Speaker 1: Welcome to Hanway Tagalog Sermon Podcast, your daily dose of inspiring,
Speaker 1: heartfelt tagalog.
Speaker 2: Sermons from different pastors and speakers all over the Philippines.
Speaker 1: We hope that this podcast finds you in good shape.
Speaker 3: And now here's your message.
Speaker 1: This is my Bible. It is the standard I lived
Speaker 1: my life by. I am a spirit filled believer, sustained
Speaker 1: by my personal relationship with the Lord, empowered by my
Speaker 1: commitment to community and express throughout reach to others. Therefore,
Speaker 1: I can say, and all right, open to Romans chapter eight.
Speaker 1: Turn your bulletin over, and I'm praying for this to
Speaker 1: come alive here in a few moments. Just like Jesus
Speaker 1: is alive. The cross is empty, folks, I said, the
Speaker 1: cross is empty, the tomb is empty, folks, he is alive.
Speaker 1: I'll be using the New Living Translation today and one
Speaker 1: verse will actually be out of the Message Bible. But
Speaker 1: want you to pay attention to this and let this
Speaker 1: really sink into your heart. So I'm going to start
Speaker 1: in Romans eighth, verse eleven, and Lord, just add to
Speaker 1: the reading of your word, bring it alive. The spirit
Speaker 1: of God who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. Okay,
Speaker 1: let me read it again, just grab it. Okay. The
Speaker 1: spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead, what
Speaker 1: does it do, lives in you, lives in me. So
Speaker 1: the amount of power that it would take to get
Speaker 1: Jesus out of the grave ready wasn't a one time thing.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just for Jesus. That same power that raised
Speaker 1: Jesus from the dead lives in you. Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1: So that means you don't have to just celebrate Easter.
Speaker 1: You can experience it. You can experience different areas of
Speaker 1: new life where there's been death. And I pray that
Speaker 1: you have. If not, you will today look at the
Speaker 1: rest of this verse verse eleven again, and just as
Speaker 1: he raised Christ from the dead, he will give life
Speaker 1: to your mortal body. Or put it this way, you're
Speaker 1: dead things. He will give life to your dead things.
Speaker 1: That's great news, because our hope is that today is
Speaker 1: more than just a celebration of what Jesus did for us.
Speaker 1: It becomes a celebration of what He's doing in you
Speaker 1: and through you. Because the same power that raised Jesus
Speaker 1: from the dead lives in you. God intended for Easter's
Speaker 1: power to come into your dead areas and give life
Speaker 1: to them rest of the verse, so that your dead
Speaker 1: areas come alive by the same spirit that's living inside
Speaker 1: of you. See what I'm trying to say, and I
Speaker 1: don't mean it cliche statement, But you don't have to
Speaker 1: just celebrate Easter today. You really can't experience it. Experience it.
Speaker 1: All of us have had dead, dying areas in our life.
Speaker 1: You might have some going on right now, but I
Speaker 1: would encourage you God can bring life to those areas.
Speaker 1: Look at it this way. The resurrection of Jesus gives
Speaker 1: you the power. It will give you the power to
Speaker 1: close that gap between the life maybe you're living right
Speaker 1: now and the one you've always wanted to live. Because
Speaker 1: left to ourself, we mess up life. We make a
Speaker 1: bunch of mistakes, some bad choices, and we see what
Speaker 1: we could have had or what God really intends for
Speaker 1: us to have. And because of the resurrection power of
Speaker 1: God working in you and you cooperating, ongoing with that power,
Speaker 1: it can close the gap. And it can happen, Folks,
Speaker 1: It can happen. And probably you've tried to change yourself
Speaker 1: from time to time. Maybe you've tried to change your spouse.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work. Have you noticed that? So if we
Speaker 1: can't change one another, it's going to take something greater,
Speaker 1: something more powerful, to do it. If you try to
Speaker 1: change it without God's power, it just doesn't fully work
Speaker 1: because God does something from the inside out. So you
Speaker 1: have a gap from where you are versus where you
Speaker 1: want to be, and you know God wants you to
Speaker 1: be there, you know it. He wants you free, He
Speaker 1: wants you walking in strength and health and vitality. The
Speaker 1: resurrection power of Jesus, what this day is all about,
Speaker 1: is available well to help close the gap. This is
Speaker 1: what happens, will happen the other fifty one Sundays a year,
Speaker 1: as Chris May mention of and all the things of
Speaker 1: Wednesday night and the things that are available to you
Speaker 1: if you will put forth the discipline to see that
Speaker 1: happen in your life because of the knowledge of Christ
Speaker 1: how to get dead things alive in your life. So
Speaker 1: let's think about this experience today Church coming being here
Speaker 1: as ongoing process in your life, taking things that were
Speaker 1: dead and bringing them back to life. God can do it.
