Speaker 1: So I've had a chance to literally go all over
Speaker 1: the world preach the gospel. I love what God is
Speaker 1: doing seeing people, uh, just seeing some of the craziest,
Speaker 1: most radical miracles. I was just in Brazil a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago, saw God do some of the most unbelievable
Speaker 1: miracles from man. I wish I had time from scars just
Speaker 1: actually never seen this through my ministry, never seen scars
Speaker 1: disappear till that night in Brazil three weeks ago where
Speaker 1: this lady comes up and she's like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: not only am I healed, but I don't see any scars.
Speaker 1: She's in disbelief looking at her arm, like, oh my word,
Speaker 1: my scars are gone. It was just so so cool.
Speaker 1: U saw God do some unbelievable things from from from
Speaker 1: God restoring like movement and arms and and feeling and
Speaker 1: all sorts of crazy stuff. This is a cool one.
Speaker 1: That one lady had a big tumor on her her
Speaker 1: on her on her stomach, like visible, like it was visible,
Speaker 1: it was visible.
Speaker 2: She came to the front.
Speaker 1: She wasn't even able to like even sitting up, and
Speaker 1: it would restrict her movement and she couldn't even like
Speaker 1: move her upper body, and we began to pray for her.
Speaker 1: The thing literally visibly began to disappear on the spot.
Speaker 1: She began move. She's weeping. She's like, I haven't been
Speaker 1: able to move like this for I don't remember how long,
Speaker 1: she said. But he was just so cool watching God
Speaker 1: do some unbelievable things. And so we're seeing God do
Speaker 1: some amazing things. And so it's an honor to be here.
Speaker 1: I know this church is part of what God is
Speaker 1: doing in the Northwest, and God is doing something special here.
Speaker 1: And I'm here just to tell you that the best
Speaker 1: is still ahead for this church, and the greatest days
Speaker 1: are ahead for this church. And I think even with
Speaker 1: construction happening, I think I think it's a spiritual position
Speaker 1: of some of some stuff getting reconstructed, even spiritually here
Speaker 1: and get ready for multiplication, get ready for expansion, get
Speaker 1: ready for more influence. I really, I really feel that
Speaker 1: in the spirit, in the name of Jesus, come on,
Speaker 1: I just felt this prophetically for the church. I just
Speaker 1: feel this right now. I just God just reminded me
Speaker 1: of Acts chapter ten, and I just if you guys
Speaker 1: remember that story where Peter got that vision of the
Speaker 1: of the sheet that came down with all the unkosher
Speaker 1: animals to a very religious mindset, and he's like no,
Speaker 1: He's literally God's like, go kill, eat and Peter's like no,
Speaker 1: It's like, how do you tell God? No? Three times
Speaker 1: God had to be like, bro, seriously, seriously, come on.
Speaker 1: Three times and He's like, no, I'm a good old
Speaker 1: fashioned Hebrew boy, Kosher, I don't want do that stuff.
Speaker 1: And his religious mindset was offended. And three times God,
Speaker 1: God had to speak to him, and he knew that
Speaker 1: it wasn't obviously about food. It was a way bigger
Speaker 1: than a food thing was. It was a cultural thing
Speaker 1: where God began to speak to him. But I just
Speaker 1: felt that prophetically, even for this church. I just felt
Speaker 1: like there's been doors that have been closed that God's
Speaker 1: about to open.
Speaker 2: And I really feel this for your church.
Speaker 1: And I don't even know if Pastor Dowayne's and even
Speaker 1: in this room or not, but I just really felt like, man,
Speaker 1: God is saying, go kill and eat, and there's some
Speaker 1: things that God is going to begin to do in
Speaker 1: this church. Things doors have been closed, and at that time,
Speaker 1: the doors were closed for the for the world outside
Speaker 1: of the Jews.
Speaker 2: It was only for the Jews.
Speaker 1: The Gospels for the Jews, and this was the chapter
Speaker 1: where God said, Hey, what the gentiles are going to
Speaker 1: hear this message and salvation is going to now spread.
Speaker 1: And I really felt like God said that, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: get ready. So there's something special happening in this church
Speaker 1: where things that have been closed and opportunities that haven't
Speaker 1: been available. Now is the season and the time for
Speaker 1: expansion to begin to come and take place. I really,
Speaker 1: I really feel that prophetically is gonna begin to take place.
Speaker 2: Even in this house.
Speaker 1: God is saying, go kill and eat, do not call
Speaker 1: unclean what I've already made clean. So get ready, get ready, Church.
Speaker 1: I really feel like there are some even stuff that
Speaker 1: we've maybe said, oh those kind of people, oh that
Speaker 1: type of a people. Get ready for God to open
Speaker 1: up your hearts, because there's gonna be some orphans here,
Speaker 1: some broken, messed up, busted and disgusted that are gonna
Speaker 1: start showing.
Speaker 2: Up in this church for freedom.
Speaker 1: And we need some hearts and minds that are gonna
Speaker 1: be open to receive those things.
Speaker 2: Some I'm telling you it's not just.
Speaker 1: A natural construction season in this church, but there's something
Speaker 1: God's gonna begin to do. So get ready. Get ready.
Speaker 1: Ministry is messy, but that's what we're here for. Come
Speaker 1: on now, people are problems. The more people you got,
Speaker 1: the more problems you've got, but also the more grace
Speaker 1: you got to deal with them.
Speaker 2: Amen. And so I just felt like God is raising.
Speaker 1: Up in this house, even specific shepherds and people that
Speaker 1: are gonna begin to be here to help what God
Speaker 1: wants to do in this church.
Speaker 2: Amen.
Speaker 1: Amen, I'm super pumped about the scripture got put in
Speaker 1: my heart for you guys here today. We had a
Speaker 1: great time in first service at a fun time last
Speaker 1: night at a young adult's service.
Speaker 2: It was so fun. I got.
Speaker 1: I brought my daughter and during worship I leaned over
Speaker 1: to her. We just felt such a powerful atmosphere in
Speaker 1: this place. Leaning over to her, I was like, Hey, babe,
Speaker 1: what do you feel God wants to do in the
Speaker 1: service today? And she's like, and so she I always
Speaker 1: tell her, Hey, pray, ask God what he wants to
Speaker 1: do if you maybe he's gonna give a word or
Speaker 1: a word of knowledge or word of wisdom, a prophetic word,
Speaker 1: whatever it may be, whatever you see in the spirit.
Speaker 1: And she's like, Dad is there somebody here that's pain
Speaker 1: in their left knee, and God wants to set him
Speaker 1: free and heal him today.
Speaker 2: I said, all right.
Speaker 1: So at the end we were praying some people are
Speaker 1: getting healed, and then I remembered where she said.
Speaker 2: I was like, hey, is there somebody in here today
Speaker 2: that's paining their left knee.
Speaker 1: A guy from another church, Colton Cameron Cameron was here
Speaker 1: and he raised his hand. He's like, yeah, I got it,
Speaker 1: and so I had I called her over my eight
Speaker 1: year old daughter. She went over there, put her hands
Speaker 1: on him. A couple other people put her hands on
Speaker 1: and we begin declared healing over over him, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: chest it out. He starts moving around. All the popping disappears,
Speaker 1: like there's no more popping in my knee. He's like,
Speaker 1: there was popping in my left knee is gone. And
Speaker 1: I was like, how's the pain level. He's like, no way,
Speaker 1: no way. And he's afterwards kept to me like guy,
Speaker 1: He's like, this stuff happens to everybody around me all
Speaker 1: the time, but I'm never the one where it happens
Speaker 1: to me. And I'm like, well, there you go, Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1: And so that was really cool. We had had a
Speaker 1: great night last night, and so I'm just so proud
Speaker 1: of Roman and what he's doing with the young adults. Man,
Speaker 1: I believe the best is yet to come, and get
Speaker 1: ready for something special to happen. And your faithfulness God
Speaker 1: is pleased with. And the cool thing about faithfulness is
Speaker 1: the fruit of faithfulness is multiplication. Well done, my good
Speaker 1: and faithful servant. And what happened, The fruit of it
Speaker 1: was multiplication. And so I believe that in Jesus name Amen.
