Revival Sunday w/ Miles Mcpherson: Identity Crisis

CLO's up. What's up, family, how you're doing. Hey, Let's

get the Lord of Big Hand for who he is. Amen, come on,

let's get a Lord of Big Hand. I'll blush y'all. Pleasure to

be here up in the Northwest. I was listening this morning to the announcements,

How y'all are like excited that the sun was out yesterday? I was

like, what's the big deal? You know, I'm saying there, we

get sun every day. I know, yeah, yeah, yeah, I

was. You know, I'm from New York, where it's you know,

it gets very cold, and I would say, I've been in San Diego

forty one years, and for about thirty nine years, I kept waiting for

winter because it can't. I still did not believe that it was gonna be

sunny again and again and again. And yes, I made my friends mad

I call him I FaceTime in December and just put the FaceTime to this and

say, what's up, y'all? Is this It's like eighty five degrees out

here, so it is. It is a crazy beautiful place. Anyway.

My name is Miles. I grew up in New York. I had a

dream to play in the NFL in nineteen eighty two, I was drafted to

the Los Angeles Rams from a Division two school. It started out Division three.

We had twenty five hundred people in our school. I was the first

player drafted, first All American football player. I got drafted. The Rams

got cut, which means I got fired with me and they didn't get paid.

And then I went to the San Diego Charges. There used to be

a team in San Diego called the Charges. They're going people are mad.

I wanted to burn stuff down. And my first two years I was doing

cocaine, smoking weed, chasing women, running from women. And then yes,

yes, very fast, this is gonna be a little different service than

the last one. I can already tail. We got time. We got

time now I was. It was pretty wild. It was pretty wild.

And then there was a guy in my team team who actually played for the

for the Seattle Seahawks, a guy named Sherman Smith. Anybody remember that name.

Sherman Smith's a little older, so a lot of youngers don't remember him.

But the Seattle Seahawks when I was playing, was the most Christianized.

I should say, they had the most Christians on the team that in any

team in the league. We have a conference that we go to every year

still to this day where NFL players come from around the league. I just

we just we just added about a month ago and it's about four hundred guys

from the NFL and their girlfriends and wives. And the Sea Seahawks always had

the most guys from from the from the team. And so I was,

you know, getting high doing cocaine on our team plane and I was walking

down to a airplane airplanes about that. Why sherm was that? Why?

And so he stopped me in the out of the plane and said, hey,

what's up, little brother? And I looked up, said who you

calling? Little And he looked down and says you. I looked back up

and said I'm checking out up. Well, I'm good. I'm good.

I so want to make sure we were communicating. And he asked me if

I was to die with I go to heaven And I said, yeah,

man, I went to out of the school for eight years, got hit

in the head with by the nuns, and I'm good. He's a shared

a gospel with me basically. And let me say that's nothing against the Catholic

Church. When I was in Catholic school, I learned the fear of God.

It's somewhat funny because they did hit us, But I did learn the

fear of God from my years and our lady of the Lord's school. But

he shared the gospel with me. A few months later, I was in

a crack house. My teammate was doing crack. I was doing powder cocaine,

and God was just speaking to me in that crack house, and I

committed my life to the Lord five o'clock in the morning one day after doing

cocaine all night. Stopped doing cocaine that day, got back to my girlfriend

that day. We've been married thirty nine years, got three kids. Amen.

We had three kids and two grand children. I have a grandson that's

eight, and I have a granddaughter that's actually two weeks tomorrow. Amen.

So I'm done. I got a girl and a boy and the kids can

leave. Now. I'm good, you know. But before I start,

I wanted to tell you about this book. We all know that we have

racial division in this country. And having black, White, and Chinese in

my blood, having dealt with racism from black and white people, both my

wife and I she's mixed white and black as well, I wrote a book

called the third option. The first two options to us first them. In

our culture, you feel like you have to pick one side or the other.

You're the fox with CNN for against the police, etc. This says

that there is a third option, that we honor what we have in common,

that we're all made the image of God. And so this is based

totally on the fact that we are more similar than different. We actually have

a training for churches and in the secular world for police department schools. We

call it similarity training because it's based on how we are similar. And so

this book will be out there. I'm gonna give that to you, not

that you need it. I'm just just the closest to me. Right,

you can take it. You can take it now. Here's the deal,

though, here's the deal. You got. Here's the deal. You gotta

read it with someone who don't look like you. And I don't mean just

I mean a different shad. You know what I'm saying. Okay, you

know said Okay, are you already? We were good? Okay, let's

pray. Lord, thank you so much for your faithfulness, Thank you for

this lively crowd, and thank you for this church. Thank you for what

they're doing here in the north West, Bless him in Jesus name. Amen.

