Sunday Message (2nd service) - Pastor Brad Neuschwander (January 11, 2026) | Life Bible Church

Welcome to the Life Bible Church podcast. We

want to thank you for joining us today, and we

hope you find today's sermon impacting as you

listen to it wherever you are in your daily walk.

To find service times and watch messages online,

see our website at lifebiblechurch .org. Now,

enjoy this week's message. All right. Praise

God. It's great to see you. Happy New Year. It's

been a little bit since I've been here, so thank

you. We were able to take a couple of weeks off

and get some rest and spend some time just waiting

on the Lord for the new year. It's great to see

everybody personally. Thank you so much for being

here. Would you just join with me in prayer that

we would just ask the Holy Spirit to help me

navigate the things that I need to share this

morning. Some things the Lord, spoke to me personally,

a message on our 21 day of fasting. And then

I promised you that I would give you what's happening

on our river bank. And so I got to ask the Lord

to help us kind of navigate this terrain. So

let's pray. Father, we honor you. You are our

heavenly father. You are good. You are merciful.

Lord, we come to you today. We ask that, Holy

Spirit, that you would take every word, scriptures

that have been given, thoughts that have been

pondered and weighed upon. But Lord, you know

how to navigate. You know how to speak. I'm asking

you to, Lord, come and just reveal yourself this

morning in this service through the scriptures,

the written word, through the preaching of your

word, that the very rhema presence of God would

activate our heart. Lord, I thank you for working

on our behalf. I want to declare to you this

morning in front of the congregation that you

are the only one faithful, the only true, loving,

pure, begotten Son of God. And we put our trust

in you. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen. Well, first of all, I want to just

talk about our fast just a little bit. We have

a fantastic booklet that we're going to be passing

out at the end of the services between those

back double doors. If you're heading out the

service, we'll have ushers have these. This has

21 days of some articles written by 21 different

authors in the church. Kind of give a little

bit different perspective. It's split up into

three week zones. So kind of seven day theme

or seven. days of one theme, seven days of another,

seven days of another. It's called the prevailing

church. You know, God spoke to me and it's very,

very important as I kind of start off this morning.

God spoke to me about midway through in the summer

and I've kind of shared a little bit of the journey

about the river. We've taken communion out there.

We've, we talked about the scarlet cord that

we set up and it was in that time of God speaking

at the end of August and and really 1st of September,

October, right in there that the Lord, and I

didn't have my journal, so I can't give you the

exact date, but the Lord spoke to me. What I

asked him, I said, Lord, what is the theme? Because

on the Jewish calendar, not that I live by everything

that's on the Jewish calendar, of course not,

but I also try to be aware of what's happening,

and the start of the year is always in the fall.

And that's when the calendar starts. It's not

on our Gregorian calendar. If I'm going by the

Hebrew calendar, after the day of atonement and

that process, there is the start or the head

of the year. And there's in that seventh month

or in the final feast of trumpets, and we start

the beginning of the year. And I asked the Lord

at the very beginning of September, I said, Lord,

what is the theme for 2026? What are you speaking?

I've got life conference coming up. What are

you wanting to say? And I heard the Lord say

very clearly, he said, I want you to deal with

the prevailing church, the prevailing church.

And that's going to be important because God

is. is looking at 2026 as a very key year for

us to believe him and trust him for what he said

he was due. How many have had some things and

some promises in the last two or three years

that you've not seen completed so far? All right,

few of us, all right. I'm telling you, there

are many, many. men and women of God that are

hearing this word. I was on the phone with Pastor

Tim Karskad in this past week and we were just

talking about what the Lord was saying to him,

what he was, I was sharing with him what the

Lord was speaking to me and the theme that's

coming out just around. Now there's a lot of

just scattered craziness out there, but the theme

that's out there that I believe the people that

are hearing consistently over and over is what?

God is wanting to create a breakthrough of things

that have been stolen and delayed in the last

couple of years. Because I believe people have

heard the word of the Lord and responded to the

word of the Lord, but they haven't received the

full breakthrough of what's supposed to happen.

And I believe part of it is supposed to take

place. A breaking through is supposed to happen

this year. So we got to figure out, okay, what

does it mean? to be the prevailing church. Prevailing

church in political climates, economic climates,

spiritual climates, in our own home, with our

own family, our own children. How do we prevail

in the midst of backlash or even in times when

things seem like it's going the opposite direction

when it shouldn't be? And so that's important.

I want you to get that book. We have those available

for you. And that's gonna be a big deal. All

right, well, I wanna just kind of share with

you a couple of things. We, Jenny and I were

able to, the last couple of weeks, be able just

to take off from having to preach on a Sunday

for two weeks. We didn't minister any other place.

Most of the time when you see me gone, I am ministering.

Fact is, all of last year, every time I was out

of the pulpit, we were somewhere ministering.

And fact is, we didn't actually take any vacation.

and so we felt like the end of the year, we just

needed to do that. We were blessed to be able

to do that. Right during Christmas, the kids

came, and we spent some time just as a family,

and then they went home, and Jenny and I stayed

in just a little place, and we were able to wait

on the Lord and spend some incredible time. I

didn't realize how, and I'm gonna be very transparent

with you this morning, I didn't realize how depleted

I had become. For anybody that has followed me

or walked with me for the last, I've been in

ministry 32 years, but going to be on 25 years

this fall for our church, I'm a like get -or

-done type guy. That's my nature. I work until

I can't work anymore. My kids have found me passed

out in the wood grove because I've worked so

hard and then they needed to revive me. So I

enjoy hard work. That was how I was raised. I

was kind of raised in a Mennonite family and

how you worked, the principle of hard work, you

went to, you didn't. You always were working.

And so I've got to balance that out now a little

more as I'm older, have a little bit of quality

of life. But I didn't realize how much pressure

and how much erosion had actually take place

in my own heart with this riverbank project.