Speaker 1: So here's my thought, here's my big thought for today
Speaker 1: as it relates to resurrection and let's consider it. Why
Speaker 1: three days? Say that with me? Why three days? Men?
Speaker 1: Jesus came to earth to take on the sins of mankind,
Speaker 1: dial the cross, pay for them, conquer death. He had
Speaker 1: to be resurrected. But this gap of three days, what
Speaker 1: could that mean? We know you're fulfilling scripture all the wait.
Speaker 1: Jonah talked about it on and on. So he had
Speaker 1: to fulfill scripture, But how can we relate to that?
Speaker 1: Why not just die and come back to life the
Speaker 1: same day or on Saturday or maybe a week later.
Speaker 1: What's this three days? Here we go? Even in the death,
Speaker 1: burial and resurrection, he was showing us some process and
Speaker 1: some steps he wants to do in all of our
Speaker 1: lives because we experience this as well. Not literally like
Speaker 1: he did on the cross, not literally like he did
Speaker 1: in the grave, but symbolically. There's a lot of representation
Speaker 1: that I want you to grab a hold of today. Yes,
Speaker 1: Jesus then descended and he took the keys of death
Speaker 1: from say and you can look at that in Revelation
Speaker 1: chapter one. But let's look at it now from man's experience,
Speaker 1: your experience, my experience. What does this mean to be
Speaker 1: a part of resurrection Sunday to literally embrace it and
Speaker 1: bring it into our life. First Peter, Chapter two, verse
Speaker 1: twenty one, out of the Message Bible says this, this
Speaker 1: is the kind of life you've been invited into, the
Speaker 1: kind of life Christ lived. So he's offering us an invitation.
Speaker 1: What an invitation. Jesus modeled it. Jesus lived on the
Speaker 1: earth to show us how this can happen to us.
Speaker 1: Look at the rest of the verse. He suffered everything,
Speaker 1: everything that came his way, so you would know that
Speaker 1: it could be done. So you would know it could
Speaker 1: be done, and also know, oh, how to do it?
Speaker 1: How to do it? Step by step. I think too
Speaker 1: often we as believers, we just want to go from
Speaker 1: like a car from zero sixty miles an hour, like
Speaker 1: these fast race cars two point nine seconds. How about
Speaker 1: that zero to sixty And we think we're supposed to
Speaker 1: do that in our spiritual walk. And if we don't,
Speaker 1: something's wrong, or something's wrong with me or this person,
Speaker 1: that person, or you know. No, it's a process. Step
Speaker 1: by step, everybody say, step by step. So listen. Friday
Speaker 1: teaches us something I want us to see. Saturday teaches
Speaker 1: us something Sunday teaches us something awesome. Here we go
Speaker 1: Friday and your notes. Friday was the day of pain,
Speaker 1: the day of pain. Jesus went through the torture, the scourging,
Speaker 1: the ridicule, the nails, the crown of forigns, the crucifixion,
Speaker 1: the spear in his side, on and on. Jesus could
Speaker 1: have come and paid for our sins at any point
Speaker 1: in human history. But listen, God, the Father, I believe,
Speaker 1: purposely chose the time and history where the penalty for
Speaker 1: death was cruelest, harshest. It would be a lethal injection,
Speaker 1: a day of something of that nature. This was the
Speaker 1: most gruesome, horrifla horrible way to die. Why did he
Speaker 1: do that? Why? Believe Jesus wanted to experience a day
Speaker 1: of pain so he can help you through your day
Speaker 1: of pain, through your day of pain. So some even
Speaker 1: in this room right now, are in the Friday of
Speaker 1: your life. What are types of pain? Well, physical pain.
Speaker 1: Obviously for Jesus he had physical pain. Folks, some of you,
Speaker 1: your physical pain may be hurting you badly, and if
Speaker 1: you deal with it long enough, it begins to affect
Speaker 1: your soul and your spirit. Jesus totally gets it. Because
Speaker 1: he experienced it at all points, and he shed his
Speaker 1: blood for our physical pain and far healing. And everyone says,
Speaker 1: here's another pain, emotional pain. The Bible says he was despised,
Speaker 1: he was rejected, he was betrayed. He was a man
Speaker 1: of sorrows. I think sometimes we see it, we read it,
Speaker 1: and it's almost a religious clicheic statement. But when you're
Speaker 1: a person of sorrows, that means you're hurting. I mean,
Speaker 1: your emotions are whacked out, and some of you might
Speaker 1: be there today. He grew up in a poor family,
Speaker 1: born in a barn, the boy born to a lady
Speaker 1: not married. I'm sure he knew about that and found
Speaker 1: out about it, and he was ridiculed. I imagine them trying
Speaker 1: to explain a heavenly birth that wouldn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: He was also betrayed by those closest to him, his disciples, folks.
