Get A SIP- 4 Human Needs

All right.

Well, the title of my message tonight is you'll get it in a minute.

It's called Get a SIP, and A-SIP is an acronym that because I'm a goofy crossword puzzle person but anyway, it's about four basic human needs, four human needs and, of course, how the Lord and how Jesus is the meter of those needs, how the Lord and how Jesus is the meter of those needs.

And it's based out of, it's inspired by not all of it, but it's inspired by a book that I was reading called Marriage on the Rock by Jimmy Evans, and in chapter one.

Don't worry, I'm not talking about marriage tonight, tonight, but it was so good because all human relationships flow out of our main relationship with God and if we're frustrated in our human relationships, be they friendships, family relationships, marriage or any other thing, we can always look at our relationship with God and see where are we getting our needs met.

And so that really ministered.

I thought, man, that is so practical, so I really hope that helps y'all tonight.

Let's first turn to John 7, verse 37.

John 7:37

On the last day, the great day of the feast, the most important day of the feast that they were celebrating, jesus stood and cried out, saying if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Everybody say rivers of living water.

Everybody say rivers of living water.

But this he spoke concerning the Spirit whom those believing in him would receive.

For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified.

So the Holy Spirit could not yet take up residence in our hearts.

He could only come upon people, as James was saying earlier, for certain tasks and functions.

He could come upon the priests, the prophet and the king, but he couldn't come upon you and me, just regular people.

The Holy Spirit could not do that under the Old Testament.

But now he can take up residence in us and he can break open fountains of living water, and so we need to let him do that.

And then so there are rivers, actually rivers of living water.

But before we can have a river, we have to have a fountain.

And so if we go to John 4, we can flip back there a minute and we can see the Samaritan woman.

The Samaritan woman, you know, we know this story she was drawing water from a well.

She had to go there in the middle of the day because all the other women went in the cool of the day earlier.

But she couldn't associate with the other women because she hadn't been getting her sustenance, her satisfaction, from Jesus or from God's path.

She had been getting her needs met, she thought, by men, but it wasn't working for her.

Over and over again she had been married and she had not found satisfaction and she was in a desperate, sad and lonely place.

And here she is, by herself drawing water, and here's Jesus that comes upon her and sees her in her need and says give me a drink.

And his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

And the woman of Samaria said to him how is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?

Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

We know that why the Samaritan people were descended from you know.

Remember when the kingdom of Israel split into two kingdoms and you had the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel and the 10 tribes of Israel split into two kingdoms and you had the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel and the 10 tribes of Israel started worshiping golden calves set up by their king, jeroboam, and it was a terrible idolatrous practice, and their capital was Samaria and they worshiped idols.

And the people of Judah said oh, we have our tabernacle over here, we have our temple of God over here in the Ark of the Covenant.

We're gonna do things God's way.

And you people are unclean over on the other side of the river and we don't associate with you and your idols.

And so the Samaritan people were considered unclean by the Jews.

It wasn't a racial thing, it was a idol thing.

But Jesus said give me a drink.

And Jesus, and then so she said why?

And Jesus said if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you give me a drink, then you would have asked him and he would have given you a drink of living water.

You should be asking me for a drink, jesus is saying.

And of course she is confused and should be asking me for a drink.

Jesus is saying and of course she is confused.

And then he tells her in verse 13, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.

In other words this well, right here, you're going to thirst, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.

You know, jesus loves people where they are.

He loves women.

He loves men, peter.

He loves people who are rough and people who are high and mighty and look like they have it all together.

He knows high and mighty and look like they have it all together.

He knows that we don't and he loves us anyway.

When I went to I am not a big world traveler anymore, I am a mom who stays home and watches my kids grow up, but when I was in college, I got to spend half a summer in Italy and I got to see a lot of cool stuff.

Lee, I don't know if you got my, I don't know if you got my picture I sent, but one of the things that I saw when I was in Italy, I went to like a different museum every day and by the end of that summer I was so tired of museums I never wanted to get into another one.

I could only but this.

This was something that really touched me.

Now, this is not the woman at the well, but it could have been.

This was something that really touched me.

Now, this is not the woman at the well, but it could have been.

This was actually Mary Magdalene, or supposedly.

You know it's an artist's rendition.