And as you know, I'll try not to do a super long

summary. We have prepared. Some of these summaries

for you, in fact, is at the information booth.

You can get the full summary of the journey from

2023 till now, what I'm going to share with you.

But I'm going to give you a little bit of a brief

addition today because I've got several things

we have to do. You guys know that in the last

couple of years, this Riverbank situation has

been a serious threat for us here at Life Bible

Church. And I'm not the sharpest knife in the

drawer. I'm not an engineer, but I'm just enough

of a farm boy here and I've watched things my

whole life being fifth generation from this Willamette

Valley area around Muddy Creek and around the

Willamette River that I kind of understand a

little bit of things that when we stop dredging

rivers, when we stop pulling things out of the

center and the Army Corps of Engineers decides

to change the flow of water, it changes things

downstream. I mean, duh. And so you have genius

pastor, okay. In that fact, what has happened

is a bunch of gravel has built itself up in the

middle of the river. And what's changed on our

riverbank is once that gravel and that stuff

has come down, It's pushed the river. It could

have gone to the right or the left. It could

have gone to the west bank, or in our case, it's

the east bank of the river. What happened is

it almost on low water, it has almost shut the

water off on the west side and completely focused

it on the east side. And so what that's done

is it started to erode. And in the process of

erosion, it's not just eroded, but it's eroded

at a cut bank level where you can't see. all

of the things that have taken place. So as you

know, we have... And I won't go into it. You

can read the four -page paper that I've put together

for you out there. But we have contacted every

agency, federal, state. We've had some incredible

partnership with our Linn County commissioners,

our Lane County commissioners, Will Tucker from

Linn County, David Loveall from Lane County that

have got us in contact with every legislator,

senator, and Oregon governor. We've had letters

sent to... to the White House, to President Trump,

to Speaker Mike Johnson. We've had people involved

in the cabinet. In fact, even as we speak, there's

a letter from Life Bible Church and a summary

and all of the plans of what we went through

that's actually going to one of the cabinet members

right now in the Trump administration cabinet

to look at this project. This thing has gone

far and wide in the state and even in the nation.

And up to this point, we have had zero breakthrough,

zero. Every philanthropist organization, every

governmental organization, everything that would

say, is there money to help this bank? None of

it has come through. And so that kind of brings

you up to the process of where we were in August.

We had taken communion in July out on the riverbank.

In August, we were preparing. we'd had a meeting

for four hours with six organizations, governmental

organizations, over this river. DEQ, Oregon Marine

Board, Department of State Lands, Oregon Fish

and Wildlife, Army Corps of Engineers, and on

and on and on. And so, just trust me, if you

don't like meetings, you have definitely not

wanted to be in that meeting. I poked my head

in because they actually told me, Pastor, we

will not let you in this meeting. you will chew

out every single one of these people. And so,

praise God, we had people of grace sitting on

that meeting and being able to navigate our part

of it. But all to say, we have worked with multiple

engineers and consulting firms over the last

two and a half years to come up with... the requirements

that the Army Corps of Engineers has asked of

us. And the reason it was the Army Corps of Engineers

is because we were looking at putting, and our

request was to put in what we would call riprap

or large big stones to just buttress the south

end of this property and the north end of the

property and do a little bit of fill in and just

stabilize the bank. And I won't go into all the

reasons, but the Army Corps of Engineers is refusing

to give us any permit to do so. And for those

that would say, well, why don't you just do it

anyways? They have actually jailed people up

and down the Willamette River. They actually

put a guy in prison that's 80 years old that

tried to save his land, put him in prison for

a year because he did the very thing that we

wanted to do. So the idea that you would have

common sense and that would put property and

buildings and not pollute the river with fallout

from the river, doesn't make sense to these organizations.

The key is the salmon or the environmental impact.

And I'm not gonna get into that, but the reality

is people are not on the top of the food chain.

Let's just put it that way. So every attempt

to do that was failed. Even working with engineers

that work with... and said, yes, we can design

this. We've got approval for these before. We

presented them and they didn't pass them. Even

to the point where our engineers, the last set

of engineers before we went to this new engineering

firm, presented a $10 million solution. Do we

have $10 million? No. We don't have any million

dollars. But provided a $10 million solution,

One that has been approved by every other agency

and the Army Corps of Engineers said no. That

gives you the idea of what we've been running.

So that's when we came. We had communion on the

bank. We met with those people. We were very

disappointed. And then the Lord spoke to me.

And if you remember, I preached a message or

two on the scarlet cord. And we talked about

the Lord woke me up at night and said, listen,

you need to begin to prophetically proclaim that

what is meant for destruction would be saved.

And we did that. And I'm going to tell you something

as we go through this now, this next season from,

from basically end of September was first of

October. When we did that, things began to shift

and things began to move up to that point. We

had two years of nothing, two years of no help

from FEMA actually flew FEMA out here to do it.

They said, no problem. And then they got furloughed

and the whole, the whole, the FEMA program went

I mean, every category closed door. We stretched

the scarlet cord around the whole property around

the 500 feet. And in the meantime, God had brought

a couple into this church that I did not know.

And that happens. I mean, between first service,

second service, I don't maybe connect all of

the dots. I see faces, I hear names. I'm trying

to memorize who people, who's coming, who's not.

Well, lo and behold, there's an engineer that

started coming to this church. And he grabbed

me after one, some of the things that I had said.

He said, you know, I think I might have a solution.

but it's not really my thing. But I don't know,

I feel like God has got something. And I heard

him and I said, well, talk to so -and -so because

people have been coming to me with every idea

that they get from pizza and from other things

in their night. And so I'm just kind of, you

know, I mean, we're trying every solution we

know to do. And so I just kind of said, we'll

kind of meet with that person if it's, you know,

we'll get it going. We wait a couple of weeks.

