Testimony

Well, let's bow our heads and let's get into the

Word of God. Give me a little grace to give

my whole message to you. Is that fair? And I'll

try to there's a zero hand. Lord, when there's holy

spirit life, we don't want to run it down. So

we've gone a little longer with you today. But we

need your spirit to understand the Word of God. We

are in the Book of Acts. It is deep stuff.

And Father, this one person I want to remember right

now in my prayer Joe Weaver, our CPA in Tennessee, Laura.

Laura's dad died this morning. Father, May you be with

our dear friends who have helped us over twenty five

years to be stable at reaching hearts and Father, there

are others that I don't want to miss any person,

but I think of Sonny's wife who passed away. Bless her,

the entire family and the Lord. Just help us to

remember everyone in our personal prayers. Thank you for the

prayer chain in Jesus' name. Amen. The title of the

message this morning is testimony. Have you ever given testimony

about God means in your life? Okay? Stephen's name in

Greek means corona. His Greek name literally means to surround

with the idea of light all around, like a crown

of glory. The Greek word stephanos for a crown of

victory or wreath. The victory comes from the name Stephen,

the root word for his name. When Stephen was dragged

before the Jewish Council of the Sanhedrin, Luke records that

his face was like an angel. This morning, I'd like

to focus on the testimony of Stephen what it means

for us today in our calling to shine for God

with our testimony, which the Bible says, is how we

overcome Satan in our life. Acts seven to two, and

Stephen said, brethren and fathers. He begins by appealing to

his murderers as brethren and respectfully. He says, hear me,

the God of Glory appeared to our father Abraham when

he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Heron. Here

Stephen calls God the God of glory. Say that with me,

the God of glory. Literally, in the Greek Stephen calls

God the God of the glory. That's the original language.

The statement of the Greek is a direct quote of

the septuagen Greek Old Testament of the second third century BC.

That is found only in our Bible, in Psalms twenty

eight three. It's one chapter off in the Septuagin. Actually,

Psalms twenty nine three. In our Bible, I gave you

the Septuagin. Stephen intended to point these Jewish leaders back

to the only place in the Greek Old Testament where

this exact wording was found. The God of the Glory,

the only place in the Greek Old Testament. Let's look

at it in our English Bible, Psalms twenty nine to three.

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the

God of Glory. In the Greek Old Testament, the God

of the Glory thunders the Lord upon many waters. It

was well understood that the waters of the sea. When

the rabbis looked at this, they knew what it meant Biblically.

They knew that the sea represents the nations and peoples

of the world. God is enthroned of the waters of

the sea, representing the sea of nations, the peoples of

planet Earth. God is the glorious Light of the world,

enthroned above the waters. Stephen begins his testimony before the

Sanhedrin with this affirmation from God's word that God is

the glorious God of all people, and of all races

and of all the nations in the world. Sister, you

did our the sign song where there you are. Thank you,

What a beautiful, beautiful gift to our church today. Thank

you for coming here today and sharing that with us.

God is the God of all people. And so we

celebrate today that God is not a racist. Did you

hear me? We don't worship of racist God. In fact,

in the second Angel's message, he says to come out

of Babylon. Babylon is the is the center where racism

was born. With the tier of Babel, Pentecoster reverses that

because God brings people together in Jesus in truth, in clarity,

not confusion. Stephen begins his testimony before the Sanhedrin affirming

that God is the God of all people. John identified

Jesus as the glory of God that came to earth

to reveal the character of the unseen eternal God to

the whole world. Friends, we worship but God, who is

the light of the world. Christ is God, or he

couldn't be the light that came from God. John one

point fourteen and the word became flesh and dwelt among

us full of grace and truth. I mean, the truth

about God could have been an awful truth, but the

truth about God was a good truth. God is merciful

and gracious, and John says, we have beheld his glory

in Jesus. We saw the Chakaina glory of the eternal God.

Glory is of the only son from the Father, dear heart.

God is in the business of calling men and women

out of the world into a direct relationship with himself

as the God of the Glory. Do you hear me?

