Weathering The Storm

Good morning, church family. Oh that's good, good morning. It is

so good to see you this morning. To be here physically in the space.

Like I always say, I am a part of the online church,

and the online church is definitely vibrant. It is moving. There's so many

people who are tuning in because they're being fed from this house. And I'm

so glad to be here physically today this morning. I know that my family

is watching this morning. My wife of twenty five years. Amen. Yeah,

we're about to celebrate a big anniversary coming up in October. And so

God has given me v one Amen. There gotta be somebody who could put

up with me. Amen. I'll tell you. Don't put all that on

God. God spreads it out. Amen. And so we've been together twenty

five years. My daughters are watching, my future son in law better be

watching. It's all a test. And so my brother, my sister got

people all over who just like tuning in today. I'm like so excited about

that. I'm like, hey, that's so cool. And then I got

family members who were probably here somewhere with the audience I couldn't see earlier,

and I had some of my brother and my sister would hear visiting and they

caught me after service. So just glad to be here. The online church

is doing so much just to be able to hear the Word and hear the

good news. And I've been so impressed by what's happening here at the church.

And if you didn't know that, over the last few weeks, there

have been twenty souls, over twenty souls that have come to the Lord.

Amen, come on. The Bible says that all of heaven rejoiced over one

and we've had over twenty come to the Lord. And you guys have been

inviting folks. Y'all have been inviting folks. Over the last few weeks.

They have been fifty persons who have come for the first time, who filled

out the card and they have come to fellowship with us and be a part

of this community. Please keep that up. People need to know more about

Jesus. Over the last few weeks, we have served one hundred and fifty

people through our one more food pantry here at the church. And what a

beautiful ministry. I got to go through there a little earlier before first service

and walk through and see all of the food items and whatnot. I didn't

shock although there were some things I really did was interested in, okay,

and so I love what God is doing here with the ministry. And then

last week we welcome the family that's gonna be launching our Spanish speaking church.

Come on, let's give God praise for that. I mean, we are

so blessed here. We have the ministry that is not just touching this corner

of the world, but literally touching all of the corners around the world,

ministries around the world that we are impact impacting. I got to meet one

of the ministry couples that is overseas normally but was here today on furlough.

I believe and God is just doing great work through this place. I'm so

pleased to be a part of this ministry. I thank God for Pastor James,

Pastor Andrew and their influence here at the church and how they are moving

the church towards the things that God really wants us to be doing. So

it's my pleasure to be here today. Listen, I believe there is a

word from the Lord today. Amen. So the Thieme today is this weathering

the storm. Now. I don't know about you, but there's been a

whole lot of storms brewing all over the place, and we keep hearing about

storms, their tropical storms, and all sorts of things are happening. And

we know what a storm can do to physical things. We know when we

he is storm, it's like kind of prep yourself. Now. We normally

we prepare for rain. Right, everybody's got an umbrella in your car,

right, Yeah, sits in your car just in case. Right. You

never know when it's gonna rain. It could be like a little sunshiner or

not. But it's very hard to prepare for a storm because we never know

the severity of a storm. And so this morning we're gonna be talking about

weather or storm from Mark four thirty three all the way to chapter five,

verse two. And the big idea today is you can't stay where you are.

Everybody is in a place right now, but life continues to move us

on and we have to continue on the journey with Jesus. So you can't

stay where you are. So this morning I'm gonna do something a little bit

different than normal. Now. You guys know, I normally like to read

through the scripture, and as I'm reading through the scripture, I'm teaching and

preaching, and you know, that's my style. But today I'm gonna actually

read through the whole scripture and I'm not gonna stop. It's gonna be the

hardest thing I've ever done. But we're gonna see how well I do this

morning. Okay, I've had a little practice. I did it on Thursday.

I got through Thursday night. Did okay this morning? So last time

is a charm, right, every time is a charm. So here we

go. But before we go there, I want you to turn to your

neighbor and I want you to say this to your neighbor. You can make

it through the store. Nah, nah, anywhere. Nope, I don't

believe you. Listen. I want you to look them in the eye and

compel them and convince them and let it all. You can make it through

the storm. Oh that sounds a lot more like it. Amen. Amen.