Speaker 1: They bailed on him, They bailed on him. Maybe you
Speaker 1: feel betrayed, falsely accused. It hurts, and that pain can
Speaker 1: sometimes be even more than physical pain. Let's take it
Speaker 1: up one more level, one more level of pain, the
Speaker 1: fridays of life. What about relational pain? Those who are
Speaker 1: single he knows what it's like to be single. He
Speaker 1: knows what it's like to be tempted. As a single person.
Speaker 1: He was tempted in every way, but never sinned. And
Speaker 1: as one man could say, yeah, we don't know what
Speaker 1: it's like to be married. Well think about it. Hold on,
Speaker 1: we're called the bride of Christ. Jesus is the groom,
Speaker 1: so he knows what it's like for his bride to
Speaker 1: cheat on him. We've all done that, We've all put
Speaker 1: other loves before Christ. Another relational pain. Jesus he had
Speaker 1: some crazy family. Smile, come on, crazy family. His family
Speaker 1: was not all in on him being the son of God.
Speaker 1: They didn't all get it. He had crazy family. Everybody
Speaker 1: has some in someone in your family. It's crazy family.
Speaker 1: You might be sitting next to in Never mind, I
Speaker 1: won't do that. I let's say that. And by the way,
Speaker 1: if you don't know who crazy family is, it's you. No,
Speaker 1: just just Eason, all right, but I'm seriously crazy family.
Speaker 1: Jesus was preaching once in his family was outside saying
Speaker 1: he's out of his mind. You know, we read that
Speaker 1: and we can gloss over it. But this was relational pain.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine how that felt to Jesus. Mark, why
Speaker 1: are you saying all this because some of you are
Speaker 1: in the Friday of life and you're feeling pain. But
Speaker 1: here's the lesson You're there in Romans eight, very familiar passage,
Speaker 1: verse twenty eight. We use it often and it's awesome,
Speaker 1: and you've got to remind yourself of it. And here
Speaker 1: we go verse twenty eight. As soon as I can
Speaker 1: find it in my Bible, here it is. And we
Speaker 1: know that God causes everything, the pain you're going through
Speaker 1: right now, everything to work together for the good. Here's
Speaker 1: the thing. God can flip it. You ever watch the
Speaker 1: Flipping House shows where they take a house and flip
Speaker 1: it looks great. Jesus can take that messed up house
Speaker 1: of yours and he can remodel it. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: it's a process. It takes time. Don't quit. You're just
Speaker 1: in the idea of life. He can take your pain
Speaker 1: that not only come out of that, he gives you
Speaker 1: some purpose to it. Because of the rest of the verse.
Speaker 1: It tells me this He can cause it and work
Speaker 1: together for good of those who love God. So he
Speaker 1: got to continue and are called according to His purpose
Speaker 1: for them. So here's the thing. He'll give purpose to
Speaker 1: your pain, he really will. It helps to know when
Speaker 1: you go through pain that somehow God can use this
Speaker 1: in your notes. There's no pain that His purpose cannot redeem,
Speaker 1: no pain. So if you're in the Friday of life,
Speaker 1: you just need to know. Right now you're warring. You're
Speaker 1: in a war, and all of us have had Fridays.
Speaker 1: But what can even be a longer period of time
Speaker 1: is Saturday. Saturday, that's the day of confusion. Let's relate
Speaker 1: this to the Bible and what was going on, and
Speaker 1: let's relate it to our walk because even in the death,
Speaker 1: burial of the Lord and then his resurrection, we can
Speaker 1: see some things, some parallels. The disciples weren't sitting around
Speaker 1: going day and Saturday and Sunday's come in. Now Jesus
Speaker 1: said he would rise from the dead. They didn't get it.
Speaker 1: How many things in the Bible I don't get And
Speaker 1: if Jesus, I imagine Jesus like if he'd only just
Speaker 1: shut up and listen to me a little bit more,
Speaker 1: you know, And when we don't get it, we jumped
Speaker 1: to conclusions in this and they got confused, and they
Speaker 1: really wanted him to come and set up an earthly kingdom,
Speaker 1: and that was not his purpose at all. The Bible
Speaker 1: says they got so depressed and confused on that day
Speaker 1: that most of them went back to old patterns. They're
Speaker 1: old patterns. Some of you may be stuck in a
Speaker 1: season of confusion, and you know Jesus, he's Lord, but
Speaker 1: there's confusion. If Friday was warring, Saturday is waiting. Can
Speaker 1: I be honest, I hate that word. I don't like it.
Speaker 1: Men don't like to wait. Come on, men help me out.
