Pain to Promise

Isn’t God good? Isn’t he good? Isn’t it amazing that our God sits on the throne and he looks down at us and he says, I love you so much that I’m just gonna blow your mind. I’m gonna blow your mind. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Well, I know that you guys, some of you were expecting a livestream today from our senior pastor, Pastor Hans, but unfortunately we ran into some technical difficulties. So that’s what happens when you have technology. How many? Remember the last time?

A couple Sundays ago, I brought my computer first time and I wind up dumping everything all over the floor. Okay. And I said, you know what I told Alex? I said, yeah, we’re not doing that anymore. I’m gonna stick with paper.

So we decided to do that. So I got that got dropped on me on Wednesday. And so I’m like, okay, well now we’ve got to figure out, okay, what are we going to preach? What are we going to do? So I got up and as so much as God does, I sat there, I go, okay, God, what do you want me to do?

What do you want me to do? So about 2:30 in the morning on Thursday morning, God woke me up and I couldn’t go back to sleep. And he says, here’s what you’re going to do. And I go, okay, God, what is it? He goes, Part 4.

I was like, Part 4. Now I want to give you, I love series, I really do, but the one thing you’ll never hear from me is I’m never going to sit here and go, we’re going to do a 17 part series on how to be a ding dong in a Twinkie world. Okay, that’s just not going to happen with me. Yeah, I know. You know Twinkies will last forever.

You know, they said in the end times there’ll be two things that will be here, roaches and Twinkies. So God began to download into me, kind of wrapping up where we’ve been for the last three weeks. And so just to kind of give you a heads up, here’s what’s going to be happening over the next few weeks as we kind of wind out the year. Obviously preaching today, next week we’ll be doing another. So I’ll be preaching again then after that on the 7th.

So the 7th, the 14th and the 21st, we will be starting a new series and it’s going to be walking us into our Christmas holiday on the 7th without, bar any technical difficulties, we are going to be doing a livestream with our senior Pastor Hans out of Elizabeth City. Okay. The following Sunday, unfortunately, I will not be here. And I think I’m trying to convince Alex to go ahead and preach. And if Alex says no, then we can go ahead and we can flip that switch.

Matt’s back there, got the magic button, and we can tune into what Pastor Han says. But I’m going to try to convince Alex that I love Alex. His heart. I love his heart. I can’t.

You know, it’s just I’ve been involved in a lot of churches, and I’ll tell you what, that man is something special. He is absolutely something special. So then after we’ll do that, I’ll be back the following Sunday, and we’ll finish up the series there. We do our Christmas Eve service, then we go into the in between. And yes, we are having an in between service.

I firmly believe that we will carry that into the new year now into the new year on January 4th. And I’m just getting you guys to go ahead and get prepped up. We are going to start our 21 day fast, and we’re going to be talking into that. And that’s going to go from January 4th to January 21st. And here’s the reason why I am really going to put an emphasis on this, especially with me and my family and all, is because.

And I’ve said this from. From. From day one since I’ve been here, I believe God’s got something for salt Church. I believe we’re getting ready to walk into a new era of salt church. Okay?

This area needs salt church, okay? It doesn’t need just another church. It needs a different church, okay? It needs a church that. Its emphasis is on the presence of God.

Because the presence, Alex and I always say to each other, the presence doesn’t exist here in. It’s got to go out there, okay? So God began to download into me. So that’s going to be kind of the next couple weeks. So over the past few weeks, we’ve been living.

We’ve been talking about how to live out our lives stronger than who God, then live out our stronger version of who God says that we are to truly grasp God’s full plan and purpose in our life. So, see, we’ve been talking in part one, we talked about a greater faith. We talked about a childlike faith, an abiding faith, a bold faith. If you haven’t seen those or you haven’t been here and you’re new to the church, I implore you, go back and look that sermon up, then we went into how to access that power that is bestowed upon us through that faith. And we learned that the name gives us authority, that the blood gives us access, that the Word gives us reassurance, and that the presence gives us peace.

And then we went into week three and we talked about the anointing and how we daily need a freshening of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Because that anointing breaks the bondages it restores. It gives strength and boldness and courage to live out our God given purpose. But see, what we need to understand is there’s much more work ahead. It doesn’t just stop from Sunday to Sunday.

