Sunday Message - Pastor Steve and Portia Sumner (May 22, 2011) | Life Bible Church

Well, listen, it's a great privilege we have

this morning to have friends from Oakland, California,

Shiloh Christian Fellowship right there in the

heart of Oakland. We've had here Pastor David

Kitely and Pastor Dr. Violet Kitely. How many

remember Dr. Violet and Pastor David? We haven't

had the new pastor, which is Pastor David's son

Patrick yet, and we will have him in sometime.

Fact is, our youth camp, where we're heading

this year to... In Idaho actually pastor Patrick

is the camp speaker so our youth will get to

sit under that it's gonna be a great time so

What a privilege is to have Stephen and Portia

and their son with us. We've been friends for

about eight years We've got to know each other

and our lives have intertwined and Portia was

here a couple years ago and and we just really

knitted and and Probably plan to spend some more

time together head down there together and just

see what God does. You know, it's so wonderful

The fact that we can receive from different streams

You know, even though we're MFI churches and

we're loosely I mean the fact of the matter is

that what a great opportunity in the body of

Christ just to bring Friends in friends that

we bond with and covenant relationship with and

then allow them just to pour into our lives What

a rich gift you've already Received from this

morning from sister Porsche Steve's gonna come

first and then Porsche is gonna come second Would

you welcome pastor Steve summer as he comes to

the pulpit this morning? Come on. Let's give

him a life Bible welcome Amen let's give the

Lord a shout of praise amen Thank You Jesus.

Come on. Let's give the Lord a shout Can we shout

in this place? Yes now Thank you, Pastor Brad.

Let's give it up for your pastor who has returned

from ministry. Pastor Brad has been away on the

missions field for the last several weeks or

two weeks. And Pastor Jen and all the ladies,

can all the ladies just stand? I know this is

your special weekend. Let's give the ladies a

hand and all that helped with the retreat for

the ladies. Pastor Jen and Jody and all those

that helped and the sound crew and the technical

crew. And amen. God bless you. Ladies, you're

special to me. I'm a Mother's Day baby, so that's

why I can do this. Two weeks ago I celebrated

my 45th birthday, and I was born on Mother's

Day, and so every seven years my birthday falls

again on Mother's Day, and out of all my nine

siblings, I come from a family of ten, I had

the privilege of saying I was Mom's favorite.

And no one else could say that I could say that

with confidence and truth and surety Because

I was born on Mother's Day and so and I got saved

because of my mother's prayers now I was raised

in a in a Catholic home. We knew about the Lord

and As I said, I had nine brothers and sisters

but I got saved and born again and and Introduced

to the Lord Jesus Christ through the prayers

of my mother and my older sister who got born

again and saved and became Dr. Violet Kitely's

hairdresser. So that's our connection. And then

my older sister Rosemary, her daughter Marlena,

is Pastor Patrick's wife. And so I'm related

to the Kitely's. So we're related. And you see

God has a sense of humor. And I had a great aunt.

I shared with the other two services. I had a

great aunt. Aunt that I never knew that had a

touch of God on her life and when she would come

visit our home in the Bay Area She would pray

over my oldest sibling Rosemary and she would

pray the prayer of faith How many know that the

Bible says that the effectual fervent prayer

of a righteous person avails much and so she

prayed for my sister Rosemary that our family

would receive a touch from God and it's amazing

to see the prayers unfold you can stand back

and see I can literally see Prayers. Be unfolded

from members of my family that I never knew so

ladies and gentlemen But ladies and sisters your

special weekend keep praying for your family

pray for your spouses pray for your children

pray for your Relative pray and declare and don't

just pray silently let a declaration come out

of your mouth Let a prophetic prayer begin to

just prophesy your prayer. It's nice to make

mental prayers I know we can you know, there's

scriptures it says all be to be silent before

the Lord But I just want to encourage this church,

get loud. God wants to bust you out. God wants

to just bust you out, even in your worship and

your settings. I don't know. I've been around

Pastor David a lot and Pastor Brad knows. Anyhow,

so just go for it, church. Go for it. Let it

out. Don't hold back. Even in your church services,

just bust through. Seek the face of God. Now

don't act weird. OK, don't get religious and

weird, but have fervency of spirit. Now we have

four services on Sunday. I know. So this is the

last Sunday here. So I know this is the party

service, right? This is the you got to sleep

in. You had breakfast. Our maybe some of you,

but our third service at home, it's the wild

service, the party service. And so this is our

last service here today. And so. I just sense

the power of God in this place. You know, in

Luke chapter five, it says when Jesus was teaching

to the Pharisees, it says that the power of the

Lord was present to heal, but they didn't recognize

it because they just came to receive, receive,

receive. And sometimes we can be like that. We

want to receive so much. But how many know that

in our time of worship, in our time when we pour

out our heart, as I shared the other night, worship

is not for you. If you didn't know that, worship

is for God. We can worship, worship. We can worship

styles of worship. We can worship all the different

things around us, but we need to worship God.