Say it with me, the God of the Glory. At

this point, Stephen recalls the history of Abraham, whom God

called out of Er from the land of the Chaldeans.

Er in the Hebrew language means light thachi or or

you can hear it in Genesis and the Hebrew it

also means the same in the ancient Akkadian language of

er Er meant light. God called Abraham out of the

land of Earth, the land of false light, to follow

the God of the Glory to a new land that

will exist in the future at the end of the

age as the Kingdom of God. He was calling him

back to the place where Eden was, where the new

Eden will be, the Promised Land Act seven three. And

he said to him, Stephen is here, saying, depart from

your land and from your kindred, and go into the

land which I will show you. God is speaking the

Old Testament. Then he departed from the land of the

Chaldeans and lived in Heron, And after his father died,

God removed him from there into this land in which

you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance

in it, not even a foot slength, but he promised

to give it to him in possession and to his

posterity after him, though he had no child. Friend, God

calls us out of false light, just like he called

Abraham out of error, to leave the world, to leave

an error behind, to follow the truth far behind, to

follow God, to come to know God, to have clarity,

to know the God of the glory and the mercy

and truth of God in Christ faith. And this is interesting.

I texted this to a friend who sends me every

morning an encouragement statement. Some people send me discouraging statements

every day. Text is me. You ever get virtue signaling

on your phone? Now you need to fess up and

quit sinning. I have someone who does that every day

for me, and I don't block him. You know why,

because I'm open to my parishioners. He's not here and

I love him. Okay, but it's really awful. The virtue

signal like that every day, but this one doesn't. He

sends an encouraging statement to me every day, and I

actually wrote this back to him. Faith is an eye

without light because faith sees and the night. You got

that faith is an eye without light because faith sees

in the night. Stephen records that Abraham followed God even

though Abraham had no child from God as of yet.

The ancients could not conceive of eternal life without the

gift of children. They felt, we can only live on

in this world in the lives of our children who

survive us. They thought, But if you have no children

in the world, you have no future. You are dead

for the future. So to survive you must have children.

They got part of it right with this ide, Dib,

but not all of it. It is true that life

is really about legacy, am I correct? And children rightly

trained our divine legacy that lives on for the good

of God and us and our lives live on through

them in that way. So God promised to give Abraham

a children, Abraham's children of future. Even though the old

man he called out of er had no children. His

wife wasn't able to have children to Beard, actually she didn't,

but he followed the God of the Glory into the future,

even though he couldn't see how God would pull that off.

The Bible teaches us that if we have faith in Jesus, friends,

we are all the children of Abraham. Raise your hand,

you have faith in Jesus, Raise your hand, hi, you

are a child of Abraham. Rizecreanth the promise Jesus is

the light of the world. And when we follow Jesus,

we walk in the light of the God of the Glory.

Faith is an eye without light, because faith sees in

the night. Apostle John tells us that faith is the

victory that overcomes the world. The children read it here

one John five four. For whatever is born of God

overcomes the world. Now, how many of you became a

Christian to be a loser? Keep your hands down? How

many of you became a Christian to be an overcomer?

Raise them high? And he says, and this is the

victory that overcomes the world our faith see faith matters.

Abraham left the world he knew far behind, and the

divine call to follow the God of the Glory. That

is exactly what we are called to do as true

believers in Jesus Christ. We are called to leave the

world with all its false light far behind, and to

follow the God of the Glory into the dark with

faith to find the future of God that is bright,

That is the light. God is the light in the journey.

When you cannot see the future, you can still see

God in the journey. If God appears to you in

your life, did to Abraham, you have the future already

secured in life. Because if God is with you, the

future is alive. Jesus spoke of the future resurrection. He says, Abraham, Isaac,

and Jacob are alive to God in the future. It's

better to have a relationship with God than to have

the gifts of God. To be secure without God in

your life, better to have God be poor. Why Because

God is the light that makes life worthwhile and full

of meaning in the journey in God's future. For you

with God, what good is heaven? What good is eternal life?