He goes, pastor, I don't think I've made myself

clear. He said, I think I have a solution. I

said, well, bring your stuff. Let's bring you

to the eldership. Let's present what you think

you have. So we met with him, TVP engineering.

And honestly, at the end of that meeting, we

felt like God had, we had our first sense of

real hope that it wasn't just a closed door and

the buildings were going down the river. He was

able to give us some real definition on what

he thought he could do. Now here's the sticker.

We've been denied for two and a half years. So

the thing he was proposing, our other engineering

firms that we'd spent thousands of dollars with

that failed us each time, said they could do

for about $400 ,000. They could draw us plans

for 400. Just the plans were 400 ,000. He came

to us, he said, listen, I believe the Lord spoke

to us. I can do that for one third of what they're

asking. I can draw what you're drawing. I think

we've got a solution. We went with it by faith.

Within six weeks, and I told you this here about

a month ago, within six weeks, the city partnered

with us. And the reason we were able to get a

permit right before Christmas was the very simple

reason of this. The city, with their attorneys,

We are the very last property. The city limits

end right with our fence. So all of that slew,

you wouldn't think we'd be in the city. But for

some reason on the maps, and only God would know

for now, we became the last, like the house in

front on this one side is city on the right.

On the left, it's not. But we happen to be city

property. Because of that, the city was able

to give us an exemption. An exemption on the

riverbank means that there's a riparian zone.

It means that you can't do any work or put anything

permanent within. It used to be, that's how we

got our RV, when the property was first developed,

it was 50 feet from a slough or a river. Now

they've changed the laws at 75 feet. But because

the city can... can work within the state law

systems and federal law systems. They can have

a right over what normal property owners can't

have. And in that process, they were able to

grant to us a permit that allowed us to remove

that period from 75 back to 20 feet. That is

just enough, and I mean enough, for us to gain

approval to do what this TVP engineering firm

said we could do. and that is we're going to

build a steel wall through a Z pile. Trust me,

I've learned more language and things about engineering

that I never want to know again. But what it

is is it's corrugated piling. We have to now

get 56 to 58 -foot steel pilings. Those pilings

will be driven into the ground and be connected

and it will form a steel wall. It will be from

one end of the property to the other. It will

be driven in 20 feet from the river's bank. In

some places, there's only 25 feet between the

building and the river. We have this year and

this winter to do this now or we lose and we

have no other option. So by faith, we have said

in Jesus' name, we're going forward, amen? That

is a huge miracle to get a permit, been denied

for two years, and now we are at that point of

going, okay, here we are. So right after Christmas,

because I didn't get a chance to tell you, construction

started. And if you'll look out there, you'll

see about this much rock on top of the ground

spread from all the way over this, all the way

around the building. Why is that? Well, tomorrow

or Tuesday, a 300 ,000 pound machine is coming

in called a pile driver and it's not a wrestling

move, okay? And it is coming in and it is going

to be pounding those pilings into the ground

down 56 feet to where it will be level with the

ground. When we're done, you won't even know

steel wall is under the ground, but it'll be

56 feet tying in. And here's what's most concerning.

You can look on the bank and see where you think

the most damage is. I was most concerned with

here on the backside of this wall here to the

gen church and the kitchen because it's really

come in around that pool. And that looks the

worst from the outside. But when we hired a,

geographic sonar, the sonar, and it's amazing

the technology that it has today, but the sonar

could go right to the edge of the bank and reveal

what is actually taking place. And the most significant

damage is actually in front of the new construction

in front of the fireplace where it's curved back

under where we lost that oak tree has come clear

back under. And I don't know if you've been out

there and We don't want you necessarily being

out there, but you can look from the windows.

Where we had that fire pit is completely gone.

That tree, then the fire pit was in 20 feet from

that tree, that's gone. So on the low tide, when

the river was pushed tight against the bank,

it cut it like this. And so what will happen

is within that scarlet cord that we put up, it

was almost, The only thing they changed was from

this far corner to just angle it back a little

bit. Everything else where the Lord showed us

to put that scarlet cord where we saw angels

holding that cord and we marked where we saw

it on the property is exactly where that fence

is going now. That in itself is incredible because

we don't, I mean, really, it's remarkable. From

a dream. and a vision to see where four angels

were holding a cord, mark on the fence where

we saw it, mark on the fence where we saw it,

string that cord, and now with all the engineering

and that, not knowing any of it, that fence is

going right on that cord. That's an incredible

thing. That's not a coincidence. That's a God

thing. The fact that the city would give us a

permit within six weeks is a God thing. all of

the engineering firms told us it will be six

months to a year, six weeks. Company told us

they could not get involved and get here until

February. They called us last week, said, we

decided to move you to the head of the list.

We'll be there next week. Holding back the atmospheric

rain. Let me just give you some more miracles.

You know that we were scheduled to have atmospheric

rain for like three, four weeks ago. That was

one of the prayers the engineer called me. He

said, we need a miracle. We cannot have that

much rain. We've got to put this rock, that machine,

when it pounds down, has to be able, its tracks

are 20 feet wide to hold the deal. We have to

have this bank hold. So we went to prayer. You

guys were praying, the church was praying. The

atmospheric river all but bypassed us. We got

normal winter rain. This week we're having two

weeks of nice weather. is not normal. It's a

God window. Come on, you better give the Lord

a praise for that. So three inch material has

been spread by different by construction firms.

We had truck after truck after truck come in

here. That's what that rock is for. We were told

by the city the condition of our permit was this.

Number one, you cannot be any closer than 20

feet. Number two, you can't dig anything. Everything

has to be done on your side. You cannot dig.

If you're going to dig, we can't issue the permit.

The TVP Engineering has been a godsend because

they have worked and now that they're part of

our church and part of the house, we've experienced

a miracle. I mean, literally has saved us a quarter

million dollars just in the design of this thing.