Amen. Never worship our form, our styles. No,

we want to worship the King of Kings and have

abandoned. Worship before our God and so I'm

just accounted a privilege and an honor to be

here with you Thursday night when we came in

and pastor Portia shared with the worship team

I just saw a vision of this house as a deep well

in this valley a deep well and I just saw it

as a watering hole where people were gonna come

many people are gonna come and be filled and

Touched by the presence of the Lord in this house

But I'm this house but the vessels of this house

and I just want you to raise your hand Right

now because each one of you are a vessel You're

a vessel for God and the word that came forth

with that the Lord was going to increase your

capacity Not only to give out but to receive

God wants to increase our capacity to be Receptives

to be receptors and to be conduits of the blessing

and the life of God And so there's an exchange

as Jesus said in John chapter 7 out of your innermost

John 7 · chapter mention

being shall flow rivers of living water there

what there's a input and then an outpouring and

so God comes and pours out a fresh upon this

house and you're gonna be a watering hole and

then the scripture that was given was Psalms

36 it says you're gonna be abundantly satisfied

with the fullness of my house says the Lord I'm

gonna give you drink from the rivers of my pleasure

says God and then the scripture in Isaiah 12

it says with joy you're gonna draw from the wells

of salvation You think about it that the joy

of the Lord you can put your hands down unless

you want to keep But the joy of the Lord is our

strength church The joy of the Lord is our strength

and pastor Porsche will come and share about

this joy Joy has nothing to do with what's going

on then on the outside Joy is an inner work of

the Spirit of God and your joy is your strength.

So I want everybody to smile look at your neighbor

and Take your finger out your prophetic finger

put it in their nose. Don't poke them And declare

that, say the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Amen. Thank you, Jesus. And so as we were praying,

I felt the Lord gave me three words to describe

this season for your house. I know this is your

10th year of ministry here. And the first word

that the Lord gave me was the word favor over

this house. The word favor over your life. And

there's one verse of scripture that God gave

me in Psalms 23. Verse 5 and this is after we

go through the valley of the shadow of death

We shall fear no evil and then it says this in

verse 5 it says you prepare a table before me

or for me in the presence of my enemies and this

is a Description to me of favor so many times

we want to focus on our enemies But God says

focus on my table my provision my sustenance

God says, let him arise and his enemies be scattered.

And we have to make that declaration. Your enemies

and my enemies may not be the same sometimes,

but we have enemies of our faith. We have enemies

of our health. We have enemies that want to come

up against us and we have to just say, God, you're

able to defeat my enemies. Let God arise and

his enemies be scattered because in the midst,

I don't know about you, but I was raised having

to fight. Now, I couldn't just get a gun like

Brad can. Even though I want to, you know, my

wife really loves guns. She really does. But

I won't let her have one because I know where

we live, sometimes we'd be too tempted to use

it. So it's better off for my family not to have

weapons, Pastor Anthony. And so. But out here,

you can have them. My son wants a gun. My wife

wants a gun. And that's why they brought me here,

Pastor Brad. It was really a plan of the Lord,

or the enemy, to get me to go buy a gun when

I get home. No. But how many of you know that

God puts an inward fight within His people? a

fight that in the midst of our circumstances

we can know victory. And one of my favorite verses

of Scripture is Psalms 110, which states, we

know this Psalm, but it says, the Lord said to

my Lord, sit here at my footstool till I make

your enemies my footstool. How many know that

there's some enemies? Here's this word again,

enemies. And then it says this in the next verse,

it says, I'm going to send forth the rod of my

strength out of Zion. That's you. Everyone say

that's me. The design is the church and it's

not this building here It's you as a people God

sends forth the rod of strength out of design

and then it just makes this wonderful statement

it just says rule in the midst of your Enemies,

isn't that good that we can rule in the midst

of difficulty. There's gonna be challenge There's

gonna be things that we face as a people But

our tendency is to remove all our enemies and

difficulties, but God says no you're gonna rule

in the midst of your enemies You're gonna have

a divine provision a day. How many know that

you and I are called to live supernaturally You

think about this whole entire Bible that we read

and that we preach out of and everything that

we worship our God is a supernatural God It's

supernatural and so God wants us to think that

way to be supernaturally natural and to be naturally

supernatural Without being weird Okay, sometimes

religious people can get real weird and spooky

and okay God wants us we shared this with the

interns the other day is that Spirituality and

practicality go hand in hand Okay, spiritual

I'll say that again spirituality and practicality

go hand in hand Okay, and so there's natural

things that we have how many know that that this

life is a proving ground And so we're we're proving

our spiritual aspect of our life is proven on

how we deal with natural things Okay, so it doesn't

mean we're just living in the seventh heaven

speaking in tongues all the time and we can't

relate to terra firma No, we have balance and

so spiritual and practical but in the midst of

our life there were plugged in There's an open

heaven that we're attached to every one of you.

You have a cell phone I know you do hopefully

you're not texting in church all of our young

people even when pastor Patrick is preaching

I'll have to tell him that there's so much texting

but every night you take that cell phone and

you plug it into your charger Don't you? What

happens if you don't charge your cell phone and

you guys have a panic attack if you ever lost

your cell phone young people So no, but we stay

plugged into the power source and that's what

it is in our life We have a connection with the

power source so that no matter where we go. We

have divine GPS Amen We have divine GPS and God

knows where we are and we can plug into him No

matter what state we're in and so God says in

this verse that I prepare a table Before it for

you in the presence of your enemies to me. That's

favor and some scriptures on favor It says in

Isaiah 61 verse five, verse five says to declare

the year of God's favor. Psalm 102, 13 says you

will arise and have mercy on Zion for the time

to favor her. Yes, the set time has come. How

many of you know that there's a set time of favor

for the church? You know, since you're here today,

God has something for you today. No one here

was raptured yesterday. It wasn't Judgment Day.

How many know in James, the book of James, it

says that that mercy triumphs over judgment.