Amen, listen. Sometimes we don't know what someone is going through,

but to hear from somebody else with confidence, you can make it through the

storm. Mike, just get them through this last hurdle. Here we go.

I'm gonna read the scripture today, but before that, let us pray.

Father, I thank you so much for this time. I thank you

or God for your people who are here in this space. You know them

by name, by nature, by need. This is your word, this

is your house, and we are your people. God. We need to

hear from you God, to use my words, use your word to touch

the hearts and the lives of those who are under this town of my voice.

And when it's all said and done, we'll give you your name,

all the glory, the honor, and the praise in Jesus name. Let

everybody say, amen, amen, if you would go to Mark four,

verse thirty five, and I'm gonna read this in your hearing, and I'm

not gonna stop. Okay, here we go. The bodyle says this.

It says that day, when evening came, he said to his disciples,

let us go over to the other side. Leaving the crowd behind, he

took They took him along. Just as he was in the boat, there

were other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves

broke over the boat so that it was nearly swamp. Jesus was in the

stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him,

teach, sure, don't you care if we drown? He got up,

rebuked the wind and said to the waves quiet, be still. Then

the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples,

why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? They

were terrified and asked each other, who is this? Even the wind and

the waves obey him. They went across the late to the region of the

Garacenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure

spirit came from the tombs to meet him. I did it. Yeah,

Now, it's so hard when you love to teach the word and teach the

gospel that to not stop. But we're gonna come back to that. But

this morning their four major points that I really want to pull out of this

passage of scripture. I want to talk to you about the waves. I

want to talk to you about the wind. I want to talk to you

about Jesus. And I want to talk to you about the Purpose. I'm

gonna say that again. I want to talk to you about the waves,

the wind, the Jesus or Jesus Amen, and the purpose Amen. Because

he is the Jesus. You know, there's a whole lot of Jesus in

the worl out there. But he is the Jesus, the Jesus Amen.

And so this morning I want to talk to you a little bit just to

start out about this idea of waves. Now, in order to really understand

waves, to really get a real good comprehension of waves, it's crucial that

we grasp the nature of water. Water is a part of the waves.

Okay, that's how you get waves. Water makes waves, right, But

water is prevalent everywhere. Water is everywhere, everywhere you turn, everywhere you

look, water is there. You are mostly made up of water. We

are surrounded by water. The world itself is surrounded by water, and water

is so a part of all that we do. Now, many of you

this morning you came into church and you grab yourself some coffee, although you

know you needed to drink water, right, uh huh? And I got

water somewhere. It's back there. But there's there's water, So a part

of us. Water comes in, water goes out. There is this whole

thing called the water cycle, and the water cycle is a part of this

water that we have in. Just like water, water surrounds us, and

God also surrounds us. So if we really are to comprehend the activity of

God or understand the way that God moves. We have to grasp his nature.

His nature is just like water. God is always there. He's everywhere.

He's always present. There's no situation, no circumstance, nothing that you're

going through, nothing that you will go through that God is not there.

God is going to be a part of your journey. He's gonna be a

part of your story. He's always there. Even when it seems like everything

is calm and cool, God is there. When the storm comes, God

is there. God is ever present. I love it when the scripture talks

about He's ever present help in the time of trouble. But I'm so glad

that God just doesn't show up when we're in trouble. He shows up on

my good days, he shows up on my bad days. He shows up

when I'm on the top of the mountain and when I'm in the valley,

when I'm on my way to the top of the mountain. He is there.

He is ever present in my circumstances. And so God is just like

the waves. He is there. He's like the water, always there.

He's always a part of what we're going through. Now. I don't know

about you, but this might be familiar to you. This is this image.

If you're gone through school, you've probably seen this at some point.

This is called the water cycle, right, And so I pulled this from

a college book and it was great. I felt so probably like, you

know, I'm the adjunct teaching pastors, so you know, I should probably

teach something. So I'm teaching about water the water cycle today. Then I

was humbled when I somebody who is running the slides this morning told me,

yeah, I use that same slide with my eighth grade kids. So this

is not so high level right now. It's just a little bit for us

to understand. But water moves to a cycle. We never lose water.

Water is ever present, no matter if it's in a form of a vapor,

or it's in the form of the rivers and the sea, of it's

underground, if it's watering nature. All of us in water is going consistently

through this cycle. And I want to let you know the same way that

water is ever present, God is ever present, always there, and like

the cycle, we are all going through cycles. Now listen to this.

