Tell The Testimony

(upbeat music)

- Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu

from Pneuma Church in Houston, Texas.

Thank you for listening to the message today.

I hope that it blesses you

and all those that you share it with.

God bless you.

(upbeat music)

♪ Feel, feel, feel, feel, feel ♪

- Right there, right there where you're standing,

please remain standing with me.

We're gonna go into the word this morning.

We're gonna read a little bit.

We're gonna go to Mark chapter five.

Anybody happy to be in the house of God this morning?

(audience cheering)

Amen, amen.

Y'all were a little quiet today.

Come on, man.

Y'all gonna, you gotta get excited in the house of God, man.

Coming, coming, coming, you know,

the week after Easter Sunday,

it just feels like, feels like a defeat for some reason.

When you know, Jesus is still alive, you know,

he's always been alive and he will always be alive, amen.

So we need to walk in that victory Sunday after Sunday.

Mark chapter five, verse two through 20.

If you have it, say, I've got it.

Amen.

And we're gonna read just a little bit here this morning.

It says this, it says,

"And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat,

"immediately there met him out of the tombs

"a man with an unclean spirit.

"He lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore,

"not even with a chain,

"for he had often been bound with shackles and chains,

"but he wretched the chains apart

"and he broke the shackles in pieces.

"No one had the strength to subdue him.

"Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains,

"he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

"And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran

"and he fell down before him.

"And crying with a loud voice, he said,

"What have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high?"

That is proof that even the devil knows who Jesus is, right?

"Son of the most high, I adjure you by God,

"do not torment me, for he was saying to him,

"come out of the man, you unclean spirit.

"And Jesus asked him, what is your name?

"He replied, my name is Legion, for we are many.

"And he begged him earnestly

"not to send him out of the country.

"Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there

"on the hillside and they begged him saying,

"send us to the pigs, let us enter them.

"So he gave them permission.

"And the unclean spirits came out

"and entered the pigs and the herd, numbering about 2,000,

"rust down the steep bank into the sea

"and drowned into the sea.

"The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and the country.

"And the people came to see what had happened

"and they came to Jesus and saw the demon possessed man,

"the one who had the Legion sitting there clothed

"and in his right mind, and they were afraid.

"And those who had seen it described to them

"what had happened to the demon possessed man into the pigs.

"They began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.

"And as he was getting into the boat,

"the man who had been possessed with demons begged him

"that he might be with him.

"And he did not permit him, but said to him,

"go home to your friends and tell them

"how much the Lord has done for you

"and how he had mercy on you.

"And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis

"how much Jesus had done for him.

"And everyone marveled, amen."

Let's go to God in prayer.

Heavenly Father, I thank you, my God, for your word.

I thank you for this spirit, my God, this morning.

Lord, I just pray right now, my God,

as you have ministered this word to me,

that you would administer it to your people.

Father God, I pray that you would be on my lips,

Holy Spirit, and I pray that I'd be sensitive

to everything that you wanna say,

everything that you wanna do, in Jesus' name, amen.

And amen, amen.

Praise the Lord.

There's some sermons where, again,

you just never know what God is gonna do.

And I was struggling with this sermon.

I told Pastor Danny during Spanish service all the time,

man, I just wrapped up my sermon during your preaching.

I was just kinda struggling with it,

and not really sure exactly where the Lord wanted to take it.

But we're gonna see what he does this morning, all right?

What I have found is that in my weakness, he is strong, right?

So I entitled the message this morning,

Tell the Testimony, Tell the Testimony.

And I preached a variation of this sermon.

Actually, I was looking back at some of my sermons

that I have saved, and I preached this sermon

about two weeks after Lela was born,

so this was more than eight years ago.

Then it was called The Power of Your Story.

I'm not preaching the exact same sermon,

but the focus will be much of the same.

Last week, we celebrated Resurrection Sunday,

and I praise God for what he did, man.

It was a beautiful, beautiful service, beautiful weekend.

You know, we had a record-breaking attendance last week.

Like, more than, we had to bring out the green chairs,

the ones that we're embarrassed of, right?

We had to bring those out of the fellowship hall.

We had to bring them in here.

We had about an estimated 420 people in this room.

We only have 400 terrors, amen?

And so we just, I mean, praise God, over 20 salvations,

and just beautiful, beautiful stuff.

To God be all the honor, all the glory.

And again, I already said this many times,

but I gotta say it again.