Speaker 1: You know. I go into a store and I try
Speaker 1: to find the sharpest line and law and beholding in
Speaker 1: the person in front of me. They pull out three
Speaker 1: hundred qpons and this and that, and I watch everybody
Speaker 1: go by. But there's purpose in waiting, and there's doors
Speaker 1: for that as well. There's a new song out if
Speaker 1: you haven't heard it, it's called Take Courage. It's in
Speaker 1: the Waiting. I think the Lord wrote that song for me.
Speaker 1: It's in the waiting. It's Saturday. You know you have
Speaker 1: pain and you know that there's a promise, but it's
Speaker 1: not connecting yet, and you kind of feel stuck. Disciples
Speaker 1: felt stuck. And when we're confused, we do listen, we
Speaker 1: do goofy things. We do odd things. When you're in
Speaker 1: the Saturdays of Life number one. Sometimes I want an
Speaker 1: answer why everybody say why? One of my children growing
Speaker 1: up is like every third word, why daddy? Why? We
Speaker 1: want answers? It's three letter word. You may never know
Speaker 1: this side of heaven church, and we get to heaven.
Speaker 1: Don't you have some questions? I want to find Noah
Speaker 1: and say, Noah, why didn't you swap those two mosquitoes
Speaker 1: when you had the chance. Really, come on, help me out. Ponderables?
Speaker 1: Do you ever ponder some things? Let me give you
Speaker 1: a few ponderables right here. Let's have a light moment,
Speaker 1: like why is the word abbreviated so long? Why don't
Speaker 1: sheep when it rains? Have you thought about it? Why
Speaker 1: is the day when traffic is the slowest called rush
Speaker 1: hour going anywhere? Why is the guy who invests all
Speaker 1: your money called a broker? Think about it? Why are
Speaker 1: apartments all stuck together? Okay? If flying is so safe,
Speaker 1: why do they call the airport the terminal? Listen? We
Speaker 1: want answers, don't you? And if you're stuck in confusion,
Speaker 1: be careful with that here's another thing. When you confused,
Speaker 1: you begin to doubt. There was one disciple that doubted
Speaker 1: so much at that point when Jesus appeared and he
Speaker 1: wasn't there. Bless his heart, he's been stuck with this
Speaker 1: phrase ever since that day. Helped me out doubting Thomas,
Speaker 1: and he was a great man, a great apostle, went
Speaker 1: and did awesome things. But I don't know if you
Speaker 1: really doubt or just had to have proof, whatever it was,
Speaker 1: but doubt sets in jee. Some people can be in
Speaker 1: church so long. After a while they start doubting, is
Speaker 1: this real. It's because you're stuck. You're stuck in a confusion.
Speaker 1: You're stuck in Saturday. I'm gonna encourage you stay stuck
Speaker 1: in the journey. Continue. Doubting doesn't help you a bit though,
Speaker 1: And if you don't resolve that, it goes to the
Speaker 1: next thing. You can give up. You can give up
Speaker 1: on Saturday. One disciple gave up so much he committed suicide.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to show you the Bible's real. Peter Man, awesome,
Speaker 1: great great disciple, great apostle of the Lord. He quit,
Speaker 1: he went back to fishing on Saturday. I'm washing my
Speaker 1: hands of all this, I'm so confused. And here's one
Speaker 1: you hear from people when there's too much Saturday and
Speaker 1: too much confusion in their life. I feel alone. I
Speaker 1: feel alone or isolation, as Janet said, stuck in the
Speaker 1: Saturday flow of life. Now, the way to get out
Speaker 1: of your pain is to see a purpose in it, right,
Speaker 1: to get out of confusion. Listen, you just got to
Speaker 1: get close to God. You've got to get close to God.
Speaker 1: How'd I do it? I'm confused, I'm in pain. You've
Speaker 1: got to be drawn to Him in worship church. I
Speaker 1: cannot overemphasize the power of you ministering to the Lord
Speaker 1: and confusion and letting him flood your life. It is
Speaker 1: so powerful. In fact, if you want to see it
Speaker 1: in Psalms chapter seventy three, if you want to turn there,
Speaker 1: it'll be up on the screen. In the Psalms, acefl
Speaker 1: worshiper wrote a Psalm, and he was complaining because he
Speaker 1: didn't understand some things. There was confusion going on in
Speaker 1: his life. He's upset, it says, Lord, the wicked are
Speaker 1: prospering and the righteous are hurting. I don't understand. He
Speaker 1: even said, surely in vain I've kept myself pure. He's confused.