If God isn't in it. If his character is not

truth and mercy. If the light is darkness in God,

then who wants to live forever with God. Sometimes we

think that when we follow God out of the land

of false light, and yes, there's false light in the world.

Don't think that every church is a church that has light.

God has a people at the end of time identified

it as the remnant Church. While every church, and even

the remnant church has the challenges like ancient Israel had,

it possesses the core of the Covenant. It keeps the

commandments and has the testimony of Jesus Christ and so

important that we seek truth in our life. Sometimes we

think that when we follow God out of the land

of false light, everything will go great and good right away.

How many of you were baptized and felt but I

have a great week after baptism. My next year is

gonna be super because I was baptized. I thought that,

you know, the first when I was baptized, the God

into a fight. Right after my baptism. Someone cursed my

mama and I just lost it. I still had the

nature and I don't want to go into it, but

I had to do some repenting. But I was baptized

into Christ. Did God kick me out of the kingdom

because of that? No, He worked with me. This is

not the king Sometimes we thank the when we follow

God out of the land of false light. Everything great

not true. This is not the case with Bible faith

and definitely not the case with the God of the Glory.

Faith in God is always tested, so will stand tall

as faith that endures to the end. Faith under fire

and trial, for the God of the Glory is real faith.

It's the victory that overcomes the world. No one will

slip into heaven easy. Do you hear that no one

is given an eternal crown at the end of the

race because they were born with us with a spiritual

silver spoon in their mouth. That's right for some of you.

You need to hear that no one will gain eternal

life without giving up the worthless life of the world

with all its false promises of light and glory. We

say no to the world, Yes to God. They needed

to hear the testimony from Stephen, a man of God,

that we must leave the world far behind, like Abraham did,

defind God to follow the God of the Glory. It's

possibly be in the church su possibly leave the church

like the Sanhedrin was, and to be worldly. I ask

you this morning the question that Stephen drove home hard

into the minds of those learned worldly men whoft, who

felt they were so privileged that God would give them

anything what they asked for. I ask you the question,

have you left the world far behind? Or are you

still clinging to the world in your life? Now? Don't

answer it publicly, but ask yourself the question. I'm not

asking if you're perfect. I'm asking if you have surrendered

to the Lord to be able to say I do

not want the world controlling me in my life. Do

you expect God to give you a handout with no trials,

with no endurance, with really no victory in your life

over sin? Is that the Christian walk you want in

your life? Cheap grace, friend, is not grace at all.

God offers us costly grace that cost him everything that

bids a man or woman come and die so they

can live for the God of the glory. Dear heart,

let's get it straight and write with God. No pain,

no gain in the Christian life, no strain, no gain either,

no trials, no crown to attain, no ill treatment, no

vindication from God, no persecution, no vindication. The life that

is never tested is a life that has never lived

for God. Stephen drove that point home hard to those

arrogant and self sufficient religious leaders who would not pay

the price of self sacrifice to have God's leadership truly

in their heart and lives. Stephen continues with his testimony

verse six, Acts seven. And God spoke to this effect

that his posterity be aliens in the land belonging to

others who would enslave them, and He'll treat them four

hundred years. But I will judge the nation which they serve,

and said God. And after that they will shall come

out and worship me in this place. My wife's Diana,

My wife's My wife Diana has a grandfather who's passed away.

He was the first Seventh day Adventist in Iraq. If

I'm not mistaken. He came in through the Voice of Prophecy,

that global radio broadcast and Bible study network, and he

came to the light of the Three Angels messages as

he was seeking truth Revelation fourteen the last messages for

this world. And he lived in the land of the

Chaldeans in modern Iraq, and like Abraham Basher, Hasso became

a very wealthy man, but he invested his resources in

his family. He built our work in the Middle East

early on leban and other places. He funneled money through

his family and associates and himself to make the message

go in the Middle East. And he left a legacy

of faith for his family and others until the day

he died, and still lives on in my children. He

built much of what we appreciate now in that those

areas of the world are in trouble. But Shehir Hosso suffered.