All of us in this room are in one of three stages. One of

three stages you are either in a storm, coming out of a storm,

or about to go into a storm. Let's say that again, you are

either currently in a storm, about to come out of a storm, or

getting ready to go into a storm. Those are the three stages of a

life that we are constantly going through. And sometimes we don't know the timing

of those things. But you're somewhere in that spectrum. And if I said,

raise your hand, if you're in one of those places, every hand

would probably go up today. Why because we can identify that we either came

through something and we are celebrating the fact that we got through it, we're

about to go into something. We just got the report, just got the

news, or we're right in the middle of it and it is as hard

as it can get. The good news is that God is there with you.

Second, the wind, Let's talk about the wind for a minute.

Wind is caused by the uneven heating of the Earth's surf. It results in

different pressures or in the atmosphere, so you have high and low pressures that

are meeting each other. So the earth itself, like sand, ground,

all those things, those areas heat up quicker than the ocean. The ocean

takes a longer time for it to heat up. Even though we've noticed that

the ocean is getting much warmer. It takes a longer time for the ocean

to heat up than the land. But when you have these different pressures,

these high that move from high to low pressures, those things create wind,

okay, And the wind moves things. The wind literally moves from one area

to another. And without wind, we couldn't exist, most of us.

We will say, okay, well, I can't see the wind, but

I won't let you know. Wind is ever present. It's always there.

It's moving, and sometimes it's moving quickly and sometimes it's moving very slow.

But wind it's ever present, just like water. It's always there. It

would be virtually possiful for us to exist as human beings without wind. When

does everything for us? From vegetation it helps vegetation grow to when is the

last time you got on a plane without wind? Ain't gonna go nowhere?

You need the wind. Even for those things, the world itself could not

exist. I wouldn't be standing on this stage right now if we had no

win. It would be difficult for us to move. We need win.

It's a part of the process. I need you to understand these two factors

as we would go back into this passage, because we need to understand that

the wind and the waves are all a part of what is happening in our

lives so that God can do the thing that he is called causing for his

victory, for his purpose in our lives. So listen, I want to

go back to the passage and I want to talk a little bit. But

before I go there, notice we talk about Jesus. It's so good to

talk about Jesus, and it's easy to talk about Jesu because Jesus is ever

present. Jesus is always present in every situation. Jesus is always there.

He's always present in your storm. No matter what's going on in your life,

he is going to be present. So check this out. The problem

that we kind of face in this passage of scripture, if you remember,

Jesus is asleep, and sometimes I don't know about you, but you feel

like the Lord might be sleeping on your issue, sleeping on your problems,

sleeping on your circumstances, that he is not moving, that he's not doing

anything, and you are facing the storm alone because it seems and appears that

he is sleeping, but even though he is not actively engaged, he is

still present. I want to let you know. I'll take a present Jesus

then facing the storm alone. Amen. I don't really need him to do

anything, but if he is there, there's something about it. When my

kids were younger, you know, we would go to the doctor's office and

we would go get a shot, right, money had to get a shot.

Man. I who there was always somebody getting a shot, right,

and they always wanted me to go. It was like, you know,

mama's great, but it was something about Daddy being there, and I'm like

taking off of work for shots. I'm like, okay, so we go

to the doctor and whatnot. And I'm not giving the shot, I'm not

receiving the shot. But it was the fact that I was there. It's

the same thing with God. Sometimes it's the fact that he's there. I

know sometimes you don't feel that he's there, but know that he is there.

And so He's always there. And even when he is sleeping. When

it seems that Jesus might be unengaged in the activity of your storm, he

knows that the storm will produce a purpose, and the purpose he will never

ever disrupt Jesus will not disrupt the purpose of the storm. So, in

other words, the storm is for not if he disrupts the purpose of the

storm because he's trying to get shoo somewhere. Now, let's go back to

this passage and read it again. Amen, y'all ready. So the body

who says this, it says that day. Now, I'm just gonna let

you know this time, i am gonna stop. Okay, so get ready

for that. Okay, it's gonna let you know. I'm just I'm gonna

stop. That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, let

us go to the other side. First of all, I want to let

you know. When Jesus says let us go to the other side, this

is not a suggestion. This is just something he's thrown out there. This

could have had an explanation point. This could have it could have been a

direct command. He could have said, we are going to the other side.

