Power and Love

Okay, so that's still line nine. If you're if you're new with us

in the last three to six months, you know you're newer to the body,

we want you to come out and meet some of the staff, hang

out with us. And then you've seen the ministry menu cards here and there.

We've been handing them out. So if you're a part of the body

and you want to get involved in an area of ministry, that's normal.

You're you're a Christian, that's cool. Uh. And if you want to

get involved, then check a box or two on that ministry menu, let

us know that you are interested, and then we'll connect you with a team

and begin to get you involved and give you all the information on that.

Amen. We We've had a crazy week and Tom Martello has been leading the

charge. He's the founder, the creator, the catalyst of City Quake.

A lot of you missed out, but you're going to hear a little bit

this morning and uh and I hope that as you hear a little bit more

about Tom about City Quake, about what it's all about, that you'll want

to be a part of a city quake. City Quake has He's taken it

to twenty six cities. But before that, him and Todd White went to

one hundred and sixteen cities over many years with Power and Love conferences. City

Quake is similar, but it's got kind of a twist on the end where

we have after shocks and where we get the DNA of supernatural power evangelism into

the church and we make it a part of our DNA, and that's where

we're headed, that's who we are as a church. And so would you

just give a new horizon Welcome to Tom as he comes to share of the

word this morning. Yeah, come on, come on, come on,

leven. Yeah, I'm staying up here because I'm going to help with testimonies

and I'm guessing you're going to ask for yes, sir, yes, sir.

Yeah. So if you weren't here this week, we it's not just

a typical conference. We we came in, we learned, we were motivated,

but then we went out and so how many people had a chance to

go on one of the outreaches this week that we call them love and Action?

All right? I did? Did? Did something happen that you want

to share because you might have already shared it during the event, But we'd

love to hear. Did you have something happened that God God use you to

in a life? Come on up and share it. I'd love to hear.

Even if you're here and you shared in first service. Yeah, welcome

to come Hi. Okay, So this was my first time actually going to

City Quake, and I believe it or not, I actually was not going

to go, but I just like, after I got off work, I

just felt like, oh my gosh, I just felt like an excitement.

But I went on one of the outreaches yesterday and that was my first time

going on outreach, and there was about seven of us and there was two

younger kids, nine and seven. So we decided to go to the hospital

and when we got there, we didn't really know what to expect. We

were just kind of like in the entrance, like maybe we'll just like hang

out in the lobby because we can't really go into the patient rooms unless we're

given access, so we're kind of just like going up to people, Hey

do you need prayer? And um, there's this one young gentleman or actually

an older gentleman. He was on his phone just kind of like strolling down

and we're like, hey, would you like any prayer for anything, and

he's like, yeah, you can pray for my wife. You know,

she just had her you know, hip hip surgery and she's you know,

not doing too well. So we're like we just figured ye oh yeah,

look, let's just crowd around and pray. And he's like, no,

she's in here, and so we're just like oh okay, So we're like

okay, um, yeah, let's go. And so we're just as we're

walking, just following him. It's just like we had been waiting, you

know, like find trying to find ways to get into the patient rooms.

But all of a sudden, it's like the doors open. It was like

a Peter moment where the doors open and we're just like there's seven of us

just walking through, all these walking in and we're just like should we be

here, Like you're just kind of like yeah. So we went into the

room and there she is, you know, she's just smiling. She had

a beautiful spirit, and she's like, well hello, you know, she's

just laying in the bed, and so we just all crowded around her bed

and just just started praying over her, just prophesying. Just it was just

amazing. You could feel the power of the Holy Spirit, and you know

her, her sister was there and she was just crying and just saying thank

you all so much, you know, for coming and just being here.

Um. But that was a powerful moment just to see all of us and

two younger kids just praying over the family. So yeah, yeah, so

praise the Lord. Way to step out anybody ef anybody else that that had

something that God do through them. I know you said you're here, and

yeah, come on, good God, how you doing. Uh this was

at my home. This should happened on Friday. I was out in the

front yard. I was doing some weed spraying and stuff like that, and

just up the street I hear this boom boom boom boom, boom boom.