His life was threatened at times by the Baphist party

under Saddam Hussein in Iraq, but he didn't sell his

faith in Jesus, the Sabbath, the Gospel for gain or

to be political with power. Diana's dad, John Green Dad

I call him Dad, married Bashir Hasso's daughter Epi, which

is Diana's mom. Dad was and is a lot like

Bashir Hasso. He was smart enough that he could have

become a wealthy businessman like his father in law had.

I mean he gets on the computer, he he understands

computer models of investing. He's amazing, but instead instead of

doing that, he became a minister of the Gospel to

serve in the mission field. Diana's dad is the visionary

who founded Reaching Hearts International. Many of you don't know

that he is. When I couldn't see five minutes into

the future after Sligo, Dad envisioned Reaching Hearts International, worked

with Elder Milos Martin, one of the great Seventh Day

Adventists of our time who helped to desegregate our church

in the sixties, believe it or not. And Elder Charles Cheatham,

the president of Alleghany's Conference who became like a father

to me. With doctor John Butler, some of you here

a core group of visionaries that in vision, radio, evangelism,

collegiate outreach, church planting, which you've done around the world.

Dad was kidnapped at gunpoint by the PLO terrorist group

when he was a missionary, but God helped him escape

in a mon Jordan. A sniper's bullet almost hit him

in Lebanon, and he survived. He got up just in time.

Diana had to learn to read under a bed with

bullets flying overhead and bombs landing nearby. That's why my

wife can take anything, and she makes me stand up

to stuff I wouldn't normally stand up to. But Sheer

Hasso and John Green left a legacy of faith because

they endured suffering in their lives for others. Most people

here don't know it, but Diana's dad had a premature

illness that has really hurt him in the last ten

years because of the stress and strain of making sure

that we at Reaching Hearts International made it through our

legal fight, our challenges when crazy things happened to us

to secure our church's future. Good hunk of his retirement

money went here, not for retirement. Satan attacked him personally

as he stood for us. He's never stood in the

pulpit to beg for affirmation. But I'm his son in law.

I'm praising God for what he did. I remember the

darkest night of the struggle for me when we lost

an important vote in the county council for water and

sewer approval over twenty years ago. We needed to build

a church, and that they said no. Power from worthy

men and Prince George's and that council said no. But

God had said yes to our church. I was driving

home in the rain and pain, crying on the phone

with Diana's dad on the other side. Dad, I can't

believe it. We lost. I'm broken, I feel like giving up,

and I was just shedding tears as a young minister.

Doctor John Green her dad. I call him doctor Green.

You know, I wrote him before I proposed to her,

and I called him John Green. Ever after, I called

him doctor John Green. Bad move. He's beginning ready to propose,

you know, Dad. Doctor John Green stopped me dead in

my tracks as I was nurturing this attitude of the

victim and the soup of self pity. You ever been there?

He said, Mike, listen to me, Mike, and nature the

weak die you cannot afford to be. Then he stared

at me. Then he shared with me. He says, Mike,

listen to me. You can't go there. It's better to

die trying than to quit trying. Then he shared one

of my favorite verses, for I know the plans I

have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and

not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

I decided right then and there that I would not

give up for the fight for this church, no matter what.

I stood alongside some of you here today who also

made that decision in your life, and some who have

passed who made the decision to die to give us

this church. If that's what it took, and that's why

reaching Hearts internationals here. Others quit and moved on because

they were not willing to pay the price for victory

to have this church. We've gone through times we lost

half our church because then want to pay the price,

do the right thing to move through stressful times. I

confess to you today that I have feelings like anybody else.

Do you have feelings? Okay, let's just say we all

have feelings. And I felt like giving up many times

and just moving on in the last twenty five years. Yeah,

I did. I lost a lot of worldly things in

our common fight for this beautiful church God has given us.

I want to just share them with you here a

little bit, because I've never done this before. I lost

the chance for a PhD sponsored by Southern Avenue University

and University. To stay here, I turned down calls to

the ministry and other places with positions that were very

much coveted. I was called to consider the Village Church

in Bury in Springs, Michigan. That Jay Gallumer called me

and they had extended the call. I turned around came home.