I pause because, um uh, this is Mill Creek, Okay.

I keep thinking I'm going to um uh, Seattle. Okay, let's not

Seattle, Mill Creek. We had an entertainer at our church last night,

torn Wells. Y'all know torn Wells. So he's saying O our church last

night. I missed it because I was here. Huh. I got David

and said, yeah, that's right. I got David and said I got

David, said, but he was telling. I said, how do you

guys, how do you keep track of what city are in? Because you

travel eighty cities a year. He goes, they write it right on the

stage. So I asked him, can y'all write Milk Creek right here venture

church so I can know where I'm at. I'm only kidding. It's not

written on the floor. A lady friend of mine, not a girlfriend,

just lady friend of mine was dating a guy and she was telling about the

guy. And then as every time I saw her, I would ask a

little more how their relationship is doing, And she's always going good, And

next time I see it always not going good. Next time I see it's

going good. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

They eventually broke up and I said, why did you guys break up?

And she said he could never figure out who he was. You know,

one day he wants to be a committed Christian, the next day he doesn't.

Then the next day he's an entrepreneur. Then he's nah, they're gonna

get his own apartment. But then he's not. I mean, he's he

was confused about his identity. Everyone say identity. We have an identity crisis

in our country that spans from people not knowing who they are in their relationship

with God. People who are married thinking they're singlepepepe come on now, people

come keep people come to church and saying that believe it, but they're acting

like they're a fool. To people who are men thinking their women women who

think their men transgender. Then you have transracial black people thinking they're white,

white people thinking they're black. And by the way, when you see that,

it's even the people who support the transgender will look at the people who

are transracial and go, don't you see that you're not that? Well,

don't you see that you're not that? And then you had. I had

a story the other day. I heard a story about transable people who are

physically able, but they think that they're disabled. They cut off an arm,

publeting your eyes because they think they're blind or disabled. And then I

was talking to a parents recently three weeks ago, their friends kid identified as

a bug. A bug. You said, it was a bug. Now

there are kids in schools who identify as dogs and cats, and they have

kitty litter in the classroom and they answer by barking and me ouren, okay,

we have an identity crisis. And by the way, the parents of

the kid who was a bug, they said to him, oh, you're

a bug. Well, we don't feed bugs, and bugs don't live in

the house, so you have to go outside and find your own food.

He was no longer a bug. From my point is that when you had

once, when you have an identity crisis, when you are not clear who

you are, you are going to have distorted relationships because that dad and that

mom could not have a right relationship with that kid who was a bug.

And when you are not clear who you are, you are confusing other people

about who you are and how they should relate to you. So I want

to talk about this identity crisis and how you can be clear and who you

are, because before we can accuse other people of being confused, we have

to be clear not only who we are as a church, because the church,

it's confused about who it is and what its mission is. We have

a lot of churches have become known for what they're against instead of what being

known for what they are for. We are forced salvation and forgiveness in the

Kingdom of God instead of being against people. And by the way, the

church is the only institution in the world that was made for the people not

in it. Well, I want to say it again slow, the church

is the only institution in the world that was created for the people who aren't

in it. It wasn't created for us. It was created for the people

not in it because one day you weren't in it, and it was created

to bring you in so we can go and get other people in. So

it's very important that we don't say those people are over there, because the

reason we exist is for those people. So we have to be clear about

who we are. So I want to talk about this identity crisis and give

you opportunity to say, Lord, I want to be crystal clear who I

am. Number one. A relationship is a way in which two people interact

or connect with each other. Identity is the fact or characteristics of being who

or what a person or thing is. You need to know who you are

and what you are and why you are and who decides that, because it

is very important to know who decides that. A crisis is a time of

intense difficulty, trouble or challenge or change. I'm not sure and as it

pertains to this, who I am, why we are, what I'm doing

here. Some of you may be here for the first time, by the

way, tonight I want to encourage you to come back. Tonight I'm talking

about My message is Satanic agreements that I'm gonna propose to you. All of

us in this room, myself and included you have an agreement multiple with the

devil. Now understand this. The devil is the master of deception. The

devil can have you look in the mirror and say to yourself, what I

am getting ready to do is gonna harm me and trick you to doing it

anyway. That's how good he is. So we're gonna talk about that tonight,

and I want to encourage you to bring somebody identity crisis. Four things.