Oh we got a car rumbling through with their boom box stuff going. So

I'm kind of back on my weeding and stuff like that. And then it

comes a little closer and I look up the street and here's this young man

walking down the street and he's got a boom box on his chest. It's

kind of a look like a little backpack. It was really cool. So

I go, hey, man, I really like to beat on your on

your music. You got there and he goes, oh, thank you so

much. I've been trying to get in some rap and you know, some

clean wrap stuff, you know. And in the kid was kind of a

ethic. I thought maybe Hispanic something. He actually in talking to him,

he goes, I am Hispanic, and uh, but people take me a

little more for Arabic look and stuff. Well, the kid's name is Edgar,

same as one of my boys, Edgar. My boy is Mexican.

This young man who was saying, nah, yeah, I've been kind of

really walking about because I got surgery my stomach and I said, wow,

I'm sorry about that, you know, and he says, yeah, Actually,

what happened is in Federal Way where I live. I don't know if

anybody lives in Federal Way, but they had a shooting at the fred Meyer

gas station up there. This young man was the victim of the shooting,

shot three times, hip, leg, stomach. He lives the next street

over from me, and I go, you live right there? He goes,

yeah, so they're back next street over. So I got the prey

over him like that. I said, hey, you know you go to

church and you go, well, you know, I've had a early rough

life and stuff, and a friend inviding me for a Sunday and said,

well, won't you come down to New Horizon. We got a car show.

So he said, well, I got an obligation, but I'll come

next time. So I gave my phone number and stuff like that. But

this young man took the prayer. He just was like, wow, man,

this is powerful and stuff like that. But it was just hanging out,

meeting somebody walking down the street and make it a connection, you know,

And it was just beautiful. Yeah, come on, really good,

really good, love it, love it, thanks pass. Yeah, it

was. It was great. Literally we had I mean, I don't know

one hundred two hundred of those kinds of testimonies over the period of the last

four days. And I'll tell you when you hear one after another after another

of people stepping out. There was one that comes to mind. These two

guys went to Tacoma, got some coffee, just started walking around, and

all of a sudden, one of them felt like, I need to go

into this small convenience store. They went in. There was this gal there,

very alternative lifestyle looking, and they just started talking and the gal was,

you know, I think she'd had some kind of Christian background, and

and uh, I think she's now calling herself a pagan and uh and and

John Mark got a couple of words for her, and and and basically,

and I can't remember what the words were it or something like, oh,

you've got I'll just make up a couple, but it was it was like

specific, like oh, you've got a pain in your back, and you've

got you've had a problem when um I think one of them was when she

was like fourteen, something happened on the traumatic died, somebody died in her

life when she was fourteen or whatever. But anyway, he gets these words

and it's getting her attention. It's like, how do you know this about

me? You know? And she ends up just really they end up ministering

to her, sharing the Gospel of Jesus, apologizing to her if she if

she did not if she was kind of turned off by the church, and

um oh, oh, I know what. Um, I could be confusing

a couple of testimonies here because I do that, but but now I just

remember more specifically. They they asked her, you know, how are you

doing and and she said, well, I just found out I'm oh,

I know, Okay, it's come back to me now. Okay, it's

come back to me now. John Mark says, I'm so sorry. They

all kind of blurred together in my mind, but it's coming clear. So

John Mark says her, you know, I've really felt like that God wanted

us to come in here. Like I was walking by the store, almost

by it, and I felt like Lord said come in. I think we're

here for you. And she goes, well, I don't know, says

I'm not doing too well today because I found out I was pregnant yesterday.

I found out I was pregnant. And he goes, oh congratulation, goes

no, it's not good. I don't want to be pregnant, and and

so they just they began to to love on her and to care for her.

And then the guy that was with her, he's actually from he drove

up from Sacramento for the conference, and he he says, you know,

I want you to know something. I know it doesn't sound like you want

this space, baby, he said, but my wife and I have already

determined that if we run into somebody who is about to abort their baby,

that we want to tell them that we will adopt that baby. Don't abort

the baby. We will adopted. My wife and already decided if we run

into this situation we were doing. So we're here today to tell you that

please don't abort that baby. That we will. I'll give you my number,

we will if you want to keep the baby. We'll do our best

to try to help you to support that baby. But but please don't abort

that baby. And then and so she's like tearing up and she's like,

you don't understand. You know, I went to church and I never and

I just stopped going because I felt like I was never There was never love

in the church. There was just it was just no love. And so

they then um the guy who offers to support, you know, or to

help with a baby, or to adopt the baby. He went off.

He had two of his paychecks and he cashed them, brought it back.