So that's been a miracle. The other thing that's

been a miracle, church, and I'm gonna end it

here pretty soon and then we'll spend some more

time on this next Sunday, is that the eldership

team, and the leadership team of Life Bible Church,

I want to say a special thank you to them. They've

been incredible stewards of the resources that

God has given through your hands. What does that

mean? It means that when we started this process,

we immediately, not last First Fruits, but two

years ago First Fruits, we heard the Lord say,

you need to store up for what's coming. We didn't

know what was coming. to the degree of what was

happening. To this point, we, by faith, we have

been able to, from church funds that we have

been good stewards over, put $800 ,000 toward

this project. That is a miracle. That is a God

-given miracle. Now, there's a lot of things

I could say about that, but we're coming to a

point where, what is the, What is the cost of

this wall? The cost of this thing, which was

gonna be seven to eight million everywhere else.

Every other bids, things we got. And we were

ready of saying, Lord, we have insurance. We

have flood insurance. If it goes into the river,

we're gonna have to fish it out of the river.

They told us it will be liable for the buildings

going in the river, which doesn't make any sense

when they won't give you a permit to stabilize

it. You gotta ask yourself, I mean, but anyway.

Let me just get on a soapbox for a little bit.

We called the people and told them that the tree

is in danger. It's undercut. It's going to go

down. We were told, you cannot touch that tree.

Don't remove that tree. Don't touch that tree.

What does it do? I was here in the morning. I

watched it go into the river. I watched it pull

a power cord into the river. I was dumb enough

to go down there and unplug the power cord while

it was in the water. But anyways, I did it. God,

that was a miracle number three that I didn't

get electrocuted right off the bat. I end up

going to Brazil because we were flying to Brazil

that next day. I'm preaching in Brazil. Carrie

Malpas, our administrator, gives me a call. She

goes, are you sitting down? I said, no. She goes,

you probably want to lay down. I go, okay. She

goes, you know that tree that you said we should

just cut and leave the root system in? Yeah.

Well, it fell in. Yeah, I said, I know. I watch

you. We all went out there. Well, I will not

name the tree. But the head of the agency of

the Department of Oregon called and said, you

must remove that tree immediately. It's in a

major waterway. We want you to hire a crane and

lift it out of the river. I said, I laid down,

I'm standing up. No flipping way. You tell them.

That's why I called them a month and a half ago.

I'm not getting a crane and I am not pulling

it out of the water. We told them it was going

in the water. They told us we couldn't touch

it. Now they call us, tell us to hire a crane

and then they have the audacity to tell it and

don't use normal power tools. If you get in that

water and use a normal chainsaw and put oil pollutants

in the river, we will find you. This is the kind

of love that we're getting, right? Thank God.

We just want to give thanks out to the fire department

of Monroe that came in one night and just removed

all the branches and we say thank you to you.

Hallelujah. But that's the kind of level of mindset

that we're dealing with, okay? You tell them,

it doesn't matter. It happens. Now you're responsible

even though the people in authority, anyways.

So you can imagine, and I'm going to weave some

of this in for me, the pressure on, Me, my team,

the church, because I have thoughts like what?

A, I'm the lead pastor. I have a responsibility

to not only have a vision for what God is saying,

but I have a responsibility to make sure that

stewardship, to make sure that we're doing everything

we know to do so that any question that a congregation

has, we can answer with integrity. And I believe

that. But the pressure of that, watching zero

help for the last two years, I didn't know how

much it was weighing on me. So in the process,

as we get to the permit process, I start having

some heart issues. And this happened before when

we did our building project. And I'm gonna say

this, I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm just

giving you the picture. When we had our building

campaign 12 years ago, I had... Now, this is

probably stupid on me, okay? So I'm not claiming

I'm the sharpest knife in the drawer. I'm the

stubbornest knife in the drawer, but I'm not

the sharpest. About 12 years ago, I had rolling

pain down my arm for about two weeks. And I should

have gone in, but I didn't. And I just prayed

against it because I felt, I felt like I had

a word from the Lord that it was demonic. and

that it was an assignment to take me out early,

but that it actually wasn't a physical condition,

but it was manifesting. And so my wife was upset

at me, and for two weeks I was in the doghouse,

and then it quit. Well, she eventually got the

elders on her side, and I went into the hospital,

did the treadmill test, did all of the stuff,

and they said, shot the dye in, did all the stuff,

and they said, well, we know that you had a heart

event, but we can't find, anything that took

place. We can see that it happened, but there's

nothing that's changed. And your valves are good.

I just call them lines. All your lines are good.

And so I got done with the deal and they go,

well, you're fine. Here's your $5 ,000 bill.

And I looked at my wife and I said, anyways,

I give her a bad time. So The pressure of this

thing started mounting again. I felt it again,

two and three weeks. I go, Lord, I know this

is stress and I know this is an assignment and

I'm gonna fight through this thing. But I did

not know how much this river had stolen from

me personally until we got away and we just took

seven days to wait on the Lord. She had her place,

little room. I had my little room. And we basically

only went out to buy groceries. We cooked and

we just did nothing except wait on God. For about

the first four days, I would spend about five,

six hours a day, about four hours in the morning,

about two hours at night, waiting on the Lord.

It took me about 20 hours of waiting on the Lord

of just constant. before the Lord, asking the

Lord to reveal to me. Lord, where's my joy? Where's

my passion? I just feel like I'm just grinding

this out. This thing, I feel like it's trying

to destroy me. I called different leaders. I

called all of my friends that I'm in ministry

with over the years. Pastor Tim Karskad and Bob

Sorge, Tony Kemp, Jan Venter, all the guys that

I've walked with that are older than me in the

Lord and just to hear their voice and I talked

to our chairman of MFI, Pastor John John, I talked

to Jester. I mean, I spent time in the afternoons

talking to some of the prophets in the body of

Christ and just pouring my heart out on this

river and then seeking God. The Lord spoke a

couple things to me. So I'm leaving you right

at the permit and I'm leaving you right what's

happening and then we'll pick it back up. About

the third day, I was praying and I had a vision.