Speaker 1: Hebrews Chapter twelve. Hebrews Chapter twelve, Verse one says this, Therefore,
Speaker 1: since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us,
Speaker 1: let us rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin
Speaker 1: that so easily entangles us. And let us with what endurance,
Speaker 1: the what that has said before us, the race that
Speaker 1: is set before us. Let me tell you here today,
Speaker 1: you're in a race. Whether you like it or not,
Speaker 1: You're in a race. There's a race set before us.
Speaker 1: And verse two, looking only at Jesus, the originator and
Speaker 1: the perfector of our faith, for the joy set before
Speaker 1: him endured the cross, despising the shame, is sat down
Speaker 1: at the right hand of the throne of God. And
Speaker 1: then verse three, for consider him who has endured such
Speaker 1: hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not
Speaker 1: grow weary and lose heart.
Speaker 2: Father, we love you, We thank you for your word.
Speaker 1: God. We declare your word is alive and active here
Speaker 1: today in the Pacific Northwest, here in Fife. And so
Speaker 1: we just thank you that you're moving even in this church,
Speaker 1: in this place. As Father, we just thank you that
Speaker 1: your presence is here to save, to heal, to deliver,
Speaker 1: uh set free in the mighty.
Speaker 2: Name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: And all the believers said, a man so honored to
Speaker 1: be here, like I said, I get to be part
Speaker 1: of a church has seen a really cool move of
Speaker 1: God right now. We're one of the things that we
Speaker 1: prayed for when our church launch is God, we want
Speaker 1: to see a real revival. And we if we want
Speaker 1: to see a revival, we got to answer the prayer
Speaker 1: that Jesus prayed before he left, and he said, may
Speaker 1: they become one as you and I are one.
Speaker 2: You know, and we've seen moves of God.
Speaker 1: We've seen, you know, different denominations, different churches, different houses,
Speaker 1: light on you know, spiritually speaking, light on fire and
Speaker 1: burn for Jesus. But man, real revival is going to
Speaker 1: happen when denominations and egos and logos get put to
Speaker 1: the side and we all of a sudden we begin
Speaker 1: to be to realize that we are actually brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: We don't have to agree theologically on every point, come
Speaker 1: on in our doctrine, but we got to agree on
Speaker 1: one thing, and everyone across the board agrees on the
Speaker 1: same thing.
Speaker 2: We all agree that the dead.
Speaker 1: There's the death, there's the burial, and there's the resurrection
Speaker 1: of Jesus our church. So man, if we can unite
Speaker 1: on anything, let's unite on the most important message. Is
Speaker 1: the message is the God right. And so we thought, man,
Speaker 1: what can we do? And we realized that, you know
Speaker 1: what baptism is. This is a symbol a water. Baptism
Speaker 1: is a symbol of those things. And it's wild that
Speaker 1: with this idea, like, hey, you know what, what if
Speaker 1: we started doing a baptism and when we know that
Speaker 1: Christmas and Easter are the two biggest church attended days.
Speaker 1: People love coming on Christmas in Easter, and we thought,
Speaker 1: let's make Pentecost Sunday the next big thing. We love
Speaker 1: the resurrection of Jesus. You know, we love the birth
Speaker 1: of Jesus, but how about the birthday of the Church
Speaker 1: should be celebrated, the birth of the Church, of the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit coming on earth, and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: the church was launched.
Speaker 2: And how did it happen? We know this.
Speaker 1: Peter gets up on Mount Zion, he preaches the gospel, right,
Speaker 1: and then the Bible says that three thousand were saved.
Speaker 1: We're added to the church that day and they were baptized.
Speaker 1: That was the reverse of the curse of What happened
Speaker 1: on Mount Zion when Peter preached, was the reverse of
Speaker 1: what happened on Mount Sinai when the Law came. Because
Speaker 1: when the Law came, the Bible says, how many died?
Speaker 1: Three thousand died, right, And now the Spirit shows up
Speaker 1: and he were and he says, now there's what I do.
Speaker 1: I come to give life. And all of a sudden
Speaker 1: life happened in that place. And so we thought, man,
Speaker 1: how cool would it be if we if we remarked
Speaker 1: what the what the baptism of the Church was, and
Speaker 1: it was manifest through the through water baptism, also baptism
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit, and then water baptism and so we
Speaker 1: had we had this crazy vision and three years ago
Speaker 1: we did something called baptized so Cow. We gathered about
Speaker 1: two hundred churches. It was so cool. I watched that
Speaker 1: time to tell you all the details. Gathered abut two
Speaker 1: hundred churches, and we saw the biggest baptism to that
Speaker 1: date in US history. We saw four one hundred something
Speaker 1: rather people literally confess Jesus and go public. Come on, listen,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you what I think. Water baptism is is
Speaker 1: so important. And I feel like sometimes even like the
Speaker 1: charismatic that the spirit filled church almost like lost touch
Speaker 1: with the importance of that. But I'm telling about in
Speaker 1: a culture where everyone's going public about all stupidity, let's
Speaker 1: be honest, right now, everyone's going public, let's go public
Speaker 1: about what matters.
Speaker 2: Come on now.
Speaker 1: And I felt like, we're like, you know, we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna start going public about our declaration of who
Speaker 1: we have committed ourselves to for the rest of our life.
Speaker 1: So we saw over four thousand people literally get water baptized.
Speaker 2: Was unbelievable. Pirates Cove, where the last major.
Speaker 1: Revival that swipped across the whole nation was the year later,
Speaker 1: We thought, if God can do it in southern California,
Speaker 1: he can do it all of California. So we decided
Speaker 1: to unite the Church of California. We were in almost
Speaker 1: every single one of the counties. We had at least
Speaker 1: one church represented. We had one hundreds of churches all
Speaker 1: over California. And we did this event on Pentecost Sunday
Speaker 1: across all of California.
Speaker 2: Our our main event at Huntington Beach.
Speaker 1: We saw over six thousand baptized over across all of California.
Speaker 1: Last year we saw another six thousand. We saw over
Speaker 1: twelve thousand people publicly declare that they're living for Jesus
Speaker 1: in California. People come on, now, I don't know about
Speaker 1: you as revival.
Speaker 2: There's never been.
Speaker 1: Twelve thousand people that are in bath thousand one day,
Speaker 1: you know, in history. And so we thought, of God
Speaker 1: can do a southern California, you can do all of California.
Speaker 1: If he can do it all of California, he can
Speaker 1: do it in the nation. So this year we host
Speaker 1: has something called Baptize America. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: heard about it or not. It was all over the news,
Speaker 1: and we did this thing where We basically got church's
Speaker 1: partners all over the nation, every denomination from Baptists to
Speaker 1: Assemblies of God, Charismatic, everything in between. We saw churches
Speaker 1: from all over the nation, all denominations in every single state,
Speaker 1: including Puerto Rico. And we literally had over a thousand
Speaker 1: locations that hosted on Pentecost Sunday. And guys, we saw
Speaker 1: over twenty it was twenty seven eight hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: two or so. I could be off by by a
Speaker 1: couple numbers, but something in that range. Almost twenty eight
Speaker 1: thousand people publicly in America declare that Jesus Christ, I'm
Speaker 1: going public for him. So I'm telling you all, it's
Speaker 1: exciting times we're in and I believe God is doing
Speaker 1: something special. He's not only uniting the church, but I
Speaker 1: feel like there's there's an atmosphere of people actually locking
Speaker 1: in and going after what God has made our inheritance
Speaker 1: on earth. And I'm here just to encourage you guys
Speaker 1: that man, I'm telling you what We're We're in a
Speaker 1: good time right now. I know the news is trying
Speaker 1: to tell you things are getting worse and worse. We're
Speaker 1: all going hell in a hand basket. Things are getting bad.
Speaker 1: But I'm here to tell you there are more people
Speaker 1: being saved today on a daily basis that we've seen
Speaker 1: in the history of Christianity. There's stuff that's happening all
Speaker 1: over the Earth. I've been to basically every continent this
Speaker 1: year alone, except for Australia and Antarctica. I guess got
Speaker 1: to save those penguins, right. But I've been all over
Speaker 1: literally the world that I'm seeing a crazy harvest and
Speaker 1: people are coming to Jesus. We're seeing some of the
Speaker 1: craziest miracles I've ever seen are breaking out. Stuff is
Speaker 1: happening on Earth. It's an exciting time to live in.