They gave her six hundred dollars and and she said, listen, we want

to help, but we're serious about this. And so I mean, she's

really uh, you know, broken up at this point, and they got

to pray for her. They got to show the love of God. This

gal who had just turned away from the Lord turned away from Jesus and be

able to just gave got her number and they're going to stay in touch with

her. I mean, that's Jesus. I mean, that's just like the

hands and feet of Jesus right there, And it's just it's that that's something

that we can be every day. We we don't today. I want to.

I want to raise the standard of our life to be able to say

we can we can be amazing witnesses for Jesus. That doesn't necessarily mean that

we're out there kind of being salesman for Jesus trying to talk. You know,

evangelism has really the E word. It's become like the E word.

It's like it's like, don't talk about the word evangelism because it's just so.

I bet some of you didn't come to this conference because you heard that

we're going to do the E word at the conference, right, and you're

like, I'm not gonna do that evangelism thing. But I'll tell you it's

because of a misunderstanding of evangelism. You think that evangelism is somebody who doesn't

want to be talking about Jesus talking to somebody who doesn't want to listen.

That's basically what evangelism has become to be. And it's not that at all.

It's the overflow of your love for Jesus. Like we just worshiped Jesus

with all our heart, some amazing his presence was here, and now we

just get to worship out there. Maybe not in song, we're not meaning

to be singing out there, but we're bringing the glory of God out there

with us everywhere we go, and we're just ready for Jesus to jump on

people through us, you know. And that's really what evangelism is. And

then a part of that is when they're ready to share with them the great

news of the Kingdom. And but but it's not forcing it. We've become

this idea of we have to feel like we have to force it down people's

throats and and that's not it at all. And we're gonna learn about more

about that thing. So anyway, by the way, there's gonna be even

if you miss city quake, there's gonna be eight weeks of aftershock you're gonna

be hearing about it. There's gonna be aftershock services, which are kind of

gonna be many little outreach times where you're gonna come get a little bit,

a little bit of worship, a little bit of teaching within the half hour.

By the time you've gotten here or gotten to wherever the aftershock services that

you go, because there's several churches that are having in the area, you're

gonna then go out. You're gonna be paired up with somebody who's done this

before. I feel like you're scared and you've not done it before. You're

gonna be paired up with somebody who's done it before. Go out. Listen.

They won't even make you say a thing. You can just watch.

But I have a feeling within the first or second or third person that you

talked to, you're gonna be jumping in. You're gonna be, oh yeah,

and you know this, and this is what happened to me, and

you'll be sharing your testimony. You'll be you'll be saying, I think God

has this for you, and you'll be and you'll be jumping in because it's

natural. It's natural, because I know it's in you. Because the same

kind of worship we've we don't want to be segmented, we don't want to

have be one way in church in terms of worshiping and Jesus all our heart

and then be shutting him down the rest of the week. We want to

let it flow all week long. All right, With that, I want

you to turn to Mark chapter two. Mark chapter two. I'm going to

be talking about a passage that I know you've probably heard before, you've probably

heard preached on before, but I want to look at it with a little

bit different kind of eyes today. And this is the story of the paralytic

being carried to Jesus. So, Father, I thank you so much for

this time. I thank you for those that are here listening, those that

might be listening on video afterwards online. But Lord, we give you this

time. We say, Holy Spirit, come and teach us about faith,

and teach us about overflowing for you. Thank you, Lord, Jesus name

Amen, Mark two, verse one. When he had come back to Compirnium,

that's Jesus. He'd now come back. He was out ministering, comes

back to his kind of his home ministry base, Compernium. He was raised

in Nazareth, but he made Compernium his kind of his ministry base. He

came back to Compernium. Several days afterwards, it was heard that he was

at home, and there were many gathered together so that there was no longer

room even near the door. He was speaking the word to him. So

he comes back to his ministry base and he comes and he's at this home.

And I've actually been to that place in Compirnium. It's actually very large

for the time. It's a very large home, and yet still as the

large as it was, it was crowded, so crowded that you couldn't even

get inside because of all the people. And you know the reason why,

of course, I mean it doesn't say it here, but you know the

reason why there's so many because they've been advertising in the Capernium Gazette, full

