Sermon
FEAR 2: Stand, Walk, Focus | 04/26/2026
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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My wife is not feeling well.
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She's under the weather.
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And my little son Hayden is also sick.
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So they are home today.
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Just we're praying healing for them.
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And also, let's just go ahead and as a church real quick.
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Sister Anna Trafton, who led us in worship.
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Her mom was taken to the hospital this morning on the way to church, Betty Maddox, and uh and so let's just go ahead and lift her up in prayer.
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We don't know exactly what's going on, but they're saying some kind of serious terms, you know.
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But in Jesus' name, she's completely fine and healed.
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So Lord, we just lift up Betty right now.
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Also, ladies, just come around here and Anna's gonna stand in the gap for her mother.
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Let's just lay our hands on her.
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Anna is the type that she can be going through a really hard thing, but she's still gonna come up here and praise the Lord.
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Thank you, Jesus.
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Lord, we just lift up Anna's mother to you, Betty, right now, Father.
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I thank you that she is in your mighty hands, Father, and we give this situation to you.
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You see exactly what is going on, and we speak healing over her body in the name of Jesus.
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We say no weapon formed against it is going to prosper, Lord.
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We speak complete healing and we just rebuke you all the terms, all the reports that even the doctors are insinuating, Father.
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We say no to that.
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We don't receive that.
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We say that she is completely fine in the name of Jesus, and we just come out of agreement with all the fear or potential around this.
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In the mighty name of Jesus, we plead your blood over her and her body and speak complete healing.
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Thank you, Father.
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Thank you, Jesus.
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Thank you, Jesus.
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Thank you, Jesus.
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Amen, amen, amen.
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Man, I'm like look at our ladies, they are awesome.
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Just come up here.
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Thank you so much for doing that.
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And Anna, thank you for leading worship.
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I mean, she just what, like right before service started.
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So I'm telling you, that's that's amazing.
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And if you all need to leave during the service or anything, you're free to.
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Um so no, them, not y'all.
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Hey, let's be clear here.
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Y'all stay.
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Okay, so she's stable right now.
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They're just waiting on some reports.
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So thank you, Jesus.
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We thank you for the good reports that are going to come in.
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So good to see you today, church.
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We are going to continue talking about fear, and um, this is something that the Lord is doing in all of us.
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This is profound.
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I'm telling you, this is profound on this journey to revival as we're experiencing and walking in what God desires for us to walk in.
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The devil is real.
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He means business.
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I mean, God even talks about the devil, okay?
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Now, the devil, now people try to say sometimes that's God's enemy.
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God doesn't have enemies.
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There's nothing like in order for it to be an enemy, there'd have to be a challenge.
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There's not really a challenge, okay?
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But he is actively working against God's plans in our life, okay?
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Now, I'll even go ahead and tell you this.
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The enemy's not happy about what's happening in this church.
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The waters of revival are stirring, people are getting set free, people are stepping into calling.
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The enemy does not like that, okay?
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And so it's been amazing to see the spiritual warfare that's been happening as we're going into deeper waters.
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Even people that are come on staff or people that become volunteer leaders or becoming more involved in this church, we're going ahead and telling them, hey, you're gonna have to get your prayer life, make sure that you're you're praying and covering yourself because I'm telling you, the enemy's not happy.
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Just last night, even as we're talking about this fear message, last night I was woken at 4 a.m.
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I had like this nightmare.
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But in the nightmare, it wasn't even really a nightmare, but it was still intense.
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There was this big group of people, and they were all coming against me about like not teaching people that God does miracles today.
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And it was like me and this massive crowd all coming against me, and I was sitting there and I'm like, listen, I'm not gonna stop.
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You know, and I woke up at four, and it was like this spirit of intimidation, and I just said, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.
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I don't receive that, and I'm gonna keep preaching that God does miracles, amen.
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So the enemy's real, but God is more powerful, He's on the throne.
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So we're gonna go to phase two of the fear message.
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Don't be afraid of the fear message.
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Amen.
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And also, if you're a first-time guest, welcome.
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It's good to have you here today.
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Fear is not something that we can just be nonchalant about.
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It's not it's not a topic that we can just, you know, treat lightly.
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Let me say it this way is that fear is natural to us.
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We talked about this last week.
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If you weren't here last week, just go and listen to the message.
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We built a foundation a little bit on what fear is.
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But fear is natural to humankind, okay?
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It's part of our natural design.
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It's you know, it's so we can survive, right?
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We can determine, hey, you know, like back in the caveman days, this is like a panther, a saber-toothed tiger.
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That's dangerous, let me run.
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And when you would get the feeling of fear, you would also get the chemicals in your body of fear, the adrenaline that would give you the strength and to run and outrun the panther or whatever it is.
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And so that's by design.
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But fear is learned.
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We learn it.
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I I read this whole little thing about like the development of children because my son, he's one, and I'm like wondering, you know, you know, how's is he going to be afraid of certain things?
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And so kids aren't just afraid of everything when they're born, there's certain things they're not afraid of.
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Do you know that kids when they're even up to one year old, they're not afraid of the dark?
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You know, I thought that was just like, you know, they're just afraid of the dark.
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No, they're not.
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I mean, my son, he's in a separate room, he's in a crib at night when he sleeps, and we have a little camera that watches him, and it has that night vision.
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Y'all know what I'm talking about?
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Well, with night vision, it makes our eyes glow.
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And so it's so funny.
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He's I think he's figured out that we watch him in the camera.
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So he'll be like sleeping at night, and we'll look at him, we'll be like, oh, he's sound asleep.
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And then a minute later we look back again, he's wide awake, and his eyes are glowing.
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We're like, ah.
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He's watching the camera.
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He's like, I always feel like somebody watching me.
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That's what my son is like.
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He's like, then all of a sudden, boom.
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But he he's he will be in the dark, even a little while, he'll just be hanging out.
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He's not afraid.
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Fear is something that we learn.
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And so as we go on and live our life, there's lots of things that we learn, there's lots of things that we experience.
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Let me just go ahead and break this down simply.
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Like if we experience something negative, we are going to learn something and we're going to train ourselves to believe something, okay?
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And what we believe, based on what we've experienced and how we've interpreted certain events, can actually produce fear.
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Now, fear is a feeling that comes from what we believe.
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It's a feeling.
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If I have never burnt myself on something hot, I could go up to a hot stove and not understand being burnt.
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And I could be so confident and I have no fear, and I go right up to that stove and I place my hand on it.
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What's gonna happen?
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I'm gonna get burnt.
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All of a sudden I'm gonna experience pain.
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I just had a negative experience, and all of a sudden, what I do is I learn from that.
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So then all of a sudden, if I go to a stove again, all of a sudden I've got fear.
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I'm approaching this with caution because I don't want to get burnt.
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Now that's a very simple example, but the concept remains the same.
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Sometimes we go through hard things.
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You can go through betrayal.
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Well, maybe you've never experienced betrayal.
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And your heart is so open to love and care for people, and all of a sudden you go through a betrayal, and all of a sudden you experience some pain, and all of a sudden now you're afraid where you used to not be afraid.
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Now all of a sudden you're approaching relationships, and now you're guarded where you used to not be guarded.
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Fear can govern our life.
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Maybe all of a sudden you were confident in life and you were ready to go, and you had this calling and this call of God, and you start walking out, and then all of a sudden you experience some hardship, and all of a sudden you're like, Oh, I don't want to go through that again, and all of a sudden you're not stepping into your calling because you experience some pain.
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Maybe you experienced what you perceive as failure, and now you have fear, and fear is controlling you.
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We're going to look at some, I would say, practical steps of how do we handle fear.
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I'm experiencing, let me go ahead and tell you this.
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I shared this last week, but in a lot of areas of my life, I have fear.
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I have fear that governs my life.
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And even as we're going getting closer, I would say closer and closer to God, as revival is the revival starting to stir up.
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God is shining light in my own life.
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He's taking me on a journey, okay?
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And what I've been realizing is there's lots of areas of my life where I have fear.
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Now, to some people, now there's certain areas I don't have fear.
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I mean, I've always been one like a daredevil doing crazy stuff.
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Hey, watch this.
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I one time put a swing, we had a country home growing up like 20 acres, and we had these big trees around our house.