Number one, what is the design of your identity? We're gonna talk

about that. What is the design of your identity? The image of God

or the image of self? Were you made in the image of God?

Or were you made in the image of whatever you want? It applies to

you, it applies to transgender, trans racial, trans a able. And

then who people who are now identified with non human things? Which is which

is true? The bug for an example, which is one of many non

human things people identify identify ass not identify with identify ass? I am a

cat. I was in the line. I'm sure, and I know it's

a serious issue with some people. Um but anyway, Number two, who

determines the value? Who determines the value of your identity? The source of

your value is going to be the source of your affirmation. You have to

know what determines your value. Some of you feel like crap. I do

hope I can say that here, adventure I can't. Okay, some of

y'all feel like crap. Well, who determines if you are crapping on what

you feel? By your way, your your feelings are deceptive? Can I

how many ya have been deceived by your feelings? How about this? When

we in our church we ask people to raise your hand, We asked them

put the elbow above the ear, not the t rex. Raise right kind

of first time I raised my hand in worship, I did t rex.

I was like this. So how many you have been seen by your feelings?

Okay, let's try this one more time. How about everybody raise your

hand? Just raise your hand? Okay, how may y'all been deceived by

your feelings? Than? Thank you very much, thank you very Number three,

Who has authority over your identity? Who has the authority to tell you

what to do, how you should do it, and when you should do

it? Is it you? Or is it God? And who? What

is the eternal purpose of your identity? To glorify God or to glorify yourself?

Now you may say, well I know the answer to those They're right

on the screen. But do you live it? That's the question. Let's

read the story Matthew chapter three. This is Jesus's first ministry assignment. He's

going to get baptized. The Holy Spirit is gonna descend on him like a

dove. And then he's gonna be driven out to the wilderness. Now I

understand this. Every time you think of the dove coming on you, you

think of nice quiet. It's not that my wife I got COVID two years

ago. My wife got COVID right after me. My wife almost died.

And for the sixty days that my wife had COVID and well suffered from it

and recovered, a white dove landed on my house every single day, right

above the window where I pray. The dove came at sundown every day.

I actually waited for it and filmed it. It was like clockwork, and

then left in the morning. And one day it left. And when the

dove landed, you heard it was loud. It wasn't what you think.

And when I heard it, it sounded like a mighty rushing wind. Oh

my gosh, I got chills. Come on with someone says, you know

what I'm saying. I was like, I've been thinking about this wrong,

because because a dove is a very clumsy, Like if you ever see that,

there's a demonstration of these guys in the room and they have a pigeon

that flies across the room, and they have all these microphones and here,

and then they have an hour fly and it's like silent because the end of

their feathers afraid because they hunt that night and they have to be quiet.

That's like a dove. It was a mighty rushing wind. So when that

man's funny, he wasn't even went out there. I'm an anointed man of

God, young girl, it says when Jesus was baptized, immediately he came

from the water, and behold that evan heavens were open, and he's sort

of spirit of God descending like a dove, alighting upon him like a mighty

rushing win. And suddenly a voice came from heaven said, this is my

beloved son, and whom I am. Well please. Then Jesus was led

by the spirit into the willderness to be tempted by the devil. And when

he fasted forty days and forty knights afterward, he was hungry. When a

tempt that came to him, he said, if you are the son of

God, command of these stones can become bred. And he answered and said,

it is written man shall not live by bread alone, but by every

word that proceeds from him out to God. The devil took him up to

the Holy City and set him on the pitnacle of the Temple, and said,

if you are the son of God. Everyone say, if you are

a son of God, very good, throw yourself down, for it is

written he shall give angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall

bay you up lest you dash your foot against the stone. Jesus said,

it is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Again,

the devil took him up to an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the

kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all

these things I will give you if you fall down and worship me. Jesus

said, away from you, which you satan, for it is written you

shall not worship the Lord your God, but him you shall serve only.

Then the devil left him alone and hold the angels minutes to him. Number

one, what is the design of your identity? The devil said, if

you are the son of God, I never read this this way until a

month ago. If you are the son of God, or maybe you're the

daughter of God, maybe your God's cat I mean he once he brings down

into who you are. The options are infinite of what you can be.