The artist, donatello, did not know what Mary Magdalene looked like, but she was of a similar stock as a Samaritan woman.

Jesus had to deliver her from seven demons and she never, never, lost her love of Jesus.

She never lost her gracious and gratitude to him and served him.

But if you could just zoom in I mean, you can't, lee, maybe you can, I don't know but when I saw that statue, it was her, it was Mary Magdalene, carved in a burly, gnarly wood, you know, and it was amid all these other Grecian statues carved of marble, and they looked so perfect and they were so beautiful and everything was so.

And here she is with just this look on her face of utter like.

She is haggardly, she is worn, she is burly and wooden and broken, but she loves Jesus.

She loves Jesus.

And I did not cry a lot in Italy.

I did not cry when I saw St Peter's.

I did not cry when I saw the glory of all the other, michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel and the finger of God and the Adam, and I didn't cry.

I cried when I saw her, because Jesus loves us and he meets us where we are, and so there are four basic human needs that everybody needs and this is according to, like I said, jimmy Evans I didn't make this up but and it spells ASIP, a-s-i-p.

So when I say come to Jesus and drink, I just thought, well, I'll just go with the SIP Acceptance, security, identity and purpose.

We all need those things.

If we don't get those things from God, if we get them from somewhere else, we will be broken, we will act broken, we will.

Our lives will not flow, we will be unsatisfied and we will not fulfill the purpose of God in our lives.

But we got to get it from Jesus and most people, if you ask them where, you know why do they feel accepted, how do they feel secure?

Where, how do they identify?

You know, identity is a big thing.

Have y'all noticed that I identify as a People don't have an identity because many times they don't know who their dad is.

That's a part of it.

This is just a.

This is a tough.

These are issues that are real right now.

And purpose you know, we can have all the money in the world, but we can wake up and not know what to do with our day, with our life, with our time, with our what do we do with ourselves Purpose?

And if you ask most people if we're really even Christians I mean, if you ask Christians they'll first oh yes, god is my, he is my, meter of all my needs, and many of us would say that.

But if we're really, really honest, there are times when we really dial down on it, that we're looking to someone else to meet that need and it kind of goes to like, when something bad goes wrong, who's the first person you call?

Do you pray about it?

Or do you call somebody For me?

You know, growing up I called my daddy.

I still sometimes do.

But it can't be from yourself.

We can't be our own source of that.

We can't get it.

If we look to another person to provide that, then that person will be inadequate and we will make them miserable.

We will eventually drive them away because they can never, never take that place.

Same, our children can't take it, our spouse can't take it, our career cannot meet those needs for us.

We cannot get our identity based on what we do for a living.

We cannot do it based on how much money we have, whether we have a boat or not, whether we travel a lot or whether we don't, whether we can't none of those things.

Not even can we get our identity from where, what church we go to and who is our pastor and what preachers we like.

You know, those are great things and those are.

Those are things that add to us, but it cannot be.

Our identity has to be Jesus, and we're learning that.

We're learning that because James and I, god's called us to work with all kinds of people that are out of my comfort zone.

I might not agree with their doctrine on a lot of things, as we've been working with my God Votes and we've been establishing these new church services in state capitals.

Many of you know now that we're in, we have had Oklahoma during the legislative session.

They have a legislative session right now and we're about halfway through and we've been hosting church services there in Oklahoma City inside the Capitol building.

We serve legislators, we serve lobbyists, we serve anybody who might be in the Capitol that day, and then there's a whole bunch of praying, sweet, wonderful believers who show up, who pray and who are the backlog of the fire.

And then we're also working in Louisiana right now.

It's so exciting, it's so gratifying.

But there are people who come to those meetings that I do not know what they even believe.

I don't know what their doctrine is, and I have to try, and even people that we work with, even people we give them a pulpit to preach from.

I don't know what they really believe, but I have a witness from the Holy Ghost that we, that they need to be involved and I got to follow that.

It is outside my comfort zone, so none of the like I can't identify.

You can't identify.

But you are man.

Our identity is in Jesus.

Are we following his plan?

And so here's some.

See, if you can recognize these in your lives, all right.

So if we trust in man lives, all right.

So if we trust in man for our identity, for our purpose, for our acceptance, for our security, then see if you can.

Then this is what might happen.

Jimmy Evans says you might be disappointed with the results.