Now, God usually speaks to me this way. He doesn't

always speak to people this way. It's been unique

in my life. When he speaks to me, He gives me

open visions many times. I see things sometimes

with my eyes open, but most of the time as I'm

waiting on the Lord, it's just my eyes closed.

I get color visions. And in that process, I saw

what I knew to be the Lord Jesus. And I saw him

in a garment that I had never seen him in before.

He was in a golden garment. Most of the time

I've seen him, I've encountered him, he's been

in white or he's either had a golden sash like

it says in the book of Revelation or I've seen

him sometimes with a blue sash representing the

word of God. But this time he came in and I was

in a... table -like setting. The best way I can

describe it was not quite a booth, but like an

extended, more than just a single top for one

person. It was almost like it was a four -person

table. And that's what I could see in my spirit.

And I watched the Lord walk in to this deal,

and he was wearing this golden garment. Now,

this golden garment, the reason I knew it was

him is 10 years ago, 10, 12 years ago, I was

at a intercessors conference and I was waiting

on the Lord and the Lord took me. And I know

I'm getting very personal here. The Lord took

me and I saw a little bit of the streets of gold

in heaven. I stood there in my spirit. And as

I looked down at the transparent gold floors,

as the scripture says that the floor that it's

as clear, the gold is as clear as glass. I saw

in the floor like snowflakes. It wasn't a snowflake,

but like each snowflake has its own unique pattern.

I saw gold patterns of things with a transparency.

So it was like it was a weaving of gold within

gold on a clear gold floor that you could see

the weavings of gold within it. And as the Lord

came in, Because I couldn't see his face. All

of a sudden I saw him come in and he's wearing

a type of garment that looked exactly like that

floor that I had experienced 12 years ago. And

he had one giant necklace with a great big blue

sapphire that was round in the center. And as

he sat there, he sat at the table right in front

of me and I had been talking to him and he had

been talking to me about... Psalms 23, prior

to that, for the last couple of days, said, you

anoint my head with oil in the midst of my enemies.

And I was just talking about the Lord. Lord,

I'm in the midst of the enemies. I can't get

breakthrough from the world. I can't get breakthrough

from counsel. I can't get breakthrough. And all

of a sudden, he sits down and he goes, I want

you to begin to eat deeply of what is on my table.

You know the verse. And you know that David said,

you anointed my head with oil in the presence

of my energy, but you haven't eaten from my table.

You've just known about my table. And in that

process, maybe it was an hour and a half, two

hours, I don't know how long it was, all of a

sudden a different colored jewel tone plate would

appear before me as I was sitting before the

Lord and there would be some entree. One time

it was a red plate. One time it was a... blue

plate. There was a green plate. There was a white

bowl. There was a gold plate. There was a silver

plate. There was seven plates. It was like a

seven course meal. I couldn't tell you what necessarily

was on it. It's just the fact that as I was sitting

with the Lord, whatever that represented, I was

to, by faith, receive what was at the table.

And the Lord spoke to me, says, your heart and

your faith has become like the riverbank. it's

there, but you're, because I said to him about

two days in, I said, Lord, I don't have joy.

I should have more joy. I feel like I've lost

my joy. And he spoke to me. He said, the joy

of the Lord is your strength. And I looked up

the scriptures. Every time he spoke to me, I

looked up the scriptures. Every time he quoted

a verse to me. And I ate at the table of the

Lord. I know that sounds very experiential. It

was. But what I can say to you after those three

or four days is all of a sudden I got a text

and I had asked certain intercessors to pray

for me. And this text came back with the very

verses that I had just heard two hours prior.

And I knew the Lord was speaking to me and answering

some prayers. And one of the things that he spoke

to me, and I want to share this with you. is

he said that you've got to begin to learn in

this next season, because you're going to be

dealing with the prevailing church, that in order

to prevail, you have to steep yourself, and that's

the word I heard, you have to steep yourself

in my love and in my faithfulness. You cannot

go and change anything. From your perspective,

you've done all that you know to do. Now comes

the point where you have to trust me in my love

for you and in my faithfulness to my word that

you really do trust it. And that it's not that

you don't have a responsibility because I'm a

big preacher of responsibility in the scriptures.

We have faith and faith requires obedience. You

can't just have faith without action. It's together.

But sometimes we can take on, and I'm gonna speak

for myself, I can take on, I have to do it. If

there's a stop, I've gotta work harder. If I'm

stopped again, I gotta find another way. And

that's part of a great tenacity that's there,

and many of you are this way. But there's also

a point then where you take the responsibility

that you weren't meant to carry because it's

not you that can do it, right? And so that's

what I heard the Lord say. So as he's saying,

he says, you got to steep yourself in my love

and in my faithfulness. So I did word studies

on God's love. I did word studies on his faithfulness.

And as he was saying this steeping, and I'm not

a tea drinker. How many drink tea around here?

Okay. Bunch of hippies. All right. Anyway, no,

just kidding. I'm a black coffee guy, but so

I'm not a tea guy. But so as I'm getting this,

I'm getting this picture of this foo -foo tea.

And I don't even know if it's out there, but

Jenny said that I really saw something that's

true. Like this steel little teal. like a, I

don't want to call it a teacup, but it's a tea

filter where you put all the tea leaves in. It's

not the Lipton pouch. It's like the organic kind

of cool tea people and they put it in there and

then they sit it in the water. I'm getting this

picture of this thing being loaded and set in

and hot water being poured over and a deal coming

over the top and just letting it steep. And then

when I saw the Lord lift the lid, I saw the leaves.

that we're releasing the tea into the water.

Now, again, I don't study this kind of stuff.

I'm not a tea drinker. I'm just pretty simple.

Give me meat, potatoes, eggs, black coffee, right?