When he says let us go to the other side, I wanna let

you know it's gonna happen. It's like when my kids were little. You

are going to school. I know you don't feel good. I know you

only got one sock and one shoe on. But guess what, you are

going to school. And that's the same thing that's happening here. Jesus is

let us go to the other side. Let us go. We are going

to the other side. I want to let you know. The reason why

you're going to the other side is because Jesus has made that command. You're

gonna get there. He's already said it. He made it clear. It's

established, it's done. I know you don't know how you're gonna make it

to the other side. You don't feel like you have enough shrimp to get

to the other side. The weather, it's saying you can't get to the

other side. All of the odds are against you. But Jesus said here

that Jesus said, let us go to the other side. Oh, we're

going to the other side. Amen. Amen, we are going to the

other side. So the Bible says this. It says leaving the crowd behind.

They took him alone. Just as he was in the boat. Pause,

there was a crowd that he was teaching. He was teaching from the

boat, and he was teaching them about sewing. He was teaching about seed

times and all these things that he's teaching, and in that moment he then

says this, let us go to the other side. So he's on the

boat. They didn't pack in anything. I want to let you know sometimes

you'll won't be able to prepare for your storm. You won't be able to

pack anything. You won't be able to pull anything together. You won't be

able to pack a lunch and get yourself together. When the storm happens.

The storm just happens. All you can do is just be there. And

so Jesus was just as he was on the boat. I love the fact

that there was no doctrine Jesus, there was no fixing up. And I

want to say to somebody this morning that if you think you gotta get fixed

up in order to be with Jesus, you're sadly mistaken. Jesus will take

you just as you are. Just come as you are, and Jesus will

do the work in you. In the midst of the storm, he they

took them just as he was and just as they were. Don't try to

fix it up, because if you could fix it up, you would fix

it up a long time ago. But let Jesus do the work in you.

And so the Bible says there will other boats with him. I'm gonna

come back to that. I'm gonna least try to come back to that there

were other boats with him. A furious squall came up and the waves broke

over the boat, so that nearly it was nearly swamp. I want to

know, let you know that a squall is a biggest storm. There is

any times someone it's like, oh we ran into a squall. It was

a huge storm. It was breaking over the boat. Recently, I watched

a movie, The Perfect Storm. If you've ever seen that movie, I

want to let you know, don't use that one for this. Cerm I

shul really probably shouldn't even use it because it's really not much hope in that

movie. Okay, matter of fact, I really wonder if Jesus was even

anywhere near that boat. It was just a bad situation, right, But

the reality is is that it was a huge storm. It was a perfect

storm because it was so strategic how the storm was set up, and so

here they are experiencing something similar a very huge squall, and this is a

huge storm. Remember, you got fishermen on this boat. Peter's on the

boat. They've been in storms before. These gods have seen storms. They've

been fishing most in their life. They've seen all sorts of storms. But

this storm was a serious storm, serious enough that when the boat was nearly

swamped, they said, we gotta do something about it. But check this

out, verse thirty eight. Jesus was in the sterns, sleeping on a

cushion. We have a sleeping Jesus. We have a sleeping Jesus. Jesus

is sleeping, He's resting. He has a peace that we do not understand.

And most times I want to let you know I am and yearning for

that type of peace that when the storms in life are raging, that I

can still find peace and rest. I can still get a good night's sleep.

I can still close my eyes and I have no stressors, no worries,

none, no thing. Jesus was sleeping. I wonder if Jesus snored.

I don't know my Jesus snores, amen, cause that's the good sleep.

When you're storing in the mouth halfway opening and get that, you know,

that's a good sleep. I believe he probably was getting a good sleep

in at this moment. And while he is sleeping, well, all of

a sudden. The Disciples came to wake him up and said, teacher,

don't you care if we drown? Have you ever been woken up out of

your sleep? You know that feeling? It's like, oh, trying to

figure it all out? Don't you care if we drown. I don't know

about you, but there's been times in my life where I felt like I

was gonna drown. I felt like I wasn't gonna make it. Maybe it

was a sickness, Maybe was something else going on in my life. Maybe

was going things going on in my family, things going on my job where

I felt like I wasn't gonna make it. But guess what, Jesus was

there. And those were the times where I woke him up. Have you

ever woke Jesus up? Have you ever had to wake Jesus up? You

felt like nothing was going on, nothing was gonna happen, and you said,

Lord, don't you care if I parents? Don't you care if I

drown? Don't you care if this thing happens to me? Don't you care?