No matter how well things are going, you still can't be satisfied.

You will lack the inner resources you need to love others the way you should and to confront life successfully.

So when things go wrong in your life, we lack the inner resources.

Oh, I just can't dig deep enough to overcome this?

Oh, I can't, I just can't.

And so this is all, because maybe we're not getting our.

You know, we just need to get it from Jesus right, or we'll eventually be hurt and offended by the one that we've trusted.

We put this person on a pedestal and now they've disappointed us and they can't meet our deepest needs.

And now we're hurt and offended and sad.

Maybe even the relationship is broken.

And so in Jeremiah 17, jeremiah 17,.

Who's turning there?

I'm going to need to turn there because I can't flip my notes.

Oh, here it is.

Verse five thus says the Lord cursed is the man.

See, that sounds like a curse, doesn't it?

To not to have all of these relationships, but they're not satisfying you.

Maybe even they're going well, but they're not satisfying.

Cursed is the man who trusts in man, who makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord, for he shall be like a shrub in the desert.

Remember the drought that we had?

How many of your shrubs really made it?

My grass died.

Some of it, it's okay.

I have a lot of wildflowers now in my yard.

All right.

Shrub in the desert, that's not what I want.

Shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness.

The wilderness is the desert In a salt land in which there which is not inhabited.

But verse seven blessed is the man.

Everybody say.

That's me.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, who looks to the Lord, who lets the Lord meet his needs and whose hope is in the Lord.

For he shall be like a tree planted by waters, which spreads out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes, but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit, nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Why?

The fruit doesn't come from people.

People cannot cause you to bear fruit, no amount of encouragement, no amount of even preaching, or they can't cause you to bear fruit.

Your vibrancy, your fruit and your life comes from.

Are your roots planted down by the water of those rivers of living water that Jesus talked about.

He is the living water.

He can provide that, but you got to spend time with him, all right.

So back to my list again.

Here's the results of trusting people or things, for these needs to be met.

Our inner security is dependent on someone or something that we cannot predict or control and whose resources to meet your needs are limited.

Does that sound like a good idea?

Your ability to give is dependent upon your ability to get from others, so we can be taker, taker, taker, taker before we can give and give, give.

And that's not healthy either, is it?

Our life is filled with an atmosphere of disappointment and frustration.

This is a big one.

Our unrealistic expectations of others create a negative atmosphere of tension or a compelling force, field of pressure that drives other people away from you.

We do not want that.

We do not want to drive.

How do we not drive people away trusting in God?

Because when we trust in God to meet our needs, this is what happens.

Our inner security and strength are dependent upon him, who is totally faithful and has unlimited resources and will never, ever fail us.

He said he would never leave or forsake us.

I'll boldly say the Lord is my helper.

I will not fear what man can do unto me.

Hebrews says our ability to give flows from an inner resource available to you at all times the Holy Spirit.

When others are not giving to you, you can still love them generously, thus endearing yourself to them and strengthening your relationships.

Y'all that is the opposite of what the world will tell you.

The world will tell you you cannot, you can only pour out so much, hon.

You are just overdoing it.

You're just giving yourself.

You're just caring about others too much.

I'm worried about you.

No, no, I have a source and my source is unlimited and it never runs dry, and that's a rivers, rivers of living water springing up.

The woman at the well she got fountains springing up.

And then, after we get the Holy Ghost, we get rivers flowing out, fountains springing up.

Everybody say fountains springing up, rivers flowing out.

So the fountains are for us.

We have salvation, we have security, we have acceptance in the beloved.

Ephesians 1 says of whom we have acceptance in the beloved, we have acceptance in the beloved.

Does that sound nice?

We are accepted among the beloved of God.

I'm telling you, we have so much security.

We have an identity, we have purpose, we have all these things and it's unlimited.

So I can help you, I can pour out on you.

I've got a source.

You can pour out to your neighbor, you can pour out to your friend.

You'll never run dry if you're connected to your source.

Your life will be filled with an atmosphere of blessing, satisfaction and optimism.

I like that your realistic expectations of others.

In other words, I'm sizing you up right now and you ain't got what I need.

That's realistic, and when we have that, it will actually draw us closer together with them as we love them and give to them.

We become the giver in the relationship and not the taker, because we don't need to get it from man, we get it from God.

