Summer at Impact - Week 2: Don't Be Afraid of The Dark

Well, the sun is out, the barbecue grills are going.

It is summertime, and that means it is summer at impact.

A collection of messages that are designed to encourage you, to stir you up, and to get your faith focused on the fact that God's got an amazing future for you.

So today's word is going to be tremendous because it's going to launch you into the next phase of what God is trying to do in your life.

But before we get into the word today, let me remind you it is open enrollment at Impact Christian Academy, our pre-K through 12th grade school.

It just might be the right fit for your beautiful child or your beautiful grandchild.

For more information, go to ICAJAX.com and we'd love to see you be a part of this great community.

Now let's dive into this rich word today.

Well, how are you doing, Impact Church?

So good to be here with you.

I know I'm not physically in person, but I am here through the vehicle of this amazing technology.

And I promise you, if you have your heart fully connected and if you turn your expectation on high, God's got something amazing for you today.

I do want to take a moment to say hello to all of our special guests that are here and you're visiting with us for the first time.

Glad to have you out with us.

So sorry I'm not actually in the building today.

But every five years, my wife and I, we take an extended sabbatical so we can make sure we stay mentally and physically and spiritually healthy enough to go the long distance.

So this happens to be our 30-year anniversary year.

This is the year we're taking that sabbatical.

So thank you for coming out.

I promise you the message is going to bless you.

But I'm asking when you hear that I'm back in the building, make your way back out here because we love to have an opportunity to worship with you in person.

But for today, let's dive into this message today because I believe God's got something extra special He wants to say to each of you.

Now, I want to minister a message today that I'm calling, I'm entitling this Don't Be Afraid of the Dark.

Say it out loud.

Say, don't be afraid of the dark.

Now turn to your neighbor and say, hello, friend.

You're in the right place today.

Say don't be afraid of the dark.

Now turn to your second choice on the other side.

Say hello, second choice.

Say, don't be afraid of the dark.

Now I want to read from Psalm number 23, very familiar passage of scripture to most people who've had any time or experience in church.

The 23rd Psalm says this.

It's a Psalm of David.

It says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

I mean, we can stop right there and shout and say we had a good time today.

Because all I'm saying is, when the Lord is my shepherd, when the Lord is leading me, when the Lord is guiding me, he's not leading me to places of lack.

He says, If the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He's gonna make me lie down in plush places, green pastures, pla uh uh pastures of plenty.

He leads me beside still waters.

In other words, God's not leading me into wreck after wreck after wreck.

Come on, somebody.

Then I love verse three.

It says, He restores my soul.

Then it says, He leads me in the pathways of righteousness.

Watch this, for his name's sake.

In other words, he's leading me the right way because he's got his name on me.

Somebody know you his shadow.

And then I love verse number four.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

Why not, God?

For you are with me.

The Bible makes it very clear that when the Lord is our shepherd, He He leads us to places of provision, He leads us to places of peace, He leads us to places of wholeness and stillness.

But the reality is sometimes along the route, even when God is leading us, we end up going through the valley of the shadow of death.

And I love the fact that the Bible didn't say He we, even though I go through the valley of death, it says the valley of the shadow of death.

Let me know the shadow is not real.

The shadow means that, yeah, I that there's something there.

Yeah, I feel it.

Yeah, there's a uh a feeling that comes over me, but I don't have to be terrified because I'm not walking through the valley of death.

I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

Now, most of you have heard me by now talking about my little puppy that I got at the beginning of the year, and it's really not a little puppy anymore.

Uh I think they got a picture of him.

That's him on the left side there.

Yeah, he looks menacing, doesn't he?

Yeah, that's a dog now, man.

When I when I walk him down the street, I was walking down the street the other day, and these two little kids are out in the front plane.

They saw us coming down the street, they packed up their stuff and headed toward the garage.

By the time we got there, they were closing the garage.

Well, now he's a dog, but so so now that's what he looks like today because he's, you know, over six plus months old now.

But when I first got him and he was a little puppy, when we he was about two months old, I went and took him outside to do his little business, and he looked up and the sun hit just right, and my shadow fell right in front of him.

He looked up and saw my shadow and took off running toward the house.

Almost broke his little neck trying to get away from a shadow.

Well, today when he sees the shadow, he don't even flinch.

I mean, he understands now, watch because he's matured.

He understands that the shadow cannot hurt him.

Well, I need you to understand today that when you're walking through the valley of the shadow of death, it feels very real.

But watch this: the more that we grow, the more that we mature, the more that we develop this deep abiding confidence and faith in God Almighty, we understand that when I'm in the middle of the valley of the shadow of death, I don't have to fear because the Father God is with me, and that shadow's not going to take me out.

Give me an amen, somebody.

So now check this out.

When we're not listening to the shepherd, when we're walking in a direction that the shepherd didn't guide us in, then we're not walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

We're actually walking through death valley.

It's kind of like when you remember the the movie uh The Lion King when Simba and Nala were told, don't go over there to the elephant area, the elephant graveyard, and and they went over there anyway, and they got spooked, they got scared.

Where that was a real death valley.