Lord Jesus? And so they woke Jesus up. I'm gonna encourage somebody

wake Jesus up. Stop trying to handle it on your own. Stop trying

to fix it yourself. Wake Jesus up. Oh, he's never too bothered.

TV woken up. Wake Jesus up when you have done all that you

can do. Wake Jesus up. When it gets as tight and thick as

it can get, Wake Jesus up. The Bible says this, he got

up. Wake I love this. Hold on le pause quick, Jesus gets

up. He doesn't first address the disciples. This is hot off the press.

I didn't say this in the first service, but somebody in there he

probably needs this. He did not address the disciples first. He dealt with

the situation. Oh, God's good right there, That's good right there.

He didn't say anything to the people who woke him up first. He addressed

the situation first. I want to let you know that Jesus is looking to

address your situation. He'll deal with you later. When my kids were younger

and things would happen at school, because things always happen at school, I

would go in to deal with the situation, and then I would deal with

my daughter later, because the situation was the most important issue in the moment.

Jesus deals with the situation. They say he got up, rebuked the

wind and said to the waves, quiet, be still. Hold up for

a second. I've read this wrong so long in my life. I've always

read it as he rebuked the wind and the waves and said said to him

quiet, be still. No, no, no, he rebuked the wind.

Comma, let's pause and deal with that for a second. He gets

up and he corrects the wind. Most times we have had to rebuke our

children, our co workers, people around us, whatever. And what that

means. It means to correct them, right, to correct them, to

bring them into order. It doesn't say, hey, you messed up and

be gone. No, Jesus did not get rid of the wind. He

did not permanently abolish wind. No, he corrected the wind. He got

up, and he said, I am putting you in order. The Lord

will put your wind in order, your wind in order. The wind is

a thing that is really causing all that you see. But you can't see

the wind. Oh my god, sometimes we're not able to see what the

source of the problem is. We can feel it, but we can't see

it. No one has ever seen wind. But you see things in the

wind. You see the effects of the wind, and we feel the effects

of the wind. But Jesus says, hey, I'm not gonna deal with

what you see and what you feel. I'm gonna deal with what is causing

the problem. He goes directly to the wind and he says, wind,

stop blowing. Wind came down, it says. He rebukes the wind,

and then he speaks to the waves. He says to the waves, quiet,

be still. Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

Listen, the wind impacts the waves. It all works together. Notice this

that when wind comes and it has gone through the pressure. Now listen.

If anybody's a science teacher in here, I am so sorry forgive me.

This is a layman's person trying to come through and teach about science. This

is not my gift, they man, But I'm have a little grace on

me. Okay. But when the wind comes in at the different pressures and

they hit each other and creates this wind, the wind then hits the waves,

and as much pressure as in the wind is present in the waves,

and so that causes the waves to do this. And as the waves of

doing this, your boat that is on the ways then moves what quicker.

I want to let you know that there's sometimes that the wind is blowing so

hard because God is trying to get you to a destination much quicker than you're

ready to go. He's trying to move you quickly. And so Jesus is

at peace. He's sleeping on the stern in the stern because he doesn't he's

been worried about the boat going under why because he knows there's a destination,

because we are going to the other side. He said it in the beginning,

and he has not changed his mind. So the wind hits the waves,

the waves carries a boat to the other side. The Bible says that

he gets up, he rebukes the wind, and then he speaks to the

ways quiet, be still, and then it dies down and is completely calm.

Guess what. The wind is still there, but it's at a different

level. Some of you in this room today, you just need the wind

to calm down, cause it's blowing pretty hard right now. But guess what.

Sometimes when the wind has been dealt with, there's still the aftermath of

the waves. Have friends who have gone through cancer treatments and they say,

there's still things that I still feel after that treatment that still impact me physically.