page ads revival at Jesus House, pizza, served special meetings, bring a

friend. No, No, it wasn't Tom, Don't be ridiculous. It

was the radio ads. They're having radio and TV ads every No, why

were there so many people at Jesus House. Why why did so many people

gather? You know why? Because they heard the Jesus stories. They heard

the stories about what had happened through this man, and they're like, I

need to I want to I want to get around him, I want to

hear from him. I want to maybe he'll, hey, he'll do a

miracle for me, Maybe he'll tell me something about my life. They heard

the Jesus stories. You know, I'm not a game media. I'm not

against publicity and signs and ads and you know the different things. But I'll

tell you the Church of Jesus Christ that should be minor in terms of how

the word gets out. The major should be the testimonies of Jesus churches people,

His people need to be telling the Jesus that we call him testimonies,

right, They're just stories about what Jesus did, stories about what he did

through us, what happened through us, what happened to this person. If

we're telling the Jesus stories, I'll tell you it will be a lot more

effective than any advertising you do. And because people want to hear, they

want to hear you. I was sharing two days ago on this and I

said, here's a little hint. Ninety nine point nine percent of people,

let's they're really super busy. They're like on their way something like if you

say, hey, want to hear a cool story, They're gonna say yes.

Everybody wants to hear a story. You know you don't have to say

you want to hear a testimony, Like, what are you talking about?

What's a testimony? People don't even understand what testimonies did. Don't use the

word testimony. Hey want to hear a cool story. Hey, let me

tell what Jesus did for me. Hey, this is so cool when I

was this way and then this happened and then and I mean, you can

and it couldn't be about your salvation. It could be about freedom in an

area you have testimonies to share, just say, hey, I want to

tell a cool story. Anyway, So they gathered together, they were all

crowded in this place, and verse three, and I'll get We tend to

read this so quickly because we're used to the story. You've heard these stories

before. It's very easy for you to get said, oh I know the

story. But think about what happened. Think about being there. What happened?

And they came to they and they came bringing to him a paralytic carried

by four men. And just stop there, four men are carrying a paralytic

on a palette. What happened? How? Why was it? The paralytics

ideas he's not been able to move he's not been able to walk. Um,

was it his idea saying, hey, guys, Jesus is in town.

You gotta get me to Jesus. Or was it one of the guys

saying, hey, man, our friend here. He's been all he can

do. His bag, he has can't not been able to walk. Maybe,

just maybe, man, if we got him as Jesus, maybe something

would happen. We've heard stories. Maybe let's you know, friends get their

friends to Jesus. And so I don't know. They picked him up,

they got on his palate, they were carrying him. I don't know how

fright they went. You know, it's it's not easy to carry a guy,

right, they're carrying him and they're getting him to Jesus. Now did

they go a block? Did they go three blocks? A mile? I

don't know. But they get to the door or they get to the place,

and they say, and they're unable to get to him because of the

crowd. But here's interesting, he said, being unable to get to him

because of the crowd, they remove the roof above him. Now again,

we read this so fast, it's like what happened there? They get to

the house, they're thinking they're gonna go in the door. They're gonna set

this guy down in front of Jesus and they can't get in. So what

was the conversation. I don't know. I might be reading into it,

but I think it went something like this, Oh my goodness, look at

how busy. It's so crowded. We can't even get him to Jesus.

What are we gonna do. Let's go up on the roof, up on

the roof. What Jesus isn't up on the roof? How do we what's

gonna happen? I don't know. We'll figure that out. At least we

be closer somehow. They were like, let's get we gotta get our friend

to Jesus. I love that attitude. We gotta get our friend of Jesus.

Friends get their friends to Jesus. They went up on the roof.

It's kind of the area in those days, it was like a patio,

patio bathing put out their wash up there, and so they went up on

the roof and they're getting their friends to Jesus. You know, you might

think today, how do we get our friends of Jesus? I wish Jesus

would like walking the door. Then I could I can invite my friends if

I knew where Jesus was, if he was walking around Tacoma or five or

Seattle, I could get my friends of Jesus. But he's not. How

do we get our friends of Jesus? How do we get our friends at

Jesus? Today? I'm gonna turn you to a passage here that does not

seem to relate to what I'm talking about. We're gonna go to Luke seven,

verse eighteen does not seem to relate, But it's going to relate.

I promise. This is a story of John the Baptist. Remember John the

Baptist, you know, right, make wave, prepare the wave of the

Lord. Right, and and I can't even untie his sandal. He's just,

and he knew that he was preparing the way for the Messiah, Jesus,

right, Jesus, not just his cousin who's from Nazareth, but Jesus

the Christ, the anointed one. Right. But something happened that John wasn't

expecting. After this happened, you know, John was in prison. He

got in trouble. He was like declaring righteousness, and that the leader there

did not like it, and he put him in prison, and he says,

you're sentenced to die. And so this wasn't what John was expecting.