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And I tied a big rope to a tree close to our house, and I got on top of our roof and like was swinging off the tree, and we actually have it on video that people are filming me doing it, and my mom runs out and she's like, David, Wolf Robbins, what are you doing?
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And I'm like, Woo! I was a daredevil, so people might think, Oh, David's not afraid, but I'm afraid of other things.
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I'm I'm afraid of rejection.
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I have a fear of man.
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I want man's approval.
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I'm afraid of man not approving of me.
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And that has governed my life.
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I do things to be approved by people, and I'm also afraid of failing.
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And so I perceive all these things.
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Well, what if this doesn't work?
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Let me plan accordingly.
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What if this doesn't work?
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And so I'm very active.
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And you might say, well, no, David's just responsible.
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He's just a good hard worker.
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Well, a lot of times what's motivating that is a fear of failure.
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And so God's been dealing with that, and this is what's so cool.
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I'm actually experiencing freedom from this.
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And it's very interesting because I uh I always carry this kind of thing of like dread.
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So when you have this fear, I'm always expecting things to just not go well, and so I'm trying to prepare myself.
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Well, this is not gonna work, this is not gonna work, they're gonna betray me, they're gonna hurt me, just get used to it.
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That's how life is.
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You know, things aren't gonna go your way.
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You've had discouragement, so just expecting things not to go well.
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And I live in a constant state of dread.
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I come here, you know, it's ebbs and flows.
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I'll have some good days, but then a lot of days I'll wake up and I'm just not in a good mood.
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I've even had what even, you know, sometimes what you call like minor depression because it's like, what's the point of all this?
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I feel like Solomon in Ecclesiastes, what is the point of life?
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And and fear can govern my emotions, my feelings, my experiences.
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It can make me irritable, I'm fatigued and tired, I'm not really confident, I'm not really hopeful, I'm just like kind of getting by, just you know, fighting the fight of faith, but I don't feel experience the joy of our faith.
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I honestly I got honest with the Lord.
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I said, Lord, I see this stuff about the joy, Lord.
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I don't have that.
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What's wrong?
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Because I know that there's not something wrong with you, so obviously there's something wrong with me.
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And he said, Yeah, David, there is.
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So I've been experiencing freedom, and it's been amazing.
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And here's the weird thing is that I wake up and I'm having joy, and I'm and I'm in pursuing things in life, and it's like I have confidence, and it almost feels like not legal.
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Like, wait a second, why do I feel all this peace right now?
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You know what I'm talking about?
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I'm so used to just like not, and now I do, I have this joy.
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I just wake up, I'm like, hey, everything's gonna be alright.
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You know, and it almost doesn't feel like right.
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I feel like I should, I feel like I should be worried about something, but I'm not.
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So I would love for you to be able to experience that.
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I would love for you, because this is something God wants to do.
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This is something that He's paid for, He's provisioned this for us.
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And so I want us to do this, is that I want us to per I want us to view fear a very specific way.
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If we're gonna tackle this thing of fear in our life, and now I'm not saying that you are governed by fear.
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And when I say fear, I'm not talking about just the feeling, I'm talking about fear that controls us.
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Okay, think of it like this fear is gonna be there.
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Fear is almost inevitable in lots of ways, okay?
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But it's when it starts to control us.
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Fear can keep you from doing something, or it can cause you to do things.
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When I've been fearful, I can get very irritable.
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I when I get stressed and fearful, and I can become mean.
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I've been mean to my wife in states and seasons of stress.
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It can cause it can affect our relationships.
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You know what I'm talking about?
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So check this out.
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Galatians 5 13 says, For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters.
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Now, Paul in Galatians, in the book of Galatians, he's writing to the church.
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And he's saying, You have been called to live in freedom.
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Now, this is interesting.
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It doesn't just say you're free, it says that your assignment is to be free.
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That's an interesting way to perceive life, isn't it?
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It's not that just, hey, you're free.
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Because we we hear that we're free all the time, but then we go on Monday and we don't feel free.
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That's what was happening to me.
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I don't feel free.
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Even I have the responsibility to get up here and preach, but then there's times that I don't live in what I would call freedom.
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You know, and so he says, You've been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters, but don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature.
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Now we all know the Bible says that if we are satisfying our sinful nature, that we're a slave to sin.
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We're a slave to it.
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What's interesting right here is that Paul is saying is that, hey, God has set you free, but you have to walk in it.
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You have to own it.
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Everyone say, own it.
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And there's a choice that we can make to turn back to our old life and become slaves again.
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And so this is what I was finding in my life is that in a lot of ways I'm going back to areas of bondage and I'm letting fear control me.
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So we're going to have to look at fear very intentionally, and this is what I mean is that sometimes in life what we do is we take our hat out of the fight and we think my life can be peaceful if I just don't try.
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I've done this.
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The enemy has tried to intimidate me, encourage me through the last few years, saying, David, you know what?
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If you your life can be a lot easier if you just play it safe.
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Don't contend for revival.
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Like you can have an you can enjoy your life, things will be a lot better.
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But if you start going for these things, like the enemy tries to taunt me, I'm gonna, you know, you're gonna be attacked, I'm gonna steal stuff from you, I'm gonna hurt your family, all this stuff, you're gonna lose your money, you're not gonna have like you wouldn't believe the spiritual warfare that goes on internally.
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Hey, David, you can have it easy, just don't engage.
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We can view fear of this as hey, maybe I can just take it easy and I want to deal with that.
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That's not how fear works.
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I want us to view fear as an active agent working against us at all times.
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And the idea is if you do nothing, it's still gonna come for you.
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And the goal of fear is to bind you, to enslave you, and then rob from you.
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The enemy comes to kill, steal, and destroy.
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Now, this is what's important is that we understand that wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is what?
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Freedom.
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There's freedom.
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That's the character and the nature of God.
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Jesus says, I have come to set the captives free.
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He says this as if he's beginning his ministry.
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I have come to set the captives free.
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The prisoners of war, I'm going to break them free, the slaves, I'm going to set them free.
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That is the nature of God.
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Now, the nature of the enemy is the very opposite.
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I don't want you to be free, I want you to be enslaved and bound.
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And so this is what's important is that we can be set free through the work of Christ, but mentally, in the way we perceive life, we still have the mindset of a slave.
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We still have the mindset of a captive.
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And this is what the enemy wants you to believe is that you don't have a choice.
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That's why, whenever all of a sudden you're coming out with bondage and addictions, it's sometimes you think this, I'm never going to be free.
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Life's never going to change.
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That's the enemy.
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That's the nature of the enemy.
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Okay, if truth sets you free, then it's lies that keep you bound.
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That's how the enemy keeps us bound with lies.
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And so what they do is they put us in a state of fear by attacking what we're believing to make us think you don't have a choice.
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If you do this, you're gonna fail.
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And there's no way, there's no escape from it.
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So just don't try.
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That's the nature.
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And now, when I'm saying enemy, I'm not just talking about demons.
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I know there's a verse that says that God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, and we might think maybe there is a spirit, and his name is fear.
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Hey, you fear.
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Yeah, go make them afraid.
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Okay, I'll do it.
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But I think a lot of the enemy actually works, all the different kinds of enemies work with fear because it's that feeling that can govern what we do or don't do.
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But we can actually be our worst enemy.
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Let's take all the spiritual stuff out of the equation.
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Our natural self can be our own worst enemy, and not just can be, is, because Paul tells us he says, you know what?
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The flesh part of us, not I'm not talking about demons.
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I'm talking about us.
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He says our self by ourselves is our own worst enemy to what God wants to do.
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The flesh does not want what the Spirit of God wants.
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The Spirit of God is trying to lead you into freedom, it's trying to lead you into calling, it's trying to lead you into purpose, breakthrough to experience the joy of the Lord, the hope and the peace that surpasses understanding.
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But your own flesh does not want that.
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And when we go through experiences life, we learn some stuff and we design we develop beliefs, and we come on Sunday and I say, Oh, I believe in God.
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But on Monday, we go right back to our belief system that contradicts the very thing that God is trying to pull us into.
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If you do this, you're gonna fail.
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If you do this, they're gonna reject you.
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If you do this, it's not gonna work.
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Your life's not full of hope.
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There's no purpose, God's not on your side, and all of a sudden we're governed by fear.
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We need to understand something that we are going to have to fight.