If you were serving in the parking, security, ushers,

man, thank you, because you weren't able

to enjoy the service because you were in the service

of the Lord, thank you.

God bless you.

But if you were here, you remember that the message

last week was centralized on the invitation of Jesus,

that when Jesus invites you, he makes a way for you.

Even when it's impossible.

Even when you think you can't get over the mountain,

you can't cross the Jordan, you can't cross the Red Sea,

Jesus makes it possible when he says, "Come."

Everything has to listen.

Nature has to stop being nature-like.

The demons have to stop pursuing you when Jesus says, "Come,"

because there is power and authority

in the very voice of our Lord.

I think that's depicted here in this story

when Jesus tells the demons, "Come out,"

they've got no choice but to listen.

They can't even throw a fit about it.

They have to listen.

And today, the theme is kind of focused

on the opposite end of that,

where sometimes Jesus will invite you,

but other times he will send you.

Sometimes Jesus says, "Come," other times he says, "Go."

That's the great commission, that's what it's all about.

Matthew 28, 19, "Go and make disciples of all nations

"and baptize them in the name of the Father,

"son, and the Holy Spirit.

"Go."

At various points in our faith,

we will all be either invited or sent by God.

Amen?

It's not always just, "Come, come, come,"

it's not always just, "Go, go, go."

In some seasons, there will be seasons of coming

and there will be seasons of going.

Now, I will say this, before Jesus sends you anywhere,

he has to first invite you.

Jesus had to invite the disciples first to follow him

before he sent them out, right?

Because before we go out into the world,

we need the blessing of Jesus.

We need the spirit of Jesus.

We need to be sent in power and authority.

We can't be doing it on our own resources and strength

because that's not gonna last very long.

So we need to accept the invitation of Jesus

when he says, "Come," we come, and he equips us.

Before you can deliver, you gotta be delivered, right?

Before you can give, you've gotta receive

because you can't give from that which you don't have.

Now, some people, they try to fake it.

They've just got false prophets, false teachers, all that.

They come to you in the name of God.

But very quickly, will God expose the real them?

You have to understand that when Jesus says, "Go,"

it's because he's already,

you've already accepted the invitation

and he's already prepared you.

You're ready to go when God says, "Go."

And, you know, I was so torn on what to preach about.

So I think some people wanted me to preach about

on the solar eclipse that's happening tomorrow.

Talk about that, pastor, talk about that.

And I'm gonna talk about it real, real quick, real quick.

I'm gonna say this, if you're scared,

then you need to accept Jesus today, okay?

If that's what's driving all the hysteria,

I got a solution, his name is Jesus,

and you won't be scared anymore

because the Bible talks about the times

that we're already living,

we've been living in these times.

You know there was a solar eclipse in 2017 too, right?

Yeah.

There's, these events are happening all around the world.

There's already signs and wonders,

and so many people, they look so intently

about what's gonna happen and try to speculate.

Like if you're trying to time the market,

you're trying to time the coming of Jesus to see,

I don't know what you're trying to see,

how much you can get away with before he comes back.

Just get right.

Because the Bible says he's gonna come

like a thief in the night.

Everybody's looking tomorrow,

he probably ain't gonna come, he probably can come next day.

Just get right.

That's the sermon on that, all right?

Now let's get back to today's.

Because the Lord, I believe,

is calling everybody who's already accepted Jesus to go.

You have an assignment to go.

There is a place, there is a person

that God is sending you to.

And I know that that sounds great and everything,

and maybe you're even saying, that's confirmation, Pastor.

I'm buying my plane ticket, going to Africa,

be a missionary.

That's not what I'm saying.

I mean, if God is calling you to that, then do it.

But what I want you to understand today

is something very, very important that we have to,

we kinda have to, we have to unlearn

because we have been so cultured by church and by ministry

that we only think certain things

can a Christian be called to.

But God might say go, and he doesn't intend for you

to go to the pulpit or to the mission field

or to the microphone or to the platform.

Many Christians want to be sent by God.

We're so eager, we say, God, I'll go.

But sometimes going means going home.

Some people are called to go back to Egypt, like Moses.

Some people are called to fight Goliath, like David.

Some people are called to the promised land.

Some are called to the nations.

Some are called to go home.

Now, out of all of that, you could probably,

you probably have in mind which calling is the greatest.

Because like I said, we've been so cultured to believe

that in the kingdom of God, there are places of greatness

that are greater than others.