Well, guess what, it's just waves. You're already healed. Those

are just waves. And so this morning, I want to let you know

that the waves may still be doing this, but the calm is on the

way because you're getting to your destination in time. The bidle says this.

It says he said to his disciples, why are you so afraid? Do

you still have no faith? They were terrified and said to each other,

who is this? I notice they didn't say it to Jesus, but they

were like, Yo, Peter John, who this this? That even the

wind and the waves obey him? Check this out. Remember when I said

earlier I was gonna come back to that little parliment and said there were other

ships with them. There were other boats with them. Remember this. I

really believe, I really believe that Jesus did not get up because of the

disciples. They had nothing to fear. Listen, Jesus was not suicidal.

That boat was not going down. The boat was gonna float if nothing else

happened. That boat was gonna float and get to the other side. But

I believe that Jesus got up for the other boats, the ones that didn't

have Jesus on board, the ones who did not have the hope of salvation.

The ones who did not have God present with them through their situation,

they wanted to be with Jesus, but they did not have Jesus. There

are a lot of people who come to church, but they're not with Jesus.

And I'm gonna let you know today, if you are not with Jesus,

please invite him on your vessel. Vite invite him on your boat to

take the journey with you so that you don't have to worry about the storms

that come. You don't have to worry about the things that beat against light

and the things that come against you because He is on board. So Jesus

gets up and he deals with a storm. Recently, I've gone through my

own storm. It was crazy. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was

just leaving hot yoga with my wife. Anybody do hot yoga here, all

right? A couple of people right, Well, we were sweating for Jesus

and this a hundred and something degree room, and and it's a great time.

My muscles felt great, you know, after working out, you do

hot yoga and it's like, oh, we feel so good. Whatnot?

So I get in the car and I get this message from my spiritual mother

from New York, sister Coley Bethany and she she called, and we were

in class I couldn't pick up. And then when I got out, I

called her and she said, she said, I'm not gonna remember what I

said, so go listen to the voicemail since I can never say it like

I said it. And so I went back to listen to this voicemail and

this is what she said to me. She said, good afternoon, this

is your mom son in New York. Just wanted to share with you.

To keep holding on. God is about ready to break through that situation,

and you know there's a better outlook on the other side. You gotta stay

through the storm. You gotta stay through the process and be thankful and show

Satan that he is defeated. God is gonna give you victory. Were keeping

you in our prayers. Don't know what the situation is, but that's not

for us to know. Just letting you know that God knows and we're gonna

keep you all in our prayers, all right. The encouraged God never fails.

He is faithful, He is working out things for the best. When

I got this message, I was like what is she talking about? There

was nothing going on. It was a beautiful sunny day. I just came

out of high yoga. I'm feeling relaxed. I'm feeling relieved, and I'm

like, oh my this, what is this about? So then there was

something inside. I said, Lord, we need to pray because there's a

storm she's talking about. And I don't know what the storm is. So

this was Saturday. Monday morning, I get up and work go to work

out. I go to the gym and I work in a god forsaken work

out in a god forsake an hour. I won't tell you what time that

is. Who know, only met Jesus. And the people working out are

there and we're working out, and one of the trainers there, it says

to me, hey, Mike, you've been on my heart all weekend.

The Lord has just been like sitting on me. And I'm supposed to pray

for you. And if you knew kJ, you would say okay. And

I did. I said okay. I said I received, and he prayed

for me. He started praying about my life, my family, my job,

all these things, and he was praying and I told him, thank

you so much. My ministrative assistant at my job was there and she was

kind of shocked to you by the moment, and it was just a beautiful

moment that we just received. Still had no clue to what was going on.

But later that day I went to work and everything exploded. And when

I say everything, you know, sometimes we have a bad day. But

it was just not a bad day. It was a bad day that turned

into bad days that turned into bad weeks that literally turned into several bad months.

And it was really chaotic and really crazy. But the good news is

that God was so gracious to me that he gave me a warning of the

storm. He gave me some preparation for the storm. And I can stand

before you today and say that I am on the other side of that storm.

Hallelujah. God not only fixed the storm, but he kept me at

peace through the midst of the whole storm. He's handled all the situations,

the things that I thought I was gonna have to battle. No, he

got up because I woke him up. Amen, and I said, Jesus,

I need your help. He got up and he started dealing with things.