I mean, how many times have you ever seen someone who can sing really

good and they don't think they can sing. They can speak really good,

but don't think they can they can speak, they're they're they're good at math,

but they don't think they're a math. They have no confidence because they

have this talent. It's so plain, but they don't believe in it because

someone put doubt in their minds. God's not gonna bless you. God's not

gonna answer your prayer. There's no reason, there's no reason you should spend

more than five minutes praying. It doesn't do any good. That's the devil's

lying on your life. God will never heal anybody for it through you,

or he'll never heal you. He'll never give you hope. I'll never give

you the job and the career you want because you've been convinced that you are

not what God said, and she said, so he the first thing the

devil said, if you are the son of God, now understand this.

Jesus's first assignment was satan. It wasn't trying to get people saved. It

was satan. Why because he came towards a spiritual war. A matter of

fact, right after he left this, he went into the synagogue and started

casting out demons. Why it's a spiritual battle. By the way, let's

say raise a hand onement time, because I'm just trying to help you all

out. Okay, how many of y'all haven't had a conflict with a person?

Thank you. Your conflict is not with the person. You don't wrestle

against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and the rules of the

doctors of this age. It's a spiritual battle. So Jesus said, watch,

y'all, I'm gonna go fight my enemy. You're not my enemy.

People, aren't your enemy people. By the way, some of your enemies

are victims of the devil. They don't even know it. We have to

be seriously discernible to understand that and fight the battle from a spiritual perspective.

So the first thing, the devil says, I am going to challenge your

identity, because if I can get you to doubt who you are, I

can I can eliminate all the leverage and power you have with your that comes

with your identity. Says who are you? I have a tesla, and

is that a bad thing. Yeah, I'm just gonna you know, I'm

just gonna seeing I love my Tesla. My wife has a car that takes

gas every time I get it. And I said, this is garbage.

So I'm in my Testa the other day and there's a screen right here.

It's electronic. Here, an electronic. Here. It's a big old screen

like that big has all the information hit it. And when I bought that

Testla, I'm not a troma this guy. I was like, this is

a mistake. Your computer never works right for you, and you're getting a

card that's a computer. Well it went blank. The other day. I

didn't call Ford, I didn't call Chevy, I didn't call Mercedes Bands,

I didn't call Lexus. I call Tesla. Why because they made it?

Who designs you? God? You want to know who you are? You

go to God. Look at the Bible, says Matthew three seventeen. This

is my beloved son. God said, you're the son. You're the son.

God said you're a daughter. You're a daughter? Is it? Matthew

Matthew four one Jesus was led by the spirit into willingess to be tenth.

By the devil. You were created designed to be led by the spirit.

You were not created designed to be led by other people's opinion or your emotions,

or your hungers or your desires, or your fears, or your anxiety.

All that stuff is very real. I get it. My daughter suffers

with depression and anxiety. I get it. I see it every day.

But that's not what we were designed to follow be led by. We were

designed to be led by the spirit. And by the way, if you're

trying to do something for God or whatever you're doing, you're getting our position.

It doesn't mean it's wrong. The first things, the first thing ministry

ministry assignment was to be confronted by Satan. He can say, hey,

way man, I thought I was supposed to be to save me. Why

am I dealing with That's right, it's a spiritual battle physical you would designed

physically. The Bible says he fasted forty days and forty nights, and after

what he was hungry. Food has an impact spirit food. How much you

eat, how little you eat, has a spiritual impact on your life.

I fasted forty days probably five times in my life. And I'm telling you,

if you have never fasted and you're wondering what does food got to do

with me being spiritual? Stop eating and you will find out. It's the

only way you're gonna find out. I can tell you about it all day

long. You're like, yeah, yeah, it sounds great. You have

to just stop now. Now, trust me, I'm not telling you go

cold turkey. Stop. There's a process of you know, clean yourself out

for a few days, but I'm telling you, after about three days,

it's all on your head. Here's how you know. You will get a

little hunger pains and you drink some water and a honey goes away. But

then you're closer to God. And some people think, well, I'm getting

hunger, I'm gonna die. You ain't gonna die. You got four or

one k retirement fat all over that. You'll be fine. It'll be fine.

You can go a lot longer than you think without food. We were

created the feet on God's word. Look what the Bible says of the man

with you four or four It is written, man shall not live by bread

alone, but by every word that proceeds in the amount to God. When

you get an idea, you're gonna do this little business venture, You're gonna

take this girl out you're gonna go out with this little honey over here.

You let give this guy your phone one. Please don't give the guy the

phone one and make him find you. And I was continuing with my point.

But that's okay. I appreciate a quick story. When I met my

wife, I told my friend's gonna marry that girl she walked in the party,

and I'm gonna mary that girl right there. So I wanted to aswer

the dance. She said no. I said, look, here's a deal.