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We're gonna have to take sides.
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If you're gonna want to be a f if you're gonna be set free where fear doesn't govern you, you're gonna have to make a choice to stand and fight it because it's gonna be there.
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And this is what I'm learning is that I I'm not learning that God's not gonna just hand me victory, put it in my lap.
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He's already made the way for freedom, but I have to walk into it.
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I have to claim it.
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I have to fight, and this is what's amazing is that when I get those thoughts, do you know, do you know one of the things that the enemy's been trying to do to me lately is intimidate me with this fear of something happening to my son.
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It's been demonic.
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And this is how I know it's demonic is that I'm not even thinking about something happening to him.
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I'm just doing a normal thing on my day-to-day, and all of a sudden I get an open vision, like a movie playing in my mind of something horrible happening to him.
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Gory, hoary, like him falling, furniture falling on him, him going down the stairs, dying, and all this stuff.
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It just vroom, like this open vision, and it almost paralyzes me.
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But luckily, I know the word of God.
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This started happening a few months ago.
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You won't believe it, Tina.
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It's just like this open vision, boom, something horrible happened in my son Hayden.
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And I was sit there and I'll be like, oh my gosh.
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But then all of a sudden I remember, greater is he who is in me than he was in the world.
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If God is for us, who could be against us?
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God is our refuge, he's our protection.
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So all of a sudden, I realize the enemy is trying to hand me a lie.
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And he's trying to say, This is the future of your son.
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You can't do anything about it.
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This is his future.
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And this is what I do.
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It's very simple.
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And I even heard this faint voice.
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You know how the Holy Spirit can be like a whisper?
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Even in the midst of the storm and the chaos, it's like a whisper.
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I heard this faint voice.
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You don't have to receive that.
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This is what this is what I'm realizing, church.
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This is how I'm getting set free from fear.
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You don't have to receive that.
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And all of a sudden I said, I don't receive that.
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I said, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus.
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That is not going to happen to my son.
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I plead the blood of Jesus over him.
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And then I'm fine.
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I'm not even kidding.
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It's like this the enemy brought this big attack and all of a sudden just paralyzed me.
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Put me in this place of fear and in a craze.
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And I'm fine.
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Because I don't receive it.
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I don't have to receive your lie.
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I trust that the God who is able is our protector.
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I cannot be around my son 24-7, making sure nothing happens to him.
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I have to trust the Lord, the God who sees everything, the God who doesn't sleep, the God who is ever present to sometimes protect my son.
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Take that and apply it to your life because that's what the enemy is going to do.
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When you start stepping into calling, he'll put something there to intimidate you, to make you fearful.
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If you do this, this is gonna happen.
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If you do this, this is gonna happen.
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The enemy's gonna get you.
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You know, the enemy is gonna try to intimidate you, especially men.
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When you start stepping into calling, your whole family is gonna be in a wreck.
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You're gonna lose everything.
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They want to scare you.
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That's how the spirit realm with our enemies works.
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You don't have a choice.
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This is your future, this is what's gonna happen doom and destruction.
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I don't receive that in the name of Jesus.
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I serve the King of kings, the creator of heaven and earth.
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All powerful, nothing is impossible for him.
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If God is for me, who can be against me?
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We are going to have to stand up and fight.
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That's why, what does it say in Ephesians?
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To stand up against the attacks of the devil.
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Because he's going to attack, and our flesh is going to try to stop what God is doing in us.
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But we're going to have to stand up to it.
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Everyone say, stand up.
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Don't receive it.
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Thank you, Jesus.
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Romans 8:15 says, We have not been given a spirit of slavery to fear.
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Notice the language here of slavery to fear.
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Fear will make you a slave.
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It'll keep you bound.
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How sad is it if God has this wonderful plan, a blessing, a breakthrough, of being phenomenally successful, and you never walk in it.
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Fear will make you compromise your life.
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And you'll have justified, you'll feel justified in your mind for not obeying the Lord and trusting him.
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Oh, it'll make sense.
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And you'll even convince yourself, oh, it's just wisdom.
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No, it's fear.
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When the 12 spies go into the promised land, Joshua and the people, they've been waiting, they would.
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They've been crying out to God, set us free.
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And he says, Not only am I going to set you free, I'm going to take you to a land of milk and honey, a land that is plentiful, a land where you can be my people.
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I've actually made this for you.
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And they go to the corner, they go to the edge of the promised land, they send 12 spies in, and the 12 spies confirm it's awesome.
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But then they come back with a bad report.
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There is giants in the land, there's fortified cities.
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If we go in, we're going to be destroyed.
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They developed a belief based on their assumptions of what could happen.
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Fear.
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Fear.
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Fear is not.
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Listen, faith is not blind.
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Faith is not unaware, don't care.
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Faith is very aware of what's going on.
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Faith just understands that God is bigger than my problems.
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God is bigger than my challenges.
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God is bigger than my inadequacies.
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I trust the greatness of God more than the greatness of the giants in my life.
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I understand, as David would say, when I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I know you're with me.
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Look at valleys are like this.
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We have mountains in our life.
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Mountains are those big things that we think that we're never going to be able to overcome.
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And what does Jesus say?
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Speak to the God who made those mountains can move those mountains.
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Do you see what the Bible's trying to teach us, Church?
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But then valleys are different.
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Valleys are low.
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Valleys are where the trees are at.
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You know what valleys can represent?
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Uncertainty.
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When you're in the valley, you can't see past the trees.
-
When I'm in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil because I know that you are.
-
God's trying to teach us something, Church.
-
Yeah, threats are real.
-
Yeah, there's challenges.
-
Yeah, there's going to be opposition.
-
But God is bigger.
-
This is all God wants.
-
He does not want us to have all the answers.
-
This is why I'm so fearful because I think I have to have all the answers.
-
I'm such a planner, I'm so analytical.
-
I study and I try hard at everything because I don't want to fail.
-
I've got to have all the answers.
-
But when I don't have all the answers, I'm fearful.
-
I don't have the joy of the Lord.
-
Frantic, running around trying to fix every problem.
-
And God's like, why don't you just trust me?
-
Because I do have the answers.
-
Some of the energy you're burning, you're wasting your energy trying to make something happen that I didn't call you to do.
-
Sometimes one of the most brave things you can do is rest in the Lord.
-
Even mass, even missing quality family time.
-
You know when you're present but you're not present?
-
I was doing that.
-
Even I was sawing my wife was noticed.
-
She's like, David, you're not here sometimes because I'm always thinking I've got to fix all these problems in my life and I've got to do all this stuff because I'm afraid.
-
And what's what's been amazing, it's like I'm even getting that time with my family back.
-
To just sit and relax and enjoy them.
-
The enemy will rob from me if you let them.
-
You're gonna have to make an intentional stance.
-
I'm not going to receive that.
-
I'm not going to let that control me.
-
My God is bigger than that.
-
Jesus rebukes his disciples.
-
He says, He says, Why are you afraid?
-
Why he he calls a fear lack of faith.
-
And then what does he do?
-
He speaks to the storm.
-
He is trying to teach us something, church.
-
He is trying to teach us something that you don't have to live in fear.
-
And yes, there are things in our life that's very real.
-
There are challenges, there are lack of resources, there's lots of things we're not able to do.
-
You're not able to set yourself free.
-
It's the power of God.
-
But he says, I've made my power available to you.
-
Walk in it.
-
So we're going on to Joshua.
-
This is what we covered last week.
-
Be strong and courageous.
-
This is what God is telling Joshua, this mighty warrior.
-
We all think of Joshua, this is one of the greatest generations of warfare, combat.
-
You think these people are brave?
-
Joshua was afraid.
-
Joshua's a man.
-
He's a man.
-
He's a human like us.
-
He has his own struggles.
-
He has his doubts.
-
These superheroes in the Bible are also weak.
-
They had their moments where they were pathetic.
-
He says, Be strong and courageous, for you're the one who will lead these people to possess the land, I swear to their ancestors.
-
I would give them.
-
I want you to pay attention to a couple small details in this verse.
-
Look closely.
-
God is defining Joshua's calling.
-
The Bible tells us that every single one of us have a calling, that we're called by God to do something.
-
I don't listen, I don't buy into this whole stuff, oh, just be with the Lord.
-
That's all we're called to do.
-
Just be in his presence.