This was like, this was not the plan, okay, And so John

calls his disciples Luke eighteen. John's disciples told him all these things, meaning

they told John's disciples home about what's happening with Jesus. But look at John's

perspective in prison. Calling two of them, he said to the he said,

he sent them to the Lord to ask, are you the one who's

to come? Or should we expect someone else? Meaning John is now having

second thoughts. John is doubting this was not the plan. I wasn't expecting

me in jail. I thought that Jesus was really gonna make everything right here,

and it's not. It's like, I'm in trouble. Do you ever

have your plan not go the way you want it to go? Do you

ever begin to doubt Jesus? You really? I've been praying, Lord,

and it's not going the way I thought? Are you really? Are you

really? God? Are you really love me? Do you really? That's

what That's the kind of thing that was going on with John the Baptist.

So he sent them to Jesus So when the men came to Jesus, they

said, they said, John the Baptist sent us to you to ask,

are you the one who is to come? Or should we expect someone else?

Meaning are you just Jesus of Nazareth, regular man, maybe, good

teacher, whatever, but or are you Jesus the Christ, the son of

the living God. Okay, at that verse twenty one. At that very

time, Jesus careed many who had diseases, sicknesses, and evil spirits,

gave sight to the many who were blind. So we replied to the messengers,

go back and report to John what you've seen and heard. The blind

received site, the lame walked, those are of leprosy or cleansed the death.

Here the dead rays, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Blessed? Is anyone who does not stumble on account of me? Do

you see what Jesus did here? They came Jesus, we really need to

know. Are you Are you really the Christ? Are you really the annointing

one? You you the one that was that been prophesied for hundreds of years

and now you're really here in real life? Or are we really just looking

ahead for somebody else? You see what Jesus did. He didn't answer the

question right away. He was like sight, healed, lame, walk,

dead, raised, miracle, miracle, boom boom, boom boom. Right.

And then he goes back and he says, look at it. Look

at what I just did. Look at did you see that? You know

what he was doing. He could have told them, oh, yeah,

I'm the Christ, but he didn't do that. You know why, same

thing what Paul said. It's the same concept to what Paul said. He

says he didn't want John's faith to rest in the wisdom of men, but

in the power of God. He could have said, yes, he said,

he said, yeah, believe in me, believe in me. But

he said, no, you will see the power of God flow through me,

and you just saw it. Now, believe in me. You see

that. Why is that so significant? Because Jesus of Nazareth was filled with

the Holy Spirit and he became Jesus the Christ. He was Jesus the anointed

One. That's how his last name was not Christ, it was in Jesus

Christ. It was. It was Jesus the Christ who was anointed with power

by the Holy Spirit. You know, it's no accident that when Jesus left,

he sent another. He sent the Holy Spirit, the same holy spirit

he was filled with. And he now says, oh, by the way,

you're the body of Christ. There's not Jesus of Nazareth walking around.

They're his body who is now also has the same name, the Christ.

You're the anointed one. Let's rise up church, Let's fulfill the name that

we've been given. And so you may run into people who are like,

oh, yeah, that's nice for you. Yeah, I grew up.

Yeah, there's going to church. I heard about that stuff. That's good

for you. I'm I'm now Buddhists. I'm now a new Age, I'm

now pagan, I'm in witchcraft. I'm I'm an atheist. I don't believe

that stuff. If you want that crutch, you can have it. You've

heard that those kinds of things. You're like, no, you don't understand.

I don't want you just to believe me because the words. I don't

want you to just because because I'm teaching some good things. I want you

to know that I'm part of the body of Christ. You don't have to

say this part, but you're thinking it, and you're like, no,

they need to see some boom boom, boom boom. They need to see

they need to have their faith rest on the power of God. That's what

we're doing this week. We're going out believing that God can do healing through

us. He can give words through us. He can get prophetic words,

he can get words of knowledge. He can he can bless people in a

way. There can be signs, wonders, miracles out there, and that

people all of a sudden, their hearts will be softened and they realize,

oh my goodness, you're it's not You're just not another religion. You are

the Christ. You're the one who the one true religion that this is backed

up with power. A friend of mine named Gary, I'm gonna tell you

another story. I know I'm going I go in directions and it doesn't seem

like it relates, but then it's gonna relate. This is the same thing

with this. Let me tell you a story about my friend Gary Oates in

Brazil. He was he was about to preach at this large church. One

two thousand people were coming that night and they're filling the place, and the