It will change every relationship that you have when you become the giver and not the taker.

So let's go through.

I want to go through a sip.

Just the four things.

Oh yeah, I got time.

I got time and since I'm talking to my Sunday night crowd, I got my ears open.

Each one of you, y'all hear from God, and so I might have a show of hands.

If you have a scripture that pops into your heart about each of these little topics, you will raise your hand and you will read me your scripture, and I might even grab the microphone and take it to you.

But these are the things I thought of.

For acceptance, a get a sip, a sip of Jesus right.

A is acceptance.

It's a basic human need.

We can get that from him and Ephesians 1.6 says I mentioned it earlier we've been accepted in the beloved in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

We cannot get any more accepted by Jesus than for him to give his very life to bleed and die and then rise again from and go to hell.

There is no man who could ever.

There is no person, no boss, no child who could ever do more for you than Jesus already did.

He accepts you unconditionally.

He did that while you were yet sinners.

Christ died for you, and so we don't ever have to wonder if we are accepted with him.

You are accepted.

If you have accepted him, you are accepted.

And so what a joy.

Does anybody have?

An acceptance scripture?

Come on, rachel.

Acceptance, yes, sylvia.

Behold what manner of love that we should be called the children of God.

That's in 1 John, isn't it?

Behold what manner of love we should be called the children of God.

He's bestowed, he lavished it on us.

That love he lavished.

We're accepted.

I just if my hair looks grayer, it is because I spent two days.

The last two days, thursday and Friday, all day with cars full of seventh grade girls driving them to Marble Falls to camp.

Then we went to Peternalis Falls State Park.

It was exciting.

It was a school trip for my seventh grader and she is delightful, I enjoy spending time with her.

But then there were some other girls in the car.

I got the car with the children who were the socially awkward children.

Don't tell anyone.

Some of my children not all of them, but some of them were dealing with and struggling with these issues of acceptance and they had been bullied and they had varying degrees of success and were in varying stages of working through that.

And one of them.

So we got up in the morning and I just did not want to.

They're very talkative, very, very sparkling in their conversation and I just wanted to set the tone, you know.

And so, rather than hear the well, my ADHD and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, I just and I can't do that, I can't this and this person just said this and it hurt my feelings.

So rather than that, I said you know name, I did not get to read my Bible this morning.

It's 8.30 in the morning.

I just packed y'all all up and we're heading out from camp to another location and I did not get to read my Bible.

Can you do me a favor?

It's right here on my console, can you read?

And I like to do that every morning.

Do you have a passage that you like to read in your Bible?

And she thought about it for a minute.

It's a Christian school so I can do that.

And she said, ooh, that one about the valley of the shadow of death.

I went, oh, oh Well, first I had to read Ephesians 1 because I thought, man, that'll encourage me and her.

So I had to read the Ephesians 1 prayer.

We were just in Ephesians 1, so if you're still there, but the eyes of your understanding be enlightened, that you would know the hope of your calling, what is the glorious riches of his inheritance in the saints, and that you would know the seeing greatness of his power which works in you.

I mean, wow, and she's reading it to me, so it's coming out of her mouth, and so, as she's reading, I'll be like, I'll like explain it.

You know, and I kind of okay, you're going to know three things.

We're, we're going to know these three things when we, when we know God, we can have.

And so she's, she's into it, right.

And then I asked her and she said, well, the valley of the shadow of death.

I said, well, turn to Psalm 23.

It's in the middle of your Bible.

So she, it took her like five minutes to find it.

And so I said read that.

And there, out of her little mouth, the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want he makes me to lie down in green pastures.

And by the time she finished reading that whole Psalm, because it's in first person, it's my shepherd.

I shall not, you know.

You know, it's my head with oil, my cup runs over.

So she's reading that whole thing.

And God came in that car with those seventh grade girls.

God's love and his peace just came and it changed the whole atmosphere until they got muddy in the river and had to come back in my car with no towels but no, but God, just to hear they are accepted.

The word of God is so.

It's this framework, security.

So the A is acceptance, the S is security, safety, knowing that your needs are going to be met, always, knowing that.

You know it's tempting to put your trust in uncertain riches, but Timothy said that's.

Paul said to Timothy that's a bad idea.

We don't trust in uncertain riches.