Why?

Because they were walking somewhere they should not be.

But the truth of the matter is, when you know that you've obeyed the Lord, come on, when you know you've done what God has said to do, when you know you're right where the Lord has said for you to be, and you find yourself in a dark place, don't be afraid of the dark because it's just the valley of the shadow of death.

Say that out loud, I have no fear because the Lord is here.

Now there's a story over in uh Acts chapter 16 that I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but let me give you the highlights.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Paul and Silas are out minding their own business, they're coming back home from a prayer meeting.

How many know it's a good thing to be at a prayer meeting?

So they've been at a prayer meeting, they're on their way home from a prayer meeting, and they encounter this fortune-telling girl.

And the best way to describe it is that the Bible says she had a spirit of divination.

She's a fortune-telling girl.

If she was around today, she'd be trying to read your poem or she'd be trying to do tarot cards, she'd be breaking out her crystals, she'd be asking your zodiac, are you a Libra, a Leo?

She'd be into all the stuff today that's over there on the dark side.

And Paul encounters her, and from the outside, she sounds like she's a good girl because she says, These are the men of the Most High God who show us the way to salvation.

And she keeps saying it, and she keeps saying it, but what's really happening is the devil's trying to draw attention to them so he can persecute them.

Paul looks at her, he gets tired of it, and the Bible says he cast the devil out of her.

When the devil leaves her, now she's no longer able to do her fortune telling, no longer able to divine the future.

And the guys who've been prostituting this evil spirit on her, who've been making money off of her, they get mad.

They have Paul and Silas thrown in jail after they were beaten and they're bloodied, their backs are hurt, and they're thrown not just into the front holding part of the jail, they're put in the deepest, most isolated part of the jail.

Can I just tell you it's terrible when you go through something and you've done wrong?

It's even way worse when you go through something and you know you did nothing but right.

I mean, it's it's horrible to have to go through something and you're bloodied and you're you're tired and you're you're you're hurt.

But when you know I've done nothing but do right, and you still find yourself in the valley of the shadow of death, it doesn't feel good at all.

Well, that's where Paul and Silas is.

And here in Acts chapter 16, verse number 25.

Acts 16 · chapter mention

Let's look at what they did.

The Bible says, but at midnight.

Somebody shout, midnight.

Now, I believe it's literally midnight, you know, on the clock, it's 12 a.m.

But I also believe that midnight is symbolic.

Midnight is symbolic of the darkest time in your life.

Midnight is symbolic of the time where your heart is broken.

It's symbolic of the time where you can't see your way clear.

It's symbolic of the time where it feels like this darkness is going to last forever.

And I don't know if you know this or not, but if you've never gone through a midnight hour, all I can say is keep on living.

And that's not a negative confession.

There was a time, man, when I was young in my faith, and I just believe as long as I live right before God, and as long as I walk as a man of faith, I won't have any midnight hours.

I found out real quickly, even when you're doing everything just right, midnight still shows up.

So the question is not, will there ever be a midnight?

The question is, what are you gonna do when midnight happens?

Because when midnight happens, we all have some choices.

We can give in to midnight, we can let midnight dictate how we feel, dictate how we act, dictate what posture we take, or we can recognize that midnight doesn't last forever, and God's got a way for me to get out of this midnight.

So the Bible says this at midnight, watch this.

Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God.

Come on, somebody.

They're going through midnight, their backs are bleeding, they are frustrated, they probably feel a little bit forsaken, like we're doing nothing but right.

We're out praying, not minding our own business.

How do we end up in this situation?

But instead of murmuring, instead of complaining, instead of sitting around feeling sorry for themselves, watch this.

They're praying and singing hymns to God.

The Bible says, and the prisoners will listen to them.

Can I tell you one of the best things to do when you're going through a midnight hour?

Find you somebody else to minister to.

See, the temptation, the temptation in the midnight hour is to have a woe is me, a pity party, turn all the attention on what you're going through.

But the reality is when the devil has the audacity to strike you, you can either just keep taking blows and just keep protecting yourself and trying to hold on, or you can turn around and do what every good boxer does.

You can throw some punches right back.

At midnight they prayed, saying hymns of God.

Verse 26 says, Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundation of the prison was shaken, and immediately all the doors were open, and everybody's chains were loose.

Paul and Silas found out that it was just a shadow of death, but they found that out because of how they chose to respond.

See, heaven is looking to see if you find yourself in a dark place.

And I know that some of you right now, you're in a dark place.

For some, it's darker than others, but for there's a number of people right now, I know this because the Lord put this on my heart to minister this word.

And if you're going through a dark season in your marriage, you're going through a dark season in your finances, you're going through a dark season because you lost your job, you're going through a dark season because you're grieving the loss of a loved one.

You're going through a dark season because your heart is broken.

Maybe you're going through a dark season because you just can't see your way to what's coming at.

I'm here to tell you how you respond in the dark makes a big difference in whether or not it's the valley of the shadow of death or whether you find yourself in death valley.

And heaven's paying attention, man.

Heaven is watching to see are you gonna respond with fear or with faith?