I think that's part of the human condition.

We want to be in places of elevation.

We wanna be in places of status.

So the disciples asked Jesus one day,

who's gonna be the greatest in your kingdom?

And Jesus has to correct them

by illustrating his point with children.

He says, if you can't be like these little ones,

if you can't be like the children

who could care less who's in charge,

who could care less who's number one,

who can care less who's gonna preach,

you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

Hear me, church, because the calling that is the greatest

is the one that you obey.

That's the calling that's the greatest.

I'm gonna say it again,

because some of you are wanting God

to give you a different one.

I heard you God, but I don't like that one.

The calling that is the greatest

is the one that you listen to and step into.

Not because you want it, but because of obedience.

The text says that as Jesus stepped into the boat to leave,

the man who had been delivered, this demon possessed man,

he begs Jesus to allow him to go with him.

Jesus, let me go with you.

Let me follow you so that I can learn from you

so that I can watch you do more signs and wonders

and hear you preach and teach

and let me become one of your disciples.

And many other times Jesus is telling people to come,

follow me, and they reject the invitation.

This man's not even waiting for an invitation.

He's inviting himself.

He's saying, Jesus, let me come with you.

But Jesus says, no, go home.

Go home and tell your friends

how much the Lord has done for you.

Now, let's be honest, let's be honest.

That kind of sounds like a lame calling.

I gotta go home.

I want something new.

I want a different place.

I want elevation.

I want glory to glory.

You're sending me back.

This past, well, I'll say that in a bit.

This day, I imagine that this day

was probably the greatest day of this man's life

in a long time because no longer is he gonna have to live

in a cave, no longer is he in chains,

no longer is he in outcasts, he's free.

He's free.

And if you know what it's like to be free

after not being free, man, that's exciting.

And you leave the house of God refreshed

and ready for the next thing, ready for new glory.

And so many of us come to God and we say, God, use me.

Use me, call me.

I'll go to the nations, I'll go to the multitudes.

Let me allow, allow me to cast out the demons

as you have cast out of me, but Jesus says, no.

I want you to go home and tell your testimony.

Tell your testimony.

This past Friday, we had this marriage panel up here

was really, man, it was awesome.

We had some really difficult but relevant questions

on what many marriages go through.

It was, man, it was fun.

If you missed it, don't miss the next one.

I was sitting there, I was locked in the whole time.

It was about an hour, hour and a half.

And sometimes panels get boring, not this one.

I was fully engaged.

And what I was hearing as the different couples spoke,

you know, I wasn't hearing a formula

on what a happy marriage was like

'cause I don't think anybody has a formula.

Happy wife, happy life is as close as it gets, right?

There's no real formula for a successful marriage.

So nobody was preaching up here.

Nobody had a three-point sermon.

You know what I was hearing?

I was hearing testimonies.

I was hearing these couples who found themselves

in different moments coming out of those moments

with lessons learned.

That's what, see, God allows us all

to go through very difficult, sometimes embarrassing,

sometimes shameful, sometimes painful moments in our lives.

And then when we come out of those moments

with lessons learned and newfound wisdom,

what a waste it is to not tell other people what we learned.

That's a waste.

How are you gonna waste a good testimony?

And you might say, well, Pastor, God healed my marriage.

Nobody needs to know that I cheated on my wife.

That's embarrassing.

And yeah, don't share with everybody.

But don't be so ashamed of your testimony

because through your ugly, God made something beautiful.

Pastor, you don't know what I used to be.

I don't wanna tell people that I lost everything.

I don't wanna tell people that I lost all my business

and my home.

No one needs to know what used to be.

But what used to be shame turns into God's glory.

That's the beauty of it.

What was once ugly is now beautiful.

What was once broken is not broken anymore.

You know what I think?

How many relationships did this ex-demon possessed man

mess up during his lifetime?

We don't think that far into the story.

We just read what's on the surface.

But this man has a history.

How many relationships did he mess up to get to a point

where he has to now live in a cave?

How big of a mess was he gonna have to go back home to

and have to clean up because he ruined certain things?

There were probably people he didn't wanna have to see

because he caused so much hurt.

He was ashamed to see them,

but that's not the same person anymore.

That's not the same person.

And people need to see it for themselves.

There's people who accept the invitation of Jesus,

but they never go back home

so that the people can actually see the change.

They only hear that you're a Christian.