Speaker 1: It's not a time to get busted and disgusted and
Speaker 1: get hurt and and and burn. It's a time to
Speaker 1: come alive by the spear of God is moving. So
Speaker 1: let's buckle up. Let's enjoy the ride because God's doing
Speaker 1: something special. Amen. Amen, And I love this passage. This
Speaker 1: passage is being written by It's it's I argue, it's
Speaker 1: a debatable who wrote this book. We're not We're not
Speaker 1: for sure. Some people say Paul. Most people have agreed
Speaker 1: it was probably Paul. Some people think it was maybe Apollos.
Speaker 1: Some people think maybe Barnabas, maybe Luke or or somebody else.
Speaker 1: And people think maybe it was Apoulos's mentor spiritual mother
Speaker 1: and father, which was Aquila and Priscilla. Priscilla was a
Speaker 1: we know, was a theologian, a mother of the church,
Speaker 1: helped start the Church of Ephesus, a scholar who literally
Speaker 1: taught Apolos, who became a scholar, and so some people
Speaker 1: think it could be heard. That's why the name is
Speaker 1: not mentioned. That's why the writing isn't mentioned. But she
Speaker 1: understood the cultures. We don't know exactly who the author is.
Speaker 1: That that's not the most important thing. The most important
Speaker 1: thing is the message. Here is happening at a time
Speaker 1: where it's tough. Anybody going through some somethings in life. Okay,
Speaker 1: we got a few people that are honest. Things are tough.
Speaker 1: It's right before the temples destroyed. It was the time
Speaker 1: Jesus was crucified and Christianity began to get persecuted. It
Speaker 1: began to get crazy around politically, religiously, and Jewish Christians.
Speaker 1: Book was written to the Hebrews Jewish Christians who were
Speaker 1: being persecuted by the Romans because They're like, hey, you
Speaker 1: got a bat out of Caesar and all the Greek gods,
Speaker 1: and then they're being persecuted by the by the Jews.
Speaker 1: We're saying, why are you leaving our history? Our culture
Speaker 1: was wrong with you. You guys are worse than the Samaritans,
Speaker 1: who are who know what they are?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: And there's all this persecution happening. I guess Christian Jews
Speaker 1: who had accepted Jesus followed it and they tried to
Speaker 1: exterminate Christianity. There was a bunch of chaos happening, and
Speaker 1: many of them, the Bible says, began to reject the
Speaker 1: faith and begin to go back into their traditions. And
Speaker 1: so the Book of Hebrews is written to say, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: Jesus is still the answer. You guys have seen it.
Speaker 1: You guys know what. He's better than anything the Mosaic
Speaker 1: law could have given you. He's the answer. He's the Christ,
Speaker 1: he's the high Priest. He's better than angels, he's better
Speaker 1: than anything that you are into. It's Jesus. And so
Speaker 1: this book is about this, and it's chaotic time.
Speaker 2: Now. I've been through some persecution in my life. I mean,
Speaker 2: I was a young kid.
Speaker 1: I was six years old when my family immigrants to
Speaker 1: the US from Eastern Europe, from Moldova specifically, and we
Speaker 1: were part of.
Speaker 2: The underground church where you're part of the church.
Speaker 1: Where where literally this was illegal. You could not meet publicly.
Speaker 1: In fact, if you met publicly, it was bad. And
Speaker 1: so we'd meet in the forest. I mean, we had
Speaker 1: some of the crazy I could take some of the
Speaker 1: craziest stories.
Speaker 2: Of what happened to say, wants this is a fun one.
Speaker 1: So I remember my dad was somebody the story that
Speaker 1: they're in this forest and the preaching, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, this guy is running from the forest with
Speaker 1: this with this big knife, this machete. He's running and
Speaker 1: he's like stop. It's up like freaking manifesting, right, you know.
Speaker 1: I don't know what was going on. And I was like, Dad,
Speaker 1: was a scary were where you guys?
Speaker 2: Scared?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 2: I was like, no, God is with us.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Dad, the guy was charging you with a
Speaker 1: knife and told you to stop.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, Dad, what happened?
Speaker 1: He was like stretched out my hand and I said,
Speaker 1: in the name of Jesus, be still. You know what happened?
Speaker 1: My dad tells the story. He's so crazy. He's like
Speaker 1: the guy's arm literally was still. It froze and the
Speaker 1: guy was like, ah, he turned around and ran back
Speaker 1: into the forest with his arm and with his arm
Speaker 1: up like this. Who knows the kid's thirty five years later,
Speaker 1: maybe he's forty years later, maybe he's still run through
Speaker 1: the forest. I don't know, but pretty wild some of
Speaker 1: the some of the stuff. And I'm just like, Dad
Speaker 1: was a scary He's like, no, God was with us,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, you're crazy. Our house was bugged. I
Speaker 1: found this out later. We had we had listening devices
Speaker 1: the government put into our house. We had one in
Speaker 1: my parents' bedroom and one in our living room. In fact,
Speaker 1: we had missionaries from the West that Americans come on
Speaker 1: brought the message of the Gospel to us during the
Speaker 1: time when everything was shut down, snuck bibles and it
Speaker 1: was incredible, and so we doing a prayer meeting, and
Speaker 1: they had a bug detector because they're like, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of houses and so we want to know. And
Speaker 1: so they literally had one of those like listening device detectors.
Speaker 1: So they went through our house and they found out
Speaker 1: there was actually two of them and We're like, no, wonder,
Speaker 1: we're getting broken into every time there's a prayer meeting.
Speaker 1: Every time people are meeting and stuff's happening, my dad
Speaker 1: would get crazy fines. I mean, they would bash his
Speaker 1: windshields in, they would slash his tires. I mean the
Speaker 1: cops were they were trying to protect you, or actually
Speaker 1: they're you know, doing the opposite of that, right, And
Speaker 1: so we grew up in persecution. So I kind of
Speaker 1: get an idea of what's happening in this church where
Speaker 1: they were literally being forced out of Jerusalem, being forced
Speaker 1: out of Rome, and they're like, you're not welcome, you're
Speaker 1: not wanted. This is not where you're gonna be. And
Speaker 1: but I love what Jesus does. He turns everything together
Speaker 1: for his good everything, no matter what you go through.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, really, Satan, I'm about to turn this
Speaker 1: upside down on your head.
Speaker 2: It's going about to be worse.
Speaker 1: And when they thought they are exterminating Christianity, the greatest
Speaker 1: evangelistic outreach program started, and the Bible says that they
Speaker 1: went into all the world preaching the Gospel to the
Speaker 1: ends of the earth.
Speaker 2: The earth began to hear.
Speaker 1: The Gospel when the enemy thought, I'm I kill this
Speaker 1: thing out that Jesus guy's gone. This thing's about to
Speaker 1: be gone. But no, and all of a sudden, and
Speaker 1: so the author's writing to the church has experienced some chaos,
Speaker 1: some hard times, and he starts off. The author starts
Speaker 1: off and says, therefore, we are surrounded by a cloud
Speaker 1: of witnesses. My point number one to you today, if
Speaker 1: you like, if you like points, if you're if you're
Speaker 1: a right brain person, and you like your three point messages,
Speaker 1: point number one, write this down is what are you
Speaker 1: surrounded by?
Speaker 2: You're surrounded? What are you surrounded by? What are you
Speaker 2: surrounded by?
Speaker 1: And the Bible says that, listen, you're going through some
Speaker 1: hard times, Jewish, Christians, Hebrews, you're surrounded.
Speaker 2: There's a cloud of witnesses.
Speaker 1: That word witnesses is where we get the word in
Speaker 1: uh Ac Acts one eight. And you shall be witnesses
Speaker 1: right to the drew some jays Maria into the ends
Speaker 1: of the earth. You can run that story. The power
Speaker 1: comes upon you. You'll be my witnesses. It's the same
Speaker 1: word as that word witnesses is a Greek word marthus,
Speaker 1: which we get the word martyr from We're surrounded by
Speaker 1: a cloud of martyrs. We're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.