Speaker 1: But then verse sixteen, Osam seventy three says this. So
Speaker 1: I tried to understand why the wicked prosper? But what
Speaker 1: is that such a difficult task? Then one day, one day,
Speaker 1: I went into your sanctuary, Oh God, and I thought
Speaker 1: about the destiny of the wicked. He started reasoning with
Speaker 1: the word of God, and really what was going on
Speaker 1: verse twenty eight. But as for me, how good it
Speaker 1: is to be Look where near God. I've made the
Speaker 1: sovereign Lord my shelter, and I will tell everyone about
Speaker 1: the wonderful things you do. Somehow he worked through confusion
Speaker 1: and got near to God and was able to reflect
Speaker 1: on all the great things God had done, was doing,
Speaker 1: and what was going to do, And we must do
Speaker 1: the same. As soon as I got close, I didn't understand,
Speaker 1: but I feel safe. See if you wanted to get
Speaker 1: close so you can manipulate God, I ain't gonna work
Speaker 1: in your confusion. But if you want to get close
Speaker 1: so you can feel safe, Jesus draws you in. He'll
Speaker 1: draw you in. I've used this illustration, but it bears repeating.
Speaker 1: My dad died at a very vulnerable time, in my
Speaker 1: own life. I didn't understand, didn't like it. One did,
Speaker 1: But I had enough sense, enough spiritual sense. I need
Speaker 1: to resolve this quickly. About three days after his burial,
Speaker 1: I took his old truck, went out in one of
Speaker 1: our fields, out on the plantation. I just parked it
Speaker 1: and lifted my hands, said, God, don't understand, but you're good.
Speaker 1: You are good. And the power of God that came
Speaker 1: in that vehicle, the comfort of the Lord, a peace
Speaker 1: that came over the troubled waters, was there. And I
Speaker 1: didn't bottom out after that day. I began to soar
Speaker 1: step by step from that day forward. Oh, I'll have
Speaker 1: questions in heaven. You will too. That I had to
Speaker 1: be satisfied, not to the answer on this side of heaven,
Speaker 1: that God has a bigger picture, and that God could
Speaker 1: use that and redeem that in my life, and he
Speaker 1: will for you. In ten minutes, I didn't have to
Speaker 1: have an answer. I had hope again. I had his presence,
Speaker 1: peace that I cannot describe, and you, my God, was
Speaker 1: with me, and I was satisfied just getting close to him,
Speaker 1: near to him like ACEF did just Oh, I just
Speaker 1: want to get near to you, and you come out
Speaker 1: of that and you don't understand, and people can say,
Speaker 1: why are you so calm? Are you glad today it's dead? No? No,
Speaker 1: there's a peace. Jesus is in control. He's got a
Speaker 1: good future for all of us. So if you're in
Speaker 1: the Friday of life and there's that pain, there's no
Speaker 1: pain that his purpose, listen, his purpose cannot redeem. If
Speaker 1: you're in the Saturday of life, there is no confusion. Listen,
Speaker 1: there's no confusion that his presence cannot calm. We can
Speaker 1: learn a lot through the death and burial of the Lord.
Speaker 1: But the truth is, I don't want you stuck in
Speaker 1: either one of those days. I want you to get
Speaker 1: all the way to Resurrection Day. Come on Resurrection Day.
Speaker 1: And we're at different stages with different areas of our life.
Speaker 1: You might have Resurrection Day in one area and a
Speaker 1: Friday another of your life. But I thank the Lord.
Speaker 1: If we continue and press sin and know him, he
Speaker 1: can bring resurrection to a lot of dead areas. If
Speaker 1: we allow him to Sunday the day of resurrection, it
Speaker 1: is available for you. It's available. Dead things can be resurrected.
Speaker 1: If Friday was warring and Saturday was waiting Sunday is
Speaker 1: all about winning, and I like to win anyone else.
Speaker 1: Some of you are one sunrise away from everything turning around,
Speaker 1: one sunrise away. Word, folks, Jesus the one person who
Speaker 1: can change your life if your dead areas are there
Speaker 1: and you bring them to him. Jesus, and he doesn't
Speaker 1: just offer resurrection, He is resurrection. John eleven, verse twenty
Speaker 1: five and twenty six. Look at this. Jesus is speaking
Speaker 1: to Martha, dealing with her brother who died, and he's
Speaker 1: trying to encourage her in who he is. This encourages
Speaker 1: me and what he wants to do for each one
Speaker 1: of us. Jesus told her Martha, I am the resurrection
Speaker 1: and the life those who believe. Those who believe in me,
Speaker 1: even though they die, everyone else will live again. They
Speaker 1: are given eternal life for believing in me. Oh, I
Speaker 1: love it, and they'll never perish. Do you believe this? Martha?
Speaker 1: And I say to all of us today, Victory Christian Fellowship,
Speaker 1: do you believe this? Today? My one goal today I
Speaker 1: want you to believe. If you've never believed before, or
Speaker 1: if you're wait from a long I want you to
Speaker 1: truly believe and confess and allow the transitions to begin
Speaker 1: to happen where you can go all the way to
Speaker 1: resurrection in your life. So on this third day, there
Speaker 1: is no death that his power cannot resurrect. Now, preaching
Speaker 1: doesn't convince everyone, but one thing that really gets the
Speaker 1: point across this story. Everybody say story. I could line
Speaker 1: up person after person up here and they could share
Speaker 1: some of their story. But I've asked one couple. I've
Speaker 1: been waiting for the right moment for them to share
Speaker 1: because their experiences are phenomenal and the Lord just recently
Speaker 1: did something unbelievable for them. So I'm asking Gary and
Speaker 1: Michelle Cooper to come up and share. Come on, let's
Speaker 1: give him a handclap for Dada.