And so in our day, I don't know about you, but

God is going to have a church, a church, a glorious

church without spot or wrinkle that the greatest

revival is not. Way off in the blue yonder. It's

happening now Some people are praying for revival

and they're gonna pray their way through it But

God how many believe that God has a great revival

that's already starting in this church. It's

already starting in your life Because when you

have revival it can't be vicariously through

someone else it has to begin in you your prayer

has to be God I want revival and let it begin

in me and so yes We have messages of doom and

gloom and prophecies of judgment It's funny how

people always prophesy judgment somewhere else

than their geographical location I Don't know

if you ever noticed that They always judged that

person over. We're gonna judge that city, that

wicked city of Nineveh or wherever it is. But

no! God's message is a message of grace and mercy.

And I don't know about you, but we're looking

for a great harvest. And God is going to use

the church, the favor, recognizing the favor

of God upon each one. As we know in Ephesians

4 11, it says we all know this well. God has

given apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors

and teachers for the for the equipping and the

teaching of the saints for the work of the ministry.

And so God is equipping. thing we've done, Pastor

Patrick, two weeks ago or four weeks ago, we

just ordain, not ordain, but we set in about

150 lay people and just said, you know what?

You're called. You have a ministry. Your life

message counts and God is going to come and activate

the pew, not just the pulpit. Amen. So there's

an activation for you. And so because you're

here, God has something for you. Because you

woke up this morning God gave you breath. Guess

what? He's not done with you Some of you have

felt like maybe God is done with me or what's

my calling? Well, because you're breathing then

you have hope it's and because you're alive Then

guess what God's voice is speaking to you and

you can hear it. And so the favor of God is declared

over this house Psalms 5 verse 12 says for you

Psalms 5:12

a Lord will bless the righteous with favor You

will surround him as with a shield. Psalm 30

Psalms 30:5

verse 5 says, for his anger is but for a moment,

his favor is for life. Weeping may endure for

a night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalm

Psalms 30:7

30 verse 7 states, Lord, by your favor, you have

made my mountain stand strong. Amen. I'm going

to give you a definition of favor. Favor is to

cause one to prosper. To cause you to be prosperous

To succeed to flourish beyond their own experience

ability or expertise I'll declare I'll state

that again favor is to cause one to prosper to

succeed to flourish beyond their own experience

ability or Expertise and so this word favor is

declared over your house and it's all taken out

of this one verse of Psalm 23 verse 5 So God

Psalms 23:5

preparing a table for us in the presence of our

enemy. And then the next verse in Psalm 23, or

actually the next part of that verse, it says,

you anoint my head with oil. You anoint my head

with oil and God is pouring out a fresh anointing

upon this house and upon the church. I don't

know about you, but I need the anointing of God.

You need the anointing of God. The anointing

is not something we just get every once a week.

No, it's something that the vessels of God were

anointed daily with fresh oil David said in Psalm

92 you have exalted me like a wild ox You think

about this and my horn you've anointed me with

fresh oil that word fresh there means green oil

means to be alive and vibrant and so God wants

his people to be moving with the life and the

power of His presence now, let me share this

about Anointing because we can say well the anointing

the anointing and we want to be anointing How

many know that the anointing is not for you?

We all want the anointing, but it's really not

for our self -service the anointing is for the

work of God and Anointing I'm gonna tell you

comes out of unity Look at we have a scripture

psalm 133 Bless it doesn't say how good and how

pleasant it is for brethren and sister to dwell

together in unity, right? So you want anointing?

Then every schism, every bit of division, every

offense, if there's anything in your heart against

other people, if there's any disunity, because

it says that it's like what? It's like the precious

oil upon Aaron's head, right? That ran down his

beard upon his garments to his skirt. So the

Bible declares the anointing Comes out of unity

now first of all you have to be united in your

own heart Because sometimes we can be divided

in our own spirits and souls and David says God

unite my heart to fear your name So first thing

God wants to make you whole as a person He wants

to come and heal those broken areas of your life

if you're divided in your soul and God knows

Areas of our weakness and he comes and makes

what does Jesus do for us first? He comes and

he heals our soul. He heals our body He heals

our mind He restores our soul and then he comes

and unites and quickens our spirit and makes

us into the person of his image and then causes

us to want to be reconcilers to one another.

And so anointing flows out of unity, church.

It flows out of unity. Isaiah 61 says, the spirit

of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed

me. I like to read this verse like this. It says,

because the Lord has anointed me, then his spirit

is upon me. And I can say that from, if you look

at the story, of David in 1 Samuel 16. Do you

remember when Samuel the prophet, the Lord spoke

to Samuel, he says, why are you mourning Saul,

seeing that I've rejected him as king? It says,

don't reject him and don't mourn for him any

longer. But I want you to, I'm going to show

you who you're supposed to go and anoint. And

Samuel was afraid. And so he says, well, to go

and burn sacrifice and invite Jesse. Invite Jesse

to the to the sacrifice and go in peace. And

so this is what Samuel did he went and he invited

and sure enough Jesse invited all of his sons

and one by one there were seven sons there and

The Lord spoke to Samuel and says I haven't chosen

any of these my favor is not on any of these

seven sons And he says, do you have any more?

And he says, yes, I have one more, an eighth

son. Do you know the number eight speaks of new

beginning? The number eight speaks of new beginning.

