is the enemy has hardened people's hearts, like
the harvest is also a mess, and people's hearts are hardened. And what
opens the door of their heart is a touch, a miraculous touch of the
Holy Spirit. A miraculous touch of the Holy Spirit opens up their hearts.
And so I want to encourage you to go to Cityquake dot org and connect
with some of what they're doing. And I want you to go to their
YouTube channel. They've got over a hundred of these like the best of the
best, great testimonies posted on their YouTube channel, and you can literally you'll
be encouraged, you'll be inspired, but you'll also be coached. As you
watch some of this stuff, it will coach you, it will embolden you,
it will strengthen you. And the Holy Spirit wants to use all of
us in this season with the supernatural and with the love of the Lord.
We do it. I want us to give in to Tom this morning,
and we held him over on purpose, but we also want to give in
to him. So there's envelopes right in front of you in the chairs,
right in front of you, if you would grab an envelope. We've got
the giving methods up here, the text giving and the QR code. I
want to ask you to partner with us in loving city quakes, supporting city
quake. They've been the twenty six cities in three years. Their goal is
a hundred cities a year. So they're raising up others, they're empowering others.
There's a whole team of people growing around Tom to take this message and
this life giving power into every city across the United States, big cities,
little cities, big churches, little churches, and bring the fire and the
inspiration because most of us aren't winning souls, most of us aren't engaged in
this. Like night, eight percent of the church aren't really sharing their faith.
And I want to partner with somebody who's encouraging this. I want to
partner with somebody who's on board with igniting the church in the power evangelism,
loving evangelism. So I'm gonna ask you to give into them this morning.
And I'm gonna pray. We're just gonna pray a blessing over Tom and his
family and the City Quake crew, and then we hope you stay for lunch
and hang out with us, get a car show's shirt, get some merch,
and be a part of what we're doing here this afternoon. From now
until three thirty, we're just having fun together, and we want you to
be a part of it. Holy Spirit, We thank you that you're igniting
the passion and the fire of redemptive hopefill salvation in our hearts. We welcome
you. We welcome you to use us, We welcome you to speak through
us. We welcome you to guide us and direct us. Thank you even
for today's stories, even today's testimonies, even with Ron, that was just
a setup that young men in his neighborhood, a divine setup. And you
have that for every one of us. And we just shout blessing over Tom
and the Apostolic grace, the grace of evangelism on the City Quake, on
him and on his ministry team. Holy Spirit, we just partner with them.
We partner with them, We partner with them. Let the work be
done in us fully and break break out with harvest, break out through us,
with harvest in this region. We thank you for it in Jesus name.
Everybody said, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. Yeah, Let's
give Tom and the present the Lord another hand. Lord. We just thank
you for what you're doing. Thank you for what you're doing. Let it
be done fully. Let it be done fully. Let it be done fully.
We've got after shock coming, so you're gonna hear about that. Eight
weeks of after shock. There's gonna be outreach teams going to the business community,
outreach teams going to the hotels, motels, homeless camps. But there's
gonna be several opportunities for you to be involved. We want you to be
a part of that. We'll let you know more of it as we're getting
into it. But we're just excited about what God's doing through us the body
of Christ. Amen. God, bless your church. We love you.