Okay. If you, if we have that attitude that, well, I’m going to go to church and I’m just going to, I’m going to check the box. Okay, I can tell you as long as I’ve been a Christian that no more than now, that doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because there are more challenges out there and there are more things that will challenge your faith and challenge your belief and challenge your walk. That, that if you’re not daily in the Word and daily in the prayer and daily in the presence of God, that you’re going to struggle.

See, I follow. I’ve been reading a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer who is a great theologian back in the 1940s, and he says this, and I kind of want to put a pin in it. I want you to, because I’m going to bring this back up, but it says salvation is free, but it’ll cost you your life. Now just put a pin in that because we’re going to get back to that. So the scripture that we’re going to talk about, that God kind of dropped in my soul.

And I preached this years and years ago. But for this time it gives me a different context because I believe wholeheartedly there’s a storm coming. There’s a storm that is on the horizon. And I believe that for those that don’t trust in the word of God, that don’t have that relationship with, not religion, a relationship, there’s a big difference. But I believe that that storm is going to strike terror and fear in those that don’t understand.

But those that do sit in the presence in the court of our God and our Lord Jesus Christ are going to find peace and they’re going to go, yes, God, go. So we begin this in First Kings. And this is kind of, kind of what we’re going to. We’re going to wrap our message around this and Then after I read this, we’re going to go ahead, and I’m going to give you some context on that. So we started First Kings 18:41, and we begin 18:41, and we’re going to go through 44.

And it says, then Elijah said to Ahab, go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming. So Ahab went to eat and drink, but Elijah climbing to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees. Then he said to his servant, go and look out towards the sea. Then the servant went and looked. Then he returned to Elijah and said, I don’t see anything.

Seven times Elijah told him to go up and look. Finally, the seventh time, the servant told him, I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea. Then Elijah shouted, hurry to Ahab and tell him, climb into your chariot and go back home. And if you don’t hurry, the rain will truly stop you. Now, to give you a little bit of context, Elijah is one of those mighty prophets of God in the Old Testament.

See, we can go back to First Kings in 1629 and 33. Now, some of these scriptures aren’t going to come up, obviously, because we got kind of caught. And so you want to write them down and then go back and read them later. But in 1st Kings 16:29 and 33, Ahab. This is where we have.

We see Ahab coming into rule for as king of Israel. So we talk about ahab beginning in 29. It says, Ahab son of Omri began to rule over Israel in the 38th year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. He reigned in Samaria for 22 years. But Ahab son of Omri did what was evil in the Lord’s sight even more than the kings before him.

And though they were not enough to follow the sinful example of Jeroboam, he married Jezebel, the daughter of King of Ethbal of the Sidonians. And he began to bow down and worship baal. First Ahab built a temple and an altar for BAAL in Samaria. And then he set up an asher pole. And he did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than any other king in Israel before him.

And now, coming onto the scene, we have Elijah. In First Kings 17:1, it says, Now Elijah, who was from Tishbei and Gilead, told King Ahab, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, the God that I serve, the Emphasis. It was amazing. When I read that, I was like, wow. Elijah looks at him and goes, this is the God I serve.

Almost looking at Ahab and going, you know nothing about him, but this is the God that I serve. There will be no dew or rain for the next few years until I give the word. And then Elijah left and he goes out. And if you read in between those scriptures, it talks about Elijah. They enter into a famine and.

And Elijah gets fed by the ravens. And then we have the interaction with Elijah and the widow of Zarephath. But as we go a little bit further, see, it wasn’t until the third year we read in chapter 18 that the Lord spoke to Elijah and told him to go to Ahab. And see, at this time, see, Jezebel is like a mad woman. She’s going after all of the prophets of Israel and she’s slaughtering them.

She’s mad, she’s mad, she’s upset. She’s just an absolute evil woman. And she’s killing off all the Lord’s prophets. So much so that Obadiah, who is said to be a believer in the Lord, took a hundred prophets and hid them in a cave. And see, we read on.

Even after this and all of this, Elijah goes up and he challenges Ahab to a contest and to see who is greater, BAAL or God. And Elijah, see, he told Ahab, he said, get all your prophets, meet me up on the mountain. Come on. I know who my God is. I trust in my God and I know who my God is.