It says, go and bring him here. And when Samuel

saw him, he said, my favor is upon him. And when

he poured the horn of oil upon David, it says

that the spirit of the Lord was upon David from

that day forward. And it's the same thing in

our life. God comes to anoint us and we'll have

the Lord with us throughout our days. The word

anointing means to rub with fresh oil now anointing

comes from brokenness You think about agriculture

you think about grapes. You want wine you crush

the grapes This is the down and dirty part that

we like the anointing but the process of the

anointing Right. Some people say I want your

gift. I want your ministry Well, do you want

everything that goes with it? Do you don't know

that? But Anointing is birthed out of crushing

and difficulty. You think of the grapes, the

grain to get flour. You want to make anointing

oil or olive oil. You're going to take those

olives and they're going to be crushed. There's

going to be a crushing this many times. And so

don't despise when you're being crushed by people.

when you're being crushed by God because God

is producing something within you that's going

to be used for other people's deliverance. I

can look back upon my life and the scars of my

life. childhood things that I went through things

of rejection and sexual abuse and drug abuse

and things like that and I can look back and

say you know God everything that I've gone through

you've used for your glory my wife can look and

so God does that when you allow God to heal you

from the breaking and the crushing of life then

he takes those scars of pain and he uses them

in for stars for he of healing for other people

your scars will be turned into stars as you allow

God to Yes, he'll break you, but he doesn't crush

you that she doesn't. Resurrect you know God

resurrects you and uses your life everything

that you've gone through Don't despise it allow

God to heal you allow the the the dealings of

God the life Circumstances whatever they may

have been if you bring them and you present them

to God He'll redeem them He'll restore them and

you'll cause the anointing of God to be upon

your life and you'll be used for someone else

It's not for you. It's to touch another generation

and we know this if you look at Isaiah 61, what

does it say? The the anointing is upon me because

he has anointed me to do what? To preach the

gospel to the poor to heal the broken -hearted

To proclaim liberty to the captives in these

three verses. There's 13 statements made in Isaiah

61 about the anointing He says you're gonna preach

to the poor. You're gonna heal the broken -hearted.

You're gonna proclaim liberty to the captives.

You're gonna play Proclaim liberty to those that

are bound You're gonna declare the year of God's

favor To you and your family you're gonna declare

The day of God's vengeance because there is judgment.

We don't say we don't we're not so greasy grace

that we You know that there's not you there is

judgment Even in that verse that I declared earlier

in James about mercy triumphs over judgment.

There is judgment in there And then it says this

after declaring the day of God's Vengeance number

seven is to comfort those that mourn Now it's

interesting that doesn't mention the church in

all these statements There's nothing about Zion

there Zion doesn't come into the next part So

all this is to me speaks of what the anointing

upon our life is to be given out to people outside

of the house that God wants us to have a message

of reconciliation. God balances its both and.

And so all these statements in the first part

of these verses talk about an anointing to do

and declare goodness to people outside. Then

it says, yes, to comfort those that mourn. And

then it says, number eight, to console those

that mourn in Zion. Then to give them beauty

for ashes the oil of joy for morning the garment

of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they

might be called trees of righteousness the planting

of the Lord and the 13th one is That God might

be glorified. Do you know that the anointing

on your life is to bring glory to God? Ultimately,

it's for God to be glorified and this number

13 is not the devil's number church number 13

is God's number It's a supernatural number. How

many times did the children of of Israel march

around the walls of Jericho 13 times. The number

13 has spiritual significance, the number of

supernatural. And so God gives favor to this

house. He gives a fresh anointing to this house.

And then the next part of this verse of Psalms

23 verse five, it states, my cup runs over. This

statement my cup runs over is the Hebrew word

Reva ya Reva ya I believe I think I have it up

here, but it's the word of blessing our fulfillment

our fruitfulness and As we were praying for the

church here these three words came to me favor

anointing and fulfillment it means the the place

of wealth a wealthy place in Psalm 66, we can

put it up. 66 verse 10 through 12 states this.

It says, for you, O God, have tested us. You

have refined us as silver is refined. You brought

us into the net. You laid affliction on our backs.

You have caused men to ride over our heads. We

went through fire and through water, but you

brought us out to rich fulfillment. That word

right there is the word Rev. It's only used twice

in the Old Testament. Here in Psalms 66 and also

in Psalms 23. The place of great fulfillment.

The place of fruitfulness. The place of wealth.

And as you celebrate church your 10th year. The

word 10 has spiritual significance also. It's

where we get in Hebrew, where we get the word

tithe and 10th from. It's the word Asar, A -S

-A -R. But from that word comes the word Ashar,

which means to gain wealth, to be made wealthy,

to increase in wealth. And I saw this church,

not just financially, even though that's part

of it, but God is going to increase this house

in a greater measure. You're going to expand

your tents. There's a great fulfillment coming

to you. And the number 10 also means to be established.

It means surety. And you think about the past

10 years, Pastor Brad, you guys have gone through

a process, but you are an established house.

God has established the foundation of this house.

And God says now he's going to broaden the foundation.