Not tea with a little milk or cream. No, just,

okay, I'm just passing. As I'm seeing this, the

Lord says to me, he goes, just like the leaves

have inside of themselves what needs to be released

for the tea. you've got to allow my love and

my faithfulness of covenant that you preach,

you've got to allow it to begin to soften you

to actually believe me more than just what you

know. Now that was the part of the riverbank

of my heart that needed to be restored. And then

for the next three or four days, that was my

assignment, to allow myself to read, speak over

and receive his love in regard to what we're

going through and not feel like, because it's

a very difficult position. You can know something

and believe something, but your belief transfers

more to a hope when the joy of the Lord is gone.

Joy is, I don't know how to explain it. at this

point yet, but I'll work it out in the scriptures

to come. The joy of the Lord being our strength

is connected to real faith because it's connected

to rest. Hope is not necessarily connected to

rest. Does that make sense? You can have hope,

but it's not connected to rest. Real faith is

connected to rest. Now that doesn't mean rest

as in sleep. That means rest as in not striving

or believing you have to add to something. And

that's what the Lord began to restore to me in

that last week. And so in that process, I said,

as we left, I left Christmas Eve after I preached

the message and I told Jenny, I said, I don't

have any joy left. I've got to get that back.

The Lord's got to meet me. And that's what he

did. He's so faithful. He's so kind. So we, Are

over there. And we just went to Sun River. We

went just to get away. We had a couple few days

of snow. Which my wife loves. I'm not. It's okay.

It just means I got to do a lot of scraping.

And shoveling. But anyways. As we got home. And

in that process. So here's what's coming. Tomorrow

morning. To Tuesday. A 300 ,000 pound pile driving

machine is going to be delivered. The premier,

it's called Pacific Foundation, is who we've

contracted with, is coming in on the West Coast.

They're one of the top three. When you see bridge

construction and you see there, like you got

Hamilton, you got Pacific Foundation, you got

a few others. We thought we had a plan that could

just put steel, flat steel plates in the ground.

to 30, 35 feet. That was gonna be the most economical

way to do this. But when we looked at the river

and did all the engineering and then got the

sonar and saw the underbank cutting, we realized

that we've got to go another 25 feet down deep

in the ground. So we were putting 56 feet of

steel panels that are called Z panels and they're

corrugated and they'll be linked together from

the very... end of where our property is from

Motel Point to Slough Point. And there will be

a wall that will drive 56 feet in the ground.

And here's the deal. We don't have 56 feet of

riverbank or of land to get 56 feet of steel

on. So when we tried... to navigate how we would

get the machine in on this backside, we couldn't

get the steel through. So we actually had to

build a road all the way around the property

so that we could get the steel sheets in because

the steel sheets have to be turned around. Turned

around to be able to be lifted from a platform,

lifted up to drive them in. You know how many

feet we have on that side? 57 feet. They're gonna

have six inches between the building and hanging

over the fence to get those steel plates through

to lay them horizontally so that they can pick

them upright and turn them. The tolerances that

God has given us, in some places, we only have

20, what is it? we have right at 21 feet of riverbank

at the lowest place. We're within those 20 feet.

Because we have to be 20 feet from the river.

So we're like at 20 and 21 feet. So our timing,

you want to say the Lord never comes late. He's

always on time. You just wish he'd show up a

little early. He's on time, but this is our window.

We've gone this whole process to that fact. We've

been able through stewardship to save about 750,

800 ,000. We've done that by faith. In the next

week, I'll talk a little bit about what it's

gonna take. I'll just tell you, this is a $2

.2 million project. Everything else was six to

eight million. This is a miracle that we're getting

this moment. I don't know how that's gonna happen.

I just know the Lord spoke to me when I was over

there because with this process, it's been so

on me. of the weight of this thing. And the Lord

said, your responsibility is to believe me that

I'm able to do it through my people and to bring

things in. And so I'm laying it before you. I'm

telling you, we've had at least five or six miracles

so far. We need about two or three more. Number

one, we need great weather like God's been doing

for us. Number two, we need about 1 .5 million

in two months. I've had to write one $700 ,000

check. I've gotta write two more $700 ,000 checks

every 30 days. So every 30 days, there needs

to be a $700 ,000 check. I mean, that's nothing

for Derek and Laura, but for us, it's a little

bit tough. So I'm just saying, we have stepped

out by faith and we are believing God to meet

us. How's he gonna do it? I don't know. I just

have to now anchor into the fact that he is going

to do it. And he's gonna open doors. Doors that

have been shut for two years, I'm believing are

gonna be open. So that then leads us to this

fast. We plan this fast every year. It's something

that we do at the beginning of the year to say,

Lord, we're gonna prepare our hearts to hear

you. Now here's the important thing about fasting

that you need to know. I believe, that when you

set out to do a fast, you don't set out to do

it for something specific you want. Let me just

say that again. When Jesus was dealing with the

little boy that the dad brought the boy that

had seizures of the demon that would try to kill

him multiple times. And Jesus asked him, how

long has this been doing this? And the dad said,

since he was a child, has tried to drown him

in water, has tried to put him in the fire. Even

the demon didn't obey Jesus when he said, come

out of him. He put him into a seizure. And when

the disciples said, when Jesus had just come

down from the mountain of transfiguration, the

rest of the disciples had been trying to cast

this demon out and they couldn't. And they asked

Jesus privately after that, after this whole

session and Jesus cast this demon out, they said,

Lord, why could we not cast out the demon? And

Jesus said very specifically, he said what? He

said, this type, this type, only goes out by

prayer and fasting. Now what most people believe

when they read that is they think that that's

what you're to fast for, for certain. Yes, there

is a principle of fasting, but Jesus was saying

something more than that. He was saying to the

disciples, now listen, they had been the most

trained miracle workers in the world. They had

been with Christ. at that point of the Mount

of Transfiguration for over two and a half years.