And I'm here to tell you right now, the word of the Lord is don't be afraid of the dark.

In fact, tell your neighbor again, say, Don't be afraid of the dark.

Come on, you didn't say it like you mean it.

Tell them again, say, don't be afraid of the dark.

So here, let me let me let me walk you through how am I supposed to respond in order to make sure that this is just a shadow of death that I don't have to be afraid of, and doesn't end up becoming death valley.

Number one is this you gotta stay connected in prayer.

Stay connected in prayer.

One of the first things you see the Bible says at midnight, Paul and Silas started praying.

Paul and Silas were praying.

Paul and Silas were praying.

Watch this when they could have been crying.

Anybody ever been through something that you know absolutely was worth crying over?

I mean, I've been through a bunch of them, man.

And and the natural emotional reaction is just give in to the feeling and go ahead and just let it out.

But can I tell you, instead of just giving in to that feeling, can we choose to do what the Bible says and begin to pray?

Listen to this.

The number one mistake we make when dark days hit our lives is that we start having conversations with people who cannot fix our problem.

Come on, man.

Call somebody up.

We don't know what know what they think about it.

What should I do with this situation?

We start having deep conversations with people who don't have the ability to fix our problem.

Uh, you know, one of the things that I'm grateful for is that you know, we have all this great technology, but sometimes this great technology can be a hindrance.

Because Paul was blessed that he didn't have social media back then.

I mean, can you imagine if Paul had social media back then and he did what a lot of people did?

He jumped on Facebook and decided to put a post out there about what he was going through.

I mean, I can see it now.

He probably takes a picture and he you know put the camera to the side.

You know how they do so they act like they weren't the one taking a picture.

And he showed himself just kind of sad.

You got the jail in the background, a little blood trickling down.

And he put the caption like this point of view.

When you've been trying your hardest to serve God, but no matter how hard you try, it just seems like something is always going wrong.

Shipwrecks running for my life, friends betraying me, and now I'm in this ratchet jail after getting jumped by these fake guards.

Nah, bruh, they better be glad I went to the synagogue last Sunday, or they might have seen the old Saul come out.

Holler at your boy, because this can't be real life.

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you all.

Hashtag trying to do right.

Hashtag Jesus take the wheel.

catch these hands.

Hashtag Jesus Saves.

Thank God Paul didn't have Facebook or Instagram.

And sometimes the worst thing we can do is jump on social media and start airing out our emotions instead of going to the throne to let God start the process of healing our heart.

James chapter 5, verse 13 says this.

James 5:13

Are any of you suffering hardships?

Come on, I'm asking that.

Any of you right now going through hardship?

Any of you going through a difficult time?

Any of you going through something that feels very dark right now?

Well, let me let me tell you what the Bible says.

If you're going through a hardship, you should pray.

Come on, isn't it true that the last thing you feel like doing is praying?

When the lights go out, when it gets really dark, the last thing you feel like doing is praying.

But the Bible says if you're going through a hardship, you need to pray.

Are any of you happy?

Then act like you're happy.

Sing some praise songs.

Are any of you sick?

You should call for the elders of the church.

You should call for them so they can come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.

Let me just say this: it is essential that we develop and maintain a pray first mentality.

Here it is.

Prayer has got to be our first choice, not our last resort.

And you know what?

You know, you know what is actually in you when you find yourself in a dark situation.

I mean, we can talk all the junk we want to.

We can sing all the songs you want to sing.

It's easy to sing songs and everything's going great.

The question is, what's in your mouth when things are going tough?

What pops out of you when you find yourself in a dark space?

A number of years ago, man, our kids are probably teenagers at the time.

Uh, I went to minister out of a church in in Arizona, uh, a Faith Christian Center in Arizona.

And because we were going to be on the West Coast, we decided we're gonna go hang out in California after I got done preaching.

So uh, you know, did what I was called to do there, ministered at the church, and we rented a car, and we were just gonna drive over to San Diego.

And uh by the time we started driving, though, it was in the afternoon, the sun went down, and and so we're we're heading and we're we're we're following the navigation, and the navigation takes us this route where we end up going through this little town, and then we we you can see in the distance this big old mountain.

And if you know anything about your first lady, she she she for whatever reason she doesn't like mountains.

I'm not sure what happened in her childhood, but somebody took her up a mountain or something and left her, but she don't like mountains.

And so this big old mountains in the distance, she's like, whoa, that look, that looks kind of ominous.

So we're driving toward it, and we're thinking in our mind that we're driving toward it, and it's probably gonna be a freeway that takes us around it, but we drive toward it, and the route takes us up the mountain.

And then we're winding around the mountain, and then we're going down these little bitty, like two-lane highways, and and we're going higher and higher.

And at first, at first, everybody's laughing and joking, ha ha ha, we're going up this mountain, it's dark.

And then as we keep going, and you can look over that cliff and see one wrong move, and man, we're going over the side of this cliff.

All of a sudden, all the laughing stopped.

It got quiet in the car, and all I could hear was, bless the Lord.

Oh, she had put on the worship music.

You know it gets real when you put the church music on, right?