The Battle Creek Church, also in Michigan, was extended to

me to come and interview for that, and they would

have brought me there. I turned down a request to

join the Eye Missouri conference. In the fight for the church,

I lost my retirement with the denomination because denominational employees

pastors are not allowed to fight legal battles in court,

so I had to not be an employee to carry

the legal victory through to the end. I lost my

reputation many corners at the hands of some denominational leaders,

not all, but some who chose to demonize our struggle

for a church was reaching arts in court fighting for

a church. These few self righteous men tried to frame

me as a man who just wanted to fight in

court to make money. I didn't get any money from that.

I lost a lot of money. They tried to frame

our struggle as an unrighteous cause instead of a stand

for justice and for freedom. Look, we live in America

where a Christian constitution stands for liberty and freedom, and

so we must fight for freedom if God puts us

into the fight. They did this until God won the

victory for us in court, and then they wrote it

up in a publication as their victory. And I said,

praise God, because I'm part of a world church, and

if they want to claim the victory, it's God's victory,

it's our world Church's victory. God be praised for our church.

A heavy rain pummeled on my windshield that night as

Diana's dad talked sound, good, wise, spiritual sense into my

victim minded, ignorant, youthful head. That night I listened to

a man of God, Dad, who himself had suffered and

almost died, was almost murdered to serve Christ in the

mission field. Diana's father loved me enough to tell me

the truth that I had a fatal flaw in my

character that was a mortal weakness. If left unaddressed, it

would destroy me. I was. I was too willing to

give up. Dad said, when God had led us into

the wilderness for a fight for faith, that was as

calling to a victory. But you cannot see it all.

If you can't see the victory, don't doubt God. Leading.

With tears flowing down my face and my voice cracked

with grief, I decided right then and there that I

would fight for this church with every ounce of energy

God would give me, even if He killed me, and

even if I failed. Hav many like that word failure fail.

I would fight for the future and faith. And a

lot of you made the same decision here. I have

all my life been afraid of personal failure. Up to

that time. I grew up in poverty. I overachieved. I

assumed the cum Laudie at the seminary because I did

not want to be the second best person in my class.

I confess to you that that was a weakness and

a failing in my life. I confess that the fight

for this church did almost kill me. But God had

to lead me through something to break me and to

teach me to rely on him. It looked dark most

of the time, as most people thought we would fail,

and they begin to talk about as a failure church.

There are many prophets of doom who would come through

the doors, who would talk to our people out there,

that tried to convince me and some of you and

others that we would just not make it. They tried

to frame us as a group that was illegitimate and

unworthy of God's grace to have a church. Dear heart.

God sent godly men from outside of our church, pastors

who are not advent us, to our church in the

Salem network, to shepherd us, to encourage us to protect us.

Don't tell me that we're the only people that has

truth from God. When you have truth in your heart,

you have some truth to share. And God sent doctor

David Ruhlmann, who was head of WAVA, and Tom Moyer

into our lives and their families and others to encourage

us to stand tall and true with faith in Jesus.

And I never compromised the Bible teachings for one minute

to have that relationship, and they didn't ask me to.

I blew a disc in my lore back the day

after I signed the contract for the property for this

church we worship in today, it hurt. It's pain, off

the charts, in pain. I had to learn to walk again.

We started the journey twenty five years ago to build

a church. The day after the property signed it boom,

I'm paralyzed right leg. I was on steroids to save

the nerve function my right leg. That's why I favored

my right leg. I used to lay on my back

and cry before I would write my sermon because of

the pain was so bad I didn't know if I'd

get in the pulpit and even share it. I learned

to live with chronic pain and crying a lot in

the night in my fight for faith. For many weeks,

I dragged my leg into church. I mean remember me

dragging my leg in the church twenty five years ago

when I had that Kathy does a few of you

Most of you don't know that to preach a sermon

at Chi with pain off the charts in the nerve

area of L four L five in my lower back.