See my boys over there, they think I'm gonna dance with you.

Can't say no. We gotta you know, we gotta maybe look stop.

So we danced answered the slow dance. She said no, she would not

slow dance with me. I wanted to get close. You know, we

it's been half an hour. I want to get close. Y'all missed that.

That was that was supposed to be. You got it right, you

got it. I don't need a lot of time, right right? She

should be I'm nice and then uh I Then I asked her fall phone number

and she said no. And he's like, I said, how am I

gonna find you? And she said, figure it out? You like her?

That's right right, She said, figure it out and she left and

well we we we end up leaving it. She I was like, yeah,

give me a number. No, here's a deal before you give that

got a number. Look what it says mansion to live by bread alone?

But what does God say? Are you working at the job that God told

you to work at? Are you dating the person God told you the date?

Are you doing in that day in your bedroom, in your apartment with

that person the things that God told you to do? Are you eating the

things God told you to eat? Are you watching the news station whish by

the way, the media makes money on division. Just understand it's so whatever

you're watching, it's biased. But just so you know, are you filtering

it the way God wants you to filter in? Because if you're not,

you're being led by straight by all these winds of doctrine. And I'm not

talking about biblical doctrine, just doctrine teaching perspective. You were made, We

were made to listen to the word of God. And last thing, we

were made to defeat the devil Matthew four eleven, and the devil took the

devil left him. The Bible says, resist the devil, and he will

flee. You and I were created to defeat the works of the devil.

Trust in the Holy Spirit, and follow the word of God. Number two,

who determines your value, Who determines your value, Matthew three seventeen.

Suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my son, with whom

I am well pleased. You know what God says, He loves you.

How many of y'all got a kid? Okay, let me say this way,

how many? How many of you have a child like you? Birth

is a little person that looks up to you as mother and follow. Okay,

very good, very good? And how many of you don't well,

as my Jamaican grandfather will say, you don't understand what they're going to say.

Our hearts and I don't mean our physical heart. Even though our physical

heart has different chambers, your soul has different chambers. I'm making this up,

but you'll understand what I mean when I say it. When you're sixteen,

fourteen twelve, you see that girl who is across the way, she's

twelve year twelve, and she does that because that's all she knows, and

you just like think she's the most beautiful girl in the world. Can I

get amen? Fellas roun that day, okay, fell And ladies, you'll

remember that when you're you know, you're you're eleven and the guy he you

know, he has a like T shirt and got a little string hanging from

the shirt which is actually his arm. But you know, you think he's

all muscular, and you're like, he's so cute, He's so cute.

You'll remember that feeling. Ladies, ladies, Yeah, okay, okay,

they work with me, work with me, help me out. And so

so as you grow older, there's a there's a certain place in your heart

for that crush. Then there's a certain place in your heart. When your

mother dies, there's another place when your father dies, another place. When

you get married, then there's another place in your heart, another emotion that

you would never ever felt in your life until you have a baby. And

to me, that was the most for me, it was it was it

was different. My parents dying was very intense, But what was intense about

having a baby is that you have responsibility. Love. It's unconditional, but

it's also responsibility. Responsibility love is that if you hurt this baby, I

will kill you. I think the most dangerous people on the planet. Mother's

walking through the grocery store with a little baby in the carriage. You touch

that baby, that woman will jack you up. She would go gangster on

you right now and then put the curls back in the hand and go buy

some bread. I mean, it's just. But my point is that when

you have that baby, you have this love that I will do anything for

this baby. Think about to think about it, your baby. I just

had a granddaughter two weeks ago. It should be two weeks tomorrow, actually

fourteen days today. She was born. And she does nothing but sleep and

eat and poop. She can't talk. She had got a job, she'll

contribute to the family. Nothing. And I went over to see the other

day and they're getting two every two hours. I gotta wake up and feed

her, and so did. My daughter in law and my son are like

God zombies. And we walk in and we're walking in the house and we

say, and she's just big, she's six pounds, but she commands the

whole room. Everybody's world stopped because we love her. Your father loves you

more than you can. Never mind the reason that God reserved that part of

our heart for that is to teach us about his love for us. He

is the one who determines your value, nobody else Matthew four to three.