But watch this when it got dark, instead of going to a bad place, the first place that came to us was you better grab hold of what you know on the inside.

Come on, in the darkest moments, that is not the time to give in to how we feel.

Can I tell you your feelings are the most untrustworthy people in your life?

Because feelings go up and down.

They feel good one day, feel horrible the next day.

I think it was Joyce Myers that says, emotions have been nominated as a Christian's number one enemy.

We do more things out of emotions, good or bad.

And in the middle of a dark valley, the last thing we want to do is let emotion dictate what we do.

Give me a good amen, somebody.

I need a better amen than that, somebody.

Can I just remind you that in this year of fierce focus, the Lord told us at the beginning of the year to develop a fierce focus in prayer?

You remember that?

I mean, of the list of things he told us.

He said, develop a fierce focus in prayer.

Could it be that God knew what dark valleys were coming your way this year?

Could it be that God knew what was coming and he needed us to have our lives saturated in prayer so that the darkness would not take us out, but it would push us forward to even greater growth.

Second thing we got to do is this stay connected to the Word of God.

When darkness hits your life, stay connected to the Word of God.

If I'd say it another way, I'd say it this way: understand the reason for your dark season.

Understand the reason for your dark season.

Listen to me.

I'm talking to somebody right now that's going through a dark season and is messing your mind up.

Why am I going through this?

I want to take you to the word to help you understand how this cycle works.

Mark chapter 4, verse 16.

Mark 4:16

Uh Mark 4, 16, it says this.

These likewise are the ones who are sown on stony ground, who when they hear the word, immediately they receive it with gladness.

But they have no root in themselves, and so they endure just for a time.

But afterward, when tribulation, somebody say tribulation or persecution, somebody say persecution, when they arise, watch this, for the word's sake.

Tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, the Bible says immediately they stumble.

What is it saying here?

That these are folks that are doing right, they're living right, they're excited about the word, sold out to the word, but they haven't let that word take root deep enough.

And I probably said this way they haven't had enough opportunities to challenge that word and see that the word will still work even in dark times.

So tribulation and persecution shows up.

They didn't just show up out of nowhere.

The Bible tells you why they're going through that season.

Tribulation and persecution show up for the word's sake.

Now, let me tell you what tribulation and persecution are.

Persecution is pressure that is brought on you by people.

Persecution is when your family members start talking about you because you go to church all the time now.

And are you so holy now?

Are you holier than thou?

And all you do is talk about God and what God is doing.

And when now all of a sudden at work, your co-workers, they don't invite you to go to lunch with them because they all want to gossip and talk about bad stuff, but you made a decision you're gonna walk in righteousness.

All of a sudden you find yourself isolated, feeling alone, not because you did anything wrong, but because you are sold out and totally committed to God.

That's not something wrong with you.

They're not pushing away from you, they're pushing away from Jesus.

And the Jesus in you is making them feel bad about the darkness in them.

That's persecution.

And what is tribulation?

Tribulation is pressure that is brought upon you by circumstances.

Pressure that comes from bad doctors' report, failed relationships, kids that drift off course, marriages that find themselves in the tank, depression that kicks in, plans that don't work out like you thought, a job that closes up.

Now you gotta think, try to figure out how am I gonna make ends meet.

That pressure that comes from people talking about you, the pressure that comes from circumstances not going like you thought.

If you don't watch it, that pressure is designed to crush you.

In fact, if you if you look the word tribulation up, it comes from a Greek word that literally means like to have a boulder.

Back in the day, one of the ways that the Romans would would kill people, we knew they would crucify people, but another way they would kill people is they lay them down on the ground, tie a huge boulder to their chests, and they just let the rope go slowly.

So that that that that boulder would slowly push down on their chest, eventually crush their ribs, eventually collapse their lungs and suffocate them under the pressure.

That's what the enemy's always trying to do.

He's always trying to bring something, especially when you're living right, you're just mosing along the mind of your business.

He's trying to come and poke to see if all that word you say you have on the inside is real.

See, we all want to go to the next level, but we don't want to deal with the pressure it takes to be qualified for that next level.

Come on.

At every new level, there's a new devil.

And if I if I want to get promoted, if I if I want to see God do greater things in my life, if I want to experience more of his fruitfulness and his blessing, I've got to be of this mindset.

Whatever devils I gotta deal with at this level, I'm gonna let the word help me through these dark seasons.

So when pressure shows up, the pressure's not here because you did something wrong.

The pressure shows up, the Bible says, for the word to say the pressure shows up to say, Do you really believe all of this?

You've been singing, how great is my God.

You've been singing, I'm grateful for God.

You've been singing, I got nothing but gratitude.

You've been singing the Lord is my shepherd.

The enemy shows up to find out, do you really believe that one of those is good tunes?

What are you saying, Pastor?

I'm saying that listen to me, the fight is always over the validity of the word.

Going all the way back to Genesis when God said to Adam and Eve, Don't eat of that tree that's in the middle of the garden.

What did the devil come back and say, You won't really die?

In other words, God's word isn't really what he said.