-
No, we're called to good works.
-
I appreciate your heart with that.
-
I understand you have the fatherly relational connection to him, but also that fatherly relational connection is going to call you to do something.
-
Jesus says, go out and make disciples.
-
Bear fruit.
-
If you don't bear fruit, you're not part of me.
-
Don't fall for that fairy tale, fluffy stuff, whatever, I don't know what to call it.
-
Fluffy gospel.
-
Christianity looks like something, Christianity achieves something.
-
Christianity is a call to good works.
-
And the enemy doesn't want you to do good works.
-
That's right.
-
You're using some, you're giving that's I got that.
-
I'm gonna use that verse later.
-
No spoilers, Mom.
-
I'm just kidding.
-
Be strong and courageous, for you're the one who will lead these people to possess all the land.
-
I have felt called from the Lord to do multiple things, and every time I feel intimidated, I see my inadequacies.
-
I have my fears.
-
That's usually my first response when I start to see I feel God's stirring up something, I get really afraid.
-
And this is what happens to Joshua, okay?
-
They're about to go into a land that has giants, it has real enemies, the enemies that are bigger than them.
-
Okay?
-
Any any actual like wise military commander would probably look at this and say, Hey, don't go in, you're gonna get destroyed.
-
But God's saying, hey, go in.
-
You're gonna fight them.
-
Be strong and courageous.
-
Courage means doing something in spite of what you fear.
-
Doing something what you're afraid of.
-
That's courage.
-
You cannot have courage if you don't have fear.
-
Do y'all know that?
-
I said this last week, it's kind of mean, but it's like if you don't have fear, that doesn't mean you're brave, it means you're an idiot.
-
Courage understands what's at stake.
-
I understand the challenges.
-
I know.
-
I see this.
-
But check out this is what's interesting.
-
This really caught my attention this week.
-
He says, You're going to possess the land.
-
The word possess here means inherit.
-
Y'all know what a inheritance is?
-
An inheritance is something that you didn't earn, it's given to you.
-
You're gonna inherit this.
-
God's not even telling Joshua, hey, you're gonna have to go fight.
-
He's saying the fight has already been done.
-
Are y'all following this?
-
You smelling when I'm cooking?
-
I don't receive that.
-
He's saying you're inherited this.
-
This is what it looks like with inheritance.
-
God's saying, I've already made this available, but you need to walk into it.
-
You need to take ownership of it.
-
Okay?
-
So even the idea of enemies is saying, just listen, go and do this, but the victory is already at hand.
-
Now, this is what's powerful.
-
This is what this is what has been really setting me free.
-
I want you to see this the second part of this.
-
Look at what he says.
-
He says, You're going to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them.
-
Listen to this.
-
This is gonna set some of you free if you really catch it and you tithe.
-
I'm joking on that last one.
-
Try to slip that in there.
-
You can even mail it in.
-
This is what caught me.
-
This is not just about Joshua's well-being.
-
This is not just about Joshua's well-being.
-
This is about God's reputation.
-
You're gonna get this land because I swore this to your fathers.
-
And I'm someone that keeps my word.
-
This listen, I feel the Holy Ghost.
-
Thank you, Jesus, Shukaraba.
-
God has called you according to his purposes, and he wants your life to be a testimony of his faithfulness.
-
But when you let fear control you, you're not taking those steps that bring him glory to say, My God is able to.
-
It's not only are you stealing from yourself, you're stealing his glory.
-
To show that he's a good father, to show that he's able to provide, even when it seems like there's nothing able, to show that he's able to equip you, even when you're weak and pathetic.
-
My God is able.
-
My life is a testimony of his goodness.
-
I swore this to your father, so go in and claim what's yours.
-
Because I'm a good father.
-
I'm the God of the apossible, I'm the God who is able.
-
Do not be afraid, but go in.
-
Psalm 37, 23.
-
The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
-
He delights in every detail of their lives.
-
This is what's bringing me breakthrough.
-
My life means something.
-
My life is on purpose.
-
Your life is on purpose.
-
Hear this.
-
I'm gonna say this, and I want you to be honest with yourself just for a second.
-
You know sometimes we convince ourselves and we deceive ourselves and we're not honest with ourselves?
-
I want you to be honest with yourself.
-
I'm gonna say something.
-
I want you to ask yourself, do I believe this?
-
Your life right now and everything going on in your life and the place you're at in life is intentionally there from God.
-
Do you believe that?
-
Do you believe the very moment that you're in right now, that's your day to day, God is intentionally has you there to serve a purpose?
-
God is intentionally doing something and working something in your life.
-
Do you believe that?
-
You see, what I'm realizing is even the monotonous days, even the days where I don't feel like God's watching, I'm like, oh, he's all involved in my life.
-
Even when there's chaos, even when there's trauma, Lord, you're you're here and you're doing something.
-
There's something happening now.
-
I don't even understand it, but you're serving your purposes, Lord.
-
Help me to see what it is that you're doing.
-
Help me to grow, help me to learn, help me to step into what you're doing, Father.
-
It changes the game when you realize that your life actually matters.
-
God is no respecter of persons.
-
God doesn't just pick favorites, he's calling out and he's saying, Who's gonna answer?
-
We are all called according to his purposes.
-
Fear wants you to think that your life doesn't matter.
-
Oh, yeah, God cares about Pastor David's life, you know, because he's a pastor and oh, he's just more important than me, but God doesn't actually see my life.
-
God is looking right at your life, he is wanting to direct your steps, he has you in seasons that even seem uncertain, so he can teach you and train you to trust and look back to him.
-
I finally exhausted myself trying to fix everything on my own.
-
I felt the pain of doing that, Garna.
-
Pastor Garna.
-
And finally, after feeling the pain of doing it, I got on my knees.
-
I said, Lord, I can't do this.
-
And he's like, Finally, you get it.
-
I don't have what it takes.
-
Finally, look to me in my in your weakness, that is where I'm strong.
-
That's the point I want you to get.
-
You can't do this on your own.
-
That's the point I want you to get, but step into it because I'm the big God, I'm the awesome God, I'm the mighty king of kings and lorders, and I'm using your life as a testimony of my goodness.
-
I want people to see how good of a father I am.
-
Some of you parents in here, if you came to church on a Sunday and your kids were dressed in rags, not fed well, but you're dressed all classy and everything, what would people think about you as a parent?
-
You're not a good parent.
-
They start talking about you, even though we're not supposed to be gossiping, they'd still do it.
-
Then we'd have two problems on our hands.
-
You show up, your kids are not taken care of.
-
That wouldn't be a good testimony of how good of a parent you are.
-
You see, God calls himself our father.
-
Let me read to you the other side of the verse I just read earlier.
-
Romans 8:15 says, We have not been given a spirit of slavery or fear, we have been given the spirit of adoption where we go to him and we call him Abba Father.
-
Y'all catch this, catch the heart of God in this.
-
I want to take care of you, and I want to take care of you so well that the world sees how good of a father I am.
-
Because there's many in the world who are lost, who don't have a father, and I want them to come to me.
-
And so I'm gonna be good to you, and I'm gonna take care of you, and I'm gonna protect you, and I'm gonna guide your steps, and people are gonna see my blessings on your life, and that's gonna be a testimony that I'm a good father, and these people that want a good father are gonna come to me.
-
But we don't get to step in in our life, we don't take those steps because we're so afraid.
-
Does God actually love me?
-
Is God able?
-
Oh my gosh, these enemies are too big, this mountain's too high, this valley's too low, and fear controls our life, and we choose to let it, we choose it, and we don't choose the truth that will set us free.
-
Romans 8 28, and we know that God causes everything to work together for good.
-
Do you believe that?
-
Even in the midst of your trials, tribulations, your traumatic things, do you understand that God is actually working in your life right now for something that is good?
-
Do you realize the prophet Jeremiah prophesies this that God has a plan for your life?
-
And it's not a bad plan, it's a good plan, one of a hope and a future.
-
Do you live every day from that joy, waking up, Lord?
-
I'm excited for the hopeful future that you have, and I'm excited to step into it.
-
Or does fear rob you, suck the life out of you like a leech, causing you to be fearful?
-
You're a slave.
-
It's for a lack of faith, it's a rebellion against God, it's a disrespect of the mighty King of kings who sits enthroned on high.