He's going to broaden the expansion of it. There's

great favor. There's great anointing. There's

great fulfillment and everything that comes to

the head Flows down to the people every prophecy

over this house belongs to you says the Lord

and pastor Brad I even saw you last night I saw

the Spirit of God coming upon you in a fresh

way that God says that Brad pastor Brad that

you are a father to many That God's put you have

broad shoulders your entire life. You've you've

you're like beyond your years It's like you're

a grandpa in the spirit You just are and God

says there's a heart inside of you for fathering

and God says you're gonna be a father to many

Pastor Brad you're gonna be a father You're a

great dad already, but God says he's gonna expand

you to be a greater father in the spirit I just

saw your touch your your fathering touch to touch

many men many young men The lives and families

and God says that his grace is upon you for fathering

That's what I saw just saw the expansion of fathering

upon your life Amen. Can we just all stand over

the building? I just want to pray for you. And

Pastor Portia is going to come and we're just

going to have a time of worship and prayer. But

I just want to pray for you. Amen. Jesus, I thank

you for this house. I thank you for every young

person here. Lord, every generation represented

from the children. Lord, you're not a one generation

God, but you're Lord, from our children all the

way up to our adults. those up in age, even as

we dedicated this young child today, Lord, you're

a multi -generational God. Lord, and I pray,

Lord, for favor upon this house, every family,

every marriage, Lord, relationships with parents

and children, Lord, every business represented,

that the favor and anointing and blessing and

fulfillment of God would come and rest upon them

a fresh Lord Jesus, they're gonna know increase

they're gonna know fruitfulness Lord. They're

gonna recognize Lord that their favor of God

is for them to Bless someone else though the

spirit of generosity even as we the prayer that

we prayed in the offering today was about being

generous Lord that this house would be a generous

house Oh God, that's not gonna lack in any area

of finance Lord that finances would come and

flow to and through to bless this region to bless

the people of God that this house would be a

house of blessing a house of fruitfulness In

Jesus name. And father, I thank you God that

jobs will come to this region Lord God. I thank

you God. I pray against lack in every way in

the name of Jesus. Father just as you visited

us Lord God when we when it looked like everything

was over so also visit your people at this church

Lord God. I speak it forth Lord God. God that

they will not be weary and well doing. God they

will know that they will reap if they will not

faint. Bless him today in Jesus name. Amen. You

may be seated. Just play. Keep playing. I heard

this song while earlier. Thank you, baby. It

was awesome. Isn't he awesome? He's my baby daddy.

He's so good. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You guys

were in that little groove, you know, can you

get that little groove back that I was singing

before that last song? I don't know. Is that

the is that the key you was in though that the

key for the first and last song the last song

Anyway, it was it was a groove. I don't know

if you could just hit it it was just That's why

you got to do it in a moment, you know say I

Know you guys a lot of you are mourning because

of our brother Ron Ray But I was hearing the

song as the pastor was talking about it and he

was it was like heaven will say well done When

your brother runway comes heaven will say well

done When our brother runway comes He will receive

a just reward He will receive a just reward Heaven

will say well He will receive a just reward.

Oh, yes, he will. He will receive a just reward.

Heaven will say, well done. You know, it's something,

because we don't sorrow like people that have

no hope, amen? We don't sorrow like them. You

know, it looks like in Matthew chapter five,

it talks about just the word blessed. Blessed,

blessed. When you look at that word blessed and

you break that word down in the Greek, that word

is Makarios. Say Makarios. It is broke down.

Ma is outflow or outward result. And carry means

joy. And then when you get down, It says it means

grace. And then the third part of the word is

us, which means the one. So when you break it

all down, it means the one in whom joy and grace

overflows. And so when you look at it like that,

our joy is a God joy. It's a God like joy. Amen.

It's not. It should never be happiness. See,

happiness means half and stance. Happiness is

based on a circumstance. So basically you could

say, you know what, if my husband got saved,

you know, I would really live for God and I would

just be happy. this person would stop drinking

and that I would just really just be happy. Or

if my kids just acted right and you know, then

I would just be happy. But it's not based upon

a happenstance. It's a godlike joy. That word

is Makarios, amen? It's an outflow of joy. This

joy that I have, the world didn't give it to

me and the world can't take it away. So happiness

is based on circumstances, but we're talking

about a godlike joy We're talking about a river

of joy that flows from out of your depth of their

being shall flow rivers of living water. Amen

I'm just gonna be with you just for a few moments.

Are we gonna go back to the music? According

to Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 man was made in

Genesis 1:28

the image of God And then by Genesis chapter

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

3 man had to fail from that image So every human

being became different from design from the way

that God made us we were connected to God So

sin made us different from design and that was

because of choice everybody say choice It was

a choice that Adam and Eve made and today we

are faced with that same choice the choice to

be dependent upon God or to be independent of

God, so we are not guided by instinct stink,

but by choices. If you look and you study this

out, you will find, because I've often wondered,

let me just go to this, I've often wondered why

did the devil really lie to Eve when he said

you will be as God? Now we know that Satan deceived

Eve, we know that, but he didn't really lie to

Eve because at that point we were disconnected

from God. Instead of our advantage point being

God's advantage point being God's vision We became

our own advantage point became looking after

things that our own advantage, right? But every

human being is born is born with the quest for

satisfaction You hear a baby crying They say

and feed me I need I need I need Every human

being is born with that every human being inside

of us. There is a longing say there is a longing

because of that choice We now have a longing

because we were once connected and now we're

disconnected that longing is there deep inside

of our hearts that longing is Every single person

have a longing I want you to write this down

if you're taking those the number one longing

that every human being have is for security and

love Security and love is the convinced awareness

of being totally loved without the need to earn

such love. The convinced awareness of being totally

loved without the need to earn such love. The

next thing that all of us are longing for is

significance. Everybody say significance. Significance

is value. It's the realization of a personal

adequacy for life. of impact and jeremiah 2 13

it says for my people have committed two evils

they have forsaken me the fountain of living

water and you for themselves cisterns broken

vessels that hold no water and john chapter 7

John 7:37

verse 37 it says if anyone thirsts let him come

after me and i who believes whoever believes

in me As the scripture has says he he said out

of his belly Out of his intermost being will

flow the rivers of living water. Are you with

me? You following me? I'm doing all right. Okay,

here we go So we know that people today they

have not chosen God to be connected to God Therefore

that longing will always be there There is always

things in this world that will give you a temporary

satisfaction Whatever temporarily meets your

needs will addict you. Whatever temporarily,

I'm gonna say it again, whatever temporarily

meets your needs will addict you. Some people

are addicted to drugs because that temporarily

satisfies them. Some people are addicted to pornography

because that temporarily satisfies them. Some

people are addicted to... A man or a woman, I

had a sister who was addicted to an abusive man

and I couldn't understand it. I said, I asked

my friend who really studied and got people free

and delivered. I said, I don't understand. How

can my sister from the same family put up with

this? And they said, you know what it is is she's

looking for a way that he made her feel before.