They only see that you're a Christian on Facebook

when you check into Pneuma Church.

They only hear that you're a Christian when you tell them,

"No, I can't hang out with you anymore.

I don't do that anymore."

And listen, I'm not telling you to put yourself

in situations that you can't handle,

but realize that at some point,

people need to stop hearing about the change

and need to begin to see it.

And they're not gonna see it

if you're never around them.

We need to learn, listen,

we need to learn to be more proud

of who we are today in God

than we are ashamed of who we used to be in the world.

And we need to elevate who we are today

because of what God did in our lives

instead of being so afraid of who we used to be.

If you used to be transgender, I wanna hear about it.

(congregation murmuring)

It's a dark part of your past,

but look at what God did through it.

Look at what God did through it.

You gotta be more proud of what God did

and took you out of

than of the shame that you had back then.

We all got shame.

We all have ugly.

I got stuff that I don't want everybody to know about,

but in certain seasons and in front of certain people,

that is not a testimony that I can waste.

If someone is going through something

that I've been through,

who am I to withhold the testimony

and the lessons that I learned when I was there?

Tell the testimony.

Let people see the difference.

When people hear your testimony, what happens?

Do they become hopeful of what God can do for them

if he did it for you?

And I heard testimonies this past Friday

of things that I'm like, man,

if we went through something like that, could we make it?

Is that possible?

It is possible.

And I know that because you told it.

Thank you for those of you who shared.

You didn't go through what you went through for no reason.

Tests become testimonies, right?

And testimonies are powerful because you go back

and you see what God did through your pain,

but that power is magnified when you tell people about it.

There's two things, real quick,

two things that I get from this story

that I wanna point to you.

You still with me?

Number one, upon the man's deliverance,

I want you to get this,

upon the man's deliverance, God was ready to use him.

Immediately, within about 20 minutes,

the man who was filled with two, 3000, 6000 demons,

Jesus is now saying, go, tell your testimony.

He didn't have to go through a,

he didn't have to attend a class.

He didn't have to do the whole new beginnings

from foundations, as we call it.

He didn't have to sit with the pastor

and meet about expectations.

I use those examples because that's a very common process.

It's one that we use at our church,

and it's good because we have to have a system

to bring in new leaders.

That's great and it keeps people accountable,

but this man didn't have to be a leader to be used.

Jesus never gave him a title.

He didn't change his name.

We didn't even know the man's name.

He didn't give him a position.

He didn't give him a job description.

He just said, go and tell your testimony.

If God saved your life yesterday,

if you gave your life to Jesus last week,

you have a testimony today.

You don't need to have a seminary degree.

You don't need to have a prophetic anointing

or a calling to pastoral ministry.

If you have a testimony, you have enough.

Tell it, tell it in a way that points to Jesus.

Listen, it doesn't mean that God is not gonna give you more

and begin to use you in other ways.

But he needs to know that you're not in it

for the praise or for the recognition.

He needs to know that you're in it

because of what he did for you.

(congregation cheering)

Can you start with just the testimony?

And I don't care if God saved you from a legion of demons

or if God saved you from a fender bender.

If God saved you from your own insecurities, your pride,

tell the testimony because there's glory there.

There's a glory there.

I've been in church all my life.

All my life, God never saved me from drugs,

never saved me from alcohol,

never saved me from the hood life.

He didn't take me off the streets, none of that.

And sometimes I used to wonder like,

man, God, why don't you give me a better testimony?

You know?

Why haven't I gone through some stuff, you know?

(congregation laughing)

And sometimes, and sometimes because,

you know, sometimes we undervalue the testimony

because it can't compete with the ex-Satanist

serial killer dude who's now leading worship.

Can't compete with that.

But if God did anything in your life,

I guarantee you someone can be healed because of it

because not everybody can relate to the ex-Satanist

serial killer dude who's leading worship.

But I bet you they can relate to some of the pride issues

that you used to go through,

some of the marriage issues that you used to face.

Tell the testimony.

Number two, Jesus told him to begin at home.

This one's really important.

And I want you to do me a favor this morning.

I say this with love, I say this with care.

And I want you to get this, I'm talking to leaders.

If you serve in ministry here at church,

you're actively involved in telling people here

about Jesus in the temple,

but there is no evident ministry in your home,

stop doing ministry here.

And look, I'm not saying that ministry in your home

needs to be perfect because ministry is never perfect.

Ministry is messy.

Ministry is messy.