The devil is constantly telling you to prove your value. He says, a

Jesus, if you're a son of God, prove it. Command of stones

to be bretter. If you're the son of God, prove it. Matthew

four five Six. Devil took him over to the holy city of the Temple

and said, if you're the son of God, throw yourself out. He

will give give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they will

bear you up. Lets you dash your foot it against the stone, prove

it. Matthew four eight. The devil took him up to exceeding high mount

and showed him all the kings of the world, and said, all these

things I'll give you if you fall down and worship me, which, by

the way, is the only thing that devil, The only thing devil really

wants is you to worship him. You're not gonna go oh saying I worship

You're not gonna do that. But anytime you give your heart and your passion

to somebody other than God. You know, we had the election and I'm

not gonna talk politics. But I'm gonna talk politics. We had the election,

just bear with me. Not really, it was Biden and Trump and

red and Blue. So I did this whole series called Red and Blue.

What would Jesus do? You know? Just like I stirred up a little

bit. Come on, let's yeah, all the people come to I know

he's gonna say Republican. I know he's gonna say democratic fools. Neither one

of them fools. And my first statement, I believe if I can remember,

was Jesus political, but he had his own government. He don't want

your funky government. Here's the problem. Here's the problem with us Christians.

You can vote for who you want to vote. Neither one of them are

gonna bring you to heaven. The problem is when Jesus when they when they

asked, they asked, Jesus, you know, do you pay taxes?

He says, give me a coin, And he says, what are saying?

Decide? He said, render to Caesar what is Caesars? And render

to God what is God's Give you a vote to who you want, but

just don't give your heart to them. Your heart belongs to God. That's

the problem. So you don't want to give your heart to people. You

give you a vote, you give your you put out money, whatever you

want to do. What your heart has to stay with God and let God.

And by the way, news flash, there's Christians on both sides.

I know you probably don't believe that, but there are because that stuff is

down here in the gut. We're God. The Kingdom of God is way

up here. Amen. Come on number three, Who has authority over you?

God or self? Who has authority over you? Is it God?

Or is it you? Now? Thank you? I mean it wasn't.

I was going to answer the question. Who has authority over your body?

Who has authority over the body in you? Who has authority over your gifts?

Who can take the stats of the life out of you? Right now?

God, you want to be careful whenever you deal with all these issues

in the world that you understand that's spiritual. Racism is spiritual, abortion is

spiritual. Gender identity is a spiritual issue. And so you always want to

step back and say, God, let me see this from God's perspective,

and who every single one than you are? And your purpose was decreed in

heaven long before the foundations of the earth. And if you think you're gonna

figure it out better than God, and I say you or anybody, you're

just stupid to think. Well, the Bible calls you a fool. The

Bibles to a fool says in his heart there is no God. And for

me to say, and by the way, and let me say this way,

if you say your God is down here, that's not God. And

so if there's a God who has authority over me, who told me by

the word that I am designed to be led by the spirit, to be

to be led by the word of God, to listen to every word that

God speaks, and I am ordained and have authority over the satan in Jesus

name, why would I live any other way? And the world wants you

to always dumb you down to try to get in a battle. There was

a there was. I'm gonna give you a ridle and now you can to

this question. I'll give you time to participate because I know you want to

participate. If an alligator and a bad how to fight, who wins?

I'm gonna ask you, alligator in a minute, i'mnna ask you to raise

your hand with your pick. But if an alligator and a bear? How

to fight? Who would win? How many y'all say the alligator? Okay?

How many y'all say the bad? Okay? Okay? Why the alligator

coming down low? He's now, he's he's like this. Okay? How

how come the bear? Why then? More intellectual? That's a new one.

I never heard that one. What's your name, sweetie? What's your

name? What's your name? MICHAELA? MICHAELA? Okay, MICHAELA. How

is a bad intellectual and the alligator can't download? Got it? Got it?

Well? But you're both from It depends on where they fight. If

they fight on the land, the bad wins. They fight the water,

the alligator winds now. If you fight in the water, and the water

and land have no significance. But if you fight the world's battle with the

world's rules, you lose. What I mean by that, if you start

getting arguments of people about this stuff and you take the Bible and put it

over there and just argue based on nature and based on the philosophy that we

all evolved out of nothing, you lose. But if you say no,

that's why, that's why I'm aproaching this from God, who is the boss

who's the creator? Who is the designer? Who gives you value? God?

God? God? God? God? Now if you now we're fighting

a land and you have to fight with those rules. Now, all the

other people are gonna people who don't believe in God, are gonna agree with

you that those rules exist. No, but that's not the point. You

stay on your land because you don't want to go in the water. You're

gonna lose. You want to lower him out. Come on over here,

baby, Can you do like the bad because he's smarter? Okay, I

say it again. I shouldn't listen to you the first time? Is that

saying he went He's gonna stand and wait? How do you know this?