-
All authority has been given to him.
-
There's nothing impossible for him.
-
Second Timothy 1.9, for God saved us and called us to live a holy life.
-
He did this not because we deserved it.
-
That's another thing we're afraid of.
-
I don't deserve God's love.
-
No one does.
-
That's just how good of a father he is.
-
He wants to display his mercy.
-
You know what?
-
Some of the most profound people in Christianity who've done the most have had some of the worst past.
-
There's one guy, I forgot his name.
-
I've grown up reading lots of these biographies of these guys.
-
One of these guys that did profound things for the Lord, like opened up tons of orphanages, tons of people get saved.
-
You know how God called him?
-
He was past he was um drunk in the road.
-
That's how God called him.
-
You see, we come in and we think my past is too bad.
-
Actually, that's really good material for the Lord to use.
-
One who has been forgiven much understands this.
-
How good of a father he is, how gracious and merciful he is.
-
Some of you that have disqualified yourself have wonderful calling on your life, and you're not stepping into it because you're afraid.
-
What if God just doesn't love me?
-
I've just done too much.
-
He's saying that's not the point.
-
I want the world to see my mercy.
-
None of us deserve it.
-
The ones who are going to struggle the most the most are the ones that don't think they need him.
-
That's why Jesus says it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
-
Because rich people, they just have everything they need.
-
They're not brought down to this place of desperation.
-
People trying to do it by their own works.
-
We feel so qualified because self-qualified, we got a life so put together.
-
Sometimes there's a lack of desperation.
-
Lord, I need you every day.
-
2 Thessalonians 1.11.
-
So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a whole a life worthy of his call.
-
That's a responsibility.
-
God is talking to Joshua saying, Listen, you're doing this.
-
This is you're you're called to live a life worthy of my calling.
-
Joshua, I'm calling you, but you're gonna have to be courageous.
-
I've already made this for you.
-
I've provisioned freedom for you and your people, but you're gonna have to step into it.
-
I'm not just gonna hand it to you.
-
This is an inheritance, but you're gonna have to claim it.
-
This is where things get really interesting.
-
Be strong and very courageous.
-
Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you.
-
Do not deviate from them.
-
Turn it either to the right or to the left, and you'll be successful in everything you do.
-
This is a key.
-
This is a key.
-
God tells Joshua, You're gonna have to obey me.
-
We're uh Dr.
-
Randy talked about fear of failure.
-
God says, You're gonna have to obey me.
-
If you want success, you're gonna have to walk in step with my spirit.
-
Part of God's calling, he gives it as a spirit.
-
Paul talks about this.
-
Let the spirit of God lead you.
-
When it says let, that's a choice we make.
-
Do you understand that, church?
-
You know what the rebellious heart wants to do?
-
It's painful to admit when we're being rebellious, so what we do is we excuse and justify it.
-
We don't admit it to ourselves.
-
I'm just simply rebelling against God.
-
I'm simply refusing to believe truth.
-
Okay?
-
He says, Don't deviate from my word, and you're gonna be successful.
-
Obedience equals success.
-
Catch this.
-
Next verse.
-
Catch this.
-
Study the book of instruction continually, meditate it on it day and night, so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.
-
Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do.
-
Catch this.
-
This is profound.
-
This hit me like a ton of bricks.
-
Obedience equals success, but then God adds to it.
-
He says, You gotta study this, my word, and meditate on it.
-
And then you'll be able to do it.
-
You see, some of us we don't study our words.
-
We're filling ourselves with things of the world, and then we're wondering why we struggle.
-
God has already given the agreed in here.
-
You're gonna have to meditate.
-
You know what the word meditate means there?
-
It's it says it's an intentional choosing to focus deeply on the word of God.
-
And then you know what it's what it's actually crazy.
-
It's not just meditate.
-
What we think about just having quiet time and thought life, it's actually uttering it also, speaking it.
-
I know the word, it's in me, and I'm choosing on a daily basis to focus on it.
-
You want to be set free from fear, and you want to be successful, take God's word, make a choice.
-
Oh, I don't have a choice.
-
That's the that's the lie of a rebellion right there.
-
Devil made me.
-
Oh, so devil's more powerful now.
-
What kind of gospel are you believing?
-
I don't have a choice, I don't have time.
-
That's your excuses.
-
He says, Joshua, I want you to make a decision, take ownership of your life, study my word, apply it to your life, study it, meditate it, and then speak it, utter it day and night.
-
That's not even just a two-minute quiet time, two times a week.
-
Day and night, do this.
-
Even speak it.
-
When I was when I was having those demonic attacks, you know what I started doing?
-
I started speaking to it.
-
This word of God, I the word of God says, greater is he who's in me than he who's in the world.
-
And then you'll be successful.
-
Some of you are experiencing what you call failure because you're in rebellion.
-
You're raising your fist to God, he's saying, You're not obeying my word.
-
My word is not governing your life.
-
Your lust for success, your fear of failure, your desire for man's approval, you want to live, you live in comparison.
-
You just want to be better than your brother on the left and right.
-
That's what's governing your life.
-
Let my word steer your life, and then you'll be successful.
-
Joshua in chapter 7.
-
They come to their second enemy, AI.
-
Joshua and Mad AI back then.
-
It was an enemy, let that be prophetic.
-
Their first enemy that they face is Jericho.
-
Jericho.
-
We don't know exactly for sure, okay, but a good assumption or a good guess for how tall the walls of Jericho were was about 28 feet tall.
-
Like three different layers.
-
The first layer was three to four feet of foundational, small gravel and rocks.
-
Then the second layer was about 16 feet high of big stones, and then the top layer, about eight feet tall, would have been like a brick wall that was six feet wide.
-
Twenty-eight feet.
-
The tallest point of the ceiling in this church is fifteen, so it's about double tall of what this is right here.
-
That's just the best assumption.
-
Again, we don't know for sure.
-
There's lots of disagreements on this, okay?
-
But that's their first folk.
-
They step into the promised land, they cross over.
-
Do you want to know what the first one of the first things that they did was is that they circumcised the generation that came in.
-
They hadn't been circumcised yet.
-
They rededicate themselves to the Lord.
-
Lord, I'm consecrating myself to your life.
-
When you take that step in, there has to be a point in your heart saying, Lord, I am consecrating myself to you, and I'm obeying your word.
-
I'm not going to deviate to the left, I'm not going to deviate to the right, and I'm not going to deviate to the left, I'm not going to deviate to the right.
-
That was stupid.
-
But I'm gonna walk in alignment with you, but I'm consecrating.
-
They circumcise themselves, and then their first enemy is Jericho.
-
Impossible.
-
Impossible.
-
And then they all they they obey the word of the Lord.
-
And I didn't make any sense.
-
Walk around this and then shout a little bit.
-
Some of you need to get your shout back.
-
We're not just being, we're not in the into hype religion, just so you know that.
-
When we say give a shout to the Lord, dance for the Lord, understand there is some spiritual mechanics at work.
-
They just walk around the thing and then they shout, they blow the trumpets and the walls come down.
-
Are you kidding me?
-
Some of you are trying to beat down your walls, and God's saying, Oh, just obey my voice and have faith.
-
Do it what I do it the way I called you to do it, and the walls will come down.
-
Don't approach this with man's wisdom.
-
Don't approach your call with man's wisdom.
-
This is how it has to work.
-
Our God is the God of the impossible.
-
That's the first enemy.
-
AI is the second enemy, so they have a massive victory, okay?
-
I want you to catch this.
-
They have a massive victory with Jericho.
-
Imagine how they're feeling.
-
And this happens all too often.
-
This has happened to me so many times.
-
This happens all too often.
-
Massive victory for some of you.
-
You took that massive step of faith.
-
And all of a sudden, God started to do something.
-
It's like, oh, victory.
-
I'm walking in the plans of God for my life.
-
This is amazing.
-
This is how I imagine the people would have felt.
-
Jericho just came down.
-
Can you believe it?
-
God's on our side.
-
This is gonna be our land.
-
They come to AI, it's a small village up on a hill, and they and they say, Let's go send some scouts and check this out.
-
This next enemy.
-
They ain't got nothing on us.
-
And they go and scout it out and they're like, we don't even need to see need to send all of our people to this one.
-
This is not anything like Jericho.
-
Let's send 3,000 guys.