And you might be going through a family issue

or a marital crisis.

You know, we as pastors, we face family drama pretty often,

believe it or not.

It's not always peaches in our marriage.

It is like 99% of the time, right?

But there's that one percent where things get a little ugly.

There's some parenting struggles

that we have to figure out every now and then.

It's not always perfect in the home.

If you were to look at it, you might even think,

man, there's a little bit of a dysfunction here.

That's normal because ministry isn't perfect,

but you know what is always present in our home is God.

God is somehow going to fit into the solution

of whatever it is that we're going through.

But if there's not even an attempt to ensure

that your home is filled with the Holy Spirit,

stop doing ministry here because you're hurting your family.

You're hurting them.

Imagine if this man had gone with Jesus

and he went onto the boat and he became one of Jesus' disciples.

Imagine one, two, three years down the road,

his ministering to the cities and his family sees him.

His family sees this man who was once living in caves

and bound in chains.

Now he's loving on other people

and he's ministering to other people

and he's preaching to other people

and he's telling other people how much Jesus loves him.

If I were the man's son, I'd be like,

"Dad, where you been? Did you forget about us?"

And we see this pretty often in the church.

The minister ministers to everyone except their family.

And we're perfectly fine telling strangers

how much Jesus loves them while the home is neglected

and the spouse is spiritually depleted

and the kids have no real model of godliness.

Jesus says, "No, you're not coming with me.

I want you to go home.

I want you to go to your family.

I want you to go to your friends

and your relationship back home.

I want you to start there and fix what was broken.

Start at the home."

One of the things that I kept hearing on the marriage panel

is ministry begins at the home.

Marriage is your first ministry.

The home life is your first ministry.

It has to begin there.

That sounds nice, but I don't think people actually believe it.

There's people who, there was this man a couple years ago

who was coming to the church and he wanted to preach

and he wanted to start teaching.

And there was some clear spiritual needs,

issues in his home that were not really being worked out.

And I told him, I'm like, man, you really need to focus

on what's going on in your home.

And that wasn't something he wanted to hear.

It's not here today anymore.

You know what I've noticed in all my years of pastoring,

I've seen people willing to serve at the church.

They say, "Hey pastor, put me anywhere.

I'll serve anywhere."

And they mean it, they mean it.

Like I'm talking about really good people.

They don't need a platform, they don't need a microphone.

They're willing to clean.

They're willing to take out trash.

We're willing to fix toilets.

And I love these types of people.

Pastors love these type of people.

And I believe that we have these types of people here

at our church.

We have such a serving church,

but sometimes the home doesn't get served

to the same capacity as the church.

And that's a problem.

It's a problem.

I'm not even preaching anymore.

I'm just kind of having a conversation with you.

But that's a problem.

Like if your spouse hardly ever has you at home

because you can't stop saying yes

to the functions at the church,

I give you permission to stop volunteering

for a little bit.

Give you permission.

If your kids haven't seen you on a weekend,

in months, take a day, take a weekend

and be with them.

Give you permission to do that

because your ministry begins at the home.

Tell the person next to you, go home.

Don't leave yet though.

Wait till after church.

I should have.

Everybody leaves.

Listen, there's work to be done at home.

And for those of you who are newer to the faith,

look, God has already done a work in you

that your family needs to see.

Speak Jesus into your home.

Speak Jesus into your family, into your wife,

into your kids.

It might be awkward for them.

They might laugh at you when you pray over them at night.

They might laugh at you.

Do it anyways.

Let them see that you're serious.

Let them see that you're not just talk.

Let them see the real change, the transformation

that God is having in your life.

Be the testimony and let your kids see it first.

You don't need to put it in a sermon.

You don't need to put it in a song or in a book

or anything like that.

Just tell people what God has done in your life

and he will do the rest.

And then for the veterans in the faith,

those of you who have been walking in the Lord

for a long time, I wanna tell you,

don't forget about the calling to your home

because you have one.

Don't ever let the home just become the launching pad

that you never revisit when your ministry starts to develop.

If your prayers become, Lord, anoint my ministry,

anoint this church, anoint my sermon,

anoint the people that are coming into this temple,

and you're always praying for what goes on in the ministry,

but you never pray for what goes on in your living room

or in your bedroom, you have lost sight of something

that is so crucial to your life.

And I don't know if you realize it, but you are losing it.

And you're losing your family.