Speaker 4: Hello on the Sun or on the Friday of my life.
Speaker 4: I was lucky enough to be born to a good
Speaker 4: Christian family and lived in a very supportive household. I
Speaker 4: came to Christ at an early age, but due to
Speaker 4: my own decisions and own fault, you know, I slowly
Speaker 4: fell away from Christ. Many people have done that. They
Speaker 4: were born in good families and you know, things weren't difficult,
Speaker 4: that they didn't have to seek God, and they slowly
Speaker 4: fell away and drifted away from Christ. I did the same.
Speaker 4: I made a lot of poor decisions, and unfortunately, one
Speaker 4: of those decisions took the life of somebody very dear
Speaker 4: to me, and it caused me. It nearly took my life.
Speaker 4: It because my family, her family, and myself a great
Speaker 4: deal of pain, and I ended up spending time in
Speaker 4: jail three years. Explain what how that happened? What happened
Speaker 4: in a car wreck. She passed away and I was
Speaker 4: nearly killed. But thankfully God had enough mercy on me
Speaker 4: to allow me to live for a second chance.
Speaker 2: When I was fifteen, I moved away from home. Didn't
Speaker 2: have a good relationship with my mother at the time.
Speaker 2: From that point on, I became an addict. You name it,
Speaker 2: heroine crack. I was addicted. So you know, by the
Speaker 2: time I was eighteen, I was moving around to different states,
Speaker 2: trying to run away from pain. And that's usually what
Speaker 2: addicts do. They're trying to run away from something that
Speaker 2: they don't want to face. So I experienced a lot
Speaker 2: of pain because of my own choices in doing that
Speaker 2: and not having you know, someone there or attaching to
Speaker 2: someone who could show me, you know, a better way.
Speaker 2: So I foundered for quite some time in that life
Speaker 2: up until twenty five.
Speaker 4: So well, in the Saturday of my life while in
Speaker 4: while in jail, thankfully, I was able to God reach
Speaker 4: out to me because there was no one else there,
Speaker 4: and I rededicated my life to Christ and started started
Speaker 4: seeking his his plan for my life as opposed to
Speaker 4: just going my own way.
Speaker 2: And I ended up in jail, which was the grace
Speaker 2: of God in my life, and my probation officer and
Speaker 2: my lawyer both thought I was going to prison. Luckily,
Speaker 2: that day the judge seemed deemed differently, so he ordered
Speaker 2: rehab no less than six months. And it was God's
Speaker 2: hand that sent me to a Bible based, Christ based
Speaker 2: rehab in London, Kentucky, because otherwise I'm very hard headed,
Speaker 2: I'm very proud, I do have a strong will. I
Speaker 2: would have walked out of that place the same way
Speaker 2: I was before. It just looked different on the outside
Speaker 2: for a while. So yeah, while at that rehab, I
Speaker 2: ended up really actually finding out what Easter was all about.
Speaker 2: I had no idea God had turned my life upside
Speaker 2: down at this point in a good way. I gained
Speaker 2: a relationship with Him and on Easter day. While I
Speaker 2: was there, I was there a total of a year.
Speaker 2: I learned that Jesus died for me on Friday, was
Speaker 2: crucified and raised again on Sunday. So that Sunday I
Speaker 2: dedicated my life to the Lord.
Speaker 4: So yes, yeah, still in the Saturday of our lives.
Speaker 4: God was gracious enough to once I was released from jail. Uh,
Speaker 4: he brought Michelle into my life and and she took
Speaker 4: over from there. But but, but but we had a
Speaker 4: great deal of confusion. We uh, you know, we we
Speaker 4: we were trying to live for God. We didn't exactly
Speaker 4: know how to do it. We we actually came, we
Speaker 4: we came to victory. We we sat in the very
Speaker 4: back and you know, kind of kind of eyeballed people
Speaker 4: and you know, saw what it was about. And then
Speaker 4: a lot of people, uh tried to take us under
Speaker 4: their wing. Chris and Christy, Don and Perry Pastor Mark
Speaker 4: and Jeannette and a lot of others of you here
Speaker 4: were very influential in the changes are in our life.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: But but you know, we were very confused. We we
Speaker 4: thought we were trying to live right, but it seemed
Speaker 4: that every avenue we pursued, a door was closing, and
Speaker 4: it was very confusing, thinking, well, we're on the right
Speaker 4: track now, but why is this happening?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I was still trying to learn how
Speaker 2: to be a mother. You know, when you come out
Speaker 2: of addiction, you're just now at twenty five, I was
Speaker 2: realizing I was learning who I was, who God had
Speaker 2: made me to be. And you know, I come from
Speaker 2: a childhood of sexual abuse, so I didn't like men
Speaker 2: very much. So you know, God had to teach me
Speaker 2: how to be a good wife, how to be submissive
Speaker 2: because that I was not. And He's been very very
Speaker 2: good with that. So, you know, still a lot of
Speaker 2: learning to do in our lives and coming together, two
Speaker 2: broken people coming together as one to do that with
Speaker 2: Christ as the head. So I'm very thankful that. And
Speaker 2: I prayed for my husband. I didn't know who that was,
Speaker 2: but I prayed for God to bring a husband into
Speaker 2: my life that could handle me, and he did just that.