See, Elijah, we find out Elijah was a disruptor. He was an arduant follower of God, even so much that Ahab referred to Elijah as the troubler Israel. How much would you, in your relationship with the Lord, would you like the enemy to go? Man, I don’t want to mess with them. I just, they’re, they’re just, they, they’re trouble for me.

Every time I get into a fight with them, I wind up getting beat up. See, Elijah refused to stay silent or stay hidden. He was persistent in his proclamation of the God of godliness and truth he preserved. He persevered through the threats on his life by Jezebel or only to eventually prevail at Mount Carmel and wiping out 450 prophets of Baal, then ultimately to declare the promise of God to bring rain and renewal to the land. He stood in the midst because he knew who his God was.

He became the disruptor. He became the vocal point. So much so that they couldn’t shut him up. Jezebel threatened him with death. I will come after you.

I’ll do whatever it takes. It didn’t matter. He was persistent. He persevered only to prevail because he knew the promise. Hold on to those four.

Hold on to those four points. See, I want to go back to something that Dietrich Bonhoeffer said in an article that I read the other day. So Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived between 1906 and 1945. As I said before, he was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, Euca Minist, a peace activist, also known as the founder of a confessing church. And he said this.

We must stop appealing to theology just to justify our reserved silence about what the state at that time it was Nazi Germany is doing. For that is nothing but fear. Open your mouth for the one who is voiceless, for who in the church today still remember that, that that’s the least of the Bible’s demands in such time as these. The gentleman that wrote that art that began to write this article that made that quote, stated this. As in the United States and most any other country, Nazi Germany did not mind what people claimed to believe regarding Jesus as long as they kept it privately to themselves.

They did not speak out again and did not speak out against national and political injustice or take any action to oppose any political party. And this is the point. Private faith that stays private never ventures to put into action, bothers very few Christians who don’t live out their faith in public arenas really concern no one. So you can live in your closet as a Christian, you can be a closet Christian, you can live out and just say, you know what, God, I’m just going to stay where I am and it’s quiet and I’m not going to bother anybody. Or what you do is you say, God, you’ve created me for a bigger purpose.

So this is where persistence come in. And we find that with Elijah, he was persistent. Now, persistence is a firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition. See, we must be persistent in following God no matter what the circumstances are in our life. We all have troubles, we all have tragedies, we all deal in something.

I remember years ago I was part of another church and we did this series and this series was why good things, why Bad things Happen to Good People. And we did a four part series and I could never really just wrap my head around it. I did what I was asked. It wasn’t a problem. Well, years later I remember hearing that sermon again and I was like, you know, What.

Why do bad things happen to good people? And it was like, the Lord goes, that’s life. Welcome to it. But you have a choice. You can walk through life with me or without me.

It’s your choice. So we make that decision. Are we gonna. God says, look, if you persist, if you are persistent in following me and doing what I asked you to do, I. I’m going to bring you that freedom.

I’m going to give you that strength. See? Then we walk into perseverance. And see, persistence and perseverance are kind of somewhat similar. They kind of tag each other.

But perseverance is the quality of continuing to do something despite difficult or delay in achieving success. It involves persistence, determination, and a steadfastness in pursuing goal even when facing opposition or setbacks. Seven times Elijah told the servant to go and look. Finally, on the seventh time, his servant told him, I saw a little cloud the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea. See?

How often do we read the Word of God? But we really don’t trust what the Word says. Are they just. Are they just words or letters on a page? Or do we really get into them and we really digest them and say, you know what God.

See, in James 1, 22 and 24, it says, but don’t just listen to the Word of God. You must do what it says. Otherwise you are only fooling yourself. For if you listen to the Word and don’t delay, it’s like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away and forget what you look like.

See, here’s what I could tell you about Christianity. See, one of the Pharisees before they crucified Christ, one of the Pharisees who had a little bit of wisdom, he said, look, he said, if you let the man go, and if it’s not. If you let. If you let this man, Jesus go, one of two things are going to happen, okay? It’s either this, his following are going to disappear, they’re going to go away, or you’re never going to stop him.

But they decided to kill him anyway. And look at what we have, thousands and thousands of years. Think about all of the people that have lost their lives for what a belief. But it wasn’t a religion, it was a relationship. Because they realize that the God that lives in me is very real.