So she keeps going back to that abusive behavior,

just like a crack head will go back to drugs.

because they're looking for that hit that made

them get that certain high. But whatever temporarily

meets your needs will become your God. For my

people have committed two evils, they have forsaken

me, the fountain of living water. I want you

to imagine a cup with holes in it and just draining

out. You drink it, you have to go back, you have

to find it again. So I have to recognize, as

a person, I have to recognize that the real intent

of my heart is to try to meet my own needs my

own way. Somebody say I recognize. Music's saying

Oakland, you better recognize. Isaiah chapter

Isaiah 32:6

32 verse 6 it says for the foolish person will

speak foolishness and his heart will work iniquity

to practice ungodliness to other error against

the Lord to keep the hungry unsatisfied and he

will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail it's

gonna fail y 'all all of these things that people

are looking to satisfy them it's gonna fail We

had a young person in our youth group that had

a powerful anointing of God on him. He played

just like he actually was Deuce's cousin. He

played, I asked God after he fell, I asked God,

put that anointing on my son. He left it up there

in the heavens, put it on my son. But here it

is, he had this powerful anointing and people

was getting saved Pastor Brad, people was getting

delivered. It was a powerful thing and he left

and he went to school to Berkeley. And when he

was there, he got berserkly. And I'm just saying

the truth, that's what happened. And he just

started not to believe in God anymore because

of the question of evil. I see a lot of people

are saying, you know what, how can a loving God

allow this to happen? And I said this yesterday

with the women, just because you don't know the

reason don't mean it's not a good one. Don't

mean it's not one because we do serve a loving

God. Can go through reasons why I thought y 'all

stuff was supposed to happen. I'm like, why did

this happen? God, why did it happen? They only

need to find out later just like in the story

of Joseph That God had a master plan that was

bigger than anything I could even imagine and

then it would come to pass Why was I abused?

Why why was I molested? Why did I have to go

through all these things? But yet my husband

said it by your stripes. Other people will be

healed. Amen It was never the plan of God for

that to happen But what the enemy meant for evil,

God will turn around for the good every time.

I thank you, Lord Jesus, for that. There's different

kinds of longing. Write this down that we have

inside of us. I'm only dealing with one of ourselves

inside what we're made of. Number one, there's

casual longings. That's for comfort and convenience.

You know, we might want them shoes, ladies, or

you know, the perfume. That's the stuff that

really don't matter. We just long for it. Then

we have the critical longing which is for human

relationships. You know people get weird Weird

when they off by theyself. That's why it's important

to come to church The Bible says don't fail to

assemble yourself together Me and Stephen was

at the pastor Stephen and I induced we were she

was like mama mama We're at this lady's house

that the pastors had asked us to help and we

had no idea that she was a hoarder I'm going

to say this just for free. This is not a part

of the message. But if you want to get married,

you should at least be able to organize your

house. People build walls around their self,

right? And they don't come together with other

people. And it's a shame. God says, fail not

to assemble yourself together. Just because they're

playing the music, you have to sing. Amen. Try

not to assemble yourself together. Don't stay

away from people because what the enemy does

is he gets you depressed because nobody was even

at church. They didn't even think about you.

They didn't care that you wasn't there. Nobody

even called you. Who heard that before? See?

Liar. Somebody say, that's the devil. And so

what he does is he says, you know what? Don't

even come. Nobody even care about you. What he's

trying to do is get you isolated alone by yourself

so he can pick you out. and then get you compromising

and sin, right? So that's why we come together,

amen? So there's a critical longing for human

relationship. The last one is a crucial longing.

I love this. For a deeper relationship with God.

The real culprit behind every non -organic human

distress is a stud -fast determination to remain

independent of God and still make life work.

You say, God, I want to be connected to you.

I want to be connected to the river. See, just

like we long and we thirst, so does God. I'm

going to show you how. In Psalms 63 and 1, Psalms

of David. He was writing in the wilderness of

Judah. Oh, God, you are my God. Early will I

seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs

for you in a dry and thirsty land. Psalms 143

and 6. I spread out my hand to you. My soul longs

for you like a thirsty land. So just as God thirst

so does we Isaiah 49 and 10 They shall neither

hunger nor thirst neither heat or sun shall strike

them for he who has mercy on them will lead them

even by the springs of water and it's already

prophesied with my husband pastor Stephen that

this is a church a well that is a living water

will spring forth in this place and you are the

ones that will give the water of life will flow

through you a scripture talks about a woman and

John chapter 4 that have five husbands. That's

John 4 · chapter mention

a lot of husbands, y 'all. And then Jesus told

her, Jesus said, you know what? Jesus said, the

one you got is not, you know, right now that

you're living with ain't your husband. And she

goes and yes, she says to Jesus, yes, but he

says, well, you know what? If you drink of this

water, if you drink of this water, living water,

Says out of your belly will flow rivers. He says

you know what you'll never have to thirst again

He says I am the bread of life. I am the living

water That's our Jesus y 'all if you drink of

this if you say if you know what I choose I choose

Jesus as my source I'm not gonna choose to be

independent of God. I'm gonna be choose to be

dependent on God and I I'm gonna choose Jesus

as my source. I'm gonna choose Jesus as my God.