-
They send 3,000 guys to AI, and what do they do?
-
They lose, they run away.
-
And AI kills like 36 of the 30 uh 3,000 men, and it says they become paralyzed with fear.
-
And I'm telling you, this has happened to you.
-
This has happened to me.
-
We're doing that call of God, walk in our life, and all of a sudden, something messes up.
-
All of a sudden, something unexpected happens.
-
All of a sudden, sister so-so hurts me in a church service, and I don't even know, and I'm questioning everything.
-
Might be supposed to be in that church and walk in the call of God in my life.
-
I'm just paralyzed with fear.
-
This is what happens to them.
-
Discouragement.
-
This is not what I expected.
-
And I'm gonna read to you what Joshua says.
-
Mighty Joshua, the warrior.
-
This is what he says.
-
Joshua 7, verses 7 through 11.
-
Then Joshua cried out, Oh sovereign Lord, why did you bring us across the Jordan River if you're going to let the Amorites kill us?
-
He only killed 36 of them.
-
1% of the 3,000.
-
Joshua just experienced something and now he's defined the rest of his future.
-
You're gonna let him kill all of us.
-
God, why'd you lead us here?
-
Have you ever had those prayers with God?
-
God, why did you bring me here?
-
If you're gonna set me up to fail and be betrayed and be hurt and lose everything.
-
Look at what he says next.
-
If only we had been content to stay on the other side.
-
And this is what happens.
-
And now that I've been a pastor, I've seen this way more than I ever realized.
-
I watch people step into calling, I watch the prophetic words spoken over their life, I've seen this, and they start stepping in, they start bearing God's fruit, and all of a sudden something started to happen, and then all of a sudden, something bad happens, they get discouraged and they turn around and they go back to their old life.
-
They retreat because that pain caused them to be fearful, and that experience caused them to define the rest of their life.
-
If it happened, then it's just gonna keep happening.
-
Joshua's afraid here, and now he's painted a false reality.
-
He has painted a false reality.
-
You know what he's trying to do?
-
His prayer life?
-
He's trying to pull God into a false reality.
-
And this is what we do with our prayer life.
-
Lord, this is my reality.
-
Let me pull you into it.
-
Let me force you into my reality and make you conform to my ways and deal with my problems the way I think you need to deal with it.
-
Answer me, Lord.
-
If only I could be content enough to not even try.
-
You know what the Lord says to him?
-
This is what's beautiful.
-
You can learn about the character of God in the Old Testament.
-
Because he's the same, he doesn't change.
-
You know what he says to Joshua?
-
He says, Get up.
-
Why are you on your face like that?
-
God doesn't coddle Joshua.
-
And we're governed, when we're governed by fear, we want to be coddled.
-
We want to make an excuse.
-
We don't, we want to convince ourselves that it's not rebellion, it's not lack of faith, it's something else.
-
God says, get up.
-
Why are you on your face like that?
-
I'm not coming into your reality.
-
I'm calling you into mine.
-
I know what I called you to.
-
Joshua, the problem is a lot easier than what you're making it out to be.
-
There is sin in the camp.
-
And I told you, stick to my word and you would have success.
-
You don't have success because there's sin.
-
And this is what I want you to hear is that yes, some of you have been discouraged and you've had failure because God is disciplining you because you've been disobeying.
-
Some of you made the plans of your life without checking with him first, and then you question why your plans failed.
-
God, you let me down.
-
God's saying, I never called you to that.
-
You went past my voice.
-
And I'm using this moment of failure and discouragement to train you and get you back into alignment with my word and call for your life.
-
Jesus.
-
It says, Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners or join with mockers, but they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.
-
You want your joy back.
-
What are you putting in front of you on a daily basis?
-
I'm guilty of I don't have Instagram or Facebook, but I do have YouTube, and YouTube has YouTube shorts now.
-
You can just scroll and watch tons of short videos.
-
Um I've I've spent many hours of many days scrolling, and I will tell you, there's never been one time that I did that that I felt better after I did it.
-
I usually felt fatigued, drained.
-
I would even feel just not happy.
-
I would even it's like it's like it fed the fear.
-
And I'm gonna read something.
-
I wasn't gonna read this, but I'm gonna go ahead and read it to you because some of you need to hear this.
-
Um, I'm gonna read a couple a couple statements.
-
This is research.
-
Um, this is backed by actual research, okay?
-
Hear this.
-
Some of you all are on your phones, and that's all you're on.
-
You scroll, media, Netflix, all the different, there's like 20 different streaming things, social media, um, video games, all this stuff.
-
You we have these things to to just distract us.
-
I'll put it that way.
-
Um it this this is what the research shows.
-
It shows that when we're on our mobile devices, okay, it actually produces anxiety.
-
Do you know it says that we have higher um higher um statistics of anxiety and dread and fear?
-
Basically, people more now than ever are more afraid.
-
And this study and research shows if you're on your mobile device a lot, you're on social media a lot, you're on media a lot, it's actually going to make you more afraid.
-
Now, y'all do the math.
-
This is where we start to make excuses with God.
-
This is what I found myself.
-
I had fear because I wasn't in his word.
-
I understand as a pastor, I've got this thing where I have to do it, and I do it as a like I have to be in the word of God.
-
But then there's time, a point where you also have to feed yourself personally, not just to produce a message.
-
That I was failing at that in seasons.
-
I could produce a good message, but I wasn't feeding myself.
-
And I was fearful.
-
So I come to the Lord, I'm like, Lord, I got all these problems, I don't have the joy of the Lord, I don't have peace, I got fear.
-
Lord, what's wrong?
-
He goes, You don't read my word.
-
You're on YouTube more than you are with me.
-
And you question why you feel this way?
-
Have I not made it abundantly clear in my word?
-
Read the word.
-
Pray every day.
-
Anxiety through harmful social comparison.
-
Social media creates a digital environment that facilitates a constant social comparison, which is a primary driver of anxiety.
-
You ladies got all your problems trying to mother life so hard and stuff.
-
You're on social media more than anything, and you wonder why you're so afraid.
-
You keep making excuses to God.
-
You can't you've convinced yourself that it's not your fault, and it is.
-
Oh, David, you're being too hard.
-
No, I'm not.
-
I'm being a pastor.
-
You know what Paul told Timothy?
-
Rebuke the people with the truth.
-
Sorry, I'm gonna do my job up here.
-
And you're gonna get set free if you listen.
-
The illusion of inadequacy, this is something social media will do.
-
Users frequently compare their real lives to the highlight reels of others, which makes them feel as though everyone else is doing better in areas like parenting, career, and spiritual life.
-
And all of y'all, y'all are called by God to do something, but you're too busy looking at everybody else, and you feel inadequate.
-
Do you understand?
-
Almost everybody that puts reels on social media is lying.
-
Let me make my life look better than it is.
-
Let me make my house look clean.
-
Let me put on makeup but make it not look like I have makeup on.
-
Let me just make everything look great and show everyone how well put together my life is.
-
And then we go and we scroll and we're scrolling, we're like, I don't think I can do any of this.
-
Anxiety.
-
The performance pressure, the pervasive comparison fuels maladaptive perfectionism, which the desire to avoid failure and the fear of negative judgment becomes a daily mental trap.
-
You're scrolling, you're scrolling, you're scrolling.
-
I don't want to be you're you're making yourself more afraid, church.
-
Okay, God tells Joshua, I need you.
-
Listen, you're gonna have a lot of things to the left and the right that you're gonna want to look at.
-
Don't do it.
-
Look at me, keep your eyes on me.
-
I don't care if there's giants, I don't care if there's fortified cities, I don't care if there's drama.
-
Keep your eyes on me.
-
Speak my truth.
-
You want to break fear, we're going into revival.
-
You want success, we're going into it.
-
The success that God established, the success that the success that God has already made away.
-
Waiting for us to step into it.
-
What are we focusing on?
-
I don't do that anymore, by the way.
-
It's very rare if I even open up YouTube or school or anything.
-
I'm being set free.
-
You won't believe my life is so much better.
-
I am so much happier not doing that.
-
I'm getting hours of my life back.
-
It's beautiful.
-
I'm getting in the word, even if I'm not preparing a message.
-
I'm in the word and I'm just taking it in.
-
And I just I'll go and I'll just have time with the Lord and I'll just talk to Him.