Is it the the enemy is always trying to poke to see, are you really going to believe that word?

April and I've been married this year, now, this this time of the year, well, in in just a few weeks.

We've been married for for 33 years, man.

And can I tell you that in the very beginning of our marriage, I mean, today we're blessed.

We're able to take a sabbatical and take a nice trip and do some things, but in the early days of our marriage, we didn't have much money, man.

That's why when people look at us today, don't judge us from where we are today.

You don't know what we've been through to get here.

You don't know how many dark valleys we had to walk through together in faith to get here.

And in the beginning days of our marriage, man, I I to this day still, from a natural standpoint, have no idea how I paid all the bills in our house, a car payment for her, rent for our apartment, a light bill, telephone bill, all of that on a salary of$22,000.

And I was paying for her her college education because she had to think one more semester, two semesters once we got married.

And her dad took care of the first semester when we first got married, but after that I took over.

I have no idea.

And then when I got a raise, I got bumped up to$30,000.

I'm really rolling in the dough now.

I have no idea how how we took care of all those bills.

And can I tell you the enemy was always always saying, and now you know if you if you pay your tithes, you're gonna end up not having the money to pay your rent.

Can I tell you that's a pressure?

As a man, that's a pressure, man.

And the enemy is always trying to find out are you gonna stick with the word and do what you said you believe?

Or are you gonna bow your knee and fold to the fear I'm trying to put on you?

I'm preaching better than you are saying amen right now.

And can I tell you there were so many times we were tempted to not tithe, but there was never a time in the beginning, the middle, or our uh days today in our marriage where we have never dishonored God by trying to take the tithe and use it for something else.

Now, have there been times where it was tight?

Yeah, there was a lot of days where in the early days it was tight.

But can I tell you, I can say, like David said, I've been young and now I'm older, but I've never seen the righteous forsaken.

I don't know, I don't know how we got everything paid, but every single month God always came through.

Come on, somebody.

Every single month, God always had somebody say, The Lord just put it on my heart to bless you.

Every single month there was a check that showed up out of the out of nowhere.

Every single month, God made the ends meet until he got us to a place of overflow and blessing.

And today you couldn't make me stop trusting God no matter how hard you try.

Why?

Because there's a blessing in the valley if you learn the lesson the right way.

Come on, somebody.

There's a blessing in the valley if you don't give up and don't quit.

Here's the third thing we gotta know.

Stay connected to your hope.

So stay connected to prayer, stay connected to the word, but also stay connected to your hope.

You know, we heard we heard the phrase keep hope alive.

That was uh Jesse Jackson's big phrase, keep hope alive.

That's more than a political slogan.

It's a lifeline.

The Bible says this in Hebrews 11:1.

Hebrews 11:1

It says, now faith is the substance of things what?

Come on, it's the substance of things what?

Hope for faith is the evidence of the things we have not seen.

Let me read that verse to you from the Good News Translation.

It says, To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, and to be certain of the things we cannot see.

Let me just say it to you this way.

Hope is just as important as faith because without hope, faith has nothing to grab onto.

And a lot of times when we get it mixed up, sometimes we we get stuck in hope and we never click the switch over to faith.

And sometimes we we we we we we we go to faith, but we lose faith because we did not truly have hope.

Let me explain the difference between the two.

Hope is always future tense.

Hope is always looking to what it could be.

Hope is always of the mindset.

This is what it will be like when this happens.

This is what it'll be like.

It'll be great, man, when I finally get my healing showing up in my body.

Oh, it'll be amazing, man, when when my child is no longer dealing with these physical symptoms.

Oh, it's it's gonna be great, man, when I finally get married.

Oh boy, when we finally have our baby, I can't wait to dedicate our baby to the Lord.

Oh man, when I finally get off from under this financial pressure and the money shows up, oh, it's gonna be good.

All of that is hope.

And part of the problem is so many Christians think they're in faith, but they're still in hope.

You say, How do you know the difference?

If what you are saying is still future tense, it's not faith, it's still hope.

It doesn't become faith until it is now.

The Bible says, now faith is.

So faith never says one of these days the money's gonna show up.

Faith says it will be great when the money shows up.

And because God promised me that the money's gonna show up, I treat it like it's done right now.

Father, I receive it, it's done.

I give you praise and honor right now.

Well, I says, faith has gotta have something to grab on to.

If faith doesn't have anything to grab on to, then faith is reaching in the dark.

Look at this beautiful specimen of a woman.

My God.

The Lord blesses me.

Even with her auntie glasses on, look at that with this.

Come on, Auntie.

I know why it says if if faith has nothing to grab onto, it's just it's just reaching in the air.

But if hope this represents hope.

This represents everything I like for life to be.

This this represents the dream that I have.

And as long as my dream is based on something God has actually promised in His word, I gotta establish hope.

If I'm trying to operate in faith and I don't have a picture of what it looks like, that's why if you if you believe in God, you're you're a married couple, you believe in God to have a child, go and buy a couple outfits for your baby and just hang them up in the closet.

We did that years ago, man.

It took us, it took us eight years before we actually ended up pregnant with Kerrigan.