It's tempting to put your security and your safety and your.

Oh, I have this great job, I have these great benefits, I have this, I have that.

Nope, it's gotta be in God first.

We all have that need to feel like we are gonna have our needs met and our emotional needs met.

We need that.

Kenneth Howard was a longtime member of Glory's Way.

He sat right there, he ushered in that last chair, right behind Jen over there, but they got kind of sucked into another church a few years back and we miss them.

We've kept in touch with him though Sweet, sweet him and Elaine but he recently passed away and his funeral was on Saturday, and I heard Anita's story.

I was driving kids, as you know, so I didn't get to go to the funeral, but he had his dad died when he was in seventh grade and he had four sisters Am I right?

Am I telling it right?

Who was there?

Four sisters and um, and so he dropped out of school and he just gave his life to care for those sisters.

He walked across the street that day and he got a job at the fire station to support his sisters so that they would eat.

He provided their security, he did what he could to care for them and he never looked back.

He didn't have, he was not a Wall Street banker, but he made a good life for his family and he provided the security that he could.

And he provided the security that he could.

But how many of y'all have a security scripture?

Does anybody have a security scripture?

Come on, what's your security scripture?

Anybody?

Philippians 4.19, say it.

Irma, what is it?

Ooh, my God shall supply all my needs, according to his riches and glory, by Christ Jesus.

Lavelle had a security scripture.

What was it, lavelle?

Yes, I was waiting for somebody to say Psalm 91.

Yes, psalm 91, if you're taking notes, he that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Most High, I will say of the Lord.

He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, and him will I trust.

How do I know that scripture?

Because one time my pastor, when I was 16, told me you should pray that prayer.

He told everybody, not just me, everybody, everybody pray Psalm 91 every day for the entire month of April, and April had 31 days.

So I prayed that prayer 31 times.

And then, a few years later, I went to Yosemite National Park and I heard a bear outside my tent and then I prayed it all night long.

I will never forget Psalm 91, but we need security.

I'm going to encourage y'all quickly John 1.1.

John 1.1.

This came on me this week and I just it can preach its own whole world.

But in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

The Word, the word.

We know that it's talking about Jesus because if you fast forward to 14, verse 14 of that same chapter, it says and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld him as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

We beheld him.

He was real to us, but the word became flesh.

That word word is the word logos and we talk about that word a lot from this pulpit.

The word logos means word.

It's the written word of God.

But I realized after reading in the Passion Translation thank you, passion Translation it's much more than that.

It's not just about, it's not just a single word, it's an entire message.

The message became flesh and dwelt among us.

It's also a blueprint, the blueprint of the entire creation of the entire, of the entire creation of the entire.

The way you are made on the inside, the longings of your heart, what satisfies the human soul, what matters in the entire eternity, the entire blueprint of everything is Jesus and he it is here.

And then he became flesh and dwelt among us.

So we beheld, we behold him, and then everything he is.

And he said tag to the Holy Spirit, tag, you're it.

And then now the Holy Spirit came and dwelt in us.

So we lack nothing.

We have complete security as long as we follow the blueprint.

When we follow the blueprint, we have security, no matter what.

Our security is not in a man, it is not in our boss, it is not from any other source, it's not from our daddy, it's not from our mama.

Our security is not from anything other than this blueprint that lives in us.

Hallelujah, all right, acceptance, security, identity.

How many of y'all have a good identity?

Scripture Come on, come on Making y'all think tonight.

Identity I can come up with a few.

That's right.

We are not condemned as part of our identity.

We are now forgiven completely.

It's awesome.

I have one.

If y'all don't.

Anybody else had one.

Vicki has one.

Vicki, what is it?

Shout it out, vicki.

Oh yes, we are more than a conqueror.

That's also in Romans 8,.

Oh yes, we are more than a conqueror.

That's also in Romans 8, through him who loved us.

Yes, we are more than a conqueror.

I have Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live yet.

Not I, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh.

I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I am no longer my own, I am bought with a price.

James quotes this all the time.

I have one to please and that is my sovereign, that is my identity and Romans 8, 14 talks about.

We call Abba Father.

He's our daddy and now we're joint heirs with Christ.

He's our older brother.

It is awesome, all the identity things.