I could tell you this over the last month, though it was a

chaotic time and a lot of time of questioning. I had some of the

best times of my life because God gave me a time of rest that while

I was resting, he was fighting for me. God will fight for you,

and he will give you a peace, and he will give you rest,

and he will give you an opportunity to breathe because you don't have to

fight when God is fighting for you. So in this season, there was

so much happening. And I can tell you that God has given me the

biggest breakthrough in my life and has settled me in a place of hope.

Today I came to offer you hope. Often we read the scriptures and we

look at scriptures and we say, oh, those are great stories. But

when you take the scriptures and you lay life up against it, it becomes

real. And I tell you today, I have so many friends and the

audience who are walking with me through that, and they can tell you that

God has done something marvelous. I don't tell you something that someone told me.

I tell you what I know for myself. Over the season, there's

sometimes that God will give you a song in the midnight, a song that

will carry you through in several months or weeks, several months go, I

called Clinton. I said Clinton, I said, there's a song that is

it's my testimony. It is literally speaking life into me right now. And

I said I would love I text him this was a text I would love

if we can sing this, and Clint said, I don't know if it's

available. We'll find it, we'll figure it out, we'll do something.

And this morning, I want to share that song with you. The worship

team has been so gracious to let me come and sing my testimony with you

guys, and so I'm just gonna pop in with them and hang out for

a minute, and I pray that this song would speak to you as well.

See, I know for myself because I've experienced him for myself, and

you will know for yourself that the same God who did what he did yesterday

will do it again today and he's faithful to do it again tomorrow. Come

on, let's sing this song, Worship team, howluke, I've seen it

for myself, all the stories I could tell of a never present and a

God that just won't fail you. Sif you'r think that my Father is incapable

of you, let me tell you. And if you're thinking that he isn't

strong enough to solve your problems. Let me tell you. I know it

for live and I know the story. Well, he's never person love.

That just fair. And if you're feeling that you've drifted away too far and

he can't reach you, let me tell you. And if you're feeling that

you're way too damaged for my God to use you, let me tell you.

Church, let's stand and sing this. I've seen it. I've believed

it, Hide weindness that he will come to you for you. I've seen

it. Hi believed it, hid weinness that he will come to by you.

I've had some doubts. Be yourself. What the years have taught me?

Well, yeah, there's no question that he's read. Oh and I

don't need nobody. I've seen it. Oh, hide my greenness that he

will come through boy right seeing I've lived it, Hapney, it had been

ess that he will come through. He did and it's finished. Church,

It's fash so trusting. I know will come through for meting. It's Farish's

so trusting. I come to all we saw truth trues truth. He's a

rough wind God. I love Love's who he says he loves it's all trees.

He's a good good father. He's a good good friend, and he's

a good good friend. And he'll always be with you. I know he'll

always be with I know it's all. It's all true, and he'll he

done. And it's all to its all true. He's all truss. It's

come to your God, and I know that God will come through for you.

The word is true. What it says, it does, what he

says he does. He's a healing God, he's a providing God, he's

a restoring God. He's a redeeming God. There's nothing that you can need,

there's nothing that you can even hope for that God cannot meet you where

you are. And this morning I want to pray for you. There needs

to be hope restored. I know some of us in this room we feel

like we're in a hopeless situation. But I want to let you know if

you've got Jesus, you've got hope. Father God, in the name of

Jesus, I thank you so much that Lord God, you not only start

us on a boat, but you take us through storms that you rebuke,

storms for us for the purposes of getting us to the place that you have

destined for us, that the purpose you set out for us will not be

abandoned. That you will cause us to be in the right place, the

right time, doing the right thing. And there is no storm, there

is no wind, there is no ways that can hinder what you have in

store for us. I pray right now in the name of Jesus, that

the ones that are under the sound of my voice will be restored in their

faith, in their hope, that their situation is not hopeless because they have

a God of hope. They are a God who can, a God who

will, a God who is doing it right now. There is all true,

and it is already done. It is finished, So God, do

it. We trust you, and God, when it gets too much for

us, we promise we will wake you up, because you're never disturbed by

our cries for help. Take us to the other side. We're on our

way with you. In Jesus name, Let everybody say eight nine, eight

nine and eight nine