ushers came before the meeting and said Pastor Gary, Pastor Gary um we've got

a little bit of a problem here. Uh, the place is filling up,

but there's a bunch of folks from the mccumba Center Witchcraft center down the

street, all dressed in their witchcraft garb, and they're up there in the

balcony and they're they're casting spells and we should we remove them? Should we

make them leave? And Gary's like, oh no, no, no,

don't do that. I'll handle this. So he wasn't. The worship was

just about to start, but he decided he's gonna, he's gonna get up

before the worship and he's gonna and so he gets up and he welcomes everybody.

Welcome. It's so good to be in the city, and thank you

so much for being here. Um, and I specially want to welcome those

from the mccumba Center down the street. So glad you're here. Just two

things I need to share with you specifically. First is that we've prayed and

we're protected here by the power of God, and we want you to we

encourage you to not cast spells because we don't know Him to come back on

you. Just just just some advice just to to so that you don't get

hurt um. But the other thing is more important. I need to apologize

to you on behalf of the body of Christ, because I believe that probably

this is something that happened to you. You grew up knowing, as every

one of us should. You grew up knowing that you were somehow created by

God for supernatural power to flow through us, because that's how we're all created.

But when you looked around, especially when you saw in the Church of

Jesus Christ, that it was not exhibiting the power of God, you went

for the next best thing in the mukamba. And there's real power of the

makamba. The only problem is it's power of the enemy of Satan. And

we tonight I just apologize that the Church of Jesus Christ is not putting on

display the power of God like it should. And I believe that tonight you're

going to see the power of God in this meeting and you're gonna want to

give your lives to Jesus Christ. Is that good? That's good? You

can borrow that. I'm serious because out there all around today at the carsh

or other places, they're gonna be people that are saying, oh yeah,

no, you know I'm I'm this lifestyle, I'm doing this, I'm I'm

psychic, I I do this, I do that. And they're going to

talk about what they've turned to because they've not been demonstrated the power of God

through the Church, the body of Jesus Christ. And you need to step

up and say, I am so sorry that you had a bad example,

but right now I want to be a good example for you. Give me

your hand. How can I pray for you? You have a problem,

you get headaches, you get migraines, Oh, you have a pain in

your knee. Come on, give me your hand. You're going to see

the power of God right now. See, that's where every Christian needs to

be to have that kind of confidence that Jesus, that the power of the

same Holy Spirit that flew that flowed through Jesus when he was on earth,

it's going to flow through me today. That's where we need to get there.

If you're not there, it's okay, just get there. And the

way you get there, one way is going out and trying it. Get

together with people. There's people in this church that have done this before,

who have practiced this before, and you're gonna learn not just knowledge wise what

the gifts of the spirit are. You're going to learn how to practice them

through your life, and you're gonna see how you can bless people and change

their lives and change their eternities. It's why you're still here. He could

have just jettisoned out to heaven with the minute you prayed to receive Jesus,

but he kept you here because you get the partner. This isn't something we

have to do. People like, oh, I have to do evangelism.

No, you don't have to do evangelism. You get to you get to

we get to partner with God. When you see that person's knee getting healed,

a person who was anti God, you see them getting healed, and

then they're like, what just happened to me? And oftentimes they don't just

say what that happened to me? They say what the blank just happened to

me. They're expressing praise in a different way. They have to just be

taught more about the real way to praise. And you just ignore that and

you're like, let me tell you what has happened to me. Jesus just

loved you, healed you as a sign that he wants a relationship with you.

Can I tell you about how to have a relationship with him? See,

that's what we get to do. This is not hard. This is

an overflow. It's already in you. It's already in you. And at

times you've come close, they're like, oh, I pray for people in

church and whatever, and I've seen this and that. No, it's time

to go to a whole new level in this. Okay, back to Mark

verse four and five, and being unable to get to him because of the

crowd, they remove the roof above him, and they had when they had

dug an opening, they let down the paler on which the paralytic was lying,

and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic paralytic, my

son, your sins are forgiven. Again, we read through this because we're

used to the story and we don't understand the dynamic. These guys couldn't get

to Jesus. They go up on the roof, they start digging down.

Do you know the size of the hole you have to dig in order to

get a man and a palette through the roof? I mean it's not it's

not like that. It's something. They're pretty big. So they're digging through.