Speaker 1: There's there's a testimonies. So to be a witness in
Speaker 1: a case, you have to you have to have testimony.
Speaker 1: So you have had to if you're if you're asked
Speaker 1: to come into that car accident trial, you had to
Speaker 1: have seen the car accident or it's been somehow related.
Speaker 2: You had to be president.
Speaker 1: You had to have a testimony, not a testiphony. Right.
Speaker 1: You had to be you had to have witnessed it
Speaker 1: to be a witness to to be able to testify, right,
Speaker 1: And so you had to be there. And he's saying
Speaker 1: that we're surrounded by people, by a cloud of witnesses.
Speaker 1: I used to think I was taught that, you know,
Speaker 1: up in the grand stands of Heaven, Abraham's cheering for me,
Speaker 1: Joshua was cheering for me.
Speaker 2: King David's cheering for me.
Speaker 1: My father who passed away when I was twenty one
Speaker 1: years old in a tragic accident. He's up there, My
Speaker 1: grandparents are up there, all the legends, and they're cheering
Speaker 1: for me. They're saying, go Mesh go, Go Mesh go.
Speaker 1: And I'm like Yeah, let's call it. They're cheering for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not all this pastor is saying. By the way,
Speaker 1: there has nothing to do with them up there cheering
Speaker 1: for us today sounds cute, it can comfort you, it
Speaker 1: can cuddle you.
Speaker 2: But that's not what this verse is saying at all.
Speaker 1: But this verse is saying that you're surrounded because of
Speaker 1: saying therefore starts off with this idea of therefore, the
Speaker 1: word therefore is a connecting word. So to understand you
Speaker 1: got to figure out what is there for, like, what
Speaker 1: is what is it connecting to? So the word therefore
Speaker 1: is like and or or or, but right, it's connecting
Speaker 1: an idea that the author just finished writing about to
Speaker 1: the next idea. So to understand the cloud of Witnesses,
Speaker 1: you got to understand what happened in chapter twelve. You
Speaker 1: got to figure out what happened in chapter brilliant chapter eleven.
Speaker 1: So you gotta figure out what happened in chapter eleven.
Speaker 1: Chapter eleven is our famous chapter. We call it the
Speaker 1: Hollow of the Faith. All the heroes of faith right
Speaker 1: by faith, Abraham by faith, Enoch by faith, Noah by faith,
Speaker 1: Raham by faith, Sarah, And it went through all the
Speaker 1: people who lived by faith and I love. Towards the
Speaker 1: end of the chapter, it says, and they died even
Speaker 1: maybe someone didn't see the fulfillment of it, but they
Speaker 1: died in faith, believing till the very end.
Speaker 2: They believed, they believed.
Speaker 1: We got some Christians that are going through life today
Speaker 1: and they're just kind of getting through motions. And here
Speaker 1: we see a testimony chapter eleven of the heroes, the
Speaker 1: greatest heroes of the faith, father Abraham, who's the father
Speaker 1: of faith, right, and we see the way that he lived.
Speaker 1: And now he's saying, he listen, We're surrounded by people
Speaker 1: who finished, were surrounded by testimonies. What are you surrounded
Speaker 1: by today? Are you surrounded by doubt? Are you surrounded
Speaker 1: by fear? Are you surrounded by anxiety? Are you surrounded
Speaker 1: by a doctor's report? Is that what you're surrounding your
Speaker 1: mind with today? Or are you surrounding yourself with the
Speaker 1: testimony of those who fought the good fight of faith,
Speaker 1: finished the race and got through it. And so my
Speaker 1: point number one is what are you surrounded by today?
Speaker 1: What are you surrounded by today? Because what you surround
Speaker 1: yourself with, you guys know this in business. You know,
Speaker 1: you are the sum of the five closest.
Speaker 2: People to you. Right, you guys have heard that before.
Speaker 1: What are you What kind of situations are you allowing
Speaker 1: to cover your mind? Because what you allow yourself to
Speaker 1: be around is what you're going to become like. As parents,
Speaker 1: one of my responsibilities is I want to make sure
Speaker 1: my daughter is around good other good kids. Right, I
Speaker 1: want to I want to make sure that she's surrounded,
Speaker 1: that she's going to a good school. I don't want
Speaker 1: her to get brainwashed by California. Right, I'm here to
Speaker 1: brainwash California. In fact, at Able at our Bible coulture,
Speaker 1: we had about one hundred or so students that we
Speaker 1: just graduated in May, and one of the first things
Speaker 1: I do as a as a teacher, I started on
Speaker 1: day one. I was like, hey, guys, you're here, and
Speaker 1: the reason you're here is I'm here to brainwash.
Speaker 2: They're like, I'm like, that's right, I'm here to.
Speaker 1: Brainwash you because you've been brainwashed by the media. You've
Speaker 1: been brainwashed by culture, you've been brainwashed by music, You've
Speaker 1: been brainwashed by everything else around you. But the Bible
Speaker 1: says that we are to wash you wash your mind
Speaker 1: with the word. So I'm here to brainwash you to
Speaker 1: have the worldview of the Bible, not the worldview of
Speaker 1: whatever else has been around you. I'm here to get
Speaker 1: you to start thinking clearly biblically. So we're here to
Speaker 1: brainwash you. So congratulations, welcome to brainwashing session one O one.
Speaker 1: That's why you come to church. Because I want the
Speaker 1: mind of Christ, not the mind of this world, because
Speaker 1: his thoughts are greater than his ways are greater than right.
Speaker 2: I want the Bible says we have the mind.
Speaker 1: Of Christ available to us, but sadly some of us
Speaker 1: aren't tapping into it, and we're just kind of we
Speaker 1: have the mind of this world. Come on, now, I
Speaker 1: want the I want the mind of Christ. And so,
Speaker 1: no matter what kind of stuff you're going through, what
Speaker 1: are you surrounding yourself with? And he goes on, We're
Speaker 1: surrounded by those witnesses. I love this testimony. Actually I
Speaker 1: shore I share this last last service is this was
Speaker 1: a couple of months ago. I was teaching in Sacramento
Speaker 1: Bible colleure is about fifty fifty five students or so,
Speaker 1: and I'm there for a week doing intensive teaching on faith.
Speaker 1: That was one of my favorite subjects, talking on faith
Speaker 1: and doing.
Speaker 2: All the different things. And that was my first day,
Speaker 2: my first session.
Speaker 1: We did three three sessions a day for four days straight,
Speaker 1: and my first session.
Speaker 2: I'm coming in and I'm sharing my story of how
Speaker 2: God healed me. I was.
Speaker 1: I broke my next snowboarding was a paraplegic. Doctor said,
Speaker 1: you're not going to recover like people don't recover from
Speaker 1: these kind of breaks. It's it's pretty crazy. Was some
Speaker 1: time to tell you a whole story, but I literally
Speaker 1: lost feeling. I couldn't move my couldn't lift up my
Speaker 1: arm onto a table. I'd have to literally throw my
Speaker 1: whole body. I literally they reconstructed my neck, so my discs,
Speaker 1: my discs ruptured, and my bones were literally broken.
Speaker 2: They had to clean up my bones.
Speaker 1: And what they did is they put metal in my
Speaker 1: in my neck and they literally put like a donor's discs.
Speaker 1: So have somebody else's discs in my in my neck today?
Speaker 2: Come on? And so they literally had to reconstruct me.
Speaker 1: God supernaturally came in and doctors are shocked. I got
Speaker 1: healed radically. He was unbelievable and be like, why do
Speaker 1: you believe in healing because he did it for me.
Speaker 1: Why do you believe in resurrection because I literally saw it.
Speaker 1: Oh but I'm sorry, but it doesn't work that you
Speaker 1: got to me too late.
Speaker 2: I've seen too much.
Speaker 1: Sorry, your theology is a little bit limited to me.
Speaker 1: I've experienced him right, and I'll never forget this. I'm
Speaker 1: sharing my story of what God did and how God
Speaker 1: healed me in this class and this guy that was
Speaker 1: sitting kind of on this side of the room as
Speaker 1: I'm sharing my story, he's just like, oh my gosh ah,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, I know, my story is amazing. He's
Speaker 1: like making these noises like wow. And I'm like I know.