I'm gonna choose Jesus as the one that satisfies

me. Somebody say, I choose Jesus. He said in

John chapter four, 14, but whoever drinks of

this water that I shall give him will never thirst.

But the water that I shall give him will become

in him a fountain, a wellspring of living water.

So the choice is yours. I choose to meet. my

needs my own way. Or I choose to let Jesus satisfy

me. I choose to be connected to his will and

his purpose again. Where Adam and Eve fail, I

choose God. I choose the living God. Now going

back to the guide I was telling y 'all about

that was playing and had the anointing and everything.

And now he's out there. He had the most beautiful

wife in the world. She could be Miss America.

God blessed him, financially blessed him with

all kind of worldly things, but it didn't satisfy

him. Pretty soon his wife wasn't enough for him.

Pretty soon his money wasn't enough for him.

He got rid of his wife. She couldn't believe

it. I felt her broken heart. I sat there crying

with her. He's out there in the world drinking

and doing all kind of things. And I'm thinking,

you know what, if you are really satisfied in

your heart with what you've chosen, why you have

to drink and do all these things? Why you have

to go and get high and do all these things if

you are really satisfied But I'm telling you

about the living water the spring that that dwells

within you that that dwells up inside of you

The living water is God. Amen Our God our God

is God. He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord

of Lords He alone can satisfy your soul. Oh Thank

you Jesus You know something a while ago. I had

a dream I'm gonna come back just a minute. I

had a dream, and this wasn't a good dream to

me because it was weird. And I dreamed that I

was running with fecal matter in my hand. Y 'all

know what fecal matter is? It's poop. And I'm

running. Running through this gate, running through

this gate, here I am. I can just still see the

dream, I'm running. And I get to this place on

the ground where all of these clothes or rags

are on the ground and I move them out of the

way and I open up what looks like to be a washing

machine and I stick my hand in there. Saw washed

off twice. I have the dream and I'm asking God

God Why are you giving me this dream about poop

and stuff in my hand? I Knew God had a reason

but I didn't understand it at the time So God

said to me God said the hand is the Apostle the

prophet the evangelist the pastor and a teacher

we heard about this And I said well God what

is the poop And God said, Portia, the poop. Is

a form of leprosy. That have come into my house.

And I went to the scripture about the ten lepers.

And I saw that there were ten lepers and you

guys know the story, I know you know it. That

only one came back to say thank you. Because

I was asking God, how do you get rid of the poop?

The leprosy. Now, let me let me explain what

leprosy is that is going through the body of

Christ. Pastor Bad didn't share this service,

but he shared at the last service that where

he went, that people have lost the presence of

God. There's a whole generation missing. And

this is exactly what God was showing me in the

dream. Here it is. People that used to love God

don't love God anymore. People that used to hear

the voice of God can't hear him anymore. People

that used to feel the presence of god can't feel

the presence of god anymore the appetite That

people used to have the hunger and the thirst

for righteousness Has disappeared And this is

because leprosy has come into the house of god

Leprosy is a disease that it attacks your feelings

You could be having body parts decaying and ears

decaying and you don't feel it You don't feel

the presence of God. It attacks your hearing.

That's why you can't hear the voice of God anymore.

It attacks your nose where your nose is going

off, which speaks of your discernment, right?

So leprosy literally eats you alive from the

inside out. And that's what's happening. So this

poop represents leprosy. Everybody say leprosy.

And I was saying God, what are you saying? He

said that there's a couple things so when I was

when I was led to that scripture I'm just gonna

say it really quick. I didn't get to say it last

service, but here it is in Luke 17 There was

there was four things. I want you to look that

the man did number one He was desperate for God

the one that came all of them were desperate,

but then they cried out somebody say cried out

Sometimes you just got to get loud If you are

in that place where you feel God I feel like

that's me she talking about sometimes you just

got to cry out I Could be in a supermarket. I

don't care where I am pastor Jennifer. I'm not

ashamed to say it I could be in a supermarket

and and the thought will come to me and I'll

be like how dare you speak to me. Anyway, what

was you saying? I Don't care if people think

I'm schizophrenic because the devil cannot read

your mind he can put thoughts in your mind and

he knows that you are acting on those thoughts

by your actions. But here it was, all ten of

them were healed. They all cried out. The first

one, he was desperate and he simply asked. Somebody

say ask. The second thing that he did, he was

obedient. All of them were obedient and going.

The third thing that he was though is that he

wasn't a follower of the crowd. When everybody

else was going to do their own thing they went

they could have made excuses I thought about

it. Well, he did say go I don't have to come

back and say thank you. You know, he he did say

go But this one he wasn't a follower of the crowd

he knew the right thing to do The last thing

he did is that he praised and he thanked the

Lord and he bowed before him We all have to bow

to the place where our head is lower than our

heart The way that we think is lower than our

heart The God began to speak to me about this

and he said you know He said it's time for my

church in order for you to be the well Because

we got to build on this y 'all in order for you

to be the well of living water that water flows

out of you You ready Here is the apostle you

have the apostle over your life pastor Brad.