-
Lord, thank you that your presence is here.
-
Thank you, Lord, that you made a way.
-
Lord, I'm Lord, I'm nervous about this thing, but but Peter would say this, cast your cares to me.
-
And I'm just coming in on a daily basis.
-
I said, Lord, here's my cares.
-
I'm gonna be faithful and I'm gonna step into what you call me to do.
-
Help me to glorify you today.
-
I'm inadequate, but but you're fully adequate.
-
Help me today to glorify you, Jesus.
-
And when I start getting those feelings of fear, I start rebuking them.
-
I don't receive that.
-
Right there, the Lord says for you, I've made a I've made a way of victory for you, and I'm and I'm making it even more big and more apparent.
-
I'm pulling you into victory, my daughter.
-
And I'm pulling you in.
-
And this is what I've seen that it's been a struggle.
-
There's been ups and downs with this, but the Lord says, you know what?
-
I've got you on a reel like a fish, and I'm a fisher of men, and I'm reeling you in.
-
And even though you're trying to go like this, and you think, oh, I've gotten I've gotten a far away, I've gotten this, I've messed this up.
-
The Lord says, I've been reeling you in the whole time into my plans and purposes, and you're walking in that victory, my daughter.
-
You're walking in that victory, and I rebuke every lie of the enemy that has tried to keep you bound, that has tried to keep you from stopping.
-
In the name of Jesus, I say, get off of her, get off of her mind, get off of her spirit, get off her heart.
-
The Lord says, You keep trusting in me, you keep going for it.
-
I am forming you, my daughter.
-
Eroding peace because anxiety is a response to uncertainty and potential future threats.
-
The constant influx of information on social media keeps the nervous system in a protracted state of alarm.
-
Scanning for social or global dangers.
-
Y'all realize this?
-
We're keeping ourselves in a state of alarm because it's gotten so common.
-
Paul says, don't follow the customs and the cultures of this world.
-
Everyone is like this 24-7, and everyone is fearful, and everyone there they're we're living from this place of deception.
-
It's like unplug.
-
You want to get your mental health back?
-
Unplug.
-
Unplug.
-
Get before the King of Kings.
-
Walk in step with his ways.
-
Trust him.
-
Yeah, there's giants.
-
He put them there so you'd learn to trust him.
-
He put them there to show you that he's bigger.
-
Yeah, there's mountains.
-
He's trying to teach you faith.
-
Yeah, there's storms.
-
He's trying to teach you how to talk to the storm, not be afraid.
-
Thank you, Jesus.
-
Altar team, come on up here.
-
I just rebuke a slumbering spirit right now in the name of Jesus.
-
Um, lots of times when I've been in environments where the Lord's doing something in my heart, I get really sleepy, and there's actually a spirit that will try to make you tired and unaware when God's trying to do something in your life.
-
Go ahead and spread across the front here, Altar Team.
-
If you're here today and you've felt this thing, this pull again like a pulling away of what God's been calling you into, you've been fearful.
-
But even I want to hit this specifically, Rick and Tina, come on up here too, because um Rick and Tina um do a lot of deliverance.
-
I let me call this first.
-
Come on up here to the middle, Rick and Tina.
-
If you this is not your fault.
-
I just had this happening with open visions.
-
It's been a demonic attack, okay?
-
Listen, the demons are more afraid of the God in us, okay, than we should be of them.
-
They've been trying to intimidate me, they've been trying to say all this stuff, you know, you're David, you're just coming against this.
-
All these people are gonna come, they're gonna try to burn down your church.
-
I'm just like, listen, shut up.
-
I don't care.
-
God is so big.
-
If you've been having these open visions, you feel like demonic attacks or nightmares that don't seem to cease.
-
I want you to come up here, okay?
-
Right here.
-
Don't be ashamed.
-
I've had this.
-
If you've been having these nightmares, I had a nightmare last night.
-
I just rebuked it.
-
Come on up here, right here to the front.
-
We're gonna you're gonna experience deliverance today.
-
The Spirit of God is gonna set you free.
-
We're gonna shut those demons up.
-
This is not everybody.
-
I think there's I'm hearing three or four.
-
There's at least three or four people here that have been having this, okay?
-
You have this onslaught of fear, you have open visions.
-
Men come up here and get set free.
-
This is not understand, this is a demonic attack and assignment because you're called to something.
-
So I'm not sure how you want to do this, but um, I work with the kids some, and it seems like a lot of the kids, this is happening too.
-
Can we bring the kids in here, Miss Janet?
-
We're gonna deal with this.
-
We're gonna kick the devil's butt.
-
Let me go ahead in the name of Jesus.
-
I put every demonic entity on notice that's trying to hide in the dark, and I say the Lord Jesus Christ rebukes you, the King of Kings who has all authority rebukes you, and I'm saying that your time is coming to an end in the name of Jesus.
-
And let me go ahead and remind you of what the word of God says is that you are going to be going to hell, that you have already been judged, that God holds the keys to death, hell, and the grave.
-
We're putting you on notice this morning, and we say, get your hands off the sons and daughters of God, the ones of the Most High, they're his property, and we say, get off of them in the name of Jesus.
-
We're saying that you're being exposed, the light is being put on you, and we rebuke you in the name of Jesus right now.
-
Every every every entity that would come to steal, kill, and destroy, and try to steal life away, steal joy away, try to bring fall, try to bring these lies and this deception and this intimidation.
-
We rebuke you in the name of Jesus.
-
If you need prayer, if you if you're in a time where you're sitting there and you're you're walking this out with God as all of us have been, and you need to be prayer, you need to be spiritually encouraged.
-
I want you to come up here to the altar.
-
Or you can just sit there and just wait to go to McDonald's.
-
Give into your appetite more than your spiritual health.
-
Acting like you don't need this.
-
Listen, I'm prophetic.
-
I have discernment.
-
I could call it out.
-
I could probably look at you and say, Why don't you just save the time and let's come up and get set free?
-
Let God do a work in you get set free from fear.
-
I rebuke you, you stubborn spirit that wants to stay in, that wants to stay content.
-
God's calling you in.
-
Step up.
-
Step into your calling and purpose in the name of Jesus.
-
Step into who you called to be in the name of Jesus.
-
Stop letting fear rule your life.
-
Stop letting fear steal from you.
-
Step into it.
-
In the name of Jesus.
-
In the name of Jesus.
-
Some of you ladies need to come up here.
-
Fear has been governing your life.
-
You are so afraid.
-
One of you, I hear this.
-
You're afraid of your husband leaving you.
-
You're afraid of him.
-
You always think that he's cheating on you.
-
You're making his life hell, always assuming something.
-
The enemy's been messing with you because you've been taken in media where people are dishonest.
-
You've been watching reality shows where people are dishonest and they betray and they're not faithful in relationships.
-
And it's infused in your mind and your heart.
-
I want you to hear this.
-
You're constantly questioning whether your husband's loyal to you.
-
You need to be set free from that lie.
-
Kudra masanderi and ramashaka.
-
We got the kids up here.
-
We're going to be praying over the kids.
-
Come up here.
-
We got a couple more coming.
-
Kudra massandi etakadra badidiri on doroboshuka.
-
Someone in here has a fear of death.
-
You keep seeing yourself dying, and it's it's it's causing you to be very afraid.
-
Um, is that anybody in here?
-
You want to raise your hand?
-
I feel like that you say that's been me.
-
A fear of death in the name of Jesus.
-
Come on up here.
-
Come right here.
-
Will you pray over her, Miss Charlotte?
-
We're gonna we're gonna break that spirit off.
-
Alright, do we have all the kids in here?
-
Alright, is there any kids?
-
Is there any hey, are any of y'all, do y'all have some nightmares?
-
You have bad dreams that keep you up at night?
-
Raise your hand if that's you, raise your hand.
-
Okay, um, we got some parents.
-
Parents come behind them if that's your kid.
-
You've been having some night.
-
Come on over here.
-
Come on over here with your parents.
-
Parents, you're a covering over your household.
-
Fathers, if you're here with them, we're gonna break this off of them.
-
These spirits of fear, these spirits of night terrors, we rebuke you in the name of Jesus.
-
We plead the blood of Jesus over mind and heart right now.
-
We re we speak the peace of God over their sleep.
-
We plead the blood of Jesus.