Speaker 1: I'm like, just piper down, but buddy, and like, let
Speaker 1: me finish my story, all right. And I'm sharing the story.
Speaker 1: And by the end I share the story, he'll start chew.
Speaker 1: You're like, yeah, awesome. And this guy stands up in
Speaker 1: the room. He's like, oh my gosh, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, you're about to do a pentecostal run
Speaker 1: around this room or what are you doing? Bro? He
Speaker 1: got so excited and he's literally he's like touching himself
Speaker 1: and he's just like.
Speaker 2: God just healed me. I'm like, what do you mean,
Speaker 2: God just heal?
Speaker 1: I'm like, the Man of God didn't put put his
Speaker 1: hands on you yet. I didn't release the word of
Speaker 1: healing yet. What do you mean you got a heal
Speaker 1: hold on pipate. I didn't eve finish it. I didn't
Speaker 1: even start teaching on face.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I just heard my testimony, and in that moment, he
Speaker 1: literally felt connected to my story.
Speaker 2: Because he had tongue cancer.
Speaker 1: They cut out part of his tongue and they had
Speaker 1: to reconstruct his tongue, so they took skin from his arm,
Speaker 1: reconstructed his tongue. His tongue is good normal. I'm like,
Speaker 1: where you got your arm in your mouth? And I
Speaker 1: was weird. They redid his tongue. But the problem is
Speaker 1: when they were when they were taking the skin off,
Speaker 1: they did some nerve damage and it basically paralyzed it.
Speaker 1: I didn't paralyze it, but he lost all sensation and feeling.
Speaker 1: He had no more sensation in his fingers, in his arm.
Speaker 1: He had had no feeling like you would hit it
Speaker 1: the feeling. But chronic pain, he just chronic pain is
Speaker 1: on medication. He's all this pain, and he felt connected
Speaker 1: to my story and some of the some of the
Speaker 1: details I had. He was like, that's me, that's me,
Speaker 1: and he felt my testimony of how God began to
Speaker 1: heal me and wash this. The Bible says that the
Speaker 1: testimony of Jesus Revelation nineteen ten, the testimony of Jesus
Speaker 1: is the what the spirit of prophecy. So when you
Speaker 1: share your testimony, and in that moment, what was he
Speaker 1: surrounded by? He was surrounded by faith. He was surrounded
Speaker 1: by my testimony. It was the cloud of my witness.
Speaker 1: In that moment, he was surrounded by, not the witness
Speaker 1: of what doctor said, not what his medication said, not
Speaker 1: what his feelings said. He surrounded himself with the testimony
Speaker 1: of Jesus. And in that moment, you don't need no
Speaker 1: one to lay hands on you. Faith was in the
Speaker 1: room and he literally received it. Now he's standing up,
Speaker 1: touching himself, saying, I haven't been able to feel my
Speaker 1: arm for two and a half years.
Speaker 2: This is wild.
Speaker 1: And he's like, I got no more pain through my arm.
Speaker 1: I'm completely healed. I was like, we don't even need
Speaker 1: he's on faith anymore.
Speaker 2: It's done.
Speaker 1: Come on, the testimony of Jesus' spirit of prophecy.
Speaker 2: The other verse, I love it. In Revelation he says this.
Speaker 1: He says that we overcome, how by the blood of
Speaker 1: the and the word of your come on, you overcome
Speaker 1: by a testimony. And so the best way to interpret
Speaker 1: this scripture that with the Hebrews when they see this,
Speaker 1: that you're surrounded by a cloud of witnesses they're hearing it.
Speaker 1: You're surrounded by testimonies. You're surrounded by things that God
Speaker 1: has done. And I'm here to tell you. I'm here
Speaker 1: to tell someone here today that no matter what you're
Speaker 1: going through, someone's gone through it and it's been overcome.
Speaker 1: I love sharing somebody like, hey, I got pain in
Speaker 1: my knee, Oh let me tell you. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you a story of what God did for somebody else.
Speaker 1: Oh I got pain in my back. Oh I got
Speaker 1: a financial situation. Let me tell you a story. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, what you surround yourself with is what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: And so the author is writing to the Hebrew Church
Speaker 1: just going through this, through this hard time, and he's saying, listen,
Speaker 1: you're surrounded by people who finished that endure to the end,
Speaker 1: and it's possible for you to go through that. It's
Speaker 1: possible for you to endure. It's possible for you to overcome.
Speaker 1: Come on, someone say, I'm surrounded by him. Number two, Look,
Speaker 1: this says this. Rid ourselves of every obstacle and the
Speaker 1: sin that so easily entangles. Ays ooh, I love this.
Speaker 1: I wish I had time to preach on this today.
Speaker 1: I don't got time. I mean you can hang out after.
Speaker 1: He says, let's rid ourselves. So the first thing is,
Speaker 1: what are you surrounded by? Number two? What do you
Speaker 1: need to surrender? When you realize what you're surrounded by,
Speaker 1: surrenders easy. When I realize what Jesus has done for
Speaker 1: me on the cross, letting stuff goes easy if you
Speaker 1: truly have a revelation. And he says this, the author says,
Speaker 1: get rid of some stuff. He says, First, he says,
Speaker 1: the obstacles. Now, the obstacle for the for the Hebrew
Speaker 1: Christians was their obstacle was the Law of Moses.
Speaker 2: Their obstacle was tradition. Their obstacle.
Speaker 1: It was a Judaism because many of them were going
Speaker 1: back to their Jewish roots. Their obstacle was like, man,
Speaker 1: we want to go back to what's comfortable, because, sadly,
Speaker 1: that's what we do so many times when things are
Speaker 1: hard in life. We don't want to surround ourselves with
Speaker 1: the testimony of faith. We're surrounding ourselves with what's comfortable,
Speaker 1: and we draw back and we give in, and we
Speaker 1: go back to what Peter did. Remember Peter, I mean
Speaker 1: three and a half years with Jesus, and what did
Speaker 1: he do? He went back to Fishing's wrong.
Speaker 2: With you, dude?
Speaker 1: You flip and walked on water. You saw that tree
Speaker 1: shrivel up and die. You saw food and multiply out
Speaker 1: of your hands.
Speaker 2: Bro, What do you mean? You went back to what's comfortable.
Speaker 1: And that's what we do as Christians, right, Sadly, it's
Speaker 1: what we do instead of pressing in when things get hard,
Speaker 1: we gotta give up and we Oh, I got church hurt. Oh,
Speaker 1: pastors said this. Oh, that leader didn't pray for me. Oh,
Speaker 1: they overlooked me. And we go back to our old ways.
Speaker 1: When God's like this and you're surrounded, you got this,
Speaker 1: you can get through this. And so many of them
Speaker 1: were given to those obstacles and they're going back to
Speaker 1: what's comfortables. Get get rid of those obstacles. Now, no
Speaker 1: obstacles are in your life. Are were down? A few
Speaker 1: things here that I feel like are big deals that
Speaker 1: we need to surrender today.
Speaker 2: One of them brought off is.
Speaker 1: Uh, there's people, come on now, some you gotta break
Speaker 1: up with that boyfriend. I don't know who you are,
Speaker 1: that girlfriend, I don't know. There's people that are bringing
Speaker 1: you down. And sometimes before you can get healthy, you
Speaker 1: gotta just distance yourself. You gotta get that obstacle out
Speaker 1: of your way. For some of you could be hobbies, toys.
Speaker 1: I say this, we still entertain ourselves out of the
Speaker 1: presence of God because of the things that we know.
Speaker 2: Listen, hobbies are good. Please have hobbies. I have hobbies.
Speaker 2: I love them.
Speaker 1: They're important, but they don't drive me. They don't lead me,
Speaker 1: but they are part of what I enjoy. Please have
Speaker 1: your hobbies, but don't let those hobbies run you. Don't
Speaker 1: get into that scrolling videos, whatever, whatever it is that
Speaker 1: just eats your time because when you're surrounded by Him
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, there's some stuff that we got
Speaker 1: to surrender because we realize we're part of a race
Speaker 1: and there's something that's that's gotta be goinna happen to
Speaker 1: watch this and then he says this actually or this
Speaker 1: The next one is past successes. We hold on to you. Oh,
Speaker 1: when I was youth, we saw revival. Okay, but now
Speaker 1: you're not praying or reading your Bible. Oh but in
Speaker 1: my day, America used to be. But what are you
Speaker 1: doing now? We get tied to our past successes and
Speaker 1: also our past failures. We're staying connected to those hurts
Speaker 1: that are holding us back from the freedom that we're
Speaker 1: supposed to we're supposed to endure.