And if you want to hear more about identity, you can come to our women's meeting that is now going to be on Mother's Day weekend, on that Thursday and Friday right before Mother's Day.

And because Miss Daphne, pastor Daphne DeLay, is totally that is a subject that she preaches and ministers on a lot.

She's written a book on it which is very excellent.

I know Selena gives that out to a lot of our young girls that are struggling with these identity issues, but it's good for everybody.

And I'm not going to preach on a lot of identity, but you just know that it's good, right, but I do want to.

I want to close with the purpose P, purpose, and that's where it gets.

We got all this inner peace, you know.

And then what are we going to do with it?

What are we going to?

How are we going to really impact and change this world?

Because this world is broken?

And Paul, the apostle Paul, he had a purpose.

God knocked him off his horse and he was telling the story in Acts 26, 17.

And God told Paul I will deliver you from the Jewish people, because they were chasing him down to kill him, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you.

I'm gonna deliver you from them, but then I'm gonna send you to them at the same time.

They're gonna be trying to kill you the whole time, but I'm gonna deliver you and I'm gonna send you to him at the same time.

They're gonna be trying to kill you the whole time, but I'm gonna deliver you and I'm gonna send you to him and to preach to him.

Anyway, that's a purpose To open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

God told him his purpose.

We can receive his purpose.

We can just steal it right away.

Paul's purpose is our purpose to turn people from darkness to light, to give them an inheritance.

That's awesome.

Jesus said the spirit of the Lord is upon me Luke 4, 18, because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

All of the things that set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, to open the eyes of the blind, and all those things.

Deliverance of the captives is the thing I forgot, okay, but all of those things.

That is a purpose.

We have a purpose.

But let me take you to a thing that I another.

I'm reading like four books at the same time, y'all including the Bible, but the Bible is the most important one.

But I'm so inspired.

We have another guest speaker coming.

His name is Guy Pay and he is from Cameroon, but he pastors a church in, or no, he works out of, a church in Dallas.

That is Mark Hankins Brothers Church in Dallas.

There's the connection, all right.

But Gi Pei is going to be preaching to us here in September.

Y'all mark it when we have a date for you.

Mark your calendar.

You do not want to miss this man.

He's written a book.

It's 500 pages.

It's about revival and I'm so inspired just reading it and one point that he makes in this book.

I'm talking about purpose.

How many of y'all believe Jesus is about to come back, all right.

So do you remember, right before Jesus comes into Jerusalem, he's about to fulfill his purpose on the earth of redemption.

He's about to go to the cross and it's Holy Week.

You know it's Holy Week and it was going to be Palm Sunday and I'm sorry I'm using my religious lady voice.

We did not really.

You know, we didn't do the stations of the cross here at Glory's Way, but I just wanted to.

We didn't do the Stations of the Cross here at Glory's Way, but I just wanted to.

There's purpose, okay.

So remember he was about to have Passover and he told the disciples go get me a donkey.

You're gonna go down to the such and such street and, tied up in front of the house, you're gonna see a donkey, mom and her colt tied up together, and you're gonna ask the person that owns them can we borrow, can we borrow?

And then they ended up with the colt, right.

And when Jesus rode in to Jerusalem to fulfill his purpose.

He came in riding a colt.

There were two this is so neat to me there were.

He had a choice he could have ridden on the old generation that was experienced, that had carried people before, or he could ride in on a generation that's never carried the presence of God before, that knew nothing about how to have anybody ride them or how to submit to them, but they just were inexperienced.

And Jesus rode in on the new generation and when he comes back again, this man was.

It is his theory that Jesus will come back on a new generation, and that makes me a little bit sad because I'm old, but that makes me motivated to pour into young people.

Whatever we can do to infect a young person's life is an invaluable, valuable thing, and I know God's opening doors to the regions beyond.

But this generation that we have now, I believe they will carry in the presence of God.

I believe we'll have our Hosanna moment.

I believe we'll say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

And I'm going to go back again with revival we're ushering in.

John the Baptist knew his purpose.

John the Baptist said I'm not him, I'm not even worthy to carry his shoes or to unlatch him or anything like that.

I am not him.

I must decrease and he must increase.

But I'm here, I'm calling, making straight the paths of the Lord.

I'm like a voice crying in the wilderness.

He said he knew who he was.

And that's what we are.