And can I tell you how many days when her when it was that time of the month, and we're hoping that her period doesn't show up, and we're taking those little tests, and they keep coming back negative.

And and I gotta stand in church on Mother's Day and Father's Day and preach faith and and and celebrate everybody else with kids.

And hope was slipping out the back door.

And I remember us going to the little baby store and buying a little outfit.

It was blue because I was hoping for a boy first.

We hung that little thing in the closet.

And for the longest time, watch this it represented failure, represented pain.

But the moment we realize, hang on, that that thing has got to represent what God can do.

It's got to be the picture of what it can be.

And when you have a picture of what it can be, and then you realize, hang on a second, it doesn't just have to be a picture of what it can be.

God promised me that.

Come on, and since he's faithful to do what he said, by faith I receive it as done right now.

So now faith grabs on to hope and pulls hope real close.

Oh, watch out.

Bow your heads, every head bow every head.

Thank you.

Well, hope has got to be the picture we keep out in front of us.

And Satan, can I tell you this?

Satan is constantly trying to kill our hope.

He'll whisper things in your ear like this.

Oh, well, you tried to raise your kids the right way.

It's just too hard to raise them the right way these days.

I'm trying to tell you, if your child has been raised in the things of God and has drifted away from God, don't you dare let go of hope.

Don't you dare start seeing, don't start seeing them based on what they're doing right now.

You hear me, Maria?

Don't you start seeing him based on what he's doing right now.

The word is the most powerful seed you've ever experienced.

That word may take 20 years, but that seed will come barreling back up.

And if that seed is on the inside of him, don't you dare give up hope, no matter how long it's been.

Keep on believing.

The enemy will try to tell you, see, there, you've been a bridesmaid in 14 weddings, but there's no wedding for you in the picture.

And you're getting older, look at you.

Oh my God, you're getting older.

Another year has rolled around, another birthday has come by.

That's the lie of the devil to make you give up hope.

If you if you end up being a bridesmaid in your 15th wedding, celebrate your girlfriend, but thank God God is still faithful to do what he said he's gonna do for you.

Come on, I need a better amen than that.

Somebody.

I need you to celebrate a little bit more than that, somebody.

You know, the enemy will tell you and your husband tried to have kids.

Maybe it's just not God's will for the two of you.

What is he trying to do?

He's trying to dash your hope.

That's what he said to Jarrus.

Remember, he said, your daughter is dead.

Don't bother to master any for further.

What he was really saying is just go ahead and give up hope.

Just go ahead and give up hope.

Stop believing that it's ever gonna work out like you said.

And the last hear me out.

The last thing you can afford to do is stop believing that God is gonna do what he said.

In fact, I want to tell you to switch that, switch that switch.

Don't even believe anymore that he's going to do what he said.

Believe that he's already done it.

I said, believe that he's already done it.

Believe watch it that you're simply waiting on a delivery date, but the promise has already been fulfilled.

Give me an Amen, somebody.

See, it's just one of the reasons why I believe today we have to purpose in our hearts as churches, as people of faith, we have to live our lives as beacons of hope.

Don't be the person who's the water hole is constantly putting people hope out.

We live in a time today where people are at a loss for hope.

You look around today and we got a whole generation that feels more hopeless than ever before.

We live in a time today where you have teenagers and even eight-year-old kids taking their lives.

I remember being eight, man.

I don't remember well, but I remember the season of my life when I was eight.

There was nothing to worry about at eight that made you think life wasn't worth living.

But we live in a hopeless time.

And because we live in such a hopeless time, we need today to give people hope, man.

They don't need more religion, they don't need more rules, they'll need more condemnation about what they are doing wrong, they'll need more cute little talks with three little points and a poem and a little joke to fit in.

They need the power of the living God.

Come on, we need to give people Jesus the hope of the world, man.

Because if we give them Jesus, Jesus can pick you up out of your dark valley, He can pick you up in your most painful moment, bring you back up, and remind you that I'm the one who's been there with you every step of the way.

I'm the one who will never leave you, never forsake you, or never let you down.

I'm the one who's been protecting you from all the dangers on every side.

And if you really keep your trust in me, the dream that's in your heart, I'm gonna cause it to be fulfilled in a way that'll make this painful season feel like it was just a blip on the radar.

Listen to this.

Psalm 30, verse 5.

Psalms 30:5

His anger only lasts for a moment, but his goodness lasts for a lifetime.

Tears may flow in the night, but joy is coming in the morning.

How about Proverbs 13, 12?

Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heart sick, but a sudden good break can turn your life around.

Come on, somebody.

Come on.

We gotta choose to believe that a sudden good break is coming your way.

I don't care what you're going through.

I don't know what your story is, I don't know how dark it's been in the middle of your summer, but can I tell you you gotta you gotta hold on to the belief that a sudden, I don't mean an eventual good break, you need to hold on to the belief that a sudden good break, a break that is so good it makes you forget the pain of the valley you've been walking through.

And that's the kind of God we serve.

Can we take about 30 seconds to just give him the best praise you got?

Come on, come on, can you lift up your voice?