See? And then we walk into. When we have. When we walk through persistence, we say, persistence. I’m going to be persistent in doing what I’m going to do.

I’m going to stand my ground. And I am going to persevere as I move forward. Perseverance is an action. You have to move forward. If you go back, you give up ground.

But the more you move forward, you gain ground. And then what it leads us into, it leads us into prevailing. In Job 22 and 28, it says, Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee, and. And that light shall shine upon thy ways. See, this was the conversation between Eliphaz the Tammy and he was having with Job.

See, the thing in Hebrew means omar, or a word or a promise. We as children of God have the authority to decree a word of scripture, a word of promise, or a word of prophecy. When you decree a word, a promise, or a principle, or a prophecy that is based on the word of God, his faith favor anoints that word that comes to pass. See, Matt Sheets and I would implore, if you like to read, get this book. Matt Sheets in his prayer and decrees that activate the angel army says, when we speak our faith, when we say what God says, angels hearken to it, organize, and to make good on it, they assist in the hares and the born again ones.

By helping it come to pass, the angels help construct and connect us to fulfillment. Now, there may be some of you going, oh, now we’re talking about angels. Okay, let me put a pin in that real quick. We just celebrated Halloween. Why is it that we have more commonality, that we can believe in witches and goblins and ghouls and ghosts, but when we talk about the spiritual things in church and we talk about the supernatural, that.

That all of a sudden is. Is. We’re not supposed to do that. Why? That’s hypocrisy.

Because I can tell you this. It’s amazing that this past Halloween, there were a lot of churches that I would have expected to do a harvest festival on Halloween or do something different. They didn’t. Why? And this is my take on it.

The enemy realizes he’s losing ground. He’s losing ground. The younger generation is done with being the fool. They’re done with playing games. They’re looking for something that is real.

They’re looking to prevail. They’ve had enough of the pain. They’ve had enough of the garbage. They’ve had enough of the lies. And they’re saying, I need something that’s more substantive in my life.

Because what I’m going through now and what I’m doing now just doesn’t work for me. It doesn’t work. So when we believe this, then when we begin to do this and we prevail, what does it do? It winds up walking us into the promise. What’s that promise?

That promise is that when you read in that, in the final verse of 44, it says, finally, the seventh time he told a sermon and I saw a little cloud and go up the sides. See, the Bible, we talk. The Bible talks about rain a lot. But see, rain in the Bible, it signifies God’s blessing, spiritual renewal and divine judgment and provision. See, we talk about blessing and provision as being the former rain.

See, in Deuteronomy 11:14 it says, Then he will send the rains in the proper seasons, in the early and late rains so that you can bring in your harvest of grain, new wine and olive oil. See? Then we begin to talk about the spiritual renewal, which is the latter rain. When we see that this is God pouring out his Holy Spirit and his grace upon those. See, in Isaiah 44:31, 3, 4, 4:3, it says, for I will pour out my water to quench your thirst, to irrigate your parched fields, and I will pour out my spirit on your descendants and my blessings on your children.

See, he’s talking about the rain that we are calling in. He’s looking for those that are available when we make ourselves available, when we begin to prevail into that promise. God says, I’ve got something for you. You feel dry right now. You feel hopeless right now.

Maybe your marriage isn’t where it needs to be. Maybe your child is sick, maybe your. Your spouse is sick. Or maybe that job just isn’t working out. Or God says, if you pay, if you spend more time with me, if you believe in me, I’m going to pour out my spirit on you and I’m going to open up the heavens to do more than I’ve ever done for you in your life.

See, there’s a prophetic implication here. See, the concept of rain is also associated with the eschatological hope that suggests a future spiritual revival. See, four years ago, about four or five years ago, when our. When administration changed, we started hearing this thing and there was been. There’s rumblings and there was talking about spiritual revival and God’s going to be doing something.

Was a nation, I believe, that we were coming into. We were out of COVID and we were going through all this stuff and we were at the lowest point in time. But what we were looking for, we were looking for answers in all the wrong places. It’s like an old country song, looking for answers in all the wrong Places we were looking for the government, we’re like, oh, well, they’re going to solve our needs. No, we’re not.