They had been operating, healing the sick, casting

out devils, watching miracle after miracle. It

wasn't for a lack of not knowing how or not having

the faith to do so. What was it the lack of?

The lack of because of busyness. that Jesus would

always, and if you'll read it, he would slip

away and what would he do? He would go pray while

they would sleep or be busy with that. What he

was saying is this type does not come out except

prayer and fasting. He was saying this. He's

saying there must be a lifestyle of prayer and

fasting so that when you encounter things that

you did not know, There is a fresh awakening

of your heart and your mind to partner with the

things of God and that you don't realize the

erosion that can take place even when you're

doing good things for God. And so in that process,

one of the things that we have to do in this

fast of these next 21 days, what does the fast

do? Well, first of all, it removes us from getting

comfortable. There's nobody in their right mind

that prays in the morning. At least, Van, I hope

that this is not your case. There's nobody that

wakes up in the morning and says, Lord, I love

you so much, send turmoil today. You don't wake

up in the morning and say, dear God, send the

storm. Dear God, send turmoil, I love you. Nobody

prays that. Now that may happen, but you don't

pray for it. It's like, If you ever pray for

patience, that's exactly what will happen. So

nobody prays that way. We pray, Lord, I give

you this day. Help me to honor you in this day.

Keep me from screwing up. Keep me from dishonoring

you. And let me honor your Holy Spirit. That's

a prayer. Keep me from temptation. Deliver me

from evil. Let me honor and hallow your name

to do your will. That's what we should be praying

in the morning. Nobody prays, bring it on, God.

You just don't pray that way. But here's the

deal. When we run into situations like this river

for us as a church or for me as a leader or whatever

the circumstance is in your life, we need times.

where we don't just go to something because of

the problem. I'm not coming to 21 days of fasting.

God, you gotta do something. I've spent, I better

do that. I've spent two and a half years crying,

pleading, walking, coming down to this property

at 3 a .m. in the morning, staying till seven

or eight, praying up and down the river. I've

done that. Now, what do I have to do? There's

something that has to shift inside of me, right?

Inside of us. To be able to say, okay, I know

who you are and I'm convinced of your love and

that you are answering. There's too many things

that you've already answered now. I'm not giving

up on the fact that I keep asking and reminding

you of what you've said, but there's a shift

of believing. Now I've got to get that into my

spirit. And part of this fast is what? It's aligning

my heart with who he is. It's the steeping power,

if you will, of the water and the tea of being

able to awaken. What Pastor Scott spoke on December

28th as I listened to it, it's the awakening.

It's when he shared his notes and we talked about

it and changed a few things. I said, Scott, this

is important for what I've got to do the next

year. I said, I need you to speak on this and

you're gonna do a great job. Why? Because everybody

gets comfortable. You can get comfortable in

doing good things. You can get comfortable in

your prayer life. You can get comfortable with

how you read your word. You can get comfortable

with your love for Jesus. Why would I come and

do something that, because every one of us, we

go in life to a place of comfortable. There's

nobody wakes up and says, Lord, make me uncomfortable

today. Fact is when we're uncomfortable, we pray

that it be removed from us and that we go back

to comfortable, right? So the whole point is,

why would I fast? I fast food, entertainment,

or things that are comfort to me to not just

Jenny Craig it for Jesus, okay? Okay, and probably

could use a little Jenny Craig right now. But

the reality is to replace it with something.

To replace it with a hunger that goes deep inside

of me. Why? Because the very principle of Jesus'

Sermon on the Mount was he said this. He said,

those who hunger and thirst shall be filled.

He wasn't talking about natural food. He was

talking about spiritually. The question you have

to ask yourself in this new year is, do I actually

hunger? Do I have hunger pains in the spirit

that I must hear him and be awakened on the inside?

Do I thirst for that living water like I first

did? And that's what the fast is about. It's

about what? Removing the layers of the heart

that have created a comfortability in whatever

stage you're walking with Jesus. For my life,

it might be different than your life, Brian.

For your life, it might be different than Chelsea's

life. I don't even know if I can even talk about

that. No, I'm just messing with you. The reality

is wherever you're at with Jesus, it's to peel

back layers. Why? To awaken your ear to hear

and your heart to long for him talking to you

and bringing breakthrough. Not for the problem,

but for you personally. And then it's in the

midst of that issue where he talks to you. He

reveals his scripture to you. You begin to see

things that were there all along that you didn't

see. That new insights come. New grace comes.

New faith comes. To be able to pray in a different

dimension than what you were. Having now fresh

authority to speak to a circumstance that has

been a long time circumstance. Are you there

church? So what are we doing if I could have.

Whoever's playing, Jenny, if that's you or whoever,

you can jump on up there to the piano. What we're

doing is, what I would like to suggest you to

do is a Daniel fast. I'm not asking you to go

three weeks without just water only. That's not

what, most people can't do that. And I would

recommend that we do a Daniel fast. What's a

Daniel fast? Well, taken from the book of Daniel,

Daniel said what? We are not gonna defile ourselves

from the king's wine or from the king's table,

meats or delicacies. Feed us vegetables. Now,

you know me. Vegetables is not on the top priority

normally. Now, I try to eat salad and broccoli

and Jenny keeps me in asparagus and broccoli

but I prefer not. But to remove now all meat,

remove any forms of sweets as far as brownies

and apple pie and I'm just going through right

now, just doing a little morning ice cream. In

that process of removing those things, why am

I doing that? Because you know what comes with

those things? Comfort and satisfaction. The reason

I would... remove those things is to what? I'm

going to now, and my wife says this all the time,

God bless her heart. She says, well, some people,

honey, they just, they eat to live, you live

to eat. And I'm like, thanks, dear. But some

people do. they would say, who are you? I'm a

foodie. You can ask any of my kids. Dad is very

particular on how he likes his coffee. He has

to be an espresso shot in black coffee. He doesn't

want any cream, doesn't want any sugar. The way

he likes his eggs, there's a way. I always say

there is a God's way of things being done. Exactly.