-
We say, get your hands off of them, Satan, in the name of Jesus.
-
These are children of the Most High.
-
We rebuke you.
-
We say, get off, get off right now.
-
We break every tie, every hold right now.
-
Get off of them, off of their minds, off of their sleep, and we say that they're gonna rest peacefully, Father.
-
They're not gonna have these torments, these fear.
-
We rebuke you right now.
-
We say no weapon formed against them shall prosper.
-
Get your hands off of them right now, get your hands off of them right now in the name of Jesus.
-
Kids, listen to me.
-
Listen to me.
-
Everybody look at me that's had bad dreams.
-
I have a grandson, and one time he kept having bad dreams every night, every night, and I would pray for him.
-
And I said, What do you want to dream about?
-
And he said, Angels and orange juice.
-
The next day I asked him what he dreamed about that night.
-
He said, Angels and orange juice.
-
He was about eight years old.
-
He is now 22.
-
If I ask him what he dreams about, it's about angels and orange juice.
-
What is it that you want to dream about?
-
Tell that to God.
-
He is breaking off these bad dreams right now in Jesus' name.
-
Tell him what is it to turn around and turn it.
-
Your parents to ever stand by you.
-
What is it that you want to dream about?
-
God is going to do that for you.
-
He loves you that much.
-
He's not gonna bring these demonic things.
-
He's gonna bring something good to you in Jesus' name.
-
Heavenly Father, we pray over the children right now.
-
I close every door that's been opened to things that have been watched, through things on YouTube, through these children's programs.
-
We close every door that has been unintentionally opened from the things they watch, and we speak over their dreams right now in the name of Jesus.
-
We declare peace over their dreams.
-
We even declare that they're angelic voices that they're here in their dreams that are bringing peace to them in the name of Jesus.
-
We rebuke every voice of the enemy that tries to bring fear, that tries to bring them nightmares.
-
We rebuke things even in school systems that they're a part of, that are teaching things that may bring fear to them.
-
We rebuke the voice of the enemy in the name of Jesus.
-
And we were we replace those words with the word of God.
-
We remind them that they are fearfully and wonderfully mad, that they have the head and not the tail, they are above and not beneath their litters and not bars.
-
We speak to their true identity over these children in the name of Jesus.
-
And once again we rebuke fear in the name of Jesus.
-
We are living in a world where there is darkness that is seeking to destroy the youth, destroy the image-bearers of God, and so take that responsibility that you are the gatekeepers of your home, and you need to have that responsibility of what you are watching.
-
I'm gonna freely be transparent.
-
Micah and I were watching something we should not have been watching, and it gave all of our children nightmares, and we anointed the house.
-
We came to the Lord and we said, Lord, we are sorry for being asleep and not taking that responsibility seriously over the minds of our children.
-
And so you are the gatekeepers of your home.
-
Anoint your house, anoint your children.
-
These are the world changers that is going to shift the spirit realm because the devil knows his future.
-
Okay, I'll have it.
-
So you're yeah, Rick's gonna do the witchcraft, but I'm gonna give you a testimony.
-
A testimony that we did a of a deliverance on a child.
-
She was four years old.
-
Um this is shows the the progression of what the demonic will do.
-
So they she started having the night terrors.
-
Parents didn't know how to deal with it.
-
They prayed over it, but they weren't immersed in in charismatics, you know, and understanding the uh demonic.
-
Uh, and you know, they just didn't know.
-
And so in her, this little girl, this spirit now started speaking to her, started manifesting in her room, and it and it grew to the point where it was separating her from men, it was making her fearful of men.
-
Like the only man that she would tolerate was her daddy, and maybe her grandfather, and that was it.
-
Every other man she ran from.
-
And see, this is what was the enemy was doing, it was progressive.
-
It started his dreams, then she started talking to it because it was she was entertaining it because the parents just didn't know.
-
So the grandparents were friends of our friends of ours, and we had her, and they brought her in, and her mom um told her, Okay, we're gonna go see Mr.
-
Rick, and you know, and he's gonna pray over you.
-
She hit that front door.
-
From that front door, she ran to the back room that where we have uh that back office uh where the kids were.
-
What is that?
-
The nursery now?
-
Yeah, she ran, she ran to his arms and jumped in his arms to be held.
-
Now, this is a child who is fearful of men, but this is what happens because he we pray over the ministry time before, so her heart was already be being conditioned.
-
She got set free.
-
This little girl is prophetic.
-
She's like what 10 or 12 now?
-
Yeah, she's 11 years old.
-
Never had any more dreams, bad dreams, never had any more appearances of uh demonic in her room.
-
It was gone.
-
See, and the Bible says that we my people perish for lack of knowledge.
-
If you don't know what you have to do, then you can't fight it.
-
And this is what's being taught.
-
You have to know who your enemy is, you have to know his tactics, you have to know who you are in Christ.
-
You have the power and the authority to do this.
-
Pray against witchcraft.
-
What am I praying about?
-
Witchcraft.
-
Is that what is just witchcraft?
-
Can I tell you something?
-
Uh this is not a creative atmosphere of fear.
-
This is awareness, right?
-
Right.
-
I've detected witches here.
-
You know why?
-
They see what we're doing.
-
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-
What do you think?
-
There's uh when I catch it, you better believe I'm warfare.
-
And I sit in my quiet chair over there.
-
Why am I quiet?
-
And I'm like, oh no, oh no, you don't.
-
This is to make you aware so that you can be prayerful.
-
Not my house.
-
Not my house, right?
-
You you you will be overtaken if you don't push back.
-
Okay.
-
So this is to give you and fortify you and let you know we have even if it's a measure of authority, we exercise and build some muscle.
-
And if you don't have enough, then you get reinforcement.
-
You call somebody in this church that knows how to pray and that will play with you and will agree with you and stand with you.
-
If you call my number and it says uh number you reached.
-
I'm playing right.
-
Um I'm speaking against every form of witchcraft.
-
Even those things that were invited without awareness, that don't give you permission to come.
-
You're a liar.
-
And Lord, we release the the heart to forgive.
-
We do repent.
-
Forgive me, Lord, for lack of knowledge.
-
Forgive me that I participated with simple knowledge and still and still uh play around with it.
-
And and Lord, even when mom and dad haven't really paid close attention because they're kids, we would do fat.
-
And and and Lord open their eyes are gonna be everywhere, not powerful in controlling God, but but nurturing.
-
So I speak to every form of witchcraft, every curse, every word curse right now.
-
I command to come down.
-
You shall fall.
-
You shall fall.
-
No, no weapon formed against us shall prosper.
-
And and we speak over every family right now where where witchcraft has been assigned.
-
I can't I cancel.
-
I cancel this assignment.
-
No power to you.
-
You will have to reckon with the Lord.
-
And Father, we thank you right now, no symbolism but power and truth.
-
We command every day to be fortified with you, Father.
-
We speak over and say, we accept, we receive, we walk in alignment, and we will not agree with them foul witches, them foul enemies of ours.
-
And Father, we thank you for the authority that we utilize.
-
And Lord, we will not be overcome.
-
We will overcome in the name of Jesus.
-
Jesus, thank you, Father.
-
We just praise you right now.
-
Let's just thank the Lord.
-
Thank you, Father, for the victory at the cross.
-
Thank you that you're the one that holds the keys when we lift up the name of Jesus.
-
You're worthy of the praise, Father.
-
I thank you, God, for freedom, Lord.
-
I thank you, Lord, that you set us free, Lord.
-
I thank you that you conquered the enemy, Father.
-
And we say yes to your way today.
-
We say yes to your will.
-
We say yes, Father.
-
We will not let fear stop us.
-
Fear control us, but we trust in the God most high in the mighty name of Jesus.
-
And everybody said, Amen, amen, amen.
-
Church, we love you.
-
Have a good day.
-
Go out and step into it.
-
Everyone say, get to step in.
-
Amen.
-
I got an announcement real quick.
-
Hi.
-
If you are an usher, an altar team minister, or part of the worship and production team, you're invited to a luncheon today.
-
Most of you know about that.
-
If you have your children in child care, you leave them where they are.
-
We'll bring food to them.
-
And just you y'all know where the prayer room is, the multi-purpose room, and the cafe.
-
Just head on over there and find a seat.
-
Thank you.