I hate to tell you this, okay, but it ain’t a Democrat, it ain’t a Republican, it ain’t the current administration that’s going to be your savior until you learn to get do what Elijah did. He gets on his knees and he buries his head between his legs and he says, God, I can’t do anything without you. Bring the rain. Bring the rain. Stop looking for others to do what you know that you have tapped into the power that God can do.

God says, I have it right here in my hand. You have not. Because you asked not. That former rain, the initial blessing or early outpouring of God’s spirit, such as described in the New Testament is Pentecost. We talk about the latter rain, the promise of God’s final outpouring of his spirit in his second coming.

Parents, listen to this. Young people, listen to this. Older people, listen to this. In Acts 2:17, these aren’t just words. This is coming.

And it says, in the last days, God said, I will pour out my spirit upon all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. Bottom line, it is not by power, it is by his spirit, says the Lord. Again, go back to what I said. You can do it with him or without him.

That’s your choice. You have that opportunity. How many like, I like movies. I love movies. You know, my wife and I, we kind of differ.

It’s been a minute since I watched a movie, but. But how many remember now, my son in law and my son in law, they would probably know this. The movie Battleship came out in 2022. It’s kind of knockoff of the old Hasbro game in the Battleship. So in the final battle, if you remember that movie, there’s a battle between the alien ship and the mighty mower, the USS Missouri.

The character in the movie, Captain Yugi Nagata, stated to his counterpart, Alex Hopper and said, I can’t believe that worked. What he was referring to is the maneuver that they pulled where they dropped this 60 ton anchor over and it literally turned a 200,000 pound, you know, ton Battleship. Now my buddy, my buddy back here, he works in the shipyard, he’d probably look at me and go, yeah, that wouldn’t happen. That is not going to happen. But you know, we like movies.

You know, we like to think, hey, that works. But he says, he goes, I can’t believe that worked. Referring to the remote maneuver, Excuse me, that they just pulled up to ultimately win the battle. Alex Hopper then quotes a phrase from the book of Art of War, and it says, fighting the enemy where they aren’t. But Captain Nagata responds by saying, that’s not what it means.

And Hopper quips back and says, really? Captain Nagata emphatically looks at him and goes, that ain’t even close, dude. See, what we do find in this phrase and what it actually means is attacking an opponent’s vulnerability, not their strengths, and taking a strategic, proactive approach rather than meeting force with force. See, the enemy’s plan is to discourage, disrupt, and ultimately destroy our today with hopes of limiting our strength for tomorrow. But understand this, our God is not only in the today, but he’s also in the tomorrow.

See, the enemy is not omnipotent, meaning all knowing he’s not omnipotent, meaning have unlimited power and able to do everything. He’s not omnipresent, meaning God is everywhere at the same time, fulfilling the entire universe, but not limited to time nor space. Okay? See, in Jeremiah 23, 23 and 24, it says this. I am God, who is everywhere.

I not, not in only place, only no one can hide from where I cannot see them. So hear me when I say this. The bottom line is what you see, what you do in the dark is eventually going to be brought out into the light. And God can see it anyway. He’s going to see it.

He sees it anyway. But here’s the great thing about God. See, God’s a loving God. And he’s not going to sit like a father, like a stern, disciplined father over you and go wait till you come out of that closet and watch me beat your rear end. Instead, what he does is he says, son, daughter, let me love you through it.

Let me get you out of this, because I got more for you. Because the rain is coming, the thunder is beginning to roar, the ground’s beginning to shake. See, we see throughout history where God is actively present in specific historical events, guiding them that allow him in accordance to his purpose. Because our God has already been active in our future. See, God has a plan, and we are part of that plan.

But see, we ultimately determine whether or not we’re willing to submit our life to Him. Go back to that quote that I stayed at the beginning from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and it said, salvation is free, but discipleship will cost you your life. It may not cost your physical life, but what it will do is it’ll cost the life you thought you created for yourself. How many of us in high school or in, through college, we have this idea of how I want to live my life or what I’m going to do with my life. And we begin to set up the parameters.

We begin to set up things and work in things and do things that are according to what we want our life to be. But never once, ever consulted God and what God has. Because quite honestly, and I learned this the hard way, okay, that I settled for the half promise instead of the full promise. And it’s taken me 30 years to get to that full promise. I submit to you today, don’t do what I did, because salvation is free.