And if you lose your family,

the future of the church doesn't even exist

because the people that embody the body of Christ

are families.

My kids will never care how well I preach

if I'm never around, never.

My wife will not care if I am an anointed pastor

if I suck at being a husband.

She doesn't care.

She's not impressed by it.

I know.

I'm a words of affirmation guy.

I'm like, hey, what'd you think about my sermon?

You know, it's good.

Can you take out the trash?

She doesn't care about my ministry here with other people

if there's no ministry with her and my children.

And you have to remember that.

Leaders and people who serve in the church,

that it begins at your home.

And if you begin to neglect them, I want you to stop.

I want you to hand in your resignation letter.

And I want you to say,

I'm gonna focus on my family for a little while

because there's no ministry at home.

God show me something while I was preparing this word, man.

He said that God doesn't keep us

in high places for very long.

He allows our bubbles to be popped every now and then.

Yeah, God works in seasons, right?

There's gonna be seasons of blessings,

but there's not always gonna be seasons of blessings.

There's gonna be seasons of growth

and you gotta milk it when you're in it,

but there's not always gonna be seasons of growth.

And one of the reasons I believe this is

is because when we get so excited, I'm almost done.

Just let me have five minutes of your attention.

This is where I'm not really sure

where the sermon is gonna go.

We're gonna just depend on the Holy Spirit.

One of the reasons I believe that this is

is because when we get so excited to see the hand of God,

eventually the excitement becomes the motivator

for everything that we do.

The excitement becomes the stimulant.

And we just, we have to keep getting more and more and more

and leveling up and my glory to my glory to my glory.

This ex-demon possessed man

had just had a miracle done in his life.

There had to be so many moments

where this man cried out in the cave,

"Somebody help me, somebody save me."

Think about all that same repeated prayer

that you pray every single night

that you're waiting for one day Jesus to come through.

That was probably this man every single night.

The Bible says day and night he was in torment.

He was cutting himself with stones,

trying to put himself out of misery.

He was completely tormented.

And one day he sees Jesus and automatically he becomes hopeful.

He becomes, even though he was possessed,

I believe that the man that was in there,

I believe when he just saw Jesus, he became hopeful.

That's what we were just singing that earlier.

Jesus changes everything and when you realize that,

when you realize that Jesus is in the room

and Jesus has all the power, you become hopeful

and that hope becomes excitement

where you just wanna fall at the feet of Jesus.

And so this man sees Jesus and I'm thinking,

he's probably thinking, "Man, maybe this is the day."

And the demons tremble because they know exactly

who they're dealing with.

They know exactly who Jesus is.

And in one moment, this man who was literally living

in shackles, who was an outcast to society,

living in a cave, now he receives a healing

that only Jesus could deliver.

We probably don't think too much about this,

but for this man to be possessed with this many demons,

he was absolutely living in bondage

way before he started living in a cave.

I mean, a legion, this man had many thousands of demons.

He doesn't, that just doesn't happen

just one day to the next.

This man probably had a lifetime of suffering

and bondage and mindsets and abuse and sin.

And in one encounter with Jesus,

one encounter, he's completely free.

Think about that.

Think, I mean, golly, you don't realize

what we're talking about.

We're talking about a lifetime.

I don't know what some of you have dealt with

for a lifetime, but what if God just delivered you today

from it, took it all away, changed your life as you knew it?

This man had to be over the moon ecstatic, man,

for what God had just done in his life.

Think about how you felt when God saved you

or when God healed you or when God said,

"You don't have cancer anymore,"

or when he provided for you, when you needed provision.

Remember the day that you got that prophetic word

over your life and you walked out, man, with confidence.

Remember when your family member came to Jesus,

when God works in your life,

it's like he takes you to the highest mountain

so that you can enjoy the view of everything

that he's doing.

But the point that I'm making

is that he doesn't keep you there forever.

And if you're anything like me,

I wanna break records every day.

Last Sunday, we broke records.

420 people in the room.

I'm like, God, can we do that again next week?

I wanna break records all the time.

Last year, maybe you had the best year of your life

in your business.

God, give me another one.

And sometimes it works like that,

but sometimes God brings you back down

because we need to learn to be obedient

in the glory moments and in the humble moments.

We can't be driven by the excitement.

We can't be driven by the emotion

because the emotion doesn't last.

I've said this before.

Emotion will get you to the feet of Jesus,

but once the emotion fades, it's up to you.