He has apostles over him the prophet it's time

for you church to start prophesying into people's

lives a Prophecy is a word of edification exhortation

and comfort say edification exhortation and comfort

You look around and you can say you know what

I'm not gonna be consumed about me One of the

powerful things that we did in a women's conference

the last session the Lord had us to have the

women prophesied to each other It would have

been easy just to say you know what for me to

preach another word and some people feel that

they need another word I understand that but

the thing about it is this God is calling you

to prophesy to each other. That was that was

the word He's calling you to rise up and walk

in unity because if you have the river in you

and you have the river in you and you have the

river in you and we all come together, how mighty

is the river of God going to be? And so I wanted

them to see that they have the words that would

encourage and bring life and they did that. Amen.

The thing that God said to me, you're going to

prophesy to people. I want you to pick people

every week that you can prophesy to. speak a

word of edific. I just called to encourage you.

Just called to let you know you was on my mind.

I was thinking about you and I love you. I just

called to let you know that you've been on my

heart. What what can I pray for you about? Is

that good? So, we have the apostle, the prophet,

then we have the pastor. There should be somebody

in your life that you're pastoring or you're

shepherding over. You have the shepherd that's

shepherding over you the shepherds right here

wonderful shepherds that's shepherding over you

now you as a congregation as the river of god

as the whale you are bringing water to other

people and you should have somebody that you're

really looking out for I Know it can be an inconvenience,

but that's the definition of ministry. Thank

you pastor steve Then you have the evangelist

There should be somebody that you're evangelizing

There should be somebody I remember some years

ago I might have shared this but I was on the

treadmill and I'm just working back and forth,

you know, I hate we got rid of that Anyway, I'm

on the treadmill and I'm working back and forth

and all of a sudden this vision comes to me And

I see people with big tickets in their hand huge

tickets and they're walking and it says Heaven

admit one. Heaven admit one. I mean they had

so many tickets. Some of them were walking with

barrels. Barrels of tickets. And they're all

caught up in their conversation. What's up? And

then we had these other people over here with

a big ticket like this going straight down the

hill. One way to hell. Met one. Can you see me?

Can you see me? And then in my vision. began

to sing the song What if you had a ticket to

heaven Would you stop and take a moment to give

it away? Would you be too busy with your own

plans? Would you be too busy? Having fun with

your friends. Well, you do have a ticket and

his name is Jesus he is the one and only way

to heaven you can let a drop of blood be wasted

because the fear you hesitated to give away the

ticket to heaven stop and take a moment see the

people around you Without Christ they're headed

in the wrong direction Never be too busy to witness

for the Savior Stop and give the ticket to heaven

You can never give too much of Him away Give

someone Jesus today I know that that's a beautiful

song, but I was crying because I saw myself as

being too busy to witness I saw myself that I

had allowed the ministry to take over me seeing

people And God said to me see people again say

see people again So the evangelist one is very

important There is somebody that needs you. There's

been so many times where I have left out of church

and God will say, stop. And I stopped and I look

over and I see somebody and God will say, go

talk to them. Or I'm out and about, I may be

shopping or something. And God will say, see

that lady over there, she's about to commit suicide.

Go over there and talk to her. See that person

over there? This is going on in their life. There's

ministry opportunities everywhere. This is not

the ministry stage, y 'all. When you walk out

that door, that's the ministry. The evangelist.

Then you have the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist,

the pastor, and then you have the teacher. There

should be somebody that you're teaching. There

should be somebody that you're pouring your life

into and that's pouring it back into you, amen?

And you have great teachers in this church. You

have people that every day, you know when we

came, I think this is so awesome. You have people

that just stay in their room praying for you

for an hour before you even come to church. Because

they want you to make it. They want the presence

of God to flow through this place. Just start

playing dudes. They want the presence of God

to flow through this place. So they're interceding

on your behalf. Because you're a part of this

what God is going to do. And the last part, God

told me. He said, go ahead. What those rags were

on the ground? What those clothes were in my

dream that God said I need you to remove this

was our righteousness because the scripture says

our righteousness is as filthy rags and I looked

up our righteousness as filthy rags and I looked

it up and I and it says literally a menstrual

cloth our righteousness is as the rags of a leper

and God is saying you know what take those off

Take those your own righteousness off your own

right to be right Your own right to be right

what I just gotta make them understand this okay,

they just gotta see my point of view They gotta

know that they hurt me. Okay, they hurt me Take

that off The plan that God has for this church

is too great to stay there The destiny that God

has on your life is too great to stay in the

way of offense You got to take that off your

righteousness your right to be right. You got

to take that off I'm telling you what I have

to live Then clear that away Put on the righteousness

of Christ You know what the last part of the

dream was this Take this To the word the washing

of the water of the word take it to the well,

y 'all. The well is Jesus. Take it and leave

it there so we can be clean, so we can be whole.

I knew God wasn't coming back yesterday. I knew

it wasn't gonna be a day of judgment. You know

why? Because the church ain't ready. Because

even though the world was getting darker, the

light of the church needs to get brighter and

brighter and brighter. God is not finished with

us yet. You see the world hasn't seen the manifestations

of the sons and the daughters of God and you

are the sons and the daughters of the Living

God and inside of you is the living water Life

will come. Where there was death life will spring

forth. Where there was hopelessness hope will

come again. when you take off your righteousness

and put on my righteousness when you say God

I just want to say I love you. All of you so

much. I just want to thank Pastor Brad and Jennifer

and their daughter wherever she is. My little

daughter that I want to take home with me. I

just want to say I love you all so much and thank

you for the opportunity to speak to you today.

I love you and God bless you. If you are interested

in hearing other podcasts or contacting Life

Bible Church, go to www .lifebiblechurch .org

or call us at 541 -995 -8282.