And come on, I got another point, but can you take a moment and lift up your voice?

Come on, somebody, Father.

We thank you, we praise you for a sudden good break.

We thank you, Lord.

This is not the end.

You are still doing a good work in us, and we celebrate, Lord God, all that you still have in store.

Come on, give Him praise in this place.

Thank you, God.

Here's the fourth thing you gotta do.

You gotta stay connected to your praise.

Stay connected to prayer, stay connected to your word, stay connected to hope, but you gotta stay connected to your praise.

See, praise is always an expression of our real trust and faith in God.

Praise says this.

I believe God's report, even though I don't see any evidence except his word.

I don't see any reason to believe this except God wrote it in his word.

Philippians 4 6 says this, don't you worry about anything.

Don't you worry about anything.

I receive that.

Don't you worry about anything.

Instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need, and then watch this, and then thank him for all he's done.

He's not just saying thank him for what he's done in the past, he's saying thank him for what he's promised to do in your future.

Even when you see no way this is gonna work out, when it feels hopeless in the moment, thank God for the promises he's made.

Can I just tell you this?

It's easy to thank God in the daylight.

Come on, man, that ain't faith.

We call ourselves people of faith.

It's easy to thank God in the daylight, it's easy to thank God when everything's going just right.

It's easy to thank God when all the money's in the bank, it's easy to thank him when the doctor's report is just what you want it to be.

It's easy to thank God when you look around your family, it's all prospering and doing everything that you believe God for them to do.

Where it takes real faith is to can you still praise God when it feels dark?

It takes real faith to praise God when you can't see anything but midnight.

Second Corinthians 2 says this.

But thanks be to God, who in Christ, watch this, always somebody shout always.

Come on, somebody shout always.

He always leads us into victory, triumph, as trophies of Christ's victory, and through us he spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere.

The Bible says that God always leads us in triumph, and he leads us, watch this, as trophies of Christ's victory.

One thing you've ever noticed about a trophy, trophies, trophies always resemble the end victory.

You never see a trophy that they've made in a handout that that represents the midterm battle.

In fact, I got some trophies right here, and and this trophy, it's a basketball trophy.

You see the guy with with his jump shot, it's in perfect form, his hand is in just the right place, the laces are just right, he's got his other hand positioned just right.

You don't see a trophy where a guy is trying to go for a uh uh a dribble and loses the ball.

We got a trophy of a of a guy here that's, I guess it's badminton or I don't know, pickleball, or he got a paddle in his hand, but he's in an offensive posture.

You don't see the trophy and a guy scared of getting hit by the ball.

We got a uh a volleyball trophy here.

The guy's getting ready to serve the ball.

What am I saying?

The trophy always represents, come on, what I'm expecting it to be.

The Bible says Christ always leads us in victory as trophies of his victory.

The question I gotta ask you is what kind of trophy are you preparing for your marriage?

You ought to take a picture, man, of you and your spouse in the happiest moment.

So go back and find one when the two of you are happy.

You need to you need to declare, I'm I'm waiting on God to trophify us.

That's not a real word.

I made it up.

I want God to trophy us.

You need to you need to take a picture in your mind of having all the money you need.

Come on, pay for all your bills, take the vacation you want, be a blessing to somebody else.

You need to get an image in your head and watch God trophy you just take some dollar bills and spread them out.

Go to the bank and get you a whole bunch of just one dollar bills.

It's all right, just spread them out.

Get an image in your mind.

God's getting ready to trophify me.

If you've been sick, got pain in your body, remind yourself of what it was like when you felt good.

And then remind yourself that I'm gonna feel that way again.

Get an image in your head of running and jumping and vacationing and doing all the stuff that you haven't been able to do.

Come on, somebody.

You've been lonely, man, and don't have anybody to be with during these great holidays and stuff like that.

Get an image in your head that God knows how to bring the right person to your life.

Your parent believing for their child.

Do what we had to do.

Get an image, man.

I remember when we finally got that pregnancy test, both lines showed up.

I remember like it was yesterday, sitting on the floor in the bathroom in tears.

Why?

Because God did what he said he was gonna do.

And that same God is faithful in your life to do everything he said he would do.

You're going through a valley, but it's just a shadow of death.

It's not death valley.

And your response, how you choose to respond to this, can make all the difference in the world.

Last thing I'll say is this you can't stop difficult times from coming your way.

The question becomes: are you gonna let that difficult time break you or are you gonna let it teach you?

Don't waste a good difficult time.

Because if you treat it the right way, you can learn the lesson, it'll work for your good.

It'll make you stronger, make you tougher, make you wiser, and it'll help you to realize that in the toughest times of your life, God is a constant, will always be there.

Lift up your hands.

Father, we thank you in this place.

Thank you for being so good to us.

Thank you that your word endures forever.

Thank you that your truth is everlasting.

Thank you that the Holy Spirit is our comforter, our teacher, our standby, our encourager.

He's the one who reminds us that, yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we don't have to fear.

Because even though it doesn't feel like it's a time to write here with us, thank you for being the fourth man in our fire.