Speaker 2: The last thing I wrote down is.
Speaker 1: This is that the lack of a desire to win,
Speaker 1: the lack of a desire to win, man, I don't
Speaker 1: want to be that person. The locks of a desire
Speaker 1: to doing a level Paul says to Timothy. He says,
Speaker 1: in first Timid, is Timothy, fight the good fight of faith.
Speaker 1: Fight the good fight of faith, Timothy. We understand this
Speaker 1: if you learn about the life of Timothy. He was timid,
Speaker 1: he was shy, he was insecure. Although he was anointed,
Speaker 1: he was called, there was potential on him. He ended
Speaker 1: up doing some some amazing things for the Lord, but
Speaker 1: Paul had to slap him around. He be like, Listen,
Speaker 1: that's not who you are. You're not timid, You're not
Speaker 1: fight the fight of faith, Timothy.
Speaker 2: And then he.
Speaker 1: Finishes off second Timothy, and he says, Timothy, guess what
Speaker 1: I have. I'm not telling you to do something that
Speaker 1: I've never done.
Speaker 2: I have fought the good fight.
Speaker 1: I have.
Speaker 2: Finished the race. And he says this, I have kept
Speaker 2: the faith. Whoo, Timothy. If I did it, you can
Speaker 2: do it. Timothy.
Speaker 1: You're surrounded by my testimony Hebrew people. You're surrounded by
Speaker 1: the testimony of your Hebrew heroes who if they did it,
Speaker 1: you can do it. In the title of my message,
Speaker 1: I don't even tell you guys this today is come on,
Speaker 1: run to win a love of Paul says, all run
Speaker 1: in a race. All y'all are in a race, but
Speaker 1: only one gets the prize. And then he says this phrase,
Speaker 1: we run in a way that we win, or sometimes
Speaker 1: they say to obtain it, to get that prize. Listen,
Speaker 1: you're not in this just to get through motions. There's
Speaker 1: a bunch of people that are living life and they're
Speaker 1: not win. They're not playing, and they're not not running
Speaker 1: to win. They're just trying to endure their marriage. If
Speaker 1: you you're married to the person I'm married to, you know,
Speaker 1: oh we're just getting through what oh my financial situation. Man,
Speaker 1: I just gotta I gotta just get enough. The less
Speaker 1: time I heard we were the head of the tail,
Speaker 1: lest theme I heard we were above lest time I
Speaker 1: heard we were the kings and pre let's I heard
Speaker 1: we're called a reign and life not get through life.
Speaker 1: My Bible says, the greater is he that is in me.
Speaker 1: And if the greatest is in me, that makes me
Speaker 1: not just a conqueror, but that makes me more than
Speaker 1: a conquer because a conquer what does a conquer do?
Speaker 1: A conqueror has to fight really hard and then they
Speaker 1: prevail and win. But more than a conquer, you show up.
Speaker 1: You already won. My basketball team and I love our
Speaker 1: hig school basketball team. We had a really good team.
Speaker 1: And there were some gyms we walked into. We already know.
Speaker 1: These guys are destroyed, Like they don't even belong in
Speaker 1: the same gym as us. Like we walk in, We're like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna embarrass you in front of your mama, your girlfriend,
Speaker 1: everybody else. Like all I gotta do is I already
Speaker 1: we already know we're better. We already know we're gonna
Speaker 1: destroy you. So our coach those kind of games, he
Speaker 1: because we knew he'd like lose sight of winning, because
Speaker 1: we'd like we'd crushed.
Speaker 2: Some of these teams, so we'd won't win. I mean
Speaker 2: he had.
Speaker 1: He's like, you got to hold this team to under
Speaker 1: thirty points. We're like that, come on thirty points. So
Speaker 1: then you're playing for a different goal because now you're
Speaker 1: playing against yourself, not against them, because you already know
Speaker 1: you beat them more than conquerors show up to a
Speaker 1: place and you already know you're a winner. Conquerors try
Speaker 1: and they prevail. You're more than a conqueror because Jesus
Speaker 1: already conquered death, held the grave, every sin, every sickness,
Speaker 1: every disease, every demon, they're under your feet. And he
Speaker 1: says that now you are fighting from victory. You are
Speaker 1: now fighting from a place where Jesus has finished it
Speaker 1: for you, and now it's your time.
Speaker 2: So come on, So what will you do?
Speaker 1: Is we surrender those obstacles and the Bibles and the sin? Oh,
Speaker 1: it ish that time to teach this. The sin is
Speaker 1: not sins. It's not a plural. If you look at it.
Speaker 1: In the original form, it's the sin. It's called the sin,
Speaker 1: that's why. But the word the in the English language
Speaker 1: it's one. There's one sin that you have a problem
Speaker 1: with Hebrew people. It's not all the nonsense you do.
Speaker 1: It's not what you did last weekend with so and so.
Speaker 1: Your problem is the sin of unbelief, because now you're
Speaker 1: forsaking what you know is true, and you're starting to
Speaker 1: give yourself to unbelief because of how hard your situation is.
Speaker 1: And he says, drop that sin. You gotta stay in faith.
Speaker 1: Your biggest proponent, your biggest.
Speaker 2: Enemy is unbelief.
Speaker 1: And he's saying the obstacles, get rid of them. Surrender
Speaker 1: those obstacles, and surrender that unbelief. You gotta know that
Speaker 1: you're a winner. You gotta know who you are. And
Speaker 1: then I love this next phrase. He says this, we're
Speaker 1: gonna're gonna wrap this up here. I know I'm going
Speaker 1: over a little bit. Watched this, he says this. Oh,
Speaker 1: this is so good. He says, and let's run the race,
Speaker 1: and let's run with endurance the race set before us.
Speaker 2: That word endurance in the Greek is.
Speaker 1: The word agon yeah, which means where we get the
Speaker 1: word agony.
Speaker 2: Guess what, your race ain't gonna be easy.
Speaker 1: I ran my first marathon and I'm telling you, what
Speaker 1: about ninety five percent of that race. I'm like, what
Speaker 1: am I doing? Why am I doing this? This is insane,
Speaker 1: this is painful. But I had a goal and I
Speaker 1: was running my You're not running my race. I'm not
Speaker 1: running your race. And I know what it takes for
Speaker 1: me to win, and you know what it takes for
Speaker 1: you to win. And I had a winning situation set
Speaker 1: before me, and I thought, I don't care how much
Speaker 1: agony I gotta go through. I gotta run with endurance.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna run through the pain. I'm gonna run through
Speaker 1: the trials, through the tribulations that are happening in my
Speaker 1: body right now. Because I am here, I'm gonna win
Speaker 1: this thing. I just met a guy seventy six years
Speaker 1: old in the hallway after the first service. He's like,
Speaker 1: I just won. I'm like, what did you win? He's like,
Speaker 1: I just ran a race, and he's like, I won
Speaker 1: my age. I'm like, bro, you're seventy nine, almost eighty
Speaker 1: years old and you're still running. I'm like, you inspire me.
Speaker 1: So I signed up for another race, signed up for
Speaker 1: another race again. Now I'm doing, I'm doing. I'm doing
Speaker 1: my next marathon and I'm going to Berlin in September.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to run the Berlin Marathon. And guess what,
Speaker 1: I put a really high goal for me, like it's
Speaker 1: gonna take a lot of training. I ran eight mile
Speaker 1: around like taps yesterday. It was beautiful, loved it. I'm
Speaker 1: getting my getting my body in shape, getting ready. And
Speaker 1: guess what, I'm going through some stuff and it's easy
Speaker 1: for me to put down and put things away. I'm
Speaker 1: checking what I eat. I'm making sure I'm resting well.