Speaker 4: God truly took two wrongs and made a right with us.
Speaker 4: But on the Sunday of of our life, it is
Speaker 4: exactly as Pastor Mark pointed out, it is winning. Uh,
Speaker 4: We're we're by no means a finished product and I
Speaker 4: don't know if anyone ever will be there was one
Speaker 4: finished product, and that's what we all strive for.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: But I was after being turned down every avenue we approached,
Speaker 4: we thought it was a door closing and couldn't understand
Speaker 4: what it was was God narrowing the path. We didn't
Speaker 4: want to follow his direction, so he just closed the
Speaker 4: doors and gave us one one direction.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: I was. I was able to get a great job.
Speaker 4: That's that's allowed me to help support her and mission work.
Speaker 4: It's allowed her to go on mission trips. It's it's
Speaker 4: allowed us to give back. It's given me some extra
Speaker 4: time that I've been able to do some local missions
Speaker 4: with with Don and some of the other and then
Speaker 4: and I'm sure they were very enriched for my presence.
Speaker 3: But but I.
Speaker 4: Mean, we we've we've really had a chance to turn
Speaker 4: around and we're just we've been trying to give back
Speaker 4: and like I said, we're by no means of finished product.
Speaker 4: But yeah, just it's we're so thankful for Sunday.
Speaker 2: Right, Yes, And you know the Sunday in my life,
Speaker 2: As I mentioned, I'm an addict. I ended up in jail,
Speaker 2: so I was a felon had three felonies with a
Speaker 2: lot of misdemeanors, so I could not get a good job.
Speaker 2: God provided grace for him in order for him to
Speaker 2: get a good job. So, in faith, I had started
Speaker 2: going back to school for medical coding, thinking that in
Speaker 2: faith that God would he would bring it about in
Speaker 2: some way. Well, I ended up having my felony expunged.
Speaker 2: So God wiped the slate plane. And the kicker of
Speaker 2: that is that he used a woman that arrested me
Speaker 2: a decade ago to do it. Otherwise it wouldn't have happened.
Speaker 2: And it's a big, long story. I'm not going to
Speaker 2: get into it, but he did, and the curse that
Speaker 2: was all my life as a child is now gone.
Speaker 1: He broke it.
Speaker 2: And I have a daughter over there and another one
Speaker 2: back there that's going to be able to experience the
Speaker 2: freedom of that, and my mother's also sitting over there.
Speaker 2: We have a redeemed relationship. So God is the great Redeemer.
Speaker 2: I've experienced it in my life and he wants to
Speaker 2: do it in yours. He's already done it on the cross.
Speaker 2: You just gotta step into it and trust him.
Speaker 3: So come on church here, love you. God's good.
Speaker 1: That's what that's about, right there. I can't just be honest.
Speaker 1: I hate religion. I hate it where you got to
Speaker 1: go and act perfect and be all dressed up. I
Speaker 1: loved it there was in shorts. Isn't that awesome? I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, I would be too if I could.
Speaker 1: If you're letting me get by with it, I mean,
Speaker 1: just it's not appearance. It's the heart. It's the heart,
Speaker 1: and wherever you are, and God wants to help you
Speaker 1: step by step. Mask just the next few minutes, everybody
Speaker 1: be steel close. With a verse that we began with
Speaker 1: last week, I used it on purposely on purpose last week.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tie back in for today in Philippians,
Speaker 1: Chapter three, Philippians three, Verse ten. I hope it's your desire.
Speaker 1: As a result, I can really know Christ. One translation says,
Speaker 1: I really want to know him. No, it's an interesting word.
Speaker 1: It's not your head, it's your heart. It's your spirit, man,
Speaker 1: so that I might experience the mighty power that raised
Speaker 1: him from the dead. Paul is writing he had some
Speaker 1: Fridays and Saturdays of his life. You talk about confusion.