They gave me a lamin ectomy surgery to remove the

disk to save my leg so I could walk. Pain

kept on for a few months. I still have paralysis

my right leg from the blowout of that disk that

happened twenty five years ago, and part of the muscle,

the tibias interior is paralyzed. I had two major surgeries

during the fight for this church, and most of you

don't even know it that most I also had two

blood clots during this journey that hospitalized me and threatened

my life. Diana told me to quit studying so hard.

I would sit for twelve hours and study, and I

got blood clot. I suffered the last blood clot and

we broke ground to build the church. I don't even

remember me walking around with my leg up like that.

I almost died of sepsis one week, but most of

you didn't even know I was sick. I was preaching

one Sabbath of the Cedar Ridge in the old place,

so over ten years ago in Spencerville, and I was

dying the next day in set dick shock. Anybody here

have sepsis, It's awful. The infection my blood raised my

temperature to one oh eight and I was hospitalized on antibiotics. Literally,

I was melting away in church. They cultured the bacterium

and they saved my life at Howard County. I mean,

some of you visited me thought I was just in

the hospital for something simple. A well meaning leader in

the church who worked in the Sabbath School department of

the General Conference, who have great affection for visits me

in the hospital for that. I'm very grateful. But he

tried to convince me that it was all in my head.

It was not in my head. It was eating me

a lie. It was in my blood and I was

dying from sepsis. God was able to help those doctors

find it. The antibotic worked. I got out Friday. I

showed up in church the next Sabbath. After I was

released the Friday before, thirty five forty pounds a light.

Everyone said, Pastor Mike, you've been working out. I did

it to make an appearance to give everyone calm in

the church because of the fight. Because I thought the

pastor was dying. People give up and go away. I

showed up to make the flock feel confident. But I

was not well at all. I had lost thirty five

pounds that week, and it was awful. The infection ripped

me up inside. I was on the strong antibotic Zipro

for months to prevent a return of the infection. It

caused me to blow out attendant in my right leg,

which led to the blood cloth, the second blood cloth

I have to I had to have reconstructive surgery on

my mouth during that time to stop the infection from

returning because of bad dealal work. Why I went to

a place to get dealing work because I couldn't afford

insurance during that time. Diana and I have lifted out

insurance times during the struggle. I took two weeks off

to recover. After I showed up in church, went down,

just went to bed. I slept for two whole weeks

with Dad in Tennessee. I experienced a church member who

yelled at my face. He's pretty bad. During that time,

I loved that person. I considered it part of the

calling to care for the flock. I have experienced the

pain of people out to wreck my reputation again and

again just to get their way over the years, I've

lost some of the dearest people in my life in

this journey to build this church, and for that I'm

deeply sorry. Doctor John Butler, Grace Butler are gone now.

Some of you don't even know who these giants of

God were. Doctor Butler after Sligo put his arm around

me and says, We're just not going to let you fail.

Mike one of the most godly men I'll ever know

in my life. Abraham and Kathy poor SONI are gone

are former deacons, Podma Foz Gay. His courage has manifested

such that I didn't give up. Melissa is long and noble.

The great cloud of witnesses that have preceded us, and

there are others who died in the struggle to make

this church rise for the honor and glory for the

God of the glory. As I review my life journey

here with you, I bear testimony to you confidently in Christ,

that I am not a victim. You hear me. I

have been privileged to stand alongside a noble cloud of

witnesses like Steven, men and women of faith who didn't

ask when they could get out of the church, asked

what they could give to make it happen. I have

stood on the shoulders of spiritual giants here at Reaching

Hearts International, who have affected the world through freedom, through

the victory of that litigation, through the radio, and other means.

I count all these things necessary that I've been through

and you have been through that my wife and others,

my dad has been through, and all gain worthy of

loss for the privilege of following Jesus Christ in my

life right here in this place. I'm happy for the

journey that led me to a deeper faith than Jesus.

As I learned more and more that I needed to

leave be high the world in my journey to find God.