You know, when you dig down, you don't just get everything right.

And I don't know whether it's through a mud roof or through a through

a thatched roof or whatever, but somehow, when they're digging down, stuff

is falling. But you know what, it doesn't say. It doesn't say

Jesus looked up and saw this, all this material falling from the roof.

It doesn't say Jesus looked up and saw this strange sight of these four men

lowering down another. You know what it does say Jesus looks up and sees

their faith. Do you know that Jesus is looking through all the stuff that's

crashing down in your life? Say, I wonder if they're gonna have faith.

I wonder if they're gonna have faith today. And he's not just talking

about faith for salvation. In this passage. It wasn't saving faith. It

was faith to see a miracle. Faith that it was drawing on the Son

of God to say, will he show up right now? Because either he

shows up Jesus does something and they look pretty durn foolish. Jesus looked up

and saw his faith. He is looking for faith in our life today.

He's like, Okay, how are they express faith? They got this?

I think believing that what I love to read. I love to define terms

sometimes so they make really practical sense to me. And here's how we define.

If this makes sense to you, you use it, If not,

throw it out. I define faith is this. God loves me and he

wants to be good to me and through me. Right now. Faith is

always a right now thing, and God loves me, he wants to be

good. I'm believing on the character of God that he is so good that

he's gonna be good to me and through me right now? Who's he gonna

be good too? Oh? I'm looking around, I'm at the GROSSI I'm

in line at the Who does he wants to be good? That one does

that? Or that one? Right now? Who? Who's he going to

be good too? Through me? And you're expecting God to show up.

I'll tell you if you were in the second row that day, you had

gotten there early and you were looking what is that? Let what's this they're

digging through the roof? What they're cutting? In line? I know you

would have thought that what are they doing? These fools? Who's gonna pay

for that? Roof. You know that's going through the thoughts they're mine.

You know what, sometimes when you step out in faith, you look like

you're being foolish. I don't know about you, but I was trained all

my life to do things so I wouldn't feel foolish. I was taught to

talk a certain way so I wouldn't sound foolish, to dress a certain way

so I would look foolish. Our whole life, we're really doing our best

to not look like fools out there. And here's this guy speaking on Sunday

morning saying, Hey, if you're gonna have faith, you might look like

a fool. Now. I'm not saying that every foolish thing you do is

faith. Sometimes you just do foolish things. Okay, take credit where credit

is due, But there's times where you know, I'm stepping out right now,

I'm gonna pray for this person right here in this walmart, and there's

other people watching, and I don't know if anything's gonna happen, but I'm

gonna be a fool for Jesus. I love what John Wimber used to say,

I'm a fool for Christ. Who's fool are you? Let's be a

fool for him. If we're gonna be a fool, let's be a fool

for him. Let's step out, let's believe, let's live on the edge

of faith. Is this going to happen or not? Let's do it for

the sake of their eternity. Maybe, just maybe God might show up in

this time, right now. He might give me a word. He might

I love. A friend of mine used to say, Oh, I'm a

Christian, and when I look at people, God speaks to me about him.

And when I look at you, and he had no idea what he

was gonna say when he got to when I look at you. But he's

putting himself on the line. He's like saying, God, I'm drawing on

you in faith that you're gonna show up right now. Let's just take a

second, right now before the Lord. The Lord's looking for faith. Just

close your eyes, just right now, say just tell the Lord. Are

you going to be a vessel of faith? Are you gonna be a vessel

that brings this amazing good news to others? Or you're gonna wear a basket

on your head? Are you gonna be one of those lights that just gets

covered up? Father, I bless every single person here the decisions that are

being made, but more than just decisions, Lord, I pray they'd make

a decision to see this process change. They make a decision that would lead

to another thousand decisions, a thousand decisions of reaching out, a thousand decisions

of becoming more bold, a thousand decisions of acting on who they really are

in Jesus. And so I bless them right now. Lord, I can't

wait to hear the testimonies from this group of what you've done through them over

these coming weeks and months, and I commit them to you in Jesus name.

Amen. Lord. Yeah, so many cool things. I wish you

had time for all the testimonies. Oh my word, it would inspire you.