Thank you, Troy. Spoken from another infidel

like myself on food. But anyway. The reality

is I'm changing what I normally do to just getting

by in the natural to what? Spend the rest of

the time reading and prayer and waiting. I can

honestly tell you for me, the last week of being

away, had I not had, and that might be just something

for you going, I don't know if I could do three

to four hours. Not having two to three hours.

In time blocks. Now of course I used the restroom

in between that time. It wasn't just like I was.

Cloistered or in prison. But to have time. Where

time wasn't pushing on me. Just to. Get into

the presence. Because how many know when you

first start. Every thought. Of what you need

to do. What you should do. What you didn't do.

What's waiting for you, people you need to call,

people, things that need to be done, bills that

get paid, dreams that you've had that you forgot.

Everything gets thrown at you in your mind. Everything.

The first day or two was just writing everything

that came to my mind to get it out that it was

down. Second day was about having to stay focused

on picturing what the scriptures said about who

Jesus is. And keeping my attention on him. Now

if I do it. And I'm not. Please don't hear this.

It's not a bragging. But this is the honesty

of your lead pastor here. I don't have a problem

praying half hour a day. Reading my Bible half

hour a day. Spending an hour with the Lord. I've

developed that discipline and lifestyle. And

that's awesome. But it's the extended times that

actually dig down deep and allow you now to go

into that place where you get vulnerable. It

took the Lord because of the condition. I had

to ask Jenny multiple times. I said, I'm hearing

this. And I said, in my heart, I want to make

sure I'm hearing God. I know the verses. But

I said, I'm gonna be vulnerable with you. I'm

gonna have you check. I'm gonna give you my journal

and I'm gonna write on there. I want you to read

what I wrote and tell me if you believe I'm hearing

God accurate. Because I said, I've known the

Lord long enough for almost 50 years. I know

the Bible. I wanna make sure that this is coming

from the Holy Spirit, not just my mind knowing

the truth. Listen, I allow myself to be checked.

I don't think that I alone hear God by myself

and nobody else can do that. That's why I call.

I have my wife look at different things. I read

it to Tony Kemp. I read it to Pastor Tim Karskad.

I read it to a few other guys. I said, he goes,

Tim goes, why are you asking me this? This is

God through and through. I said, I believe that,

but I needed to hear you say it because I wanted

to make sure. that I'm not making something up.

The biggest thing in my heart is to have integrity

with the prophetic word and what God is speaking.

And I just needed to lay it before you as being

accountable. Why? Because when I step in front

of that pulpit, when I come back from this encounter,

I've got to believe and know that God has spoken

and is speaking. And what I'm saying, I'm saying

from the fact that I engaged him, encountered

him, and his word is absolutely true on the inside.

I say that to tell you, it took me three days,

four or five hours a day to get to that point

to know that I know that I know. And I know if

that can happen in my life where I'm in the word

of God on a weekly basis. Sometimes I'm studying

for 20 hours a week. That if that can happen

at 20 hours a week in prayer for an hour a day,

every day in my Bible reading, that it can happen

to all of us when pressure seasons come on and

things pile on and we don't realize sometimes

the numbness or the layers that come in. And

that's why we're fasting. We're fasting to get

our heart awakened. We're fasting to get hungry

for the things of God. Yes, I want you to...

Ask for miracle provision. Yes, I want you to

ask for a breakthrough for the church and for

this river and for what we've stepped into by

faith as a church together. And we'll talk more

about that in the weeks to come. But I want you

to get hungry for you. I want you to have a passion.

to hear God's voice in his presence, that it

would so deepen you that wherever now you go,

you're quickened at a new level, that things

that used to be standoffish to you won't be standoffish

to you in this season. You'll look at them with

new eyes of faith and say, my God is faithful

and his love for me. He hears me when I pray.

How many would agree that you could partner with

that and we can partner together? Would you stand

with me? We're gonna be giving you books at the

end of service. fasting books but I want to pray

for this hunger and this thirst in this next

three weeks leading up to life conference that

in 2026 would be a year of prevailing not only

prevailing for us as a congregation but the only

way we prevail as a congregation is you prevail

individually you prevail in your Time with God.

You prevail in your relationship with your spouse.

You prevail in the things that are standing before

you. That God meets you and strength and virtue

and faith and joy and grace come to your heart.

That's how we prevail in him. So Father, in Jesus

name, as your people are standing, I thank you

that you've heard me. I thank you that you know

me. I thank you that you know your people. God,

you have come to show yourself strong in 2026.

This is a year of prevailing, which means prevail,

which means to succeed. It means to overcome.

It means to triumph. It means to break through.

And Lord, I'm asking now in the name of Jesus

that the atmosphere of heaven, and I feel it

right now, open up over us. And there would be

faith that would be dropped into our hearts,

strength and virtue. that the Spirit of God would

come upon us. Lord, keep us. Lord, remove from

us every form of pride, every form of self -righteousness

and justification. And God, that we would allow

you to speak, not into our own hearts by our

own hearing, but to those that are... beside

us and over us with the Lord that we could actually

be accountable to what we're hearing so that

it would be true and it would be deep. Lay us

bare not to destroy us, but to take us forward,

to break us into new victories and new grace.

We love you this morning, Jesus. And we thank

you for what you're about to do. We thank you

in advance for the miraculous provision. And

Lord, for the saving of this property, not only

for ministry now, but for future generations.

We claim our inheritance in Jesus Christ's holy

name. Amen. Thank you for taking the time to

listen to this week's message. We are so grateful

for those who tune in each week and have given

generously to this ministry. If you would like

to give, click the link in the episode description

below. You can also help us by subscribing to

this podcast and sharing it with your friends

and family. Lastly, if you are in need of prayer

send us a text message at 541 -625 -1365. We

would love to pray with you.