Thank you for being the one with us in the lion's den.

Thank you for being the one who parts the red seas of our lives.

Thank you for being the one who gives us provision, manna, out of heaven when there's no other way to get it.

Thank you for being the one, Lord God, who stirs us up, Lord God, will cause the sun to stand still if that's what it takes for us to win.

We love you, we honor you.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Come on, give God a shout of praise in this place.

Come on, you can do better than that.

Give him a good shout of praise in this place.

Now, if you're here today and you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I'm not, I'm not trying to say you're a bad person.

I'm gonna ask you to don't leave out unless you absolutely have to.

If there's an emergency, you gotta get out great.

But the most important thing we've done all day is right here.

Because I want to give people an opportunity to come to know Jesus Christ.

So if you're in this room, if you're in the overflow rooms, or if you're online and you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I want to pray for you.

Because at the end of the day, God does not require us to become better in order to come to Him.

What He requires us to do is to fully surrender our lives.

And that's the big mystery, that's the big mistake.

We've tried to work harder to clean our lives up, get better, stop doing stuff so we can come to God the right way.

But the truth is, God sent his son Jesus to the earth to come and meet us where we were because he knew we could never come up to his standard.

Jesus lived in the earth, he died the uh the death of a sinner, though he never sinned.

And God allowed his death, his sacrifice to replace ours.

So now when he raised him from the dead, he raised us up as well.

The only thing missing right now is your one decision to surrender your life to Jesus Christ.

So right here, right now, I want you to know God will take you just like you are.

You don't have to clean yourself up, you don't have to write out a list of all the stuff you promised to stop doing.

You need to make one commitment and one commitment alone.

That you'll take your entire life, not part of it, not most of it, take your entire life, surrender it to Jesus, allow him to become Lord of your life, let him change you on the inside.

Then he'll take you by the hand like a little kid going to kindergarten, and he'll walk you and teach you how to change anything he wants you to fix on the outside.

Step number one, we got we got to surrender to him.

So, right here in this place, I want to ask you if you're ready to surrender your heart to Jesus Christ.

If so, in just a moment, I'm gonna have everybody bow their heads.

When we do, I want to ask you to reach into the seat pocket and grab this little card.

It looks like this.

It just says say yes to Jesus.

And I'm gonna ask you to grab that card and hang on to it while everybody has their head bowed.

Because I'm gonna count to three.

When I get to three, I'm gonna ask you to lift that card up real high in the air.

You say, why do I need to lift up?

Because I want it on record in heaven that yes, I'm surrendering.

I want you to know for yourself this was the day that I gave it all over to Jesus Christ.

Now let me give you this promise.

We're not gonna embarrass you.

We're not gonna ask you to stand up, we're not gonna ask you to come to the front of the auditorium.

Right there in your seat.

We're gonna lead you in a simple prayer, but it's a prayer so powerful, it'll radically change your life.

So go ahead, bow your heads all over the auditorium.

If you're in this place today, you do not know Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, but you're ready to surrender to Him.

Reach out and grab that card.

Hang on to it.

Give me just a moment.

I'm gonna count to three.

When I get to three, I want you to shoot that card up in the air as high as you can.

And this is your moment right here.

God's getting ready to do something really special in your life.

Do it quickly so the devil doesn't have time to talk you out of this decision.

Here we go.

Let's do it.

One, two, three.

Lift it up.

Come on, lift it up all over the room.

Lift that card up in the air.

Come on, if you know something is telling you to get in on this prayer, go ahead and lift that card up.

Did you just make a decision for Jesus?

Welcome to the family.

We're so excited.

Trust me, we're clapping for you.

And we believe that you've made an important decision today.

We'd like to help you on your journey.

So if you'll follow the directions that are on screen, there is a free book you can download.

It's gonna take you five to ten minutes of your day for the next seven days.

But our pastors have put together some amazing resources that we believe will help you on the journey ahead.

If you don't want it, nobody's going to email you, text you, bother you, anything like that.

We just want to make sure you are successful in your walk with Jesus.

Now let me tell you, one of the things you should consider is baptism.

And if you're in the Jacksonville area, we do baptism after our first weekend service every month, and you can just scan the QR code that's on the screen.

Sign up for that.

I'd love to be a part of that journey with you, or any of our ministers would.

If you don't live in town, we do believe you should find a Bible-teaching church and at least go get baptized, even if you're still going to watch our service.

But download that book, it's free.

We're excited for your journey ahead, and we can't wait to be a part of that.

Now, this is a part of the service where we also demonstrate our generosity.

If you're just checking us out today, you don't feel any pressure to give.

But for those of you, this is your church, you know that we are generous is one of our core values.

And so you can give online or you can give through our app, which I really like.

You have the Apple Pay option right on our app.

Just go to your Google store or your Apple store, download the We Are Impact app.

It's also a great way to study notes that um come from the sermons that you watch on here.

And there's a lot of events on there as well.

But you can give through that app.

It's super easy, and we're just grateful that you partner with us week after week.

Well, we're so excited you joined us today.

Hope you have an amazing weekend, and we'll see you next time.