Sometimes it feels like we're a voice crying in the wilderness.

Make straight the paths of the Lord.

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

You know, people did eventually listen to John.

He was weird, he didn't have good clothes, he wore camel skin and ate locusts, but he had a purpose and he had a message and he knew what it was.

And you know, throughout our history, especially in America, we've had revivals.

I'm late, james is looking at the clock.

I'll be done in a minute.

I'm going to close with this, I'm closing.

Revivals throughout history, times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, times when things were dark in America, like the Revolutionary War.

There was a revival right before that.

The Great Awakening came and it was ushered in by George Whitefield, to name one, and John Wesley.

But they preached and they brought fire, jonathan Edwards, they brought fire of God and people were excited about God or they were scared, terrified of God, whatever it was, but there was a move of God and people prayed and there was a move of God and it resulted in our nation's birth.

There was something political that happened out of all that prayer.

All right then.

That was the first great awakening.

The second great awakening was ushered in by one of the men, charles Finney.

Have y'all heard of Charles Finney?

He was a revivalist around the time of the what other war?

The Civil War, the Civil War.

And Charles Finney preached and he ushered in the kingdom of God and there was a tremendous presence of God when he would preach and many thousands of people were swept in the kingdom of God.

And there was a tremendous presence of God when he would preach and many thousands of people were swept into the kingdom of God under Charles Finney, as he preached, and one of the things that he stood for was abolitionism.

He was an anti-slave guy and he talked about it, and so he stirred up and prepared America for the civil war so that we would do what was right and abolish slavery.

His preaching had something to do with what was right politically, and so Jesus is coming back, but he's coming back for a church who is triumphant on the earth, who is not lazy and sitting back and letting the devil walk on us and have his way with us and shut us down and silence us.

No, he's coming for a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle, who has authority in the spirit realm to pray things out that will have a political impact.

I believe that.

I believe that.

So Charles Finney was the revivalist, but guess what?

Wherever he went, he had a prayer team.

He did not have a worship team that traveled with him.

He had a prayer team and his one, his favorite prayer person, was Father Nash People call him Father Nash and he came and sometimes he would come to the meeting and pray in person.

Sometimes he would be offsite somewhere on his face, crying out before God, praying for revival, praying for the souls that would come, praying for the success.

And therefore, when Charles Finney was faced with the decision that he would just walk right in and he would know what to do and the devil couldn't thwart what God's plan was and I know that there's times, james and I feel like that when we make decisions for my God Votes, when we book these different preachers, y'all know that.

Tomorrow in Oklahoma, governor Stitt, the Oklahoma governor, his dad, is gonna be preaching in our pulpit tomorrow night in Oklahoma.

It's awesome.

And then the very next night, tuesday, in Baton Rouge, louisiana, we have Pastor Andrew Pellerano preaching.

He was a former Latin King gangster and yet God has gloriously saved him and he's going to have a message.

I'm telling you.

I believe we're helping to usher in revival.

I'm excited about what God's doing and we have our.

I came and told our prayer team on Thursday night I'm spitting.

Y'all are our Father Nash, because you're praying these things out and we just make a phone call and things fall together and sometimes they don't until the very last minute and it's terrifying and so scary.

But then God puts it together because y'all are praying and thank you for praying.

But we all have a purpose.

We right now, the church of the living God, is standing up against Marxism, against communism.

We are showing our voice, yes, for the gospel, yes for the message of God, but also affecting the culture in a real way so that it does not run us over.

Instead, we are victorious over it.

Amen, amen.

I hope that blessed you tonight.

Get a sip, and when we have all those things in Jesus, we will have healthy human relationships because we won't need them that bad.

We do need them.

We do Wait, seriously, we do need them that bad.

We do need them.

We do Wait, seriously, we do need them, but we just need Jesus more.

Oh, gwen has a purpose.

Scripture what is it, gwen?

What is it?

Oh yeah, and all who are in authority, that we might lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and reverence, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge.

Yes, so our purpose is to pray these things out in the plan of God.

Praise God, all right.

Well, you can shut your Bibles tonight.

I'm going to invite James up to come these things out in the plan of God.

Praise God, all right.

Well, you can shut your Bibles tonight.

I'm going to invite James up to come close us out in prayer.

Thank you all for joining us tonight.