Speaker 1: He's in jail writing this. Gary and Michelle, we're in jail, separate.
Speaker 1: God brought them together. So watch this the verse again.
Speaker 1: I want to suffer with him. That's Friday. I want
Speaker 1: to share in his death Saturday, so that one way
Speaker 1: or another I will experience a resurrection from the dead.
Speaker 1: That's Sunday, folks. And you can't have any of it
Speaker 1: without knowing Christ, without knowing Jesus. If you haven't, it's
Speaker 1: the greatest decision you can make this side of eternity.
Speaker 1: I want you to look up at the scream. I
Speaker 1: want you to just see where you are. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have four choices today. Bring up the first choice. I'm
Speaker 1: already in a real relationship with Jesus, part of the
Speaker 1: body of Christ. He lives in you. I'd say the
Speaker 1: majority or there that's awesome. Second choice, I'm beginning a
Speaker 1: real relationship with Jesus today, and I'm believing that for
Speaker 1: many of you that are here, it's not about joining
Speaker 1: a church or signing a card. None of that's evil,
Speaker 1: obey it. I'm talking about opening your heart to the
Speaker 1: King of Kings and the Lord of Lord's the one
Speaker 1: who said you must believe and you must confess, and
Speaker 1: that's going to happen to different ones today. See, well,
Speaker 1: I'd like to consider it a bit more first, and
Speaker 1: we value you. Everyone is valued. We value you. I
Speaker 1: mean if you probably had to check it out for
Speaker 1: a while, this Jesus thing. My dad got to saved
Speaker 1: after my mom and he got married, and it was
Speaker 1: a little bit of a process for him to surrender.
Speaker 1: When he did, he really did. So we value you.
Speaker 1: And I hope no one's in this category, but if
Speaker 1: you are, we're still praying for you and believe that
Speaker 1: Jesus can do a great work. I don't ever intend
Speaker 1: on making that decision. There might be someone family member.
Speaker 1: They drug you here today, Well, Michelle was on drugs,
Speaker 1: a different type of drugs. You were healed drugs drug
Speaker 1: by your heel. We value you. God loves you. And
Speaker 1: I just pray that the lives of believers in here
Speaker 1: can walk in such a way that you can see
Speaker 1: that who Jesus is is real. All we can do
Speaker 1: is try to live it in front of you. Can
Speaker 1: we bow our heads? Let me pray first, Lord, I
Speaker 1: pray for people contemplating a step. They're tired of the
Speaker 1: gap and they're ready to go from where they are
Speaker 1: to where they could be. Give them the courage. They
Speaker 1: just have to believe. Help them move across that line
Speaker 1: of faith in Jesus's name. Now, everybody's heads about. I'm
Speaker 1: respecting your privacy if you consider yourself be that second
Speaker 1: choice wanting to make Jesus Lord. Today, I want you
Speaker 1: to believe and confess with me with others that are
Speaker 1: already believers that a category. You already have a vibrant
Speaker 1: walk with the Lord. And if you want to begin
Speaker 1: one today, We're going to pray together right now and
Speaker 1: agree with me. Just allow this to come alive in
Speaker 1: your spirit. So here we go. We're going to pray.
Speaker 1: And if you're in B category, mean it in your
Speaker 1: heart right now. God, everybody pray with me. God, thank
Speaker 1: you for sending your son to die in my place.
Speaker 1: I could not pay for my sin so I could
Speaker 1: be in the presence of a holy God, but Jesus
Speaker 1: paid the price. I ask you to forgive me for
Speaker 1: living my own life without you. Jesus, forgive me take
Speaker 1: my life. I surrender everything to you this day. Be
Speaker 1: Lord of my life. I will live for you with
Speaker 1: all of my heart. Today I give you my life
Speaker 1: still with your head bow, just for a moment, if
Speaker 1: you were in that B category, just so I know,
Speaker 1: and we'll rejoice. I won't make you stand or anything,
Speaker 1: just so I know. We do want to connect with you, though.
Speaker 1: If you prayed that for the first time or as
Speaker 1: a new dedicator rededication like Gary had to do in prison,
Speaker 1: coming back to the Lord, if that's you, would you
Speaker 1: just raise your hands so I know that you're here
Speaker 1: and we can connect. Who prayed that for the very
Speaker 1: first time? Just raise your hand? Yes? Yes? Who else?
Speaker 1: Just pray church? Several people raising their hands? Anybody else? Awesome? Awesome?
Speaker 1: Well I celebrate that with the lives. Just raise their hand.
Speaker 1: That's fabulous. Amen, Come on, let's all stand. Now, let's stand.
Speaker 1: Can we thank you for listening.
Speaker 2: We hope that you enjoyed today's episode. Don't forget to
Speaker 2: share and subscribe to this podcast for more.
Speaker 1: God bless you all.