Thank you Tom for sharing, and thank you for bringing some of those

testimonies. Part of what we've been learning, and Tom has been at the

forefront of helping us learn this, is that in most of these settings,

shorter prayers are more powerful than long prayers, that the Holy Spirit doesn't need

us to wax eloquent with a long prayer. These short commanding prayers nee be

restored, ears be open. Just short commanding prayers release the Holy Spirit to

do supernatural things and then people get these crazy breakthroughs and it's just as simple

as check yourself, can you do what you couldn't do before? And so

many people are instantly touched. And I think that's also part of what makes

power evangelism so powerful, is that it's non religious. It doesn't it doesn't

need you don't need to bring this long religious prayer, just a simple commanding

prayer in faith, and then their hearts are opened up. The people's hearts

are opened up to receive the word of the Lord, or to receive a

prophetic word, or to receive the love of the Lord, or to receive

salvation. And so just so thankful for you, Tom and what you've done

and leading the charge with City Quake. Can we give him in their hand?

I want you to I want you to do something. I want you

to go to Cityquake dot org. So, you know, so many of

us missed out on this, but this is life giving and if we're gonna

you know, we're believing for a billion soul harvest. And I know a

lot of you are on board with us to believe for a billion soul harvest.

But we're part of the strategy to bring it the past. We're we're

part of that strategy. And as the world is really in chaos and just

kind of a mess, it's gonna be It's gonna be the harvesting technique of

the Spirit. And what's happened is the enemy has hardened people's hearts, like

the harvest is also a mess, and people's hearts are hardened. And what

opens the door of their heart is a touch, a miraculous touch of the

Holy Spirit. A miraculous touch of the Holy Spirit opens up their hearts.

And so I want to encourage you to go to Cityquake dot org and connect

with some of what they're doing. And I want you to go to their

YouTube channel. They've got over a hundred of these like the best of the

best, great testimonies posted on their YouTube channel, and you can literally you'll

be encouraged, you'll be inspired, but you'll also be coached. As you

watch some of this stuff, it will coach you, it will embolden you,

it will strengthen you. And the Holy Spirit wants to use all of

us in this season with the supernatural and with the love of the Lord.

We do it. I want us to give in to Tom this morning,

and we held him over on purpose, but we also want to give in

to him. So there's envelopes right in front of you in the chairs,

right in front of you, if you would grab an envelope. We've got

the giving methods up here, the text giving and the QR code. I

want to ask you to partner with us in loving city quakes, supporting city

quake. They've been the twenty six cities in three years. Their goal is

a hundred cities a year. So they're raising up others, they're empowering others.

There's a whole team of people growing around Tom to take this message and

this life giving power into every city across the United States, big cities,

little cities, big churches, little churches, and bring the fire and the

inspiration because most of us aren't winning souls, most of us aren't engaged in

this. Like night, eight percent of the church aren't really sharing their faith.

And I want to partner with somebody who's encouraging this. I want to

partner with somebody who's on board with igniting the church in the power evangelism,

loving evangelism. So I'm gonna ask you to give into them this morning.

And I'm gonna pray. We're just gonna pray a blessing over Tom and his

family and the City Quake crew, and then we hope you stay for lunch

and hang out with us, get a car show's shirt, get some merch,

and be a part of what we're doing here this afternoon. From now

until three thirty, we're just having fun together, and we want you to

be a part of it. Holy Spirit, We thank you that you're igniting

the passion and the fire of redemptive hopefill salvation in our hearts. We welcome

you. We welcome you to use us, We welcome you to speak through

us. We welcome you to guide us and direct us. Thank you even

for today's stories, even today's testimonies, even with Ron, that was just

a setup that young men in his neighborhood, a divine setup. And you

have that for every one of us. And we just shout blessing over Tom

and the Apostolic grace, the grace of evangelism on the City Quake, on

him and on his ministry team. Holy Spirit, we just partner with them.

We partner with them, We partner with them. Let the work be

done in us fully and break break out with harvest, break out through us,

with harvest in this region. We thank you for it in Jesus name.

Everybody said, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen. Yeah, Let's

give Tom and the present the Lord another hand. Lord. We just thank

you for what you're doing. Thank you for what you're doing. Let it

be done fully. Let it be done fully. Let it be done fully.

We've got after shock coming, so you're gonna hear about that. Eight

weeks of after shock. There's gonna be outreach teams going to the business community,

outreach teams going to the hotels, motels, homeless camps. But there's

gonna be several opportunities for you to be involved. We want you to be

a part of that. We'll let you know more of it as we're getting

into it. But we're just excited about what God's doing through us the body

of Christ. Amen. God, bless your church. We love you.