I need to give up on life dreams to follow

God's dream for my life. Recently, with Diana's dad, we

retraced the footsteps of my great grandfather, Lander Southern, who

fought in the Civil War on the Confederate side. He

was still a man of God. There were good people

on both sides whacking it out during that war. He

fought in the Civil War in a major battle from

first bull Run through the Fredericksburg to teet him to Gettysburg.

He should have died, most good honk of the twenty

fourth Virginia Infantry died. Lander was wound in the arm

with a bullet at the Stone Wall. He was in

Pickett's charge, General Longstreet's division right flank. He got all

the way to the top before he was shot in

the arm. He was willing to die on that hill,

but he didn't die. God made him live. He went

to a prisoner of war camp in New York. He

was there for a year and came home last year.

Diana's dad put his arm around me on the battlefield

at Gettysburg where that Picket's charge occurred last year or

the year before. He said, Mike, God preserved your ancestor, Leander,

so you could build the church at Reaching Hearts International.

And he was crying because of he was so happy

that our church is here. Dad had tears in his

eyes as he bore testimony with me of the grace

of God for our church, our history, our family history,

for freedom. And I bear testimony today alongside of Bashir Hasso,

doctor John Green, my wife's father, and my dad, my dad,

and the Lord and many others here I've mentioned them.

I bear testimony today to you with Steve, and also

in mind that no one gets to heaven without someone

great in their life who suffered for Jesus Christ so

they could make it to the higher ground and stand

on the shoulders of giants. We're not self sufficient Christians

as we overcome. Friend, if you want an easy way

that cost you nothing to be a Christian, if you

want a self affirming form of Christianity that just makes

you feel good, sinning that leaves you in a world

in love with the world, then don't bother to become

a Christian. Don't ask to be baptized, and don't bother

to become a leader in the church. Either. God can't

accept you if you can't leave the world to follow

God into the night. I have lost nothing in my

walk with God that I didn't need to give up

to walk with God. And I testify today with joy.

God and Jesus are worth everything. Why Because God with

Jesus is the joy and the jury, the kick and

the feet, the light of our life, the joy that

overcomes pain. Friend, Jesus is the life that matters now

in life. The Holy Spirit is the peace I would

have never had if not for the trials and the

tests that prove our faith is the victory that overcomes

the world. Stephen's name means victory, a wreath of victory.

Stephen bore testimony to the truth as he lost his

life like Jesus did as the first martyr of the

Christian Church, because he loved the Lord. He was not

in it to get what he could get. He was

in it because of Jesus. That is how we overcome. Also,

we die in life to live for God. We lose

in life to gain for God. We surrender in life

to overcome for God, to bear testimony to God, to

the God of the Glory, the God of the Light,

the exact linguistic sinner. The book Revelation ends with these

words words in Revelation twelve ten and eleven, and I

heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, now the salvation

and the power and the kingdom of our God and

the authority of His Christ have come. For the accuser

of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them

day and night before our God. And they have conquered

him the devil, by the blood of the Lamb and

by the word of their testimony. For they love not

their lives even unto death. I'm alive today. There are

others who are not, who have been in this journey.

Dear Heart, let us choose this day to bear testimony,

to stand with the great cloud of witnesses who have

honored God by faithful life. And let us never forget

that when God calls us out of the world, he

calls us into relationship with the God of the Glory

and faith. Faith is an e without light. Forget that

faith sees in the night. God bless you everyone. Dear Father.

We're not good people, but we're your people. Yes, we're

not perfect people, but you are. And we don't see

the future, and we can doubt, and we can have

little faith like Jesus' disciples, but you'd have great faith. Father,

give us Jesus every day for the rest of our lives.

Help us to serve you for you, not for us.

May you let self die that Christ might live. And Lord,

grant every dear heart here who needs to know they

are loved. May they know that if they have faith

in Jesus, they are accepted as if they had never sinned.

They are complete in the Beloved. They are your children

in the journey, not just at the end of the journey,

and that you love them. Thank you for proving it

in Jesus. Bless your people to day in Jesus name. Amen.