Are you gonna stay at the feet of Jesus

or are you gonna go on to the next emotional moment?

Obedience has to be the thing that keeps you.

Worship team, I'm gonna ask you to come up.

So sometimes God will let you reach a moment

where you feel the glory of God

and you're so glad to be a part of it,

but he's not gonna let you stay there so long.

He did this with Elijah.

If you remember the story of Elijah,

Elijah goes up against all these false prophets

and God uses him in a mighty way

and he shuts down all the prophets of Baal

and this is probably the highlight

of Elijah's prophetic ministry

and quickly does it take a turn

when he's being chased by Jezebel.

And he gets to such a low point in his life

where he wishes he were dead.

After coming from up here, after God used him in a way

that he had not used another prophet before,

now he wants to die and he says, "God, that's enough."

I'm tired.

God will often check you to keep you humble and dependent,

but he's still taking you from glory to glory.

I want you to understand that.

He's still taking you from glory to glory.

It might just not be your glory.

That's okay.

We weren't made for our glory.

We were created for God's glory.

And so whether Jesus is telling you to step off the boat

and walk on the water or step into the boat

and follow him or go back home, somebody needs to hear this.

The greatest place you can be is in the will of God.

The greatest place that you can be is in the Lord's will.

And that's what I want you to understand

because again, we've been so cultured to the opposite.

When you prioritize the place, you prioritize the position,

you forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

You forget that you're a servant.

It's not even about the calling.

It's about the message.

Please hear me, please hear me.

Because preachers, man, we know how to preach on calling.

That is like number one thing that people preach on

is calling because calling makes it about you.

And when it's about you, you get emotional

and you come to the altars to make a life-changing decision.

But it's not even about the calling.

It's about the message.

And the message isn't yours.

The message is his.

If God calls you to the nations,

the power is not in the place.

The power is in the message.

The text says that he went away.

The man went away.

He went home and he began to proclaim in the Decapolis

how much Jesus had done for him.

The Bible says that everyone marveled.

Everyone marveled.

That's the power of your story.

That's the power of your obedience.

Maybe you can't develop a sermon.

Maybe you can't prepare for a sermon.

Maybe you can't write a song.

Maybe you can't sing to save your life.

But only you can speak to what God has put you through

and saved you from.

That is yours and the message is his.

And when you combine the two and say, man, I was here,

but God did this, it changes people.

It changes lives.

Everyone will look at you and they will marvel,

not because you're impressive,

but because they knew what you were.

This man who had demons,

this man who was corrupt,

this man who was living in chains and shackles in a cave,

that same man.

Bible says they saw him there.

He was sitting in his right mind.

The man wasn't impressing anybody.

It was what had happened in him, the testimony.

And man, I know that there's people here today

who are in the test.

You are in the test.

You haven't gotten to the testimony yet.

I don't know if I'm speaking to anybody this morning.

You've been listening to the whole sermon.

You're like, I ain't got no testimony yet.

I'm still in the test.

To those people, I wanna tell you this.

First of all, I'm with you.

And you're ashamed of what you're going through today

because you haven't been able to conquer it.

But what if, what would happen

if you began to proclaim the testimony during the test?

Come on.

See, now we're talking about faith.

David testified that the Goliath would be slain

before he even cast the stone.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego proclaimed the victory

of God before they were even thrown in the fiery furnace.

Sometimes the faith produces the testimony.

When you start to proclaim Jesus into your situation,

that's when spirits get nervous.

That's when demons get nervous.

When Jesus began walking towards this man,

the demons got nervous.

They got scared.

They trembled because they couldn't handle

what they knew was about to happen.

You might not be demon possessed,

but you might have some spirits

trying to mess with you today, trying to torment you today.

But I know that when you start to declare Jesus,

they don't want that.

When you start to invite Jesus into your midst,

demons start to sweat.

Bro, we need some Christians to tell the devil

what God is about to do.

Don't just tell the devil what God did.

Tell the devil what God is about to do.

Let me lay it out for you.

Let me tell you how it is for you, devil.

Let me tell you, Goliath, how you're about to die.

Let me tell you how it is.

When you rise up in faith, that produces the testimony,

the testimony that changes lives.

Jesus, you change everything.

I want us to sing now.

- Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on Pneuma Church,

visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org.

If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe

or share it with your friends on social media

and tag us @mypneumachurch.

Thanks again and God bless.

(upbeat music)

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