Speaker 1: I'm being sure my body's recovering. I'm making sure i'm
Speaker 1: setting myself. I'm putting things in my life away, maybe
Speaker 1: even other hobbies and other things that I enjoy. I'm
Speaker 1: putting them away because I know there's a goal set
Speaker 1: before me, and winners think like they're gonna win. And
Speaker 1: I'm here to tell you that you're here to win
Speaker 1: in your marriage, You're here to win your finances. You're
Speaker 1: here to win as a leader in church. You're here
Speaker 1: to win as a friend. You're here to win as
Speaker 1: a parent. You're here to win, don't just go through
Speaker 1: the motions Church. And sadly we live in a time
Speaker 1: and in a culture where Christianity is convenient, and we're
Speaker 1: not winning when it's convenient. We actually go backwards when
Speaker 1: it's convenient. But if I'm called to win, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say no to some stuff. I love this phrase,
Speaker 1: we gotta give up to go up. And there are
Speaker 1: some things that I'm gonna say no to, and there's
Speaker 1: and there's unbelief. I'm gonna say no too, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna keep my eye. I'm gonna be saying motivated. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get myself around people that are gonna get me motivated.
Speaker 1: I'm in a group chat with other runners I got.
Speaker 1: I actually hired a trainer for me this time. And
Speaker 1: he's slapping my butt. Hey, you were too slow on
Speaker 1: mile number two. Hey, you need to pick up your
Speaker 1: pace on here. Hey you need to slow down. You're
Speaker 1: you're you're exerting too much energy here and he's telling
Speaker 1: me how to do it.
Speaker 2: Why.
Speaker 1: I want to surround myself with the right motivation so
Speaker 1: I can win. I'm here to tell you you're surrounded and
Speaker 1: when you're surrounded. There's some surrendering that needs to happen.
Speaker 1: And after your surrender it's the next s you're ready
Speaker 1: for the new last one? There, what's the strategy? Come on?
Speaker 2: Every good sermon has three points, right kidding?
Speaker 1: And but for me here I see this is the strategy.
Speaker 1: In the next verse says this, he's looking only at Jesus,
Speaker 1: the author, or the originator and the perfector. He's the
Speaker 1: alpha that he started it and he's gonna end it.
Speaker 2: So guess what.
Speaker 1: He started your life and he knows the end of it.
Speaker 1: And he created you to win. He created you to overcome.
Speaker 1: He creates you to get through the situation. You don't
Speaker 1: camp out in the valley of the shadow of death.
Speaker 1: You go through the value of the shadow of death.
Speaker 2: You may you may have to.
Speaker 1: Go through some hard times. You may have to go
Speaker 1: through some pain. I've gone through some pain. I've gone
Speaker 1: through some losses. But thenk God, I've gone through some victories.
Speaker 1: I've seen God heal my body. I've seen God bring
Speaker 1: my daughter back to life. I've seen those victories. Why
Speaker 1: because I don't got time for doubt, I don't got
Speaker 1: time for unbelief. Come on, we are here to win
Speaker 1: some stuff. And I know my life is here on
Speaker 1: earth to do something on earth. And I want to
Speaker 1: leave a legacy here on earth. And I want God
Speaker 1: to begin to move through me and with me. And
Speaker 1: I'm here because I'm surrounded by testimony of people who've
Speaker 1: done it. And if they can do it, you can
Speaker 1: do it. Paul says, if I can do it, you
Speaker 1: can do it. And I'm here to tell you if
Speaker 1: I can get through the Valley of the Shadow of Death,
Speaker 1: you can get through it. I first are sharing some
Speaker 1: of my financial struggles and things I've gone through.
Speaker 2: I'm telling you what you'd be like.
Speaker 1: Dang mesh, you've probably gone through some stuff. But I'm
Speaker 1: here to tell you you're an overcomer. That's your name
Speaker 1: as part of your identity, that's.
Speaker 2: Who you are. You're a winner. And he says though
Speaker 2: we run to.
Speaker 1: Win, winners think differently, winners strain differently, winners live differently.
Speaker 1: Because we're not just going through motions. We're here to
Speaker 1: see the victory that God's promised us.
Speaker 2: And I love how it ends, and we're gonna wrap
Speaker 2: it up here. And he says this.
Speaker 1: For the joy set before him, Jesus endure the cross
Speaker 1: for the joy set before him. Now listen, the cross
Speaker 1: wasn't the joy, but the joy was before him. He
Speaker 1: endured this for the joy that was in front of that,
Speaker 1: for the joy set before him.
Speaker 2: He endured the cross.
Speaker 1: He went through the agony, the agon in the Greek.
Speaker 1: He went through the pain. He went through the because
Speaker 1: he knew what was on the other side was redemption.
Speaker 1: On the other side was forgiveness. On the other side
Speaker 1: was reconciliation. On the other side was sonship. On the
Speaker 1: other side was righteousness. And He's now reconciled the world.
Speaker 1: You to him, to the Father. And then the Bible says,
Speaker 1: and despising all the shame, all the chaos he went through,
Speaker 1: he says, he sat down at the right hand of
Speaker 1: the throne of God. And I'm here to tell you
Speaker 1: that when Jesus sat down, guess what you sat down to.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that you have been crucified with Christ.
Speaker 1: You have been buried with Christ. You have been resurrected
Speaker 1: with Christ. The Bible says, now you are seated in Him.
Speaker 1: Who you are seated in Him? What does that mean?
Speaker 1: That means where you're not fighting a disease. You're not
Speaker 1: fighting a problem in your marriage. You're not fighting a
Speaker 1: financial crisis, you're not fighting against the situation. There's only
Speaker 1: one fight that you're fighting on this earth.
Speaker 2: It's the fight of faith.
Speaker 1: Because Jesus, guess what, he finished everything. The only thing
Speaker 1: that you have not been redeemed for on the Cross.
Speaker 1: You've been redeemed from sickness, disease, demons, all that you've
Speaker 1: been redeem from it. Now you gotta learn how to
Speaker 1: position yourself to receive your inheritance. The one thing we've
Speaker 1: not been redeemed from is persecution. Congratulations. We're gonna go
Speaker 1: through some stuff and it's okay, it's okay. I love
Speaker 1: looking at history and what happened in the Colosseum, and
Speaker 1: the Christians didn't even see themselves getting eaten by lions.
Speaker 1: They literally saw themselves like as if it was angels there.
Speaker 1: There's reports and stories that were singing, and they were
Speaker 1: like they didn't even feel the torment, because come on,
Speaker 1: Grace is sufficient for you. No matter what you go through,
Speaker 1: He's in it with you. I don't know what you're
Speaker 1: going through today. Who stand up on our feet, but
Speaker 1: I'm here to tell you today. I believe God brought
Speaker 1: me here from California to tell somebody here today. You're
Speaker 1: not here here to go through motions, but you're here
Speaker 1: to be victorious. And when Jesus sat down, it means
Speaker 1: he finished the job. He sat down, and he said this.
Speaker 1: If I sit down, it means the job's done. And
Speaker 1: if I sit down, it means now you begin to
Speaker 1: do everything from the place of this posture. You begin
Speaker 1: to do everything from the place of it is finished.
Speaker 1: And now you live in faith. You begin to declare
Speaker 1: the sicknesses. Nowhere does Jesus teach well, when things are hard,
Speaker 1: start begging the Father to help you, start asking for mercy. No, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: Jesus says, hey, speak to the mountain to be moved.
Speaker 1: You'll never hear me praying for a sick person and say,
Speaker 1: oh God, please, huh. If it's your will, I already
Speaker 1: know his will. He paid for every sickness and disease.
Speaker 1: We already know his will. His will is pretty clear.
Speaker 1: When I walk in a situation, I'm not saying, oh God, please,
Speaker 1: oh God help me.
Speaker 2: No no, no, no, that's already defeated.
Speaker 1: I come in there and say, Father, I thank you
Speaker 1: that you've paid for every sickness, and I command this
Speaker 1: sickness to leave this body.
Speaker 2: It's illegal.
Speaker 1: Your body, listened to me, is a temple of the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, not a temple of infirmity, not a temple
Speaker 1: of the demons, not a that's not.
Speaker 2: What it's for.