Are you a biologist? You like nature? Okay? Okay? Number three?

Who has authority over your identity? God or self? Who is authority?

Look what it says Matthew four one. Jesus was led by the spirit.

Led by the spirit? Say led by the spirit, Matthew four three.

Mansion, I live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds

from the mouth of God. We gotta live by the word of God.

Matthew four seven. You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Don't put

yourself in a position where God has to perform a miracle to save you.

Unless He has told you to take a step of faith. You shall worship

the Lord, your God and serve him. Only God has authority. Number

four, What is your eternal purpose? Glorify God obviously the greatest commandments.

To love God with your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbors

yourself. Glorify God. When people encounter you, they should encounter the goodness

of God, not your goodness. The intelligence of God, not your intelligence.

The love of God not your love. My wife and I've been married

thirty twenty three, carried to two thirty nine years, and the only way

we're married thirty nine years, the only way that we have lasted because we've

we've had to trust God to do it. My wife is completely opposite to

me. She doesn't I like people. She don't like people. I like

to travel, She don't like travel. I like to meet new people and

talk, and she doesn't like new meet nobody and it wants to be quiet.

We just completely opposite, and we had to learn to love each other

based on each other's love language. Glorify God. And if every day you

wake up saying God, I'm gonna make I'm gonna make you look so good

in my life that people are gonna want to know what I got so and

they're gonna want it. In a minute, we're gonna pray, and I

want to give you opportunity to say, Lord, I don't want to have

any confusion about who I am. Some of you have never asked Christ to

be your savior. You've been to church. You maybe got baptized when you're

a baby, which doesn't count for salvation because you didn't know what you were

doing. It was being done to you. And you want to make sure

that you and Christ are one. When a man and a woman get married,

a woman comes down to a on a white dress because she's supposed to

be pure, supposed to be Wow. The brother got a black tux ted

one because he ain't trying to fool nobody. It's true. Can I get

any man? It's true? Y'all, y'all buck wild, Okay. And

then they come down and the two become one. When you ask Christ to

be your savior, to become one, it is a metaphor of salvation.

Marriage is a metaphor of salvation, and the Bible God is always the groom,

His church is always his bride. So you maybe maybe you've never done

that. We're gonna give you opportunity. Then there's somebody out there. You

go to church and God wants more from you. You're not involved, you

don't tie, you don't serve, you're not in a small group. You

just philip a seat and you think me, you and God are good.

God's like, that's all like it for real. And then you go out

there and you live your life and you curse God because he ain't blessing you.

That's on you. And God's like, I have so much more for

you. I want to love you, but I'm not going to do it

on your terms. God will not ever bless you on your terms, but

he wants to bless you. And He has all the riches in the heavenly

places set aside for you, but you can only access them his way.

And so I want to give you opportunity to acknowledge. Yes, God is

the one who designed me. He's the one who values me. He's the

one who has authority over me, and he has given me my eternal purpose.

When I was playing football, before I got saved, I played two

years as a non Christian and two years as a Christian. My two years

as a non Christian, they would ask me to go speak places and you

know, do appearances for the team, and I'm like, I'm not a

speaker. I go take a picture, bam, but I ain't gonna speak

to nobody. And then when I got saved, God went it is he

didn't call me. That's what I heard, but it's not what he said.

He said, you're a speaker some of you have. You're chasing something

and pursuing something that God will never bless. You're wasting your time, and

when God comes into your life and opens up your eyes, it's like,

oh, and by the way, you know it. You just haven't recognized

this small, still voice in your heart that's God. You think it's something

else, and God's been whispering to you something amazing, but it's too big

for you because the devil keeps saying that's not who you are, so you

don't pursue it. So we're gonna pray, and there's gonna be two groups.

That person whom I just describe you want to get clarity, and then

the person wants to give their life to Christ. I'll tell you this last

story. Then I'm gonna pray. A young man walked across the type rope

at Niagara Falls. Three hours took him to walk across the waterfall. Niagara

Falls is the waterfall between Canada and you in New York. Got to the

other side, he looked at the crowd and said, thank you. I'm

gonna go back. I'm gonna put a wal brow on top, put dirt

in the wheel brown, and take it across the the type rope. People

said, you're the greatest. He said, do you believe I could take

this wheel ball across the wire and drop no dirt? And they said absolutely,

You're the greatest type rope walker we've ever seen. And he put the

god on top of the wheel on the wire, put the wheel brow up,

they filled it with dirt, and as he started to walk across,

he looked down as a little boy. Actually, he looked down at MICHAELA.