But if you’re willing to lose your life for God, it’s much, much more worth it. See, I want to read a prayer to you that a friend of mine who I just recently met and got to know, and I want to read this prayer to you. And we’re going to go into the backstory. But this. This kind of hit me in this prayer and it says, we do hereby dedicate this land and ourselves to reach the people within these shores with the gospel of Jesus Christ and to raise up a godly generation after us.

And with these generations take the kingdom of God to all the earth. May this covenant and dedication remain to all generations as long as the earth remains. May this land, along with England, be evangelist to the world. May all who see this cross remember what we have done here. And may those who come here to inhabit join us in this covenant and this most noble work that the Holy Scriptures may be fulfilled.

From these very shores, the gospel shall go forth not only to this new world, but to the entire world. And to follow that up, it says in Psalms 22, 27 and 28, all the ends of the world shall remain and turn to the Lord. And all the kindreds of nations shall worship the Lord before thee. That for the kingdom, the Lord, the Lord’s, and he rules among the nations. That prayer was prayed over 400 years ago, less than 10 miles up the road.

It’s a 22 minute ride. See, on April 29, 1607, the chaplain by the name of Reverend Robert Hutt stood on what is now the Cape Henry shoreline and made a declaration pro prayer. See? And in this prayer, the settlers dedicated the land that they had just stepped onto to the Christian gospel and the prayer to be evangelized. How many of you have stepped in to a new life or a new marriage or a new house or a new Job and even looked and said, God, I dedicate this to you.

Because when you begin to do that and you begin to give God first, you begin to give God your first fruits. You begin to give God the say, God, I dedicate my house to you. I dedicate and declare and decree my family that you’re over my family. See, that prayer was spoken upon the arrival of the first permanent English colonists in Virginia after planting the cross and the settlers made a covenant with God. This prayer is a covenant of dedication where they vowed to dedicate the lands in themselves to spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

People, I cannot emphasize this enough. This land 400 years ago is dedicated as holy. Nowhere else in the United States do I read that. It is right here on the shores of Virginia Beach. It is right here that God says, I’m going to pour out my spirit.

And I’m looking for a church that. That is willing not just to feel my presence in the building, but is willing to go out and say, I’m taking it for God. I’m taking it for God. But see, what happens is, is that you’ve got to start here. Because when you start here, then it bleeds out into your family.

And then when it bleeds out into your family, then what happens, it bleeds out into your life. It bleeds out into your friends. You begin to understand, you know what? Certain friends I really don’t want to hang out with. Why?

Because they’re like life suckers. They just don’t lift me up. I don’t know. Maybe that’s just me. I don’t know.

But you begin. God begins to open your eyes and you begin to see things as though they’re so different. See, God says, I have a plan for you. And that plan is for you to grow. It’s for you to be successful.

It’s for you to. We have a gospel to preach. And I’ve said this time and time again. I could sit up and I can minister to all of you here in the congregation, all you online. These are my guardrails.

These are my walls. But the fact of the matter is, is that you guys get to go out and do far greater through your life. The victories, the tragedies, the suffering, everything that you’ve gone through, everything that God has taken you through, it becomes a testimony to his glory. See, when we go back to when Moses said, God, I just want to see your presence. I want to see your face.

And the Lord hid him in the cleft of the rock, and he said, I will hold my Hand against your face because you cannot see my presence. I submit to you this day, that every day that we come in here, we have the opportunity to sit in the midst of his presence and revel in his glory. And that glory gets all over us. It transfixed on us. God is a good God.

Would you stand with me? We live in a special time. I believe that just as Elijah saw that rain coming, I truly believe that when God woke me up this week, and this is something he’s placed on my heart a long time ago. There’s a storm coming. There’s a rain coming.

And it’s your opportunity that you can get into that storm and God can pour His Holy Spirit out on you. God can take you to the next level. He just says, you got to make yourself available to Him. Are you willing to lose the very thing that you have? God doesn’t need your money.

He doesn’t need your kids. He doesn’t need your house. He doesn’t need your car. He doesn’t need anything. The only thing that God’s asking for is, I want your life.