Speaker 1: And I say, I love saying this is you have
Speaker 1: zero The enemy has zero percent access to you. He
Speaker 1: has zero percent influence in your life. He only has
Speaker 1: the influence that you give him. And sadly a lot
Speaker 1: of Christians are giving him way too much room in
Speaker 1: their life. He's illegal and it's time to tell him
Speaker 1: where he belongs. You are victorious Church. You are victorious
Speaker 1: New Horizon Church, and you're here to win. So Father
Speaker 1: puts your hand on your own. Father, I thank you
Speaker 1: that we got winners in this room today. Father, I
Speaker 1: thank you. There's those people that they may be struggling
Speaker 1: on the outside, But God, I thank you that we're
Speaker 1: not dictated by our diagnosis of this world. God, to
Speaker 1: think you that we're not dictated by what's happening on
Speaker 1: our bank account right now. Got to thank you that
Speaker 1: my life is not dictated by the problem or the
Speaker 1: situation or the strife in my marriage maybe, or the
Speaker 1: disconnection with my children. That's not what I'm looking at.
Speaker 1: My eyes are on you. I'm surrounded by the testimony
Speaker 1: of winning. I'm surrounded by the testimony of Jesus. I'm
Speaker 1: surrounded by you and the testimony of Jesus the sphirit
Speaker 1: of prophecy. So we just released all over this room
Speaker 1: of the prophetic word that God is with you, He's
Speaker 1: for you, and if He is for you, nothing can.
Speaker 2: Be against you. And it's gonna be in a break off.
Speaker 1: Some of you are literally fearing depression, breaking.
Speaker 2: Off of you even right now.
Speaker 1: In the Mighty name of Jesus, that idea of I
Speaker 1: don't know if I can make it financially. We'll break
Speaker 1: that lie. In the mighty name of Jesus. You are
Speaker 1: more than a conquer and he is Jehovah Jirah Lassam.
Speaker 2: I checked.
Speaker 1: He's still the same yesterday, today and forever. He's still
Speaker 1: your provider. So why are you trying to do it
Speaker 1: in your own strength When he says, let me be
Speaker 1: your provider, let me be the author of that, let
Speaker 1: me do it. Why don't you just surrender to me
Speaker 1: and you live from the place of Jesus being seated,
Speaker 1: and you already have the victory.
Speaker 2: So when you say things.
Speaker 1: And you begin to declare things, you're declaring from a
Speaker 1: place of it is already done.
Speaker 2: It is finished. And now I'm just commanding it to
Speaker 2: be that reality.
Speaker 1: In my life, in my body, in my bank account,
Speaker 1: in my relationships, in all the situations around me. I
Speaker 1: begin to stay in faith. No matter how hard it gets,
Speaker 1: I stay in faith. I stay in faith, and I
Speaker 1: fight the fight of faith in the mighty name of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Come and say, I am surrounded by faith, by testimonies,
Speaker 1: by those who overcame, and I get rid of obstacles
Speaker 1: and the sin of a belief in my life. And
Speaker 1: my strategy is looking at Jesus, the perfect example in
Speaker 1: the Mighty name of Jesus. Amen, if you're here today
Speaker 1: and you haven't given your life to Jesus, that I
Speaker 1: want to give you this opportunities the greatest miracle of all.
Speaker 1: I've seen people come out a wheelchairs. I've seen people
Speaker 1: come back to life. I've never dead. I've seen literally
Speaker 1: babies that doctor said is gone in the womb come
Speaker 1: back to life. I'm telling you I've seen some of
Speaker 1: the coolest miracles. The greatest miracle of all is the miracle.
Speaker 2: Of a new life.
Speaker 1: If you're here today and you've never given your life
Speaker 1: to Jesus, or maybe you not living for him, and
Speaker 1: you're ready to recommit yourself to him and saying, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm ready to go all in to Jesus.
Speaker 1: If that's you here today with every eye open, come on,
Speaker 1: we want to walcome you into the family.
Speaker 2: We'll want to know.
Speaker 1: Who our brothers and sisters are today. If you're here
Speaker 1: today and you are saying you know what, I feel
Speaker 1: some faith, I feel something in this room and you
Speaker 1: said I want to give my life to Jesu. Would
Speaker 1: you lift your hand real quick, Father, I thank you
Speaker 1: for every single.
Speaker 2: Person this here today.
Speaker 1: Come on, any anywhead just lift your hand and you
Speaker 1: put it up real quick to I want to see it.
Speaker 1: I believe there's some people. Thank you for that hand
Speaker 1: one too? Is there anybody else? Anybody else? Come on,
Speaker 1: Thank you, Jesus, Thank you, Jesus. Come on, three, Thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus. Can we pray this prayer the whole chair,
Speaker 1: say Jesus, thank you that you did everything for me.
Speaker 2: I receive you into my life. Amen. That's it.
Speaker 1: It's a faith, it's a prayer of faith. And now
Speaker 1: welcome to the family. Welcome to the family. Get connected
Speaker 1: to somebody here this church. And I'm telling you what
Speaker 1: we're here to do the next steps with you guys.
Speaker 1: But I'm here to tell you that listen, you're an
Speaker 1: over overcomer and you're a winner church, so let's live
Speaker 1: like winners.
Speaker 2: Amen, My man, right here? What's your name? Joel?
Speaker 1: I just felt like God said, man, there's you're a
Speaker 1: builder and you I just see it's almost like the
Speaker 1: enemy's trying to distract you from being the builder that
Speaker 1: you're called to build. But I hear God saying that
Speaker 1: you're you're a builder of the kingdom. You're a kingdom builder.
Speaker 1: And I see God's hand on you, and I see
Speaker 1: God saying that you've been faithful, and watch what's gonna
Speaker 1: be goin to happen in this next season. It's almost
Speaker 1: like this next quarter, the next two quarters of even
Speaker 1: your business. Watch some things that you thought were gonna
Speaker 1: happen didn't work out the way they were supposed to.
Speaker 1: But I hear God saying, my hand is on you
Speaker 1: as you've been faithful as you've done things right and
Speaker 1: in order watch it's gonna begin to happen.
Speaker 2: And I just see God saying.
Speaker 1: I'm about to put push things to you because I
Speaker 1: know I can get them through you. And I see
Speaker 1: you even raising up other leaders around you. I see
Speaker 1: God saying, hey, there's a leader inside of you. And
Speaker 1: the gifting and the ability to build to uh to
Speaker 1: to to go greater, to to to scale, to make
Speaker 1: things multiplied and enlarge. That gift is not only only
Speaker 1: gonna be for you and for your business, but I
Speaker 1: feel like it's gonna be for people around you. And
Speaker 1: God's gonna scale things through you, and God's gonna.
Speaker 2: Use you for great things.
Speaker 1: And I've released that over you in the Mighty name
Speaker 1: of jess And while I bless them right now in
Speaker 1: the Mighty name of Jesus, said real quick, this lady
Speaker 1: right here in the second nd right hand passer Dwane.
Speaker 1: I just felt like God says he's so pleased with you.
Speaker 1: And there's some prayers that you've prayed, and there's some
Speaker 1: things that you've stood for, but you haven't seen the
Speaker 1: result of them. And I just hear God saying that
Speaker 1: those words and those things that you've prayed are not
Speaker 1: falling on deaf ears. But God is gonna begin to
Speaker 1: fulfill some things, even from years ago, things that you've
Speaker 1: been contending for and believing for and hoping for, but
Speaker 1: you haven't seen the manifestation of it. I just hear
Speaker 1: God saying, hold on, watch what's about to happen in
Speaker 1: your life. And I just see a new jolt of
Speaker 1: faith coming upon you, my sister. And I just hear
Speaker 1: God saying, watch, I'm about to raise you up, and
Speaker 1: I'm about to release a new sound out of you,
Speaker 1: a new voice out of you. Even so, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be a strength in you, it's gonna be a confidence
Speaker 1: in you, and you're gonna release things because you're gonna
Speaker 1: see the fulfillment of those things that are in your heart.
Speaker 1: So I bless you in the mighty name of Jesus Father.
Speaker 1: We just thank you for your presence here today. We
Speaker 1: bless you, and we declare that we are running a
Speaker 1: race that we will what church win in Jesus name. Amen.