They call you MKA. They call you MK. Kayla? Is it

is it Kayla or MICHAELA? Okay, so I'm gonna call you MK.

That cool, I'm gonna do it. It's too late, It's too late,

MICHAELA. Do you believe I could take this wheel ball across the wire

and dropp no dirt. MICHAELA said yes, and then he dumped the dirt

down and said, get in and go with me. If you're believing God,

isn't that It ain't believing God. It's a belief about God. So

we're gonna pray for you to believe in God. So it's a ballot heads

and pray, and I'm going to and before I pray, I want to

challenge you to come tonight. I'm going to talk about Satanic agreements and I

think it's gonna be good. Lord, Thank you so much for your faithfulness.

Lord, thank you for everybody here, and thank you for the journey

that they're on, and thank you that you have been constantly speaking to them,

whispering to them how much you love them, how much you know them,

and thank you that you do love us. If you want to get

in the wheel brow because you want to give your life to Christ for the

first time, or you need to recommit your life. You've been kind of

floating, but you're not committed, you're not involved, you're not accountable to

anybody. No one's accountable to you. You need family. I just want

you to pray this prayer with me and the privacy of your heart. Whether

you want to do one of those two things, be more committed, or

ask Christ to be your savior and the privacy of your heart prayed. Dear

God, I admit that I'm a sinner. I pushed you away from my

life. But I believe Jesus loves me, that he died and rose from

the dead. Jesus, please forgive me my sin, fill me with the

Holy Spirit. I want to be born all over again. I want to

get in the wheel brow. I want to be one hundred percent committed.

Thank you God for your faithfulness and your patience. As our eyes are closing

the heads about a minute, I'm going to ask you to stand up.

If you prayed that prayer, I'm gonna count to three and then ask you

to stand up. And if you stand, you are resurrecting from your old

life. You are walking away from who you were this morning into the new

life, the new resurrection life that God has for you. And you are

in trusting your entire future into the hands of a living, loving God.

So on a count of three, if you prayed that prayer for any reason,

I'm going to ask you to stand up one, two, three,

stand to your feet. God bless you, God bless you, God bless

you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God

bless you. God bless you. God bless you, God bless you,

God bless you, God bless you. Now I'm gonna ask all of y'all

to come fold out of your seat. Just come out of your seat and

walk down. And as they come to the stage, let's get them all

a big hand clap. Come on down, hey man, come on,

hey man, come on, let's give a big hand clap. Don't give

me that, give me that, Amen man, brother, Amen, Amen,

Amen, Come on, come on. If you can face me,

you guys can face me, just face me. Give my big hand.

Cloud. Come on, Church, Come on, Church, God bless you,

God bless you, God bless you, God blessing. God bless you.

God bless you, God bless you, God bless you, God bless

your Come on. There's a there's a verse in the Bible with Jesus said,

if you can't are ashamed of me before people, I'm gonna be ashamed

of you. Now it's the time to say, Lord, I'm gonna i

gotta live it out in public. I gotta I gotta do what you say

in public. I gotta say what you want me to say in public.

And I just have to trust you. And the world, especially here to

the north West, is a lot more contentious than other places of the country.

But God has you here for a reason. He because He's entrusted you

with that to be that light here in Northwest. I assume all y'all live

here California is we're it's getting there. We're not as bad as you.

But then I have friends in Dallas. They you know, they think they

live in Jerusalem. It's like they're in heaven. It is what it is.

It is what it is. But my encouragement to use that from this

point forward, you say to the church and pastor is gonna come here in

a minute, that you get involved in what they're doing here and their next

steps here. Just eat what they're feeding you. There are some of y'all

who stood up and sat back down. That was the devil. He says,

you don't need to go up there. And if you do that,

every day, you end up back where you were. And what the devil's

gonna tell you is that I see it didn't work. Oh no, it

works. It just you just didn't follow it. It's like I go to

the gym and see people on the treadmill eating twinkies. That ain't gonna work.

That ain't gonna work. And so for all of y'all in here to

say listen, it's on me. It's on me and the church. They

have plenty of resources for you what to do next, that that that will

help you grow in your faith. But it is a relationship, not a

religion. It's not an organization. It's a relationship. So I'm gonna pray

for you, and I'm asked past more gonna come up here. My books were