Are you willing to give that to Him? Because I can tell you from my experience, when you give God, that’s giving God everything. And when you give him everything, he gives you so much more in return. You will have want for nothing. Are there going to be struggles?

Yeah, there’s going to be struggles. There going to be hard times. Yeah. But see, he teaches you how to persist. He teaches you how to persevere.

Eventually you’ll get into prevailing. And then you live daily in his promise, getting into His Word. The Word becomes alive in you. You begin to access that authority that you have through his name, through the blood. And you begin to bathe yourself in the anointing on a daily basis.

And God says you get to a point where literally you’re going through a hard time. And as you close and you bury your head into your knees and you go, God, I don’t know if. And before you even finish that sentence, he whispers in your ear, I got this. I got this. I love you.

I got this. You want health and hearing in your marriage? This is one thing I learned this week. You can’t hate something you’re praying for just doesn’t happen. If you begin to pray for that person, for that situation, God begins to work in you and change your heart.

Don’t worry about the other person. Worry about yourself. Ask God to change you. Because as God begins to change you, he begins to change your focus. He begins to change where you Sit.

And what you’re doing, he begins to bless your life in ways that you never would ever imagine. Every head bowed and every eye closed. If you’re here today and you don’t know, and even online, the sound of my voice, if you don’t know the Lord, then I want to pray with you because you’re missing out. I know there may be somebody at the sound of my voice that says, you know, I’m just giving up. I’m just done.

I can’t do this anymore. God’s saying, give it to me. I’m here. Just give it to me. Father, I pray for those right now.

And I ask, Lord God, that you would deliver those, Father, that you would show your glory to them. Father, I pray that your anointing would have come upon them, Father, I pray that you would trouble their souls, Lord God, that they would come and lay rest at your feet, Lord God, that they would look at you and say, jesus, come into my life. I confess you with my mouth and believe in my heart that you are the savior of my life. I repent of all my sins. God work in me.

And if you’re here today and you go, pastor Matt, I just. I need to learn how to persist. I need to learn how to prevail. I want to pray for you because I believe God’s got a promise, and that promise is sitting right in front of you. And God’s saying, reach out.

Heavenly Father, I just pray for my friends in front of me and those online, and I pray right now, whatever struggles they’re going through, whatever tragedies they’re coming in contact with, with every needs that they have, I pray in abundance. I pray that Jehovah Jireh, I pray for Jehovah Nissi. I pray, Lord God, that you would just minister to them. I pray that you would give them provision. I pray for health, Lord God, and healing, Lord God, in their lives right now, Father God, I pray that as they submit themselves to you, that you would make yourself so real to them that, Father, they would go forth and, Lord God, and conquer the area for you.

Nothing would stand in their way, Father, that even in troubled times, Lord God, that as we stand here as a family, they would draw near to their brother, to their sister of the Lord. And even in times of trouble, they would draw near and say, I need your prayers. I need your help. Bless them and keep them, Lord God, May your face watch over them, Lord God. Father, we pray even now, Lord God, we continue to pray for William.

Lord God, we continue to pray Healing for Michaela and Ronan. Lord God, Father God, we just pray for them. We pray for the sickness and diseases that are represented here in our church. And we declare and decree and healing in the name of Jesus. We declare healing in the name of Jesus, Father, for those that are suffering financially, Lord God, I pray, Father, that they would come in line with you and your spirit and your word and they would begin to decree and declare that they would have more than enough, Father, for marriages that are represented here that are troubled.

Lord God, I speak healing and restoration to that marriage right now in the name of Jesus. Deal with the individuals represented. Lord God, be with them. Father, I thank you for this church. I thank you for the opportunity that you’ve bestowed on me, Lord God, and I do not take it lightly.

Father. We give Salt church to you, Lord God. We ask that you would bless it and multiply it, Lord God, that your prayer presence would always, always have a place to dwell. Be with us as we go forth this week, Lord God. Bring us back next week.

Go with your people. Lord God, we thank you and we praise you in your name. Amen and amen. I love you guys. Never forget, God’s got a plan and purpose in your life.

And all you got to do is reach out and say, God, I’m here. I’m here. I’m willing to submit to you. God love you. He’s gonna bless you.

Amen.